Theos-Talk Archives (April 2000 Message tt00145)

	Part III  --  Monadic Evolution


Requests to continue, have added this 3rd part below .

Theosophy is a report on the HISTORY of research conducted by the
Wise men, the Sages and Adepts of this Earth for many, many
thousands of years.  [SD I 272-3]  Theosophy gives us a survey of
the record and sequence of the way in which Evolution proceeded,
and is being carried on at present and into the future.  We are
all involved in it, and, in our own futures.

==================================

	From Part II


	"Rounds, Races, Character and  Temperament

Concerning human evolution on the earlier "globes" comparatively
little is said. The most we are given is in the 2nd volume of the
SECRET DOCTRINE.  Our greatest concern is our future on this
Globe our Earth. The latter, when the wave of humanity has
reached it this latest time (in this, our Fourth Round), began to
evolve man's from, subdividing him into "Races."

Each of these "Races" (which are graded by temperament and
general character, and not by color of skin or physiognomy) when
it has, through evolution, reached the period known as "the
moment of choice" and decided its future destiny, and, as an
individual race it begins to disappear.  This may appear strange,
but it has happened many times in the past.  It is for the "race"
a process similar to reincarnation for us.  Gradually the "race"
thus reincarnates in its "child" -- a new "race," with altered
and improved capabilities.  Its mission has been accomplished and
the divine, immortal Monads (as mind-Egos) pass on to new and
improved forms.

The "Races" are separated from each other by catastrophes of
nature, such as the subsidence of continents and great natural
volcanic and other convulsions. Coincidentally with the
development of new "Races" the development of specialized senses
takes place; thus our fifth race has so far developed five
senses.  A sixth sense is said to be under gradual development.
It has been called "permeability."  [SD I 251,258]"

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	[ New material  -  Part  III


	MONADIC EVOLUTION  Part  III



	Cycles of Time

The Masters of Wisdom tell us that the affairs of this world and
its people are subject to cyclic laws, and during any one cycle
the rate or quality of progress appertaining to a different cycle
is not possible. These cyclic laws operate in each age. As the
ages grow darker the same laws prevail, only the cycles are
shorter; that is, they are the same length in the absolute sense,
but go over the given limit in a shorter period of time.

These laws impose restrictions on the progress of the race. In a
cycle, where all is ascending and descending, the Adepts must
wait until the time comes before they can aid the race to ascend.
They cannot, and must not, interfere with Karmic law. Thus they
begin to work actively again in the spiritual sense, when the
cycle is known by them to be approaching its turning point.

At the same time these cycles have no hard lines or points of
departure or inception, inasmuch as one may be ending or drawing
to a close for sometime after another has already begun. They
thus
overlap and shade into one another, as day does into night; and
it is only when the one has completely ended and the other has
really begun by bringing out its blossoms, that we can say we are
in a new cycle.

It may be illustrated by comparing two adjacent cycles to two
interlaced circles, where the circumference of one touches the
center of the other, so that the moment where one ended and the
other began would be at the point where the circumferences
intersected each other. Or by imagining a man in the act of
walking: the progress of the cycles, his rate of advance can only
be obtained by taking the distance covered from the points at the
middle of each pace, between the feet, being the beginning of
cycles and their ending.

Cyclic progress for a race or a group of individuals is assisted,
or deterioration is further permitted, in this way and in accord
with Karma. It is said by the Adepts that at a time when the
cycle is ascending, developed and progressed Beings, known in
Sanskrit by the term "Jnanis," (The Wise Ones) descend to this
earth from other spheres where the cycle is going down, in order
that they may help the spiritual progress of this Globe. In like
manner they leave this sphere when our cycle approaches darkness.
These Jnanis must not, however, be confounded with the Mahatmas
and Adepts mentioned above. The right aim of true Theosophists
should, therefore be to so live, that their influence may be
invoked and made conducive for the dispelling of darkness.  This
alone will encourage Jnanis to turn again towards this sphere.


