FOURTH
LESSON.
THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE
SOUL IN HUMAN FORM.
(CONTINUED.)
You have been taken, in a general sense, through
all the expressions in human life in the three degrees: the first being
the expressions of physical contact and of conquest over the physical;
the next general degree being the intellectual, or mental, victory; and
the third that of spiritual conquest; which is, of course, the realm of
moral triumph. In each of these decrees there is an interblending; the
intellectual beginning before the physical ceases to dominate, and the
spiritual beginning before the intellectual and physical entirely cease
their supremacy; so that there are in the world always, at the same time,
illustrations of each of these states. For in the very beginnings there
were illustrations of spiritual states from those who accompanied the Souls
first to find expression here. Thus all have before them, if they will
read aright, illustrations of the entire book of human life; each human
life representing one of the embodiments, and all existing on the earth
forming an illustration of the conditions that must be experienced or expressed
by each Soul. So if it were possible for you to divide the existing states
of human life into classes, or those expressing unfoldment in distinct
degrees, you would find some are in states representing more physical than
intellectual or mental expression; you would find others in states representing
more mental than physical and spiritual expression; and you would find,
though those are much more rare, other lives in states representing spiritual
triumph. These all illustrate the different conditions of human existence.
The lines of life that reach toward the highest
expression, as we said before, are impulsions from the Soul. The expressions
fall short of that by contact with matter, which, of course, is less than
the Soul; so whatever there is that is imperfect in matter, for the time
prevents that perfect light from being revealed; but the whole lesson of
embodiments is the overcoming of these material conditions. If, therefore,
the line of life in the Soul is the overcoming of matter through the adverse
conditions that are found upon any planet, then all Souls that approach
that planet, being equally perfect, must encounter the same obstacles.
Many object to the proposition that all Souls
must pass through similar states. But if all are not required to pass through
them, why are any? If it is necessary for one it must be as necessary for
all others. As life exists here, why have its various discrepancies and
inequalities never been explained in any other way than through the systems
of teaching that include various states of expression, or embodiments.
When travelers ascend the Alps they expect to
encounter glaciers, they expect to go down into ravines, they expect to
overcome the difficult passages met by their predecessors; all this is
prepared for in their ascent; they perform the journey for the purpose
of beholding the splendor at the top. When the Soul expresses itself in
a culmination, it is that perfect degree that is sought in that direction;
the stages between the beginning in that line and that of the genius, or
the culmination in that line, are stages of overcoming obstacles. Obstacles
being thus incident to physical existence, they are found here. Everything
in existence has some adequate cause, or purpose, there is some solution
for it, and to find that solution is the great object of life.
It does not create serpents because the teacher
discovers them and explains the way to overcome them, and the antidote
to their poison; nor does it create murderers because we can explain why
they exist. Man finds these conditions in life, as the naturalist finds
the life and nature of the insect, the serpent or whatever other objects
nature holds, that each may be traced to its legitimate cause, and thereby
man may gain knowledge which he did not have before; so what the life here
is for is to overcome the conditions of evil, not to make them; of course
if they are encountered in contact with matter, matter itself holding sway,
blinding, as it does, with the human senses, then each step is to the vanquishment
of that which blinds; so there is reconciliation to every imperfect condition
in which human beings find themselves. If some seem to be perfect in certain
directions it is because they have ripened in other states of individual
expression. If others are degraded in some direction it is because they
have not yet had experience in the ways that the former have.
There is not as great a difference between those
in the lowest or most degraded states and the average present state of
humanity, (or even its highest state,) as there is between the present
state of mankind and the state of an angel. Compared to the angels, who
is there that could escape condemnation? who is there that is not angry?
who is there that does not deal falsely with his follow man?
Whatever may be the aversion existing in the mind
toward, or the growth beyond, individual expression of any of the states
of degradation which may exist in the world, it is evident that their solution
is in the state or degree of expression in each individual, and if one
has advanced very far beyond such conditions, they afford no subject for
condemnation, but rather of commiseration.
The power, therefore, which enables man to know
that when the angel triumphs the states of obliquity are overcome, and
that through the line that leads to expression in art, in music, in poesy,
in philosophy, in everything, victory is alone when perfection is attained,
is supreme in that which is called man's moral sense. When any passion,
any appetite, or any benighted condition is overcome, that is victory over
the senses; when the knowledge of self-righteousness is overcome, it is
the victory over the most abject form of selfishness. The higher the attributes
claimed the lower seems to be the state of deviation from that height.
The ignorant man professing no knowledge of moral law, has, in that sense,
not reached the state of accountability. That begins when the first glimmerings
of conscience come. This struggle to overcome the outward self that the
spirit may triumph, that the Soul may be recorded, is the beginning of
moral responsibility. Violence against a criminal, who has no adequate
moral perception of his crime, is not far removed from the crime be has
committed. He who hates the hater, which the murderer is,
only displays the state of murder in a little different manner.
