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Devachan
is a state ( not a place) that one attains after death
and
before the next life. The concept is often
mistaken for Heaven.
But
there’s no need be disappointed, Devachan is still something
to look forward to. Get some idea of what to
expect with
The
South of Heaven
Guide
to
Theosophy & Devachan
Devachan
By
Alfred Percy Sinnett
An extract from Esoteric Buddhism
IT was not possible to
approach a consideration of the states into which the higher human principles
pass at death, without first indicating the general framework of the whole
design worked out in the course of the evolution of man. That much of my task,
however, having now been accomplished, we may pass on to consider the natural
destinies of each human Ego in the interval which elapses between the close of
one objective life and the commencement of another. At the commencement of
another, the Karma of the previous objective life determines the state of life
into which the individual shall be born. This doctrine of Karma is one of the
most interesting features of Buddhist philosophy. There has been no secret
about it at any time, though for want of a proper comprehension of elements in
the philosophy, which have been strictly esoteric, it may sometimes have been
misunderstood.
Karma is a collective
expression applied to that complicated group of affinities for good and evil
generated by a human being during life, and the character of which inheres in
his fifth principle all through the interval which elapses between his death
out of one objective life and his birth into the next. As stated sometimes, the
doctrine seems to be one which exacts the notion of a superior spiritual
authority summing up the acts of a man’s life at its close, taking into
consideration his good deeds and his bad, and giving judgment about him on the
whole aspect of the case. But a comprehension of the way in which the human
principles divide up at death, will afford a clue to the comprehension of the
way in which Karma operates, and also of the great subject we may better take
up first - the immediate spiritual condition of man after death.
At death the three lower
principles - the body, its mere physical vitality, and its astral counterpart -
are finally abandoned by that which really is the Man himself, and the four
higher principles escape into that world immediately above our own; above our
own, that is, in the order of spirituality - not above it at all, but in it and
of it, as regards real locality - the astral plane or kâma
loca, according to a very familiar Sanskrit
expression. Here a division takes place between the two duads,
which the four higher principles include. The explanation already given
concerning the imperfect extent to which the upper principles of man are as yet
developed, will show that this estimation of the process, as in the nature of a
mechanical separation of the principles, is a rough way of dealing with the
matter. It must be modified in the reader’s mind by the light of what has been
already said. It may be otherwise described as a trial of the extent to which
the fifth principle has been developed. Regarded in the light of the former
idea, however, we must conceive the sixth and seventh principles, on the one
hand, drawing the fifth, the human soul, in one direction, while the fourth
draws it back earthwards in the other. Now, the fifth principle is a very
complex entity, separable itself into superior and inferior elements. In the
struggle which takes place between its late companion principles, its best, purest,
most elevated and spiritual portions cling to the sixth, its lower instincts,
impulses and recollections adhere to the fourth, and it is in a measure torn
asunder. The lower remnant, associating itself with the fourth, floats off in
the earth’s atmosphere, while the best elements, those, be it understood, which
really constitute the Ego of the late earthly personality, the individuality,
the consciousness thereof, follow the sixth and seventh into a spiritual
condition, the nature of which we are about to examine.
Rejecting the popular English
name for this spiritual condition, as encrusted with too many misconceptions to
be convenient, let us keep to the Oriental designation of that region or state
into which the higher principles of human creatures pass at death. This is
additionally desirable because, although the Devachan of Buddhist philosophy
corresponds in some respects to the modern European idea of heaven, it differs
from heaven in others which are even more important.
Firstly, however, in Devachan,
that which survives is not merely the individual monad, which survives through
all the changes of the whole evolutionary scheme, and flits from body to body,
from planet to planet, and so forth - that which survives in Devachan is the
man’s own self-conscious personality, under some restrictions indeed, which we
will come to directly, but still it is the same personality as regards its
higher feelings, aspirations, affections, and even tastes, as it was on earth.
Perhaps it would be better to say the essence of the late self-conscious
personality.
It may be worth the reader’s
while to learn what Colonel H S. Olcott has to say in his “Buddhist Catechism”
(14th thousand) of the intrinsic difference between “individuality”
and “personality.” Since he wrote not only under the approval of the High
Priest of the Sripada and Galle,
Sumangala, but also under the direct instruction of
his Adept Guru, his words will have weight for the student of occultism. This
is what he says in his appendix: -
“Upon reflection I have
submitted ‘personality’ for ‘individuality,’ as written in the first edition.
