Theos-Talk Archives (March 2000 Message tt00040)

Dear David,

Here is something (below) I posted to another list a little while ago which
relates to your question, even though not exactly.

Hope it adds a few more thoughts on this subject.

...Peter

*_*_*_*_


Dear .....,

you write:

> "It is my understanding of the teachings of
> Theosophy that EVERY planet has its humanity,
> and could not even be a planet if that spiritual
> humanity wasn't there to begin with, in order to
> get it all going, just like here, starting at the
> top, from the most spiritual level and working on
> down to the most physical and then back up again."

With regards your statement above and the interesting questions you raised
in the rest of your post, the following pasages from HPB and the Mahatmas
might be worth considering:

  "The Doctrine teaches that, in order to become a divine, fully conscious
god, -- aye, even the highest -- the Spiritual primeval INTELLIGENCES must
pass through the human stage. And when we say human, this does not apply
merely to our terrestrial humanity, but to the mortals that inhabit any
world, i.e., to those Intelligences that have reached the appropriate
equilibrium between matter and spirit, as we have now, since the middle
point of the Fourth Root Race of the Fourth Round was passed. Each Entity
must have won for itself the right of becoming divine, through
self-experience."
(SD I 106)

   It is very interesting that HPB and the Masters state we must not limit
our idea of "humanity" simply to the life wave of "Intelligences" on this
planet, ie earth.  Further, if  we look at what one of the Mahatmas has to
say about the highest form of adeptship possible on this planet it may add a
further dimension to this topic:

  "When our great Buddha -- the patron of all the adepts, the reformer and
the codifier of the occult system, reached first Nirvana on earth, he became
a Planetary Spirit; i.e. -- his spirit could at one and the same time rove
the interstellar spaces in full consciousness, and continue at will on Earth
in his original and individual body. For the divine Self had so completely
disfranchised itself from matter that it could create at will an inner
substitute for itself, and leaving it in the human form for days, weeks,
sometimes years, affect in no wise by the change either the vital principle
or the physical mind of its body. By the way, that is the highest form of
adeptship man can hope for on our planet."
(Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, No 9.  Barker ed.)

  What an interesting phrase - "rove the interstellar spaces in full
consciousness".  What potential there is for mankind!  It is said that in
terms of evolutionary stages our current humanity is in the 5th Race of its
4th Round of development.  There being seven such rounds, each with seven
root races.  Lemuria and Atlantis being names for the 3rd and 4th races
respectively of this our 4th round.  So the time periods involved are huge.
Now the Buddha is said to be effectively a Sixth Rounder.  In other words he
has, by his own efforts reached that stage of development that humanity in
the mass will have achieved at some point in the sixth round.

  It would be worth keeping this in mind when considering the following
statement and its reference to Venus:

"It is quite correct that Mars is in a state of obscuration at present, and
Mercury just beginning to get out of it. You might add that Venus is in her
last Round." (SD I 165)

  Now, if Venus is in her last, and therefore seventh, round this would
place the highest intelligences on Venus very high indeed - higher than the
Buddha (a sixth rounder).  Does this help us appreciate what may be implied
in the following:

  "Venus is the most occult, powerful, and mysterious of all the planets;
the one whose influence upon, and relation to the Earth is most prominent.
"
(SD II 30)

This is put another way in the following:

  "Every world has its parent star and sister planet. Thus Earth is the
adopted child and younger brother of Venus, but its inhabitants are of their
own kind. . . . All sentient complete beings (full septenary men or higher
beings) are furnished, in their beginnings, with forms and organisms in full
harmony with the nature and state of the sphere they inhabit."*

  I keep in mind that the Occult doctrine states that in the early races of
this our 4th round there were no dense physical forms, as such.  The "first
dwelling" of the spiritual Human Monads being the astral double (said to be
of 'giant' proportions compared to our current compact form).  The astral
double provids the basis, the "model body" around which physical matter is
drawn and shaped in the making of the physical form.  All the physical forms
of the kingdoms of nature are built around the associated astral double(s)
as evolution progresses from 'within' to 'without'.   With regards which
came first - as far as I understand it, in the first three Rounds the
development of the animal kingdom preceeded the 'human'.  But in this Fourth
Round the 'creation' of the human astral forms preceeded, and were the basis
for, the mammalian ape like forms.

  However, to return to the subject in hand.  If we keep in mind the early
races of this Round were 'formless' as far as physical matter is concerned,
then if we use your example of the imaginery spacecraft flying by at that
time piloted by beings whose perception was limited to the physical senses
only - they would have deemed this planet earth was without life and
uninhabitable.

  If we look at the other end of the spectrum where the life wave has
progressed beyond the densest part of the mid point between spirit and
matter no doubt a similar phenomenom would be found.  An example to support
this view could be drawn from the following.  We understand that those those
highly progressed Adepts who have won the right to Nirvana and yet renounced
it, elect to stay on and help humanity as Nirmanakayas.  The densest body
for them is, like the early races, the astral double - but this time it is
something far grander.  See The Voice of the Silence  where it says,
speaking of the Nirmanakaya Form, referred to as one of the "Buddhic
Bodies", HPB writes:

  "The first is that ethereal form which one would assume when leaving his
physical he would appear in his astral body - having in addition all the
knowledge of an Adept.  The Bodhisattva develops it [ie the Nirmanakaya
form] in himself as he proceeds on the Path.  Having reached the goal and
refused its fruition, he remains of Earth, as an Adept; and when he dies,
instead of going into Nirvana, he remains in that glorious body he has woven
for himself, INVISIBLE to uninitiated mankind, to watch over and protect
it."
 (VOICE OF THE SILENCE, page 96; words in [..] are mine)

  One can't help but wonder what glorious Beings, "invisible to uninitiated
mankind" might inhabit some of the other planets and "intersellar spaces".
Would they communicate with us? Would Karmic law allow such a thing?  An
interesting thought to ponder, perhaps.  Occultism teaches us that the Adept
(5th Rounders) through the power of Kriyasakti*(see below), can project his
consciousness at will and appear in a Mayavi-rupa body anywhere on the
planet.  The Buddha, we are told, can rove the "interstellar spaces in full
consciousness."  What else might be possible to Seventh Rounders?

  No doubt many of the bizarre and distasteful encounters reported to be
with extra-terrestrials have  more to do with the elementals and the lower
astral light than with the genuine spiritual intelligences of other spheres.
'Semi-intelligent' elementals, which are essentially formless, take the
material from the aura of the person concerned, images projected in the
astral light, and appear in all shapes and sizes.  But that shouldn't rule
out encounters of a higher kind, where some elevating wisdom is offered,
even though the 'form' perceived may be drawn from the aura of the person
concerned.

  However, while contemplating this, I remind myself of something that
Bhavani Shankar (a chela of the Master KH) says in his book, "The Doctrine
of the Bhagavad Gita."...

  "The only object of the Initiate is the religious enlightenment of the
human race and a perfectly unselfish, self-forgetting, self-annihilating
devotion to that object... For this purpose he need not scour the Lokas,
for, from his own heart always flows a current of living moral and spiritual
energy for the good of the three worlds, more potent and dynamic in its
purifying and elevating effect than any number of lectures and orations
whether on the physical or astral or some higher planes."
(page 16-17)

Hope the above provides some food for thought.

Best wishes

Peter

---------------------
* " KRIYASAKTI. The mysterious power of thought which enables it to produce
external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own inherent energy. The
ancients held that any idea will manifest itself externally if one's
attention is deeply concentrated upon it. Similarly an intense volition will
be followed by the desired result. "
(SD I 293)








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