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One of the great tragedies of our present outlook on existence is our
attitude to that recurring event which we call death. We approach it,
for the most part, with fear and loathing, seeking by every means to
resist its call, prolonging, often beyond its usefulness, the activity
of the physical body as a guarantee of life. Our dread of death is the
dread of the unknown, of complete and utter dissolution, of being no
more. Despite the vast amount of evidence gathered over the years by the
many spiritualist groups that life of some kind continues after death;
despite the intellectual acceptance by many that death is but an
awakening into new and freer life; in spite of the growing belief in
reincarnation;  notwithstanding the testimony of the wisest teachers
down the ages, we continue to approach that great transition with fear
and trepidation. What makes this attitude so tragic is that it is so far
from the reality and is the source of so much unnecessary suffering.

Our fear of death is the fear that our identity will be obliterated. If
we did but realize and experience that that identity is an immortal
Being which cannot die or be obliterated, our fear of death would
vanish. If, further, we realized that after so-called death we enter
into a new and clearer light in which the sense of our identity is
altogether more vivid, and also that there are yet higher aspects of our
Being which await our recognition, our whole approach to death would
change for the better. We would see death and physica-plain life as
stages in an endless journey to perfection, and death as the door into
far less limiting experience on that road. Freed from the confines of
the physical world, our consciousness would find great new vistas of
meaning and beauty hitherto denied it. In the time immediately ahead,
the Masters and their disciples will teach the truth of that experience
we call death and open up for all a great new freedom. We will learn to
accept death for what it is: restitution of our vehicles to their source
-- ashes to ashes, dust to dust -- and liberation into new and
meaningful life.

The Process of Dying

The death of the dense physical body begins when the soul withdraws its
energy from its vehicle. This can take place over a longer or shorter
period of time. A series of heart attacks, or an illness which becomes
steadily graver, could be the sign that the soul is beginning this
process. As soon as death takes place, the subtle bodies -- the astral
and the mental bodies within the etheric vehicle -- withdraw from the
dense physical body. This, too, can take place quickly or more slowly,
but the Masters advise that one should wait for three days before burial
or cremation to ensure that the etheric body has completely withdrawn
from its physical counterpart. The individual consciousness concerned is
then left in the etheric body which in its turn will also be discarded.
The particles of substance making up the etheric vehicle will then
stream back into the ocean of etheric energy which surrounds us. The
speed of that disintegration process depends upon the individual's
karma.

When the etheric vehicle has been cast off, the astral sheath gives the
person consciousness on the astral plane, where he will remain for a
time on one or other of the seven astral planes which best corresponds
with his astral nature. There he will once again have to deal with the
desires carried over from his earthly life, and often remains so
enmeshed in these that life on that plane becomes a reality to him. If
the consciousness is very much focussed on the astral, with very little
mental focus, such a person could remain on the astral plane for a long
time -- long to our way of thinking, for outside the realm of the
physical brain there is no such thing as time. On this astral plane one
does what, normally, one would have been doing in incarnation on the
physical plane. And though life on the astral plane is a fact, as it is
a fact on the dense-physical plane, it is nevertheless only an illusion.
All our hopes, fears and aggression, our hatreds, jealousies and vices,
form powerful thought-forms which must, sooner or later, be dissolved.
Therefore the only hell which exists is that which we have created
ourselves on the astral planes. The hell which we encounter is the hell
of our own desires, our atrocities, our own separation and our own
grudges and fears which inhabit the astral realm. This is the principle
behind the advice that the Masters always give to learn to control our
thoughts and emotional reactions.

Dying Consciously

For that reason it is also important to raise the consciousness as high
as possible at the time of death, using the last nerve reflex to drive
the consciousness through the astral and the lower mental levels onto
higher mental levels as far, as fast and as consciously as possible.
That is why it is so important that there should be some preparation for
death and, in the future, people will be taught how to die consciously
in order to do this. To overcome the fact that some people do not
realize that they are dead, there are disciples, initiates and some of
the Masters active on the astral plane, protecting people and making
them aware of the fact that they have died.  For most people, the
greatest fear of death exists in their expectation of loss of identity
and consciousness, of loneliness and cessation of contact with family
and friends. Far from experiencing such a loss, the dead man finds that,
freed from the limitations of the physical vehicle, his conscious
awareness is heightened immeasurably. He sees both ways: the world of
forms which he has just left, and the new world into which he has come,
with familiar people around him ready to welcome him into that more
liberated state. At the same time, he can still tune into the feelings
and thoughts of those left behind. So far from being a traumatic
experience, death for many is so gentle and smooth that they do not
realize that they are dead and require the help of those whose task it
is to acquaint them with this fact.

After the death of the physical body, the individual concerned remains
on those astral planes which correspond most closely to the point of
development attained by him in physical life. On those subtle levels our
faculties of perception become freed from the process of thinking and
reasoning which function through the physical brain. All knowledge and
experience can be directly seen, heard, felt and known in their full
significance. There is instantaneous perception, knowledge and beauty
and a type of joy and liberation such as we cannot know on the material
plane.

