Resurrection

The human body is a species of polyp colony, a kind of coral island

like those that emerge above the waves of the Pacific, by reason of

the collective efforts of lower organisms.



The most numerous of the compounds of the human aggregate are known to

physiology as microbes, bacteria, and bacilli; but amongst them our

microscopes discover only comparative monsters, "those that are to the

ordinary infinitesi al organisms as the elephant is to the invisible

infusorium."[84]



Each cell is a complete being; its soul is a vital ray of the general

life of our planet; its body consists of molecules that are attracted

and then repelled, whilst the cellular soul remains immutable in the

ceaseless fluctuations of its corporeal elements.



The molecules, too, are animated by a vital soul, connected with the

cellular soul, which, in turn, is subordinate to a higher[85] unit of

the collective life of the human body.



The most infinitesimal of these beings--often called

"lives"--penetrate the body freely; they circulate in the aura[86] and

in each plexus of the organism; there they are subjected to the

incessant impact of the moral, menial, and spiritual forces, and

become impregnated with a spirit of good or of evil, as the case may

be. They enter the cells and leave them with intense rapidity, for

their cycles of activity as well as of passivity are being incessantly

repeated.



We are all the time emanating millions of "lives," which are at once

drawn into the different kingdoms of Nature to which they carry the

energies they have gathered in us; they impress on their new organisms

the tendencies we have given them, and in this way become ferments of

regeneration or of decay; they aid or retard, pollute or purify, and

it is for this reason that it is not a matter of indifference whether

one lives in town or country, with men or animals, the temperate or

the intemperate, the wicked or the good. The animal gains from

association with human beings, man loses from association with

animals; the disciples of the great schools of initiation, at a

certain stage of their discipline, are carefully isolated from any

inferior contact.



It is these subtle forces that are at play in the physical

accomplishment of an action.[87] "For material sins," says Manu,

"one[88] passes into mineral and vegetable forms." When, at death,

the outer sheath of man disintegrates, these "life atoms" are thrown

back into the general surroundings of the earth, where they are

subjected to the magnetic currents around; these currents either

attract or repel them, and thus bring about that wise selection, which

directs them to organisms in affinity with them.



The doctrine of metempsychosis[89] is true only for the atoms or

emanations sent out by man after death or during the whole course of

life. The hidden meaning of the passage from Manu, where we read that

"he who slays a Brahman enters into the body of a dog, a bear, an ass,

a camel, &c.," does not apply to the human Ego, but only to the atoms

of his body, i.e., to the lower triad[90] and its fluidic

emanations, as H. P. Blavatsky says, and she adds:



"The Hina-yana, the lowest form of transmigration of the Buddhist, is

as little comprehended as the Maha-yana, its highest form, and,

because Sakya Muni--the Buddha--is shown to have once remarked to his

Bhikkus--Buddhist monks--while pointing out to them a broom, that it

had formerly been a novice who neglected to sweep out the Council

room, hence was reborn as a broom,(!) therefore the wisest of all the

world's sages stands accused of idiotic superstition. Why not try and

understand the true meaning of the figurative statement before

criticising? Is or is not that which is called magnetic effluvia a

something, a stuff or a substance, invisible and imponderable though

it be?... The mesmeric or magnetic fluid which emanates from man to

man, or even from man to what is termed an inanimate object, is far

greater. Indeed, it is 'life atoms' that a man in a blind passion

throws off unconsciously. Let any man give way to any intense feeling

such as anger, grief, &c., under or near a tree, or in direct contact

with a stone, and many thousands of years after that any tolerable

psychometrist will see the man and sense his feelings from one single

fragment of that tree or stone that he has touched. Why then should

not a broom, made of a shrub, which grew most likely in the vicinity

of the building where the lazy novice lived--a shrub, perhaps,

repeatedly touched by him while in a state of anger, provoked by his

laziness and distaste of his duty--why should not a quantity of his

life atoms have passed into the materials of the future broom, and

therein have been recognised by Buddha owing to his superhuman (not

supernatural) powers?"[91]



Such is the meaning of the Resurrection of the body, taught in the

Christian church in a form that is repellent to reason, for it kills

the spirit of the doctrine and leaves this latter like a corpse from

which the life has gone.