Was it not Christ who said: "He who is angry with
his brother hath already committed murder in his heart?" There are
many people who are called murderers who have no murder in their hearts,
and many who are not called murderers who have. Thus the real difference
between crime and so called goodness is not so wide as one imagines from
any present state of human unfoldment. The nations that sanction and make
the most gigantic preparation for war, to be ready if an opportunity offers,
(and some of them eagerly seek that opportunity,) can not be said to be
far removed from the outlaw who, for individual gain, goes out and slays
his kind; one is national, the other is individual.
Those in other conditions may not know that, in
a state where physical violence is the highest law of being, there can
be no moral responsibility, nor moral perception; it is, after all, only
when the moral law is beginning to be the law of life that responsibility
begins. The man who slays, not knowing that killing is forbidden by the
moral law, can not be held amenable to the moral law as he who does it
knowing that it is forbidden. Remnants are to be traced in each individual
mind or life of those conditions, in which the highest human state was
one of violence and crime, and physical violence toward criminals; when
the moral perception sets in, the states of physical violence become immoral,
for the simple reason that the moral law teaches a higher and better method,
not only of redressing wrong but of teaching the wrong-doer.
The perception of the moral law, and the appreciation
of these principles are of slow and gradual growth in the minds of the
people. The world waits long for all fulfillments, and the average human
life is far from its highest victory, since each one criticizes and condemns
with violence a different kind of violence in another.
The general mind is prompted to say: oh, I can
not believe that every one must pass through all degrees of degradation!
But that which would be degradation to a higher stage of expression is
not so to that state which knows nothing higher. The present expressions
of degradation are what each has passed through when not yet aware of its
import. The awakening comes when one already begins to rise above it. One
might as well despise the state of childhood and never expect any human
being to be born in any other condition than that of manhood and
womanhood. Each one must experience every fault, failing, and foible, until
they are overcome, the disgrace is not in the thing itself, but in a condition
which knows of wrong and still continues in it; but even this is another
state of childhood, like the wilfulness of the half grown boy or girl,
not yet arrived at the estate of manhood or womanhood, but feebly imitating
the wisdom not yet possessed. But we have observed that the greatest philanthropists,
the most fully rounded natures, those, of course, who have overcome all
temptation in a given direction, are the most lenient toward the states
of crime; this is because they can not only perceive the difference in
states as an explanation of crime, but they are beyond any possible condition
of temptation; and as consciousness of temptation in a similar direction
is often the cause of the hatred of an offender, so he who censures his
fellow man who errs, instead of pitying him, unwittingly betrays that he
may have in his heart the germ of possible temptation in the same direction.
The various experiences in human existence, of
prosperity, sorrow, pain, poverty, riches, power, bondage, etc., are different
tests applied to the different stages of growth, as well as for the growth
itself. The finely wrought metal is thoroughly tempered and put to the
most crucial tests; when it is impervious it is pronounced perfect. The
ship clad in an armor of steel in which there is a single flaw will disappoint
those who passed it or sent it out to sea, that flaw will prove its ruin.
It is, therefore, in all the intricate ways and windings of human existence,
when human beings feel the safest, and are hedged around with social, moral,
and theological armor, that the temptation finds them; when it conquers
them it simply proves that the victory in that direction has not been complete.
We know of a very philanthropic clergyman, in
England, who, in order that he may sympathize with the state of the prisoner,
locks himself up with the criminals and shares their food and lodging.
This is about as absurd as for a man to be hung for murder, who has not
committed murder, that he may know how a murderer feels. The state of the
murderer is in the heart; one can not take the place of the criminal unless
he is in a state of crime. He may endure, physically, what the criminal
is called upon to do; but he has the armor with which to do it: the armor
of innocence, so that which is a penalty to the criminal, is simply the
heroism of self-appointed martyrdom to him who shares the dungeon but has
not the darkness of guilt.
One must not mistake that which is transiently
noble, and seemingly generous, for that which is real nobility and self-abnegation.
This great moral chaos, where embodiments are thrown into existence, in
which is illustrated all the complexity of man's moral being, is, nevertheless,
governed by rules more absolute, by laws more unyielding than any laws
that govern the physical realm. The degrees of moral growth are degrees
not only of conquest over temptation, but of conquest of the self which
is the physical arbiter of man's destiny. That self which you are taught
to cultivate in physical existence, and which in some material and mental
states you must cultivate, is the very self that you finally have to overcome.
Just as in arithmetic you learn certain propositions and combinations of
numbers which are valuable, but when you pass on to algebra you cease to
use them, they are no longer valuable, you have learned that which is better;
and in the higher branches of geometry you have still greater triumph,
methods far superior with which to express and to solve the problems presented.
In like manner this physical self, which is first nurtured and has its
place in the primitive stages of expression, must afterward be overcome,
superseded.
