A Polar Comparison of the Buddha and the Christ

[AshvinP]

It is important for us to get a better feel for polar opposites if we desire to deeply understand our spiritual evolution. I say 'feel', because we simply can't grasp the polar relation with our intellectual head-knowledge alone. Our concepts about polarity need to descend more into our feeling before they will come to life in any sustained and therefore useful way. We should cultivate feelings of awe, reverence, and gratitude in our contemplation of these relations. These feelings then turn into a positive feedback spiral as those feelings inspire deeper insights into the way the relations work into our most intimate human experiences, which then inspire even more intense archetypal feelings of reverence and gratitude for the relations themselves and the fact that they are being revealed within us.

The intellect left to its own devices, i.e. without the inflow of higher imaginative and inspired impulses, tends to isolate one or the other aspect of the polar relation and then set it against the other aspect, treating it as mutually exclusive in some way. Instead, we should get a feel for how one polar aspect is always rhythmically leading over into the other, across all nested domains of our perceptual, life, soul, and thinking experience, as well as our collective human experience. One pole is always providing the soil from which the other can grow, and the fruits of that growth then provide the soil from which the other pole can grow, as they gradually spiral apart and back together again at a higher level. If we can consider the polar relation as a living phenomenon in this way, then we will make a lot of progress in our understanding of human experience. It naturally helps to consider everything as a temporal process in a constant stream of becoming, rather than static objects. 

For ex., we may want to understand the polar relation of the Cosmos to the Earth. Instead of conceiving how the Cosmos as a spatial location works into the Earth as a spatial location, we can consider how the temporal processes of the Cosmos - planetary revolutions, planetary movements around the Sun, Solar movement through the Zodiac, etc - work their influences into the Earthly processes - epochal transitions, seasonal cycles, reproductive cycles, individual stages of development, etc. The physical-spatial images are better understood as snapshots which allow simultaneous perception of these interwoven rhythmic processes and the effects of their interaction - we can perceive the Earth and the starry Cosmos at the same time, or the Moon and the Sun on certain days, etc. Through that simultaneity, our objective consciousness, inspired by feeling, can develop and comminicate knowledge of the interactions. It is even easier to grasp when we consider polar relations within phenomena that are normally temporal in character for our intellect, like the flow of human culture/civilization. 

The major practical implication for getting a firmer feel for polar relation is that we mitigate the chance of conceiving one aspect as set in opposition to the other in any diminishing, demeaning, or otherwise marginalizing way. In fact, we begin to discern the exact opposite - that the meaning of a polar aspect is being greatly enriched through the other and that each aspect finds its critical purpose in the overarching telos of Cosmic and Earthly evolution. We use the Cosmic processes to more deeply understand the Earthly ones, and vice versa. The Cosmos becomes a realm of spiritual archetypes which structure Earthly phenomena and the Earth becomes a realm of physical analogs which help elucidate the spiritual archetypes. That should be evident in the passage below, but it is especially profound when we discern the mutually supporting relations within our daily experiences as well. For ex., everyone oscillates through the polar relation of pain-suffering to pleasure-satisfaction. Normally we become distressed, anxious, depressed, cynical, resentful, etc. during the former oscillation, but if we livingly understand its indispensable importance in bringing about the oscillation to the other pole, we can mitigate such negative emotions. 

In all polar relations, there is a third element which is always present, mediating between them. Quite simply, that element is the thinking human soul or "I" which is an image of the Divine "I". This third element acts as a sort of fulcrum around which all the polar relations rhythmically revolve and through which they spiral upwards to ever-higher stages of spiritual development. We find this element most revealed, if we are paying attention, in the transitional stages between the polar processes, when one is passing over into the other - like night into day, at sunrise, sleeping into waking, death into life, outer into inner, or, in the archetypal case below, Cosmic and Earthly involution into evolution. The archetypal human soul is imaged through Christ incarnate, the God-Man, and these Christ events help elucidate every possible polar relation and their manifestations throughout the entirety of our Cosmic and Earthly biography. 

***

Steiner:
Let us continue the legend. When death approached, Kashyapa felt that he was close to Nirvana and went to a cave of the mountain. After he had died there in full consciousness, his physical body remained in an imperishable state but could be discovered only by those who had become mature enough to penetrate such secrets. While Kashyapa's imperishable body lay mysteriously concealed in that mountain cave, it was prophesied that a new great proclaimer of the primordial world wisdom would appear in the form of the Maitreya-Buddha who, upon reaching the summit of his earthly existence, was to go to the cave that contained Kashyapa's corpse. He would touch Kashyapa with his right hand, and then a wondrous fire was to come down from the universe, envelop the imperishable body of Kashyapa, and carry him into the higher spiritual worlds.

The oriental who understands such wisdom expects the reappearance of Maitreya-Buddha and his action on the imperishable body of Kashyapa. Will these two events really occur? Will the Maitreya-Buddha appear? And if he does, will the imperishable remains be moved upward through the wondrous heavenly fire? We will be able to get a presentiment of the deep wisdom that is embedded in this legend if we dwell in our true Easter feelings and visit the wondrous fire that is to absorb Kashyapa's remains.

Yesterday we saw how the godhead reveals Himself in our time through two poles: on the one hand through the macrocosmic lightning fire, and on the other hand through the microcosmic fire of the blood. We have seen that the Christ announced Himself to Moses in the burning bramble-bush and in the thunder and lightning fire on Sinai. No other force but Christ spoke to Moses, announced Himself as the I am the I am, and from the lightning fire at Sinai gave the Ten Commandments to him. After He had manifested Himself in this way, He appeared in the microcosmic pole in Palestine. The fire that lives in our blood contains the same God who announced Himself in the celestial fire and who then incarnated in a human body in the Mystery of Palestine so that he could imbue with His force the blood that contains the human fire. And if we follow the consequences this event has for earthly existence, we will be able to find through this event the blazing fire that will accept the remains of Kashyapa.

