COSMICBUHAY: REINCARNATION

REINCARNATION

Erle Frayne D. Argonza / Ra

The complexities of the phenomena of reincarnation and karma were well articulated by Theos Sophia. Karma and reincarnation are two universal principles that go together, and we can’t think of reincarnation without the cosmic law of retribution or karma to define the broad compass of that rebirth.

For this note, let us focus on reincarnation. In ancient myths and legends, ancient symbology, the phoenix symbolized the phenomenon of rebirth. The mythic bird, so beautiful and awesome, lives to a very long life, then burns itself, and then gets reborn in the process. It lives forever.

Another related symbol or signifier is that of the ‘lion’s paw’. Among the favorite symbols in freemasonry, the lion’s paw signifies resurrection. Any person who has been transmuted, upon liberation, into an exquisite divine being, is as good a resurrected person who will be deathless thereafter.

Below is an excerpt from the book The Key to Theosophy by H.P.Blavatsky about the subject of reincarnation.

ENQUIRER. You mean, then, that we have all lived on earth before, in many past incarnations, and shall go on so living?

THEOSOPHIST. I do. The life-cycle, or rather the cycle of conscious life, begins with the separation of the mortal animal-man into sexes, and will end with the close of the last generation of men, in the seventh round and seventh race of mankind. Considering we are only in the fourth round and fifth race, its duration is more easily imagined than expressed.

ENQUIRER. And we keep on incarnating in new personalities all the time?

THEOSOPHIST. Most assuredly so; because this life-cycle or period of incarnation may be best compared to human life. As each such life is composed of days of activity separated by nights of sleep or of inaction, so, in the incarnation-cycle, an active life is followed by a Devachanic rest.

ENQUIRER. And it is this succession of births that is generally defined as re-incarnation?

THEOSOPHIST. Just so. It is only through these births that the perpetual progress of the countless millions of Egos toward final perfection and final rest (as long as was the period of activity) can be achieved.

ENQUIRER. And what is it that regulates the duration, or special qualities of these incarnations?

THEOSOPHIST. Karma, the universal law of retributive justice.

ENQUIRER. Is it an intelligent law?

THEOSOPHIST. For the Materialist, who calls the law of periodicity which regulates the marshalling of the several bodies, and all the other laws in nature, blind forces and mechanical laws, no doubt Karma would be a law of chance and no more. For us, no adjective or qualification could describe that which is impersonal and no entity, but a universal operative law. If you question me about the causative intelligence in it, I must answer you I do not know. But if you ask me to define its effects and tell you what these are in our belief, I may say that the experience of thousands of ages has shown us that they are absolute and unerring equity, wisdom, and intelligence. For Karma in its effects is an unfailing redresser of human injustice, and of all the failures of nature; a stern adjuster of wrongs; a retributive law which rewards and punishes with equal impartiality. It is, in the strictest sense, "no respecter of persons," though, on the other hand, it can neither be propitiated, nor turned aside by prayer. This is a belief common to Hindus and Buddhists, who both believe in Karma.

ENQUIRER. In this Christian dogmas contradict both, and I doubt whether any Christian will accept the teaching.

THEOSOPHIST. No; and Inman gave the reason for it many years ago. As he puts it, while "the Christians will accept any nonsense, if promulgated by the Church as a matter of faith . . . the Buddhists hold that nothing which is contradicted by sound reason can be a true doctrine of Buddha." They do not believe in any pardon for their sins, except after an adequate and just punishment for each evil deed or thought in a future incarnation, and a proportionate compensation to the parties injured.

ENQUIRER. Where is it so stated?

THEOSOPHIST. In most of their sacred works. In the "Wheel of the Law" (p. 57) you may find the following Theosophical tenet: -"Buddhists believe that every act, word or thought has its consequence, which will appear sooner or later in the present or in the future state. Evil acts will produce evil consequences, good acts will produce good consequences: prosperity in this world, or birth in heaven (Devachan). . . in the future state."

ENQUIRER. Christians believe the same thing, don't they?

THEOSOPHIST. Oh, no; they believe in the pardon and the remission of all sins. They are promised that if they only believe in the blood of Christ (an innocent victim!), in the blood offered by Him for the expiation of the sins of the whole of mankind, it will atone for every mortal sin. And we believe neither in vicarious atonement, nor in the possibility of the remission of the smallest sin by any god, not even by a "personal Absolute" or "Infinite," if such a thing could have any existence. What we believe in, is strict and impartial justice. Our idea of the unknown Universal Deity, represented by Karma, is that it is a Power which cannot fail, and can, therefore, have neither wrath nor mercy, only absolute Equity, which leaves every cause, great or small, to work out its inevitable effects. The saying of Jesus: "With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again" (Matth. vii., 2), neither by expression nor implication points to any hope of future mercy or salvation by proxy. This is why, recognising as we do in our philosophy the justice of this statement, we cannot recommend too strongly mercy, charity, and forgiveness of mutual offences. Resist not evil, and render good for evil, are Buddhist precepts, and were first preached in view of the implacability of Karmic law. For man to take the law into his own hands is anyhow a sacrilegious presumption. Human Law may use restrictive not punitive measures; but a man who, believing in Karma, still revenges himself and refuses to forgive every injury, thereby rendering good for evil, is a criminal and only hurts himself. As Karma is sure to punish the man who wronged him, by seeking to inflict an additional punishment on his enemy, he, who instead of leaving that punishment to the great Law adds to it his own mite, only begets thereby a cause for the future reward of his own enemy and a future punishment for himself. The unfailing Regulator affects in each incarnation the quality of its successor; and the sum of the merit or demerit in preceding ones determines it.

ENQUIRER. Are we then to infer a man's past from his present?

THEOSOPHIST. Only so far as to believe that his present life is what it justly should be, to atone for the sins of the past life. Of course -- seers and great adepts excepted -- we cannot as average mortals know what those sins were. From our paucity of data, it is impossible for us even to determine what an old man's youth must have been; neither can we, for like reasons, draw final conclusions merely from what we see in the life of some man, as to what his past life may have been.

[Philippines, 30 May 2011]

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