We follow the chapter “Reincarnation and Karma” in the book Theosophy by Rudolf Steiner, in order to get an impression of how one can, with thinking alone, obtain a very great certainty about this phenomenon of reincarnation and karma. First, Rudolf Steiner had posed the question whether it could perhaps be that, just as we have a memory within ourselves, the world too has a memory — a memory for the deeds we perform upon it. Then he explained that human memory is something living and that it is actually not even meant so that one can remember everything, but rather that these events which one holds in memory — that these lead to one having certain skills, that is, that one becomes capable of something, and that the various facts that are necessary for that are present in memory, but that it is actually not about that — rather, that it is such that these abilities are entered into the enduring spiritual being of the human. And from this then follows that which I would like to discuss today. But first, he then also made it clear that the human being does have physical ancestors in the physical body, but that the human spiritually and soul-wise — if one goes back and asks, where does my present spiritual-soul being come from — that one would actually always find oneself again, if one could, that is, that the ancestors of our personality are again and again our own individuality. And actually, one should not be satisfied if one cannot really think that through clearly. If one just accepts it like that — yes, it will probably be so — that is not what Rudolf Steiner expected from the reader. He hoped that the reader would also make an effort to go so far in thinking that it becomes clear that one can determine this already with thinking alone — with thinking alone — that I have ancestors, soul-spiritually, and that my ancestors are personalities who are manifestations of the same soul-spiritual individuality, again and again. And then Rudolf Steiner proceeds to describe that it is important to become aware that there are certain abilities in life of which one can say: yes, they really come from heredity. But that there are also abilities which one actually cannot understand in this way from heredity, and of which one, if one were truly attentive, ought really to think oneself: where do they actually come from? And that is not so simple to always clearly distinguish.

Because if I say: a child comes along, and this child gets piano lessons, and after a year still cannot get through the first little book — it just doesn’t work. Then one says: just stop, because you have no aptitude at all. Then comes a second child, perhaps even from the same family, perhaps with the same parents even, and that one gets piano lessons from the same teacher, and this child has played through six books after a year and could probably have played through much more if it had taken or been given more time. Then of course one can say: yes, the one child took this genetic material and the other child the other — there are musically gifted people in the family and there are also non-musically gifted people. So, there lies the reason. But then one is not thinking in a differentiated way, and therein lies the difficulty. Rudolf Steiner then also says: if one actually cannot follow that, that there is something else that becomes effective as talent than merely physical predisposition — if one cannot think that along, yes, then one actually cannot do anything with spiritual science. Because then the possibility is lacking to observe, within the physical facts, the soul-spiritual facts in a differentiated way. But one must always try oneself meditatively to make clear that a disposition can partly come from heredity, but that something else expresses itself in it, something that cannot possibly come from hereditary disposition. And one sees that also in the fact that in a series of musicians in a family, it is not so that the great talent of the father always passes on to the children so that they become equally great musicians. It is also not always so that it is only at the beginning or at the end — it is actually a kind of surprise that suddenly, in a musical family where the musicians are more average musicians, a genius appears. That one must learn to behold. Because one cannot become aware of anything oneself with spiritual science if one cannot become aware of these fine but still clear differences.

So one can read this chapter in Theosophy, and one can of course give a complete report of it — perhaps even from memory perfectly report it — and then it can still be the case that one missed those points in this chapter where the spiritual directly addresses the reader. One can very well know everything and still not be able to distinguish oneself. And if one wants to continue at all with reincarnation and karma — for example by asking: who am I really myself? — not even that one needs a name, but that one gets an impression of how one’s soul-spiritual individuality transforms itself again and again through time, manifesting so that it is adapted to the time — if one wants to discover that, for example, for oneself — then, yes, that is absolutely not possible if one cannot realize in oneself these points that Rudolf Steiner gives there, one is not able to become aware of the physical facts in thinking. It is a necessity that we get that far, and it is not so difficult to grasp with thinking the difference between that which lies in the physical and that which lies in the soul-spiritual. They are subtle facts. And because we are so coarse in our soul, in our time — because we grasp everything materially, we are also taught that way — because we are so coarse, it is thus so difficult to grasp these subtle facts and not again mix them with the physical or make them the same.

So if we recall the musical child in memory, then we have a child that has taken on the qualities through physical heredity to become so dexterous with the physical body as is needed for being a pianist. The hearing, for example — that one perhaps has perfect pitch — that can also still come from the physical line, although one should always consider here, of course, that the soul-spiritual being also seeks out such parents who can deliver such physical qualities. But that then comes from the physical line. But the musicality itself, the capacity to grasp music — that is something quite different. That is what it’s about. The non-musical child perhaps also has this skill of the limbs — could learn it too. But cannot do it because the soul-spiritual ability is not so developed that it can also be incarnated into this physical disposition more or less. If one cannot do something in life and one practices, and after a time one can do it, and someone else sees that one can do it well — then that person does not see that I once also could not do it, and that this ability came about through practice. But I had to practice it. And so we must imagine that a talented person, a person with certain dispositions — that this person practiced these dispositions in a previous incarnation and that he is thereby born with a skill, with a disposition that another person does not have. And if a not-talented person tries to learn piano playing, then it does not work. Perhaps, if he or she perseveres, then something comes about through the practice — but it will not become genius. But the next time, however, when this person incarnates again, then this musical ability will have improved through the persistent practice. And in this we must try to sense a law of reincarnation and karma — that we, when we see a disposition in people, that we try to become aware that this disposition does not come from physical heredity, but from soul-spiritual heredity. That can truly be determined with thinking.

And Rudolf Steiner says: yes, of course there always comes the comment that people say: yes, what’s the point of that — thinking is supposed to convince me? That’s just someone who thinks this, and someone else thinks that — what kind of proof is that supposed to be? And then he says: yes, thinking is, here on Earth, the spiritual activity in human beings. And if one cannot trust thinking — well then, stop, then all study in spiritual science has no meaning. Because if one is not clairvoyant oneself, then thinking, as a spiritual activity, is still there in order to think along with these spiritual-scientific facts — and not to think them along blindly, but to think them along with insight.

And when one begins with that, then one comes to know well the bliss of the discerning spirit.