...

Let us look back to the large numbers of great personalities who were destined to beatify and save humanity. They were the external expression of the avatars, the divine spiritual forces who descended from spiritual heights in various epochs and assumed a human form, such as Krishna, Vishnu, and others. These benefactors and saviors of mankind had to make their appearances so that humanity could find its way back into the spiritual worlds, and in ancient times it took the intercession of divine power to do so. However, when the Mystery of Golgotha happened, human beings received the ability to muster from within the strength necessary to elevate themselves and lead themselves upward into the spiritual worlds. The Christ descended much deeper than had those previous leaders of the world and of mankind: not only did He bring heavenly forces into the earthly body, but also He spiritualized this earthly body in such a way that it now became possible for human beings to find the way back into the spiritual world with the help of these very forces. Although the pre-Christian saviors had used divine powers, the Christ used human powers to save mankind. And with this act human forces have been placed before our souls in their primordial potential. What would have happened on our earth if the Christ had not appeared? This serious and deeply incisive question is the one we want to pursue today.

It doesn't matter how many world saviors might have descended from the spiritual worlds; in the final analysis, they all would have found down here only human beings who were so deeply struck in the material world and so entrenched in matter that the pure, divine-spiritual forces would have been unable to lift them upward out of this unholy, impure matter. The oriental sages were deeply distressed and looked sadly into the future, which they viewed this way: the Maitreya-Buddha will appear in order to renew the primeval wisdom of the world, but there will not be a disciple present to absorb such wisdom. If the course of the world had continued in such a fashion, the Maitreya-Buddha would have preached to deaf ears and would not have been understood by human beings who were completely immersed in material things. The earth might well have become sufficiently materialistic to wither Kashyapa's body so that the Maitreya-Buddha would not have been capable of carrying Kashyapa's remains upward to divine-spiritual heights. The most knowledgeable individuals of oriental wisdom, then, were deeply saddened especially when they looked into the future and wondered whether the earth would still be capable of generating some understanding and feeling for the appearance of Maitreya-Buddha.

A strong heavenly force had to radiate into physical matter and sacrifice itself into this matter. What was required was more than just a God wearing the mask of human appearance; what was needed was a true human being with human powers who was carrying the God within himself. The Event of Golgotha had to happen so that the matter into which the human being was placed could be readied, cleansed, and ennobled. When components of matter are cleansed and sanctified, this will make the comprehension of primordial wisdom possible again in future incarnations. Mankind must be led to a true understanding of how the Event of Golgotha has really worked in this sense. How important has this event been to mankind, and how incisively has it affected the essence and the being of mankind?

Let us take a look at a period of twelve centuries: the six centuries before and the six centuries after the Event of Golgotha. And let us consider certain happenings that took place in human souls during that period of time. Truly, nothing more momentous and significant can be placed before the sensitive human soul than those powerful moments in the illumination of the Buddha, as they are related in the Buddha legend. He was not born in a stable, among poor shepherds, but left a royal environment in which he grew up. That fact alone is not what should be stressed, but rather the fact that he found he was unable to experience life in its various manifestations in such a royal environment.

He found a weak and wretched child whose birth into this existence had created nothing but suffering for the child, and so Buddha felt that birth is suffering. Then Buddha saw with his sensitive soul a sick person and so realized that this is what happens to a human being when he is carried into the earthly world because of his or her thirst for existence. He concluded that sickness was suffering. When he found an old man whose advanced age had made him an invalid, he asked himself: “What is this gift of life man has received that gradually makes him lose control over his limbs?” Old age was suffering. Upon seeing a corpse, Buddha confronted the powers of death to destroy and extinguish life, and he concluded that death, too, was suffering. As Buddha continued to look into the manifestations of life, he found that the separation from what one loved created suffering; to be united with what one did not love also created suffering; and, finally, suffering was caused by not receiving what one desired.

Buddha's doctrine of suffering had a mighty and vivid effect on the hearts of human beings. Countless people learned the great truth of being liberated from suffering through the extinction of the thirst for being, and they also learned how to strive outward from their earthly incarnations. Truly, the highest peak of human evolution is placed before our souls by such an endeavor.

Let us now view the period that comprises twelve centuries — six hundred years each before and after the birth of Christ. We need to stress that the Mystery of Golgotha took place in the middle of that period. From the age of Buddha, six hundred years before Golgotha, let us now call special attention only to what the Buddha felt at the sight of a corpse and what he taught in relation to this. Now that we have done this, let us immediately consider the time six hundred years after the Mystery of Golgotha, when countless souls and eyes turned to the cross on which a corpse was hanging. It is from this corpse that the impulses emanated that spiritualized life and signaled the glad tidings that death can be conquered by life. That, then, is the exact opposite of what Buddha felt when he saw a dead body.

Buddha saw in a corpse an indication of the insignificance and the futility of life. By contrast, the human beings six hundred years after the Event of Golgotha looked up to the corpse on the cross in a spirit of devout fervor. It was to them a sign of life, and their souls came to be imbued with the certainty that existence is not suffering, but that it carries over beyond death into a state of bliss. The crucified cross of the Christ Jesus six hundred years after the Event of Golgotha came to be a memorial symbol of life, of the resurrection of life, and of the victory over death and all suffering; six hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha a corpse was the memorial symbol for the fact that human beings are subjected to misery and suffering because their thirst for being causes them to enter the physical world. Never has there been a more momentous reversal in the entire evolution of the human race.

