Theos-Talk Archives (June 2001 Message tt00057)

Wednesday, June 13, 2001

Dear Friends:

A study on CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE POWERS OF THE MIND has been
on-going in the past few weeks and I hope this collection of
quotations from various parts and places in the Literature of
Theosophy may prove useful to you,

Best wishes,

Dallas

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


=========== QUOTES ==============




MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS




CONSCIOUSNESS


"Our consciousness is one and not many, nor different from other
consciousnesses...consciousness itself...the one consciousness of
each person is the Witness or Spectator [his Higher Self] of the
actions and experiences of every state we are in or pass through.
It therefore follows that the waking condition of the mind is not
separate consciousness.

"The one consciousness pierces up and down through all the states
or planes of Being, and serves to uphold the memory--whether
complete or incomplete--of each state's experience.

"Thus in waking life, Sat experiences fully and knows. In dream
state, Sat again knows and sees what goes on there, while there
may not be in the brain a complete memory of the waking state
just quitted. In Sushupti--beyond dream and yet on indefinitely,
Sat still knows all that is done or heard or seen.

"The way to salvation must be entered. To take the first step
raises the possibility of success. Hence it is said, 'When the
first attainment has been won, Moksha (salvation) has been won.'

"The first step is giving up bad associations and getting a
longing for knowledge of God; the second is joining good
company, listening to their teachings and practicing them; the
third is strengthening the first two attainments, having faith
and continuing in it..." G. NOTES 98-100


"...the plane of action is thought itself, that is to say--ideas.
Action is merely the sequence of the concretion of thought."
FRIENDLY PHILOS. p. 246


"Man, made of thought, occupant only of many bodies from time to
time, is eternally thinking. His chains are through thought, his
release due to nothing else. His mind is immediately tinted or
altered by whatever object it is directed to. By this means the
soul is enmeshed in the same thought or series of thoughts as is
the mind. If the object be anything that is distinct from the
Supreme Self then the mind is at once turned into that, becomes
that, is tinted like that. This is one of the natural capacities
of the mind. It is naturally clear and uncolored...It is movable
and quick, having a disposition to bound from one point to
another. Several words would describe it. Chameleon-like it
changes color, sponge-like it absorbs that to which it is
applied, sieve-like it at once loses its former color and shape
the moment a different object is taken up...it becomes that to
which it is devoted." GITA NOTES p. 141-2


"No act is performed without a thought at its root either at the
time of performance or as leading to it. These thoughts are
lodged in that part of the man which we have called Manas-the
mind, and there remain as subtle but powerful links with magnetic
threads that enmesh the solar system, and through which various
effects are brought out...the whole system to which this globe
belongs is alive, conscious on every plane, though only in man
showing self-consciousness...the slightest impression...is not
lost but only latent...in proportion to the intensity of his
thought will be the intensity and depth of the picture..."
OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY, p. 91-2


"The same power to perceive is possessed by all alike. The
differences in beings consists in the range of perception which
has been acquired through evolution, and this applies to all
lives below Man, to Man himself, and to all beings higher than
Man. In THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE it is said that "Mind is like a
mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects," and in other
writings it is spoken of as "the mirror of the Soul."

We cannot fail to see that we act in accordance with the ideas of
life that we hold' that what we call "our mind" is a number of
ideas held by us as a basis for thought and actions; that we
change our ideas from time to time, as we find occasion for such
change; but that at all times we act from the basis of the ideas
presently held...

We are prone to accept and hold only such ideas as are in accord
with out personal desires...The real "worship" is devotion to an
ideal. Here "the Self of All" is the ideal, and the action
indicated is to think and act for, and as, the One Self in all
things, without self-interest in the results. We are not
attached to results by our acts, but by our thoughts; freedom
comes from a renunciation of self-interest in the fruit of
actions." GITA NOTES, p. 161-2


"This means that each human being has the power to see and know
all things, however restricted that power may be at any given
time; that the restriction lies in the more or less narrow range
of the ideas that he adheres to, and which form the basis for his
actions. This self-limited range of perception, not only
prevents the full exercise of his powers as Self, but acts as a
bar to the right understanding of his observation and
experience." GITA NOTES, p. 166-7



MIND -- GENERAL


"Mind is the intelligent part of the Cosmos...[it contains] the
plan of the Cosmos...brought over from a prior period of
manifestation, which added to its ever-increasing perfectness,
and no limit can be set to its evolutionary possibilities in
perfectness...the plan has been laid down in the universal mind;
the original force comes from spirit; the basis is matter--which
is in fact invisible--Life sustains all the forms requiring life,
and Akasa is the connecting link [Fohat] between matter on one
side and spirit-mind on the other. OCEAN, pp. 14-16.


Manas (Sk) Lit., "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."
GLOS. 292


"...it is also necessary to admit the existence of soul, and the
comparative unimportance of the body in which it dwells. For,
Patanjali holds that Nature exists for the soul's sake [PAT.,
p.26]...he lays down that the real experiencer and knower is the
soul and not the mind, it follows that the Mind, designated
either as "internal organ," or "thinking principle," while higher
and more subtle than the body, is yet only an instrument used by
the Soul in gaining experience...He shows that the mind is, as he
terms it, "modified" by any object or subject brought before it,
or to which it is directed..." PATANJALI - YOGA-SUTRAS,
Introduction. p. xiii


Mahat (Sk.) Lit., "The great one." The first principle of
Universal Intelligence and Consciousness. In the Puranic
philosophy the first product of root-nature or Pradhana (the same
as Mulaprakriti); the producer of Manas the thinking principle,
and of Ahankara, egotism or the feeling of "I am I" (in the lower
Manas). T. GLOS. 210


"...Divine Mind is, and must be, before differentiation takes
place. It is called the divine ideation, which is eternal in its
Potentiality and periodical in its Potency, when it becomes
Mahat, Anima Mundi or Universal Soul...each of these conceptions
has its most metaphysical, most material, and also intermediate
aspects. " TRANSACTIONS of the BLAVATSKY LODGE, p. 4


"Buddhi is the Immortal Ego. Buddhi cannot be described. It is
feeling, the accumulated experiences--all our experience is in
feeling. Manas is the Higher Mind, that part of the Buddhi which
is in action; the creative power of Buddhi. There is a
continuous line of experience as Perceivers--all beings are
Perceivers. They are limited by the power of their self-created
instruments. In all perceptions is the quality of the instrument
through which that perception comes. ANSWERS TO
QUESTIONS, . p. 6


Buddhi (Sk.) 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. T.
GLOS., p. 67


Maha-Buddhi (Sk) Mahat. Alaya: The Intelligent Soul of the
World. T. GLOS., p. 1


COSMIC BUDDHI, the emanation of the Spiritual Soul: Alaya, is
the vehicle Mahat only when that Buddhi corresponds to Prakriti.
Then it is called Maha-Buddhi. This Buddhi differentiates
through 7 planes, whereas the Buddhi in man is the vehicle of
Atman, which vehicle is of the essence of the highest plane of
Akasa and therefore does not differentiate. The difference
between Manas and Buddhi in man is the same as the difference
between the Manasaputra and the Ah-hi in Kosmos. T.
GLOS., p. 199


"The mind might be likened to a telescope in use by Man, the
Perceiver, in order to be able to perceive the nature of the
things about him. He can act only in accord with what he
perceives through the telescope. If the telescope is not
properly adjusted or out of focus, the perceptions will be out of
true, and wrong action will follow...[we have to learn] the
proper adjustment and focusing of the instrument upon which right
perception and action depend." FRIENDLY PHILOSOPHER,
p. 143
[ see OCEAN, p. 53-4, KEY, p. 129 ]


"...there exists in Nature a triple evolutionary scheme, for the
formation of the three principal Upadhis; or rather three
separate schemes of evolution, which in our system are
inextricably interwoven and interblended at every point. These
are the Monadic (or spiritual), the intellectual, and the
physical evolutions. These three are the finite aspects or the
reflections on the field of Cosmic Illusion of ATMA, the seventh,
the ONE REALITY...

