Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00653)

Dec 23:

Dear Friend dlux:

I agree and think you are right,

Best wishes,

Dallas

==================

Let me add here a short article on Reincarnation ( 2 parts)

This is Part I

------------------

Part I

REINCARNATION


WHY DOES MAN AND THE UNIVERSE EXIST AT ALL ?

What then is the universe for, and for what final purpose is man the
immortal thinker here in evolution? It is all for the experience and
emancipation of the soul, for the purpose of raising the entire mass
of manifested matter up to the stature, nature, and dignity of
conscious god-hood. The great aim is to reach self-consciousness; not
through a race or a tribe or some favored nation, but by and through
the perfecting, after transformation, of the whole mass of matter as
well as what we now call soul.

Nothing is or is to be left out. The aim for present man is his
initiation into complete knowledge, and for the other kingdoms below
him that they may be raised up gradually from stage to stage to be in
time initiated also.

This is evolution carried to its highest power; it is a magnificent
prospect; it makes of man a god, and gives to every part of nature the
possibility of being one day the same; there is strength and nobility
in it, for by this no man is dwarfed and belittled, for no one is so
originally sinful that he cannot rise above all sin.

Treated from the materialistic position of Science, evolution takes in
but half of life; while the religious conception of it is a mixture of
nonsense and fear. Present religions keep the element of fear, and at
the same time imagine that an Almighty being can think of no other
earth but this and has to govern this one very imperfectly. But the
old theosophical view makes the universe a vast, complete, and perfect
whole.


EVOLUTION A DUAL PROCESS

Now the moment we postulate a double evolution, physical and
spiritual, we have at the same time to admit that it can only be
carried on by reincarnation.

This is, in fact, demonstrated by science. It is shown that the matter
of the earth and of all things physical upon it was at one time either
gaseous or molten; that it cooled; that it altered; that from its
alterations and evolutions at last were produced all the great variety
of things and beings.

This, on the physical plane, is transformation or change from one form
to another.

The total mass of matter is about the same as in the beginning of
this globe, with a very minute allowance for some star dust. Hence it
must have been changed over and over again, and thus been physically
reformed and re-embodied. Of course, to be strictly accurate, we
cannot use the word reincarnation, because "incarnate" refers to
flesh. Let us say "re-embodied," and then we see that both for matter
and for man there has been a constant change of form and this is,
broadly speaking, "reincarnation."


MATTER MADE OF IMMORTAL EVOLVING MONADS

As to the whole mass of matter, the doctrine is that it will all be
raised to man's estate when man has gone further on himself.

There is no residuum left after man's final salvation which in a
mysterious way is to be disposed of or done away with in some remote
dust-heap of nature. The true doctrine allows for nothing like that,
and at the same time is not afraid to give the true disposition of
what would seem to be a residuum. It is all worked up into other
states, for as the philosophy declares there is no inorganic matter
whatever but that every atom is alive and has the germ of
self-consciousness, it must follow that one day it will all have been
changed.

Thus what is now called human flesh is so much matter that one day was
wholly mineral, later on vegetable, and now refined into human atoms.
At a point of time very far from now the present vegetable matter will
have been raised to the animal stage and what we now use as our
organic or fleshy matter will have changed by transformation through
evolution into self-conscious thinkers, and so on up the whole scale
until the time shall come when what is now known as mineral matter
will have passed on to the human stage and out into that of thinker.

Then at the coming on of another great period of evolution the mineral
matter of that time will be some which is now passing through its
lower transformations on other planets and in other systems of worlds.
This is perhaps a "fanciful" scheme for the men of the present day,
who are so accustomed to being called bad, sinful, weak, and utterly
foolish from their birth that they fear to believe the truth about
themselves, but for the disciples of the ancient theosophists it is
not impossible or fanciful, but is logical and vast. And no doubt it
will one day be admitted by everyone when the mind of the western race
has broken away from Mosaic chronology.

As to reincarnation and metempsychosis we say that they are first to
be applied to the whole cosmos and not alone to man. But as man is the
most interesting object to himself, we will consider in detail its
application to him.


REINCARNATION APPROVED OF BY JESUS

This is the most ancient of doctrines and is believed in now by more
human minds than the number of those who do not hold it. The millions
in the East almost all accept it; it was taught by the Greeks; a large
number of the Chinese now believe it as their forefathers did before
them; the Jews thought it was true, and it has not disappeared from
their religion; and Jesus, who is called the founder of Christianity,
also believed and taught it, and when it was brought to his notice
prominently, he never condemned but in fact approved of it.

