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    "slug": "07-chapter-vii",
    "title": "CHAPTER VII.",
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    "text": "## CHAPTER VII.\n\nReincarnation.\n\nWe are now in a position to study one of the pivo-\ntal doctrines of the Ancient Wisdom, the doctrine of\nreincarnation. Our view of it will be clearer and\nmore in congruity with natural order, if we look at\nit as universal in principle, and then consider the\nspecial case of the reincarnation of the human soul.\nIn studying it, this special case is generally wrenched\nfrom its place in natural order, and is considered as\na dislocated fragment, greatly to its detriment. For\nall evolution consists of an evolving life, passing\nfrom form to form as it evolves, and storing up in\nitself the experience gained through the forms ; the\nreincarnation of the human soul is not the introduc-\ntion of a new principle into evolution, but the adap-\ntation of the universal principle to meet the condi-\ntions rendered necessary by the individualization of\nthe continuously evolving life.\n\nMr. Lafcadio Hearn * has put this point well in\n\n* Mr. Hearn has lost his way in expression— but not. I think,\nin his inner view — in part of his exposition of the Buddhist\nstatement of this doctrine, and his use of the word \" Ego\" will\nmislead the reader of his very interesting chapter on this sub-\nject, if the distinction between the real and the illusory ego i$\nQot steadily kept in mind.\n\nl80 THE ANCIENT WISDOM,\n\nconsklering the bearing of the idea of pre-existence\non the scientific thought of the West. He says:\n\n\"With tbe acceptance of the doctrine of evolution, old forma\nof thought crumbled ; new ideas eveiy where arose to take the\nplace of worn-out dogmas ; and we now have the spectacle of\na general intellectual movement in directions strangely paral-\nlel with Oriental philosophy. The unprecedented rapidity\nand multiformity of scieutiiio progress during the last fifty\nyears could not have failed to provoke an equally unprece-\ndented intellectual quickening among the non-scientilic.\nThat the highest and most complex organisms have been de-\nveloped from the lowest and simplest ; that a single physical\nbasis of life is the substance of the whole living world; that\nDO line of separation can be drawn between the animal and\nvegetable ; Chat the difference between life and non-life is only\na difference of degree, not of kind; that matter is not less in-\ncomprehensible than mind, while both are but varying mani-\nfestations of one and the same unknown reality — these have\nalready become the commonplaces of the new philosophy.\nAfter the first recognition even by theology of physical evolu-\ntion, it was easy to predict that the recognition of psychical\nevolution could not be indefinitely delayed ; for the barrier\nerected by old dogma to keep men from looking backward had\nbeen broken down. And to-day for the student of scientific\npsychology the idea of pre-existence passes out of the realm of\ntheory into the realm of fact, proving the Buddhist explana-\ntion of the universal mystery quite as plausible as any other.\n\"None but very hasty thinkers,' wrote the late FYofessor Hux-\nley, ' will reject it on the ground of inherent absurdity. Like\nthe doctrine of evolution itself, that of transmigration has its\nroots in the world of reality; and it may claim such support\nas the great argument from analogy is capable of supplying'\n(Evolution and Ethics, p. 6i, ed. iBg4).\"*\n\n* Kokoro ; Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life,\nBy Lafcadio Hearn, pp. 437-339 (Loudon, 1896).\n\nTHE sfickET OP Evolution, i8i\n\nA\n\nLet us consider the Monad of form, Atma-Buddhi.\nIn this Monad, the outbreathed life of the Locos, lie\nhidden all the divine powers, but, as we have seen,\nthey are latent, not manifest and functioning. They\nare to be gradually aroused by external impacts, it\nbeing of the very nature of life to vibrate in answei\nto vibrations that play upon it. As all possibilities\nof vibrations exist in the Monad, any vibration\ntouching it will arouse its corresponding vibratory\npower, and in this way one force after another will\npass from the latent to the active * state. Herein\nlies the secret of evolution ; the environment acts on\nthe form of the living creature — and all things, be\nit remembered, live — and this action, transmitted\nthrough the enveloping form to the life, the Monad,\nwithin it, arouses responsive vibrations which thrill\noutwards from the Monad through the form, throw-\ning its particles, in turn, into vibration, and rear-\nranging them into a shape corresponding, or adapted,\nto the initial impact. This is the action and reaction\nbetween the environment and the organism, which\nhave been recognized by all biologists, and which\nare considered by some as giving a sufficient me-\nchanical explanation of evolution. Their patient\nand careful observation of these actions and re-\nactions yields, however, no explanation as to why\nthe organism should thus react to stimuli, and the\nAncient Wisdom is needed to unveil the secret of\nevolution, by pointing to the Self in the heart of all\n\n» Prom the static to the kinetic condition, the physicist would\nsay.\n\nIS2\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nforms, the hidden raainspring of all the movements\nin nature.\n\nHaving grasped this fundamental idea of a life\ncontaining the possibility of responding to every\nvibration that can reacTi it from the external uni-\nverse, the actual responses being gradually drawn\nforth by the play upon it of external forces, the next\nfundamental idea to be grasped is that of the con-\ntinuity of life and forms. Forms transmit their pe-\nculiarities to other forms that proceed from them,\nthese other forms being pare of their own substance,\nseparated off to lead an independent existence. By\nfission, by budding, by extrusion of germs, by de-\nvelopment of the offspring within the maternal\nwomb, a physical continuity is preserved, every new\nform being derived from a preceding form and re-\nproducing its characteristics.