Mystic Christianity Part 14

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

Another notable instance of the recognition of the doctrine by Jesus and His disciples occurs in the case of "the man born blind." It may be well to quote the story.

"And as he pa.s.sed by he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?' Jesus answered, 'Neither did this man sin nor his parents.'"

(_John 9:1-3._)

Surely there can be no mistake about the meaning of this question, "Who did sin, this man or his parents?"--for how could a man sin before his birth, unless he had lived in a previous incarnation? And the answer of Jesus simply states that the man was born blind neither from the sins of a past life, nor from those of his parents, but from a third cause. Had the idea of re-incarnation been repugnant to the teachings, would not He have denounced it to His disciples? Does not the fact that His disciples asked Him the question show that they were in the habit of discoursing the problems of Re-birth and Karma with Him, and receiving instructions and answers to questions propounded to Him along these lines?

There are many other pa.s.sages of the New Testament which go to prove the familiarity of the disciples and followers of Jesus with the doctrine of Re-birth, but we prefer to pa.s.s on to a consideration of the writings of the Early Christian Fathers in order to show what they thought and taught regarding the matter of Re-birth and Karma.

Among the great authorities and writers in the Early Church, Origen stands out pre-eminently as a great light. Let us quote from a leading writer, regarding this man and his teachings:

"In Origen's writings we have a mine of information as to the teachings of the early Christians. Origen held a splendid and grandiose view of the whole of the evolution of our system. I put it to you briefly. You can read it in all its carefully, logically-worked-out arguments, if you will have the patience to read his treatise for yourselves. His view, then, was the evolutionary view. He taught that forth from G.o.d came all Spirits that exist, all being dowered with free-will; that some of these refused to turn aside from the path of righteousness, and, as a reward, took the place which we speak of as that of the angels; that then there came others who, in the exercise of their free-will, turned aside from the path of deity, and then pa.s.sed into the human race to recover, by righteous and n.o.ble living, the angel condition which they had not been able to preserve; that others, still in the exercise of their free-will, descended still deeper into evil and became evil spirits or devils. So that all these Spirits were originally good; but good by innocence, not by knowledge. And he points out also that angels may become men, and even the evil ones themselves may climb up once more, and become men and angels again. Some of you will remember that one of the doctrines condemned in Origen in later days was that glorious doctrine that, even for the worst of men, redemption and restoration were possible, and that there was no such thing as an eternity of evil in a universe that came from the Eternal Goodness, and would return whence it came."

And from the writings of this great man we shall now quote.

In his great work "De Principiis," Origen begins with the statement that only G.o.d Himself is fundamentally and by virtue of His essential nature, Good. G.o.d is the only Good--the absolute perfect Good. When we consider the lesser stages of Good, we find that the Goodness is derived and acquired, instead of being fundamental and essential.

Origen then says that G.o.d bestows free-will upon all spirits alike, and that if they do not use the same in the direction of righteousness, then they fall to lower estates "one more rapidly, another more slowly, one in a greater, another in a less degree, each being the cause of his own downfall."

He refers to John the Baptist being filled with the Holy Ghost in his mother's womb and says that it is a false notion to imagine "that G.o.d fills individuals with His Holy Spirit, and bestows upon them sanctification, not on the grounds of justice and according to their deserts, but undeservedly. And how shall we escape the declaration, 'Is there respect of persons with G.o.d?' G.o.d forbid. Or this, 'Is there unrighteousness with G.o.d?' G.o.d forbid this also. For such is the defense of those who maintain that souls come into existence with bodies." He then shows his belief in re-birth by arguing that John had earned the Divine favor by reason of right-living in a previous incarnation.

Then he considers the important question of the apparent injustice displayed in the matter of the inequalities existing among men. He says, "Some are barbarians, others Greeks, and of the barbarians some are savage and fierce and others of a milder disposition, and certain of them live under laws that have been thoroughly approved, others, again, under laws of a more common or severe kind; while, some, again, possess customs of an inhumane and savage character rather than laws; and certain of them, from the hour of their birth, are reduced to humiliation and subjection, and brought up as slaves, being placed under the dominion either of masters, or princes, or tyrants. Some with sound bodies, some with bodies diseased from their early years, some defective in vision, others in bearing and speech; some born in that condition, others deprived of the use of their senses immediately after birth. But why should I repeat and enumerate all the horrors of human misery? Why should this be?"

