One
of the great tragedies of our present outlook on existence is
our attitude to that recurring event which we call death. We approach
it, for the most part, with fear and loathing, seeking by every
means to resist its call, prolonging, often beyond its usefulness,
the activity of the physical body as a guarantee of "life". Our
dread of death is the dread of the unknown, of complete and utter
dissolution, of being "no more".
Despite the vast amount of evidence gathered over the years by
the many spiritualist groups that life of some kind continues
after death; despite the intellectual acceptance by many that
death is but an awakening into new and freer life; in spite of
the growing belief in reincarnation; notwithstanding the testimony
of the wisest Teachers down the ages, we continue to approach
that great transition with fear and trepidation. What makes this
attitude so tragic is that it is so far from the reality, the
source of so much unnecessary suffering.
Our
fear of death is our fear that our identity will be obliterated.
It is this which terrifies. If we did but realise and experience
that that identity is an immortal Being which cannot die or be
obliterated, our fear of death would vanish. If, further, we realised
that after so-called death we enter into a new and clearer light
in which the sense of our identity is altogether more vivid, and
also that there are yet higher aspects of our Being of which till
then we are unaware which await our recognition, our whole approach
to death would change for the better. We would see death and physical-plane
life as stages in an endless journey to perfection, and death
as the door into far less limiting experience on that road. Freed
from the confines of the physical world, our consciousness would
find great new vistas of meaning and beauty hitherto denied it.
In
the time immediately ahead, the Masters and Their Disciples will
teach the truth of that experience we call death and open up for
all a great new freedom. We will learn to accept death for what
it is: restitution of our vehicles to their source - "ashes to
ashes, dust to dust" - and liberation into new and meaningful
life.
The
process of dying
The
death of the dense physical body begins when the soul withdraws
its energy from its vehicle. This can take place over a longer
or shorter period of time. A series of heart-attacks or an illness
which becomes steadily graver could be the sign that the soul
is beginning this process. As soon as death takes place, the subtle
bodies - the astral and the mental bodies within the etheric vehicle
- withdraw from the dense physical body. This, too, can take place
quickly or more slowly, but the Masters advise that one should
wait for three days before burial or cremation to ensure that
the etheric body has completely withdrawn from its physical counterpart.
The
individual consciousness concerned is then left in the etheric
body which in its turn will also be discarded. The particles of
substance making up the etheric vehicle will then stream back
into the ocean of etheric energy which surrounds us. The speed
of that disintegration process depends upon the individual's karma.
When the etheric vehicle has been cast off, the astral sheath
gives the person consciousness on the astral plane, where he will
remain for a time on one or other of the seven astral planes which
best corresponds with his astral nature. There he will once again
have to deal with the desires carried over from his earthly life,
and often remains so enmeshed in these that life on that plane
becomes a reality to him. If the consciousness is very much focussed
on the astral, with very little mental focus, such a person could
remain on the astral plane for a long time - "long" to our way
of thinking, for outside the realm of the physical brain there
is no such thing as time.
On
this astral plane one does what, normally, one would have been
doing in incarnation on the physical plane. And though life on
the astral plane is a fact, as it is a fact on the dense-physical
plane, it is nevertheless only an illusion. All our hopes, fears
and aggression, our hatreds, jealousies and vices, form powerful
thought-forms which must, sooner or later, be dissolved. Therefore
the only hell which exists is that which we have created ourselves
on the astral planes.
The
hell which we encounter is the hell of our own desires, our atrocities,
our own separation and our own grudges and fears which inhabit
the astral realm. This is the principle behind the advice that
the Masters always give - to learn to control our thoughts and
emotional reactions.
Dying
consciously
For
that reason it is also important to raise the consciousness as
high as possible at the time of death, using the last nerve reflex
to drive the consciousness through the astral and the lower mental
levels onto higher mental levels as far, as fast and as consciously
as possible. That is why it is so important that there should
be some preparation for death and in the future people will be
taught how to die consciously in order to do this.
To
overcome the fact that some people do not realise that they are
dead, there are disciples, initiates and some of the Masters active
on the astral plane, protecting people and making them aware of
the fact that they have died. For most people, the greatest fear
of death exists in their expectation of loss of identity and consciousness;
of loneliness and cessation of contact with family and friends.
Far from experiencing such a loss, the dead man finds that, freed
from the limitations of the physical vehicle, his conscious awareness
is heightened immeasurably. He sees both ways: the world of forms
which he has just left and the new world into which he has come,
with familiar people around him ready to welcome him into that
more liberated state. At the same time, he can still tune into
the feelings and thoughts of those left behind. So far from being
a traumatic experience, death for many is so gentle and smooth
that they do not realize that they are dead and require the help
of those whose task it is to acquaint them with this fact.
After
the death of the physical body, the individual concerned remains
on those astral planes which correspond most closely to the point
of development attained by him in physical life. On those subtle
levels our faculties of perception become freed from the process
of thinking and reasoning which function through the physical
brain. All knowledge and experience can be directly seen, heard,
felt and known in their full significance. There is instantaneous
perception, knowledge and beauty and a type of joy and liberation
such as we cannot know on the material plane.
