Theos-Talk Archives (April 1995 Message tl00118)

Alan: <Beware supposing! I do _not_ agree on reincarnation (note
clearly what comes next) as presented in theosophical literature.
Maybe it happens, maybe sometimes it happens, maybe it never
happens.  It is a working hypothesis with many variant
possibilities.>

Interesting attitude.  If you don't agree on reincarnation "as
presented in theosophical literature" than exactly whose version
_do_ you agree on?

 As it turns out, it was HPB's version of reincarnation that
 turned me into a theosophist in the first place.  I had read a
 lot about reincarnation from the viewpoint of Vedanta, Buddhism,
 yoga, and so on.  The Hindu version would seem to be that the
 body is like a suit of clothing that we take off at death and
 then we simply put on a new suit at birth.  This is too naive.
 I have never been able to accept the idea of a reincarnating
 ego, probably because of my early studies in Zen which taught me
 that the ego dies and is reborn every second and is too illusive
 to reincarnate.  HPB's discrimination of ego and Ego seemed to
 be a bit more acceptable.  But I also love the Tibetan teaching
 of a "collection of others" that Alexandra David-Neel gives (I
 have never seen this teaching anywhere else, though hints can be
 found in some of the new Tibetan works being published).  This
 is kind of a monad theory in which we are each a collection of
 past monadic lives (desires, emotions, thoughts, and so on from
 the past) rather than a single entity.  Also, the idea of tulku
 (that a strong desire or wish will live on or incarnate in
 another person) seems to me to have merit.

 I have recently found where Jung suggests (never comes right out
 with it though) the possibility that the psyche can take on a
 new ego in the theosophical sense of reincarnation.  He clearly
 does say that the psyche pre-exists and post-exists the ego,
 which is only a part (the conscious part) of the psyche.

 I can accept that the skandas reincarnate, but not the ego.
 But, since we don't remember our past skandas, the whole
 business of worrying over reincarnation does seem like mental
 gymnastics sometimes.

 During meditations I have run through the reincarnation cycle,
 experiencing what _probably_ occurs.  From this, I find that its
 not death that scares me, but rebirth.  The whole rebirth
 experience is pure trauma; a scary experience as well as an
 overwhelming sense of unparalleled restriction.  Death, on the
 other hand, is a wonderful release; a feeling of escape and
 freedom.

 Until we can raise our consciousness to the Ego and experience
 the process of reincarnation for ourselves, I am afraid that we
 will simply have to accept it on faith.

 I like your "variant possibilities." This reminds me of H.H.
 the Dali Lama who once spoke of wanting to come back as a fly.

 Ah, well.  Back to my Quiet Room.

  Jerry S.