The successive appearances upon one or many earths, or ‘descents into
generation’ of the tanhaically coherent
parts (Skandas) of a certain being, are a succession
of personalities. In each birth the personality differs from that of the
previous or next succeeding birth. Karma, the deus
ex machinâ, masks (or shall we say, reflects?)
itself now in the personality of a sage, again as an artisan, and so on
throughout the string of births. But though personalities ever shift, the one
line of life along which they are strung like beads runs unbroken.
“It is ever that
particular line, never any other. It is therefore individual, an individual
vital undulation which began in Nirvana or the subjective side of Nature, as
the light or heat undulation through æther began at
its dynamic source; is careering through the objective side of Nature, under
the impulse of Karma and the creative direction of Tanha;
and tends through many cyclic changes back to Nirvana. Mr Rhys Davids calls that which passes from personality to
personality along the individual chain ‘character’ or ‘doing.’ Since
‘character’ is not a mere metaphysical abstraction, but the sum of one’s mental
qualities and moral propensities, would it not help to dispel what Mr Rhys Davids calls ‘the desperate expedient of a mystery,’ if we
regarded the life undulation as individuality, and each of its series of natal
manifestations as a separate personality?
“The denial of ‘soul’ by
Buddha (see ‘Sanyutto Nikaya,’
the Sutta Pitaka) points to
the prevalent delusive belief in an independent transmissible personality; and
entity that could move from birth to birth unchanged, or go to a place or state
where, as such perfect entity, it could eternally enjoy or suffer. And what he
shows is that the ‘I am I’ consciousness is, as regards permanency, logically
impossible, since its elementary constituents constantly change, and the ‘I’ of
one birth differs from the ‘I’ of every other birth. But everything that I have
found in Buddhism accords with the theory of a gradual evolution of the perfect
man - viz. A Buddha through numberless natal experiences.
And in the consciousness of that person who at the end of a given chain of
beings attains Buddha-hood, or who succeeds in attaining the fourth stage of
Dhyâna, or mystic self-development, in any one of his births anterior to the
final one, the scenes of all these serial births are perceptible. In the ‘Jatakattahavannana,’ so well translated by Mr Rhys Davids, an expression continually recurs which I think
rather supports such an idea - viz. ‘Then the blessed one made manifest an
occurrence hidden by change of birth,’ or ‘that which had been hidden by,
&c.’ Early Buddhism, then, clearly held to a permanency of records in the Akâsa, and the potential capacity of man to read the same
when he has evoluted to the stage of true individual
enlightenment.”
The purely sensual feelings
and tastes of the late personality will drop off from it in Devachan, but it
does not follow that nothing is preservable in that
state, except feelings and thoughts having a direct reference to religion or
spiritual philosophy. On the contrary, all the superior phases, even of
sensuous emotion, find their appropriate sphere of development in Devachan. To
suggest a whole range of ideas by means of one illustration, a soul in
Devachan, if the soul of a man who was passionately devoted to music, would be
continuously enraptured by the sensations music produces. The person whose
happiness of the higher sort on earth had been entirely centered in the
exercise of the affections will miss none in Devachan of those whom he or she
loved. But, at once it will be asked, if some of these are not themselves fit
for Devachan, how then? The answer is, that does not
matter. For the person who loved them they will be there. It is not
necessary to say much more to give a clue to the position. Devachan is a
subjective state. It will seem, as real as the chairs and tables round us; and
remember that, above all things, to the profound philosophy of occultism are
the chairs and tables, and the whole objective scenery of the world, unreal and
merely transitory delusions of sense. As real as the
realities of this world to us, and even more so, will be the realities of
Devachan to those who go into that state.
From this it ensues that the
subjective isolation of Devachan, as it will perhaps be conceived at
first, is not real isolation at all, as the word is understood on the physical
plane of existence; it is companionship with all that the true soul craves for,
whether persons, things, or knowledge. An a patient consideration of the place
in Nature which Devachan occupies will show that this subjective isolation of
each human unit is the only condition which renders possible anything which can
be described as a felicitous spiritual existence after death for mankind at
large, and Devachan is as much a purely and absolutely felicitous condition for
all who attain it, as Avitchi is the reverse of it.
