REGENERATION AND REINCARNATION
W. John Murray
The Astor
Lectures
Divine Science Publishing Assoc.
New York, 1917, 8th ed.
"Except a man be born
again, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God."
"Verily I
say unto thee, Except a man be born of
water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the Kingdom of God." --John 3:3,
5.
[188] When
the depths of Divinity within man
come into manifestation through
man, it is called regeneration. One
writer says that mystery has been thrown
around the subject of regeneration, which
does not properly belong to it. Another
writer assures us that regeneration will
be always necessary so long as generation
continues; that is, so long as generation
in the flesh goes on, regeneration out of
the flesh is a necessary corollary.
Regeneration is a process of being born
again, but it is not a physical process;
neither does it imply a return to a
condition which is outgrown. The adult
does not need to become less than man by
returning to infant form in order that he
may rise above past mistakes. The grand
necessity is for progressive unfoldment,
not retrogressive atavism. Therefore,
regeneration is not the assumption of a
[189] baby's body, but the appropriation
of a higher mode of thinking and
living.
Regeneration
is the beginning of the spiritual life,
and all growth after this is an expansion
of the spiritual consciousness by means
of which man comes into a fuller
realization of his relationship with God.
When a man is "born from above," he
learns to reason from a higher basis than
that of the senses. This makes for a
fuller freedom and a larger outlook upon
life. It is a grave question in the minds
of thinkers as to how regeneration is
accomplished. Some contend it is a
process of orderly development or
evolution, which comes about in the
ordinary course of events. Others believe
it to be due to divine intervention,
while still others are convinced that
regeneration is largely a question of
re-education.
If
regeneration were a natural and orderly
process of evolution, it would conform to
law much like the budding of a flower, or
the growth of a child into man's stature;
but there is no such time limit and no
fixed age at which this great event must
take place. At times it seems as if it
were due to divine interposition, as when
a man suddenly stops drinking and turns
to a life of sobriety. But a man may stop
drinking, and still continue some other
debasing habit inordinately. He may
suddenly discontinue all these
debilitating habits, and continue as
spiritually ignorant as before. Moral
reformation is not necessarily spiritual
regeneration. When a person [190]
discovers that the vicious habit is
destructive to health and decides from
pure fear of its physical danger to "cut
it out," it may be said that he has
reformed, but his reformation is not
attributable to a consuming love of
virtue so much as it is due to a growing
terror of the consequences of vice.
Moral
goodness is only too frequently the
application of a theory born of a love
for physical comfort and a desire for
physical ease, and in consequence of this
it may not have one iota of spirituality
in it. Reformation is too often the
outside form which men mistake for the
inner life. It is said in the Scriptures
that "God is not mocked." We may deceive
ourselves and others into thinking that
we have been regenerated, when as a
matter of fact we have merely been
reformed. It is not the outer observance
of the moral law, but the interior
consciousness of man's unity with God,
coupled with a strong desire to make this
unity manifest, which tells the story of
regeneration.
A man may be
reformed without being regenerated, but
it is absolutely impossible for a man to
be regenerated without being reformed.
One follows the other as the dust follows
the cart wheel. If we say that education
is a more important factor in
regeneration than evolution and Divine
interposition, it is not because we
belittle moral evolution, or the action
of God in the betterment of man, but
because true education includes these
important factors as regeneration [191]
includes moral reformation. It is well to
know that education means a "calling
forth." Education along spiritual lines
is the drawing out from the individual
the concealed possibilities.
Every man
has within him the God-implanted germ of
unconquerable divinity. In some it seems
to be like one of those seeds of corn in
an Egyptian mummy's casket, which lies as
unproductive as the mummy itself, until
it is subjected to the germinating
influence of heat and moisture, when at
once it begins to expand in the direction
of producing seed after its kind. "In
every human being," says one, "there is a
sleeping Christ"; that is, there is a
spiritual potentiality, dormant or latent
perhaps, but nevertheless there, much
like an oak in the acorn. It is not that
the Christ is really asleep in us, but
that we are asleep to this indwelling
Divinity of ours which needs to be called
forth only by our intelligent recognition
and right use of it.