A State of Rapture

On the higher astral levels this direct experience is of a more ecstatic
kind, of a higher, more refined emotional nature, corresponding to the
higher astral levels of the heart centre.  A person who has attained a
certain level of development before death experiences an almost constant
ecstasy and joy on those levels, a sense of beauty and splendor which is
the reflection on that plane of Buddhi or Love-Wisdom. Buddhi is
actually a state of rapture which can be expected on the physical plane
when a high degree of buddhic contact is achieved during meditation.
When a person has achieved a certain degree of mental focus, he will not
stay on the astral plane for very long, for the astral vehicle would by
then be relatively refined and harmonious. It will be able to dissolve
more rapidly, so that its particles can return to the reservoir of
astral matter or energy, as did the etheric vehicle to the etheric
plane. All these planes -- the etheric, the astral and the mental levels
-- are only sub-levels within the cosmic-physical and are, of course,
really states of consciousness. It may explain it better were I to say
that the Masters are conscious on cosmic-physical, cosmic-etheric,
cosmic-astral and the cosmic-mental planes. The experience on the mental
plane is of an entirely different kind. Here it is less a matter of
rapture than of knowledge or wisdom; not only the rapture but the great
significance and meaning underlying it can be known on that level.
Someone sufficiently evolved, intuitively aware, understands this and
the purpose and the will of God.

The Pralaya Experience

For more advanced people, existence on the mental plane would be the
last experience before coming into incarnation once again. But it is
possible that the mental body in its turn might be dissolved, after
which the individual concerned would live in a state of pralaya, in
devachan. This is a non-mental, non-astral, non-material state of
existence somewhere between death and life. It is a state of being, out
of incarnation, where the life impulse is in abeyance. It is a state of
unending bliss, an experience of perfect peace. To live in pralaya does
not mean that one is unconscious, but no conscious learning process
takes place prior to taking incarnation again. It is being taken up into
the Absolute, from whence one returns under law when group need demands
it. In pralaya the soul lives in its own realm with no other purpose
than to be the soul. Because there are no lower vehicles in this state
of existence, the soul will not gain any experience, as it does on the
other levels. Progress of a specific kind can only be made on these
other levels. The soul comes into incarnation directed by the Logos in
accordance with group purpose and the Plan. It is a great sacrifice for
the soul to descend onto the physical plane and take incarnation, which
takes place under the self-sacrificing will of the soul. This
self-sacrificing power of soul-will is a great driving force. In pralaya
there is no will to incarnate. It is possible to remain in pralaya for a
few dozen to thousands of years until such time as a group of souls is
sent out of pralaya into incarnation because the time is right and the
circumstances suitable. The soul body, or causal body, gains experience
in this manner. The causal body receives more soul-knowledge,
soul-consciousness, as its vehicles become more refined.

Life Experience Preserved Through Permanent Atoms

This refining process of the soul vehicles -- the material, the astral
and the mental bodies -- takes place by means of the permanent atoms.
These are atoms of matter -- physical, astral and mental -- around which
the bodies for a new incarnation are formed. The permanent atoms retain
the vibratory rate of the individual at the moment of death. If that
person has made great progress, his or her bodies will subsequently be
more refined, akin to the vibration of this permanent atom and, due to
the magical working of the soul, will increasingly attract matter of a
sub-atomic nature. In this way, the permanent atoms will spiral up to
reach increasingly higher frequencies. Because a body attracts matter to
it of a similar vibratory rate, each advancement through each life will
bring a more refined body of increasingly higher vibration. The
permanent atoms are, therefore, nuclei which attract the atomic
particles from which first the mental, then the astral and subsequently
the etheric-physical bodies are formed after which the gross physical
body precipitates.

The permanent atoms of an individual are not influenced by experience
out of incarnation but are connected to the causal or soul body. The
causal body is a sort of reservoir of all perception, all knowledge and
all experience of the physical, the astral and the mental realms. A
silver cord connects the soul and its body with the three permanent
atoms.  Consciousness is continuous in this cord, so that when it is
time for the soul to reincarnate once again, particles of matter of like
vibration are magically attracted to form around the permanent atoms.
The permanent atoms, therefore, still vibrate at the same frequency as
in the previous life and are permeated with the consciousness of those
levels. The energy vibration is in the particles of matter which retain
consciousness of the point to which they have evolved.

The Causal, or Soul, Body

The causal body, the receptacle where this consciousness is accumulated
and stored, is to be found on the highest of the four mental levels. At
the beginning of subsequent incarnations, when the vehicles are ready,
the soul pours its energy from the causal body into its mental, astral
and physical sheaths. The accumulated knowledge and experience, gained
over a succession of previous lives, pours down from the soul level to
the physical brain, which retains as much as it can consciously absorb,
use and know. This knowledge cannot really be tapped until the brain
centres have been sufficiently awakened to be used in this way. Where
this does occur, we have what we call a genius. In the soul is mirrored
the Monad (spiritual will), Buddhi (spiritual intuition), and manas
(higher mind). A genius is able to attune him or herself to the soul
level and to that of manasic or buddhic consciousness, or thinking. This
is the source of that higher knowledge and superior talent held in store
from experience in previous lives. A genius is, therefore, someone who
has a close and instantaneous contact with the soul, and can bring the
wisdom and knowledge from that level down into the physical brain
because the brain centres, which in most people remain unused, have been
opened.

