Evolution, as stated by Western Science, and compared with the Yogi
Teachings. The student should compare the two ideas, that he may
harmonize and reconcile them. It must be remembered, however, that
Darwin did _not_ teach that Man descended from the monkeys, or apes, as
we know them now. The teaching of Western Evolution is that the apes,
and higher forms of monkey life descended from some common ancestral
form, which same ancestor was also the ancestor of Man. In other words,
Man and Apes are the different branches that emerged from the common
trunk ages ago. Other forms doubtless emerged from the same trunk, and
perished because less adapted to their environments. The Apes were best
adapted to their own environments, and Man was best adapted to his. The
weaker branches failed.
One must remember that the most savage races known to us today are
practically as far different from the highest American, European or
Hindu types of Man as from the highest Apes. Indeed, it would seem far
easier for a high Ape to evolve into a Kaffir, Hottentot, or Digger
Indian, than for the latter to evolve into an Emerson, Shakespeare, or
Hindu Sage. As Huxley has shown, the brain-structure of Man compared
with that of the Chimpanzee shows differences but slight when compared
with the difference between that of the Chimpanzee and that of the
Lemur. The same authority informs us that in the important feature of
the deeper brain furrows, and intricate convolutions, the chasm between
the highest civilized man and the lowest savage is far greater than
between the lowest savage and the highest man-like ape. Darwin,
describing the Fuegians, who are among the very lowest forms of
savages, says: "Their very signs and expressions are less intelligible
to us than those of the domesticated animal. They are men who do not
possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast of human
reason, or at least of arts consequent upon that reason."
Professor Clodd, in describing the "primitive man," says: "Doubtless he
was lower than the lowest of the savages of today--a powerful, cunning
biped, with keen sense organs always sharper, in virtue of constant
exercise, in the savage than in the civilized man (who supplements them
by science), strong instincts, uncontrolled and fitful emotions, small
faculty of wonder, and nascent reasoning power; unable to forecast
tomorrow, or to comprehend yesterday, living from hand to mouth on the
wild products of Nature, clothed in skin and bark, or daubed with clay,
and finding shelter in trees and caves; ignorant of the simplest arts,
save to chip a stone missile, and perhaps to produce fire; strong in
his needs of life and vague sense of right to it and to what he could
get, but slowly impelled by common perils and passions to form ties,
loose and haphazard at the outset, with his kind, the power of
combination with them depending on sounds, signs and gestures."
Such was the ancestral man. Those who are interested in him are
referred to the two wonderful tales of the cave-man written in the form
of stories by two great modern novelists. The books referred to are (1)
"_The Story of Ab_," by Stanley Waterloo, and (2) "_Before Adam_," by
Jack London. They may be obtained from any bookseller. Both are works
of fiction, with the scientific facts cleverly interwoven into them.
And now in conclusion before we pass on the subject of "Spiritual
Evolution," which will form the subject of our next lesson, we would
again call your attention to the vital difference between the Western
and the Eastern Teachings. The Western holds to a mechanical theory of
life, which works without the necessity of antecedent Mind, the latter
appearing as a "product" at a certain stage. The Eastern holds _that
Mind is back of, under, and antecedent to all the work of
Evolution_--the _cause_, not the effect or product. The Western claims
that Mind was produced by the struggle of Matter to produce higher
forms of itself. _The Eastern claims that the whole process of
Evolution is caused by Mind striving, struggling and pressing forward
toward expressing itself more fully--to liberate itself from the
confining and retarding Matter--the struggle resulting in an Unfoldment
which causes sheath after sheath of the confining material bonds to be
thrown off and discarded, in the effort to release the confined Spirit
which is behind even the Mind. The Yogi Teachings are that the
Evolutionary Urge is the pressure of the confined Spirit striving to
free itself from the fetters and bonds which sorely oppress it_.
The struggle and pain of Evolution is the parturition-pangs of the
Spiritual deliverance from the womb of Matter. Like all birth it is
attended by pain and suffering, but the end justifies it all. And as
the human mother forgets her past suffering in the joy of witnessing
the face, and form, and life, of her loved child, so will the soul
forget the pain of the Spiritual birth by reason of the beauty and
nobility of that which will be born to and from it.
