The Lord of Karma – the Guardian of the Threshold

The self is the focus of development and yet the self has many names, elements, and components: the “I Am”, ego, lower self, Adam Kadmon Self, the Angelic Self, the doubles of the lower self, the higher self, Spirit Self (Manas), the self of Life Spirt (Buddhi), the Christened Self, the selfless self, and ultimately the highest self which is found in the Spirit Human (Atman).

All of these facets of the human self – from inception to fulfillment of spirit potential – are part of the biography of the “I Am.”

Rudolf Steiner on Buddhism

Why are the teachings of reincarnation and of Karma flowing into Christianity today? Because the initiates have learned to understand them in a modern sense, just as Buddha himself after his fashion understood them – and Buddha was the great Teacher of reincarnation.

In the same way we shall attain to an understanding of Skythianos, whose teaching deals not only with the reincarnation of men but with the powers which rule from eternity to eternity. So shall the central Being of the world, the Christ, be ever more and more understood. In this way the teachings of the initiates gradually flow into humanity.

We make a beginning by teaching the elementary truths of our earth evolution, by seeking that which we owe originally to Skythianos, Zarathustra and Buddha and by accepting it as they teach it in our age, in the form they themselves know it, their evolution having progressed to our present age.

We have reached a point in civilization now where the elementary teachings of initiation are beginning to be disclosed.”