Unification

From Anthroposophy

Unification describes the convergence between human spirits after the divergence in the earlier phases of evolution (Schema FMC00.189 below), and is also the term used for denoting the concept of Christ as the future 'group soul for humanity', the concept of Second Adam, and the underlying principle of brotherly love.

These various perspectives are like different images to describe the same reality: the human phantom lies at the basis for the resurrection process, and as all human phantoms will link into the Christ, a new kind of group soul for humanity will establish itself. That will make the transition to the next planet Earth, to Future Jupiter, and there form the basis for humanity. That humanity will have worked the astral body into spirit self, and live under totally different moral conditions. See also Man's transformation and spiritualization. Man will feel the pain and sorrow of another, and it will be impossible to feel happy without addressing that pain and sorrow.

Before Future Jupiter this will already develop, as in the next Sixth cultural age of the Current Postatlantean epoch and expecially the next Sixth epoch.

The current situation, and what we are to learn and develop in the future, can be positioned as a next step after the individuation from the group souls of humanity to the individual human 'I'. First humanity was connected by blood-relationship based love, we can see this as a homogenic consciousness mass that is crumbling apart in smaller pieces, which is sometimes represent by a tree of human races, folk souls, etc. With the development of the I, Man emancipates himself from this, tears himself away of these bonds, and is set totally free. Then out of this true freedom and out of moral ideals and love, new bonds are formed, new centers are created, and the reverse direction of such tree is followed. This process, starting with moral ideals and selfless love, takes place as Man is on the path of transformation and spiritualization, and the spiritual convergence point is the Christ as a cosmic principle (Schema FMC00.481 below)

Aspects

  • positioning: see Development of the I#.5B1.5D - Narrative to the Development of the Human I
  • see also: Christ Module 1 - Unification of humanity
  • link with the War of all against all that is needed before a new selfless race of brotherhood can be created in the Sixth epoch (see GA054 quotes below), which will develop this new group soul of unity for mankind. The developments of empathy, conscience, compassion in the previous and current cultural ages of the Current Postatlantean epoch are forebodes of this. In this epoch it will be the development of the spirit-self (manas) and life-spirit (budhi) in the next Sixth cultural age that will provide the seed material for this. See Schema FMC00.438 on Overlapping evolutionary periods.
  • the effect of the Resurrection and the principle of the Second Adam which acts as a magnet for the cleansed phantom of human beings (1911-10-11-GA131 'cells multiplying' analogy, see extract on Second Adam).
  • the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences sidetracked the form of the human being (and his etheric and physical bodies) from its original intention by the Spirits of Form (see 1916-01-09-GA165 reference on Human races).
  • the Jehovah induced love via blood lines as an intermediate stage, hence:
    • the departure from that, see o.a. the passages in the bible regarding the Marriage in Cana in Galilee, and the quotes regarding surpassing the love within the family ties

Individuation and differentiation

editor comment: narrative added here because of the top-level importance of this thematic as a pyramidion stone (top of the contents pyramid, or tip of the iceberg) for this FMC wiki site

Divergence
  • the process of developing individual human I's from the original common group souls induces a divergence (see Schema FMC00.189 and Schema FMC00.594) and differentiation, before the second phase of convergence and spiritual unification
    • this first phase of individuation happens by the souls inhabiting different physical bodies (physical separation, and development of physical senses). This started with the 'descent' in the Lemurian epoch - see Schema FMC00.362. The group souls of humanity where still flowing in the blood-based love brought by the Spirits of Form (SoF) Jehovah - the first divine impulse, see Schema FMC00.185.
    • These differences are physically apparent in the resulting different human races (caused by the irregular Luciferic beings) as they developed in the Atlantean epoch. The development of the threefold soul (as parts of the astral body) and Development of the I allows the separation of the individualized Human I's.
    • As part of this process of differentiation, if one follows the chain of spiritual hierarchies downwards, there is the differentiation with the folk souls at the level of the archangels. This provides further granularity in terms of the different folks or people with different characteristics and languages (as described on Alphabet#Languages of human culture), and also the arising of the feelings of nationality when the folk souls work deep into the physical level (instead of the astral). This happened in central Europe in the Current fifth cultural age (Italian 1550, French 1600, British 1650, German 1750 to 1830-1850 (as described on Folk souls#Folk spirits in the current fifth cultural age).
  • Hence, one can see that all the separateness we experience on the physical plane is caused by the gradual differentiation as illustrated on Schema FMC00.189 and Schema FMC00.594; and this is the context in which to understand human races, different languages, drives of nationalism .. all of which have given rise to wars.

