Theos-Talk Archives (February 2000 Message tt00037)

re: Nirvana.

It is perhaps worth mentioning the distinction made (e.g., in "The Voice of the
Silence") between the Path of Liberation (Nirvana) and the Path of Renunciation
(Boddhisattva).  The former is referred to as "exalted selfishness."  Further,
much is said in the Literature -- mostly not positive --about the 'fate' and the
'role' of "returning Nirvanees," for 'Nirvana' is not 'forever.'  The causes, for
causes there are, that 'occasion' it do exhaust themselves, and the 'being' must
(no choice) again descend onto "the Wheel of birth, death, suffering."  Most
incarnate beings, of whatever persuasion, are on the Path of Liberation,
consciously or otherwise -- one has only to look ... it's all about 'what's in
this for me?'





Eldon B Tucker wrote:

> Here's something I wrote on another list. Perhaps there
> might also be some interest in discussing the topic on
> theos-talk?
>
> -- Eldon
>
> ----
>
> Chuck:
>
> [commenting on Nirvana]
>
> >And to take another point of view, why would one not want to come back????
> >
> >Suppose for a moment someone gets Nirvanaized in 1870, look at all the fun
> >that person missed, never to see television, never to fly, never to play with
> >a computer, all the friends he never got a chance to make, all the parties he
> >never got to attend.
> >
> >With all the interesting things and pleasure the physical life has to offer,
> >I can't imagine not wanting to get back to it as soon as possible.
>
> You're commenting on the incomplete nature of the exoteric
> idea of Nirvana.
>
> It's true that we come back to life, time after time, because
> of the sheer creative joy of existing, and of doing things in
> this world. This world is our home, and we have strong bonds
> with it. We have long-standing relationships with many others
> who live here. We've developed, over many lifetimes, considerable
> skills to exist, to be aware, to do things, and be self-expressive
> on our physical-plane earth. It's this desire to exist, "tanha,"
> that we feel towards the end of our after-death state, that
> draws us back into rebirth each time.
>
> Over time, though, we learn to do things that are extremely
> frustrated by the limitations of physical-plane existence, and
> there grows a strong attraction to find rebirth into higher
> worlds. In the Blavatsky/Mahatma Letters model, we'd say that
> life on earth is an existence in a "sphere of causes," and our
> after-death states, in working out the unspent life energies,
> are had in the following "sphere of effects." When those
> energies have exhausted themselves, we're attracted into rebirth
> on "this or the next sphere of causes." That is, we either
> return to earthlife, or find rebirth on the next place of
> objective existence of our earth's, on the next higher plane,
> otherwise called "Globe E."
>
> The after-death states, as a time of peace and temporary
> liberation from the limitations of physical earthlife, is
> a small-scale representation of what we find in bigger
> scale: our vast time of evolution in the human kingdom,
> followed by a complete release of bondage from the limits
> of human egoship, or Nirvana.
>
> Nirvana is both a place, a locality, a realm, in its own
> sense, as well as being a mode of consciousness, a way to
> perceive and experience life. As a mode of consciousness,
> it is the dharmakaya, the state wherein a transcendental
> universality of consciousness is achieved. We may exist,
> have a distinct, colorful personality, and be acting in
> the world, looking the same to someone's camera, as we
> did a moment before entering this state. Yet upon entering
> it, the world has stopped, all awareness of our being
> particular person doing a particular thing in a particular
> place and time is totally obliterated. There's a sense
> of universal grandness. Our experience of life, for the
> moment, has no observer, only an awareness of the "flavor"
> of life in this world, even though there's yet thought,
> feeling, and action, as "we" do things, minus any awareness
> of there being an "us" in the equation.
>
> A third aspect of Nirvana relates to the composite nature
> of our being. Each part of our constitution has a life
> of its own, and is built, contributed by, or overshadowed
> by some class of beings, called by various names like the
> Lunar and Solar Pitris. When we reach a certain stage
> of perfection, attaining Buddhahood, Sixth Rounder status,
> the higher part of our nature enters Nirvana. That part
> is our Manasaputra, a higher being, a Dhyani Chohan, who
> has been acting in the role of "higher self" to us. It
> leaves us behind as nearly-perfect humans, Bodhisattvas,
> with sufficient development of our own innate manasaputric
> consciousness to be able to function without that
> overshadowing influence. To us, from our standpoint,
> it seems as though our Higher Selves have departed to
> Nirvana, but from their standpoint, they've entered into
> a higher state of experience where they can be more
> truly themselves, not having us to weigh them down
> anymore.
>
> There are many other angles on Nirvana, meanings of
> the term in Theosophy, ideas that could be explored ...
> just not many minutes left tonight to write more ...
>
> -- Eldon
>
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