There is no inequality or injustice in the system; Devachan is by no means the
same thing for the good and the indifferent alike, but it is not a life of
responsibility, and therefore there is no logical place for it for suffering,
any more than in Avitchi there is any room for
enjoyment or repentance. It is a life of effects, not of causes;
a life of being paid your earnings, not of labouring
for them. Therefore it is impossible to be during that life cognizant of what
is going on on earth. Under the operation of such
cognition there would be no true happiness possible in the state after death. A
heaven which constituted a watch-tower, from which the occupants could still
survey the miseries of the earth, would really be a place of acute mental
suffering for its most sympathetic, unselfish, and meritorious inhabitants. If
we invest them in imagination with such a very limited range of sympathy that
they could be imagined as not caring about the spectacle of suffering after the
few persons to whom they were immediately attached had died and joined them,
still they would have a very unhappy period of waiting to go through before
survivors reached the end of an often long and toilsome existence below. And
even this hypothesis would be further vitiated by making heaven most painful
for occupants who were most unselfish and sympathetic, whose reflected distress
would thus continue on behalf of the afflicted race of mankind generally, even
after their personal kindred had been rescued by the lapse of time. The only
escape from this dilemma lies in the supposition that heaven is not yet opened
for business, so to speak, and that all people who have ever lived from Adam
downwards are still lying in a death-like trance, waiting for the resurrection
at the end of the world. This hypothesis also has its embarrassments, but we
are concerned at present with the scientific harmony of esoteric Buddhism, not
with the theories of other creeds.
Readers, however, who may
grant that a purview of earthly life from heaven would render happiness in
heaven impossible, may still doubt whether true happiness is possible in the
state, as it may be objected, of monotonous isolation now described. The
objection is merely raised from the point of view of an imagination that cannot
escape from its present surroundings. To begin with, about
monotony. No one will complain of having experienced monotony during the
minute, or moment, or half-hour, as it may have been of the greatest happiness
he may have enjoyed in life. Most people have had some happy moments, at all
events, to look back to for the purpose of this comparison; and let us take
even one such minute or moment, too short to be open to the least suspicion of
monotony, and imagine its sensations immensely prolonged without any external
events in progress to mark the lapse of time. There is no room, in such a
condition of things, for the conception of weariness. The unalloyed,
unchangeable sensation of intense happiness goes on and on, not for ever,
because the causes which have produced it are not infinite themselves, but for
very long periods of time, until the efficient impulse has exhausted itself.
Nor must it be supposed that
there is, so to speak, no change of occupation for souls in Devachan - that any
one moment of earthly sensation is selected for exclusive perpetuation. As a
teacher of the highest authority on this subject writes: -
“There are two fields of
causal manifestations - the objective and subjective. The grosser energies -
those which operate in the denser condition of matter - manifest objectively in
the next physical life, their outcome being the new personality of each birth
marshaling within the grand cycle of the evolving individuality. It is but the
moral and spiritual activities that find their sphere of effects in Devachan.
And, thought and fancy being limitless, how can it be argued for one moment
that there is anything like monotony in the state of Devachan? Few are the men
whose lives were so utterly destitute of feeling,
love, or of a more or less intense predilection for some one line of thought as
to be made unfit for a proportionate period of Devachanic experience beyond
their earthly life. So, for instance, while the vices, physical and sensual
attractions, say, of a great philosopher, but a bad friend and a selfish man,
may result in the birth of a new and still greater intellect, but at the same
time a most miserable man, reaping the Karmic effects of all the causes
produced by the ‘old’ being, and whose make-up was inevitable from the pre-ponderating proclivities of that being in the preceding
birth, the intermedial period between the two
physical births cannot be, in Nature’s exquisitely well-adjusted laws,
but a hiatus of unconsciousness. There can be no such dreary blank as
kindly promised, or rather implied, by Christian Protestant theology, to the
‘departed souls,’ which, between death and ‘resurrection,’ have to hang on in
space, in mental catalepsy, awaiting the ‘Day of Judgment.’ Causes produced by
mental and spiritual energy being far greater and more important than those
that are created by physical impulses, their effects have to be, for weal or
woe, proportionately as great. Lives on this earth, or other earths, affording
no proper field for such effects, and every labourer
being entitled to his own harvest, they have to expand in either Devachan or Avitchi. [The lowest states of Devachan interchain
with those of Avitchi.] Bacon for instance, whom a
poet called
‘The brightest, wisest, meanest
of mankind,’might reappear in his next incarnation as
a greedy money-getter, with extraordinary intellectual capacities. But, however
great the latter, they would find no proper field in which that particular line
of thought, pursued during his previous lifetime by the founder of modern philosophy,
could reap all its dues. It would be but the astute lawyer, the corrupt
Attorney-General, the ungrateful friend, and the dishonest Lord Chancellor, who
might find, led on by his Karma, a congenial new soil in the body of the
money-lender, and reappear as a new Shylock. But where would Bacon, the
incomparable thinker, with whom philosophical inquiry upon the most profound
problems of Nature was his ‘first and last and only love,’ where would this
‘intellectual giant of his race,’ once disrobed of his lower nature, go to?
