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    "num": 6,
    "slug": "05-chapter-v",
    "title": "CHAPTER V.",
    "of": 12,
    "words": 11526,
    "text": "## CHAPTER V.\n\nDEVACHAN.\n\nIt was not possible to approach a considera-\ntion of the states into which the higher human\nprinciples pass at death, without first indicat-\ning the general framework of the whole design\nworked out in the course of the evolution of\nman. That much of my task, however, having\nnow been accomplished, we may pass on to con-\nsider the natural destinies of each human Ego,\nin the interval which elapses between the close\nof one objective life and the commencement of\nanother. At the commencement of another,\nthe Karma of the previous objective life deter-\nmines the state of life into which the individ-\nual shall be born. This doctrine of Karma is\none of the most interesting features of Buddhist\nphilosophy. There has been no secret about it\nat any time, though for want of a proper com-\nprehension of elements in the philosophy which\nhave been strictly esoteric, it may sometimes\nhave been misunderstood.\n\nKarma is a collective expression applied to\n\n122 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthat complicated group of affinities for good and\nevil generated by a human being during life,\nand the character of which inheres in the mole-\ncules of his fifth principle all through the inter-\nval which elapses between his death from one\nobjective life and his birth into the next. As\nstated sometimes, the doctrine seems to be one\nwhich exacts the notion of a superior spiritual\nauthority summing up the acts of a man's life\nat its close, taking into consideration his good\ndeeds and his bad, and giving judgment about\nhim on the whole aspect of the case. But a\ncomprehension of the way in which the human\nprinciples divide up at death, will afford a\nclue to the comprehension of the way in which\nKarma operates, and also of the great subject\nwe may better take up first, the immediate\nspiritual condition of man after death.\n\nAt death, the three lower principles — the\nbody, its mere physical vitality, and its astral\ncounterpart — are finally abandoned by that\nwhich really is the Man himself, and the four\nhigher principles escape into that world imme-\ndiately above our own ; above our own, that is,\nin the order of spirituality; not above it at all,\nbut in it and of it, as regards real locality, — the\nastral plane, or Karma Loca, according to a very\nfamiliar Sanskrit expression. Here a division\ntakes plaoe between the two duads, which the\n\nDEVACHAN. 123\n\nfour higher principles include. The explana-\ntions already given concerning the imperfect\nextent to which the upper principles of man are\nas yet developed, will show that this estimation\nof the process, as in the nature of a mechanical\nseparation of the principles, is a rough way of\ndealing with the matter. It must be modified\nin the reader's mind by the light of what has\nbeen already said. It may be otherwise de-\nscribed as a trial of the extent to which the\nfifth principle has been developed. Regarded\nin the light of the former idea, however, we\nmust conceive the sixth and seventh principles,\non the one hand, drawing the fifth, the human\nsoul, in one direction, while the fourth draws it\nback earthward in the other. Now, the fifth\nprinciple is a very complex entity, separable\nitself into superior and inferior elements. In\nthe struggle which takes place between its late\ncompanion principles, its best, purest, most ele-\nvated, and spiritual portions cling to the sixth,\nits lower instincts, impulses, and recollections\nadhere to the fourth, and it is in a measure torn\nasunder. The lower remnant, associating itself\nwith the fourth, floats off in the earth's atmos-\nphere, while the best elements, those, be it un-\nderstood, which really constitute the Ego of the\nlate earthly personality, the individuality, the\nconsciousness thereof, follows the sixth and sev-\n\n124 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nenth into a spiritual condition, the nature of\nwhich we are about to examine.\n\nRejecting the popular English name for this\nspiritual condition, as incrusted with too many\nmisconceptions to be convenient, let us keep to\nthe Oriental designation of that region or state\ninto which the higher principles of human crea-\ntures pass at death. This is additionally desir-\nable because, although the Devachan of Bud-\ndhist philosophy corresponds in some respects\nto the modern European idea of heaven, it dif-\nfers from heaven in others which are even more\nimportant.\n\nFirstly, however, in Devachan, that which\nsurvives is not merely the individual monad,\nwhich survives through all the changes of the\nwhole evolutionary scheme, and flits from body\nto body, from planet to planet, and so forth, —\nthat which survives in Devachan is the man's\nown self-conscious personality, under some re-\nstrictions indeed, which we will come to direct-\nly, but still it is the same personality as regards\nits higher feelings, aspirations, affections, and\neven tastes, as it was on earth. Perhaps it\nwould be better to say the essence of the late\nself-conscious personality.\n\nIt may be worth the reader's while to learn\nwhat Colonel H. S. Olcott has to say in his\n\" Buddhist Catechism \" (14th thousand) of the\n\nDEVACHAN. 125\n\nintrinsic difference between \" individuality \"\nand \" personality.\" Since he wrote not only\nunder the approval of the High Priest of the\nSripada and Galle, Sumangala, but also under\nthe direct instruction of his adept Guru, his\nwords will have weight for the student of Oc-\ncultism. This is what he says in his Appen-\ndix : —\n\n\" Upon reflection, I have substituted ' person-\nality ' for 4 individuality ' as written in the first\nedition. The successive appearances upon one\nor many earths, or ' descents into generation '\nof the tanhaically-coherent parts (Skandhas) of\na certain being, are a succession of personali-\nties. In each birth the personality differs from\nthat of the previous or next succeeding birth.\nKarma, the deus ex mdchina, masks (or shall\nwe say, reflects ?) itself now in the personality\nof a sage, again as an artisan, and so on\nthroughout the string of births. But though\npersonalities ever shift, the one line of life\nalong which they are strung like beads, runs\nunbroken.\n\n\" It is ever that particular line, never any\nother. It is therefore individual, an individual\nvital undulation which began in Nirvana or the\nsubjective side of Nature, as the light or heat\nundulation through ether began at its dynamic\nsource ; is careering through the objective side\n\n126 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nof Nature, under the impulse of Karma and the\ncreative direction of Tanha ; and tends through\nmany cyclic changes back to Nirvana. Mr.\nRhys Davids calls that which passes from per-\nsonality to personality along the individual\nchain, ' character ' or 4 doing.' Since ' charac-\nter' is not a mere metaphysical abstraction, JDut\nthe sum of one's mental qualities and moral\npropensities, would it not help to dispel what\nMr. Rhys Davids calls ' the desperate expe-\ndient of a mystery,' if we regarded the life un-\ndulation as individuality, and each of its series\nof natal manifestations as a separate person-\nality ?\n\n\" The denial of 4 soul ' by Buddha (see 4 San-\nyutto Nikaya,' the Sutta Pitaka) points to the\nprevalent delusive belief in an independent\ntransmissible personality ; an entity that could\nmove from birth to birth unchanged, or go to a\nplace or state where, as such perfect entity, it\ncould eternally enjoy or suffer. And what he\nshows is that the ' I am I ' consciousness is, as\nregards permanency, logically impossible, since\nits elementary constituents constantly change,\nand the ' I ' of one birth differs from the 4 1 ' of\nevery other birth. But everything that I have\nfound in Buddhism accords with the theory of\na gradual evolution of the perfect man, viz., a\nBuddha through numberless natal experiences.\n\nDEVACHAN. 127\n\nAnd in the consciousness of that person who at\nthe end of a given chain of beings attains\nBuddhahood, or who succeeds in attaining the\nfourth stage of Dhyana, or mystic self-develop-\nment, in any one of his births anterior to the\nfinal one, the scenes of all these serial births\nare perceptible. In the ' Jatakattahavannana,'\nso well translated by Mr. Rhys Davids, an ex-\npression continually recurs which I think rather\nsupports such an* idea, viz., ' Then the blessed\none made manifest an occurrence hidden by\nchange of birth? or 'that which had been hid-\nden by, etc' Early Buddhism, then, clearly\nheld to a permanency of records in the Akasa,\nand the potential capacity of man to read the\nsame when he has evoluted to the stage of true\nindividual enlightenment.