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Show REINCARNATION -THE WHEEL OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS By Ada May Kiecker. Any one trying to pierce through the inscrutable in-scrutable calm and stoicism of the Japa-ncse Japa-ncse face and manner and penetrate the secrets of his mysterious soul, meets on the very threshold of his explorations the marvelous Orientul teaching of reincarnation; reincar-nation; and until hie has successfully grappled with Its postulates and Its inilu-em inilu-em es on daily life he can .-".tep no farther, Kclucar:-..! lion implies an immortal and eternal soul or Ego which dwells for the most part lu the heaven-world of bliss but comes periodically to earth and there Inhabits In-habits lUCCSBSlve bodies of flesh. The successive earth-li es ore likened by the Orientals to pearls and the Immortal Ego to the string upon which thev ate threaded. thread-ed. The larth Is the soul's training school Tho animal man is to be trained Into a pi rfSCt Instrument of the Divine, and the agent of ihe training is tho Ego that reincarnates. re-incarnates. Tho lessons of the earth are Infinite To learn thtm all the soul passes in turn through every phase and experience experi-ence of sex, race, conditions and ctrcuni-1 ctrcuni-1 Stance, for each taking tho particular bi ii that meets its needs at ihe time There is no Idea of the soul which lias t reached humanity lu its evolution cvr I re-becomlng that of animal No sm h retrogression re-trogression Is within the limits of posl-blllly, posl-blllly, declares one of th- staunchest ad-v.iatis ad-v.iatis of the din trine. When once man conies into existence he can never again fall back Into what is in truth a lower I kingdom id nature, whatever mistakes he , may make or however he nia fail to take advantage nf his opportunities. If he is . idle In the school of life he may need to t ,ke the Same lesson over and over again I before he lias really learnt il, but still on I the whole progress is steady, even though il may often be slow. Inexorable Justice In past lives each man has done li t 1 1 gi od snd ill and from every one of his ac-11. ac-11. 11-. a definite proportion of result fol-1 fol-1 ,vvv undet the inexorable law of justice. I'ri'in tin good alw.ivs follows happlm-ss and further opportunity; from the evil follows always sorrow' and limitation The OrlontaJ law of Justice la termed Karma, which means that a man Is born where in- belongs, "possesses what he ha.s earned receives what ho deserves. The Ircumstancea surrounding him, the happiness hap-piness coming to him, the disasters afflicting af-flicting him are not an accident or a de-I de-I erco of God. thej are the result of what he has been and done when hero before. Karma shapes for him his destiny because lie has provided the materials for It This offers the solution of much of the Oriental calm and contentmonl When the people nf the Easl tlnd their lives limited lim-ited in any way they regard th limitation 1 of ih-11 own making, or else as the result 1 of Ihe youth of their souls, that is. that they hav it Incarnated a sufficient number of llni- to be able to make use 1 of larger opportunities If thoj have sor-1 sor-1 rote or suffering to endure thev argue il tit they alone are responsible. Eor them I 1 the manifold and complex destinies of men answer with rigid exactitude to the bal-! bal-! utice bet w--11 the good and evil of their previous actions; and all Is moving onward on-ward unde the divine order towards the final consummation of glory. The aspirations and desires of one life become capacities in the next life, repeated re-peated thoughts become tendencies, will to perform become 'actions, experiences become wisdom, and painful experiences become conscience The suffering leaches what befon- thvi soul kn- w not and Its si r- rowful experiences ore worked up into conscience to preserve It from similar puin in the future. .Many such experiences i teach the eotil that gratifications sought against law are but wombs of pain and win-n In sonic- new earth-life the deslre-body deslre-body would fain cany the soul into enjoyment en-joyment which Is evil the memory of past experiences assorts itself ns Oonsi lence and i ries aloud Its forbidd.i nor . and r.-ms in tho hurrying horses of the senses that Would piling.- heeilesslv -fter the objects of desire. The Reason Is Plain. Here wo see reasoi for th Oriental's respect for his conscience and his veritable verita-ble dedication of its authority. It Is the voice of Ills past, a spark of his etern:il self making itself known to him as ho lives on the physical plane. The Japan, is urge imnhelt obedience to their '.'God In thine heart." Happiness which a man spreads among hla fellows he regards as 1, seed which win spring up as happy circumstances cir-cumstances for his next Incarnation. Si wing happiness he expects to reap hap- pi.H - , sowing pain he anticipates pain In IMs harvest. If he causes a great deal ot physical suffering in his life he Will reap much physic. il misery In some following incarnation If he spreads around him BUCh mental distress he will leap mental trouble These he regards as things he cannot alter. 