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Apr 14, 1999 09:29 AM
by Gerald Schueler
>>However I would observe that from this "waking plane" -- "Jagrat
consciousness" -- in which we are "conscious" and able to communicate as
we are, our imagery and allegories, and also our logic seems to be tied
down to the experiences we are
remembering -- however faulty or incomplete they may be -- of
what we have seen or felt or thought on this plane or on others
(there is some haziness as time passes as to what was experiences in
thinking 'here and now' or perhaps on some other 'plane.'>>
Dallas, I agree with you. Our normal imaginations
are tied to our experiences. But these are the lower
manifestations of our imagination and are often
charged with emotion as well. The ability to imagine
in buddhic, but any image produced gets colored
by thinking and emotion as it is processed by our
minds.
>>I wonder if you would allow me to put before you a number of
questions that I asked my self some years ago ?
See what you think of them, and let me know.
Dal>>
OK
====================
QUESTIONS
1. Unity of all.
1. What is ALL ?
No easy answer to this one.
Maybe everything that we can experience. Basically All is
infinite and indescribable, I think.
2. What does unity imply ?
The overwhelming sense/feeling of oneness that we
encounter in spiritual states implies that we are all tied
together.
3. Is the "ALL" in or out of "manifestation ?"
Another question with no answer. I guess it would imply
everything in and out of manifestation, but again this is
infinite.
4. Is non-manifestation "Reality" ?
I have come to think of "reality" as whatever we experience
at any time. Within manifestation reality is relative. Outside
of spacetime it is absolute. This is a central Mahayana
teaching of the two truths, and so far has stood up with
my own experience. By my definition, dreams are as real
as the physical objects that we encounter when awake.
5. Why and how does "manifestation start ?"
Another good question that has no answer. I like to think
that creativity is an inherent characteristic of divinity and
so the divine monad is inherently creative and self-expressive.
Otherwise I don't know. But there can be little purpose or
reason outside of a need for self-expression because the
divine monad is already perfect.
6. What are the ideal components of manifestation ?
Not sure what you mean, but the basic ingredients are
dualistic: subjectivity and objectivity, spirit and matter,
and space and motion.
7. Who or what is benefited by manifestation ?
The divine monad gets to express itself much like an artist
does on canvas or a dancer/acter does on the stage.
QUESTIONS
2. Law pervades all things.
1. Does Law imply motion ?
Yes. Motion as defined by HPB includes time and karma.
2. What beings fall under the sway of Law ?
All those "rays" that elect to participate in manifestation
agree to observe the "rules."
3. What is a "being ?"
Another question that has no answer. Everything is alive,
so in a sense everything is a being. Buddhism usually
distinguishes "living beings" to include humans, animals,
and plants. Theosophy would likely say monads, but
the only monad that HPB carefully defined is the
divine monad and all the others are names with unclear
definitions.
4. What does Law produce when it operates ?
Order as opposed to chaos. Order includes patterns or designs
that the human mind finds meaning and purpose in. The
human mind usually sees little meaning or purpose in chaos.
5. Does Law always operate ?
Only within manifestation, which includes law/order and
chaos/disorder as a central duality. Law/order cannot
exist or have any meaning without chaos/disorder.
6. Who observes Law in operation ?
All living beings do to some degree. We humans also
have self-consciousness and so carry our observations
a bit farther. But order cannot exist without chaos, and
to observe the one requires that we also observe the other.
7. If there is motion, then something has to be stable in order to
observe it. What is that Observer ?
Yes. At the most primiative or basic level of existence there
is only duality. Any observer or subjectivity must have an
objective not-self to observe. This is the fundamental I and
Not-I duality that I called the I-Not-I Monad in my Enochian
Physics.
8. How is a "Law" started ?
These are the rules of the manvantara that every participant
agrees to at the start of a manvantara. It is probably karmic,
the results of past manvantaras.
9. Where does energy come from ?
Energy is almost synonymous with spirit. Einstein showed
that energy and matter are two sides of the same thing.
Occultism does the same with matter and spirit.
10. What laws operate to aggregate a form ?
Probably karmic forces and the ability to create images which
is inherent in all living beings. Modern science sees one of the
most basic elements of matter/energy as the quanta. Jungian
psychology says that the quanta of the psyche is the
emotionally-charged image.
11. Why does intelligence (or consciousness) require a form ?
Form and formlessness are but another basic duality of this
manifestation. Consciousness per se does not "require" a
form. Rather forms are expressions or manifestations of
formless ideas.
3. Evolution is continuous.
All beings are Intelligent. Wisdom is the product of experience.
Manifestation provides the stage for experience.
QUESTIONS
1. If there are consecutive periods of sleep and activity, Who or What
is aware of those ?
Consciousness per se exists throughout because that is what
the divine monad is. But consciousness has to focus within
bodies or vehicles in order to know what is happening on the
different planes. "Who" implies a subjective self or selfhood
and this constantly changes because it is illusory.
2. What is Intelligence ? In Man, Nature, any being.
Good question. I guess it is the order and purpose that
we human beings see in ourselves and the world.
3. What is a Being, or an entity ?
4. Is there "independence ?"
No. Independence is a mayavic illusion. In another sense
both dependence and independence are poles of a
duality and only exist together.
5, What is Knowledge ? Does it differ from Wisdom ?
I think it does. Knoweldge is just an accumulation of facts.
Wisdom is understanding what those facts mean and how
to use them to advantage. In the Qabala, Knowledge is
the eleventh Septhiroth, Daath, while Wisdom is Chockmah,
a bit higher.
6. If manifestation is only a "stage," then what happens at a time of
non-manifestation ?
Obscuration is a time of rest. As above so below. Just as
we humans go to devachan in between lives, so the
"ray" or spiritual monad sleeps somewhere during two
manvantaras.
7. Is death comparable or analogous to non-manifestation?
Yes, I think so. Especially in the sense that the lower
human vehicles go into obscuration after death.
8. Does anything survive Death. What "dies" ?
Our own human death is survived by consciousness.
Eventually, everything in manifestation will die. Whatever
is born or created has to die as a matter of Law. But what dies
is only the manifestations or expressions. The divine monad
cannot die because it is by definition eternal and infinite.
9. How is a Body produced and what is it made of ?
All bodies serve as vehicles for consciousness. They are
all products of two major components such as egg and sperm.
10. What happens at death to the personal intelligence ?
It dies. The ability to express intelligence is probably a skandah
which survives.
11. What happens to the individual intelligence of the atomic and
molecular components of the body ?
G de P says that those monads wait around for the next
incarnation.
12. Is there a relation between "Soul," and "Mind?"
I see them differently, but some people would equate them.
I see mind as manas and soul as buddhi-manas or the
Higher Manas.
13. What evidence is there of reincarnation ?
None whatsoever. There is no hard proof of survival after
death at all. We have to take it on faith. I have had a near
death experience (NDE) that assured me of survival, but
there are scientists who would claim my NDE was the result
of oxygen deprivation or some such. Even memories of
past lives fall under the heading of psychism and have to
be taken with salt.
14. Are the "life-atoms" that are aggregated to form a body intelligent
? If so, how ?
Each is said to be a "ray" of a separate divine monad. The
only thing that separates us from minerals, for example, is
time in manifestation.
15. Do the life-atoms benefit from the incarnation of a "mind ?"
G de P said so, but I don't know.
16. What is the nature of a "Monad" ?
According to Leibnitz who coined the term, they are
any indivisible unit; any unit or thing that cannot be
divided into components. Until they split the atom, many
equated atoms with monads.
This is all I have time for. Good questions, and I would
suspect that we all have slightly different answers.
Jerry S
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