Theos-Talk Archives (May 2003 Message tt00214)

CHAPTER	10 OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY 

      


ARGUMENTS SUPPORTING REINCARNATION


FROM the nature of the soul. 
>From the laws of mind and soul. 
>From differences in character. 
>From the necessity for discipline and evolution. 
>From differences of capacity and start in life at the cradle.
Individual identity proves it. 
The probable object of life makes it necessary. 
One life not enough to carry out Nature’s purposes. 
Mere death confers no advance. 
A school after death is illogical. 
The persistence of savagery and decay of nations give support to
it. 
The appearance of geniuses is due to reincarnation. 
Inherent ideas common to man show it. 
Opposition to the doctrine based solely on prejudice.

	
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Q. Why is it that so many people, the majority in fact, reject
the idea of reincarnation?

A. Largely from prejudice, either based upon a materialistic
conception of life, or due to belief in a dogma which inhibits
the exercise of the thinking powers. The majority of people do
not do their own thinking, but accept one or other of the various
kinds of ideas formulated and held by others ; that which is
accepted and held by large numbers of people is to very many
prima facie evidence of truth. Few go below the surface and
enquire into the bases upon which the various beliefs are
founded, yet the seeker after truth must prove all things and
hold fast to that only which is self-evidently true.


Q. Theosophy teaches that there are other humanities on other
planets; is it not possible for an ego to go to some other planet
after this life?

A. When we consider that the inherent law of Karma rules all
beings; that we reap as we have sown; that our birth and
environment in this life is the result of previous lives on this
planet, we cannot fail to see that our re-embodiment must be
here, where we moved and worked before. The involved entity
cannot transfer itself to another scene of action before it has
over come all the causes drawing it here, and without its having
worked out its responsibilities to other entities in the same
stream of evolution.


Q. On page 80 the chapter says that “Each human being has a
definite character different from every other human being”. Is
not a large part of such character derived from the physical
heredity?

A. Man, who now inhabits physical bodies, is also the conscious
entity who evolved and established them. Every family trait,
tendency and characteristic is due to the use of physical bodies
in that line of physical heredity by numbers of egos, and all are
karmically drawn to that physical family line which each one had
a part in establishing, thus coming into his own inheritance.
Karma not only includes our individual sowing and reaping, but
also the effects of our thoughts, words and deeds upon others,
and especially upon those who are the most closely related. Each
ego in incarnation has the opportunity to eliminate family
defects in himself, and by so doing benefit the physical line.


Q. Please explain the second paragraph on page 87; it seems a
little contradictory to me.

A. Mr. judge is there speaking of the musician Bach, whose family
had none of his genius and pointing to the fact that it was not
derived from physical heredity, but was peculiar to the
incarnating entity. The coming of idiots or vicious children to
parents who are good, pure and highly intellectual is not due to
the physical heredity, but to the nature of the Ego incarnating.
In such cases there must be some strong karmic connection between
the parents and the deficient
Ego, a connection incurred during past lives wherein some error
of commission or omission had occurred and had contributed to the
deficiency of the one so born. Such incarnations fulfill two
purposes: (1) they provide a better opportunity for the deficient
ego at the hands of those who were contributory to that
deficiency, and (2) the karmic effects are felt by the parents,
and the opportunity afforded for such adjustment as is possible
by them. “Karma is an unerring tendency in the universe to
restore equilibrium and it operates incessantly.” Karma is made
by the Egos, not by the bodies they inhabit.


Q. Why is it that an ego will bring over one particular
predominating factor ?

A. Because the attention and effort of the Ego in other lives
were exerted in that particular direction. it is well known that
geniuses in many cases are eccentric in character, and
occasionally abnormal to a marked degree; this is due to a
one-sided development; right development should be all-round and
balanced, not special in any one direction and neglectful of
others.


Q. On page 86 the chapter says that the old Aryan races will rise
again to their height of glory. Does this mean that they will be
always in existence?

A. The chapter says, “Of all the old races the Aryan Indian alone
yet remains as the preserver of the old doctrines. It will one
day rise again to its old heights of glory”. We are of the Aryan
race, but Mr. Judge is speaking of the Aryan Indian race which
alone has preserved the old doctrines, because of which it will
rise again to its old heights of glory. Speaking generally, the
Aryan is the Fifth Race; when its course has been completed, the
egos composing the present Fifth Race will constitute the Sixth
Race.


Q. On page 87 it is said that the bee builds a cell on the rules
of geometry, and that its intelligence is the effect of
reincarnation either in the mind or the physical cell. Do the
lower kingdoms follow the human kingdom?


A. The statement referred to reads as follows, “And whether we
look at the new-born babe flinging out its arms for
self-protection, or the animal with very strong instinctual
power, or the bee building a cell on the rules of geometry, it is
all the effect of reincarnation acting either in the mind or
physical cell, for under what was first laid down, no atom is
devoid of life, consciousness, and intelligence of its own”. The
passage does not say that the intelligence of the bee is the
effect of reincarnation in the mind or cell. It says that in the
new-born babe, the animal, or the bee all that there appears is
the effect of reincarnation, either in the mind, or in the
physical cell, according to the kind of intelligence expressed
and its particular form; “no atom is devoid of life,
consciousness, and intelligence of its own”. The human kingdom
impresses and impels the lower lives for good or for evil.