\"\n\nThe purely sensual feelings and tastes of the\nlate personality will drop off from it in Deva-\nchan, but it does not follow that nothing is\npreservable in that state, except feelings and\nthoughts having a direct reference to religion\nor spiritual philosophy. On the contrary, all\nthe superior phases, even of sensuous emotion,\nfind their appropriate sphere of development in\nDevachan. To suggest a whole range of ideas\nby means of one illustration, a soul in Deva-\nchan, if the soul of a man who was passionately\ndevoted to music, would be continuously en-\n\n128 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nraptured by the sensations music produces.\nThe person whose happiness of the higher sort\non earth had been entirely centred in the ex-\nercise of the affections will miss none in Deva-\nchan of those whom he or she loved. But, at\nonce it will be asked, if some of these are not\nthemselves fit for Devachan, how then ? The\nanswer is, that does not matter. For the per-\nson who loved them they will be there. It is\nnot necessary to say much more to give a clue\nto the position. Devachan is a subjective state.\nIt will seem as real as tbe chairs and tables\nround us ; and remember that, above all things,\nto the profound philosophy of Occultism, are\nthe chairs and tables, and the whole objective\nscenery of the world, unreal and merely transi-\ntory delusions of sense. As real as the realities\nof this world to us, and even more so, will be\nthe realities of Devachan to those who go into\nthat state.\n\nFrom this it ensues that the subjective isola-\ntion of Devachan, as it will perhaps be con-\nceived at first, is not real isolation at all, as the\nword is understood on the physical plane of ex-\nistence ; it is companionship with all that the\ntrue soul craves for, whether persons, things, or\nknowledge. And a patient consideration of\nthe place in Nature which Devachan occupies\nwill show that this subjective isolation of each\n\nDEVACHAN. 129\n\nhuman unit is the only condition which renders\npossible anything which can be described as a\nfelicitous spiritual existence after death for\nmankind at large, and Devachan is as much a\npurely and absolutely felicitous condition for\nall who attain it, as Avitchi is the reverse of it.\nThere is no inequality or injustice in the sys-\ntem ; Devachan is by no means the same thing\nfor the good and the indifferent alike, but it is\nnot a life of responsibility, and therefore there\nis no logical place in it for suffering any more\nthan in Avitchi there is any room for enjoy-\nment or repentance. It is a life of effects, not\nof causes ; a life of being paid your earnings,\nnot of laboring for them. Therefore it is im-\npossible to be during that life cognizant of\nwhat is going on on earth. Under the opera-\ntion of such cognition there would be no true\nhappiness possible in the state after death. A\nheaven which constituted a watch-tower from\nwhich the occupants could still survey the mis-\neries of the earth, would really be a place of\nacute mental suffering for its most sympathetic,\nunselfish, and meritorious inhabitants. If we\ninvest them in imagination with such a very\nlimited range of sympathy that they could be\nimagined as not caring about the spectacle of\nsuffering after the few persons to whom they\nwere immediately attached had died and joined\n\n130 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nthem, still they would have a very unhappy pe-\nriod of waiting to go through before survivors\nreached the end of an often long and toilsome\nexistence below. And even this hypothesis\nwould be further vitiated by making heaven\nmost painful for occupants who were most un-\nselfish and sympathetic, whose reflected distress\nwould thus continue on behalf of the afflicted\nrace of mankind generally, even after their per-\nsonal kindred had been rescued by the lapse of\ntime. The only escape from this dilemma lies\nin the supposition that heaven is not yet opened\nfor business, so to speak, and that all people\nwho have ever lived, from Adam downward,\nare still lying in a death-like trance, waiting for\nthe resurrection at the end of the world. This\nhypothesis also has its embarrassments, but we\nare concerned at present„with the scientific har-\nmony of esoteric Buddhism, not with the theo-\nries of other creeds.\n\nReaders, however, who may grant that a pur-\nview of earthly life from heaven would render\nhappiness in heaven impossible, may still doubt\nwhether true happiness is possible in the state,\nas it may be objected, of monotonous isolation\nnow described. The objection is merely raised\nfrom the point of view of an imagination that\ncannot escape from its present surroundings.\nTo begin with, about monotony. No one will\n\nDEVACHAN. 131\n\ncomplain of having experienced monotony dur-\ning the minute, or moment, or half hour, as it\nmay have been, of the greatest happiness he\nmay have enjoyed in life. Most people have\nhad some happy moments, at all events, to look\nback to for the purpose of this comparison ; and\nlet us take even one such minute or moment,\ntoo short to be open to the least suspicion of\nmonotony, and imagine its sensations immensely\nprolonged without any external events in prog-\nress to mark the lapse of time. There is no\nroom, in such a condition of things, for the con-\nception of weariness. The unalloyed, unchange-\nable sensation of intense happiness goes on and\non, not forever, because the causes which have\nproduced it are not infinite themselves, but for\nvery long periods of time, until the efficient im-\npulse has exhausted itself.\n\nNor must it be supposed that there is, so to\nspeak, no change of occupation for souls in De-\nvachan, — that any one moment of earthly sen-\nsation is selected for exclusive perpetuation.\nAs a teacher of the highest authority on this\nsubject writes : —\n\n\"There are two fields of causal manifesta-\ntions, the objective and subjective. The grosser\nenergies — those which operate in the denser\ncondition of matter — manifest objectively in\nthe next physical life, their outcome being the\n\n132 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nnew personality of each birth marshaling within\nthe grand cycle of the e vol u ting individuality.\nIt is but the moral and spiritual activities that\nfind their sphere of effects in Devachan. And,\nthought and fancy being limitless, how can it\nbe argued for one moment that there is an 3*-\nthing like monotony in the state of Devachan ?\nFew are the men whose lives were so utterly\ndestitute of feeling, love, or of a more or less\nintense predilection for some one line of\nthought as to be made unfit for a proportionate\nperiod of Devachanic experience beyond their\nearthly life. So, for instance, while the vices,\nphysical and sensual attractions, say, of a great\nphilosopher, but a bad friend and a selfish man,\nmay result in the birth of a new and still\ngreater intellect, but at the same time a most\nmiserable man, reaping the Karmic effects of\nall the causes produced Ivy the ' old' being, and\nwhose make-up was inevitable from the pre-\nponderating proclivities of that being in the\npreceding birth, the intermedial period between\nthe two physical births cannot be, in Nature's\nexquisitely well-adjusted laws, but a hiatus of\nunconsciousness. There can be no such dreary\nblank as kindly promised, or rather implied, by\nChristian Protestant theology, to the ' departed\nsouls,' which, between death and 'resurrection,'\nhave to hang on in space, in mental catalepsy\n\nDEVACRAN. 