It is the
office of spiritual education, therefore,
to call to our attention this hidden
Reality of ourselves, in order that we
may perceive "what is that good and
perfect will of God in us." Regeneration
through spiritual education not only
makes for moral reformation by
emancipating the individual from a
chrysalis state of thought, in which he
is neither an ant nor an angel, but it
produces direct physical results. This is
something of great importance, and is
worthy of serious consideration. A
regeneration [192] which makes for moral
improvement is good, but a regeneration
which makes for moral betterment and
physical health at the same time is
better. Many admit that spiritual
regeneration makes for moral uplift, but
they are not so willing to admit that it
also makes for bodily harmony. It is a
traditional theory with most of us that
for diseases of the soul we must turn to
Deity, but for diseases of the body, our
only refuge lies in drugs. "The body
without the spirit is dead," that is,
that the body without the mind is just so
much inert matter. With this truth all
thinking men are in complete harmony.
Apart from the mind the body has no life,
no intelligence, and no power of its
own.
The body is
the outward and visible sign of an inward
and mental state. In its entirety, it is
the external representation of the sum
total of our states of consciousness,
which record themselves in some
corresponding change in the physical
organism. If we accept the fact that the
thought of fear tends to express itself
on the body in the form of trembling
limbs and pallid countenance, it ought
not to be difficult for us to believe
that spiritual thinking tends to manifest
itself in improved physical conditions.
In the animal kingdoms we have many
instances of regeneration on the physical
plane without the necessity of rebirth or
reincarnation. Both the crab and the
lobster annually cast off their shells
and new ones form from within. The
serpent [193] sheds his skin, and this is
the last step in the renewal of his body.
Birds cast off their feathers, and this
takes place by a process which acts from
within outward, and it is the last stage
in the process of their renewal. The ox
and the horse shed their hair in the
spring of the year. The tree renews
itself once a year, and a new layer grows
around the old ones.
All these
phenomena are illustrations of a general
law of life that is called
rejuvenescence. A wit once remarked that
he would not care to become a lobster
even to grow a new leg, but wit cannot
take the place of wisdom, and the wise
man is he who asks what mental quality of
the lobster makes for the restoration of
the new claw. A bald-headed man might not
wish to become an ox to preserve his
hair, but if he could discover the mental
attitude of the ox in the spring, and
adopt it as his own, he might never
become bald. The difference between an ox
and a bald-headed man is the difference
between an animal who instinctively knows
its hair will grow again and a human
being who becomes panic-stricken when his
comb and brush shock him with their load
of dead hairs. Knowing nothing of the law
of rejuvenescence, we become
terror-stricken when we should be joyful.
We forget that dead hairs must depart
before live ones can take their place.
Happy is the lobster who knows he is
regenerating a new shell within himself;
unhappy is the man who [194] feels that
unless some hair tonic can do the trick
he is doomed to persistent baldness.
These
illustrations from the animal world would
serve to arouse within us a form of
divine inquisitiveness. If man casts off,
as physiology declares he does, his outer
garment of the physical body once a year,
why does he not improve it? Why do scars
remain on the body for fifty years, when
every particle of the body has been
renewed at least fifteen times? These are
questions not for the physiologist, but
for the psychologist. It is possible for
man, governed by God, to renew his youth
as the eagle, but whether the scar will
continue to reappear with each successive
change of cuticle rests with the fixed
belief of the thinker, for the body is
formed after the pattern or image in the
mind. If this pattern is after the image
of the good, the pure, and the beautiful,
the body will conform to it as the water
in a jug will conform to the shape of the
jug, but if the image in the mind is
after the imperfect, or the unbeautiful,
the external will conform to it just as
faithfully. Spencer says, "For soul is
form, and doth the body make." When it is
better understood that man is not a body
with a soul inside of it, like a bird in
a cage; but that he is a soul with a
convenient instrument, we shall exercise
a greater dominion over sin and sickness.
How quickly a thought translates itself
into a facial expression, as when one
becomes pale from a sudden fear, or
flushed from a shock to the modesty.
