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operating in rebirth on the new life); along the other flows the
stream of the doctrine of the power of Thought and Will. The
first channel and its stream reaches the Western world through
the fields claimed by Theosophy; the second wends its way
through the somewhat diversified fields of the New Thought
movement.
While the doctrine of reincarnation and Karma is firmly held
by the orthodox Hindu schools of thought, it is nevertheless
true that it finds its greatest growth and richest flowering in the
Buddhistic garden. The Buddhists have reduced the doctrine of
reincarnation and Karma to a science, and the ordinary Hindu
presentation seems tame and subdued by comparison. The
conceptions entertained by Theosophy, so far as this particular
doctrine is concerned, were obtained directly from Buddhist
sources. Madame Blavatsky s writings on reincarnation and
Karma bear the impress of Buddhism, and still more plainly
does the mark show on Mr. Sinnett s statement of the doctrine
in his Esoteric Buddhism; while Col. Olcott, one of the
founders of the Theosophical Society, lived and died an ardent
Buddhist. Theosophy itself, while it has outgrown some of
the limitations of Buddhism and has moved into the general
field of Hindu and ancient Greek thought, must acknowledge
its indebtedness to Buddhism for its (Theosophy s) cardinal
doctrines of reincarnation and Karma. And the general interest
in these subjects manifested of late years in Western thought
may be readily traced to the school of Gautama, the Buddha.
Reincarnation, as every reader probably knows, is the doctrine
of repeated rebirth in the physical body the soul being held
to have risen by degrees from the lowest animal forms, thence
incarnating in a succession of human bodies, during many lives
and personalities, from whence it shall eventually move forward
to higher forms of life, until finally it shall enter into the blissful
state of Nirvana, bliss and freedom from rebirth. The term
The Crucible of Modern Thought
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Nirvana is distinctly Buddhistic, the Hindu equivalent being
Moksha, meaning liberation, emancipation, divine absorption,
etc. Karma is the doctrine accompanying that of reincarnation,
and the term means The law of spiritual cause and effect, the
workings of which determine the successive incarnations of the
individual soul. Each act is held to generate Karma, or the seed,
of future action which will sprout, grow, blossom and bear
fruit in future lives. Karma is akin to fate, but a fate arising from
one s own actions, thoughts and deeds, rather than imposed
by providence.
It is interesting to notice how the idea of reincarnation and
Karma has grown in the minds of Western people during the
past two decades. Originally repugnant to the Western mind,
it has nevertheless managed to work its way to an acceptance
on the part of many people who are searching for the new
in philosophy and religion. It is now quite common to hear
people discussing the probability of their having lived before
the present life, and accounting for many of the happenings,
joyful or sorrowful, of the present life, upon the basis of Karma.
The other channel of Buddhistic thought, through which
is flowing a stream which is irrigating the Western lands, is
that which is bringing about the remarkable interest in
thought-force, will-power, etc., now noticeable on all sides.
While the orthodox Hindu schools recognize the power of
thought-force and will, they are too much taken up with the