A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga: The Yoga of WisdomAtkinson, William Walker
Religion
A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga: The Yoga of Wisdom
Atkinson, William Walker
Yoga, Jñana
As we have said in other places, one of the greatest difficulties in
the way of the seeker after Truth in his consideration of the question
of Spiritual Evolution is the feeling that rebirth is being forced upon
him, without any say on his part, and against his desires. But this is
far from being correct. It is true that the whole process is according
to the Great Law, but that Law operates through the force of Desire and
Attraction. The soul is attracted toward rebirth by reason of its
desire or rather the essence of its desires. It is reborn only because
it has within itself the desire for further experience, and opportunity
for unfoldment. And it is reborn into certain environments solely
because it has within itself unsatisfied desires for those
environments, etc. The process is just as regular and scientific as is
the attraction of one atom of matter for another.
Each soul has within itself certain elements of desire and attraction,
and it attracts to itself certain conditions and experiences, and is in
turn attracted by these things. This is the law of life, in the body
and out of it. And there is no injustice in the law it is the essence
of justice itself, for it gives to each just what is required to fill
the indwelling desires, or else the conditions and experiences designed
to burn out the desires which are holding one back, and the destruction
of which will make possible future advancement.
For instance, if one is bound by the inordinate desire for material
wealth, the Law of Karma will attract him to a rebirth in conditions in
which he will be surrounded by wealth and luxury until he becomes
sickened with them and will find his heart filled with the desire to
flee from them and toward higher and more satisfying things. Of course
the Law of Karma acts in other ways, as we shall see in our next
lesson--it deals with one's debts and obligations, also. The Law of
Karma is closely connected with Metempsychosis, and one must be
considered in connection with the other, always.
Not only is it true that man's rebirths are in strict accordance with
the law of Attraction and Desire, but it is also true that after he
attains a certain stage of spiritual unfoldment he enters into the
conscious stage of rebirth, and thereafter he is reborn consciously and
with full foreknowledge. Many are now entering into this stage of
development, and have a partial consciousness of their past lives,
which also implies that they have had at least a partial consciousness
of approaching rebirth, for the two phases of consciousness run
together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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