Rapture
On
the higher astral levels this direct experience is of a more ecstatic
kind, of a higher, more refined emotional nature, corresponding
to the higher astral levels of the heart centre. A person who
has attained a certain level of development before death experiences
an almost constant ecstasy and joy on those levels, a sense of
beauty and splendour which is the reflection on that plane of
Buddhi or Love-Wisdom. Buddhi is actually a state of rapture which
can be expected on the physical plane when a high degree of buddhic
contact is achieved during meditation. When a person has achieved
a certain degree of mental focus he will not stay on the astral
plane for very long for the astral vehicle would by then be relatively
refined and harmonious. It will be able to dissolve more rapidly
so that its particles can return to the reservoir of astral matter
or energy, as did the etheric vehicle to the etheric plane.
Incidentally,
all these planes - the etheric, the astral and the mental levels
- are only sub-levels within the cosmic-physical (and are, of
course, really states of consciousness). It may explain it better
were I to say that the Masters are conscious on cosmic-physical,
cosmic-etheric, cosmic-astral and the cosmic-mental planes. The
experience on the mental plane is of an entirely different, more
mental kind. Here it is less a matter of rapture than of knowledge
or wisdom; not only the rapture but the great significance and
meaning underlying it can be known on that level. Someone sufficiently
evolved, intuitively aware, understands this and the purpose and
the Will of God.
For
more advanced people existence on the mental plane would be the
last experience before coming into incarnation once again. But
it is possible that the mental body in its turn might be dissolved,
after which the individual concerned would live in a state of
pralaya, in Devachan. This is a non-mental, non-astral, non-material
state of existence somewhere between death and life. It is a state
of being, out of incarnation, where the life impulse is in abeyance.
It is a state of unending bliss, an experience of perfect peace.
To live in pralaya does not mean that one is unconscious but no
conscious learning process takes place prior to taking incarnation
again. It is being taken up into the Absolute, from whence one
returns under law when group need demands it.
In pralaya the soul lives in its own realm with no other purpose
than to be the soul. Because there are no lower vehicles in this
state of existence, the soul will not gain any experience, as
it does on the other levels. Progress of a specific kind can only
be made on these other levels. The soul comes into incarnation
directed by the Logos in accordance with group purpose and the
Plan. It is a great sacrifice for the soul to descend onto the
physical plane and take incarnation, which takes place under the
self-sacrificing will of the soul. This self-sacrificing power
of soul-will is a great driving force. In pralaya there is no
will to incarnate. It is possible to remain in pralaya for a few
dozen to thousands of years until such time as a group of souls
is sent out of pralaya into incarnation because the time is right
and the circumstances suitable. The soul body, or causal body,
gains experience in this manner. The causal body receives more
soul-knowledge, soul-consciousness, as its vehicles become more
refined.
Permanent
Atoms
This refining process of the soul vehicles, the material, the
astral and the mental bodies, takes place by means of the so-called
permanent atoms. These are atoms of matter, physical, astral and
mental, around which the bodies for a new incarnation are formed.
The permanent atoms retain the vibratory rate of the individual
at the moment of death. If that person has made great progress,
his or her bodies will subsequently be more refined, akin to the
vibration of this permanent atom and, due to the magical working
of the soul, will increasingly attract matter of a sub-atomic
nature. In this way, the permanent atoms will spiral up to reach
increasingly higher frequencies. Because a body attracts matter
to it of a similar vibratory rate, each advancement through each
life will bring a more refined body of increasingly higher vibration.
The permanent atoms are therefore nuclei which attract the atomic
particles from which first the mental, then the astral and subsequently
the etheric-physical bodies are formed - after which the gross
physical body 'precipitates'.
The
permanent atoms of an individual are not influenced by experience
out of incarnation but are connected to the causal or soul body.
The causal body is a sort of reservoir of all perception, all
knowledge and all experience of the physical, the astral and the
mental realms. A 'silver' cord connects the soul and its body
with the three permanent atoms. Consciousness is continuous in
this cord so that when it is time for the soul to reincarnate
once again, particles of matter of like vibration are magically
attracted to form around the permanent atoms. The permanent atoms
therefore still vibrate at the same frequency as in the previous
life and are permeated with the consciousness of those levels.
The energy vibration is in the particles of matter which retain
consciousness of the point to which they have evolved.
The
causal body, the receptacle where this consciousness is accumulated
and stored, is to be found on the highest of the four mental levels.
At the beginning of subsequent incarnations, when the vehicles
are ready, the soul pours its energy from the causal body into
its mental, astral and physical sheaths. The accumulated knowledge
and experience, gained over a succession of previous lives, pours
down from the soul level to the physical brain which retains as
much as it can consciously absorb, use and know. This knowledge
cannot really be tapped until the brain centres have been sufficiently
awakened to be used in this way. Where this does occur, we have
what we call a genius. In the soul is mirrored the monad or spiritual
will, Buddhi, the spiritual intuition, and manas, higher mind.
