Memories and Reincarnation – Selections from Theosophy’s Sacred Teachings in “The Key to Theosophy,” Part 2 of 2

ON RE-INCARNATION OR REBIRTH. WHY DO WE NOT REMEMBER OUR PAST LIVES?

The Theosophist replied: “The Ego which reincarnates, the individual and immortal — not personal — ‘I’; the vehicle, in short, of the Atma-Buddhic Monad [Higher Self], that which is rewarded in Devachan [Heaven-world] and punished on Earth, and that, finally, to which the reflection only of the Skandhas, or attributes, of every incarnation attaches itself.”

The Enquirer questioned: “Do you mean to infer that that which survives is only the Soul-memory, as you call it, that Soul or Ego being one and the same, while nothing of the personality remains?”

The Theosophist answered: “The personality with its Skandhas is ever changing with every new birth. It is, as said before, only the part played by the actor (the true Ego) for one night. This is why we preserve no memory on the physical plane of our past lives, though the real ‘Ego’ has lived them over and knows them all.”

“The Spiritual ‘I’ in man is omniscient and has every knowledge innate in it; while the personal self is the creature of its environment and the slave of the physical memory. Could the former manifest itself uninterruptedly, and without impediment, there would be no longer men on Earth, but we should all be gods.”