Origen then goes on to combat the ideas advanced by some thinkers of his times, that the differences were caused by some essential difference in the nature and quality of the souls of individuals. He states emphatically that all souls are essentially equal in nature and quality and that the differences arise from the various exercise of their power of free-will. He says of his opponents:

"Their argument accordingly is this: If there be this great diversity of circ.u.mstances, and this diverse and varying condition by birth, in which the faculty of free-will has no scope (for no one chooses for himself either where, or with whom, or in what condition he is born); if, then, this is not caused by the difference in the nature of souls, i.e., that a soul of an evil nature is destined for a wicked nation and a good soul for a righteous nation, what other conclusion remains than that these things must be supposed to be regulated by accident or chance? And, if that be admitted, then it will be no longer believed that the world was made by G.o.d, or administered by His providence."

Origen continues:

"G.o.d who deemed it just to arrange His creatures according to their merit, brought down these different understandings into the harmony of one world, that He might adorn, as it were, one dwelling, in which there ought to be not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay (and some, indeed, to honor, and others to dishonor) with their different vessels, or souls, or understandings. On which account the Creator will neither appear to be unjust in distributing (for the causes already mentioned) to every one according to his wants, nor will the happiness or unhappiness of each one's birth, or whatever be the condition that falls to his lot, be accidental."

He then a.s.serts that the condition of each man is the result of his own deeds.

He then considers the case of Jacob and Esau, which a certain set of thinkers had used to ill.u.s.trate the unjust and cruel discrimination of the Creator toward His creatures. Origen contended that in this case it would be most unjust for G.o.d to love Jacob and hate Esau before the children were born, and that the only true interpretation of the matter was the theory that Jacob was being rewarded for the good deeds of past lives, while Esau was being punished for his misdeeds in past incarnations.

And not only Origen takes this stand, but Jerome also, for the latter says: "If we examine the case of Esau we may find he was condemned because of his ancient sins in a worse course of life." (_Jerome's letter to Avitus_.) Origen says:

"It is found not to be unrighteous that even in womb Jacob supplanted his brother, if we feel that he was worthily beloved by G.o.d, according to the deserts of his previous life, so as to deserve to be preferred before his brother."

Origen adds, "This must be carefully applied to the case of all other creatures, because, as we formerly remarked, the righteousness of the Creator ought to appear in everything." And again, "The inequality of circ.u.mstances preserves the justice of a retribution according to merit."

Annie Besant (to whom we are indebted for a number of these quotations), says, concerning this position of Origen:

"Thus we find this doctrine made the defense of the justice of G.o.d. If a soul can be made good, then to make a soul evil is to a G.o.d of justice and love impossible. It cannot be done. There is no justification for it, and the moment you recognize that men are born criminal, you are either forced into the blasphemous position that a perfect and loving G.o.d creates a ruined soul and then punishes it for being what He has made it, or else that He is dealing with growing, developing creatures whom He is training for ultimate blessedness, and if in any life a man is born wicked and evil, it is because he has done amiss and must reap in sorrow the results of evil in order that he may learn wisdom and turn to good."

Origen also considers the story of Pharaoh, of whom the Biblical writers say that "his heart was hardened by G.o.d." Origen declares that the hardening of the heart was caused by G.o.d so that Pharaoh would more readily learn the effect of evil, so that in his future incarnations he might profit by his bitter experience. He says:

"Sometimes it does not lead to good results for a man to be cured too quickly, especially if the disease, being shut up in the inner parts of the body, rage with greater fierceness. The growth of the soul must be understood as being brought about not suddenly, but slowly and gradually, seeing that the process of amendment and correction will take place imperceptibly in the individual instances, during the lapse of countless and unmeasured ages, some outstripping others, and tending by a swifter course towards perfection, while others, again, follow close at hand, and some, again, a long way behind."

He also says: "Those who, departing this life in virtue of that death which is common to all, are arranged in conformity with their actions and deserts--according as they shall be deemed worthy--some in the place called the 'infernus,' others in the bosom of Abraham, and in different localities or mansions. So also from these places, as if dying there, if the expression can be used, they come down from the 'upper world' to this 'h.e.l.l.' For that 'h.e.l.l' to which the souls of the dead are conducted from this world is, I believe, on account of this destruction, called 'the lower h.e.l.l.' Everyone accordingly of those who descend to the earth is, according to his deserts, or agreeably to the position that he occupied there, ordained to be born in this world in a different country, or among a different nation, or in a different mode of life, or surrounded by infirmities of a different kind, or to be descended from religious parents, or parents who are not religious; so that it may sometimes happen that an Israelite descends among the Scythians, and a poor Egyptian is brought down to Judea." (_Origen against Celsus_.)

