Theos-Talk Archives (May 2000 Message tt00073)

		MONADIC EVOLUTION   Part  4


Requests to continue this survey received  --  some more is added
below .  These statements will be largely found to be culled from
articles and statements made by HPB and Judge.

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.

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


	MONADIC EVOLUTION   Part 4


		Origin, Development, Destiny of Mankind


	Upon the subject of   "Man"

Theosophy teaches:

1.  That each Spiritual "ray" or Monad, is a manifestation of the
One Spirit, and thus a part of ALL. It continues its evolution by
passing through a series of life-experiences in incarnation as a
human being.

We might say that ultimately, it has for aim a reuniting of
itself with the Divine.  But that is only a limited statement.
Let us consider actuality:  as when the Monad achieves its
objective of raising the "matter" (also Monads of lesser
experience) up to its particular level, many ages will have
passed and it finds itself surrounded by a vast host of its
"children" and "proteges."  They too will have become Human-minds
and in turn they will be passing the boon of self-determination
and individual Spiritual progress to those around them.  It is in
effect, the "never-ending stream of conditioned existence," that
forever rises and returns to its Source (the ABSOLUTE)  while all
the while, We, as the "Parent Monad,"  [and we have our
"Father-MONAD" who gave us the gift of Mind]  also rises in
responsibility from stage to stage in the vast UNIVERSE. [ see SD
I 571-3 ]

2.  That this present incarnation is not isolated or single but
repeated. Each individuality (Ego) becomes re-embodied during
numerous existences in the successive "races" and "globes" of our
Earth-chain, and always accumulating the experiences of each
incarnation as steps towards its ultimate perfection.

3.  That between adjacent incarnations, after the grosser selfish
and personal elements are first purged away, (Kama-Loka, OCEAN p.
99 et seq.,  KEY, p. 98-9, 143-4, 173, 189-2) comes a period of
comparative rest and refreshment, called Devachan (OCEAN, p. 109
et seq,  KEY, p. 98 -0 108)  -- the soul being therein prepared
for its next advent into material life.


	7-fold Man

The constitution of man is subdivided in a septenary manner, the
main divisions are usually spoken of as being those of Body,
Soul-mind and SPIRIT. These divisions and their relative
development govern our subjective condition after death. The real
division cannot be understood, and must for a time remain
esoteric, because it requires certain senses not usually
developed for its understanding. [ see SD I 157-8,  OCEAN p. 31-
34]  If the present seven-fold division, is adhered to and
without any explanatory statement, it will give rise to
controversy or error. For instance, Spirit is not a seventh
principle. It is the synthesis, or the whole, and is equally
present in the other six. The present various divisions can only
be used as a general working hypothesis, to be developed and
corrected as students advance and themselves develop an
understanding of their functions and characteristics.


	After-death States

The state of spiritual but comparative rest known as Devachan
(KEY, p. 98 -108) is not an eternal one, and so is not the same
as the eternal heaven of Christianity. Nor does "hell" correspond
to the state known to Theosophical writers as Avitchi. [T.
Glossary p. 45,  ML p 108, ISIS II 368-9]

All such painful states are transitory and purificatory states.
When those are passed the individual goes into Devachan.

"Hell" and Avitchi are thus not the same. Avitchi is the same as
the "second death," as it is in fact annihilation that only comes
to the selfish, destructive and intensely isolated "black
Magician" or  one who is spiritually wicked, as will be seen
further on.  [T. Glossary p. 45,  ML p 108, ISIS II 368-9]

The nature of each incarnation depends upon Karma, or, the
balance struck between the merit and demerit of the previous life
or lives -- upon the way in which the man has lived and thought;
and this law is inflexible and wholly just.



	"Karma"

Karma -- is a term signifying two things:

1.  the law of "ethical causation" ("Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap"); and

2.  the balance or excess of merit or demerit in any individual's
"balance sheet."

This determines the main experiences of joy and sorrow in each
incarnation, so that what we call "luck" is in reality "our
deserts" -- it is that which we deserve and set up the causes for
by our choices in past existences, in our past lives.

Karma is not all exhausted in a single life, nor is a person in
this life, experiencing the effect of all his previous Karma.
For some of our Karma may be held back by larger cycles relating
to family, tribe,  and race, or various other causes. The
principle cause for such delays is the failure of the Ego to
acquire a body (made up of the Monads used and impressed in the
past with our motives, thoughts and feelings) which will furnish
(this life) the instrument or apparatus in and by which the
"meditation," or thoughts of previous lives can have their effect
and be ripened.

It is held that there is a mysterious power in a human's thoughts
during a life, that is sure to bring about its results in either
an immediately succeeding life, or, in one many lives distant;
that is, in whatever life the Ego obtains a body capable of being
the focus, apparatus, or instrument for the ripening of some
particular aspect of his past Karma.