Transition

  • as the human experience on the physical Earth allows for working the human astral body first subconsciously, and then consciously through (self-)initiation and initiation exercises; Man is developing as a indivividualized spiritual being as the human being develop's Man's higher triad through Man's transformation and spiritualization. The astral body gets transformed into spirit-self (or manas) first, but also the etheric body gets transformed into life-spirit or buddhi which is the spiritual principle of love which we describe with selflessness, brotherliness, the Golden rule. Man learns giving instead of receiving, as a universal process of growth that can be linked to sacrifice. Though still early, the second divine impulse for this was given by the Christ with the Mystery of Golgotha.
  • The above is depicted in dense form on Schema FMC00.486 (and other Schemas on Earth's seven epochs) and also in the introductory pack The great journey of humanity. Humanity is currently in a very important phase of evolution, with the development of the consciousness soul and its fructification by the Christ Impulse (Schema FMC00.438); hence many topics pages on this site describe this, see a.o. Meaning of Free Man Creator and Seeds for future worlds .. and what it means for Man to have freedom and to choose to live the Truth Beauty Good with moral ideals and develop true spiritual love (Schema FMC00.422A and Schema FMC00.591, see Contemporary worldview war)
  • Note the transition phase is the separation between good and evil, between the streams that will spiritualize or go downwards. This process has started and is ongoing but will reach through the next sixth cultural age into the sixth epoch and afterwards onto Future Jupiter stage of evolution. In the future, a bit as in medical chemotherapy or a chemical distillation column .. humanity will have to face ever stronger evil in the development of the ever stronger good (re: Manicheism).

Convergence

  • the convergence for the future spiritualized humanity is developing through the ever stronger development of shared moral ideals .. through which new common spiritual centers or group souls are created, see Schema FMC00.188. The spiritual scientific explanation is covered on Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension
  • Rudolf Steiner describes how in the next millenia and the sixth and seventh cultural ages, Man (meaning part of humanity) will develop the impulse of brotherliness in himself. In the sixth cultural age, human beings will order their lives not according to external, physical considerations but rather on a spiritual basis .. and in the seventh cultural age castes or communities will be formed voluntarily by those who have grasped spiritual life, thus dividing humanity according to differences in morality.

Inspirational quotes

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022)

We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.

1915-06-15-GA159

Apart from the fact that as modern souls we belong to the fifth post-Atlantean cultural age and develop as individuals, raising individual life more and more out of community life, we must in turn become conscious of a higher form of community, founded in the freedom of love among brothers, as a breath of magic that we breathe in our working groups.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.189 depicts, on the left, the descent of Man on Earth with the first Adam. The other spirit represents the so-called Adam sister-soul that incarnated in the Nathan-Jesus child and formed the pure etheric body for the Christ later on. For background, see The two Jesus children and Christ Module 2 - Nature of the Christ being

After the resurrection following the Mystery of Golgotha, the resurrected pure ether body forms the basis for what will attract, or attracts - as a magnet - and unifies, all future human beings who will join with purified ether bodies. It will thereby form a unified Group Soul and this point of convergence is called the Second Adam.

The drawing also illustrates the fact that the first stream of physical humanity is divergent (with reference to the various races, the mixing of the blood - see eg the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences in Human races), whereas the latter is convergent.

FMC00.189.jpg

Schema FMC00.594: offers a visualization of the process that humanity goes through, from the group souls of humanity, over individuation, to the future spiritualization into future group souls based on moral ideals.

The small insert on the lower left references that this is part of a universal process whereby the logos goes from one universal divinity to many, see also the theosophical 'mahat' concept on the IAO topic page.

