Theos-Talk Archives (November 2004 Message tt00314)

Nov 25

Dear Steven:

This seems appropriate:



REINCARNATION EXPLAINS

By B.P. Wadia


The mistakes and the sufferings of human life make me think
sometimes that those ancient seers, or interpreters of the
secrets of heaven and the counsels of the Divine Mind, had some
glimpses of the truth, when they said that men are born in order
to suffer the penalty for some sins committed in a former life.
-- Cicero.

Successive lives on earth in human bodies for the unfolding
Mind-Soul of man is a reasonable and satisfying doctrine. It
solves problems and answers questions that no other doctrine
does. It is logical and our minds are satisfied if we examine
its basis and principles. It not only engenders hope in the
heart but also brings it the contentment born of understanding
and the dauntless energy to press forward on the road to
self-improvement leading to Self-realization.

Cicero speaks of "ancient seers." In the modern world, they are
not revered because their ideas are not studied. No era has been
without seers, however few or however exotic. Mystics and
Occultists down the ages have uniformly asserted the truth of
Reincarnation. Transmigration, Metempsychosis, and other terms
are also used. The main and central idea is that the human soul
is immortal and unfolding. Its growth takes place in the soil of
the body and its sensorium. The nature, as the genesis of the
Soul, need not remain matters of conjecture and speculation.
There is knowledge. It is not sought earnestly and sincerely
because modern knowledge has pronounced the soul as mortal and
the minds of large numbers are lazy, unquestioning, and charged
with blind belief. There are other minds not influenced by
materialistic science but by illogical theologies.

Schopenhauer wrote:

Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be
forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is
haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of
nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into
life.

Since the days of this German, Asiatics have also become
"civilized" and reject the immortality of the Soul. The tide has
been turning and there have been not only mystics and poets but
also scientists and men of affairs who hold fast to their own
intimations of Reincarnation. The Law of Cycles, by which the
processes of Nature take place, compels a logical mind to arrive
at the conclusion that Reincarnation represents the cycle of
human evolution. Man is born and dies as the universe is making
the vast cycles of the days and nights of Brahma. Voltaire saw
this when he said that "It is not more surprising to be born
twice than once; everything in Nature is resurrection."

One whole issue of this magazine would not suffice to present the
intuitive expressions of poets, ancient or modern. They are in a
class by themselves and are not bothered by the strictures of
science or the syllogisms of logic. Relying on their own
intuitions they have sung in China, India, Persia, and in Europe
-- from Virgil and Ovid to Masefield, the Poet-laureate of
Britain.

One argument against a serious consideration of Reincarnation is
its supposed impracticability. It is taken to be a teaching that
stresses other-worldliness. This, once again, is a hasty
deduction. It has been recommended that Reincarnation may be
taken as a working hypothesis not only for the purposes of
solving our personal problems, but also national and social ones.
If Reincarnation were true what a vast change, a revolution, must
take place in educating the young. If children's bodies enshrine
immortal souls, who have been here before and who are here once
again to pick up the thread of learning and experience, then the
system of education and the methods of teaching would have to be
transformed. Is there an idea more significant than this, which
favors and ought to compel a sincere and unprejudiced enquiry
into the principles and details of Reincarnation? Take penal
reform. Are not delinquent boys or habitual criminals evolving
intelligences? Is it right to deprive them of individual
responsibility by saying society makes criminals? We do not deny
the truth implicit in the statement that all of us are in a
measure responsible for the crimes and sins committed by our
brothers. They are young souls, or sick souls, who need schools
and clinics run on the principles of a spiritual philosophy. Is
there such a philosophy, which can sustain its consistency,
without the teaching of Reincarnation?

Men of modern knowledge accept numerous aspects of Reincarnation.
Recurrence and resurrection create the spiral of progress
everywhere. Death and Regeneration are to be seen everywhere.
Why should it be otherwise with man's body which dies but which
must refashion itself with the Will to Live which every human
soul possesses and holds to with a superb tenacity? No, the great
American, Benjamin Franklin was right in penning his own Epitaph
when he was only 23 years old: --

The Body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer,
Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents worn out,
And stripped of its lettering and gilding,
Lies here, food for worms.

But the work shall not be lost,
For it will, as he believed, appear once more,
In a new and more elegant edition,
Revised and corrected by The Author.

B P WADIA

[From THUS HAVE I HEARD, pages 200-3.]
-----------------------------------

Best wishes,

Dallas

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


-----Original Message-----
From: Steven 
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 9:40 AM
To: theosophia@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [theosophia] ideals



>From the previous post on reincarnation it can be seen, that if 
we carefully think over what it means to be an reincarnating soul, 
then our personel lives must become different.
And one area where the application of this doctrine, I think, is 
most important, is that we treat the Wisdom afforded us by HPB as if 
it was something to apply with clearity and responsibility for having 
received it. Not only out of gratitude, which is obviously of the 
highest importance, but because, to really be able to assist others 
on their way, we have to have carefully digested the Wisdom passed on 
to us. So much of our moral capacity is involved with this. And 
therefore one can see how ethics (The Heart Doctrine) must preceed 
the passing on of metaphysical truth (The Head Doctrine). 
So, then it was for our welfare that such Wisdom as reincarnation 
has been afforded us, and we are therefore morally bound to do the 
same, and with HPB's same diligence and attention to detail and 
meaning. Yes, we must put our understanding in our own words, but 
with the intent to be clear channels for her teacher's, the Mahatmas, 
intention. 

Steve







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