If the human being's entry into the physical world had been considered as suffering six hundred years before the Event of Golgotha, how does the soul perceive the great truth of the misery of life after this event? How is this former truth perceived by people who look up to the cross of Golgotha with a high degree of understanding? Is birth suffering, as Buddha had said? Those who look up to the cross of Golgotha with a knowledgeable soul and who feel united with it will say to themselves: “This birth leads a human being into a world that had the opportunity to invest the Christ with its own elements.” They were glad to enter this earth on which Christ had walked. And through the connection with Christ, the soul had gained the strength to find its way up to the spiritual worlds, as well as the knowledge that birth is not suffering; birth is rather the gate through which one must pass to find the Savior — the Savior who has wrapped Himself into the same earthly materials that constitute the human physical sheath.

Is sickness suffering? Those who understood the Impulse of Golgotha in the true sense said: “No, it is not!” Even though mankind today cannot yet understand what the true spiritual life is that streams into them with Christ, people in the future will learn to understand it. They will know that a person whose innermost being is pervaded by the power of Christ, that an individual who allows himself or herself to become imbued with the Christ-Impulse will be able to overcome all illness with the help of the strong and healthy powers that he or she develops from within. This is so because Christ is the great healer of mankind. His power comprises everything that emanates from a spiritual well and is really able to develop the strong, healing power that can conquer illness. No, illness is not suffering, but rather an opportunity to overcome an impediment or a handicap by the development of the Christ-Force within us.

In the same way we must gain a clear understanding about the difficulties of old age. The weaker our limbs become, the greater the opportunity for us to grow in spirit and to master our infirmity through the power of Christ within us. Old age is not suffering because with every day we grow further into the spiritual world. And neither is death suffering because it is conquered in the resurrection. Death has been conquered through the Event of Golgotha.

Moreover, can we say that being separated from what we love constitutes suffering? No! The souls that imbue themselves with the Christ-Force know that love can forge indestructible spiritual bonds beyond all material hindrances. And there is nothing in life between birth and death and between death and rebirth to which we cannot spiritually find the way through the Christ-Impulse. If we imbue ourselves with the Christ-Impulse, it is unthinkable that we could possibly be separated from what we love in the long run. The Christ brings us together with what we love.

By the same token, “to be united with what we do not love” cannot be suffering because the Christ-Impulse teaches us that once we have accepted it into our souls, we must love everything in its own measure. The Christ-Impulse shows us the way, and when we have found this way, “to be united with what we do not love” can never cause suffering for then there will no longer be anything that we do not embrace lovingly. And “not to attain what one desires” can no longer be suffering either if one embraces Christ, for the human sensibilities, feelings, and desires are purified and ennobled by the Christ-Impulse in such a way that human beings desire only what they are meant to receive. They no longer suffer from the lack of things, for if they are meant to do without something or someone, such lack is for their ennoblement; and the Christ-Power gives them the strength to perceive it as a purification. When this happens, the feeling of lacking things no longer evokes suffering.

So what is the Event of Golgotha? It is the gradual abolition of the teaching by the great Buddha that life is suffering. No other event has had a greater impact on the evolution and the nature of life in this world than the Event of Golgotha, and that is why we can understand that it will continue to work for mankind and have tremendous positive consequences for humanity in the future.

[Stranger]

You need to understand that in Buddhism the spiritual practice is understood as "skillful means", as a toolbox of provisional teachings and truths that apply to one stage of practice and do not apply to other more advanced stages. The Buddha's teaching of life as suffering is a skillful means to encourage people at the beginning stages to start spiritual practice with an incentive to become liberates from suffering. At more advanced stages of practice suffering is accepted and transcended (I could give multiple quotes on that). Christianity uses a different approach that also practically works, and I agree that Golgotha sacrifice is the greatest event happened to humanity. The key is that at the end both following the Buddha and following Christ leads to the same result - Oneness with the Divine, and the Buddhist path involves as much sacrifice as the Christian path does.

There is a variety of spiritual paths developed in different traditions and brought to humans by incarnated higher-order beings, all these practices and teachings point to and lead to the same Spiritual Reality. But from our human limited perspective they seem to be contradicting, and when we choose one of them, we tend to demean others as "wrong" based on our fear that we may go along a wrong way and get lost. And it is OK to adhere to only one of those paths when we feel that it is appropriate for us. But it is not OK to start "religious wars" out of such fear. We just need to respect that other people may choose different paths.

It is also worth noting that the period of the Buddhism development from Buddha to the first century AD was a period of so-called "Hinayana" during which the Buddha's teachings were grossly misunderstood. It is only after Christ incarnation when the Mahayana schools of Buddhism started to develop with progressively deeper understanding of the Buddha's teachings eventually developing into nondual practices, which can be attributed to the works of the Holy Spirit which access for humanity was opened by Christ's mission, and it would be wrong to claim that the work of the Holy Spirit was only limited to the Western world that adopted Christianity.

[AshvinP]

You need to understand that in Buddhism the spiritual practice is understood as "skillful means", as a toolbox of provisional teachings and truths that apply to one stage of practice and do not apply to other more advanced stages. The Buddha's teaching of life as suffering is a skillful means to encourage people at the beginning stages to start spiritual practice with an incentive to become liberates from suffering. At more advanced stages of practice suffering is accepted and transcended (I could give multiple quotes on that). Christianity uses a different approach that also practically works, and I agree that Golgotha sacrifice is the greatest event happened to humanity. The key is that at the end both following the Buddha and following Christ leads to the same result - Oneness with the Divine, and the Buddhist path involves as much sacrifice as the Christian path does.

There is a variety of spiritual paths developed in different traditions and brought to humans by incarnated higher-order beings, all these practices and teachings point to and lead to the same Spiritual Reality. But from our human limited perspective they seem to be contradicting, and when we choose one of them, we tend to demean others as "wrong" based on our fear that we may go along a wrong way and get lost. And it is OK to adhere to only one of those paths when we feel that it is appropriate for us. But it is not OK to start "religious wars" out of such fear. We just need to respect that other people may choose different paths.