Underlined terms reference FMC wiki topic pages. The metaphoric imagery consists of, upper left, a cake crumbling from monolithic to ever smaller pieces - like from ocean to droplets (to represent the spiritual hierarchies, each human being is connected to the archangelic and archai level); and on the lower right, small metallic particles in free chaotic order but organizing themselves, as attracted to magnets (the magnets are unifying soul qualities, hence virtues and moral ideals).

The crumbling into ever smaller crumbles is ongoing, today mankind is only physically separated into separate physical bodies, but humanity is still connected to the Third Hierarchy. Through Man's transformation and spiritualization also the other bodily principles will be separated, but also unified, as separation is an attribute of the lower worlds (from the lower spirit world downwards). In the higher spirit world, the principle of buddhi or Christos or selfless love (see Schema FMC00.481) is a vantage convergence point also called the Second Adam.

The idea of this schema is not to take it literally, but to imagine it at a higher level in one's mind and soul.

offers a visualization of the process that humanity goes through, from the group souls of humanity, over individuation, to the future spiritualization into future group souls based on moral ideals. The small insert on the lower left references that this is part of a universal process whereby the logos goes from one universal divinity to many, see also the theosophical 'mahat' concept on the IAO topic page. Underlined terms reference FMC wiki topic pages. The metaphoric imagery consists of, upper left, a cake crumbling from monolithic to ever smaller pieces - like from ocean to droplets (to represent the spiritual hierarchies, each human being is connected to the archangelic and archai level); and on the lower right, small metallic particles in free chaotic order but organizing themselves, as attracted to magnets (the magnets are unifying soul qualities, hence virtues and moral ideals). The crumbling into ever smaller crumbles is ongoing, today mankind is only physically separated into separate physical bodies, but humanity is still connected to the Third Hierarchy. Through Man's transformation and spiritualization also the other bodily principles will be separated, but also unified, as separation is an attribute of the lower worlds (from the lower spirit world downwards). In the higher spirit world, the principle of buddhi or Christos or selfless love (see Schema FMC00.481) is a vantage convergence point also called the Second Adam. The idea of this schema is not to take it literally, but to imagine it at a higher level in one's mind and soul.


Schema FMC00.474 depicts the fact that contemporary waking consciousness is related to our physical senses and bodily constitution, and acts as a bandpass filter only showing part of the complete (spiritual) reality. This results in a limited worldview (of mineral science), and waking consciousness triggers the feeling of separate-ness as we feel our self is enclosed and corresponding to our physical body.

However hat at the same time Man's structure includes higher components part of the astral world, lower and higher spirit worlds (see green or blue lines). Although Man is not aware, he is really part of a group soul and monad, and all actions towards another person are therefore in a way to one's self. See also FMC00.479 and Cosmic fractal.

FMC00.474.jpg

FMC00.479 illustrates how Man lives in the three worlds. On the right is shown how the worlds interpenetrate and Man lives in all three worlds. On the left is the typical spiritual scientific concept drawing of Man's bodily principles, whereby it requires deeper study to detach from the limitations of the conceptual representation and grasp the realities it represents. In the middle, as a way of mapping or transposing between both, is shown how both the formative forces of the Elementary Kingdoms (EKi) and all spiritual beings involved to generate our reality experience in the physical world called the Cosmic fractal, whereby the spectrum of elements and ethers .


Schema FMC00.479 illustrates how Man lives in the three worlds. On the right is shown how the worlds interpenetrate and Man lives in all three worlds. On the left is the typical spiritual scientific concept drawing of Man's bodily principles, whereby it requires deeper study to detach from the limitations of the conceptual representation and grasp the realities it represents. In the middle, as a way of mapping or transposing between both, is shown how both the formative forces of the Elementary Kingdoms (EKi) and all spiritual beings involved to generate our reality experience in the physical world called the Cosmic fractal, whereby the spectrum of elements and ethers .

