This is the first half of the tenth chapter of the book
"The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians."
METEMPSYCHOSIS
The Rosicrucians hold as a very
important part of the teaching the occult doctrine of Metempsychosis,
Reincarnation, or Transmigration of Souls, the essence of which doctrine is the
survival of the individual soul after it passes from the physical body in
death, and its reembodiment in a physical body by rebirth after a sojourn in
the resting place of the souls.
The doctrine of Metempsychosis is
one of the oldest of the human race. Traces of the teaching are found in the
records of practically every one of the ancient races in all parts of the
globe. In one form or another it has existed in the esoteric circles to be
found at the heart of each of the world's great religions, including
Christianity. It has always been a cardinal doctrine in the religions of the
Orient, and during the past twenty-five years has attained a wonderful revival
of popularity among the thinkers of the Occident.
The Rosicrucians’ teachings hold
that the Evolution of Man has been accomplished not alone by the general
evolutionary trend of the race by which it moves forward from generation to
generation, but also by the advance and ascent caused by the improvement in the
reincarnating individual soul, each step of rebirth tending upward and onward.
As a writer has said:
« The teachings hold that
Evolution is caused by the soul striving, struggling, and pressing forward
toward fuller and still fuller expression, using Matter as a material, and yet
always struggling to free itself from the confining and retarding influence of
the latter. The struggle results in an unfoldment, causing sheath after sheath
of the confining material bonds to be thrown off and discarded, as the spirit
moulds matter to serve its higher purposes. Evolution is but the process of
birth of the imprisoned spirit, unfolding and extricating itself from the web
of matter in which it has been involved and infolded. And the pains and
struggles are but incidents of the spiritual parturition. »
The Rosicrucians have no special,
distinctive theories concerning Metempsychosis, but, on the contrary, accept
the general teaching of the ancient occultists concerning reembodiment of the
soul. They regard re-birth as just as natural as birth, and consider that the
race has at its disposal a vast volume of actual experiences of individuals
which conclusively proves the truth of the doctrine. In fact, the Rosicrucian
teachers make no attempt to argue
the question with the student; but, rather, present the teaching as it comes to
them, backed up by the wealth of authority on the part of the ancient schools,
and fortified by the innumerable personal recollections on the part of
individuals — in most cases the student himself has an intuition of the truth
of the doctrine, in the first place, and often has a greater or less degree of
recollection of his former lives on earth.
Metempsychosis has always been the
accepted belief of many of the most intelligent members of the ace. It is found
to have been the inner doctrine of the ancient Egyptians, and was held in the
highest regard by the great thinkers of the ancient Western world, such as
Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil, and Ovid. Plato's teachings were filled
with the doctrine. The Hindu philosophies are based upon it. The Persian Magi
held implicitly to it. The ancient Druids, and the Priests of Gaul taught it.
Traces of the doctrine are found in the records of the ancient races of the
Aztecs, the Peruvians, and other old peoples of the New World. The Eleusinian
Mysteries of Greece, the Roman Mysteries of the Temple, the Inner Doctrines of
the Kabbala of the Hebrews, all were based upon the doctrine of Metempsychosis.
The early Christian Fathers, the Gnostics and Manicheans and other early
Christian sects, believed in it. The great philosophers, ancient and modern,
treated it with respect if indeed they did not fully accept it in many cases.
The following quotations from modern
authorities give an idea of the importance attached to the doctrine by modern
thinkers:
Hedge says:
« Of all the theories respecting
the origin of the soul, Metempsychosis seems to me the most plausible and
therefore the one most likely to throw light on the question of the life to
come. »
James Freeman Clarke says:
« It would be curious if we
would find science and philosophy taking up again the old theory of
metempsychosis, remodeling it to suit our present modes of religious and
scientific thought, and launching it again on the wide ocean of human belief.
But stranger things have happened in the history of human opinions."
