Theos-Talk Archives (January 1998 Message tt00151)

I would like to suggest an adjustment to the meaning of the term
"unmanifest" that has just been agreed upon.

SD i p 16 (original pagination) "point 2" says the first logos should
philosophically be regarded as "unmanifest". She calls this first logos the
"precursor of the manifest".

Thinking of the first logos as unmanifested is frequently useful. There are
various times that religious/symbolic traditions can be identified as
containing the germs of the same cosmology as Theosophy if we keep this
distinction in mind.

It also seems philosophically helpful to think of this universe as
unmanifest until duality is available to provide contrast.

As a matter of personal taste I prefer not to refer to the absolute as
"unmanifest" though I suppose that use is arguably resonable. To my taste
it just sounds too much like assigning an attribute to the absolute. I
would prefer to leave the Absolute beyond such terms as "unmanifest".

Reed Carson