Theos-Talk Archives (May 2006 Message tt00850)

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Dear Friend:

I hope you will find answers to your several questions herein, as I have"



		WHAT REINCARNATES 		

		Some APHORISMS on REINCARNATION

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



1.	All worlds...are subject to rebirth  again and again.	BHAGAVAD
GITA, P.  60


2.	Man is an immortal soul.  All nature is sentient.  Down to the
smallest atom, all is soul and spirit, ever evolving under the rule of law,
which is inherent in the whole.  Nature exists for no other purpose than the
soul’s experience.	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY,  p.  2


3.	Both I [THE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT] and thou [Man] have passed through
many births, O Harasser of thy foes;  mine are known unto me, but thou
knowest not of thine…For never to an evil place goeth one who doeth good...
Being thus born again, he comes in contact with the knowledge which belonged
to him in his former body...[and]...striving with all his might, [he]
obtaineth perfection because of efforts continued through many births.
BHAGAVAD GITA 31 


4.	This immortal thinker [man]... having such vast powers and
possibilities, all his because of his intimate connection with every secret
part of Nature, from which he has been built up, stands at the top of an
immense and silent evolution.	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  60


5.	The Knower is never born, nor dies;  nor is it from anywhere, nor
did it become anything.  Unborn, eternal, immemorial, this Ancient is not
slain when the body is slain...this Self is hidden in the heart of
man...Understanding this great Lord, the Self, bodiless in bodies, stable
among the unstable, the wise man cannot grieve.  	KATHA UPANISHAD, p.
41


6.	The soul is the Perceiver;  is assuredly vision itself, pure and
simple, unmodified, and looks directly upon ideas.  For the sake of the soul
alone, the Universe exists.		YOGA SUTRAS of PATANJALI, p.  24


7.	Each man’s life, the outcome of his former living is.  The bygone
wrongs bring forth sorrows and woes, the bygone right breeds bliss.
LIGHT of ASIA (Bk 8, p. 143)

	
8.	Every atom is alive and has the germ of self-consciousness.  OCEAN


9..	“...this universe [is] 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 by and through the perfecting after transformation
of the whole mass of matter as well as what we now call soul.  The aim for
present man is his initiation into complete knowledge.  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. “	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY, p. 62-3


10.	We are not appearing for the first time when we come upon this
planet;  but have pursued a long, an immeasurable course of activity and
intelligent perception on other systems of globes.	
	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY   p.  2-3


11.	“Thou art THYSELF  [ATMA], the object of thy [KAMA-MANASIC] search.”

		VOICE OF THE SILENCE  p. 23-4


12.	Man is a spiritual being.  The Ego [BUDDHI-MANAS] of each man is
immortal, reappearing clothed in bodies, on each occasion different, it only
appears to be mortal;  it always remains the substratum and support for the
personality acting upon the stage of life.		ECHOES  p.  8


13.	Reincarnation is the pilgrimage of our own [personal] nature...the
end to be reached is [SELF]-dependence with  perfect calmness and clearness.
ECHOES  p.  32


14.	When a being dies, he emits, as it were, a mass of force or energy,
which goes to make up the new personality when he shall have reincarnated.
In this energy is found the summation of the life just given up.
ECHOES  p.  36


15.	The life of man is held to be a pilgrimage... Starting from the
great ALL, radiating like a spark  from the central fire, he gathers
experience in all ages, under all rulers, civilizations and customs,  ever
engaged in a pilgrimage to the shrine from which he came. He is now the
ruler and now the slave;  to-day at the pinnacle of wealth and power,
to-morrow at the bottom  of the ladder, perhaps in abject misery, but ever
the same being.		ECHOES  p.  31


16.	The end to be reached is self-dependence with perfect calmness and
clearness ... (the) whole life is a persistent pursuit of the fast-moving
soul, which, although appearing to stand still, can outdistance the
lightening.	ECHOES  p.  32-3


17.	One short human life gives no grounds for the production of the
inner nature...The soul must be reborn until it has ceased to set in motion
the cause of rebirth, after having developed character up to its possible
limit when every experience has been passed through.	OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY
p. 81


