Christ Module 1 - Unification of humanity

Today human beings feel different for many different reasons: skin colour, language, culture, religion.

The relationship with another human beings varies greatly. We love a small circle around us of close family through the love of blood relationships: our parents, our children, our siblings. Also a circle of friends, people we resonate with.

When we go to another continent or another country we are or can be confronted with considerable differences in how people think, react, function.

The idea of one humanity is that all this would be fundamentally different, so different it challenges our imagination. Imagine that you would love any other human being like your own child, that the pain and sorrow of another would be yours so you could not be happy if another soul is unhappy.

So one humanity is not just about colour of skin, language, culture, religion.

The meaning of 'unification' can be understood from its opposite: the lack of unification is diversity, the difference between human beings: you versus I, you are not me, and I have to take take care of myself to survive, first. Difference links to natural ego-tism.

Statement of essence

One of the meanings of the Mystery of Golgotha is the attainment of the unity of humanity from within. The salvation of humanity out of bodily fragmentation into spiritual unity.

The Christ Impulse has the quality of working as a solvent, as a destructive influence upon our egotism.

The old, blood-related love (that Jehovah brought in the Lemurian epoch) was and and is being replaced by the Christ Impulse, who brought a higher love into the world and made man independent of the members of their tribe and blood-relationships. This universal love is only just beginning; when the Earth has one day passed on its being to Future Jupiter, it will be entirely permeated by this spiritual love.

Aspects

the golden rule "Love your neighbor as yourself" is fundamental to unification of mankind as a brotherhood of love.
study of the human races to understand how the current differences came into being as a result of the luciferic infection and the luciferic and ahrimanic influences in the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs
related, explore the original plan of how a unified humanity would have existed without this luciferic infection, unified through the etheric and physical bodies (1916-01-09-GA165 below, see also Q00.002 - timing of the Mystery of Golgotha and Human races)
realize how Christianity and the Christ Impulse therefore is not 'a' religion like many others: it is valid for every human being on Earth, irrespective of their race, religion or belief system

Inspirational quotes

Probably the best reference lecture for this section/page is: 1916-01-09-GA165 called 'The Universal Human: The Unification of Humanity through the Christ Impulse' (see also below):

what human beings originally, at the beginning of earth evolution, were intended to have on the outside, namely, uniformity and the applicability of the term “human being” everywhere on Earth, was now to be brought forth out of the innermost essence of the human being through the Christ-Spirit.
It is one of the many meanings of the Mystery of Golgotha that with the Christ-Spirit something was given to the earth that, when rightly understood, makes the name “human being” again applicable to all earthly humanity.
...
what can be said about this principle in the Christ impulse, namely, the salvation of humanity out of bodily fragmentation into spiritual unity, must be told, for it must become more and more effective in human evolution

Vladimir Solovyov

The meaning of human love, speaking generally, is the justification and salvation of individuality through the sacrifice of egoism.

1909-06-07-GA109

from Spirit world#1909-06-07-GA109

In many respects the purpose of incarnation on Earth is to forge bonds of ever greater intimacy. ... Fellow feeling in the spirit world is much more alert, much more intimate than it is on Earth; one experiences another’s pain there as one’s own.
On Earth, greater or less personal prosperity is possible at the cost of others but in the spirit world that is out of the question. There, the misfortune caused by someone to another human being in order to better himself, would reverberate upon him; nobody could prosper at the expense of another.
Adjustment starts from the spirit world. It is from there that the impulse is brought to make brotherliness a reality on the Earth.

A law that is a matter of course in the spirit world is a task that has to be fulfilled on Earth.

Illustrations

see: Unification#Illustrations

Lecture coverage and references

Two main references as introduction are

Paul’s Hymn to Love (First Letter Corinthians Ch 13)
Alle Menschen werden Brüder in Ode an die Freude (Schiller, see also Beethoven's 9th Symphony)

Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind;
love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

'An die Freude' written by Schiller in 1785 and used by Beethoven in 1824

Joy, beautiful spark of Divinity [or: of gods], Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, drunk with fire,
Heavenly one, thy sanctuary!
Thy magic binds again
What custom strictly divided;*
All people become brothers,*
Where thy gentle wing abides.

