{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_26364/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_26364","id":"gutenberg_26364","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26364","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Karma","Reincarnation"],"text":"E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Turgut Dincer, and the Project\nGutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nREINCARNATION AND THE LAW OF KARMA\n\nA Study of\nthe Old-New World-Doctrine of\nRebirth, and Spiritual\nCause and Effect\n\nby\n\nWILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPublished and Sold by\nYogi Publication Society\nMasonic Temple, Chicago, Ill.\n\nLondon Agents\nL.N. Fowler & Co., 7 Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus. E.C.\n\n(Reincarnation and the Law of Karma)\n\nCopyright, 1908, by\nYogi Publication Society\nAll Rights Reserved\n\nNOTICE.--This book is protected by Copyright and\nsimultaneous publication in Great Britain, France, Germany,\nRussia and other countries. All foreign rights reserved.\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n                                                       PAGE\n\nCHAPTER I. THE EARLY RACES                                7\n\nWhat is Reincarnation?--Transmigration of\nSouls--The Something That Persists After\nDeath--The Soul Not a Fresh Creation, but a\nTraveler on a Long Journey.\n\nCHAPTER II. THE EGYPTIANS, CHALDEANS, DRUIDS, ETC.       20\n\nThe Egyptian Idea of the Soul--Forty Centuries of\nOccult History--The Inner Teachings of Egypt--The\nAncient Chinese Teachings and Doctrine--The\nAncient Druids and Their Teachings.\n\nCHAPTER III. THE ROMANS AND GREEKS                       35\n\nThe Reasons of Rome's Backwardness in Spiritual\nKnowledge--Why the Greeks were\nAdvanced--Pythagoras; Orpheus; Plato--The Various\nGrecian Teachings Regarding the Soul and Its\nFuture Life--Plato's Wonderful Teachings and\nPhilosophy.\n\nCHAPTER IV. THE JEWS, ESSENES, AND EARLY CHRISTIANS      49\n\nThe Inner Teachings of the Jewish Priests--The\nJewish Rabbins and Their Secret Doctrines--The\nKaballah, the Zahar, Nichema; Ronach; and\nNephesh--A Mysterious Brotherhood--The Christian\nInner Doctrine--The Mysteries of Jesus.\n\nCHAPTER V. THE HINDUS                                    64\n\nIndia the Mother of Reincarnation, Past and\nPresent--The Aryan Teachings--The History of the\nBelief Among the Hindus--Fundamental Hindu\nPhilosophy.\n\nCHAPTER VI. THE MODERN WEST                              95\n\nReincarnation in the Modern Western World--The\nRevival of Interest and Its Cause--Theosophical\nSociety--Madame Blavatsky--The Western School of\nYogi Philosophy: Its Fundamental Teachings--The\nSpiritists, and Their Doctrine--The Teachings of\nthe \"Elect Few\" in Their Secret Societies--Is\nEarth a Hell?--Christian Reincarnationists and\nTheir Beliefs.\n\nCHAPTER VII. BETWEEN AND BEYOND INCARNATIONS            117\n\nHow Long Between Incarnations?--Necessity for\nMental and Spiritual Digestion and\nAssimilation--The Advanced Teachings--Earth-bound\nSouls--Advanced Souls and Their Rest Period--Where\nDoes the Soul Dwell Between Incarnations?--What\nHappens at Death--The Great Astral World and Its\nPlanes and Sub-planes--Where the Soul Goes After\nDeath and What It Does There--Rebirth and Its\nLaws--What is the Final State of the Soul?--The\nMessage of the Illumined.\n\nCHAPTER VIII. THE JUSTICE OF REINCARNATION              134\n\nThe Contrasting Theories of the Soul and Its\nFuture Life--Doctrine of Reincarnation the Only\nPhilosophical Theory that Reconciles Facts with\nTheory--The Law of Karma Automatic and Enforces\nItself--Every One Their Own Judge and the Executor\nof Their Own Destiny--The Opinions of the World's\nGreat Thinkers.\n\nCHAPTER IX. THE ARGUMENT FOR REINCARNATION              151\n\nNatural Laws Universal--If the Soul is Immortal,\nit Must Have Always Been So--A Mortal Thing Cannot\nbe Made Immortal Any More Than Nothing Can be Made\nSomething--Future Life Implies Past Life--Varient\nExperiences Necessary for the Soul's\nEducation--Advancement Necessary to Enjoyment of\nthe Soul's Higher States of Being--The True\nTeaching.\n\nCHAPTER X. THE PROOFS OF REINCARNATION                  169\n\nActual Proofs of Personal Conscious Experience\nDemanded by Science--Such Proofs Possible and Have\nOccurred to Many of the Race--The Remembrance of\nthe Details of Past Existence Common to the\nRace--Interesting Cases Given on Good\nAuthority--Messages from the Past.\n\nCHAPTER XI. ARGUMENTS AGAINST REINCARNATION             192\n\nWhy Reincarnation is Opposed by Some--The Answers\nto the Objections--The Proof of the Existence of\nthe Soul--Is Reincarnation Un-Christian and\nDerived from Pagan and Heathen Sources?\n\nCHAPTER XII. THE LAW OF KARMA                           222\n\nWhat Karma Means--Does Karma Punish or is it but\nthe Workings of a Natural Law?--The Various Kinds\nof Karma--The Advanced Mystical Doctrine--The End\nis Absolute Good--There is No Devil but Fear and\nUnfaith.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE EARLY RACES.\n\n\nBy \"Reincarnation\" we mean the repeated incarnation, or embodiment in\nflesh, of the soul or immaterial part of man's nature. The term\n\"Metempsychosis\" is frequently employed in the same sense, the\ndefinition of the latter term being: \"The passage of the soul, as an\nimmortal essence, at the death of the body, into another living body.\"\nThe term \"Transmigration of Souls\" is sometimes employed, the term being\nused in the sense of \"passing from one body into another.\" But the term\n\"Transmigration\" is often used in connection with the belief of certain\nundeveloped races who held that the soul of men sometimes passed into\nthe bodies of the lower animals, as a punishment for their sins\ncommitted during the human life. But this belief is held in disrepute\nby the adherents of Reincarnation or Metempsychosis, and has no\nconnection with their philosophy or beliefs, the ideas having sprung\nfrom an entirely different source, and having nothing in common.\n\nThere are many forms of belief--many degrees of doctrine--regarding\nReincarnation, as we shall see as we proceed, but there is a fundamental\nand basic principle underlying all of the various shades of opinion, and\ndivisions of the schools. This fundamental belief may be expressed as\nthe doctrine that there is in man an immaterial Something (called the\nsoul, spirit, inner self, or many other names) which does not perish at\nthe death or disintegration of the body, but which persists as an\nentity, and after a shorter or longer interval of rest reincarnates, or\nis re-born, into a new body--that of an unborn infant--from whence it\nproceeds to live a new life in the body, more or less unconscious of its\npast existences, but containing within itself the \"essence\" or results\nof its past lives, which experiences go to make up its new \"character,\"\nor \"personality.\" It is usually held that the rebirth is governed by the\nlaw of attraction, under one name or another, and which law operates in\naccordance with strict justice, in the direction of attracting the\nreincarnating soul to a body, and conditions, in accordance with the\ntendencies of the past life, the parents also attracting to them a soul\nbound to them by some ties in the past, the law being universal,\nuniform, and equitable to all concerned in the matter. This is a general\nstatement of the doctrine as it is generally held by the most\nintelligent of its adherents.\n\nE. D. Walker, a well-known English writer on the subject, gives the\nfollowing beautiful idea of the general teachings: \"Reincarnation\nteaches that the soul enters this life, not as a fresh creation, but\nafter a long course of previous existences on this earth and elsewhere,\nin which it acquired its present inhering peculiarities, and that it is\non the way to future transformations which the soul is now shaping. It\nclaims that infancy brings to earth, not a blank scroll for the\nbeginning of an earthly record, nor a mere cohesion of atomic forces\ninto a brief personality, soon to dissolve again into the elements, but\nthat it is inscribed with ancestral histories, some like the present\nscene, most of them unlike it and stretching back into the remotest\npast. These inscriptions are generally undecipherable, save as revealed\nin their moulding influence upon the new career; but like the invisible\nphotographic images made by the sun of all it sees, when they are\nproperly developed in the laboratory of consciousness they will be\ndistinctly displayed. The current phase of life will also be stored away\nin the secret vaults of memory, for its unconscious effects upon the\nensuing lives. All the qualities we now possess, in body, mind and soul,\nresult from our use of ancient opportunities. We are indeed 'the heir of\nall the ages,' and are alone responsible for our inheritances. For these\nconditions accrue from distant causes engendered by our older selves,\nand the future flows by the divine law of cause and effect from the\ngathered momentum of our past impetuses. There is no favoritism in the\nuniverse, but all have the same everlasting facilities for growth. Those\nwho are now elevated in worldly station may be sunk in humble\nsurroundings in the future. Only the inner traits of the soul are\npermanent companions. The wealthy sluggard may be the beggar of the next\nlife; and the industrious worker of the present is sowing the seeds of\nfuture greatness. Suffering bravely endured now will produce a treasure\nof patience and fortitude in another life; hardships will give rise to\nstrength; self-denial must develop the will; tastes cultivated in this\nexistence will somehow bear fruit in coming ones; and acquired energies\nwill assert themselves whenever they can by the Law of Parsimony upon\nwhich the principles of physics are based. Vice versa, the unconscious\nhabits, the uncontrollable impulses, the peculiar tendencies, the\nfavorite pursuits, and the soul-stirring friendships of the present\ndescend from far-reaching previous activities.\"\n\nThe doctrine of Reincarnation--Metempsychosis--Rebirth--has always been\nheld as truth by a large portion of the human race. Following the\ninvariable law of cyclic changes--the swing of the pendulum of\nthought--at times it has apparently died out in parts of the world, only\nto be again succeeded by a new birth and interest among the descendants\nof the same people. It is a light impossible to extinguish, and although\nits flickering flame may seem to die out for a moment, the shifting of\nthe mental winds again allows it to rekindle from the hidden spark, and\nlo! again it bursts into new life and vigor. The reawakened interest in\nthe subject in the Western world, of which all keen observers have taken\nnote, is but another instance of the operation of the Cyclic Law. It\nbegins to look as if the occultists are right when they predict that\nbefore the dawn of another century the Western world will once more have\nembraced the doctrines of Rebirth--the old, discarded truth, once so\ndear to the race, will again be settled in popular favor, and again move\ntoward the position of \"orthodox\" teaching, perhaps to be again\ncrystallized by reason of its \"orthodoxy\" and again to lose favor and\nfade away, as the pendulum swings backward to the other extreme of\nthought.\n\nBut the teaching of Reincarnation never has passed away altogether from\nthe race--in some parts of the world the lamp has been kept burning\nbrightly--nay, more, at no time in human history has there been a period\nin which the majority of the race has not accepted the doctrine of\nRebirth, in some of its various forms. It was so one thousand years\nago--two thousand--five thousand--and it is so to-day. In this Twentieth\nCentury nearly if not quite two-thirds of the race hold firmly to the\nteaching, and the multitudes of Hindus and other Eastern peoples cling\nto it tenaciously. And, even outside of these people, there are to be\nfound traces of the doctrine among other races in the East, and West. So\nReincarnation is not a \"forgotten truth,\" or \"discarded doctrine,\" but\none fully alive and vigorous, and one which is destined to play a very\nimportant part in the history of Western thought during the Twentieth\nCentury.\n\nIt is interesting to trace the history of the doctrine among the ancient\npeoples--away back into the dim recesses of the past. It is difficult to\nascribe to any particular time, or any particular race, the credit of\nhaving \"originated\" Reincarnation. In spite of the decided opinions, and\nthe differing theories of the various writers on this subject, who would\ngive Egypt, or India, or the lost Atlantis, as the birthplace of the\ndoctrine, we feel that such ideas are but attempts to attribute a\nuniversal intuitive belief to some favored part of the race. We do not\nbelieve that the doctrine of Reincarnation ever \"originated\" anywhere,\nas a new and distinct doctrine. We believe that it sprang into existence\nwhenever and wherever man arrived at a stage of intellectual development\nsufficient to enable him to form a mental conception of a Something that\nlived after Death. No matter from what source this belief in a \"ghost\"\noriginated, it must be admitted that it is found among all peoples, and\nis apparently an universal idea. And, running along with it in the\nprimitive peoples, we find that there is, and always has been, an idea,\nmore or less vague and indistinct, that somehow, someway, sometime, this\n\"ghost\" of the person returns to earthly existence and takes upon itself\na new fleshly garment--a new body. Here, then, is where the idea of\nReincarnation begins--everywhere, at a certain stage of human mental\ndevelopment. It runs parallel with the \"ghost\" idea, and seems bound up\nwith that conception in nearly every case. When man evolves a little\nfurther, he begins to reason that if the \"ghost\" is immortal, and\nsurvives the death of the body, and returns to take upon itself a new\nbody, then it must have lived before the last birth, and therefore must\nhave a long chain of lives behind it. This is the second step. The third\nstep is when man begins to reason that the next life is dependent upon\nsomething done or left undone in the present life. And upon these three\nfundamental ideas the doctrine of Reincarnation has been built. The\noccultists claim that in addition to this universal idea, which is more\nor less intuitive, the race has received more or less instruction, from\ntime to time, from certain advanced souls which have passed on to higher\nplanes of existence, and who are now called the Masters, Adepts,\nTeachers, Race Guides, etc., etc. But whatever may be the explanation,\nit remains a truth that man seems to have worked out for himself, in all\ntimes and in all places, first, an idea of a \"ghost\" which persists\nafter the body dies; and second, that this \"ghost\" has lived before in\nother bodies, and will return again to take on a new body. There are\nvarious ideas regarding \"heavens\" and \"hells,\" but underlying them all\nthere persists this idea of re-birth in some of its phases.\n\nSoldi, the archaeologist, has published an interesting series of works,\ndealing with the beliefs of primitive peoples, who have passed from the\nscene of human action. He shows by the fragments of carving and\nsculpture which have survived them that there was an universal idea\namong them of the \"ghost\" which lived after the body died; and a\ncorresponding idea that some day this \"ghost\" would return to the scene\nof its former activities. This belief sometimes took the form of a\nreturn into the former body, which idea led to the preservation of the\nbody by processes of mummifying, etc., but as a rule this belief\ndeveloped into the more advanced one of a re-birth in a new body.\n\nThe earlier travelers in Africa have reported that here and there they\nfound evidences and traces of what was to them \"a strange belief\" in the\nfuture return of the soul to a new body on earth. The early explorers of\nAmerica found similar traditions and beliefs among the Red Indians,\nsurvivals of which exist even unto this day. It is related of a number\nof savage tribes, in different parts of the world, that they place the\nbodies of their dead children by the roadside, in order that their souls\nmay be given a good chance to find new bodies by reason of the\napproaching of many traveling pregnant women who pass along the road. A\nnumber of these primitive people hold to the idea of a complex soul,\ncomposed of several parts, in which they resemble the Egyptians,\nHindus, Chinese, and in fact all mystical and occult philosophies. The\nFigi Islanders are said to believe in a black soul and a white soul, the\nformer of which remains with the buried body and disintegrates with it,\nwhile the white soul leaves the body and wanders as a \"ghost,\" and\nafterward, tiring of the wandering, returns to life in a new body. The\nnatives of Greenland are said to believe in an astral body, which leaves\nthe body during sleep, but which perishes as the body disintegrates\nafter death; and a second soul which leaves the body only at death, and\nwhich persists until it is reborn at a later time. In fact, the student\nfinds that nearly all of the primitives races, and those semi-civilized,\nshow traces of a belief in a complex soul, and a trace of doctrine of\nReincarnation in some form. The human mind seems to work along the same\nlines, among the different races--unless one holds to the theory that\nall sprang from the same root-race, and that the various beliefs are\nsurvivals of some ancient fundamental doctrine--the facts are not\ndisturbed in either case.\n\nIn the last mentioned connection, we might mention that the traditions\nconcerning Ancient Atlantis--the lost continent--all hold to the effect\nthat her people believed strongly in Reincarnation, and to the ideas of\nthe complex soul. As the survivors of Atlantis are believed to have been\nthe ancestors of the Egyptians on the one hand, and of the Ancient\nPeruvians on the other--the two branches of survivors having maintained\ntheir original doctrines as modified by different environments--we might\nfind here an explanation of the prevalence of the doctrine on both sides\nof the ocean. We mention this merely in passing, and as of general\ninterest in the line of our subject.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE EGYPTIANS, CHALDEANS, DRUIDS, ETC.\n\n\nAfter considering the existence of the doctrines of Reincarnation among\nthe primitive peoples, and its traditional existence among the vanished\npeoples of the past, we find ourselves irresistibly borne toward that\nancient land of mystery--the home of the mystics and occultists of the\npast--the land of Isis--the home of the builders of the Pyramids--the\npeople of the Sphinx. Whether these people were the direct descendants\nof the people of destroyed Atlantis, the home of the Ancient Wisdom--or\nwhether they were a new people who had rediscovered the old\ndoctrines--the fact remains that when tracing back any old occult or\nmystic doctrine we find ourselves gradually led toward the land of the\nSphinx as the source of that hidden truth. The Sphinx is a fit emblem of\nthat wonderful race--its sealed lips seem to invite the ultimate\nquestions, and one feels that there may be a whispered answer wafted\nfrom those tightly closed lips toward the ear that is prepared to hear\nand receive it. And so, in our search for the origin of Reincarnation,\nwe find ourselves once more confronting the Egyptian Sphinx as we have\ndone so often before in our search after Truth.\n\nNotwithstanding its obvious prehistoric origin, many have claimed that\nMetempsychosis has its birthplace in old Egypt, on the banks of the\nNile. India disputes this claim, holding that the Ganges, not the Nile,\ngave birth to the doctrine. Be that as it may, we shall treat the\nEgyptian conception at this place, among the ancient lands holding the\ndoctrine, for in India it is not a thing of the past, but a doctrine\nwhich has its full flower at the present time, and which flower is\nsending forth its subtle odor to all parts of the civilized world. And\nso we shall defer our consideration of India's teachings until we reach\nthe present stage of the history of Reincarnation. Herodotus, many\ncenturies ago, said of the Egyptians that: \"The Egyptians are the first\nwho propounded the theory that the human soul is imperishable, and that\nwhere the body of any one dies it enters into some other body that may\nbe ready to receive it; and that when it has gone the round of all\ncreated forms on land, in water, and in air, then it once more enters\nthe human body born for it; and that this cycle of existence for the\nsoul takes place in three thousand years.\"\n\nThe doctrine of Reincarnation is discernible though hidden away amidst\nthe mass of esoteric doctrine back of the exoteric teachings of the\nEgyptians, which latter were expounded to the common people, while the\ntruth was reserved for the few who were ready for it. The inner circles\nof the Egyptian mystics believed in and understood the inner truths of\nReincarnation, and although they guarded the esoteric teachings\ncarefully, still fragments fell from the table and were greedily taken\nup by the masses, as we may see by an examination of the scraps of\nhistorical records which have been preserved, graven in the stone, and\nimprinted on the bricks. Not only did these people accept the doctrine\nof Reincarnation, but Egypt was really the home of the highest occult\nteachings. The doctrines and teachings regarding several \"sheaths\" or\n\"bodies\" of man, which are taught by occultists of all times and races,\nare believed to have been fully taught in their original purity on the\nbanks of the Nile, and in the shadow of the Pyramids--yes, even before\nthe days of the Pyramids. Their forty centuries of history saw many\nmodifications of the philosophical and religious beliefs, but the\nfundamental doctrine of Reincarnation was held to during the entire\nperiod of history in Ancient Egypt, and was not discarded until the\ndecadent descendants of the once mighty race were overwhelmed by\nstronger races, whose religions and beliefs superseded the vestiges of\nthe Ancient Doctrine. The Egyptians held that there was \"Ka,\" the divine\nspirit in man; \"Ab,\" the intellect or will; \"Hati,\" the vitality; \"Tet,\"\nthe astral body; \"Sahu,\" the etheric double; and \"Xa,\" the physical body\n(some authorities forming a slightly different arrangement), which\ncorrespond to the various \"bodies of man\" as recognized by occultists\nto-day.\n\nThe Ancient Chaldeans also taught the doctrine of Rebirth. The body of\nPersian and Chaldean mystics and occultists, known as \"the Magi,\" who\nwere masters of the Hidden Wisdom, held to the doctrine of Reincarnation\nas one of their fundamental truths. In fact, they managed to educate the\nmasses of their people to a much higher point than the masses of the\nEgyptians, and, escaping the idolatrous tendencies of the Egyptian\npopulace, they manifested a very high degree of pure philosophical,\noccult, and religious knowledge. The Magi taught that the soul was a\ncomplex being, and that certain portions of it perished, while certain\nother parts survived and passed on through a series of earth and\n\"other-world\" existences, until finally it attained such a degree of\npurity that it was relieved of the necessity for further incarnation,\nand thenceforth dwelt in the region of ineffable bliss--the region of\nlight eternal. The teaching also held that just before entering into\nthe state of bliss, the soul was able to review its previous\nincarnations, seeing distinctly the connection between them, and thus\ngaining a store of the wisdom of experience, which would aid it in its\nfuture work as a helper of future races which would appear on the face\nof the earth. The Magi taught that as all living things--nay, all things\nhaving existence, organic or inorganic--were but varying manifestations\nof the One Life and Being, therefore the highest knowledge implied a\nfeeling of conscious brotherhood and relationship toward and with all.\n\nEven among the Chinese there was an esoteric teaching concerning\nReincarnation, beneath the outer teaching of ages past. It may be\ndiscerned in the teachings of the early philosophers and seers of the\nrace, notably in the work of Lao-Tze, the great Chinese sage and\nteacher. Lao-Tze, whose great work, the \"Tao-Teh-King,\" is a classic,\ntaught Reincarnation to his inner circle of students and adherents, at\nleast so many authorities claim. He taught that there existed a\nfundamental principle called \"Tao,\" which is held to have been identical\nwith the \"primordial reason,\" a manifestation of which was the \"Teh,\" or\nthe creative activity of the universe. From the union and action of the\n\"Tao\" and the \"Teh\" proceeded the universe, including the human soul,\nwhich he taught was composed of several parts, among them being the\n\"huen,\" or spiritual principle; and the \"phi,\" or semi-material vital\nprinciple, which together animate the body. Lao-Tze said: \"To be\nignorant that the true self is immortal, is to remain in a grievous\nstate of error, and to experience many calamities by reason thereof.\nKnow ye, that there is a part of man which is subtle and spiritual, and\nwhich is the heaven-bound portion of himself; that which has to do with\nflesh, bones, and body, belongs to the earth; earthly to earth--heavenly\nto heaven. Such is the Law.\" Some have held that Lao-Tze taught the\nimmediate return of the \"huen\" to the \"tao\" after death, but from the\nwritings of his early followers it may be seen that he really taught\nthat the \"huen\" persisted in individual existence, throughout repeated\nincarnations, returning to the \"tao\" only when it had completed its\nround of experience-life. For instance, in the Si Haei, it is said that:\n\"The vital essence is dispersed after death together with the body,\nbones and flesh; but the soul, or knowing principle of the self, is\npreserved and does not perish. There is no immediate absorption of the\nindividuality into the Tao, for individuality persists, and manifests\nitself according to the Law.\" And Chuang-Tze said: \"Death is but the\ncommencement of a new life.\" It was also taught by the early Taoists,\nthat the deeds, good and evil, of the present life would bear fruit in\nfuture existences; in addition to the orthodox heavens and hells, in\nwhich the Chinese believed, and of which they had a great variety\nadapted to the requirements of the various grades of saints and sinners,\nthe minute details of which places being described with that attention\nto minor details and particulars peculiar to the Chinese mind. The\nteachings of a later date, that the soul of the ancestor abided in the\nhall of the ancestors, etc., were a corruption of the ancient teaching.\nOther Chinese teachers taught that the soul consists of three parts, the\nfirst being the \"kuei,\" which had its seat in the belly, and which\nperished with the body; the second being the \"ling,\" which had its seat\nin the heart or chest, and which persisted for some time after death,\nbut which eventually disintegrated; and the third, or \"huen,\" which had\nits seat in the brain, and which survived the disintegration of its\ncompanions, and then passed on to other existences.\n\nAs strange as it may appear to many readers unfamiliar with the subject,\nthe ancient Druids, particularly those dwelling in ancient Gaul, were\nfamiliar with the doctrine of Reincarnation, and believed in its tenets.\nThese people, generally regarded as ancient barbarians, really possessed\na philosophy of a high order, which merged into a mystic form of\nreligion. Many of the Romans, upon their conquest of Gallia, were\nsurprised at the degree and character of the philosophical knowledge\npossessed by the Druids, and many of them have left written records of\nthe same, notably in the case of Aristotle, Caesar, Lucan, and Valerius\nMaximus. The Christian teachers who succeeded them also bore witness to\nthese facts, as may be seen by reference to the works of St. Clement,\nSt. Cyril, and other of the early Christian Fathers. These ancient\n\"barbarians\" entertained some of the highest spiritual conceptions of\nlife and immortality--the mind and the soul. Reynaud has written of\nthem, basing his statements upon a careful study of the ancient beliefs\nof this race: \"If Judea represents in the world, with a tenacity of its\nown the idea of a personal and absolute God; if Greece and Rome\nrepresent the idea of society, Gaul represents, just as particularly,\nthe idea of immortality. Nothing characterized it better, as all the\nancients admit. That mysterious folk was looked upon as the privileged\npossessor of the secrets of death, and its unwavering instinctive faith\nin the persistence of life never ceased to be a cause of astonishment,\nand sometimes of fear, in the eyes of the heathen.\" The Gauls possessed\nan occult philosophy, and a mystic religion, which were destroyed by the\ninfluences of the Roman Conquest.\n\nThe philosophy of the Druids bore a remarkable resemblance to the Inner\nDoctrine of the Egyptians, and their successors, the Grecian Mystics.\nTraces of Hermeticism and Pythagoreanism are clearly discernible,\nalthough the connecting link that bound them together has been lost to\nhistory. Legends among the Druids connected their order with the ancient\nAryan creeds and teachings, and there seems to have been a very close\nconnection between these priests and those of Ancient Greece, for there\nare tales of offerings being sent to the temples of Greece from the\npriests of Gaul. And it is also related that on the island of Delphos\nthere was once a Druidic tomb in the shape of a monument, believed to\nhave been erected over the remains of Druid priestesses. Herodotus and\nothers speak of a secret alliance between the priests of Greece and\nthose of the Druids. Some of the ancient legends hold that Pythagoras\nwas the instructor of the Druidic priests, and that Pythagoras himself\nwas in close communication with the Brahmins of India, and the\nHermetists of Egypt. Other legends have it that the Druids received\ntheir first instruction from Zamolais, who had been a slave and student\nof Pythagoras. At any rate, the correspondence between the two schools\nof philosophy is remarkable.\n\nMuch of the Druidic teachings has been lost, and it is difficult to\npiece together the fragments. But enough is known to indicate the above\nmentioned relationship to the Pythagorean school, and of the firm hold\nof the doctrine of Reincarnation upon the Druids. The preserved\nfragments show that the Druids taught that there was in man an\nimmaterial, spiritual part, called \"Awen,\" which proceeded from an\nUniversal Spiritual Principle of Life. They taught that this \"Awen\" had\nanimated the lower forms of life, mineral, vegetable and animal, before\nincarnating as man. In those conditions it was entangled and imprisoned\nin the state of \"abysmal circling,\" called \"Anufu,\" from which it\nfinally escaped and entered into the \"circle of freedom,\" called\n\"Abred,\" or human incarnation and beyond. This state of \"Abred\" includes\nlife in the various human races on this and other planets, until finally\nthere is a further liberation of the \"Awen,\" which then passes on to the\n\"Circle of Bliss,\" or \"Gwynfid,\" where it abides for aeons in a state of\necstatic being. But, beyond even this transcendent state, there is\nanother, which is called the \"Circle of the Infinite,\" or \"Ceugant,\"\nwhich is identical with the \"Union with God\" of the Persians and Greek\nMystics, or the \"Nirvana\" of the Hindus. Rather an advanced form of\nphilosophy for \"barbarians,\" is it not? Particularly when contrasted\nwith the crude mythology of the Roman conquerors!\n\nThe Gauls were so advanced in the practical phases of occultism that\nthey gave every condemned criminal a respite of five years, after\nsentence of death, before execution, in order that he might prepare\nhimself for a future state by meditation, instruction and other\npreparation; and also to prevent ushering an unprepared and guilty soul\ninto the plane of the departed--the advantages of which plan is apparent\nto every student of occultism who accepts the teaching regarding the\nastral planes.\n\nThe reader will understand, of course, that the degree of advancement in\nspiritual and philosophical matters evidenced by the Gauls was due not\nto the fact that these people were generally so far advanced beyond\ntheir neighbors, but rather to the fact that they had been instructed by\nthe Druid priests among them. Tradition has it that the original Druidic\npriests came to Gaul and other countries from some far-off land,\nprobably from Egypt or Greece. We have spoken of the connection between\ntheir teachings and that of the Pythagoreans, and there was undoubtedly\na strong bond of relationship between these priests and the occultists\nof other lands. The Druidic priests were well versed in astronomy and\nastrology, and the planets had an important part in the teachings. A\nportion of their ritual is said to have correspondences with the early\nJewish rites and worship. Their favorite symbol--the mistletoe--was used\nas indicating re-birth, the mistletoe being the new life springing forth\nfrom the old one, typified by the oak. The Druids traveled into Ancient\nBritain and Ireland, and many traces of their religious rites may still\nbe found there, not only in the shape of the stone places-of-worship,\nbut also in many curious local customs among the peasantry. Many a bit\nof English folk-lore--many an odd Irish fancy concerning fairies and the\nlike; symbols of good-luck; banshees and \"the little-folk\"--came\nhonestly to these people from the days of the Druids. And from the same\nsource came the many whispered tales among both races regarding the\nbirth of children who seemed to have remembrances of former lives on\nearth, which memory faded away as they grew older. Among these people\nthere is always an undercurrent of mystic ideas about souls \"coming\nback\" in some mysterious way not fully understood. It is the inheritance\nfrom the Druids.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE ROMANS AND GREEKS.\n\n\nOne unfamiliar with the subject would naturally expect to find the\nAncient Romans well advanced along the lines of philosophy, religion,\nand spiritual speculation, judging from the all-powerful influence\nexerted by them over the affairs of the whole known world. Particularly\nwhen one considers the relationship with and connection of Rome with\nancient Greece, it would seem that the two peoples must have had much in\ncommon in the world of thought. But such is not the case. Although the\nexoteric religions of the Romans resembled that of the Greeks, from whom\nit was borrowed or inherited, there was little or no original thought\nalong metaphysics, religion or philosophy among the Romans. This was\nprobably due to the fact that the whole tendency of Rome was toward\nmaterial advancement and attainment, little or no attention being given\nto matters concerning the soul, future life, etc. Some few of the\nphilosophers of Rome advanced theories regarding the future state, but\nbeyond a vague sort of ancestor worship the masses of the people took\nbut little interest in the subject. Cicero, it is true, uttered words\nwhich indicate a belief in immortality, when he said in \"Scipio's\nDream\": \"Know that it is not thou, but thy body alone, which is mortal.\nThe individual in his entirety resides in the soul, and not in the\noutward form. Learn, then, that thou art a god; thou, the immortal\nintelligence which gives movements to a perishable body, just as the\neternal God animates an incorruptible body.\" Pliny the younger left\nwritings which seem to indicate his belief in the reality of phantoms,\nand Ovid has written verses which would indicate his recognition of a\npart of man which survived the death of the body. But, on the whole,\nRoman philosophy treated immortality as a thing perchance existing, but\nnot proven, and to be viewed rather as a poetical expression of a\nlonging, rather than as an established, or at least a well grounded,\nprinciple of philosophical thought. But Lucretius and others of his time\nand country protested against the folly of belief in the survival of the\nsoul held by the other nations. He said that: \"The fear of eternal life\nshould be banished from the universe; it disturbs the peace of mankind,\nfor it prevents the enjoyment of any security or pleasure.\" And Virgil\npraised and commended the philosophical attitude which was able to see\nthe real cause of things, and was therefore able to reject the unworthy\nfear of a world beyond and all fears arising from such belief. But even\nmany of the Roman philosophers, while denying immortality, believed in\nsupernatural powers and beings, and were very superstitious and\nchildlike in many respects, so that their philosophy of non-survival was\nevidently rather the result of temperament and pursuit of material\nthings than a height of philosophical reasoning or metaphysical thought.\n\nAnd so, the Romans stand apart from the majority of the ancient\npeoples, in so far as the belief in Reincarnation is concerned. While\nthere were individual mystics and occultists among them, it still\nremains a fact that the majority of the people held no such belief, and\nin fact the masses had no clearly defined ideas regarding the survival\nof the soul. It is a strange exception to the general rule, and one that\nhas occasioned much comment and attention among thinkers along these\nlines. There was a vague form of ancestor worship among the Romans, but\neven this was along the lines of collective survival of the ancestors,\nand was free from the ordinary metaphysical speculations and religious\ndogmas. Roughly stated, the Roman belief may be expressed by an idea of\na less material, or more subtle, part of man which escaped\ndisintegration after death, and which in some mysterious way passed on\nto combine with the ancestral soul which composed the collective\nancestral deity of the family, the peace and pleasure of which were held\nas sacred duties on the part of the descendants, sacrifices and\nofferings being made toward this end. Nevertheless, here and there,\namong the Romans, were eminent thinkers who seemingly held a vague,\ntentative belief in some form of Reincarnation, as, for instance, Ovid,\nwho says: \"Nothing perishes, although everything changes here on earth;\nthe souls come and go unendingly in visible forms; the animals which\nhave acquired goodness will take upon them human form\"; and Virgil says:\n\"After death, the souls come to the Elysian fields, or to Tartarus, and\nthere meet with the reward or punishment of their deeds during life.\nLater, on drinking of the waters of Lethe, which takes away all memory\nof the past, they return to earth.\" But it must be admitted that Rome\nwas deficient in spiritual insight and beliefs, on the whole, her\nmaterial successes having diverted her attention from the problems which\nhad so engrossed the mind of her neighbor Greece, and her older sisters\nPersia, Chaldea, and Egypt.\n\nAmong the Greeks, on the contrary, we find a marked degree of interest\nand speculation regarding the immortality of the soul, and much\ninterest in the doctrines of Metempsychosis or Reincarnation. Although\nthe great masses of the Grecian people were satisfied with their popular\nmythology and not disposed to question further, or to indulge in keen\nspeculation on metaphysical subjects, still the intellectual portion of\nthe race were most active in their search after truth, and their schools\nof philosophy, with their many followers and adherents, have left an\nindelible mark upon the thought of man unto this day. Next to the\nHindus, the Greeks were the great philosophers of the human race. And\nthe occultists and mystics among them were equal to those of Persia,\nIndia, Chaldea or Egypt. While the various theories regarding the soul\nwere as the sands of the sea, so many were the teachers, schools and\ndivisions of thought among these people--still the doctrine of\nReincarnation played a very important part in their philosophy. The\nprevailing idea was that the worthy souls pass on to a state of bliss,\nwithout rebirth, while the less worthy pass the waters of the river of\nLethe, quaffing of its waters of forgetfulness, and thus having the\nrecollection of their earth-life, and of the period of punishment that\nthey had undergone by reason of the same, obliterated and cleansed from\ntheir memories, when they pass on to re-birth. One of the old Orphic\nhymns reads as follows: \"The wise love light and not darkness. When you\ntravel the journey of Life, remember, always, the end of the journey.\nWhen souls return to the light, after their sojourn on earth, they wear\nupon their more subtle bodies, like searing, hideous scars, the marks of\ntheir earthly sins--these must be obliterated, and they go back to earth\nto be cleansed. But the pure, virtuous and strong proceed direct to the\nSun of Dionysus.\" The teachings of the Egyptians left a deep impression\nupon the Grecian mind, and not only the common form of belief, but also\nthe esoteric doctrines, were passed along to the newer people by the\nelder.\n\nPythagoras was the great occult teacher of Greece, and his school and\nthat of his followers accepted and taught the great doctrine of\nReincarnation. Much of his teaching was reserved for the initiates of\nthe mystic orders founded by himself and his followers, but still much\nof the doctrine was made public. Both Orpheus and Pythagoras, although\nseveral centuries separated them, were students at the fount of\nknowledge in Egypt, having traveled to that country in order to be\ninitiated in the mystic orders of the ancient land, and returning they\ntaught anew the old doctrine of Rebirth. The Pythagorean teaching\nresembles that of the Hindus and Egyptians, in so far as is concerned\nthe nature of man--his several bodies or sheaths--and the survival of\nthe higher part of his nature, while the lower part perishes. It was\ntaught that after death this higher part of the soul passed on to a\nregion of bliss, where it received knowledge and felt the beneficent\ninfluence of developed and advanced souls, thus becoming equipped for a\nnew life, with incentives toward higher things. But, not having as yet\nreached the stage of development which will entitle it to dwell in the\nblissful regions for all eternity, it sooner or later reaches the limit\nof its term of probation, and then passes down toward another\nincarnation on earth--another step on the Path of Attainment.\n\nThe teaching was, further, that the conditions, circumstances and\nenvironments of the new earth-life were determined by the actions,\nthoughts, and mental tendencies of the former life, and by the degree of\ndevelopment which the several previous earth-lives had manifested. In\nthis respect the teaching agrees materially with the universal doctrine\nregarding Reincarnation and Karma. Pythagoras taught that the doctrine\nof Reincarnation accounted for the inequality observable in the lives of\nmen on earth, giving a logical reason for the same, and establishing the\nfact of universal and ultimate justice, accountable for on no other\ngrounds. He taught that although the material world was subject to the\nlaws of destiny and fatality, yet there was another and higher state of\nbeing in which the soul would rise above the laws of the lower world.\nThis higher state, he taught, had laws of its own, as yet unknown to\nman, which tended to work out the imperfect laws of the material world,\nestablishing harmony, justice, and equality, to supply the apparent\ndeficiencies manifested in the earth life.\n\nFollowing Pythagoras, Plato, the great Grecian philosopher, taught the\nold-new doctrine of Rebirth. He taught that the souls of the dead must\nreturn to earth, where, in new lives, they must wear out the old earth\ndeeds, receiving benefits for the worthy ones, and penalties for the\nunworthy ones, the soul profiting by these repeated experiences, and\nrising step by step toward the divine. Plato taught that the\nreincarnated soul has flashes of remembrance of its former lives, and\nalso instincts and intuitions gained by former experiences. He classed\ninnate ideas among these inherited experiences of former lives. It has\nbeen well said that \"everything can be found in Plato,\" and therefore\none who seeks for the ancient Grecian ideas concerning Reincarnation,\nand the problems of the soul, may find that which he seeks in the\nwritings of the old sage and philosopher. Plato was the past master of\nthe inner teachings concerning the soul, and all who have followed him\nhave drawn freely from his great store of wisdom. His influence on the\nearly Christian church was enormous, and in many forms it continues even\nunto this day. Many of the early Christian fathers taught that Plato was\nreally one of the many forerunners of Christ, who had prepared the pagan\nworld for the coming of the Master.\n\nIn \"Phaedo,\" Plato describes the soul, and explains its immortality. He\nteaches that man has a material body which is subject to constant\nchange, and subject to death and disintegration; and also an immaterial\nsoul, unchangeable and indestructible, and akin to the divine. At death\nthis soul was severed from its physical companion, and rose, purified,\nto the higher regions, where it rendered an account of itself, and had\nits future allotted to it. If it was found sufficiently untainted and\nunsullied by the mire of material life, it was considered fit to be\nadmitted to the State of Bliss, which was described as Union with the\nSupreme Being, which latter is described as Spirit, eternal and\nomniscient. The base and very guilty souls undergo a period of\npunishment, or purgation, to the end that they may be purged and\npurified of the guilt, before being allowed to make another trial for\nperfection. The souls which were not sufficiently pure for the State of\nBliss, nor yet so impure that they need the purging process, were\nreturned to earth-life, there to take up new bodies, and endeavor to\nwork out their salvation anew, to the end that they might in the future\nattain the Blissful State. Plato taught that in the Rebirth, the soul\nwas generally unconscious of its previous lives, although it may have\nflashes of recollection. Besides this it has a form of intuition, and\ninnate ideas, which was believed to be the result of the experiences\ngained in the past lives, and which knowledge had been stored up so as\nto benefit the soul in its reincarnated existence.\n\nPlato taught that the immaterial part of man--the soul--was a complex\nthing, being composed of a number of differing, though related,\nelements. Highest in the hierarchy of the soul elements he placed the\nSpirit, which, he taught, comprised consciousness, intelligence, will,\nchoice between good and evil, etc., and which was absolutely\nindestructible and immortal, and which had its seat in the head. Then\ncame two other parts of the soul, which survived the dissolution of the\nbody, but which were only comparatively immortal, that is, they were\nsubject to later dissolution and disintegration. Of these semi-material\nelements, one was the seat of the affections, passions, etc., and was\nlocated in the heart; while the other, which was the seat of the sensual\nand lower desires, passions, etc., was located in the liver. These two\nmentioned lower elements were regarded as not possessed of reason, but\nstill having certain powers of sensation, perception, and will.\n\nThe Neo-Platonists, who followed Plato, and who adapted his teachings to\ntheir many conflicting ideas, held firmly to the doctrine of\nReincarnation. The writings of Plotinus, Porphyry, and the other\nMystics, had much to say on this subject, and the teaching was much\nrefined under their influence. The Jewish philosophers were affected by\nthe influence of the Platonic thought, and the school of the Essenes,\nwhich held firmly to the idea of Rebirth, was a source from which\nChristianity received much of its early influence.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE JEWS, ESSENES AND EARLY CHRISTIANS.\n\n\nThe early Jewish people had an Inner Teaching which embraced certain\nideas concerning Reincarnation, although the masses of the people knew\nnothing of the doctrine which was reserved for the inner circles of the\nfew. There is much dispute concerning the early beliefs of the Jewish\npeople regarding the immortality of the soul. The best authorities seem\nto agree that the early beliefs were very crude and indefinite,\nconsisting principally of a general belief that after death the souls\nare gathered up together in a dark place, called Sheol, where they dwell\nin an unconscious sleep. It will be noted that the earlier books in the\nOld Testament have very little to say on this subject. Gradually,\nhowever, there may be noticed a dawning belief in certain states of the\ndeparted souls, and in this the Jews were undoubtedly influenced by the\nconceptions of the people of other lands with whom they came in contact.\nThe sojourn in Egypt must have exerted an important influence on them,\nparticularly the educated thinkers of the race, of which, however, there\nwere but few, owing to the condition in which they were kept as bondsmen\nof the Egyptians. Moses, however, owing to his education and training\namong the Egyptian priests, must have been fully initiated in the\nMysteries of that land, and the Jewish legends would indicate that he\nformed an Inner Circle of the priesthood of his people, after they\nescaped from Egypt, and doubtless instructed them fully in the occult\ndoctrines, which, however, were too advanced and complicated for\npreaching to the mass of ignorant people of which the Jewish race of\nthat time was composed. The lamp of learning among the Jews of that time\nwas kept alight but by very few priests among them. There has always\nbeen much talk, and legend, concerning this Inner Teaching among the\nJews. The Jewish Rabbis have had so much to say regarding it, and some\nof the Early Fathers of the Christian Church were of the opinion that\nsuch Secret Doctrine existed.\n\nScholars have noted that in important passages in the Jewish Bible,\nthree distinct terms are used in referring to the immaterial part, or\n\"soul,\" of man. These terms are \"Nichema,\" \"Rouach,\" and \"Nephesh,\"\nrespectively, and have been translated as \"soul,\" \"spirit\" or \"breath,\"\nin several senses of these terms. Many good authorities have held that\nthese three terms did not apply to one conception, but that on the\ncontrary they referred to three distinct elements of the soul, akin to\nthe conceptions of the Egyptians and other early peoples, who held to\nthe trinity of the soul, as we have shown a little further back. Some\nHebrew scholars hold that \"Nichema\" is the Ego, or Intelligent Spirit;\n\"Rouach,\" the lower vehicle of the Ego; and \"Nephesh,\" the Vital Force,\nVitality, or Life.\n\nStudents of the Kaballah, or Secret Writings of the Jews, find therein\nmany references to the complex nature of the soul, and its future\nstates, as well as undoubted teachings regarding Reincarnation, or\nFuture Existence in the Body. The Kaballah was the book of the Jewish\nMysteries, and was largely symbolical, so that to those unacquainted\nwith the symbols employed, it read as if lacking sense or meaning. But\nthose having the key, were able to read therefrom many bits of hidden\ndoctrine. The Kaballah is said to be veiled in seven coverings--that is,\nits symbology is sevenfold, so that none but those having the inner keys\nmay know the full truth contained therein, although even the first key\nwill unlock many doors. The Zohar, another Secret Book of the Jews,\nalthough of much later origin than the Kaballah, also contains much of\nthe Inner Teachings concerning the destiny of the soul. This book\nplainly recognizes and states the three-fold nature of the soul, above\nmentioned, and treats the Nichema, Rouach and Nephesh as distinct\nelements thereof. It also teaches that when the soul leaves the body it\ngoes through a long and tedious purifying process, whereby the effect\nof its vices is worn off by means of a series of transmigrations and\nreincarnations, wherein it develops several perfections, etc. This idea\nof attaining perfection through repeated rebirths, instead of the\nrebirths being in the nature of punishment as taught by Plato, is also\ntaught in the Kaballah, showing the agreement of the Jewish mind on this\ndetail of the doctrine. The essence of the Kaballic teaching on this\nsubject is that the souls undergo repeated rebirth, after long intervals\nof rest and purification, in entire forgetfulness of their previous\nexistences, and for the purpose of advancement, unfoldment,\npurification, development, and attainment. The Zohar follows up this\nteaching strictly, although with amplifications. The following quotation\nfrom the Zohar is interesting, inasmuch as it shows the teaching on the\nsubject in a few words. It reads as follows: \"All souls are subject to\nthe trials of transmigration; and men do not know which are the ways of\nthe Most High in their regard. They do not know how many\ntransformations and mysterious trials they must undergo; how many souls\nand spirits come to this world without returning to the palace of the\ndivine king. The souls must re-enter the absolute substance whence they\nhave emerged. But to accomplish this end they must develop all the\nperfections; the germ of which is planted in them; and if they have not\nfulfilled this condition during one life, they must commence another, a\nthird, and so on, until they have acquired the condition which fits them\nfor reunion with God.\"\n\nThe mystic sect which sprung up among the Jewish people during the\ncentury preceding the birth of Christ, and which was in the height of\nits influence at the time of the Birth--the sect, cult, or order of The\nEssenes--was an important influence in the direction of spreading the\ntruths of Reincarnation among the Jewish people. This order combined the\nearlier Egyptian Mysteries with the Mystic Doctrine of Pythagoras and\nthe philosophy of Plato. It was closely connected with the Jewish\nTherapeutae of Egypt, and was the leading mystic order of the time.\nJosephus, the eminent Jewish historian, writing of the Essenes, says:\n\"The opinion obtains among them that bodies indeed are corrupted, and\nthe matter of them not permanent, but that souls continue exempt from\ndeath forever; and that emanating from the most subtle ether they are\nunfolded in bodies as prisons to which they are drawn by some natural\nspell. But when loosed from the bonds of flesh, as if released from a\nlong captivity, they rejoice and are borne upward.\" In the New\nInternational Encyclopedia (vol. vii, page 217) will be found an\ninstructive article on \"Essenes,\" in which it is stated that among the\nEssenes there was a certain \"view entertained regarding the origin,\npresent state, and future destiny of the soul, which was held to be\npre-existent, being entrapped in the body as a prison,\" etc. And in the\nsame article the following statement occurs: \"It is an interesting\nquestion as to how much Christianity owes to Essenism. It would seem\nthat there was room for definite contact between John the Baptist and\nthis Brotherhood. His time of preparation was spent in the wilderness\nnear the Dead Sea; his preaching of righteousness toward God, and\njustice toward one's fellow men, was in agreement with Essenism; while\nhis insistence upon Baptism was in accordance with the Essenic emphasis\non lustrations.\" In this very conservative statement is shown the\nintimate connection between the Essenes and Early Christianity, through\nJohn the Baptist. Some hold that Jesus had a still closer relationship\nto the Essenes and allied mystic orders, but we shall not insist upon\nthis point, as it lies outside of the ordinary channels of historical\ninformation. There is no doubt, however, that the Essenes, who had such\na strong influence on the early Christian Church, were closely allied to\nother mystic organizations with whom they agreed in fundamental\ndoctrines, notably that of Reincarnation. And so we have brought the\nstory down to the early Christian Church, at which point we will\ncontinue it. We have left the phase of the subject which pertains to\nIndia for separate consideration, for in India the doctrine has had its\nprincipal home in all ages, and the subject in that phase requires\nspecial treatment.\n\nThat there was an Inner Doctrine in the early Christian Church seems to\nbe well established, and that a part of that doctrine consisted in a\nteaching of Pre-existence of the Soul and some form of Rebirth or\nReincarnation seems quite reasonable to those who have made a study of\nthe subject. There is a constant reference to the \"Mysteries\" and \"Inner\nTeachings\" throughout the Epistles, particularly those of Paul, and the\nwritings of the Early Christian Fathers are filled with references to\nthe Secret Doctrines. In the earlier centuries of the Christian Era\nfrequent references are found to have been made to \"The Mysteries of\nJesus,\" and that there was an Inner Circle of advanced Christians\ndevoted to mysticism and little known doctrines there can be no doubt.\nCelsus attacked the early church, alleging that it was a secret\norganization which taught the Truth to the select few, while it passed\non to the multitude only the crumbs of half-truth, and popular teachings\nveiling the Truth. Origen, a pupil of St. Clement, answered Celsus,\nstating that while it was true that there were Inner Teachings in the\nChristian Church, that were not revealed to the populace, still the\nChurch in following that practice was but adhering to the established\ncustom of all philosophies and religions, which gave the esoteric truths\nonly to those who were ready to receive them, at the same time giving to\nthe general mass of followers the exoteric or outer teachings, which\nwere all they could understand or assimilate. Among other things, in\nthis reply, Origen says: \"That there should be certain doctrines, not\nmade known to the multitude, which are divulged after the exoteric ones\nhave been taught, is not a peculiarity of Christianity alone, but also\nof philosophic systems in which certain truths are exoteric and others\nesoteric. Some of the followers of Pythagoras were content with his\n'ipse dixit,' while others were taught in secret those doctrines which\nwere not deemed fit to be communicated to profane and insufficiently\nprepared ears. Moreover, all the mysteries that are celebrated\neverywhere through Greece and barbarous countries, although held in\nsecret, have no discredit thrown upon them, so that it is in vain he\nendeavors to calumniate the secret doctrines of Christianity, seeing\nthat he does not correctly understand its nature.\" In this quotation it\nwill be noticed that not only does Origen positively admit the existence\nof the Inner Teachings, but that he also mentions Pythagoras and his\nschool, and also the other Mysteries of Greece, showing his acquaintance\nwith them, and his comparison of them with the Christian Mysteries,\nwhich latter he would not have been likely to have done were their\nteachings repugnant to, and at utter variance with, those of his own\nchurch. In the same writing Origen says: \"But on these subjects much,\nand that of a mystical kind, might be said, in keeping with which is the\nfollowing: 'It is good to keep close to the secret of a king,' in order\nthat the entrance of souls into bodies may not be thrown before the\ncommon understanding.\" Scores of like quotations might be cited.\n\nThe writings of the Early Fathers of the Christian Church are filled\nwith many allusions to the current inner doctrine of the pre-existence\nand rebirth of souls. Origen in particular has written at great length\nregarding these things. John the Baptist was generally accepted as the\nreincarnation of Elias, even by the populace, who regarded it as a\nmiraculous occurrence, while the elect regarded it as merely another\ninstance of rebirth under the law. The Gnostics, a mystic order and\nschool in the early church, taught Reincarnation plainly and openly,\nbringing upon themselves much persecution at the hands of the more\nconservative. Others held to some form of the teaching, the disputes\namong them being principally regarding points of doctrine and detail,\nthe main teachings being admitted. Origen taught that souls had fallen\nfrom a high estate and were working their way back toward their lost\nestate and glory, by means of repeated incarnations. Justin Martyr\nspeaks of the soul inhabiting successive bodies, with loss of memory of\npast lives. For several centuries the early Church held within its bosom\nmany earnest advocates of Reincarnation, and the teaching was recognized\nas vital even by those who combatted it.\n\nLactinus, at the end of the third century, held that the idea of the\nsoul's immortality implied its pre-existence. St. Augustine, in his\n\"Confessions,\" makes use of these remarkable words: \"Did I not live in\nanother body before entering my mother's womb?\" Which expression is all\nthe more remarkable because Augustine opposed Origen in many points of\ndoctrine, and because it was written as late as A. D. 415. The various\nChurch Councils, however, frowned upon these outcroppings of the\ndoctrine of Reincarnation, and the influence of those who rose to power\nin the church was directed against the \"heresy.\" At several councils\nwere the teachings rebuked, and condemned, until finally in A. D. 538,\nJustinian had a law passed which declared that: \"Whoever shall support\nthe mythical presentation of the pre-existence of the soul and the\nconsequently wonderful opinion of its return, let him be Anathema.\"\nSpeaking of the Jewish Kaballists, an authority states: \"Like Origen and\nother church Fathers, the Kaballists used as their main argument in\nfavor of the doctrine of metempsychosis, the justice of God.\"\n\nBut the doctrine of Reincarnation among Christian races did not die at\nthe orders and commands of the Christian Church Councils. Smouldering\nunder the blanket of opposition and persecution, it kept alive until\nonce more it could lift its flame toward Heaven. And even during its\nsuppression the careful student may see little flickers of the\nflame--little wreathings of smoke--escaping here and there. Veiled in\nmystic phrasing, and trimmed with poetic figure, many allusions may be\nseen among the writings of the centuries. And during the past two\nhundred years the revival in the subject has been constant, until at the\nclose of the Nineteenth Century, and the beginning of the Twentieth\nCentury, we once more find the doctrine openly preached and taught to\nthousands of eager listeners and secretly held even by many orthodox\nChristians.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE HINDUS.\n\n\nWhile Reincarnation has been believed and taught in nearly every nation,\nand among all races, in former or present times, still we are justified\nin considering India as the natural Mother of the doctrine, inasmuch as\nit has found an especially favorable spiritual and mental environment in\nthat land and among its people, the date of its birth there being lost\nin the cloudiness of ancient history, but the tree of the teaching being\nstill in full flower and still bearing an abundance of fruit. As the\nHindus proudly claim, while the present dominant race was still in the\nsavage, cave-dwelling, stone-age stage of existence--and while even the\nancient Jewish people were beginning to place the foundation stones of\ntheir religion, of which the present Christian religion is but an\noffshoot--the great Hindu religious teachers and philosophers had long\nsince firmly established their philosophies and religions with the\ndoctrine of Reincarnation and its accompanying teachings, which had been\naccepted as Truth by the great Aryan race in India. And, throughout\nforty centuries, or more, this race has held steadfastly to the original\ndoctrine, until now the West is looking again to it for light on the\ngreat problems of human life and existence, and now, in the Twentieth\nCentury, many careful thinkers consider that in the study and\nunderstanding of the great fundamental thoughts of the Vedas and the\nUpanishads, the West will find the only possible antidote to the virus\nof Materialism that is poisoning the veins of Western spiritual\nunderstanding.\n\nThe idea of reincarnation is to be found in nearly all of the\nphilosophies and religions of the race, at least in some period in their\nhistory--among all peoples and races--yet, in India do we find the\ndoctrine in the fullest flower, not only in the past but in the present.\nFrom the earliest ages of the race in India, Reincarnation in some of\nits various forms has been the accepted doctrine, and today it is\naccepted by the entire Hindu people, with their many divisions and\nsub-races, with the exception of the Hindu Mohammedans. The teeming\nmillions of India live and die in the full belief in Reincarnation, and\nto them it is accepted without a question as the only rational doctrine\nconcerning the past, present and future of the soul. Nowhere on this\nplanet is there to be found such an adherence to the idea of \"soul\"\nlife--the thinking Hindu always regarding himself as a soul occupying a\nbody, rather than as a body \"having a soul,\" as so many of the Western\npeople seem to regard themselves. And, to the Hindus, the present life\nis truly regarded as but one step on the stairway of life, and not as\nthe only material life preceding an eternity of spiritual existence. To\nthe Hindu mind, Eternity is here with us Now--we are in eternity as much\nthis moment as we ever shall be--and the present life is but one of a\nnumber of fleeting moments in the eternal life.\n\nThe early Hindus did not possess the complicated forms of religion now\nexisting among them, with their various creeds, ceremonials, rituals,\ncults, schools, and denominations. On the contrary, their original form\nof religion was an advanced form of what some have called\n\"Nature-Worship,\" but which was rather more than that which the Western\nmind usually means by the term. Their \"Nature\" was rather a \"Spirit of\nNature,\" or One Life, of which all existing forms are but varying\nmanifestations. Even in this early stage of their religious development\nthey held to a belief in reincarnation of the soul, from one form to\nanother. While to them everything was but a manifestation of One Life,\nstill the soul was a differentiated unit, emanated from the One Life,\nand destined to work its way back to Unity and Oneness with the Divine\nLife through many and varied incarnations, until finally it would be\nagain merged with the One. From this early beginning arose the many and\nvaried forms of religious philosophy known to the India of today; but\nclinging to all these modern forms is to be found the fundamental basis\nidea of reincarnation and final absorption with the One.\n\nBrahmanism came first, starting from the simple and working to the\ncomplex, a great priesthood gradually arising and surrounding the\noriginal simple religious philosophy with ceremonial, ritual and\ntheological and metaphysical abstractions and speculation. Then arose\nBuddhism, which, in a measure, was a return to the primitive idea, but\nwhich in turn developed a new priesthood and religious organization. But\nthe fundamental doctrine of Reincarnation permeated them all, and may be\nregarded as the great common centre of the Hindu religious thought and\nphilosophy.\n\nThe Hindu religious books are filled with references to the doctrine of\nReincarnation. The Laws of Manu, one of the oldest existing pieces of\nSanscrit writing, contains many mentions of it, and the Upanishads and\nVedas contain countless reference to it. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna\nsays to Arjuna: \"Know thou, O Prince of Pandu, that there never was a\ntime when I, nor thou, nor any of these princes of earth was not; nor\nshall there ever come a time, hereafter, when any of us shall cease to\nbe. As the soul, wearing this material body, experienceth the stages of\ninfancy, youth, manhood, and old age, even so shall it, in due time,\npass on to another body, and in other incarnations shall it again live,\nand move and play its part. * * * These bodies, which act as enveloping\ncoverings for the souls occupying them, are but finite things--things of\nthe moment--and not the Real Man at all. They perish as all finite\nthings perish--let them perish. He who in his ignorance thinketh: 'I\nslay' or 'I am slain,' babbleth like an infant lacking knowledge. Of a\ntruth none can slay--none can be slain. Take unto thy inner mind this\ntruth, O Prince! Verily, the Real Man--the Spirit of Man--is neither\nborn, nor doth it die. Unborn, undying, ancient, perpetual and eternal,\nit hath endured, and will endure forever. The body may die; be slain; be\ndestroyed completely--but he that hath occupied it remaineth unharmed.\n* * * As a man throweth away his old garments, replacing them with new\nand brighter ones, even so the Dweller of the body, having quitted its\nold mortal frame, entereth into others which are new and freshly\nprepared for it. * * * Many have been my births and rebirths, O\nPrince--and many also have been thine own. But between us lies this\ndifference--I am conscious of all my many lives, but thou lackest\nremembrance of thine.\"\n\nIn the Mahabarata is said: \"Even as when he casteth off an old garment,\nman clothes himself in new raiment, even so the soul, casting off the\nwornout body, takes on a new body, avoids the fatal paths leading to\nhell, works for its salvation, and proceeds toward heaven.\"\n\nThe Brhadaranyakopanishad, one of the old Hindu writings, contains the\nfollowing: \"As the caterpillar, getting to the end of the straw, takes\nitself away after finding a resting place in advance, so the soul\nleaving this body, and finding another place in advance, takes himself\noff from his original abode. As the goldsmith taking little by little\nof the gold expands it into a new form, so, indeed, does this soul,\nleaving this body, make a new and happy abode for himself.\"\n\nBut to attempt to quote passages relating to incarnation from the Hindu\nbooks, would be akin to compiling a library of many volumes. The sacred\nwritings of the East are filled with references to Reincarnation, and if\nthe latter were eliminated it would be \"like the play of Hamlet with\nHamlet omitted.\"\n\nWe cannot enter into a description of the various schools of Hindu\nreligious thought and philosophy in this work, for to do so would be to\nexpand this little volume in several of larger size, so extended is the\nsubject. But underlying the many divisions and subdivisions of Hindu\nthought may be found the fundamental idea of an original emanation from,\nor manifestation of, One Divine Being, Power and Energy, into countless\ndifferentiated units, atoms, or egos, which units, embodying in matter,\nare unconscious of the spiritual nature, and take on a consciousness\ncorresponding with the form in which they are embodied. Then follows a\nseries of embodiments, or incarnations, from lower to higher, in which\noccurs an evolution or \"unfoldment\" of the nature of the soul, in which\nit rises to higher and higher planes of being, until finally, after aeons\nof time, it enters in Union with the Divine Nirvana and\nPara-Nirvana--the state of Eternal Bliss.\n\nThe great difference between the Hindu thought and the Grecian is that\nwhile the Greeks considered repeated life with joy as a means of greater\nand greater expression of life, the Hindus, on the contrary, regard life\nas but a period of travail and sorrow, the only light to be perceived\nbeing the expectation and hope of eventually emerging from the region of\nmateriality, and illusion, and regaining true existence in the Spirit.\nThe Hindus nearly all agree that this material life is occasioned by\n\"avidya\" or ignorance on the part of the soul of its own real nature and\nbeing, whereby it fails to recognize that this material life is \"maya\"\nor illusion. They hold that Wisdom consists in the soul recognizing its\nreal nature, and perceiving the illusion of material life and things,\nand striving to liberate itself from the bondage of materiality and\nignorance.\n\nThe principal differences among the various Hindu schools of religion\nand philosophical thought arise from their differing views regarding the\nnature and constitution of the soul on the one hand, and the means of\nattaining liberation and freedom from material embodiment on the other.\nThe doctrine of \"Karma\" of spiritual cause and effect, which we shall\nconsider in another chapter, also runs along with all the varying Hindu\nconceptions, doctrines, and theories.\n\nWithout considering the matter of differences of opinion between the\nvarious schools, concerning the nature and constitution of the soul, we\nmay say that all the schools practically agree that the constitution of\nMan is a complex thing, comprising a number of sheaths, bodies,\ncoverings, or elements, from the grosser to the more spiritual, the\nvarious sheaths being discarded as the soul advances on its way toward\nperfection. There are disputes between the various schools regarding\nterminology and the precise arrangement of these \"principles,\" but the\nfollowing classification will answer for the purpose of giving a general\nidea of the Hindu views on the subject, subject always to the\nconflicting claims of the various schools. The classification is as\nfollows, passing from lower to higher:\n\n1. Physical or material body, or Rupa. 2. Vitality of Vital Force, or\nPrana-Jiva. 3. Astral Body, Etheric Double, or Linga Sharira. 4. Animal\nSoul, or Kama Rupa. 5. Human Soul, or Manas. 6. Spiritual Soul, or\nBuddhi. 7. Divine Spirit, or Atma.\n\nFrom the beginning, the tendency of the Hindu mind was in the direction\nof resolving the universe of forms, shapes, and change, back into some\nOne Underlying Principle, from which all the phenomenal world\nemerged--some One Infinite Energy, from which all else emerged,\nemanated, or evolved. And the early Hindu mind busied itself actively\nwith the solution of the problem of this One Being manifesting a\nBecoming into Many. Just as is the Western world of today actively\nengaged in solving many material problems, so was ancient India active\nin solving many spiritual problems--just as the modern West is straining\nevery energy toward discovering the \"How,\" so was ancient India\nstraining every effort to discovering the \"Why.\" And from that struggle\nof the mind of India there arose countless schools of religious and\nphilosophical thought, many of which have passed away, but many of which\npersist today. The problem of the relationship of the human soul to the\nOne Being, and the secondary problem of the life, present and future, of\nthe individual soul, is a most vital one to all thinking Hindus today as\nin the forty centuries or more of its philosophical history. To the\nHindu mind, all material research is of minor importance, the important\nTruth being to discover that \"which when once known, all else is\nunderstood.\" But, as we have said, in spite of the numerous religions,\nschools, and phases of teaching, among the Hindus, the one fundamental\nconception of Reincarnation is never lost sight of, nor is it ever\ndoubted in any of the forms of the philosophies or religions.\n\nIgnoring the subdivisions of Hindu philosophical thought, we may say\nthat the Hindu philosophies may be divided into a few general classes,\nseveral of which we shall now hastily consider, that you may get a\nglimpse at the variety of Hindu speculative philosophy in its relation\nto the soul and its destiny. You will, of course, understand that we can\ndo no more than mention the leading features of each class, as a careful\nconsideration would require volumes for each particular school.\n\nWe will first consider the philosophy of Kanada, generally known as the\nVaisheshika Teaching, which inclines toward an Atomic Theory, akin to\nthat formulated by the old Greek philosopher Democritus. According to\nthis teaching the substance of the universe is composed of an infinite\nnumber of atoms, which are eternal, and which were not created by God,\nbut which are co-eternal with Him. These atoms, combining and forming\nshapes, forms, etc., are the basis of the material universe. It is held,\nhowever, that the power or energy whereby these atoms combine and thus\nform matter, comes from God. This teaching holds that God is a Personal\nBeing, possessing Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence. It is also\nheld that there are two substances, or principles, higher, that the\nmaterial energies or substance, namely, Manas, or Mind, and Atman, or\nSpirit. Manas or Mind is held to be something like a Mind-Stuff, from\nwhich all individual minds are built up--and which Mind-Stuff is held to\nbe eternal. Atman, or Spirit, is held to be an eternal principle, from\nwhich the Selves or Souls are differentiated. The Atman, or Spirit, or\nSelf, is regarded as much higher than Mind, which is its tool and\ninstrument of expression. This philosophy teaches that through\nprogression, by Reincarnation, the soul advances from lower to higher\nstates, on its road to freedom and perfection.\n\nAnother great school of Hindu philosophy is the philosophy of Kapila,\ngenerally known as the Sankhya system. This teaching opposes the Atomic\nTheory of the Vaisheshika system, and holds that the atoms are not\nindestructible nor eternal, but may be resolved back into a primal\nsubstance called Prakriti. Prakriti is held to be an universal, eternal\nenergy or ethereal substance, something similar to certain Western\nscientific conceptions of an Universal Ether. From this eternal,\nuniversal energy, Kapila held that all the universe has been\nevolved--all material forms or manifestations of energy being but\nmanifestations of Prakriti. But, the Sankhya system is not\nmaterialistic, as might be supposed at first glance, for side by side\nwith Prakriti it offers the principle of Purusha, or Soul, or Spirit, of\nwhich all individual souls are atomic units--the Principle of Purusha\nbeing an Unity of Units, and not an Undivided One. The Purusha--that is,\nits units or Individual Souls--is regarded as eternal and immortal.\nPrakriti is devoid of mind, but is possessed of active vital energy,\nand is capable of producing forms and material manifestations by reason\nof its inherent energy, and laws, and thus produces what the Hindus call\n\"Maya,\" or material illusion, which they hold to be devoid of reality,\ninasmuch as the forms are constantly changing and have no permanence.\nThis philosophy holds that Prakriti, by means of the glamour of its\nmanifestations of Maya, entices the individual souls, or Purushas, which\nwhen once in the centre of attraction of the Maya are drawn into the\nvortex of material existence, losing a knowledge of their real nature.\nBut the souls never lose entirely the glimmer of the Light of the\nSpirit, and, consequently, soon begin to feel that they have made a\nmistake, and consequently begin to strive to escape the bondage of\nPrakriti and its Maya--but such escape is possible only through a\ngradual rising up from the depths of Maya, step by step, cycle by cycle,\nby a series of purification and cleansing of themselves, just as a fly\ncleanses itself of the sticky substance into which it has fallen. This\nescape is accomplished by Spiritual Unfoldment or Evolution, by means of\nReincarnation--this Evolution not being a \"growth,\" but rather an\n\"unfoldment\" or \"unwrapping\" of the soul from its confining sheaths, one\nby one.\n\nAnother great school of Hindu philosophy is the philosophy of Patanjali,\ngenerally known as the Yoga Philosophy, but which differs from the Yogi\nPhilosophy of the West, which is eclectic in nature. The Yoga Philosophy\nof Patanjali bears some resemblance to the Sankhya school of Kapila,\ninasmuch as it recognizes the teachings regarding Prakriti, from which\nuniversal energy the material universe has been evolved; and inasmuch as\nit also recognizes the countless individual Purushas, or souls, which\nare eternal and immortal, and which are entrapped in the Maya of\nPrakriti. But it then takes a position widely divergent from the Sankhya\nschool, inasmuch as Patanjali's Yoga school holds that there also exists\na Supreme Purusha, Spirit, Soul--or God--who is without form; infinite;\neternal; and above all attributes and qualities common to man. In this\nrespect, Patanjali differs from Kapila, and inclines rather toward\nagreement with Kanada, of the first mentioned school of the Vaisheshika\nsystem. All three philosophers, however, seem to generally agree in the\nmain upon the Mind Principle, which they hold to be beneath Soul or\nSpirit, and to be in the nature of Mind-Stuff, which is of a\nsemi-material nature--Kapila and Patanjali even going so far as to hold\nthat it is a manifestation of Prakriti or the Universal Energy, rather\nthan a distinct principle. They hold that the Purusha, or Spirit, not\nthe Mind, is the Real Self, and the source of consciousness and the real\nintelligence. The practical teachings of the school of Patanjali is a\nsystem by which the Purusha may escape from and overcome the Prakriti,\nand thus gain emancipation, freedom, and a return to its natural and\noriginal purity and power. This school, of course, teaches\nReincarnation, and Progression through Rebirth, in accordance with the\nprinciples mentioned above.\n\nAnother great school of Hindu philosophy is that known as the Vedanta\nPhilosophy, which many consider the most advanced of all the Hindu\nsystems, and which is rapidly growing in popularity among the educated\nHindus, and also among many very intelligent students of philosophical\nthought in the Western world. Its followers claim that the Vedanta\nPhilosophy has reached the very highest point of philosophical thought,\nspeculation and analysis possible to the human mind of today, and many\nWestern students have claimed that it contains the highest conceptions\nfound in any and all of the great World Philosophies. Be this as it may,\nit certainly contains much that is the most subtle, refined and keen in\nthe field of philosophical speculative thought of the world, and while,\nas some claim, it may lack the \"appeal to the religious emotions\" that\nsome other forms of thought possess, still it proves very attractive to\nthose in whom intellectual development and effort have superseded the\n\"emotional\" side of philosophy or religion.\n\nThe Vedanta System holds that the Ultimate Reality, or Actual Being, of\nthe universe--the One Absolute Energy or Substance from which all the\nuniverse proceeds--is THAT which may be called The Absolute, which is\neternal, infinite, indivisible, beyond attributes and qualities, and\nwhich is the source of intelligence. The Absolute is held to be One, not\nMany--Unique and Alone. It is identical with the Sanscrit \"Brahman,\" and\nis held to be THAT which has been called \"The Unknowable\"; the \"Father\";\nthe \"Over-Soul\"; the \"Thing-in-Itself\"--in short, it is THAT which men\nmean, and have always meant, when they wished to express the ABSOLUTE\nREALITY. The Vedantists hold that this Absolute Brahman is the essence\nof \"Sat,\" or Absolute Existence; \"Chit,\" or Absolute Intelligence; and\n\"Ananda,\" or Absolute Bliss. Without attempting to enter into an\nanalysis, or close exposition, of the Vedanta Philosophy, or so far as\nconcerns the soul, and its destiny, we may say that it holds that there\ndo not exist the countless eternal, immortal souls or Purushas of the\nSankhya philosophy, but instead that the individual souls are but the\ncountless \"images or reflections\" of the Absolute Being, or Brahman, and\nhave their existence only by reason of the Real Existence of the One\nOnly Being. Consequently, the Spirit within the soul of Man, and which\nis \"the soul of his soul,\" is Divine. The Vedantists admit the existence\nof a \"Logos,\" or Ishwara, the Lord of the Universe, who is, however, but\na manifestation of Brahman--a Great Soul, as it were, and who presides\nover the evolution of Universes from the Prakriti, and who plays the\npart of the Demiurge of the old Grecian and Gnostic philosophies. The\nVedantists admit the existence (relative) of Prakriti, or Universal\nEnergy, but hold that it is not eternal, or real-in-itself, but is\npractically identical with Maya, and may be regarded as a form of the\nCreative Energy of the Absolute, Brahman. This Maya (which while\nstrictly speaking is illusion inasmuch as it has no real existence or\neternal quality) is the source of time, space, and causation, and of\nthe phenomenal universe, with its countless forms, shapes, and\nappearances. The Vedantists teach that the Evolution of the Soul is\naccomplished by its escaping the folds of Maya, or Materiality, one by\none, by means of Rebirths, until it manifests more and more of its\nDivine Nature; and thus it goes on, and on, from higher to still higher,\nuntil at last it enters into the Divine Being and attains Union with\nGod, and is \"One with the Father.\"\n\nAnother great Hindu philosophy is the philosophy of Gautama, the Buddha,\nwhich is generally known as the Buddhistic Philosophy, or as Buddhism.\nIt is difficult to give a clear idea of Buddhism in a concise form, for\nthere are so many schools, sects, and divisions among this general\nschool of philosophy, differing upon the minor points and details of\ndoctrine, that it requires a lengthy consideration in order to clear\naway the disputed points. Speaking generally, however, it may be said\nthat the Buddhists start with the idea or conception of an Unknowable\nReality, back of and under all forms and activity of the phenomenal\nuniverse. Buddha refused to discuss the nature of this Reality,\npractically holding it to be Unknowable, and in the nature of an\nAbsolute Nothing, rather than an Absolute Something in the sense of\n\"Thingness\" as we understand the term; that is to say, it is a No-Thing,\nrather than a Thing--consequently it is beyond thought, understanding,\nor even imagination--all that can be said is that it IS. Buddha refused\nto discuss or teach of the manner in which this Unknowable came to\nmanifest upon the Relative Plane, for he held that Man's proper study\nwas of the World of Things, and how to escape therefrom. In a vague way,\nhowever, Buddhism holds that in some way this Unknowable, or a part\nthereof, becomes entangled in Maya or Illusion, through Avidya or\nIgnorance, Law, Necessity, or perhaps something in the nature of a\nMistake. And arising from this mistaken activity, all the pain and\nsorrow of the universe arises, for the Buddhist holds that the Universe\nis a \"world of woe,\" from which the soul is trying to escape. Buddhism\nholds that the soul Reincarnates often, because of its desires and\nattractions, which if nursed and encouraged will lead it into lives\nwithout number. Consequently, to the Buddhist, Wisdom consists in\nacquiring a knowledge of the true state of affairs, just mentioned, and\nthen upon that knowledge building up a new life in which desire and\nattraction for the material world shall be eliminated, to the end that\nthe soul having \"killed out desire\" for material things--having cut off\nthe dead branch of Illusion--is enabled to escape from Karma, and\neventually be released from Rebirth, thence passing back into the great\nocean of the Unknowable, or Nirvana, and ceasing to Be, so far as the\nphenomenal world is concerned, although of course it will exist in the\nUnknowable, which is Eternal. Many Western readers imagine the\nBuddhistic Nirvana to be an utter annihilation of existence and being,\nbut the Hindu mind is far more subtle, and sees a vast difference\nbetween utter annihilation on the one hand, and extinction of\npersonality on the other. That which appears Nothingness to the Western\nMind, is seen as No-Thingness to the Oriental conception, and is\nconsidered more of a resumption of an original Real Existence, rather\nthan an ending thereof.\n\nThere is a great difference between the two great schools of Buddhism,\nthe Northern and Southern, respectively, regarding the nature of the\nsoul. The Northern school considers the soul as an entity,\ndifferentiated from the Unknowable in some mysterious way not explained\nby Buddha, and yet different from the individual Purusha of the Sankhya\nschool, before mentioned. On the contrary, the Southern school does not\nregard the soul as a differentiated or distinct entity, but rather as a\ncentre of phenomenal activity saturated or charged with the results of\nits deeds, and that therefore the Karma, or the Essence of Deeds, may be\nconsidered as the soul itself, rather than as something pertaining to\nit. The Northern school holds that the soul, accompanied by its Karma,\nreincarnates along the same lines as those taught by all the other\nHindu schools of Reincarnation and Karma. But the Southern school, on\nthe contrary, holds that it is not the soul-entity that re-incarnates\n(for there is no such entity), but that instead it is the Karma, or\nEssence of Deeds, that reincarnates from life to life, according to its\nattractions, desires, and merits or demerits. In the last mentioned view\nof the case, the rebirth is compared to the lighting of one lamp from\nthe flame of another, rather than in the transferring of the oil from\none lamp to another. But, really, these distinctions are quite\nmetaphysical, and when refined by analysis become hair-splitting. It is\nsaid that the two schools of Buddhism are growing nearer together, and\ntheir differences reconciled. The orthodox Hindus claim that Buddhism is\non the decline in India, being largely supplanted by the various forms\nof the Vedanta. On the other hand, Buddhism has spread to China, Japan\nand other countries, where it has taken on new forms, and has grown into\na religion of ritualism, creeds, and ceremonialism, with an\naccompanying loss of the original philosophy and a corresponding\nincrease of detail of teaching, doctrine and disciple and general\n\"churchiness,\" including a belief in several thousand different kind of\nhells. But even in the degenerated forms, Buddhism still holds to\nReincarnation as a fundamental doctrine.\n\nIn this consideration of the philosophies of India, we do not consider\nit necessary to go into an explanation of the various forms of\nreligions, or church divisions, among the Hindus. In India, Religion is\nan important matter, and there seems to be some form of religion adapted\nto each one of that country's teeming millions. From the grossest form\nof religious superstition, and crudest form of ceremony and worship, up\nto the most refined idealism and beautiful symbolisms, runs the gamut of\nthe Hindu Religions. Many people are unable to conceive of an abstract,\nideal Universal Being, such as the Brahman of the Hindu Philosophy, and\nconsequently that Being has been personified as an Anthropomorphic\nDeity, and human attributes bestowed upon him to suit the popular fancy.\nIn India, as in all other countries, the priesthood have given the\npeople that which they asked for, and the result is that many forms of\nchurchly ceremonialism, and forms of worship, maintain which are\nabhorrent and repulsive to Western ideas. But we of the West are not\nentirely free from this fault, as one may see if he examines some of the\nreligious conceptions and ceremonies common among ignorant people in\nremote parts of our land. Certain conceptions, of an anthropomorphic\nDeity held by some of the more ignorant people of the Western world are\nbut little advanced beyond the idea of the Devil; and the belief in a\nhorned, cloven-hoofed, spiked-tail, red-colored, satyr-like, leering\nDevil, with his Hell of Eternal Fire and Brimstone, is not so uncommon\nas many imagine. It has not been so long since we were taught that \"one\nof the chief pleasures of God and his angels, and the saved souls, will\nbe the witnessing of the tortures of the damned in Hell, from the walls\nof Heaven.\" And the ceremonies of an old-time Southern negro\ncamp-meeting were not specially elevating or ideal.\n\nAmong the various forms of the religions of India we find some of the\nbefore mentioned forms of philosophy believed and taught among the\neducated people--often an eclectic policy of choosing and selecting\nbeing observed, a most liberal policy being observed, the liberty of\nchoice and selection being freely accorded. But, there is always the\nbelief in Reincarnation and Karma, no matter what the form of worship,\nor the name of the religion. There are two things that the Hindu mind\nalways accepts as fundamental truth, needing no proof--axiomic, in fact.\nAnd these two are (1) The belief in a Soul that survives the death of\nthe body--the Hindu mind seeming unable to differentiate between the\nconsciousness of \"I Am,\" and \"I always Have Been, and always Shall\nBe\"--the knowledge of the present existence being accepted as a proof of\npast and future existence; and (2) the doctrine of Reincarnation and\nKarma, which are accepted as fundamental and axiomic truths beyond the\nneed of proof, and beyond doubt--as a writer has said: \"The idea of\nReincarnation has become so firmly fixed and rooted in the Hindu mind as\na part of belief that it amounts to the dignity and force of a moral\nconviction.\" No matter what may be the theories regarding the nature of\nthe universe--the character of the soul--or the conception concerning\nDeity or the Supreme Being--you will always find the differing sects,\nschools, and individuals accepting Reincarnation and Karma as they\naccept the fact that they themselves are existent, or that twice one\nmakes two. Hindu Philosophy cannot be divorced from Reincarnation. To\nthe Hindu the only escape from the doctrine of Reincarnation seems to be\nalong the road of the Materialism of the West. From the above statement\nwe may except the Hindu Mohammedans and the native Hindu Christians,\npartially, although careful observers say that even these do not escape\nentirely the current belief of their country, and secretly entertain a\n\"mental reservation\" in their heterodox creeds. So, you see, we are\njustified in considering India as the Mother Land of Reincarnation at\nthe present time.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE MODERN WEST.\n\n\nIn the modern thought of the Western world, we find Reincarnation\nattracting much attention. The Western philosophies for the past hundred\nyears have been approaching the subject with a new degree of attention\nand consideration, and during the past twenty years there has been a\nmarvellous awakening of Western public interest in the doctrine. At the\npresent time the American and European magazines contain poems and\nstories based upon Reincarnation, and many novels have been written\naround it, and plays even have been based upon the general doctrine, and\nhave received marked attention on the part of the public. The idea seems\nto have caught the public fancy, and the people are eager to know more\nof it.\n\nThis present revival of attention has been brought about largely by the\nrenewed interest on the part of the Western world toward the general\nsubject of occultism, mysticism, comparative religion, oriental\nphilosophy, etc., in their many phases and forms. The World's Parliament\nof Religions, held at the World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893, did much to\nattract the attention of the American public to the subject of the\nOriental Philosophies in which Reincarnation plays such a prominent\npart. But, perhaps, the prime factor in this reawakened Western interest\nin the subject is the work and teachings of the Theosophical Society,\nfounded by Madame Blavatsky some thirty years ago, and which has since\nbeen continued by her followers and several successors. But, whatever\nmay be the cause, the idea of Reincarnation seems destined to play an\nimportant part in the religious and philosophical thought of the West\nfor some time to come. Signs of it appear on every side--the subject\ncannot be ignored by the modern student of religion and philosophy.\nWhether accepted or not, it must be recognized and examined.\n\nBut the forms of the doctrine, or theory, regarding Reincarnation, vary\nalmost as much in the Modern West as in the various Eastern countries at\npresent, and in the past. We find all phases of the subject attracting\nattention and drawing followers to its support. Here we find the\ninfluence of the Hindu thought, principally through the medium or\nchannel of Theosophy, or of the Yogi Philosophy--and there we find the\ninfluence of the Grecian or Egyptian philosophical conceptions\nmanifesting principally through the medium of a number of occult orders\nand organizations, whose work is performed quietly and with little\nrecognition on the part of the general public, the policy being to\nattract the \"elect few\" rather than the curious crowd--and again we find\nquite a number of persons in America and Europe, believing in\nReincarnation because they are attracted by the philosophy of the\nNeo-Platonists, or the Gnostics of the Early Christian Church, and\nfavoring Reincarnation as a proper part of the Christian Religion, and\nwho while remaining in the bosom of the Church interpret the teachings\nby the light of the doctrine of Rebirth, as did many of the early\nChristians, as we have seen.\n\nThe Theosophical conception and interpretation appeals to a great number\nof the Western Reincarnationists, by reason of its wide circulation and\ndissemination, as well as by the fact that it has formulated a detailed\ntheory and doctrine, and besides claims the benefit of authoritative\ninstruction on the doctrine from Adepts and Masters who have passed to a\nhigher plane of existence. We think it proper to give in some little\ndetail an account of the general teachings of Theosophy on this point,\nthe reader being referred to the general Theosophical literature for\nmore extended information regarding this special teaching.\n\nTheosophy teaches that the human soul is a composite entity, consisting\nof several principles, sheaths of vehicles, similar to those mentioned\nby us in our account of Hindu Reincarnation. The Theosophical books\nstate these principles as follows: (1) The Body, or Rupa; (2) Vitality,\nor Prana-Jiva; (3) Astral Body, or Linga-Sharira; (4) Animal Soul, or\nKama-Rupa; (5) Human Soul, Manas; (6) Spiritual Soul, or Buddhi; and (7)\nSpirit, or Atma. Of these seven principles, the last or higher Three,\nnamely, the Atma, Buddhi, and Manas, compose the higher Trinity of the\nSoul--the part of man which persists; while the lower Four principles,\nnamely, Rupa, Prana-Jiva, Linga-Sharira, and Kama-Rupa, respectively,\nare the lower principles, which perish after the passing out of the\nhigher principles at death. At Death the higher principles, or Triad,\nlives on, while the lower principles of Quarternary dissolve and\nseparate from each other and finally disintegrate, along the lines of a\nprocess resembling chemical action.\n\nTheosophy teaches that there is a great stream of Egos, or Monads, which\noriginally emanated from a Source of Being, and which are pursuing a\nspiral journey around a chain of seven globes, including the earth,\ncalled the Planetary Chain. The Life Wave of Monads reaches Globe A,\nand goes through a series of evolutionary life on it, and then passes on\nto Globe B, and so on until Globe G is reached, when after a continued\nlife there the Life Wave returns to Globe A, but not in a circle, but\nrather in a spiral, that is, on a higher plane of activity, and the\nround begins once more. There are seven Races to be lived through on\neach globe, many incarnations in each--each Race having seven sub-races,\nand each sub-race having seven branches. The progress of the Life Wave\nis illustrated by the symbol of a seven-coil spiral, sweeping with a\nwider curve at each coil, each coil, however, being divided into a minor\nseven-coil spiral, and so on. It is taught that the human soul is now on\nits fourth great round-visit to the Earth, and is in about the middle of\nthe fifth Race of that round. The total number of incarnations necessary\nfor each round is quite large, and the teaching is that none can escape\nthem except by special merit and development. Between each incarnation\nthere is a period of rest in the Heaven World, or Devachan, where the\nsoul reaps the experiences of the past life, and prepares for the next\nstep. The period of rest varies with the degree of attainment gained by\nthe soul, the higher the degree the longer the rest. The average time\nbetween incarnations is estimated at about fifteen hundred years.\nDevachan is thus a kind of temporary Heaven, from whence the soul must\nagain pass in time for a rebirth, according to its merits or demerits.\nThus, accordingly, each soul has lived in a variety of bodies, even\nduring the present round--having successively incarnated as a savage, a\nbarbarian, a semi-civilized man, a native of India, Egypt, Chaldea,\nRome, Greece, and many other lands, in different ages, filling all kinds\nof positions and places in life, tasting of poverty and riches, of\npleasure and pain--all ever leading toward higher things. The doctrine\nenunciated by Theosophy is complicated and intricate, and we can do no\nmore than to barely mention the same at this place.\n\nAnother Western form of the Oriental Teachings, known as the \"Yogi\nPhilosophy,\" numbers quite a large number of earnest students in this\ncountry and in Europe, and has a large circle of influence, although it\nhas never crystallized into an organization, the work being done quietly\nand the teachings spread by the sale of popular books on the subject\nissued at nominal prices. It is based on the Inner Teachings of the\nHindu Philosophy and is Eclectic in nature, deriving its inspiration\nfrom the several great teachers, philosophies and schools, rather than\nimplicitly following any one of them. Briefly stated this Western school\nof Yogi Philosophy teaches that the Universe is an emanation from, or\nmental creation of, the Absolute whose Creative Will flows out in an\noutpouring of mental energy, descending from a condition above Mind,\ndownward through Mind, Physical Energy, and Matter, in a grand\nInvolution or \"infolding\" of the divine energy into material forms and\nstates. This Involution is followed by an Evolution, or unfoldment, the\nmaterial forms advancing in the scale of evolution, accompanied by a\ncorresponding Spiritual Evolution, or Unfoldment of the Individual\nCentres or Units of Being, created or emanated as above stated. The\ncourse of Evolution, or rather, that phase of it with which the present\nhuman race on earth is concerned, has now reached a point about midway\nin the scale of Spiritual Evolution, and the future will lead the race\non, and on, to higher and still higher planes and states of being, on\nthis earth and on other spheres, until it reaches a point\nincomprehensible to the mind of man of today, and then still on and on,\nuntil finally the souls will pass into the plane of the Absolute, there\nto exist in a state impossible of present comprehension, and\ntranscending not only the understanding but also the imagination of the\nmind of man as we know him.\n\nThe Yogi Philosophy teaches that the soul will reincarnate on earth\nuntil it is fitted to pass on to higher planes of being, and that many\npeople are now entering into a stage which will terminate the\nunconscious reincarnation, and which enables them to incarnate\nconsciously in the future without loss of memory. It teaches that\ninstead of a retributive Karma, there is a Law of Spiritual Cause and\nEffect, operating largely along the lines of Desire and what has been\ncalled the \"Law of Attraction,\" by which \"like attracts like,\" in\npersons, environments, conditions, etc. As we have stated, the Yogi\nPhilosophy follows closely the lines of certain phases of the Hindu\nphilosophies from which it is derived, it being, however, rather an\n\"eclectic\" system rather than an exact reproduction of that branch of\nphilosophy favored by certain schools of Hindus and known by a similar\nname, as mentioned in our chapter on \"The Hindus\"--that is to say,\ninstead of accepting the teachings of any particular Hindu school in\ntheir entirety, the Western school of the Yogi Philosophy has adopted\nthe policy of \"Eclecticism,\" that is, a system following the policy of\nselection, choosing from several sources or systems, rather than a blind\nfollowing of some particular school, cult or teacher.\n\nThe Yogi Philosophy teaches that man is a seven-fold entity, consisting\nof the following principles, or divisions: 1. The Physical Body. 2. The\nAstral Body. 3. Prana, or Vital Force. 4. The Instinctive Mind. 5. The\nIntellect. 6. The Spiritual Mind. 7. Spirit. Of these, the first four\nprinciples belong to the lower part of the being, while the latter three\nare the higher principles which persist and Reincarnate. Man, however,\nis gradually evolving on to the plane of the Spiritual Mind, and will in\ntime pass beyond the plane of Intellect, which he will then class along\nwith Instinct as a lower form of mentality, he then using his Intuition\nhabitually and ordinarily, just as the intelligent man now uses his\nIntellect, and the ignorant man his Instinct-Intellect, and the animal\nits Instinct alone. In many points the Yogi Philosophy resembles the\nVedanta, and in others it agrees with Theosophy, although it departs\nfrom the latter in some of the details of doctrine regarding the process\nof Reincarnation, and particularly in its conception of the meaning and\noperation of the Law of Karma.\n\nThere are many persons in the West who hold firmly to Reincarnation, to\nwhom the Hindu conceptions, even in the Western form of their\npresentation, do not appeal, and who naturally incline toward the Greek\nconception and form of the doctrine. A large number of these people are\ngenerally classed among the \"Spiritualists,\" although strictly speaking\nthey do not fit into that classification, for they hold that the\nso-called \"Spirit World\" is not a place of permanent abode, but rather a\nresting place between incarnations. These people prefer the name\n\"Spiritists,\" for they hold that man is essentially a spiritual\nbeing--that the Spirit is the Real Man--and that that which we call Man\nis but a temporary stage in the development and evolution of the\nindividual Spirit. The Spiritists hold that the individual Spirit\nemanated from the Great Spirit of the Universe (called by one name or\nanother) at some distant period in the past, and has risen to its\npresent state of Man, through and by a series of repeated incarnations,\nfirst in the form of the lowly forms of life, and then through the\nhigher forms of animal life, until now it has reached the stage of human\nlife, from whence it will pass on, and on, to higher and still higher\nplanes--to forms and states as much higher than the human state than man\nis above the earthworm. The Spiritists hold that man will reincarnate in\nearthly human bodies, only until the Spirit learns its lessons and\ndevelops sufficiently to pass on to the next plane higher. They hold\nthat the planets and the countless fixed stars or suns, are but stages\nof abode for the evolving Spirit, and that beyond the Universe as we\nknow it there are millions of others--in fact, that the number of\nUniverses is infinite. The keynote of this doctrine may be stated as\n\"Eternal Progression\" toward the Divine Spirit. The Spirits do not\ninsist upon any particular theory regarding the constitution of the\nsoul--some of them speak merely of \"soul and body,\" while others hold to\nthe seven-fold being--the general idea being that this is unimportant,\nas the essential Spirit is after all the Real Self, and it matters\nlittle about the number or names of its temporary garments or vehicles\nof expression.\n\nStill another class of Reincarnationists in the Western World incline\nrather more toward the Grecian and Egyptian forms of the doctrine, than\nthe Hindu--the ideas of the Neo-Platonists which had such a powerful\neffect upon the early Christian Church, or rather among the \"elect few\"\namong the early Fathers of the Church, seeming to have sprung into\nrenewed activity among this class. These people, as we have said in the\nbeginning of this chapter, are rather inclined to group themselves into\nsmall organizations or secret orders, rather than to form popular cults.\nThey follow the examples of the ancients in this respect, preferring the\n\"few elect\" to the curious general public who merely wish to \"taste or\nnibble\" at the Truth. Many of these organizations are not known to the\npublic, as they studiously avoid publicity or advertisement, and trust\nto the Law of Attraction to \"bring their own to them--and them to their\nown.\" The teachings of this class vary in interpretation, and as many of\nthem maintain secrecy by pledges or oaths, it is not possible to give\ntheir teachings in detail.\n\nBut, generally speaking, they base their doctrines on the general\nprinciple that Man's present condition is due to the \"Descent of\nSpirit,\" in the nature of \"The Fall of Man,\" occurring some time in the\nfar distant past. They hold that Man was originally \"Spirit Pure and\nFree,\" from which blissful state he was enticed by the glamour of\nMaterial Life, and he accordingly fell from his higher state, lower and\nlower until he was sunken deep into the mire of Matter. From this lowly\nstate he then began to work up, or evolve, having in the dim recesses of\nhis soul a glimmer of remembrance of his former state, which dim light\nis constantly urging him on and on, toward his former estate, in spite\nof his frequent stumbling into the mire in his attempts to rise above\nit. This teaching holds to a theory and doctrine very similar to that of\nthe \"Spiritists\" just mentioned, except that while the latter, in common\nwith the majority of Reincarnationists, hold that the evolution of the\nSoul is in the direction of advancement and greater expression, similar\nto the growth of a child, these \"secret order\" people hold forcibly and\nearnestly to the idea that the evolution is merely a \"Returning of the\nProdigal\" to his \"Father's Mansion\"--the parable of the Prodigal Son,\nand that of the Expulsion from Eden, being held as veiled allegories of\ntheir teaching.\n\nIn the above view, the present state of existence--this Earthly Life--is\none of a series of Hells, in the great Hell of Matter, from which Man is\ncreeping up slowly but surely. According to this idea, the Earth is but\nmidway in the scale, there being depths of Materiality almost impossible\nof belief, and on the other hand, heights of heavenly bliss equally\nincapable of understanding. This is about all that we can say regarding\nthis form of the doctrine, without violating certain confidences that\nhave been reposed in us. We fear that we have said too much as it is,\nbut inasmuch as one would have to be able to \"read between the lines\" to\nunderstand fully, we trust that those who have favored us with these\nconfidences will pardon us.\n\nThere is still another class of believers in Reincarnation, of which\neven the general public is not fully aware, for this class does not have\nmuch to say regarding its beliefs. I allude to those in the ranks of the\northodox Christian Church, who have outgrown the ordinary doctrines, and\nwho, while adhering firmly to the fundamental Christian Doctrines, and\nwhile clinging closely to the Teachings of Jesus the Christ, still find\nin the idea of Rebirth a doctrine that appeals to their souls and minds\nas closer to their \"highest conceptions of immortality\" than the\nordinary teachings of \"the resurrection of the body,\" or the vague\ndoctrines that are taking its place. These Christian Reincarnationists\nfind nothing in the doctrine of Reincarnation antagonistic to their\nFaith, and nothing in their Faith antagonistic to the doctrine of\nReincarnation. They do not use the term Reincarnation usually, but\nprefer the term \"Rebirth\" as more closely expressing their thought;\nbesides which the former term has a suggestion of \"pagan and heathen\"\norigin which is distasteful to them. These people are inclined toward\nRebirth for the reason that it \"gives the soul Another Chance to Redeem\nItself\"--other chances to perfect itself to enter the Heavenly Realms.\nThey do not hold to an idea of endless reincarnation, or even of\ncontinued earthly incarnation for all, their idea being that the soul\nthat is prepared to enter heaven passes on there at once, having learned\nenough and earned enough merit in the few lives it has lived on\nearth--while the unprepared, undeveloped, and unfit, are bound to come\nback and back again until they have attained Perfection sufficient to\nenable them to advance to the Heaven World.\n\nA large number of the Christian Reincarnationists, if I may call them by\nthat name, hold that Heaven is a place or state of Eternal Progression,\nrather than a fixed state or place--that there is no standing still in\nHeaven or Earth--that \"In my Father's House are Many Mansions.\" To the\nmajority, this idea of Progression in the Higher Planes seems to be a\nnatural accompaniment to the Spiritual Progression that leads to the\nHigher Planes, or Heaven. At any rate, the two ideas seem always to have\nrun together in the human mind when the general subject has been under\nconsideration, whether in past time or present; whether among Christians\nor \"pagans and heathen.\" There seems to be an intuitive recognition of\nthe connection of the two ideas. And on the other hand, there seems to\nbe a close connection between the several views of \"special creation\" of\nthe soul before both--the single earth-life--and the eternity of reward\nor punishment in a state or place lacking progression or change. Human\nthought on the subject seems to divide itself into two distinct and\nopposing groups.\n\nThere are quite a number of Christian preachers, and members of orthodox\nchurches, who are taking an earnest interest in this doctrine of\nRebirth, and Eternal Progression here and hereafter. It is being\nconsidered by many whose church associates do not suspect them of being\nother than strictly orthodox in their views. Some day there will be a\n\"breaking out\" of this idea in the churches, when the believers in the\ndoctrine grow in numbers and influence. It will not surprise careful\nobservers to see the Church once more accepting the doctrine of Rebirth\nand reinstating the doctrine of Pre-existence--returning to two of its\noriginal truths, long since discarded by order of the Councils. Prof.\nBowen has said: \"It seems to me that a firm and well-grounded faith in\nthe doctrine of Christian Metempsychosis might help to regenerate the\nworld. For it would be a faith not hedged round with many of the\ndifficulties and objections which beset other forms of doctrine, and it\noffers distinct and pungent motives for trying to lead a more Christian\nlife, and for loving and helping our brother-man.\" And as James Freeman\nClarke has said: \"It would be curious if we should find science and\nphilosophy taking up again the old theory of metempsychosis, remodelling\nit to suit our present modes of religious and scientific thought, and\nlaunching it again on the wide ocean of human belief. But stranger\nthings have happened in the history of human opinion.\"\n\nSo, as we have said, there is a great variety of shades of belief in the\nWestern world regarding Reincarnation today, and the student will have\nno difficulty in finding just the shade of opinion best suited to his\ntaste, temperament and training or experience. Vary as they do in\ndetail, and theory, there is still the same fundamental and basic truth\nof the One Source--the One Life--and Reincarnation, reaching ever toward\nperfection and divinity. It seems impossible to disguise the doctrine so\nas to change its basic qualities--it will always show its original\nshape. And, so it is with the varying opinions of the Western thought\nregarding it--the various cults advocating some form of its\ndoctrine--the original doctrine may be learned and understood in spite\nof the fanciful dressings bestowed upon it. \"The Truth is One--Men call\nit by many names.\"\n\nIt may be of interest to Western readers to mention that some of the\nteachers of Occultism and Reincarnation hold that the present revival\nof interest on the subject in the Western world is due to the fact that\nin Europe and America, more particularly the latter, there is occurring\na reincarnating of the souls of many persons who lived from fifteen\nhundred to two thousand years ago, and who were then believers in the\ndoctrine. According to this view, those who are now attracted toward the\nHindu forms of the doctrine formerly lived as natives of India; those\nwho favor the Grecian idea, lived in Ancient Greece; others favor the\nEgyptian idea, from similar reasons; while the revival of Neo-Platonism,\nGnosticism and general Mysticism, among the present-day Christians is\naccounted for by the fact that the early Christians are now\nreincarnating in the Western world, having been reborn as Christians\naccording to the Law of Karmic Attraction. In this manner the advocates\nof the doctrine offer the present revival as another proof of their\nteachings.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nBETWEEN AND BEYOND INCARNATIONS.\n\n\nOne of the first questions usually asked by students of the subject of\nReincarnation is: \"Where does the soul dwell between incarnations; does\nit incarnate immediately after death; and what is its final abode or\nstate?\" This question, or questions, have been asked from the beginning,\nand probably will be asked so long as the human mind dwells upon the\nsubject. And many are the answers that have been given to the\nquestioners by the teachers and \"authorities\" upon the subject. Let us\nconsider some of the leading and more \"authoritative\" answers.\n\nIn the first place, let us consider that phase of the question which\nasks: \"Does the soul incarnate immediately after death?\" Some of the\nearlier Reincarnationists believed and taught that the soul\nreincarnated shortly after death, the short period between incarnations\nbeing used by the soul in adjusting itself, striking a balance of\ncharacter, and preparing for a new birth. Others held that there was a\nperiod of waiting and rest between incarnations, in which the soul\n'mentally digested' the experiences of the last life just completed, and\nthen considered and meditated over the mistakes it had made, and\ndetermined to rectify the mistakes in the next life--it being held that\nwhen the soul was relieved of the necessities of material existence, it\ncould think more clearly of the moral nature of its acts, and would be\nable to realize the spiritual side of itself more distinctly, in\naddition to having the benefit of the spiritual perspective occasioned\nby its distance from the active scenes of life, and thus being able to\nbetter gauge the respective \"worth-whileness\" of the things of material\nlife.\n\nAt the present time, the most advanced students of the subject hold that\nthe average period of rest between incarnations is about fifteen hundred\nyears, the less advanced souls hastening back to earth in a very short\ntime, the more advanced preferring a long period of rest, meditation and\npreparation for a new life. It is held that the soul of a gross,\nmaterial, animal-like person will incarnate very shortly after death,\nthe period of rest and meditation being very short, for the reason that\nthere is very little about which such a soul could meditate, as all of\nits attractions and desires are connected with material life. Many souls\nare so \"earth-bound\" that they rush back at once into material\nembodiment if the conditions for rebirth are favorable, and they are\ngenerally favorable for there seems to be always an abundant supply of\nnew bodies suitable for such souls in the families of people of the same\ncharacter and nature, which afford congenial opportunities for such a\nsoul to reincarnate. Other souls which have progressed a little further\nalong the path of attainment, have cultivated the higher part of\nthemselves somewhat, and enjoy to a greater extent the period of\nmeditation and spiritual life afforded them. And so, as the scale\nadvances--as the attraction for material life grows less, the period of\npurely spiritual existence between incarnations grows longer, and it is\nsaid that the souls of persons who are highly developed spiritually\nsometimes dwell in the state of rest for ten thousand years or more,\nunless they voluntarily return sooner in order to take part in the work\nof uplifting the world. It must be remembered, in this connection, that\nthe best teaching is to the effect that the advanced souls are rapidly\nunfolding into the state in which they are enabled to preserve\nconsciousness in future births, instead of losing it as is the usual\ncase, and thus they take a conscious part in the selection of the\nconditions for rebirth, which is wisely denied persons of a more\nmaterial nature and less spiritual development.\n\nThe next phase of the question: \"Where does the soul dwell between\nincarnations?\" is one still more difficult of answer, owing to the\nvarious shades of opinion on the subject. Still there is a fundamental\nagreement between the different schools, and we shall try to give you\nthe essence or cream of the thought on the subject. In the first place,\nall occultists set aside any idea of there being a \"place\" in which the\nsouls dwell--the existence of \"states\" or \"planes of existence\" being\ndeemed sufficient for the purpose. It is held that there are many planes\nof existence in any and every portion of space, which planes\ninterpenetrate each other, so that entities dwelling on one plane\nusually are not conscious of the presence of those on another plane.\nThus, an inhabitant of a high plane of being, in which the vibrations of\nsubstance are much higher than that which we occupy, would be able to\npass through our material world without the slightest knowledge of its\nexistence, just as the \"X rays\" pass through the most solid object, or\nas light passes through the air. It is held that there are many planes\nof existence much higher than the one we occupy, and upon which the\ndisembodied souls dwell. There are many details regarding these planes,\ntaught by the different schools of occultism, or spiritualism, but we\nhave neither the time nor space to consider them at length, and must\ncontent ourselves with mentioning but a few leading or typical beliefs\nor teachings on the subject.\n\nThe Theosophists teach that just when the soul leaves the body, there\noccurs a process of psychic photography in which the past life, in all\nof its details, is indelibly imprinted on the inner substance of the\nsoul, thus preserving a record independent of the brain, the latter\nbeing left behind in the physical body. Then the Astral Body, or Etheric\nDouble, detaches itself from the body, from which the Vital Force, or\nPrana-Jiva also departs at the same time, the Astral Body enfolding also\nthe four other principles, and together the Five Surviving Principles\npass on to the plane of Kama Loka, or the Astral Plane of Desire. Kama\nLoka is that part of the Astral Plane nearest to the material plane, and\nis very closely connected with the latter. If the soul is filled with\nhot and earnest desire for earth life, it may proceed no further, but\nmay hasten back to material embodiment, as we said a moment ago. But if\nthe soul has higher aspirations, and has developed the higher part of\nitself, it presses on further, in which case the Astral Body, and the\nAnimal Soul which is the seat of the passions and grosser desires,\ndisintegrate, and thus release the Triad, or three-fold higher nature of\nthe soul, namely the higher human soul, the spiritual soul, and the\nspirit--or as some term them, the intellect, the spiritual mind, and the\nspirit. The Triad then passes on to what is known as the plane of\nDevachan, where it rests divested of the lower parts of its nature, and\nin a state of bliss and in a condition in which it may make great\nprogress by reason of meditation, reflection, etc. Kama Loka has been\ncompared to the Purgatory of the Catholics, which it resembles in more\nways than one, according to the Theosophists. Devachan is sometimes\ncalled the Heaven World by Theosophists, the word meaning \"the state or\nplane of the gods.\"\n\nTheosophy teaches that the Soul Triad dwells in Devachan \"for a period\nproportionate to the merit of the being,\" and from whence in the proper\ntime \"the being is drawn down again to be reborn in the world of\nmortals.\" The Law of Karma which rules the earth-life of man, and which\nregulates the details of his rebirth, is said to operate on the\nDevachnic Plane as well, thus deciding the time of his abode on that\nplane, and the time when the soul shall proceed to rebirth. The state of\nexistence in Devachan is described at length in the Theosophical\nwritings, but is too complex for full consideration here. Briefly\nstated, it may be said that it is taught that the life on Devachan is in\nthe nature of a Dream of the Best that is In Us--that is, a condition in\nwhich the highest that is in us is given a chance for expression and\ngrowth, and development. The state of the soul in Devachan is said to be\none of Bliss, the degree depending upon the degree of spiritual\ndevelopment of the soul, as the Bliss is of an entirely spiritual\nnature. It may be compared to a state of people listening to some\nbeautiful music--the greater the musical development of the person, the\ngreater will be his degree of enjoyment. It is also taught that just as\nthe soul leaves Devachan to be reincarnated, it is given a glimpse of\nits past lives, and its present character, that it may realize the\nKarmic relations between the cause and effect, to the end that its new\nlife may be improved upon--then it sinks into a state of unconsciousness\nand passes on to rebirth.\n\nThe Western school of the Yogi Philosophy gives an idea of the state\nbetween incarnations, somewhat eclectic in its origin, agreeing with the\nTheosophical teaching in some respects, and differing from it in others.\nLet us take a hasty glance at it. In the first place it does not use the\nterms \"Kama Loca\" and \"Devachan\" respectively, but instead treats the\nwhole series of planes as the great \"Astral World\" containing many\nplanes, divisions, and subdivisions--many sub-planes, and divisions of\nthe same. The teaching is that the soul passes out of the body, leaving\nbehind its physical form, together with its Prana or Vital Energy, and\ntaking with it the Astral Body, the Instructive Mind, and the higher\nprinciples. The \"last vision\" of the past life, in which the events of\nthat life are impressed upon the soul just as it leaves the body, is\nheld to be a fact--the soul sees the past life as a whole, and in all of\nits minutest details at the moment of death, and it is urged that the\ndying person should be left undisturbed in his last moments for this\nreason, and that the soul may become calm and peaceful when starting on\nits journey. On one of the Astral Planes the soul gradually discards its\nAstral Body and its Instinctive Mind, but retains its higher vehicles or\nsheaths. But it is taught that this discarding of the lower sheaths\noccurs after the soul has passed into a \"soul-slumber\" on a sub-plane of\nthe Astral World, from which it awakens to find itself clothed only in\nits higher mental and spiritual garments of being, and free from the\ngrosser coverings and burdens. The teachings say: \"When the soul has\ncast off the confining sheaths, and has reached the state for which it\nis prepared, it passes to the plane in the Astral World for which it is\nfitted, and to which it is drawn by the Law of Attraction. The planes of\nthe Astral World interpenetrate, and souls dwelling on one plane are not\nconscious of those dwelling on another, nor can they pass from one plane\nto another, with this exception--that those dwelling on a higher plane\nare able to see (if they so desire) the planes below them in the order\nof development, and are also able to visit these lower planes if they so\ndesire. But those on the lower planes are not able to either see or\nvisit the planes above them--not that there is a 'watchman at the gate'\nto prevent them, but for the same reason that a fish is not able to pass\nfrom the water to the plane of air above that water.\" The same teachings\ntell us that the souls on the higher planes often visit friends and\nrelatives on the lower, so that there is always the opportunity for\nloved ones, relatives and friends meeting in this way; and also many\nsouls on the higher planes pass to the lower planes in order to instruct\nand advise those dwelling on the latter, the result that in some cases\nthere may be a progression from a lower to a higher plane of the Astral\nWorld by promotion earned by this instruction. Regarding Rebirth, from\nthe Astral World, the teachings say:\n\n\"But sooner or later, the souls feel a desire to gain new experiences,\nand to manifest in earth-life some of the advancement which has come to\nthem since 'death,' and for these reasons, and from the attraction of\ndesires which have been smoldering there, not lived out or cast off, or,\npossibly influenced by the fact that some loved soul, on a lower plane,\nis ready to incarnate and wishing to be incarnated at the same time in\norder to be with it (which is also a desire) the souls fall into the\ncurrent sweeping toward rebirth, and the selection of proper parents and\nadvantageous circumstances and surrounding, and in consequence again\nfall into a soul-slumber, gradually, and so when their time comes they\n'die' to the plane upon which they have been existing and are 'born'\ninto a new physical life and body. A soul does not fully awaken from its\nsleep immediately at birth, but exists in a dream-like state during the\ndays of infancy, its gradual awakening being evidenced by the growing\nintelligence of the babe, the brain of the child keeping pace with the\ndemands made upon it. In some cases the awakening is premature, and we\nsee cases of prodigies, child-genius, etc., but such cases are more or\nless abnormal, and unhealthy. Occasionally the dreaming soul in the\nchild half-wakes, and startles us by some profound observation, or\nmature remark or conduct.\"\n\nThe third phase of the question: \"What is the final state or abode of\nthe soul?\" is one that reaches to the very center or heart of\nphilosophical and religious thought and teaching. Each philosophy and\nreligion has its own explanation, or interpretation of the Truth, and it\nis not for us to attempt to select one teaching from the many in this\nwork. The reader will find many references to these various explanations\nand teachings as he reads the several chapters of this book, and he may\nuse his own discrimination and judgment in selecting that which appeals\nto him the most strongly. But he will notice that there is a fundamental\nagreement between all of the teachings and beliefs--the principle that\nthe movement of the soul is ever upward and onward, and that there is no\nstanding still in spiritual development and unfoldment. Whether the\nend--if end there be--is the reaching of a state of Bliss in the\npresence of the Divine One--or whether the weary soul finds rest \"in the\nBosom of the Father,\" by what has been called \"Union with God\"--the\nvital point for the evolving soul is that there is \"a better day\ncoming\"--a haven of rest around the turn of the road. And whatever may\nbe the details of the Truth, the fact remains that whatever state awaits\nthe soul finally, it must be Good, and in accordance with Divine Wisdom\nand Ultimate Justice and Universal Love.\n\nThe majority of occultists look forward to an end in the sense of being\nabsorbed in the Divine Being, not in the sense of annihilation, but in\nthe sense of reaching a consciousness \"of the Whole in the Whole\"--this\nis the true meaning of \"Nirvana.\" But whether this be true, or whether\nthere is a place of final rest in the highest spiritual realms other\nthan in the sense of absorption in the Divine, or whether there is a\nstate of Eternal Progression from plane to plane, from realm to realm,\non and on forever Godward, and more and more God-like--the End must be\nGood, and there is nothing to Fear, for \"the Power that rules Here,\nrules There, and Everywhere. And remember this, ye seekers after\nultimate truths--the highest authorities inform us that even the few\nstages or planes just ahead of us in the journey are so far beyond our\npresent powers of conception, that they are practically unknowable to\nus--this being so, it will be seen that states very much nearer to us\nthan the End must be utterly beyond the powers not only of our\nunderstanding but also of our imagination, even when strained to its\nutmost. This being so, why should we attempt to speculate about The End?\nInstead, why not say with Newman:\n\n   \"I do not ask to see the distant scene.\n   One step enough for me--\n   Lead Thou me on!\"\n\nIt is said that when Thoreau was dying, a friend leaned over and taking\nhim by the hand, said: \"Henry, you are so near to the border now, can\nyou see anything on the other side?\" And the dying Thoreau replied: \"One\nworld at a time, Parker!\" And this seems to be the great lesson of\nLife--One Plane at a Time! But though the Veil of Isis is impossible of\nbeing lifted entirely, still there is a Something that enables one to\nsee at least dimly the features of the Goddess behind the veil. And that\nSomething is that Intelligent Faith that \"knows,\" although it is unable\nto explain even to itself. And the voice of that Something Within\ninforms him who has that Faith: All Is Well, Brother! For beyond planes,\nand states, and universes, and time, and space, and name, and form, and\nThings--there must be THAT which transcends them all, and from which\nthey all proceed. Though we may not know what THAT is--the fact that It\nmust exist--that It IS, is a sufficient guarantee that the LAW is in\nconstant operation on all planes, from the lowest to the highest, and\nthat THE COSMOS IS GOVERNED BY LAW! And this being so, not even an atom\nmay be destroyed, nor misplaced, nor suffer Injustice; and all will\nattain the End rightly, and know the \"Sat-chit-ananda\" of the\nHindus--the Being-Wisdom-Bliss Absolute that all philosophies and\nreligions agree upon is the Final State of the Blessed. And to the\noccultist All are Blessed, even to the last soul in the scale of life.\nAnd over all the tumult and strife of Life there is always that\nSomething--THAT--silently brooding, and watching, and waiting--the Life,\nLight, and Love of the All. Such is the message of the Illumined of all\nages, races, and lands. Is it not worthy of our attention and\nconsideration?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nTHE JUSTICE OF REINCARNATION.\n\n\nThere are three views entertained by men who believe in the existence of\nthe soul--there are many shades of belief and opinion on the subject,\nbut they may be divided into three classes. These three views,\nrespectively, are as follows: (1) That the soul is specially created by\nthe Supreme Power at the time of conception, or birth, and that its\nposition on earth, its circumstances, its degree of intelligence, etc.,\nare fixed arbitrarily by that power, for some inscrutable reason of its\nown; (2) That the soul was pre-existent, that is, that it existed before\nconception and birth, in some higher state not understood by us, from\nwhence it was thrust into human form and birth, its position on earth,\nits circumstances, its degree of intelligence, etc., being determined by\ncauses unknown to us; (3) That the soul is one of countless others\nwhich emanated from the Source of Being at some period in the past, and\nwhich souls were equal in power, intelligence, opportunity, etc., and\nwhich worked its way up by spiritual evolution from lowly forms of\nexpression and life to its present state, from whence it is destined to\nmove on and on, to higher and still higher forms and states of\nexistence, until in the end, after millions of aeons of existence in the\nhighest planes of expressed life it will again return to the Source of\nBeing from which it emanated, and becomes \"one with the Father,\" not in\na state of annihilated consciousness, but in a condition of universal\nconsciousness with All. This view holds that the present condition of\neach soul is due to its own progress, development, advancement,\nunfoldment, or the lack of the same--the soul being its own Fate and\nDestiny--the enforcer of the Law upon itself, under the Law of Karma.\n\nConsidering the first named view, namely that the soul is newly created,\nand that its condition has been arbitrarily fixed by the Divine Power,\nthe student free from prejudice or fear finds it difficult to escape the\nconclusion that under this plan of creation there is lacking a\nmanifestation of Divine Justice. Even admitting the inability of the\nfinite mind to fully grasp infinite principles, man is still forced to\nthe realization of the manifest inequality and injustice of the relative\npositions of human beings on earth, providing that the same is thrust\narbitrarily upon them; and it would seem that no amount of future reward\ncould possibly equalize or explain these conditions. Unless there be\n\"something back of it all,\" it would certainly seem that Injustice was\nmanifested. Of course, many argue that the idea of Justice has nothing\nto do with the universal processes, but all who think of a Divine Being,\nfilled with Love, and Justice, are compelled to think that such\nqualities must manifest themselves in the creations of such a Being.\nAnd, if there be nothing \"back of it all,\" then the candid observer must\nconfess that the scheme of Justice manifested is most faulty according\neven to the human imperfect idea of Justice.\n\nAs Figuier, a French writer said about forty years ago: \"If there are a\nfew men well organized, of good constitution and robust health, how many\nare infirm, idiotic, deaf-mute, blind from birth, maimed, foolish and\ninsane? My brother is handsome and well-shaped: I am ugly, weakly,\nrickety, and a hunchback. Yet we are sons of the same mother. Some are\nborn into opulence, others into the most dreadful want. Why am I not a\nprince and a great lord, instead of a poor pilgrim on the earth,\nungrateful and rebellious? Why was I born in Europe and at Paris,\nwhereby civilization and art life is rendered supportable and easy,\ninstead of seeing the light under the burning skies of the tropics,\nwhere, dressed out in a beastly muzzle, a skin black and oily, and locks\nof wool, I should have been exposed to the double torments of a deadly\nclimate and a barbarous society? Why is not a wretched African negro in\nmy place in Paris, in conditions of comfort? We have, either of us,\ndone nothing to entitle us to our assigned places: we have invited\nneither this favor nor that disgrace. Why is the unequal distribution of\nthe terrible evils that fall upon some men, and spare others? How have\nthose deserved the partiality of fortune, who live in happy lands, while\nmany of their brethren suffer and weep in other parts of the world?\"\n\nFiguier continues: \"Some men are endowed with all benefits of mind;\nothers, on the contrary, are devoid of intelligence, penetration and\nmemory. They stumble at every step in their rough life-paths. Their\nlimited intelligence and their imperfect faculties expose them to all\npossible mortifications and disasters. They can succeed in nothing, and\nFate seems to have chosen them for the constant objects of its most\ndeadly blows. There are beings who, from the moment of their birth to\nthe hour of their death, utter only cries of suffering and despair. What\ncrime have they committed? Why are they here on earth? They have not\npetitioned to be here; and if they could, they would have begged that\nthis fatal cup might be taken from their lips. They are here in spite of\nthemselves, against their will. God would be unjust and wicked if he\nimposed so miserable an existence upon beings who have done nothing to\nincur it, and have not asked for it. But God is not unjust or wicked:\nthe opposite qualities belong to his perfect essence. Therefore the\npresence of man on such or such parts of the earth, and the unequal\ndistribution of evil on our globe, must remain unexplained. If you know\na doctrine, a philosophy, or a religion that solves these difficulties,\nI will destroy this book, and confess myself vanquished.\"\n\nThe orthodox theology answers Figuier's question by the argument that\n\"in our finite understanding, we cannot pretend to understand God's\nplans, purposes and designs, nor to criticize his form of justice.\" It\nholds that we must look beyond that mortal life for the evidence of\nGod's love, and not attempt to judge it according to what we see here on\nearth of men's miseries and inequalities. It holds that the suffering\nand misery come to us as an inheritance from Adam, and as a result of\nthe sins of our first parents; but that if we are \"good\" it will all be\nevened up and recompensed in the next world. Of course the extremists\nwho hold to Predestination have held that some were happy and some\nmiserable, simply because God in the exercise of His will had elected\nand predestined them to those conditions, but it would scarcely be fair\nto quote this as the position of current theology, because the tendency\nof modern theological thought is away from that conception. We mention\nit merely as showing what some have thought of the subject. Others have\nsought refuge in the idea that we suffer for the sins of our parents,\naccording to the old doctrine that \"the sins of the parents shall be\nvisited upon the children,\" but even this is not in accordance with\nman's highest idea of justice and love.\n\nPassing on to the second view, namely that the soul was pre-existent,\nthat is, existed in some higher state not understood by us, from whence\nit was thrust into human form, etc., we note that the questions as to\nthe cause of inequality, misery, etc., considered a moment ago, are\nstill actively with us--this view does not straighten out the question\nat all. For whether the soul was pre-existent in a higher state, or\nwhether it was freshly created, the fact remains that as souls they must\nbe equal in the sense of being made by the same process, and from the\nsame material, and that up to the point of their embodiment they had not\nsinned or merited any reward or punishment, nor had they earned anything\none way or another. And yet, according to the theory, these equally\ninnocent and inexperienced souls are born, some being thrust into the\nbodies of children to be born in environments conducive to advancement,\ndevelopment, etc., and gifted with natural advantages, while others are\nthrust into bodies of children to be born into the most wretched\nenvironments and surroundings, and devoid of many natural\nadvantages--not to speak of the crippled, deformed, and pain-ridden ones\nin all walks of life. There is no more explanation of the problem in\nthis view than there was in the first mentioned one.\n\nPassing on to the third view, namely, that the soul is one of countless\nothers which emanated from the Source of Being aeons ago, equal in power,\nopportunities, etc., and which individual soul has worked its way up to\nits present position through many rebirths and lives, in which it has\ngained many experiences and lessons, which determine its present\ncondition, and which in turn will profit by the experiences and lessons\nof the present life by which the next stage of its life will be\ndetermined--we find what many have considered to be the only logical and\npossible explanation of the problem of life's inequalities, providing\nthere is an \"answer\" at all, and that there is any such thing as a\n\"soul,\" and a loving, just God. Figuier, the French writer, from whom we\nquoted that remarkable passage breathing the pessimism of the old view\nof life, a few moments ago, admitted that in rebirth was to be found a\njust explanation of the matter. He says: \"If, on the contrary, we admit\nthe plurality of human existences and reincarnation--that is, the\npassage of the same soul through several bodies--all this is made\nwonderfully clear. Our presence on such or such a part of the earth is\nno longer the effect of a caprice of Fate, or the result of chance; it\nis merely a station in the long journey that we make through the world.\nBefore our birth, we have already lived, and this life is the sequel and\nresult of previous ones. We have a soul that we must purify, improve and\nennoble during our stay upon earth; or having already completed an\nimperfect and wicked life, we are compelled to begin a new one, and thus\nstrive to rise to the level of those who have passed on to higher\nplanes.\"\n\nThe advocates of Reincarnation point out that the idea of Justice is\nfully carried out in that view of life, inasmuch as what we are is\ndetermined by what we have been; and what we shall be is determined by\nwhat we are now; and that we are constantly urged on by the pressure of\nthe unfolding spirit, and attracted upward by the Divine One. Under this\nconception there is no such thing as Chance--all is according to Law.\nAs an ancient Grecian philosopher once said: \"Without the doctrine of\nmetempsychosis, it is not possible to justify the ways of God,\" and many\nother philosophers and theologians have followed him in this thought. If\nwe enjoy, we have earned it; if we suffer, we have earned it; in both\ncases through our own endeavors and efforts, and not by \"chance,\" nor by\nreason of the merits or demerits of our forefathers, nor because of\n\"predestination\" nor \"election\" to that fate. If this be true, then one\nis given the understanding to stoically bear the pains and miseries of\nthis life without cursing Fate or imputing injustice to the Divine. And\nlikewise he is given an incentive toward making the best of his\nopportunities now, in order to pass on to higher and more satisfactory\nconditions in future lives. Reincarnationists claim that rewards and\npunishments are properly awarded only on the plane in which the deed,\ngood or bad, was committed, \"else their nature is changed, their effects\nimpaired, and their collateral bearings lost.\" A writer on the subject\nhas pointed out this fact in the following words: \"Physical outrage has\nto be checked by the infliction of physical pain, and not merely by the\narousing of internal regret. Honest lives find appropriate consequence\nin visible honor. But one career is too short for the precise balancing\nof accounts, and many are needed that every good or evil done in each\nmay be requited on the earth where it took place.\" In reference to this\nmention of rewards and penalties, we would say that very many advanced\nReincarnationists do not regard the conditions of life as \"rewards and\npunishments,\" but, on the contrary, look upon them as forming part of\nthe Lessons in the Kindergarten of Life, to be learned and profited by\nin future lives. We shall speak of this further in our consideration of\nthe question of \"Karma\"--the difference is vital, and should be closely\nobserved in considering the subject.\n\nBefore we pass from the consideration of the question of Justice, as\nexemplified by Reincarnation, we would call your attention to the\ndifference in the views of life and its rewards and punishments held by\nthe orthodox theologians and the Reincarnationists, respectively. On the\none hand, the orthodox theologians hold that for the deeds, good or\nevil, performed by a man during his short lifetime of a few years, and\nthen performed under conditions arbitrarily imposed upon him at birth by\nhis Creator, man is rewarded or punished by an eternity of happiness or\nmisery--heaven or hell. Perhaps the man has lived but one or two years\nof reasonable understanding--or full three-score and ten--and has\nviolated certain moral, ethical or even religious laws, perhaps only to\nthe extent of refusing to believe something that his reason absolutely\nrefused to accept--for this he is doomed to an everlasting sojourn in a\nplace of pain, misery or punishment, or a state equivalent thereto. Or,\non the other hand, he has done the things that he ought to have done,\nand left undone the things that he ought not to have done--even though\nthis doing and not-doing was made very easy for him by reason of his\nenvironment and surroundings--and to crown his beautiful life he had\naccepted the orthodox creeds and beliefs of his fathers, as a matter of\ncourse--then this man is rewarded by an eternity of bliss, happiness and\njoy--without end. Try to think of what ETERNITY means--think of the aeons\nupon aeons of time, on and on, and on, forever--and the poor sinner is\nsuffering exquisite torture all that time, and in all time to come,\nwithout limit, respite, without mercy! And all the same time, the \"good\"\nman is enjoying his blissful state, without limit, or end, or satiety!\nAnd the time of probation, during which the two worked out their future\nfate, was as a grain of sand as compared with the countless universes in\nspace in all eternity--a relation which reduces the span of man's\nlifetime to almost absolutely NOTHING, mathematically considered. Think\nof this--is this Justice?\n\nAnd on the other hand, from the point of view of the Reincarnationist,\nis not the measure of cause and effect more equitably adjusted, even if\nwe regard it as a matter of \"reward and punishment\"--a crude view by\nthe way--when we see that every infraction of the law is followed by a\ncorresponding effect, and an adherence to the law by a proportionate\neffect. Does not the \"punishment fit the crime\" better in this case--the\nrewards also. And looking at it from a reasonable point of view, devoid\nfrom theological bias, which plan seems to be the best exemplification\nof Justice and Natural Law, not to speak of the higher Divine Justice\nand Cosmic Law? Of course, we are not urging these ideas as \"proofs\" of\nReincarnation, for strictly speaking \"proof\" must lie outside of\nspeculation of \"what ought to be\"--proof belongs to the region of \"what\nis\" and \"facts in experience.\" But, nevertheless, while one is\nconsidering the matter, it should be viewed from every possible aspect,\nin order to see \"how it works out.\"\n\nIt is also urged along the lines of the Justice of Reincarnation, as\nopposed to the injustice of the contrary doctrine, that there are many\ncases of little infants who have only a few days, or minutes, of this\nlife, before they pass out of the body in death. According to the\nanti-reincarnation doctrine, these little souls have been freshly\ncreated, and placed into physical bodies, and then without having had to\ntaste of the experiences of life, are ushered into the higher planes,\nthere to pass an eternal existence--while other souls have to live out\ntheir long lives of earth in order to reach the same higher states, and\nthen, according to the prevailing doctrine, even then they may have\nearned eternal punishment instead of eternal bliss. According to this\nidea the happiest fate would be for all to die as infants (providing we\nwere baptized, some good souls would add), and the death of an infant\nshould be the occasion for the greatest rejoicing on the part of those\nwho love it. But in spite of the doctrine, human nature does not so act.\nAccording to the doctrine of Reincarnation, the little babe's soul was\nbut pursuing the same path as the rest of the race--it had its past, as\nwell as its future, according to Law and Justice. While, if the ordinary\nview be correct, no one would begrudge the infant its happy fate, still\none would have good cause for complaint as the Inequality and Injustice\nof others having to live out long lives of pain, discomfort and misery,\nfor no cause, instead of being at once translated into a higher life as\nwas the infant. If the ordinary view be true, then why the need of\nearth-life at all--why not create a soul and then place it in the\nheavenly realms at once; if it is possible and proper in some cases, why\nnot in all; if the experience is not indispensable, then why impose it\non certain souls, when all are freshly created and equal in merit and\ndeserts? If earthly life has any virtue, then the infant's soul is\nrobbed of its right. If earthly life has no virtue, the adult souls are\nforced to live a useless existence on earth, running the risk of\ndamnation if they fail, while the infant souls escape this. Is this\nequality of opportunity and experience, or Justice? There would seem to\nbe something wrong with either the facts, or the theory. Test the\nproblem with the doctrine of Reincarnation, and see how it works out!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE ARGUMENT FOR REINCARNATION.\n\n\nIn addition to the consideration of Justice, there are many other\nadvantages claimed by the advocates of Reincarnation which are worthy of\nthe careful consideration of students of the problem of the soul. We\nshall give to each of these principal points a brief consideration in\nthis chapter, that you may acquaint yourself with the several points of\nthe argument.\n\nIt is argued that the principle of analogy renders it more reasonable to\nbelieve that the present life of the soul is but one link in a great\nchain of existences, which chain stretches far back into the past on one\nside, and far out into the future on the other, than to suppose that it\nhas been specially created for this petty term of a few years of earth\nlife, and then projected for weal or woe into an eternity of spiritual\nexistence. It is argued that the principle of Evolution on the Physical\nPlane points to an analogy of Evolution of the Spiritual Plane. It is\nreasoned that just as birth on the next plane of life follows death on\nthe present one, so analogy would indicate that a death on past planes\npreceded birth on this, and so on. It is argued that every form of life\nthat we know of has arisen from lower forms, which in turn arose from\nstill lower forms, and so on; and that following the same analogy the\nsoul has risen from lower to higher, and will mount on to still higher\nforms and planes. It is argued that \"special creation\" is unknown in the\nuniverse, and that it is far more reasonable to apply the principle of\nevolution to the soul than to consider it as an exception and violation\nof the universal law.\n\nIt is also claimed by some thinkers that the idea of future-existence\npresupposes past-existence, for everything that is \"begun\" must \"end\"\nsome time, and therefore if we are to suppose that the soul is to\ncontinue its existence in the future, we must think of it as having an\nexistence in the past--being eternal at both ends of the earth-life, as\nit were. Opponents of the idea of immortality are fond of arguing that\nthere was no more reason for supposing that a soul would continue to\nexist after the death of the body, than there was for supposing that it\nhad existed previously. A well-known man once was asked the question:\n\"What becomes of a man's soul after death?\" when he evaded the question\nby answering: \"It goes back to where it came from.\" And to many this\nidea has seemed sufficient to make them doubt the idea of immortality.\nThe ancient Greek philosophers felt it logically necessary for them to\nassert the eternal pre-existence of the soul in order to justify their\nclaim of future existence for it. They argued that if the soul is\nimmortal, it must have always existed, for an immortal thing could not\nhave been created--if it was not immortal by nature, it could never be\nmade so, and if it was immortal by nature, then it had always existed.\nThe argument usually employed is this: A thing is either mortal or\nimmortal, one or the other; if it is mortal it has been born and must\ndie; if it is immortal, it cannot have been born, neither can it die;\nmortality means subject to life and death--immortality means immunity\nfrom both. The Greeks devoted much time and care to this argument, and\nattached great importance to it. They reasoned that nothing that\npossessed Reality could have emerged from nothingness, nor could it pass\ninto nothingness. If it were Real it was Eternal; if it was not Eternal\nit was not Real, and would pass away even as it was born. They also\nclaimed that the sense of immortality possessed by the Ego, was an\nindication of its having experienced life in the past, as well as\nanticipating life in the future--there is a sense of \"oldness\" pervading\nevery thought of the soul regarding its own nature. It is claimed as an\nillogical assumption to hold that back of the present there extends an\neternity of non-existence for the soul, while ahead of it there extends\nan eternity of being--it is held that it is far more logical to regard\nthe present life as merely a single point in an eternity of existence.\n\nIt is argued, further, that Reincarnation fits in with the known\nscientific principle of conservation of energy--that is, that no energy\nis ever created or is lost, but that all energy is but a form of the\nuniversal energy, which flows on from form to form, from manifestation\nto manifestation, ever the same, and yet manifesting in myriad\nforms--never born, never dying, but always moving on, and on, and on to\nnew manifestations. Therefore it is thought that it is reasonable to\nsuppose that the soul follows the same law of re-embodiment, rising\nhigher and higher, throughout time, until finally it re-enters the\nUniversal Spirit from which it emerged, and in which it will continue to\nexist, as it existed before it emerged for the cycle of manifestation.\nIt is also argued that Reincarnation brings Life within the Law of Cause\nand Effect, just as is everything else in the universe. The law of\nre-birth, according to the causes generated during past lives, would\nbring the existence of the soul within and in harmony with natural\nlaws, instead of without and contrary to them.\n\nIt is further argued that the feeling of \"original sin\" of which so many\npeople assert a consciousness, may be explained better by the theory of\nReincarnation than by any theological doctrine. The orthodox doctrine is\nthat \"original sin\" was something inherited from Adam by reason of our\nforefather's transgression, but this jars upon the thought of today, as\nwell it might, for what has the \"soul\" to do with Adam--it did not\ndescend from him, or from aught else but the Source of Being--there is\nno line of descent for souls, though there may be for bodies. What has\nAdam to do with your soul, if it came fresh from the mint of the Maker,\npure and unsullied--how could his sin taint your new soul? Theology here\nasserts either arrant nonsense, or else grave injustice. But if for\n\"Adam\" we substitute our past existences and the thoughts and deeds\nthereof, we may understand that feeling of conscious recognition of past\nwrong-doing and remorse, which so many testify to, though they be\nreasonably free from the same in the present life. The butterfly dimly\nremembers its worm state, and although it now soars, it feels the slime\nof the mud in which it once crawled.\n\nIt is also argued that in one life the soul would fail to acquire the\nvaried experience which is necessary to form a well rounded mentality of\nunderstanding. Dwarfed by its limited experience in the narrow sphere\noccupied by many human beings, it would be far from acquiring the\nknowledge which would seem to be necessary for a developed and advanced\nsoul. Besides this there would be as great an inequality on the part of\nsouls after death, as there is before death--some would pass into the\nfuture state as ignorant beings, while others would possess a full\nnature of understanding. As a leading authority has said: \"A perfected\nman must have experienced every type of earthly relation and duty, every\nphase of desire, affection and passion, every form of temptation and\nevery variety of conflict. No one life can possibly furnish the\nmaterial for more than a minute section of such experience.\" Along this\nsame line it is urged that the soul's development must come largely from\ncontact and relationship with other souls, in a variety of phases and\nforms. It must experience pain and happiness, love, pity, failure,\nsuccess--it must know the discipline of sympathy, toleration, patience,\nenergy, fortitude, foresight, gratitude, pity, benevolence, and love in\nall of its phases. This, it is urged, is possible only through repeated\nincarnations, as the span of one life is too small and its limit too\nnarrow to embrace but a small fraction of the necessary experiences of\nthe soul on its journey toward development and attainment. One must feel\nthe sorrows and joys of all forms of life before \"understanding\" may\ncome. Narrowness, lack of tolerance, prejudice, and similar forms of\nundeveloped consciousness must be wiped out by the broad understanding\nand sympathy that come only from experience.\n\nIt is argued that only by repeated incarnations the soul is able to\nrealize the futility of the search for happiness and satisfaction in\nmaterial things. One, while dissatisfied and disappointed at his own\ncondition, is apt to imagine that in some other earthly condition he\nwould find satisfaction and happiness now denied him, and dying carries\nwith him the subsconcious desire to enjoy those conditions, which desire\nattracts him back to earth-life in search of those conditions. So long\nas the soul desires anything that earth can offer, it is earth-bound and\ndrawn back into the vortex. But after repeated incarnations the soul\nlearns well its lesson that only in itself may be found happiness--and\nthat only when it learns its real nature, source, and destiny--and then\nit passes on to higher planes. As an authority says: \"In time, the soul\nsees that a spiritual being cannot be nourished on inferior food, and\nthat any joy short of union with the Divine must be illusionary.\"\n\nIt is also argued that but few people, as we see them in earth-life,\nhave realized the existence of a higher part of their being, and still\nfewer have asserted the supremacy of the higher, and subordinated the\nlower part of the self to that higher. Were they to pass on to a final\nstate of being after death, they would carry with them all of their\nlower propensities and attributes, and would be utterly incapable of\nmanifesting the spiritual part of their nature which alone would be\nsatisfied and happy in the spiritual realms. Therefore, it needs\nrepeated lives in order to evolve from the lower conditions and to\ndevelop and unfold the higher.\n\nTouching upon the question of unextinguished desire, mentioned a moment\nago, the following quotation from a writer on the subject, gives clearly\nand briefly the Reincarnationist argument regarding this point. The\nwriter says: \"Desire for other forms of earthly experience can only be\nextinguished by undergoing them. It is obvious that any one of us, if\nnow translated to the unseen world, would feel regret that he had not\ntasted existence in some other situation or surroundings. He would wish\nto have known what it was to possess wealth and rank, or beauty, or to\nlive in a different race or climate, or to see more of the world and\nsociety. No spiritual ascent could progress while earthly longings were\ndragging back the soul, and so it frees itself from them by successively\nsecuring them and dropping them. When the round of such knowledge has\nbeen traversed, regret for ignorance has died out.\" This idea of\n\"Living-Out and Out-Living\" is urged by a number of writers and thinkers\non the subject. J. Wm. Lloyd says, in his \"Dawn Thought,\" on this\nsubject: \"You rise and overcome simply by the natural process of living\nfully and thus outliving, as a child its milk-teeth, a serpent his\nslough. Living and Outliving, that expresses it. Until you have learned\nthe one lesson fully you are never ready for a new one.\" The same\nwriter, in the same book, also says: \"By sin, shame, joy, virtue and\nsorrow, action and reaction, attraction and repulsion, the soul, like a\nbarbed arrow, ever goes on. It cannot go back, or return through the\nvalves of its coming. But this must not be understood to be fulfilled in\none and every earth-visit. It is true only of the whole circle-voyage\nof the soul. In one earth-trip, one 'life,' as we say, it may be that\nthere would nothing be but a standing still or a turning back, nothing\nbut sin. But the whole course of all is on.\" But there is the danger of\na misunderstanding of this doctrine, and some have misinterpreted it,\nand read it to advise a plunging into all kinds of sinful experience in\norder to \"live-out and out-live,\" which idea is wrong, and cannot be\nentertained by any true student of the subjects, however much it may be\nused by those who wish to avail themselves of an excuse for material\ndissipation. Mabel Collins, in her notes to \"Light on the Path,\" says on\nthis subject: \"Seek it by testing all experience, and remember that,\nwhen I say this, I do not say, 'Yield to the seduction of sense, in\norder to know it.' Before you have become an occultist, you may do this,\nbut not afterwards. When you have chosen and entered the path, you\ncannot yield to these seductions without shame. Yet you can experience\nthem without horror; can weigh, observe and test them, and wait with\nthe patience of confidence for the hour when they shall affect you no\nlonger. But do not condemn a man that yields; stretch out your hand to\nhim as a brother pilgrim whose feet have become heavy with mire.\nRemember, O disciple! that great though the gulf may be between the good\nman and the sinner, it is greater between the good man and the man who\nhas attained knowledge; it is immeasurable between the good man and the\none on the threshold of divinity. Therefore, be wary, lest too soon you\nfancy yourself a thing apart from the mass.\" And again, the same writer\nsays: \"Before you can attain knowledge you must have passed through all\nplaces, foul and clean alike. Therefore, remember that the soiled\ngarment you shrink from touching may have been yours yesterday, may be\nyours tomorrow. And if you turn with horror from it when it is flung\nupon your shoulders, it will cling the more closely to you. The\nself-righteous man makes for himself a bed of mire. Abstain because it\nis right to abstain, not that yourself shall be kept clean.\"\n\nIt is also argued that Reincarnation is necessary in order to give the\nevolving races a chance to perfect themselves--that is, not through\ntheir physical descendants, which would not affect the souls of those\nliving in the bodies of the races to-day, but by perfection and growth\nof the souls themselves. It is pointed out that to usher a savage or\nbarbarian to the spiritual planes after death, no matter how true to his\nduty and \"his lights\" the soul had been, would be to work an absurd\ntranslation. Such a soul would not be fitted for the higher spiritual\nplanes, and would be most unhappy and miserable there. It will be seen\nthat Reincarnationists make quite a distinction between \"goodness\" and\n\"advancement\"--while they recognize and urge the former, they regard it\nas only one side of the question, the other being \"spiritual growth and\nunfoldment.\" It will be seen that Reincarnation provides for a Spiritual\nEvolution with all of its advantages, as well as a material evolution\nsuch as science holds to be correct.