Theos-Talk Archives (March 1999 Message tt00194)

Dear Rich,

I don't seem to have your problem with this word 'merge', or even the notion
of 'merging into', 'attaining', or 'reaching' Nirvana.  In fact these
phrases are used over and over again in the Secret Doctrine and in the
Mahatma Letters when HPB and the Mahatmas refer to Nirvana.  Similar phrases
are used in the Stanzas themselves.   If they are "damaging to philosophy"
as you suggest then HPB and the Masters have done "philosophy" a great
wrong.  But I doubt very much whether that is the case.

When exporing this topic of Nirvana I try to keep in mind what is stated in
Mahatma Letters No 16, namely:

"We have several sorts of Karma and Nirvana in their various applications --
to the Universe, the world, Devas, Buddhas, Bodhisatwas, men and animals --
the second including its seven kingdoms. "

I agree with your view that Nirvana is 'already there' but only in the light
of the above passage.  I don't think we can skip the developmental hard work
associated with Manas in the hope that we can just "BE" in the moment and
become our REAL nature.  (I'm also not sure that this is what you mean.)   I
am more convinced by the Theosophical viewpoint which states:

"No Entity, whether angelic or human, can reach the state of Nirvana, or of
absolute purity, except through aeons of suffering and the knowledge of EVIL
as well as of good, as otherwise the latter remains incomprehensible...
Between man and the animal -- whose Monads (or Jivas) are fundamentally
identical -- there is the impassable abyss of Mentality and
Self-consciousness."
SDv2, p81

The latter is Manas, of course.

I differ from your view that Manas is "some lower, transient vehicle".  I
think that just the opposite is the case.  In its essence Manas is of the
most 'high', having its very source, through the Manasputras, in the AH-HI.
In 'Transactions - Blavatsky Lodge' HPB desribes the AH-HI as synonymous
with the first Logos - 'being on the highest plane [they] reflect the
Universal Mind collectively at the first flutter of the Manvantara'.  HPB
uses the term "Universal Mind", in this instance, as another name for "the
Absolute - out of time and space".

You  write:

>  The Absolute is not approached, encompassed,
>  touched, visited, etc. etc.

But of course we can explore the idea of "approaching"  Nirvana.  Hence the
reference in the Stanza:

STANZA 1 Sloka 4. THE SEVEN WAYS TO BLISS (Moksha* or Nirvana) WERE NOT (a).
THE GREAT CAUSES OF MISERY (Nidana** and Maya) WERE NOT, FOR THERE WAS NO
ONE TO PRODUCE AND GET ENSNARED BY THEM (b).

you also say:

> Nirvana is not something one "merges into" because it is already there.

The idea of 'merging' being 'absorbed' etc can be found in the following
(and endless more places in the SD):

"Nor is the individuality -- nor even the essence of the personality, if any
be left behind -- lost, because re-absorbed. For, however limitless -- from
a human standpoint -- the paranirvanic state, it has yet a limit in
Eternity. Once reached, the same monad will re-emerge therefrom, as a still
higher being, on a far higher plane, to recommence its cycle of perfected
activity."
(SD v1, p266)

"The monad, then, can be traced through the course of its pilgrimage and its
changes of transitory vehicles only from the incipient stage of the
manifested Universe. In Pralaya, or the intermediate period between two
manvantaras, it loses its name, as it loses it when the real ONE self of man
merges into Brahm in cases of high Samadhi (the Turiya state) or final
Nirvana..."
(SD v1, p570)

"These words were, in their turn, the anagrammatic blind of the five mystic
powers represented on the robe of the "resurrected" Initiate after his last
trial of three days' trance; the five becoming seven only after his death,
when the Adept became the full CHRISTOS, the full KRISHNA-VISHNU, i.e.,
merged in Nirvana."
SD v2, p580

Best wishes

Peter


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