THEOSOPHY

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13890, 16 October 1918, Page 7

THEOSOPHY

THE STORY OF THE SOUL. Mr J. R. Thomson gave a theosophieai conception of this supremely important subject on Monday evening. He defined the soul as the true individual, the real man, the immortal germ of Divine life as distinguished from the bodies through which it contacts the several interpenetrating planes, or states of matter comprising the field of our human experience. His harvest of experience is rich or poor according to the seed sown. 'The long journey of the soul is symbolised in the parable of "The Prodigal son"; there is the path of outgoing and that of return. On the first the soul is engaged in building his physical, emotional and mental bodies constituting the personality. Thus in the early human stage the inner life is subordinate to the form, on the return path the bodies lie. come well organised instruments of the soul's higher life. We see the analogy of this played out in the physical life of each one of us—the infant grasping at everything attractive, unconscious of danger, the adult using discrimination. Thus life after life the soul unfolds its germinal powers, as the acorn becomes the oak, learning lesson after lesson with many interludes of rest and assimilation in the after-death conditions. Knowledge of good and evil becomes woven into the fibre of his liemg as character, wisdom, love, all that is of purity and unselfishness. When duty becomes a guiding principle, momentary glimpses of the real purpose of life are possible he is then "truly on the homeward way. He learns 'that the law of progress is by giving, not taki"T, by making personal intcrcs' si'bl servient to that of others and the community. He sees the whole of mankind as a great variety of individual brothers working towards unitv at last, each one having a part to play as a special instrument of the divinity within. In his ascent the strengthening "faith" of his earlier efforts becomes actual knowledge by higher perception. He realises, too, the nresence of mighty helpers of mankind ever on the watch •or pupils through whom the Higher Wisdom rnav reach the younger understanding, carrying its sublime message of ultimate peace and bliss to every son of -Man.