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The Rosicrucian Philosophy
In
Questions and Answers
Volume II
by
Max Heindel
Table of Contents
THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
International Headquarters
P.O. Box 713
Oceanside, California, U.S.A., 92054
SECTION X:
LIST OF DIAGRAMS
The questions contained in this book were
answered by Max Heindel in RAYS FROM THE ROSE CROSS during the years between
1913 and 1919. Since most of these magazines are now out of print, this
compilation is for the purpose of sharing with the general public in book form
much valuable occult information from the pen of Max Heindel which would
otherwise not be easily available.
For the benefit of those not familiar with
the teachings given in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, we give the following
information concerning the Western Wisdom Teachings and the terms used. With
these basic facts, it will be easy for anyone to understand the answers to the
questions. It may also be in place to state here that each question has been
answered regardless of what has been said in answer to any other question, so
that each answer is complete in itself. This has occasioned repetition of some
things said in answer to one question when replying to another which is similar,
but it will be found that in all cases where there is such a repetition it
presents a new aspect of the subject, thus giving added information.
The Rosicrucian Philosophy teaches that man
is a complex being, an Ego, or threefold Spirit possessing:
(1) A DENSE BODY, composed of the solids,
liquids and gasses of the Physical World. It is the visible instrument he uses
here in this world to fetch and carry--the body people ordinarily think of as
the whole man.
(2) A VITAL BODY, which is made of ether and
interpenetrates the visible body as ether permeates all other forms, except that
human beings specialize a greater amount of the universal ether than other
forms. This ethereal body is our instrument for specializing the vital energy of
the sun, and for carrying on the functions of assimilation, growth, propagation,
etc.
(3) A DESIRE BODY, which is our emotional
nature. This finer vehicle pervades both the dense and vital bodies. It is seen
by clairvoyant vision to extend about sixteen inches outside the visible body,
which is located in the center of this ovoid cloud as the yolk is in the center
of an egg. The desire body contains sense centers which, when properly
developed, are man's means of perception in the Desire World.
(4) THE MIND, which is a mirror, reflecting
the outer world and enabling the Ego to transmit its commands as thought and
word. It is the link between the Spirit and its bodies. At the present time it
is but an unformed cloud, but will eventually be as well organized as man's
other bodies.
THE EGO is the threefold Spirit which uses
these vehicles to gather experience in the school of life and transmute it into
soul power.
SECTION I
QUESTIONS DEALING WITH LIFE AFTER DEATH
DIAGRAM 13A:
The Seven Days of Creation
DOES THE PURGATORIAL EXPERIENCE OF THE EGO
CONTINUE FROM DEATH UNTIL THE PANORAMA REACHES THE BIRTH OF THE LIFE JUST ENDED,
OR ARE THERE PERIODS OF RESPITE BETWEEN THE END OF SUFFERING FOR THIS, THAT, OR
THE OTHER DEED AND THE BEGINNING OF SUFFERING FOR THE NEXT?
ANSWER: NATURE, WHICH IS GOD IN
MANIFESTATION, always aims at the conservation of energy, attaining the greatest
results with the least expenditure of force and the least waste of energy. The
Law of Analogy applies to this case. If we study the effect of change in the
physical world, we shall learn something of its consequence in the realm above
us. A person who is here suffering acutely for a short time usually feels pin
very intensely; whereas those who suffer for years in succession, though the
pain which is inflicted upon them may be as severe, do not seem to feel the
suffering in the same measure. They have, as it were, grown used thereto, and
their frame has in a certain sense become emaciated and adjusted to pain; hence
suffering is not felt as keenly by these as by the person in the first case.
It is similar in the purgatorial experience.
When a person (man or woman) has been very hard and harsh in life, when he has
thought nothing of the feelings of others, when he has inflicted severe pain
here, there, and everywhere on whatever occasion offered, we shall find that HIS
SUFFERING IN PURGATORY WILL BE VERY SEVERE, intensified of course by the fact
that the purgatorial experience is shorter than the life lived upon earth; but
the pain is intensified in proportion. Now, therefore, it is evident that if his
experience were continuous, if the pain engendered by one act were followed
immediately by the next, much of the effect of the suffering would be lost upon
the soul because it would not feel its full intensity. Therefore the
experiences, as it were, come to them in waves so that there is a period of
respite after each period of suffering in order that the full intensity OF THE
NEXT may be felt.
Some may think, of course, that this is
cruel, and that it is inflicting pain needlessly, taking advantage of every
finesse to make the suffering as acute as possible. This is not so, however.
While the effect is there, the motive is a greater good, for nature, or God,
never seeks to revenge or avenge any wrong, but only to teach those who permit
themselves to do wrong not to repeat the act, by giving the wrong-doer exactly
pain for pain. The tendency in a future life is to cause him to respect the
feelings of others and so be merciful to all the world. Thus the very highest
intensity in pain is necessary for the conservation of energy, and to make him
good and pure sooner than would be the case if the pain were continuous and the
suffering correspondingly lessened.
HOW DO THE SO-CALLED DEAD APPEAR AS TO OUTER
APPAREL? HOW ARE THEY CLAD? DOES THEIR THOUGHT MOLD THE ETHEREAL MATTER INTO
GARMENTS OR ANYTHING THEY DESIRE? ONE WOULD JUDGE SO FROM WHAT IS SAID IN THE
COSMO ABOUT THE DESIRE WORLD. DOES THE DESIRE BODY TAKE THE SHAPE OF THE DENSE
BODY IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE SILVER CORD IS SEVERED?
ANSWER: It is possible for the so-called
dead to form by their thoughts any article of clothing they desire. They usually
think of themselves as being clothed in the conventional garb of the country in
which they lived prior to their passing into the Desire World, and therefore
they appear so clothed without any particular effort of thought. But when they
desire to obtain something new or an unusual article of clothing, naturally they
have to use their will power to bring that thing into existence; and such an
article of clothing will last as long as the person thinks of himself as being
clad in that apparel.
But this amenability of desire stuff to the
molding power of thought is also used in other directions. Generally speaking,
when a person leaves the present world in consequence of an accident, he thinks
of himself as being disfigured by that accident in a certain manner, perhaps
minus a leg or arm or with a hole in the head. This does not inconvenience him
at all; he can move about there of course just as easily without arms or legs as
with them; but it shows the tendency of thought to shape the desire body. At the
beginning of the war when great numbers of soldiers passed over into the Desire
World with lesions of the most horrible nature, the Elder Brothers and their
pupils taught these men that by merely holding the thought that they were sound
of limb and body, they would at once be healed of their disfiguring wounds. This
they immediately did. Now all newcomers, when they are able to understand
matters over there, are at once healed of their wounds and amputations in this
manner, so that to look at them nobody would think they had passed over in
consequence of an accident in the physical world.
As a result this knowledge has become so
general that many people who have passed over since have availed themselves of
this property of desire stuff and have molded it by thought in case they wanted
to change their bodily appearance. Some times those who are very corpulent want
to appear more slim and, vice versa, those who are very thin want to appear as
if they had more flesh. This change or transformation is not permanently
successful, however, on account of the archetype. The extra flesh put on a thin
person or the quantity taken off one who is corpulent does not stay on or off
permanently, but after a while the man who was originally thin returns to this
original stature, while the person who tries to take off flesh finds himself
putting it back on by degrees, and then has to go through the process anew. It
is similar with people who attempt to mold their features and change them to an
appearance that suits them better than their original one. However, changes
affecting the features are less permanent because the facial expression there
has here is an indication of the nature of the soul; therefore whatever is sham
is quickly dispersed by the habitual thought of the person.
With regard to the second part of the
question, we may say that during physical life the desire body is shaped more or
less like an ovoid cloud surrounding the dense body. But as soon as the person
gains consciousness in the Desire World and begins to think of himself as having
the shape of the dense body, then the desire body begins to assume that form.
This transformation is facilitated by the fact that the soul body, composed of
the two higher ethers, the light and the reflecting ether, is still with the man
the Ego. To put it more clearly and bring in a helpful comparison, we may
remember that at the time when the Ego is coming down to rebirth the two lower
ethers gathered around the seed atom of the vital body are molded into a matrix
by the Lords of Destiny--the Recording Angels and their agents. This matrix is
placed in the womb of the mother, where the physical particles are embedded in
it so that they gradually form the body of the child, which is then born. At
that time the child has no soul body. Whatever there may be of the two higher
ethers is not assimilated until later in life and is built upon by deeds that
are good and true. When the soul body has reached a certain density, it is
possible for the person to function in it as an Invisible Helper, and during his
soul lights the desire body mold itself readily into this prepared matrix. When
he returns to the physical body, the effort of will whereby he enters it
automatically dissolves the intimate connection between the desire body and the
soul body. Later on when the life in the physical world has been finished and
the two lower ethers discarded with the dense body, the luminous soul body or
"golden wedding garment" still remains with the higher vehicles, and
into this matrix the desire body is molded at its birth into the Invisible
World. So as the body of the child was made in conformity to the matrix of the
two lower ethers before coming to physical birth, similarly the birth into the
Invisible World which follows death in the physical region is attended by an
impregnation with desire stuff of the matrix formed of the two higher ethers, to
form the vehicle that will be used in that world.
