Death--and After?

desire, the kâmicoriginal: "kâmic"; derived from the Sanskrit 'Kama,' referring to the body of desire, emotion, and passion. or astral bodyIn Theosophy, a subtle body consisting of emotional energy that can travel outside the physical body., or in a yet more ethereal Thought Body, can be effected during earth-life; so that man may become familiar with the excarnatedThe state of being "out of the flesh" or existing without a physical body. condition, and it may lose for him all the terrors that encircle the unknown. He can know himself as a conscious entity in either of these vehicles, and so prove to his own satisfaction that “life” does not depend on his functioning through the physical body. Why should a man who has thus repeatedly “shed” his lower bodies, and has found the process result, not in unconsciousness, but in a vastly extended freedom and vividness of life—why should he fear the final casting away of his fetters, and the freeing of his Immortal Self from what he realises as the prison of the flesh?

This view of human life is an essential part of the Esoteric PhilosophyA body of hidden or "inner" teachings, often associated here with Theosophy, which seeks to explain the underlying spiritual laws of the universe.. Man is primarily divine, a spark of the Divine Life. This living flame, passing out from the Central Fire, weaves for itself coverings within which it dwells, and thus becomes the Triad, the Atmâ-Buddhi-ManasA Sanskrit term for the three-fold higher human spirit: Atma (Pure Spirit), Buddhi (Spiritual Soul), and Manas (the Mind)., the reflection of the Immortal Self. This sends out its Ray, which becomes encased in grosser matter, in the desire body, or kâmic elements, the passional nature, and in the etheric double and the physical body. The once free immortal Intelligence thus entangled, enswathed, enchained, works heavily and laboriously through the coatings that enwrap it. In its own nature it remains ever the free Bird of Heaven, but its wings are bound to its side by the matter into which it is plunged. When man recognises his own inherent nature, he learns to open his prison doors occasionally and escapes from his encircling gaol; first he learns to identify him-