# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1916_S408
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

408 Vermischtes.

SuccessiVve races and planets of our chain, and accumulating the ex-
periences of each incarnation towards its perfection. 3. That between
adjacent incarnations, after grosser elements are first purged away,
comes à period of comparative rest and refréshment, called Devachan,
the soul being therein prepared for its next advent into material like.
Thue nature of each incarnation depends upon the balance as struck
of the merit and demerit of the previous life or lives, — upon the
way in which the man has lived and thought; and this law. 1s in-
flexible and wholly just. Karma, a term signifying two things, the
law of ethical causation (Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap); and the balance or excess of merit or demerit in any in-
dividual, determines also the main experiences of joy and sorrow in
ench incarnation, so that what we call luck' is, in reality, desert' —
desert acquired in past existence.“ „Theosophy is the only system 0f
religion and philosophy which gives satisfactory explanation of such
problems as these: 1. The objeéct, usée, and inhabitation of other
planets than this earth. 2. The geological cataclysms of earth; the
frequent absence of intermediate types in its fauna; the occurrence
0f architectural and other relics of races now lost, and as to which
ordinary seience has nothing but vain conjecture; the nature of ex⸗
tinet eivilizations and the causes of their extinetion; the persistence
of savagery and the unequal development of existing civilization;
the differences, physical and internal, between the various races of
men; the line of future development. 3. The contrasts and unisons
0f the world's faiths, and the common foundation underlying them all.
4. The existence of evil, of suffering, and of sorrow — a hopeless
puzzle to the mere philanthropist or theologian. 5. The inequalities
in social condition and privilege; the sharp contrasts between wealth
and poverty, intelligence and stupidity, culture and ignorance, virtue
and vileness; the appearance of men of genius in families destitute
of it, as well as other facts in conflict with the law of heredity; the
frequent cases of unfitness of environment around individuals, 80
sore as to embitter disposition, hamper aspiration, and paralyze en-
deavor; the violent antithesis between character and condition; the
occurrence of aecident, misfortune, and untimely death — all of them
problems solvable only by either the conventional theory of Divine
caprice or the Theosophic doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation.“
Auf der Ausstellung in San Diego haben die Theosophen ein eigenes
Gebäude, um auch diese Gelegenheit zur Propaganda auszubeuten. In
Lomaland bei Point Loma in der Nähe von San Diego bietet Katherine
Tingley Anhängern und Proselyten, aber nur reichen, ein luxuriöses
Asyl zur Vertiefung in die „Theosophie“. Daß in der Theosophischen
Gesellschaft von den Leitern alles aufs Geldmachen und Beutelschneiden
angelegt ist, trat uns (P. Scherf und mir) auch darin entgegen, daß
man Eintrittsgeld verlangte, nur um die Parkanlagen in Lomaland