But the so-called dead are not the only ones
who have the power thus to mold desire stuff into any shape they please. This
power is shared by all the other denizens of the Desire World even down to the
elementals, and they very often use this faculty of transformation to frighten
or mislead the newcomer, as many a neophyte has found out to his consternation
when he first entered that realm. For these little imps are quick to know when a
person is a stranger and not conversant with the nature of things there, and
they seem to take a special delight in annoying newcomers by transforming
themselves into the most grotesque and terrifying monsters. Then they may feign
atrocious attacks upon him, and its seems to give them the keenest delight if
they are able to chase him into a corner and make him cringe with feat while
they stand gnashing their teeth as if ready to devour him. But the moment the
neophyte learns that in reality there is nothing that can hurt him, that in his
finer vehicles he is immune from all danger of being torn to pieces or devoured,
and that a quiet laugh at the harmless creatures and a stern command to take
themselves off is all that is needed to cause them to turn their attention
elsewhere, they soon learn to leave him alone. Thus he learns to force them to
do his will, for in that world all creatures which have not been individualized
are compelled to do the bidding of higher intelligences, and man is among the
latter.
Thus a man may take an elemental and form it
into any shape he desires and use it to do his bidding. The beings thus created
with his life and will power and given a certain mission to do will faithfully
obey his orders, and according to the intensity which he puts into that work
will the thing last for a longer or shorter time. In this manner many so-called
spooks have been created and given a mission lasting for centuries after the
person who originally started the spell had gone into the higher Heaven World.
That is probably the origin of the "white lady" who warns the
Hohenzollerns of impending death. She and kindred apparitions which have given
rise to so much speculation have been created by the superlative intensity of
desire of a human being launched into the Desire World under particularly
painful or distressing circumstances, which wrought the required magic spell
unconsciously to the person himself.
SOME WRITERS SEEM TO TEACH THAT IT IS
POSSIBLE TO GO STRAIGHT FROM THE PHYSICAL WORLD TO THE HIGHER SPIRITUAL WORLD
WITHOUT HAVING TO PASS THROUGH THE LOWER REGIONS OF THE DESIRE WORLD, THUS
ESCAPING ALL THE NOISOME SIGHTS WHICH ARE PECULIAR TO THAT REGION. YOU, ON THE
OTHER HAND, ALWAYS SPEAK AS IF IT WERE NECESSARY TO PASS THROUGH EVERY REALM OF
NATURE IN SUCCESSION. WHY THIS DISCREPANCY?
ANSWER: We are well aware that some people
make statements as above relative to the transition from the physical to the
higher spiritual realms by way of what they learnedly call the "atomic
sub-planes." For guidance as to who is right, we refer you to the Law of
Analogy, "As above so below," which is the master key to all
mysteries, spiritual or physical, for this law is one in whatever realm of
Nature we investigate. You know it is impossible for a diver to get to the
bottom of the sea without starting at the surface and descending through the
intervening water. It is also evident that it is impossible for an airplane to
ascend above the clouds without first passing through the intervening space of
air between the earth and the clouds. Similarly the Ego after death gradually
ascends through the various spiritual realms to the Third Heaven, and at the
time of rebirth it gradually descends through the Region of Concrete Thought,
the Desire World, and the Ether to the physical plane. These are facts known to
many who have investigated, and are beyond dispute or argument to the occult
scientist as much as it is beyond argument to the material scientist that the
earth moves on its axis; anyone who contends otherwise is simply mistaken.
Nor does the writer say this solely upon the
basis of his own experience, for he is acquainted with hundreds of others who
possess the ability to function outside the body in the various spiritual
realms. He has never expressly discussed this phase of superphysical experience
with any of them, but their repeated references to things which happened to
different ones when passing through the lower realms of the Desire World and the
Ether make him feel certain that none of his acquaintances have ever mounted to
the higher parts of the Desire World or the Region of Concrete Thought without
first passing through the Ether and the lower Desire World strata, namely the
Purgatorial Region.
Furthermore, even if there were such a short
cut as that mentioned from the physical world to the highest spiritual realms,
do you think that one of God's helpers would ever make use of it for the sake of
escaping the noisome sights and the suffering to be found in Purgatory? Most
assuredly not! The Christ never turned in disgust from a leper or anyone else in
sorrow and affliction. He always sought them out in order that He might heal and
help them. What work to you think an Invisible Helper could do in the First
Heaven and the Region of Concrete Thought, where there is no sorrow, suffering,
or misery, but where all is happiness and joy? There he is not needed by any
means. His work lies in the very regions which these writers profess to be able
to skip, and if there were such a short cut as mentioned, no true Invisible
Helper would ever want to make use of it; but as a matter of fact there is no
such byway to heaven.
WHY DO YOU SAY THAT SOME PERSON AFTER THEY
HAVE PASSED INTO THE OTHER LIFE ARE EARTH-BOUND? IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO
HERE BY WHICH SUCH A CONDITION CAN BE AVOIDED HEREAFTER?
ANSWER: Yes, indeed! People who are
earth-bound have their treasures on earth instead of in heaven. They have all
left something behind. It may not always be money; they may have other ties on
earth, somebody that they think they own--their wife, their husband, their
children. Their idea is that because I love you, you must do just as I want you
to do. They don't regard the person they love as having any rights at all. Later
when they pass out, that relation continues, and they endeavor to impress their
loved ones, to keep close to them and be in their company as much as they can.
People who have houses and lands and such things and are very much attached to
them are the worst off. We see such a person sometimes watching a safe where he
has a lot of stock and bonds. Then the heirs will come and take the bonds out
and laugh at the old fool for hoarding his money. Or it may be people who have
lived for society. They have jewels, dresses, and other things. They still love
them and feel they cannot part with them, therefore they are bound to earth as
long as they have that feeling.
The best way is to give everything away. Of
course we have to watch that we do not put ourselves in a position where people
that we give such things to would put us out in the street and cause us to be
entirely destitute in old age. But if we use judgment, when we see that we have
lived our life to the end of usefulness, we may say: here are things that I have
no more use for, and I know I am getting towards the end; where can I do most
good with them, who will enjoy them most, or whom can I help to establish in
business so he can do something for himself? Or we may find other similar ways
of disposing of things. Also with regard to the affections: we should hold
ourselves in check so that we do not love anybody with an inordinate love--such
as that which makes idols of others and puts them before everything else. If we
thus get ourselves free from all earthly ties so we are ready to go, then we are
like the ripe kernel falling out of the ear of grain. If we are free from all
earthly ties whether financial, personal, or whatever they may be, we cannot be
kept earth-bound. If, however, people have committed crimes, they are sometimes
unavoidably earth-bound by association with the places where they were committed
and by trying to undo the wrong that was done.
IF THERE IS A STRONG ATTRACTION BETWEEN TWO
PEOPLE WHICH CANNOT REACH A LEGITIMATE CONSUMMATION IN MARRIAGE BECAUSE OF
PREVIOUS TIES AND ONE OF THEM PASSES OUT OF HIS LIFE WITH THAT LONGING IN MIND,
WILL THEY BE REUNITED IN HEAVEN, AND WILL THEY MEET AND MATE IN A FUTURE EARTH
LIFE?
ANSWER: YES, in all probability the
attraction they feel for each other and which cannot find expression now will in
many such cases bring them together even before the next life; for though there
is no marriage in Heaven, those who love each other and are therefore in a sense
necessary to each other's happiness, are united in a bond of closest friendship
during the stay in the First Heaven if they pass out at or near the same time.
But if one remains in the body for a number of years after the other has passed
over, the one who is in the Heaven World will with his or her loving thought
create an image of the other and endow it with life for we must remember that
the Desire World is so constituted that we are able to give bodily shape to
whatever we think of. Thus, although this image will only be ensouled by his
thought and the thoughts of the other person still living in the physical
region, it embodies all the conditions that are necessary to fill the cup of
happiness of this inhabitant of the Heaven World.
Similarly, when the second person passes on,
if the first person has progressed into the Second Heaven, his or her shell,
so-called (the disintegrating desire body in which he or she lived), will answer
the purpose and seem perfectly real to the second lover until his or her life in
this realm is ended. Then when they both pass into the Second and Third Heavens,
forgetfulness of the past comes over them, and they may part for one or more
lives without loss. But some time, somewhere, they will meet again, and the
dynamic force which they have generated in the past by their yearnings for each
other will unvaryingly draw them together so that their love may reach its
legitimate consummation.
This applies not only to lovers in the
generally accepted sense of the word, but the love existing between brothers and
sisters, parents and children, or friends who are not related by blood will also
work itself out in a similar manner. Our life in the First Heaven is always
blessed and filled by the presence of those we love. If they are not in the
spirit world and thus actually present, their images will be; and it must not be
thought that these are pure illusion, for they are ensouled by the love and the
friendship sent out by the absent ones toward the person of whose heaven life
they are a part.
ON PAGE 118, LAST PARAGRAPH, OF THE COSMO IT
IS STATED REGARDING THE FIRST HEAVEN: "THE STUDENT AND THE PHILOSOPHER HAVE
INSTANT ACCESS TO ALL THE LIBRARIES OF THE WORLD." IS THE KNOWLEDGE
RETAINED WHICH IS OBTAINED THERE? IS IT HELD BY THE MIND AND BROUGHT TO EARTH AT
THE NEXT BIRTH? CAN STUDY BE CONTINUED THERE AND WE REAP THE REWARD OF THAT
STUDY IN THE NEXT OR SOME FOLLOWING EARTH LIFE?
ANSWER: We have great opportunities if we
have a mind to take them after we pass over into the Invisible World. But the
great majority of people seem to live almost as they lived here. They do not
need to eat, but they do eat, as the spiritualists say; and they do have houses
over there, and they so seem to live in other respects exactly as they lived
here, just having as good and easy a time as they possibly can and enjoying
themselves in that way. That class of people are not getting any great good out
of their post- mortem existence.
