The World of Special Needs Through the Eyes of Theosophy

The world of Special Needs Through the eyes of Theosophy. The only word that is difficult to understand in the title is Theosophy. I will do my best to do justice to it. To be really practical, any philosophy should help solve  human problems or at least help to understand things better. Applying  theosophy to the problem of special needs is like taking a small mathematical riddle and try to apply the whole of Euclid’s geometry to it.  As one would do in math, the best way to do this is to choose the theorems that have a direct connection to the problem and try and  find a solution.

Theosophy has a certain base strata which is formed by what is called the Three fundamental propositions which are-

1)-an omnipresent, eternal, boundless, immutable principle exists. This is what we ordinarily call God, but instead in theosophy this is called a principle.

2)- the eternity of the universe in toto is a boundless  plane –periodically the playground of numberless universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing.-This is how the universe works, there is no why to answer here- this unfoldment and return is part of the cycle of the universe and is its very nature

 3)-the fundamental identity of all souls with the over-soul with the obligatory pilgrimage of every soul –to this source- through the cycles of incarnation. This is the nature of the creatures in this universe.

This omnipresent, eternal, boundless, immutable principle does not show any partiality to one or the other but is present as a spark or spirit in all. This quote reflects this universal aspect of the spirit-

‘The spirit sleeps in the mineral, dreams in the vegetable, stirs in the animal and awakes in man’.

 This spirit or soul has an obligation to unfold itself just as the universe unfolds itself, and reach its widest possible or highest possible nature. In its final state the soul is an energy of  conscious compassion or love. But for it to become emancipated take eons of reincarnations in various births at various times until this entire soul vibrates purely in that frequency.

The soul by itself is not a simple single body as per Theosophy, but a composite one of seven bodies, each having a definite role in the life or lives of the soul.
The lowest or grossest one and the only one which the human senses can behold is that of the actual Physical body called the Sthula sharira, in Sanskrit,  a perfect model of this body is the next one called the Linga sharira or the astral body- it is in this body that one find the centers of pranic energy, then there is a life force called Prana which gives life to both these bodies.
 The fourth is the body of our emotions called kama Sharira. These four bodies form the lower self of the soul which all perish at the death of one life.
The higher three aspects are the Manas or the thinking principle, Buddhic body or the body of wisdom- ie lessons learnt from past incarnations and finally the last or the seventh body which is the same for all- the Atma, which is like a seed from which all these other bodies have risen – this seed being the same for ALL living and so called non-living entities- right from the atom to man. This is the aspect which we all share in common. It’s the Atma that grows through us and is growing along with all of us- not just in one evolved person but in all of us, simultaneously. This concept is also called Unity.

Having now laid the foundation of theosophy, and coming back to the World of special needs. What is the world of special needs- just human beings born with or  acquired after birth,  some physical or cognitive defect which impairs the person’s normal functioning. Such a person needs help, support and compassion. At times the person is so challenged that he can’t even communicate his needs or control his emotions and thoughts.

 In the book ‘Far from the tree’, Andrew Solomon has done an extensive study spanning a decade, about the lives of special children, adults and parents with special children, the children ranging from deaf, to dwarfs, to autistic, gay, schizophrenics and more. Andrew Solomon accurately brings out the dilemma that all such parents face. Is the child’s abnormality an ‘illness’ or is it his ‘identity’. Obviously if one considers it an illness- one would seek a cure for it, but if it were the child’s very identity- one would adjust to him or her be more accepting. Solomon argues that in most cases, the issue is both an illness and an identity. Some part of the problem does need correction, but some has to be accepted. After all one can’t live without toilet training but one can certainly live with extreme shyness.

One of the best ways to state this whole process- follows the last clause of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity prayer-which is used in the Alcoholics Anonymous group-‘ Father, give us the courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.’

Entering the world of special needs is rather difficult one for all new parents. There is a wonderful note written by Emily Perl Kingsley about exactly how a new parent feels when he enters the special needs world and am reading it out to you. Its called ‘Welcome to Holland’.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.’

Welcome to Holland.

This essay has touched millions in the special needs world. Its about the rude shock that nature gives the new parent at first and then about acceptance of this new development.

There are two ways that parents usually go with this  problem- one is he takes to faith-starts praying hoping for relief from divine sources and the second is he tries to find  scientific solutions to his problem. These two often go hand in hand and  some people oscillate between both these. One solution is based on faith another on reason. In the world of special needs, where scientists are still researching and most solutions are temporary or palliative, one doesn’t realize that both these paths are similar in one aspect, they both rely on someone else to mitigate your pain. They take away your responsibility to understand and think through your issue. They also don’t give you a method to approach this problem from a perspective of your entire life. Despair enters the parent’s mind - ‘am I going to face these problems till the end of my life? Is there no hope for my happiness, no end to this misery?’ I found that the real solution to understanding any problem in life comes from within. This happened when I began I studying theosophy because I too am a parent of a special child. My boy , 13 years of age has a neurological defect which prevents normal learning and behavior.

Theosophy espouses that man is essentially an embodied spirit and he doesn’t have just one body, but seven. Three of these are our permanent selves-and four that are temporary which dies at every birth. The human brain which is part of the temporary four- is a transmitter for the mind which is in the higher triad. As per the quality of the transmitter, the nature of the capacities of the brain differ. The law of constant renewal says that death is but a state of rest for the battle worn human soul. And life will be renewed constantly.

