Theos-Talk Archives (November 1998 Message tt00000)

Nov 1st 1998

Comments interjected below

Dallas

> From: Jerry Schueler
> Sent:	Saturday, October 31, 1998 8:48 AM
> Subject: Re: Mind and Memory

>Dear Jerry:
>
>On the matter of "continuous consciousness"
>
>I base my opinion on the concept that SPIRIT is endless and
>interminable.
>

What do see as the relationship between spirit and consciousness?
What does spirit have to do with continuous consciousness?


DALLAS	AS I UNDERSTAND IT SPIRIT IS THE SOURCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
	See SD I 14 39-40 49-51 167 199-200 233 266 274 277fn 234
329fn-30
		SD I 373 570 573   SD II 24 241 525 598-9 673 701-2


>If so and if our "Real consciousness," (not the personal
>consciousness of this life and body), is a part of the Spirit,
>then it "does not die" but continues on its own plane.
>

Ah! Here is the problem we are having. Terminology again.
There is no such thing as "real" consciousness as opposed
to "false" consciousess, as I understand the word. We are
always conscious of something. Consciousness per se is
always continuous through space and time and never dies.
But what we are conscious of changes all the time, as does
our memory and sense of identity.


AGREED	HOWEVER as I see it is the ONE CONSCIOUSNESS which
pervades
Everything and all, and is defined only in terms of the
conditions
Which it encounters - as MEMORY.


>That is why I refer to the statements made by HPB in SD II 167
>275  I 210 295fn which to me imply there are TWO EGOS in man:
1.
>The Eternal EGO, and 2.  The Personal and transitory Ego of this
>lifetime.
>

There is, I believe, a difference between ego and consciousness.
When consciousness works or focuses through the human mind,
it developes several "complexes" one of which tends to unify
the others, and this is called the ego. The ego is a social
fiction,
a necessity of our culture, but only a changing collection of
parts
just like the physical body is.


ACCORDING TO HPB IN "THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY" THERE ARE 3 "EGOS"
(or Souls)
Spiritual (BUDDHI-MANAS);  2)  Human  (MANAS per se);  and, 3)
Animal
(KAMA-MANAS - Mind linked to the desire principle - of which our
daily
consciousness in our physical brains/bodies is an example.



>How does this Ego in the personality of this life arise ?  where
>does it come from ?  where does it go ?  what is its purpose ?
>

You can find answers to these questions in most modern psychology
books.


UNFORTUNATELY MOST MODERN PSYCHOLOGY BOOKS DO NOT EMPLOY THE
7-FOLD
THEOSOPHICAL SYSTEM AND MISS ALMOST ENTIRELY THE SPIRITUAL.

THEY FOCUS ALMOST ENTIRELY ON THE EVIDENCE OF THE WAKING PHYSICAL
LIFE
AND THEY HAVE NO CONCEPT OF, OR BASIS FOR CONSIDERING THE
PROBABLE
IMMORTALITY OF THE "TRUE EGO."  [ ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS ]

THEOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND "MODERN PSYCHOLOGY" ARE AT VARIANCE
BECAUSE
THEY CANNOT ADDRESS THE QUESTION OF GENIUS, INTUITION, NEAR DEATH
EXPERIENCES, REGRESSION AND OCCASIONALLY ACTUAL EGOIC MEMORIES OF
A
PAST LIFE, THE DETAILS OF WHICH ARE VERIFIED IN THE PRESENT.

SOME INTUITIVE PSYCHOLOGISTS NOW ADMIT THAT THERE ARE PHENOMENA
OF
MEMORY AND IMAGINATION WHICH DEFY MOST EMPIRICAL THEORIES BASED
ON
EXPERIMENTAL AND REACTIVE PSYCHOLOGY.

DALLAS


Jerry S.