Theos-Talk Archives (March 2001 Message tt00121)

Tuesday, March 20, 2001


Dear M --- :

Regarding your comments (below) please allow me to insert some
additional comments.

Thank you,

Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Mauri
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 3:29 AM

Subject: RE:

[bn-basic] RE: Universal Love?
Mon, 19 Mar 2001 02:34:36 -0800

dalval14@earthlink.net wrote partly:

What would you say are the universal and
impersonal PRINCIPLES involved within and
implicit in LOVE ?

===========

Apparently there is a form of "Love" that's
known by a Greek word: "AGAPE." Meaning
selfless love. And I'm not referring to variations
of that word which have very different meanings.

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


DTB	From the THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY p. 9, 191. AGAPAE (Gr.)
Love Feasts; the early Christians kept such festivals in token
of sympathy, love and mutual benevolence. It became necessary to
abolish them as an institution because of great abuse; Paul in
his First Epistle to the Corinthians complains of misconduct..."
[These "banquets of charity" held by the earliest Christians were
founded in Rome by Clemens under the realm of Domitian...The
early Agapae were certainly the same as the "Phallica" which
"were once as pure as the Love Feasts"...though,, like them,
rapidly degenerating into licentiousness."

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


My guess is that forms of agape are in keeping
with Universal and impersonal principles,
promoting harmony at whatever level.
=======================================

DTB	Apparently that's how they started -- but ended
ingloriously. It is again a case where the inner motive was not
carried forward with enough strength to prevent distortion and
degeneration. It tells me that the "rot" was adopted and made to
prevail in "high places (leadership)" and the individuals did not
have the strength of character to resist changes based on
UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES of motive and behavior. In other words the
"fellows" followed the "Leaders" and blamed them for going
astray, instead of realizing that each individual "follower" was
independently responsible for THEIR OWN PROGRESS THROUGH
FREE-WILLED DECISIONS. This is an illustration of how sects and
new religions start. It is the passivity of the "followers" that
allow such changes from an IDEAL to a distorted caricature.

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


It would seem that the interplay of the self/Self
(in Theosophic terms) is expressive of, or would
seem to have the potential of promoting, aspects
and seeds of agape-love within the Karmic
Influence that (while leaving us "free to choose,"
within Natures parameters) would seem to also
have a general corralling-effect, tending to funnel
humankind toward forms of Universal
Equilibrium (Devachanic and Nirvanic options) as
if that were a logical result in keeping with
theosophic principles.

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

DTB	Karma work immediately upon any decision we make. Every
decision has a moral impact first on the individual who generates
it and secondly on all the MONADS which surround it.

DEVACHAN (as you read in the KEY TO THEOSOPHY) is not optional.
It is very real and is a stage all human Egos pass through
between rebirths. It has been defined as a period of mediation
upon the "good and the altruistic" that we (as the "higher
aspect" of the Lower Kama-Manas) have done during the life that
has just passed. Obviously if we do no "good" to anyone, we
spend little or no time in Devachan, and we have the phenomenon
of "rapid rebirth."

NIRVANA is an option that can be chosen by the Spiritualized Ego
at a very high and advanced state of purity -- but as said
before, it is still SELFISH because it takes the Nirvanee out of
circulation, so to say, and this is not the final goal of Nature.

This GOAL of PERFECTION, available to all who strive for it, is
really an intermediate step towards a still HIGHER GOAL --
defined to us as being able to have UNIVERSAL SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
and to be able to serve as one of NATURE's AGENTS -- a BUDDHA or
a FULLY ENLIGHTENED ONE. [The Nirvanee is NOT "fully
enlightened." He has only achieved perfection in regard to the
control of his Kamic or desire nature.

He thinks "unlimited bliss" to be the goal. But that is so very
limited when one considers the Higher goals of MIND or
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS when those are fully developed, and/or
SPIRITUAL AND UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS through the assistance of
BUDDHI or true Spiritual Wisdom. In Buddhistic and Hindu terms
on then speaks of the THREE KAYAS ( Trikaya -- [ T. Glos. p.,
338] -- and of Nirmanakaya [T. Glos., p. 231], Sambhogakaya [T.
Glos. p. 287] and Dharmakaya [ T. Glos. p. 100] -- the 3
"vestures" of the PATH. You will find these described (if you
want to know the reasons why they exist) in THE VOICE OF THE
SILENCE (footnotes pp 76-8) and in the THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY
under those names., as given above )

The puzzle is, as you put it, the interplay between the Higher
Self and the Lower Self. It is the puzzle of the "Two Egos in
Man." [ This is explained in S.D. I 247, 263; S.D. II 167, 225,
230, 254-5, 572-3; BLAVATSKY LODGE TRANSACTIONS, pp 66 -78 --
CWB Vol. 10, pp 252 -263 ]

One must ALWAYS REMEMBER that the Lower Self (Lower Manas linked
to, Kama (desire) ) is only a REFLECTION on limited MATTER
(Monads of lesser experience) .