133\n\nawaiting the 4 Day of Judgment.' Causes pro-\nduced by mental and spiritual energy being far\ngreater and more important than those that\nare created by physical impulses, their effects\nhave to be, for weal or woe, proportionately as\ngreat. Lives on this earth, or other earths,\naffording no proper field for such effects, and\nevery laborer being entitled to his own harvest,\nthey have to expand in either Devachan or\nAvitchi.1 Bacon, for instance, whom a poet\ncalled\n\n4 The brightest, wisest, meanest of mankind,1\n\nmight reappear in his next incarnation as a\ngreedy money-getter, with extraordinary intel-\nlectual capacities. But, however great the lat-\nter, they would find no proper field in which\nthat particular line of thought, pursued during\nhis previous lifetime by the founder of modern\nphilosophy, could reap all its dues. It would\nbe but the astute lawyer, the corrupt Attorney-\nGeneral, the ungrateful friend, and the dishon-\nest Lord Chancellor, who might find, led on by\nhis Karma, a congenial new soil in the body of\nthe money-lender, and reappear as a new Shy-\nlock. But where would Bacon, the incompar-\nable thinker, with whom philosophical inquiry\nupon the most profound problems of Nature\nwas his ' first and last and only love,' where\n\n1 The lowest states of Devachan interchain with those of Avitchi\n\n134 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwould this ' intellectual giant of his race once\ndisrobed of his lower nature, go to ? Have all\nthe effects of that magnificent intellect to vanish\nand disappear? Certainly not. Thus his moral\nand spiritual qualities would also have to find a\nfield in which their energies could expand them-\nselves. Devachan is such a field. Hence, all\nthe great plans of moral reform, of intellectual\nresearch into abstract principles of Nature —\nall the divine, spiritual aspirations that had so\nfilled the brightest part of his life would, in\nDevachan, come to fruition ; and the abstract\nentity, known in the preceding birth as Francis\nBacon, and that may be known in its subse-\nquent re-incarnation as a despised usurer — that\nBacon's own creation, his Frankenstein, the son\nof his Karma — shall in the meanwhile occupy\nitself in this inner world, also of its own prepa-\nration, in enjoying the effects of the grand\nbeneficial spiritual causes sown in life. It\nwould live a purely and spiritually conscious ex-\nistence — a dream of realistic vividness — until\nKarma, being satisfied in that direction, and the\nripple of force reaching the edge of its sub-cy-\nclic basin, the being should move into its next\narea of causes, either in this same world or an-\nother, according to his stage of progression.\n. . . Therefore, there is ' a change of occupation,'\na continual change, in Devachan. For that\n\nDE VAC HAN. 135\n\ndream-life is but the fruition, the harvest-time,\nof those psychic seed-germs dropped from the\ntree of physical existence in our moments of\ndream and. hope — fancy-glimpses of bliss and\nhappiness, stifled in an ungrateful social soil,\nblooming in the rosy dawn of Devachan, and\nripening under its ever -fructifying sky. If\nman had but one single moment of ideal expe-\nrience, not even then could it be, as errone-\nously supposed, the indefinite prolongation of\nthat 'single moment.' That one note, struck\nfrom the lyre of life, would form the key-note\nof the being's subjective state, and work out\ninto numberless harmonic tones and semitones\nof psychic phantasmagoria. There, all unreal-\nized hopes, aspirations, dreams, become fully\nrealized, and the dreams of the objective be-\ncome the realities of the subjective existence.\nAnd there, behind the curtain of Maya, its va-\nporous and deceptive appearances are perceived\nby the Initiate, who has learned the great secret\nhow to penetrate thus deep into the Arcana of\nBeing.\" . . .\n\nAs physical existence has its cumulative in-\ntensity from infancy to prime, and its dimin-\nishing energy thenceforward to dotage and\ndeath, so the dream-life of Devachan is lived\ncorrespondentially. There is the first flutter of\npsychic life, the attainment of prime, the grad-\n\n136 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nual exhaustion of force passing into conscious\nlethargy, semi-unconsciousness, oblivion and —\nnot death but birth ! birth into another person-\nality and the resumption of action which daily\nbegets new congeries of causes that must be\nworked out in another term of Devachan.\n\n\" It is not a reality then, it is a mere dream,\"\nobjectors will urge ; \" the soul so bathed in a\ndelusive sensation of enjoyment which has no\nreality all the while is being cheated by Na-\nture, and must encounter a terrible shock when\nit wakes to its mistake.\" But, in the nature of\nthings, it never does or can wake. The waking\nfrom Devachan is its next birth into objective\nlife, and the draught of Lethe has then been\ntaken. Nor as regards the isolation of each soul\nis there any consciousness of isolation whatever;\nnor is there ever possibly a parting from its\nchosen associates. Those associates are not in\nthe nature of companions who may wish to go\naway, of friends who may tire of the friend that\nloves them, even if he or she does not tire of\nthem. Love, the creating force, has placed\ntheir living image before the personal soul\nwhich craves for their presence, and that image\nwill never fly away.\n\nOn this aspect of the subject I may again\navail myself of the language of my teacher : —\n\n\" Objectors of that kind will be simply postu\n\nDEVACHAN. 137\n\nlating an incongruity, an intercourse of entities\nin Devachan, which applies only to the mutual\nrelationship of physical existence ! Two sym-\npathetic souls, both disembodied, will each\nwork out its own Devachanic sensations, mak-\ning the other a sharer in its subjective bliss.\nThis will be as real to them, naturally, as\nthough both were yet on this earth. Neverthe-\nless, each is dissociated from the other as re-\ngardo personal or corporeal association. While\nthe latter is the only one of its kind that is\nrecognized by our earth experience as an actual\nintercourse, for the Devachanee it would be not\nonly something unreal, but could have no exist-\nence for it in any sense, not even as a delusion :\na physical body or even a Mayavi-rnpa remain-\ning to its spiritual senses as invisible as it is it-\nself to the physical senses of those who loved it\nbest on earth. Thus even though one of the\n'sharers ' were alive and utterly unconscious of\nthat intercourse in his waking state, still every\ndealing with him would be to the Devachanee\nan absolute reality. And what actual compan-\nionship could there ever be other than the purely\nidealistic one as above described, between two\nsubjective entities which are not even as mate-\nrial as that ethereal body-shadow — the Mayavi-\nrupa? To object to this on the ground that\none is thus i cheated by Nature ' and to call it\n\n138 ESOTERfC BUDDHISM.\n\n* a delusive sensation of enjoyment which has\nno reality,' is to show one's self utterly unfit\nto comprehend the conditions of life and being\noutside of our material existence. For how can\nthe same distinction be made in Devachan —\ni. e., outside of the conditions of earth-life — be-\ntween what we call a reality, and a factitious\nor an artificial counterfeit of the same, in this,\nour world? The same principle cannot apply\nto the two sets of conditions. Is it conceivable\nthat what we call a reality in our embodied phys-\nical state will exist under the same conditions\nas an actuality^ for a disembodied entity? On\nearth, man is dual — in the sense of being a\nthing of matter and a thing of spirit ; hence the\nnatural distinction made by his mind — the an-\nalyst of his physical sensations and spiritual\nperceptions — between an actuality and a fic-\ntion ; though, even in this life, the two groups\nof faculties are constantly equilibrating each\nother, each group when dominant seeing as fic-\ntion or delusion what the other believes to be\nmost real. But in Devachan our Ego has\nceased to be dualistic, in the above sense, and\nbecomes a spiritual, mental entity. That which\nwas a fiction, a dream in life, and which had\nfts being but in the region of ' fancy,' becomes,\nunder the new conditions of existence, the only\npossible reality. Thus, for us, to postulate the\n\nDEVACHAN. 139\n\npossibility of any other reality for a Devacbanee\nis to maintain an absurdity, a monstrous fallacy,\nan idea unpbilosophical to the last degree.