ccomplishment of an action.[87] "For material sins," says Manu,
"one[88] passes into mineral and vegetable forms." When, at death,
the outer sheath of man disintegrates, these "life atoms" are thrown
back into the general surroundings of the earth, where they are
subjected to the magnetic currents around; these currents either
attract or repel them, and thus bring about that wise selection, which
directs them to organisms in affinity with them.

The doctrine of metempsychosis[89] is true only for the atoms or
emanations sent out by man after death or during the whole course of
life. The hidden meaning of the passage from Manu, where we read that
"he who slays a Brahman enters into the body of a dog, a bear, an ass,
a camel, &c.," does not apply to the human Ego, but only to the atoms
of his body, _i.e._, to the lower triad[90] and its fluidic
emanations, as H. P. Blavatsky says, and she adds:

"The Hina-yana, the lowest form of transmigration of the Buddhist, is
as little comprehended as the Maha-yana, its highest form, and,
because Sakya Muni--the Buddha--is shown to have once remarked to his
Bhikkus--Buddhist monks--while pointing out to them a broom, that it
had formerly been a novice who neglected to sweep out the Council
room, hence was reborn as a broom,(!) therefore the wisest of all the
world's sages stands accused of idiotic superstition. Why not try and
understand the true meaning of the figurative statement before
criticising? Is or is not that which is called magnetic effluvia a
something, a stuff or a substance, invisible and imponderable though
it be?... The mesmeric or magnetic fluid which emanates from man to
man, or even from man to what is termed an inanimate object, is far
greater. Indeed, it is 'life atoms' that a man in a blind passion
throws off unconsciously. Let any man give way to any intense feeling
such as anger, grief, &c., under or near a tree, or in direct contact
with a stone, and many thousands of years after that any tolerable
psychometrist will see the man and sense his feelings from one single
fragment of that tree or stone that he has touched. Why then should
not a broom, made of a shrub, which grew most likely in the vicinity
of the building where the lazy novice lived--a shrub, perhaps,
repeatedly touched by him while in a state of anger, provoked by his
laziness and distaste of his duty--why should not a quantity of his
life atoms have passed into the materials of the future broom