Theos-Talk Archives (March 2001 Message tt00127)

Thursday, March 22, 2001


Dear Friend:

Concerning the MONAD as used in Theosophy, please find some
details herebelow:

Your message / inquiry follows the quotations I send herewith.

Best wishes,

Dallas


====================== MONAD ========================


THEOSOPHY EXPLAINS this metaphysical term :


Monad (Gr.) The Unity, the one.; but in Occultism it often
means the unified triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or the duad,
Atma-Buddhi, that immortal part of man which reincarnates in the
lower kingdoms, and gradually progresses through them to Man and
then to the final goal-Nirvana."	Theos. Glossary p. 216


"The dual Monad alone (Atma-Buddhi) is susceptible of being
thought of as the two highest numbers (the 6th and 7th)
[principles]. As to all others, since that "principle" only
which is predominant in man has to be considered as the first and
foremost, no numeration is possible as a general rule."	Key p. 92
fn


". . .. man acts on this or another plane of consciousness, in
strict accordance with his mental and spiritual condition. . .
the thinking principle in him. . . or the vital conscious soul;
and that which places him so immeasurably beyond and higher than
the animal-i.e., his reasoning soul or "spirit.". . .. if we
take these. . . and subdivide them, according to the occult
teaching. . . we get:

First. . . Spirit (in the sense of the Absolute. . . indivisible
All), or Atma. As this cannot be located nor limited in
philosophy, being simply that which is in Eternity, and which
cannot be absent from even the tiniest geometrical or
mathematical point of the universe of matter or substance it
ought not to be called, in truth, a "human" principle at all.
Rather, and at best, it is in Metaphysics, that point in space
which the human Monad and its vehicle man occupy for the period
of every life." Key, p. 119


"Enquirer	What is this mysterious eternal principle ?

Theosophist	The Ego which reincarnates, the individual and
immortal-not personal-"I;" the vehicle, in short, of the
Atma-Buddhic Monad. . . "	Key, p. 129


"The course of evolution developed the lower principles and
produced at last the form of man with a brain of better and
deeper capacity than that of any other animal. But this man in
form was not man in mind, and needed a fifth principle, the
thinking perceiving one, to differentiate him from the animal
kingdom and to confer the power of becoming self-conscious. The
monad was imprisoned in these forms, and that monad is composed
of Atma and Buddhi; for, without the presence of the monad
evolution could not go forward."	Ocean, p. 53


"Pilgrim" is the appellation given our Monad (the two in one
Atma-Buddhi ] ) during its cycle of incarnation. It is the only
immortal and eternal principle in us, being an indivisible part
of the integral whole-the Universal Spirit, from which it
emanates, and into which it is absorbed at the end of the cycle.
When it is said to emanate from the one spirit, an awkward and
incorrect expression has to be used, for lack of appropriate
words in English.. The Vedantins call it Sutratma (Thread Soul)
. . ."	SD II 16-17fn


"The monad-a truly "indivisible thing," . . . is here rendered
as the Atma in conjunction with Buddhi and the higher Manas.
This trinity is one and eternal, the latter being absorbed in the
former at the termination of all conditioned and illusive life.
The monad, then, can be traced through the course of its
pilgrimage and its changes of transitory vehicles only from the
incipient stage of the manifested Universe. . . . Atma alone is
the one real and eternal substratum of all-the essence and
absolute knowledge-the kshetragna. { Footnote: ...atma (spirit)
alone is what remains after the subtraction of the sheaths and
that it is the only witness, or synthesized unity." )	S D I
p. 570-1


Atma (or Atman) The Universal Spirit, the divine Monad, the 7th
Principle, so-called, in the septenary constitution of man. The
Supreme Soul."	Theos. Glossary, p. 43


:Atma (our seventh principle) being identical with the universal
Spirit, and man being one with it in his essence, what it then
the Monad proper ? It is that homogeneous spark which radiates
in millions of rays from the primeval "Seven;" . . . It is the
emanating spark from the uncreated ray-a mystery. . . .
Adi-Buddha. . . the One unknown, without beginning or end,
identical with Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from
its darkness.. This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the
Supreme Buddha . . . As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot
manifest, but sends into the world of manifestation his heart-the
"diamond heart," Vajrasattva . . . This is the second logos of
creation, from whom emanate the seven . . . Dhyani Buddhas,
called Anupadaka, "the parentless."

These Buddhas are the primeval monads from the world of
incorporeal being, the Arupa world, wherein the Intelligences (on
that plane only) have neither shape nor name, in the exoteric
system, but have their distinct seven names in esoteric
philosophy. These Dhyani Buddhas emanate, or create from
themselves, by virtue of Dhyana, celestial Selves-the super-human
Bodhisattvas. These incarnating at the beginning of every human
cycle on earth as mortal men, become occasionally, owing to their
personal merit, Bodhisattvas among the Sons of Humanity, after
which they may reappear as Manushi (human) Buddhas.