There is also a swaying or diverging power in Karma in its
effects upon the soul, for a certain course of life -- or
thought -- will influence the soul in that direction for
sometimes three lives, before the beneficial or bad effect of any
other sort of Karma can be felt. Nor does it follow that every
minute portion of Karma must be felt in the same detail as when
produced.

For several sorts of Karma may come to a head together at one
point in life, and, by their combined effect, produce a result
which, while, as a whole, accurate and representing all the
elements in it, still, is a different Karma from each single
component. This may be known as the nullification of the effect
of the classes of Karma involved.  It is a kind of mitigation set
up by deliberately seeking to balance the effect of some type of
Karma that we perceive to be deleterious.

The process of evolution up to reunion with the Divine is, and
includes, successive elevation from rank to rank of power and
usefulness. The most exalted beings still in the flesh are known
as Sages, Rishis, Brothers, Mahatmas, Masters, Dhyan Chohans,
etc. [SD I 571-]  Their great function is the preservation of
Wisdom at all times, and when cyclic laws permit, the extension
of spiritual knowledge and influence in the world.

When union with the Divine (that is interior to us in our MONAD)
is effected by us, all the events and experiences of each
incarnation are known.  This is because the pages of the
ineffaceable Akasic records become open to our gaze when needed.


	Spiritual Development

As may be surmised from what has been said the teachings of
Theosophy are essentially practical.  The term "spiritual
Development: is a misnomer.  What is actually to be achieved is
for the personal and gross elements of man's constitution to be
actively transformed by "right livelihood."  The process ought to
be called the spiritual transformation and the elevation of the
consciousness and intelligence of the Monads that make up the
lower elements of man's constitution:  his physical and astral
body, and the passional Kamic elements.

	Theosophy teaches:

1.  That the essence of the process lies in the securing of
supremacy, to the highest, the spiritual, element of man's nature
( Atma-Buddhi-Manas -- the MONAD).


2.  That this is attained along four lines, among others,

[a] The entire eradication of selfishness in all forms, and the
cultivation of broad, generous sympathy in, and effort for the
good of others.

(b) The absolute cultivation of the inner, spiritual man by
meditation, by reaching to and communion with the Divine HIGHER
SELF -- the ATMA within.  And, by exercise of the kind described
by Patanjali, i. e., an incessant striving to achieve
understanding of, and the active practice of IDEALS.

(c) The control of passions, appetites and desires, all lower,
material interests being deliberately subordinated to the ideals
and needs of an embodied spirit. In other words, we endeavour to
behave as Spiritual Beings living and working on this, the
physical plane.

(d) The careful performance of every duty belonging to one's
station in life, without desire for reward, leaving all results
to the Divine law.


3.  That while the above is incumbent on and practicable by all
seriously disposed men, a yet higher plane of spiritual
attainment is seen to depend on a specific course of training,
physical, intellectual and spiritual, by which the internal
faculties (always existing in us in potential) are first aroused
and then developed.


4.   That an extension of this process results in Adeptship,
Mahatmaship, and, eventually to states of Rishis, Sages and Dhyan
Chohans, which are all exalted stages, attained by laborious and
continued self-discipline and hardship, protracted through many
incarnations, and with many degrees of initiation,  beyond which
are yet other stages ever approaching closer to the Divine, to
the ABSOLUTE.


	Why should we do this?  Why this Self-discipline?

1.  The process takes place entirely within the individual
himself, the motive, the effort, and the result proceeding from
his own inner nature, along the lines of self-evolution and
self-development.

2.  That, however personal and interior, this process is not
unaided, being possible, in fact, only through close communion
with the supreme source of all strength  (the HIGHER SELF:
ATMA).


	As to the Degree of Advancement in any one incarnation, it
holds:

1.  That even a mere intellectual acquaintance with Theosophic
truth has great value in fitting the individual for a step
upwards in his next earth-life, as it gives an impulse in that
direction.

2.  That still more is gained by a career of duty, piety and
beneficence.

3.  That a still greater advance is attained by the attentive and
devoted use of the means to spiritual culture heretofore stated.

4.  That every "race" and each individual of it reaches in
evolution a period known as "the moment of choice," when they
decide for themselves their future destiny by a deliberate and
conscious choice between eternal life and death, and that this
right of choice is the peculiar appanage of the free soul.
[ML 47  HPB Articles III 272 289,  WQJ Articles II 497-8  SD I
639  II 200-1]


	The "Moment of Choice"

It cannot be exercised until the man has realized the soul
(Manas) within him, and until that soul has attained some measure
of self-consciousness in the body, and control over it. The
"moment of choice" is not a fixed period of time; it is made up
of all moments. It cannot come unless all the previous lives have
led up to it. For the race as a whole it has not yet come. Any
individual can hasten the advent of this period for himself under
the law of the ripening of Karma. Should he then fail to choose
right he is not wholly condemned, for the economy of nature
provides that he shall again and again have the opportunity of
choice when the moment arrives for the whole race. After this
period the race, having blossomed, tends towards its dissolution.
A few individuals of it will have outstripped its progress and
attained Adeptship or Mahatmaship. The main body, who have chosen
aright, but who have not attained salvation, pass into the
subjective condition, there to await the influx of the human life
wave into the next "globe," which they are the first souls to
people.