Let us study well the story of Physical Evolution, but let us not lose
ourselves in it, for it is but the preliminary to the story of the
Unfoldment of the Soul.
Let us not despise the tale of the Body of Man--for it is the story of
the Temple of the Spirit which has been built up from the most humble
beginnings, until it has reached the present high stage. And yet even
this is but the beginning, for the work will go on, and on, and on, in
the spirit of those beautiful lines of Holmes:
"Build thee more stately mansions, oh, my soul!
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at last _art free_,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea."
THE NINTH LESSON
METEMPSYCHOSIS.
As we have said in our last lesson, while the Yogi Teachings throw an
important light upon the Western theory of Evolution, still there is a
vital difference between the Western scientific teachings on the
subject and the Eastern theories and teachings. The Western idea is
that the process is a mechanical, material one, and that "mind" is a
"by-product" of Matter in its evolution. But the Eastern Teachings hold
that Mind is under, back of, and antecedent to all the work of
Evolution, and that Matter is a "by-product" of Mind, rather than the
reverse.
The Eastern Teachings hold that Evolution is caused by Mind striving,
struggling, and pressing forward toward fuller and 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 presses
upon the Mind, and the Mind moulds and shapes the Matter. Evolution is
but the process of birth of the Individualized Spirit, from the web of
Matter in which it has been confined. And the pains and struggles are
but incidents of the spiritual parturition.
In this and following lessons we shall consider the "Spiritual
Evolution, of the race--that is the Unfoldment of Individualized
Spirit--just as we did the subject Physical Evolution in the last two
lessons.
We have seen that preceding Spiritual Evolution, there was a Spiritual
Involution. The Yogi Philosophy holds that in the Beginning, the
Absolute meditated upon the subject of Creation, and formed a Mental
Image, or Thought-Form, of an Universal Mind--that is, of an Universal
Principle of Mind. This Universal Principle of Mind is the Great Ocean
of "Mind-Stuff" from which all the phenomenal Universe is evolved. From
this Universal Principle of Mind, proceeded the Universal Principle of
Force or Energy. And from the latter, proceeded the Universal Principle
of Matter.
The Universal Principle of Mind was bound by Laws imposed upon it by
the mental-conception of the Absolute--the Cosmic Laws of Nature. And
these laws were the compelling causes of the Great Involution. For
before Evolution was possible, Involution was necessary. We have
explained that the word "involve" means "to wrap up; to cover; to hide,
etc." Before a thing can be "evolved," that is "unfolded," it must
first be "involved," that is "wrapped up." A thing must be _put in_,
before it may be _taken out_.
Following the laws of Involution imposed upon it, the Universal Mental
Principle involved itself in the Universal Energy Principle; and then
in obedience to the same laws, the latter involved itself in the
Universal Material Principle. Each stage of Involution, or
_wrapping-up_, created for itself (out of the higher principle which in
being involved) the wrapper or sheath which is to be used to wrap-up
the higher principle. And the higher forms of the Material Principle
formed sheaths of lower forms, until forms of Matter were produced far
more gross than any known to us now, for they have disappeared in the
Evolutionary ascent. Down, down, down went the process of Involution,
until the lowest point was reached. Then ensued a moment's pause,
preceding the beginning of the Evolutionary Unfoldment.
Then began the Great Evolution. But, as we have told you, the Upward
movement was distinguished by the "Tendency toward Individualization."
That is, while the Involuntary Process was accomplished by Principles
as Principles, the Upward Movement was begun by a tendency toward
"splitting up," and the creation of "individual forms," and the effort
to perfect them and build upon them higher and still higher succeeding
forms, until a stage was reached in which the Temple of the Spirit was
worthy of being occupied by Man, the self-conscious expression of the
Spirit. For the coming of Man was the first step of a higher form of
Evolution--the Spiritual Evolution. Up to this time there had been
simply an Evolution of Bodies, but now there came the Evolution of
Souls.
And this Evolution of Souls becomes possible only by the process of
Metempsychosis (pronounced _me-temp-si-ko-sis_) which is more commonly
known as Reincarnation, or Re-embodiment.