That which supplies the physical energy is not
to give any honor nor any aggregation of power to the one possessing it,
(any more than treasures of gold or other material possession) but in its
highest use is a Divine bestowment. Thus the moral law is thrust upon man's
outward nature, in exact opposition to that nature, to be afterwards reconciled
to it by overcoming, and bending the material part to the uses of the spirit.
We have illustrated this by the first states of existence, in which the
victory of physical strength, that which constitutes the physical possessions,
is power. When the moral nature enters there is a perception that weakness
ought to be protected. The greatest evidence of human advancement today,
is to be found under the Christian idea that the weak are to be protected
against the strong.
Once more let us refer to those states of superficial
moral growth wherein there are flaws, chiefest of which is the flaw of
self-praise; self-righteousness. This pride of excellence in any moral
direction is the greatest flaw. As much greater than the pride of physical
strength or intellectual power, as the moral nature is greater than the
physical strength or the intellectual power. Therefore it is not strange
that in the midst of all the words of gentleness and encouragement spoken
by Jesus to those who were condemned and despised by men, that His words
were of a rebuking nature toward the self-righteous, those who considered
themselves the judges of others; the "scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,"
representing the typical lovers of virtue in themselves; the state which
scorned anything else than its own standard of excellence. The moral law
puts to the severest test such states of supposed virtue, in which the
letter of the law is the rule for human action. He who conforms to the
letter of the law is considered a good man, while he who, sometimes disobeying
the form of the law, most manfully struggles against temptation and finally
overcomes it, is, nevertheless, censured and condemned. Such a state is
often not considered a success in human life, but in the kingdom of the
spirit each step toward self-conquest, in the sense of overcoming, not
only the tendency to temptation but the possibility of it, is a step of
victory, and that is moral attainment.
In all the states, however complicated, that human
life may be, it must be remembered by each that the highest possible states
are those toward which the human race, as a whole, is tending, as represented
by the highest in each individual.
There is repetition and reiteration of many of
these points, because we desire to make clear the solution of many of the
difficult problems in man's moral condition, for here is the principal
struggle, and here the final victory.
There are four general states of expression in
connection with man's relation to all moral propositions; and as many embodiments
in each state as there are varieties of conditions in the human race.
First: Unconsciousness of the moral law,
and therefore no responsibility in connection with it.
Second: Consciousness of the moral law, but inability
to resist temptation. Here is the beginning of responsibility.
Third: A false height, Pharisaical "I am
holier than thou." Which does not commit an offense because
it is condemned, and because temptation is not in that direction.
Here is the gravest responsibility.
Fourth. The victory over the offense through victory
over the temptation, and, consequently, the victory over self-praise and
laudation. The triumph of moral law.
As previously noted and emphasized, the states of
expression which include no knowledge of the moral law, are states of physical
expression merely; and, like the states of infancy in personal embodiments,
include no responsibility. The one hope for such conditions must forever
be included in the term growth; expression in further embodiments until
the higher nature can be expressed.
The second stage, being more complicated, is the
more perplexing; but it calls for the higher degree of charity. The awakened
glimmerings of moral perception are not the full growth of moral power,
nor even the half growth, any more than the boy half grown is a man; but
very often this moiety of growth is mistaken for full manhood.
The third stage, or false height, is even more
difficult to meet. To the individual it seems like the real height, but
has forever been revealed as the false one. To have charity for the individual
and yet to tear the mask from this false condition, is only in the power
of the most exalted lives, the highest teachers. Any measure of self-praise
or self-congratulation, of thinking or acting: " I thank God that I am
not as other men," is a portion of the evidence of this third condition.
The second and third states express the general
condition of mankind morally.
The fourth stage needs no elaboration: a state
absolutely free from moral obliquity, and absolutely free from self-praise
or even self-consciousness, is an ideal, and yet a surpassingly real, state;
a divine expression.
We pass on, from the usual individual lines of
embodiment, to those exceptional lives, who seem to be here for an especial
purpose; who come as some rara avis in terris, to astonish the world
with their brilliancy. These are embodied Souls, perhaps from other planets;
alien to the earth, but are sent here on some errand of experience for
themselves, which includes, also, a lesson to those embodied on the earth.
Sometimes they are in advance; and the world looks on in amazement at their
achievements; sometimes they are Nemeses, and the people to whom they come
do not know the true nature of their visitation, but ages afterward it
is revealed.
Across the interstellar spaces there is spiritual,
as well as magnetic, sympathy between planets; and if the earth, or any
nation thereof, has arrived at the condition needing an illustration of
the life that is not upon the earth at the time, or if a force is needed
that no life upon earth is qualified to give, or if a Nemesis is required,
then one takes a pilgrimage from the planet next in advance to show what
is needed, and to illustrate the power that is beyond. This explains those
peculiar embodiments that seem to thrust themselves in upon human life,
and which seem to be unaccounted for.