A genius is able to attune him or herself to the soul level and
to that of manasic or buddhic consciousness, or thinking. This
is the source of that higher knowledge and superior talent held
in store from experience in previous lives. A genius is therefore
someone who has a close and instantaneous contact with the soul,
and can bring the wisdom and knowledge from that level down into
the physical brain because the brain centres, which in most people
remain unused, have been opened. The important factor in relation
to the incarnational process is that we incarnate not individually,
but in groups. While, of course, individual incarnation does take
place, it is only incidental to the greater event of group rebirth.
This group rebirth proceeds cyclically, according to certain laws
governing the manifestation of energies or Rays, and connected
also with the point in evolution of the groups involved.
The
question is often posed about the length of time between incarnations,
and a great deal of information has been published on this, much
of it erroneous and necessarily speculative. The fact is that
there are enormous differences in the length of periods out of
physical manifestation, both of individuals and of groups. Some
souls have an extraordinarily rapid cycle of incarnations and
pralayas while others spend aeons between each incarnational experience
and the next. There is no "average" time (remembering always that
we are speaking about physical-plane time; outside the physical
brain, time does not exist). However, it is possible to give a
generalized picture which (with many variations) accounts for
the incarnational pattern of three main groups within humanity
under the impact of three Laws.
The
Law of Evolution
The
masses today are, largely, focused in the emotional-astral vehicle
- their consciousness is still mainly that of the Atlantean or
fourth root race whose evolutionary goal was the perfection of
the astral body. Many millions now in incarnation were part of
the Atlantean race and still demonstrate powerfully the emotional
tendencies of that race. For them, the less advanced, the period
out of incarnation is usually short. Being "young", as egos, they
still have much to learn and are drawn magnetically into physical-plane
life by the thought-forms which bind them to the earth plane and
by the karmic ebb and flow which has arisen on earth. They do
not have much say in the matter themselves, but, under the law
of evolution, they are cyclically impelled, again and again, to
incarnate, to learn and to experience, and by trial and error,
pain and suffering, to make eventually the free choice: the conscious
return out of matter back to spirit and liberation. Due to the
fact that they have not created such strong earthly ties and are
more flexible, freer, with more mental focus, those who are somewhat
more evolved tend to stay for a longer period out of incarnation.
Also, they need more time to absorb and assimilate (because of
their richer personality experience) that which can only be taken
up and assimilated on the higher planes, out of incarnation. As
I have already said, more evolved egos spend a greater or lesser
period of "time" in the experience of pralaya, in devachan, a
state of existence between death and rebirth in which there is
no impulse to incarnate again. Pralaya, or the experience in devachan,
corresponds to the Christian idea of paradise. There these souls
will wait, sometimes for short periods, sometimes for untold ages,
until the need arises for the presence of that particular group
on the physical plane.
All
souls are on one or other of seven streams of energy - the seven
rays - and as these rays come into manifestation so too do groups
of souls on these rays. These more advanced egos come in, therefore,
not individually, nor swept in blindly under the law of evolution
as are their less advanced brothers, but under group law, for
a certain purpose, under the influence of a specific ray energy
and in connection with some aspect of the Plan. Each generation
brings into incarnation a group equipped with the knowledge and
ability to deal, more or less, with the problems of that period.
In this way the Plan is gradually developing and unfolding through
the work of successive groups coming into incarnation again and
again; groups who may well disappear out of incarnation for aeons
at the end of an era. There is another group who come into incarnation
very quickly: the most advanced individuals, the disciples and
initiates. Neither the law of evolution nor group law governs
their return but another law impells them to rebirth: the Law
of Service. They choose consciously to incarnate of their own
free will. Because they know the Plan and wish to serve the Plan,
they decide, under the assignment of their own personal Master
or not, how best they can serve. But because they are initiates,
the Master, who knows the path which will lead them to their goal,
watches over them and advises when they should return into certain
environments and circumstances.
The
initiate will also want to return then to continue where he or
she left off in order to be of further service. They repeatedly
and quickly take incarnation to work through the last few steps
of the Path of Initiation. The aim is to work off karma rapidly
and so free and equip themselves for service. The soul impresses
its vehicle with this desire during incarnation and so obviates
any desire of the disciple for the bliss of pralaya in devachan.
Another reason for rapid cycles of incarnation may be the necessity
of "rounding out" the disciple's equipment by concentrating one-pointedly
for several lives on acquiring some quality otherwise lacking;
or to contribute some special quality, perfectly developed in
him, to the work of a particular group or nation. Every soul incarnates
and re-incarnates under the Law of Rebirth. Groups of souls come
in together in order to work out karma created in the past. Hence
this law provides the opportunity to repay ancient debts, to recognize
and work with old friends, to accept ancient responsibilities
and obligations and to bring to the surface for re-use talents
and qualities acquired long ago. What beauty and order there is,
therefore, in this law which governs our appearance on this plane.
To summarize, we can say that reincarnation depends on the particular
destiny of the individual. If he or she is not sufficiently developed,
there is no destiny as yet; the individual is simply drawn back
into incarnation. When the man has progressed somewhat further
his destiny becomes a group destiny. In the case of a disciple
or initiate, however, the cycles of incarnation are governed by
his individual destiny and above all by his desire to serve.
