Lessons in Gnani YogaTheosophy / New ThoughtMystical / EsotericEnglishShareLessons in Gnani Yoga 29Project Gutenberg #13407 - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableProject Gutenberg #13407LanguageEnglishEspañol‹Lessons in Gnani Yoga 3Lessons in Gnani Yoga 5Lessons in Gnani Yoga 7Lessons in Gnani Yoga 8Lessons in Gnani Yoga 10Lessons in Gnani Yoga 11Lessons in Gnani Yoga 12Lessons in Gnani Yoga 14Lessons in Gnani Yoga 16Lessons in Gnani Yoga 18Lessons in Gnani Yoga 19Lessons in Gnani Yoga 20Lessons in Gnani Yoga 23Lessons in Gnani Yoga 24Lessons in Gnani Yoga 26Lessons in Gnani Yoga 28Lessons in Gnani Yoga 29Lessons in Gnani Yoga 30Lessons in Gnani Yoga 31Lessons in Gnani Yoga 32Lessons in Gnani Yoga 34Lessons in Gnani Yoga 35Lessons in Gnani Yoga 36Lessons in Gnani Yoga 38Lessons in Gnani Yoga 40Lessons in Gnani Yoga 41Lessons in Gnani Yoga 42›Part It Has Played In The Field Of Human Thought And Belief.Lessons in Gnani Yoga 29ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1While to many the idea of Metempsychosis may seem new and unfamiliar, still it is one of the oldest conceptions of the race, and in ages past was the accepted belief of the whole of the civilized race of man of the period. And even today, it is accepted as Truth by the majority of the race 2The almost universal acceptance of the idea by the East with its teeming life, counterbalances its comparative non-reception by the Western people of the day. From the early days of written or legendary history, Metempsychosis has been the accepted belief of many of the most intelligent of the race. It is found underlying the magnificent civilization of ancient Egypt, and from thence it traveled to the Western world being held as the highest truth by such teachers as Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil and Ovid. Plato's Dialogues are full of this teaching. The Hindus have always held to it. The Persians, inspired by their learned Magi, accepted it implicitly. The ancient Druids, and Priests of Gaul, as well as the ancient inhabitants of Germany, held to it. Traces of it may be found in the remains of the Aztec, Peruvian and Mexican civilizations. 3The Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece, the Roman Mysteries, and the Inner Doctrines of the Cabbala of the Hebrews all taught the Truths of Metempsychosis. The early Christian Fathers; the Gnostic and Manichaeans and other sects of the Early Christian people, all held to the doctrine. The modern German philosophers have treated it with the greatest respect, if indeed they did not at least partially accept it. Many modern writers have considered it gravely, and with respect. The following quotations will give an idea of "how the wind is blowing" in the West: 4"Of all the theories respecting the origin of the soul, Metempsychosis seems to me the most plausible and therefore the one most likely to throw light on the question of a life to come."--Frederick H. Hedge. 5"It would be curious if we should find science and philosophy taking up again the old theory of metempsychosis, remodelling' it to suit our present modes of religious and scientific thought, and launching it again on the wide ocean of human belief. But stranger things have happened in the history of human opinions."--James Freeman Clarke. 6"If we could legitimately determine any question of belief by the number of its adherents, the ---- would apply to metempsychosis more fitly than to any other. I think it is quite as likely to be revived and to come to the front as any rival theory."--Prof. Wm. Knight. 7"It seems to me, a firm and well-grounded faith in the doctrine of Christian metempsychosis might help to regenerate the world. For it would be a faith not hedged around with many of the difficulties and objections which beset other forms of doctrine, and it offers distinct and pungent motives for trying to lead a more Christian life, and for loving and helping our brother-man."--Prof. Francis Bowen. 8"The doctrine of Metempsychosis may almost claim to be a natural or innate belief in the human mind, if we may judge from its wide diffusion among the nations of the earth, and its prevalence throughout the historical ages."--Prof. Francis Bowen. 9"When Christianity first swept over Europe, the inner thought of its leaders was deeply tinctured with this truth. The Church tried ineffectually to eradicate it, but in various sects it kept sprouting forth beyond the time of Erigina and Bonaventura, its mediaeval advocates. Every great intuitional soul, as Paracelsus, Boehme, and Swedenborg, has adhered to it. The Italian luminaries, Giordano Bruno and Campanella. embraced it. The best of German philosophy is enriched by it. In Schopenhauer, Lessing, Hegel, Leibnitz, Herder, and Fichte, the younger, it is earnestly advocated. The anthropological systems of Kant and Schelling furnish points of contact with it. The younger Helmont, in De Revolutione Animarum, adduces in two hundred problems all the arguments which may be urged in favor of the return of souls into human bodies according to Jewish ideas. Of English thinkers, the Cambridge Platonists defended it with much learning and acuteness, most conspicuously Henry More; and in Cudsworth and Hume it ranks as the most rational theory of immortality. Glanvil's Lux Orientalis devotes a curious treatise to it. It captivated the minds of Fourier and Leroux. Andre Pezzani's book on The Plurality of the Soul's Lives works out the system on the Roman Catholic idea of expiation."--E.D. WALKER, in "Re-Incarnation, a Study of Forgotten Truth." 10And in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, and this the early ‹Previous chapterLessons in Gnani Yoga 28Next chapterLessons in Gnani Yoga 30›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public domain in the USA