	Choosers of Evil

The deliberate choosers of evil, whose lives are passed in great
spiritual wickedness (for evil done for the sheer love of evil
per se), sever their connection with the Divine Spirit, the
Monad, which forever abandons the human Ego  (lower Manas).  Such
Egos pass into the misery of the eighth sphere, as far as we
understand, there to remain until the separation between what
they had thus cultivated and the personal Ishwara or divine spark
(Monad)  is complete. But this tenet has never been fully
explained to us by the Masters, who have always refused to answer
and to explain it conclusively. At the next Manvantara that
Divine Spark will probably begin again the long evolutionary
journey, being cast into the stream of life at the source and
passing upward again through all the lower forms.

So long as the connection with the Divine Monad is not severed,
this annihilation of the "personality" cannot take place.
Something of that personality will always remain attached to the
immortal Monad of Higher Ego. Even after such severance the human
being may live on, a man among men -- a soulless being. This
disappointment, so to call it, of the Divine Spark by depriving
it of its chosen vehicle constitutes the "sin against the Holy
Ghost," is forbidden by its very nature to pardon.  This is
because it cannot continue an association with principles which
have become degraded and vitiated in the absolute sense -- so
that they no longer respond to cyclic or evolutionary impulses,
but, weighted by their own evil and utterly selfish nature, sink
to the lowest depths of matter. The connection, once wholly
broken, cannot in the nature of Being be resumed. But innumerable
opportunities for "return"  offer themselves throughout the
dissolving process, which lasts thousands of years.


	Nirmanakaya -- What is that ?

There is also a fate that comes to even Adepts of the Good Law
which is somewhat similar to a loss of "heaven" after its
enjoyment for incalculable periods of time. When the Adept has
reached a certain very high point in his evolution he may by a
mere wish, become what the Hindus call a "Deva" -- or lesser god.
If he does this, then, although he will enjoy the bliss and power
of that state for a vast length of time, he will not at the next
Pralaya partake of the conscious life "in the bosom of the
Father," but has to pass down into matter at the next new
"creation," performing certain functions that can not be made
clear now.  Its future evolution is to be traced as it has to
come up again through the elemental world; but this fate is not
like that of the Black Magician who falls into Avitch where all
"personal" consciousness is forever lost. Still further, between
the two he can choose the middle state and become a
"Nirmanakaya" -- one who gives up the bliss of Nirvana and
remains in conscious existence outside of his physical body after
its death; in order to help Humanity. This is the greatest
sacrifice he can do for mankind.  By advancement from one degree
of interest and comparative attainment to another, the student
hastens the advent for himself of the "moment of choice," after
which his rate of progress is greatly intensified.


	Problems addressed by Theosophy

1.  The object, use, and inhabitation of planets other than this
earth.  Each planet has its own Manasic beings (humanity)
associated with it.  All serve to complete and prolong their own
evolutionary course, and to fill the required measure for the
universal experience of the souls associated with it.

2.  The geological cataclysms of earth; the frequent absence of
intermediate types in its fauna; the occurrence of architectural
and other relics of races now lost, and as to which ordinary
science has nothing but vain conjecture; the nature of extinct
civilizations and the causes of their extinction; the persistence
of savagery and the unequal development of existing
civilizations; the differences, physical and internal, between
the various races of men; the line of future development.

3.  The contrasts and unisons of the world's faiths, and the
common foundation underlying them all.

4.   The existence of evil, of suffering, and of sorrow -- a
hopeless puzzle to the mere philanthropist or theologian.

5.  The inequalities in social condition and privilege; the sharp
contrasts between wealth and poverty, intelligence and stupidity,
culture and ignorance, virtue and vileness; the appearance of men
of genius in families destitute of it, as well as other facts in
conflict with the law of heredity; the frequent cases of
unfitness of environment around individuals, so sore as to
embitter disposition, hamper aspiration, and paralyze endeavor --
the violent antithesis between character and condition; the
occurrence of accident, misfortune and untimely death -- all of
them problems solvable only by either the conventional theory of
Divine caprice or the Theosophical doctrines of Karma and
Reincarnation.

6.  The possession by individuals of psychic powers --
clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc., as well as the phenomena of
psychometry.

7.  The true nature of genuine phenomena in spiritualism, and the
proper antidote to superstition and to exaggerated expectation.

8.  The failure of conventional religions to greatly extend their
areas, reform abuses, reorganize society, expand the idea of
brotherhood, abate discontent, diminish crime, and elevate
humanity; and an apparent inadequacy to realize in individual
lives the ideals they profess to uphold.

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


This survey, in 4 parts, though lengthy, is still brief and only
sketches some of the complex teachings about the nature of Man.
More, such as this, abstracted from the pages of Original
Theosophical texts can be on specific subjects,  if asked for.

Best wishes,

DTB






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