Reincarnation and the Law of Karma: A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and EffectAtkinson, William Walker
Religion
Reincarnation and the Law of Karma: A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect
Atkinson, William Walker
Karma; Reincarnation
Ego, or "I," is a something immaterial, ruling the material body which
it inhabits. And so the Reincarnationists claim that this demand upon
them for proof of the existence of the soul is not a fair one, because
such discussion belongs to the more general field of thought; that they
are justified in starting with the idea that the soul does exist, as an
axiomic truth; and that their real task is to establish, not that the
soul exists, but that it reincarnates after the death of the body. As
Figuier says, "The difficulty is not to prove that there is a spiritual
principle in us that resists death, for to question the existence of
this principle we must doubt thought. The true problem is to ascertain
if the spiritual and immortal principle within us is going to live again
after death, in ourselves or somebody else. The question is, Will the
immortal soul be born again in the same individual, physically
transformed--into the same person?" As to the other objection, that the
Reincarnationists have not proven the nature of the soul, to which many
of the advocates of the doctrine feel it necessary to reply at great
length and with much subtle reasoning, we feel that the objection is not
well taken. So far as Reincarnation is concerned, if it be taken as an
axiom that the soul really exists, that is sufficient as a beginning for
the argument in favor of the doctrine, and the proof or disproof of any
special theory regarding the nature of the soul is outside of the main
question, so we shall not consider it here. It is possible to think of
the soul as a reincarnating entity, whether it be a monad, duad, triad,
or septenary being.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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