[195] In
like manner spiritual regeneration makes
for physical rejuvenation. I have seen a
bloated drunkard so transformed by the
renewing of his mind that he looked like
another person. I have seen the pallid
invalid so changed by the regenerating
force of spiritual treatment as to be
almost unrecognizable. In the healing
work of Jesus the cure always began in
the mind of his patient, and the visible
result followed as naturally as a pleased
appearance follows a happy thought. This
is not so much a miracle as the
consequence of a spiritual chemistry.
The point to
be emphasized and impressed upon our
minds is the fact that when regeneration
begins through scientific spiritual
education, it tends to ultimate itself,
not only in moral reformation, but in
physical reconstruction. The same
spiritual force which reforms the sinner
will heal the sick. If it has not done so
since the days of Jesus, it is not
because the force is inadequate, but
because we have limited it. "A three inch
stream cannot be gotten through a one
inch pipe." If we have tapped the
reservoir of God's Love for just enough
of the water of Life to cleanse us from
our sins, while our sicknesses have been
permitted to multiply, the fault does not
lie with the inexhaustible Source, but
with our meager demand upon it. In Divine
Science, regeneration is the spiritual
method by which one is made "every whit
whole"--spirit, soul and body--by the
healing energy of the Holy Spirit.
[196]
Reincarnation is physical rebirth.
Therefore, the difference between
reincarnation and regeneration is the
difference between being born
again,--physically and spiritually.
There is
much difference, even among Theosophists,
concerning this ancient and modern
doctrine; so much so, that it has been
said that "Where masters disagree, pupils
must needs be cautious." Mrs. Annie
Besant says: "The proofs of reincarnation
do not amount to a complete and general
demonstration, but they establish as
strong a presumption as can, in the
nature of the case, exist. The theory
they support affords the only sufficient
explanation of the growth and decay of
nations, of the facts of individual
evolution; of the varying capacities of
man, of recurrent cycles in history, of
unique human characters. I am content,
despite my own certain knowledge that
reincarnation is a fact in nature--to
present it here as a reasonable working
hypothesis, rather than as a demonstrable
theorem."
The Hindu
conception of reincarnation embraces all
existence, including gods, men, animals,
plants and minerals. It is believed that
everything migrates, from Buddha down to
inert matter. One authority on
reincarnation tells us that Buddha
himself was born an ascetic eighty-three
times, a monarch fifty-five times, as the
soul of a tree forty times, and many
other times as an ape, a deer, a lion, a
snipe, a chicken, an eagle, a
sea-serpent, a pig, a frog, etc.,
amounting [197] to four hundred times in
all. Another authority tells us that the
Hindu conception is based on a false
premise, since it is a maxim that the
soul, once human, can never be reborn in
the body of an animal. This authority,
however, favors the possibility of the
soul reincarnating itself in human infant
form--something to which I shall refer as
we proceed.
It has been
said that nothing else so successfully
explains the inequalities of human life
as does the philosophy of reincarnation.
Over against this declaration, however,
is the theory that heredity and
environment are the most important
factors in social equality.
Abundant
citations are given from the Bible to
support the theory of reincarnation. It
was the popular impression that John the
Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah,
but when John himself was questioned on
this point, he denied it. (John 1:21)
This, we are told, is because it required
an adept to remember his former
existence. When Jesus asked his
disciples: "Whom say ye that I am?" they
answered: "Some say Elias; some say
Jeremiah, and some say that prophet." In
this answer we see the evidence of a
belief in reincarnation, but Jesus says
nothing on this occasion for or against
it.
When
Mozoomdar, the eminent Hindu scholar and
writer, embraced the teachings of Jesus,
he began to change his views on the
subject of reincarnation. In a lecture
given in this country, he said:
"Transmigration notoriously existed as
[198] an indispensable article of faith
among the sects of old Hinduism. In
modern times, however, it is called
Reincarnation and held by the more
superstitious. Educated, free-thinking
Hindus reject it as a fading,
unreasonable relic of the past."