'They are fixed future events BO tO speak when he haves the c.-.rth. Phesi ro lh" thing1 thai ran be predicted of him with fair certalntj L -inu.se these are seeds that srs left which nave to grow up each after Us own kind, Over these he has hd power." Through thousands of generations thl Immortal Thinker ihus patiently toil at his mission if h ailing the animal man upward up-ward till he Is lit to become one with the Divine, Out of a life he wins perchance bul a mere fragment foi his work vet the final model Is of a type a little lops am- 1 mal than ihe man, whose life-work there- 1 in Is embodied, was when he came to grrfh jpfo. On that slightly improved model will be moulded (he next man and from blm at death 1 obtained mould which Is again 11 little- less animal 10 serve for the next physical body, and so on and On, again and again, gei oration aflr gn cratlon, millennium after millennium: with many retrogressions constantly recovered, re-covered, with many failures gallantly made good; wnh man wounds slowly healed vel on the whole upward vet on the whole forward, the nninuil lessening, the human Increasing; such is the storj of human evolution, such Is the hIowIv ac- ' compllshed tusk of the Ego as he raises himself to divine manhood." Buddhist Sciiptuie. in the Scriptures of ths Southern Bud-dhlst Bud-dhlst church It Is written that when 'he I has received ids last body he is called the great sage, the great man. I havs conquered all 1 know all in all conditions' of life 1 am free from taint, I have left all and through the destruction of thirst I am free, As such a petfected soul th Buddhists regard the Oautuma Buddha, who through a long course of earthly ex-1st) ex-1st) in nt last allulni d his perfection and became a teat her of men On the roach-ing roach-ing of his K-ulilh ihood these words ars put Into his m uiih Looking for the ma-Kit ma-Kit of this tabernai le I shall have to run through 1 irse ..f tnar.i births, so long as 1 do pot tlnd him, and painful Is birth ngaln and again. But now the maker of the tabernacle, thou hast seen, thou shalt. rot nnk- up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge-pole in sundered; he mind, approaching th Eternal, has attained to the extinction df desires." ll is sold Hint under Oriental svsteniH of tn tit, Ing. memory of past lives Is ac-qulr-d. by all who persevere until thev-h;. thev-h;. r evolv ed Kufflch-ntlv to be able to fo- u.s th.-ir eoiisiio ism ss In the soul which is the immortal man who lives through all the lives The bialn of tin- phv aleal body. they so, natural! cAnnol remember be-1 be-1 ause it 1 xists only during the present llf and was pi led in DOSt incarnations by Cther brains, and will bi. followed lu fu-I fu-I ure Inc.'i rtia t Ions b still oth.-r brains As soon as the soul becomes conscious on It, own plane It reads Its own entire historv and recalls Incidents of previous live a.s readily as those of its present Incarnation.. Jveiucfirnation Is Ancient. ; while reincarnation is now held mainly by the ISostern notions, it is not without , interest that il formed an important' teaching In the ancient civilisations, that It deep!) tinctured ihe thought of the. early leaders if Christianity and contln- tn-d to sprout forth from time to time bs- oiid the middle ages when It was advo-. cated by Erigena and Bonaventura. Som of the nn-'st of German philosophers, enltauer, Losslng, Hegel leibnitz. Herder and Flchte the younger accsptsa the theory of reincarnation as a necessary, factor lu nature, while the philosophic 1 systems of Kan' and Shelling furnished-points furnished-points of contact therewith. Henry More and oih.-t Cambridge Platonlsts of F.ug-i land defended t'e doctrine with learning, and aeuteh "SB. the great historian Hums termed it the only rational theory of Im-mortality Im-mortality saying, 'What Is IncorrupttblA must also ie unrcgenerablc The soul thereore, If Immortal, existed before our' birth. The metempsychosis if. therefor. the only system of lids kind that phtlo- phv- can hearken to. lu our own dnvs the great Orientalist. Max Mullet. ald that the theorj could stand the sever est test of philosophical examination" and In his las' and posthumous work ex- pressed his personal belief therein. whli tin famoue Huxlej observed that. "Like I te doctrine of evolution Itself that of transmlfrration has Its roofs in th wnrld of re.iltv and it mav claim su h suppnrt. as the gie,,t argument from annlog Is , capable of supplying." |