But those who are studious and try to study
humanity there have a great field. They can do a wonderful lot of work, and its
helps them. It doesn't seem to bring soul growth in the same sense that it does
here; but just the same it promotes their standing, gives them greater
spirituality, and helps them in their evolution to a wonderful extent. Thus the
essence of the knowledge gained there is retained and brought to earth at the
next birth.
IT IS SAID THAT THE BODY SHOULD NOT BE
CREMATED WITHIN THREE AND ONE-HALF DAYS AFTER DEATH. IS THERE A DETRIMENTAL
EFFECT EXPERIENCED FROM A BURIAL AT ANY TIME WITHIN THREE AND ONE-HALF DAYS?
ANSWER: No, not from the burial of the body
in itself if it is not molested in any other way. But of course a burial cannot
usually take place without more or less commotion and the body being more or
less disturbed; therefore it is best to wait until after the period mentioned
has passed. Of course any incision in the body such as used for the purpose of
embalming, or anything like that, is felt by the Spirit. Just as the spirit
dimly feels the cutting when a doctor performs an operation upon a person under
ether, so a post-mortem operation causes enough sensation to make the Spirit
feel uncomfortable; therefore we should avoid these things if we possibly can.
There should be as much quiet as possible around the body during these three and
one-half days, as whatever is done to disturb its rest and peace is really
detrimental to the Ego.
IN EMBALMING THE BLOOD IS DRAWN FROM THE
BODY WHILE IT IS STILL WARM AND A FLUID FORCED INTO THE ARTERIES. WHAT IS THE
EFFECT OF THIS OPERATION?
ANSWER: The Spirit feels pain from embalming
and consequently is disturbed in that most important of all things, the
meditation over the panorama of life. We should realize that at the time of
death the harvest is beginning; we have been sowing all through life, and when
death comes the reaping begins. The first and most important fruitage comes from
the study of the panorama of life as it unrolls in reverse order, showing first
the events of the past life and then the causes that produced them. If the body
is disturbed at that time by the lamentations of relatives or by moving it out
to be buried, then the Spirit is disturbed in the same degree. And naturally a
post-mortem examination or embalming will have far more detrimental effects.
Therefore it is wrong to do either.
MY ONLY BROTHER DIED LAST NOVEMBER AND MUST
NOW FIND HIMSELF IN ONE OF THE LOWEST REGIONS OF THE DESIRE WORLD. WOULD YOU
ADVISE ME TO LET HIM KNOW THAT MY A SIMPLE EFFORT OF THE WILL HE CAN PREVENT THE
MATTER OF THE DESIRE BODY FROM FORMING ITSELF INTO CONCENTRIC LAYERS, AS IT
WERE, THE COARSER MATTER ON THE OUTSIDE AND THE FINER WITHIN? I MEAN TO SAY THAT
BY AN EFFORT OF WILL HE COULD MAKE THE MATTER OF THE SEVEN REGIONS OF THE DESIRE
WORLD WHICH FORM HIS DESIRE BODY, COME TO THE SURFACE OF THAT BODY, AND BY THIS
MEANS HE WOULD BE ABLE TO CONTACT AT ONCE ALL THE SEVEN REGIONS OF THE DESIRE
WORLD INSTEAD OF ONLY THE LOWER REGIONS. THERE IS, I BELIEVE, NO SERIOUS
OBJECTION TO THIS USE OF WILL POWER.
ANSWER: This question refers to the fact
that when death has taken place and man finds himself in the Desire World, the
MAGNETIC POWERS OF THE SEED ATOM ARE SPENT, the archetype is dissolving, and
therefore the centrifugal force of Repulsion forces the desire stuff of the
desire body outward towards its periphery. The matter belonging to the lower
regions is thrown off first by the process of purgation, which cleanses the man
from all the evil acts of his past life. This is the result of the same natural
law that in the physical world causes a sun to throw off matter which then
becomes planets. To interfere with this law would be disastrous to any human
being even supposing it were possible, which it is not. So it is useless to
attempt to help your brother in that manner.
It is different with the Initiate who goes
to the Desire World during life. Then the seed atom of the desire body forms a
natural center of attraction, or gravitation, which holds the desire stuff in
that vehicle to the accustomed lines. Also it is different with anyone who
performs the scientific exercises given in the Mystery Schools. Such a person is
constantly purging his desire body of the coarser matter so that at death he is
not affected to the same degree by the centrifugal force of Repulsion as those
who have not had this training.
But there is another way in which we may
help someone near and dear to us provided we have his cooperation. To make this
clear it is necessary to mention first that the coarser the desire stuff in the
desire body, the more tenacious is its hold upon a man; therefore expurgation by
the force of Repulsion causes great pain, and that is what we feel in the
purgatorial experience. If we were perfectly willing to let go and acknowledge
our faults when the pictures of them appear in the life panorama instead of
trying to make excuses for ourselves or being stirred anew by the anger and hate
of the past, then it would involved much less pain to eradicate them from our
desire body. If this fact can be impressed on one whom we are anxious to help,
if we can get him into the state of mind where he is willing to acknowledge his
wrongs and mistakes from the very bottom of his heart, then the process of
purgation will be both shorter and less painful, and he will rise to the higher
regions where the force of attraction hold sway in a much shorter time than
otherwise.
The same result can be accomplished by
prayer; also by kind thoughts, thoughts of upliftment and helpfulness, for these
have the same effect on those who are out of the body as kind words and helpful
acts have on people who live in this world.
AT PRESENT SO MANY DEPLORABLE CASUALTIES ARE
OCCURRING DAILY AND HOURLY, AND PEOPLE ARE BEING HURLED INTO THE NEXT WORLD IN A
HIDEOUSLY MAIMED AND DISFIGURED CONDITION. DO THOSE WHO PASS INTO THAT WORLD
UNDER THE ORDINARY PEACEFUL DEATHBED CONDITIONS HAVE TO FACE THESE HORRIBLE
SIGHTS ON THE OTHER SIDE?
ANSWER: Conditions there are not quite so
bad now as they were in the beginning of the war (World War I). At that time the
Spirits who passed over thought of themselves as being maimed, and they had no
way of correcting that impression; therefore they carried about with them the
wounds on the various parts of their bodies and appeared minus limbs, etc. Often
they suffered very acutely, believing themselves to be still afflicted with the
physical pain. But the Invisible Helpers have not been idle; a system of
education has been inaugurated and systematized so that nearly everybody is now
aware of the fact that physical disabilities are not necessarily permanent on
the other side. They have learned that a hand which has been shot off may be
replaced in the desire body by the mere thought of having a hand and its being
complete. This word has been passed from one to another so that now everyone who
goes to the other side with a gunshot wound or minus arms or legs or even a
head, is at once instructed in the fact that desire stuff is readily molded by
thought and will, and as a result almost everyone there is perfect in body.
In fact, those who now pass from this life
halt, lame, hunchbacked or in any other way physically disfigured have taken a
leaf out of this book, and whereas in years before the war one would find as
many hunchbacked and halt people there as in the physical world, one will now
find nearly everyone with a perfect body. It is amusing, to say the least, to
see people who were vain in the earth life, now molding their faces and bodies
in harmony with their conceptions of beauty by a mere effort of will. This makes
it a little more difficult than it used to be to find people there, for those
who were tall and skinny but who had a keen desire to be more fleshy have
changed their appearance in accordance with their wish, and conversely those who
were fleshy and suffered from a superabundance of avoirdupois have often made
themselves slender as sylphs. Thus the knowledge which before the war was
largely confined to the occultist has now become general property in the other
world, and has caused the inhabitants there to change their shapes insofar as
this has not been prevented by the purgatorial experience.
The great majority of recent arrivals have
nothing of the above nature to divert their attention in the Desire World, and
are intently watching developments here on the material plane. Having been taken
out of the physical world in the very prime of manhood, their hole life before
them so to speak, they are still very much attached to physical conditions, and
will probably be earth-bound for a considerable number of years during which
time they will form an unseen but very potent factor in shaping the world's
destiny. They upon their side will endeavor by all possible means to establish
communication with this world, and their combined efforts will be felt as a
powerful force by an increasing number of sensitive people.
We may therefore expect to see spiritualism
flourish as it never did before in the world's history. This involves the
development of mediumship, which is a very dangerous phase of psychic
unfoldment. Neptune, the planet of psychism, is now entering Leo, the sign of
the heart, and the heartstrings of love and desire for intercommunication will
pull the people in the two worlds together. This will establish the spiritual
verities beyond cavil. But we should prepare ourselves to go there consciously
and not allow them to come back here through mediumship, much less draw them on,
for that is retrogression for them. Instead, if we cultivate our latent sixth
sense we shall be able to see them, and to speak with those who have passed over
just as well as we did when they were with us in the flesh.
