which the graduates of Esoteric Science regard such a
question. Does the last penalty of the law mean the highest
honour of the peerage? Is a wooden spoon the emblem of the
most illustrious pre-eminence in learning? Such questions as
these but faintly symbolise the extravagance of the question
whether Nirvâna is held by Buddhism to be equivalent to
annihilation.[41]

So we learn from the _Secret Doctrine_ that the Nirvânî returns to
cosmic activity in a new cycle of manifestation, and that

_The thread of radiance which is imperishable and dissolves
only in Nirvâna, re-emerges from it in its integrity on the
day when the Great Law calls all things back into
action._[42]


COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE EARTH AND OTHER SPHERES.

We are now in position to discriminate between the various kinds of
communication possible between those whom we foolishly divide into
"dead" and "living," as though the body were the man, or the man could
die. "Communications between the embodied and the disembodied" would
be a more satisfactory phrase.

First, let us put aside as unsuitable the word Spirit: Spirit does not
communicate with Spirit in any way conceivable by us. That highest
principle is not yet manifest in the flesh; it remains the hidden
fount of all, the eternal Energy, one of the poles of Being in
manifestation. The word is loosely used to denote lofty Intelligences,