The Anupadaka (or Dhyani Buddhas) are thus identical with the
Brahmanical Manasaputra, "mind-born sons"-whether of Brahma or
either of the other two Trimurtian Hypostases, hence identical
also with the Rishis and Prajapatis...."	S D I p. 571


"...Buddhi is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which
divine knowledge reaches the "Ego," the discernment of good and
evil, "divine conscience" also; and "Spiritual Soul," which is
the vehicle of Atma. "When Buddhi absorbs our Ego-tism (destroys
it) with all its Vikaras, Avalokiteshvara becomes manifested to
us, and Nirvana, or Mukti, is reached, "Mukti" being the same as
Nirvana, i.e., freedom from the trammels of "maya" or illusion."
S D I p. xix


Buddhi	Universal Soul or Mind. Mahabuddhi is a name of Mahat
(see "Alaya"); also the spiritual Soul in man (the 6th
principle), the vehicle of Atma, exoterically the 7th."	Theos.
Glos. P. 67


Manas	The mind, the mental faculty which makes of man an
intelligent and moral being, and distinguishes him from the mere
animal; a synonym of Mahat. Esoterically, however, it means,
when unqualified, the Higher Ego, or the sentient reincarnating
Principle in man. When qualified it is called by Theosophists
Buddhi-Manas or the Spiritual Soul in contradistinction to its
human reflection-Kama-Manas."	Theos. Glossary, p. 202


Individuality	One of the names given in. . .Occultism to the
Human Higher Ego. We make a distinction between the immortal and
divine Ego, and the mortal human Ego which perishes. The latter,
or "personality" (personal Ego) survives the dead body only for a
time in the Kama Loka; the Individuality prevails for ever."
Theos. Glossary, p. 154-5


"Starting upon the long journey immaculate; descending more and
more into sinful matter, and having connected himself with every
atom in manifested Space-the Pilgrim, having struggled through
and suffered in every form of life and being, is only at the
bottom of matter, and half through his cycle, when he has
identified himself with collective Humanity. This, he has made
in his own image.

In order to progress upwards and homewards, the "God" has now to
ascend the weary uphill path of the Golgotha of Life. It is the
martyrdom of self-conscious existence. Like Visvakarman he has
to sacrifice himself to himself in order to redeem all creatures,
to resurrect from the many into the One Life. Then he ascends
into heaven indeed; where, plunged into the incomprehensible
absolute Being and Bliss of Paranirvana, he reigns
unconditionally, and whence he will re-descend again at the next
"coming," which one portion of humanity expects in its
dead-letter sense as the second advent, and the other as the
last "Kalki Avatar."	S D I p. 268


"Man is certainly no special creation, and he is the product of
Nature's gradual perfective work, like any other living unit on
this Earth. But this is only with regard to the human
tabernacle. That which lives and thinks in man and survives that
frame, the masterpiece of evolution-is the "Eternal Pilgrim," the
Protean differentiation in space and time of the One Absolute
"unknowable." . . . For we, too, claim that it is the "Soul,"
or the inner man, that descends on Earth first, the psychic
astral, the mould 0n which the physical man is gradually
built-his Spirit, intellectual and moral faculties awakening
later on as that physical stature grows and develops. "Thus
incorporeal Spirits to smaller forms reduced their shapes immense
,". . . and became the men of the Third and Fourth Races. Still
later, ages after, appeared the men of our Fifth Race, reduced
from the still gigantic (in our modern sense) stature of their
primeval ancestors, to about half of that size at present."	S D
II p. 728


"Sattva is the name given among Occult students of the
Aryasangha School to the dual Monad or Atma-buddhi, and
Atma-buddhi on this plane corresponds to Parabrahm and
Mulaprakriti on the higher plane."	S D I p. 69fn


"The Sixth principle in Man (Buddhi, the Divine Soul) though a
mere breath, in our conceptions, is still something material when
compared with divine "Spirit" (Atma) of which it is the carrier
or vehicle.. Fohat, in his capacity of Divine Love (Eros), the
electric Power of affinity and sympathy, is shown allegorically
as trying to bring the pure Spirit, the Ray inseparable from the
One absolute, into union with the Soul, the two constituting ion
Man the Monad, and in Nature the first link between the ever
unconditioned and the manifested."	S D I p. 119


" The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over
Soul, the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown Root;
and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul-a spark of the
former-through the Cycle of Incarnation (or "Necessity") in
accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term. . .
. no purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an
independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued
from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle,--or the
over soul,--has passed through every elemental form of the
phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and acquired individuality,
first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and
self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending
through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the
highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest
archangel (Dhyani Buddha),

