REINCARNATION/PART 5
THE METHOD OF
REINCARNATION
Having now gained a clear idea of the reincarnating
Ego, or Thinker, and of the distinction between it and the transitory
animal-man, the student must address himself to the understanding of the method
of Reincarnation.
This method will be best appreciated by considering
the plane to which the Thinker belongs, and the Force wherewith it works. The
Thinker is what is called the Fifth Principle in man; and this Fifth Principle
in the microcosm, man, answers to the Fifth Plan of the macrocosm, the universe
outside man. These planes are differentiations of primary Substance, according
to the Esoteric Philosophy, and consciousness works on each plane through the
conditions, whatever they may be, of each plane. Substance is a word used to
express Existence in its earliest objective form, the primary manifestation of
the periodical aspect of the ONE, the first film of the future Kosmos,
in the dim beginnings of all manifested things. This Substance has in it
the potentiality of all, of most ethereal Spirit, of densest Matter. The
Esoteric Philosophy posits a primary Substance, out of which Kosmos is evolved,
which at its rarest is Spirit, Energy, Force, and its densest the most solid
Matter, every varying form in all worlds being of this Substance, aggregated
into more or less dense masses, instinct with more or less Force. A plane only
means a stage of existence in which this Spirit-Matter varies within certain
limits, and acts under certain "laws". Thus the physical plane means
our visible, audible, tangible, odorous, gustable world, in which we come into contact
with Spirit-Matter—Science calls it Force and Matter, as though separable—by
way of the senses, whether it be as solid, liquid, gas, etc And so on with
other planes, each being distinguishable by the characteristics of its
Spirit-Matter. On each of these planes consciousness shows itself, working through the Spirit-Matter of the
plane. One further fact must be added to this rough and very condensed
statement, that these planes are
not, as has
been said, like skins of an onion,
one over the other, but, like the air and the ether in our
bodies, they interpenetrate each other.
Answering to these are seven principles, which bear
relation by analogy to the seven planes in Kosmos. Of these the Thinker is the
Fifth.
Now this fifth principle in man corresponds to the fifth
plane in Kosmos, that of Mahat, the Universal Mind, Divine Ideation, from which
proceeds directly the moulding, guiding, directing Force, which is the essence
of all the differentiations that we call forces on the physical plane. [This
plane is often called the third, because starting from Atma as the first, it is
the third. It does not matter by what number it is called, if the student
understands what it is in relation to the rest.] All the world of form, be the
form subtle or dense, is evolved by and through this Force of the Universal
Mind, aggregating and separating the atoms, integrating them into forms,
disintegrating them again, building up and pulling down, constructing and
destroying, attracting and repelling. One Force in the eye of the philosopher,
many forces to the observation of the scientist, verily one in its. essence and
manifold in its manifestations. Thus from the fifth plane come all the creation
of forms, using creation in the sense of moulding pre-existent material,,
fashioning it into new forms. This Thought Force is, in the Esoteric
Philosophy, the one source of form; it is spoken of by H. P. Blavatsky as the
mysterious power of thought which enables it to produce external, perceptible,
phenomenal results by its own inherent energy.
As in the fifth plane of Kosmos, so in the fifth
principle of man; in the Thinker lies the Force by which all things are made
and it is in this creative power of thought that we shall find the secret of
the method of reincarnation.
Those who desire to prove to themselves that thought
gives rise to images, to "thought-forms", so that in most literal
truth" a thought is a thing", may find what they seek in the records
now so widely scattered of so-called hypnotic experiments. The thought-form of
an idea may be projected on a blank paper, and there become visible to a
hypnotised person: or it may be made so objective that the hypnotised person
will see and feel it as though it were an actual physical object. Again, a
"medium" will see as a "spirit" a thought of a human being
in the mind of a person present, this thought being imaged in his aura, the
magnetic atmosphere that surrounds him. Or a clairvoyant, entranced or awake,
will recognise and describe an image deliberately formed by a person present,
no word being spoken, but the will being exercised to outline the image clearly
in thought. All persons who "visualise" much are to some extent
clairvoyant, and may prove to themselves by personal experiment this power to
mould subtle matter by the will. The less subtle astral matter, again, may be
thus moulded, as H. P. Blavatsky, at the Eddy farmhouse, moulded the projected
astral image of the medium into likenesses of persons known to herself and
unknown to the others present. Nor can this be considered strange when we
remember how habits of thought mould even the dense matter of which our
physical bodies are composed, until the character of the aged becomes stamped
on the face, their beauty consisting not in form and colouring but in
expression—expression which is the mask moulded on the inner self. Any habitual
line of thought, vice or virtue, makes its impress on the physical features,
and we do not need clairvoyant eyes to scan the aura to tell if the mental
attitude be generous or grasping, trustful or suspicious, loving or hating.