It becomes necessary at this point to call your attention to the
general subject of Metempsychosis, for the reason that the public mind
is most confused regarding this important subject. It has the most
vague ideas regarding the true teachings, and has somehow acquired the
impression that the teachings are that human souls are re-born into the
bodies of dogs, and other animals. The wildest ideas on this subject
are held by some people. And, not only is this so, but even a number of
those who hold to the doctrine of Reincarnation, in some of its forms,
hold that their individual souls were once the individual souls of
animals, from which state they have evolved to the present condition.
This last is a perversion of the highest Yogi Teachings, and we trust
to make same plain in these lessons. But, first we must take a look at
the general subject of Metempsychosis, that we may see the important
part it has played in the field of human thought and belief.
While to many the idea of Metempsychosis may seem new and unfamiliar,
still it is one of the oldest conceptions of the race, and in ages past
was the accepted belief of the whole of the civilized race of man of
the period. And even today, it is accepted as Truth by the majority of
the race
The almost universal acceptance of the idea by the East with its
teeming life, counterbalances its comparative non-reception by the
Western people of the day. From the early days of written or legendary
history, Metempsychosis has been the accepted belief of many of the
most intelligent of the race. It is found underlying the magnificent
civilization of ancient Egypt, and from thence it traveled to the
Western world being held as the highest truth by such teachers as
Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil and Ovid. Plato's Dialogues are
full of this teaching. The Hindus have always held to it. The Persians,
inspired by their learned Magi, accepted it implicitly. The ancient
Druids, and Priests of Gaul, as well as the ancient inhabitants of
Germany, held to it. Traces of it may be found in the remains of the
Aztec, Peruvian and Mexican civilizations.
The Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece, the Roman Mysteries, and the Inner
Doctrines of the Cabbala of the Hebrews all taught the Truths of
Metempsychosis. The early Christian Fathers; the Gnostic and
Manichaeans and other sects of the Early Christian people, all held to
the doctrine. The modern German philosophers have treated it with the
greatest respect, if indeed they did not at least partially accept it.
Many modern writers have considered it gravely, and with respect. The
following quotations will give an idea of "how the wind is blowing" in
the West:
"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 a life to come."--_Frederick H. Hedge._
"It would be curious if we should find science and philosophy taking up
again the old theory of metempsychosis, remodelling' 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."--_James Freeman Clarke_.
"If we could legitimately determine any question of belief by the
number of its adherents, the ---- would apply to metempsychosis more
fitly than to any other. I think it is quite as likely to be revived
and to come to the front as any rival theory."--_Prof. Wm. Knight_.
"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 doctrine, and it offers distinct
and pungent motives for trying to lead a more Christian life, and for
loving and helping our brother-man."--_Prof. Francis Bowen_.
"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."--_Prof. Francis Bowen_.
"When Christianity first swept over Europe, the inner thought of its
leaders was deeply tinctured with this truth. The Church tried
ineffectually 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, Hegel, Leibnitz, Herder, and Fichte,
the younger, it is earnestly advocated. The anthropological systems of
Kant and Schelling furnish points of contact with it. The younger
Helmont, in _De Revolutione Animarum_, 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's _Lux Orientalis_ 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."--E.D.
WALKER, in "_Re-Incarnation, a Study of Forgotten Truth_."
And in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, and this the early
part of the Twentieth Century, the general public has been made
familiar with the idea of Metempsychosis, under the name of
Re-incarnation, by means of the great volume of literature issued by
The Theosophical Society and its allied following. No longer is the
thought a novelty to the Western thinker, and many have found within
themselves a corroborative sense of its truth. In fact, to many the
mere mention of the idea has been sufficient to awaken faint shadowy
memories of past lives, and, to such, many heretofore unaccountable
traits of character, tastes, inclinations, sympathies, dislikes, etc.,
have been explained.
The Western world has been made familiar with the idea of the re-birth
of souls into new bodies, under the term of "Re-incarnation," which
means "a re-entry into flesh," the word "incarnate" being derived from
the words "_in_," and "_carnis_," meaning flesh--the English word
meaning "to clothe with flesh," etc. The word Metempsychosis, which we
use in this lesson, is concerned rather with the "passage of the soul"
from one tenement to another, the "fleshly" idea being merely
incidental.
