What is the doctrine of death?

Why should any man sleep like that—a sleep so deep that neither the spoken word, nor the physical touch could arouse him?

Who are these people who sleep like that? 

They are those who in their earth life denied the immortality of the soul after death. 

And will they never awaken? 

Yes, perhaps centuries, perhaps ages hence, when the irresistible Law of Rhythm shall draw them out of their sleep into incarnation. 

For the Law of Rebirth is one with the law of rhythm.

What law? The law of rhythm, which drives the soul into and out of gross matter, as it drives the tides of the ocean into flood and ebb, and the consciousness of man into sleeping and waking.

He is indeed a wise man who understands the Law of Karma, which is also the Law of Cause and Effect.

There lay the man at our feet, his face colourless and expressionless, and above him towered the splendid form of the Teacher, his face beautiful with power, his eyes brilliant with thought. Can you not see? asked the Teacher, a faint light surrounding this seemingly lifeless figure? Yes, but the light is very faint indeed. Nevertheless, said the Teacher, that light is far less faint than is this weak soul’s hold upon the eternal truth. But where you see only a pale light around the recumbent form, I see in that light many pictures of the soul’s past. 

The soul of man is immortal—the soul of man is immortal—You have passed through death, and you live.