This is a fact so common that it makes on us no impression, and yet it is
significant enough; for if the dense matter of the body be thus moulded by the
forces of thought, what is there incredible, or even strange, in the idea that
the subtler forms of matter should be equally plastic, and should submissively
take the shapes into which they are moulded by the deft fingers of the immortal
Artist, thinking Man?
The position, then, that is here taken is that Manas,
in its inherent nature, is a form-producing energy, and that the succession of
events in the manifestation of an external object is: Manas puts forth a
thought, and this thought takes form on the manasic or mind world; it passes
out into the kama-manasic, there becoming denser; thence to the astral, where,
being yet denser, it is visible to the eye of the clairvoyant; if directed
consciously by a trained will it may pass at once to the physical plane and be
there clothed in physical matter, thus becoming objective to ordinary eyes,
whereas in ordinary cases it remains on the astral plane as a mould which will
be built into objective life when circumstances occur which draw it
thitherwards. A MASTER has written of the Adept being able to project into and
materialise in the visible world the forms that his imagination has constructed
out of inert cosmic matter in the invisible world. The Adept does not create
anything new, but only utilises and manipulates material which Nature has in
store around him and material which throughout eternities has passed through
all the forms. He has but to choose the one he wants and recall it into
objective existence.
A reference to well-known facts on the physical plane
may perhaps help the reader to realise how the invisible may thus become the
visible; I have spoken of a form gradually densifying as it passes from the
manasic to the kama-manasic world, from the latter to the astral, from the
astral to the physical. Think of a glass receiver, apparently .empty, but in
reality filled with the invisible gases, hydrogen and oxygen; a spark causes
combination and. "water" exists there, but in a state of gas; the
receiver is cooled, and gradually a steamy vapour becomes visible; then the
vapour condenses on the glass as drops of water; then the water congeals and
becomes a film of solid ice crystals. So when the manasic spark flashes out it
combines subtle matter into a thought-form; this densifies into the
kama-manasic form—our analogy is the steamy vapour; this into the astral—our
analogy is the water; and so into the physical—for which the ice may stand.
The student of the Esoteric Philosophy will know that
in the evolution of Nature all proceeds in orderly sequence, and he will be
accustomed to see in the substates of matter on the physical plane analogies to
its states on the different planes of the "invisible" worlds. But for
the non-Theosophist, the illustration is offered only by way of giving a
concrete physical picture of the densifying process, showing how the invisible
may condense itself into the visible.
In truth, however, this process of condensation of
rarer into grosser matter is one of the commonest facts of our experience. The
vegetable world grows by taking in gases from the atmosphere, and transforming
their materials into solids and liquids. The activity of the vital force shows
itself by this constant building up of visible forms out of invisible; and
whether the thought-process named be true or not, there is nothing in it
inherently impossible or even extraordinary. Its truth is a matter of evidence,
and here the evidence of those who can see the thought-forms on the different
planes is surely more valuable than the evidence of those who cannot. The word
of a hundred blind men denying a visible object is of less weight than the word
of one man who can see and who testifies to his seeing it. In this matter the
Theosophist may be content to wait, knowing that facts do not alter for
denials, and that the world will gradually come round to a knowledge of the
existence of thought-forms, as it has already come round—after a similar period
of scoffing—to a knowledge of the existence of some of the facts asserted by
Mesmer at the close of the eighteenth century.
It has been iound, then, that events take their rise
on the manasic or kama-manasic plane, in ideas, or as thought of passion or
emotion, etc.; they then take astral form, and lastly appear objectively on the
physical plane as acts or events, so that the latter are effects of
pre-existing mental causes. Now the body is such an effect, according to the
Esoteric Philosophy, and it is moulded on the etheric double, a term which
will, by this time, be sufficiently familiar to my readers. The idea must be
clearly grasped of a body of etheric matter, serving as a mould into which
denser matter may be built, and if the method of reincarnation is to be at all
understood, this conception of the dense body as the result of the building of
dense molecules into a pre-existing etheric mould must, for the moment, be
accepted.
