Five Years of Theosophy

made up the individual into a new personality. Man is, therefore, reborn as the result of his own unsatisfied yearning for objective existence. Col. Olcott puts it in this way:

Q. 123. What is that, in man, which gives him the impression of having a permanent individuality?

A. Tanha, or the unsatisfied desire for existence. The being having done that for which he must be rewarded or punished in future, and having Tanha, will have a rebirth through the influence of Karma.

Q. 124. ....What is it that is reborn?

A. A new aggregation of Skandhas, or individuality, caused by the last yearning of the dying person.

Q. 128. To what cause must we attribute the differences in the combination of the Five Skandhas has which makes every individual different from every other individual?

A. To the Karma of the individual in the next preceding birth.

Q. 129. What is the force or energy that is at work, under the guidance of Karma, to produce the new being?

A. Tanha--th