THE PURGATORY EXPLAINED BY MAX HEINDEL

On this subject Max Heindel wrote the following:

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ENTRY INTO THE PURGATORY

If the dying man could leave all desires behind, the desire body would very quickly fall away from him, leaving him free to proceed into the heaven world, but that is not generally the case. Most people, especially if they die in the prime of life, have many ties and much interest in life on earth.

They have not altered their desires because they have lost their physical bodies. In fact often their desires are even augmented by a very intense longing to return. This acts in such a manner as to bind them to the Desire World in a very unpleasant way, although unfortunately, they do not realize it.

On the other hand, old and decrepit persons and those who are weakened by long illness and are tired of life, pass on very quickly. The matter may be illustrated by the ease with which the seed falls out of the ripe fruit, no particle of the flesh clinging to it, while in the unripe fruit the seed clings to the flesh with the greatest tenacity.

(This is not necessarily true, because there may be young people who are very detached from terrestrial life, and conversely elderly people who are very attached to earthly life, and in particular to their possessions.)

Thus it is especially hard for people to die who were taken out of their bodies by accident while at the height of their physical health and strength, engaged in numerous ways in the activities of physical life; held by the ties of wife, family, relatives, friends, pursuits of business and pleasure.

(Indeed, accidents or murders in full force of life generate many disorders.)

The suicide, who tries to get away from life, only to find that he is as much alive as ever, is in the most pitiable plight. He is able to watch those whom he has, perhaps, disgraced by his act, and worst of all, he has an unspeakable feeling of being “hollowed out.”

The part in the ovoid aura where the dense body used to be is empty and although the desire body has taken the form of the discarded dense body, it feels like an empty shell, because the creative archetype of the body in the Region of Concrete Thought persists as an empty mold, so to speak, as long as the dense body should properly have lived.

(This is incorrect because the Theosophical instructors explained that the individual who commits suicide generally continues to be overwhelmed by all the despair that led him to commit suicide. And this is why the Theosophists explained that suicide does not free you from suffering.)

When a person meets a natural death, even in the prime of life, the activity of the archetype ceases, and the desire body adjusts itself so as to occupy the whole of the form, but in the case of suicide that awful feeling of “emptiness” remains until the time comes when, in the natural course of events, his death would have occurred.

(Master Pastor explained that not only the suicides, but also all the other people who die before the expected time, must wait in the astral plane until their vital body finishes functioning, and only after, they can go up to World of Desire.)

THE PURIFICATION OF THE DESIRES

As long as the man entertains the desires connected with earth life he must stay in his desire body and as the progress of the individual requires that he pass on to higher Regions, the existence in the Desire World must necessarily become purgative, tending to purify him from his binding desires.

How this is done is best seen by taking some radical instances.

1) The miser who loved his gold in earth life loves it just as dearly after death; but in the first place he cannot acquire any more, because he no longer has a dense body wherewith to grasp it and worst of all, he cannot even keep what he hoarded during life.

He will, perhaps, go and sit by his safe and watch the cherished gold or bonds; but the heirs appear and with, it may be, a stinging jeer at the “stingy old fool” (whom they do not see, but who both sees and hears them), will open his safe, and though he may throw himself over his gold to protect it, they will put their hands through him, neither knowing nor caring that he is there, and will then proceed to spend his hoard, while he suffers in sorrow and impotent rage.

He will suffer keenly, his sufferings all the more terrible on account of being entirely mental, because the dense body dulls even suffering to some extent. In the Desire World, however, these sufferings have full sway and the man suffers until he learns that gold may be a curse. Thus he gradually becomes contented with his lot and at last is freed from his desire body and is ready to go on.

2) Or take the case of the drunkard. He is just as fond of intoxicants after death as he was before. It is not the dense body that craves drink. It is made sick by alcohol and would rather be without it.