Then there are conditions in life where you will
see individuals who seem to be made up of fragments; who never do anything
continuously; who can not persist in anything as a pursuit; who seem to
have ability in many directions, but no tenacity of purpose. One of these
lives would seem to be adapted to commerce for a while, then he would be
a lawyer, then he would be a book maker, and finally a teacher, or a clergyman,
then he would turn speculator; these are the gathering up of some of the
fragments of embodiments that were not finished. These fragmentary states
are like threads. You may have seen work that was done on some of those
ancient hand-looms, where there was not a continuous thread, but the ends
of the woof were left to be afterward carefully gathered up, or cut off,
to make the warp and woof complete. These fragmentary and erratic lives
are like the broken threads, having this intention; that they are taking
up those threads of other embodiments to carry them forward to complete
the fabric of life. You may have in mind some who seem to possess peculiar
traits, each of which are wonderful, in their way, who have intelligence
and ability in almost every direction, yet no continued purpose; they are
illustrations of this state to which we refer. Sometimes these erratic
lives suddenly change when they reach a certain state; when these fragments
are outworked and discarded, then the new line, whatever it may be that
is to be taken up, will be carried on to completion.
Many embodiments beginning expression in one direction
turn, in later years, toward something entirely different. The child and
the youth may seem to have tendencies that point in one direction, but
mature life will find them wholly changed. We call this an overlapping;
where the previous embodiment had not finished expression in a certain
line. You will see this illustrated in precocious children, whom fond parents
and friends think will prove remarkable in some given direction; when childhood
is past, the gift in the direction of the precocity ceases; parents and
friends are disappointed; they had built hopes and expectations on their
early promise, but it proved to be fictitious only. All these instances
are unaccounted for, except in the usual attempt to account for them by
saying: the child's gifts have been spoiled by doting parents and unwise
friends; but that which is perfect and genuine can not be perverted in
any way.
If any gift is to serve a purpose in an embodiment
it is fully expressed, but if it has served its purpose in a preceding
embodiment it sometimes flashes like a parting gleam of light upon the
consciousness in the next embodiment, to show that it has been, and then
gives place to something else. We have known some who as children were
very miserly, (this is not usual with children) who seemed to grasp money
very closely, yet who entirely outgrow the tendency in later years. We
have even known the very extreme of generosity in childhood, succeeded
by avarice in later years. Oftentimes the things that were prized and looked
forward to in childhood, one wholly rejects in mature years. The solution
of the over-lapping is, that there is a line of expression to be finished
in a given direction, and when that is finished, even if it is in childhood,
the embodiment then takes up the line of that expression for which it is
really intended.
These instances must serve not only to illustrate
the frequent and intimate relation of an embodiment to a previous one,
but they bear us directly on to the next step in our lesson: that of Reminiscence.
REMINISCENCE DIFFERS FROM
MEMORY AS POSSESSION DIFFERS FROM THE SHADOW OF IT.
Memory is simply the register of passing events.
Reminiscence is the essence of life; the fragrance or perfume of the flower
of existence, whose fruition is in the Soul. Few lives, who are at all
prepared to think on this subject, have not some reminiscence; none have
the evidence of memory; some odor of a flower, some strain of music, the
sight of a face upon the street, a conversation with some individual, who
may be a stranger, the glimpse of a castle, will call up singular reminiscences
unto such as we have referred to. So subtle yet potent, are these, that
were they fashioned, as they have been by poets and novelists, into song
or story, they would form the soul of all the romance in the world.
All Oriental prophets, and ancient scholars; many
of the Grecian philosophers; modern writers of exalted romance; and poets
of every age, have been aware of reminiscences of previous embodiments,
or have made the heroes and heroines of their poems or novels to possess
them. Pythagoras, being far advanced in embodiments, could perceive what
he was in his previous existence, and that he did not finish the line of
teaching that he intended; he had foretold in that previous embodiment
that he would come as a teacher. All this was clearly stated in his teachings.
He gave his followers to understand that he had reminiscences of long lines
of life through which he had been advancing to reach the knowledge he had
attained.
Brilliant in science, as well as in morals and philosophy, the world accepts
his perfect propositions in mathematics, but forgets his systems of ethics
and philosophy. Plato's divine " Cosmos " included all past as well as
present and future expressions. Wordsworth in his "Ode on Immortality;"
Goethe and Schiller, and a score of others, illustrate the knowledge of
reminiscence or the perception of it in the divine art of poesy. What other
light than this divine reminiscence gleamed in upon that child, Bettina
Von Arnem, to make her know that Goethe was the genius of the hour? To
whom other than the princess of a sacred past, in a kingdom not of earth,
could Schiller have traced the "Mystery of Reminiscence"? George
Macdonald in his novel, "Portent," has distinctly made the hero and heroine
know that they were upon the earth before. It is a sad, weird tale, but
it serves to illustrate the truth of reminiscence.
