To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

6
Remembering and Forgetting Past Lives
MOST OF US DO NOT REMEMBER our past lives or what
happens between earth lives. Greek mythology tells us
that we drink of the waters of Lethe — Unmindfulness,
Forgetfulness — which blots out suªcient memory of our
past so that we enter earth life with a clean slate on which to
inscribe the thoughts, emotions, and deeds that will determine
the quality of the life to be. We have each been writing
our individual Book of Destiny for ages, and in this
incarnation we are writing another page or chapter. If we
had a detailed memory of all that we had inscribed in the
past or, on the other hand, knew in precise detail the series
of events that may occur in the future, we should be severely
handicapped. The full memory of ourselves — and of
others — would be too heavy a burden.
We are not yet wise or strong enough to go without
drinking of Lethe’s waters. Were it possible, three diªculties
would arise: first, we should be burdened by past
failures, for they would hang like an albatross around our
neck; secondly, we should be burdened by past successes
because in all probability they would engender pride and
vanity; thirdly, if we had not forgotten anything, we proba-