Reincarnation (Paperback)

Paperback. THE SOUL AND THE BODIES.In a book dealing with the resurrection of bodies and the reincarnations ofthe Soul, a chapter must be devoted to the fundamental elements of thequestion.We will give the name of Soul to abstract Being, to the Unknown, that un-manifested Principle which cannot be defined, for it is above all definition.It is the Absolute of Western philosophers, the Parabrahm of the Hindus, the Tao of the ancient sages of China, the causeless Cause of all that has beenor ever will be manifested in concrete time and space.Some feeble idea of it may perhaps be obtained by comparing it with elec-tricity, which, though the cause of various phenomena: heat, movement, chemical action, light, is not, per se, any one of these phenomena, undergoesno modification from their existence, and survives them when the apparatusthrough which they manifest disappears.We shall set up no distinction between this Soul, which may be called theuniversal Soul, and the individual soul, which has often been defined as a3 THEOPHILE PASCALray, a particle of the total Soul, for logically one cannot imply parts to theAbsolute; it is illusion, limitation on our part, which shows us souls in theSoul.Bodies are "aspects" of the Soul, results of its activity-if, indeed, the Infinitecan be said to be either active or passive; words fail when we attempt to ex-press the Inexpressible. These bodies, or, more precisely, the varied formsassumed by force-matter[2] are aspects of the Soul, just as light or chemicalaction are aspects of electricity, for one cannot suppose anything outside ofinfinite Being, nor can anything be imagined which is not a manifestationof the abstract Whole.Let us also define Consciousness.Taken absolutely, it is Being, the Soul, God; the uncaused Cause of all thestates which, in beings, we call states of consciousness.This limited consciousness may be defined as the faculty a "centre of life"possesses of receiving vibrations from its surroundings. When, in the courseof evolution, a being is sufficiently developed to become conscious of a sepa-ration between its "I" and the objectwhich sends it vibrations, consciousnessbecomes self-consciousness. This self -consciousness constitutes the humanstage; it appears in the higher animals, but as it descends the scale of being, gradually disappears in non-individualised consciousness.In a word, absolute Consciousness is one, though, as in the above example, it is manifested differently, according to the differences in the vehicles whichexpress it in the concrete world in which we live.The Soul, per se, is beyond the reach of beings who have not finished thepilgrimage of evolution. To know it, one must have attained to the eternalCentre, the unmanifested Logos. Up to that point, one can only, in pro-portion as one ascends, feel it in oneself, or acknowledge it by means of thelogic which perceives it through all its manifestations as the universal Explore the profound connection between the eternal essence of existence and the physical forms it inhabits. This metaphysical inquiry traces the journey of awareness as it ascends through the layers of cosmic evolution. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…