FMC00.479.jpg

Schema FMC00.481 is a poster that concatenates a number of excerpts from Rudolf Steiner's lectures to elucidate the meaning of various terms related to what is most important for humanity: selfless love. As a cosmic principle in the higher spirit world this was called Christòs in ancient Greece, in ancient India and theosophy it was called buddhi, and Rudolf Steiner coined the term life spirit in anthroposophy.

This cosmic principle lives in archangelic beings that went through the human stage on Old Sun, on Earth these are called solar pitris or fathers (in theosophical terminology). These were able to incarnate in the early earthly conditions in the Hyperborean epoch and constituted what is called the Sun men or Apollo men. In more recent times and the language of the ancient myths such descending solar pitris are called Sun Heroes. As leaders of mankind, especially the beings part of the White Lodge are called Bodhisattvas in ancient Indian and theosophical terminology. And besides these descending beings there is also the ascending path upwards: a human being who reaches the sixth degree in initiation was called Sun Hero in the ancient Mysteries.

What all these have in common is that they are the carrier of the life spirit, buddhi, or Christ principle, which is a universal cosmic soul principle that is no longer individual but a higher feeling of the universal soul of mankind, and in that sense representing humanity (and it's future) as a whole.

Christ is the Cosmic Sun Hero who came down to unify the whole of humanity as the spirit of the Earth. Through the Mystery of Golgotha, the buddhi principle was planted as a latent seed in each human soul. This higher principle will develop in millenia, epochs and even planetary stages to come. In this context, Christ will be with Man until the end of the Earth, and represents the future group soul of humanity also called 'Second Adam'.

FMC00.481.jpg

Schema FMC00.132 shows how Man, after death, grows into connection through his own Individuality and 'guiding' angel, with the angel and archangel organism. Man is already connected with H3, see the Three meetings (and schema FMC00.023B that extends the below) as H3 live in Man's 'I' soul activity during incarnation, see Man and the spiritual hierarchies. See also: What takes place as we sleep

FMC00.132.jpg

FMC00.384 shows the second of the seven apocalyptic seals, the two left illustrations are sketches provided by Rudolf Steiner as indications, the two on the right are paintings by Clara Rettich of 1907 and 1911. It shows the past with the four Group souls of humanity that led upto current humanity, and in the center the Mystical Lamb symbol of the Christ group soul as the future group soul of humanity, see also Unification and Second Adam.

FMC00.348.jpg

Lecture coverage and references

Luke 12.51-54

(Young’s Literal Translation)

see also 1907-12-02-GA092 below

Think you that I came to give peace to the Earth? No, I say to you, but rather division. For there shall be henceforth five in one house divided — three against two, and two against three; a father shall be divided against a son, and a son against a father, a mother against a daughter, and a daughter against a mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

1633 - Robert Fludd - Clavis Philosophiae et Alchimiæ Fluddanæ

Henceforth therefore it plainly appeareth, that all men are but Unity in essential virtue and act, the which is so united to the first actor in Nature, that it is altogether in truth inseparable and indivisible from it, although men and all things else divide and branch themselves into different persons and shapes in respect of their Macrocosmical materials; for number, distinction, difference and multitude are the defective progression of blindfold and deceitful matter.

But in the subtle spirit and form is stability, permanency and Unity, from whence only the sweet consonance of peace and the world's harmony is extracted.

Then how far wandrest thou (O fond Man) in the glimmering of darkness and error, which groundest thy faith on things subject unto the outward sense, which are only compositions of antipathy and discord, and neglectest to behold with spiritual eyes the central and hidden truth, where Unity abideth compassed about with gleeful joy and peaceful sympathy?

Return, return, (I say) unto thyself, subject thy body unto thy reasonable soul by diving into thy inward treasure, and then prostrate and submit thy mental and spiritual part unto thy God; for so shalt thou be made one spirit with him, conditionally that thou doest persevere in humility, and acknowledge from thy heart that grace of thy Creator, by which thou shalt be glorified and exalted.

Wherefore I cordially admonish thee to ascend from this world unto God, that is, to penetrate quite through thyself, for to climb up unto God is to enter into thyself, and not only inwardly to visit thy dearest Soul, but also to pierce into the very centre thereof, to view and behold there thy Creator; which thou mayest the better gather and recollect the beams of thy inward man from the distractions of this outward world, and revoke them from external actions, to participate with thy inward joys.