Indeed, the theosophist holds that whenever a professed Christian
denies the theory he thereby sets up his judgment against that of
Jesus, who must have known more about the matter than those who follow
him. It is a blind fear of the anathema hurled at reincarnation in the
Constantinople council about 500 AD, and the absence of the doctrine
of reincarnation from the teaching now, that have damaged Christianity
and made of all the Christian nations people who pretend to be
followers of Jesus and the law of love, but who really are followers
of the law of retaliation.


REINCARNATION AND KARMA SOLVE LIFE'S PROBLEMS.

For alone in reincarnation is the answer to all the problems of life,
and in it and Karma is the force that will make men pursue in fact the
ethics they have in theory. It is the aim of the old philosophy to
restore this doctrine to whatsoever religion has lost it; and hence we
call it the "lost chord of Christianity."


WHAT REINCARNATES?

But who or what is it that reincarnates?

It is not the body, for that dies and disintegrates; and but few of us
would like to be chained forever to such bodies as we now have,
admitted to be infected with disease except in the case of the savage.

It is not the astral body, for, as shown, that also has its term and
must go to pieces after the physical has gone.

Nor is it the passions and desires. They, to be sure, have a very long
term, because they have the power to reproduce themselves in each life
so long as we do not eradicate them. And reincarnation provides for
that, since we are given by it many opportunities of slowly, one by
one, killing off the desires and passions which mar the heavenly
picture of the spiritual man.

Theosophy teaches that the passional part of us coalesces with the
astral after death and makes a seeming being (kama-rupa) that has a
short life to live while it is disintegrating.

When the separation is complete between the body that has died, the
astral body, and the passions and desires -- life having begun to busy
itself with other forms -- the Higher Triad, Manas, Buddhi, and Atma,
who are the real man, immediately go into another state, and when that
state, which is called Devachan, or heaven, is over, they are
attracted back to earth for reincarnation.


IMMORTAL MAN -- MONAD -- REINCARNATES

They are the immortal part of us; they, in fact, and no other are we.

This should be firmly grasped by the mind, for upon its clear
understanding depends the comprehension of the entire doctrine.

What stands in the way of the modern western man's seeing this clearly
is the long training we have all had in materialistic science and
materializing religion, both of which have made the mere physical body
too prominent. The one has taught of matter alone and the other has
preached the resurrection of the body, a doctrine against common
sense, fact, logic, and testimony.

Although reincarnation is the law of nature, the complete trinity of
Atma-Buddhi-Manas does not yet fully incarnate in our race. They use
and occupy the body by means of the entrance of Manas, the lowest of
the three, and the other two shine upon it from above, constituting
the "God in Heaven."

That is, the head Atma and Buddhi are yet in "heaven," and the "feet,"
Manas, walk in hell, which is the body and physical life. For that
reason man is not yet fully conscious, and reincarnations are needed
to at last complete the incarnation of the whole trinity in the body.
When that has been accomplished the race will have become as gods, and
the godlike trinity being in full possession the entire mass of matter
will be perfected and raised up for the next step. This is the real
meaning of "the word made flesh." It was so grand a thing in the case
of any single person, such as Jesus or Buddha, as to be looked upon as
a divine incarnation. And out of this, too, comes the idea of the
crucifixion, for Manas is thus crucified for the purpose of raising up
the "thief" to paradise.

It is because the trinity is not yet incarnate in the race that life
has so many mysteries, some of which are showing themselves from day
to day in all the various experiments made on and in man.

The physician knows not what life is, nor why the body moves as it
does, because the spiritual portion is yet enshrouded in the clouds of
heaven. The scientist is wandering in the dark, confounded and
confused by all that hypnotism and other strange things bring before
him, because the conscious man is out of sight on the very top of the
divine mountain, thus compelling the learned to speak of the
"subconscious mind," the "latent personality," and the like.


NO RETURN TO ANIMAL BODIES

Reincarnation does not mean that we go into animal forms after death,
as is believed by some Eastern peoples. "Once a man always a man" is
the saying in the Great Lodge. But it would not be too much punishment
for some men were it possible to condemn them to rebirth in brute
bodies; however nature does not go by sentiment but by law, and we,
not being able to see all, cannot say that the brutal man is brute all
through his nature. And evolution having brought Manas the Thinker and
Immortal Person on to this plane, cannot send him back to the brute
which has not Manas.

By looking into two explanations for the literal acceptation by some
people in the East of those laws of Manu which seem to teach the
transmigrating into brutes, insects, and so on, we can see how the
true student of this doctrine will not fall into the same error.