It vainly protests in different ways, but the desire body of the drunkard craves the drink and forces the dense body to take it, that the desire body may have the sensation of pleasure resulting from the increased vibration.

That desire remains after the death of the dense body, but the drunkard has in his desire body neither mouth to drink nor stomach to contain physical liquor.

He may and does get into saloons, where he interpolates his body into to bodies of the drinkers to get a little of their vibrations by induction, but that is too weak to give him much satisfaction.

He may and also does sometimes get inside a whiskey cask, but that is of no avail either for there are in the cask no such fumes as are generated in the digestive organs of a tippler. It has no effect upon him and he is like a man in an open boat on the ocean. “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink;” consequently he suffers intensely.

(This is false because the masters explained that aromas can be perceived in the higher planes of existence.)

In time, however, he learns the uselessness of longing for drink which he cannot obtain.

As with so many of our desires in the Earth life, all desires in the Desire World die for want of opportunity to gratify them. When the drunkard has been purged, he is ready, so far as this habit is concerned, to leave this state of “purgatory” and ascend into the heaven world.

Thus we see that it is not an avenging Deity that makes purgatory or hell for us, but our own individual evil habits and acts. According to the intensity of our desires will be the time and suffering entailed in their expurgation.

(This is false because in the Desires World, i.e. the Kama-Loka, the "purgatory", there is no purification from our lower tendencies, but a temporary separation from our bad nature that we have fomented, so that our good nature that we have developed, can enter in Heaven.

 

This separation is done unconsciously since the soul of the person is asleep. And it is only in their next reincarnation that the person will reactivate again his bad nature with which he will have to confront — because it is part of his personal Karma.

 

So, contrary to what Max Heindel asserts, the purification of our negative tendencies takes place in the physical world and not in the desire world.)

KARMA IN THE WORLD OF DESIRES

This is the law that is symbolized in the scythe of the reaper, Death; the law that says, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” It is the law of cause and effect, which rules all things in the three Worlds, in every realm of nature — physical, moral and mental. Everywhere it works inexorably, adjusting all things, restoring the equilibrium wherever even the slightest action has brought about a disturbance, as all action must.

The result may be manifested immediately or it may be delayed for years or for lives, but sometime, somewhere, just and equal retribution will be made. The student should particularly note that its work is absolutely impersonal. There is in the universe neither reward nor punishment. All is the result of invariable law.

The action of this law will be more fully elucidated in the next chapter, where we shall find it associated with another Great Law of the Cosmos, which also operates in the evolution of man. The law we are now considering is called the Law of Consequence.

In the Desire World it operates in purging man of the baser desires and the correction of the weaknesses and vices which hinder his progress, by making him suffer in the manner best adapted to that purpose. If he has made others suffer, or has dealt unjustly with them, he will be made to suffer in that identical way.

Be it noted, however, that if a person has been subject to vices, or has done wrong to others, but has overcome his vices, or repented and, as far as possible, made right the wrong done, such repentance, reform and restitution have purged him of those special vices and evil acts. The equilibrium has been restored and the lesson learned during that incarnation, and therefore will not be a cause of suffering after death.

(Here, Max Heindel distorts the teaching because the masters explained that karma is temporarily paused when the person dies, then pursues her again when the person returns to reincarnation.

And this is because the Physical World is the place of action and learning, while the Heaven World is the place of rest and assimilation. And the World of Desires is simply a bridge between those two worlds.)

DURATION IN THE WORLD OF DESIRES

In the Desire World life is lived about three times as rapidly as in the Physical World. A man who has lived to be fifty years of age in the Physical World would live through the same life events in the Desire World in about sixteen years.

This is, of course, only a general gauge. There are persons who remain in the Desire World much longer than their term of physical life. Others again, who have led lives with few gross desires, pass through in a much shorter period, but the measure above given is very nearly correct for the average man of present day.