1905-10-26-GA093A

see: Moral ideals#1905-10-26-GA093A

1905-11-23-GA054

is called 'Brotherhood and the fight for survival'

quote A

machine translation

Anyone who looks deeper into the souls of people knows that two separate, completely different paths bring about what leads to war. One is what we call judgment and reason, what we call idealism, the other is desire, human tendencies, human sympathies and antipathies. Some things would be different in the world if it were readily possible to regulate desires, desires and passions according to the principles of the heart and mind. That is not possible, but the opposite has always been the case in mankind. What passion wants, what desire demands, reason creates, and even the heart creates a mask with its idealism. And if you follow the history of human development, then you can ask the question again and again, if you see here and there principles, here or there idealism: What desires and passions are lurking in the background?

quote B machine translation

A real peace society is one that strives for spiritual knowledge, and the real peace movement is the current of spiritual science. We don't fight, we don't fight war or anything else, because fighting doesn't lead to higher development at all. Each species of animal has evolved as a special race out of battle. Leave all the fighting around us to the fierce who are not yet mature enough to seek out what the corporate soul in the human race seeks out in the spiritual life. Not the present people with their principles, but the people of the future, who are developing more and more consciousness for the unity soul (see: future group soul), they will be the ones who will lay the foundation for a new generation, for a new race, that will be all about mutual helping of eachother.

1907-12-02-GA092

regarding the phrase in the Gospel of Luke 14:26-27 “If any Man comes to me, and hates not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, ... he cannot be my disciple.”

Christianity was to bring into the world a love that is independent of blood-kinship. The words of Christ are to be interpreted thus: He who forsakes not father and mother - that is to say, he who cannot substitute for a love that is bound up with flesh and blood, a love that flows from soul to soul, from brother to sister, from a Man to all men - he “cannot be my disciple.

1908-06-30-GA104

gives a description of what Man will be on Future Jupiter and gives a deep realization of the message of Christianity and the Golden Rule

The Future Jupiter-man therefore will possess spiritual vision of a certain degree. Part of the soul-world will lie open to him; he will perceive the pleasure and pain of those around him in pictures which will arise in his imaginative consciousness. He will therefore live under entirely different moral conditions. Now imagine that as a Jupiter-man you have a human soul before you. The pain and pleasure of this soul will arise in pictures before you. The pictures of the pain of the other soul will distress you, and if you do not remove the other's pain it will be impossible for you to feel happy. The pictures of sorrow and suffering would torment the Jupiter-man with his exalted consciousness if he were to do nothing to alleviate this sorrow and thus at the same time remove his own distressing pictures which are nothing but the expression of the sorrow around him! It will not be possible for one to feel pleasure or pain without others also feeling it.

1915-06-15-GA159

So you see, it is only through the wisdom of spiritual science itself that we can understand what we are really doing in respect of our connection with the spiritual worlds when we come together in these working groups. The thought that we do this work not only for the sake of our own I's, but in order that it may stream upward into the spiritual worlds, the thought that this work is connected with the spiritual worlds, this is the true consecration of a working group. To cherish such a thought is to permeate ourselves with the consciousness of the consecration that is the foundation of a working group within the movement. It is therefore of great importance to grasp this fact in its true spiritual sense.

We find ourselves together in working groups which, besides cultivating spiritual science, are based on freedom of thought. They will have nothing to do with dogma or coercion of belief, and their work should be of the nature of cooperation among brothers. What matters most of all is to become conscious of the true meaning of the idea of community, saying to ourselves:

Apart from the fact that as modern souls we belong to the fifth post-Atlantean epoch of culture and develop as individuals, raising individual life more and more out of community life, we must in turn become conscious of a higher form of community, founded in the freedom of love among brothers, as a breath of magic that we breathe in our working groups.

1919-02-11-GA193

on meeting another person (see also Levinas below)

Christ said: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”.

The Christ never ceases to reveal Himself anew to men – even unto the end of earthly time.

