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CHAPTER XXIX

MEMORY OF PAST LIVES

( Page 243 ) A glance at Diagram XXV on p.147 should be sufficient to indicate the mechanical reason why the physical brain of a man cannot normally remember his past lives. For it is obvious that the physical body can have neither a memory, nor a record, of a past incarnation in which it did not participate. Precisely the same consideration applies to his astral and mental bodies, since all these vehicles are new for each incarnation.

We thus see that, as the causal body is the only one that persists from one incarnation to another, the lowest level, at which we can hope to get really reliable information about past lives, is that of the causal body, for nothing below, that can give us first hand evidence.

In these past lives, the ego in his causal body was present - or rather a certain small part of him was present - and so he is an actual witness. All the lower vehicles, not being witness, can report only what they may receive from the ego. Consequently, when we bear in mind how imperfect is the communication between the ego and the personality in the ordinary man, we shall see at once how entirely unreliable such second, third, or fourth-hand testimony is likely to be.

Although one may sometimes obtain from the astral and mental bodies isolated pictures of events in a man's past life, we cannot get a sequential and coherent account of it; and even those pictures are but reflections from the causal body, and probably very dim and blurred reflections, which occasionally find their way through to the lower consciousness.

It is thus abundantly clear that, in order to read accurately past lives, it is necessary first of all ( Page 244 ) to develop the faculties of the causal body. The thing, however, could be done at lower levels, by psychometrisation of the permanent atoms, but, as this would be a much more difficult feat than unfolding of the senses of the causal body, it is not at all likely to be attempted successfully.

Including the method just mentioned, there are four methods of reading past Lives:--

[1] Psychometrisation of the permanent atoms

[2] To take the ego's own memory of what happened

[3] To psychometrise the ego, or rather his causal body, and see for ourselves the experiences through which he has passed. This method is safer than [2], because even an ego, having seen things through a past personality, may have imperfect or prejudiced impressions of them.

[4] To use the buddhic faculties, becoming completely one with the ego under investigation, and to read his experiences as though they were our own i.e., from within, instead of from without. This method obviously demands much higher development.

Methods [3] and [4] have been employed by those who prepared the series of incarnations, which have been published during the past few years in The Theosophist, some of them having also been produced in book form. The investigators had also the advantage of the intelligent co-operation of the ego, whose incarnations were described.

The physical presence of the subject, whose lives are being read, is an advantage, but not a necessity. He is useful, provided he can keep his vehicles perfectly calm, but, if he becomes excited, he spoils everything.

The surroundings are not specially important, but quiet is essential, because, if impressions are to be brought through clearly, the physical brain must be calm.

It is necessary also to eradicate absolutely all prejudices, otherwise they will produce the effect of stained glass, colouring everything which is seen through them, and so giving a false impression.

( Page 245 )

We may say that there are two sources of error possible: [1] personal bias; [2] limited views.

In view of the fact that there are fundamental differences of temperament, these cannot but colour the views taken of other planes. Every one below the level of an Adept is sure to be influenced in this manner to some extent. The man of the world magnifies unimportant details, and omits the important things being in the habit of doing this in daily life. On the other hand, a man starting on the Path may, in his enthusiasm lose for a time his touch with the ordinary human life, from which he has emerged. But even so, he has the advantage, for those who see the inside of things are nearer the truth than those who see only the outside.

In order to minimise this sort of error, it is usual for people, of radically different types, to work together at these investigations.

The second danger we have mentioned is that of a limited view, of taking a part for the whole. Thus, one may take a view of a small portion of a given community, and apply it to the whole community, i. e., one may fall into the common error of generalising on insufficient basis of observation.

There is however, a general aura of a time or a country, which usually prevents any great mistakes of this sort. A psychic, who has not been trained to sense this general aura, is often unconscious of it, and may thus fall into many errors. Long continued observation shows that all untrained psychics are sometimes reliable, and sometimes unreliable, and those who consult them therefore run the risk of being misled.