The Laws Governing Reincarnation

The question is often posed about the length of time between
incarnations, and a great deal of information has been published on
this, much of it erroneous and necessarily speculative. The fact is that
there are enormous differences in the length of periods out of physical
manifestation, both of individuals and of groups. Some souls have an
extraordinarily rapid cycle of incarnations and pralayas while others
spend aeons between each incarnational experience. There is no average
time (remembering always that we are speaking about physical-plane time;
outside the physical brain, time does not exist).  However, it is
possible to give a generalized picture which (with many variations)
accounts for the incarnational pattern of three main groups within
humanity under the impact of three laws.

The masses today are largely focused in the emotional-astral vehicle.
Their consciousness is still mainly that of the Atlantean or fourth root
race, whose evolutionary goal was the perfection of the astral body.
Many millions now in incarnation were part of the Atlantean race and
still demonstrate powerfully the emotional tendencies of that race. For
them, the less advanced, the period out of incarnation is usually short.
Being young, as egos, they still have much to learn and are drawn
magnetically into physical-plane life by the thought-forms which bind
them to the earth plane and by the karmic ebb and flow which has arisen
on earth. They do not have much say in the matter themselves, but, under
the Law of Evolution, they are cyclically impelled, again and again, to
incarnate, to learn and to experience, and by trial and error, pain and
suffering, to make eventually the free choice: the conscious return out
of matter back to spirit and liberation.

Due to the fact that they have not created such strong earthly ties and
are more flexible, with more mental focus, those who are somewhat more
evolved tend to stay for a longer period out of incarnation. Also, they
need more time to absorb and assimilate (because of their richer
personality experience) that which can only be taken up and assimilated
on the higher planes, out of incarnation. As I have already said, more
evolved egos spend a greater or lesser period of time in the experience
of pralaya, in devachan, which corresponds to the Christian idea of
paradise. There these souls will wait, sometimes for short periods,
sometimes for untold ages, until the need arises for the presence of
that particular group on the physical plane. All souls are on one or
other of seven streams of energy -- the seven rays -- and as these rays
come into manifestation so too do groups of souls on these rays. These
more advanced egos come in, therefore, not individually, nor swept in
blindly under the Law of Evolution as are their less advanced brothers,
but under group law, for a certain purpose, under the influence of a
specific ray energy and in connection with some aspect of the Plan. Each
generation brings into incarnation a group equipped with the knowledge
and ability to deal, more or less, with the problems of that period. In
this way the Plan is gradually developing and unfolding through the work
of successive groups coming into incarnation again and again; groups who
may well disappear out of incarnation for aeons at the end of an era.

There is another group who come into incarnation very quickly: the most
advanced individuals, the disciples and initiates. Neither the Law of
Evolution nor group law governs their return but another law impells
them to rebirth: the Law of Service. They choose consciously to
incarnate of their own free will. Because they know the Plan and wish to
serve the Plan, they decide, under the assignment of their own personal
Master or not, how best they can serve. But because they are initiates,
the Master, who knows the path which will lead them to their goal,
watches over them and advises when they should return into certain
environments and circumstances. The initiate will also want to return
then to continue where he or she left off in order to be of further
service. They repeatedly and quickly take incarnation to work through
the last few steps of the path of initiation. The aim is to work off
karma rapidly and so free and equip themselves for service. The soul
impresses its vehicle with this desire during incarnation and so
obviates any desire of the disciple for the bliss of pralaya in
devachan. Another reason for rapid cycles of incarnation may be the
necessity of rounding out the disciple's equipment by concentrating one-
pointedly for several lives on acquiring some quality otherwise lacking,
or to contribute some special quality, perfectly developed in him, to
the work of a particular group or nation.

Every soul incarnates and re-incarnates under the Law of Rebirth. Groups
of souls come in together in order to work out karma created in the
past. Hence this law provides the opportunity to repay ancient debts, to
recognize and work with old friends, to accept ancient responsibilities
and obligations, and to bring to the surface for re-use talents and
qualities acquired long ago. What beauty and order there is, therefore,
in this law which governs our appearance on this plane. To summarize, we
can say that reincarnation depends on the particular destiny of the
individual. If he or she is not sufficiently developed, there is no
destiny as yet; the individual is simply drawn back into incarnation.
When the individual has progressed somewhat further, his destiny becomes
a group destiny. In the case of a disciple or initiate, however, the
cycles of incarnation are governed by individual destiny and, above all,
by a desire to serve.