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The Second Lesson: The Inner Teachings.1151
allowing all comers a free use of the philosophical arena in which to display
their mental and spiritual might and muscle.
As we shall see, the differences in the schools of philosophy arise chiefly
by reason of the attempt to interpret the process and methods where “the
One becomes Many”—that is, upon the questions of the Origin, Nature
and Destiny of the Soul, and its relation to the One. With the Fundamental
Principles in mind, we will find it interesting to follow up the Hindu thought
on this subject, in its many wonderful turns and windings, its by-paths and
side-journeys, in all of which many bits of valuable truth may be picked
up. But, before closing the lesson, let us call your attention to the fact
that none of these leading divisions of philosophical thought have ever
thought it necessary to “prove” the existence of the soul—this question
was considered answered by the consciousness of every individual, and all
attempt to “prove” it was considered folly—the Hindu mind never has had
any Doubt on this subject. The Buddhists attempted to prove that the soul
was not a true entity, but this was merely a metaphysical hair-splitting.
And again, the question of Reincarnation, or Rebirth of the Soul, always
has been accepted as an almost self-evident fact on the part of the Hindu
thinkers, and it has been held that the glimpses of recollection that every
person experiences, and the fragments of “memory of past lives” that nearly
all if not every one of the Hindus are conscious of, takes the matter out
of the ordinary realm of philosophical speculation. To the Hindu mind
Reincarnation Rebirth or Metempsychosis is as much an accepted fact of life
and nature as is Birth and Death—it is never Doubted, and the Hindu mind
passes on to a consideration of the “Why” and “How” of the problem. For
one hundred centuries the Hindu religions have accepted Reincarnation—
for fifty centuries Hindu philosophy has included it among the proven facts
of life. It is regarded as a part of the universal phenomena! and as forming a
part of the natural law, and to be studied in that branch of human thought
and eduction, rather than in connection with the Fundamental Principles.
To the Western mind this seems odd—but the Hindu consciousness sees