Professor Knight says: "If we could legitimately determine any question of
belief by the number of its adherents, the decision would be in favor of
metempsychosis rather than to any other. I think it is quite as likely to be
revived and to come to the front as any rival theory. »
Professor Bowen says:
« It seems to me, a firm and
well-grounded faith in the doctrine of Christian metempsychosis might help to
regenerate the world. For it would be a faith not hedged around with many of
the difficulties and objections which beset other forms of doctrines, and it
offers distinct and pungent motives for trying to lead a more Christian life, and
for loving and helping our brother man. The doctrine of Metempsychosis may
almost claim to be a natural or innate belief in the human mind, if we may
judge from its wide diffusion among the nations of the earth, and its
prevalence throughout the historical ages. »
E.D. Walker says:
« When Christianity first swept
over Europe, the inner thought of its leaders was deeply tinctured with this
truth. The Church tried effectually to eradicate it, but in various sects it
kept sprouting forth beyond the time of Erigina and Bonaventura, its mediaeval
advocates. Every great intuitional soul, as Paracelsus, Boehme, and Swedenborg,
has adhered to it. The Italian luminaries, Giordano Bruno and Campanella,
embraced it. The best of German philosophy is enriched by it. In Schopenhauer,
Lessing, and Fichte the younger, it is earnestly advocated. The anthropological
systems of Kant and Schelling furnish points of contact with it. The younger
Helmont adduces in two hundred problems all the arguments which may be urged in
favor of the return of souls into human bodies, according to Jewish ideas. Of
English thinkers, the Cambridge Platonists defended it with much learning and
acuteness, most conspicuously Henry More; and in Cudsworth and Hume it ranks as
the most rational theory of immortality. Glanvil devotes a curious treatise to
it. It captivated the minds of Fourier and Leroux. Andre Pezzani's book on the
Plurality of the Soul's Lives works out the system on the Roman Catholic idea
of expiation. »
Personal experiences
But, better than all the opinions
and shades of belief found among the great writers and teachers concerning this
important subject, is the inner conviction of all souls which have reached a
certain stage of spiritual enfoldment — the conviction that "I have lived
before." Such a conviction and intuitive belief based upon the reawakening
of dim memories, is worth more to an individual than tons of printed opinions
on the subject.
A writer has said on this point:
« Who has not experienced the
consciousness of having felt the thing before — of having thought it at some
time in the dim past? Who has not witnessed new scenes that appear old, very
old? Who has not met persons for the first time, whose presence has awakened
memories of a past lying far back in the misty ages of long ago? Who has not
been seized at times with the consciousness of a mighty 'oldness' of soul? Who
has not heard music, often entirely new compositions, which somehow awakened
memories of similar strains, scenes, places, faces, voices, lands, associations
and events, sounding dimly on the strings of memory as the breezes of the
harmony float over them? Who has not gazed at some old painting, or piece of
statuary, with the sense of having seen it all before? Who has not lived
through events which brought with them a certainty of their being merely a
repetition of some shadowy occurrences away back in lives lived long ago? Who
has not felt the influence of the mountain, the sea, the desert, coming to them
when they are far away from such scenes — coming so vividly as to cause the
actual scene of the present to fade into comparative unreality? Who has not had
these experiences? »
Sir Walter Scott once made the following observation in his diary:
« I cannot, I am sure, tell if
it is worth marking down, that yesterday, at dinner time, I was strangely
haunted by what I would call the sense of preexistence, viz.: a confused idea
that nothing that passed was said for the first time; that the same topics had
been discussed and the same persons had stated the same opinions on them. The
sensation was so strong as to resemble what is called a mirage in the desert,
and a calenture on board ship.
. . .
Why is it that some scenes awaken thoughts
which belong as it were to dreams of early and shadowy recollections, such as
the old Brahmins would have ascribed to a state of previous existence? How
often do we find ourselves in society which we have never before met, and yet
feel impressed with a mysterious and ill-defined consciousness that neither the
scene nor the speakers nor the subject are entirely new; nay, feel as if we
could anticipate that part of the conversation which has not yet taken place. »
Bulwer says:
« There is a strange kind of
inner and spiritual memory which so often recalls to us places and persons we
have never seen before, and which Platonists would resolve to be the unquenched
consciousness of a former life. How strange is it that at times a feeling comes
over us as we gaze upon certain places, which associates the scene either with
some dim remembered and dreamlike images of the Past, or with a prophetic and
fearful omen of the Future. Everyone has known a similar strange and indistinct
feeling at certain times and places, and with a similar inability to trace the
cause." Poe says: "We walk about, amid the destinies of our world
existence, accompanied by dim but ever present memories of a Destiny more vast —
very distant in the by-gone time and infinitely awful. We live out a youth peculiarly
haunted by such dreams, yet never mistaking them for dreams. As memories we
know them. During our youth the distinctness is too clear to deceive us even
for a moment; but the doubt of manhood dispels them as illusions. »
Charles Dickens once wrote:
« In the foreground was a group
of silent peasant girls, leaning upon the parapet of the little bridge, looking
now up at the sky, now down at the water; in the distance a deep dell; the
shadow of an approaching night on everything. If I had been murdered there in
some former life I could not have seemed to remember the place more thoroughly,
or with more emphatic chilling of the blood; and the real remembrance of it
acquired in that minute is so strengthened by the imaginary recollection that I
hardly think I could forget it. »
Child prodigies
If evidence of the truth of
Metempsychosis other than personal intuition and glimpses of memory of past
lives were needed, we would find such evidence in the phenomena of the infant
prodigies, and cases of childhood genius, instance of which abound on all
sides. Children at a very early age manifest evidences of a deep knowledge of
mathematics, music, art, etc., even in cases where the explanation of heredity
fails to fit the case.