It is also worth noting that the period of the Buddhism development from Buddha to the first century AD was a period of so-called "Hinayana" during which the Buddha's teachings were grossly misunderstood. It is only after Christ incarnation when the Mahayana schools of Buddhism started to develop with progressively deeper understanding of the Buddha's teachings eventually developing into nondual practices, which can be attributed to the works of the Holy Spirit which access for humanity was opened by Christ's mission, and it would be wrong to claim that the work of the Holy Spirit was only limited to the Western world that adopted Christianity.

But the issue here is not about reaching the "same spiritual reality". We are already in the same spiritual reality and the question is the way in which we become more conscious of precisely how we are in the same spiritual reality. Actually it would have been an error if the Buddha (in his last incarnation) had taught that suffering can be transmuted into Divine joy while on Earth, even in principle. Because the inwardly active (willed) thinking capacity to unveil the spiritual impulses weaving through the physical plane was not yet incarnate. General humanity could not inwardly work their way into a precise knowledge of how their suffering on Earth is being transmuted between death-rebirth. We need to be very clear that the reasoning capacity which has unfolded between 36 AD to present day is the process of spiritual evolution on Earth. That includes even the modern intellect, or what esoteric science would call the consciousness soul which uses the physical body as its instrument. Through mastery of the mineral forces, humanity can grow into a position from which they can creatively redeem the physical plane which was thrust down for our development. That is if we don't continue idolizing our physical thinking capacity and instead use it as a foundation from which we further grow into higher cognition.

What Steiner indicates is that the Buddha wasn't in error, because his teachings were perfectly in accord with the state of humanity at that time (about 600 years before the MoG). He writes, "Buddha's doctrine of suffering had a mighty and vivid effect on the hearts of human beings. Countless people learned the great truth of being liberated from suffering through the extinction of the thirst for being, and they also learned how to strive outward from their earthly incarnations." So this was an instrumental prepatory learning stage for what was to come - it was the soil into which the Christ impulse could be planted and grow within the human soul over many epochs and ages to come. The souls at the time of Buddha were at great risk from descending so far into entanglement with the Earthly incarnation that they would not even be able to receive the Christ impulse once it arrived. This risk had to be counteracted by the Divine guidance. All these prepatory stages serve vital purposes in the Cosmic organism's stream of becoming, which is centered in the Earth evolution. If we simply prefer to hypothesize multiverses upon multiverses with no lawful hierarchical structure, then we will obviously miss the living details of what's happening right here on Earth.

This is why I gave the admittedly crude intro about polar relations at the beginning. It is only the perspective which fails to grasp the living polar dynamic which will feel that the Buddha's revelation is somehow being diminished or marginalized by placing it in its proper evolutionary context. And indeed it is that perspective tends to start religious conflicts, feeling an intense level of insult and offense when what they view as their isolated set of teachings are felt to be marginalized by another isolated set of teachings. The only resolution to this tribal religious tendency, born of the easily insulted lower ego, is the purification of the will by living knowledge/wisdom of the polar evolutionary structure. We should make no mistake that our current stage, or even the spiritual scientific stage, is only a prepation for future impulses and tasks as well. There is no 'simple faith' solution here, because simple faith doesn't perfect our creative and moral ideational capacity, and ultimately the Cosmos (including our Self between death-rebirth) is not only interested in what gets any given individual conscious access to the spiritual worlds, but what brings the Earth and Cosmos as a whole living organism into harmonious balance.

[Federica]

Ashvin,

I glanced way too quickly at this thread when you started it, and I'm glad Cleric has later mentioned its value. Your introduction on the meaning of polarity and its thorough illustrations are inspiring.

Then, reading how Steiner relates the significance of the teachings of Buddha to that of the Christ events, I am wondering: wouldn't the Event of Golgotha manifest that fulcrum between polarities you have described, rather than the polar counterpart of Buddha?
In the continuation of the question - maybe coming from too rigid a perspective but I can't help but wonder: at the time of the coming of Buddha, humanity needed to learn to extinguish their "thirst for being", finding in this way liberation from earthly suffering. Based on Steiner's illustration, this seem to constitute a Luciferic impulse (I hope nobody will feel the association outrageous, once the Ahrimanic and Luciferic impulses are understood in the way you have recently recalled).

So, as the Christ impulse realizes the balancing of the polar opposites Ahriman-Lucifer, did the Ahrimanic impulse manifest in the world during the Middle Ages, as a subsequent polar opposite to the Buddha events? And - again - why refer to a polarity between Christ and Buddha?

[AshvinP]

Ashvin,

I glanced way too quickly at this thread when you started it, and I'm glad Cleric has later mentioned its value. Your introduction on the meaning of polarity and its thorough illustrations are inspiring.

Then, reading how Steiner relates the significance of the teachings of Buddha to that of the Christ events, I am wondering: wouldn't the Event of Golgotha manifest that fulcrum between polarities you have described, rather than the polar counterpart of Buddha?
In the continuation of the question - maybe coming from too rigid a perspective but I can't help but wonder: at the time of the coming of Buddha, humanity needed to learn to extinguish their "thirst for being", finding in this way liberation from earthly suffering. Based on Steiner's illustration, this seem to constitute a Luciferic impulse (I hope nobody will feel the association outrageous, once the Ahrimanic and Luciferic impulses are understood in the way you have recently recalled).

So, as the Christ impulse realizes the balancing of the polar opposites Ahriman-Lucifer, did the Ahrimanic impulse manifest in the world during the Middle Ages, as a subsequent polar opposite to the Buddha events? And - again - why refer to a polarity between Christ and Buddha?

