What do you think?
Rate this book
Manifestations of Karma
11 lectures, Hamburg May 16-28, 1910 (CW 120) Why do people en-counter such different events and circumstances in life? What is behind diseases, accidents, and natural disasters? Rudolf Steiner speaks of karma as a reality that, if we understand it, answers the questions that arise as we begin to look seriously for life's meaning and purpose. We create our own karma in every area of existence, laying the foundation in one incarnation for the next. The whole pattern is not contained in one but in many lives on earth. Steiner tells us that we can gain acceptance and a sense of purpose by recognizing that self-induced karma is always in the process of being resolved. About karma and animals; health and illness; the curability and incurability of diseases; accidents; volcanoes, earthquakes, and epidemics; the karma of higher beings; free will in the future of human evolution; and individual and shared karma. “By exploring the more hidden aspects of a whole range of life phenomena in the light of the evolution of our planet Rudolf Steiner raises our consciousness to the vital role we play in helping or hindering the powers which serve the world’s evolvement” (from the foreword). This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120).
- GenresSpirituality
240 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 1996
About the author
Rudolf Steiner
4,485 books1,149 followersAuthor also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 14, 2016
A thought-provoking book. Steiner presents a worldview that embraces the idea not only of individual karma but also of group karma, national karma, and historical karma. The book opens the reader's mind to the many influences at work in the shaping of human destiny while maintaining the possibility of human freedom.
December 24, 2021
A mixed bag of deeply relevant inquiries into the nature of health and illness and some really out there stuff. So par for the course. Bottom line: pain has a purpose, and we more or less choose it; it's just that everyday consciousness doesn't read reality in that way. So initiate yourselves!
Other salient bits: karma is not predestination; if you are a male in this life, you were a female in your previous incarnation; animals are not subject to karmic laws; there is individual and collective karma.
The most "reassuring" bit: we seek the experiences in this life we need to heal, and suffering and illness are wise teachers.
2021 update: I am a really different person than when I last listened to these lectures. "All that exists in physical form is condensed light." The whole human enterprise is to weave love and light. "I'm right on top of that, Rose!"
Other salient bits: karma is not predestination; if you are a male in this life, you were a female in your previous incarnation; animals are not subject to karmic laws; there is individual and collective karma.
The most "reassuring" bit: we seek the experiences in this life we need to heal, and suffering and illness are wise teachers.
2021 update: I am a really different person than when I last listened to these lectures. "All that exists in physical form is condensed light." The whole human enterprise is to weave love and light. "I'm right on top of that, Rose!"
July 1, 2016
Definitely hard. This book is as instructive as it weighs. Language is flowery, reaffirming the statement that the German / Austrian education is taken very seriously. A sophisticated reading and extremely constructive.
August 6, 2010
Understanding this is a process...
Read
October 27, 2011Expected more...too general...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews