Castell Coch,
Wheelbarrow
Competition
Bute Park,
Cardiff 2007
Entertainment
on Cardiff’s Queen Street
_________
THE
OF
THEOSOPHY
A Definitive Work on Theosophy
By
William Quan Judge
CHAPTER
10
Arguments
Supporting Reincarnation
Unless we deny the immortality of man and the
existence of soul, there are no sound arguments against the doctrine of
pre-existence and rebirth save such as rest on the dictum of the church that
each soul is a new creation. This dictum can be supported only by blind
dogmatism, for given a soul we must sooner or later arrive at the theory of
rebirth, because even if each soul is new on this earth it must keep on living
somewhere after passing away, and in view of the known order of nature will
have other bodies in other planets or spheres.
Theosophy applies to the
self -- the thinker -- the same laws which are seen everywhere in operation
throughout nature, and those are all varieties of the great law that effects
follow causes and no effect is without a cause.
The soul's immortality -- believed in by the mass of
humanity -- demands embodiment here or elsewhere, and to be embodied means
reincarnation. If we come to this earth for but a few years and then go to some
other, the soul must be reimbodied there as well as here, and if we have
travelled from some other world we must have had there too our proper vesture.
The powers of mind and the laws governing its motion, its attachment, and its
detachment as given in theosophical philosophy show that its reimbodiment must
be here, where it moved and worked, until such time as the mind is able to
overcome the forces which chain it to this globe. To permit the involved entity
to transfer itself to another scene of action before it had overcome all the
causes drawing it here and without its having worked out its responsibilities
to other entities in the same stream of evolution would be unjust and contrary
to the powerful occult laws and forces which continually operate upon it. The
early Christian Fathers saw this, and taught that the soul had fallen into
matter and was obliged by the law of its nature to toil upward again to the
place from which it came. They used an old
Greek hymn which ran:
Eternal Mind,
thy seedling spark,
Through this
thin vase of clay,
Athwart the
waves of chaos dark
Emits a
timorous ray.
This mind
enfolding soul is sown,
Incarnate germ
in earth:
In pity,
blessed Lord, then own
What claims in
Thee its birth.
Far forth from
Thee, thou central fire,
To earth's sad
bondage cast,
Let not the
trembling spark expire;
Absorb thine
own at last!
Each human being has a definite character different
from every other human being, and masses of beings aggregated into nations show
as wholes that the national force and distinguishing peculiarities go to make
up a definite and separate national character. These differences, both
individual and national,
are due to essential character and not to education.
Even the doctrine of the survival of the fittest
should show this, for the fitness can not come from nothing but must at last
show itself from the coming to the surface of the actual inner character. And
as both individuals and nations among those who are ahead in the struggle with
nature exhibit an immense force in their character, we must find a place and
time where the force was evolved.
These, Theosophy says, are this
earth and the whole period during which the human race has been on the planet.
So, then, while heredity has something to do with the
difference in character as to force and morale, swaying the soul and mind a
little and furnishing also the appropriate place for receiving reward and
punishment, it is not the cause for the essential nature shown by every one.
But all these differences, such as those shown by
babes from birth, by adults as character comes forth more and more, and by
nations in their history, are due to long experience gained during many lives
on earth, are the outcome of the soul's own evolution.
A survey of one short human life gives no ground for
the
production of his inner nature. It is needful that
each soul should have all possible experience, and one life cannot give this
even under the best conditions.
It would be folly for the Almighty to put us here for
such a short time, only to remove us just when we had begun to see the object
of life and the possibilities in it. The mere selfish desire of a person to
escape the trials and discipline of life is not enough to set nature's laws
aside, so the soul must be reborn until it has ceased to set in motion the
cause of rebirth, after having developed character up to its possible limit as
indicated by all the varieties of human nature, when every experience has been
passed through, and not until all of truth that can be known has been acquired.
The vast disparity among men in respect to capacity compels us, if we wish to
ascribe justice to Nature or to God, to admit reincarnation and to trace the
origin of the disparity back to the past lives of the Ego. For people are as
much hindered and handicapped, abused and made the victims of seeming injustice
because of limited capacity, as they are by reason of circumstances of birth or
education.
We see the uneducated rising above circumstances of
family and training, and often those born in good families have very small
capacity; but the troubles of nations and families arise from want of capacity
more than from any other cause.
And if we consider savage races only, there the
seeming injustice is enormous. For many savages have good actual brain capacity
but still are savage. This is because the Ego in that body is still savage and
undeveloped, for in contrast to the savage there are many civilized men with
small actual brain force who are
not savage in nature because the indwelling Ego has
had long experience in civilization during other lives, and being a more
developed soul has power to use the brain instrument to its highest limit.
Each man feels and knows that he has an individuality
of his own, a personal identity which bridges over not only the gaps made by
sleep but also those sometimes supervening on temporary lesions in the brain.
This identity never breaks from beginning to end of life in the normal person,
and only the
persistence and eternal character of the soul will
account for it.
So, ever since we began to remember, we know that our
personal identity has not failed us, no matter how bad may be our memory.
This disposes of the argument that identity depends on
recollection, for the reason that if it did depend alone on recollection we
should each day have to begin over again, as we cannot remember the events of
the past in detail, and some minds remember but little yet feel their personal
identity. And as it is often seen that some who remember the least insist as
strongly as the others on their personal identity, that persistence of feeling
must come from the old and immortal soul.
Viewing life and its probable object, with all the
varied experience possible for man, one must be forced to the conclusion that a
single life is not enough for carrying out all that is intended by Nature, to
say nothing of what man
himself desires to do. The scale of variety in
experience is enormous. There is a vast range of powers latent in man which we
see may be developed if opportunity be given. Knowledge infinite in scope and
diversity lies before us, and especially in these days when special
investigation is the rule. We perceive
that we have high aspirations with no time to reach up
to their measure, while the great troop of passions and desires, selfish
motives and ambitions, war with us and among themselves, pursuing us even to
the door of death.
All these have to be tried, conquered, used, subdued.
One life is not enough for all this. To say that we have but one life here with
such possibilities put before us and impossible of development is to make the
universe and life a huge and cruel joke
perpetrated by a powerful God who is thus accused, by those
who believe in a special creation of souls, of triumphing and playing with puny
man just because that man is small and the creature of the Almighty.
A human life at most is seventy years; statistics
reduce this to about forty; and out of that little remainder a large part is
spent in sleep and another part in childhood. Thus in one life it is perfectly
impossible to attain to the merest fraction of what
Nature evidently has in view. We see many truths
vaguely which a life gives us no time to grasp, and especially is this so when
men have to make such a struggle to live at all. Our faculties are small or
dwarfed or weak; one life gives no opportunity to alter this; we perceive other
powers latent in us that cannot possibly be brought out in such a small space
of time; and we have much
more than a suspicion that the extent of the field of
truth is vastly greater than the narrow circle we are confined to.
It is not reasonable to suppose that either God or
nature projects us into a body simply to fill us with bitterness because we can
have no other opportunity here, but rather we must conclude that a series of
incarnations has led to the present condition, and that the process of coming
here again and again must go on for the purpose of affording us the opportunity
needed.
The mere fact of dying is not of itself enough to
bring about development of faculties or the elimination of wrong tendency and
inclination. If we assume that upon entering heaven we at once acquire all
knowledge and purity, then that state after death is reduced to a dead level
and life itself with all its discipline is shorn of every meaning. Some of the
churches teach of a school of discipline after death where it is impudently
stated that the Apostles themselves, well known to be ignorant men, are to be
the teachers. This is absurd and devoid of any basis or reason in the natural
order. Besides, if there is to be such subsequent discipline, why were we
projected into life at all? And why after the suffering and the error committed
are we taken from the place where we did our acts?
The only solution left is in reincarnation. We come
back to earth because on it and with the beings upon it our deeds were
performed; because it is the only proper place where punishment and reward can be
justly meted out; because here is the only natural spot in which to continue
the struggle toward perfection, toward the development of the faculties we have
and the destruction of the wickedness in us. Justice to ourselves and to all
other beings demands it, for we cannot live for ourselves, and it would be
unjust to permit some of us to escape, leaving those who were participants with
us to remain or to be plunged into a hell of eternal duration.
The persistence of savagery, the rise and decay of
nations and civilizations, the total extinction of nations, all demand an
explanation found nowhere but in reincarnation. Savagery remains because there
are still Egos whose experience is
so limited that they are still savage; they will come
up into higher races when ready.
Races die out because the Egos have had enough of the
experience that sort of race gives. So we find the red Indian, the Hottentot,
the Easter Islanders, and others as examples of races deserted by high Egos and
as they are dying away other souls who have had no higher life in the past
enter into the bodies of the race to go on using them for the purpose of
gaining such experience as the race body will give. A race could not possibly
arise and then suddenly go out. We see that such is not the case, but science
has no explanation; it simply says that this is the fact, that nations decay.
But in this explanation no account is taken of the inner man nor of the
recondite subtle and occult laws that unite to make a race. Theosophy shows that the
energy drawn together has to expend itself gradually, and therefore the
reproduction of bodies of the character of that race will go on, though the
Egos are not compelled to inhabit bodies of that sort any longer than while
they are of the same development as the race. Hence a time comes when the whole
mass of Egos which built up the race leaves it for another physical environment
more
like themselves. The economy of Nature will not permit
the physical race to suddenly fade away, and so in the real order of evolution
other and less progressed Egos come in and use the forms provided, keeping up
the production of new bodies but less and less in number each century.
These lower Egos are not able to keep up to the limit
of the capacity of the congeries of energies left by the other Egos, and so
while the new set gains as much experience as is possible the race in time dies
out after passing through its decay. This is the explanation of what we may
call descending savagery, and no other theory will meet the facts. It has been
sometimes thought by ethnologists that the more civilized races kill off the
other, but the fact is that in consequence of the great difference between the
Egos inhabiting the old race body and the energy of that body itself, the
females begin to be sterile, and thus slowly but surely the number of deaths
exceeds the births. China itself is in process of decay, she being now in the
almost stationary stage just before the rush downward.
Great civilizations like those of Egypt and Babylon
have gone because the souls who made them have long ago reincarnated in the
great conquering nations of Europe and the present American continents. As
nations and races they have been totally reincarnated and born again for
greater and higher purposes than ever.
Of all the old races the Aryan Indian alone yet
remains as the preserver of the old doctrines. It will one day rise again to
its old heights of glory. The appearance of geniuses and great minds in
families destitute of these qualities, as well as the extinction from a family
of the genius shown by some ancestor, can only be met by the law of rebirth.
Napoleon the First came in a family wholly unlike him in power and force.
Nothing in his heredity will
explain his character. He said himself, as told in the
Memoirs of Prince Talleyrand, that he was Charlemagne. Only by assuming for him
a long series of lives giving the right line of evolution or cause for his mind
and nature and force to be brought out, can we have the slightest idea why he
or any other great genius appeared at all. Mozart when an infant could compose
orchestral
score. This was not due to heredity, for such a score
is not natural, but is forced, mechanical, and wholly conventional, yet he
understood it without schooling. How? Because he was a musician reincarnated,
with a musical brain furnished by his family and thus not impeded in his
endeavors to show forth his
musical knowledge.
But stronger yet is the case of Blind Tom, a Negro
whose
family could not by any possibility have a knowledge
of the piano, a modern instrument, so as to transmit that knowledge to the
atoms of his body, yet he had great musical power and knew the present
mechanical musical scale on the piano. There are hundreds of examples like
these among the many prodigies who have appeared to the world's astonishment.
In India there are many histories of sages born with complete knowledge of
philosophy and the like, and doubtless in all nations the same can be met with.
This bringing back of knowledge also explains instinct, for that is no more
than recollection divisible into physical and mental memory.
It is seen in the child and the animal, and is no more
than the result of previous experience. And whether we look at the new-born
babe flinging out its arms for self-protection, or the animal with very strong
instinctual power, or the bee building a cell on the rules of geometry, it is
all the effect of reincarnation acting either in the mind or physical cell, for
under what was first laid down no atom is devoid of life, consciousness, and
intelligence of its own.
In the case of the musician Bach we have proof that
heredity counts for nothing if the Ego is not advanced, for his genius was not
borne down his family line; it gradually faded out, finally leaving the family
stream entirely. So, too, the coming of idiots or vicious children to parents
who are good, pure, or highly
intellectual is explained in the same way. They are
cases where heredity is set at nought by a wholly bad or deficient Ego.
And lastly, the fact that certain inherent ideas are
common to the whole race is explained by the sages as due to recollection of
such ideas, which were implanted in the human mind at the very beginning of its
evolutionary career on this planet by those brothers and sages who learned
their lessons and were
perfected in former ages long before the development
of this globe began. No explanation for inherent ideas is offered by science
that will do more than say, "they exist." These were actually taught
to the mass of Egos who are engaged in
this earth's evolution; they were imprinted or burned
into their natures, and always recollected; they follow the Ego through the
long pilgrimage.
It has been often thought that the opposition to
reincarnation has been solely based on prejudice, when not due to a dogma which
can only stand when the mind is bound down and prevented from using its own
powers. It is a doctrine the most noble of all, and with its companion one of
Karma, next to be
considered, it alone gives the basis for ethics. There
is no doubt in my mind that the founder of Christianity took it for granted and
that its present absence from that religion is the reason for the contradiction
between the professed ethics of Christian nations and their actual practises
which are so contrary to the morals given out by Jesus.
______________________
THE
OF
THEOSOPHY
Find out more about
Theosophy with these links
The Cardiff Theosophical Society Website
The
National Wales Theosophy Website
If you run a Theosophy Group, please feel free
to use any of the material on this site
The Most Basic Theosophy
Website in the Universe
A quick overview of Theosophy
and the Theosophical Society
If you run a Theosophy Group you
can use this as an introductory handout.
Theosophy Cardiff’s Instant Guide
One liners and quick explanations
H P Blavatsky is
usually the only
Theosophist that
most people have ever
heard of. Let’s
put that right
The Voice of the Silence Website
An Independent Theosophical Republic
Links to Free Online Theosophy
Study Resources; Courses, Writings,
The main criteria
for the inclusion of
links on this
site is that they have some
relationship
(however tenuous) to Theosophy
and are
lightweight, amusing or entertaining.
Topics include
Quantum Theory and Socks,
Dick Dastardly and Legendary Blues Singers.
A selection of articles
on Reincarnation
Provided in
response to the large
number of
enquiries we receive at
Cardiff
Theosophical Society on this subject
The Voice of the Silence Website
This is for everyone, you don’t have to live
in Wales to make good use of this Website
No Aardvarks were harmed in the
Within the
British Isles, The Adyar Theosophical Society has Groups in;
Bangor*Basingstoke*Billericay*Birmingham*Blackburn*Bolton*Bournemouth
Bradford*Bristol*Camberley*Cardiff*Chester*Conwy*Coventry*Dundee*Edinburgh
Folkstone*Glasgow*Grimsby*Inverness*Isle
of Man*Lancaster*Leeds*Leicester
Letchworth*London*Manchester*Merseyside*Middlesborough*Newcastle
upon Tyne
North
Devon*Northampton*Northern Ireland*Norwich*Nottingham
Perth*Republic of
Ireland*Sidmouth*Southport*Sussex*Swansea*Torbay
Tunbridge
Wells*Wallasey*Warrington*Wembley*Winchester*Worthing
The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy
The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy
A B C D EFG H IJ KL M N OP QR S T UV WXYZ
Complete Theosophical Glossary in Plain Text Format
1.22MB
Quick Explanations with Links to
More Detailed Info
What is Theosophy ? Theosophy Defined (More Detail)
Three Fundamental Propositions Key Concepts of Theosophy
Cosmogenesis
Anthropogenesis
Root Races
Karma
Ascended Masters After Death States Reincarnation
The Seven Principles of Man Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott William Quan Judge
The Start of the Theosophical Society
History of the Theosophical Society
Theosophical Society Presidents
History of the Theosophical Society in Wales
The Three Objectives of the Theosophical Society
Explanation of the Theosophical Society Emblem
Glossaries of Theosophical Terms
An Outstanding
Introduction to Theosophy
By a student of
Katherine Tingley
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man? Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation Karma
What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
An Outline of Theosophy
Charles Webster Leadbeater
Theosophy - What it is How is it Known? The Method of Observation
General Principles The Three Great Truths The Deity
Advantage Gained from this
Knowledge The Divine Scheme
The Constitution of Man The True Man Reincarnation
The Wider Outlook Death Man’s Past and Future
Cause and Effect What Theosophy does for us
Try these if you are looking for a local
Theosophy Group or Centre
UK Listing of Theosophical Groups
Please tell us about your UK Theosophy Group
___________________
into categories
and presented according to relevance of website.
Web Directory
- Add Link - Submit Article - Online Store - Forum
______________________
General pages
about Wales, Welsh History
and The History
of Theosophy in Wales
Wales is a
Principality within the United Kingdom and has an eastern
border with
England. The land area is just over 8,000 square miles.
Snowdon in North
Wales is the highest mountain at 3,650 feet.
The coastline is
almost 750 miles long. The population of Wales
as at the 2001 census is 2,946,200.
The hut circles of
the ancient settlement in Porthdafarch,
which is believed to date back 4000 years
Porth Dafarch is on the coast road between Treaddur Bay and Holyhead.
Holyhead is on Holy
Island off the north west of the Island of Anglesey
which is off the
North Wales Coast
Off Holy Island
about 3 miles from Holyhead
Black Point (Trwyn Du) Lighthouse is to the left in the foreground.
Hey Look! Theosophy in Cardiff
We can learn something from these guys
(The universe exists for a while and then sort of
doesn’t)
Outline of the Creation Process
There is no Dead Matter in the Universe
The Divine Spark in Everything
The 10 rungs on the Ladder of Life
The Sevenfold Constitution of Man
Yes, we all operate at 7 levels
(or shouldn’t be)
(You do take some things with you but sadly not your
money)
(The Energy Driving the Universe)
We haven’t always looked like this
H P Blavatsky is usually the only Theosophist most
people have ever heard of. Let’s put that right.
on Dave’s Streetwise Theosophy Boards
Cardiff
Theosophical Society in
Theosophy House
Cardiff, Wales,
UK. CF24 – 1DL
Cardiff
Picture Gallery
Queen Street
The Norwegian
Church at
Victoria Park
The Ruins of
the Bishops’ Palace Llandaff
The Rubicon
Arts Centre
Cardiff Royal
Infirmary
St Denys
Church, Lisvane
The Scott
Memorial
Roath Lake
Lighthouse
Preserved Crane
at the East Bute Dock
Street Theatre
outside the Customs House
at
Street
Entertainers at Cardiff
St Petr’s
Church Church at Peterstone on the the Wentloog Levels. This is now private
residence.
Cardiff
Carnival
A remnant of
the Clamorgan Canal on the Taff Trail north of Whitchurch
Entrance to the
Royal Arcade on
Radyr Weir seen
from the Taff Trail
Cardiff
Theosophical Society in
Theosophy House
Cardiff, Wales,
UK. CF24 – 1DL
Castle
Cathays Library
The
Castell Coch
Cardiff Winter
Market
Llandaff
Cathedral
Llandaff
Cathedral Green
Entrance to
Cardiff Market
The Morgan
Arcade
Roath Library
Newly Painted
Splott Btidge
The Cyncoed
Water Tower
The Wild Wood
at the top end of Roath Park
The Wyndham
All Wales Guide to Theosophy Instant
Guide to Theosophy
Theosophy Wales Hornet Theosophy
Wales Now
Cardiff Theosophical Archive Elementary
Theosophy
Basic Theosophy Theosophy in
Cardiff
Theosophy in Wales Hey Look!
Theosophy in Cardiff
Theosophy Cardiff’s Face Book of Great Theosophists
Cardiff
Theosophical Society in
Theosophy House
Cardiff, Wales,
UK. CF24 – 1DL