Whoever has succeeded in the great attempt, To be a friend's friend,
Whoever has won a lovely woman, Add his to the jubilation!
Yes, and also whoever has just one soul
To call his own in this world!
And he who never managed it should slink
Weeping from this union!

All creatures drink of joy, At nature's breasts.
All the Just, all the Evil, Follow her trail of roses.
Kisses she gave us and grapevines,
A friend, proven in death.
Salaciousness was given to the worm
And the cherub stands before God.

Gladly, as His suns fly, through the heavens' grand plan
Go on, brothers, your way, .. Joyful, like a hero to victory.

Be embraced, Millions!
This kiss to all the world!
Brothers, above the starry canopy .. There must dwell a loving Father.
Are you collapsing, millions?
Do you sense the creator, world?
Seek him above the starry canopy! Above stars must He dwell.

1906-12-02-GA097

As a result, the following took place: Whereas the Moon-Spirits could create differentiated tribes among men by sending down their drops, Christ was a uniting spirit for the whole Earth, and the human beings were thus united into a family all over the world.
Whereas the differentiations among men were brought about by the drops poured out by the different Moon-Spirits, the unity among men was brought about by the spirit poured out by Christ-Jesus. What unites men came down to the earth through Christ-Jesus.
When speaking of the last Judgement, Christ says in his prophecy:
“When the Son of Man shall Come in his glory” (he means by this: when the drops of Christ shall all have entered into the human beings, when all shall have become brothers) “he shall say unto them on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink.” (St. Matthew 25, 35)
Then the only difference among men will be that between good and evil.
Christ says to His disciples: “What ye have done unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done unto me.”
This signifies: Christ Jesus indicates the time when the drops poured out by Him will all be absorbed, so that when one Man faces another, this drop of Christ within him will face the drop of Christ in the other. The power whereby the Buddhi could be called into life in Man, this power went out from the life of Christ upon the Earth. We should therefore look upon Christ as the uniting spirit of the Earth.

1907-11-19-GA100

(edited SWCC) is about the relationship between Jehova, Lucifer and Christ

.. (the blood-related love that) Jehovah (had brought) was replaced by Christ, who brought a higher love into the world and made man independent of the members of their tribe and blood-relationships. This universal love is only just beginning; when the Earth has one day passed on its being to Future Jupiter, it will be entirely permeated by this spiritual love. It is to this universal love that Christ's statement refers: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26). ..
It is the Christ Who pours out this universal love more and more over the Earth. The evolution of the Earth is divided into two parts through the appearance of Christ Jesus, — the blood, which flowed on Golgotha signifies the replacement of the love of relations by spiritual love.

1911-08-27-GA129

describes the Christ Impulse in terms of practical effect as .. a solvent, diluting destroying egotism

If we take the second road, if in the spirit of what has been said so far we fill our souls in the Pauline sense with the Christ Impulse, and then plunge into ourselves, what then happens?
The Christ Impulse has the quality of working as a solvent, as a destructive influence upon our egotism. We notice that the deeper we descend with the Christ Impulse into ourselves, the less is egotism able to get a hold upon us. We then press further and further into ourselves and by penetrating with the Christ Impulse through our egotistic impulses and passions, we learn to recognise the being of man, learn to know all the secrets of the ‘world-wonder’ which is man. Indeed the Christ Impulse enables us to go much further.
Whereas without it we bounce back like an india-rubber ball, and do not succeed in entering into ourselves, into the sphere of our own organisation, with the Christ we penetrate deeper and deeper into ourselves, and at last come out of ourselves, so to say, on the other side. So that whether we go out into the cosmos and find the Christ-principle in the widths of space, or whether we penetrate below into the sphere of the sub-earthly gods, in either case we find it all impersonal and freed from ourselves. In either direction we find something which transcends ourselves. In cosmic space we are not dissipated, atomised, we find the world of the upper gods; below we penetrate into the world of the true gods.