* Science groups these\nfacts under the name of the law of heredity, and its\nobservations on the transmission of form are worthy\nof attention, and are illuminative of the workings\nof Nature in the phenomenal world. But it must\nbe remembered that it applies only to the building\nof the physical body, into which enter the materials\nprovided by the parents.\n\nHer more hidden workings, those workings of life\nwithout which form could not be, have received no\nattention, not being susceptible of physical observa-\ntion, and this gap can only be filled by the teachings\nof the Ancient Wisdom, given by Those who of old\n• Tha sludent might wisely familiarize himself with the re-\nsearches of Weissmann on the continuity of germ-plasm.\n\nHEREDITY IN ACTION. 1 83\n\nused superphysical powers of observation, and veri-\nfiable gradually by every pupil who studies patiently\nin Their schools.\n\nThere is continuity of life as well as continuity of\nform, and it is the continuing life — with ever more\nand more of its latent energies rendered active by\nthe stimuli received through successive forms —\nwhich resumes into itself the experiences obtained\nby its incasings in form ; for when the form perishes,\nthe life has the record of those experiences in the\nincreased energies aroused by them, and is ready to\npour itself into the new forms derived from the old,\ncarrying with it this accumulated store. While it\nwas in the previous form, it played through it, adapt-\ning it to express each newly awakened energy ; the\nform hands on these adaptations, inwrought into its\nsubstance, to the separated part of itself that we\nspeak of as its offspring, which, being of its substance,\nmust needs have the peculiarities of that substance ;\nthe life pours itself into that offspring with all its\nawakened powers, and moulds it yet further ; and\nso on and on. Modem science is proving more and\nmore clearly that heredity plays an ever-decreasing\npart in the evolution of the higher creatures, that\nmental and moral qualities are not transmitted from\nparents to offspring, and that the higher the quali-\nties the more patent is this fact ; the child of a genius\nis of ttimes a dolt ; commonplace parents give birth\nto a genius. A continuing substratum there must\nbe, in which mental and moral qualities inhere, in\norder that they may increase, else would Nature, in\n\n184 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nthis most important department of her work, show\nerratic uncaused production instead of orderly con-\ntinuity. On this science is dumb, but the Ancient\nWisdom teaches that this continuing substratum\nis the Monad, which is the receptacle of all results,\nthe storehouse in which all experiences are garn-\nered as increasingly active powers.\n\nThese two principles firmly grasped- — of the Monad\nwith potentialities becoming powers, and of the con-\ntinuity of life and form — we can proceed to study\ntheir working out in detail, and we shall find that\nthey solve many of the perplexing problems of\nmodern science, as well as the yet more heart-\nsearching problems confronted by the philanthropist\nand the sage.\n\nLet us start by considering the Monad as it is first\nsubjected to the impacts from the formless levels of\nthe mental plane, the very beginning of the evolu-\ntion of form. Its first faint responsive thrillings\ndraw round it some of the matter of that plane, and\nwe have the gradual evolution of the first elemental\nkingdom, already mentioned. * The great funda-\nmental types of the Monad are seven in number,\nsometimes imaged as like the seven colors of the\nsolar spectrum, derived from the three primary, f\n\n»S«e Chapter IV., on \"The Mental Plane.\"\n\nf \"As above, so below.\" We instinctively remember the\nthree Logoi and the seven primaeval Suns of the Fire; in\nChristian symbolism, the Trinity and the \"Seven Spirits that\nare before the tbnme;\" or in Zoroastrian, Aburamaidio and\nthe seven A mesh aspen t as.\n\nSUBDIVISION OF MoNAl>. 1 8$\n\nEach of these types has its own coloring of character-\nistics, and this coloring persists throughout the\naeonian cycle of its evolution, affecting all the series\nof living things that are animated by it. Now be-\ngins the process of subdivision in each of these types,\nthat will be carried on, subdividing and ever sub-\ndividing, until the individual is reached. The\ncurrents set up by the commencing outward-going\nenergies of the Monad — to follow one line of evolu-\ntion will sufl&ce; the other six are like unto it in\nprinciple — ^have but brief form-life, yet whatever\nexperience can be gained through them is repre-\nsented by an increasedly responsive life in the Monad\nwho is their source and cause ; and as this responsive\nlife consists of vibrations that are often incongruous\nwith each other, a tendency towards separation is\nset up within the Monad, the harmoniously vibra-\nting forces grouping themselves together for, as it\nwere, concerted action, until various sub-Monads,\nif the epithet may for a moment be allowed, are\nformed, alike in their main characteristics, but differ-\ning in details, like shades of the same color. These\nbecome, by impacts from the lower levels of the\nmental plane, the Monads of the second elemental\nkingdom, belonging to the form-region of that plane,\nand the process continues, the Monad ever adding\nto its power to respond, each Monad being the in-\nspiring life of countless forms, through which it re-\nceives vibrations, and, as the forms disintegrate,\nconstantly vivifying new forms ; the process of\nsubdivision also continues from the cause already\n\n1 86 THE ANC]ENT WISDOM.