The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits no
privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego
through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of
metempsychoses and reincarnations."	SD I p. 17



". . . the Monad or Jiva per se cannot be even called spirit;
it is a ray, a breath of the Absolute, or the Absoluteness
rather, and the Absolute Homogeneity, having no relations with
the conditioned and relative finiteness, is unconscious on our
plane. Therefore, besides the material which will be needed for
its future human form, the monad requires a spiritual model, or
prototype, for that material to shape itself into; and, an
intelligent consciousness to guide its evolution and progress,
neither of which is possessed by the homogeneous monad, or by the
senseless though living matter,. The Adam of dust requires the
Soul of Life to be breathed into him: the two middle principles,
which are the sentient life of the irrational animal and the
Human Soul, for the former is irrational without the latter.
Kama and Manas or Kama-Manas ] It is only when . . . man has
become separated into male and female, that he will be endowed
with this conscious, rational, individual Soul, (Manas) "the
principle, or the intelligence of the Elohim," to receive which,
he has to eat of the fruit of Knowledge from the Tree of Good and
Evil. . . . after having reached a certain point, they [ the
"Elohim," or Pitris, lower Dhyan Chohans ] will meet the
incarnating senseless monads, encased in the lowest matter, and
blending the two potencies, Spirit and Matter, the union will
produce that terrestrial symbol of the "Heavenly Man" in
space-perfect man, In Sankhya philosophy Purusha (spirit) is
spoken of as something impotent unless he mounts on the shoulders
of a Prakriti (matter), which, left alone, is-senseless. But in
the secret philosophy they are viewed as graduated. . . Both are
inseparable, yet ever separated. . . . the two poles of the same
homogeneous substance, the root-principle of the universe."	S D
I p. 247


". . . to complete the septenary man, to add to his three lower
principles and cement them with the spiritual Monad-which could
never dwell in such a form otherwise than in an absolutely latent
state-two connecting principles are needed: Manas and Kama.
This requires a Spiritual Fire of the middle principle from the
fifth and third states of Pleroma. But this fire is the
possession of the Triangles, not of the (perfect) Cubes, which
symbolize Angelic Beings: [ Footnote : The triangle becomes a
Pentagon (five-fold) on Earth. ] . . . The human Ego is neither
Atman nor Buddhi, but the higher Manas: the intellectual
fruition and the efflorescence of the intellectual
self-consciousness Egotism-in the higher spiritual sense. The
ancient works refer to it as Karana Sarira on the plane of the
Sutratma, which is the golden thread on which, like beads, the
various personalities of this higher Ego are strung.. . . these
Beings were returning Nirvanees, from preceding
Maha-Manvantaras-ages of incalculable duration which have rolled
away in the Eternal. . . The thread of radiance which is
imperishable and dissolves only in Nirvana, re-emerges from it
in its integrity on the day when the Great Law calls all things
back into action. . . "	S D II p. 80


"Plato . . . the great Initiate Philosopher said: for the ego
(the "Higher Self" when merged with and in the divine Monad) is
Man, and yet the same as the "other," the Angel in him
incarnated, as the same with the universal Mahat."	S D II
p 88


"I maintain as an occultist, on the authority of the Secret
Doctrine, that though merged entirely into Parabrahm, man's
spirit while not individual per se, yet preserves its distinct
individuality in Paranirvana owing to the accumulation in it of
the aggregates, or skandhas, that have survived after each death,
from the highest faculties of the Manas. The most
spiritual--i.e., the highest and divinest aspirations of every
personality follow Buddhi and the Seventh Principle [Atma] into
Devachan [Swarga] after the death of each personality along the
line of rebirths, and become part and parcel of the Monad."
--HPB Isis Unveiled and the Vishistadwaita, HPB Articles,
Vol. 3, p. 265.


* * * *


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



-----Original Message-----
From: b miao
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 8:07 AM
To: dalval14@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: Theos-World RE: CORRECTION PLEASE

[bn-basic] Re: Universal Love


Dear Dallas:

Can you explain to me the relationship between the MONADS
(Atma-Buddhi)and
Atma?

The definition of Monad is Atma-Buddhi? And Atma is the
universal
principle? Is the Monad then a fragment of Atma?

Thanks,


barbara

One might add that the whole Universe, (all nature, whether
>visible or invisible) is made up of MONADS ( Atma-Buddhi) .
Both
>are ubiquitous, and "Matter" is only the polar opposite of
>"SPIRIT." Both emanate in periods of manifestation from the
>inscrutable ABSOLUTENESS.
>

>
>

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