Have all the effects of that magnificent intellect to vanish and disappear? Certainly not. Thus his moral and spiritual qualities would
also have to find a field in which their energies could expand themselves.
Devachan is such a field. Hence all the great plans of moral reform, of
intellectual research into abstract principles of Nature - all the divine,
spiritual aspirations that had so filled the brightest part of his life would,
in Devachan, come to fruition; and the abstract entity, known in the preceding
birth as Francis Bacon, and that maybe known in its subsequent
re-incarnation as a despised usurer - that Bacon’s own creation, his
Frankenstein, the son of his Karma - shall in the meanwhile occupy itself in
this inner world, also of its own preparation, in enjoying the effects of the
grand beneficial spiritual causes sown in life. It would live a purely and
spiritually conscious existence - a dream of realistic vividness - until Karma,
being satisfied in that direction, and the ripple of force reaching the edge of
its sub-cycle basin, the being should move into its next area of causes, either
in this same world or another, according to his stage of progression . . . .
Therefore, there is’ a change of occupation,’ a continual change, in
Devachan. For that dreamlife is but the fruition, the
harvest-time, of those psychic seed-germs dropped from the tree of physical
existence in our moments of dream and hope - fancy-glimpses of bliss and
happiness, stifled in an ungrateful social soil, blooming in the rosy dawn of
Devachan, and ripening under its ever-fructifying sky. If man had but one
single moment of ideal experience, not even then could it be, as erroneously
supposed, the indefinite prolongation of that ‘single moment.’ That one note,
struck from the lyre of life, would form the key-note of the being’s subjective
state, and work out into numberless harmonic tones and semitones of psychic
phantasmagoria. There, all unrealized hopes, aspirations, dreams, become fully
realized, and the dreams of the objective become the realities of the
subjective existence. And there, behind the curtain of Maya, its vaporous and
deceptive appearances are perceived by the Initiate, who has learned the great
secret how to penetrate thus deep into the Arcana of
Being . . . .”
As physical existence has its
cumulative intensity from infancy to prime, and its diminishing energy
thenceforward to dotage and death, so the dream-life of Devachan is lived correspondentially. There is the first flutter of psychic
life, the attainment of prime, the gradual exhaustion of force passing into
conscious lethargy, semi-unconsciousness, oblivion and - not death, but birth!
- birth into another personality and the resumption of
action which daily begets new congeries of causes that must be worked out in
another term of Devachan.
“It is not a reality then, it
is a mere dream,” objectors will urge; “the soul so bathed in a delusive
sensation of enjoyment, which has no reality all the while, is being cheated by
Nature, and must encounter a terrible shock when it wakes to its mistake.” But,
in the nature of things, it never does or can wake. The waking from Devachan is
its next birth into objective life, and the draught of Lethe has then been
taken. Nor as regards the isolation of each soul is there any consciousness of
isolation whatever; nor is there ever possibly a parting from its chosen
associates. Those associates are not in the nature of companions who may wish
to go away, of friends who may tire of the friend that loves them, even if he
or she does not tire of them. Love, the creating force, has placed their living
image before the personal soul which craves for their presence, and that image
will never fly away.
On this aspect of the subject
I may again avail myself of the language of my teacher:-
“Objectors of that kind will
be simply postulating an incongruity, an intercourse of entities in Devachan,
which applies only to the mutual relationship of physical existence! Two
sympathetic souls, both disembodied, will each work out its own Devachanic
sensations, making the other a sharer in its subjective bliss. This will be as
real to them, naturally, as though both were yet on this earth. Nevertheless,
each is dissociated from the other as regards personal or corporeal association.