\nThe actual is that which is acted or performed\nde facto : 'the reality of a thing is proved by\nits actuality.' And the supposititious and artifi-\ncial having no possible existence in that De-\nvachanic state, the logical sequence is that\neverything in it is actual and real. For, again,\nwhether overshadowing the five principles dur-\ning the life of the personality, or entirely sepa-\nrated from the grosser principles by the dissolu-\ntion of the body — the sixth principle, or our\n'Spiritual Soul,' has no substance — it is ever\nArupa ; nor is it confined to one place with a\nlimited horizon of perceptions around it. There-\nfore, whether in or out of its mortal body, it is\never distinct, and free from its limitations ; and\nif we call its Devachanic experiences ' a cheat-\ning of Nature,' then we should never be allowed\nto call ' reality ' any of those purely abstract feel-\nings that belong entirely to, and are reflected\nand assimilated by, our higher soul — such, for\ninstance, as an ideal perception of the beautiful,\nprofound philanthropy, love, etc., as well as\never)7 other purely spiritual sensation that dur-\ning life fills our inner being with either im-\nmense joy or pain.\"\n\nWe must remember that by the very nature\n\n140 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nof the system described there are infinite va-\nrieties of well-being in Devachan, suited to the\ninfinite varieties of merit in mankind. If \" the\nnext world \" really were the objective heaven\nwhich ordinary theology preaches, there would\nbe endless injustice and inaccuracy in its oper-\nation. People, to begin with, would be either\nadmitted or excluded, and the differences of\nfavor shown to different guests within the all-\nfavored region would not sufficiently provide\nfor differences of merit in this life. But the\nreal heaven of our earth adjusts itself to the\nneeds and merits of each new arrival with un-\nfailing certainty. Not merely as regards the\nduration of the blissful state, which is deter-\nmined by the causes engendered during objec-\ntive life, but as regards the intensity and\namplitude of the emotions which constitute\nthat blissful state, the heaven of each person\nwho attains the really existent heaven is pre-\ncisely fitted to his capacity for enjoying it. It\nis the creation of his own aspirations and facul-\nties. More than this it may be impossible for\nthe uninitiated comprehension to realize. But\nthis indication of its character is enough to\nshow how perfectly it falls into its appointed\nplace in the whole scheme of evolution.\n\n\" Devachan,\" to resume my direct quota-\ntions, \" is, of course, a state, not a locality, as\n\nDEVACHAN. 141\n\nmuch as Avitchi, its antithesis (which please\nnot to confound with hell). Esoteric Buddhist\nphilosophy has three principal lokas so-called\n— namely, 1, Kama loka ; 2, Rupa loka ; and\n3, Arupa loka ; or in their literal translation\nand meaning — 1, world of desires or passions,\nof unsatisfied earthly cravings — the abode of\n4 Shells ' and Victims, of Elementaries and\nSuicides ; 2, the world of Forms — i. e., of\nshadows more spiritual, having form and objec-\ntivity, but no substance ; and 3, the formless\nworld, or rather the world of no form, the in-\ncorporeal, since its denizens can have neither\nbody, shape, nor color for us mortals, and in the\nsense that we give to these terms. These are\nthe three spheres of ascending spirituality, in\nwhich the several groups of subjective and semi-\nsubjective entities find their attractions. All\nbut the suicides and the victims of premature\nviolent deaths go, according to their attractions\nand powers, either into the Devachanic or the\nAvitchi state, which two states form the num-\nberless subdivisions of Rupa and Arupa lokas\n• — that is to say, that such states not only vary\nin degree, or in their presentation to the sub-\nject entity as regards form, color, etc., but that\nthere is an infinite scale of such states, in their\nprogressive spirituality and intensity of feeling;\nfrom the lowest in the Rupa, up to the highest\n\n142 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nand the most exalted in the Arupa-loka. The\nstudent must bear in mind that personality is\nthe synonym for limitation ; and that the more\nselfish, the more contracted the person's ideas,\nthe closer will he cling to the lower spheres of\nbeing, the longer loiter on the plane of selfish\nsocial intercourse.\"\n\nDevachan being a condition of mere subjec-\ntive enjoyment, the duration and intensity of\nwhich is determined by the merit and spiritual-\nity of the earth-life last past, there is no oppor-\ntunity, while the soul inhabits it, for the punc-\ntual requital of evil deeds. But Nature does\nnot content herself with either forgiving sins in\na free and easy way, or damning sinners out-\nright, like a lazy master too indolent, rather\nthan too good-natured, to govern his household\njustly. The Karma of evil, be it great or\nsmall, is as certainty operative at the appointed\ntime as the Karma of good. But the place of\nits operation is not Devachan, but either a new\nre-birth or Avitchi — a state to be reached only\nin exceptional cases and by exceptional natures.\nIn other words, while the commonplace sinner\nwill reap the fruits of his evil deeds in a follow-\ning re-incarnation, the exceptional criminal, the\naristocrat of sin, has Avitchi in prospect — that\nis to say, the condition of subjective spiritual\nmisery which is the reverse side of Devachan.\n\nDEVACHAN. 143\n\n\" Avitchi is a state of the most ideal spirit-\nual wickedness, something akin to the state of\nLucifer, so superbly described by Milton. Not\nmany, though, are there who can reach it, as\nthe thoughtful reader will perceive. And if it\nis urged that since there is Devachan for nearly\nall, for the good, the bad, and the indiffer-\nent, the ends of harmony and equilibrium are\nfrustrated and the law of retribution and of\nimpartial, implacable justice, hardly met and\nsatisfied by such a comparative scarcity if not\nabsence of its antithesis, then the answer will\nshow that it is not so. 4 Evil is the dark\nson of Earth (matter) and Good — the fair\ndaughter of Heaven ' (or Spirit) says the\nChinese philosopher ; hence the place of pun-\nishment for most of our sins is the earth — its\nbirth-place and play-ground. There is more\napparent and relative than actual evil even on\nearth, and it is not given to the hoi polloi to\nreach the fatal grandeur and eminence of a\n4 Satan ' every day.\"\n\nGenerally, the re-birth into objective exist-\nence is the event for which the Karma of evil\npatiently waits, and then it irresistibly asserts\nitself ; not that the Karma of good exhausts\nitself in Devachan, leaving the unhappy monad\nto develop a new consciousness with no mate-\nrial beyond the evil deeds of its last personality,\n\n144 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nThe re-birth will be qualified by the merit as\nwell as the demerit of the previous life, but the\nDevachan existence is a rosy sleep — a peace-\nful night with dreams more vivid than day, and\nimperishable for many centuries.\n\nIt will be seen that the Devachan state , is\nonly one of the conditions of existence which go\nto make up the whole spiritual or relatively spir-\nitual complement of our earth life. Observers of\nspiritualistic phenomena would never have been\nperplexed as they have been if there were no\nother but the Devachan state to be dealt with.\nFor once in Devachan there is very little op-\nportunity for communication between a spirit,\nthen wholly absorbed in its own sensations and\npractically oblivious of the earth left behind,\nand its former friends still living. Whether\ngone before or yet remaining on earth, those\nfriends, if the bond of affection has been suffi-\nciently strong, will be with the happy spirit\nstill to all intents and purposes for him, and as\nhappy, blissful, innocent, as the disembodied\ndreamer himself. It is possible, however, for\nyet living persons to have visions of Devachan,\nthough such visions are rare, and only one-\nsided, the entities in Devachan, sighted by the\nearthly clairvoyant, being quite unconscious\nthemselves of undergoing such observation.\nThe spirit of the clairvoyant ascends into the\n\nLEV ACE AN. 145\n\ncondition of Devachan in such rare visions, and\nthus becomes subject to the vivid delusions of\nthat existence. It is under the impression that\nthe spirits, with which it is in Devachanic\nbonds of sympathy, have come down to visit\nearth and itself, while the converse operation\nhas really taken place. The clairvoyant's spirit\nhas been raised towards those in Devachan.