And now let us return to the idea of the Thinker,
creating forms, working certainly through the lower manas, or kama manas, in
the average man, since of purely manasic activity we may not hope to find yet
awhile many traces. In our daily life we think and thus create thought-forms:
Man is continually peopling his current in space with
a world of his own, crowded with the offspring of his fancies, desires,
impulses and passions.
[The consideration of the effect of this on others
belongs to the subject of Karma, to be hereafter dealt with.] These
thought-forms remain in his aura, or magnetic atmosphere, and as time goes on
their increased number acts on him with ever-gathering force, repetition of
thoughts and of types of thought adding to their intensity day by day, with
cumulative energy; until certain kinds of thought-forms so dominate his mental
life that the man rather answers to their impulse than decides anew, and what
we call a habit, the outer reflection of this stored-up force, is set up. Thus
"character" is built, and if we are intimately acquainted with any
one of mature character, we are able to predicate with tolerable certainty his
action in any given set of circumstances.
When the death hour comes the subtler bodies free
themselves from the physical, the etheric double disintegrating gradually with
the dense frame.
The thought-body resulting from the past life persists
for a considerable time and goes through various processes of consolidation of
experiences, assimilation of much differentiated thoughts, and, handing on its
results to the causal body, it in turn disintegrates. As the period for
reincarnation approaches the causal body, or reincarnating Ego, builds a new
mental and a new astral body, while the Lords of Karma provide a mould suited
to express the Karma to be worked out, and after this the. etheric double is
built. Since the brain, in common with the rest of the dense body, is built
into this etheric double, this brain is by conformation, the physical
expression, however imperfect, of the mental habits and qualities of the human
being then to be incarnated, the fitting physical vehicle for the exercise of
the capacities which his experience now
enables him to manifest on the physical plane.
Let us, as an example, take the case of the practice
of a vicious and of a virtuous type of thought, say of a selfish and of an
unselfish character. One person continually gives birth to thought-forms of
selfishness, desires for self, hopes for self, plans for self, and these forms
clustering round him react again upon him, and he tends to become unscrupulous
in his self-service, disregarding the claims of others, and seeking but his own
ends. He dies, and his character has hardened into the selfish type. This
persists, and in due course is given etheric form, as mould for the next dense
body. Drawn towards a family of similar type, towards parents physically able
to supply materials stamped with similar characteristics, the dense body is
built into this etheric mould, and the brain takes the shape physically fitted
for the manifestation of the brute tendencies to self-gratification, with a
corresponding lack of the physical basis for the manifestation of the social
virtues. In an extreme case of persistent and unscrupulous selfishness during
one incarnation, we have the cause of the building of the " criminal type
of brain " for the succeeding one, and the child comes into the world with
this instrument of miserable quality, from which the Immortal Thinker will be
able to draw scarce a note of pure and tender melody, strive as he may. All the
life through the Ray of Manas incarnated in this personality will be dimmed,
broken, struggling through kamic clouds. Sometimes, despite all opposing
circumstances, the glorious radiant quality will illumine and transform to some
extent its physical vehicle, and with anguish and effort the lower nature will
now and again be trampled under foot, and, however slowly, a painful step or
two of progress will be achieved. But all the life through, the past will
dominate the present, and the cup filled in forgotten days must be drained to
the last drop by the quivering lips.
In the second supposed case, a person continually
gives birth to thought-forms of unselfishness, helpful desires for others,
loving plans for the welfare of others, earnest hopes for the good of others.
These culster round him and react on him, and he tends to become habitually
selfless, habitually placing the welfare of others before his own, and so, when
he dies, his character has become ingrainedly unselfish. Coming back to
earth-life, the model form which represents his previous characteristics is
drawn to a family fitted to supply materials of a pure kind, habituated to
respond to the promptings of the Higher Man. These, built into the etheric
mould, yield a brain physically fitted for the manifestation of the
self-sacrificing tendencies, and a corresponding lack of the physical basis for
the manifestation of the brute instincts. So here, in an extreme case of
self-sacrificing habit through one incarnation, we have the cause of the
building of the benevolent and philanthropic type of brain for the succeeding
one, and the child comes into the world with this Instrument of splendid
quality, which thrills beneath the lightest touch of the Immortal Thinker,
breathing forth divine melodies of love and service, till the world wonders at
the glory of a human life, at results that seem the mere outflow of the nature
rather than the crown of effort deliberately made. But these royal natures that
overflow in blessing are the outer symbol of long conflicts gallantly waged, of
conflicts of a past unknown to the present, but known to the inner Conqueror,
and one day to be known to the personality he informs.