\n\ndescribed. Each Monad thus continually incarnates\nitself in forms, and gamers within itself as awakened\npowers all the results obtained through the forms it\nanimates. We may well regard these Monads as the\nsouls of groups of forms ; and, as evolution proceeds,\nthese forms show more and more attributes, the at-\ntributes being the powers of the monadic group-soul\nmanifested through the forms in which it is incar-\nnated. The innumerable sub-Monads of this second\nelemental kingdom presently reach a stage of evolu-\ntion at which they begin to respond to the vibrations\nof astral matter, and they begin to act on the astral\nplane, becoming the Monads of the third elemental\nkingdom, and repeating in this grosser world all the\nprocesses already accomplished on the mental plane.\nThey become more and more numerous as monadic\ngroup-souls, showing more and more diversity in\ndetail, the number of forms animated by each be-\ncoming less as the specialized characteristics become\nmore and more marked. Meanwhile, it may be said\nin passing, the everflowing stream of life from the\nLocos supplies new Monads of form on the higher\nlevels, so that the evolution proceeds continuously,\nand as the more-evolved Monads incarnate in the\nlower worlds their place is taken by the newly\nemerged Monads in the higher.\n\nBy this ever-repeated process of the reincarnation\nof the Monads, or monadic group-souls, in the astral\nworld, their evolution proceeds, until they are ready\nto respond to the impacts upon them from physical\nmatter. When we remember that the ultimate\n\ntt ♦^♦n^ #,♦,*»,«»♦\n\nDESCENT OF THE MONAD. 1 87\n\natoms of each plane have their sphere- walls composed\nof the coarsest matter of the plane immediately above\nit, it is easy to see how the Monads become respon-\nsive to the impacts from one plane after another.\nWhen, in the first elemental kingdom, the Monad had\nbecome accustomed to thrill responsively to the im-\npacts of the matter of that plane, it would soon begin\nto answer to vibrations received through the coarsest\nforms of that matter itora the matter of the plane\nnext below. So, in its coatings of matter that were\nthe forms composed of the coarsest materials of the\nmental plane, it would become susceptible to vibra-\ntions of astral atomic matter; and, when incarnated\nin forms of the coarsest astral matter, it would\nsimilarly became responsive to the impacts of atomic\nphysical ether, the sphere-walls of which are consti-\ntuted of the grossest astral materials. Thus the\nMonad may be regarded as reaching the physical\nplane, and there it begins, or, more accurately, all\nthese monadic group-souls begin, to incarnate them-\nselves in filmy physical forms, the etheric doubles of\nthe future dense minerals of the physical world.\nInto these filmy forms the nature-spirits build the\ndenser physical materials, and thus minerals of all\nkinds are formed, the most rigid vehicles in which\nthe evolving life incloses itself, and through which\nthe least of its powers can express themselves. Each\nmonadic group-soul has its own mineral expressions,\nthe mineral forms in which it is incarnated, and the\nspecialization has now reached a high degree. These\nmonadic group-souls are sometimes called in their\n\nl88 tHE ANCIfiNl- WlSbOM.\n\ntotality the mineral Monad, or the Monad incarna-\nting in the mineral kingdom.\n\nFrom this time forward the awakened energies of\nthe Monad play a less passive part in evolution.\nThey begin to seek expression actively to some ex-\ntent when once aroused into functioning, and to\nexercise a distinctly moulding influence over the\nforms in which they are imprisoned. As they be-\ncome too active for their mineral embodiment, the\nbeginnings of the more plastic forms of the vegetable\nkingdom manifest themselves, the nature-spirits aid-\ning this evolution throughout the physical kingdoms.\nIn the mineral kingdom there had already been\nshown a tendency towards the definite organization\nof form, the laying down oi certain lines* along\nwhich the growth proceeded. This tendency gov-\nerns henceforth all the building of forms, and is the\ncause of the exquisite symmetry of natural objects,\nwith which every observer is familiar. The monadic\ngroup-souls in the vegetable kingdom undergo divi-\nsion and subdivision with increasing rapidity, in con-\nsequence of the still greater variety of impacts to\nwhich they are subjected, the evolution of families,\ngenera, and species being due to this invisible subdi-\nvision. When any genus, with its generic monadic\ngroup-soul, is subjected to very varying conditions,\ni,e,^ when the forms connected with it receive very\ndifferent impacts, a fresh tendency to subdivide is\nset up in the Monad, and various species are evolved,\n\n* The axes of growth, which determine form. They appear\ndefinitely in crystals.\n\nARTIFICIAL SELECTION. 1 89\n\neach having its own specific monadic group-sonl.\nWhen Nature is left to her own working the process\nis slow, although the nature-spirits do much towards\nthe diflEerentiation of species; but when man has\nbeen evolved, and when he begins his artificial sys-\ntems of cultivation, encouraging the play of one set\nof forces, warding off another, then this differentia-\ntion can be brought about with considerable rapidity,\nand specific differences are readily evolved. So long\nas actual division has not taken place in the monadic\ngroup-soul, the subjection of the forms to similar\ninfluences may again eradicate the separative ten-\ndency, but when that division is completed the new\nspecies are definitely and firmly established, and are\nready to send out offshoots of their own.