\nThus many of the subjective spiritual commu-\nnications— most of them when the sensitives\nare pure-minded — are real, though it is most\ndifficult for the uninitiated medium to fix in\nhis mind the true and correct pictures of what\nhe sees and hears. In the same way some of\nthe phenomena called psychography (though\nmore rarely) are also real. The spirit of the\nsensitive getting odylized, so to say, by the\naura of the spirit in the Devachan becomes for\na few minutes that departed personality, and\nwrites in the handwriting of the latter, in his\nlanguage and in his thoughts as the}^ were\nduring his lifetime. The two spirits become\nblended in one, and the preponderance of one\nover the other during such phenomena deter-\nmines the preponderance of personality in the\ncharacteristics exhibited. Thus, it may inci-\ndentally be observed, what is called rapport,\nis, in plain fact, an identity of molecular vibra-\ntion between the astral part of the incarnate\n\n146 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nmedium and the astral part of the disincarnate\npersonality.\n\nAs already indicated, and as the common\nsense of the matter would show, there are great\nvarieties of states in Devachan, and each per-\nsonality drops into its befitting place there.\nThence, consequently, he emerges in his befit-\nting place in the world of causes, this earth or\nanother, as the case may be, when his time for\nre-birth comes. Coupled with survival of the\naffinities, comprehensively described as Karma,\nthe affinities both for good and evil engendered\nby the previous life, this process will be seen to\naccomplish nothing less than an explanation of\nthe problem which has always been regarded\nas so incomprehensible — the inequalities of\nlife. The conditions on which we enter life are\nthe consequences of the use we have made of\nour last set of conditions. They do not impede\nthe development of fresh Karma, whatever they\nmay be, for this will be generated by the use\nwe make of them in turn. Nor is it to be sup-\nposed that every event of a current life which\nbestows joy or sorrow is old Karma bearing\nfruit. Many may be the immediate conse-\nquences of acts in the life to which they belong\n■ — ready-money transactions with Nature, so to\nspeak, of which it may be hardly necessary to\nmake any entry in her books. But the great\n\nDEVACHAN. 147\n\ninequality of life, as regards the start in it\nwhich different human beings make, is a mani-\nfest consequence of old Karma, the infinite va-\nrieties of which always keep up a constant sup-\nply of recruits for all the manifold varieties of\nhuman condition.\n\nIt must not be supposed that the real Ego\nslips instantaneously at death from the earth-\nlife and its entanglements into the Devachanic\ncondition. When the division or purification\nof the fifth principle has been accomplished\nin Kama loca by the contending attractions of\nthe fourth and sixth principles, the real Ego\npasses into a period of unconscious gestation.\nI have spoken already of the way in which the\nDevachanic life is itself a process of growth,\nmaturity, and decline ; but the analogies of\nearth are even more closely preserved. There\nis a spiritual ante-natal state at the entrance to\nspiritual life, as there is a similar and equally\nunconscious physical state at the entrance to\nobjective life. And this period, in different\ncases, may be of very different duration — from\na few moments to immense periods of years.\nWhen a man dies, his soul or fifth principle be-\ncomes unconscious and loses all remembrance\nof things internal as well as external. Whether\nhis stay in Kama loca has to last but a few mo-\nments, hours, days, weeks, months or years;\n\n148 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nwhether he dies a natural or a violent death ;\nwhether this occurs in youth or age, and\nwhether the Ego has been good, bad, or indif-\nferent, his consciousness leaves him as suddenly\nas the flame leaves the wick when it is blown\nout. When life has retired from the last par-\nticle of the brain matter, his perceptive facul-\nties become extinct forever, and his spiritual\npowers of cognition and volition become for the\ntime being as extinct as the others. His Ma-\nyavi-rupa may be thrown into objectivity as in\nthe case of apparitions after death, but unless\nit is projected by a conscious or intense desire\nto see or appear to some one shooting through\nthe dying brain, the apparition will be simply\nautomatic. The revival of consciousness in\nKama loca is obviously, from what has been al-\nready said, a phenomenon that depends on the\ncharacteristic of the principles passing, uncon-\nsciously at the moment, out of the dying body.\nIt may become tolerably complete under cir-\ncumstances by no means to be desired, or it\nmay be obliterated by a rapid passage into the\ngestation state leading to Devachan. This ges-\ntation state may be of very long duration in\nproportion to the Ego's spiritual stamina, and\nDevachan accounts for the remainder of the\nperiod between death and the next physical re-\nbirth. The whole period is, of course, of very\n\nDEVACHAN. 149\n\nvarying length in the case of different persons,\nbut re-birth in less than fifteen hundred years\nis spoken of as almost impossible, while the\nstay in Devachan which rewards a very rich\nKarma is sometimes said to extend to enormous\nperiods.\n\nCHAPTER Vh\nKAMA LOCA.\n\nThe statements already made in reference to\nthe destiny of the higher human principles at\ndeath will pave the way for a comprehension of\nthe circumstances in which the inferior remnant\nof these principles finds itself, after the real\nEgo has passed either into the Devachanic\nstate or that unconscious intervening period of\npreparation therefor which corresponds to phys-\nical gestation. The sphere in which such rem-\nnants remain for a time is known to occult\nscience as Kama loca, the region of desire, not\nthe region in which desire is developed to any\nabnormal degree of intensity as compared with\ndesire as it attaches to earth-life, but the sphere\nin which that sensation of desire, which is a\npart of the earth-life, is capable of surviving.\n\nIt will be obvious, from what has been said\nabout Devachan, that a large part of the recol-\nlections which accumulate round the human\nEgo during life are incompatible in their nature\nwith the pure subjective existence to which the\n\nKAMA LOCA. 151\n\nreal, durable, spiritual Ego passes ; but they\nare not necessarily on that account extinguished\nor annihilated out of existence. They inhere\nin certain molecules of those finer ( but not fin-\nest) principles, which escape from the body at\ndeath ; and just as dissolution separates what\nis loosely called the soul from the body, so also\nit provokes a further separation between the\nconstituent elements of the soul. So much of\nthe fifth principle, or human soul, which is in\nits nature assimilable with, or has gravitated\nupwards toward, the sixth principle, the spirit-\nual soul, passes with the germ of that divine\nsoul into the superior region, or state of Deva-\nchan, in which it separates itself almost com-\npletely from the attractions of the earth ; quite\ncompletely, as far as its own spiritual course is\nconcerned, though it still has certain affinities\nwith the spiritual aspirations emanating from\nthe earth, and may sometimes draw these to-\nwards itself. But the animal soul, or fourth\nprinciple (the element of will and desire as as-\nsociated with objective existence), has no up-\nward attraction, and no more passes away from\nthe earth than the particles of the body con-\nsigned to the grave. It is not in the grave, how-\never, that this fourth principle can be put away.\nIt is not spiritual in its nature or affinities, but\nit is not physical in its nature. In its affinities\n\n152 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nit is physical, and hence the result. It remains\nwithin the actual physical local attraction of the\nearth — in the earth's atmosphere — or, since it\nis not the gases of the atmosphere that are spe-\ncially to be considered in connection with the\nproblem in hand, let us say, in Kama loca.\n\nAnd with the fourth principle a large part\n(as regards most of mankind unfortunately,\nthough a part very variable in its relative mag-\nnitude) inevitably remains. There are plenty\nof attributes which the ordinary composite hu-\nman being exhibits, many ardent feelings, de-\nsires, and acts, floods of recollections, which\neven if not concerned with a life as ardent per-\nhaps as those which have to do with the higher\naspirations, are nevertheless essentially belong-\ning to the physical life, which take time to die.