The first is, that the various verses and books teaching such
transmigration have to do with the actual method of reincarnation,
that is, with the explanation of the actual physical processes which
have to be undergone by the Ego in passing from the disembodied to the
embodied state, and also with the roads, ways, or means of descent
from the invisible to the visible plane.

This has not yet been plainly explained in Theosophical books, because
on the one hand it is a delicate matter, and on the other the details
would not as yet be received even by Theosophists with credence,
although one day they will be. And as these details are not of the
greatest importance they are not now expounded.

But as we know that no human body is formed without the union of the
sexes, and that the germs for such production are locked up in the
sexes and must come from food which is taken into the body, it is
obvious that foods have something to do with the reincarnating of the
Ego. Now if the road to reincarnation leads through certain food and n
one other, it may be possible that if the Ego gets entangled in food
which will not lead to the germ of physical reproduction.


MAN: A CRUCIBLE FOR THE PROGRESS OF ALL MONADS

The second explanation is, that inasmuch as nature intends us to use
the matter which comes into our body and astral body for the purpose,
among others, of benefiting the matter by the impress it gets from
association with the human Ego, if we use it so as to give it only a
brutal impression it must fly back to the animal kingdom to be
absorbed there instead of being refined and kept on the human plane.

And as all the matter which the human Ego gathered to it retains the
stamp or photographic impression of the human being, the matter (as
"life-atoms," or Monads of lesser experience) transmigrates to the
lower level when given an animal impress by the Ego.

This actual fact in the great chemical laboratory of nature could
easily be misconstrued by the ignorant. But present-day students know
that once Manas the Thinker has arrived on the scene he does not
return to baser forms; first, because he does not wish to, and second,
because he cannot. For just as the blood in the body is prevented by
valves from rushing back and engorging the heart, so in this greater
system of universal circulation the door is shut behind the Thinker
and prevents his retrocession. Reincarnation as a doctrine applying to
the real man does not teach transmigration into kingdoms of nature
below the human.

In the West, where the object of life is commercial, financial,
social, or scientific success, that is, personal profit,
aggrandizement, and power, the real life of man receives but little
attention, and we, unlike the Orientals, give scant prominence to the
doctrine of preexistence and reincarnation.



REINCARNATION A TEMPTATION TO EVIL DOING

The church in arguing against the doctrine, urges the objection that
if men are convinced that they will live many lives, the temptation to
accept the present and do evil without check will be too strong.

If there were no retribution at all this would be a good objection,
but as Nature has also a Nemesis for every evil doer, and as each,
under the law of Karma -- which is that of cause and effect and
perfect justice -- must receive the exact consequences himself in
every life for what good or bad deeds and thoughts he did and had in
this and other lives, the basis for moral conduct is secure. It is
safe under this system, since no man can by any possibility, favor,
prayer, intercession, edict, or belief escape the consequences, and
each one who grasps this doctrine will be moved by conscience and the
whole power of nature to do well in order that he may receive good and
become happy.


DO WE LOSE TOUCH WITH LOVED ONES ?

Some maintain that the idea of rebirth is uncongenial and unpleasant
because on the one hand it is cold, allowing no sentiment to
interfere, prohibiting us from renouncing at will a life which we have
found to be sorrowful; and on the other, that there appears to be no
chance under it for us to see our loved ones who have passed away
before us.

Like it or not, Nature's laws go forward unerringly, and sentiment or
feeling can in no way avert the consequence that must follow a cause.
If we eat bad food bad results must come.

The objection to reincarnation that we will not see our loved ones "in
heaven." as promised in dogmatic religion, presupposes a complete
stoppage of the evolution and development of those who leave earth
before ourselves, and also assumes that recognition is dependent on
physical appearance.

But as we progress in this life, so also must we progress upon leaving
it, and it would be unfair to compel those others who left before us,
to await our arrival in order that we may recognize them. If one
reflects on the natural consequences of "rising to heaven, "where all
trammels are cast off, it must be apparent that those who have been
there, say, twenty years before us, must, in the nature of things
mental and spiritual, have made a progress equal to many hundreds of
years here under very favorable circumstances. How then could we,
arriving later, and being still imperfect, be able to recognize those
who had been perfecting themselves with such advantages?

As we know that the body is left behind to disintegrate, so, it is
evident, recognition cannot depend, in the spiritual and mental life,
on physical appearance. For not only is this plain, but since we are
aware that an unhandsome or deformed body often enshrines a glorious
mind and pure soul, and that a beautifully formed exterior may hide an
incarnate devil in character, the physical form gives no guarantee of
recognition in that world where the body is absent. The Theosophists
see that this objection can have no existence in the face of the
eternal and pure life of the soul.