\n\nIn some of the longer-lived members of the vege-\ntable kingdom the element of personality begins to\nmanifest itself, the stability of the organism render-\ning possible this foreshadowing of individuality.\nWith a tree, living for scores of years, the recur-\nrence of similar conditions causing similar impacts,\nthe seasons ever returning year after year, the con-\nsecutive internal motions caused by them, the rising\nof the sap, the putting forth of leaves, the touches\nof the wind, of the sunbeams, of the rain — all these\nouter influences with their rhythmical progression —\nset up responsive thrillings in the monadic group-\nsoul, and, as the sequence impresses itself by contin-\nual repetition, the recurrence of one leads to the dim\nexpectation of its oft-repeated successor. Nature\nevolves no cjuality suddenly, and these ar^ thQ first\n\nigO THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nfaint adumbrations of what will later be memory and\nanticipation.\n\nIn the vegetable kingdom also appear the fore-\nshadowings of sensation, evolving in its higher mem-\nbers to what the West-ern psychologist would term\n\"massive\" sensations of pleasure and discomfort.*\nIt must be remembered that the Monad has drawn\nround itself materials of the planes through which it\nhas descended, and hence is able to contact impacts\nfrom those planes, the strongest and those most\nnearly allied to the grossest forms of matter being\nthe first to make themselves felt. Sunshine and the\nchill of its absence at last impress themselves on the\nmonadic consciousness ; and its astral coating, thrown\ninto faint vibrations, gives rise to the slight massive\nkind of sensation spoken of. Rain and drought\naffecting the mechanical constitution of the form,\nand its power to convey vibrations to the ensouling\nMonad — are another of the \"pairs of opposites,\" the\nplay of which arouses the recognition of difference,\nwhich is the root alike of ail sensation, and later of\nall thought. Thus by their repeated plant-reincar-\nnations the monadic group-souis in the vegetable\nkingdom evolve, until those that ensoul the highest\nmembers of the kingdom are ready for the next step.\n\nThis step carries them into the animal kingdom,\nand here they slowly evolve in their physical and\nastral vehicles a very distinct personality. The ani-\n\n\" The \" massive\" sensation is one that pervades the organism\nanil is not felt especially in any one part more than in otbere.\nIt is the antithesis of tie \"acute.\"\n\nEVOLUTION OF INSTINCTS. I9I\n\nmal, being free to move about, subjects itself to a\ngreater variety of conditions than can be experienced\nby the plant, rooted to a single spot, and this vari-\nety, as ever, promotes diflEerentiation. The monadic\ngroup-soul, however, which animates a number of\nwild animals of the same species or sub-species, while\nit receives a great variety of impacts, since they are\nfor the most part repeated continually and are shared\nby all the members of the group, differentiates but\nslowly.\n\nThese impacts aid in the development of the phys-\nical and astral bodies, and through them the mo-\nnadic group-soul gathers much experience. When\nthe form of a member of the group perishes, the ex-\nperience gathered through that form is accumulated\nin the monadic group-soul, and may be said to color\nit; the slightly increased life of the monadic group-\nsoul, poured into all the forms which compose its\ngroup, shares among all the experience of the per-\nished form, and in this way continually repeated\nexperiences, stored up in the monadic group-soul,\nappear as instincts, \" accumulated hereditary expe-\nriences*' in the new forms. Countless birds having\nfallen a prey to hawks, chicks just out of the egg will\ncower at the approach of one of the hereditary ene-\nmies, for the life that is incarnated in them knows\nthe danger, and the innate instinct is the expression\nof its knowledge. In this way are formed the won-\nderful instincts that guard animals from innumera-\nble habitual perils, while a new danger finds them\nunprepared and only bewilders them.\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nAs animals come under the influence of man, the\nmonadic groLip-soul evolves with greatly increased\nrapidity, and, from causes similar to those which\naffect plants under domestication, subdivision of the\nincarnating life is more readily brought about.\nPersonality evolves and becomes more and more\nstrongly marked; in the earlier stages it may almost\nbe said to be compound — a whole flock of wild crea-\ntures will act as though moved by a single personal-\nity, so completely are the forms dominated by the\ncommon soul, it, in turn, being affected by the\nimpulses from the external world. Domesticated\nanimals of the higher types, the elephant, the horse,\nthe cat, the dog, show a more individualized person-\nality— -two dogs, for instance, may act very differ-\nently under the impact of the same circumstances.\nThe monadic group-soul incarnates in a decreasing\nnumber of forms as it s;radu ally approaches the point\nat which complete individualization will he reached.\nThe desire-body, or kamic vehicle, becomes consid-\nerably developed, and persists for some time after\nthe death of the physical body, leading an indepen-\ndent existence in kamaloka. At last the decreasing\nnumber of forms animated by a monadic group-soul\ncomes down to unity, and it animates a succession of\nsingle forms — a condition differing from human re-\nincarnation only by the absence of Manas, with its\ncausal and mental bodies. The mental matter\nbrought down by the monadic group-soul begins to\nbe susceptible to impacts from the mental plane, and\nthe animal is then ready to receive the third greaf\n\nBIRTH OF THE 30UL. 1 93\n\noutpouring of the life of the Logos — ^the tabernacle\nis ready for the reception of the human Monad.