Federica,

That's an interesting question. As you implied, our thinking should remain pretty fluid when approaching these polar dynamics. I would point specifically to this part of the OP - "One pole is always providing the soil from which the other can grow, and the fruits of that growth then provide the soil from which the other pole can grow, as they gradually spiral apart and back together again at a higher level." There is always this rhythmic interplay of centrifugal and centripetal forces across various nested scales, and from a certain fixed perspective, the unfolding of cultural history, including spiritual tradition, will seem to start moving in the complete opposite direction, with opposite tendencies. 





We should distinguish between the MoG as a fulcrum spiritual event and its subsequent manifestations in Earthly teachings. As you rightly point out, the MoG really is the fulcrum around which the entire Earthly-human involution (into physical matter) and evolution (into more spiritualized states) revolves. Keep in mind we are speaking of hundreds of thousands and millions of years through which this has unfolded and will continue to unfold (from our current linear temporal perspective). So from our current perspective, the concrete manifestations of this polar reversal will seem very much opposite to one another, especially so soon in its wake. In that sense, we can say the Earthly manifestations of the Buddha's teachings between 600-0 BC are quite opposite of the Earthly manifestations of Christ's teachings between 33-600 AD, at least in how they orient the spiritually striving soul. 

The Christ impulse itself, as a higher spiritual reality which serves as the fulcrum, was working from the Alpha of Earth evolution and will continue unfolding to the Omega, and its concrete manifestations will take on very unfamiliar and unsuspected forms. Christians a few thousand years from now may look upon the Sermon on the Mount like we now look upon the teachings of Confucius, as pretty interesting and wise sayings, but somewhat simple and obvious as well. That is a really loose analogy, because the way in which the new consciously relates to the old will itself be much different than it is now. The Earthly manifestations at any given time are what can be related more to the Lucifer and Ahrimanic impulses. It's interesting because Steiner speaks of how Lucifer incarnated around 3,000 BC and Ahriman will incarnate around 3,000 AD, with of course Christ incarnate in the middle. Within this span, I think we can say the oscillations between historical periods, events, and personalities inspired by the Luciferic impulse and those imagined by the Ahrimanic are the most extreme. 

What you mention certainly fits with that, since the Christian teachings were crafted initially to place more emphasis on how the Spirit must develop itself through Earthly capacities and tasks. For ex., the teaching of reincarnation was effectively removed from the spiritual stream so that people would place more importance on what needed to be accomplished in a single lifetime, here on Earth. That is at great tension with the Eastern teachings which really emphasized the soul passing through many incarnations, and such teachings were rooted in a fading clairvoyant capacity which concretely experienced past lives working into the present one. We can see how, if that didn't temporarily fade out, the full courageous potential of inner thinking freedom could not have developed. As Steiner remarked in PoF, the World Content can now freely become our Thought-Content through the Christ impulse.

Of course the goal of higher cognition is to reach into the deeper spheres of Time-potential through which these time-bound Earthly manifestations are structured, so we can adopt a more integral perspective. It is Gebser's 'time-free' perspective which doesn't need to fix itself in a certain location and view the polar rhythm moving in one direction and then the opposite, but to increasingly see how the movement away and the movement towards are One and the same, without losing the clarity of our current scientific consciousness. As indicated in some posts on the other thread, if we broaden out our aperture of human civilization and take it vertical as well into the Cosmic spheres, we can begin to discern how the Buddha and the Christ have been much more united in their Cosmic-Earthly aims (I am referring to the quotes about the Christ first sending the Buddha individuality to Venus and now to Mars). 

[AshvinP]

Ashvin,

I glanced way too quickly at this thread when you started it, and I'm glad Cleric has later mentioned its value. Your introduction on the meaning of polarity and its thorough illustrations are inspiring.

Then, reading how Steiner relates the significance of the teachings of Buddha to that of the Christ events, I am wondering: wouldn't the Event of Golgotha manifest that fulcrum between polarities you have described, rather than the polar counterpart of Buddha?
In the continuation of the question - maybe coming from too rigid a perspective but I can't help but wonder: at the time of the coming of Buddha, humanity needed to learn to extinguish their "thirst for being", finding in this way liberation from earthly suffering. Based on Steiner's illustration, this seem to constitute a Luciferic impulse (I hope nobody will feel the association outrageous, once the Ahrimanic and Luciferic impulses are understood in the way you have recently recalled).

So, as the Christ impulse realizes the balancing of the polar opposites Ahriman-Lucifer, did the Ahrimanic impulse manifest in the world during the Middle Ages, as a subsequent polar opposite to the Buddha events? And - again - why refer to a polarity between Christ and Buddha?

I want to add, the real polarity of importance to consider here is that between liabilities and assets. Through the Earthly involution, we accumulated many entries on the liability side of our balance sheet. These are the attachments to material desires, which were (and still continue to be) the source of so much sickness and suffering. Buddha's pre-Christian teachings rightly emphasized that we must let go of these attachments if we are to overcome suffering on the Earthly plane and to prepare our soul for higher impulses. Through the MoG, however, the new possibility arose - that the liabilities would be transmuted-redeemed and become our greatest assets. The teachings of Buddha still remain as valuable preparation for many people - the material attachements should still be sacrificed, but now within the overarching context of bringing out a higher potential which resides dormant within them. Of course that potential is brought out through our energetic, living thinking. We begin to discern the more holistic context in which our desires, passions, attachments, suffering takes place, particularly the pre-birth realms from which they are seeded, and they now become critical feedback for how to more optimally steer our stream of Earthly becoming, and that of human civilization as a whole, towards the high spiritual ideals.

[Federica]

Ashvin,

I glanced way too quickly at this thread when you started it, and I'm glad Cleric has later mentioned its value. Your introduction on the meaning of polarity and its thorough illustrations are inspiring.

