Anthroposophy? Buddhism? Worlds Apart?

“Stone Soup” / photo bruce donehower

Dear Friends,

This is an edited abridgment of the commentary on Lecture Nine from the lecture cycle “According to Luke” that I gave during the Faust Branch Holy Night celebrations on January 4, 2025 on Zoom. This night was also a meeting night for the North American Section for the Literary Arts and Humanities of the School for Spiritual Science. I was asked at the last minute by the Faust Branch to substitute for a presenter who was ill. “According to Luke” is the SteinerBooks title for the series of ten lectures on the Luke Gospel that Rudolf Steiner gave in Basel in 1909. 

For those who attend our Section meetings, Professor Robert McDermott and I will take up this topic again in a dialogue that Robert and I have planned for the Section meeting on May 3, 2025 and May 2, 2026. The May 2, 2026 meeting will also commemorate the birthday of Friedrich von Hardenberg, the poet Novalis.

“And India blossoms lovingly,
Even in the north!”

— Novalis, Songs of the Spirit, Song One

Victorious Spirit!
Flame through the impotence
Of irresolute souls!
Burn out the ego addiction.
Ignite compassion,
That selflessness,
The life stream of humanity
May rule
As the wellspring
Of spiritual rebirth!

(Buddhistic?) Verse by Rudolf Steiner

1.15.25