First, then, must be the determination--the Will--the conviction of certainty, to survive and continue.* Without that, all else is useless. And to be efficient for the purpose, it must be, not only a passing resolution of the moment, a single fierce desire of short duration, but a settled and continued strain, as nearly as can be continued and concentrated without one single moment's relaxation. In a word, the would-be "Immortal" must be on his watch night and day, guarding self against-himself. To live--to live--to live--must be his unswerving resolve. He must as little as possible allow himself to be turned aside from it. It may be said that this is the most concentrated form of selfishness,--that it is utterly opposed to our Theosophic professions of benevolence, and disinterestedness, and regard for the good of humanity. Well, viewed in a short-sighted way, it is so. But to do good, as in everything else, a man must have time and materials to work with, and this is a necessary means to the acquirement of powers by which infinitely more good can be done than without them. ---------- * Col. Olcott has epigrammatically explained the creative or rather the re-creative power of the Will, in his "Buddhist Catechism." He there shows--of course, speaking on behalf of the Southern Buddhists--that this Will to live, if not extinguished in the present life, leaps over the chasm of bodily death, and recombines the Skandhas, or groups of qualities that made up the individual into a new personality. Man is, therefore, reborn as the result of his own unsatisfied yearning for objective existence. Col. Olcott puts it in this way: Q. 123. What is that, in man, which gives him the impression of having a permanent individuality? A. Tanha, or the unsatisfied desire for existence. The being having done that for which he must be rewarded or punished in future, and having Tanha, will have a rebirth through the influence of Karma. Q. 124. ....What is it that is reborn? A. A new aggregation of Skandhas, or individuality, caused by the last yearning of the dying person. Q. 128. To what cause must we attribute the differences in the combination of the Five Skandhas has which makes every individual different from every other individual? A. To the Karma of the individual in the next preceding birth. Q. 129. What is the force or energy that is at work, under the guidance of Karma, to produce the new being? A. Tanha--the "Will to Live." ----------