2. The Intellectual, represented by the Manasa-Dhyanis (the
Solar Devas, or the Agnishwatta Pitris) the "givers of
intelligence and consciousness" to man... (182) It is the
Manasa-Dhyanis who fill the gap, and they represent the
evolutionary power of Intelligence and Mind, the link between
"Spirit" and "Matter"--in this Round." SD I 181-2




HIGHER ASPECT OF THE LOWER MANAS


"Man is a perfected animal, but before he could have reached
perfection even on the animal plane, there must have dawned on
him the light of a higher plane. Only the perfected animal can
cross the threshold of the next higher, of the human plane, and
as he does so there shines upon him the ray from the supra-human
plane. Therefore, as the dawn of humanity illumines the animal
plane, and as a guiding star lures the Monad to higher
consciousness, so the dawn of divinity illuminates the (28) human
plane, luring the monad to the supra-human plane of
consciousness.... Man...is however, "the vehicle of a fully
developed Monad, self-conscious and deliberately following its
own line of progress... WQJ Articles, I p. 27-8
(see ISIS I 305, SD I 571-2, HPB ART III 440-1, HPB ART II 271)



CONSCIOUSNESS IN MAN


"..."Mind" is manas, or rather its lower reflection, which,
whenever it disconnects itself, for the time being, with kama,
becomes the guide of the highest mental faculties, and is the
organ of the free-will in physical man...." HPB
ARTICLES, Vol. II, p. 13


That which is known as you is the result of one continuous
existence of an entity. Your present body and your soul (or the
personality) are the results of a series of existences. Your
Karma is a result of co-existence. The individuality, or spirit,
is the cause of the soul and personality, or what is called
"you." You are the manifestation of an entity and are the result
of many appearances of that entity upon this stage of action in
various personalities. WQJ Articles, Vol. II, p.
452


"Happy is the man physically pure, for if his external soul
(astral body, the image of the body) is pure, it will strengthen
the second (the lower Manas), or the soul which is termed by him
the higher mortal soul, which, though liable to err from its own
motives, will always side with reason against the animal
proclivities of the body. In other words, the ray of our Higher
Ego, the lower Manas, has its higher light, the reason or
rational powers of the Nous, to help it in the struggle with
Kamic desires. The lusts of man arise in consequence of his
perishable material body, so do other diseases, says Plato..."
HPB ARTICLES, Vol. I, p. 27-8 [ see VOICE p. 12 fn ]



"Man is a perfected animal, but before he could have reached
perfection even on the animal plane, there must have dawned on
him the light of a higher plane. Only the perfected animal can
cross the threshold of the next higher, of the human plane, and
as he does so there shines upon him the ray from the supra-human
plane. Therefore, as the dawn of humanity illumines the animal
plane, and as a guiding star lures the Monad to higher
consciousness, so the dawn of divinity illuminates the human
plane, luring the monad to the supra-human plane of
consciousness.... Man...is however, "the vehicle of a fully
developed Monad, self-conscious and deliberately following its
own line of progress..." WQJ ART I 27-8 (see ISIS
I 305, SD I 571-2, HPB ART III 440-1, HPB ART II 271)



PERSONALITY -- LOWER MANAS


Personality In Occultism--which divides man into 7 principles,
considering him under three aspects of the divine, the thinking
or the rational, and the animal man--the lower quaternary or the
purely astro-physical being; while by Individuality is meant the
Higher Triad, considered as a Unity. Thus the Personality
embraces all the characteristics and memories of one physical
life, which the Individuality is the imperishable Ego which
re-incarnates and clothes itself in one personality after
another. T. GLOS. p. 252


"The astral through Kama (desire) is ever drawing Manas down into
the sphere of material passions and desires. But if the better
man or Manas tries to escape the fatal attraction and turns its
aspirations to Atma-Spirit--the Buddhi (Ruach) conquers and
carries Manas with it to the realm of eternal Spirit." S D I
p. 244-5


"The life principle acts from the time of fetal existence until
death. The lower principles are fed continuously during that
time from the astral plane; that which constitutes the
individual monad reincarnates at the time of birth, but whether
or not the highest principles may assimilate with the germ during
a lifetime, and to which extent they will either assimilate or be
lost, will depend on the will and the exertions of the
individual."
THEOS. ART. & NOTES, p. 118-9


"That which is known as you is the result of one continuous
existence of an entity. Your present body and your soul (or the
personality) are the results of a series of existences. Your
Karma is a result of co-existence. The individuality, or spirit,
is the cause of the soul and personality, or what is called
"you." You are the manifestation of an entity and are the result
of many appearances of that entity upon this stage of action in
various personalities." WQJ ART., II, p. 452



MATTER


Q'lippoth (Heb.) ...Olam Klippoth... contains the matter of
which stars, planets, and even men are made...chaotic turbulent
matter, which is used in its finer state by spirits to robe
themselves in...the "vesture" or form (rupa) of the incarnating
Egos...the Manasaputras or Sons of Wisdom, use for the
consolidation of their forms, in order to descend into lower
spheres, the dregs of Swabhavat, or that plastic matter which is
throughout Space...primordial ilus....Typhon...Satan...Samael on
inversus--the Demon is the lining of God." T. GLOS. p.
268-9



PHYSICAL BRAIN

"Experience is gained, [and] places upon itself, one after the
other, various sheaths, each having its peculiar property and
function. The mere physical brain is thus seen to be only the
material organ first used by the percipient in receiving or
conveying ideas and perceptions; and so with all the other
organs, they are only means for centralizing the power of the
real man in order to experience the modifications of nature at
that particular spot. Who is the sufferer from this despondency?
It is the false personality...as distinguished from Krishna--the
Higher Self--which is oppressed by the immediate resistance
offered by all the lower part of our nature..." G. NOTES
26


Personality is always an illusion, a false picture hiding the
reality inside. No person is able to make his bodily environment
correspond exactly to the best that is within him, and others
therefore continually judge him by the outward show. If we
try...to find the divine in everything, we will soon learn not to
judge by appearances...do our duty without hope of reward and
without trimming ourselves with a desired result in view...
GITA. NOTES, p. 109


"...Plato accepted the clue and followed it, if to these five,
namely Agathon (Deity or Atma), Psuche (Soul in its collective
sense), Nous (Spirit or Mind), Phren (physical mind), and Thumos
(Kama-rupa or passions) we add the eidolon of the mysteries, the
shadowy form or the human double, and the physical body...(= 7) ]
KEY, p. 96



KAMA - THE SENSE OF SEPARATENESS


"...the path which is not manifest is with difficulty attained by
corporeal beings." The difficulty here stated is that caused by
the personality, which causes us to see the Supreme as different
as separate from ourselves. The tendency of human beings is to
think and act as persons in their relations with other human
beings and with manifested nature in general, and although they
may ardently desire to act "for and as the Self," they find
themselves constantly falling under the sway of the purely
personal feeling of separateness." GITA NOTES, p. 181-2


Kama (Sk) Evil desire, lust, volition; the cleaving to
existence. Kama is generally identified with Mara, the tempter.
T. GLOS., p. 170


Kamadeva (Sk) ...the first conscious, all embracing desire for
universal good, love, and for all that lives and feels, needs
help and kindness, the first feeling of infinite tender
compassion and mercy that arose in the consciousness of the
creative ONE FORCE, as soon as it came into life and being as a
ray from the ABSOLUTE..."Desire first arose in IT, which was the
primal germ of mind, and which Sages, searching with their
intellect, have discovered in their heart to be the bond which
connects Entity with non-Entity," or Manas with pure
Atma-Buddhi.". (see SD II 176 )


"There is no idea of sexual love in the conception. Kama (deva)
is pre- eminently the divine desire of creating happiness and
love ... is represented as the Supreme Deity and Creator ... is
the child of Dharma, the god of Law and Justice, of Sraddha,
faith. ... springs from the heart of Brahma...born from water,
i.e., from primordial chaos, or the "Deep"...one of his many
names, Ira-ja, "the water-born;" and Aja, "unborn;" and Atma
bhu or "Self-existent...the sign of Makara (Capricornus) on
his banner, he is also called "Makara Ketu." The allegory about
Siva, the "Great Yogin," reducing Kama to ashes by the fire from
his central (or third) Eye...is very suggestive, as it is said
that he thereby reduced Kama to his primeval substance. " T.
GLOS. p. 170-1


Sukshopadhi (Sk) ...the principle (in Taraka Raj-Yoga)
containing both the higher and the lower Manas and Kama. It
corresponds to the Manomaya Kosha of the Vedantic classification
and to the Svapna state (esoterically: dual Manas -- see GLOS.
205) GLOS. 312 (See also, S.D. I, p. 157)


"Astral Soul," another name for the lower Manas, or Kama-Manas
so-called, the reflection of the Higher Ego." T. GLOS. p. 37


"...Anoia, (folly, or the irrational animal Soul)..." KEY, p.
91


"...the instinctual soul...derived from and through and ever
influenced by the moon [astral light]..." KEY, p. 96


"The Soul of man (i.e., the personality) per se, is neither
immortal, eternal, nor divine." KEY, p. 106


"From the fact that the soul (Higher Manas) is conjoined in the
body with the organ of thought (Lower Manas), and thus with the
whole of Nature, lack of discrimination follows, produces
misconceptions of duties and responsibilities." PATANJALI, p.
24-5




INDIVIDUALITY -- HIGHER MANAS + BUDDHI + ATMA


"It may be conceived that the "Ego" in man is a monad that has
gathered to itself innumerable experiences through aeons of time,
slowly unfolding its latent potencies through plane after plane
of matter. It is hence called the "eternal pilgrim."


