Theos-Talk Archives (April 2001 Message tt00099)

Tuesday, April 17, 2001

Dear Friend:
Re: THE ABSOLUTE

According to Theosophical metaphysics, the ABSOLUTE is
everywhere. It is the indefinable and property-less root of all
manifested things. "Manifestation" springs from IT and
eventually return to IT plus all the experience accrued.

[ see S.D. II 384fn, 34, 78-9fn, 167, 240fn, 728,
S.D. I 14, 39, 43, 54, 88, 214, 273, 295, 420, 569,

No definitions can be framed by finite minds of that which is
their SOURCE, says metaphysics, Theosophical or otherwise titled.
The names and systems do not mean anything except to those who
are seeing to eliminate the limitations of forms and
circumstances, of limited perceptions, always in search of a
CAUSE more primal and more stable than the present set of
limitations. The process of thinking of origins is important.
>From it emerges all the powers of perception, intelligence and
CONSCIOUSNESS.

Hope these references will help

Dallas

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


-----Original Message-----
From: Gerald Schueler [mailto:gschueler@earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 8:34 AM
To: Theosophy Study List
Subject: Where is the Absolute?

Where is the Absolute


Theosophists tend to throw around the notion of an Absolute as
some kind of
Source for all of manifestation. This idea comes directly from
Blavatsky, of
course. But where is this absolute located? There are at least
three
possible places for it, using her Globes and Planes Model.

Personally, I see absolute as the polar opposite of relative, and
I believe
that both exist only as concepts in the human mind. However, for
those who
insist on positing such a thing, then we have to ask where it is
located,
because its location will tell us much about our worldview and
our structure
of the model.

Possibility 1. Using Blavatsky's 7 Globe 4-Plane model as
described in the
SD, we can say that the Absolute is just above these 4 planes. In
the SD she
shows three upper planes with a triangle, but says little about
them. In the
7-Plane model, the Absolute could be the entire three upper
planes. Then we
would have the upper 3 planes as the Absolute and the lower 4
planes as the
relative. I think that this is exactly how many Theosophists
would see it.
In this way we would equate Absolute with Nirvana and say that
the 3 upper
planes are Nirvana and the 4 lower planes are Samsara in an
attempt to unite
the model with many schools of Buddhism - the 7-plane model would
then
address the entirty of samsara and nirvana.

Possibility 2. Dozgchen, the Great Perfection, is one of the
Tibetan schools
of Buddhism that views samsara and nirvana as both being under
karmic
illusion. They posit a rigpa or Ground, which is somewhat of an
Absolute, as
being above both samsara and nirvana. To relate to this teaching,
we would
still place nirvana as the three upper planes, but this would no
longer be
considered an Absolute, but rather the Absolute would be outside
of the
whole 7 planes. Patrul Rinpoche was a famous Tibetan Nyingma
Dzogchen
practitioner, who said,

"all appearances between the lowest hell and post-meditative
experience of
the tenth bodhisattva stage belong to the relative. Moreover, the
relative
can also be false or pure ... For a buddha who has totally
abandoned these
subtle habits there are no such appearances whatsoever, and he
abides solely
in the absolute free of interpretation." (Instructions in the
Mahayana View,
in J. Low, Simply BeingVajra Press, p73)

Thus Dzogchen would place the Absolute above the 7-planes, and
would make it
habitable only by buddhas. Remember, in this view the Absolute is
beyond
nirvana in something perhaps like a para-nirvana.


Possibility 3. In de Purucker's F-S, we see a diagram of a
10-plane model
which is an attempt to compare Blavatsky's model with the three
realms of
Buddhism - the desire, form, and formless realms. Purucker has
the lower 4
planes as the desire realm, the upper 3 planes as the form realm,
and then
three additional planes beyond that as the formless realm. Using
this model,
we could place the Absolute above the whole 10 planes, or beyond
the three
realms altogether. I personally rather like this option, although
I could
also go for a 12-plane model.

I offer the above conceptualizations as food for thought. Where
do you see
the Absolute?

Jerry S.





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