IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?

Evening Star, Issue 17324, 12 April 1920, Page 3

IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?

MrJHarry H. Banks, national lecturer for ths New Zealand section of the Theoeophic.il Society, occupied the platform of the j Dunedm Lodge on. Sunday evening, lie •said that this question is one that everyone of us at one time or another found ourselves face to face with. There were i innumerable theovies on the subject, but I they remain theories. Ho proposed to j answer it from the point -of view of I Theosophical teaching. There were three I main theories set forth to accountj'or life: Special Creation, which is mainly the Christian idea; Heredity, which answers | many of the difficulties'of life as far a-s I the body is concerned but fails where i the soul is affected; and, Evolution as taught by Darwin. Theosophy taught that man was a divine being using a body j as an instrument by means of which he contacted this world he came to live in. j There are two great truths that put forth: they are Rebirth and the La?/ of Cause and Effect. The Law of Rebirth gives to the unfolding soul varieties of j experiences through many lives till all ] is distilled into wisdom. The Law of | Cause and Effect teaches that ! "Whatsoever a man sows that shall he! I also reap." It points out that every act ' is bound to have certain consequences, and, therefore, we have made the conditions in which we find ourselves. These condit : ons may not necessarily appear in this life, bnl in the light of rebirth they may do so in a future life ; but, whatever comes to us helps the soul. When the teaching of Rebirth and the Law of Cause and Effect are more widely under stood we shall have a different "type of government in the world, more in harmony with the needs of the unfolding soul. There are three ways in which mankind is affected: they are by thought, desire, and action. Thought makes character. We can eliminate undesirable thought by dwelling upon its opposite virtue. By so doing we build it into the character which is improved thereby. Desires become capacities. It is by transmitting our desires, turning them away from materiality to think of those qualities which are of the nature of the soul like wisdom, truth, and humility, that the divine will in man becomes all-powerful. Action makes environment, and by bearing with inconveniences man develops faculty which all add to the storehouse of wisdom. Pain is often the price we pay for wisdom ; therefore let us be encouraged by the thought that all we are passing through is good for the soul, because all experiences will lead us to the goal which is the splendid heritage of man, when we shall become the Perfect Sons of God.