\n\nConcluding this chapter, let us quote once more from the authority on\nthe subject before mentioned, who writes anonymously in the pamphlet\nfrom which the quotation is taken. He says: \"Nature does nothing by\nleaps. She does not, in this case, introduce into a region of spirit and\nspiritual life a being who has known little else than matter and\nmaterial life, with small comprehension even of that. To do so would be\nanalogous to transferring suddenly a ploughboy into a company of\nmetaphysicians. The pursuit of any topic implies some preliminary\nacquaintance with its nature, aims, and mental requirements; and the\nmore elevated the topic, the more copious the preparation for it. It is\ninevitable that a being who has before him an eternity of progress\nthrough zones of knowledge and spiritual experience ever nearing the\nCentral Sun, should be fitted for it through long acquisition of the\nfaculties which alone can deal with it. Their delicacy, their vigor,\ntheir penetrativeness, their unlikeness to those called for on the\nmaterial plane, show the contrast of the earth-life to the spirit-life.\nAnd they show, too, the inconceivability of a sudden transition from one\nto the other, of a policy unknown in any other department of Nature's\nworkings, of a break in the law of uplifting through Evolution. A man,\nbefore he can become a 'god,' must first become a perfect man; and he\ncan become a perfect man neither in seventy years of life on earth, nor\nin any number of years of life from which human conditions are absent.\n* * * Re-birth and re-life must go on till their purposes are\naccomplished. If, indeed, we were mere victims of an evolutionary law,\nhelpless atoms on which the machinery of Nature pitilessly played, the\nprospect of a succession of incarnations, no one of which gave\nsatisfaction, might drive us to mad despair. But we have thrust on us no\nsuch cheerless exposition. We are shown that Reincarnations are the law\nfor man, because they are the conditions of his progress, which is also\na law, but he may mould them and better them and lessen them. He cannot\nrid himself of the machinery, but neither should wish to. Endowed with\nthe power to guide it for the best, prompted with the motive to use that\npower, he may harmonize both his aspirations and his efforts with the\nsystem that expressed the infinite wisdom of the supreme, and through\nthe journey from the temporal to the eternal tread the way with steady\nfeet, braced with the consciousness that he is one of an innumerable\nmultitude, and with the certainty that he and they alike, if they so\nwill it, may attain finally to that sphere where birth and death are but\nmemories of the past.\"\n\nIn this chapter we have given you a number of the arguments favorable to\nthe doctrine of Reincarnation, from a number of sources. Some of these\narguments do not specially appeal to us, personally, for the reason that\nthey are rather more theological than scientific, but we have included\nthem that the argument may appear as generally presented, and because we\nfeel that in a work of this kind we must not omit an argument which is\nused by many of the best authorities, simply because it may not appeal\nto our particular temperament or habit of thought. To some, the\ntheological argument may appeal more strongly than would the scientific,\nand it very properly is given here. The proper way to present any\nsubject is to give it in its many aspects, and as it may appear from\nvaried viewpoints.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nTHE PROOFS OF REINCARNATION.\n\n\nTo many minds the \"proof\" of a doctrine is its reasonableness and its\nadaptability as an answer to existing problems. And, accordingly, to\nsuch, the many arguments advanced in favor of the doctrine, of which we\nhave given a few in the preceding chapters, together with the almost\nuniversal acceptance of the fundamental ideas on the part of the race,\nin at least some period of its development, would be considered as a\nvery good \"proof\" of the doctrine, at least so far as it might be\nconsidered as the \"most available working theory\" of the soul's\nexistence, past and future, and as better meeting the requirements of a\ndoctrine or theory than any other idea advanced by metaphysical,\ntheological, or philosophical thinkers.\n\nBut to the scientific mind, or the minds of those who demand something\nin the nature of actual experience of facts, no amount of reasonable\nabstract theorizing and speculation is acceptable even in the way of a\n\"working hypothesis,\" unless based upon some tangible \"facts\" or\nknowledge gained through human experience. While people possessing such\nminds will usually admit freely that the doctrine of Reincarnation is\nmore logical than the opposing theories, and that it fits better the\nrequirements of the case, still they will maintain that all theories\nregarding the soul must be based upon premises that cannot be\nestablished by actual experience in human consciousness. They hold that\nin absence of proof in experience--actual \"facts\"--these premises are\nnot established, and that all structures of reasoning based upon them\nmust partake of their insecurity. These people are like the slangy \"man\nfrom Missouri\" who \"wants to be shown\"--nay, more, they are like the\ncompanion of the above man--the Man from Texas, who not only says:\n\"You've got to show me,\" but who also demands that the thing be \"placed\nin my hand.\" And, after all, one has no right to criticize these\npeople--they are but manifesting the scientific spirit of the age which\ndemands facts as a basis for theories, rather than theories that need\nfacts to prove them. And, unless Reincarnation is able to satisfy the\ndemands of this class of thinkers, the advocates of the doctrine need\nnot complain if the scientific mind dismisses the doctrine as \"not\nproven.\"\n\nAfter all, the best proof along the above mentioned lines--in fact,\nabout the only possible strict proof--is the fragmentary recollections\nof former lives, which many people possess at times--these recollections\noften flashing across the mind, bringing with it a conviction that the\nplace or thing \"has been experienced before.\" Nearly every person has\nhad glimpses of something that appeared to be a recollection from the\npast life of the individual. We see places that we have never known, and\nthey seem perfectly familiar; we meet strangers, and we are convinced\nthat we have known them in the past; we read an old book and feel that\nwe have seen it before, often so much so that we can anticipate the\nstory or argument of the writer; we hear some strange philosophical\ndoctrine, and we recognize it as an old friend. Many people have had\nthis experience in the matter of Occultism--in the very matter of the\ndoctrine of Reincarnation itself--when they first heard it, although it\nstruck them as strange and unusual, yet they felt an inner conviction\nthat it was an old story to them--that they \"had heard it all before.\"\nThese experiences are by far too common to be dismissed as mere fancy or\ncoincidence. Nearly every living person has had some experience along\nthis line.\n\nA recent writer along the lines of Oriental Philosophy has said\nregarding this common experience of the race: \"Many people have had\n'peculiar experiences' that are accountable only upon the hypothesis of\nMetempsychosis. Who has not experienced the consciousness of having felt\nthe thing before--having thought it some time in the dim past? Who has\nnot witnessed new scenes that appear old, very old? Who has not met\npersons for the first time, whose presence awakened memories of a past\nlying far back in the misty ages of long ago? Who has not been seized at\ntimes with the consciousness of a mighty 'oldness' of soul? Who has not\nheard music, often entirely new compositions, which somehow awakened\nmemories of similar strains, scenes, places, faces, voices, lands,\nassociations, and events, sounding dimly on the strings of memory as the\nbreezes of the harmony floats over them? Who has not gazed at some old\npainting, or piece of statuary, with the sense of having seen it all\nbefore? Who has not lived through events which brought with them a\ncertainty of being merely a repetition of some shadowy occurrences away\nback in lives lived long ago? Who has not felt the influence of the\nmountain, the sea, the desert, coming to them when they are far from\nsuch scenes--coming so vividly as to cause the actual scene of the\npresent to fade into comparative unreality? Who has not had these\nexperiences?\"\n\nWe have been informed by Hindus well advanced in the occult theory and\npractice that it is quite a common thing for people of their country to\nawaken to an almost complete recollection of their former lives; in some\ncases they have related details of former lives that have been fully\nverified by investigation in parts of the land very remote from their\npresent residence. In one case, a Hindu sage related to us an instance\nwhere a poor Hindu, who had worked steadily in the village in which he\nhad been born, without leaving it, ever since his childhood days. This\nman one day cried out that he had awakened to a recollection of having\nbeen a man of such and such a village, in a province hundreds of miles\nfrom his home. Some wealthy people became interested in the matter, and\nafter having taken down his statements in writing, and after careful\nexamination and questioning, they took him to the town in question. Upon\nentering the village the man seemed dazed, and cried out: \"Everything is\nchanged--it is the same and yet not the same!\" Finally, however, he\nbegan to recognize some of the old landmarks of the place, and to call\nthe places and roads by their names. Then, coming to a familiar corner,\nhe cried: \"Down there is my old home,\" and, rushing down the road for\nseveral hundred yards, he finally stopped before the ruins of an old\ncottage, and burst into tears, saying that the roof of his home had\nfallen in, and the walls were crumbling to pieces. Inquiry among the\noldest men of the place brought to light the fact that when these aged\nmen were boys, the house had been occupied by an old man, bearing the\nsame name first mentioned by the Hindu as having been his own in his\nprevious life. Other facts about the former location of places in the\nvillage were verified by the old men. Finally, while walking around the\nruins, the man said: \"There should be a pot of silver buried there--I\nhid it there when I lived here.\" The people rapidly uncovered the ground\nindicated, and brought to light an old pot containing a few pieces of\nsilver coin of a date corresponding to the lifetime of the former\noccupant of the house. Our informant told us that he had personal\nknowledge of a number of similar cases, none of which, however, were\nquite as complete in detail as the one mentioned. He also informed us\nthat he himself, and a number of his acquaintances who had attained\ncertain degrees of occult unfoldment, were fully aware of their past\nlives for several incarnations back.\n\nAnother instance came under our personal observation, in which an\nAmerican who had never been to India, when taken into a room in which a\nHindu priest who was visiting America had erected a shrine or altar\nbefore which he performed his religious services, readily recognized the\narrangement of the details of worship, ritual, ceremony, etc., and was\nconscious of having seen, or at least dreamed of seeing, a similar\nshrine at some time in the past, and as having had some connection with\nthe same. The Hindu priest, upon hearing the American's remarks, stated\nthat his knowledge of the details of the shrine, as then expressed,\nindicated a knowledge possible only to one who had served at a Hindu\naltar in some capacity.\n\nWe know of another case in which an acquaintance, a prominent attorney\nin the West, told us that when undergoing his initiation in the Masonic\norder he had a full recollection of having undergone the same before,\nand he actually anticipated each successive step. This knowledge,\nhowever, ceased after he had passed beyond the first three degrees which\ntook him to the place where he was a full Master Mason, the higher\ndegrees being entirely new to him, and having been apparently not\nexperienced before. This man was not a believer in any doctrine of\nReincarnation, and related the incident merely as \"one of those things\nthat no man can explain.\"\n\nWe know of another case, in which a student of Hindu Philosophy and\nOriental Occultism found that he could anticipate each step of the\nteaching and doctrine, and each bit of knowledge gained by him seemed\nmerely a recollection of something known long since. So true was this\nthat he was able to supply the \"missing links\" of the teaching, where\nhe had not access to the proper sources of information at the time, and\nin each case he afterward found that he had stated the same correctly.\nAnd this included many points of the Inner Teachings not generally\ntaught to the general public, but reserved for the few. Subsequent\ncontact with native Hindu teachers brought to light the fact that he had\nalready unraveled many tangled skeins of doctrine deemed possible only\nto the \"elect.\"\n\nMany of these recollections of the past come as if they were memories of\nsomething experienced in dreams, but sometimes after the loose end of\nthe thought is firmly grasped and mentally drawn out, other bits of\nrecollection will follow. Sir Walter Scott wrote in his diary in 1828:\n\"I was strangely haunted by what I would call the sense of\npre-existence, viz., a confused idea that nothing that passed was said\nfor the first time; that the same topics had been discussed, and the\nsame persons had stated the same opinions on them.\" William Home, an\nEnglish writer, was instantly converted from materialism to a belief in\na spiritual existence by an incident that occurred to him in a part of\nLondon utterly strange to him. He entered a waiting room, and to his\nsurprise everything seemed familiar to him. As he says: \"I seemed to\nrecognize every object. I said to myself, what is this? I have never\nbeen here before, and yet I have seen all this, and if so, there is a\nvery peculiar knot in that shutter.\" He then crossed the room, and\nopened the shutter, and after examination he saw the identical peculiar\nknot that he had felt sure was there. Pythagoras is said to have\ndistinctly remembered a number of his previous incarnations, and at one\ntime pointed out a shield in a Grecian temple as having been carried by\nhim in a previous incarnation at the siege of Troy. A well-known ancient\nHindu sage is said to have transcribed a lost sacred book of doctrine\nfrom memory of its study in a previous life. Children often talk\nstrangely of former lives, which ideas, however, are generally\nfrightened out of them by reproof on the part of parents, and often\npunishment for untruthfulness and romancing. As they grow older these\nmemories fade away.\n\nPeople traveling in strange places often experience emotion when viewing\nsome particular scene, and memory seems to painfully struggle to bring\ninto the field of consciousness the former connection between the scene\nand the individual. Many persons have testified to these occurrences,\nmany of them being matter-of-fact, unimaginative people, who had never\neven heard of the doctrine of Reincarnation. Charles Dickens, in one of\nhis books of foreign travel, tells of a bridge in Italy which produced a\npeculiar effect upon him. He says: \"If I had been murdered there in some\nformer life, I could not have seemed to remember the place more\nthoroughly, or with more emphatic chilling of the blood; and the real\nremembrance of it acquired in that minute is so strengthened by the\nimaginary recollection that I hardly think I could forget it.\" Another\nrecorded instance is that of a person entering a foreign library for the\nfirst time. Passing to the department of ancient books, he said that he\nhad a dim idea that a certain rare book was to be found on such a shelf,\nin such a corner, describing at the same time certain peculiarities of\nthe volume. A search failed to discover the volume in the stated place,\nbut investigation showed that it was in another place in the library,\nand an old assistant stated that a generation back it had been moved\nfrom its former place (as stated by the visitor), where it had been\npreviously located for very many years. An examination of the volume\nshowed a perfect correspondence in every detail with the description of\nthe strange visitor.\n\nAnd so the story proceeds. Reference to the many works written on the\nsubject of the future life of the soul will supply many more instances\nof the glimpses of recollection of past incarnations. But why spread\nthese instances over more pages? The experience of other people, while\nof scientific interest and value as affording a basis for a theory or\ndoctrine, will never supply the experience that the close and rigid\ninvestigator demands. Only his own experiences will satisfy him--and\nperhaps not even those, for he may consider them delusions. These\nexperiences of others have their principal value as corroborative proofs\nof one's own experiences, and thus serve to prove that the individual\nexperience was not abnormal, unusual, or a delusion. To those who have\nnot had these glimpses of recollection, the only proof that can be\noffered is the usual arguments in favor of the doctrine, and the account\nof the experiences of others--this may satisfy, and may not. But to\nthose who have had these glimpses--particularly in a marked\ndegree--there will come a feeling of certainty and conviction that in\nsome cases is as real as the certainty and conviction of the present\nexistence, and which will be proof against all argument to the contrary.\nTo such people the knowledge of previous existences is as much a matter\nof consciousness as the fact of the existence of last year--yesterday--a\nmoment ago--or even the present moment, which slips away while we\nattempt to consider it. And those who have this consciousness of past\nlives, even though the details may be vague, intuitively accept the\nteachings regarding the future lives of the soul. The soul that\nrecognizes its \"oldness\" also feels its certainty of survival--not as a\nmere matter of faith, but as an item of consciousness, the boundaries of\ntime being transcended.\n\nBut there are other arguments advanced in favor of Reincarnation, which\nits advocates consider so strong as to entitle them to be classed as\n\"proofs.\" Among these may be mentioned the difference in tastes,\ntalents, predispositions, etc., noticeable among children and adults,\nand which can scarcely be attributed to heredity. This same idea carries\none to the consideration of the question of \"youthful genius,\"\n\"prodigies,\" etc.\n\nIt is a part of this argument to assume that if all souls were freshly\ncreated, by the same Creator, and from the same material, they would\nresemble each other very closely, and in fact would be practically\nidentical. And, it is urged, the fact that every child is different in\ntastes, temperament, qualities, nature, etc., independent of heredity\nand environment, then it must follow that the difference must be sought\nfor further back. Children of the same parents differ very materially in\nnature, disposition, etc.; in fact, strangers are often more alike than\nchildren of the same parents, born within a few years of each other, and\nreared in the same environment. Those having much experience with young\nbabies know that each infant has its own nature and disposition, and in\nwhich it differs from every other infant, although they may be classed\ninto groups, of course. The infant a few hours born shows a gentleness,\nor a lack of it--a yielding or a struggle, a disposition to adjust\nitself, or a stubbornness, etc. And as the child grows, these traits\nshow more plainly, and the nature of the individual asserts itself,\nsubject, of course, to a moulding and shaping, but always asserting its\noriginal character in some way.\n\nNot only in the matter of disposition but in the matter of tastes,\ntendencies, moral inclinations, etc., do the children differ. Some like\nthis, and dislike that, and the reverse; some are attracted toward this\nand repelled by that, and the reverse; some are kind while others are\ncruel; some manifest an innate sense of refinement, while others show\ncoarseness and lack of delicate feeling. This among children of the same\nfamily, remember. And, when the child enters school, we find this one\ntakes to mathematics as the duck does to water, while its brother\nloathes the subject; the anti-arithmetic child may excel in history or\ngeography, or else grammar, which is the despair of others. Some are at\nonce attracted to music, and others to drawing, while both of these\nbranches are most distasteful to others. And it will be noticed that in\nthe studies to which the child is attracted, it seems to learn almost\nwithout effort, as if it were merely re-learning some favorite study,\nmomentarily forgotten. And in the case of the disliked study, every step\nis attended with toil. In some cases the child seems to learn every\nbranch with the minimum effort, and with practically no effort; while in\nother cases the child has to plod wearily over every branch, as if\nbreaking entirely new ground. And this continues into after life, when\nthe adult finds this thing or that thing into which he naturally fits as\nif it were made for him, the knowledge concerning it coming to him like\nthe lesson of yesterday.\n\nWe know of a case in which a man had proved a failure in everything he\nhad undertaken up to the age of forty, when his father-in-law, in\ndisgust, placed him at the head of an enterprise which he had had to\n\"take over\" for a bad debt. The \"failure\" immediately took the keenest\ninterest in the work, and in a month knew more about it than many men\nwho had been in the concern for years. His mind found itself perfectly\nat home, and he made improvement after improvement rapidly, and with\nuniform success. He had found his work, and in a few years stepped to\nthe front rank in the country in that particular line of business.\n\"Blessed is he that hath found his work.\" Reincarnationists would hold\nthat that man had found his work in a line similar in its mental\ndemands with that of his former life or lives--not necessarily identical\nin details, but similar in its mental requirement. Instances of this\nthing are to be seen all around us. Heredity does not seem to account\nfor it--nor does environment answer the requirements. Some other factor\nis there--is it Reincarnation?\n\nAllied to this phenomena is that of \"youthful genius\"--in fact, genius\nof any age, for that matter, for genius itself seems to be out of the\ncategory of the ordinary cause of heredity and environment, and to have\nits roots in some deeper, richer soil. It is a well-known fact that now\nand then a child is born which at a very early age shows an acquaintance\nwith certain arts, or other branches of mental work, which is usually\nlooked for only from those of advanced years, and after years of\ntraining. In many cases these children are born of parents and\ngrandparents deficient in the particular branches of knowledge evidenced\nby the child. Babes scarcely able to sit on the piano stool, or to hold\nthe violin, have begun to play in a way that certainly indicated\nprevious knowledge and technique, often composing original productions\nin an amazing manner. Other young children have begun to draw and design\nwithout any instruction whatever. Others have shown wonderful\nmathematical ability, there being several cases on record where such\nchildren have performed feats in mathematics impossible to advanced\nadults teaching the same lines. What are the cause of these phenomena?\nIs it Reincarnation?\n\nAs Figuier said, years ago: \"We hear it said every day that one child\nhas a mathematical, another a musical, another an artistic turn. In\nothers we notice savage, violent, even criminal instincts. After the\nfirst years of life these dispositions break out. When these natural\naptitudes are pushed beyond the usual limit, we find famous examples\nthat history has cherished, and that we love to recall. There is Pascal,\nmastering at the age of twelve years the greater part of Plane Geometry\nwithout any instruction, and not a figment of Calculus, drawing on the\nfloor of his chamber all the figures in the first book of Euclid,\nestimating accurately the mathematical relations of them all--that is,\nreconstructing for himself a part of descriptive Geometry; the herdsman\nMangia Melo, manipulating figures, when five years old, as rapidly as a\ncalculating machine; Mozart, executing a sonata on the pianoforte with\nfour-years-old fingers, and composing an opera at the age of eight;\nTheresa Milanollo, playing the violin at four years, with such eminent\nskill that Baillot said she must have played it before she was born;\nRembrandt, drawing with masterly power before he could read.\" The same\nauthority says, in reference to the fact that some of these prodigies do\nnot become famous in their after years, and that their genius often\nseems to flicker out, leaving them as ordinary children: \"That is easily\nunderstood. They come on earth with remarkable powers acquired in an\nanterior existence, but they have done nothing to develop their\naptitudes; they have remained all their lives at the very point where\nthey were at the moment of their birth. The real man of genius is he\nwho cultivates and improves incessantly the great natural aptitudes that\nhe brought into the world.\"\n\nThere is an interesting field for study, thought and investigation,\nalong the lines of the early development of traits, tendencies, and\nthought in young children. Here evidently will be found the answer to\nmany problems that have perplexed the race. It is true that heredity and\nenvironment plays an important part, but nevertheless, there seems to be\nanother element working in the case, which science must have to reckon\nwith in making up its final conclusions. Is that \"something\" connected\nwith the \"soul\" rather than the mind of the child? Is that \"something\"\nthat which men call Metempsychosis--Re-Birth--Reincarnation?\n\nAlong the same lines, or thought, lie the great questions of instinctive\nLike and Dislike--Loves and Hates--that we find among people meeting as\nstrangers. From whence come those strange, unaccountable attractions and\nrepulsions that many feel when meeting certain strangers, who could\nnever have occasioned such feelings in the present life, and which\nheredity does not account for? Is it merely an absurd, irrational, fancy\nor feeling; is it the result of natures inharmonious and discordant; is\nit remnants of inherited ancestral feelings toward similar individuals\nhated, loved or feared; is it a telepathic sensing of certain elements\nin the other; or is it a manifestation of the feelings experienced in a\npast existence? Is this phenomena to be included in the Proofs of\nReincarnation? Many people think that in Reincarnation the only answer\nmay be found.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nARGUMENTS AGAINST REINCARNATION\n\n\nThe honest consideration of any subject necessitates the examination of\n\"the other side of the case,\" as well as the affirmative side. We have\ngiven much space to the presentation and consideration of the arguments\nadvanced by those convinced of the truth of Reincarnation, and before\nclosing our work we think it well to give at least a little glimpse of\n\"the other side\" as it is presented by the opponents of the doctrine,\ntogether with the reply to the same usually made by the\nReincarnationists.\n\nThe first adverse argument usually presented is that the advocates of\nReincarnation have not established the existence of a \"soul\" which may\nreincarnate; nor have they proven its nature, if it does exist. The\nnatural reply to this is that the doctrine of Reincarnation is not\ncalled upon to establish the proof of the existence of a \"soul,\" as the\nidea of existence of the soul practically is universal, and, therefore,\n\"axiomic\"--that is, it is a truth that may be considered as an \"axiom,\"\nor self-evident truth, worthy of being assumed as a principle, necessary\nto thought on the subject, a proposition which it is necessary to take\nfor granted, an established principle of thought on the subject.\nStrictly speaking, perhaps the fact of the existence of the soul is\nincapable of material proof, except to those who accept the fact of\nproven \"spirit return,\" either in the shape of unmistakable\nmanifestation of the disincarnate soul by materialization, or by equally\nunmistakable manifestation in the shape of communications of some sort\nfrom such discarnate soul. Science does not admit that there are any\nreal \"proofs\" of the existence of a \"soul\" which persists after the\ndeath of the body--but all religious, and at least the older\nphilosophical thought, generally agrees that the existence of such a\nsoul is a self-evident fact, needing no proofs. Many regard the\nstatement of Descartes: \"I think, therefore I am,\" as a logical proof\nof the existence of an immaterial soul, and others hold that the\nself-consciousness of every human being is sufficient proof that the\nEgo, or \"I,\" is a something immaterial, ruling the material body which\nit inhabits. And so the Reincarnationists claim that this demand upon\nthem for proof of the existence of the soul is not a fair one, because\nsuch discussion belongs to the more general field of thought; that they\nare justified in starting with the idea that the soul does exist, as an\naxiomic truth; and that their real task is to establish, not that the\nsoul exists, but that it reincarnates after the death of the body. As\nFiguier says, \"The difficulty is not to prove that there is a spiritual\nprinciple in us that resists death, for to question the existence of\nthis principle we must doubt thought. The true problem is to ascertain\nif the spiritual and immortal principle within us is going to live again\nafter death, in ourselves or somebody else. The question is, Will the\nimmortal soul be born again in the same individual, physically\ntransformed--into the same person?\" As to the other objection, that the\nReincarnationists have not proven the nature of the soul, to which many\nof the advocates of the doctrine feel it necessary to reply at great\nlength and with much subtle reasoning, we feel that the objection is not\nwell taken. So far as Reincarnation is concerned, if it be taken as an\naxiom that the soul really exists, that is sufficient as a beginning for\nthe argument in favor of the doctrine, and the proof or disproof of any\nspecial theory regarding the nature of the soul is outside of the main\nquestion, so we shall not consider it here. It is possible to think of\nthe soul as a reincarnating entity, whether it be a monad, duad, triad,\nor septenary being.\n\nThe second objection usually made is that Reincarnation cannot be true,\nelse we would remember the incidents of our past lives, clearly and\ndistinctly, the fact that the majority of persons have no such\nrecollection, being held to be a disproof of the doctrine. The reply to\nthis objection is (1) that it is not true that people do not remember\nthe events of their past lives, the instances quoted by us, and similar\nones happening to others, together with the fact that nearly every one\nremembers something of the past, showing that the objection is not\ncorrectly stated. And (2) that the fact that we have but a very cloudy\nand imperfect recollection is not an objection at all, for have we a\nclear recollection of the events of our infancy and childhood in this\nlife? Have we a clear recollection of the events of twenty years ago,\noutside of a few scattered instances, of which the majority are only\nrecalled when some associated fact is mentioned? Are not the great\nmajority of the events of our present life completely forgotten? How\nmany can recall the events of the youthful life? Old companions and\nfriends are completely forgotten or only recalled after much thought and\nassistance in the way of suggested associations. Then again, do we not\nwitness a complete forgetfulness in cases of very old people who relapse\ninto a state of \"second childhood,\" and who then live entirely in the\npresent, the past having vanished for them. There are cases of people\nhaving grown old, and while retaining their reasoning faculties, were as\nchildren, so far as the past was concerned. A well-known writer, when in\nthis state, was wont to read the books that he had written, enjoying\nthem very much and not dreaming that he was their author. Professor\nKnight says of this matter: \"Memory of the details of the past is\nabsolutely impossible.\"\n\n\"The power of the conservative faculty, though relatively great, is\nextremely limited. We forget the larger portion of experience soon after\nwe have passed through it, and we should be able to recall the\nparticulars of our past years, filling all the missing links of\nconsciousness since we entered on the present life, before we were in a\nposition to remember our ante-natal experience. Birth must necessarily\nbe preceded by crossing the river of oblivion, while the capacity for\nfresh acquisition survives, and the garnered wealth of old experience\ndetermines the amount and characters of the new.\" Loss of memory is not\nloss of being--or even loss of individuality or character.