REINCARNATION

Theosophical Manuals #2

by Annie Besant

Contents:

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
THE MEANING OF REÏNCARNATION.
WHAT IT IS THAT REÏNCARNATES.
WHAT IT IS THAT DOES NOT REINCARNATE.
CAN THE HUMAN BECOME THE ANIMAL?
THE METHOD OF REÏNCARNATION.
THE OBJECT OF REÏNCARNATION.
THE CAUSES OF REÏNCARNATION.
THE PROOFS OF REÏNCARNATION.
OBJECTIONS TO REÏNCARNATION.
A LAST WORD.
Information for Enquirers.

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PREFACE.

Few words are needed in sending this little book out into the world. It is the second of a series of Manuals designed to meet the public demand for a simple exposition of Theosophical teachings. Some have complained that our literature is at once too abstruse, too technical, and too expensive for the ordinary reader, and it is our hope that the present series may succeed in supplying what is a very real want. Theosophy is not only for the learned; it is for all. Perhaps among those who in these little books catch their first glimpse of its teachings, there may be a few who will be led by them to penetrate more deeply into its philosophy, its science, and its religion, facing its abstruser problems with the student's zeal and the neophyte's ardour. But these manuals are not written for the eager student, whom no initial difficulties can daunt; they are written for the busy men and women of the work-a-day world, and seek to make plain some of the great truths that render life easier to bear and death easier to face. Written by servants of the Masters who are the Elder Brothers of our race, they can have no other object than to serve our fellow-men.

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An excerpt from the:

INTRODUCTION.

IF it be difficult for a new truth to gain a hearing amid the strife of tongues that marks cur modern civilisation, it is yet more difficult for a truth to make itself heard, which has become new only by force of age. If our eye could sweep over the intellectual history of the race, unrolled before us for centuries of millenniums, then a gap in the dominance of some world-wide idea, stretching over some few hundreds of years among a small number of the nations, would but slightly impress us. But when that gap—a mere partial fissure in an immemorial past—includes the intellectual development of Europe, and is scanned by Europeans, it assumes an importance quite out of proportion to its relative extent in time, its relative weight in argument. Great and valuable as is the contribution brought by Europe to the mental treasure-house of mankind, we Europeans are very apt to over-estimate it, and to forget that the very brief period of intellectual achievement in Europe cannot rationally be taken as outweighing the total mental fruitage of the non-European races, gathered over thousands of centuries. This looming large of our own recent past, until, as a plate held before our eyes shuts out the sun, it hides the past of the world from our mental gaze, is a danger against which we should be on our guard. Neither for individuals nor for nations is intellectual arrogance synonymous with intellectual stature; the feeling which makes the Englishman look on all dark-skinned races as inferior, and lump them comprehensively as "niggers," from whom nothing can be learned, is a feeling essentially petty and parochial. The wise listen most readily to those whose habits of thought are most alien from their own, knowing that thus they may chance to catch a glimpse of some new aspect of Truth, instead of seeing once more the mere reflexion of the aspect already familiar. Men's racial habits, traditions, surroundings, are as coloured glasses through which they look at the sun of Truth; each glass lends its own tint to the sunbeam, and the white ray is transmitted as red, or blue, or yellow— what y

Genres: Theosophy, Nonfiction, Spirituality

86 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 5, 2011

About the author

Noted British reformer Annie Wood Besant vigorously supported socialism, birth control, trade unionism, and rights of women; the cause of independence interested her through her involvement with the theosophical society, and she moved and founded the home rule league in 1916 and served as president of the Indian national congress in 1917.

This prominent activist and orator wrote of Irish.

She, aged 20 years in 1867, married Frank Besant but separated over religious differences.

Once free of Frank Besant and exposed to new currents of thought, she began to question her long-held religious beliefs and the whole of conventional thinking. She began to write attacks on the way of the churches in lives of people. In particular, she attacked the status of the Church of England as a state-sponsored faith.

She quickly wrote a column for the National Reformer, the newspaper of the national secular society, to earn a small weekly wage. The society stood for a secular state and an end to the special status of Christianity and allowed her to act of its public speakers. Very popular public lectures entertained in Queen Victorian times. People quickly greatly demanded Besant, a brilliant speaker. Using the railway, she crisscrossed the country, spoke on all of the most important issues of the day, and always demanded improvement and freedom.

For many years, Besant befriended Charles Bradlaugh, leader of the national secular society. Bradlaugh, a former soldier, long separated from his wife; Besant lived with him and his daughters, and they worked together on many issues. He, an atheist and a republican, also tried to get elected as member of Parliament for Northampton.

She then prominently spoke for the national secular society, wrote, and closely befriended Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877, people prosecuted her and Bradlaugh for publishing a book of campaigner Charles Knowlton.

Besant and Bradlaugh, household names in 1877, then published a book of the American campaigner Charles Knowlton. It claimed that never happy working-class families ably decided not want of children. It suggested ways to limit the size of their families.

The scandal made them famous, and people elected Bradlaugh as member of Parliament for Northampton in 1880.

Actions included the bloody Sunday demonstration and the match girls strike of London of 1888. She led speakers for the Fabian society and the social democratic federation of Marxists. She topped the poll and won election to the school board of London for Tower Hamlets, topping the poll even despite few qualified female voters at that time.

In 1890, Besant met Helena Blavatsky, and over the next few years, secular matters waned. She joined as a member and a prominent lecturer on the subject. As part of her related work, she traveled. In 1898, she helped to establish the central Hindu college.

In 1902, she established le Droit Humain, the first overseas lodge of the international order of co-freemasonry. Over the next few years, she established lodges in many parts of the empire. In 1907, she led at international headquarters in Adyar, Madras (Chennai).

She also joined politics. When World War I broke in 1914, she helped to launch to campaign for democracy and dominion status within the empire. This led to her election in late 1917. After the war, she continued to campaign.

In 1922, she helped establish the Hyderabad (Sind) national collegiate board in Mumbai.

She fought, starting with freedom of thought, Fabians, and workers as a leading member of the national secular society alongside Charles Bradlaugh.

She continued to campaign until her death.

Reviews

[actual thoth]

Short, simple

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot of repetition with her book on karma, and the seven principles of man, but all in all it’s a good read on the theosophical idea about karma.