THE FOURTH CHAPTER

"REINCARNATION AMONG THE CHINESE"

The Chinese say it is the paradise of historians and researchers. As for tracing the philosophy of transmigration throughout that vast world, we shall limit ourselves to providing a summary of what is seen by three pyramids of thought—not only in China, but in the entire history of human thought—namely: Lao Tzu, Confucius, and Chuang Tzu. They agreed upon the following: Death is nothing but a change in form, and it may be a change from one state to a better state. They say that something we depend upon makes us do what we do, but this thing itself depends upon something else that compels it, too, to do what it does; and how can I do this thing and not do that?

When the body is afflicted, the mind is afflicted with it. The change that occurs in things—from existence to non-existence—proceeds without interruption, yet we do not know who directs this movement constantly. How are we to know when one of us begins? Or when one ends? All we can do is await the beginning and the end, for man is nothing but a part of the great machine of transformation from which all things emerge and into which they enter after their death.