\n\nThe human Monad is, as we have seen, triple in\nits nature, its three aspects being denominated, re-\nspectively, the Spirit, the spiritual Soul, and the hu-\nman Soul, Atma, Buddhi, Manas. Doubtless, in the\ncourse of seons of evolution, the upwardly evolving\nMonad of form might have unfolded Manas by pro-\ngressive growth, but both in the human race in the\npast, and in the animals of the present, such has not\nbeen the course of Nature. When the house was\nready the tenant was sent down ; from the higher\nplanes of being the atmic life descended, veiling\nitself in Buddhi, as a golden thread ; and its third\naspect, Manas, showing itself in the higher levels of\nthe formless world of the mental plane, germinal\nManas within the form was fructified, and the em-\nbryonic causal body was formed by the union. This\nis the individualization of the spirit, the incasing of\nit in form, and this spirit incased in the causal body\nis the soul, the individual, the real man. This is\nhis birth -hour; for though his essence be eternal,\nunborn and undying, his birth in time as an individ-\nual is definite.\n\nFurther, this outpoured life reaches the evolving\nforms not directly but by intermediaries. The hu-\nman race having attained the point of receptivity,\ncertain great Ones, called Sons of Mind,* cast into\nmen the monadic spark of Atm^-Buddhi-Manas,\n\n* M&nasa-putra is the technical name, being merely the\nSanskrit for Sons of Mind.\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nneeded for the formation of the embryonic soul.\nAnd some of these great Ones actually incarnated in\nhuman forms, in order to become the guides and\nteachers of the infant humanity. These Sons of\nMind had completed Their own intellectual evolu-\ntion in other worlds, and came to this younger world,\nour earth, for the purpose of thus aiding in the evo-\nlution of the human race. They are, in truth, the\nspiritual fathers of the bulk of our humanity.\n\nOther intelligences of much lower grade, men who\nhad evolved in preceding cycles in another world,\nincarnated among the descendants of the race that\nreceived its infant souls in the way just described.\nAs this race evolved, the human tabernacles im-\nproved, and myriads of souls that were awaiting\nthe opportunity of incarnation, that they might\ncontinue their evolution, took birth among its chil-\ndren. These partially evolved souls are also spoken\nof in the ancient records as Sons of Mind, for they\nwere possessed of mind, although comparatively it\nwas but little developed — childish souls we may call\nthem, in distinguish ment from the embrj'onic souls\nof the bulk of humanity, and the mature souls of the\ngreat Teachers. These child-souls, by reason of\ntheir more evolved intelligence, formed the leading\ntypes of the ancient world, the classes higher in men-\ntality, and therefore in the power of acquiring\nknowledge, that dominated the masses of less devel-\noped men in antiquity. And thus arose, in our\nworld, the enormous differences in mental and moral\ncapacity which separate the most highly evolved\n\nTHE WAYS OF NATURE EQUAL. ig$\n\nfrom the least evolved races, and which, even within\nthe limits of a single race, separate the lofty philo-\nsophic thinker from the well-nigh animal type of the\nmost depraved of his own nation. These differences\nare but differences of the stage of evolution, of the\nage of the soul, and they have been found to exist\nthroughout the whole history of humanity on this\nglobe. Go back as far as we may in historic records,\nand we may find lofty intelligence and debased igno-\nrance side by side, and the occult records, carrying\nus backwards, tell a similar story of the early mil-\nlennia of humanity. Nor should this distress us, as\nthough some had been unduly favored and others\nunduly burdened for the struggle of life. The lof-\ntiest soul had its childhood and its infancy, albeit in\nprevious worlds, where other souls were as high\nabove it as others are below it now ; the lowest soul\nshall climb to where our highest are standing, and\nsouls yet unborn shall occupy its present place in\nevolution. Things seem unjust because we wrench\nour world out of its place in evolution, and set it\napart in isolation, with no forerunners and no suc-\ncessors. It is our ignorance that sees the injustice ;\nthe ways of Nature are equal, and she brings to all\nher children infancy, childhood, and manhood. Not\nhers the fault if our folly demands that all souls shall\noccupy the same stage of evolution at the same time,\nand cries \" Unjust!\" if the demand be not fulfilled.\n\nWe shall best understand the evolution of the\nsoul, if we take it up at the point where we left it,\nwhen animal-man was ready to receive, and did re\n\n196 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nceive, the embrj'onic soul. To avoid a possible n\napprehension, it may be well to say that there were\nnot henceforth two Monads in man — the one that\nhad built the human tabernacle, and the one that\ndescended into that tabernacle, and whose lowest\naspect was the human soul. To borrow a simile\nagain from H. P. Blavatsky, as two rays of the sun\nmay pass through a hole in a shutter, and mingling\ntogether form but one ray though they had been\ntwain, so is it with these rays from the supreme Sun,\nthe divine Lord of our universe. The second ray,\nas it entered into the human tabernacle, blended\nwith the first, merely adding to it fresh energy and 1\nbrilliance, and the human Monad, as a unit, began\nits mighty task of unfolding the higher powers in\nman of that divine Life whence it came.