The Manasic, or mind principle, is cosmic and universal. It is
the creator of all forms, and the basis of all law in nature.
Not so with consciousness.

Consciousness is a condition of the monad as the result of
embodiment in matter and the dwelling in a physical form.

Self-consciousness, which from the animal plane looking upward is
the beginning of perfection, from the divine plane looking
downward is the perfection of selfishness and the curse of
separateness. It is the "world of illusion" that man has created
for himself.

"Maya is the perceptive faculty of every Ego which considers
itself a Unit, separate from and independent of the One Infinite
and Eternal Sat or 'be-ness'"

The "eternal pilgrim" must therefore mount higher, and flee from
the plane of self-consciousness it has struggled so hard to
reach....

The complex structure that we call "Man" is made up of a
congeries of almost innumerable "Lives."...the "Eternal Pilgrim,"
the Alter-Ego in man, is a monad progressing through the
ages...The human monad or Ego is...akin to all below it and heir
to all above it, linked by indissoluble bonds to (31) spirit and
matter ...the Manasic, or mind element, with its cosmic and
infinite potentialities, is not merely the developed "instinct"
of the animal. Mind is the latent or active potentiality of
Cosmic Ideation, the essence of every form, the basis of every
law, the potency of every principle in the universe....man senses
and apprehends nature just as nature unfolds in him. When,
therefore, the Monad has passed through the form of the animal
ego, involved and unfolded the human form, the higher triad of
principles awakens from the sleep of ages and over-shadowed by
the "Manasa-putra" and built into its essence and substance.."
WQJ ARTICLES Vol. I, pp. 29-31


Individuality One of the names given in Theosophy and
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 forever." T. GLOS. p.. 154-5


Personality In Occultism-which divides man into 7 principles,
considering him under three aspects: 1. of the divine, 2. the
thinking or the rational, and 3. the animal man-the lower
quaternary or the purely astro-physical being; while by
Individuality is meant the Higher Triad, considered as a Unity.
This the Personality embraces all the characteristics and
memories of one physical life, while the Individuality is the
imperishable Ego which reincarnates and clothes itself in one
personality after another." T. GLOSS., p. 252


.occult philosophy claims; our Ego is a ray of the Universal
Mind, The Occultist would call the "Higher Ego" the immortal
Entity, whose shadow and reflection is the human Manas, the mind,
limited by its physical senses. The two may be well compared to
the Master-artist and the pupil-musician...In the course of
natural evolution our "brain-mind" will be replaced by a finer
organism, and helped by the 6th and the 7th senses. Even now
there are pioneer minds who have developed these senses.."
HPB -- T A & N p. 208

Augoeides (Gr.) ... "Luminous Self," or our Higher Ego. But
Occultism makes of it something distinct from this. It is a
mystery. The Augoides is the human divine radiation of the EGO
which, when incarnated, is but its shadow--pure as it is yet.."
T. GLOSSARY, p. 43-4


" Spirit...in Theosophical teachings "Spirit" is applied solely
to that which belongs directly to Universal Consciousness, and
which is its homogeneous and unadulterated emanation.

Thus, the higher Mind in Man or his Ego (Manas) is, when linked
indissolubly with Buddhi, a spirit; while the term "Soul", human
or even animal (the lower Manas acting in animals as instinct),
is applied only to Kama-Manas, and qualified as the living soul.
This is nephesh, in Hebrew, the "breath of life."

SPIRIT is formless and immaterial, being, when individualized, of
the highest spiritual substance --Suddhasatwa, the divine
essence, of which the body of the manifesting highest Dhyanis are
formed... Spirit, in short, is no entity in the sense of having
form; for, as Buddhist philosophy has it, where there is a
form, there is a cause for pain and suffering. But each
individual spirit-- this individuality lasting only throughout
the manvantaric life-cycle-- may be described as a centre of
consciousness, a self-sentient and self-conscious centre; a
state, not a conditioned individual. This is why there is such a
wealth of words in Sanskrit to express the different States of
Being, Beings, and Entities, each appellation showing the
philosophical difference, the plane to which such unit belongs,
and the degree of its spirituality or materiality..."
T. GLOS. 306





(Q.: Can there be Consciousness without Mind?)

A.: Not on this plane of matter. But why not on some other
and higher plane?...On that higher plane ... Mahat--the great
Manvantaric Principle of Intelligence--acts as a Brain, through
which the Universal and Eternal Mind radiates the Ah-hi,
representing the resultant Consciousness or ideation."
TRANSACTIONS, p. . 28


"...the higher Mind in Man, or his Ego (Manas) is, when linked
indivisibly with Buddhi, a spirit..." GLOS 306-7


"...Occultism calls this the seventh principle [Atma], the
synthesis of the six, and gives it for vehicle the Spiritual
Soul, Buddhi...in conjunction these two are One, impersonal and
without any attributes (on this plane)..." KEY, 120


"The SPIRITUAL divine EGO is the Spiritual Soul, or Buddhi in
close union with Manas, the mind-principle, without which it is
no EGO at all, but only the Atmic Vehicle." KEY 176


"Buddhi becomes conscious by the accretions it gets from Manas
after every new incarnation..." SD I 244


"Plato defines Soul (Buddhi) as "the motion that is able to move
itself." "Soul"..."is the most ancient of all things, and the
commencement of motion," thus calling Atma-Buddhi "Soul,"...
which we do not." KEY 114


"It is by development that the soul becomes spirit, both being at
the lower and the higher rungs of one and the same ladder whose
basis is the UNIVERSAL SOUL or spirit." H.P.B. Articles,
Vol. II, p. 306


"...there is no impossibility in supposing [ that the Ego is a
"god on a higher plane"] so surrounded by the clouds of matter as
to become latent or hidden until the time when the form suitable
for this plane is evolved...that Ego, who is the Spectator of all
things...[the Self] ..." THEOS. FORUM ANSWERS, p. 108

"...Pythagoras...described the Soul as a self-moving Unit (monad)
composed of 3 elements, the Nous (Spirit), the phren (mind), and
the thumos (life, breath or the Nephesh of the Kabalists), which
3 correspond to our "Atma-Buddhi," (higher Spiritual-Soul), to
Manas (the EGO), and to Kama Rupa in conjunction with the lower
reflection of Manas." KEY, p. 94,


"...[the Agnishwatta Pitris] were destined to incarnate as the
Egos of the forthcoming crop of Mankind. The human Ego is
neither Atman nor Buddhi, but the higher Manas: the intellectual
fruition and the efflorescence of the intellectual self-conscious
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..." S D II 79


"The Ego does not enter the body at any time...the connection of
the Ego with the body--by means of the principle Manas--is made
in general, at seven years of age, and from then on the Ego is
involved or entangled in body. But before such material
entanglement it was first caught and involved in the passions and
desires...kama--which is always the efficient or producing cause
for the embodiment of the Ego. This kama is known to form a part
of the skandhas or aggregates, of which the material body is
one." FORUM ANSWERS p. 47


"...man...Spiritual Fire is its instructor (Guru)...This fire is
the higher Self, the Spiritual Ego, or that which is eternally
reincarnating under the influence of its lower personal Selves,
changing with every re-birth, full or Tanha or desire to live.
It is a strange law of Nature, that on this plane, the higher
(Spiritual) Nature should be, so to say, in bondage to the lower.
Unless the Ego takes refuge in the Atman, the ALL-SPIRIT, and
merges entirely into the essence thereof, the personal Ego may
goad it to the bitter end...That which propels towards, and
forces evolution, i.e., compels the growth and development of Man
towards perfection, is (a) the MONAD, or that which acts in it
unconsciously through a force inherent in itself; and (b) the
lower astral body or the personal SELF...unless the higher Self
or EGO gravitates towards its Sun--the Monad--the lower Ego, or
personal Self, will have the upper hand in every case. For it is
this Ego, with its fierce Selfishness and animal desire to live a
Senseless life (Tanha), which is "the maker of the tabernacle" as
Buddha calls it...the Atman alone warms the inner man; i.e., it
enlightens it with the ray of divine life and alone is able to
impart to the inner man, or the reincarnating Ego, its
immortality." SD II 109-110