18.	There is a vast range of powers latent in man, which may be
developed if opportunity be given.  Knowledge, infinite in scope and
diversity, lies before us.  We have high aspirations with no time to reach
up to their measure, while the passions and desires, selfish motives and
ambitions, war with us and among themselves.  All these have to be tried,
conquered, used, subdued.  One life is not enough for this.
OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY  P. 82-3


19.	“...recognition cannot depend, in the spiritual and mental life, on
physical appearance ...those who are like unto each other, and love each
other will be reincarnated together, whenever conditions permit.
Recognition depends on inner sight, and not on outward appearance.”
OCEAN of THEOSOPHY   p. 71-2


20.	When we come again, we do not take up the body of someone else, nor
another’s deeds;  but, are like an actor who plays many parts...the great
life of the soul is a drama, and each new life and rebirth, another act in
which we assume another part.   	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p. 74


21.	The friends and relatives which are life unto each other must
incarnate together until, by reason of differentiation of character, they
cannot undo the law of attraction [and so] remain in company.  Not unless
and until they become different do they separate from each other.
ECHOES  p. 45


22.	Those whom you help will help you in other lives.  The very moment
we come near to where they are, they at once extend assistance...Thus the
members of the  whole human family reciprocally act on one another.
ECHOES. p. 45-6


23.	The powers of mind and the laws governing its motion, its
attachments, and its detachments show that its reembodiment must be
here...To permit the involved entity to transfer itself to another scene
before it had overcome all the causes drawing it here and without having
worked out its responsibilities to other entities would be contrary to the
powerful forces which continually operate upon it.  	OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY.
p. 79


24.	The images made in the “Astral Light” (an imponderable, tenuous
medium which inter-penetrates the entire globe, and in which the acts and
thoughts of every man are felt and impressed, to be afterward reflected
again) persist for centuries...upon returning to earth-life we are affected
for good or evil by the conduct, the doctrine and the aspirations of
preceding nations and men.		ECHOES  p.  5


25.	 In every conceivable point in the Universe there are ‘lives;’
nowhere can be found a spot that is dead;  and each ‘life’ is forever
hastening onward to higher evolution.
	ECHOES  p.  9-10


26.	All the matter which the human Ego gathered to it retains the stamp
or photographic impression of the human being, the matter transmigrates to
the lower level when given an animal impress by the ego.     	OCEAN
THEOSOPHY p. 68


27.	Since we are made up of a mass of lives, our thoughts and acts
affect those atoms or lives, and impress them with a dharma [duty] of their
own.		ECHOES  p.  40


28.	Nature intends us to use the matter which comes into our bodies and
astral body for the purpose among others, of benefiting the matter by the
impress it gets from association with the human Ego...it retains the stamp
or photographic impression of the human being;  the matter transmigrates to
the lower level when given an animal impress by the Ego.
		OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p.  68


29.	Each man is seen as a fashioner of the fate for his next fleeting
earth personality...in his own  hand is the decree...No one but ourselves
punishes or rewards in this or any life.
	 ECHOES  p.  44 – 45




30.	The course of evolution is the drama of the soul.  There are beings
in the universe whose intelligence is as much beyond ours, as ours exceeds
that of the black beetle;  and, who take an active part in the government of
the natural order of things.		OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p.  2


31.	The nature of each incarnation depends upon the balance as struck of
the merit and demerit of the previous life or lives—upon the way the man has
lived and thought; and this law is inflexible and wholly just.	EPITOME  p.
23


32.	“That which is known as ‘you’ is the result of one continuous
existence of an entity.  Your present body and your soul (or the
personality) are the results of a series of co-existence.  The
Individuality, or spirit, is the cause of the Soul, and personality, or what
is called ‘you.’  You are the manifestation of an entity and are the result
of many appearances of that entity upon the stage of action in various
personalities.”	   W.Q.J. ARTICLES  Vol. II p. 452


33.	Memory of a prior life does not prove we passed through that, nor is
non-remembering an objection.  We forget the greater part of the events of
the years and days of this life.  The entire effect on the character is kept
and made a part of ourselves.  The whole mass of detail is preserved in the
inner man to be one day fully brought back when we are perfected.  All are
subject to the limitations imposed on the Ego by the new brain in each life.
OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p  76


34.	By living according to the dictates of the Soul, the brain may at
last be made porous to the Soul’s recollections...We should be very
miserable if the deeds and scenes of our former lives were not hidden from
our view until by discipline we became able to bear a knowledge of them.