Over against
this declaration of Mozoomdar, the native
Hindu who embraced the teachings of
Christianity and rejected the doctrine of
reincarnation, we have Professor Francis
Bowen of Harvard University pleading that
the Christian Church should accept this
doctrine. In an article on "Christian
Metempsychosis," which is intended to
prove that the doctrine of reincarnation
was endorsed by Jesus himself, he says:
"We learn that our Lord twice declared,
in very distinct language, that Elijah
and John the Baptist were really one and
the same person. Once while John was
still alive, but in prison, Jesus told
the multitude who thronged him: 'Among
them that are born of women there has not
risen a greater than John the Baptist,'
and directly he goes on to assert: 'If ye
will receive it, this is Elias, which was
to come.' (Matt. 11:14) And again after
John was beheaded, Jesus said to his
disciples, 'Elias has come already, and
they knew him not, but have done unto him
whatsoever they listed.' Then the
disciples understood that he spoke to
them of John the Baptist. (Matt.
17:12-13.)"
At the time
of Jesus' birth there seems to have been
a general belief among the more devout
[199] Jews that the coming of the Messiah
was to be preceded or announced by the
reappearance of Elijah, the Prophet.
Malachi, speaking as the oracle of God
has said: "Behold I will send you Elijah
the Prophet before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord."
(Mal. 4:5.) These words of prophesy were
the basis of a nation's hopes and
expectations. But notwithstanding all
this, John was beheaded, and Jesus was
crucified.
India seems
to be the birthplace, cradle and the home
of the philosophy of reincarnation; yet
Lanki R. Bhose, a noted Hindu scholar,
writes: "Reincarnation, the legitimate
child of transmigration (the latter is
still the belief in southern India), held
so tenaciously and almost universally by
old India, is on the declining plane.
Psychology, as taught by the British and
the French, is rapidly displacing the
belief by showing its irrationality and
depressing influence upon the
superstitious in relation to animal and
serpent and insect life."
Amid so many
conflicting opinions, and with so many
brilliant minds on both sides of the
question, may it not be that the
confusion arises from a too material
conception of it? It may be somewhat
disconcerting to one who is willing to
believe in reincarnation to discover so
many students of Theosophy, who claim to
be the reincarnation of the same deceased
personality. For instance, it is
astonishing to learn of the great number
of persons who are called the
reincarnation [200] of Paul and Peter and
John; not to mention the host of Anthonys
and other ancient celebrities. A friend
of mine tells me that there are eight
ladies in London who claim the honor and
distinction of being reincarnations of
Cleopatra. The editor of the Occult
Review says: "The number of Mary
Queen of Scots, who are reincarnated
simultaneously at the present time, are
simply legion."
Now it must
not be inferred from the contradictory
statements which I have quoted concerning
this absorbing topic that I am opposed to
it. I see in these great differences of
opinion the results of a too gross
material view of the subject and for this
reason I am endeavoring to discover its
spiritual side, if there be one, or if it
has no spiritual side, to discard it
altogether.
We have
observed the tendency on the part of
educated Hindus to get away from the
belief that "For simple acts most
corporeal, a man shall assume after death
a vegetable or mineral form; for such
acts, mostly verbal, the form of a bird
or beast; for acts mostly mental, the
lowest of mental conditions." Since it is
the nature of the species to perpetuate
itself, it is not the opinion of advanced
Theosophists that man ever becomes
reincarnated in the body of an animal.
The most popular theory at present, is
that of the soul's necessity of rebirth
in the body of a human infant, on the
principle that past mistakes can be
corrected only in this way. This is much
as though one would have to return to a
grade [201] in school for the lessons
which had not been properly
mastered,--like coming from San Francisco
back to Boston to get what you missed in
high school there. The theory is supposed
to be substantiated by the words of our
text: "Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the Kingdom of God." This text
is regarded as one of the strongest
arguments in favor of the necessity of
man's return to this planet for the
purpose of doing that which he failed to
do when he was here before. But if one
studies carefully the whole context from
which this text is detached, he may see
that it does not refer to a physical
rebirth, quite so much as it refers to a
spiritual awakening.