In looking at past lives, it is safer to retain full physical consciousness, so as to be able to make a note of everything, while it is being observed, than to leave the physical body during the observations, and trust to memory to their reproduction. This latter plan, however, has to be adopted when the student, though able to use the causal body, can do so only while the physical body is asleep.( Page 246 )

The identification of egos is sometimes difficult, because egos naturally change considerably in the course of some thousands of years. Some investigators feel an intuition as to the identity of a particular ego, and, although such an intuition may often be right, it may certainly also sometimes be wrong. The safer, but more laborious, method of identification, is to pass the records rapidly in review, and trace the ego concerned through them, until he is found at the present day.

In some cases, the egos of ordinary people are instantly recognisable, even after thousands of years: that does not speak particularly well of the people concerned, because it means that they have made but little progress. To try to recognise, twenty thousand years ago,one whom one knows at the present day, is somewhat like meeting as an adult some one whom one knew long ago as a child. Sometimes recognition is possible, sometimes the change has been too great.

Those who have since become Masters of the Wisdom are often instantly recognisable, even thousands of years ago, but that is for a different reason. For, when the lower vehicles are already fully in harmony with the ego, they form themselves into the likeness of the Augoeides, and so change little from life to life. Similarly, when the ego himself is becoming a perfect reflection of the Monad ,he also changes but little, though he gradually grows: hence he is readily recognisable.

The nature of the Akashic Records having been already described in The Mental Body, a few of the more immediately relevant points only will be mentioned here.

In examining a past life, the easiest way is to let the record drift past at its natural rate: but, as this would mean a day's work to look up the events of each day, it is clearly impracticable, except for short periods. It is, however, possible to accelerate or retard the passage of events to any degree required, so that a period of thousands of years may be run through rapidly, ( Page 247 ) or any particular picture may be held as long as desired.

What is described as the unrolling of the record is, in reality, not a movement of the record, but of the consciousness of the seer. But the impression which it gives is exactly as though the record itself were unrolled. The..
[6:42:11 PM] Thuan Thi Do: What is described as the unrolling of the record is, in reality, not a movement of the record, but of the consciousness of the seer. But the impression which it gives is exactly as though the record itself were unrolled. The records may be said to lie upon one another in layers, the more recent on top and the older ones behind. Yet even this simile is misleading, because it suggests the idea of thickness, whereas the records occupy no more space than does the reflection on the surface of a mirror. The consciousness does not really move in space at all, but rather puts on itself, as a kind of cloak, one or other of the layers of the record, and, in doing so, it finds itself in the midst of the action of the story.

The method of arriving at dates has been described in The Mental Body, page 242.

[7:15:36 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Dĩ nhiên, “tư tưởng là vật chất”, không theo ý nghĩa như ông Moleschott, một nhà duy vật người Đức đã quả quyết với chúng ta rằng “tư tưởng là sự chuyển động của vật chất” – đó là một lời nói hết sức phi lý không ai bì kịp. Như thế, những trạng thái của tư tưởng và trạng thái của thể xác đã hoàn toàn được đối chiếu ngược nhau, nhưng điều này không có ảnh hưởng đến lập trường cho rằng mỗi tư tưởng, ngoài phần đồng hành  của thể xác (là sự biến đổi của não bộ ra) đều biểu hiện một trạng thái khách quan – dù đối với chúng ta, đó là cái khách quan siêu cảm giác – trên cõi trung giới (1).

Hai lý thuyết khoa học chủ yếu bàn về những sự liên quan giữa Tinh Thần và Vật Chất là thuyết Nhất Nguyên (Monism) và Chủ Nghĩa Duy Vật (Materialism). Ngoại trừ những quan niệm gần như là huyền bí của những trường phái Phiếm Thần học của người Đức, cả hai thuyết này bao hàm toàn bộ lãnh vực của khoa tâm lý học tiêu cực. Những quan niệm của nhữ  

[7:36:06 PM] Thuan Thi Do: 5. Fohat takes five strides (having already taken the first three) (angel), and builds a winged wheel at each corner of the square for the four holy ones . . . . . and their armies (hosts) (beer).