\n\nThe embryonic soul, the Thinker, had at the be-'\nginning for its embryonic mental body the mind-\nstufE envelope that the Monad of form had brought,\nwith it, but had not yet organized into any possibil-\nity of functioning. It was the mere germ of a men-\ntal body, attached to a mere germ of a causal body,\nand for many a life the strong desire-nature had its\nwill with the soul, whirling it along the road of its\nown passions and appetites, and dashing up agaioat\nit all the furious waves of its own uncontrolled ani-\nmality. Repulsive as this early hfe of the soul may\nat first seem to some when looked at from the highex\nstage that we have now attained, it was a necessary\none for the germination of the seeds of mind. Ro»\ncoioiition of difference, the perception that one thing\n\nBEGINNING OF THOUGHT. 197\n\nis different from another, is a preliminary essential\nto thinking at all. And, in order to awaken this per-\nception in the as yet unthinking soul, strong and\nviolent contrasts had to strike upon it, so as to force\ntheir differences upon it — blow after blow of riotous\npleasure, blow after blow of crushing pain. The\nexternal world hammered on the soul through the\ndesire nature, till perceptions began to be slowly\nmade, and, after countless repetitions, to be regis-\ntered. The little gains made in each life were\nstored up by the Thinker, as we have already seen,\nand thus slow progress was made.\n\nSlow progress, indeed, for scarcely an3rthing was\nthought^ and hence scarcely anything was done in\nthe way of organizing the mental body. Not until\nmany perceptions had been registered in it as men-\ntal images was there any material on which mental\naction, initiated from within, could be based; this\nwould begin when two or more of these mental im-\nages were drawn together, and some inference, how-\never elementary, was made from them. That infer-\nence was the beginning of reasoning, the germ of all\nthe systems of log^c which the intellect of man has\nsince evolved or assimilated. These inferences\nwould at first all be made in the service of the desire-\nnature, for the increasing of pleasure, the lessening\nof pain; but each one would increase the activity of\nthe mental body, and would stimulate it into more\nready functioning.\n\nIt will readily be seen that at this period of his\ninfancy man had no knowledge of good or of evil ;\n\nright and wrong had for him no existence. The\nright is that which is in accordance with the divine\nwill, which helps forward the progress of the soul,\nwh'ch tends to the strengthening of the higher na-\nture of man and to the training and subjugation of\nthe lower ; the wrong is that which retards evolution,\nwhich retains the soul in the lower stages after he\nhas learned the lessons they have to teach, which\ntends to the mastery of the lower nature over the\nhigher, and assimilates man to the brute he should\nbe outgrowing instead of to the God he should be\nevolving. Ere man could know what was right he\nhad to learn the existence of law, and this he could\nonly leam by following all that attracted him in the\nouter world, by grasping at every desirable object,\nand then by learning from experience, eweet or\nbitter, whether his delight was in harmony or in\nconflict with the law. Let us take an obvious ex-\nample, the taking a pleasant food, and see how in-\nfant man might leam therefrom the presence of a\nnatural law. At the first taking, his hunger was ap-\npeased, his taste was gratified, and only pleasure\nresulted from the experience, for his action was in\nharmony with law. On another occasion, desiring\nto increase pleasure, he ate overmuch and suffered\nin consequence, for he transgressed against the law.\nA confusing experience to the dawning intelligence,\nhow the pleasurable became painful by excess.\nOver and over again he would be led by desire into\nexcess, and each time he would experience the pain-\nful consequences, until at last he learned modera-\n\nSLOWLY GROWING. 1 99\n\ntion, i.e.^ he learned to conform his bodily acts in\nthis respect to physical law ; for he found that there\nwere conditions which affected him and which he\ncould not control, and that only by observing them\ncould physical happiness be insured. Similar expe-\nriences flowed in upon him through all the bodily\norgans, with undeviating regularity; his outrushing\ndesires brought him pleasure or pain just as they\nworked with the laws of Nature or against them,\nand, as experience increased, it began to guide his\nsteps, to influence his choice. It was not as though\nhe had to begin his experience anew with every life,\nfor on each new birth he brought with him mental\nfaculties a little increased, an ever-accumulating\nstore.\n\nI have said that the growth in these early days\nwas very slow, for there was but the dawning of\nmental action, and when the man left his physical\nbody at death he passed most of his time in Kama-\nloka, sleeping through a brief devachanic period of\nunconscious assimilation of any minute mental expe-\nriences not yet sufficiently developed for the active\nheavenly life that lay before him after many days.\nStill, the enduring causal body was there, to be the\nreceptacle of his qualities, and to carry them on for\nfurther development into his next life on earth.