	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p. 76


35.	What we now use as our organic or fleshy matter will have changed by
transformation through evolution into Self-Conscious Thinkers.	OCEAN of
THEOSOPHY  p. 62
		

36.	The most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never...been
without a friend, but has a line of “elder brothers” who continually watch
over the progress of the less progressed, preserve the knowledge gained, and
continually seek for opportunities of drawing the developing intelligence of
the race to consider the great truths concerning the destiny of soul.  
	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p.  3


37.	The Elder Brothers of humanity are men who were perfected in former
periods of evolution ... when, out of the Great Unknown, there came forth
the visible universes (which)...are eternal in their coming and going.  The
object of these mighty waves is the production of perfect Man, the
evolution...after the struggle to acquire piety, of the soul which consists
in knowing God, and injuring none, such a soul becomes all intelligence.  
    	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY p. 6           


38.	The most exalted beings still in the flesh are known as Sages,
Rishis, Brothers, Masters.  The  process of evolution up to reunion with the
Divine is and includes successive elevation from rank to rank of power and
usefulness...the process of spiritual  development (includes)...entire
eradication of selfishness...cultivation of broad, generous sympathy in, and
effort for the good of others...cultivation of  the inner, spiritual man by
meditation...control of fleshly appetites and desires...careful performance
of every duty.	EPITOME  p.  24-25


39.	Inherent ideas, common to the whole race, are due to recollection of
such ideas implanted in the human mind at the very beginning of its
evolutionary career by those Brothers and sages who were perfected in former
ages long before the development of this globe began.
	OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY  p. 87


40.	Once a man, always a man.  Evolution, having brought Manas the
Thinker and Immortal Person on to this plane, cannot send him back to the
brute which has not Manas.   
	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY p. 67


41.	Give light and comfort to the toiling pilgrim, and seek out him who
knows still less than thou, and, let him hear the law.  [DUTY]       VOICE
OF THE SILENCE p. 40


42..	Sow kindly acts and thou shalt reap their fruition.  Inaction in a
deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin...Self-Knowledge is of
loving deeds the child.”	
	VOICE OF THE SILENCE p. 33-4


43.	Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion.  Avert thy face from
world deceptions:  mistrust thy senses;  they are false.  But within thy
body—the shrine of thy sensations—seek in the Imperishable for the “Eternal
Man;” and, having sought him out, look inward:  thou art “Buddha”  [the Wise
One].		VOICE OF THE SILENCE  p. 28-9


44.	Fix thy Soul’s gaze upon the Star Whose Ray Thou Art...Have
perseverance, as one who doth for evermore endure.  Thy shadows
(personalities) live and vanish;  that which in thee shall live for ever,
that which  in thee knows, for it is knowledge, is not of fleeting life;  it
is the man that was, that is, and will be, for whom the hour shall never
strike.		VOICE OF THE SILENCE p. 34


45.	To live to benefit mankind is the first step.	VOICE OF THE SILENCE
p. 36


46.	Death is certain to all things which are born, and rebirth to all
mortals;  wherefore it does not behoove thee to grieve about the inevitable.
BHAGAVAD GITA  p.  13


47.	Man is a spiritual being—a SOUL—and this soul takes on different
bodies from life to life on earth, in order, at last, to arrive at such
perfect knowledge, through repeated experience, as to enable one to assume a
body fit to be the dwelling place of a Mahatma or  perfected Soul.
ECHOES  p. 1 