YOU REMEMBER OUTRAM COURT, A ONE-TIME
STUDENT OF YOURS WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE? WELL, I HAVE TAKEN MY MIND ENTIRELY OFF
HIM LATELY, BECAUSE I SUPPOSED BY THIS TIME HE WAS SAFE IN HIS OWN PLACE. BUT
ONE OF MY PEONS HAS JUST TOLD ME HE ATTENDED A SPIRITUALIST MEETING A FEW NIGHTS
AGO AND OUTRAM COURT CAME. TO PROVE HIS IDENTITY HE INSISTED UPON SPEAKING
ENGLISH ALTHOUGH HE SPOKE SPANISH JUST AS WELL, AND AS NONE OF THOSE PRESENT
UNDERSTOOD ENGLISH THERE WAS A DELAY UNTIL THEY FOUND A SPIRIT WHO UNDERSTOOD
BOTH LANGUAGES. OUTRAM SAID HE WAS STILL LIVING AT MY NEIGHBOR'S WHERE HE KILLED
HIMSELF; THAT HE WAS SUFFERING TORTURE FROM HUNGER, AND WANTED THEM TO GIVE HIM
FOOD. LATER IN THE INTERVIEW HE CHANGED TO SPANISH.
NOW, I WONDER WHAT I CAN DO. THE WORST OF IT
IS I CANNOT BRING BACK THE MEMORY OF ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN MY SLEEP. AN I DO
SO WANT TO REMEMBER. WHAT CAN I DO?
ANSWER: This question opens up the vast
subject of abnormal transition into the beyond, both by accident and design,
together with the feelings experienced by people who have thus passed the gate
of death, and their communications through mediums; also the curious fact that
many of the people we call dead are unaware that they have lost their physical
body.
To elucidate it is necessary first to state
a few of the salient facts concerning man and the world in which we live.
Everyday observation as well as scientific researches prove that matter exists
and moves in states which we cannot see. Water is evaporated by the sun's heat
and again condensed as rain; ether is as necessary to transmit light and
electricity as air is to the transmission of sound. The invisible wind, which is
air in motion, is as surely a cosmic force as the electricity moving in the
still finer realm of ether. In short, we are surrounded by an invisible world of
force and matter, as real as, or more so than, the world we know through our
physical senses.
And as we eat the substances of this gross,
dens world to sustain our visible bodies, we assimilate a certain amount of
matter belonging to the invisible ethereal worlds, which forms a garment for the
Spirit when it has dropped the mortal coil. "The wind bloweth where it
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but knoweth now whence it cometh or
whither it goeth; so is everyone who is born of the spirit.
Under normal conditions the exit of the
Spirit from its outgrown body is like the falling of the seed from the ripe
fruit. But when the Spirit severs the tie before the appointed harvest time of
death, the unripe spiritual vehicle cannot ascend to the higher realms; it
hovers close to its earthly haunts, as hungry for more physical sustenance as
the kernel forcibly extracted from the unripe fruit. In the nature of things
this cannot be gratified, and therefore intense unsatisfied hunger causes the
suicide the most excruciating torture. He sometimes obtains a little temporary
surcease by inhaling the fumes of highly flavored dishes.
Furthermore, as the flesh clings to the
kernel when it is forcibly torn from unripe fruit, so also some of the lower
ethers and even gases of the slain body cling to the higher vehicles of the
suicide, with the result that he is very nearly material, and is susceptible to
gross, sensual suggestions in a manner and to a measure not felt by humanity in
the body. If his nature is such that he would entertain and take pleasure in
such things he may here wallow in the deepest mire of the darkest hell, with
very serious detriment to his spiritual welfare. But if he dislikes the coarse
and sensual, the atmosphere of bestiality in which the suicide finds himself
will jar upon his sensibilities in proportion to his refinement; as several have
expressed it to the writer, the orthodox hell with its devil would be a mild
form of amusement by comparison. Some describe the pain which we have compared
to unsatisfied hunger as a gnawing, throbbing toothache, with the difference
that the pain is felt all over the body instead of being confined to the dental
region.
The experience of Outram Court bears out the
foregoing teachings of the Rosicrucians. He is still earth-bound in the same
house where he formerly lived, and his desire body evidently remains very dense,
so dense that at times he cannot realize that he has passed over because he sees
clearly the physical world and the people in it; he probably sits at their
tables and endeavors to partake of their food, or at least to feed upon the
odor. Nor is it strange that he frequents the spiritualistic meetings of the
peons, for these people are at a low stage of development, very sensual, and
practice without being aware of it a good deal of black magic under the guise of
spirit communication.
There are two ways of helping such an Ego:
one is by direct communication with him at night, by reasoning with him and
showing him that he is making a rod which will whip him sorely in the future;
that he ought to try to bear the pain patiently till the archetype collapses at
the time when he would have died normally. This may or may not be successful,
but it is worth a trial. If the writer of the letter were conscious of what
happens to him at night he could go and talk the matter over with Outram Court
just as he would if both were in the physical body; but still he is not shut off
from helping even if lacking this consciousness. It is the will that determines
our actions there as here, and if he holds his thought before going to sleep
intently on the work he wishes to do, preparing himself with arguments and
centering his whole being on helping Outram Court, this last thought before
going to sleep will also be the first waking thought on entering the invisible
world where the sleeping and the dead meet and converse. This thought then
becomes a sort of "fixed idea" which he will follow during the night
to the exclusion of all other thoughts and desires, and the results are bound to
be beneficial.
The other method, for those who are not
trained in concentration, is prayer. This is a good method of helping such a
case as the present one, for the attitude of prayer often acts as a guide to the
person to be helped, and brings about a change in his mental state which
furthers him spiritually. The thought forms of prayer then take the place of the
Invisible Helper; but they are more easily put aside and therefore not so
efficient, nor can they meet an argument.
We always advise a combination of these two
methods for the untrained. Pray for those you want to help, whether they are in
the body or out (living or dead). Think out all you would like to say to them
just before going to sleep. When you meet in "Dreamland," if you are
not yet conscious and cannot either plead or argue, your feelings in the matter
will make some impression at least, and if kept up for some time the effect will
certainly be noticeable.
Our friend says in his letter that the
mother of Outram Court does not know she is dead. No one who has lost the dense
body thinks of himself as "dead"; as a matter of fact the so-called
"dead" feel themselves much more alive than we do. When they pass out
normally they know neither sickness nor pain, and they cannot therefore be
expected to take our view, who think of the physical body as the man, when it is
only a garment we wear and wear out. Their consciousness is focused entirely in
their spiritual bodies, with nothing to remind them of the discarded dense
vesture. On the other hand, the suicide feels every moment the sensation of
hunger occasioned by the attempt of the archetypal body to draw physical
material to itself, and his feeling that he is not dead springs therefore from a
very different root than the similar idea of the general run of people who now
live in the invisible world.
WILL YOU PLEASE TELL ME JUST HOW WE MAY BEST
HELP THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED ON?
ANSWER: We have often expressed our
appreciation of the SCIENCE OF BIRTH with its efficient methods of helping both
the mother and the child when the latter is entering our earth-life, but we have
also heartily deplored the lack of a SCIENCE OF DEATH which would teach people
how to help intelligently the Ego that is passing from earth-life into the
unseen realms of nature. At such times we usually stand helplessly by, and often
do in our ignorance the very things which are detrimental to the comfort of the
Spirit then in transition. If people could only know how their moans and
hysterical outbursts affect their dear departing ones, unselfish consideration
would probably change their attitude and quiet their manner.
So far as the body is concerned it is not
really dead until about three and one-half days after the Spirit has passed out
of it, for the silver cord still connects it with the higher vehicles. During
this time anything in the nature of a post-mortem examination, embalming, or
cremation is felt by the Spirit almost a keenly as if still within the body.
These are facts well known to all students of the Rosicrucian Philosophy, but
they have perhaps not received the emphasis they deserve. We should remember
that our attitude after that time continues to affect the Spirit, for our
friends do not usually leave their accustomed places right away. Many stay in or
near the home for a number of months after they have left the body and can feel
conditions there even more keenly than when in earth-life. If we sigh, mourn,
and moan for them we transfer to them the gloom we ourselves carry about with us
or else we bind them to the home because of their efforts to cheer us.
In either case we are a hindrance and a
stumbling block in the way of their spiritual progress, and while this may be
forgiven in those who are ignorant of the facts concerning life and death,
people who have studied the Rosicrucian Philosophy or kindred teachings are
incurring a very grave responsibility when they indulge in such practices. We
are well aware that custom used to demand the wearing of mourning and that
people were not considered respectable if they did not put on a sable garb as a
token of their sorrow. But fortunately times are changing and a more enlightened
view is being taken of the matter. The transition to the other world is quite
serious enough in itself, involving as it does a process of adjustment to
strange conditions all around, and the passing Spirit is further hampered by the
sorrow and anguish of the dear ones whom it continues to see about itself. When
it finds them surrounded by a cloud of black gloom, clothed in garments of the
same color and nursing their sorrow for months or years, the effect cannot be
anything but depressing.
How much better then the attitude to those
who have learned the Rosicrucian Teachings and have taken them to heart. Their
attitude when a dear one makes the transition is cheerful, hopeful, and
encouraging. The selfish grief at the loss is controlled in order that the
passing Spirit may receive all the encouragement possible. Usually the survivors
in the family dress in white at the funeral and a cheerful, genial spirit
prevails throughout. The thought of the survivors is not, "What shall I do
now that I have lost him (or her)? All the world seems empty for me." but
the thought is, "I hope he (or she) may find himself (or herself) to rights
under the new conditions as quickly as possible and that he (or she) will not
grieve at the thought of leaving us behind." Thus by the good-will,
intelligence, unselfishness, and love of the remaining friends the passing
Spirit is enabled to enter the new conditions under much more favorable
circumstances, and students of the Rosicrucian Philosophy cannot do better than
to spread this teaching as widely as possible. According to the Bible the
redeemed of the Lord will finally vanquish the last enemy, DEATH, and they will
then exclaim "O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy
victory?" For those who have evolved spiritual sight there is of course no
death, but even those who have studied the Rosicrucian Teachings may in a
measure be said to have attained this great victory.
