CHAPTER V

GROWTH THROUGH REINCARNATION
One of the most illuminative and helpful of the teach- ings of Theosophy is that this world, with all its ac- tivities and interests, is in reality a great educational institution in which millions of souls and countless other creatures are receiving the instruction which they need for their growth. We learn that there are many more human beings connected with the earth than ever ap- pear in incarnation at any one time, but that all are enabled to gain the experiences they need by making a short visit periodically to this world, thereby coming in contact with the lessons taught by civilization.
Thus each life spent here is merely a day in the greater soul life, and each time we return we resume our lessons about where we left off before, aided, of course, by what we have gained by home study — for heaven is the home of the soul. The savage is commencing his education in the kindergarten of life; the spiritually developed man is nearing the time of graduation from this world school; the rest of us are standing on some step between these two extremes. We have gleaned much experience from hundreds of lives in the past — that is why we are far more advanced than the savage ; and in the future, new lives will help us complete and round out our education.
This view of human life and of the growth of the soul is called reincarnation or rebirth, and in a more or less pure form is the working philosophy of some 650 millions of human beings today. As a philosophical con- ception it is hoary with age, and has apparently held
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the attention by its logic and inherent reasonableness, of many of the great leaders of thought during all periods of history.
Yet many persons when they first hear of reincarna- tion, reject the idea without any consideration and ex- claim : "What a horrible belief ! I am sure I don't want to come back again ! ' ' And for some reason such people, who are otherwise sensible enough, seem to think that their dislike of reincarnation proves it untrue and un- necessary.
But does dislike of teaching make it unnecessary? Does the rebellion of the small boy who is kept by his parents at school make his education any less essential? In later years does not this same small boy look back upon his rebellious feelings with a smile of amusement at his shortsightedness ? And may we not as souls, look back upon this time when we are seeking to avoid the priceless lessons of life, and smile at our own ignorance and lack of understanding of the purpose of existence?
Are we actually opposed to reincarnation as such? Let us suppose that this earth were a glorious paradise in which sorrow, suffering and trouble were unknown. When death claimed us, would we not be overcome with despair at leaving this land of bliss? If someone said that rebirth was a possibility, we would leap at the chance and offer premiums to get back to earth ! If we are perfectly frank with ourselves, we must admit that we are not objecting to reincarnation merely as a process of being born again, but that what we wish to avoid are the many trials, difficulties and sorrows of physical existence. We want to escape experience, not rebirth!
Yet those very experiences which we seek to escape, those very sorrows and difficulties and trials, have taught us some of the grandest and deepest lessons of life, and have forced us to awaken many a power of consciousness and will, that otherwise would never have been stim-
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ulated to activity. The hardships of civilization have made us what we are, while ease and luxury only sap our courage and deaden our initiative. A person who has never suffered or failed or felt sorrow, is a person with- out much sympathy, compassion, or real understanding of life.
Obviously, then, our emotional objections to reincar- nation are hopelessly illogical and childish, and as thoughtful people we should not permit our dislike of the teaching process to carry away our reason and good sense.
The idea of reincarnation is exceedingly logical, whether we admit it to be a fact in nature or not. It offers to the growing soul, not the paltry gains of a single life on earth, but unlimited experience in many stations of life and under all possible circumstances. Not a single event can happen to us which does not offer something of value for growth, even though the drop of wisdom which may be distilled from it is small.
By varying the conditions of birth and the occupation from life to life, lopsided development can be prevented and an all-round knowledge of the world obtained. Thus if this life, which we are now leading, is but one of a series, each experience, no matter how trivial, is valuable ; but if this is the only life we live on earth, then we must frankly admit, that much of that which we experi- ence and learn here is practically useless in the future, for the knowledge gained would be of value only on earth and not in any heaven world. If we return we can make good use of that knowledge, but if we do not, then many of our efforts and lessons gained at great cost are just so much wasted time.
Furthermore, what is the value of physical existence to a soul who inhabits the body of an infant that lives but a few hours, or the body of a child criminal born and reared in the slums? If we live but one life, there is no
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satisfactory explanation ; but if this life is one of many arranged in an ascending series, then we see in the two conditions just mentioned, the payment of a debt in one case, and the first efforts of an ignorant untaught soul in the other.