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." GLOS. 216

"Manas is immortal, because after every new incarnation it adds
to Atma-Buddhi something of itself, and thus assimilating itself
to the Monad, shares its immortality. Buddhi becomes conscious
by the accretions it gets from Manas after every new incarnation
and the death of man."
SD I 243-4

"The supreme energy resides in the Buddhi, latent--when wedded to
Atman alone, active and irresistible when galvanized by the
essence of "Manas," and when none of the dross of the latter
commingles with that pure essence to weigh it down by its finite
nature. Manas, pure and simple, is of a lower degree, and of
earth earthy..." M L p. 341-2


"...the thinking Soul or mind..." KEY 74


"...the Soul, Psuche..." KEY 91


"...man and Soul have to conquer their immortality by ascending
towards the unity." KEY 102


"...the Soul of man (or his higher "principles, and
attributes")...(as defined by Pythagoras, Plato, and Timmaeus of
Locris)...[ are derived ] from the Universal World Soul...AEther
(Pater Zeus)..." KEY 104




"...the reasoning soul comes from within the Universal Soul..."
KEY 105


"From the fact that the soul (Higher Manas) is conjoined in the
body with the organ of thought (Lower Manas), and thus with the
whole of Nature, lack of discrimination follows, produces
misconceptions of duties and responsibilities." PATANJALI
24-5


"...the work of the soul is to seek Wisdom, and the substance of
earthly wisdom is to know Universal Wisdom."
MODERN PANARION, 379


"Since Manas, in its lower aspect, is the seat of the terrestrial
mind, it can, therefore, give only that perception of the
Universe which is based on the evidence of that mind; it cannot
give spiritual vision." KEY 158


"...Manas-Taijasi, the Buddhi-lit human soul...if it can be said
of Buddhi that it is unconditionally immortal, the same cannot be
said of Manas...no post-mortem consciousness or Manas-Taijasi,
can exist apart from Buddhi, the divine soul, because the first
(Manas) is, in its lower aspect, a qualificative attribute of the
terrestrial personality...In its turn, Buddhi would remain only
an impersonal spirit without this element which it borrows from
the human soul, which conditions and makes of it. in this
illusive Universe, as it were something separate from the
universal soul for the whole period of the cycle of incarnation.
Say rather that Buddhi-Manas can neither die nor lose its
compound self-consciousness in Eternity, nor the recollections of
its previous incarnations..." HPB ART II 198-9


"The Universe (visible and invisible--compounded of purity,
action and rest)...exists for the sake of the soul's experience
and emancipation...For the sake of the soul alone, the Universe
exists..." PAT 25-6


"the soul is the Perceiver; is assuredly vision itself pure and
simple; unmodified; and looks directly upon ideas." PAT 26


"Spirit is universal...It cannot know itself except as Soul.
Spirit is the "power to become;" Soul is "the becoming." Spirit
is the power to see and know; Soul is the seeing and knowing.
Soul is the accumulation of perceptions and experiences by means
of which Spiritual Identity is realized." (see GLOS 306) Q
& A, p. 21


"...a soul which thirsts after a reunion with its spirit, which
alone confers upon it immortality, must purify itself through
cyclic transmigration..." KEY 111


"What then is the universe for, and for what purpose is man the
immortal thinker here in evolution? It is all for the experience
and emancipation of the soul, for the purpose of raising the
entire mass of manifested matter up to the stature, nature, and
dignity of conscious god-hood. The great aim is the reach
self-consciousness; not through a race or a tribe of some
favored nation, but by and through the perfecting, after
transformation, of the whole mass of matter as well as what we
now call soul. Nothing is or is to be left out. The aim for
present man is his initiation into complete knowledge, and for
the other kingdoms below him that they may be raised up gradually
from stage to stage to be in time initiated also. This is
evolution carried to its highest power; it is a magnificent
prospect; it makes of man a god, and gives to every part of
nature the possibility of being some day the same; there is
strength and nobility in it, for by this no man is dwarfed and
belittled, for no one is so originally sinful that he cannot rise
above all sin." OCEAN, pp. 60-1


"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 the valley 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 to now 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." SD I 268


"Theosophy considers humanity as an emanation from divinity on
its return path hereto. At an advanced point upon the path,
Adeptship is reached by those who have devoted several
incarnations to its achievement...many incarnations are necessary
for it after the formation of a conscious purpose and the
beginning of the needful training..." KEY 214-5



METAPHYSICAL PRINCIPLES


"The universe evolves from the unknown, into which no man or
mind, however high, can inquire, on seven planes or in seven ways
or methods in all worlds...The divisions of the sevenfold
universe may be laid down roughly as: The Absolute, Spirit,
Mind, Matter, Will, Akasa or AEther, and Life. In place of "the
Absolute" we can use the word Space...which ever is, and in which
all manifestation must take place...Our knowledge begins with
differentiation, and all manifested objects, beings, or powers
are only differentiations of the Great Unknown...The first
differentiation --speaking metaphysically as to time--is Spirit,
with which appear Matter and Mind. Akasa is produced from Matter
and Spirit, Will is the force of Spirit in action and Life is the
resultant of the action of Akasa, moved by Spirit, upon Matter
(the real Matter which is always invisible...Mulaprakriti).

Mind is the intelligent part of the Cosmos, and...the plan is
brought over from a prior period of manifestation...because there
never was any beginning to the periodical manifestations of the
Absolute, there will never be an end, but forever the going forth
and withdrawing into the Unknown will go on...the plan is laid
down in universal mind; the original force comes from spirit;
the basis is matter...Life sustains all the forms...and Akasa is
the connecting link between matter on one side and spirit-mind
ion the other." OCEAN, pp. 14-16


"Occult philosophy reconciles the absurdity of postulating in the
manifested Universe an active Mind without an organ, with that
worse absurdity, an objective Universe evolved as everything else
in it, by blind chance, by giving to this Universe an organ of
thought, a "brain." The latter, although not objective to our
senses, is none the less existing; it is to be found in the
Entity called KOSMOS (Adam Kadmon in the Kabalah). As in the
Microcosm, MAN, so in the Macrocosm, or the Universe. Every
"organ" in it is a sentient entity, and every particle of matter
or substance, from the physical molecule up to the spiritual
atom, is a cell, a nerve center, which communicates.

This is precisely what occult philosophy claims; our Ego is a
ray of the Universal Mind, individualized for the space of a
cosmic life-cycle, during which space of time it gets its
experience in almost numberless reincarnations or rebirths, after
which it returns to its Parent-Source.

The Occultist would call the "Higher Ego" the immortal Entity,
whose shadow and reflection is the human Manas, the mind, limited
by its physical senses. The two may be well compared to the
Master-artist and the pupil-musician...In the course of natural
evolution our "brain-mind" will be replaced by a finer organism,
and helped by the 6th and the 7th senses. Even now there are
pioneer minds who have developed these senses." HPB --
Theosophical Articles & Notes, p. 208



".the substratum, or support, for the whole Cosmos, is the
presiding Spirit...There must be something eternally persisting,
which is the witness and perceiver of every passing change,
itself unchangeable...there must be a universal presiding spirit,
the producer as well as the spectator, of all this collection of
animate and inanimate things." G. NOTES 23


Mulaprakriti (Sk) The Parabrahmic root, the abstract deific
feminine principle--undifferentiated substance. Akasa.
Lit. "the root of nature" (Prakriti) or Matter. GLOS.
218


Parabrahm (Sk) "Beyond Brahma," literally. The Supreme
Infinite Brahma, "Absolute"--the attributeless, the secondless
reality. The impersonal and nameless universal Principle.
GLOS. 248


[Parabrahm, Ain-Soph, and the Zeruana-Akerne of the Avesta alone
represent such an Eternity (beginningless and endless); all the
other periods are finite and astronomical, based on tropical
years and other enormous cycles. TRANS. 9


"...it is impossible to define Parabrahm, yet once that we
speak of that first something which can be conceived, it has to
be treated of as a feminine principle. In all cosmogonies the
first differentiation was considered feminine. It is
Mulaprakriti which conceals or veils Parabrahm...it is the
goddess...who come first. The first emanation becomes the
immaculate Mother from whom proceeds all the gods, or the
anthropomorphized creative forces...." TRANS. 2


Paramatma (Sk.) The Supreme Soul of the Universe. GLOS. 249



Pradhana (Sk.) Undifferentiated substance, called elsewhere and
in other schools--Akasa; and Mulaprakriti or Root of Matter by
the Vedantins. In short, Primeval Matter. GLOS. 259



