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vol. title: vol. period: 1882 pages in vol.: 229 |
< The Constitution of Man (continued from page 13-53) >
represented as pertaining to the body, and to things phenomenal and terrestrial. To this Cham or Chanaan, the Club, or emblem of earthly generation, was in Egyptian symbolism appropriated.
Now, of the two Dualisms of the human kingdom, one is transmigratory, the other is not. The body and astral element of man are renewed at every successive birth, and at every death they pass away, the body into dust, the astral mind, according to its deserts, to the “Summer Land,” or to the shades of gloomy Tartarus. The “Summer Land” is known to mystics as the Lower Eden. There, after death, abides the Ruach, or mundane spirit of the good man, retaining all the memories and affections of his one life. Thence he comes to the circle of his still incarnate friends, gives evidence of his identity, embraces and caresses his dear ones, and relates to them the beauties and blessedness of the astral light in which his home is made, and out of which he has created gardens, palaces, flowing streams, and moving forms. This mundane spirit is a personal entity, and, in fact, is the external Ego of the man; the “I” and “Me” of the character whose family name he still bears.
But the essential germ of the Microcosm, the Divine dual particle of soul and Spirit, very rarely returns to earth in such fashion. It is only on solemn occasions and for special purposes, so rare as to be events, that such return is permitted. This celestial pair constitute the transmigratory fire, whose light composes the Hindu “Karma.” This celestial duad it is that represents the Spiritual personality of the man, a state or being as opposed to an entity, the sum-total of what the man is, as opposed to what he seems. This essence, immortal and progressive in its nature, because at once Divine and human, passes on and re-animates new forms. The name of this interior Ego is not that of the Ruach, who responds to the “Christian” or family appellatives of earth; its name is known only to God. It passes on from form to form, and from avatar to avatar until it attains Nirvana. The circumstances and conditions of a re-birth represent, therefore, as the Bhagvat-Gita tells us, the Karma of the preceding existence.
Nirvana is the annihilation of the exterior personality, and the apotheosis of the interior personality. Thus it is true that existence is an evil, nay, is the supreme evil, to escape from which is the continual aim and aspiration of the saint, and the extinction of which is found only and finally in the bosom of God.
When, therefore, a man says, as the non Re-Incarnationists are fond of saying, “I do not like the idea of a succession of births,” or “I do not wish to return,” or “I will not return voluntarily,” it is the external self that speaks, the Ego of the Ruach. Let him be content, he will not return. He will go to the “Summer Land,” to the Elysian Fields—the lower Eden.
But his interior Ego, his Divine particle, if ever it is to attain beatitude, will obey the Divine Will, and continue the course of its existences, whether few or many, until the final Marriage of Spirit and Soul. This act consummated, it becomes thereby purified from existence, and enters upon the condition of absolute being.
In this brief exposition, I have purposely avoided all direct references to holy writings, whether Hebrew, Hindu, or other, in order not to encumber my statement with citations.
P.S.—Since the above exposition was read by me in my private circle, a friend has sent me a copy of the Theosophist for October, 1881, which I had not previously seen. It contains, under the heading “Fragments of Occult Truth,” the substance of the teaching of which I am myself the recipient from a wholly independent and interior source. In the spelling of the Biblical names, I follow the Catholic version of the Scriptures.—A.K.
A Cure by Earthquake.—The Nouvelliste, of Lyons, recently recorded an interesting case in connection with a shock of earthquake felt there. The daughter of an official of the city, Mdlle. G. D., who had for a considerable time been semi-paralysed and dumb in consequence of a sudden fright, experienced, on feeling the shock of earthquake, a great agitation of the nervous system, on recovering from which it was found that the use of her limbs and of her vocal organs was restored.—Journal du Magnetisme.
Mr. J. J. Morse’s Appointments.—Nottingham, March 19; Cardiff, March 26; Belper, April 2; Falmouth, April 16 and 17; London, April 23 and 30.—For terms and dates, direct Mr. Morse, at 53, Sigdon-road, Dalston, London, E.—[Advt.]