Then, reading how Steiner relates the significance of the teachings of Buddha to that of the Christ events, I am wondering: wouldn't the Event of Golgotha manifest that fulcrum between polarities you have described, rather than the polar counterpart of Buddha?
In the continuation of the question - maybe coming from too rigid a perspective but I can't help but wonder: at the time of the coming of Buddha, humanity needed to learn to extinguish their "thirst for being", finding in this way liberation from earthly suffering. Based on Steiner's illustration, this seem to constitute a Luciferic impulse (I hope nobody will feel the association outrageous, once the Ahrimanic and Luciferic impulses are understood in the way you have recently recalled).

So, as the Christ impulse realizes the balancing of the polar opposites Ahriman-Lucifer, did the Ahrimanic impulse manifest in the world during the Middle Ages, as a subsequent polar opposite to the Buddha events? And - again - why refer to a polarity between Christ and Buddha?

I want to add, the real polarity of importance to consider here is that between liabilities and assets. Through the Earthly involution, we accumulated many entries on the liability side of our balance sheet. These are the attachments to material desires, which were (and still continue to be) the source of so much sickness and suffering. Buddha's pre-Christian teachings rightly emphasized that we must let go of these attachments if we are to overcome suffering on the Earthly plane and to prepare our soul for higher impulses. Through the MoG, however, the new possibility arose - that the liabilities would be transmuted-redeemed and become our greatest assets. The teachings of Buddha still remain as valuable preparation for many people - the material attachements should still be sacrificed, but now within the overarching context of bringing out a higher potential which resides dormant within them. Of course that potential is brought out through our energetic, living thinking. We begin to discern the more holistic context in which our desires, passions, attachments, suffering takes place, particularly the pre-birth realms from which they are seeded, and they now become critical feedback for how to more optimally steer our stream of Earthly becoming, and that of human civilization as a whole, towards the high spiritual ideals.

Ashvin,

I still need to consider and reply to your previous post, but seeing this, I'd like to add a short note here first.
That the real polarity in this context is one between assets and liabilities does not sound right to me. Because the balancing of assets and liabilities is just what a polarity in general is. This is nothing more than a possible description of the meaning of polarity. It's another way to express that "One pole is always providing the soil from which the other can grow, and the fruits of that growth then provide the soil from which the other pole can grow, as they gradually spiral apart and back together again at a higher level." I don't see how stating that the real polarity is between the accumulated liabilities of humanity and their transmutation into assets, is any different from saying that the real polarity is a polarity. I think the real polarity is to be found in what is to be transmuted and how the transmutation has to be accomplished.

I very well understand you are mindful of not giving the impression that the teachings of Buddha are to be considered of lower importance compared to the Christ's, and I completely agree with that. But I doubt that for this reason the polarity you first highlighted should be smoothed out in this way. As I understand it, the Buddha still preached a spiritualization of the material world as a movement away from it, because that is what the world needed at that still involutionary point, as a compensation, while Christ opened the way to the possibility to turn inside out the world of form, rather than abandoning it, by infusing it with Love and Wisdom (Thinking). And I thought that was one of the main points of your initial post?

[Federica]

Ashvin,

I glanced way too quickly at this thread when you started it, and I'm glad Cleric has later mentioned its value. Your introduction on the meaning of polarity and its thorough illustrations are inspiring.

Then, reading how Steiner relates the significance of the teachings of Buddha to that of the Christ events, I am wondering: wouldn't the Event of Golgotha manifest that fulcrum between polarities you have described, rather than the polar counterpart of Buddha?
In the continuation of the question - maybe coming from too rigid a perspective but I can't help but wonder: at the time of the coming of Buddha, humanity needed to learn to extinguish their "thirst for being", finding in this way liberation from earthly suffering. Based on Steiner's illustration, this seem to constitute a Luciferic impulse (I hope nobody will feel the association outrageous, once the Ahrimanic and Luciferic impulses are understood in the way you have recently recalled).

So, as the Christ impulse realizes the balancing of the polar opposites Ahriman-Lucifer, did the Ahrimanic impulse manifest in the world during the Middle Ages, as a subsequent polar opposite to the Buddha events? And - again - why refer to a polarity between Christ and Buddha?

Federica,

That's an interesting question. As you implied, our thinking should remain pretty fluid when approaching these polar dynamics. I would point specifically to this part of the OP - "One pole is always providing the soil from which the other can grow, and the fruits of that growth then provide the soil from which the other pole can grow, as they gradually spiral apart and back together again at a higher level." There is always this rhythmic interplay of centrifugal and centripetal forces across various nested scales, and from a certain fixed perspective, the unfolding of cultural history, including spiritual tradition, will seem to start moving in the complete opposite direction, with opposite tendencies. 





We should distinguish between the MoG as a fulcrum spiritual event and its subsequent manifestations in Earthly teachings. As you rightly point out, the MoG really is the fulcrum around which the entire Earthly-human involution (into physical matter) and evolution (into more spiritualized states) revolves. Keep in mind we are speaking of hundreds of thousands and millions of years through which this has unfolded and will continue to unfold (from our current linear temporal perspective). So from our current perspective, the concrete manifestations of this polar reversal will seem very much opposite to one another, especially so soon in its wake. In that sense, we can say the Earthly manifestations of the Buddha's teachings between 600-0 BC are quite opposite of the Earthly manifestations of Christ's teachings between 33-600 AD, at least in how they orient the spiritually striving soul. 