Nicodemus
had gone to Jesus under cover of the
night to inquire of him concerning the
Way. He perceived that Jesus was a man of
God; despite the fact that he, Nicodemus,
was a teacher of Israel, schooled in the
law and the prophets, he was humble
enough to seek Truth wherever he could
find it. (John 3:1) When Jesus told him
that he must be born again, he could
think of this requirement only in
material terms, for he asked: "How can a
man be born when he is old? Can he enter
a second time into his mother's womb?"
And the answer Jesus gave to this
well-meant question, if accepted in its
spiritual significance, will do much to
explain reincarnation from the highest
point of view. In that remarkable
statement of Jesus, "That which is born
of flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of Spirit is [202] Spirit," is set forth
the solution of the problem, the
explanation of the riddle. He draws the
sharp line of distinction between the
spiritual man, made in the image and
likeness of God, and the so-called
material man formed from the dust of the
ground. He declares that one is eternal
and indestructible, while the other is
temporal and evanescent. In this
metaphysical description of man, Jesus
makes it clear that regeneration
is far more important than reincarnation.
If reincarnation is a change in the
physical nature of man, regeneration is a
change in the spiritual nature of man;
and it was on this particular change that
Jesus laid most stress.
The
necessity of being born again, according
to the philosophy of Jesus, was not that
an adult must go through all the
processes of physical conception,
gestation and deliverance into the world
as a shrieking, helpless infant. Jesus
realized that man, in a state of
spiritual ignorance, is shut up in the
womb of materiality from which he must be
delivered by Truth, if he would open his
eyes on a world of God's creating.
It has been
argued that if it is possible for the
soul to clothe itself in infant form, it
is equally possible for it to clothe
itself in adult form, and so begin where
it left off, instead of wasting so many
years in acquiring knowledge that it must
be in possession of already from its
previous incarnations. I agree with Mrs.
Besant that "The proofs of reincarnation
do not amount [203] to a complete and
general demonstration"; and for this
reason I feel that regeneration is the
point to be most emphasized in Divine
Science.
The best
religion is that which helps one to be of
most service to humanity. It is not so
much a question as to whether we were a
St. Paul, Mark Anthony or a Cleopatra in
previous incarnations, as it is a
question of what we are now. The
great science is the science of ontology,
which tells a man what he is, and
enables him to transcend all limitations
by the knowledge of the power of the Holy
Spirit which works in him.
Reincarnation is a truth, but in a higher
and a more spiritual sense than many of
its most ardent advocates realize. The
Logos, or the Christ, incarnated itself
whenever men have been sufficiently
spiritual to perceive it. The Christ
incarnates itself, not in fleshly forms,
but in spiritual qualities. The same
Christ which incarnated itself in Elijah
the Prophet, could incarnate itself in
similar spiritual qualities in John the
Baptist, and this without making one the
necessary reproduction of the other in
physical form.
When we
understand the spiritual significance of
the doctrine of reincarnation, we shall
see that it is the perpetuation of
persistent spiritual qualities, and not
the repeated visits of the soul to this
particular planet. The changes which go
on in the world of time and sense have no
[204] more relation to man, as God sees
him, than errors have to the fixed truth
of mathematics. Man is not what he
appears to be, any more than the sun is
what it appears to be. Man, as God and
the spiritually minded man sees him, is
no more subject to birth and death than
the sun is subject to ascent and
descent.
We say that
immortality demands reincarnation, yet if
we are to enjoy conscious existence after
death, we must have had it before birth,
since we cannot predicate immortality
with one end. In the very nature of
things, since we believe in immortality,
we must believe in pre-existence, but we
must not be too dogmatic in our
declaration that pre-existence is limited
to this particular planet upon which we
are at present masquerading. Just as it
cannot be proved that we continue to live
on this planet after the transition
called death, it cannot be proved that we
lived on this planet before birth; while
the fact that God is Life, and that man
is the Idea of God, is sufficient proof
that the life of man is eternal, and is
the life of God.
Next: Marriage
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The Astor Lectures
Table of
Contents
(Formerly at
Northwoods Divine Science Resource
Center)