The case of Mozart gives us a
typical case of this kind. The child, Mozart, at the age of four was able not
only to perform difficult pieces of music on the piano, but also to compose
original works of merit. Not only did he manifest the highest faculty of sound
and note, but also an instinctive ability to compose and arrange music, which
ability was far superior to that of many men who had devoted years of their
life to the study and practice of music. The laws of harmony, the science of
commingling tones, was to this wonderful child not the work of years, but a
faculty born in him.
Another marked case is that of Zerah
Colburn, the mathematical prodigy, whose feats attracted the attention of the
scientific world during the last century. In this case, the child under eight
years of age, without any previous knowledge of even the common rules of
arithmetic, or even of the use and powers of the Arabic numerals, solved a
great variety of arithmetical problems by a simple operation of the mind, and
without the use of any visible symbols or contrivances. He could answer readily
a question involving the statement of the exact number of minutes or seconds in
any given period of time.
He could also state with equal
facility the exact product of the multiplication of any number containing two,
three, or four figures by another number consisting of a like number of
figures. He could state almost instantly all the factors composing a number of
six or seven places of figures. He could likewise determine instantly questions
concerning the extraction of the square and cube roots of any number proposed,
and likewise whether it was a prime number incapable of division by any other
number, for which there is no known general rule among mathematicians. Asked
such questions in the midst of his ordinary childish play, he would answer them
almost instantly and then proceed with his play.
This child once undertook and
completely succeeded in raising the number 8 progressively up to the sixteenth
power — in naming the result, 281,474,976,710,656 he was absolutely correct in
every figure. He could raise any given number progressively up to the 10th
power, with so much speed that the person putting down the figures on paper
would frequently request him to manifest less speed. He gave instantly the
square root of 106,929, and the cube root of 268,336,125. He could give the
prime factors of very large numbers, and could detect large prime numbers
instantly. Once asked how many minutes there were in forty-eight years, and
before the question could be written down he answered "25,228,800",
adding "and the number of seconds in such period is 1,513,728,000."
The child, when questioned
concerning his ability to give such answers, and to solve such difficult
problems, was unable to give such information. He could say that he did not
know how the answer came into his mind, but it was evident from watching him
that some actual process was under way in his mind, and that there was no
question of mere trick of memory in his feats. Moreover, it is important to
note that he was totally ignorant of even the common rules of arithmetic, and
could not "figure" on slate or paper even the simplest sum in
addition or multiplication. It is interesting to note the sequel to this case,
i.e., the fact that when a few years later the child was sent to the common
schools and was there instructed in the art of written arithmetic, his power
began to vanish, and eventually it left him altogether, and he became no more
than any other child of his age. It seemed as if some door of his soul had been
closed, while before it had stood ajar.
Rosicrucian teachings
The Rosicrucians teach that the
human soul is on the path of progress, learning the lessons of life and experience,
life after life, and storing away the essence of these impressions which go to
form the basis of the "character" of the individual when he is
reborn. The rebirth, or the conditions thereof, are not forced upon the
individual soul, according to the Rosicrucian teachings, but, on the contrary
the individual soul is attracted toward rebirth by reason of the presence of
certain desires in its character—or rather, by reason of the essence of its
desires. It is reborn into certain environments solely because it has within
itself certain unsatisfied desires which could be satisfied only in just those
environments. The operation of the Law of Attraction is justly regular here as
in the attraction of the atoms of matter.
Each soul contains within itself the
attracting force of certain sets of desires, and this force attracts to the
soul certain conditions and experiences and also attracts such experiences and
conditions to the soul. There is no element of punishment, or of injustice, in
the operation of this law, for it gives to each soul just what the soul
requires to meet its indwelling unsatisfied desires, or else the conditions and
experiences which will serve to burn out of the soul certain desires which are
holding it back in its progress, the destruction of which will make possible
future advancement.
The Rosicrucians teach that the
individuals of any sub-race who have outstripped their fellows in spiritual
unfoldment, are still bound by race ties to their brothers left behind—that is,
up to a certain point. In many cases such individuals are compelled until the
great body of the sub-race moves up to the position of the individual.