48.	The man whose devotion has been broken off by death goeth to the
regions of the righteous (Devachan, or “Heaven”), where he dwells for an
immensity of years and is then born again on earth in a pure and fortunate
family; or even in a family of those who are spiritually illuminated.  Being
thus born again, he comes in contact with the knowledge which belonged to
him in his former body...”		BHAGAVAD GITA  p.  51


49.	When the separation is complete between the body that has died, the
higher Triad:  Manas (mind), Buddhi (wisdom) and Atma (Spirit), who are the
real man, immediately go into another state called Devachan (or heaven), and
when that state is over they are attracted back to earth for reincarnation.
They are the immortal part of us, they, are we.		OCEAN of THEOSOPHY
p.  70


50.	The passional parts of us coalesce with the astral body after death,
and makes a seeming being, (called the Kama-Rupa, or, desire form) that has
a short life to live while it is disintegrating.	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY
p. 98


51.	Devachan is the land of reward, the domain of spiritual effects...It
is the threshold to another life on earth...[it is] a state of prolonged
subjective happiness after the death of the body...In  Devachan we dream
until [we are reborn]...[it is a] place or state were germinating
aspirations, restricted by earth life, could have their full
development...psychic energies also have their outlet in  Devachan...it
provides rest for the soul, its deepest desires, its highest needs are there
enjoyed, every hope blooms out in full and glorious flower.
ECHOES p. 47 - 48


52.	Between adjacent incarnations, after grosser elements are purged
away, comes a period of comparative refreshment called  Devachan—the soul
being therein  prepared for its next advent into material life.  The state
of spiritual but comparative rest  known as Devachan is not an eternal
one...nor does ‘hell’ correspond to (kama-loka)...All such painful states
are transitory and purificatory  states.  	EPITOME  p.  23


53.	The three great qualities:  light or truth, passion or desire, and,
indifference or darkness bind the imperishable soul to the body.
BHAGAVAD GITA  p.  101


54.	Atma-Buddhi-Manas [Spirit-Wisdom-Mind as a triad] does not yet fully
incarnate in this race.  They use and occupy the body by means of the
entrance of Manas (mind) the lowest of the three.	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY.
p. 66


55.	Purusha [the Spirit, is] the persisting individuality, which
connects all reincarnations, as if it were the thread, and has, hence been
called the thread-soul.”	    OCEAN of THEOSOPHY p. 96 fn.


56.	All is impermanent in man except the pure bright essence of Alaya
(the Universal SOUL).  Man is its crystal ray;  a beam of light immaculate
within;  a form of clay material upon the lower surface.   	VOICE OF THE
SILENCE p. 63


57.	Reincarnation is the law of nature.  The complete trinity of Atma,
Buddhi, Manas does not yet fully incarnate.  They use and occupy the body by
means of the entrance of Manas (mind), the lowest of the three, and the
other two shine upon it from above.  The head, Atma and Buddhi, are yet in
“heaven,” and the feet, Manas, walk in hell, which is the body and physical
life.		OCEAN of THEOSOPHY p.  71


58.	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 as the godlike
trinity being in full possession, the entire mass of matter will be
perfected and raised up for the next step.     OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p.  71


59.	Man is to rely on the One Consciousness, which in him is his Higher
Self [Atma-Buddhi--Spirit].		GITA NOTES  p. 98


60.	The one consciousness of each person is the Witness or Spectator of
the actions and experiences of every state we are in or pass through.
GITA NOTES  p. 99


61.	Antaskarana is the lower Manas, the path of communication between
the personality and the higher Manas, or human Soul.	VOICE OF THE SILENCE
p. 55 fn.


