Karma and Rebirth

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

Page 69

CHAPTER VII
WHO BELIEVES IN KARMA AND REBIRTH ?
SCHOPENHAUER said that if an Asiatic asked him for a definition of Europe he would answer that it was that part of the world which was haunted by the incredible delusion that man's present birth was his first entrance into life. Taking the world as a whole, therefore, it would almost be justifiable to reverse the question at the head of this chapter, and to ask, Who does not accept the Law of Karma-Rebirth, and on what grounds do they reject it? In any event, it is pertinent to examine the European attitude to the doctrine, and most books on the subject give, with a wealth of detail and quotation, the evidence which shows how widespread such belief has become. On the other hand, as Owen Rutter points out : No one is likely to accept a philosophy which does not appeal to him, nor is he necessarily to be convinced of its truth because, throughout the ages, men of intelligence have accepted it. Nevertheless, although few people are influenced by argument, many are glad to listen to explanation, especially when that explanation of life's incqualities and suffering is the only one which accords with reason and experience. In his interesting introduction to Re-incarnation, E. D). Walker proves how once the whole civilized world embraced reincarnation, and found therein a complete answer to that riddle of man's descent and destiny which the inexorable sphinx, Life, propounds to every traveller along her way. But the Western branch of the race, in working out the material conquest of the world, has acquired the compensating discontent of a material philosophy. It has lost the old faith and drifted into a shadowy region, where the eagerness for 'practical' things rejects whatever cannot be physically proven.
1 The Scales of Karma.
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