Evening star., 1936-04-12
THIS WEEK

the Individual consciousness.
May we turn now to a biological
parallelism. Biologically speaking, life,
whether it be an apple seed or the
germ cell of man, is essentially con-
tinuous and eternal.
The apple may decay, but the seed
grows into a new tree which flowers
and begets new seeds The fruit and
the tree will die. but there is eternal
continuity of life in the cells which
develop from seed to tree. to flower
to seed, over and over again.
We focus upon the fruit or the tree.
the hull that surrounds the living
germ, and because they die we con-
ceive that life is destroyed. But con-
temptation reveals the eternal process
of life.
AS thought is superior to organism,
and. we believe, outlives it, may we
not also logically say that continuity
of consciousness, mind or soul. may
be presumed from the essential eter-
nality Of the germ cell?
In the field of light we find another
illustration of the thought of immor-
tality of consciousness. Science SAYS
the earth is constantly bombarded by
rays started on their way millions OF
light years ago. BY the spectroscope
we even discover the kind of elements
that gave off the light
1t matters not that the source of the
light has been shut off or the light put
out. The rays, once started, never
stop. Put the fame under the open
sky and its rays stream on into
interstellar space forever. The flame
was mortal. but the light it gave is
immortal
To Gautama Buddha, centuries
ago, the extinction of the fame SYM
bolized the extinction of the soul. To
modern science it offers the possibility
of just the opposite!
Yet Buddha's position regarding
the light is much the same as ours
regarding the soul. He saw the flame
60 out and thought the light went with
it. Now We know he was wrong. We
see the body go out - die. And we
think the soul goes out or dies with it.
May it not be that We are blind to the
soul as he was to the light? How is it
possible for us to know that it does
not go on forever with fulness of life
corresponding to that OF the light?
1t is not proof, know. 1t is an
analogy, and he who wishes may inter
pret ones influence, which we know
to continue long after physical death,
to be the parallel of the light Yet it is
not impossible. nor, believe, inn
plausible, that its spiritual connota-
tion is immortality of human con-
sciousness.
No one that we know of has come
back after death to bear witness to
the nature of death. Cases of sus-
pended animation or resuscitation
after apparent death are insufficient
for conclusions. Therefore any sus-
tanning evidence for belief in life
beyond the grave must necessarily
come from other realms than that of
science as we know it - although, |
reaffirm, science offers no adequate
denial of the possibility of immor-
tality and submits facts that may
reasonably be interpreted as sugges-
tive of its reality.
1t is not inconsistent with science
that one should seek an answer to the
riddle of the ages by means of philos-
ophy or religious or moral reasoning.
In fact, it is the scientific spirit that
he should do so, for the spirit of
science is the search for reliable
knowledge as guide to human action.
Few in this age, am sure, would
willingly base their lives on a philos-
ophy which to the man of science is
demonstrably false. Yet it is a narrow
view to say that we should live only
nv that Which ran ha c,,k;..%o l..