Theos-Talk Archives (June 1995 Message tl00055)

guru@nellie2.demon.co.uk (Dr. A.M.Bain) writes:

> Reason Two: If reincarnation is part of "God Plan, which is
> Evolution" [Jinarajadasa - First Principles of Theosophy, Adyar]
> and leads to a general improvement in the human race, where is
> the supporting evidence?  The human race is just as busy now at
> devising ways of its members being horrible to each other as it
> ever was, and improves the means of torture, death and
> destruction of its members on a daily basis.

I believe the progress of the human race can only be judged over
an extremely long sweep of time.  The last two centuries have
made technology of warfare available to humanity which it never
had before.  This may make it seem that we are getting worse, but
in fact it only enabled us to carry out better what we had always
wanted to do: safeguard our own territory, and gain more.
However, now as never before, we have relatively clearly defined
ideas about human rights, peaceful development and global
security.  These have only be able to develop in response to the
atrocities witnessed by millions of people this century.  Most
countries abide by the rules of international law, ill-defined
and enforced though they may be, and most people have a better
understanding of different countries and people than ever before,
thanks to new technologies.  The technologies of communication
have made a wider range of ideas more freely available than ever
before, thus permitting an accelerated expansion of human
awareness and consciousness of different possibilities - abused
though this may be from time to time.  > > Reason Three: If Karma
is tied to reincarnation as an integral > part of the plan, what
kind of "justice" is it which gives us > punishments ("karmic
consequences") in this life while denying us > the recollection
of what we did wrong to deserve them?

We can't judge divine justice by human standards, because we
don't have the whole picture of things.  As I understand it,
karma does not "punish" (an anthropomorphism) but rather it is a
process whereby certain results follow certain actions.  For
example, Humanity as a whole has to learn that suffering follows
cruelty as a cart follows a horse.  The recollection of hundreds
of lives would, in any case, only serve to confuse most of us,
and would not aid the learning of lessons required _here_.

> Reason Four: Who in their right mind would want to come back to
> the vale of tears, murder, rape, torture, hunger, disease, etc.,
> etc.? The incentives to get perfect damn quick are all around us
> ....

You make it sound as if there was nothing attractive about this
world.  As I understand it, peoples desires bring them back
pretty surely.  I mean, there's a lot of shopping to be done here
:-) The Tibetan buddhists say it's images of copulating couples
which finally draws the soul back into incarnation.

> If I kill and get life in jail, then I know what I am doing time
> for.  If I reincarnate and "do time," why am I not told why?

Fortunately the administration of cosmic justice is better run
than human criminal justice systems.  May be deep down you know
why, and don't want to face it.  Or may be it is kinder to let
you deal with situations as you find them, rather than always
being reminded of your misdeeds.

> much to believe that the spiritual essences we are alleged to be
> are to be tied for interminable periods to a small speck of dust
> in a remote corner of of a remote and insignificant galaxy (the
> "Milky Way") and incredible distance from the central sun.  My

I don't see why this is so hard to swallow.  Viewed from another
perspective, space is all linked together and time is somehow
timeless.  Distance, and insignificance largely depends on your
perspective.  From a cells point of view, our bodies are
monsterous universes.  (We are still very much connected to the
sun, despite apparent distance.)

> guess (just a guess) is that there's a lot of room out there for
> our spiritual essences to play in, and that we may well do just
> that, given half a chance - after all, that's how we behave down
> here!

Yes, my aim is to expand my play ground!

ASTREA