62.	We come back to earth because on it and with the beings upon it our
deeds were performed;  it is the only proper place where punishment and
reward can be justly meted out;  here is the only natural spot in which to
continue the struggle toward perfection, development of the faculties we
have, and the  destruction of the wickedness in us.”
	OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY  p. 84


63.	No man can by any possibility, or favor, or edict, or belief escape
the consequences of the causes he sets up, 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.
OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p.  70


66.	The law of Reincarnation drags us into life again and again,
bringing with us uncounted times the various Egos whom we have known in
prior births...in order that the causes generated in company with those Egos
may be worked out.		ECHOES  p.  39


67.	We are, in this life, responsible for the civilization in which we
now appear. 
   	   OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p. 73


68.	Reward and punishment must be the just desert for prior conduct.
Nature’s law of justice is not imperfect.  In a prior life the doer was then
quite aware of what he did, and, nature affixes consequences to his acts,
being thus just.	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p. 75


69.	Heredity in giving us a body in any family provides the appropriate
environment for the Ego, which goes only in to the family which either
completely  answers to its whole nature, or which gives an opportunity for
the working out of its evolution.	
	OCEAN of THEOSOPHY.  p. 72
	    

70.	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 limitations of any family
heredity are exact consequences of that Ego’s prior lives.
OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p. 73


71.	Each human has a definite character, different from every other.
These differences, both individual and national, are not due to education.
Heredity  furnishes the appropriate place for receiving reward and
punishment, and is not the cause for the essential nature shown by everyone.
OCEAN of THEOSOPHY  p. 85-6


72.	[The Universe may be envisioned as]...an endless evolution and
re-involution (or re-absorption) of the Kosmos;  a process which...is
without a beginning, or an end.  Our Kosmos and Nature will run down  only
to reappear on a more perfect plane after every PRALAYA  ( A Universal
‘night’ of rest and dissolution that ends with a re-formation).	SECRET
DOCTRINE  I  p. 148 & 149


73.	The world evolves just as man does.  It is now conditioned as the
actual result of its past.  It is born, grows old, dies, and is
reincarnated.  This goes on  many times, and during those incarnations it
suffers and enjoys in its own way for its previous evolutions.	ECHOES  p.
40


74.	Our Earth is one of a chain of planets, it alone being on the
visible plane.  Humanity passes from globe to globe in a series of ‘rounds,’
first circling about each globe, and reincarnating upon it a fixed number of
times.  This incarnation is not single, but repeated;  each individuality
becomes re-embodied during numerous existences in successive races and
planets of our chain, and accumulating the experiences of each incarnation
towards its perfection.	EPITOME  p. 16, 22


75.	So far as concerns this globe the number of Egos belonging to it is
definite.  The total is vast.  Each Ego, for itself, varies the length of
stay in the Post mortem states.  Whenever there occurs a great number of
deaths by war, pestilence, or famine, there is at once a rush of souls to
incarnation, either in the same place or in some other place or race.
OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY.  p. 77	


76.	Savagery remains because there are still Egos whose experience is so
limited that they are still savage		OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY  p. 89


77.	Races die out because the Egos had enough of the experience that
sort of race gives, other souls who have had no higher life in the past
enter into the bodies of the race to go on using them for the  purpose of
gaining such experience as the race body will give.  	OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY
p. 84

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


		What Reincarnates?

“What reincarnates is a mystery to many minds because they find a difficulty
in understanding such a permanency as must stand behind repeated
incarnations. They know that the body is born and dies and is dissolved, but
their minds are so identified with the body in its relations and
surroundings that they are unable to dissociate themselves from it. They
think of themselves as persons, as bodies of a physical nature, and hence
can not see where in them may reside that power of incarnating from life to
life. 

Theosophy presents a larger view in showing that man is not his body,
because the body is continually changing; that man is not his mind, because
he is constantly changing his mind; that there is in man a permanency which
is the identity throughout all kinds of embodiments. 

There has been no change in our identity from childhood up to the present
day. The body has changed; the surroundings have changed; but the identity
remains the same and will not change from now on through all changes of body
or mind or circumstance.  

That in us which is itself unchanging is the only real. Nothing is real that
changes. It is only the real that perceives change. 

Change can not see change. Only that which is constant perceives change;
only the permanent can perceive impermanence. However dimly we may perceive
it, there is that in us which is eternal and changeless. 