	The Astral Light

Theosophy teaches the existence of a universal diffused and
highly ethereal medium, which has been called the "Astral Light"
and "Akasa." It is the repository of all past, present, and
future events, and in it are recorded the effects of spiritual
causes, and of all acts and thoughts from the direction of either
spirit or matter. It may be called the "Book of the Recording
Angel."

Akasa, however, is a misnomer when it is confused with the Ether
of Science, or the Aether and the astral light of the Kabalists.
Akasa is the noumenon of the phenomenal Ether, or astral light
proper, for Akasa is infinite, impartite, intangible, its only
production being Sound.  The principle of man that serves as a
"scribe" in the akasa is the Buddhi.  Akasa is primordial matter.

The Astral Light is material and not "spirit." It is, in fact,
the lower principle of that cosmic body of which Akasa is the
highest. It has the power of retaining all images. This includes
a statement that each thought, each emotion, as well as every
word and act makes an image there. These images may be said to
have two lives. First. Their own, as an image. Second. The
impress left by them in the matrix of the astral light. In the
upper realm of this "light" there is no such thing as space or
time in the human sense.  The record is said to be imperishable
and timeless.  Once impressed there , it cannot be modified.  The
sum of these impressions are (for each of us) our Karma.

All future events are the results of our, and the rest of the
thoughts and acts of men; these are producer in advance (it is
said) of the pictures of any event which is to occur. Of the
great Adepts it has been said:  "before Them, the Future stands
as an open book."  Ordinary men continually, recklessly, and
wickedly, are making these events sure to come to pass, but the
Sages, Mahatmas, and the Adepts of the God Law, make only such
pictures as are in accordance with Divine Law, because they
control the production of their thought.


	Elementals and Entities in the Astral Light

The "Elementals" are a species of "entitative beings" that exist
as living forces in the astral light.  They   are energic centers
in it. In one place it is stated that every thought of man
immediately coalesces with an elemental.  Taking this into
account, it becomes easy to see that the "shades" and "ghosts" of
departed human beings and animals are also there.

Hence, any seer or entranced person (with adequate 'power') can
see in it all that anyone has done or said. With this range of
possibility, should also be included:  events that happened to
anyone with whom he is connected, and further the thoughts and
desires of those present at the time, receive a heightened
materialization and may be brought forward under the guise of
communications from some other being desired to be contacted.

Only an Adept can say with accuracy and certainty what is
happening.  In ISIS UNVEILED, Madame Blavatsky has given many
instances of this kind of phenomena.  An Elemental has the power
to assume the persona of any one of the departed, and will react
(when Karma permits) to the active will-desire of those who
demand a "communication from the dead."  Hence, also, the
identity of deceased persons -- who are supposed to report
specially out of this plane -- may be assumed by the Elemental.

It is not to be concluded from the giving of forgotten or unknown
words, facts, or ideas that the actual deceased shade is
speaking. Out of this plane of astral matter can be taken the
pictures of all who have ever lived, acted, written or spoken,
and then those images can be reflected on a suitably prepared
electro-magnetic surface, (something like a holograph) so as to
seem like the apparition of the deceased  On occasion, there is
produced all the sensations of weight, hardness, and extension.
And tangible evidence of the "presence" and of "objects" formed
or apported may be left.

Through the means of the Astral Light and the help of the
Elementals, the various material elements may be drawn and
precipitated out of the atmosphere upon either a plane surface or
in the form of a solid object.  This precipitation may be made
permanent, or it may be of such a light cohesive power as to soon
fade out.

But the help of the Elementals can only be obtained by a strong
will added to a complete knowledge of the laws which govern them.
It is useless to give further details on this point;  first,
because the untrained student cannot understand;  and second, the
complete explanation is not permitted, were it even possible in
this space.  [Explanations in a brief compass will be fund in Mr.
Judge's THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY, Chapters 16 and 17.]