And thus He speaks today to those willing to listen:

“In whatever the least of your brethren thinks, you must recognize that I am thinking in him; and that I enter into your feeling, whenever you bring another’s thought into relation with your own, and whenever you feel a fraternal interest for what is passing in another’s soul.

Whatever opinion, whatever outlook on life, you discover in the least of your brethren, therein you are seeking Myself."

So does the Christ speak to our life of thought — the Christ Who desires to reveal Himself in a new way — the time for it is drawing near — to the men of the twentieth century. Not in such a way that people should speak in Harnack's style of the God who may equally well be the Jehovah-God, and is in fact nothing else, but so that it may be known: Christ is the God for all men. We shall not find Him if we remain egotistically bound up with our own thoughts, but only if we relate our own thoughts to those of other men, if we expand our interest to embrace, with inner tolerance, everything human, and say to ourselves: “Through the fact of my birth I am a prejudiced person; only through being reborn into an all-embracing feeling of fellowship for the thoughts of all men shall I find in myself the impulse which is, in truth, the Christ Impulse. If I do not look on myself alone as the source of everything I think, but recognise myself, right down into the depths of my soul, as a member of the human community”.

Then, my dear friends, one way to the Christ lies open. This is the way which must today be characterised as the way to the Christ through thinking. Earnest self-training so that we gain a true perception for estimating the thoughts of others, and for correcting bias in ourselves — this we must take as one of life's serious tasks. For unless this task finds place among men, they will lose the way to the Christ. This today is the way through thinking.

1940-08 - Manly P. Hall

Monthly Letters to Students - August, 1940 (Theory of Metaphysical Disciplines)

The Wisdom Religion teaches us that while in personality we are many, in principle we are one. There is one spirit in all men.

Though innumerable artificial barriers made by Man divide and isolate us, we are truly of one substance and one purpose. We are more than similar; we are identical.

We are manifestations of the One and we bear witness in our own parts to the One. This kinship of life, this identity of purpose and end, makes us truly universal.

As surely as all plants grow out of the same Earth, so all lives come out of the one life. We are all plants with roots in space, nourished by one energy, and growing up to reveal one intelligence. To the degree that man can perceive this unity, to that degree he is wise. As long as he can think always of this impersonal unity, he can avoid division and discord."

Group Soul of humanity

1911-09-21-GA130

see more on topic page for Current Postatlantean epoch

The Christ-Individuality was on the Earth in the body of Jesus of Nazareth for three years only and does not come again in a physical body; in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch He comes in an etheric body, in the sixth epoch in an astral body, and in the seventh in a mighty 'Cosmic I' that is like a great Group Soul of humanity.

Maximilian Rebholz

quote on the transition between planetary stages Earth and Future Jupiter:

And this process of reunification continues through the fact, that at the end of earthly evolution, the Christ will unite all these thought-phantoms, which surround the earth as "spiritual haze structures", into a single form, from which - after passing through the Pralaya - the archetypal image of Future Jupiter would appear.

with reference to

1914-07-16-GA155

… and at the end of the ages the remains of our Earth incarnations will stand there … all the phantom-like beings… like a mighty tableau. … and what do they come to, taken as a whole? Because Christ unites them all … the remains of the single incarnations are all compressed together. … Compress what is rarefied and you will get density. Spirit also becomes dense, and so our collective Earth-incarnations are united into one spiritual body.

extract from that 1914-07-16-GA155 lecture;

quote A

When we connect what was said yesterday with what is being said today (and it is really the same, only seen from two sides) we understand how Christ takes upon Himself the guilt and sin of Earth humanity, in so far as these are objective guilt and sin. And if we have inwardly realized this “Not I, but Christ in me”, the Christ in us, then He takes over the objective remains of our incarnations, and they stand there vivified by Christ, irradiated by Christ and permeated by His life.

Yes, the remains of our incarnations stand there, and what do they come to, taken as a whole?