There are many hundreds of lives upon the earth
today who have reminiscences. Perhaps there are none in this room who,
if they spoke from within, have not felt at some time a reminiscence of
a previous existence, as though somewhere before they had seen, or felt,
or experienced that which is transpiring here and now; a clasp of the hand,
an intonation of voice, a flash, a gleam, a sunset glow, enough to reveal
the heretofore.
Among many thousands of similar instances we cite
one. We know a lady who never signs her name to a document, even an ordinary
letter, without being seized with violent trembling. She always said, long
before these teachings were known to her, that she felt that she had signed
her name consenting to a terrible crime or injustice in some past time;
perhaps to a death warrant, possibly that of her dearest friend; and that
it had been a lifelong sorrow to her in that past time. When we consider
what those past times were it is no wonder that sometimes there is hesitation,
and trembling unaccountable, when one is performing an ordinary act. It
is no wonder that sometimes a reminiscence, as
of sudden sorrow or of joy, should come upon one. What would be the feeling
of the embodiment following such a life as that of Mary Stuart, unfortunate,
not without ambition, but eighteen years a prisoner in the various dungeons
and castles of England to serve the ambition of the royal household? If
there were sometimes tears unexplained, a reminiscence of sadness that
had no excuse for being, it would not be remarkable. Sometimes a babe comes
sighing into a glad mother's arms, and it is only after months and years
of love-light, and smiles, and kisses, that the child is won from its pre-existent
sadness. Sometimes there are smiles and joy wholly unaccountable: since
they are often depicted in the countenance where there is no outward occasion
for being joyous, in the laughing eyes that reveal in every expression
delight and gladness, in the hearts that are glad and can not be depressed
or made sorrowful by the experiences of daily life. You will see hearts
brave, cheerful, and strong, who will say: "Well, this is not so bad, it
might have been worse;" who turn persistently to the light instead of the
shadow; having either conquered the shadow or are luminous with strong
reminiscence of the great light of a joy that was theirs.
The state of reminiscence does not begin with
the first, nor yet with the second degrees of expression. It is a state
of intuitive perception of the possessions within the Soul, but like all
attainments has its shadowy and its real side. We may illustrate this by
citing the one who is ascending a mountain: while he is in the valley,
or even during the ascent, when he is struggling, entangled in the woods,
and briers, and 'mid rocks, or descending into valleys between the hills,
he can not see the path by which he has ascended, nor yet the way before
him, but when he comes to one height he can look back along the mountain
and see the devious path by which he has ascended. He also has a glimpse
of the way before him, of the higher height to be attained, and once more
plunges into the valley, or ravine, or tangled maze, to ascend. So at a
certain height, or a certain degree of unfoldment in human existence, glimmerings
of reminiscence begin: the consciousness of having lived before, of having
suffered with the sufferer, of having traveled along the shaded human ways.
As those teachers like Pythagoras and Plato, and
the shining groups of minds clustering, like stars, around some prophet
of old, gave evidence of their individual reminiscences, so, in degree,
many whom you meet today in the average state of intellectual and spiritual
life, if closely questioned, would say: "Yes I feel often as though I had
lived before; I have many times a sort of reminiscence of having had a
previous existence here. "Although this may be laughed at by friends, and
frowned upon as a dream, or a freak of the imagination, still when you
take up the complete web of human life its warp and woof will finally be
found enwoven of the lines of these reminiscences.
At certain points in human progress each Soul
looks back over these lines of life and is aware. Poets and artists are
privileged to dwell in what is called the realm of the imagination, and
they are not criticized if they picture two lovers who think they have
met and loved before. They are not censured if, on the top of some ancient
castle or ruin, there shall suddenly come into the mind of the dreamer,
as depicted in the poem or picture, that it is all familiar, that he has
been there before.
Poets, and artists, and writers, in the realm
of the imagination, are supposed to have an especial sesame to enter the
mystic and shadowy regions. All references to pre-existence, and reminiscence,
are supposed to be poetic license; but if poets did not strike a chord
in human life that would vibrate in sympathy with their thoughts how could
they thus write? The thrilling, the deep, the unexplainable, is oftenest
that which is founded in the highest truth. If this principle were not
in the upper air, if it did not belong to one of the inner chambers of
the spirit, it could not be thought of. People do not absolutely invent
ideas of this kind, they are borne into the consciousness from some inner
realm. In ordinary lives, deeper subjects sometimes take possession and
there begins this line of reminiscence, which, however, relates to the
deeper consciousness, and which is very wisely veiled from the ordinary
vision: since if people were busily engaged in remembering what they were,
they would not fulfill the present duties and objects of life. There is
just sufficient of reminiscence in the world to offer as proof when any
teaching is distinctly on that subject. Taking the whole world, and the
whole human history, the evidence of reminiscence are as complete and as
numerous as any other factor in human life. Nor is it possible to take
from this rare lily of existence its attribute of being a flower.