The world of the elementals is an important factor in our world
and in the course of the student.  It is asociated with the plane
of consciousness the closes to our "waking life."  That is the
plane of the  "psychic," of which dreams and fancies are
evidence.


	Thought -- the basis for Karma

Each thought as it is evolved by a man coalesces instantly with
an elemental, and is then beyond the man's power to recall or to
alter.

It can be easily seen that this process is going on every
instant.  Therefore, each thought exists as an entity.  Its
length of life depends on two things:  (a)  The original force of
the person's will and thought;  (b)  The power of the Elemental
which coalesced with it, the latter being determined by the class
to which the elemental belongs.

This is the case with good and bad thoughts alike, and as the
will beneath the generality of wicked thoughts is usually
powerful, we can see that the result is very important, because
the elemental has no conscience and obtains its constitution and
direction from the thought it may from time to time carry.  Such
thought-elementals have been also named the "skandhas."  They
become the "carriers" of each individual's Karma.

Each human being has his own elementals that partake of his
nature and his thoughts. If you fix your thoughts upon a person
in anger, or in critical, uncharitable judgment, you attract to
yourself a number of those elementals that belong to, generate,
and are generated by this particular fault or failing, and they
precipitate themselves upon you. Hence, through the injustice of
our merely human condemnation, which cannot know the source and
causes of the action of another, we at once become a sharer of
his fault or failing by your own act, and the spirit expelled
returns "with seven devils worse than himself."

This is the origin of the popular saying that "curses, like
chickens, come home to roost," and has its root in the laws
governing magnetic affinity.


	Astral Light Images Hypnotize us in Kali-Yuga

In the Kali-Yuga we are hypnotized so to say, by the effect of
the immense body of images in the Astral Light, compounded of all
the deeds, thoughts, of our ancestors, or, of ourselves sin
previous incarnations, when our lives tended ver more deeply into
a material direction. These images influence the inner man -- who
is conscious of them -- by suggestion.

In a brighter age the influence of such images would be towards
Truth. Now it is towards ignorance, self indulgence and
indifference. The effect of the Astral Light, as thus molded and
painted by us, will remain as a direful influence -- powerful for
inducing evil among those whose will-power is weak, so long as we
continue to place those images there.  In this dreadful way, it
continues to act as judge and our executioner.

The philosophy of Theosophy, HPB points out repeatedly, offers us
to consider universal laws in operation -- the living, pulsing
every progressing  flow of consequences that follow on choice.


		Elementals, Monads, Skandhas and Karma

It is thus demonstrated to us that the Law of Karma, which
operates everywhere, contains within itself the means for its own
accomplishment and the punishment for its violation, and requires
no
further authority to postulate it or to carry out its decrees.
In effect it is those Monads that we have abused which come back
to haunt us.  They flood in upon us when the cycle of return
demands their presence;  and then, because of the faults (or the
assistance) that we have impressed on them, they provide us with
weak and fragile, or robust and fearless instruments of mind and
hart, to meet the circumstances which we have invoked, and whose
return comes to show us personally the results of what we have
imposed or offered to others in the past.  Every good or evil
that we have been responsible for, returns, invariably bearing
the full strength of the feelings we employed when they were
generated -- they are our 'children,' glorified or deformed, and
we know this in our hearts.

The Astral Light by its inherent action both evolves and destroys
forms. It is the universal register. Its chief office is that of
a vehicle for the operation of the laws of Karma, or the progress
of the principle of life, and it is thus in a deep spiritual
sense a medium or "mediator" between man and his Deity -- his
higher Spirit, Atma, the Higher SELF.

Theosophy also tells of the origin, history, development and
destiny of mankind.


There is a great deal more that can be added to this study, which
is taken from many sources in  original Theosophical literature,
and if there is interest, more can be written on.  As far as
possible all the information included here can be traced to
Original Theosophical Literature, so as to avoid "speculation" in
presenting it.

DTB
	[ Carried forward to part  4



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