While the latter is the only one of its kind that is recognized by our earth
experience as an actual intercourse, for the Devachanee
it would be not only something unreal, but could have no existence for it
in any sense, not even as a delusion: a physical body or even a Mâyâvi-rûpa remaining to its spiritual senses as
invisible as it is itself to the physical senses of those who loved it best on
earth. Thus even though one of the ‘sharers’ were alive and utterly unconscious
of that intercourse in his waking state, still every dealing with him would be
to the Devachanee an absolute reality, And
what actual companionship could there ever be other than the purely
idealistic one, as above described, between two subjective entities
which are not even as material as that ethereal body-shadow - the Mâyâvi-rûpa? To object to this on the ground that one is
thus ‘cheated by Nature,’ and to call it ‘ a delusive
sensation of enjoyment which has no reality,’ is to show oneself utterly unfit
to comprehend the conditions of life and being outside of our material
existence. For how can the same distinction be made in Devachan - i.e. outside
of the conditions of earth-life - between what we call a reality and a
factitious or an artificial counterfeit of the same,
in this, our world? The same principle cannot apply to the two sets of
conditions. It is conceivable that what we call a reality in our embodied
physical state will exist under the same conditions as an actuality for a
disembodied entity? On earth, man is dual - in the sense of being a thing of
matter and a thing of spirit; hence the natural distinction made by his mind -
the analyst of his physical sensations and spiritual perceptions - between an
actuality and a fiction; though, even in this life, the two groups of faculties
are constantly equilibrating each other, each group when dominant seeing as
fiction or delusion what the other believes to be most real. But in Devachan
our Ego has ceased to be dualistic, in the above sense, and becomes a
spiritual, mental entity. That which was a fiction, a dream in life, and which
had its being but in the region of ‘fancy,’ becomes, under the new conditions
of existence, the only possible reality. Thus, for us to postulate the
possibility of any other reality for a Devachanee is
to maintain an absurdity, a monstrous fallacy, an idea unphilosophical
to the last degree. The actual is that which is acted or performed de facto:
‘the reality of a thing is proved by its actuality.’ And the suppositions and
artificial having no possible existence in that Devachanic state, the logical
sequence is that everything in it is actual and real. For, again, whether
overshadowing the five principles during the life of the personality, or
entirely separated from the grosser principles by the dissolution of the body -
the sixth principle, or our ‘Spiritual Soul,’ has no substance - it is ever Arupa; nor is it confined to one place with a limited
horizon of perceptions around it. Therefore, whether in or out of
its mortal body it is ever distinct, and free from its limitations; and if we
call its Devachanic experiences ‘a cheating of Nature,’ then we should never be
allowed to call ‘reality’ any of those purely abstract feelings that belong
entirely to, and are reflected and assimilated by, our higher soul -
such, for instance, as an ideal perception of the beautiful, profound
philanthropy, love, &c., as well as every other purely spiritual sensation
that during life fills our inner being with either immense joy or pain.”
We must remember that by the
very nature of the system described there are infinite varieties of well-being
in Devachan, suited to the infinite varieties of merit in mankind. If “the next
world” really were the objective heaven which ordinary theology preaches, there
would be endless injustice and inaccuracy in its operation. People, to begin
with, would be either admitted or excluded, and the differences of favour shown
to different guests within the all-favoured region
would not sufficiently provide for differences of merit in this life. But the
real heaven of our earth adjusts itself to the needs and merits of each new
arrival with unfailing certainty. Not merely as regards the duration of the
blissful state, which is determined by the causes engendered during objective
life, but as regards the intensity and amplitude of the emotions which
constitute that blissful state, the heaven of each person who attains the
really existent heaven is precisely fitted to his capacity for enjoying it. It
is the creation of his own aspirations and faculties.
More than this it may be impossible for the uninitiated comprehension to
realize. But this indication of its character is enough to show how perfectly
it falls into its appointed place in the whole scheme of evolution.
“Devachan,” to resume my
direct quotations, “is, of course, a state, not a locality, as much as Avitchi, its antithesis (which please not to confound with hell).