This unchanging, constant, and immortal something in us is not absent from
any particle or any being whatever. There is only one Life in the world to
which we, as well as all other beings, pertain. We all proceeded from the
same one Source - not many - and we are proceeding on the same path to the
same great goal. 

The ancients said that the Divine Self is in all beings, but in all it does
not shine forth. The real is within, and may be realized by any human being
in himself. Everyone needs that realization that he may shine forth and
express the God within, which all beings but partially express. 

If then the Source is the same - the One Spirit - in all beings, why so many
forms, so many personalities, so many individualizations? All, again
Theosophy shows, are developments. 

In that great Ocean of Life, which is at the same time Consciousness and
Spirit, we move and live and have our being. That ocean is separable into
its constituent drops and the separation is effected through the great
course of evolution. Even in the kingdoms below us, which are from the same
Source, the tendency to separate into drops of individualized consciousness
goes on in ever-increasing degree. 

In the animal kingdom, those species that are nearest to us make an approach
to self-consciousness; but we as human beings have arrived at that stage
where each is a constituent drop of the great ocean of Consciousness. As
with an ocean of water, each drop of it contains all the elements of the
great body, so each constituent drop of humanity - a human being - contains
within its range every element of the great universe. 

The same power exists in all of us, yet where we stand on the ladder of
being we see many below us and others greater than we above us. Humanity now
is building the bridge of thought, the bridge of ideas that connects the
lower with the higher. 

The whole purpose of incarnation, or our descent into matter, was not only
to gain further knowledge of matter, but to impel the lower kingdoms to come
up to where we are. 

We stand as gods to the lower kingdoms. It is our impulsion that brings them
weal or woe. It is our misconception of the aim of life that makes Nature so
hard; that causes all the distress and disasters which afflict us in
cyclones, tornadoes, diseases, pestilences of every kind. 

All are our own doing; and why? Because there is a sublimation of mineral,
vegetable and animal kingdoms in our bodies, which are lives in themselves.
Every cell in our bodies has its birth, youth, manhood, decay and death, and
its reincarnation. We are impelling each one of those lives according to
whatever thought, will, or feeling we may have, whether for help or injury
to others. These lives go out from us for good or evil, back into their
kingdoms with good or evil. 

So by our lack of understanding of our own true natures, without a
comprehension of universal brotherhood, we are imperfectly performing our
duties on this plane and are imperfectly helping the evolution of the lower
kingdoms. We shall realize our responsibility to them only as we see that
every being is on his way upward; that all above man have been men at one
time; that all below man will some time reach man's estate, when we have
gone on further; that all forms, all beings, all individualizations are but
aspects of the One Spirit. 

Granted, then, that this one unchanging Spirit is in all - the cause of all
evolutionary development, the cause of all incarnations - where, we may ask,
do we carry the power to see and know from life to life? How is continuity
of knowledge, gained by observation and experience, preserved? How is the
individual maintained as such? 

We should remember that we were self-conscious beings when this planet
began; some even were self-conscious when this solar system began; for there
is a difference in degree of development among human beings. 

If the planet or solar system began in a state of primordial substance, or
nebulous matter, as Science calls it, then we must have had bodies of that
state of substance. In that finest substance are all the possibilities of
every grade of matter, and hence it is that within the true body of
primordial matter all the changes of courser and courser substance have been
brought about; and within that body is all experience. Our birth is within
that body. Everything that occurs to us is within that body - a body of a
nature which does not change throughout the whole Manvantara. 

Each one has such a body of finest substance, of the inner nature, which is
the real container for the individual. In it he lives and moves and has his
being, and yet even the great glory and fineness of that body is not the
man; it is merely the highest vesture of the Soul. The Real Man we are is
the Man that was, that is, and that ever shall be, for whom the hour will
never strike - Man, the thinker; Man, the perceiver - always thinking,
continually acting. 

Life is one. Spirit is one. Consciousness is one. These three are one - a
trinity - and we are that trinity. 

All the changes of substance and form are brought about by Spirit and
Consciousness and expressed in various forms of life. We are that One
Spirit, each standing in a vast assemblage of beings in this great universe,
seeing and knowing what he can through the instruments he has. 

