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There is indeed a perhaps unavoidable want of precision in a somewhat rhetorical paper which is misleading. | There is indeed a perhaps unavoidable want of precision in a somewhat rhetorical paper which is misleading. | ||
“We accept the doctrine of the immortality of the human spirit,” should read evidently from what follows, “the ''potential ''immortality.” The doctrine is stated categorically that man is composed of a physical body, an astral body (double, or soul), and “these two are overshadowed (illuminated and spiritualised) by the divine immortal spirit, the ''ruach ''or '' | “We accept the doctrine of the immortality of the human spirit,” should read evidently from what follows, “the ''potential ''immortality.” The doctrine is stated categorically that man is composed of a physical body, an astral body (double, or soul), and “these two are overshadowed (illuminated and spiritualised) by the divine immortal spirit, the ''ruach ''or ''νοῦς. ''If then Col. Olcott merely means that the ''νοῦς ''is immortal though the man be not, his statement is a little misleading, for most readers will gather from his words that Theosophists accept-the usually received doctrine of Immortality of the human spirit. | ||
It is important to state this clearly, for most of us hear, I fancy, for the first time through this paper of the doctrine of a duality in man overshadowed, as by something separate, by a divine spirit. We have fought about distinctions between Soul and Spirit, but we have pretty well agreed that man is tripartite, composed of Body, Soul, and Spirit—a Physical Body, a Spiritual Body, and “a particle of the Divine mind” indwelling, which most call Soul and some Spirit. But this doctrine of a separation between the ''vow ''and the man, normal at all times, and in frequent cases becoming permanent even before bodily death, is new to us. What does it lead to? Plainly to a doctrine as new as it is startling, viz., that in the physical life the efforts of the dual man must be directed to union with his ''Αὐγοειδης'';—his Divine Spirit—to avoid annihilation. Such as secure that union survive—the survival of the fittest—such as do not, become ''larvae, ''elementaries, and are finally annihilated. | It is important to state this clearly, for most of us hear, I fancy, for the first time through this paper of the doctrine of a duality in man overshadowed, as by something separate, by a divine spirit. We have fought about distinctions between Soul and Spirit, but we have pretty well agreed that man is tripartite, composed of Body, Soul, and Spirit—a Physical Body, a Spiritual Body, and “a particle of the Divine mind” indwelling, which most call Soul and some Spirit. But this doctrine of a separation between the ''vow ''and the man, normal at all times, and in frequent cases becoming permanent even before bodily death, is new to us. What does it lead to? Plainly to a doctrine as new as it is startling, viz., that in the physical life the efforts of the dual man must be directed to union with his ''Αὐγοειδης'';—his Divine Spirit—to avoid annihilation. Such as secure that union survive—the survival of the fittest—such as do not, become ''larvae, ''elementaries, and are finally annihilated. | ||