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H P Blavatsky on shortening the period between lives

Posted 31/12/06

Spiritual progress is obtained by effort through many lives and an integral part of that spiritual progress come during the interlife period of Kama Loka and Devachan when the progress made and lessons learned by the previous life are assimilated.

The advantages of shortening the interlife period are obvious and H P Blavatsky postulates in “Is the Desire to Live Selfish” that this is an integral and logical part of the spiritual development process. Clearly a life of excessive materialism or malice would entail a much longer time in Kama Loka than would a life in which spiritual progress were made. The length of the interlife period is therefore relevant at all levels of development.

Eventually, as spiritual progress is being made, the after death states are not only shortened but ultimately dispensed with altogether. Beyond that even incarnation itself is no longer needed and becomes a matter of choice.

Extract from Is the Desire to Live Selfish ?

Now those, who have studied the occult teachings concerning Devachan and our after-states, will remember that between two incarnations there is a considerable period of subjective existence. The greater the number of such Devachanic periods, the greater is the number of years over which this evolution is extended.

The chief aim of the occultist is therefore to so control himself as to be able to regulate his future states, and thereby gradually shorten the

duration of his Devachanic existence between two incarnations. In the course of his progress, there comes a time when, between one physical

death and his next rebirth, there is no Devachan but a kind of spiritual sleep, the shock of death, having, so to say, stunned him into a state

of unconsciousness from which he gradually recovers to find himself reborn, to continue his purpose. The period of this sleep may vary from

twenty-five to two hundred years, depending upon the degree of his advancement. But even this period may be said to be a waste of time,

and hence all his exertions are directed to shorten its duration so as to gradually come to a point when the passage from one state of existence into another is almost imperceptible.

This is his last incarnation, as it were, for the shock of death no more stuns him.

Is the Desire to Live Selfish? By H P Blavatsky

(Complete text)

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