THE COSMO STATES THAT THE DEAD MISER IN THE
LOWER DESIRE WORLD CAN SEE HIS GOLD AND HIS HEIRS SQUANDERING IT, WHEN HE HAS NO
SENSE ORGANS OR ANY MATERIAL COARSE ENOUGH IN VIBRATION TO BE IN HARMONY WITH
THE DENSE PHYSICAL WORLD. WE CANNOT SEE THE DESIRE WORLD UNTIL WE EVOLVE THE
CENTERS OF THE DESIRE BODY; HOW THEN CAN THOSE IN THE DESIRE WORLD SEE US WHEN
THEY HAVE DISCARDED THE PHYSICAL SENSE ORGANS?
ANSWER: You understand, of course, that the
Desire World, the Ethers, and the Physical World interpenetrate one another so
that the miser is right here among us just the same as he was when he had a
physical body to wear. It is not generally understood, however, that the densest
desire stuff of which the lower regions of the Desire World are composed, and
the Chemical Ether which is the lowest of the four ethers, and even the physical
gases, are exceedingly closely knit and form the outside layer of all Spirits
which have just been released from the physical body. They are therefore living
in the lower region of the Desire World in such close touch with the physical
that it is amazing to the writer that people cannot see them going about among
us. They are like the man who has left a room on a bright sunny day: the
sunshine blinds him, but he can see clearly things inside the room when he turns
towards it.
Thus the miser and all others who have just
left the physical body see the people in this world much more clearly than they
see the things of the Desire World where they are; for as the man who goes out
in the sunshine must first accustom himself to see things by adjusting the focus
of his eyes, so also the Spirits which have just entered the Desire World after
death, require a little time for this readjustment. And the densest material in
their being, which is thrown out toward the periphery by the centrifugal force
of Repulsion, keeps them earthbound for a longer or a shorter time until they
have shed this coarsest material and are able to contact the finer vibrations of
the higher regions. For that reason the miser, the drunkard, the sensualist, and
similar people whose desires are naturally low and vicious, remain in these
nether regions, which may well be called hell, for a much longer time than
people with high ideals and spiritual aspirations who have endeavored during
life to eradicate their vices and to subdue their lower nature. Their desire
bodies contain comparatively little coarse material and that is soon worn away,
leaving them free to soar to higher spheres.
With regard to the question as to how the
miser can see the physical things when he has no sense organs, we may say that
there are no specialized sense organs in the finer vehicles, but just as we feel
with the whole surface of our body, so the Spirits see and hear, not only with
the surface, but with every single atom of their spiritual body, inside and out.
What they perceive is not really the physical things which we see with our
physical eyes, but every chair, desk, or others physical implement, is
interpenetrated by both ethers and desire stuff--it is this that they perceive,
and that to them is as real and tangible as the physical forms are to our
senses.
IT IS STATED IN THE COSMO THAT THE DRUNKARD
IN THE LOWER DESIRE WORLD CANNOT GRATIFY HIS DESIRES, BUT IT IS ALSO STATED THAT
THE SPIRITS IN THE FIRST HEAVEN WHICH IS LOCATED IN THE UPPER DESIRE WORLD, CAN
ACTUALLY MOLD DESIRE STUFF INTO REAL ENVIRONMENT ACCORDING TO THEIR DESIRES AND
IDEAS. WHY CANNOT THE DRUNKARD DO SUCH IN THE LOWER DESIRE WORLD AND CREATE REAL
CONDITIONS OF VICE SUITABLE TO HIS TEMPERAMENT?
ANSWER: It has been remarked by many
students of THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION that it always anticipates and
answers the questions which may come up in the reader's mind, and if you will
turn to page forty-two, the last paragraph, you may there read: "In the
finest and rarest substance of the three higher Regions of the Desire World the
force of ATTRACTION alone holds sway, but it is also present in some degree in
the denser matter of the three lower Regions, where it works against the force
of REPULSION, which is dominant there. The disintegrating force of Repulsion
would soon destroy every form coming into these three lower regions were it not
at that it is thus counteracted. In the densest or lowest region, where it is
strongest, it tears and shatters the forms built there in a way dreadful to see.
Yet it is not a vandalistic force. Nothing in nature is vandalistic. All that
appears so is but working towards good. So with this force in its work in the
lowest Region of the Desire World. The forms here are demoniac creations, built
by the coarsest passions and desires of man and beast.
"The tendency of every form in the
Desire World is to attract to itself all it can of a like nature and grow
thereby. If this tendency to attraction were to predominate in the lowest
Regions, evil would grow like a weed. There would be anarchy instead of order in
the Cosmos. This is prevented by the preponderating power of the force of
Repulsion in this Region. When a coarse desire form is being attracted to
another of the same nature, there is a disharmony in their vibrations, whereby
one has a disintegrating effect upon the other. Thus, instead of uniting and
amalgamating evil with evil, they act with mutual destructiveness and in that
way the evil in the world is kept within reasonable bounds. When we understand
the workings of the twin forces in this respect, we are in a position to
understand the occult maxim, "A lie is murder and suicide in the Desire
World."
As a matter of fact, the drunkards in the
Desire World usually attempt to manufacture the drink for which they crave when
they have once learned that it is possible to so mould desire stuff that it
becomes whatever you want it to be; but they all declare unanimously that the
strong drink or the drugs which they manufacture in that manner give no
satisfaction. They can imitate the taste perfectly, but the drink thus
manufactured has no power to make them drunk. The nearest they can get to the
satisfaction of a real drunk is to insinuate their bodies into those of
drunkards who are still in the physical world. Therefore, they are continually
haunting bar-rooms and endeavoring to get the frequenters of these places to
take an excess dose of intoxicants.
They also say that they get considerable
satisfaction from the fumes carried by the breath of drunkards in the physical
body and the more heavy and pungent the atmosphere is in the bar-rooms, the
nearer they come to finding the satisfaction for which they are seeking. If only
the poor weaklings who visit such places could see and understand the disgusting
tactics of the invisible reprobates hanging about such places, surely it would
be an awakening which would probably help those who are not too far gone to
retrace their steps to the path of decency and honest living. But, thank God
(both for the visible and invisible drunkards) it is impossible for them to
create a den of vice in the desire stuff because the force of Repulsion tends to
destroy it as fast as they can bring it into existence.
IN THE NOVEMBER, 1917, ISSUE OF RAYS FROM
THE ROSE CROSS THERE WAS A STORY CALLED, "FACING THE FIRING SQUAD,"
STATING HOW A SPY WAS PLACED AGAINST A WALL AND SHOT. IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS HE,
BEING IN FULL POSSESSION OF HIS CONSCIOUSNESS, CONVERSES WITH A ROSICRUCIAN AND
IN HIS COMPANY TRAVELS THOUSANDS OF MILES TO VISIT HIS SISTER. IS NOT THIS
CONTRARY TO WHAT IS TAUGHT IN THE ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY? IT IS THERE STATED
THAT AFTER THE SEED ATOM IN THE HEART HAS BEEN REMOVED AND THE SILVER CORD
RUPTURED, A PERIOD OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS LASTING ABOUT THREE AND ONE-HALF DAYS
FOLLOWS, DURING WHICH TIME THE SPIRIT REVIEWS THE PANORAMA OF ITS PAST LIFE.
ANSWER: Yes, it is so stated in THE
ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, and that holds good under all ordinary
circumstances. However, it is also stated in explanation of the law of infant
mortality that when a person passes out under untoward circumstances, such as a
fire or a railway accident, or suddenly as by a fall from a building or a
mountain, or on a battlefield, or when the lamentations of relatives around the
bedside of the newly dead make it impossible for him to concentrate upon the
life-panorama, then the etching in the two higher ethers, the light ether and
the reflecting ether, and their amalgamation with the desire body, does not take
place. Man does not then lose consciousness, and because there is no etching on
the finer vehicles such as is normally the case, he has no purgatorial
existence; that is to say, he does not reap what he has sown, there is no
suffering in consequence of his wrong-doings and no feeling of joy and love on
account of the good he has done. The fruitage of the life has been lost.
To offset this great disaster the Spirit on
entering its next earth life is caused to die in childhood so far as the
physical body is concerned, but the vital body, the desire body, and mind, which
do not ordinarily come to birth until the dense body is seven, fourteen, and
twenty-one years old, respectively, remain with the passing Spirit, as that
which has not been quickened cannot die. Then in the First Heaven the Spirit
strays from one to twenty years, receiving such instructions and object lessons
as will teach it that which it would otherwise have learned by the panorama of
its past life had it not been interrupted by the accident which terminated it.
And so it is reborn, ready to take its proper place on the path of evolution.
There is in this consideration a great deal
of food for thought. The large percentage of infant mortality today has its root
in the wars of former ages. The loss of life was comparatively slight, though
the toll of national wars must have been greatly increased by the deaths which
occurred in duels, feuds, and common quarrels, where deadly weapons were used in
those days. Nevertheless, the sum total of these casualties seems insignificant
when compared with the awful carnage which is now going on, and if this is to be
corrected in the same manner, then a future generation will certainly reap a
harvest of tears on account of the epidemics which will devastate the homes of
their children. But as we have pointed out at other times, every tear shed
because of the loss of some loved one is wearing away the scales from our eyes
until one day we shall see with sufficient clarity to penetrate the veil that
now separates us from those we mistakenly call dead, but who are really much
more alive than we are. Then shall come to pass the victory over death, and we
shall be able to exclaim: "O, Death, where is thy sting? O, Grave, where is
thy victory?"