The Christ impulse itself, as a higher spiritual reality which serves as the fulcrum, was working from the Alpha of Earth evolution and will continue unfolding to the Omega, and its concrete manifestations will take on very unfamiliar and unsuspected forms. Christians a few thousand years from now may look upon the Sermon on the Mount like we now look upon the teachings of Confucius, as pretty interesting and wise sayings, but somewhat simple and obvious as well. That is a really loose analogy, because the way in which the new consciously relates to the old will itself be much different than it is now. The Earthly manifestations at any given time are what can be related more to the Lucifer and Ahrimanic impulses. It's interesting because Steiner speaks of how Lucifer incarnated around 3,000 BC and Ahriman will incarnate around 3,000 AD, with of course Christ incarnate in the middle. Within this span, I think we can say the oscillations between historical periods, events, and personalities inspired by the Luciferic impulse and those imagined by the Ahrimanic are the most extreme. 

What you mention certainly fits with that, since the Christian teachings were crafted initially to place more emphasis on how the Spirit must develop itself through Earthly capacities and tasks. For ex., the teaching of reincarnation was effectively removed from the spiritual stream so that people would place more importance on what needed to be accomplished in a single lifetime, here on Earth. That is at great tension with the Eastern teachings which really emphasized the soul passing through many incarnations, and such teachings were rooted in a fading clairvoyant capacity which concretely experienced past lives working into the present one. We can see how, if that didn't temporarily fade out, the full courageous potential of inner thinking freedom could not have developed. As Steiner remarked in PoF, the World Content can now freely become our Thought-Content through the Christ impulse.

Of course the goal of higher cognition is to reach into the deeper spheres of Time-potential through which these time-bound Earthly manifestations are structured, so we can adopt a more integral perspective. It is Gebser's 'time-free' perspective which doesn't need to fix itself in a certain location and view the polar rhythm moving in one direction and then the opposite, but to increasingly see how the movement away and the movement towards are One and the same, without losing the clarity of our current scientific consciousness. As indicated in some posts on the other thread, if we broaden out our aperture of human civilization and take it vertical as well into the Cosmic spheres, we can begin to discern how the Buddha and the Christ have been much more united in their Cosmic-Earthly aims (I am referring to the quotes about the Christ first sending the Buddha individuality to Venus and now to Mars). 

Ashvin,

After thorough consideration, I find you very cautious in this reply. With my question, I was merely bringing together previous pieces that I found here, that seem to point toward one direction, and asking why a deviation has been introduced here, with respect to what everything I have been reading here should point to. At least, if I got it right. I don’t think there was much originality in my question.

I follow the considerations in your reply. Some are new to me and valuable, like the strongly ingrained opposition to the idea of reincarnation that can be clearly felt in Christianity. I never thought about reading it in the way you suggest, though when you say it, it seems obvious - brilliant!

But overall I don't find an answer in your reply. What I was wondering is - if it's not too personal a question - what is your inner process that sparked the idea of polarity between Christ and Buddha? I am sure there is much to learn from the process that led you there, even if I can’t understand it now, and that’s all I tried to express in the initial post.

[AshvinP]

Ashvin,

I glanced way too quickly at this thread when you started it, and I'm glad Cleric has later mentioned its value. Your introduction on the meaning of polarity and its thorough illustrations are inspiring.

Then, reading how Steiner relates the significance of the teachings of Buddha to that of the Christ events, I am wondering: wouldn't the Event of Golgotha manifest that fulcrum between polarities you have described, rather than the polar counterpart of Buddha?
In the continuation of the question - maybe coming from too rigid a perspective but I can't help but wonder: at the time of the coming of Buddha, humanity needed to learn to extinguish their "thirst for being", finding in this way liberation from earthly suffering. Based on Steiner's illustration, this seem to constitute a Luciferic impulse (I hope nobody will feel the association outrageous, once the Ahrimanic and Luciferic impulses are understood in the way you have recently recalled).

So, as the Christ impulse realizes the balancing of the polar opposites Ahriman-Lucifer, did the Ahrimanic impulse manifest in the world during the Middle Ages, as a subsequent polar opposite to the Buddha events? And - again - why refer to a polarity between Christ and Buddha?

I want to add, the real polarity of importance to consider here is that between liabilities and assets. Through the Earthly involution, we accumulated many entries on the liability side of our balance sheet. These are the attachments to material desires, which were (and still continue to be) the source of so much sickness and suffering. Buddha's pre-Christian teachings rightly emphasized that we must let go of these attachments if we are to overcome suffering on the Earthly plane and to prepare our soul for higher impulses. Through the MoG, however, the new possibility arose - that the liabilities would be transmuted-redeemed and become our greatest assets. The teachings of Buddha still remain as valuable preparation for many people - the material attachements should still be sacrificed, but now within the overarching context of bringing out a higher potential which resides dormant within them. Of course that potential is brought out through our energetic, living thinking. We begin to discern the more holistic context in which our desires, passions, attachments, suffering takes place, particularly the pre-birth realms from which they are seeded, and they now become critical feedback for how to more optimally steer our stream of Earthly becoming, and that of human civilization as a whole, towards the high spiritual ideals.

Ashvin,

I still need to consider and reply to your previous post, but seeing this, I'd like to add a short note here first.
That the real polarity in this context is one between assets and liabilities does not sound right to me. Because the balancing of assets and liabilities is just what a polarity in general is. This is nothing more than a possible description of the meaning of polarity. It's another way to express that "One pole is always providing the soil from which the other can grow, and the fruits of that growth then provide the soil from which the other pole can grow, as they gradually spiral apart and back together again at a higher level." I don't see how stating that the real polarity is between the accumulated liabilities of humanity and their transmutation into assets, is any different from saying that the real polarity is a polarity. I think the real polarity is to be found in what is to be transmuted and how the transmutation has to be accomplished.