We are the Trinity - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; or, in
theosophical parlance, we are Atma, Buddhi, and Manas. Atma is the One
Spirit, not belonging to any one, but to all. 

Buddhi is the sublimated experience of all the past. 

Manas is the thinking power, the thinker, the man, the immortal man. There
is no man without the Spirit, and no man without that experience of the
past; but the mind is the realm of creation, of ideas; and the Spirit
itself, with all its power, acts according to the ideas that are in the
mind. 

The VOICE OF THE SILENCE says, "Mind is like a mirror. It gathers dust while
it reflects." It needs soul-wisdom to brush away the dust [of our
illusions]. This mind of ours, or that which we call the mind, is merely the
reflector, which presents, as we train it, different pictures. 

The Spirit acts in accord with the ideas seen, for good or for evil. Is
there evil in the world? It is the power of Spirit that caused it. Is there
good in the world? It is the power of Spirit that caused it. For there is
only one power. The misdirection of that power brings evil; its right
direction brings good. 

We must give up the idea that we are poor, weak, miserable creatures who can
never do anything for ourselves; for as long as we hold that idea, so long
will we never do anything. We must get the other idea - that we are Spirit,
that we are immortal - and when we come to realize what that means, the
power of it will flow directly in and through us, unrestricted in any
direction, save by the instruments which we ourselves caused to be
imperfect. So let us get away from the idea that we are this poor,
miserable, defective physical body over which we have so little control. We
can not stop a heart beat; we can not stop the breath without destroying the
body; we can not stop the constant dissociation of matter that goes on in
it, nor prevent its final dissolution. 

Some people talk of "demonstrating" against death, but we might as well try
to demonstrate against the trees shedding their leaves when the winter
blasts come. Death will always be, and there is a great advantage in it. If
we could not change our bodies, how would there be any chance for
advancement? Are we so well pleased with the bodies now ours that we would
desire no change? Certainly not. There is only one thing in this life that
can be retained permanently, and that is the spiritual nature, and the great
divine compassion which we may translate by the word "love." 

We are the reincarnating Egos who will continue to incarnate until the great
task which we undertook is completed. That task is the raising up of the
whole of humanity to the highest possible stage of perfection on an earth of
this kind. We incarnate from age to age for the preservation of the just,
the destruction of wickedness, and the establishment of righteousness. That
is what we are here for, whether we know it or not, and we must come to a
recognition of the immortality of our own natures before we shall ever
relieve ourselves from the distresses that afflict humanity everywhere. We
have to bring ourselves in touch and tune with the whole great purpose of
Nature which is the evolution of Soul, and for which alone all the universe
exists.”
	[ Robert Crosbie  ]

Best wishes,

Dallas
 
=============================================

-----Original Message-----
From: Carlos Paterson
Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2006 9:35 AM
To: 
Subject: Reincarnation - Pan Vision

Dear Friends,

    As I am a beginner in Theosophy, I would like to ask you for permission
to make some questions about REINCARNATION. Perhaps ingenuous, but something
that I do not find in Theosophy Literature, at least where I could contact
it. 

    affirmation that reincarnating is only "reincarnating in the Earth
Planet". 

    Why? Who say that? I think that nobody, especially the Mahatmas, the
Masters, the Adepts, with their conceptions impregnated of a living,
harmonious and pulsating universe, replete of life. This, of course, is my
point of view - a humble one.

    Then, my first (1) question:

    (1) Reincarnation occurs at other planets? There´s something specific,
clearly expressed, about this at Blavatsky writings?  ...

    (2) Reincarnating implies only "re-embodying in flesh", only in a
"physical body"? There´s a possibility of occurring a "process of
reincarnation" not in a physical body, using a "physical matter"? There´s
something specific, clearly expressed, about this at Blavatsky writings?
...

    In resume, I think that the "interchange" in this vast Universe is not a
insane conception, on the contrary, it seems beautiful and melodious and
could comprises the reincarnation process... Then, my third (3) and last
question: ...