Because Christ unites them all — Christ who belongs to all mankind in the present and in the future — the remains of the single incarnations are all compressed together. Every human soul lives in successive incarnations. From each incarnation certain relics or remains are left, as we have described. Further incarnations will leave other remains, and so on, up to the end of the Earth period. If these relics are permeated by Christ, they are compressed together. Compress what is rarefied and you will get density. Spirit also becomes dense, and so our collective Earth-incarnations are united into a spiritual body. This body belongs to us; we need it because we evolve onwards to Jupiter, and it will be the starting-point of our embodiment on Jupiter. At the end of the Earth period we shall stand there with the soul — whatever the particular karma of the soul may be — and we shall stand there before our earthly relics which have been gathered together by Christ, and we shall have to unite with them in order to pass over with them to Jupiter.

We shall rise again in the body, in the earthly body that has condensed out of the separate incarnations.

Emmanuel Levinas

See also the work of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995), the philosopher who called philosophy "wisdom of love", and his concept of 'the Other' or 'Altrui': in the face of the other person, the Other, we are confronted with our moral mirror image and responsability versus the other human being.

The 'moral authority' of the face of the Other is felt in my 'infinite responsibility' for the Other. The face of the Other comes toward me with its infinite moral demands while emerging out of the trace. ..

.. the trace is not just one more word: it is the proximity of God in the countenance of my fellowman. In a sense, it is divine commandment without divine authority.

Discussion

Note 1 - Narrative on the illusion of separateness and the reality of connectedness

Part 1: different worlds

  • On the lower right of Schema FMC00.474 above is depicted how we feel 'separateness' because of our physical bodies being distinct and separate from one another. Plus: we look in the mirror and say I to that body and it's actions in the physical reality 'here below'.
  • On the right of Schema FMC00.479 above is illustrated how Man lives in the three different worlds all the time. The physical, astral, and spiritual worlds. There is one caveat on that picture (deliberately): there is also an oval that Man is part of the higher spirit world, not just the lower. This was not drawn, because above the abyss or the fourth layer of the spirit world, time and space cease to exist as we know them. This is where we find Man's higher triad consisting of spirit-self, life-spirit, spirit-man (or manas, buddhi, atma). Often they are talked about as concepts only, as people lack the experiential dimension (which requires a degree of consciousness through initiation, after what is called 'crossing the abyss'), and herein lies a major difficulty for understanding, unless one can live oneself into the spiritual realities through imagination. This small narrative tries to contribute to this by providing a 'rope hand rail' for a guided walk.

Part 2: the central picture

  • Schema FMC00.189 above and its variant Schema FMC00.594 above illustrates the concept of Second Adam and is the key illustration ..
    • first, starting from the left .. for the process of individuation of the human I in Man, from group souls of humanity via human races and folk souls, tribes and families, to each individual I. This is the left part of the drawing, one can imagine a cake that is crumbling apart in ever smaller pieces. For a narrative, see: Development of the I#Note 1 - Narrative to the Development of the Human I
    • However then after the MoG, there is another forces that kicks in and brings a spiritual binding, like a magnetic field that makes small dipoles align (a metaphor image from physics). Through the consciousness soul, there is a permeation by the spiritual, moral, good. Moral ideals produce 'a new center', see Schema FMC00.188 on Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension. People that share certain higher moral ideals, the good, start joining up at a higher level. Like small particles clumping together. Imagine the opposite of the cake crumbling part into ever smaller pieces. The clumping together forms new groupings, and they are in a huge force field over millenia, millions of years, eons of evolution.
      • The convergence point is what is called the Christ as a group soul of humanity. Schema FMC00.481 above contains links to lectures that help you understand that Christ is a cosmic principle, above time and space. Man's contains this seed in the life-spirit or buddhi principle. But because it is above manas, time, space .. it is where Man starts to join up to this principle, becomes a spiritual being with certain qualities, rather than deliniated by a body in time and space. It is important to now bring Parts 1 and 2 together in your mind, blend them through your imagination.