\nThe part played by the monadic group-soul in the\nearlier stages of evolution is played in man by the\ncausal body, and it is this continuing entity who, in\nall cases, makes evolution possible. Without him,\nthe accumulation of mentaj- and moral experiences,\n\n200 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nshown as faculties, would be as impossible as would\nbe the accumulation of physical experiences, shown\nas racial and family characteristics, without the\ncontinuity of physical plasm. Souls without a past\nbehind them, springing suddenly into existence, out\nof nothing, with marked mental and moral peculiar-\nities, are a conception as monstrous as would be the\ncorresponding conception of babies suddenly appear-\ning from nowhere, unrelated to anybody, but show-\ning marked racial and family types. Neither the\nman nor his physical vehicle is uncaused, or caused\nby the direct creative power of the Logos; here, as\nin so many other cases, the invisible things are\nclearly seen by their analogy with the visible, the\nvisible being, in very truth, nothing more than the\nimages, the reflections, of things unseen. Without\na continuity in the physical plasm, there would be\nno means for the evolution of physical peculiarities;\nwithout the continuity of the intelligence, there\nwould be no means for the evolution of mental and\nmoral qualities. In both cases, without continuity,\nevolution would be stopped at its first stage, and the\nworld would be a chaos of infinite and isolated\nbeginnings instead of a cosmos continually be-\ncoming.\n\nWe must not omit to notice that in these early\ndays much variety is caused in the type and in the\nnature of individual progress by the environment\nwhich surrounds the individual. Ultimately all the\nsouls have to develop all their powers, but the\norder in which these powers are developed depends\n\nMOW iDlFFEkENCES ARISE. 40l\n\nOh the circumstances amid which the soul is placed.\nClimate, the fertility or sterility of nature, the life\nof the mountain or of the plain, of the inland forest\nor the ocean shore — these things and countless others\nwill call into activity one set or another of the awak-\nening mental energies. A life of extreme hardship,\nof ceaseless struggle with nature, will develop very\ndifferent powers from those evolved amid the luxu-\nriant plenty of a tropical island ; both sets of pow-\ners are needed, for the soul is to conquer every re-\ngion of nature, but striking differences may thus be\nevolved even in souls of the same age, and one may\nappear to be more advanced than the other, accord-\ning as the observer estimates most highly the more\n\" practical\" or the more \" contemplative\" powers of\nthe soul, the active outward-going energies, or the\nquiet inward-turned musing faculties. The per-\nfected soul possesses all, but the soul in the making\nmust develop them successively, and thus arises\nanother cause of the immense variety found among\nhuman beings.\n\nFor again, it must be remembered that human\nevolution is individual. In a group informed by a\nsingle monadic group-soul the same instincts will be\nfound in all, for the receptacle of the experiences is\nthat monadic group-soul, and it pours its life into all\nthe forms dependent upon it. But each man has his\nown physical vehicle and one only at a time, and the\nreceptacle of all experiences is the causal body,\nwhich pours its life into its one physical vehicle, and\ncan affect no other physical vehicle, being connected\n\n202 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nwith none other. Hence we find difEerences sepa-\nrating individual men greater than ever separated\nclosely allied animals, and hence also the evolution\nof qualities cannot be studied in men in the mass,\nbut only in the continuing individual. The lack of\npower to make such a study leaves science unable to\nexplain why some men tower above their fellows,\nintellectual and moral giants, unable to trace the in-\ntellectual evolution of a Shankaracharya or a Py-\nthagoras, the moral evolution of a Buddha or of a\nChrist.\n\nLet us now consider the factors in reincarnation,\nas a clear understanding of these is necessary for the\nexplanation of some of the difficulties — such as the\nalleged loss of memory— which are felt by those un-\nfamiliar with the idea. We have seen that man,\nduring his passage through physical death, Kamalo-\nka and Devachan, loses, one after the other, his va-\nrious bodies, the physical, the astral, and the mental.\nThese are all disintegrated, and their particles re-\nmix with the materials of their several planes. The\nconnection of the man with the physical vehicle is\nentirely broken off and done with ; but the astral and\nmental bodies hand on to the man himself, to the\nThinker, the germs of the faculties and qualities re-\nsulting from the activities of the earth-life, and\nthese are stored within the causal body, the seeds of\nhis next astral and mental bodies. At this stage,\nthen, only the man himself is left, the laborer who\nhas brought his harvest home, and has lived upon it\ntill it is all worked up into himself. The dawn of a\n\nTHE PROCESS OF CLOTHING. 20^\n\nnew life begins, and he must go forth again to his\nlabor until the even.\n\nThe new life begins by the vivifying of the men-\ntal germs, and they draw upon the materials of the\nlower mental levels, till a mental body has grown up\nfrom them that represents exactly the mental stage\nof the man, expressing all his mental faculties as\norgans; the experiences of the past do not exist as\nmental images in this new body ; as mental images\nthey perished when the old mind-body perished, and\nonly their essence, their effects on faculty, remain ;\nthey were the food of the mind, the materials which\nit wove into powers, and in the new body they reap-\npear as powers, they determine its materials, and\nthey form its organs. When the man, the Thinker,\nhas thus clothed himself with a new body for his\ncoming life on the lower mental levels, he proceeds,\nby vivifying the astral germs, to provide himself\nwith an astral body for his life on the astral plane.