Esoteric Buddhist philosophy has three principal lokas
so-called - namely, 1. Kâma loka;
2. Rûpa loka; and 3. Arûpa loka; or in their literal translation and meaning - 1.
world of desires or passions, of unsatisfied earthly
cravings - the abode of ‘Shells’ and Victims, of Elementaries
and Suicides; 2. the world of forms - i.e., of shadows
more spiritual, having form and objectivity, but no substance; and 3. the formless world, or rather the world of no form,
the incorporeal, since its denizens can have neither body, shape, nor colour
for us mortals, and in the sense that we give to these terms. These are the
three spheres of ascending spirituality in which the several groups of
subjective and semi-subjective entities find their attractions. All but the
suicides and the victims of premature violent deaths go, according to their
attractions and powers, either into the Devachanic or the Avitchi
state, which two states form the numberless subdivisions of Rûpa
and Arûpa lokas - that is
to say, that such states not only vary in degree, or in their presentation to
the subject entity as regards form, colour, &c., but that there is an
infinite scale of such states, in their progressive spirituality and intensity
of feeling, from the lowest in the Rûpa, up to the
highest and the most exalted in the Arûpa-loka. The
student must bear in mind that personality is the synonym for
limitation; and that the more selfish, the more contracted the person’s ideas,
the closer will he cling to the lower spheres of being, the longer loiter on
the plane of selfish social intercourse.”
Devachan being a condition of
mere subjective enjoyment, the duration and intensity of which is determined by
the merit and spirituality of the earth-life last past, there is no
opportunity, while the soul inhabits it, for the punctual requital of evil
deeds. But Nature does not content herself with either forgiving sins in a free
and easy way, or damning sinners outright, like a lazy master too indolent,
rather than too good-natured, to govern his household justly. The Karma of
evil, be it great or small, is at certainly operative at the appointed time as
the Karma of good. But the place of its operation is not Devachan, but either a
new rebirth, or Avitchi - a state to be reached only
in exceptional cases and by exceptional natures. In other words, while the
common-place sinner will reap the fruits of his evil deeds in a following
re-incarnation, the exceptional criminal, the aristocrat of sin, has Avitchi in prospect - that is to say, the condition of
subjective spiritual misery which is the reverse side of Devachan.
“Avitchi
is a state of the most ideal spiritual wickedness, something akin to the
state of Lucifer, so superbly described by
Generally the re-birth into
objective existence is the event for which the Karma of evil patiently waits;
and then it irresistibly asserts itself, not that the Karma of good exhausts
itself in Devachan, leaving the unhappy monad to develop a new consciousness
with no material beyond the evil deeds of its last personality. The re-birth
will be qualified by the merit as well as the demerit of the previous life, but
the Devachan existence is a rosy sleep - a peaceful night, with dreams more
vivid than day, and imperishable for many centuries.
It will be seen that the
Devachan state is only one of the conditions of existence which go to make up
the whole spiritual or relatively spiritual complement of our earth life.
Observers of spiritualistic phenomena would never have been perplexed, as they
have been, if there were no other but the Devachan state to be dealt with. For
once in Devachan there is very little opportunity for communication between a spirit, then wholly absorbed in its own sensations and
practically oblivious of the earth left behind, and its former friends still
living. Whether gone before or yet remaining on earth, those friends, if the
bond of affection has been sufficiently strong, will be with the happy spirit
still, to all intents and purposes for him, and as happy, blissful, innocent,
as the disembodied dreamer himself. It is possible, however, for yet
living persons to have visions of Devachan, though such visions are rare, and
only one-sided, the entities in Devachan, sighted by the earthly clairvoyant,
being quite unconscious themselves of undergoing such observation. The spirit
of the clairvoyant ascends into the condition of Devachan in such rare visions,
and thus becomes subject to the vivid delusions of that existence. It is under
the impression that the spirits, with which it is in Devachanic bonds of
sympathy, have come down to visit earth and itself, while the converse
operation has really taken place. The clairvoyant’s spirit has been raised
towards those in Devachan. Thus many of the subjective spiritual communications
- most of them when the sensitives are pure-minded - are real, though it is
most difficult for the uninitiated medium to fix in his mind the true and
correct pictures of what he sees and hears. In the same way some of the
phenomena called psychography (though more rarely) are
also real. The spirit of the sensitive, getting odylized,
so to say, by the aura of the spirit in the Devachan, becomes for a few
minutes that departed personality, and writes in the handwriting of the latter,
in his language and in his thoughts, as they were during his lifetime. The two
spirits become blended in one, and the preponderance of one over the other
during such phenomena determines the preponderance of personality in the
characteristic exhibited. Thus it may incidentally be observed, what is called rapport,
is, in plain fact, an identity of molecular vibration between the astral
part of the incarnate medium and the astral part of the disincarnate
personality.