Also ALWAYS REMEMBER that the "Ray" of the ATMA in each human (or
HIGHER SELF) is the IDEAL and Universal SPIRIT. It incarnates
deliberately in the Lower Man to serve it (the lower Man -- or a
MONAD of lesser experience that has reached the stage of
self-consciousness -- as a tutor, and thus to help it onward and
upward progress.

SPIRIT is UNIVERSAL; and all beings (no matter how "separate"
they may think-feel they are) are united by this ONE SPIRIT into
an indissoluble UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD.

The Divine TUTOR (ATMA acting through BUDDHI-MANAS -- "Higher
Mind") cannot act or constrain the Lower Man (personality --
Kama-Manas) to do anything. It can advise when appealed to by
the Lower Manas. It contacts this Lower Manas nightly (see
TRANSACTIONS pp 66 - 76) and serves as that warning VOICE OF
CONSCIENCE which on occasion warns a human before he makes a
choice: "You have been there, and done that -- and you regretted
it. Don't do it again." But this may be pooh-poohed by many
who living, thinking and acting as Kama-Manas do not care to have
"their pleasures" modified or cancelled by "moral advice."

The whole thrust of evolution through the human kingdom is to
provide evidence to the individualized Lower Manas that the
reality of PERFECTION (as the ATMA-BUDDHI or DIVINE EGO ), is in
existence.

LOWER MANAS (and we all are in this condition at this stage and
era) may be characterized as that aspect of Intelligence which
arises from the evolution of the PHYSICAL aspect of the triple
evolutionary scheme [outlined in S.D. I 181-2]. It is actively
engaged at present in progressing towards what one might
poetically or mystically call "Conscious Godhood."

The secondary aspect, that of INTELLECTUAL evolution is achieved
in the human environment. It starts with the self-conscious
choice of the LOWER MANAS (kama-Manas) to purify itself and make
itself a SPIRITUAL MIND ENTIRELY. To achieve this it has to
purify its desire and passional nature -- and only its own
SELF-EFFORTS and CHOICES will enable it to do this fully.

One might say that success in achieving the apex of development
(perfection) in the fist two evolutionary divisions leads to the
third, that of SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT and the UNIVERSAL VISION.
Without the ATMIC "Ray" being present in US, as well as in
everything else, regardless of its evolutionary level of
development, nothing of this would be possible nor could one
speak or write of it coherently. It is the applied metaphysics
of Evolution, always striving to universalize itself, which it is
important to grasp. The sense of "isolation" has to be
eradicated and transformed into a sense of INTERESTED AND
BROTHERLY COMPLETENESS from which arises our interest in our
brothers no matter where they may be. None are left out of our
purview, and unlike the isolated Nirmanakaya wrapped in his
selfish bliss, we continue to pursue the ever illusive "Star" of
our SOUL. ( S.D. I 570-575 )

The successful candidate (as said towards the end of the VOICE)
becomes a candidate (self-made) for BUDDHAHOOD. He becomes at
that level (and when he chooses the "SECRET path," "A SAVIOR OF
THE WORLD." [ We are given a glimpse of such an One in S.D. I
207-8. ]

One must be clear in one's mind that these are not "personal," or
"lower-mind" achievements. To understand their full impact and
rationale is not easy for the mind that is still deep tangled in
personal desires, wishes, and passions, even when these are
theoretically envisaged. The "Lower Mind has to learn how to
merge itself into its "parent" the Higher Mind, and thus, two in
one, it can offer its harmless service to the World / Universe
out of gratitude and charity in a harmonious response to all that
it has received so freely from all the rest.

Discord is transformed into the Music of the Spheres -- accord --
true diapason.

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


At the same time, along with (and in spite of) the
Karmic funneling-effect, the "free-choice" aspect
seems (if I have interpreted the literature
correctly) to be Real-enough and
effective-enough to have a substantial
controlling-power during that funneling; all of
which would seem to suggest, as I see it, that
Nature is, in a sense, "looking for" signs of
Genuineness in its aspiring Monads to the extent
of offering substantial "free-choice" in the context
of Its earthly environment, after apparently
having designed that environment to be in
keeping with Its combined means of offering
experience, education, and testing of Parts of
Itself.

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

DTB	I think you are correct in this expression in general and
including some of the details I give just before it. Please
always understand that I speak and write, basing myself on what I
am able to glean from Theosophy. It may be quite faulty, but
hopefully it gives leads towards the final facts and truths.

For, each has to find his own way to the PATH that leads to the
GLORIOUS END."

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

A short explanation of the above: You can't fool Nature.

DTB	Perfectly true.

Best wishes as always,

Dal
----------------------------

Mauri