(angel) The “strides,” as already explained (see Commentary on Stanza IV.), refer to both the Cosmic and the Human principles — the latter of which consist, in the exoteric division, of three (Spirit, Soul, and Body), and, in the esoteric calculation, of seven principles — three rays of the Essence and four aspects.* Those who have studied Mr. Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism” can easily grasp the nomenclature. There are two esoteric schools — or rather one school, divided into two parts — one for the inner Lanoos, the other for the outer or semi-lay chelas beyond the Himalayas; the first teaching a septenary, the other a six-fold division of human principles.

From a Cosmic point of view, Fohat taking “five strides” refers here to the five upper planes of Consciousness and Being, the sixth and the seventh (counting downwards) being the astral and the terrestrial, or the two lower planes.

(beer) “Four winged wheels at each corner . . . . . for the four holy ones and their armies (hosts)” . . . . . These are the “four Maharajahs” or great Kings of the Dhyan-Chohans, the Devas who preside, each over one of the four cardinal points. They are the Regents or Angels who rule over the Cosmical Forces of North, South,

Footnote(s) ———————————————
* The four aspects are the body, its life or vitality, and the “Double” of the body, the triad which disappears with the death of the person, and the Kama-rupa which disintegrates in Kama-loka.

Vol. 1, Page 123 THE SECRET OF THE ELEMENTS.
East and West, Forces having each a distinct occult property. These beings are also connected with Karma, as the latter needs physical and material agents to carry out her decrees, such as the four kinds of winds, for instance, professedly admitted by Science to have their respective evil and beneficent influences upon the health of Mankind and every living thing. There is occult philosophy in that Roman Catholic doctrine which traces the various public calamities, such as epidemics of disease, and wars, and so on, to the invisible “Messengers” from North and West. “The glory of God comes from the way of the East” says Ezekiel; while Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the Psalmist assure their readers that all the evil under the Sun comes from the North and the West — which proposition, when applied to the Jewish nation, sounds like an undeniable prophecy for themselves. And this accounts also for St. Ambrose (On Amos, ch. iv.) declaring that it is precisely for that reason that “we curse the North-Wind, and that during the ceremony of baptism we begin by turning towards the West (Sidereal), to renounce the better him who inhabits it; after which we turn to the East.”

Belief in the “Four Maharajahs” — the Regents of the Four cardinal points — was universal and is now that of Christians,* who call them, after St. Augustine, “Angelic Virtues,” and “Spirits” when enumerated by themselves, and “Devils” when named by Pagans. But where is the difference between the Pagans and the Christians in this cause? Following Plato, Aristotle explained that the term [[stoicheia]] was understood only as meaning the incorporeal principles placed at each of the four great divisions of our Cosmical world to supervise them. Thus, no more than the Christians did, do they adore and worship the Elements and the cardinal (imaginary) points, but the “gods” that ruled these respectively. For the Church there are two kinds of Sidereal beings, the

Footnote(s) ———————————————
* Says the scholarly Vossius, in his Theol. Cir. I. VII.: “Though St. Augustine has said that every visible thing in this world had an angelic virtue as an overseer near it, it is not individuals but entire species of things that must be understood, each such species having indeed its particular angel to watch it. He is at one in this with all the philosophers . . . For us these angels are spirits separated from the objects . . . whereas for the philosophers (pagan) they were gods.” Considering the Ritual established by the Roman Catholic Church for “Spirits of the Stars,” the latter look suspiciously like “Gods,” and were no more honoured and prayed to by the ancient and modern pagan rabble than they are now at Rome by the highly cultured Catholic Christians.