Reminiscence would not be what its name implies if it were more than an
atmosphere, a wonderful background into and through which the tones and
tints of life are to be wrought.
We again take up the illustration of the traveler,
and follow him to the higher heights, fore-gleams as well as after-gleams
are on those shining pinnacles. Can any one doubt what realm we are entering?
These heights constitute the realm of sages, teachers, prophets, and, finally,
of Messiahs.
THE STATE OF PERFECT
REMINISCENCE IS ALSO THE STATE OF PROPHECY.
We have now reached that point of our subject
which relates to spiritual existence, or what is commonly known as " The
Spirit Life," The Spiritual World," etc., etc., in connection with Embodiments.
SPIRIT IS THE BREATH OF LIFE
FROM THE SOUL INTO MATTER FOR EXPRESSION.
Each Embodiment is the result, in expression,
of a Soul-breath, which is its spirit.
The Spirit of each Embodiment expresses a personality
but not a complete entity, the entity being the Soul.
The spiritual existence of each embodiment is
expressed in the earthly form (of that embodiment) and in the spirit state
that succeeds the form. Or, to be more explicit, the expression in each
embodiment includes the earthly and spiritual states, the latter being
the continuation or fruition of each embodiment. As the seed planted in
the soil has a certain growth beneath the surface of the ground, a fuller
growth above the surface, and fruition there, so the spirit has the fruition
(as spirit, not as Soul) of its embodiment in the state which follows the
separation from the body. Whatever is the intention, theme, or line of
experience or expression in any embodiment, that is, in a spiritual sense,
carried forward into the realm of spirit: each embodiment yielding its
spiritual harvest.
There must be expressions and experiences in all
the spiritual states belonging to earth, (or any planet) as there are in
all the material states, to complete the full measure of the Soul's expression
here. In the most primitive earthly states, or those nearest to matter,
the spiritual expressions that follow each embodiment are very feeble,
and, therefore, the spiritual existences are of short duration, and are
not connected with any conscious moral or spiritual activities; but in
later embodiments, when the mind and spirit begin to be active in expression,
the spiritual states which follow the earthly embodiments are, necessarily,
more complete and full as the fruition of each embodiment.
Between each embodiment and the succeeding one
is such period of time (viewing the subject from the human side) as is
required for the spiritual expression or fruition of the preceding embodiment.
There is no haste, there is no delay; no imperfect or broken links in the
entire chain.
The human mind takes alarm at once at these
teachings, and declares a loss of identity if one embodiment is followed
by another, and one spirit after another has expression. Herein
we differ from that which is called reincarnation. There is no reincarnation;
there is another expression, and another, until all that is possible is
expressed here and in spirit life. Another embodiment is not a loss of
identity, but an added expression of identity. One may paint a picture
to-day, another in a month or a year, and in two years may write a poem
or a treatise on science; never losing, but adding to, his individual expression.
The entity is in the Soul. Identity
is whatever is expressed from that Soul. One embodiment or one thousand
can not destroy the identity nor the entity. As each form only expresses
a portion of the spirit that pervades it, so each spirit (of a Soul) only
expresses a portion of the Soul. Do not mistake the spirit of an embodiment
for the Soul: it is as fatal as to mistake the body for the spirit.
Spiritualism reveals, as its name implies, a knowledge
of the existence of spirit, and the experiences after the decease of the
mortal form of the spirit which possessed and pervaded that form. The spirit
of each embodiment has existence in spirit life, and when the embodiment
is a culmination in any direction, the spirit of that embodiment remains
as a perfect portion of the entire expressions on earth. When the experiences
are complete, each of these culminated expressions forms a portion of the
entire expressions of the Soul. While the failures, as they are termed,
all that has fallen short of perfection in any direction, form no part
of the Soul possessions.
THE RELATION OF THE SPIRIT
TO THE SOUL IS AS THAT OF A SEGMENT TO THE WHOLE CIRCLE.
The Soul includes all expressions and relations,
in all embodiments.
The spirit of each embodiment is expressed as
long in mortal and spiritual life as there is any call or demand for it.
We mean by this: any duties that are unfinished, any ties that are formed
and require to be maintained, any outward or material belongings in which
the spirit is concerned must be preserved.
People say: I would not like to go into spirit
life and not find my friends. If they are your friends you will find them,
if they are not you would not wish to. All real ties are found to last
in spiritual existence, and form a portion of the Soul's possessions. The
larger sphere includes the smaller one. It does not detract from the relation
of the moon to the earth because both revolve around the sun. Nor does
it render the relation of the planets in the solar system any less important
because the entire system, including the sun, revolves around a more distant
central sun.
Children leave their parental homes to form other
ties, of marriage and parentage, but are none the less children. One might
as well suppose that the relations of life, parent and child, husband and
wife, brother and sister, are blotted out by the Soul's relation to God.