One of the current misconceptions about reincarna- tion, which prevents a consideration of the idea by thoughtful people, is that it teaches the return of a human being to the body of an animal — that next life we may be born as a dog or a horse ! This point of view is obviously so absurd that it seems foolish to mention it, yet people who ought to know better seriously advance it as an argument against reincarnation.
This curiously distorted misconception is only be- lieved by the ignorant peasants in those religions which teach reincarnation, but does not represent at all the belief of their more advanced adherents. It is as sensible to speak of transferring a college student to a kinder- garten class in order to recommence his education, as it is to think of a human soul being born again in the body of an animal. Nature is never so unreasonable as this!
Progress is forwards, not backwards, so as we advance we always come back in human bodies, each one a little better than the previous one. Sometimes, it is true, for some grievous fault, we may during one incarnation retrace our steps to a slight extent and take birth in a less advanced type of body and under less favorable conditions, but this retrograde movement is only ap- parent and not real, even as the backward movement of an eddy in the flowing water of a river does not change the forward course of the stream.
Another misconception is that we are reborn imme- diately. Careful investigation has shown, however, that this rarely happens, and that the normal interval between one life and another varies from a few score years in the
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case of an undeveloped soul to twenty centuries or even more in the case of a far advanced type. The length of this interval depends primarily upon the amount of experience gained during the earth life, and this in turn depends upon three factors :
(1) The length of the physical life — the longer the life, the more experience.
(2) The quality of the life. Some lives are tranquil and placid while others are adventurous and crowded with events — naturally the latter supply more experi- ence.
(3) The age of the soul. We did not commence our evolution at the same time, and may therefore be sorted out theoretically into classes such as is done actually with children in a school, hence we are not of the same educational age. The older the soul, the less it engages in purely physical pursuits and the more it is inter- ested in mental, moral and spiritual things. Naturally, activities of the latter type, inasmuch as they are expres- sions of our larger life in the subtler worlds, give us more to think over and assimilate during the interval between one life and the next.
There are three possible theories to account for the soul before it commenced its life here at birth:
(1) It was newly created at birth by God — a point of view commonly held in Christian countries. This is the theory of special creation.
(2) It existed before birth in some spiritual state, but has never lived before on earth. This is the theory of pre-existence.
(3) It has lived many times before on earth, and its existing capacities and abilities are the results of that past experience. This is the theory of reincarnation.
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One of these three theories must be right, and it is our duty carefully to study the facts of life until we can determine which one is true. If we love truth, prejudice should not blind us nor should the tradi- tional beliefs, held without question by those around, deter us from forming our own independent opinion.
One of the hardest problems for a humane person to solve is the reconciliation of the heart-breaking injustice of many of the conditions of this world with a belief in the perfect Justice and Love of God. Some souls are born in slums and taught nothing but crime ; others are reared in refined families and tenderly guarded by lov- ing fathers and mothers. Why, if either of the first two theories are true? Some are born into crippled and diseased bodies; others into bodies that are perfect. Why? Some are born as idiots while others are gifted with brilliant intellectual powers. Again, why?
We may, of course, explain all of these conditions to our own satisfaction on the basis of physical heredity and the responsibility of parents, but does this make the situation any more just so far as the souls themselves are concerned? They are the ones who suffer, not the parents, and if we are to see God's Justice in the world, we must understand why they suffer as they do.
Many people are unwilling to admit that God is unjust, and so, because they are unable to justify the actual facts spread out before their eyes, fall back on the statement that all these conditions are the workings of an inscrutable Providence, whose ways we may not question. This is, of course, not an explanation of the conditions ; it is an admission of ignorance. Nor is there any ground for the hope — in the light of the first two theories — which is expressed by many persons, that al- though there is undoubtedly much injustice and unde- served suffering in the world, death will surely square all and we shall receive our due recompense on the other
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side of the grave. Have we any justification for this hope ? If God created a world so imperfectly conceived that rampant injustice is found everywhere, how do we know that the same state of affairs does not prevail after death?
But there is a line of reasoning which carries us out of this intolerable situation and illuminates all our human problems. We may reduce this reasoning to a very simple statement :
Life is unjust if we experience any undeserved suf- fering or unearned happiness.
Much comes to us which we have neither earned nor deserved in this life.
Therefore, if a just God exists, we must have lived on earth before and during that time started the causes which now are controlling circumstances.
We may expand this line of reasoning and approach the problem from a slightly different angle :
This life is a living hell if we are the innocent victims of a Power which is either so merciless, unjust or weak, that it is unable to control the world it has created.