I very well understand you are mindful of not giving the impression that the teachings of Buddha are to be considered of lower importance compared to the Christ's, and I completely agree with that. But I doubt that for this reason the polarity you first highlighted should be smoothed out in this way. As I understand it, the Buddha still preached a spiritualization of the material world as a movement away from it, because that is what the world needed at that still involutionary point, as a compensation, while Christ opened the way to the possibility to turn inside out the world of form, rather than abandoning it, by infusing it with Love and Wisdom (Thinking). And I thought that was one of the main points of your initial post?

Federica,

Yes, the real value for our understanding does reside in the what and the how, which is a never-ending spiritual scientific investigation in which the subject conducting the investigation (us) and the object of the investigation (the world) are continually transformed and brought into closer unity. Our entire lives really become the process of investigation. We aren't going to make much progress into such an investigation with only this forum or my posts - mostly I use this opportunity to approach the basic principles at work from various angles. If we really want to delve into the inner workings of what the MoG accomplished and how, for ex., we need to go into details which simply won't make any sense for most people following. I probably get too ambitious here with Steiner's quotes as it is, and even those barely scratch the surface.

We can say there is only One Polarity in the abstract (whatever we want to label it), and every other polarity is just a manifestation of that One, viewing it from slightly different angles. That is a perfectly valid statement. It's like saying every analogy/metaphor in the normal conceptual-perceptual spectrum is a way of relating various visible or detectable physical phenomena to the same invisible spiritual forces which structure them. Nevertheless we continue to approach those same spiritual forces with differentiated metaphors because it helps mold the flesh around our intuitive orientation to those forces. The world mythologies and scriptures do a similar thing with all the various images, comparisons, parables, etc. they offer us.

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

I think the liability-asset angle on the polar relation is very helpful because it highlights how all those things we generally consider evil, negative, or otherwise chaining us to the Earthly realm, weighing us down or hanging over our head like the sword of Damocles, has been redeemed through the blood of Christ. Through that deed, we can become more livingly conscious of our own participation in the Earthly progression from Spirit to Matter, which then allows for Matter to return to Spirit. The collective and individual souls of humanity have always been mediating between these poles, helping to transform one to the other and back in a rhythmic progression. That is true even before the incarnational cycle began. All the Earthly kingdoms were laid down by the impulses of higher beings, led by the Christ-being, working through our spiritual activity. In other words, all the Earthly soul, life, and physical substances-processes we now possess embed this activity and give us the opportunity to extract the capacities, skills, and lessons we need from them to inherit our Divinity.

Otherwise we may temporarily suppress our entanglement with them and reduce suffering, but we will repeat experiences born of the same conditioning in subsequent incarnations until we extract the lessons. Unfortunately I see this repetitive cycle happen often with my clients - some of them make bankruptcy a regular staple of their diet every 4 or 8 years because they fail to extract any pedagogical value from their financial mistakes and misfortunes. Sometimes it seems like it doesn't occur to them that such a learning curve is even a possibility. Yet the rest of us aren't necessarily so much better off in the context of repeated Earthly incarnations - it all depends on what living desires, feelings and thoughts we approach our life experiences with. If we approach them only with personal feelings and dead thoughts, then we won't make much progress with our balance sheet between this incarnation and the next one.

So the Earthly involution happened instinctively through us, without any self-awareness and therefore without any free choice in the matter. When the incarnate "I" fully awakened on the physical plane through the MoG, we gained the potential to work our way back into consciousness of what we already did, or what we are already doing within the higher spiritual strata of Time-potential. That is how the liabilities (Karmic conditioning) become assets (holistic knowledge and feedback) for liberating our Spirit within so we can become more and more creatively responsible towards our fellow Earthly beings and inherit our Divinity.

But overall I don't find an answer in your reply. What I was wondering is - if it's not too personal a question - what is your inner process that sparked the idea of polarity between Christ and Buddha? I am sure there is much to learn from the process that led you there, even if I can’t understand it now, and that’s all I tried to express in the initial post.

I would say the idea of the polar comparison between Buddha and Christ was sparked simply from reading Steiner's lecture. Although he doesn't use the word 'polarity' in that particular lecture (he speaks of it at great length elsewhere, though), everything in that lecture seemed to be pointing to exactly that concept of a polar relation. The 600BC-600AD time period is suggestive of that, but also many of the other details. More generally, when it is spoken of "opposites" and "reversals", I think this pretty much means polar opposites and reversals. "Never has there been a more momentous reversal in the entire evolution of the human race."

Also, I think some of the confusion comes from my title, which wasn't thought out enough. It really isn't a polar comparison between Buddha and Christ as individualities, but between the Buddha teachings around 600 BC and the Christ teachings around 600 AD. And these weren't simply intellectual teachings as we know them today, but heavily imbued with feeling, as Steiner indicates. Now we are in a position to recover those archetypal feelings but also with the clarity of the intellect. "Now that we have done this, let us immediately consider the time six hundred years after the Mystery of Golgotha, when countless souls and eyes turned to the cross on which a corpse was hanging. It is from this corpse that the impulses emanated that spiritualized life and signaled the glad tidings that death can be conquered by life. That, then, is the exact opposite of what Buddha felt when he saw a dead body."

[Lou Gold]

I also believe that it was an error to portray Christianity and Buddhism as a polarity. Perhaps a better title could be, "Buddhism and Christianity: A View of Balance." In such a formulation, Buddha and Christ would BOTH be seen as sitting at the fulcrum in their times AND continuing to evolve with the times. The historical Jesus enacted/performed the story that raised the fulcrum higher, offering redemption to all independent of spiritual practice. Karma, Bhakti, Jnana or whatever, the portal has been opened for many more to ascend and many do at many levels, which is just how evolution works.

The polarity of the scales is a a good focus if one wants to see the differences and separations at a given time but focussing on the fulcrum will offer a better view of the communion and connection that transcends time. It's an understanding: Which view does one want to stand under now in guiding her/his own personal process? Choice is God-given.