Yes, this part (who/what reincarnates ... who/what really am
`I') has troubled Eastern thought for a long time - not to mention how this could *possibly* intersect with Western! There are answers, we will find, if we look thoroughly, but it can be a bugger of a time trying to sort it all out. Then again, I think it can be a lot of fun, trying to find out if some of the newer
*presentations* to the West are accurate after all.
There's the Beatles answer, but I suppose an LSD tab or two kind of goes hand in hand with that. Still ...
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.
Yes, yes, we know the Walrus was Paul ... but the opening line is one that has always caught my attention. Not
nearly like the cornflake line, however. It has always made sense, after what I've learned via the Theosophical presentation of the
Eastern teachings. So as I say, I challenge a good scholar to prove that anyone *fabricated* what I will say in the next paragraph about permanent atoms. And the line about Edgar Allan Poe ... ahh, well, *where else* would "they" be doing this than -
in the hereafter! It almost makes sense, doesn't it, since Poe as the American master of horror has probably terrified some people just about more than anything else
ever has, with his powerful evocations built from pure suspense and imagination,
in the imagination (no TV to imagine it for us!) ...
The
"it" which returns through hundreds, even thousands of human incarnations, before entering the Spiritual Kingdom (5th Kingdom, Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven) *permanently* ... is the Soul, or
`Ego' of Theosophy, though clearly not the `ego' or personality of psychology. Eastern Wisdom will show that relative to the physical plane, only a single
atom of substance is actually a permanent part of our constitution, returning with each new incarnation, serving as the blueprint or
matrix around which the building angels construct the rest of the mechanism.
As another recent thread here at CR will show (thanks to chakraman, for starting it), Theosophists demonstrated clairvoyantly at the turn of the century ... what science with the electron microscope was only able to confirm "objectively" 75+ years later. And this, finally and
Thank God, is documented!
So the
`permanent atom' of the physical body which reincarnates ... is not even the `atom' of science, but is, in fact, a single ELECTRON - which is the true, occult atom in the Greek sense of the word:
a-tomos, IN-Divisible. The Occultists knew this, since it is not only part of Occult Science but is also observable, and capable of confirmation by anyone with the required training. It can be seen as "Babbitt's atom" in a Google search. Or you can go
here, and look at the little
applet thingies.
The Theosophists named it `Anu,' although this is straight out of the Sanskrit, and
already existed to define exactly what it has been used to define ... here, in modern times, as the atom (
electron). Smaller units of matter *do exist* ... but they are not actually physical substance; rather, they are part of the matter composing the
`astral plane,' and include quarks, subquarks (preons), etc. After all, the seven planes
interpenetrate in the same time and space, so that God -
quite literally, is
here and now. But then, Christ did say this, so perhaps this is one of His many connotations.
Complementing the physical permanent atom is an astral permanent atom, which serves as the
core of our emotional being, around which the astral body is re-constructed with each new incarnation. And in the strata of the fourth sub-layer of the mental world, a
mental permanent unit serves as the respective seed for the im-permanent mental body, or
mind of each new incarnation. The Buddhist
skandhas, or
`heap' of personality attributes, all refers to qualities, characteristics, and personality tendencies (including both aptititudes, and deficits) ... which
adhere, as it were, in the three personality vehicles - though they must obviously be stored
somewhere, materially, if the
law of karma can be expected to work itself out materially within each of us, as individuals. Here, then, is the Eastern teaching.
In terms of the physical world, there is a
model body, or subtler component of the phsyical, upon which the dense body is patterned. Even the subtler, or
etheric body, can be sub-divided, since it, like our astral and mental bodies, is
ensouled, or
vitalized by the Solar lifeforce:
prana, chi/qi, or
nephesh. Egyptians sometimes called it the
Sekhem. Every culture, religion or spiritual system will of course, speak of this. It is what vitalized
every single particle of substance, on every plane, of the entire Solar System. Thus it is one of the many ways in which,
`God is a living, breathing MAN,' and in which
"He's got the whole world in his hands," as I was taught in Sunday School.
Genetics is the
material working out, both at the dense physical level
and in a way that we can see as
representative of what occurs in the subtler worlds (astral, mental) ... of the more esoteric side of things. And before Gregor Mendel's plant experiments, or the past century of research & progress, so too, was genetics,
esoteric science of a sort.
Thus the
anu, and the simple, scientific
facts regarding our super-physical constititution ... will one day become mainstream teaching, or
science. Part psychology, part physics, part spirituality, even part mythology, but it largely depends on how we approach it. Astrology and astronomy were once known and practiced together. And astrology will be science again, but not until it can shake free of the personality-centric, tabloid style fluff which amuses us all, these days.
Esoteric emphasis, as in the Eastern teachings, is placed on emphemeral nature of the personality, or
lesser self, yet the question remains -
where does the sense of `I-ness' come from, if all but three atoms of matter disappear with each earthly personality. And the answer given is that
only God, to be Theistic about it, could give us this. Evolution does not suddenly
spring forth with `I-ness,' although theories on
artificial intelligence or machine *sentience* would have us believe otherwise.
The principle that refers to our sense of
`I-ness' is the
ahamkara, and it means
"I-maker." At best, I could refer to Indian philosophy:
In Sankhya philosophy ahamkara is the third emanation: from prakriti (primal nature or substance) issues mahat (the great), standing for universal mind, which in turn produces ahamkara, selfhood, individuality; from ahamkara come forth the five tanmatras, the subtle forms of the elements or principles and "the two series of sense organs" (Samkhya-Sutra 1:61).
Or again, from the
Bhagavad Gita (7:4), prakriti manifests in eight portions -- "earth, water, fire, air, ether [space: kham-akasa], mind [manas], understanding [buddhi] and egoity, self-sense [ahamkara]" -- all of which relate to the object side, which gives an erroneous sense of identity or egoity.
And from the
Secret Doctrine:
As universal self-consciousness, ahamkara has "a triple aspect, as also Manas. For this conception of 'I,' or one's Ego, is either sattwa, 'pure quietude,' or appears as rajas, 'active,' or remains tamas, 'stagnant,' in darkness. It belongs to Heaven and Earth, and assumes the properties of either" (SD 1:335n).
Jesus, of course, to whom all this must have been
old hat (and did he re-learn what he had known in ages past, via his Eastern travels?), taught us as best we could receive it. So a master, before leaving his home to travel, gives each of his three servants a varying amount of money -
talents. And so goes the parable of
Matthew 25:14-30. We have always known its meaning, or at least, have been comfortable with an obvious significance, as well as the rather clear symbolism regarding
what we do with what we are given,
even as individuals, in terms of gifts, aptitudes, spiritual qualities. One more layer, the teachings of
Ancient India, modern occultism, or Timeless Truth,
hardly invalidates a word - of the Master's Message.
As for Beatles tunes, I always preferred this one:
Within You, Without You
We were talking-about the space between us all
And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late-when they pass away.
We were talking-about the love we all could share-when we find it
To try our best to hold it there-with our love
With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew.
Try to realise it's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows ON within you and without you.
We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul-
They don't know-they can't see-are you one of them?
When you've seen beyond yourself-then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.
Yes, LSD-triggered, perhaps. But then, it's about the
Love, we all could share, and that ... I'm fairly certain, is not just a chemical.
~Zagreus
