Karma and Rebirth

Author(s): Christmas Humphereys
Publisher: Albemarle Street London

Page 20

THE WISDOM-RELIGION what the Chinese call the Ten Thousand Things, the manifested Universe in its infinite diversity. The fundamental “Pair of Qpposites” is Spirit and Matter, Subject and object, the Purusha and Prakriti of Indian philosophy, and from the interplay of this original duality is spun, on the warp of motive and the woof of acts, the Karma which we create and suffer, create and suffer as the Wheel of Becoming turns unceasingly.
The third Fundámental Principle is sometimes called the Cycle of Necessity, the necessary pilgrimage of every 'soul' (using that term as the ray of the Flame in every man), from purest 'Spirit'into darkest “Matter' and then, on the retum journey, 'home'. Within this mighty cycle of one complete unrolling and re-rolling of the Universe there are, of course, an infinity of lesser cycles. Even on this carth, itself subject to cosmic cycles of birth and death, there are tremendous cycles, from those which belong to the field of geology to those which affect the mass migration and the racial cycles of men. Ever the cycle runs—“Coming to be, coming to be : ceasing to be, ceasing to be "l-or, in greater detail, birth, growth, decay and death ; birth, growth, decay and dçath.
In the Buddhist Scriptures this cycle is still further analysed into the twelve Nidanas, which Mme Blavatsky describes as a detailed expression of the Law of Karma under twelve aspects. The subject is more fully treated in Mme David-Neel's Buddhism, its Doctrines and Methods and in What is Buddhism ? 2 and need not be claborated here. These twelve spokes of the 'Wheel of Çausation,' however, do throw light on the process of involution and evolution, according as they are read forwards or in inverse order, and are essential for those who desire to study the 'rolling and unrolling' of the Universe. It is important to note that the spokes are not merely causal, i.e. directly sequential the one from the other, but form an elaborate interrelation of causal factors on all plancs. The first is Jaramarana, old age and death,
1 From the Sutta Nipata. 2 Compiled and published by the Buddhist Lodge, London.
15