I WAS IN OUR TALKING SHOP A FEW DAYS AGO
WHEN OUR MOST RADICAL MEMBER WAS URGING THE GRANTING OF A LAPSED SCHOLARSHIP TO
A POOR BOY WHO HAD WON ONE WHEN LEGALLY TOO YOUNG TO RECEIVE IT, AND WHO BEING
SICK AT THIS PARTICULAR EXAMINATION WAS BEATEN BY ANOTHER BOY. STILL HE WAS
PRONOUNCED BY THE EXAMINERS IN ENGLAND AS MORALLY ENTITLED TO THIS SCHOLARSHIP.
WHILE LISTENING TO THE DEBATE SOME ONE
SITTING BY MY SIDE TOUCHED ME AND SAID: "LOOK, MR. MacF!" I LOOKED IN
THE DIRECTION POINTED OUT TO ME, AND THERE WAS ONE OF THE COLLEGE MASTERS, MR.
MAC, STANDING BEHIND THE GOVERNMENT SECRETARY, LISTENING INTENTLY TO THE DEBATE.
I TOLD THE PERSON THAT MR. MAC AND I WERE SCHOOLMATES AND THAT I HAD NOT SEEN
HIM FOR YEARS, YET HE DID NOT SEEM TO GROW OLD.
AFTER THE GOVERNMENT SECRETARY HAD SPOKEN,
MR. MAC WENT OUT. I REMARKED THAT PERHAPS THE YOUNGSTER WAS ONE OF HIS
FAVORITES, WHICH CAUSED HIM TO LEAVE HIS COLLEGE DUTIES TO COME AND HEAR THE
DEBATE.
A FEW DAYS LATER I WENT TO SEE A FRIEND A
LITTLE OUT OF TOWN AND IN THE COURSE OF OUR CONVERSATION I TOLD HER OF THE
DEBATE. IMAGINE MY SURPRISE THEN WHEN SHE SAID THAT MR. MAC WAS DYING AT THE
MOMENT WHEN I THOUGHT I HAD SEEN HIM. I TOLD HER THAT SHE MUST BE MISINFORMED
BECAUSE SOMEONE POINTED HIM OUT TO ME AND I KNEW HIM TOO WELL TO BE DECEIVED.
"WELL," SHE SAID, "GO INTO THE NEXT CHAMBER AND YOU WILL SEE
HIM." I WENT. THERE ON THE BED LAY MY SCHOOLFELLOW, MR. MAC, NOTHING BUT
SKIN AND BONES, WAITING FOR THE END. HE HAD HEARD MY CONVERSATION AND WAS
INTERESTED, BUT I DID NOT CONSIDER HIM IN A FIT STATE TO GRATIFY HIS DESIRE FOR
A REPETITION. THIS WAS ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON. I PROMISED TO GO NEXT DAY,
SUNDAY, AND TELL HIM WHAT HAPPENED, BUT WAS PREVENTED. HE DIED ON MONDAY.
HOW COULD SUCH AN EMACIATED PERSON APPEAR
AS BEGIN IN THE FULL VIGOR OF MANHOOD? CAN ONE SEE GHOSTS OF THE LIVING?
ANSWER: Yes, indeed, there are a
considerable number of cases of phantasms of the living. All that is required is
that the body should be in a very deep state of sleep or unconsciousness, such
as usually occurs when the person is near the door of death. It may be in the
act of drowning, or when induced by the fall from a horse, automobile, or
similar conditions, or after receiving a blow on the head, or on the sickbed,
when the physical body is very emaciated and frail and close to dissolution, as
in the case mentioned by our correspondent. Then most of the ether constituting
the vital body may be drawn out of the physical vehicle, which is left in a
trance- like condition that may last only a few minutes, but as space is no
barrier in the invisible worlds, the desire of the person thus momentarily
liberated may carry him to the ends of the world and cause him to appear to some
loved one many thousands of mile from the place where his body is lying.
It is much easier for such a Spirit to
materialize than for those who have left the body at death, because with these
phantasms of the living the silver cord is still intact--connection with the
seed atom in the heart has not been broken. Thus it is quite possible that the
youngster whose scholarship was under discussion was a favorite of Mr. MacF., as
was supposed by our correspondent, and when he felt himself liberated by a
SINKING SPELL on that afternoon, his desire to be well an about his work in the
college took him to his familiar haunts and made him listen to the debate
concerning the boy's title to receive the benefit.
With regard to the question how a man who
is so emaciated could appear in full vigor, we may state that it is a law in the
Desire World that as a man thinketh, so is he--literally and without
qualification. Should he think of himself as aged, worn, and decrepit, he would
shape his vehicle along those lines and appear so to all others, but the
gentlemen in question was evidently thinking of regaining his health and vigor
so that he might take up his work anew. Consequently he appeared in perfect
health when seen by our correspondent, and the person who pointed him out.
DIAGRAM 5A:
A Life Cycle
SECTION II
QUESTIONS DEALING WITH REBIRTH
DO THOSE NOW PASSING OVER COME TO REBIRTH
AGAIN BEFORE THE AQUARIAN AGE? IF THEY STILL HAVE LESSONS TO LEARN TO FIT THEM
TO LIVE IN THAT AGE, CAN THEY COME BACK AND LEARN THEM?
ANSWER: That all depends. the usual time
between two births is a thousand years, so as to give people a chance of being
embodied once as a man and once as a woman while the sun is passing through each
sign of the zodiac by precession, which takes about 2,100 years. This is done
because the lesson during that period are so many and so different that they
cannot all be effectively learned in the same sexual type of body. Experiences
are very different from the standpoint of a man and that of a woman. But this
law is like all other laws of nature, it is not blind. It is under the dominion
of four great Beings called the Recording Angels, and they have to do with all
the details of human evolution. They see that everyone gets a chance to obtain
as much experience as he or she can stand. If it is necessary for a person to
remain the whole one thousand years in the invisible worlds, he remains. If not,
he comes back sooner. Some people come back within a few hundred years because
they have evolved to the point where they learn quickly. People who "live
the life" as Probationers, who have assimilated their life experience
before they leave here and are already doing a good deal of work in the
invisible worlds, will not need to spend such a long time on the other side.
They have put themselves definitely on the side of the laws of God, and are
therefore given greater opportunities for evolution by service.
WHEN A MAN LIVES A LIFE OF SORROW AND
SUFFERING WE MAY ACCOUNT FOR IT BY THE FACT THAT HE IS REAPING NOW WHAT HE HAS
SOWN IN FORMER LIVES, BUT HOW CAN WE RECONCILE THE AWFUL SUFFERING AND TORTURE
OF ANIMALS WITH THE JUSTICE OF GOD? WHAT WILL BE THE FATE OF THOSE WHO NOW
MISTREAT ANIMALS?
ANSWER: To view life from the standpoint of
present conditions alone is just as inconsistent a it is to look upon a man as
having neither childhood behind him nor old age before him. Our present life,
and many lives before that, have made us what we are now, and from that past is
determined in a large measure the direction which we shall follow in future
lives. At the beginning of manifestation the Spirit was FREE and like the Father
save in one thing, namely that it had no self-consciousness, and the pilgrimage
through matter was undertaken in order that this might be gained. To further
this object the Spirit was crystallized into vehicles during the process of
involution. A physical, a vital, and a desire body were gradually drawn around
it to limit it and shut it off from all other spirits. Then by the gift of mind
the Ego or individual was finally formed. Imprisoned in the various veils
mentioned, the Spirit can no longer contact the outside world directly, but
turning its gaze inward IT SEES ITSELF AND RECOGNIZES ITSELF AS "I."
At the same time, however, it feels its limitations; it recognizes the fact that
it is feeding upon husks and that it is necessary to return to the Father's
house in order to take again its place as a Son of God.
The resolution to return to the Father is
made more intense by the fact that pain and sorrow are experienced on account of
the limitations of the present mode of existence. The cramping conditions of the
prison house which the Spirit feels are a goad to drive it on. "No one
cometh to the Father but by me," said Christ, and it is a fact that
whenever the Christ is born within us we become men of sorrow and acquainted
with grief. Treading the path of probation, of purity and spiritual endeavor,
draws the face with lines of pain, and gradually the body is broken up; it
becomes more ethereal and leaves the Spirit more free. In the measure that we
subdue our passions we kindle the fire of fellow feeling which will eventually
burn up the dross of the flesh and leave the spiritual increment of our natures
free to function in the new heaven and the new earth where pain, sorrow, and
death are overcome. This will be a foretaste of conditions in the Jupiter Period
when we shall function in our vital bodies and be free from the physical vehicle
with its attendant discomforts. At present the thought of the ordinary
individual has little or no power, but in that day our thoughts will be capable
of giving life to a certain lower order of spirit, and therefore it is of the
greatest importance that we should first become thoroughly purified before such
a terrible power is given us.
The path of evolution is not a circle but a
spiral. We are a better humanity than the angels were when they were human
during the Moon Period, and the animals which will be human during the Jupiter
Period will be a better humanity than we. As the lowest globe at that time will
be in the Etheric Region, only a vehicle made of ether will then be used by any
being. The finer forces of nature will be available to all during that time, and
the humanity of the Jupiter Period as well as ourselves will be ale to wield the
lightning. Therefore it is necessary that they should know by experience the
nature of pain which may be inflicted by the misuse of a superior power. To give
them the necessary compassion they have been made in certain respects like
ourselves, capable of feeling the pain and suffering incident to physical
existence. Thus from the present evil there will come good to both man and
beast.