\nThey remain behind in association with the\nfourth principle, which is altogether of the\nearthly perishable nature, and disperse or fade\nout, or are absorbed into the respective univer-\nsal principles to which they belong, just as the\nbody is absorbed into the earth, in progress of\ntime, and rapidly or slowly in proportion to the\ntenacity of their substance. And where, mean-\nwhile, is the consciousness of the individual\nwho has died or dissolved ? Assuredly in Deva-\nchan ; but a difficulty presents itself to the\nmind untrained in occult science, from the fact\n\nKAMA LOCA. 153\n\nthat a semblance of consciousness inheres in the\nastral portion — the fourth principle with a\nportion of the fifth — which remains behind in\nKama loca. The individual consciousness, it\nis argued, cannot be in two places at once. But\nfirst of all, to a certain extent, it can. As may\nbe perceived presently, it is a mistake to speak\nof consciousness, as we understand the feeling\nin life, attaching to the astral shell or remnant ;\nbut nevertheless a certain spurious semblance\nmay be reawakened in that shell, without hav-\ning any connection with the real consciousness\nall the while growing in strength and vitality\nin the spiritual sphere. There is no power on\nthe part of the shell of taking in and assimilat-\ning new ideas and initiating courses of action\non the basis of those new ideas. But there is\nin the shell a survival of volitional impulses im-\nparted to it during life. The fourth principle\nis the instrument of volition though not voli-\ntion itself, and impulses imparted to it during\nlife by the higher principles may run their\ncourse and produce results almost indistinguish-\nable for careless observers from those which\nwould ensue were the four higher principles\nreally all united as in life.\n\nIt, the fourth principle, is the receptacle or\nvehicle during life of that essentially moral con-\nsciousness which cannot suit itself to conditions\n\n154 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nof permanent existence ; but the consciousness\neven of the lower principles during life is a very\ndifferent thing from the vaporous fleeting and\nuncertain consciousness, which continues to\ninhere in them when that which really is the\nlife, the overshadowing of them, or vitalizatioh\nof them by the infusion of the spirit, has ceased\nas far as they are concerned. Language cannot\nrender all the facets of a many-sided idea in-\ntelligible at once any more than a plain draw-\ning can show all sides of a solid object at once.\nAnd at the first glance different drawings of\nthe same object from different points of view\nmay seem so unlike as to be unrecognizable as\nthe same ; but none the less, by the time they\nare put together in the mind, will their diver-\nsities be seen to harmonize. So with these\nsubtle attributes of the invisible principles of\nman — no treatise can do more than discuss\ntheir different aspects separately. The vari-\nous views suggested must mingle in the read-\ner's mind before the complete conception corre-\nsponds to the realities of Nature.\n\nIn life the fourth principle is the seat of will\nand desire, but it is not will itself. It must be\nalive, in union with the overshadowing spirit,\nor \" one life,\" to be thus the agent of that very\nelevated function of life — will, in its sublime\npotency. As already mentioned, the Sanskrit\n\nKAMA LOCA. 155\n\nnames of the higher principles connote the idea\nthat they are vehicles of the one life. Not\nthat the one life is a separable molecular\nprinciple itself, it is the union of all — the\ninfluences of the spirit ; but in truth the idea\nis too subtle for language, perhaps for intellect\nitself. Its manifestation in the present case,\nhowever, is apparent enough. Whatever the\nwilling fourth principle may be when alive, it\nis no longer capable of active will when dead.\nBut then, under certain abnormal conditions, it\nmay partially recover life for a time ; and this\nfact it is which explains many, though by no\nmeans all, of the phenomena of spiritualistic\nmediumship. The \" elementary,\" be it remem-\nbered — as the astral shell has generally been\ncalled in former occult writings — is liable to\nbe galvanized for a time in the mediumistic\ncurrent into a state of consciousness and life\nwhich may be suggested by the first condition\nof a person who, carried into a strange room in\na state of insensibility during illness, wakes up\nfeeble, confused in mind, gazing about with a\nblank feeling of bewilderment, taking in im-\npressions, hearing words addressed to him and\nanswering vaguely. Such a state of conscious-\nness is unassociated with the notions of past or\nfuture. It is an automatic consciousness, de-\nrived from the medium. A medium, be it\n\n156 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nremembered, is a person whose principles are\nloosely united and susceptible of being bor-\nrowed by other beings, or floating principles,\nhaving an attraction for some of them or some\npart of them. Now what happens in the case\nof a shell drawn into the neighborhood of\na person so constituted ? Suppose the person\nfrom whom the shell has been cast died with\nsome strong unsatisfied desire, not necessarily\nof an unholy sort, but connected entirely with\nthe earth-life, a desire, for example, to com-\nmunicate some fact to a still living person.\nCertainly the shell does not go about in Kama\nloca with a persistent intelligent conscious pur-\npose of communicating that fact ; but, amongst\nothers, the volitional impulse to do this has\nbeen infused into the fourth principle, and\nwhile the molecules of that principle remain in\nassociation, and that may be for many years,\nthey only need a partial galvanization into life\nagain to become operative in the direction of\nthe original impulse. Such a shell comes into\ncontact with a medium (not so dissimilar in\nnature from the person who has died as to\nrender a rapport impossible), and something\nfrom the fifth principle of the medium associates\nitself with the wandering fourth principle and\nsets the original impulse to work. So much\nconsciousness and so much intelligence as may\n\nKAMA LOCA. 157\n\nbe required to guide the fourth principle in the\nuse of the immediate means of communication\nat hand — a slate and pencil, or a table to rap\nupon — are borrowed from the medium, and\nthen the message given may be the message\nwhich the dead person originally ordered his\nfourth principle to give, so to speak, but which\nthe shell has never till then had an opportunity\nof giving. It may be argued that the produc-\ntion of writing on a closed slate, or of raps on a\ntable without the use of a knuckle or a stick,\nis itself a feat of a marvelous nature, bespeak-\ning a knowledge on the part of the communi-\ncating intelligence of powers of Nature we in\nphysical life know nothing about. But the\nshell is itself in the astral world ; in the realm\nof such powers. A phenomenal manifestation\nis its natural mode of dealing. It is no more\nconscious of producing a wonderful result by\nthe use of new powers acquired in a higher\nsphere of existence than we are conscious of\nthe forces by which in life the volitional im-\npulse is communicable to nerves and muscles.\n\nBut, it may be objected, the \" communicating\nintelligence \" at a spiritual seance will constant-\nly perform remarkable feats for no other than\ntheir own sake, to exhibit the power over\nnatural forces which it possesses. The reader\nwill please remember, however, that occult\n\n158 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nscience is very far from saying that all the\nphenomena of spiritualism are traceable to one\nclass of agents. Hitherto in this treatise little\nhas been said of the \" elementals,\" those semi-\nintelligent creatures of the astral light who\nbelong to a wholly different kingdom of Nature\nfrom ourselves. Nor is it possible at present\nto enlarge upon their attributes for the simple\nand obvious reason, that knowledge concerning\nthe elementals, detailed knowledge on that sub-\nject, and in regard to the way they work, is\nscrupulously withheld by the adepts of occult-\nism. To possess such knowledge is to wield\npower, and the whole motive of the great se-\ncrecy in which occult science is shrouded turns\nupon the danger of conferring powers upon peo-\nple who have not, first of all, by undergoing\nthe training of initiates, given moral guarantees\nof their trustworthiness. It is by command\nover the elementals that some of the greatest\nphysical feats of adeptship are accomplished ;\nand it is by the spontaneous playful acts of the\nelementals that the greatest physical phenom-\nena of the seance room are brought about.