Vol. 1, Page 124 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Angels and the Devils. For the Kabalist and Occultist there is but one; and neither of them makes any difference between “the Rectors of Light” and the Cosmocratores, or “Rectores tenebrarum harum,” whom the Roman Church imagines and discovers in a “Rector of Light” as soon as he is called by another name than the one she addresses him by. It is not the “Rector” or “Maharajah” who punishes or rewards, with or without “God’s” permission or order, but man himself — his deeds or Karma, attracting individually and collectively (as in the case of whole nations sometimes), every kind of evil and calamity. We produce causes, and these awaken the corresponding powers in the sidereal world; which powers are magnetically and irresistibly attracted to — and react upon — those who produced these causes; whether such persons are practically the evil-doers, or simply Thinkers who brood mischief. Thought is matter,* we are taught by modern Science; and “every particle of the existing matter must be a register of all that has happened,” as in their “Principles of Science” Messrs. Jevons and Babbage tell the profane. Modern Science is drawn more every day into the maelstrom of Occultism; unconsciously, no doubt, still very sensibly. The two main theories of science — re the relations between Mind and Matter — are Monism and Materialism. These two cover the whole ground of negative psychology with the exception of the quasi-occult views of the pantheistic German schools.†

Footnote(s) ———————————————
* Not of course in the sense of the German Materialist Moleschott, who assures us that “Thought is the movement of matter,” a statement of almost unequalled absurdity. Mental states and bodily states are utterly contrasted as such. But that does not affect the position that every thought, in addition to its physical accompaniment (brain-change), exhibits an objective — though to us supersensuously objective — aspect on the astral plane. (See “The Occult World,” pp. 89, 90.)

† The views of our present-day scientific thinkers as to the relations between mind and matter may be reduced to two hypotheses. These show that both views equally exclude the possibility of an independent Soul, distinct from the physical brain through which it functions. They are: —

(1.) Materialism, the theory which regards mental phenomena as the product of molecular change in the brain; i.e., as the outcome of a transformation of motion into feeling (!). The cruder school once went so far as to identify mind with a “peculiar mode of motion” (!!), but this view is now happily regarded as absurd by most of the men of science themselves.

(2.) Monism, or the Single Substance Doctrine, is the more subtle form of negative psychology, which one of its advocates, Professor Bain, ably terms “guarded [[Footnote continued on next page]]

Vol. 1, Page 125 THE REAL MEANING OF THE TABERNACLE.
In the Egyptian temples, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, an immense curtain separated the tabernacle from the place for the congregation. The Jews had the same. In both, the curtain was drawn over five pillars (the Pentacle) symbolising our five senses and five Root-races..
[7:38:17 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Angels and the Devils. For the Kabalist and Occultist there is but one; and neither of them makes any difference between “the Rectors of Light” and the Cosmocratores, or “Rectores tenebrarum harum,” whom the Roman Church imagines and discovers in a “Rector of Light” as soon as he is called by another name than the one she addresses him by. It is not the “Rector” or “Maharajah” who punishes or rewards, with or without “God’s” permission or order, but man himself — his deeds or Karma, attracting individually and collectively (as in the case of whole nations sometimes), every kind of evil and calamity. We produce causes, and these awaken the corresponding powers in the sidereal world; which powers are magnetically and irresistibly attracted to — and react upon — those who produced these causes; whether such persons are practically the evil-doers, or simply Thinkers who brood mischief. Thought is matter,* we are taught by modern Science; and “every particle of the existing matter must be a register of all that has happened,” as in their “Principles of Science” Messrs. Jevons and Babbage tell the profane. Modern Science is drawn more every day into the maelstrom of Occultism; unconsciously, no doubt, still very sensibly. The two main theories of science — re the relations between Mind and Matter — are Monism and Materialism. These two cover the whole ground of negative psychology with the exception of the quasi-occult views of the pantheistic German schools.†

Footnote(s) ———————————————
* Not of course in the sense of the German Materialist Moleschott, who assures us that “Thought is the movement of matter,” a statement of almost unequalled absurdity. Mental states and bodily states are utterly contrasted as such. But that does not affect the position that every thought, in addition to its physical accompaniment (brain-change), exhibits an objective — though to us supersensuously objective — aspect on the astral plane. (See “The Occult World,” pp. 89, 90.)