SOURCE OF THE SPIRIT IN MAN


"...The Host of Dhyanis, whose turn it was to incarnate as the
Egos of the immortal, but, on this plane, senseless monads--that
some "obeyed" (the law of evolution) immediately when the men of
the 3rd Race became physiologically and physically ready, i.e.,
when they had separated into sexes. These were those early
conscious Beings who, now adding conscious knowledge and will to
their inherent Divine purity, created by Kriyasakti the
semi-Divine man, who became the seed on earth for future adepts.
Those, on the other hand, who, jealous of their intellectual
freedom (unfettered as it then was by the bonds of matter),
said:--"We can choose...we have wisdom,"...and incarnated far
later--these had their first Karmic punishment prepared for them.
They got bodies (physiologically) inferior to their astral
models, because their chhayas had belonged to progenitors of an
inferior degree in the 7 classes. As to those "Sons of Wisdom"
who had "deferred" their incarnation till the 4th Race, which was
already tainted (physiologically) with sin and impurity, they
produced a terrible cause, the Karmic result of which weighs on
them to this day...the bodies they had to inform had become
defiled through their own procrastination...This was the "Fall of
the angels," because of their rebellion against Karmic Law. The
"fall of man" was no fall, for he was irresponsible..." SD II
228



DIFFERENT "FORMS" OF MATTER - NEEDS OF CONSCIOUSNESS


Causal Body This "body," which is no body either objective or
subjective, but Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul, is so called because
it is the direct cause of the Sushupti condition, leading to the
Turya state, the highest state of Samadhi. It is called
Karanopadhi, "the basis of the Cause," by the Taraka Raja
Yogis...corresponds to both the Vignanamaya and Anandamaya Kosha,
the latter coming next to Atma, and therefore being the vehicle
of the universal Spirit. Buddhi alone could not be called a
"Causal Body," but becomes so in conjunction with Manas, the
incarnating Entity or EGO." T. GLOS. 74


Karana Sarira (Sk. ) The "Causal Body." It is dual in its
meaning. Exoterically, it is Avidya, ignorance, or that
which is the cause of the evolution of a human ego and its
reincarnation; hence the lower Manas; esoterically--the
causal body or Karanopadhi stands in the Taraka Raja-yoga as
corresponding to Buddhi and the Higher "Manas," or Spiritual
Soul." T. GLOS. 173


Karanopadhi (Sk.) ...upadhi of Karana, the "Causal soul." In
Taraka Rajayoga, it corresponds with both Manas and Buddhi.
(see S.D. I 157) GLOS. 173


Suddha Satwa (Sk) A substance not subject to the qualities of
matter; a luminiferous and (to us) invisible substance, of which
the bodies of the Gods and highest Dhyanis are formed.
Philosophically, Suddha Satwa is a conscious state of
spiritual Ego-ship rather than any essence." GLOS. 311


Sukshma Sarira (Sk) The dream-like, illusive body akin to
Manasa-rupa or "thought-body". It is the vesture of the gods, or
the Dhyanis and the Devas...Sukshma Sharira ...
Sukshmopadhi... GLOS. 312


Sukshmopadhi (Sk) ...the principle (in Taraka Raj-Yoga)
containing both the higher and the lower Manas and Kama. It
corresponds to the Manomaya Kosha of the Vedantic classification
and to the Svapna state (esoterically: dual Manas -- GLOS. 205)
GLOS. 312 (See also, S.D. I 157)


Svabhavat (Sk.) ...the world-substance and stuff, or rather that
which is behind it--the spirit and essence of substance. The
name comes from Subhava and is composed of 3 words --su, good
perfect, fair, handsome; sva, self; and bhava, being, or state
of being. From it all nature proceeds and into it all returns at
the end of the life-cycles. In Esotericism it is called
"Father-Mother." It is the plastic essence of matter." T.
GLOS. 314





"That" ...Mulaprakriti...Svabhavat...that androgynous something
...which is both differentiated and undifferentiated. In its
first principle it is a pure abstraction, which becomes
differentiated only when it is transformed, in the process of
time, into Prakriti. If compared with the human principles,
it corresponds to Buddhi, while Atma would correspond to
Parabrahm, Manas to Mahat, and so on. "
TRANS. 4


Adi-Buddhi (Sk) Primeval Intelligence or Wisdom; the eternal
Buddha Universal Mind. Used of Divine Ideation, "Mahabuddhi"
being synonymous with MAHAT." T. GLOS. 6


Ahankara (Sk) The conception of "I", Self consciousness or
Self- identity; the "I", the egotistical and mayavic principle
in man, due to ignorance which separates our "I" from the
Universal ONE-SELF, Personality, Egoism. T. GLOS. 11


Akasa (Sk.) The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence
which pervades all space; The primordial substance erroneously
identified with Ether. But it is to Ether what Spirit is to
Matter, or Atma to Kama- rupa. It is, in fact, the Universal
Space in which lies inherent the eternal Ideation of the Universe
in its ever-changing aspects of the planes of matter and
objectivity, and from which radiates the First Logos, or
expressed thought...Akasa has but one attribute, namely sound,
for sound is but the translated symbol of the
Logos--"Speech"--in its mystic sense. T. GLOS. 13


Alaya (Sk.) The Universal Soul (See S. D. Vol. I, 47, et
seq.) The name belongs to the Tibetan system of the
contemplative Mahayana School. Identical with Akasa in its
mystic sense, and with Mulaprakriti, in its essence, as it is the
basis or root of all things.
T. GLOS. p. 14


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



LIGHTING UP OF MANAS ( THE HUMAN MIND )


"...divine man dwelt in his animal--though externally
human --form; and, if there was instinct in him, no
self-consciousness came to enlighten the darkness of the latent
5th principle [Manas]. When moved by the law of Evolution, the
Lords of Wisdom infused into him the spark of consciousness, the
first feeling it awoke to life and activity was a sense of
solidarity, of one-ness with his spiritual creators. As the
child's first feeling is for its mother and nurse, so the first
aspirations of the awakening consciousness in primitive man were
for those whose element he felt within himself, and who yet were
outside, and independent of him. DEVOTION arose out of that
feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his nature;
for it is the only one which is natural in our heart, which is
innate in us, and which we find alike in human babe and the young
of the animal. This feeling of irrepressible, instinctive
aspiration in primitive man ...(211) It lives undeniably, and
has settled in all its ineradicable strength and power in the
Asiatic Aryan heart from the 3rd Race direct through it first
"mind-born" sons,--the fruits of Kriyasakti. As time rolled on
the holy caste of Initiates produced but rarely, and from age to
age, such perfect creatures: beings apart, inwardly, though the
same as those who produced them, outwardly...the 3rd primitive
race...was called into being, a ready and perfect vehicle for the
incarnating denizens of higher spheres, who took forthwith their
abodes in these forms born of Spiritual WILL and the natural
divine power in man. Its physical frame alone was of time and of
life, as it drew its intelligence direct from above. It was the
living tree of divine wisdom; and may therefore be likened to
the Mundane Tree of the Norse Legend, which cannot wither and die
until the last battle of life shall be fought, and while its
roots are gnawed all the time by the dragon Niddhogg; for even
so, the first and holy son of Kriyasakti had his body gnawed by
the tooth of time, but the roots of his inner being remained for
ever undecaying and strong, because they grew and expanded in
heaven not on earth. He was the first of the FIRST, and he was
the seed of all the others. There were other "Sons of
Kriyasakti" produced by a second spiritual effort, but the first
one has remained to this day the Seed of divine Knowledge, the
One and the Supreme among the terrestrial "Sons of Wisdom."
SD I 210-211


"No sooner had the mental eye of man been opened to
understanding, than the Third Race felt itself one with the
ever-present as the ever to be unknown and invisible ALL, the One
Universal Deity...feeling in himself his inner God, each felt he
was a Man-God in his nature, though an animal in his physical
Self... (SD II 272) the evolution of Spirit into matter could
never have been achieved; nor would it have received its first
impulse, had not the bright Spirits sacrificed their own
respective super-ethereal essences to animate the man of clay, by
endowing each of his inner principles with a portion, or rather,
a reflection of that essence." SD II 273




NIRMANAKAYA -- INVISIBLE, LIVING SAGES


"...those EGOS of great Adepts who have passed away, and are also
known as Nirmanakayas; ...for whom--since they are beyond
illusion--there is no Devachan, and who, having either
voluntarily renounced it for the good of mankind, or not yet
reached Nirvana, remain invisible on earth ...they are reborn
over and over again ... Who they are, "on earth"--every student
of Occult science knows..."
D II 615 see VOICE OF THE SILENCE. p. 35, 44,
77; T. GLOSS p. 339)