\nSo also with almost all Indian Fakirs and\nYogis of the lower class who have power of\nproducing phenomenal results. By some means,\nby a scrap of inherited occult teaching, most\nlikely, they have come into possession of a mor«\n\nKAMA LOCA. 159\n\nsel of occult science. Not necessarily that they\nunderstand the action of the forces they employ\nany more than an Indian servant in a telegraph\noffice, taught how to mix the ingredients of the\nliquid used in a galvanic battery, understands\nthe theory of electric science. He can perform\nthe one trick he has been taught ; and so with\nthe inferior Yogi. He has got influence over\ncertain elementals, and can work certain won-\nders.\n\nReturning to a consideration of the ex-human\nshells in Kama loca, it may be argued that\ntheir behavior in spiritual seances is not cov-\nered by the theory that they have had some\nmessage to deliver from their late master, and\nhave availed themselves of the mediumship\npresent to deliver it. Apart altogether from\nphenomena that may be put aside as elemental\npranks, we sometimes encounter a continuity of\nintelligence on the part of the elementary or\nshell that bespeaks much more than the sur-\nvival of impulses from the former life. Quite\nso; but with portions of the medium's fifth\nprinciple conveyed into it the fourth principle\nis once more an instrument in the hands of a\nmaster. With a medium entranced so that the\nenergies of his fifth principle are conveyed into\nthe wandering shell to a very large extent, the\nresult is that there is a very tolerable revival of\n\n160 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nconsciousness in the shell for the time being, as\nregards the given moment. But what is the\nnature of such consciousness, after all ? Noth-\ning more, really, than a reflected light. Mem-\nory is one thing, and perceptive faculties quite\nanother. A madman may remember very\nclearly some portions of his past life; yet he\nis unable to perceive anything in its true light,\nfor the higher portion of his Manas (fifth) and\nBuddhi (sixth) principles are paralyzed in him\nand have left him. Could an animal — a dog,\nfor instance — explain himself, he could prove\nthat his memory, in direct relation to his ca-\nnine personality, is as fresh as his master's ;\nnevertheless, his memory and instinct cannot\nbe called perceptive faculties.\n\nOnce that a shell is in the aura of a medium,\nhe will perceive, clearly enough, whatever he\ncan perceive through the borrowed principles\nof the medium, and through organs in mag-\nnetic sympath}^ therewith ; but this will not\ncarry him be}^ond the range of the perceptive\nfaculties of the medium, or of some one else\npresent in the circle. Hence the often rational\nand sometimes highly intelligent answers he\nmay give, and hence, also, his invariably com-\nplete oblivion of all things unknown to that\nmedium or circle, or not found in the lower\nrecollections of his late personality, galvanized\n\nKAMA LOCA. 161\n\nafresh by the influences under which he is\nplaced. The shell of a highly intelligent,\nlearned, but utterly unspiritual man, who died\na natural death, will last longer than those of\nweaker temperament, and (the shadow of his\nown memory helping) he may deliver, through\ntrance-speakers, orations of no contemptible\nkind. But these will never be found to relate\nto anything beyond the subjects he thought\nmuch and earnestly of during life, nor will any\nword ever fall from him indicating a real ad-\nvance of knowledge.\n\nIt will easily be seen that a shell, drawn into\nthe mediumistic current, and getting into rap-\nport with the medium's fifth principle, is not\nby any means sure to be animated with a con-\nsciousness (even for what such consciousnesses\nare worth) identical with the personality of the\ndead person from whose higher principles it\nwas shed. It is just as likely to reflect some\nquite different personality, caught from the\nsuggestions of the medium's mind. In this\npersonality it will perhaps remain and answer\nfor a time ; then some new current of thought,\nthrown into the minds of the people present,\nwill find its echo in the fleeting impressions of\nthe elementary, and his sense of identity will\nbegin to waver ; for a little while it flickers\nover two or three conjectures, and. ends by go-\n\n162 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ning out altogether for a time. The shell is\nonce more sleeping in the astral light, and may-\nbe unconsciously wafted in a few moments to\nthe other ends of the earth.\n\nBesides the ordinary elementary or shell of\nthe kind just described, Kama loca is the abode\nof another class of astral entities, which must\nbe taken into account if we desire to compre-\nhend the various conditions under which hu^\nman creatures may pass from this life to others.\nSo far we have been examining the normal\ncourse of events, when people die in a natural\nmanner. But an abnormal death will lead to\nabnormal consequences. Thus, in the case of\npersons committing suicide, and in that of per-\nsons killed by sudden accident, results ensue\nwhich differ widely from those following nat-\nural deaths. A thoughtful consideration of\nsuch cases must show, indeed, that in a world\ngoverned by rule and law, by affinities work-\ning out their regular effects in that deliberate\nway which Nature favors, the case of a person\ndying a sudden death at a time when all his\nprinciples are firmly united, and ready to hold\ntogether for twenty, forty, or sixty years, what-\never the natural remainder of his life would be,\nmust surely be something different from that\nof a person who, by natural processes of decay,\nfinds himself, when the vital machine stops,\n\nKAMA LOCA. 165\n\nreadily separable into his various principles,\neach prepared to travel its separate way. Na-\nture, always fertile in analogies, at once illus-\ntrates the idea by showing us a ripe and an\nunripe fruit. From out of the first the inner\nstone will come away as cleanly and easily as a\nhand from a glove, while from the unripe fruit\nthe stone can only be torn with difficulty, half\nthe pulp clinging to its surface. Now, in the\ncase of the sudden accidental death or of the\nsuicide, the stone has to be torn from the un-\nripe fruit. There is no question here about the\nmoral blame which may attach to the act of\nsuicide. Probably, in the majority of cases,\nsuch moral blame does attach to it, but that is\na question of Karma which will follow the per-\nson concerned into the next re-birth, like any\nother Karma, and has nothing to do with the\nimmediate difficulty such person may find in\ngetting himself thoroughly and wholesomely\ndead. This difficulty is manifestly just the\nsame whether a person kills himself, or is killed\nin the heroic discharge of duty, or dies the vic-\ntim of an accident over which he has no con-\ntrol whatever.\n\nAs an ordinary rule, when a person dies, the\nlong account of Karma naturally closes itself ;\nthat is to say, the complicated set of affinities\nwhich have been set up during life in the first\n\n164 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ndurable principle, the fifth is no longer suscep-\ntible of extension. The balance-sheet, so to\nspeak, is made out afterwards, when the time\ncomes for the next objective birth ; or, in other\nwords, the affinities long dormant in Devachan,\nby reason of the absence there of any scope for\ntheir action, assert themselves as soon as they\ncome in contact once more with physical exis-\ntence. But the fifth principle, in which these\naffinities are grown, cannot be separated in the\ncase of the person dying prematurely from the\nearthly principle — the fourth. The elemen-\ntary, therefore, which finds itself in Kama loca,\non its violent expulsion from the body, is not a\nmere shell — it is the person himself who was\nlately alive minus nothing but the body. In\nthe true sense of the word he is not dead at\nall.