All are included in the Infinite Love. So this Soul-life must include all
the relations and expressions of spirit, retaining the real and rejecting
the shadowy or unreal.
The mother, whose child is left upon the earth,
does not change her natural or spiritual relationship, she fills her function
toward that child. When there is an added expression upon the earth, in
another embodiment, it is after all possible duties have been filled toward
the child; and that relation of mother and child, if it be real, is included
as a portion of the Souls treasures.
Generations pass, usually including from one to
two hundred years, before another embodiment occurs, except in particular
cases where the life has nearly reached a culmination.
There are exceptional states in the expressions,
of every Soul, wherein the spiritual existence after an embodiment may
be very brief, or very protracted, extending to one or two thousand years,
or more; but the average is, as previously stated, about two hundred years.
We could mention instances where those who have lived what they have considered
unfinished lives, wherein their work was not completed, and they have had
a wish to take up their work again, have soon had expression in another
embodiment. We could mention instances, for illustrations, in which it
was evident that one embodiment was nearly related to another, that the
line of retrospect was complete, as in the case of Pythagoras.
Strange messages from spirits, that have been
mysterious to those receiving them are herein explained. A lady asking
of a communicating spirit for a certain spirit friend, received the answer:
"He has gone on a voyage back to earth for the benefit of his Soul."
Other answers, which were veiled, yet easily understood in the light of
these teachings, have been given by spirits at various times, who could
not explain the absence in their spirit states of certain ones whom they
expected to meet.
Reminiscences of previous embodiments do not exist
in ordinary life on earth, nor in the spirit state following the ordinary
life; therefore it is not strange that mortals do not receive these teachings
from spirits usually, for unless the earthly embodiment is ready to receive
them, the spirit state following the embodiment will not reveal them.
It is with spirits as with mortals: very few mortals know; but there are
in each individual, in mortal and in spirit life, if the indications were
carefully noted, certain flashes of reminiscence: we mean in such lives
as have reached any degree of thought or intuition upon these and kindred
themes.
Each spirit enters, therefore, the spiritual existence
with perfect freedom and safety; as far as personal existence and relations
are concerned each must carry out, as spirit, the spiritual continuation
of the line of mortal life.
To the spirit of each embodiment there are no
new beginnings in this spiritual state, unless those beginnings were included
in the embodiment, even though veiled; but each spirit state is greater
than the embodiment because the fruition of its line of expression. The.
spirit that has already started on earth in a line of moral excellence
can not change that moral excellence in spirit life; can only carry it
to a degree of perfection in that line. The one, however, who has made
no conquest of temptation while in the earthly state, where temptation
really exists, can not win that victory in the spiritual state. So one
who passes into the spiritual state of existence, passes only to the spiritual
completion of the solution of the problems already commenced, not to a
moral renovation; nor is that lack of moral victory a state of active or
aggressive evil in the spirit existence; it is an aggregation of weakness.
Those shadowy states, frequently referred to in spirit messages, strongly
pictured and typified, are not states of positive, active, aggressive,
evil, but are states of negation That which in earth life is positive,
because fed by material and organic conditions, is spiritual imbecility.
To be a murderer on earth is in spirit life to be a weakling. Those spirits
having no knowledge of goodness have no spiritual power. All who have aims,
aspirations, and exalted reflections in earthly life, pass on to spiritual
states commensurate with them.
No added embodiment is necessary until all obligations
and duties belonging to the late embodiment are expressed and perfected.
Where infants pass to the spiritual state there
is a spiritual purpose to be served even by the transient earthly state.
You often hear mediums describe the spirit as growing up in spirit life;
such is really the case. In each embodiment the impulsion or expression,
even though but commenced in the earthly form, is carried out in spiritual
existence, for such embodiments are not intended to be perfected here;
in all cases where a child passes on, a double purpose is served. When
a babe comes it is not always that it comes for expression, that little
hour of life would not count as an expression; but the object is that something
is wrought in the lives of its parents. These waifs that float into existence
below, and linger but an hour or a year are not robbed. How stupendous
would be the robbery if one human life were all they could have!
There is no theory in religion or science, unless
it includes that which we are teaching, that will explain why it is necessary
for one man to live until he is eighty or ninety years of age and a babe
to die before it is a week old, or before it is born. If it is said in
reply, that the spirit state can supply all the lack of experience on earth,
why not in all cases ? Why must any grow old ?
We find that there are numberless ways in which
Soul-life can be expressed, and each Soul can and does find absolute expression
in all possible states of human existence, so the life of an hour or a
moment may balance the life of fourscore or a century. Thus there is no
loss, because in the great culminations of existence, just as in experiments
in science, those states which are stepping stones, experiments toward
a result, are not counted, only the successes; so in all these successive
lines of embodiments, for every flickering life that goes out before one
has time to know that it is here, there is always opportunity and time
to equalize and balance all; and whatever was unexpressed, seemingly, finds
expression; and the real intent of each embodiment is expressed.