The doctrine of Metempsychosis, or Re-incarnation, together with its
accompanying doctrine, Karma, or Spiritual Cause and Effect, is one of
the great foundation stones of the Yogi Philosophy, as indeed it is of
the entire system of systems of Oriental Philosophy and Thought. Unless
one understands Metempsychosis he will never be able to understand the
Eastern Teachings, for he will be without the Key. You who have read
the _Bhagavad Gita_, that wonderful Hindu Epic, will remember how the
thread of Re-Birth runs through it all. You remember the words of
_Krishna_ to _Arjuna_: "As the soul, wearing this material body,
experienceth the stages of infancy, youth, manhood, and old age, even
so shall it, in due time, pass on to another body, and in other
incarnations shall it again live, and move and play its part." "These
bodies, which act as enveloping coverings for the souls occupying them,
are but finite things--things of the moment--and not the Real Man at
all. They perish as all finite things perish--let them perish." "As a
man throweth away his old garments, replacing them with new and
brighter ones, even so the Dweller of the body, having quitted its old
mortal frame, entereth into others which are new and freshly prepared
for it. Weapons pierce not the Real Man, nor doth the fire burn him;
the water affecteth him not, nor the wind drieth him nor bloweth him
away. For he is impregnable and impervious to these things of the world
of change--he is eternal, permanent, unchangeable, and
unalterable--Real."
This view of life gives to the one who holds to it, an entirely
different mental attitude. He no longer identifies himself with the
particular body that he may be occupying, nor with any other body for
that matter. He learns to regard his body just as he would a garment
which he is wearing, useful to him for certain purposes, but which will
in time be discarded and thrown aside for a better one, and one better
adapted to his new requirements and needs. So firmly is this idea
embedded in the consciousness of the Hindus, that they will often say
"My body is tired," or "My body is hungry," or "My body is full of
energy," rather than that "I am" this or that thing. And this
consciousness, once attained, gives to one a sense of strength,
security and power unknown to him who regards his body as himself. The
first step for the student who wishes to grasp the idea of
Metempsychosis, and who wishes to awaken in his consciousness a
certainty of its truth, is to familiarize himself with the idea of his
"I" being a thing independent and a part from his body, although using
the latter as an abiding place and a useful shelter and instrument for
the time being.
Many writers on the subject of Metempsychosis have devoted much time,
labor and argument to prove the reasonableness of the doctrine upon
purely speculative, philosophical, or metaphysical grounds. And while
we believe that such efforts are praiseworthy for the reason that many
persons must be first convinced in that way, still we feel that one
must really _feel_ the truth of the doctrine from something within his
own consciousness, before he will really _believe_ it to be truth. One
may convince himself of the logical necessity of the doctrine of
Metempsychosis, but at the same time he may drop the matter with a
shrug of the shoulders and a "still, who knows?" But when one begins to
feel within himself the awakening consciousness of a "something in the
past," not to speak of the flashes of memory, and feeling of former
acquaintance with the subject, then, and then only, does he begin to
_believe_.
Many people have had "peculiar experiences" that are accountable only
upon the hypothesis of Metempsychosis. Who has not experienced the
consciousness of having _felt the thing before_--_having thought it
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 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 awakens 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 floats
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 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 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--we ask_?
Writers, poets, and others who carry messages to the world, have
testified to these things--and nearly every man or woman who hears the
message recognizes it as something having correspondence in his or her
own life. Sir Walter Scott tells us 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 the mirage in the desert and a calenture on board ship."
The same writer, in one of his novels, "Guy Mannering," makes one of
his characters say: "Why is it that some scenes awaken thoughts which
belong as it were, to dreams of early and shadowy recollections, such
as old Brahmin moonshine 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 speaks of "that 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." And again, he says: "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.
Every one has known a similar strange and indistinct feeling at certain
times and places, and with a similar inability to trace the cause." Poe
has written these words on the subject: "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 bygone 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 these feelings as illusions."