Theosophy teaches that those who are like unto each other and love
each other will be reincarnated together whenever the conditions
permit. Recognition depends on inner sight and not on outward
appearance; and hence there is no force in this objection.


Whenever one of us has gone farther on the road to perfection, he will
always be moved to help and comfort those who belong to the same
family. But when one has become gross and selfish and wicked, no one
would want his companionship in any life.

Heredity in giving us a body in any family provides the appropriate
environment for the Ego. The Ego only goes into the family which
either completely answers to its whole nature, or which gives an
opportunity for the working out of its evolution, and which is also
connected with it by reason of past incarnations or causes mutually
set up. Thus the evil child may come to the presently good family
because parents and child are indissolubly connected by past actions.
It is a chance for redemption to the child and the occasion of
punishment to the parents.

This points to bodily heredity as a natural rule governing the bodies
we must inhabit, just as the houses in a city will show the mind of
the builders. And as we, as well as our parents, were the makers and
influencers of bodies, we took part in and are responsible for the
conditions and states of society in which the development of the
physical body and brain, was either retarded or helped on, debased, or
the contrary, so we are in this life responsible for the civilization
in which we now appear, as well as that which will appear in the
future to which we will be connected.


CHARACTER AND TRAITS

But when we look at the character of the Souls in human bodies, great
inherent differences are seen. This is due to the soul inside, who is
suffering or enjoying in the family, nation, and race his own thoughts
and acts he did in past lives, these, have made it inevitable whom he
should incarnate with.

Heredity provides the tenement and also imposes those limitations of
capacity of brain or body which are often a punishment and sometimes a
help, but it does not affect the real Ego.

The transmission of traits is a physical matter, and nothing more than
the coming out into a nation of the consequences of the prior lives of
all Egos who are to be in that race. The limitations imposed on the
Ego by any family heredity are the exact consequences of that Ego's
prior lives.

The fact that such physical traits and mental peculiarities are
transmitted does not confute reincarnation, since we know that the
guiding mind and real character of each are not the result of a body
and brain but are peculiar to the Ego in its essential life.
Transmission of trait and tendency by means of parent and body is
exactly the mode selected by nature for providing the incarnating Ego
with the proper tenement in which to carry on its work. Any other mode
would be impossible and subversive of order.

Again, those who dwell on the objection from heredity, forget that
they are accentuating similarities and overlooking divergencies. For
while investigations on the line of heredity have recorded many
transmitted traits, they have not done so in respect to divergencies
from heredity vastly greater in number. Every mother knows that the
children of a family are as different in character as the fingers on
one hand -- they are all from the same parents, but all vary in
character and capacity.

Heredity, as the great rule and as a complete explanation, is
absolutely overthrown by history, which shows no constant transmission
of learning, power, and capacity. For instance, in the case of the
ancient Egyptians long gone and their line of transmission shattered,
we have no transmission to their descendants. If physical heredity
settles the question of character, how has the great Egyptian
character been lost? The same question holds in respect to other
ancient and extinct nations.

And taking an individual illustration we have the great musician Bach,
whose direct descendants showed a decrease in musical ability leading
to its final disappearance from the family stock.

Theosophy teaches that in both of these instances -- as in all like
them -- the real capacity and ability have only disappeared from a
family and national body, but are retained in the Egos who once
exhibited them, being now incarnated in some other nation and family
of the present time.


SUFFERING AND EVIL CONDITIONS

Suffering comes to nearly all, and a great many live lives of pain and
woe, sorrowing from the cradle to the grave.

It is objected that reincarnation is unjust because we suffer for the
wrong done by some other person in another life. This objection is
based on the false notion that the person in the other life was some
one else than ourselves. Theosophy teaches that it is the same
person, it is "we" who lived then . When we come again we do not take
up the body of some one else, nor another's deeds. We are like an
actor who plays many parts, the same actor is always inside, though
the costumes and the lines recited differ in each new play.
Shakespeare was right in saying that life is a play, for the great
life of the soul is a drama, and each new life and rebirth another
act, in which we assume another par, and put on a new dress, but all
through it we are the self-same person. So instead of its being
unjust, it is perfect justice, and in no other manner could justice be
preserved.


WHY DO WE NOT REMEMBER OUR PAST LIVES ?

It is said, if we reincarnate, how is it that we do not remember the
earlier life; and further, as we cannot remember the deeds for which
we suffer, is it not unjust for that reason to suffer now?

Those who ask this, ignore the fact that they also have enjoyment and
reward in this life, and are content to accept them without question.
For if it is unjust to be punished for deeds we do not remember, then
it is also inequitable to be rewarded for other acts of ours, done
then, which have been forgotten.


===========================================

See Part II