(It is true that the duration in the World of Desires varies for each person based on several factors, but the masters did not specify that this duration correspond to a third of what the person had lived on Earth, so I suspect that It is an invention of Max Heindel.)

THE REVISION OF LIFE IN THE WORLD OF DESIRES

It will be remembered that as the man leaves the dense body at death, his past life passes before him in pictures; but at that time he has no feeling concerning them.

During his life in the Desire World also these life pictures roll backwards, as before; but now the man has all the feelings that it is possible for him to have as, one by one, the scenes pass before him.

Every incident in his past life is now lived over again. When he comes to a point where he has injured someone, he himself feels the pain as the injured person felt it. He lives through all the sorrow and suffering he has caused to others and learns just how painful is the hurt and how hard to bear is the sorrow he has caused.

(This is not what the masters said. Master Kuthumi explained that during their stay in the World of Desires, humans sleep. Those who were good have sweet dreams, those who have been bad have nightmares, and those who have been materialistic, they simply sleep, but without dreaming.)

PERCEPTIONS IN THE WORLD OF DESIRES

There is another characteristic peculiar to this phase of postmortem existence which is intimately connected with the fact (already mentioned) that distance is almost annihilated in the Desire World.

When a man dies, he at once seems to swell out in his vital body; he appears to himself to grow into immense proportions. This feeling is due to the fact, not that the body really grows, but that the perceptive faculties receive so many impressions from various sources, all seeming to be close at hand. The same is true of the desire body.

The man seems to be present with all the people with whom on earth he had relations of a nature which require correction. If he has injured one man in San Francisco and another in New York, he will feel as if part of him were in each place. This gives him a peculiar feeling of being cut to pieces.

(This is invented by Max Heindel because people are sleeping.)

THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT CRYING

WHEN SOMEONE IS DYING

The student will now understand the importance of the panorama of the past life during the purgative existence, where this panorama is realized in definite feelings.

If it lasted long and the man were undisturbed, the full, deep, clear impression etched into the desire body would make life in the Desire World more vivid and conscious and the purgation more thorough than if, because of distress at the loud outbursts of grief on the part of his relatives, at the death bed and during the three-day period previously mentioned the man had only a vague impression of his past life.

The spirit which has etched a deep clear record into its desire body will realize the mistakes of the past life so much more clearly and definitely than if the pictures were blurred on account of the individual's attention being diverted by the suffering and grief around him.

His feeling concerning the things which cause his present suffering in the Desire World will be much more definite if they are drawn from a distinct panoramic impression than if the duration of the process were short.

This sharp, clear-cut feeling is of immense value in future lives. It stamps upon the seed atom of the desire body an ineffaceable impression of itself. The experiences will be forgotten in succeeding lives, but the Feeling remains.

When opportunities occur to repeat the error in later lives, this Feeling will speak to us clearly and unmistakably.

It is the “still, small voice” which warns us, though we do not know why; but the clearer and more definite the panoramas of past lives has been, the oftener, stronger and clearer shall we hear this voice. Thus we see how important it is that we leave the passing spirit in absolute quietness after death.

By so doing we help it to reap the greatest possible benefit from the life just ended and to avoid perpetuating the same mistakes in future lives, while our selfish, hysterical lamentations may deprive it of much of the value of the life it has just concluded.

(It is true that it is advisable not to cry when a person is dying because that hinders their transition to the subtle world, but it is false that it affects their memories, because that process of revision of their life is automated and the person does not intervene in it.

And the atom-seed of the wish body does not exist because it is a lie invented by Charles Leadbeater.)

THE PURGATORY OBJECTIVE

The mission of purgatory is to eradicate the injurious habits by making their gratification impossible. The individual suffers exactly as he has made others suffer through his dishonesty, cruelty, intolerance, or what not. Because of this suffering he learns to act kindly, honestly, and with forbearance toward others in the future. Thus, in consequence of the existence of this beneficent state, man learns virtue and right action.