Thus step by step is brought about the evolution of
man, character being moulded in personality-after personality, gains and
-losses rigidly recorded in astral and mental forms, and these governing the
succeeding physical manifestations. Every virtue is thus the outer sign and
symbol of a step forward made, of repeated victories won over the lower nature,
and the "innate-quality", the mental or moral characteristic with
which a child is born, is the indubitable proof of past struggle, of past
triumphs, or of past failures. A distasteful doctrine enough to the morally or
mentally slothful and cowardly, but a most cheering and heartening teaching for
those who do not ask to be pensioners on any charity, human or divine, but are
content to earn patiently and laboriously all they claim to own.
Very nobly has Edward Carpenter put this truth in
Towards Democracy, in the " Secret of Time and Satan."
The art of creation, like every other art, has to be
learned;
Slowly, slowly, through many years, thou buildest up
thy body,
And the power that thou now hast (such as it is) to
build up this present body, thou hast acquired in the past in other bodies;
So in the future shalt thou use again the power that
thou now acquirest.
But the power to build up the body includes all
powers.
Beware how thou seekest this for thyself and that for
thyself. I do not say, Seek not; but, Beware how thou seekest.
For a soldier who is going on a campaign does not seek
what fresh furniture he can carry on his back, but rather what he may leave
behind;
Knowing well that every additional thing which he
cannot freely use and handle is an impediment to him.
So if thou seekest fame, or ease, or pleasure, or
aught for thyself, the image of that thing which thou seekest will come and
cling to thee—and thou wilt have to carry it about—
And the images and powers which thou hast thus evoked
will gather round and form for thee a new body—clamouring for sustenance and
satisfaction.
And if thou art not able to discard this image now,
thou wilt not be able to discard that body then; but wilt have to carry it
about.
Beware then lest it become thy grave and thy
prison—instead of thy winged abode and palace of joy.
And seest thou not that except for Death thou couldst
never overcome?
For since by being a slave to things of sense thou
hast clothed thyself with a body which thou art not master of, thou wert
condemned to a living tomb were that body not to be destroyed. .But now through
pain and suffering out on this tomo snalt thou come; and through the experience
thou hast acquired shah build thyself a new and better body;
And so on many times, till thou spreadest wings and
hast all powers diabolic and angelic concentred in thy flesh.
And the bodies which I took on yield before him, and
were like cinctures of flame upon me, but I flung them aside;
And the pains which I endured in one body were powers
which I wielded in the next.
Great truths, greatly spoken. And one day men will
believe them in the West, as they believe them, and have ever believed them, in
the East.
Through thousands of generations the Immortal Thinker
thus patiently toils at his mission of leading the animal-man upwards till he
is fit to become one with the Divine. Out of a life, he wins perchance but a
mere fragment for his work, yet the final model is of type a little less animal
than the man, whose life-work is therein embodied, was when he came into
earth-life. On that slightly improved model will be moulded the next man, and
from him, at death, is obtained a mould which is again a little less animal, to
serve for the next physical body, and so on and on, again and again, generation
after generation, millennium after millennium; with many retrogressions
constantly recovered; with many failures gallantly made good; with many wounds
slowly healed; yet on the whole, upward; yet, on the whole forward; the animal
lessening, the human increasing: such is the story of human evolution, such the
slowly accomplished task of the Ego, as he raises himself to divine manhood. At
a stage in this progress the personalities begin to become translucent, to
answer to the vibrations from the Thinker, and dimly to sense that they are
something more than isolated lives, are attached to something permanent,
immortal. They may not quite recognise their goal, but they begin to thrill and
quiver under the touch of the Light, as buds quiver in the springtime within
their cases, preparing to burst them open and to expand in the sunshine. This
sense of inborn eternity, and of wondering as to the end, comes out strongly in
one of Walt Whitman's poems:
Facing West from California's shores,
Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,
I a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of
maternity,
the land of migrations, look afar.
Look off the shores of my Western sea, the circle
almost circled; For starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of
Kashmere, From Asia, from the north, from the God, the stage, and the hero,
From the south, from the flowery peninsulas and the spice islands, Long having
wandered, since, round the earth having wandered. Now I face home again, very
pleased and joyous. (But where is what I started for so long ago? And why is it
yet unfound?)
NEXT CHAPTER
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