Can you doubt, after reading the above quotation that Metempsychosis, Re-incarnation or Re-birth and Karma was held and taught as a true doctrine by the Fathers of the Early Christian Church? Can you not see that imbedded in the very bosom of the Early Church were the twin-doctrine of Re-incarnation and Karma. Then why persist in treating it as a thing imported from India, Egypt or Persia to disturb the peaceful slumber of the Christian Church? It is but the return home of a part of the original Inner Doctrine--so long an outcast from the home of its childhood.

The Teaching was rendered an outlaw by certain influences in the Church in the Sixth Century. The Second Council of Constantinople (A.D. 553) condemned it as a heresy, and from that time official Christianity frowned upon it, and drove it out by sword, stake and prison cell. The light was kept burning for many years, however, by that sect so persecuted by the Church--the Albigenses--who furnished hundreds of martyrs to the tyranny of the Church authorities, by reason of their clinging faith to the Inner Teachings of the Church concerning Reincarnation and Karma.

Smothered by the pall of superst.i.tion that descended like a dense cloud over Europe in the Middle Ages, the Truth has nevertheless survived, and, after many fitful attempts to again burst out into flame, has at last, in this glorious Twentieth Century, managed to again show forth its light and heat to the world, bringing back Christianity to the original conceptions of those glorious minds of the Early Church. Once more returned to its own, the Truth will move forward, brushing from its path all the petty objections and obstacles that held it captive for so many centuries.

Let us conclude this lesson with those inspiring words of the poet Wordsworth, whose soul rose to a perception of the Truth, in spite of the conventional restrictions placed upon him by his age and land.

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting, The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath elsewhere had its setting, And cometh from afar.

Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From G.o.d, who is our home."

THE TWELFTH LESSON.

THE MESSAGE OF THE MASTER.

Running throughout nearly all of the teachings and messages of Jesus, is to be found the constant Mystic Message regarding the existence of the Spirit within the soul of each individual--that Something Within to which all can turn in time of pain and trouble--that Guide and Monitor which stands ever ready to counsel, advise and direct if one opens himself to the Voice.

"Seek ye first the Kingdom, and all things shall be added unto you."

And, again, as if to explain: "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you."

This is the Mystic Message which gives one a key to the Mysteries of the Inner Teachings.

Let us take up a few of His sayings and endeavor to interpret them by the light of these teachings. But before doing so we must call the attention of the student to the fact that, in order to understand intelligently what we are saying, he must carefully re-read the "Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy" wherein the details of the teachings are set forth--that is the fundamental truths are explained.

In the "Advanced Course" and in "Gnani Yoga" the higher phases of the teachings are presented. And, although in the said works there is little or no reference made to Christianity, yet the teachings are so fundamental that the Inner Teachings of all religions--including Christianity--may be understood by one who has acquainted himself with these fundamental truths.

There is but one real Occult Philosophy, and we find it in evidence everywhere--once the Truth is grasped, it is found to be the Master Key with which to unlock the various doors leading to the esoteric phase of any and all religions or philosophies. The Yogi Fathers, centuries and centuries ago, solved the Riddle of the Universe, and the highest efforts of the human mind since that time have but corroborated, proven and exemplified the original Truth as voiced by these Venerable Sages.

Let us read the words of Jesus in the light of this Ancient Wisdom.

Let us consider the Sermon on the Mount as given in Matthew (_Chapters 5; 6; 7_).

"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." (_Matt. 5:3._)

By these words Jesus indicated the occult teachings that those who renounced the vain glory and petty ambitions of this world would be on the road to the realization of the Real Self--the Something Within--the Spirit. For is it not written that "the Kingdom of Heaven is within you"?

"Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted." (_Matt.

5:4._)

By these words Jesus pointed out the occult teachings that those who had so far advanced that they could see the folly of human ambition, and who consequently felt the pain that comes to all who stand above the crowd, and who mourned by reason of their realization of the folly and uselessness of all for which men strive so hard? would, in the end, be comforted by that "peace which pa.s.seth all understanding"

which comes only to those who enter into a realization of the Kingdom of Heaven which is within them.

"Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." (_Matt.

5:5._)