Unless the conditions of birth, the extent of our ca- pacities and abilities and of the opportunities which come to us, are the direct results of our own efforts and therefore deserved, we are such victims.
But if we are not victims and these conditions were caused by ourselves, then we must have lived on earth before, or in some condition exactly resembling physical existence, in order to have sown the seed we are now reaping as harvests.
If we refuse to be false to our intuition that God is absolutely just, the conclusion is inevitable that rein- carnation is the true theory regarding the soul. Theoso- phy is unassailable when it affirms that there is no injustice anywhere in the universe, and that every event of life — when we can see the whole of it — is in reality
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part of the working of a perfect law of cause and effect which is flawless in its justice. We call an event unjust because we are looking only at the result and have not the power to turn back the pages of history and see the cause.
But there are also other facts which indicate that reincarnation is a law of nature. Notice the enormous difference in mental and moral faculties between one man and another — between a Hottentot and a Huxley. Education and environment cannot make all the differ- ence. A Hottentot may be taught in our most approved way and amid advantageous surroundings, but while there would be a certain amount of progress, his advance- ment would not be great.
It is not a question alone of physical heredity. In the case of twins, born under exactly the same pre-natal influences, the most striking differences in ability and character are frequently noticed after a few years. This would not be the case of physical heredity were the only factor at work.
But if we understand that the souls themselves differ in experience, that some are just commencing their schooling while others are near to graduation, then these differences are easily and logically explained. Physical heredity no doubt plays an important part so far as the quality and appearance of our physical bodies are concerned, but we bring with us our emotional and mental powers when we come, in the form of innate faculties. Whence come the faculties of the "born" teacher, speaker and leader? Oftentimes the parents and even the ancestors do not display them. How explain the appearance of a Napoleon, a Shakespeare, a Wagner? The most careful tracing of their ancestry leaves us more puzzled than before, if physical heredity is the sole factor.
What is the source of genius? Can water rise higher
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than its source ; if not, why should offspring be greater than their parents and ancestors? But if a genius is an old soul who has developed enormous capacity along a certain line — music, drama, painting, mathematics — then we need not strain to breaking, the theory of physical heredity in order to explain his appearance in the world. Eeincarnation also shows why the sons and daughters of a genius are never equal to the parent — a genius can only transmit his physical peculiarities to his offspring, never his inspiring talents, which are the powers of the soul.
An objection is frequently made to the idea of rein- carnation on the ground that if we have lived before we would have memories of the past. The argument which the objector has in mind runs something like this :
We remember whatever we have experienced ; we have no memories of past lives; therefore we have not lived before.
This reasoning is exceedingly faulty because it leaves out of account that physically we forget experience more than we remember it. How many of us can remember exactly what we did and said twelve years ago this day ? Not one. How many of us can remember everything we did last week, or even yesterday? Major events, yes, but not details. Why ? Because the memories have been lost forever ? No, only because the physical brain cannot recall them. If we are thrown into a hypnotic trance state by a psychologist, we can easily be helped to recall everything we have done in the past, the extent to which we are able to recover these old memories depending upon the depth of the trance. This is absolute proof that every one of us possesses millions of memories of which the physical brain has no recollection whatsoever. Obviously the argument advanced against reincarnation is not sound, for there may exist a deep layer of our consciousness in which adhere the memories of other
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lives on earth — memories entirely unknown to the wak- ing consciousness.
This at least is the statement of theosophical investi- gators, and their conclusions are borne out by the experiments of de Rochas, who forced the consciousness of a hypnotized woman back step by step into what were apparently the memories, not of one past life only, but of four. Further, it should not be forgotten that some people do remember their past lives, at least in part, and in making this statement we do not have in mind those persons who imagine themselves to have been in the past Anthony or Cleopatra or some other romantic char- acter ! Children frequently have glimpses of other lives, and strive to tell us of them, but we laugh and call them fancies, and the child soon forgets, especially as it grows older and the brain tissue becomes less plastic to the influence of the mind.
Reincarnation is not an endless process, any more than we go to school all our life. It ceases when we have learned all the major lessons this world can teach and we have reached the stage of the perfect man. Then we are ready to assume the greater duties and commence the wider work for which our education in the world- school has fitted us. For just as we go forth into the world after our school days are over, so do we venture into a larger field after our many lives on earth are ended — the analogy is exact.
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