The New Essential Steiner by Robert McDermott

Author:Robert McDermott
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Steiner Books
Published: 2009-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

6.

REINCARNATION, KARMA, AND THE DEAD

DESTINY AND REINCARNATION OF THE SPIRIT

THE SOUL LIVES AND acts in the middle, between body and spirit. Impressions reaching the soul through the body are fleeting and present only as long as the body’s organs are open to phenomena of the outer world. My eyes perceive the color of a rose only as long as they are open and face the rose. The presence of both the outer-world object and the bodily organ is needed for an impression, sensation, or perception to occur.

However, what I recognize in my spirit as true about the rose does not pass with the present moment. This truth does not at all depend on me; it would be true even if I had never experienced that rose. Whatever I may recognize through the spirit is grounded in an element of the soul’s life that connects the soul to a universal content, a content that reveals itself in the soul but is independent of its transitory bodily basis. Whether this content is imperishable in every respect does not matter, but it is important that it is revealed in such a way that the soul’s independent, imperishable aspect is involved, not its perishable physical basis. The soul’s enduring aspect comes into view as soon as we become aware of experiences that are not limited by its transitory aspect. Here, too, the important point is not whether such experiences first enter consciousness through transitory bodily processes, but whether they contain something that, although it lives in the soul, nevertheless possesses a truth independent of any transitory perceptual processes.

The soul stands between the present and the permanent, in that it occupies the center ground between body and spirit. However, it also mediates between the present and the permanent. It preserves the present for remembrance, wresting it away from perishability and giving it a place in the permanence of its own spiritual nature. The soul also puts the stamp of permanence on the temporal and temporary, since it does not simply surrender to fleeting stimuli, but also determines matters on its own initiative, incorporating its own essence into its actions. Through memory, the soul preserves yesterday; through action, it prepares tomorrow.

If my soul were unable to hold the red color of the rose through memory, it would have to perceive the red repeatedly to be aware of it. However, whatever remains after the external impression is gone, whatever my soul can retain, can again become a mental image, or representation, independent of the external impression. Through this ability, my soul turns the outer world into its own inner world by retaining the outer world through memory and continuing to lead an inner life with it, independent of any impressions acquired in the past. Thus, the soul’s life becomes a lasting result of transitory impressions made by the outer world.

Actions, however, also acquire permanence once they have been impressed on the outer world. When I cut a branch from a tree, something that occurs because of my soul changes the course of events in the outer world.

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