Theos-Talk Archives (October 1998 Message tt00013)

Hi Dallas,

W. Dallas TenBroeck wrote:

> Oct 2nd 1998
>
> Dear Mark
>
> Thanks for your comments.
>
> I believe that "crossing the Abyss" has a special meaning for
> some students.  But I have not met it as an expression in the
> writings of HPB.  The abyss needs definition.
>
> Do you mean perhaps the passage from
>
> 1. the realm of forms and personality - of selfishness and the
> desire for personal gains during this one life we are familiar
> with,  to
>
> 2. the realm of impersonality, idealism, virtue, generosity,
> assistance, universality and permanence, etc  ?

No.
I'll leave the exposition of the "Abyss" to Jerry (and Alan) as they are
wont to use it. This is abstract stuff.
It's a Kabbalistic term.You'd have to research HPB's view on Kabballa to
fit it into your view.

I was responding more directly to your statement about selfishness. I
don't see selfishness solely in a perjorative sense. To me it also
defines the de facto state of waking experience in the lower quartenary.
Because of identification with the seeming integrity of these elements,
or aggragates as Buddhists call them, which develops as a result of the
normal course of living in a society in the physical world, we become
"personalities." This identification is as "one among many." It is
completely natural, has a temporal and social context to it and so also
has as a defining characteristic, a sense of separation, illusory as it
may be. This is the "normal" state of affairs in the waking world.
Regardless of any social context that seeks to measure its moral
qualities, it is essentially "selfish" in the sense that it defines its
own boundaries by a perceivd sense of "self" and others. This is the
"personality" locus or the "Personality Ray."

Dallas, you are IT, when you're being "Dallas," and I'm IT when I'm
being "Mark." N'cest pa?

That's what I was trying to say. It's more or less stating the obvious.
My position is just a matter of including this de facto view as well as
any social perjorative one.

The statement about a "messiah complex" refers to those people who, in
the course of their spiritual and moral development, sometimes assume a
subtle sense of superiority or elitism. It's typical of the zeal of
recent converts, where they feel a need to evangelize, "save" others or
tell everybody what they've experienced or learned. They  often pass
through a phase where they consider themselves somehow, not entirely
"personal" anymore (while they yet maintain, or are forced to maintain,
when they wake each morning, the very mechanism which defines it). It is
sometimes supported by their group affilliation. No doubt there are
alchemical adjustments happening intra-psychically. I just find their
subtle sense of denial mildly amusing. They usually have an experience
of their own limitations soon enough and can get very confused,
frustrated and humbled when faced with the obvious fact that they are
still, all too human. It's a delicate time, but indicative that an inner
process of spiritual transformation has begun.

Somehow, a contact has reached the fringes of the conscious personal
field from deeper within it and is actively restructuring core identity
patterns and referents. An active and experiential mystery expresses
ITSELF in the very core of personality. Esoterically, this corresponds
to the Christian initiation of "Baptism," or rebirth by the "descent" of
the Holy Spirit into a person. "Descent into" is perceived by the
recipient as an mystic ontological illumination from within the core of
their sense of conscious personal identity. They are "reborn in Christ,"
by this mystic Presence of the Spirit (or LOGOS) now consciously
informing (and transforming) the identic reality of who "THEY ARE".
"Boom," a light turns on, a sun (Son) appears in the darkness within
"you," and "IT's" gravity now makes "you" orbit and relate to "IT,"
instead of the previous sense of the integrity of personality with
unconscious darkness at it's core that used to be the center of
conscious identification. I don't know any other way to say it except
perhaps with poetry or symbols.

>
> The "spiritual" union that preserves individuality happens at the
> level
> of the Causal Body. The higher initiations eventuate in the
> dissolution
> of the Causal vehicle.
>
> DALLAS
>
> Well it is a good idea to see how this is defined.  On p. 74 of
> the THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY,  HPB defines it as, in part :
>
> "This "body" which is no body either subjective or objective, but
> BUDDHI, the Spiritual Soul...is the direct cause of Sushupti
> condition leading to the Turya state, the highest state of
> Samadhi.  It is called KARANOPADHI [ see SD I 157,  KEY 121-2,
> 136 ] "the basis of the Cause," by the Taraka Raj Yogis...Buddhi
> alone could not be called a "Causal Body," but becomes so in
> conjunction with Manas, the incarnating Entity or EGO."  T. Glos,
> p. 74

OK. A lot of fancy sounding foreign words. What do they mean to your
experience?

> I do not see, logically, how "higher initiations ( Of what kind,
> where ? ) would cause the dissolution of the "Causal body."  If
> anything they would tend to spiritualize and reinforce it in the
> scheme that HPB describes.

Yes, for a while, however long that cycle of necessity is. But then
something else happens and it may or may not be perceived as logical.

Think of it this way. When the long cycles of experience in the world of
incarnation have developed in you the capacity to be conscious on that
Causal level, you eventually experience a naturally ordained
"initiation' whereby the locus of your consciousness shifts to establish
the sense of identity there. To put it metaphorically, you become
transfigured as "the Annointed" or "the Christ."  Your fundamental sense
of identity is changed.

Then, after cycles of experience and action from that state, and the
concomitant aspiration for union with "THAT which is still higher and
ALL that is ONE with THAT"  (remember Jesus always said things to the
effect of "If you see me, you see Him who sent me," "I and my Father are
one," and The Father worketh hitherto and I work, etc.") there
eventuates the capacity of conscious experience or identification with
the Monad (the Father which is in Heaven"). Another naturally ordained
experience and shift of the locus of conscious identification occurs.

These higher initiations are a process in which the "Christ" ascends to
the "Father." This is all metaphoric in Christian terms, but the effect
of this esoterically is said to be the dissolution of the Causal body
and absorption of consciousness into the Monad. This is not to say that
the Monad ever loses the capability to vibrate, create the vehicle at
will and descend again to appear, experience or work on the Causal
level. The Monadic Ray consciousness is just now beyond the necessity
for it.

Just as some of the Masters are said to exist on inner planes and to no
longer need to incarnate physically, so too, at higher initiations, the
consciousness of the Monadic ray no longer needs to hold the locus of
identity on the Causal level to exist. It has gained/merited the shift
of experience to the higher consciousness of the Monad per se. It, as a
"separate" individuality dissapears. The characteristic that defines the
mayavic state of individuality (i.e., the Causal vehicle or true EGO) is
dissolved. Full cycle return.

The monad is One. It is not "one among many." Monas Monadum. The Monad
of Monads. This is a total Mystery.

You're literal devotion to the letter of HPB is often laudable, but can
also become an impediment to the conscious experience of the Mystery of
identity within you. The result of faith in the "letter of the Law" is a
continual sustainance of the separating experience of self (you) and
other (the Monad You Are). Necessary for a season, perhaps, but always
carrying with it this conditional limitation. When Jesus was on the
cross crucified, there was a moment when he let go, so to speak. It is
the part of the Gospel where he says "my God, my God, why has thou
forsaken me?" Without that experience of being totally "alone," and
detaching from an identification as "other," he could not experience the
initiation whereby he becomes "All-One."  It is said to be the moment of
complete and utter abandonment. These are the sequence of higher
initiations I was referring to.

There are several books in Theosophical literature that detail these
esoteric interpretations of Mystic Christianity. They might be helpful
to you or provide another point of view to supplement your considerable
erudition and understanding. Maybe you're already familiar with them.

Regards,
Mark