PLANETARY SPIRITS - BUDDHA : AN EXAMPLE


"When our great Buddha--the patron of all the adepts, the
reformer and the codifier of the occult system, reached first
Nirvana on earth, he became a Planetary Spirit, i.e.,--his spirit
could at one and the same time rove the interstellar spaces in
full consciousness, and continue at will on Earth in his original
and individual body. For the divine Self had so completely
disfranchised itself from matter that it could create at will an
inner substitute for itself, and leaving it in the human form for
days, weeks, sometimes years, affect in no wise by the change
either the vital principle or the physical mind of its body
...that is the highest form of adeptship man can hope for on our
planet. But it is as rare as the Buddhas themselves, the last
Khobilgan who reached it being Song-Ka-Pa of Kokonor (XIV
Century), the reformer of esoteric as well as of vulgar lamaism.
Many are those who "break through the egg shell," few who, once
out are able to exercise their Nirira namastaka fully, when out
of the body. Conscious life in Spirit is as difficult for some
natures as swimming, is for some bodies...The planetary Spirit of
that kind (the Buddha like) can pass at will into other
bodies--of more or less etherealized matter, inhabiting other
regions of the Universe. There are many other grades and orders,
but there is no separate and eternally constituted order of
Planetary Spirits." MAHAT. LET. 43-4





MODIFICATIONS OF THE MIND


"All objects, and all states of what western philosophers call
Mind, are modifications, for in order to be seen or known by us,
there must be some change, either partial or total, from a
precedent state. The perceiver of these changes in the inner
man-Arjuna-Krishna."
G NOTES 23


Concentration, or Yoga, is the hindering of the modifications of
the thinking principle. (Fn.: ...the [lower] mind--here called
"the thinking principle"--is subject to constant modifications by
reason of its being diffused over a multiplicity of subjects. So
"concentration" is equivalent to the correction of a tendency to
diffuseness, and to..."one-pointedness," or the power to apply
the [lower] mind at any moment, to the consideration of a single
point of thought, to the exclusion of everything else...The
[lower] mind...is not the supreme or highest power; it is only a
function, an instrument with which the soul [higher manas]
works...The brain... must not be confounded with the mind, for
the brain is in its turn but an instrument for the mind... The
[lower] mind has a plane of its own, distinct from the soul
[higher mind] and the brain, and what is to be learned is, to use
the will...a distinct power from the mind and brain...)
PATANJALI, 1-2


"...[.when the internal organ, the [lower] mind is through the
senses affected or modified by the form of some object, the soul
[higher aspect of the lower manas] also--viewing the object
through its organ, the [lower] mind--is, as it were, altered into
that form... PATANJALI, 3


The modifications of the [lower] mind are of five kinds, and they
are either painful or not painful; they are, Correct Cognition,
Misconception, Fancy, Sleep, and Memory. PATANJALI, 4


"The hindering of the modifications of the [lower] mind already
referred to, is to be effected by means of Exercise and
Dispassion." PAT. 5


"....resolving to create, or rather to emanate the universe, It
formed a picture of what should be, and this at once was a
modification willingly brought about in the hitherto wholly
unmodified spirit; whereupon the Divine Idea was gradually
expanded, coming forth into objectivity, while the essence of the
presiding spirit remained unmodified, and became the perceiver of
its own expanded idea. Its modifications are visible (and
invisible) nature. Its essence then differentiates itself
continually in various directions becoming the immortal part of
each man--Krishna who talks to Arjuna. Coming like a spark from
the central fire, it partakes of that nature, and assumes to
itself--as a cover, so to speak--the human body [and all other
beings in nature] and thus being in essence unmodified, it has
the capacity to perceive all the changes going on around the
body.


This Self must be recognized as being within, pondered over, and
as much as possible understood, if we are to gain any true
knowledge. G. NOTES 23-24




FREE-WILL



"Every atom is endowed with and moved by intelligence, and is
conscious in its own degree, on its own plane of development.
This is a glimpse of the One Life... selfishness is the curse of
separateness..." WQJ ART I 29


"Every man has a god within, a direct ray from the Absolute, the
celestial ray from the One..." TRANS 53


"Free-will can only exist in a man who has both mind and
consciousness, which act and make him perceive things both within
and without himself." Consciousness is a condition of the monad
as a result of embodiment in matter and the dwelling in a
physical form." WQJ ART I 29


"..."Mind" is manas, or rather its lower reflection, which
whenever it disconnects itself, for the time being, with kama,
becomes the guide of the highest mental faculties, and is the
organ of the free-will in physical man...." HPB ARTICLES, Vol.
II, p. 13


"Spiritual mind (the upper portion or aspect of the impersonal
Manas) takes no cognizance of the senses in physical man."
[ see KEY 106, 136, 138 ] SD I 96


"It is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are
impressed upon matter...appellation "Cosmic Electricity"
...properties...including intelligence." SD I 85


"And whoever...wants to see the real Mahatma, must use his
intellectual sight. He must so elevate his Manas that its
perception will be clear and all mists created by Maya must be
dispelled...The real Mahatma is then not his physical body but
that Higher Manas which is inseparably linked to the Atma and its
vehicle [Buddhi]." HPB ART I p. 294


"...man is a free agent during his stay on earth. He cannot
escape his ruling Destiny, but he has the choice of two paths
that lead him in that direction, and he can reach the goal of
misery--if such is decreed to him, either in the snowy white
robes of the Martyr, or in the soiled garments of a volunteer in
the iniquitous course; for, there are external and internal
conditions which affect the determination of our will upon our
actions, and it is in our power to follow either of the
two...this destiny is guided either by the heavenly voice of the
invisible prototype outside of us, or by our more intimate
astral, or inner man, who is but too often the evil genius of the
embodied entity called man. Both these lead on the outward man,
but one of them must prevail; and from the very beginning of the
invisible affray the stern and implacable law of compensation
steps in and takes its course, faithfully following the
fluctuations...this self-made destiny..." SD I 639


"...Consciousness is not developed; Consciousness always is. It
is intelligence which is developed in different ways, in
different degrees of substance, on different planes of being.
The intelligence gained is an understanding of externalities in
their relation to Consciousness itself ...This acquired
intelligence is the basis of the Archetypal World, in which types
are formulated...it is Consciousness first, last and all the time
at the root of all manifestation. Always the Perceiver is behind
every form. What is learned in regard to externalities or any
instrument is the amount of intelligence gained...as that
intelligence increases it becomes the basis on which better
instruments are formed."
Q & A 203-4








PURPOSE - THE GOAL


"...the Universe, which manifests periodically, for the purposes
of the collective progress of the countless lives."
SD I 268


"The soul emerges from the unknown, begins to work in and with
matter, is reborn again and again, makes karma, develops the six
vehicles for itself, meets retribution for sin and punishment for
mistake, grows stronger by suffering, succeeds in bursting
through the gloom, is enlightened by the true illumination,
grasps power, retains charity, expands with love for humanity,
and thenceforth helps all others who remain in darkness until all
may be raised up to the place with the "Father in Heaven" who is
the Higher Self."
"The Mahatmas as Ideals & Facts" ] WQJ ART II 39


"The course of Being is an ever-becoming. Ever-becoming is
endless, therefore beginningless. This solar system and its
planets of course had a beginning and will have an ending, but
every manifestation is but a further becoming of that which had
been. Periods of Manifestation and Non-Manifestation succeed
each other in Infinite Space, to which neither beginning nor
ending can be applied...The ancient way of stating any beginning
is, "the Desire first arose in It;" it referring to Spirit,
which is the cause and sustainer of all that was, is, or shall
be. There is a beginning to the first glimmerings of external
consciousness, which ever tends to widen its range of perception
and manifestation until it encompasses and becomes at one with
All; Potential Spirit having become Potent Intelligence. The
ending of the process results in a new beginning based upon the
totality of intelligence attained. Whatever begins in time ends
in time. Time is due to perceptions in Consciousness; as the
Secret Doctrine says...beginnings and endings pertain to that
"illusion," and not to the beginningless and endless Spirit which
is the Perceiver. As the Gita says: "The Spirit in the body, is
called Maheshwara, the great Lord, the Spectator, the admonisher,
the sustainer, the enjoyer, and also the Paramatma the highest
soul;" itself without beginning or ending, it makes beginnings
and endings in manifestations, which as manifestations are
beginningless and endless in their turn." Q & A 102-3


"There is That which must ever remain unknown, because it is the
Knower in every body, It cannot be known because Its
potentiality of knowing is Infinite. There is that in ourselves
which is our very Self and which is unchanged and exhaustless
through infinitudes of experiences; it is the unknowable in us
as well as in all Nature; from It all manifestation proceeds.
We learn what is the Self by seeing what is the non-Self...the
Self ever remains unchanged, while at the same time the
receptacle of all perceptions and experiences...we are not the
experience, the knowledge or the power--they are our possessions.
The whole process of growth is one of realization of the Oneness
and eternity of the Self in us and in all creatures and forms of
manifestation." Q & A 12-13


"The object of the student is to let the light of [the] spirit
shine through the lower coverings. This "spiritual culture" is
only attainable as the grosser interests, passions, and demands
of the flesh are subordinated to the interests, aspirations and
needs of the higher nature; and this is a matter of both system
and established law.