\n\nIn this connection, we must mention the various instances of Double\nPersonality, or Lost Personality, noted in the recent books on\nPsychology. There are a number of well authenticated cases in which\npeople, from severe mental strain, overwork, etc., have lost the thread\nof Personality and forgotten even their own names and who have taken up\nlife anew under new circumstances, which they would continue until\nsomething would occur to bring about a restoration of memory, when the\npast in all of its details would come back in a flash. The annals of the\nEnglish Society for Psychical Research contain quite a number of such\ncases, which are recognized as typical. Now, would one be justified in\nasserting that such a person, while living in the secondary personality\nand consequently in entire ignorance of his past life, had really\nexperienced no previous life? The same \"I\" was there--the same Ego--and\nyet, the personality was entirely different! Is it not perfectly fair\nand reasonable to consider these cases as similar to the absence of\nmemory in cases of Reincarnation?\n\nLet the reader lay down this book, and then endeavor to remember what\nhappened in his twelfth year. He will not remember more than one or two,\nor a half dozen, events in that year--perhaps not one, in the absence of\na diary, or perhaps even with the aid of one. The majority of the\nhappenings of the three hundred and sixty-five days of that year are as\na blank--as if they never had happened, so far as the memory is\nconcerned. And yet, the same \"I,\" or Ego, persists, and the person's\ncharacter has certainly been affected and influenced by the experiences\nand lessons of that year. Perhaps in that year, the person may have\nacquired certain knowledge that he uses in his everyday life. And so, in\nthis case, as with Reincarnation, the \"essence\" of the experiences are\npreserved, while the details are forgotten. For that is the\nReincarnationist contention. As a matter of fact, advanced occultists,\nand other Reincarnationists, claim that nothing is really forgotten, but\nthat every event is stored away in some of the recesses of the mind,\nbelow the level of consciousness--which idea agrees with that of modern\npsychologists. And Reincarnationists claim that when man unfolds\nsufficiently on some higher plane, he will have a full recollection of\nhis past experiences in all of his incarnations. Some Reincarnationists\nclaim that as the soul passes from the body all the events of that\nparticular life pass rapidly before its mind, in review, before the\nwaters of Lethe, or oblivion, causes forgetfulness.\n\nClosely allied to the last mentioned argument against Reincarnation is\nthe one that as the memory of the past life is absent, or nearly so, the\nnew personality is practically a new soul, instead of the old one\nreincarnated, and that it is unreasonable and unjust to have it enjoy or\nsuffer by reasons of its experiences and acts in the previous life. We\nthink that the answers to the last mentioned objection are answers to\nthis one also. The \"I,\" Ego, or Individuality, being the same, it\nmatters not if the details of the old Personality be forgotten. You are\nthe same \"I\" that lived fifty years ago in the same body--or even ten\nyears ago--and you are enjoying certain things, or suffering from\ncertain things, done or left undone at the previous time, although you\nhave forgotten the incidents. The impress of the thing is on your\nCharacter, and you are today largely what you are by reason of what you\nhave been in past years, though those years are forgotten by you. This\nyou will readily admit, and yet the argument of the Reincarnationists is\nmerely an extension of the same idea. As Figuier says: \"The soul, in\nspite of its journeys, in the midst of its incarnations and divers\nmetamorphoses remains always identical with itself; only at each\nmetempsychosis, each metamorphosis of the external being, improving and\npurifying itself, growing in power and intellectual grasp.\"\n\nAnother argument against Reincarnation is that it is not necessary, for\nthe reason that Heredity accounts for all of the facts claimed as\ncorroborative of Reincarnation. Answering this the advocates of the\ndoctrine insist that Heredity does not account for all the facts,\ninasmuch as children are born with marked talents and genius, while\nnone of their family for generations back have displayed any such\ntendencies. They also claim that if Heredity were the only factor in the\ncase, there would be no advance in the races, as the children would be\nprecisely like their ancestors, no variety or improvement being\npossible. But it must be remembered that Reincarnationists do not deny\ncertain effects of Heredity, particularly along physical lines, and to\nan extent along mental lines, in the way of perpetuating \"tendencies,\"\nwhich, however, are and may be overcome by the individuality of the\nchild. Moreover, the doctrine holds that one of the laws of Rebirth is\nthat the reincarnating soul is attracted to parents harmonious to\nitself, and likely to afford the environments and association desirable\nto the soul. So in this way the characteristics likely to be transmitted\nto the offspring are those which are sought for and desired by the\nreincarnating soul. The law of Rebirth is held to be as exact and\ncertain as the laws of mathematics or chemistry, the parents, as well\nas the child, forming the combination which brings forth the rebirth.\nRebirth is held to be above the mere wish of the reincarnating soul--it\nis in accordance with an invariable natural law, which has Justice and\nAdvancement as its basis.\n\nAnother argument against Reincarnation is that it holds that human souls\nare reborn as animals, in some cases. This objection we shall not\ndiscuss, for the reason that the advanced ideas of Reincarnation\nexpressly forbid any such interpretation, and distinctly deny its\nlegitimate place in the doctrine. Among some of the primitive people\nthis idea of transmigration in the bodies of animals has been held, but\nnever among advanced occultists, or the leaders in philosophical thought\nfavoring Reincarnation. Reincarnation teaches the Evolution of the soul\nfrom lowly forms to higher, but never the Devolution or going back into\nanimal forms. A study of the doctrine of Reincarnation will dispel this\nerroneous idea from the mind of an intelligent person.\n\nAnother favorite argument is that it is repulsive to the mind and soul\nof the average person. Analysis of this objection will show that what is\nrepugnant to the person is usually the fear that he will be born again\nwithout a memory of the present, which seems like a loss of the self. A\nmoment's consideration will show that this objection is ill founded. No\none objects to the idea of living in the same body for, say, ten years\nor twenty years more, in health. But at the end of that ten or twenty\nyears he will be practically a different person, by reason of the new\nexperiences he has undergone. Persons change very much in twenty years,\nand yet they are the same individuals--the same \"I\" is there with them.\nAnd at the end of the twenty years they will have forgotten the majority\nof the events of the present year, but they do not object to that. When\none realizes that the Individual, or \"I,\" is the Real Self instead of\nthe Personality, or the \"John Smith, grocer, aged 36,\" part of\nthem--then will they cease to fear the loss of the personality of the\nday or year. They will know that the \"I\" is the \"Self\"--the same\nyesterday, today and tomorrow. Be the doctrine of Reincarnation true or\nfalse, the fact remains that so long as YOU exist, it will be the same\n\"I\" in you that you will know that \"I am.\" It will always be \"I\nAM--HERE--NOW,\" with you, be it this moment, or a hundred years, or a\nmillion years hence. YOU can never be SOMEONE ELSE, no matter what form\nyou wear, nor by what name you are known, nor what personality you may\nbe acting through, nor in what place you may have your abode, nor on\nwhat plane of existence you may be. You will always be YOURSELF--and, as\nwe have just said, it will always be \"I AM--HERE--NOW\" with You. The\nbody, and even the Personality, are things akin to garments which you\nwear and take off without affecting your Real Self.\n\nThen we must note another objection often made by people in discussing\nReincarnation. They say, \"But I do not WANT to come back!\" To this the\nReincarnationists answer that, if one has reached a stage in which he\nreally has no desire for anything that the earth can offer him, then\nsuch a soul will not likely have to reincarnate again on earth, for it\nhas passed beyond the need of earthly experiences, and has worn out its\nearth Karma. But they hold that but few people really have reached this\nstage. What one really means is that he does not want any more of\nEarth--life similar to that which he has been undergoing. But if he\nthought that he could have certain things--riches, position, fame,\nbeauty, influence, and the rest of it, he would be perfectly willing to\n\"come back.\" Or else he might be so bound by links of Karma, acting by\nreason of Love or Hate, Attachment or Repulsion, or by duties\nunperformed, or moral debts unpaid, that he might be brought back to\nwork out the old problems until he had solved them. But even this is\nexplained by those Reincarnationists who hold to the idea of Desire as\nthe great motive power of Karma, and who hold that if one has risen\nabove all earthly desire or dislike, that soul is freed from the\nattraction of earth-life, and is prepared to go on higher at once, or\nelse wait in realms of bliss until the race is ready to pass on,\naccording to the various theories held by the various advocates of the\ndoctrine. A little self-examination will show one whether he is free\nfrom all desire to \"come back,\" or not. But, after all, if there is\nUltimate Justice in the plan, working ever and ever for our good and\nadvancements, as the Reincarnationists claim--then it must follow that\neach of us is in just the best place for his own good at the present\nmoment, and will always be in a like advantageous position and\ncondition. And if that be so, then there is no cause for complaint or\nobjection on our part, and our sole concern should be in the words of\nthe Persian sage, to \"So live, that that which must come and will come,\nmay come well,\" living on one day at a time, doing the best you know\nhow, living always in the belief that \"it is well with us now and\nevermore,\" and that \"the Power which has us in charge Here will have us\nin charge There.\" There is a good philosophy for Living and Dying. And,\nthis being true, though you may have to \"come back,\" you will not have\nto \"go back,\" or fall behind in the Scale of Advancement or Spiritual\nEvolution--for it must always be Onward and Upward on the Ladder of\nLife! Such is the Law!\n\nAnother objection very often urged against the doctrine of Reincarnation\nis that \"it is un-Christian, and derived from pagan and heathen sources,\nand is not in accord with the highest conceptions of the immortality of\nthe soul.\" Answering this objection, it may be said that, insofar as\nReincarnation is not a generally accepted doctrine in the orthodox\nChristian Churches of today, it may be said to be non-Christian (rather\nthan un-Christian), but when it is seen that Pre-existence and Rebirth\nwas held as Truth by many of the Early Fathers of the Church, and that\nthe doctrine was finally condemned by the dominant majority in Church\nCouncils only by means of the most severe methods and the exercise of\nthe most arbitrary authority, it may be seen that in the opinion of many\nof the most eminent early authorities there was nothing \"un-Christian\"\nabout it, but that it was a proper doctrine of the Church. The doctrine\nwas simply \"voted down,\" just as were many important doctrines revered\nby some of the great minds of the early church, in some cases the\ndecision being made by a majority of one vote. And, again, there have\nbeen many bright minds in the Christian Church who persisted in the\nbelief that the doctrine was far more consistent with the Inner\nTeachings of Christianity than the prevailing conception, and based upon\nquite as good authority.\n\nSo far as the charge that it is \"derived from pagan and heathen sources\"\nis concerned, it must be answered that certainly the doctrine was\naccepted by the \"pagan and heathen\" world centuries before the dawn of\nChristianity, but, for that matter, so was the doctrine regarding the\nsoul's future generally accepted by orthodox Christianity--in fact,\nnearly every doctrine or theory regarding the survival of the soul was\n\"derived from pagan and heathen sources.\" The \"pagan and heathen\" mind\nhad thought long and earnestly upon this great problem, and the field of\nthought had been pretty well covered before the advent of Christianity.\nIn fact, Christianity added no new doctrine--invented no new theory--and\nis far from being clear and explicit in its teachings on the subject,\nthe result being that the early Christians were divided among themselves\non the matter, different sects and schools favoring different doctrines,\neach and all of which had been \"derived from pagan and heathen sources.\"\nIf all the doctrines regarding the immortality of the soul are to be\njudged by the test of their having been, or not been, \"derived from\npagan and heathen sources,\" then the entire body of doctrine and thought\non the subject must be thrown out of the Christian mind, which must then\nendeavor to create or invent an entirely new doctrine which has never\nbeen thought of by a \"pagan or heathen\"--a very difficult task, by the\nway, considering the activity of the pagan and heathen mind in that\nrespect. It must be remembered that there is no authoritative teaching\non this subject--none coming direct from Jesus. The Christian Doctrines\non the subject come from the Theologians, and represent simply the views\nof the \"majority\" of some Church Council--or of the most powerful\nfaction.\n\nWhile the objection that Reincarnation \"is not in accord with the\nhighest conceptions of the immortality of the soul\" is one that must\ndepend almost entirely upon the personal bias or opinion of the\nindividual as to what constitutes \"the highest conceptions,\" still a\ncomparison of the conceptions is not out of the way at this place. Do\nyou know what was the doctrine favored by the dominant majority in the\nChurch Councils, and for which Pre-Existence and Re-Birth finally was\ndiscarded? Do you know the dogma of the Church and the belief of masses\nof the orthodox Christians of the early centuries? Well, it was this:\nThat at the death of the body, the person passes into a state of \"coma,\"\nor unconsciousness, in which state he rests today, awaiting the sound of\nthe trumpet of the great Day of Judgment, when the dead shall be raised\nand the righteous given eternal life IN THEIR FORMER BODIES, while the\nwicked in their bodies may pass into eternal torment. That is the\ndoctrine. You doubt it? Then look over the authorities and examine even\nthe current creeds of today, many of which state practically the same\nthing. This belief passed into one of the Christian Creed, in the words:\n\"I believe in the Resurrection of the Body.\"\n\nThe great masses of Christians today, in general thought on the subject,\nspeak as if the accepted doctrine of the Church was that the soul passed\nto Judgment, and then eternal soul life in Heaven or Hell immediately\nafter the death of the body, thus ignoring the dogmas of the Church\nCouncils regarding the future Day of Judgment and the Resurrection of\nthe Body at that time. A little questioning of the religious teachers,\nand a little examination of religious history, and the creeds and\ndoctrines of their respective churches, would astonish many good church\nmembers who have been fondly thinking of their beloved ones, who have\npassed on, as even now dwelling in Heaven as blessed angels. They would\nbe astonished to find that the \"angels\" of the churches are not the\nsouls of the good people who have been judged and awarded heavenly joys,\nbut, rather, a body of supernatural beings who never inhabited the\nflesh; and that instead of their loved ones now enjoying the heavenly\nrealms, the dogmas hold that they are now in a state of \"coma\" or\nunconsciousness, awaiting the great Day of Judgment, when their bodies\nwill be resurrected and life everlasting given them. Those who are\ninterested in the matter, and who may doubt the above statement, are\ninvited to examine the records for themselves. The doctrine of the\nResurrection of the Body, which is of undoubted \"pagan and heathen\"\norigin, was a favorite theological dogma of the Church in the first\nthousand years of its existence, and for many centuries after, and it\nstill occupies a most important place in the church doctrines today,\nalthough it is not so often publicly preached or taught.\n\nDavid Kay says: \"The great distinguishing doctrine of Christianity is\nnot the Immortality of the Soul, but the Resurrection of the Body. That\nthe soul of man is immortal was a common belief among the Ancients, from\nwhom it found its way at an early period into the Christian Church, but\nthe most influential of the early Fathers were strenuously opposed to\nit, holding that the human soul was not essentially immortal, but only,\nlike the body, capable of immortality.\" Vinet says: \"The union of the\nsoul and body appears to me essential and indissoluble. Man without a\nbody is, in my opinion, man no longer; and God has thought and willed\nhim embodied, and not otherwise. According to passages in the\nScriptures, we can not doubt that the body, or a body, is essential to\nhuman personality and to the very idea of man.\"\n\nJohn Milton said: \"That the spirit of man should be separate from the\nbody, so as to have a perfect and intelligent existence independent of\nit, is nowhere said in Scripture, and the doctrine is evidently at\nvariance both with nature and reason.\" Masson, commenting on Milton's\nconception, says: \"Milton's conception is that at the last gasp of\nbreath the whole man dies, soul and body together, and that not until\nthe Resurrection, when the body is revived, does the soul live again,\ndoes the man or woman live again, in any sense or way, whether for\nhappiness or misery.... Are the souls of the millions on millions of\nhuman beings who have died since Adam, are those souls ready either with\nGod and the angels in Heaven, or down in the diabolic world waiting to\nbe rejoined to their bodies on the Resurrection Day? They are not, says\nMilton; but soul and bodies together, he says, are dead alike, sleeping\nalike, defunct alike, till that day comes.\" And many Christian\ntheologians have held firmly to this doctrine, as may be seen by\nreference to any standard encyclopedia, or work on theology. Coleridge\nsaid: \"Some of the most influential of the early Christian writers were\nmaterialists, not as holding the soul to be the mere result of bodily\norganization, but as holding the soul itself to be material--corporeal.\nIt appears that in those days the vulgar held the soul to be\nincorporeal, according to the views of Plato and others, but that the\northodox Christian divines looked upon this as an impious, unscriptural\nopinion.\" Dr. R. S. Candlish said: \"You live again in the body--in the\nvery body, as to all essential properties, and to all practical intents\nand purposes in which you live now. I am to live not a ghost, a spectre,\na spirit, I am to live then, as I live now, in the body.\" Dr. Arnold\nsays: \"I think that the Christian doctrine of the Resurrection meets the\nmaterialists so far as this--that it does imply that a body or an\norganization of some sort is necessary to the full development of man's\nnature.\"\n\nRev. R. J. Campbell, the eminent English clergyman, in his recent work\nentitled, \"The New Theology,\" says, speaking of the popular evangelical\nviews: \"But they are even more chaotic on the subject of death and\nwhatever follows death. It does not seem to be generally recognized that\nChristian thought has never been really clear concerning the\nResurrection, especially in relation to future judgment. One view has\nbeen that the deceased saint lies sleeping in the grave until the\narchangel's trumpet shall sound and bid all mankind awake for the great\nassize. Anyone who reads the New Testament without prejudice will see\nthat this was Paul's earlier view, although later on he changed it for\nanother. There is a good deal of our current, every-day religious\nphaseology which presumes it still--'Father, in thy gracious keeping,\nleave we now thy servant sleeping.' But alongside this view, another\nwhich is a flagrant contradiction of it has come down to us, namely,\nthat immediately after death the soul goes straight to Heaven or Hell,\nas the case may be, without waiting for the archangel's trumpet and the\ngrand assize. On the whole, this is the dominant theory of the situation\nin the Protestant circles, and is much less reasonable than the Catholic\ndoctrine of purgatory, however much the latter may have been abused. But\nunder this view, what is the exact significance of the Judgment Day and\nthe Physical Resurrection? One might think they might be accounted\nsuperfluous. What is the good of tormenting a soul in Hell for ages, and\nthen whirling it back to the body in order to rise again and receive a\nsolemn public condemnation? Better leave it in the Inferno and save\ntrouble, especially as the solemn trial is meaningless, seeing that a\npart of the sentence has already been undergone and that there is no\nhope that any portion of it will ever be remitted. Truly the tender\nmercies with which the theologians have credited the Almighty are cruel\nindeed!\"\n\nBut, by the irony of progress, the orthodox churches are gradually\ncoming around to the one much-despised Platonic conception of the\nnaturally Immortal Immaterial Soul--the \"pagan and heathen\" idea, so\nmuch at variance with the opposing doctrine of the Resurrection of the\nBody, which doctrine really did not teach the \"immortality of the soul\"\nat all. As Prof. Nathaniel Schmidt says, in an article in a standard\nencyclopedia: \"The doctrine of the natural immortality of the human\nsoul became so important a part of Christian thought that the\nresurrection naturally lost its vital significance, and it has\npractically held no place in the great systems of philosophy elaborated\nby the Christian thinkers of modern times.\" But still, the letter of the\nold doctrine persists on the books of the church and in its creeds,\nalthough opposed to the enlightened spirit now manifesting in the\nchurches which is moving more and more toward the \"pagan and heathen\"\nconception of a naturally Immaterial and Immortal Soul, rather than in a\nResurrection of the Body and an eternal life therein.\n\nIt is scarcely worth while here to contrast the two doctrines--the\nImmortal Immaterial Soul on the one hand, and the Immortal Body on the\nother. The latter conception is so primitively crude, and so foreign to\nmodern thought, that it scarcely needs an argument against it. The\nthought of the necessity of the soul for a material body--the same old\nmaterial body that it once cast off like a worn out garment--a body\nperhaps worn by disease, crippled by \"accident\" or \"the slipping of the\nhand of the Potter\"--a body similar to those we see around us every\nday--the Immortal Soul needing such a garment in order to exist! Better\naccept plain Materialism, and say that there is no soul and that the\nbody perishes and all else with it, than such a gross doctrine which is\nsimply a materialistic Immortality. So far as this doctrine being \"the\nhighest conception of the Immortality of the Soul,\" as contrasted with\nthe \"pagan and heathen\" doctrine of Reincarnation--it is not a\n\"conception of the Immortality of the Soul\" at all, but a flat\ncontradiction of it. It is a doctrine of the \"Immortality of the Body,\"\nwhich bears plain marks of a very lowly \"pagan and heathen\" origin. And\nas to the \"later\" Christian conception, it may be seen that there is\nnothing in the idea of Re-birth which is inconsistent therewith--in\nfact, the two ideas naturally blend into each other.\n\nIn the above discussion our whole intent has been to answer the argument\nagainst Reincarnation which charges that the latter is \"derived from\npagan and heathen sources, and is not in accord with the highest\nconceptions of the immortality of the soul.\" And in order to do this we\nhave found it necessary to examine the opposing theological dogmas as we\nfind them, and to show that they do not come up to the claims of being\n\"the highest conception,\" etc. We think that the strongest point against\nthe dogmas may be found in the claims of their advocates. That the\nChurch is now growing away from them only proves their unfitness as \"the\nhighest conception.\" And Reincarnationists hold that as the Church grows\nin favor of the Immaterial Immortal Soul, so will it find itself\ninclining toward the companion-doctrine of Pre-existence and Re-birth,\nin some of its varied forms, probably that of the Early Fathers of the\nChurch, such as Origen and his followers--that the Church will again\nclaim its own.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nTHE LAW OF KARMA.\n\n\n\"Karma\" is a term in general use among the Hindus, and the Western\nbelievers in Reincarnation, the meaning of which is susceptible of\nvarious shades of definition and interpretation. It is most important to\nall students of the subject of Reincarnation, for it is the companion\ndoctrine--the twin-truth--to the doctrine of Metempsychosis. Strictly\nspeaking, \"Karma\" is the Law of Cause and Effect as applied to the life\nof the soul--the law whereby it reaps the results of its own sowing, or\nsuffers the reaction from its own action. To the majority of\nReincarnationists, however, it has a larger meaning, and is used in the\nsense of the Law of Justice, or the Law of Reward and Punishment,\noperating along the lines of personal experience, personal life, and\npersonal character.\n\nMany authorities hold that the original idea of Karma was that of a\ngreat natural law operating along exact lines, as do the laws of\nmathematics and chemistry, bringing forth the exact effect from every\ncause, and being, above all, questions of good or evil, reward or\npunishment, morality or immorality, etc., and acting as a great natural\nforce above all such questions of human conduct. To those who still\nadhere to this conception, Karma is like the Law of Gravitation, which\noperates without regard to persons, morals or questions of good and\nevil, just as does any other great natural law. In this view the only\n\"right\" or \"wrong\" would be the effect of an action--that is, whether it\nwas conducive to one's welfare and that of the race, or the reverse. In\nthis view, if a child places its hand on a hot stove, the action is\n\"wrong,\" because it brings pain and unhappiness, although the act is\nneither moral or immoral. And another action is \"right\" because it\nbrings happiness, well-being and satisfaction, present and future,\nalthough the act was neither moral nor immoral. In this view there can\nbe neither reward nor punishment, in the common acceptation of the term,\nalthough in another sense there is a reward for such \"right\" doing, and\na punishment for such \"wrong\" doing, as the child with the burnt hand\nmay testify to.\n\nIn this sense of the term, some of the older schools of Reincarnation\naccepted Karma as determining the Re-Birth, along the lines of Desire\nand Attraction, holding that the souls' character would attract it to\nre-birth along the lines of its strongest desires, and in such\nenvironment as would give it the greatest opportunity to work out those\ndesires into action, taking the pains and pleasures of experience\narising from such action, and thus moulding a new, or fuller character,\nwhich would create new Karma, which would determine the future birth,\netc., and so on, and on. Those holding to this view believed that in\nthis way the soul would learn its lesson, with many a crack over the\nknuckles, and with the pain of many an experience that would tend to\nturn it into the road most conducive to spiritual happiness and\nwell-being; and lead it away from the road of material desires and\npleasures, because the repeated experiences had shown that no true\nspiritual well-being was to be obtained therefrom. In other words, the\nsoul, in its spiritual childhood, was just like a little child in the\nphysical world, learning by experience that some things worked for its\n\"good\" and others for \"bad.\" This view naturally carried with it the\nidea that true ethics would show that whatever tended toward the\nadvancement of the soul was \"good,\" and whatever retarded its\nadvancement was \"bad,\" in spite of any arbitrary standard of right or\nwrong erected by man during the ages, and which standard has constantly\nchanged from time to time, is changing now, and always will change.\n\nBut the Hindu mind, especially, soon enlarged upon this original idea of\nKarma, and the priests of India soon had the idea of Karma working as a\ngreat rewarder of \"good,\" and a great punisher of \"evil.\" Corresponding\nto the rewards and punishments in the future life, as taught by\nChristian preachers, the Hindu priests held over the sinner the terrors\nof Karma; and the rewards promised the good people from the same source\nserved to spur on the worshiper to actions in accordance with the ethics\nof the particular church preaching the doctrine. It was taught that the\nman's future state, in the next incarnation, and perhaps for many\nothers, depended upon his state of \"goodness,\" in accordance with the\nlaws of the church and priestly teaching--surely as powerful an argument\nand as terrifying a threat as the orthodox \"bribe of heaven, and threat\nof hell\" of the Western world. The effect of this teaching is seen among\nthe masses of the but slightly educated Hindu classes of today, who are\nvery desirous of acquiring \"merit\" by performing some \"good\" deed, such\nas bestowing alms upon the wandering religious mendicant; making\ncontributions to the temples, etc., as well as performing the acts of\nordinary good will toward men; and who are as equally anxious to avoid\nacquiring \"demerit\" from the lack of proper observances, and the\nperformance of improper actions. While the general effect of this may be\nin the direction of holding the ignorant masses in the ethical road most\nconducive to the public weal, it also has a tendency to foster\ncredulity, superstition and imposition, just as do similar teachings in\nany land, time, under the cover of any religion. There is a strong\nfamily resemblance between these teachings among all the religions, and\nthere are many men who hold that this \"crack of the theological whip\" is\nmost necessary for the keeping of the masses of the people in the strait\nroad of morality, they being held incapable of the practice of \"doing\ngood for good's sake, and avoiding evil because it is evil.\" We shall\nnot discuss this question--decide it for yourself.\n\nOne of the strongest applications of the above mentioned form of the\ndoctrine in India is the teaching that the caste of the man in his next\nincarnation will be determined by his degree of \"good conduct\" in the\npresent life--and that his present caste has been determined by his\nconduct in his previous lives. No one who has not studied the\nimportance of \"caste\" in India can begin to understand how powerful a\nlever this teaching is upon the people of India. From the exalted\nBrahman caste, the priestly caste--down to the Sudra caste of unskilled\nlaborers, or even still further down to the Pariahs or outcasts, the\ncaste lines are strongly marked; the higher caste person deeming it the\ngreatest disgrace to be touched by one of an inferior caste, or to eat\nfood prepared by a lower-caste person, and so on in every act of daily\nlife. The only comparison possible to the American mind is the attitude\nof the old-time Southerner toward the lowest class of negroes, and even\nin this case the prejudice does not extend so far as in the case of the\nHindus, for the Southerner will eat food cooked by a negro servant, and\nwill permit the latter to shave him, act as his valet, etc., something\nat which the high-caste Hindu would be horrified on the part of one\nbelow him in caste. This being understood, it is easy to see how careful\na high-caste Hindu would be to avoid performing actions which might rob\nhim of his caste in his next life, and how powerful an incentive it is\nto a low-caste Hindu to strive for birth in a higher caste after many\nincarnations. To people holding such a view, birth in a low caste is the\nmark of crime and evil action performed in a previous life, and the\nlow-born is accordingly felt to be worthy of no respect. We understand,\nfrom Hindu acquaintances, that this idea is gradually being dispelled in\nIndia, and an era of common human brotherhood and common interest is\nbeginning to manifest itself.\n\nIn the Western world, the Reincarnationists, without doubt, have been\ngreatly affected by the prevailing orthodox Hindu conception of Karma,\nrather than by the Grecian and general occult conception. Although there\nare many who regard Karma as rather a moulder of character, and\nconsequently a prime factor in the re-birth, rather than as a dispenser\nof rewards and punishments--still, there are many who, discarding the\northodox Devil of their former faith, have found a worthy substitute\nfor him in their conception of Karma, and manifest the same terror and\nfear of the new devil as of the old one--and his name may be summed up\nas FEAR, in both cases.