BD.1933
May 29, 1941

HEREDITY AND PREDISPOSITION

Man's earth-walk corresponds to his predisposition, i.e. defects and shortcomings adhere to his souls of which the latter is to free itself through its life-style on earth. These defects and shortcomings are not the same for every person, and this because every soul substance had activated a different external form, within which certain distinctive properties good or bad were developed, to a greater or lesser degree. Consequently men also will be different in their natures, necessitating diverse upbringings, in order to advance what is good and overcome what can be regarded as deficient and bad.

It would be completely wrong therefore to assume that at the moment of incarnation on earth, all souls are of a similar nature. There are on the contrary diverse differences, which man however traces back to "heredity". It may indeed externally appear as though children had to take up a certain burden for their earth-walk, and properties at that which can be either conducive or a hindrance to their spiritual development; for which nevertheless they could not be held to account because, according to the hypothesis, the inheritance as an integral part strength to combat and overcome such inborn defects.

Man, in order to attain to soul maturity, must combat all his defects, and work on himself. And if peculiar drives predominate within him, he should be cognisant of the fact that it is not the parental disposition which determines man's nature, but that it is those very drives which during his endlessly many embodiments before the human stage, caused him to obtain a nature which the being felt salubrious, doing nothing to rid itself of such defects and shortcomings. - He (man) regards his shortcomings as a right, because he regards them as given him without his doing.

And yet it nevertheless was his own free will to join up with beings of a homologous nature, for his earth-walk. These complementary beings constituted an attraction for the soul seeking incarnation; consequently their is superficial talk about heredity, notwithstanding the fact that parents have no share in the nature of the souls under their care during the time on earth.

Hence every soul has to tackle the task of upward development on her own. She never can be relieved of this even by her physical parents. Due to this, the parents are not responsible for the predisposition of their children, even though it may seem as if the children are weighed down with parental heredity.

Each being is burdened with responsibility for itself, although man, while still under parental tutelage, should be instructed to work on himself. Because the work on the soul every man has to accomplish for himself, otherwise he cannot be freed from his primordial sin.

AMEN