Theos-Talk Archives (November 1998 Message tt00412)

Nov 22nd 1998

"dew-drop slipping into the shining sea" in VOICE is to me,
metaphoric of the condition that all will be involved in when
either we attain individually Nirvana, or when the whole of
manifestation is withdrawn for its periodical sleep/rest at the
end of the Maha manvantara.

If one desires to see what HPB had to say on this then in SECRET
DOCTRINE, there are some very interesting passages Vol. I between
pp 369 - 378.

In regard to Time:  "there never was a first Kalpa, nor will
there ever be a last one, in Eternity."  P. 369 bottom

In regard to Nirvana and the "Atyantika Pralaya."  SD I p. 371
top  "{it} does not concern the Worlds or the Universe but only
the individualities of some people;  it is thus individual
pralaya or NIRVANA;  after having reached which, there is no more
future existence possible, no rebirth TILL AFTER THE MAHA
PRALAYA."	SD I 371 top.  [See also VOICE p. 47fn 77-8fn, SD II
79-80. ]

The "Creative force"  SD I 374 top.  "The Creative Force is
Eternal, as Noumenon;  as a phenomenal manifestation in its
aspects, it has  a beginning and must therefore have an end."

While these few notes settle nothing, they give a hint as to the
extent and nature of the constant change from activity to rest -
and this is seen in our waking and sleeping as humans, and the
waking and sleeping of our World as the cycles revolve, and
ultimately of all worlds, solar systems and the Universe.
What Theosophy does offer is a sketch of these vast operations
and the logic of their succession.  It also assures us that there
is no discontinuity in our existence - we go to "sleep" and then
re-awaken, to resume our work - why should we expect to be
obliterated ?

Dallas

> From Eldon Tucker
> Sent:	Friday, November 20, 1998 12:54 PM
> Subject: Re: axioms vs subjective views

Augoeides:

[writing to Dallas]

>This is a better scenario than the "dew drop slips into the
shining
>sea" stuff , i.e., the Monad emerges from a sort of cosmic soup
and
>then struggles though the lower kingdoms finally to emerge as
>individualized self-consciousness.  Finally after, aeons of more
>struggle and self-effort the Monad becomes liberated from the
>lower worlds only to slip back into the cosmic soup again !

There are some subtle points here, and I'll try to address
a few of them. It's another challenge to write about things
that almost cannot be written about; a fun challenge at times,
but risky too -- it's so easy to be misunderstood or to not
find the right words!

Speaking of "the dewdrop slipping back into the shining sea,"
we have an incomplete picture of that happens.

As Monads, we are sparks of the grand flame of divinity,
transcendent, perfect, unchanging, beyond the space/time of
any scheme of existence. Were it not so, we couldn't exist
right now, nor at any moment of time nor in any position
in space. In our inmost, we are rooted in the Essential
Nature, the Unknowable, the Grand Source.

There are stages of unfoldment, as we send forth a ray of
our awareness into a world-scheme, a system of existence.
Regardless of stage, though, regardless of our participating
in a scheme of existence, yet we *are*, even though we
*are not*. That is, there's a form of archetypal, trancsendent
being, outside of time, in which our essential nature resides,
unstained by temporal events. There is that *something* to
us, even though it *does not exist*, e.g. it's not something
that manifests on the area of life. It's not ourselves on
higher planes, it's beyond the concept of existing here or
there or anywhere. It cannot go away or be taken from us,
since it doesn't exist, it *is not*, yet it does exist, in
the same sense that 2 + 2 = 4 exists in pure mathematics,
apart from temporal events and the unfolding of things
during time.

Coming into particular existence, starting to manifest,
sending forth a ray of consciousness into the evolutionary
scheme, we go through various stages of awareness and
participation in a particular world, place, plane.

The first stage is a general awareness of the color, flavor,
texture, essential nature of, the Swabhava or unique
characteristic of ... the world itself. We're not a
particular being, not with any ties to this or that
person, just aware that *this world* exists, and what
it's like. At this point the dewdrop is part of the
shining sea, but the Monad is aware of *this sea*, of
*this world-scheme*.

At a later stage, there's a sense of self, a separating
apart from others, an awareness of "this is me and that
is you." The dewdrop has separated itself from the shining
sea. On the gameboard of life -- this particular board --
we now have a playing piece that represents us. We
perceive the world and act through that piece.

We benefit from having played the evolutionary game.
We do grow and change. During a particular game we
learn certain skills. Perhaps we become trained to
play more difficult games in the future. But when we
finish the game, the pieces get put away and what we
take with us is the general skills and affects upon
us of the experiences that we've had. There are the
experiences *as a game player*.

How do we carry these experiences forward, as a karmic
treasury that spans great periods of evolution, of
dissolution of the world, pralaya, and its subsequent
remergence anew, in the next evolutionary period, the
next manvantara?

My thinking is that there are levels or parts to
us that transcend existence, that are unmanifest or
non-existing yet very real and very present behind
things. The higher part is timeless, and represents
our essential nature per se. Below it, as a sort of
veil, is another part, that enters into relation
with conditioned time, that is subject to growth
and change and the accumulation of experience. That
part, even though not *existing* or manifest in the
sense that we understand it, is real, and the foundation
of our perceptive ability, the foundation of our
ability to come into being, one step removed from
actually doing so. It is eternal in nature, with no
beginning nor end, but it does not *exist* in the
sense we typically think of things existing.

-- Eldon