(This is not true, and Atkinson contradicts
himself in the next chapter where he points out that humans of fifth round already
exist.)
But such individuals are not
compelled to undergo a needless repetition of births and rebirths during this
waiting period, but, instead, they spend the period on some exalted plane on
which they come in contact with advanced souls and higher beings who act as
their teachers. In some cases these advanced individuals consent to return to
earth-life as great teachers, in order to aid in the general progress of the
sub-race. The teaching is that among us today many of such advanced and
self-sacrificing souls are dwelling, aiding in the general uplift.
The Rosicrucian teachings concerning
the value of experiences in each earth-life are well illustrated by the
following quotation from a leading writer, who says:
« Many object to the doctrine of
Re-Birth on the ground that the experiences of each life, not being remembered,
must be useless and without value. This is an erroneous view of the subject,
for while such experiences may not be fully remembered, yet they are not lost
to us at all, but really form a part of the material of which our minds are
composed. They exist in essence in the form of feelings, characteristics, inclinations,
likes and dislikes, affinities, attractions, repulsions, etc., and are in this
form just as much in evidence in our lives as are the experiences of yesterday
which are well remembered.
Look back over the years of your
present life, and try to recall the experiences of one year ago, five years
ago, ten years, twenty years, thirty years, and as much further back as you
care to go. You will find that you can remember but few of the events of your
life. The experiences of most of the days in which you have lived have been
almost completely forgotten. Though these experiences may have seemed very
vivid and real to you when they occurred, still they have faded into
nothingness now, and they are to all intents and purposes lost to you.
But they are not lost!
Remember, you are what you are today
by reason of these very experiences which you now fail to remember — they exist
in your character and have helped to mould and shape it. The apparently
forgotten pains, pleasures, sorrows, and happinesses are active factors in the
formation and maintenance of your character of today. This trial strengthened
you along certain lines; that one changed your point of view and made you see
things with a broader vision. This grief caused you to feel the pain of others;
that disappointment spurred you on to new endeavors. And each and every one of
them left a permanent mark upon your personality — upon your character.
All men and women are what they are
by reason of what they have gone through — have lived out and outlived. And
though these happenings, scenes, circumstances, occurrences, experiences, have
faded from the memory, their effects are indelibly imprinted upon the fabric of
the character, and the individual of today is different from what he would have
been had the happenings or experience not entered into his life.
And this same rule applies to the
characteristics brought over from past incarnations. You have not the memory of
the experiences, but you have the fruit in the shape of characteristics,
tastes, inclinations, etc. You have a tendency toward certain things, and a
distaste for others. Certain things attract you, while other things repel you.
All of these things are the result of your experiences in former incarnations.
Your very tastes and inclination toward the study of the occult which are now
causing you to read these lines, they are your legacy from some former life in
which some seed-thoughts of esoteric teaching were dropped into your thought by
some teacher or friend, and then aroused your interest and attracted your
attention. You learned some little about the subject then —perhaps much— and
developed a desire for more knowledge along these lines, which, manifesting in
your present life has again brought you in contact with similar reachings. The
same inclination will lead to further advancement along these lines in this
life, and still greater opportunities in future incarnations.
Nearly everyone who reads these
lines will feel that much of the occult teaching now being received is but a
re-learning' of something previously known, although many of the things now
taught have never been heard before in this life. You pick up a book and read
something, and know at once that it is so, because in some vague way you have
the consciousness of having studied and worked out the problem in some past
life. All this is in accordance with the Law of Attraction which has caused you
to attract that toward you for which you have an affinity, and which also
causes others to be attracted to you.
In the same way, and from the same
cause, are the many reunions in this life of persons who have been related to
each other in previous lives. The old loves, the old hates, work out in the new
lives. We are bound to those whom we have loved, and also to those whom we have
injured. The story must be worked out to the last chapter, although an
increasing knowledge of the “why and wherefore” of such things may relieve one
of many entangling attachments and relationships of this kind. »
(This excerpt and the others that William
Atkinson has been putting from a writer, he copied them from his book "Gnani Yoga")
OBSERVATIONS
Most
likely the Rosicrucians did accept reincarnation in their doctrine, although
they had to hide it so as not to be persecuted by the Inquisition. But what
William Atkinson is saying here is not the Rosicrucian teaching, but his own
view on reincarnation based on what he had studied; and the truth is that it
does not say anything relevant. For me the most interesting part is the
compilation he made about what several prominent persons said about
reincarnation, however it would have been useful if Atkinson had also put the
references he used in this regard.
No comments:
Post a Comment