\n\nCertainly elementaries of this kind may com-\nmunicate very effectually at spiritual seances at\ntheir own heavy cost; for they are unfortu-\nnately able, by reason of the completeness of\ntheir astral constitution, to go on generating\nKarma, to assuage their thirst for life at the\nunwholesome spring of mediumship. If they\nwere of a very material sensual type in life, the\nenjoyments they will seek will be of a kind the\nindulgence of which in their disembodied state\nmay readily be conceived even more prejudicial\n\nKAMA LOCA. 165\n\nto their Karma than similar indulgences would\nhave been in life. In such cases facilis est de-\nscensus. Cut off in the full flush of earthly-\npassions which bind them to familiar scenes,\nthey are enticed by the opportunity which me-\ndiums afford for the gratification of these vica-\nriously. They become the incubi and succubi\nof mediaeval writing, demons of thirst and glut-\ntony, provoking their victims to crime. A brief\nessay on this subject, which I wrote last year,\nand from which I have reproduced some of the\nsentences just given, appeared in \"The Theoso-\nphist,\" with a note, the authenticity of which I\nhave reason to trust, and the tenor of which\nwas as follows : —\n\n\" The variety of states after death is greater\nif possible than the variety of human lives upon\nthis earth. The victims of accident do not\ngenerally become earth walkers, only those fall-\ning into the current of attraction who die full\nof some engrossing earthly passion, the selfish\nwho have never given a thought to the welfare\nof others. Overtaken by death in the consum-\nmation, whether real or imaginary, of some\nmaster passion of their lives, the desire remain-\ning unsatisfied even after a full realization, and\nthey still craving for more, such personalities\ncan never pass beyond the earth attraction to\nwait for the hour of deliverance in happy igno-\n\n166 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nranee and full oblivion. Among the suicides,\nthose to whom the above statement about pro-\nvoking their victims to crime, etc., applies, are\nthat class who commit the act in consequence of\na crime to escape the penalty of human law or\ntheir own remorse. Natural law cannot be\nbroken with impunity ; the inexorable causal\nrelation between action and result has its full\nsway only in the world of effects, the Kama\nloca, and every case is met there by an ade-\nquate punishment, and in a thousand ways,\nthat would require volumes even to describe\nthem superficially.\"\n\nThose who \" wait for the hour of deliverance\nin happy ignorance and full oblivion \" are of\ncourse such victims of accident as have already\non earth engendered pure and elevated affinities,\nand after death are as much beyond the reach\nof temptation in the shape of mediumistic cur-\nrents as they would have been inaccessible in\nlife to common incitements to crime.\n\nEntities of another kind occasionally to be\nfound in Kama loca have yet to be considered.\nWe have followed the higher principles of per-\nsons recently dead, observing the separation of\nthe astral dross from the spiritually durable\nportion, that spiritually durable portion being\neither holy or Satanic in its nature, and pro-\nvided for in Devachan or Avitchi accordingly\n\nKAMA LOCA. 167\n\nWe have examined the nature of the elemen-\ntary shell cast off and preserving for a time a\ndeceptive resemblance to a true entity ; we\nhave paid attention also to the exceptional cases\nof real four principled beings in Kama loca who\nare the victims of accident or suicide. But\nwhat happens to a personality which has abso-\nlutely no atom of spirituality, no trace of spir-\nitual affinity in its fifth principle, either of the\ngood or bad sort ? Clearly in such a case there\nis nothing for the sixth principle to attract to\nitself. Or, in other words, such a personality\nhas already lost its sixth principle by the time\ndeath comes. But Kama loca is no more a\nsphere of existence for such a personality than\nthe subjective world; Kama loca maybe per-\nmanently inhabited by astral beings, by ele-\nmentals, but can only be an antechamber to\nsome other state for human beings. In the case\nimagined, the surviving personality is promptly\ndrawn into the current of its future destinies,\nand these have nothing to do with this earth's\natmosphere or with Devachan, but with that\n\" eighth sphere \" of which occasional mention\nwill be found in older occult writings. It will\nhave been unintelligible to ordinary readers\nhitherto why it was called the \" eighth \" sphere,\nbut since the explanation, now given out for the\nfirst time, of the sevenfold constitution of our\n\n168 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\nplanetary system, the meaning will be clear\nenough. The spheres of the cyclic process of\nevolution are seven in number, but there is an\neighth in connection with our earth, our earth\nbeing, it will be remembered, the turning-point\nin the cyclic chain, and this eighth sphere is\nout of circuit, a cul de sac, and the bourne from\nwhich it may be truly said no traveler returns.\n\nIt will readily be guessed that the only sphere\nconnected with our planetary chain, which is\nlower than our own in the scale, having spirit\nat the top and matter at the bottom, must it-\nself be no less visible to the eye and to optical\ninstruments than the earth itself, and as the\nduties which this sphere has to perform in our\nplanetary system are immediately associated\nwith this earth, there is not much mystery left\nnow in the riddle of the eighth sphere, nor as\nto the place in the sky where it may be sought.\nThe conditions of existence there, however, are\ntopics on which the adepts are very reserved in\ntheir communications to uninitiated pupils, and\nconcerning these I have for the present no fur-\nther information to give.\n\nOne statement though is definitely made,\nviz., that such a total degradation of a person-\nality as may suffice to draw it, after death,\ninto the attraction of the eighth sphere, is of\nvery rare occurrence. From the vast majority\n\nKAMA LOCA. 169\n\nof lives there is something which the higher\nprinciples may draw to themselves, something\nto redeem the page of existence just passed\nfrom total destruction : and here it must be\nremembered that the recollections of life in\nDevachan, very vivid as they are, as far as they\ngo, touch only those episodes in life which are\nproductive of the elevated sort of happiness of\nwhich alone Devachan is qualified to take cog-\nnizance ; whereas the life from which for the\ntime being the cream is thus skimmed may\ncome to be remembered eventually in all its\ndetails quite fully. That complete remem-\nbrance is only achieved by the individual at\nthe threshold of a far more exalted spiritual\nstate than that which we are now concerned\nwith, and which is attained far later on in the\nprogress of the vast cycles of evolution. Each\none of the long series of lives that will have\nbeen passed through will then be, as it were, a\npage in a book to which the possessor can turn\nback at pleasure, even though many such pages\nwill then seem to him, most likely, very dull\nreading, and will not be frequently referred to.\nIt is this revival eventually of recollection con-\ncerning all the long-forgotten personalities that\nis really meant by the doctrine of the Resurrec-\ntion. But we have no time at present to stop\nand unravel the enigmas of symbolism as bear-\n\n170 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM.\n\ning upon the teachings at present under con-\nveyance to the reader. It may be worth while\nto do this as a separate undertaking at a later\nperiod ; but meanwhile, to revert to the narra-\ntive of how the facts stand, it may be explained\nthat in the whole book of pages, when at last\nthe \"resurrection\" has been accomplished,\nthere will be no entirely infamous pages ; for\neven if any given spiritual individuality has\noccasionally, during its passage through this\nworld, been linked with personalities so deplor-\nably and desperately degraded that they have\npassed completely into the attraction of the\nlower vortex, that spiritual individuality in\nsuch cases will have retained in its own affini-\nties no trace or taint of them. Those pages\nwill, as it were, have been cleanly torn out from\nthe book. And, as at the end of the struggle,\nafter crossing the Kama loca, the spiritual indi-\nviduality will have passed into the unconscious\ngestation state from which, skipping the Deva-\nchan state, it will be directly (though not\nimmediately in time) re-born into its next life\nof objective activity, all the self-consciousness\nconnected with that existence will have passed\ninto the lower world, there eventually to \" per-\nish everlastingly ; \" an expression of which, as\nof so many more, modern theology has proved\na faithless custodian, making pure nonsense\nout of psycho-scientific facts.",
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