To have the whole of human experience one form
must not only die when it is eighty, but one form must die before there
is birth; the expressions and experiences include all possible states.
The spirit state in each embodiment is included in the whole plan. Your
spirit life, or spirit world, is not disturbed by these teachings. It is
only provided with a diviner sense and recognition: is included in the
larger sphere of being. A knowledge which is far greater, and is encompassed
and surrounded by as much larger life than before, as the sun's light is
brighter and more potent than that of the moon.
Spiritualism without these lessons is as the moon
revolving around the earth. In the moonlight of existence, limited by certain
spiritual states, you may glow and shine after the state of earth, but
when you find the source of the light of the spirit, it is this
Soul-life which includes all spiritual states and all human existence.
Under its divine and solvent radiance you are not only reconciled to birth
and death, but to any birth, and to the death that is in human life; you
are reconciled to all different conditions in outward existence; to all
those states in spirit life that are not provided for in theology, and
that Spiritualism only touches lightly or not at all, and can not explain,
and can not answer. This light is the only solution of the heretofore,
and of those states
far beyond spirit existence, in the realm we name angelic. Those differences
also in spiritual conditions you know are ultimately all to be solved,
but how, or in what way, has not been revealed except in this light of
the Soul.
Spiritual existence, as a rule, includes the period
of time which would be required for the full perfection of the life on
earth, and for the carrying forward of its purposes in spirit life.
As there is approach toward the final culmination
in embodiments on earth the spiritual harvest is riper before entering
spirit life, so the interval of time between embodiments is much lessened,
for as the embodiments approach the final culmination there is more rapid
tendency to expression. It would not be surprising to you to know that
where geniuses have been perfected in many ways and there are many lines
of culminations coming together that the embodiments are much more rapid,
that the earthly ties are less dominant, as they are not needed, and that
at last only the spirit prevails and the Soul seeks expression in its final
states on earth.
We have endeavored in this and the preceding lessons
to impress upon you the equality of all Souls, we have endeavored
to impress upon you the absolute justice of this law of expression
as applied to all Souls. We should like to impress upon you more fully
that which should be the lesson, particularly to mortals in their present
state, that not only everything is possible for each individual Soul, but
that no Soul ever expressed any genius or splendid quality that all will
not express.
We would like to give encouragement to such as
are athirst, seemingly restless and dissatisfied, that what is not attained
will surely be won; and even though it may be valueless when it is attained,
you must each accomplish it and find it out for yourself. No one can have
expression for another. Even in the short space of one generation the son
never follows the admonitions of the father, unless the son is older than
the father in expression, but if he is not older in experience be will
have his own experience, whatever the admonition may be, and he soon gets
it in life. No human life can have experience for another. One who has
never experienced love can not declare what it is, so that divine impulse,
of love, must ultimately come into every life in all guises until the light
of Soul-love is known. No one can tell what religion is, until a religious
force is born within; others may call it a dream, enthusiasm, unreality;
may have no interpretation where with to solve the sacred flame, but if
it has been experienced it is understood. The same is true of poetry: many
may write in the rhyme, or rhythm, or measure, of poetry who are not poets;
but no one can understand the quality or essence of
poetry unless he is a poet. This can be applied to music, to all attainments.
Often that which one will throw away when it is won, proves by the desire
of having it that it must be won; and each will be obliged to win for this
experience. the joy of conquest and the disappointment of it too.
That which allures and captivates man's ambition
and deceives his conscience, is a false height from which he may, perhaps,
perceive the real mountains upon which the true light shines afar off,
but he must descend into the valleys to reach them. Man may build towers
for observing the stars, but he can not reach them by climbing to the top
of the towers. So each tower of pride, ambition, false hope, or love, man
will build; nay more than this: he may wear the laurel wreath and the wreath
of bay, and prove what the greatest in the world have known for all the
ages, that both of these bear more thorns than did the crown of thorns
on the brow of Christ.
Please also remember, that it is not possible
while one is measuring the deeps to recoil from them, nor for any to have
had experience that all have not had, or that they must not have; it is
not possible for one height to have been attained or any beauty or perfection,
however fair they seem, or that fairest height of all, moral and spiritual
perfection, exemplified in the greatest teachers, revealed in the loftiest
minds of earth, that all will not one day attain.
As, sometimes, one's past is a background against
which one draws the contrast of the present with the past attainment, let
your present imperfections be the background against which the light that
is divine shall picture the future achievement in glorious and triumphant
beauty; and then remember that that achievement, great, and wonderful and
perfect as it may be, will form but the stepping stone to that higher height,
that diviner glory which shall follow.
.THE
SOUL: ITS
NATURE, RELATIONS, AND EXPRESSIONS IN HUMAN EMBODIMENTS.
.LESSON
V