"This spirit can only become the ruler when the firm intellectual
acknowledgment or admission is first made that IT alone is. ...it
being not only the person concerned, but also the whole, all
selfishness must be eliminated from the lower nature before its
divine state can be reached. So long as the smallest personal or
selfish desire--even for spiritual attainment for our own
sake--remains, so long is the desired end put off.. When
systematically trained in accordance with the aforesaid system
and law, men attain to clear insight into the immaterial,
spiritual world, and their interior faculties apprehend truth as
immediately and readily as physical faculties grasp the things of
sense, or mental faculties those of reason..." EPITOME 14



"THE PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT


1. securing of supremacy, to the highest, the spiritual,
element of man's nature.,

2. the entire eradication of selfishness...the cultivation
of broad generous sympathy in, and effort for the good of others.

3. the absolute cultivation of the inner, spiritual man by
meditation, by reaching to and communion with the Divine
[within]...incessantly striving for an ideal end.

4. the control of fleshly appetites and desires, all lower,
material interests being deliberately subordinated to the behests
of the spirit.

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

6. .a yet higher plane of spiritual attainment is
conditioned upon a specific course of training, physical,
intellectual and spiritual, by which the internal faculties are
first aroused and then developed.

7. an extension of this process is reached in Adeptship,
Mahatmaship, or the states of Rishis, Sages and Dhyan Chohans,
which are all exalted sages, attained by laborious
self-discipline and hardship protracted through possibly many
incarnations..." EPITOME 25-6


"The course of Being is an ever-becoming." Q & A 102


"...that law in Nature which implants in man as well as in every
beast, a passionate, inherent, and instinctive desire for freedom
and self-guidance pertains to psychology..." S D II 484


"...from the Sun to the vital heat of the meanest organic
being--the world of Form and Existence is an immense chain, whose
links are all connected." S D I 604


Q.: What is the Soul?

A.: It is the Consciousness in the life-powers. It is the
Light within the heart.
BRIHAD ARANYAKA UPANISHAD p. 11


"The Soul of man is the Eternal. It is made of consciousness, it
is made of feeling, it is made of life, it is made of vision, it
is made of hearing; it is made of the earth, it is made of the
waters, it is made of the air, it is made of the ether, it is
made of the radiance and what is beyond the radiance; it is made
of desire and what is beyond desire, it is made of wrath and what
is beyond wrath, it is made of the law and what is beyond law;
it is made of the All. The soul is of this world and of the
other world."
BRIHAD ARANYAKA UPANISHAD p 24


"That man possesses an immortal soul is the common belief of
humanity; to this Theosophy adds that he is a soul; and further
that all nature is sentient, that the vast array of objects and
men are not atoms fortuitously thrown together and thus without
law evolving law, but down to the smallest atom, all is soul and
spirit ever evolving under the rule of law which is inherent in
the whole...the course of evolution is the drama of the soul and
that nature exists for no other purpose than the soul's
experience." OCEAN, p. 2


"We have thus to carry on the cultivation of the soul...he is to
rely upon the One Consciousness which, as differentiated in a man
is his Higher Self. By means of this higher self he is to
strengthen the lower, or that which he is accustomed to call
"myself." ...

"Our consciousness is one and not many, nor different from other
consciousnesses. it is not waking consciousness or sleeping
consciousness, or any other but consciousness itself... [this] is
Being... Sat-chit-ananda.

"But the one consciousness of each person is the Witness or
Spectator of the actions and experiences of every state we are in
or pass through...The one consciousness pierces up and down
through all the states or planes of Being, and serves to uphold
the memory...of each state's experience." GITA NOTES, pp
98-99


"Mind is higher than the powers, the real is higher than mind;
than this real, the great Self is higher; and than the Great
[Self], the Unmanifest is higher." KATHA UPANISHAD p 52



CONTROLLING THE MIND


"...Raja Yogis try to control the mind itself by following the
rules laid down by the greatest of adepts...[which] compel the
student...to acquire a right knowledge of what is and what is not
real, but also to practice all virtues...[it] is spiritual.
...spiritual knowledge grows up within and illuminates with its
rays all subjects and objects." GITA NOTES p. viii-ix




In PATH, January 1892, Vol. 6, p. 319, "Julius" in the Tea Table
Talk reports on a conversation with Mr. Judge on the subject of
this article by HPB. Mr. Judge says in part:


"It is not sufficiently understood that every one of those
energic emissions or processes which we call "a thought" does
mold the subtile matter of the ether into etheric form. Such
forms...are held together by the formative power, or plastic
potency of the soul substance, just so long as the thought energy
inheres in them. The more intense the thought--or the greater
the thought tension...the longer does that etheric form cohere as
such...


"The energic pictures thus formed by the mental action of men are
sensed by the inner man or each. Sometimes, even, the vibration
thus sensed gets impressed upon the brain centers and enters the
lower consciousness by avenues of which we have now but a feeble
idea. The pictures inhere in the mental sphere of each of us,
and the sphere is dense, turbid, contractive, or show all the
brightness of the higher vibration, according to the nature of
these thought forms, which not only act outwardly but which also
react upon their creators.


"The importance of regulating our thoughts, in view of the
plastic potency of the soul and its imaginative power, hence
becomes apparent. As thought is dynamic, these pictures, often
themselves an agglomeration of lives, are felt far and wide. It
has frequently been said that a man could be shut between prison
walls and could yet work for Humanity, by the simple means of
right thinking.


"The reason why such an adaptation is the first step in occultism
must now be found.


"Occultism has been defined by H.P.Blavatsky to be "the study of
the workings of the Universal Mind." Our primary study of that
Mind is at first confined to its reflection in ourselves. We
must endeavor to find some trace of it within our own
consciousness or in one of the modes of that consciousness...But
how can we find that? We are inclined to say it is too difficult
a task.


"It is difficult, but not too much so. The very effort involved
in the search is in itself helpful, for the greater emission of
mental energy creates powerful centers or pictures in our sphere.
It is through their constant reaction upon us, perhaps, that we
at last discover a trace...

"If we examine ourselves critically we see that there is, lying
back of ceaseless mental change, of all the continual going to
and fro of Thought, a power to observe, sum up, analyze, and
dissect the whole process...which calmly observes the whole
panorama moving before it...It is Patanjali who says of the soul
that it is the Spectator, and when the question is asked, where
is the soul at the time of concentration--or when the mental
energy is at rest--he replies, "At the time of concentration the
soul abides in the state of a spectator without a spectacle."

"Before the student reaches this state of concentration, he makes
a preliminary step towards it when he discovers this center,
place, mode, or state of consciousness in which he surveys his
whole mental field as something not himself, and feels that self
to be the perceptive power per se. For he has then only to enter
that mental plane as often as possible, and to realize it as
vividly as possible, and he has evolved a rudiment...of the
Universal Mind. That mind, that state of consciousness, observes
the mayavic panorama spread out before it as something apart from
itself; the person who realizes that state of consciousness is
nearer to the Universal Mind; he has entered one of its phases
or states; it is not a state of trance.

"The best method to pursue is that of analysis along the line of
the seven principles. So long as I look upon myself as a
homogeneous whole, I contract my mental sphere into one dense and
slowly vibrating mass. It is the picture of himself as
uniform--as opposed to duality--which fetters the soul of man.
The image he has made of himself is the prison house of his soul.
When analysis comes into play he no longer says "I crave," "I
win," "I desire," "I sin." No longer, intoxicated by the fumes
of his own passions, does he plunge into the ocean of sensuality.
He says, as one aspect of desire comes before him, "In this the
Kamic principle is active;" another his ascribes to undue
stimulus of the linga-sarira; here he sees the lower manas
prevailing, and here the flash of intuitive perception. He
ascribes each act to its parent principle; each becomes to him a
result of one of these principles; they are no longer himself,
but he is the judge of them all, and analysis destroys the heady
fumes of desire. For desire ceases to attract us when we no
longer identify it with ourself.