For children born with neurological defects- that is defects of a definite physical or chemical nature of the brain- it’s a transmitter malfunction. Not a defect in the higher self but imperfection in the lower quartet.

Theosophy also espouses that the upper triad of the atma or spirit/buddhic body or body of wisdom and the manas or mind chooses its birth and circumstances based on what will help the permanent soul evolve. It might choose extremely tough trials on itself, so it evolves to a higher level. This is the law of self-unfoldment. The soul seeks to unfold-to grow through its experiences in various bodies on the physical plane. A soul born in defective bodies, would face challenges of extreme kinds.

Also every thought and action on the physical plane are ripples in the harmonious ocean of nature-if in the process of this evolution  those who have affected the harmony in a negative way, will receive - in equal measure the negative effects of his last actions. The same goes for positive work. This is the law of Harmony or Karma is  called the laws of laws in the theosophic literature.

Theosophy taught me that all things that happen in our lives happen by our own doing. They are the consequences of our past lives and we have to face whatever that life throws at us even if we cant see why it has happened. Our actions in this life will give us a clearer perspective, if that is what we seek, in future lives. Every effort that we make in the positive direction, will make a better life for us. It teaches me that even though this life feels long at times, its only a few fleeting moments in the long long time that my soul has to live.

Like many who enter the world of Theosophy, I was an agnostic for a long time. But what I have just said about the soul having a very long life, requires you to believe in the concept of the soul. It requires belief, as it cannot, as yet, with scientific proof be proven. What one has is an argument -if you didn’t believe in karma and reincarnation how would you explain the inequalities and apparent injustices of life. Makes sense, but its not a proof. HPB in Key to Theosophy quotes from an unknown source that  ‘ man must be his own savior, must overcome self and conquer the evil that is his dual nature, to obtain the emancipation of his soul’.  She then goes on to speak of another fundamental theosophic truth- saying –‘The law of Karma is inextricably woven with that of reincarnation…It is only this doctrine that can explain to us the mysterious problem of good and evil, and reconcile man to the terrible and apparent injustice of life’.  

After reading theosophy there were other nuggets of wisdom that dawned on me. For example, I realized that my earlier materialistic and blind life was necessary so I could understand the contrasting perspective that I have now. Fritkoff Capra in his book-‘The Tao of Physics’ describes this well in his explanation of the YIN/Yang concept. The mind or its capabilities has in it the germ for the spirit and once the reign of the mind is over, the spirit rules, bursting from the mind, for its seed was already present in it, and blossoms out, now containing in it the seed of the mind to be born back later. The Yin being the spirit and the Yang the mind. Living the materialistic life helps one to understand the spiritual life, isn’t that why the great Buddha was born as a crown prince in the lap of luxury? Had he not seen perfect material joy, would he have experienced pain that too of another, with such an intensity. Am convinced that every experience of ours, even those we do not want to face again, eventually add up to help us become better and this happens because at some stage the spirit takes over. The spirit blossoms from the remains of the mind like yin and yang.

Theosophy teaches us so much, we learn the impermanence of our present avatar, we learn that all our experiences are like kerbs on the path slowly changing our direction to a higher road. We learn that we may yet slide down the same path, if we bump against the kerb, instead of pushing ourselves higher on this new track.

That your next avatar will hold a different set of challenges makes you realize that one must make the most of this challenge, use it to optimize one’s inner self, develop the traits of the soul that nature wants.

 Videogames that my children play have this whole issue so well portrayed…most games you will have a fixed number of lives, which you may loose as you fail at any level of the hurdles you have to cross. When you succeed in a lower level, you are promoted to a higher level, if you loose in the higher level, you have another life to try again, you could resume at the last level you left....Those who have played these games, would also be struck at how much this reflects the soul’s journey.

 

Actually eventually every single experience in each of us is simply there to help us reach the higher level.

Is it to experience and know our real selves that we take so many births? This idea corresponds with the oft quoted saying in theosophy-‘As above, so below’…perhaps just as we experience ourselves through our life-experiences, the absolute immutable principle experiences itself through this cosmos. That’s why we are exactly the mirror -image of that absolute in us. Judge expresses this in a better wayin his ‘Notes on Bhagvadgita’- he says ’We should be imitators of the deity, who, acting as he does, in the manifestations of the universes, is at the same time free from its consequences. To the extent that we do so- we become the deity himself, who dwells in us’.

The idea of the brahman within us has been around for ages, yet man worships external objects and forms. It is hard to believe that that which is the highest is within this mortal form.

Many people who work with special children have voiced that these children come to help us reach our higher selves, realize the truths of life, change our vision.  One parent of a support group that I am a member of wrote this when we were discussing how our children, when they grow into adults, will never do things like get a driving license or hold a job or get married, this mother said ‘ I remember how special they really are and that’s their purity. They know no lying, no deceit, no meanness, inside them. They are simply pure Angels’.

From the esoteric view of things- though I can only guess this- perhaps this is the reason for such births. For the world of special needs, do make those around them, see the pointlessness of pursuing wealth, power or fame, and instead make you reach out for the higher goals of purity, empathy for others and understanding of the real meaning of life. Theosophical society was founded to establish Universal brotherhood- which means to see that all of us are connected, from the same source and going towards the same end goal. Theosophy teaches you that the greatest and the most beautiful is within you to reach and only through self-devised ways can one find that elusive divine. It tells you that don’t waste energy on hoping, instead do the best given your circumstance, like a sunflower, turn to find the sunshine in your life. And if you are in touch with a special child or adult, be sure to love him or her as they could be the guides to your inner Krishna.