As already indicated, and as
the common sense of the mater would show, there are great varieties of states
in Devachan, and each personality drops into its befitting place there. Thence,
consequently he emerges in his befitting place in the world of causes, this
earth or another, as the case may be, when his time for re-birth comes. Coupled
with survival of the affinities, comprehensively described as Karma, the
affinities both for good and evil engendered by the previous life, this process
will be seen to accomplish nothing less than an explanation of the problem
which has always been regarded as so incomprehensible - the inequalities of
life. The conditions on which we enter life are the consequences of the use we
have made of our last set of conditions. They do not impede the development of
fresh Karma, whatever they may be, for this will be generated by the use we
make of them in turn. Nor is it to be supposed that every event of a
current life which bestows joy or sorrow is old Karma bearing fruit. Many may
be the immediate consequences of acts in the life to which they belong -
ready-money transactions with Nature, so to speak, of which it may be hardly
necessary to make any entry in her books. But the great inequalities of life,
as regards the start in it which different human beings make, is a manifest
consequence of old Karma, the infinite varieties of which always keep up a
constant supply of recruits for all the manifold varieties of human condition.
It must not be supposed that
the real Ego slips instantaneously at death from the earth life and its
entanglements, into the Devachanic condition. When the division of, or
purification of the fifth principle has been accomplished in Kâma loca by the contending attractions of the fourth and sixth
principles, the real Ego passes into a period of unconscious gestation. I have
spoken already of the way in which the Devachanic life is in itself
a process of growth, maturity, and decline; but the analogies of earth are even
more closely preserved.
There is a spiritual
ante-natal state at the entrance to spiritual life, as there is a similar and
equally unconscious physical state at the entrance to objective life. And this
period, in different cases, may be of very different duration - from a few
moments to immense periods of years. When a man dies, his soul or fifth
principle becomes unconscious and loses all remembrance of things internal as
wall as external. Whether his stay in Kâma loca has
to last but a few moments, hours, days, weeks, months or years, whether he dies
a natural or a violent death, whether this occurs in youth or age, and whether
the Ego has been good, bad, or indifferent, his consciousness leaves him as
suddenly as the flame leaves a wick when it is blown out. When life has retired
from the last particle of the brain matter, his perceptive faculties become
extinct for ever, and his spiritual powers of cognition and volition become for
the time being as extinct as the others. His Mâyâvi-rûpa
may be thrown into objectivity, as in the case of apparitions after death, but
unless it is projected by a conscious or intense desire to see or appear to
some one shooting through the dying brain, the apparition will be simply
automatic. The revival of consciousness in Kâma loca
is obviously, from what has been said, a phenomenon that depends on the
characteristic of the principles passing, unconsciously at the moment, out of
the dying body. It may become tolerably complete under circumstances by no
means to be desired, or it may be obliterated by a rapid passage into the
gestation state leading to Devachan.
This gestation state may be
of very long duration in proportion to the Ego’s spiritual stamina, and
Devachan accounts for the remainder of the period between death and the next
physical re-birth. The whole period is, of course, of very varying length in
the case of different persons, but re-birth in less than fifteen hundred years
is spoken of as almost impossible, while the stay in Devachan, which rewards a
very rich Karma is sometimes said to extend to enormous periods.
Find out more about
Theosophy
with these links
links
The
Cardiff Theosophical Society Website
The National Wales Theosophy Website
Theosophy Cardiff’s Instant Guide to Theosophy
Theosophy Cardiff’s Gallery of Great Theosophists
Dave’s Streetwise Theosophy Boards
The Theosophy Website that welcomes
absolute beginners
Independent Theosophy Blog
If you run a Theosophy Group
you
can use this as an introductory handout.
One liners and quick explanations
About aspects of Theosophy
The
Voice of the Silence Website
An Independent Theosophical Republic
Links to Free Online Theosophy
Study Resources; Courses,
Writings,
The main criteria
for the inclusion of
links on this site is
that they have some
relationship (however
tenuous) to Theosophy
and are lightweight,
amusing or entertaining.
Topics include
Quantum Theory and Socks,
Dick
Dastardly and Legendary Blues Singers.
An
entertaining introduction to Theosophy
This is for
everybody not just people in Wales
It’s all “water
under the bridge” but everything you do
makes an imprint on
the Space-Time Continuum.