\nThis, again, exactly represents his desire-nature,\nfaithfully reproducing the qualities he evolved in the\npast, as the seed reproduces its parent tree. Thus\nthe man stands, fully equipped for his next incarna-\ntion, the only memory of the events of his past being\nin the causal body, in his own enduring form, the\none body that passes on from life to life.\n\nMeanwhile, action external to himself is being\ntaken to provide him with a physical body suitable\nfor the expression of his qualities. In past lives he\nhad made ties with, contracted liabilities towards,\nother human beings, and some of these will partly\n\n504 '^^^ ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\ndetermine his place of birth and his family.* He\nhas been a source of happiness or of unhappiness to\nothers ; this is a factor in determining the conditions\nof his coming life. His desire-nature is well disci-\nplined, or unregiilatdd and riotous; this will be taken\ninto account in the physical heredity of the new\nbody. He has cultivated certain mental powers,\nsuch as the artistic ; this must be considered, as here\nagain physical heredity is an important factor where\ndelicacy of nervous organization and tactile sensibil-\nity are required. And so on, in endless variety.\nThe man may, certainly will, have in him many in-\ncongruous characteristics, so that only some can find\nexpression in any one body that could be provided,\nand a group of his powers suitable for simultaneous\nexpression must be selected. All this is done by\ncertain mighty spiritual Intelligences,! often spoken\nof as the Lords of Karma, because it is their func-\ntion to superintend the working out of causes con-\ntinually set going by thoughts, desires, and actions.\nThey hold the threads of destiny which each man\nhas woven, and guide the reincarnating man to the\nenvironment determined by his past, unconsciously\nself-chosen through his past life.\n\n* This and the following causes determining the outward\ncircumstances of the new life will be fully explained in Chap-\nter IX.. on \"Karma.\"\n\nt Spoken of by H. P. Blavatsky in the Secret Doctrine,\nThey are the Lipika. the Keepers of the karmic Records, and\nthe Maharajas, who direct the practical working Qut of the de-\ncrees of the Lipika.\n\nBUILDING THE BODY. 20$\n\nThe race, the nation, the family, being thus deter-\nmined, what may be called the mould of the physical\nbody — suitable for the expression of the man's qual-\nities, and for the working out of the causes he has\nset going — ^is given by these great Ones, and the\nnew etheric double, a copy of this, is built within the\nmother's womb by the agency of an elemental, the\nthought of the Karmic Lords being its motive power.\nThe dense body is built into the etheric double mole-\ncule by molecule, following it exactly, and here\nphysical heredity has full sway in the materials\nprovided. Further, the thoughts and passions of\nsurrounding people, especially of the continually\npresent father and mother, influence the building\nelemental in its work, the individuals with whom the\nincarnating man had formed ties in the past thus\naffecting the physical conditions growing up for his\nnew life on earth. At a very early stage the new\nastral body comes into connection with the new\netheric double, and exercises considerable influence\nover its formation, and through it the mental body\nworks upon the nervous organization, preparing it\nto become a suitable instrument for its own expres-\nsion in the future. This influence, commenced in\n\nantenatal life — so that when a child is bom its\n\n(\n\nbrain-formation reveals the extent and balance of\nits mental and moral qualities — is continued after\nbirth, and this building of brain and nerves, and\ntheir correlation to the astral and mental bodies, go\non till the seventh ^ear of childhood, at which age\nthe connection between the man and his physical\n\n2o6\n\nKCIENT WISnOM.\n\nvehicle is complete, and he may be said to work\nthrough it henceforth more than upon it. Up to\nthis age, the consciousness of the Thinker is more\nupon the astral plane than upon the physical, and\nthis is often evidenced by the play of psychic facul-\ntiesin young children. They see invisible comrades\nand fairy landscapes, hear voices inaudible to their\nelders, catch charming and delicate fancies from the\nastral world. These phenomena generally vanish\nas the Thinker begins to work effectively through\nthe physical vehicle, and the dreamy child becomes\nthe commonplace boy or girl, oftentimes much to\nthe relief of bewildered parents, ignorant of the\ncause of their child's \"queemcss. \" Most children\nhave at least a touch of this \"queemess,\" but they\nquickly learn to hide away their fancies and visions\nfrom their unsympathetic elder's, fearful of blame\nfor \" telling stories,\" or of what the child dreads far\nmore^ ridicule. If parents could see their chil-\ndren's brains, vibrating under an inextricable ming-\nling of physical and astral impacts, which the chil-\ndren themselves are quite incapable of separating,\nand receiving sometimes a thrill — so plastic are they\n— even from the higher regions, giving a vision of\nethereal beauty, of heroic achievement, they would\nbe more patient with, more responsive to, the con-\nfused prattlings of the little ones, trying to translate\ninto the difficult medium of unaccustomed words\nthe elusive touches of which they are conscious, and\nwhich they try to catch and retain. Reincarnation,\nbelieved in and imderstood, would relieve child-life\n\nTHE child's difficulties. 20/\n\nof its most pathetic aspect, the unaided struggle of\nthe soul to gain control over its new vehicles, and\nto connect itself fully with its densest body without\nlosing the power to impr^s*: the rarer ones in a way\nthat would enable them to convey to the denser their\nown more subtls vibratioiki>.\n\n»'\"\\'!' '/.«' v,i",
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