(As I explained above, the learning process takes place on the physical plane, not in the Purgatory. The World of Desires is simply the bridge that humans have to go through in order to reach the Heaven World.

And the World of Desires also acts as a dump, because the Divine World vibrates very high, there cannot be low vibrations, and that is why people have to leave their bad part in the World of Desires to be able to enter the Celestial World.)

When he is reborn he is free from evil habits, at least every evil act committed is one of free will.

(This is false because, although his previous body of desires was disintegrated, the negative characteristics of the person are recorded in his skandhas, and therefore the person will have to deal with those characteristics in his new reincarnation.)

The tendencies to repeat the evil of past lives remain, for we must learn to do right consciously and of our own will. Upon occasion these tendencies tempt us, thereby affording us an opportunity of ranging ourselves on the side of mercy and virtue as against vice and cruelty.

But to indicate right action and to help us resist the snares and wiles of temptation, we have the feeling resulting from the expurgation of evil habits and the expiation of the wrong acts of past lives.

If we heed that feeling and abstain from the particular evil involved, the temptation will cease. We have freed ourselves from it for all time. If we yield we shall experience keener suffering than before until at last we have learned to live by the Golden Rule, because the way of the transgressor is hard.

Even then we have not reached the ultimate. To do good to others because we want them to do good to us is essentially selfish. In time we must learn to do good regardless of how we are treated by others; as Christ said, we must love even our enemies.

METHOD TO AVOID THE PURGATORY

There is an inestimable benefit in knowing about the method and object of this purgation, because we are thus enabled to forestall it by living our purgatory here and now day by day, thus advancing much faster than would otherwise be possible.

An exercise is given in the latter part of this work, the object of which is purification as an aid to the development of spiritual sight. It consists of thinking over the happenings of the day after retiring at night.

We review each incident of the day, in reverse order, taking particular note of the moral aspect, considering whether we acted rightly or wrongly in each particular case regarding actions, mental attitude and habits. By thus judging ourselves day by day, endeavoring to correct mistakes and wrong actions, we shall materially shorten or perhaps even eliminate the necessity for purgatory and be able to pass to the first heaven directly after death.

(The Purgatory cannot be avoided, because it is like an elevator: you cannot reach the third floor without crossing the second floor. But on the other hand, it is true that more you purify yourself during your earthly life, and faster you will pass through the World of Desires.)

If in this manner, we consciously overcome our weaknesses, we also make a very material advance in the school of evolution. Even if we fail to correct our actions, we derive an immense benefit from judging ourselves, thereby generating aspirations toward good, which in time will surely bear fruit in right action.

In reviewing the day's happenings and blaming ourselves for wrong, we should not forget to impersonally approve of the good we have done and determine to do still better. In this way we enhance the good by approval as much as we abjure the evil by blame.

Repentance and reform are also powerful factors in shortening the purgatorial existence, for nature never wastes effort in useless processes. When we realize the wrong of certain habits or acts in our past life, and determine to eradicate the habit and to redress the wrong committed, we are expunging the pictures of them from the subconscious memory and they will not be there to judge us after death.

Even though we are not able to make restitution for a wrong, the sincerity of our regret will suffice. Nature does not aim to “get even,” or to take revenge. Recompense may be given to our victim in other ways.

(Here Max Heindel is mixing things up, because regret will not suffice to eliminate karma. Regret will allow you to compensate for your negative karma in a positive way.)

Much progress ordinarily reserved for future lives will be made by the man who thus takes time by the forelock, judging himself and eradicating vice by reforming his character. This practice is earnestly recommended. It is perhaps the most important teaching in the present work. »

(The Rosicrucian Cosmos Conception, Chapter 3)

CONCLUSION

Max Heindel's explanation has some positive points, such as emphasizing the importance of seeking to purify and improve ourselves during our life on Earth, but his explanation of what happens in the World of Desires is very wrong if we compare it with what the masters of wisdom have really taught.