\n\nTheosophists have discussed the matter of Karma very thoroughly, and\ntheir leading authorities have written much about it, its various\ninterpretations showing in the shades of opinion among the writers.\nGenerally speaking, however, it may be said that they have bridged over\nthe chasm between the \"natural law\" idea and that of \"the moral law,\"\nwith its rewards and punishments, by an interpretation which places one\nfoot on each conception, holding that there is truth in each. Of course,\njustice requires the reference of that student to the Theosophical\nwritings themselves, for a detailed understanding of their views, but we\nfeel that a brief summary of their general interpretation would be in\norder at this place.\n\nOne of their leading authorities states that the Law of Karma is\nautomatic in action, and that there is no possible escape from it. He\nlikewise holds that Absolute Justice is manifested in its operations,\nthe idea of mercy or wrath being absent from it; and that, consequently,\nevery debt must be paid in full, to the last penny, and that there is no\nvicarious atonement or exceptions made in answer to supplications to a\nhigher source. But he particularly states that this action of the law\nmust not be confused with ordinary reward and punishment for \"good deed\nor bad,\" but that the law acts just as does any other law of Nature,\njust as if we put our hand in the fire we shall be burned as a natural\nconsequence, and not as a punishment. In his statement of this view he\nsays: \"We hold that sorrow and suffering flow from sin just precisely in\nthat way, under the direct working of natural law. It may be said,\nperhaps, that, obviously, the good man does not always reap his reward\nof good results, nor does the wicked man always suffer. Not always\nimmediately; not always within our ken; but assuredly, eventually and\ninexorably.\" The writer then goes on to define his conception of Good\nand Evil. He says: \"We shall see more clearly that this must be so if\nwe define exactly what we mean by good and evil. Our religious brothers\nwould tell us that that was good which was in accordance with God's\nwill, and that that was evil which was in opposition to it. The\nscientific man would say that that was good which helped evolution, and\nwhatever hindered it was evil. Those two men are in reality saying\nexactly the same thing; for God's will for man is evolution, and when\nthat is clearly realized all conflict between religion and science is at\nonce ended. Anything, therefore, which is against evolution of humanity\nas a whole is against the Divine will. We see at once that when a man\nstruggles to gain anything for himself at the expense of others he is\ndistinctly doing evil, and it is evil because it is against the interest\nof the whole. Therefore the only true gain is that which is a gain for\nthe race as a whole, and the man who gains something without cost or\nwrong to anyone is raising the whole race somewhat in the process. He is\nmoving in the direction of evolution, while the other man is moving\nagainst it.\"\n\nThe same writer then gives the list of the three kinds of Karma,\naccording to the Hindu teachings, namely: \"1. There is the Samchita, or\n'piled up' Karma--the whole mass that still remains behind the man not\nyet worked out--the entire unpaid balance of the debit and credit\naccount; 2. There is the Prarabdha, or 'beginning' Karma--the amount\napportioned to the man at the commencement of each life--his destiny for\nthat life, as it were; 3. There is the Kriomana Karma, that which we are\nnow, by our actions in this present life, making for the future.\" He\nfurther states: \"That second type, the Prarabdha Karma, is the only\ndestiny which can be said to exist for man. That is what an astrologer\nmight foretell for us--that we have apportioned to us so much good or\nevil fortune--so much the result of the good and evil actions of our\npast lives which will react on us in this. But we should remember always\nthat this result of previous action can never compel us to action in\nthe present. It may put us under conditions in which it will be\ndifficult to avoid an act, but it can never compel us to commit it. The\nman of ordinary development would probably yield to the circumstances\nand commit the act; but he may assert his free will, rise superior to\nthe circumstances, and gain a victory and a step in evolution. So with a\ngood action, no man is forced into that either, but an opportunity is\ngiven to him. If he takes it certain results will follow--not\nnecessarily a happy or a wealthy life next time, but certainly a life of\nwider opportunity. That seems to be one of the things that are quite\ncertain--that the man who has done well in this life has always the\nopportunity of doing still better in the next. This is nature's reward\nfor good work--the opportunity to do more work. Of course, wealth is a\ngreat opportunity, so the reward often comes in that form, but the\nessence of the reward is the opportunity and not the pleasure which may\nbe supposed to accompany the wealth.\" Another Theosophical writer says\nfurther on the subject of Karma: \"Just as all these phases of Karma\nhave sway over the individual man, so they similarly operate upon races,\nnations and families. Each race has its karma as a whole. If it be good,\nthat race goes forward; if bad, it goes out--annihilated as a\nrace--though the souls concerned take up their karma in other races and\nbodies. Nations cannot escape their national karma, and any nation that\nhas acted in a wicked manner must suffer some day, be it soon or late.\"\nThe same writer sums up the idea of individual unhappiness in any life,\nas follows: \"(a) It is punishment for evil done in past lives; or (b) it\nis discipline taken up by the Ego for the purpose of eliminating defects\nor acquiring fortitude and sympathy. When defects are eliminated it is\nlike removing the obstruction in an irrigating canal which then lets the\nwater flow on. Happiness is explained in the same way--the result of\nprior lives of goodness.\"\n\nThe general idea of a number of writers on the subject of Karma is that\n\"as ye sow, so shall ye reap,\" brought down to a wonderful detail of\narrangement, and effect flowing from causes. This conception, carried to\nits logical conclusion, would insist that every single bit of pain and\nunhappiness in this life is the result of some bad deed done either in\nthe present life or in the past, and every bit of happiness, joy or\npleasure, the result of some good action performed either in the present\nor past life. This conception of Karma affords us the most intricate,\ncomplex and detailed idea of reward for good, and punishment for evil\n(even when called \"the operation of natural law\") possible to the mind\nof man. In its entirety, and carried to its last refinement of\ninterpretation and analysis, it has a tendency to bewilder and terrify,\nfor the chance of escape from its entangling machinery seems so slight.\nBut still, the same authorities inform us that every soul will surmount\nthese obstacles, and everyone will Attain--so there is no need to be\nfrightened, even if you accept the interpretation of doctrine in its\ncompleteness.\n\nBut there are some thinkers who carry this idea of retributive Karma to\nsuch an extreme that they hold that every instance of physical pain,\ndisease, deformity, poverty, ill fortune, etc., that we see among\npeople, is the inevitable result of some moral wrong or crime committed\nby that person in some past life, and that therefore every instance of\npoverty, want or physical suffering is the just result of some moral\noffense. Some of the extremists have gone so far as to hesitate at\nrelieving poverty, physical pain and suffering in others, lest by so\ndoing they might possibly be \"interfering with Karma\"--as if any great\nLaw could be \"interfered with.\" While we, generally, have refrained from\ninsisting upon our personal preference of interpretation in this work,\nwe cannot refrain from so doing in this instance. We consider that such\nan interpretation of the Law of Karma is forced and unnatural, and\nresults from the seeming natural tendency of the human mind to build up\ndevils for itself--and hells of one kind or another. Robbed of their\nDevil, many people would attribute to their God certain devilish\nqualities, in order that they may not be robbed of the satisfaction of\nsmugly thinking of the \"just punishment\" of others. And, if they have\nalso discarded the idea of a Personal God, their demand for a Devil\ncauses them to attribute certain devilish qualities to Natural Law. They\nare bound to find their Devil somewhere--the primitive demand for the\nVengeful Spirit must manifest itself in one form or another.\n\nThese people confound the action of Cause and Effect on the Material and\nPhysical Plane, with Cause and Effect on the Spiritual Plane, whereas\nall true occultists teach that the Cause operating on one plane\nmanifests effects upon the same plane. In this connection, we would call\nyour attention to the instance in the New Testament (John IX., 2), in\nwhich Jesus was asked regarding the cause of the affliction of the man\nwho was BORN BLIND. \"And his disciples asked him, saying, 'Master, who\ndid sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?'\" The\nquestion being asked in order that Jesus might determine between the two\nprevailing theories: (1) That the blindness was caused according to the\noperation of the law of Moses, which held that the sins of the parents\nwere visited on the children unto the third and fourth generation; or\n(2) that it was caused according to the Law of Karma, along the lines of\nreincarnation, and because of some sin which the man had committed in\nsome past incarnation (for no other interpretation of the passage is\npossible, and it shows the prevalence of the idea of Reincarnation among\nthe people of that time). But Jesus promptly brushed away these two\ncrude, primitive conceptions and interpretations, and in the light of\nhis superior spiritual knowledge answered: \"Neither hath this man\nsinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be manifest in\nhim,\" the explanation of the term \"the works of God\" being that Jesus\nmeant thereby the operation of the Laws of Nature imposed by\nGod--something above punishment for \"sins,\" and which operated according\nto invariable physical laws and which affected the just and the unjust\nalike, just as do any natural laws. It is now known that many infants\nare rendered blind by negligence of certain precautions at birth--this\nmay have been a case of that kind. We consider any attempt to attribute\nphysical infirmities to \"sin\" unconnected with the physical trouble to\nbe a reversion to primitive theological dogmas, and smacking strongly of\nthe \"devil idea\" of theology, of which we have spoken. And Poverty\nresults from economic conditions, and not as punishment for \"Sin.\" Nor\nis Wealth the reward of Virtue--far from it.\n\nBut before leaving this phase of the subject we would like to say that\nmany careful thinkers have been able to discern certain spiritual\nbenefits that have arisen from physical suffering, or poverty, and that\nthe sufferers often manifest a high degree of spiritual development and\ngrowth, seemingly by reason of their pain. Not only this, but the divine\nfaculties of pity, help, and true sympathy, are brought out in others,\nby reason thereof. We think that this view of the matter is far more\nalong the lines of true spirituality than that of want and disease as\n\"the punishment of sins committed in past lives.\" Even the human idea\nof Justice revolts at this kind of \"punishment,\" and, in fact, the\nhighest human justice and human law eliminates the idea of \"punishment\"\naltogether, so far as reprisal or revenge is concerned, the penalty\nbeing regarded merely as a deterrent of others, and a warning to the\ncriminal against further infractions of the law, and as a reformatory\nagent--this at least is the theory of Human Law--no matter how\nimperfectly it works out in practice--and we cannot think of Divine Law\nbeing less just and equitable, less merciful and loving. The \"eye for\neye, tooth for tooth\" conception of human justice has been out-lived by\nthe race in its evolution.\n\nAfter considering the above mentioned extreme ideas of \"punishments,\"\nthrough the Law of Karma, we ask you to consider the following lines\nwritten by a writer having great insight, and published in a leading\nmagazine several years ago. The idea of \"The Kindergarten of God\"\ntherein expressed, we think, is far nearer in accordance with the\nhighest Occult Teachings, than the other idea of \"Divine Wrath\" and\npunishment for sin, along the lines of a misinterpretation of the Law of\nKarma, worthy of the worshipers of some ancient Devil-God. Read this\nlittle quotation carefully, and then determine which of the two views\nseems to fit in better with your highest spiritual conceptions:\n\n\"A boy went to school. He was very little. All that he knew he had drawn\nin with his mother's milk. His teacher (who was God) placed him in the\nlowest class, and gave him these lessons to learn: Thou shalt not kill.\nThou shalt do no hurt to any living thing. Thou shalt not steal. So the\nman did not kill; but he was cruel, and he stole. At the end of the day\n(when his beard was gray--when the night was come), his teacher (who was\nGod) said: Thou hast learned not to kill. But the other lessons thou\nhast not learned. Come back tomorrow.\n\n\"On the morrow he came back, a little boy. And his teacher (who was God)\nput him in a class a little higher, and gave him these lessons to learn:\nThou shalt do no hurt to any living thing. Thou shalt not steal. Thou\nshalt not cheat. So the man did no hurt to any living thing; but he\nstole and he cheated. And at the end of the day (when his beard was\ngray--when the night was come), his teacher (who was God) said: Thou\nhast learned to be merciful. But the other lessons thou hast not\nlearned. Come back tomorrow.\n\n\"Again, on the morrow, he came back, a little boy. And his teacher (who\nwas God) put him in a class yet a little higher, and gave him these\nlessons to learn: Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not cheat. Thou shalt\nnot covet. So the man did not steal; but he cheated, and he coveted. And\nat the end of the day (when his beard was gray--when the night was\ncome), his teacher (who was God) said: Thou hast learned not to steal.\nBut the other lessons thou hast not learned. Come back, my child,\ntomorrow.\n\n\"This is what I have read in the faces of men and women, in the book of\nthe world, and in the scroll of the heavens, which is writ with\nstars.\"--_Berry Benson, in The Century Magazine, May, 1894._\n\nBut there is still another view of Karma held by some Western thinkers,\nwho received it from the Greek mystics and occultists, who in turn are\nthought to have received it from ancient Egypt. These people hold that\nthe Law of Karma has naught to do with Man's theories of ethics, or\nreligious dogmas or creeds, but has as the basis of its operations only\nUniversal and Cosmic Principles of Action, applicable to the atom as\nwell as Man--to the beings above Man as well. And that these universal\nprinciples of action have to do with the evolution of all things in\nNature, according to well established laws. And that the evolving soul\nis continually striving to find the path along the lines of evolution,\nbeing urged to by the unfolding spirit within it--and that that \"path\"\nis always along the lines of least spiritual friction, and therefore\nalong the lines of the least ultimate spiritual pain. And that,\naccordingly, Spiritual Pain is an indication to the evolving thing that\nit is on the wrong path, and that it must find a better way\nonward--which message it heeds by reason of the pain, and accordingly\nseeks out for itself a better way, and one that will bring less\nspiritual pain and greater ultimate spiritual satisfaction.\n\nThis teaching holds that all material things are a source of more or\nless pain to the growing and evolving soul, which tends to urge it along\nthe line of the least spiritual resistence--the least spiritual\nfriction. It may be that the soul does not recognize the direction of\nthe urge, and insist in tasting this material pleasure (so-thought) and\nthen that--only to find that neither satisfy--that both are Dead Sea\nFruit--that both have the thorn attached to the flower--that all bring\npain, satiety and disgust--the consequence being that the tired and\nwearied soul, when rested by the Lethal slumber, and then re-born has a\nhorror and distaste for the things which disgusted it in its previous\nlife, and is therefore urged toward opposite things. If the soul has not\nbeen satiated--has not yet been pricked by the hidden thorn--it wishes\nto go on further in the dream of material pleasure, and so it does,\nuntil it learns its lesson. Finally, perceiving the folly and\nworthlessness of materiality, it emerges from its cocoon and, spreading\nout its newly found wings, takes its flight for higher planes of action\nand being--and so on, and on, and on, forever.\n\nUnder this view people are not punished \"for\" their sins, but \"by\"\nthem--and \"Sin\" is seen to be merely a \"mistake,\" not a crime. And Pain\narises not as a punishment for something done wrongly, but as a warning\nsign of \"hands off\"; and consequently Pain is something by which we may\nmount to higher things--to Something Better--and not a punishment. And\nthis idea holds, also, that on the physical plane physical law governs,\nand physical effects follow physical causes; likewise on the mental\nplane; likewise on the Spiritual Plane. And, therefore, it is absurd to\nsuppose that one suffers physical pain as a punishment for some moral\noffense committed on another plane. On the contrary, however, this idea\nholds that from the physical pain which was occasioned by the operation\nof physical law alone one may develop higher spiritual states by reason\nof a better understanding of the nature of pain in oneself and others.\nAnd this idea refuses to recognize material pleasures or profits as a\nreward for spiritual or moral actions.\n\nOn the whole this last mentioned conception of Karma refuses to use the\nterms \"reward and punishment,\" or even to entertain those ideas, but\ninstead sees in everything the working out of a great Cosmic Plan\nwhereby everything rises from lower to higher, and still higher. To it\nKarma is but one phase of the great LAW operating in all planes and\nforms of Life and the Universe. To it the idea that \"THE UNIVERSE IS\nGOVERNED BY LAW\" is an axiom. And while to it ULTIMATE JUSTICE is also\naxiomic, it sees not in the operation of penalties and reward--merits\nand demerits--the proof of that Ultimate Justice; it looks for it and\nfinds it in the conception and realizing that ALL WORKS FOR GOOD--that\nEverything is tending upward--that everything is justified and just,\nbecause the END is ABSOLUTE GOOD, and that every tiny working of the\ngreat cosmic machinery is turning in the right direction and to that\nend. Consequently, each of us is just where he should be at the present\ntime--and our condition is exactly the very best to bring us to that\nDivine Consummation and End. And to such thinkers, indeed, there is no\nDevil but Fear and Unfaith, and all other devils are illusions, whether\nthey be called Beelzebub, Mortal-Mind, or Karma, if they produce Fear\nand Unfaith in the All-Good. And such thinkers feel that the way to live\naccording to the Higher Light, and without fear of a Malevolent Karma,\nis to feel one's relationship with the Universal Good, and then to \"Live\nOne Day at a time--Doing the Best you Know How--and Be Kind\"--knowing\nthat in the All-Good you live and move and have your being, and that\noutside of that All-Good you cannot stray, for there is no\noutside--knowing that THAT which brought you Here will be with you\nThere--that Death is but a phase of Life--and above all that THERE IS\nNOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF--and that ALL IS WELL with God; with the\nUniverse; and with YOU!\n\nFINIS.\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT\n\n\nTHE HINDU-YOGI\n\nScience of Breath\n\nA Complete Manual of the Oriental Philosophy of Physical, Mental,\nPsychic, and Spiritual Development by the Intelligent Control of the\nBreath.\n\nBy YOGI RAMACHARAKA\n\n\nSynopsis:--Chapter I. The Hindu Yogis--Something About Their Teachings.\nChapter II. \"Breath is Life\"--Teachings of the Orient and Occident\nCompared. Chapter III. The Exoteric Theory of Breath. Chapter IV. The\nEsoteric Theory of Breath--Prana. Chapter V. The Nervous System--Yogi\nTeachings Concerning the Solar Plexus--The Solar Plexus a Store-House of\nPrana. Chapter VI. How to Breathe--Oriental Methods. Chapter VII. Four\nMethods of Respiration as Classified by the Yogis--The Yogi Complete\nBreath. Chapter VIII. How to Acquire the Yogi Complete Breath. Chapter\nIX. Physiological Effect of the Complete Breath. Chapter X. Yogi\nLore--The Yogi Cleansing Breath--The Yogi Nerve Vitalizing Breath--The\nYogi Vocal Breath. Chapter XI. Seven Yogi Developing Exercises. Chapter\nXII. Chapter XIII. Vibration and Yogi Rhythmic Breathing--How to\nAscertain the Heart Beat Unit Used by the Yogis as the Basis of Rhythmic\nBreathing. Chapter XIV. Phenomena of Psychic Breathing--Directions for\nYogi Psychic Breathing--Prana Distributing--Inhibiting\nPain--Self-Healing--Healing Others--Distant Healing. Chapter XV. More\nPhenomena of Yogi Psychic Breathing--Thought Projection--Forming an\nAura--Recharging Yourself--Recharging Others--Charging Water--Acquiring\nMental Qualities--Controlling the Emotions--Transmutation of\nReproductive Energy--Brain Stimulating--The Grand Yogi Psychic Breath.\nChapter XVI. Yogi Spiritual Breathing--Soul Consciousness--How\nUnfolded--The Universal Consciousness--How the Yogi Attain This\nConsciousness--General Directions.\n\n75 Pages.\n\nPrice, Paper $0.53 Postpaid; Cloth $0.75 Postpaid.\n\n  I received the copy of \"Science Breath\" promptly and I am\n  very much pleased with it. The simple, clear, logical manner\n  in which it is written will certainly be appreciated and\n  will enhance its usefulness. Please send me another\n  copy.--H. W. A., Pittsburg, Pa.\n\n\n\n\nThe Hindu-Yogi System of\nPractical Water Cure\n\nBy YOGI RAMACHARAKA\n\nChapter I. The Hindu-Yogi Water Cure--An Important Branch of Hatha\nYoga--The Underlying Principle--Prana in the Water--How slow Water Loses\nPrana--How Water May be Pranaized. Chapter II. Nature's Great\nRemedy--Water the Basis of Life--The Important Part Played by Water in\nthe Psychological Mechanism of the System--What Water Does, and Why.\nChapter III. Water Drinking--Why Man Needs Water--How Much Water He\nNeeds--What He Suffers from Neglecting the Normal Amount of Fluids--An\nImportant Secret--Surprising Facts. Chapter IV. The Stomach and\nIntestines--A Plain, Practical, Scientific Description of the Organs of\nAssimilation and Elimination--Something that Everyone Should Know to be\nHealthy. Chapter V. The Obstructed Sewer--A Scientific Statement\nRegarding the Great Sewer of the System, Which When Clogged, Obstructed\nand Choked with Waste-Matter, Causes Disease and Weakness. Chapter VI.\nThe Internal Bath--The Scientific Method of Keeping Clean the Great\nSewer of the System--A Simple Method of Internal Cleanliness, and\nResulting Health. Chapter VII. The Skin--A Plain Scientific Description\nof the Skin, and the Part it Plays in Health and Disease--Something that\nEveryone Should Know, but Few Realize. Chapter VIII. Scientific\nBathing--Scientific Methods of Bathing--The Cleansing Bath--The\nNon-Drying Bath--The Hot Bath--The Cold Bath--Hardening Baths--Private\nInformation. Chapter X. Pack Treatments--The Wet Sheet Pack, and How to\nApply It--The Half Pack--The Sweat Pack--Endosmose and\nExosmose--Hydropathy in a Nut Shell. Chapter X. Other Valuable\nMethods--Fomentations, or Hot Steam Applications--Water Bandages and\nCompresses--Hot Water Compresses, and Cold Water Bandages--Special\nApplications--Sexual Vitality Treatments--Special Applications, etc.\n\nThis book has just been published, although Yogi Ramacharaka wrote it\nsome time ago.\n\n\n\n\nTHE KYBALION\n\nA STUDY OF\n\nThe Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient\nEgypt and Greece\n\nBY THREE INITIATES\n\n\"The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding.\"\n\nThis new book is bound to attract the earnest attention of all students\nof the Secret Doctrines of the East. Perhaps the better way to describe\nthis work is to give you the following words from its authors:\n\n\"From old Egypt have come the fundamental esoteric and occult teachings\nwhich have so strongly influenced the philosophies of all races, nations\nand peoples, for several thousand years. Egypt, the home of the Pyramids\nand the Sphinx, was the birthplace of the Hidden Wisdom and Mystic\nTeachings. From her Secret Doctrine all nations have borrowed. India,\nPersia, Chaldea, Medea, China, Japan, Assyria, ancient Greece and Rome,\nand other ancient countries partook liberally at the feast of knowledge\nwhich the Hierophants and Masters of the Land of Isis so freely provided\nfor those who came prepared to partake of the great store of Mystic and\nOccult Lore which the master-minds of that ancient land had gathered\ntogether. In ancient Egypt dwelt the great adepts and Masters who have\nnever been surpassed, and who seldom have been equaled during the\ncenturies that have taken their processional flight since the days of\nthe Great Hermes. In Egypt was located the Great Lodge of Lodges of the\nMystics. At the doors of her Temples entered the Neophytes who\nafterward, as Hierophants, Adepts, and Masters, traveled to the four\ncorners of the earth, carrying with them the precious knowledge which\nthey were ready, anxious, and willing to pass on to those who were ready\nto receive the same. All students of the Occult recognize the debt that\nthey owe to these venerable Masters of that ancient land.\"\n\n\nTHE KYBALION\n\nThe Hermetic Teachings are to be found in all lands, among all\nreligions, but never identified with any particular country, nor with\nany particular religious sect. This because of the warning of the\nancient teachers against allowing the Secret Doctrine to become\ncrystallized into a creed. The wisdom of this caution is apparent to all\nstudents of history. The ancient occultism of India and Persia a\ndegenerated, and was largely lost, owing to the fact that the teachers\nbecame priests, and so mixed theology with the philosophy, the result\nbeing that much of the occultism of India and Persia has been lost\namidst the mass of religious superstition, cults, creeds and \"gods.\" So\nit was with Ancient Greece and Rome. So it was with the Hermetic\nTeachings of the Gnostics and Early Christians, which were lost at the\ntime of Constantine, whose iron hand smothered philosophy with the\nblanket of theology.\n\n\nTHE HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY\n\n\"But there were always a few faithful souls who kept alive the flame,\ntending it carefully, and not allowing its light to become extinguished.\nAnd thanks to these staunch hearts, and fearless minds, we have the\ntruth still with us. But it is not found in books, to any great extent.\nIt has been passed along from Master to Student; from Initiative to\nHeirophant; from lip to ear. When it was written down at all, its\nmeaning was veiled in terms of alchemy and astrology, so that only those\npossessing the key could read it aright. This was made necessary in\norder to avoid the persecutions of the theologians of the Middle Ages,\nwho fought the Secret Doctrine with fire and sword; stake, gibbet and\ncross. Even to this day there will be found but few reliable books on\nthe Hermetic Philosophy. Although there are countless references to it\nin many books written on various phases of Occultism. And yet, the\nHermetic Philosophy is the only Master Key which will open all the doors\nof the Occult Teachings!\n\n\nABOUT THE BOOK\n\n\"In this book we invite you to examine into the Hermetic Teachings as\nset forth in THE KYBALION. We therein give you many of the maxims and\nprecepts of THE KYBALION, accompanied by explanations and illustrations\nwhich we deem likely to render the teachings more easily comprehended by\nthe modern student, particularly as the original text is purposely\nveiled in obscure terms. The trust that the many students to whom we now\noffer this little work will derive as much benefit from the study of its\npages as have the many who have gone on before, treading the same Path\nto Mastery throughout the centuries that have passed since the times of\nHERMES TRISMEGISTUS--the Master of Masters--the Great-great. According\nto the Teachings, this book will attract the attention of such as are\nprepared to receive its Teaching. And, likewise, when the pupil is ready\nto receive the truth, then will this book come to him, or her, and not\nbefore. Such is The Law. The Hermetic Principle of Cause and Effect, in\nits aspect of The Law of Attraction, will bring lips and ear\ntogether--pupil and book in company. 'The Principles of Truth are Seven;\nhe who knows these, understandingly, possesses the Magic Key before\nwhose touch all the Doors of the Temple fly open.'--The Kybalion.\n\nTHE THREE INITIATES.\"\n\nBound in Blue Silk Cloth, Lettered in Gold, 223 Pages.\n\nPrice $1.08 Postpaid.\n\n\n\n\nYoga Lessons\n\nFOR DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS\n\nBy SWAMIE A. P. MUKERJI OF INDIA\n\nAssociate Editor Kalpaka Magazine Price $1.20 net.\n\nYoga is a subject which has enthralled the attention of the world from\ntime out of mind. No one has hitherto done justice to such a grand\nsystem, though there have been, now and then, innumerable attempts.\n\nThe present author, my esteemed friend, Swamie Mukerji, a Yogi who comes\nout of a successive generation of Yogis, is able and proper instrument\nto handle the subject. He, in these lessons, prepares the layman for an\nunderstanding of the Yoga and through a series of wise and masterful\nsayings, impresses on the mind of the reader the necessity for rising\nabove materialism, nay, solves the very problem \"What am I?\"\n\nEvery line is pregnant with mature thoughts and rivets on his attention,\nand makes him think, think, think.\n\nThis is not a work for which an introduction, briefly setting forth the\ncontents, could be written. I can but ask you to read, digest and\nimprove.\n\nDR. T. R. SANJIVI, Ph. D., President\nThe Latent Light Culture\nTennevelley, India.\n\n\n\n\nBOOKS PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE\n\nBY\n\nTHE YOGI PUBLICATION SOCIETY\n\nChicago, Illinois\n\n\n                                                        Price,\n                                                      Postpaid.\n\nFourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy, and Oriental\n  Occultism. By Ramacharaka. Bound in green silk\n  cloth                                                 $1.10\n\nAdvanced Course in Yogi Philosophy, and Oriental\n  Occultism. By Ramacharaka. Bound in brown silk\n  cloth                                                  1.10\n\nRaja Yoga. By Ramacharaka. Bound in brown silk\n  cloth                                                  1.10\n\nGnana Yoga. By Ramacharaka. Bound in blue silk cloth     1.10\n\nPsychic Healing. By Ramacharaka. Bound in maroon silk\n  cloth                                                  1.10\n\nHatha Yoga. By Ramacharaka. Bound in yellow silk cloth   1.10\n\nScience of Breath. By Ramacharaka. Bound in paper, 53c;\n  cloth                                                   .75\n\nLight on the Path and Illumined Way. By M. C. Cloth       .44\n\nA Treatise on the Light on the Path. By M. C. Paper       .10\n\nA Visit to a Gnani. By Edward Carpenter. Paper            .28\n\nJesus: The Last Great Initiate. By Edouard Schure.\n  Silk cloth                                              .80\n\nKrishna and Orpheus. By Edouard Schure. Silk cloth        .80\n\nBhavagad Gita. By Ramacharaka                             .80\n\nThe Spirit of the Upanishads                              .55\n\nMystery of Being                                          .50\n\nKarma. Occult Novel. By A. P. Sinnett. Cloth              .60\n\nPractical Mind Reading. By W. W. Atkinson. Cloth          .50\n\nPractical Psychomancy and Crystal Gazing. By W.\n  W. Atkinson. Cloth                                      .50\n\nMental Influence. By W. W. Atkinson. Cloth                .50\n\nMystic Christianity. By Ramacharaka. Pamphlet Edition,\n  $1.12; ready in book form, Sept 1, '08                 1.10\n\nKybalion. By Three Initiates. Cloth                      1.08\n\nInner Consciousness. By W. W. Atkinson                    .50\n\nSecret of Success. By W. W. Atkinson                      .50\n\nThe Philosophies and Religions of India, by Ramacharaka.\n  Cloth                                                  1.12\n\n\nCOMPLETE CATALOG ON APPLICATION.\n\nWe will be pleased to send descriptive circulars to anyone that you\nthink would be interested.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\"Bhavagad Gita\" in the list of books published by The Yogi Publication\nSociety is a misprint for \"Bhagavad Gita.\"\n\n\"Ronach\" in the Table of Contents, Chapter IV, is a misprint for\n\"Roauch.\"","title":"Reincarnation and the Law of Karma: A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":44920}