Metempsychosis

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Harvard University Press, 1914 - Transmigration - 84 pages
 

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Page 13 - Tzu, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly, I awaked, and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a barrier. The transition is called Metempsychosis.
Page 59 - A theory," says George Foote Moore, "which has been embraced by so large a part of mankind, of many races and religions, and has commended itself to some of the most profound thinkers of all time, cannot be lightly dismissed.
Page 6 - ... civilization," the former regards the whole attempt as founded on error. Its inevitable failure does not signify real failure, but the adoption of a wrong standard of success. According to the teaching of the "Upanishads" even separate individuality is an illusion perpetuated by desire. When all the passion is at rest That lurks within the heart of man Then is the mortal no more mortal. But here and now attaineth Brahman.
Page 16 - Among the dead, sinful souls at once pay penalty, and the crimes done in this realm of Zeus are judged beneath the earth by one who gives sentence under dire necessity.
Page 61 - ... of justice in the order of things. "Finally, if an end of perfection is set for the soul, metempsychosis affords the opportunity for a progressive approach to that infinite attainment, whether the latter be a return to an initial state from which the soul in some way lapsed, or the development of the soul's latent potentialities.
Page 61 - If this determination of a man's lot by his deeds be regarded from the point of view of retribution, it seems to be in kind and measure more equitable than the incommensurate doctrine of endless punishment in hell for the wrong-doing of a brief human life. If man's earthly existence be conceived as a probation, it must be admitted that in any one life men are put upon this probation under very unequal conditions of every kind, and that the theory of a series of embodiments in which the soul is tested...

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