1916-01-09-GA165

is called 'The Universal Human: The Unification of Humanity through the Christ Impulse'

and describes the original plan not counting on the luciferic and ahrimanic influences - see also put in context on Q00.002 - timing of the Mystery of Golgotha and Human races

This is an essential lecture for this topic, to be read in full.

quote A

The first attempt that had been made with earthly humanity before the luciferic and ahrimanic impulses interfered in evolution was to create unity among human beings everywhere through the forming of the physical body. This attempt by the spirits of form failed because of luciferic-ahrimanic interference. But it could not be allowed to fail altogether; precautions had to be taken to prevent complete failure and to immobilize and offset the work of Lucifer and Ahriman. The physical body could no longer be worked on as was originally intended; therefore, the etheric body had to be worked on. This was done by the divine-spiritual being we have so often spoken of — the Christ Being — taking on human form at the time in human evolution when the possibility to express the archetype of humanity was the greatest.

quote B

This is one of the meanings of the Mystery of Golgotha: the attainment of the unity of humanity from within. Externally human beings are becoming more and more different. The result will be not sameness but difference over the earth, and human beings must exert all the more force from within to attain unity. There will always be setbacks in this process of achieving unity — we can see them coming if we look for them. What was actually intended only for an earlier epoch is preserved into a later epoch, and what was to create differences in consecutive periods coexists. Human beings form different groups, and while they are struggling for unity all over the world in the name of Christ, through the Christ impulse, differences remain as aftereffects and setbacks. Such differences will always exist because human beings will only gradually be able to attain unity. At the same time, different groups will fight each other tooth and nail about everything concerning their outer life. There are setbacks from earlier epochs that run counter to the Christ impulse, rather than in harmony with it.
Indeed, here we see a very profound meaning of this Christ impulse. Based on true knowledge, we can say Christ is our savior who keeps humankind from being fragmented into groups.
This is not yet fully understood by all people because the old still exists alongside the new. Today, people hardly understand the community of life in the Christ impulse, and this is connected with the fact that this understanding must proceed from our innermost being. We must realize that the Christ impulse has worked in the earth aura for the last two thousand years, but has not been understood. As we have often emphasized, this Christ impulse can only be fully understood through what spiritual science gives us. It is only when a growing number of people can more and more grasp, think, and feel what actually entered our earthly evolution in the fourth post-Atlantean period that understanding for that event will increase. To expect modern humanity to understand the Christ impulse is really asking too much. After all, just think how unwilling people are to acknowledge that this fourth post-Atlantean period of evolution, the Greco-Roman epoch, is of such paramount, such mighty significance in human evolution. Just think how unwilling people are to recognize any such post-Atlantean age at all with the Greco-Latin epoch as its pivotal point. To accept such truths, people need to take in the ideas of spiritual science. Without them one cannot understand these things at all — that is, one cannot understand the evolution of humanity if one has not taken in these concepts.
We have to understand the significance of the Spirits of Form, who had intended to develop a homogeneous human race in seven successive stages. This homogeneous human race was fragmented by Lucifer and Ahriman, but the force that wants to spread the one name “human being” over all the earth and unto the end of time — in spite of the outer differences between people — was revived from within by the Christ impulse. One of the chief tasks of the immediate future is to understand that Christ stands between Lucifer and Ahriman and to grasp his significance in relation to them. Therefore, we must always call Lucifer and Ahriman by their true names — we must call a spade a spade, so to speak — and look to the Christ impulse as the one combating them and saving the earth from this one-sided luciferic-ahrimanic impulse. This is what must be presented more and more often.

Discussion

Various notes

This module is at an introductory level, for the more advanced version how this will ultimately realize itself, or work in a spiritual scientific 'technical ' way, see the concepts of Second Adam and Unification as linked to Christ Module 8 - Resurrection
A contemporary living example of the essence of Christianity can be found in the work of Karen Armstrong and the Charter of Compassion - see Golden rule topic page

Imagine

from DL's notes, see also Unification#Group Soul of humanity

.. imagine all human beings .. you see around you, then imagine zooming out and consider all human beings in your city, your country, in the continent, and worldwide across all regions and continents ..
.. imagine they are all like leaves of a tree, like bees of a beehive, like ants of an ant community, that they are like the physical ends of something that is all spiritually connected behind the scenes to one ..
.. imagine the Earth as just the beehive or ant hill, or tree and soil that is there for the leaves .. imagine that the Earth is the petri scale for that community of human beings ..
.. and then imagine the Christ impulse connecting itself with Earth and humanity, a spiritual fructification of something that was otherwise deadening and dying .. this is importance of Christ and Christ impulse for every human being and the whole of humanity.