Theos-Talk Archives (June 2000 Message tt00184)

Dear friends,

Below are some reflections on 'intellect' and the 'thinking Ego'.

In Theosophy and the Ancient Wisdom in general we find the term 'intellect'
is used in a variety of ways.  HPB refers to "finite intellect",
"brain-intellect", "physical-intellect", "human-intellect" "divine
intellect" and so on.

Mahat "Universal Mind" is also called "universal intellect", or the
"intellectual ideation of the Universe". Or put another way:

"UNIVERSAL SOUL is ... that which we call the sixth principle of
intellectual Kosmos, on the manifested plane of being. It is Mahat, or
Mahabuddhi, the great Soul, the vehicle of Spirit, the first primeval
reflection of the formless CAUSE, and that which is even beyond SPIRIT."
(SD I 420)

Interestingly, many people who downplay the role of the 'mind' and
'intellect', at least as *they* understand them, often say we have to go
beyond the intellect and access Buddhi, our intuition.  Yet the sanskrit
term "Buddhi" means "the power of forming and retaining conceptions and
general notions, intelligence, reason, intellect, mind, discernment.." (See
Monier Williams - Sanskrit English Dictionary )

Buddhi, our sixth principle, is sometimes refered to as 'spiritual
intellect'.  It is also described as the characteristic property of Mahat
(SD I 373).  This is turn is sometimes refered to as "divine Intellect" (eg
SD I 288).  The Egyptians spoke of "Creative Intellect (or Divine Wisdom)"
Maybe most of us do not seek the Creative / Divine Wisdom within ourselves
and perhaps it was for this reason that Eliphas Levi wrote that the "divine
intellect is veiled in man; his animal brain alone philosophizes." (SD II
74)

Those who are able to access the "divine intellect" within themselves
gradually acquire JNANASAKTI, that which is called in the SD, "The power of
intellect, of real Wisdom or Knowledge."  Why is it thus referred to as
"real Wisdom or Knowledge"?  Perhaps because this kind of 'intellect' has
its roots in primordial substance, intellectual and divine in nature:

"To become complete and comprehensible, a cosmogonical theory has to start
with a primordial Substance diffused throughout boundless Space, of an
intellectual and divine Nature. That substance must be the Soul and Spirit,
the Synthesis and Seventh Principle of the manifested Kosmos, and, to serve
as a spiritual Upadhi to this, there must be the sixth, its vehicle --
primordial physical matter, so to speak, though its nature must escape for
ever our limited normal senses."
(SD I 594)

Our 'divine ancestors', those who awakened 'mind, manas' in humanity are
referred to as the Sons of Mahat (Manasaputras).  They are of the three
formless (arupa) classes of Pitris.  Those Lunar Pitris who provided the
forms are distinguished from the Manasaputras by virtue of "the former being
intellectual and spiritual, the latter material and devoid of intellect."
(SD 2 91)

Commenting on what some of the Stanzas of Dzyan teach, HPB writes:

"...they teach belief in conscious Powers and Spiritual Entities; in
terrestrial, semi-intelligent, and highly intellectual Forces on other
planes*;.... [footnote] * Their intellection, of course, being of quite a
different nature to any we can conceive of on Earth."
(SD I 478)

Clearly then "intellect" and "intellection", from the Occult and
Theosophical standpoint is an immense field of which we know but little at
the present time.  It is this field of 'conciousness' that the Monad enters
into in order to pass through the 'school of life'.  As we find in the SD:

"The MONAD emerges from its state of spiritual and intellectual
unconsciousness; and, skipping the first two planes -- too near the ABSOLUTE
to permit of any correlation with anything on a lower plane -- it gets
direct into the plane of Mentality. But there is no plane in the whole
universe with a wider margin, or a wider field of action in its almost
endless gradations of perceptive and apperceptive qualities, than this
plane, which has in its turn an appropriate smaller plane for every "form,"
from the "mineral" monad up to the time when that monad blossoms forth by
evolution into the DIVINE MONAD."  (SD 1 175)

Because of its 'wide margin' this plane touches the heights and depths of
consciousness.  Simplistically put, we can see this in the dual aspect of
Mind, higher and lower (heaven aspiring and materialistic tending).   The
former, the 'heaven aspiring' mind, (the spark) seeks to reunite itself to
that which is in truth its own essence (the flame). It is this which HPB
calls "the human Ego... the higher Manas: the intellectual fruition and the
efflorescence of the intellectual self-conscious Egotism -- in the higher
spiritual sense."  (SD II 79)

There are so many qualities we need to develop on the spiritual path.  The
VOICE of the SILENCE outlines the 'paramitas' to be developed and many
obsctacles the aspirant has to overcome on the way.  The VOICE of the
SILENCE states on its first page:

  "The mind is the great slayer of the real, let the disciple slay the
slayer"

But we may need to reflect on exactly what this means.  Is it the ability
'to think' in its deepest sense that we are asked to destroy?   I don't
believe it is.  Rather it is the sense of 'seperateness' which is an aspect
of the lower Manas, rather Kama-Manas (the personality), that has to be
weeded out.  For keep in mind what is written in Section II of THE VOICE in
THE TWO PATHS:

"Have perseverence as one who doth forevermore endure.  Thy shadows live and
vanish (18);  that which in thee shall live for ever, that which in thee
KNOWS, for it is knowledge (19), is not of fleeting life: it is the man that
was, that is, and will be, for whom the hour shall never strike." (p31,
Original Edition, capitalised words were italicised in original)

In the end Glossary to THE VOICE we find the "shadows" that live and vanish
refers to the "Personalities" or "Physical bodies" which are evanescent
(p84)"

But what is that which "KNOWS", which "is knowledge [and] is not of fleeting
life"? HPB states that this is:

"(19)  MIND (MANAS) the thinking Principle or Ego in man,.. referred to
'Knowledge' itself, because the human EGOS are called MANASA-PUTRAS the sons
of (universal) Mind."(p84)

Thus we should heed well, it is NOT the "thinking Principle or Ego in man"
that the disciple is asked to destroy on the first page of the VOICE of the
SILENCE.  For HPB refers to this principle as "the man that was, that is,
and will be, for whom the hour shall never strike."  It is the "thinking
man" which is the re-incarnting EGO. How can this be slain by the disciple?
If there is any doubt that this is what HPB means by this then see the KEY
to THEOSOPHY, where the Enquirer asks, "what is it that reincarnates, in
your belief?".  HPB replies:

"The Spiritual thinking Ego, the permanent principle in man, or that which
is the seat of Manas. It is not Atma, or even Atma-Buddhi, regarded as the
dual Monad, which is the individual, or divine man, but Manas; for Atman is
the Universal ALL, and becomes the HIGHER-SELF of man only in conjunction
with Buddhi, its vehicle, which links IT to the individuality (or divine
man). For it is the Buddhi-Manas which is called the Causal body, (the
United 5th and 6th Principles) and which is Consciousness, that connects it
with every personality it inhabits on earth."
(Key to Theosophy page 121)

Those who like to qoute the first page of "THE VOICE of the SILENCE" may
also like to look at the first page of the PREFACE in "THE KEY to
THEOSOPHY", where commenting on her work HPB writes:

"That it should succeed in making Theosophy intelligible without mental
effort on the part of the reader, would be too much to expect...  To the
mentally lazy and obtuse, Theosophy must remain a riddle..."

...Peter


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