Q. On page 80, “Even the doctrine of the survival of the fittest
should show this, for the fitness cannot come from nothing but
must at last show itself from the coming to the surface of the
actual inner character”. Please explain that.

A. The explanation seems quite clear in the paragraph from which
the quotation is taken. Each individual has a definite character,
the result of previous lives; whatever “fitness” there may be is
due to previous existences. There are assemblages of individuals
that we call nations; these nations have their distinguishing
characteristics; the individuals composing these nations are
drawn together because of similarity of distinguishing
characteristics which constitute their peculiar “fitness” for any
particular nation. All this is clue to karmic affinity—”like
attracts like.”


Q. Will those who are killed in this war follow the line of anger
and battle when they incarnate again?

A. “Every human being has a definite character different from
every other human being”, and this is true whether in war or
peace. As the character and tendencies are in peace, so they will
be in war, for both peace and war are conditions and (do not in
themselves change character. The question is, “Does war of
necessity change an individual’s character ?“ There is no reason
to think so. One of good character and tendencies would be likely
to have these strengthened by the trials and self-sacrifice
entailed by the conditions of war; in another in whom character
and tendency were not good, the same conditions might afford
opportunity for intensification of evil tendencies. It is all a
question of the individual character and motive and the lessons
learned, that form the basis for future incarnations.


Q. Could a savior bring Russia out of the chaos in which she now
is?

A. The chaotic conditions of Russia are an extreme example of the
world-wide conditions; in no case is it possible to change such
conditions save by a change of mind on the part of the people
involved. A divine incarnation could do nothing unless the people
would be willing to follow the lines such an one laid down. It is
apparent that even in our own free country conditions are
approaching a situation not so very far removed from that of
Russia, for we are beginning to experience the results of selfish
class interest, the sole basis of which is money and the power
that it gives its possessors. Those who have, desire to hold and
increase possessions; those who have not, would take from the
present possessors and become in their turn the possessors of the
future; in both cases the rank principle of personal selfishness
prevails; there is nothing to choose between them.


Q. Surely the intelligence of our people will prevent any such
catastrophe as that which has befallen Russia?


A. Intelligence, based upon high principles and true knowledge
cannot fail to make for justice and right living, but
intelligence founded upon personal selfishness can go to any
lengths in the way of destruction. Ignorance and selfishness have
brought Russia to her present pass. Intelligence and selfishness
can do much worse. The question really is, “Upon what is the
intelligence founded ?“ Is it a material, a moral, or a spiritual
conception? It is very evident that the prevailing idea among
Western peoples is material in conception and practice; the more
intelligence used along this line the more certain, rapid and
destructive the results.


Q. But Western peoples have the Christian religion to guide them;
they believe in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man?

A. There is no doubt that the principles enunciated by Jesus of
Nazareth would make the world a better and a happier one, but who
among all the people follows them in his daily life or in his
dealings with his fellow-men; we profess “belief” in those
principles and promulgated ethics and daily and hourly contravene
them; of what avail is our religion or our belief, if we do not
live it? Ancient history affords us examples of the same
principles and ethics promulgated by divine incarnations in the
ages gone by, but the people of those times professed acceptance
of the teachings and following the path of materialism went down
to extinction. Unless we change our ideas of life, and live
according to the eternal verities, our Western nations with their
materialistic civilizations will die out and disappear.


Q. What is meant by “The Eternal Verities?”

A. “The Eternal Verities” are based upon the Spiritual nature of
Man; his evolution under Spiritual Law from the lowest form of
intelligence to the highest; that the Law is inherent in each
being and that each reaps what he sows without possibility of
evasion; that physical existence is the lowest and least
permanent of all the forms and is conditioned by Man him self in
accordance with his recognition or denial of his Spiritual and
Moral nature as the true basis of all life.


Q. You mean an understanding and living of Theosophy?

A. Just that. Man must save himself; no one, how ever high in
intelligence and spiritual power, can do it f or him. He must
learn and exercise his Spiritual perceptions arid powers and make
the material expression of them conform to that Spiritual nature.
In fact, he will have to learn even if through untold lives he
brings upon himself inexpressible suffering; for when he has
suffered enough he will see the error of his ways, and then,
perhaps through many lives, make restitution for wrongs done, or
duties left undone.


Q. If the entire world today adhered strictly to Theosophy, would
there be competition?

A. There would be emulation, not competition. The latter is an
endeavor to benefit at the expense of others, while emulation is
an effort to excel so as to be of greater benefit and service in
the world of men; this service, however, must be based upon the
needs of the Soul and not upon the imaginary physical
requirements born of materialistic conceptions.
 

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