† The views of our present-day scientific thinkers as to the relations between mind and matter may be reduced to two hypotheses. These show that both views equally exclude the possibility of an independent Soul, distinct from the physical brain through which it functions. They are: —

(1.) Materialism, the theory which regards mental phenomena as the product of molecular change in the brain; i.e., as the outcome of a transformation of motion into feeling (!). The cruder school once went so far as to identify mind with a “peculiar mode of motion” (!!), but this view is now happily regarded as absurd by most of the men of science themselves.

(2.) Monism, or the Single Substance Doctrine, is the more subtle form of negative psychology, which one of its advocates, Professor Bain, ably terms “guarded [[Footnote continued on next page]]

Vol. 1, Page 125 THE REAL MEANING OF THE TABERNACLE.
In the Egyptian temples, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, an immense curtain separated the tabernacle from the place for the congregation. The Jews had the same. In both, the curtain was drawn over five pillars (the Pentacle) symbolising our five senses and five Root-races esoterically, while the four colours of the curtain represented the four cardinal points and the four terrestrial elements. The whole was an allegorical symbol. It is through the four high Rulers over the four points and Elements that our five senses may become cognisant of the hidden truths of Nature; and not at all, as Clemens would have it, that it is the elements per se that furnished the Pagans with divine Knowledge or the knowledge of God.* While the Egyptian emblem was spiritual, that of the Jews was purely materialistic, and, indeed, honoured only the blind Elements and the imaginary “Points.” For what was the meaning of the square tabernacle raised by Moses in the wilderness, if it had not the same cosmical significance? “Thou shalt make an hanging . . . of blue, purple, and scarlet” and “five pillars of shittim wood for the hanging . . . four brazen rings in the four corners thereof . . . boards of fine wood for the four sides, North, South, West, and East . . . of the Tabernacle . . . with Cherubims of cunning work.” (Exodus, ch. xxvi., xxvii.) The Tabernacle and the square courtyard, Cherubim and all, were precisely the same as those in the Egyptian temples. The square form of the Tabernacle meant just the same thing as it still means, to this day, in the exoteric worship of the Chinese and Tibetans — the four cardinal points signifying that which the four sides of the pyramids, obelisks, and other such square erections mean. Josephus takes care to explain the whole thing. He declares that the Tabernacle pillars are the same

Footnote(s) ———————————————
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] Materialism.” This doctrine, which commands a very wide assent, counting among its upholders such men as Lewis, Spencer, Ferrier, and others, while positing thought and mental phenomena generally as radically contrasted with matter, regards both as equal to the two sides, or aspects, of one and the same substance in some of its conditions. Thought as thought, they say, is utterly contrasted with material phenomena, but it must be also regarded as only “the subjective side of nervous motion” — whatever our learned men may mean by this.

* Thus the sentence, “Natura Elementorum obtinet revelationem Dei,” (In Clemens’s Stromata, R. IV., para. 6), is applicable to both or neither. Consult the Zends, vol II., p. 228, and Plutarch De Iside, as compared by Layard, Academie des Inscriptions, 1854, Vol. XV.

Vol. 1, Page 126 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
as those raised at Tyre to the four Elements, which were placed on pedestals whose four angles faced the four cardinal points: adding that “the angles of the pedestals had equally the four figures of the Zodiac” on them, which represented the same orientation (Antiquities I., VIII., ch. xxii.).
[7:39:03 PM] Thuan Thi Do: unconsciously, no doubt, still very sensibly. The two main theories of science — re the relations between Mind and Matter — are Monism and Materialism. These two cover the whole ground of negative psychology with the exception of the quasi-occult views of the pantheistic German schools.†

Footnote(s) ———————————————
* Not of course in the sense of the German Materialist Moleschott, who assures us that “Thought is the movement of matter,” a statement of almost unequalled absurdity. Mental states and bodily states are utterly contrasted as such. But that does not affect the position that every thought, in addition to its physical accompaniment (brain-change), exhibits an objective — though to us supersensuously objective — aspect on the astral plane. (See “The Occult World,” pp. 89, 90.)