A selection of
articles on Reincarnation
Provided in
response to the large number
of enquiries we
receive on this subject
No
Aardvarks were harmed in the
Within the British Isles, the
Adyar Theosophical Society
Bangor*Basingstoke*Billericay*Birmingham*Blackburn*Bolton*Bournemouth
Bradford*Bristol*Camberley*Cardiff*Chester*Conwy*Coventry*Dundee*Edinburgh
Folkstone*Glasgow*Grimsby*Inverness*Isle
of Man*Lancaster*Leeds*Leicester
Letchworth*London*Manchester*Merseyside*Middlesborough*Newcastle upon Tyne
North Devon*Northampton*Northern
Ireland*Norwich*Nottingham
Perth*Republic of Ireland*Sidmouth*Southport*Sussex*Swansea*Torbay
Tunbridge Wells*Wallasey*Warrington*Wembley*Winchester*Worthing
The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy
The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy
_____________________
Tekels Park to be Sold to a Developer
Concerns are raised about the fate of the wildlife as
The Spiritual Retreat, Tekels Park in Camberley,
Surrey, England is to be sold to a developer
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A B C D EFG H IJ KL M N OP QR S T UV WXYZ
Complete Theosophical Glossary
in Plain Text Format
1.22MB
___________________________
What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
_____________________
Preface to the American Edition Introduction
Occultism and its Adepts The Theosophical Society
First Occult Experiences Teachings of Occult Philosophy
Later Occult Phenomena Appendix
______________________________
Preface
Theosophy and the Masters General Principles
The Earth Chain Body and Astral Body Kama – Desire
Manas Of
Reincarnation Reincarnation Continued
Karma Kama Loka
Devachan
Cycles
Arguments Supporting Reincarnation
Differentiation Of Species Missing Links
Psychic Laws, Forces, and Phenomena
Psychic Phenomena and Spiritualism
________________________________
Quick Explanations with Links to More
Detailed Info
What is Theosophy ? Theosophy Defined (More Detail)
Three Fundamental Propositions Key Concepts of Theosophy
Cosmogenesis
Anthropogenesis
Root Races
Karma
Ascended Masters After Death States
Reincarnation
The Seven Principles of Man Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott William Quan Judge
The Start of the Theosophical Society Theosophical Society Presidents
History of the Theosophical Society Glossaries of Theosophical Terms
History of the Theosophical Society in Wales
The Three Objectives of the Theosophical Society
Explanation of the Theosophical Society Emblem
Karma Fundamental Principles Laws: Natural and Man-Made The Law of Laws
The Eternal Now
Succession
Causation The Laws of Nature A Lesson of The Law
Karma Does Not Crush Apply This Law
Man in The Three Worlds Understand The Truth
Man and His Surroundings The Three Fates The Pair of Triplets Thought, The Builder
Practical Meditation Will and Desire
The Mastery of Desire Two Other Points
The Third Thread Perfect Justice
Our Environment
Our Kith and Kin Our Nation
The Light for a Good Man Knowledge of Law The Opposing Schools
The More Modern View Self-Examination Out of the Past
Old Friendships
We Grow By Giving Collective Karma Family Karma
National Karma
India’s Karma
National Disasters
We can learn something from these guys
(The universe exists for a while and then sort of
doesn’t)
Outline of the Creation Process
There is no Dead Matter in the Universe
The Divine Spark in Everything
The 10 rungs on the Ladder of Life
The Sevenfold Constitution of Man
Yes, we all operate at 7 levels
(or shouldn’t be)
(You do take some things with you but sadly not your
money)
(The Energy Driving the Universe)
We haven’t always looked like this
Try these if you are looking
for a
local
Theosophy Group or Centre
UK Listing of Theosophical Groups
Results & Voting Figures for the
____________________
Your Own
Theosophy Group Starts Here
A Guide to
starting your own
Theosophy Group
These are
suggestions and pointers for forming
your own independent
Theosophy Group and
not instructions on
how to form a branch of a
larger Theosophical Organisation.
The subject of
affiliation to a larger body is
covered but as affiliation
may mean compromise
and nobody owns
Theosophy anyway, we leave
that decision entirely up to you
________________________
General pages
about Wales, Welsh History
and The History of
Theosophy in Wales
Wales is a
Principality within the United Kingdom and has an eastern
border with England. The
land area is just over 8,000 square miles.
Snowdon in North Wales is
the highest mountain at 3,650 feet.
The coastline is
almost 750 miles long. The population of Wales
as at the 2001 census is 2,946,200.
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