The Spiritual Man and Nirvana – Selections from Theosophy’s Sacred Teachings in “The Key to Theosophy,” Part 2 of 2

“Theosophist: That alone which is indissolubly cemented by Atma (Buddhi-Manas) is immortal. The Soul of man (of the personality) per se is neither immortal, eternal nor Divine. Says the Zohar, ‘The soul, when sent to this Earth, puts on an earthly garment, to preserve herself here, so she receives above a shining garment, in order to be able to look without injury into the mirror, whose light proceeds from the Lord of Light.’ Moreover, the Zohar teaches that the soul cannot reach the abode of bliss, unless she has received the ‘holy kiss,’ or the reunion of the soul with the substance from which she emanated — spirit.

All souls are dual, while imprisoned in body, man is a trinity, unless his pollution is such as to have caused his divorce from the spirit. ‘Woe to the soul which prefers to her divine husband (spirit) the earthly wedlock with her terrestrial body,’ records a text of the Book of the Keys, a Hermetic work.”

ON NIRVANA “A soul which thirsts after a reunion with its spirit, which alone confers upon it immortality, must purify itself through cyclic transmigrations onward toward the only land of bliss and eternal rest…

In the Zohar, however, there is a still better proof. Speaking of the reincarnating Egos (the rational souls), those whose last personality has to fade out entirely, it is said: ‘All souls which have alienated themselves in Heaven from the Holy One— blessed be His name— have thrown themselves into an abyss at their very existence, and have anticipated the time when they are to descend once more on Earth.’ ‘The Holy One’ means here, esoterically, the Atman, or Atma-Buddhi.

When the Spiritual entity breaks loose forever from every particle of matter, substance, or form, and re-becomes a Spiritual breath: then only does it enter upon the eternal and unchangeable Nirvana, lasting as long as the cycle of life has lasted — an eternity, truly. And then that Breath, existing in Spirit, is nothing because it is all; as a form, a semblance, a shape, it is completely annihilated; as absolute Spirit it still is, for it has become Be-ness itself. The very word used, ‘absorbed in the universal essence,’ when spoken of the ‘Soul’ as Spirit, means ‘union with.’”