OBJECTIONS TO RE-INCARNATION.
Not having been able to attend the recent discussion on Re-Incarnation as reported in “Light,” I will ask permission to reply now in the negative, although I consider that Tien-Sien-Tie has already answered wisely.
In “Light,” March 26th, 1881, I attempted in a humorous vein to refute the doctrine of Re-Incarnation because at that time I could only see the comical side of the question, but a year’s further experience of the views held by Re-Incarnationists has convinced me that they are held by a few Britons with intense conviction, and that therefore a reply, if attempted, should be made after looking the question steadily in the face.
The arguments recently urged in favour of Re-Incarnation are as follow:—
1. It is a doctrine in harmony with the Darwinian doctrine of animal evolution.
2. It is a doctrine which has been held in various forms by a few of the greatest minds of antiquity, and has been held by many millions of Buddhists for 2,400 years.
3. Re-Incarnation is essential to full justice to man on earth.
4. The vague reminiscences, so many seem to experience of a former existence go to prove the doctrine true.
Let us examine into these propositions in detail.
1. Darwin does not assert that the doctrine of evolution can be proved; he only submits a philosophy on the subject, and he admits that since the appearance of man on this earth there is no evidence that any new species of animal has appeared. He would also admit that no ape during the last ten thousand years has made the slightest step towards manhood. But Darwin shews, as every breeder of animals knows, that by selection and the survival of the fittest, animals can be produced in certain varieties and with increased size, strength, and beauty, by the ordinary laws of generation.
So it is with man. There is no evidence whatever that he is a development from an ape-like animal, for although there is a fearful resemblance between the lowest savage and the highest ape, there yet remains the missing link and the fundamental distinction that the cerebrum of the lowest adult idiot is larger than the cerebrum of the largest and most intelligent ape.
So likewise there is not one single fact demonstrating the truth of progression by Re-Incarnation; but there remain many facts to prove that the most brutal savage may, by culture, by intermarriage, and by physical, moral, intellectual, and religious education, rise in successive generations to the highest human type; and it is not asserting too much to add that this highest generally known human type might, by a theosophic training and guidance, rise in the third generation to a demigod. Thus it appears that the doctrine of Re-Incarnation can receive no support from the hypothetical philosophy of evolution, but that it is so far refuted by the facts of the law of development by natural generation.
2. It is admitted that some of the greatest minds of antiquity held in various forms the doctrine of Re-Incarnation, and that hundreds of millions of Buddhists have held it for 2,400 years. But these same great minds of antiquity held doctrines now condemned as abominable, such as the justification of slavery, polygamy, the communion of wives, and the exposing to destruction of sickly children.
That millions of Orientalists should for thousands of years hold by any fixed doctrine is only in harmony with the stereotyped nature of the oriental mind, as, for instance, with the Hindu in the terrible misery of caste, and as with the Chinese in the hideous crushing of the female foot.
Further, thousands of millions of educated human beings for thousands of years believed that the sun went round the earth; and if it is replied that this was false reasoning from deceptive premises, I would reply that the doctrine of Re-Incarnation has neither reason nor premises of any kind to stand on.
3. Re-Incarnation is said to be essential to justice; for that one man should be born beautiful, strong, good, and happy, and another should be born, without his consent, ugly, weak, bad, and miserable, is most unjust, and therefore he must be re-incarnated again and again in order that he may obtain amendment and compensation.
But it is evidently impossible to obtain this so called complete justice by any number of re-incarnations, for there must always remain a differentiation. All cannot be re-incarnated as kings, or philosophers, or grand poets, or men of genius, nor could all have the advantages of the first Adam, or of Methuselah, who lived for about one thousand years; and if all cannot be exactly alike in goodness, greatness, and happiness, then there must for ever remain a residuum of incomplete justice. <... continues on page 13-55 >
Editor's notes
Sources
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Light, v. 2, No. 63, March 18, 1882, pp. 128-130