Theos-Talk Archives (August 1998 Message tt00221)

>-----
>DALLAS:  According to what I understand, the "Masters" (or Mahatmas) exist
>permenently on the "inner planes" of the whole Universe, namely the three
>transcendent planes delineated in SD I 200.
>

This is not my understanding except in the sense that there are usually
some of them so existing at any time. There are, in fact, six inner planes.
The three that you refer to are obviously the astral, mental, and casual
which exist below the Abyss and which contain HPB's 7 Globes.
I don't know what you mean by "transcendent" but our emotions are
on the astral right now, and our thoughts are on the mental right now.


>In Man's 7-fold nature they correspond to ATMA, BUDDI, MANAS.

I can't see how these three highest principles are on the three lowest
inner planes. Atma is above the Abyss, Buddhi is on the causal,
and manas or our thinking mind is on themental plane.


>  In the SD HPB
>states several times that these are immortal principles, and they constitue
>the Real Man.

They are immortal and eternal in the sense that they will last so long as
our manvantara lasts, but they are not eternal in the sense of never
ever having an end. All three exist in space-time and thus in maya. They
are, in short, mayavic.


Here, on Earth, our personalities are reflections, obscure,
>blurred, uncertain as far as our present consciousness when we are awake,
is
>concerned.  You and othes may say I am in error in this, but if we think
>carefully about the Theosophical statements that relate to Consciousness
>this may become apparent.
>

I do believe that I read something about the personality being a
pale reflection of the individuality. Is this what you mean? (sorry,
I am letting sarcasm get the best of me here, and I should be
above that sort of stuff). Agreed.


>We are therefore "transparent" to the perception of an Adept (Mahatma) who
>would only "contact" us as personalities if we had some value in our work,
>for humanity.  This to me is made quite plain in the case of Sinnett (as an
>example) and can be readily seen if we read MAHATMA LETTERS and LETTERS
FROM HPB TO AP SINNETT.
>

While our bodies and emotions are transparent, they do, I think, see into
our thoughts and ideas. Contact with such is often done during dreams
which we may or may not recall when we wake.


>To our selves, our pesonality. and all its memories and doings and motives
>(as an embodied mind that uses a physical and an astral brain) IN THIS LIFE
>are important.
>

Of course they are.


>But, as I understnd it, it is only when we make a strong effort to raise
>ourselves as thought-men out of the personality and its comfortable
>limitations. that we are able by strong effort attain to some of the
>perceptions of the REal Man -- the ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS.
>

I think you are confused here, or at least I am not reading you. What are
"thought-men?"  The strong effort that we make is to raise our
consciousness beyond thought altogether. This is equivalent to
rising above the mental plane. We already know what our manas is.
Most of us already know what our buddhi is (intuition). Few know the
atma or spirit, but this is because it exists above the Abyss and we
have to cross that obstacle in order to confront our atma or spiritual
self.


>For this reason Theosophy says (as I understand it) that we are
>"IMMORTALS" -- in that root essence, from which our present "Personality"
>derives its being.
>

Our present personality is on the mental and astral planes. Our
Reincarnating
Ego is on the causal plane, and to see it directly we have to rise above the
mental plane to the causal--the equivalent of rising above our thinking
processes (and yes, it can be done. The result is called samadhi).


>We all know that one thing is certain:  this Personality will presently
>"die" and be disssolved.  Into what ?  What happens ?  Religions try to
>grapple with this, and if one studies many of those one encounters at their
>core the same set of root or core ideas.
>

Like the physical body, it disintegrates. This is why crossing the Abyss
is so scary--it is nothing less than the death of the ego. BTW, we are
said to have a "little death" in orgasm because the ego looses control
for a few moments. It is said that this is the real reason why some people
are so opposed to sexual acts.


>In order to be brief, let me say that the tenets of Theosophy apply there,
>and can be seen to lie at those several roots and cores.  Hence HPB states
>that Theosophy s the Root and substratum of all the many World Religions.
>

I don't have any problem in what you are saying in the above paragraph, but
it is very clear to me that your Theosophy is not my Theosophy even though
we both read and study the same HPB. Interesting, no?


>But I further add, and in defence of HPB and Theosophy, WE CAN ONLY ASSURE
>OURSELVES OF THIS IF WE STUDY WHAT HPB WRITES.
>

We can also be assured of this when we rise above thoughts and face the
Abyss
and see the Atma directly. I have done so, which just goes to show how easy
it must be.


>We may have many ideas, and we may have "made contact" earler that our
>contact with "Theosophy" as HPB recorded it with some or all of these
ideas.
>That does not obviate the fact that Theosophy draws all together and can be
>used to shortcut much of the tedium of research.


Personally, I rather like Theosophy, at least in the sense that I understand
it.

Jerry S.