The fact must nevertheless be taken into
consideration that there is woe in store for him by whom evil comes. The lower
kingdoms act as stepping-stones for the higher. Did not the mineral exist, plant
life would be an impossibility, for it could not take root and obtain the
sustenance necessary for growth. If there were no plants, animal and man would
have no means of obtaining earth bodies. The service rendered by the lower to
the higher as stepping-stones can only be paid for by SERVICE. The higher owes
the lower a debt of gratitude. Christ recognized this, that without pupils there
could be no teacher, and in gratitude for the privilege of teaching and bringing
into the world the wonderful Christian religion He washed His disciples' feet.
In future eons the lower kingdoms now action as stepping-stones and a means of
growth and experience to us will need help and service, which must then be given
by us. Thus the human race, which now abuses the animals, will then have to act
as their servitors, aiding them to attain the very utmost from the school of
evolution as it will be carried on in that day. The animal spirits whose bodies
we now torture and destroy will in that day become our pupils, and it will be
our duty as their guardians to help them grow and propagate the life we now
deprive them of.
FOR THOSE BROUGHT UP IN THE TEACHINGS OF
SPIRITUALISM AND SWEDENBORGIANISM IT IS EASY ENOUGH TO ACCEPT THE FACT OF LIFE
HEREAFTER AND OF INCIDENTAL PURGATORIAL EXPERIENCE THEREIN, BUT IT IS NOT EASY
FOR THEM TO UNDERSTAND WHY IT IS NOT FEASIBLE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL TO OBTAIN ALL
THE EXPERIENCE NECESSARY FOR PROGRESSION IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD WITHOUT
RETURNING TO THE PHYSICAL PLANE FOR REBIRTH IN NEW BODIES. IF THERE IS AN
IMPERATIVE REASON FOR PERIODICAL RETURNS TO THE FLESH AS ROSICRUCIANISM SEES IT,
WILL YOU NOT STATE THIS BRIEFLY BUT EXPLICITLY?
ANSWER: The necessity for rebirth has two
phases, one physical and one spiritual. If the mineral components of our bodies
did not crystallize, and it were thus possible for us to keep them young and
pliable for millions of years, it would not be necessary to take rebirth; we
could learn the lessons of life through the unbroken stretch of ages. But on
account of our ignorance and abuse of his body it does not usually last a great
deal more than three score and ten years, as the tradition is, and probably not
much more than half that time as an average. Hence if we lived here only one
short life of thirty or forty years, we would be unable to learn all the lessons
which should be taught us in this environment, and that would be a waster of
energy. We, as human beings, would not think of building an elaborate school and
furnishing all the equipment for teaching the pupils and then graduate them
after one day's attendance; but that would be exactly analogous to a cosmic
system which would require the attendance of pupils at the school of life during
only one life-day. When the first school day is over we send the child home to
assimilate his lesson and prepare for the next day's schooling, and so on
through many days and years.
Similarly, the divine Hierarchies who guide
our evolution send us to school on earth each life-day, and at the close thereof
we are called to our heavenly home to rest and prepare for the schooling of the
next life-day. It would be an absolute impossibility for our schoolmasters to
cram all the wisdom to be leaned in the school into the head of any pupil, were
he ever so precocious, if the time were limited to one day. But given many
successive days, which in the end amount to years, they are able to impart
gradually all their knowledge to him. Similarly in life's school: cosmic wisdom
and cosmic love cannot be taught in a short time; it takes age, for the divine
qualities are not mushroom growths which can be attained over night. They
resemble rather the sturdy oak which requires a century to develop, but which
has a sturdiness and strength not even remotely approached by the mushroom.
Furthermore, the constitution of and
conditions in the spiritual worlds render them unsuitable for the phases of
progression which man must learn the phases of progression which man must learn
in the physical world. At the present time mankind is developing the mind by the
use of RIGHT THOUGHT, which has to be turned into RIGHT ACTION, and this can
best be done in a realm where conditions are firm and rigid. When an inventor
visualizes a machine or contrivance it may seem to work splendidly in his mind,
but the wheels which revolve so nicely in his the mental world where
interpenetration is the law are often found to rub against each and be in each
other's way when the model is made in physical material. This shows that his
thought was wrong, and he is then forced to go to work and correct the mistake
or abandon his project. Thus the physical condition acts as a corrective, and by
showing him his mistake makes it possible for him to learn gradually to evolve
the right thought and embody it in a machine that will work. Similarly, a man
who undertakes a business project thinks out in detail how it should work, but
subsequent developments often teach him that he has miscalculated. Thus he also,
by his mistakes, is shown where his thought was wrong, and is given the
opportunity to correct it.
These things cannot be learned in the
spiritual world, where one goes out of a window or up the chimney, just as
easily as through a door, because there everything is fluidic and plastic. Being
divine, we have infinite possibilities latent in us, we are gods in the making.
Thought is a creative power, and unless we learn how to use it in the right
manner it will prove a curse instead of a blessing, both to ourselves and the
creatures who are to be helped by us in future ages. In that case we should be
unable to help them in the creation of suitable vehicles, as we have been helped
and are being helped by other higher than we in the scale of evolution, and we
would create monstrosities. Therefore the school of earth is an absolute
necessity to teach us to think right, and thereby create right in both the
denser and the finer cosmic substances with which we have to work.
IT IS STATED IN THE ROSICRUCIAN TEACHINGS
THAT CHILDREN WHO DIE IN INFANCY ARE BROUGHT TO REBIRTH IN FROM ONE TO TWENTY
YEARS. DO THEY RETURN TO THE SAME STATION IN LIFE, OR DO THEY SOMETIMES RETURN
TO A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT, MORE OR LESS DESIRABLE, FROM WEALTH TO POVERTY, OR
VICE VERSA?
ANSWER: This question was asked years ago
when the writer was a novice in the investigation of the spiritual world, and it
was answered correctly at that time. But later investigations make it possible
to give more detail based upon what has actually happened in a considerable
number of cases. Notes were made of the results at the time of the
investigations, but these have been mislaid. Nevertheless, according to our
recollection, it was found that out of twenty children we watched who came to
rebirth within five years of the time of death, fifteen or sixteen went back
into the same family. It can be seen at the time when a child dies whether it
will be a long or a short time in the invisible worlds. We therefore selected
another group of twenty which are still in the invisible world and not expected
to take rebirth until ten or more years have passed. But the tendencies are
already quite plainly shown, for when a Spirit seeks rebirth it is usually drawn
to the prospective mother years before it enters the womb, and sometimes women
still unmarried are surrounded by their prospective children even before they
have become engaged. Judging from this fact what the results will be, we find
that out of the group of twenty only three are staying with their former
mothers; the other seventeen are scattered among other families, and two of them
are keeping company with small girls, showing that they are waiting for them to
grow up and become their mothers.
This tendency of Spirits who are seeking
embodiment to follow their prospective mothers around for years sometimes gives
rise to laughable and embarrassing situations in connections with mediums who do
not understand the conditions. We remember the case of a young lady who went to
a seance and was told that she had a child in spirit land who was standing
beside her and calling her mother. Naturally she denied the allegation
indignantly, and arose and left the meeting. So there was a case where both were
right through making diametrically opposite statements; each thought the other
dishonest because each lacked the knowledge to reconcile the seemingly
irreconcilable.
YOU STATE THAT FROM THE SPIRITUAL POINT OF
VIEW ALL THINGS ARE GOOD, OR WORDS TO THAT EFFECT. BUT TAKE, FOR INSTANCE THE
UNSPEAKABLY VILE AND DASTARDLY CRIMES BEING INFLICTED ON THE HELPLESS CIVILIAN
POPULATION OF SOME OF THE NATIONS IN THE WAR ZONE. THE THEORY OF REBIRTH MIGHT
ARGUE THAT THESE WRETCHED PEOPLE THUS SUFFERING MAY HAVE COMMITTED SIMILAR
ATROCITIES IN PREVIOUS EXISTENCES, BUT EVEN SO DO TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT? IN
VIEW OF SUCH CONDITIONS ONE FEELS ALMOST DRIVEN AT TIMES TO TAKE REFUGE BEHIND
THAT PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINE WHICH TEACHES THAT THE REPORT OF THE SENSES IS
ILLUSORY, THE BAD-DREAM THEORY, AS AN EXPLANATION OF THE EVIL IN THE WORLD; OR
SIMPLE MATERIALISM, WHICH OF COURSE, FROM ITS NATURE DOES NOT NEED TO MAKE ANY
OF THE EXPLANATIONS EXPECTED OF SPIRITUAL TEACHING. IS THERE ANOTHER SOLUTION TO
THE PROBLEM?
ANSWER: Yes, indeed, there is, for although
we with our finite minds are unable to grasp the intricate details of the
tangled web of destiny, still the broad outline of the law of love which works
for good through what seems to be evil may be readily discerned by every one.
But before we enter into direct discussion of the question, allow us to correct
our correspondent. WE DO NOT SAY THAT ALL THINGS ARE GOOD, for if that were true
it would be well to continue these atrocities of which our correspondent speaks.
Instead, we have always maintained and do still assert that every evil is really
GOOD IN THE MAKING-that is to say, out of that condition something good will
come. We do not shrink from calling a cloud a cloud, but we also point to the
silver lining which shows that beyond and back of the cloud the sun still shines
as beautifully as ever. And if the sorrow and suffering caused by this war are
the means of finally abolishing wars from the face of the earth, surely the cost
is not too great.