† The views of our present-day scientific thinkers as to the relations between mind and matter may be reduced to two hypotheses. These show that both views equally exclude the possibility of an independent Soul, distinct from the physical brain through which it functions. They are: —

(1.) Materialism, the theory which regards mental phenomena as the product of molecular change in the brain; i.e., as the outcome of a transformation of motion into feeling (!). The cruder school once went so far as to identify mind with a “peculiar mode of motion” (!!), but this view is now happily regarded as absurd by most of the men of science themselves.

(2.) Monism, or the Single Substance Doctrine, is the more subtle form of negative psychology, which one of its advocates, Professor Bain, ably terms “guarded [[Footnote continued on next page]]

Vol. 1, Page 125 THE REAL MEANING OF THE TABERNACLE.
In the Egyptian temples, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, an immense curtain separated the tabernacle from the place for the congregation. The Jews had the same. In both, the curtain was drawn over five pillars (the Pentacle) symbolising our five senses and five Root-races esoterically, while the four colours of the curtain represented the four cardinal points and the four terrestrial elements. The whole was an allegorical symbol. It is through the four high Rulers over the four points and Elements that our five senses may become cognisant of the hidden truths of Nature; and not at all, as Clemens would have it, that it is the elements per se that furnished the Pagans with divine Knowledge or the knowledge of God.* While the Egyptian emblem was spiritual, that of the Jews was purely materialistic, and, indeed, honoured only the blind Elements and the imaginary “Points.” For what was the meaning of the square tabernacle raised by Moses in the wilderness, if it had not the same cosmical significance? “Thou shalt make an hanging . . . of blue, purple, and scarlet” and “five pillars of shittim wood for the hanging . . . four brazen rings in the four corners thereof . . . boards of fine wood for the four sides, North, South, West, and East . . . of the Tabernacle . . . with Cherubims of cunning work.” (Exodus, ch. xxvi., xxvii.) The Tabernacle and the square courtyard, Cherubim and all, were precisely the same as those in the Egyptian temples. The square form of the Tabernacle meant just the same thing as it still means, to this day, in the exoteric worship of the Chinese and Tibetans — the four cardinal points signifying that which the four sides of the pyramids, obelisks, and other such square erections mean. Josephus takes care to explain the whole thing. He declares that the Tabernacle pillars are the same

Footnote(s) ———————————————
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] Materialism.” This doctrine, which commands a very wide assent, counting among its upholders such men as Lewis, Spencer, Ferrier, and others, while positing thought and mental phenomena generally as radically contrasted with matter, regards both as equal to the two sides, or aspects, of one and the same substance in some of its conditions. Thought as thought, they say, is utterly contrasted with material phenomena, but it must be also regarded as only “the subjective side of nervous motion” — whatever our learned men may mean by this.

* Thus the sentence, “Natura Elementorum obtinet revelationem Dei,” (In Clemens’s Stromata, R. IV., para. 6), is applicable to both or neither. Consult the Zends, vol II., p. 228, and Plutarch De Iside, as compared by Layard, Academie des Inscriptions, 1854, Vol. XV.

Vol. 1, Page 126 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
as those raised at Tyre to the four Elements, which were placed on pedestals whose four angles faced the four cardinal points: adding that “the angles of the pedestals had equally the four figures of the Zodiac” on them, which represented the same orientation (Antiquities I., VIII., ch. xxii.)
[8:31:53 PM] Thuan Thi Do:  http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/baileyal.htm
[8:50:19 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://www.slideshare.net/Huongclass/02-vtm-thc-ca-nguyn-t  (đọc hết trang 34)
[9:26:01 PM] Thuan Thi Do: https://www.google.com/search?q=protoplasm&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS597US597&espv=2&biw=823&bih=424&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Nt37VKaaJ4HYggS-Xw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
[9:27:49 PM] *** Call ended, duration 3:19:20 ***

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