Part 3: bringing the concepts to life by connecting with spiritual realities

  • the above was very conceptual and metaphorical, let's look at the spiritual reality - read: Cosmic fractal#Inspirational quotes
  • Schema FMC00.132 above illustrates the structure of Man between death and a new birth, after laying off the physical and etheric bodies, it shows the connection with the angelic and archangelic layer of the Third Hierarchy. It is recommended to read one-self into an imagination of this connection via different angles, oa the food for archangels and food for archai section on that topic page, also Three meetings, etc.
  • Now contemplate:
    • Schema FMC00.472 on Third Hierarchy#Illustrations (and the other schemas on that page)
    • Schema FMC00.471A on Archangel Michael
    • these schemas depict what is in the previous bullet, how Man and Man's soul activity is made up of the Third Hierarchy. We are connected to the hierarchies like the twigs and branches of a tree, or the elements of a chain.

Part 4: connectedness

  • with all the above laid out, we can add another analogy from our physical world. On the internet, the last two decades have known the development of 'social media': people connect to eachother as friend, collegues, relatives and people they know. This brings us to the concept of six degrees of separation (wikipedia link): Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of "friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. The idea is sometimes generalized to the average social distance being logarithmic in the size of the population. Now what is new is that in the last twenty years, there is an albeit virtual, but still physical version of this reality that provides metric data. Specifically facebook, linkedin and twitter (see here), we quote from wikipedia: Facebook's data team released two papers in November 2011 which document that amongst all Facebook users at the time of research (721 million users with 69 billion friendship links) there is an average distance of 4.74. It was also found that 99.91% of Facebook users were interconnected, forming a large connected component. Facebook reported that the distance had decreased to 4.57 in February 2016, when it had 1.6 billion users
  • Now take this as a metaphor, and imagine Schema FMC00.132 again. If we transpose the social media network to one of our connectivity at the level of the Third Hierarchy, we cross borders of folks, languages, regions, and similarly we can 'see' we are all connected, not through virtual links between a network of machines (computers with social media software), but through the archangelic and archai layers. This is the power of Schema FMC00.132 in combination with what many people are familiar with as 'the network effect' and 'six degrees' in today's world of internet. Especially if we can then take an induction step to what is described in Part 3 with schemas 471 and 472.
  • We have now arrived at what is called karmic relationships and karmic groups, see Schema FMC00.496 and Schema FMC00.495 on the Karmic relationships topic page that show how as contemporaries we are making up a wave of souls that incarnates again and again. We change folk soul and conditions all the time.
  • From here, close the circle and go back to the central illustration Schema FMC00.189 in Part 2. The laws of karma teach us all the above realities in our time between death and a new world. Even when the process of reincarnation comes to an end, humanity will still be on its way along that picture. This is how the tenth hierarchy is being formed, humanity as the spirits of freedom and love. Today we are at such a very early stage, but we can use the power of our intellect and imagination (our consciousness soul) to realize the reality of what has been described here. And with that realization comes a great sense of responsibility, as the freedom to choose, to act is ours, every day, in every choice and action. For further reading, this is also what this website is all about (more on various pages such as oa Meaning of Free Man Creator, Seeds for future worlds, Contemporary worldview war, etc).

Part 5: conclusion

  • this short story was to try and convey a change in perspective. Next time in a city or in a crowd, and/or when browsing social network media, maybe it is worthwhile to connect to the above imagery and realize that as human beings were are all connected, much more than we realize. And maybe this can be in our soul in every interaction with another being, stranger or not, in need or not,
  • Matthew 25:40 (in context here)

    Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

Various notes

  • Quote on 'the face of the other'

Much error that we see today in social and political life is because we think in abstract terms ...

Love for All Humanity .. means Nothing .. it is just but a hollow abstract motto

Didn't Johann Wolfgang von Goethe say that "mankind is an abstraction"

It is not possible to love humanity or mankind .. just as it is not possible to love the Sun or the Moon .. because it is only an 'idea'

When we face a human being individually .. we are actually facing all mankind in that one particular individual

If one can do away .. with the maya of appearance .. and see the Truth .. it is possible to see all humanity .. in each Man

But to reach that stage of development, a lot of work is to be done

Related pages

References and further reading

Internal project notes and references

see Evo 12.12 giving four RSL references for further work