From you remark that the theory of rebirth
argues that the wretched people mentioned may have committed kindred atrocities
in previous existences, it is evident that you are under the common
misconception that all present conditions must be referred to actions in past
lives, and that you are either unaware of or have failed to take into
consideration the fact that every moment of our lives we are generating new
destiny at the same time that we are working out our old scores. This great and
important fact was set forth in the ancient Greek mythology, where the Fates are
represented as three-past, present, and future; also in the Norse mythology,
where the three Norns, Urda, Skuld, and Verdande, are spinning the thread of
fate and unraveling it again. Nor is fate simply a measure to get even. If in
one life A stole from B and ruined him, we must not assume that a following life
B is going to become dishonest and steal from A. That would indeed be a bad
solution of the problem, for it is surely better for a man to lose his money
altogether than to retrieve it at the expense of his honesty.
Similarly, supposing that in a previous
existence, as suggested, the present victims of military atrocity were guilty of
atrocities against those who are now causing them suffering, it would have been
far better for their soul growth if they had no revenge rather than in this
present life to be made into savage beasts. If the latter were the way the law
works, then cruelties and atrocities would multiply, and one could only shudder
to think of what is in store for humanity in the next life when the injured
civilian of today wreaks vengeance upon the heads of the present military
aggressors.
But, thank God, that is not so, A study of
the Memory of Nature has shown conclusively the truth of the spiritual teaching
that HATE CEASES NOT BY HATE, BUT BY LOVE AND SERVICE. It has been found in all
the cases investigated by the writer-and they number hundreds-that whenever in
one life a person has injured another, the suffering brought upon himself by the
act during the purgatorial expiation following death has compelled realization
and repentance, at least in a measure. he is then placed in a position where he
may render some service to the one he injured when both return to physical life.
If he grasps the opportunity, well and good; then both parties are benefited;
peace on earth and good will are fostered. If he refuses he is placed in a
position where coals of fire are heaped upon his head, and then in the third
life he may be induced to pay the debt of service. Or he may be made the victim
of some one else's wrong-doing and thus learn the sympathy and fellow feeling
which induces the required service. But whatever the method, and the possible
methods are legion, in some way or other the debt of hate will eventually be
repaid by love, for that is the only way that humanity can grow better.
Applying these ideas to the present problem
of the sufferings of the civilian population in the war zone (War World I), and
while admitting that the past may have something to do with it in some cases, it
is undoubtedly a fact that a vast amount of new destiny is now being generated,
both by the aggressors and the victims. Neither should it be forgotten that the
aggressors are suffering great tribulations themselves as well as their victims.
It is a time of suffering all around, and the purgatorial experiences of those
who are now allowing their lower nature to run riot will be exceedingly severe.
Then when a new life begins and they are placed in a position where they meet
their victims, the subconscious memory of the purgatorial suffering will
engender the vast majority a desire to make adequate amend, so that out of the
fiery furnace of the present affliction there will come a reign of peace on
earth and good will among men.
WHILE THEOSOPHY, REPRESENTING THE WISDOM OF
THE EAST, AND THE ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY, THE WISDOM OF THE WEST, AGREE IN MANY
RESPECTS, THERE ARE CERTAIN POINTS IN WHICH THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
TEACHINGS OF THESE TWO SCHOOLS OF OCCULTISM. ONE OF THESE POINTS IS CONCERNING
REBIRTH. THEOSOPHY TEACHES THAT THE INTERVAL BETWEEN EARTH LIVES OF THE AVERAGE
EGO IS ABOUT FIVE THOUSAND YEARS, WHILE THE ROSICRUCIANS HOLD THAT IT IS ABOUT
ONE THOUSAND YEARS. WITH REFERENCE TO THE SEX OF THE EGO THE ROSICRUCIANS TEACH
THAT MALE AND FEMALE EMBODIMENTS ALTERNATE, WHILE THEOSOPHY HOLDS THAT THE
ALTERNATION OF SEX IS NOT IN INDIVIDUAL LIVES BUT BY SERIES; THAT IS, A SERIES
OF SEVEN MALE EMBODIMENTS ALTERNATES WITH A FEMALE SERIES OF EQUAL NUMBER. WILL
YOU KINDLY EXPLAIN THESE DISCREPANCIES?
ANSWER: It is our invariable rule never to
criticize or belittle the teachings of any other spiritual movement. Therefore
we can only say that your are correct with respect to the teachings of the
Rosicrucians, that the Ego is ordinarily reborn twice during the time it takes
the sun by precession to go through a sign of the zodiac, namely 2,100 years. It
is also taught that these embodiments are alternately male and female because
the conditions on earth do not so appreciably change during two thousand years,
and the purpose is to give the Ego all the lessons that can be drawn from
experiences on earth under each sign, these varying from the man and the woman.
Thus if the Ego is born once as a man and the next time as a woman under the
same sign, it will learn practically all the lessons that can be extracted from
the conditions existing on earth under such planetary vibrations.
Each neophyte is given the proof of this
shortly after Initiation: he is first told to watch a certain Ego who is passing
out of the body. Then he continues to watch its life in the invisible world for
a year or two, and when an embodiment is found for it he knows the absolute
truth of the doctrine of rebirth. He is always given for this demonstration an
Ego which passes out as a child, and therefore seeks a quick reembodiment.
When that lesson has been learned and he
knows from first-hand knowledge that rebirth is a fact in nature, he is taught
to watch the lives of certain people in the Memory of Nature so that he may gain
an understanding of the various details connected with this matter. This,
however, cannot be done until the Initiate has learned to function in the Region
of Concrete Thought for the etheric record of the Memory of Nature does not
reach sufficiently into the past to give the detailed information. Every
Initiate who has progressed sufficiently far knows these matters as well as he
knows his name.
The Law of Rebirth is not a blind law. It
is under the administration of four great Beings of wonderful knowledge and
power. They are called the Recording Angels in the Christian terminology. When
it is necessary to vary the interval between death and rebirth in the case of a
certain Ego, the necessary modifications are made so that it may be a much
longer or a much shorter time before it is reborn.
It has been published in the newspaper
reports of lectures given by Mrs. Besant, and it is also generally stated by her
followers, that she claims to have been Hypatia in ancient Alexandria, a woman.
It is also said that later she was born as Giordana Bruno in Rome, and at the
present time she is again in a female embodiment. This, if true, would bear out
the teaching of the Rosicrucians rather than that of the school which, as you
say, claims there are a series of seven male embodiments followed by a series of
seven of the other sex.
IF A PERSON HAS A LIFE FULL OF HARDSHIP AT
PRESENT AND STRIVES TO THE BEST OF HIS OR HER ABILITY TO FULFILL ALL DUTIES,
WILL THE NEXT LIFE BE LIVED UNDER EASIER AND MORE BEARABLE CIRCUMSTANCES; OR IF
HE IS AN ADVANCED SOUL MUST HE HAVE HARDSHIPS IN ORDER TO LEARN TO HELP AND HEAL
HUMANITY?
ANSWER: During the earlier part of its
evolution mankind committed the most atrocious crimes because actuated entirely
by selfishness and disregard for other people's feelings. In those early lives
we were cunning, cruel, and seldom did a good deed. In fact, it is recorded that
at that time man spent the whole of the interval between earth lives in the
purgatorial regions expiating the crimes he had committed during his physical
life, and there was not heaven life to speak of. That was the condition spoken
of in the Bible as "lost in trespasses of sin," which made it
necessary for the Christ to enter the earth and attempt the task of raising the
vibrations, so that altruism might gradually conquer egoism and give us a heaven
life upon which promotion and progression in our evolutionary career could be
based.
Now, it will be evident that during that
period of degradation and sin we contracted a great many heavy debts and
obligations to one another which we must now work out by love, kindness, and
service. Each of us had this burden of the past, and it is that which
constitutes the so-called DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD.
It is said, and said truly, that thought
"the mills of God grind slowly, they grind exceeding fine," and every
transgression under the law merits a just recompense. Therefore the debt of the
past must be paid, and in the interval between each two earth lives there is
shown to us the pictures of that part of it which must them be paid by the
ordinary processes of evolution. We are them allowed to choose our future as we
will from among the opportunities presented to us. Therefore if the Ego is, as
you say, an advanced one it will choose the hardest life possible so that it may
the more quickly dissolve the burden of debt which ahs accumulated from the
past; for the more quickly it is liquidated, the sooner will the Spirit be ready
to go on to its highest mission. On the other hand, it is said that "the
Lord tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." The weaker souls who are unable
to bear up under hardships are therefore given what we see as easier lives where
they may pay their debts in small coin, a little at a time, but it will take
correspondingly longer before they are finally liberated. Thus there is a good
reason why a Job is called a friend and favorite of God, and why it is said that
"whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." By giving us all we can bear
according to our request and with our consent the great Hierarchies who are in
charge of evolution are really showing us favors. This is why the Christ called
those blessed who were persecuted for His name's sake, that is to say, as He
emphasized, when it was falsely done.
The light of occultism upon the problem of
sorrow is one of the strongest rays of hope to the one who is blessed with this
knowledge. It should give us all heart to bear up under all affliction. Whatever
comes to us we have earned, and if we are only careful to learn the lesson and
to render the help and the service required of us in each particular case, then
we may be sure that we are not only liquidating debts of the past, but also
laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven which will revert to us as usable
soul power to keep us on the path of rectitude in future lives.
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