Christ: Master of all Bodhisattvas

 

Rudolf Steiner:

Everything that had hitherto appeared on Earth was reborn in higher guise through Christianity. Everything that constitutes all spiritual cultures that had ever existed on Earth existed for the reason that Christ, the great leader of Earth evolution, sent to Earth those to whom he had given the task of preparing on Earth for what he had to fulfill. While still in the heights of heaven, he sent his emissaries ahead. They, the great founders of religions, were to prepare humankind for his coming. The last of these heralds was Buddha, who brought the teaching of compassion and love. There were other early Bodhisattvas, and there will be more in future whose task it will be to build upon all that has been brought to Earth through Christ Jesus.

It will be beneficial for human beings to pay heed to what those later Bodhisattvas have to tell, for they are servants of Christ. Each time a Bodhisattva of the future appears — for example, in around three thousand years — we will be helped, somewhat the better to understand the Christ, who irradiates all things. Christ it is who is the utmost profound of all beings, and the others exist with the sole objective that the Christ be better understood. This is why we say that Christ sent the Bodhisattvas ahead in order to prepare humankind for his coming; and he sends them also after the event so that this greatest of deeds in Earth evolution shall be ever more fully understood. We are only at the very beginning of comprehending this being, and we will realize his being ever betteer the more wise men, sages, and Bodhisattvas come to Earth. By dint of all the wisdom thus poured out into Earth existence we will become ever more capable of recognizing the Christ.

We exist on Earth as seeking human beings. We have made a start at struggling toward an understanding of the Christ. What we have recognized about him we have put to use — and will in future be putting to use — whatever those future Bodhisattvas will teach us, with the aim of better comprehending that Master of all Bodhisattvas, the fulcrum, the turning point of all our structures and systems. In this way humanity will increase in wisdom and will become ever more adept at recognizing the Christ. Humankind will only encompass him when the last of the Bodhisattvas has fulfilled his duty to its very conclusion, having brought the necessary teachings to empower us to conceive of this most profound of beings in all Earth existence: Christ Jesus.

Source: November 19, 1909. GA 117
Deeper Secrets of Human Evolution, pp. 120-121