A Polar Comparison of the Buddha and the Christ
Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2023 8:11 pm
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.
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.