"...When the action of the seven principles is realized, we at
the same time realize ourself to be that which observes the said
action, or the center of which the principles are modes or
functions; that center is consciousness itself.
"If anyone desires to rid himself of a bad mental or physical
habit, sincere and constant trial of the method above described
must cause the habit to loosen its grip upon his mind. It is not
a form of mind-cure, for that acts by denial, while in this case
there are analysis and the tracing of effects to their true
source, or, at least, somewhat further up stream. By means of
this cold analysis the personal mental image is broken up into a
series of thought forms true in themselves, each one an image of
the Universal, each instinct a life of its own. The prison house
is rent asunder, and man, the prisoner of himself, dazed,
startled, but unbound, finds himself slowly emerging into the
large fields of Universal Thought." by W Q J as
reported by "Julius", PATH Vol. 6, p. 319-322.



WILL - SPIRIT


"Will is a spiritual power...colorless...In ordinary life it is
not man's servant, but, being then guided solely by desire, it
makes man a slave to his desires..."Behind Will, stands
Desire."... The system postulates that Ishwara, the spirit in
man, is untouched by any troubles, works, fruit of works, or
desires, and when a firm position is assumed with the end in view
of reaching union with spirit through concentration, He comes to
the aid of the lower self and raises it gradually to higher
planes. In this process the Will by degrees is given a stronger
and stronger tendency to act upon a different line from that
indicated by passion and desire. Thus it is freed from the
domination of desire and at last subdues the mind itself. But
before the perfection of the practice is arrived at the will
still acts according to desire, only that desire is for higher
things and away from those of the material life." PAT.
INTRO. xiv-xvi


"The spirit in the body is called Maheshwara, the Great Lord, the
spectator, the admonisher, the sustainer, the enjoyer, and also
Paramatma, the highest soul." [GITA 96] This sentence really
tells the whole story; the Spirit sees, rectifies, sustains and
enjoys through Its instrument or vehicle; the ideal of progress
is a perfected vehicle which, will contact and reflect in the
highest sense all worlds and all beings." G. NOTES 192


"...discrimination of the body from the soul, meaning thought and
action based upon a knowledge of what is body and what is soul.
[Krishna]...then speaks of "this perishable body" as including
not only the physical form, but such elements as...:
"Ahankara-egotism, Buddhi-intellect or judgment, the unmanifest,
invisible spirit; the 10 centres of action, the mind and the 5
objects of sense; desire, aversion, pleasure and pain,
persistency of life, and firmness, the power of cohesion."
[GITA 93-4]


...if we can grasp the idea of Ahankara-egotism, the perishable
nature of the other elements can be understood...the
self-identifying attachment is chiefly concerned with the present
form and conditions, although we are aware that other forms and
conditions have existed in the past, to which we were attached by
like or dislike, and that still others will exist in the
future..."we" remain through them all, unchanged and
unchanging..."The soul is the Perceiver; is assuredly vision
itself pure and simple; unmodified; and looks directly upon
ideas."[PATANJALI 26]..."I am the knower in every mortal
body."..."Perceiving the same lord present in everything and
everywhere, he does not by the lower self (Ahankara) destroy his
own soul, but goeth to the supreme end."[GITA 97]..." GITA
NOTES 189-191


"...reincarnation...is assumed...The manifestation, in any
incarnation, of the effects of mental deposits made in previous
lives, is declared to ensue upon obtaining of just the kind of
bodily and mental frame, constitution and environment as will
bring them out."
GITA NOTES p. x


"Theosophy views the Universe as an intelligent
whole...Karma...is not a being but a law, the universal law of
harmony which unerringly restores all disturbance to
equilibrium." OCEAN, p.89-90



Glossary Gives Helpful Definitions


ATMA (or ATMAN) (Sk.) The Universal Spirit, the divine Monad,
the 7th Principle, so-called, in the septenary constitution of
man. The Supreme Soul. GLOS. 43


PARAMATMA (Sk.) The Supreme Soul of the Universe. GLOS. 249


PARAMPADATMAVA (Sk.) Beyond the condition of Spirit,
"supremer" than Spirit, bordering on the Absolute.
GLOS. 249


SPIRIT...In Theosophical teachings the term "Spirit" is applied
solely to that which belongs directly to Universal Consciousness,
and which if its homogeneous and unadulterated emanation. Thus
the higher Mind in Man of his Ego (Manas) is, when linked
indissolubly with Buddhi, a spirit; while the term "Soul," human
or even animal I the lower Manas acting in animals as instinct),
is applied only to Kama-Manas, and qualified as the living
soul...Spirit is formless and immaterial, being, when
individualizes, of the highest spiritual substance--Suddhasatwa,
the divine essence of which the body of the manifesting highest
Dhyanis are formed.. Spirit, in short, is no entity in the sense
of having form...But each individual spirit--this individuality
lasting only throughout the manvantaric life-cycle--may be
described as a centre of consciousness, a self-sentient and
self-conscious centre; a state, not a conditioned individual..."
GLOS. 306


"...spirit is potential matter, and matter simply crystallized
spirit, yet...the original and eternal condition of all is not
spirit but meta-spirit..." KEY 33


SUDDHA SATWA (Sk.) A substance not subject to the qualities
of matter; a luminiferous and (to us) invisible substance, of
which the bodies of the Gods and highest Dhyanis are formed.
Philosophically, Suddha Sattwa is a conscious state of spiritual
Ego-ship rather than any essence." GLOS 311


SOUL. The phren, or nephesh of the Bible; the vital principle,
or the breath of life, which every animal down to the infusoria,
shares with man." GLOS. 306


MIND. "Mind is the name given to the sum of the states of
Consciousness grouped under Thought, Will and Feeling."
SD I 38


MANAS (Sk.) Lit., "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." GLOS. 202


"Manas, the derivation or product in a reflected form of
Ahankara* [Fn. * MAHAT or the "Universal Mind" is the source of
Manas...it is also called the Kshetrajna "embodied Spirit,"
because it is,...the Manasa-putra, or "Sons of the Universal
Mind." who created, or rather produced, the thinking man, "manu"
by incarnating in the third Race mankind in our Round. It is
Manas therefore, which is the real incarnating and permanent
Spiritual Ego, the INDIVIDUALITY..."] the conception of I", or
EGO-SHIP..." KEY 136


MANAS, KAMA (Sk.) Lit., "the mind of desire."...the Kama
Manas is but one of the Indriya or organs (roots) of sense. [see
HPB ART II 42] GLOS 202-3


BUDDHI (Sk.) 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 seventh."
GLOS 67


ALAYA (Sk.) The Universal Soul (see SD I 47...). The name
belongs to the Tibetan system of the contemplative Mahayana
School. Identical with Akasa in its mystic sense, and with
Mulaprakriti, in its essence, as it is the basis or root of all
things." GLOS 14


AKASA (Sk.) The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which
pervades all space; the primordial substance erroneously
identified with Ether. But it is to Ether what Spirit is to
Matter, or Atma to Kama-rupa. It is, in fact, the Universal
Space in which lies inherent the eternal Ideation of the Universe
in its ever-changing aspects on the planes of matter and
objectivity, and from which radiates the First Logos, or
expressed thought...one attribute, namely sound, for sound is but
the translated symbol of Logos--"Speech" in its mystic sense.
power ..."to stir up the Brahma"... Kundalini--occult
electricity, the alkahest of the alchemists...the universal
solvent...anima mundi on the higher plane as the astral light is
on the lower. ] GLOS 13


MULAPRAKRITI (Sk.) The Parabrahmic root, ...feminine
principle--undifferentiated substance. Akasa. ... the "root of
nature" (Prakriti) or Matter." GLOS 218


PARABHRAM (Sk.) The Supreme Infinite Brahma, "Absolute"--the
attributeless, the secondless reality. The impersonal and
nameless universal Principle. GLOS 248


MANASA or Manaswin (Sk.) "The efflux of the divine
mind,"...the divine sons of Brahma-Viraj...Arupa or incorporeal
sons of the Prajapati [progenitor] Viraj [Brahma...Mahat, the
universal mind] ...The Pitris are identical with the Kumara, the
Vairaja, the manasa-Putra (mind sons), and are finally identified
with the human "Egos." GLOS. 203


MANASA DHYANIS (Sk.) The highest Pitris in the Puranas; the
Agnishwattas, or Solar Ancestors of Man, those who made of Man a
rational being, by incarnating in the senseless forms of
semi-ethereal flesh of the men of the third race." [See Vol. II
of Secret Doctrine - pp. 171-2, 300, 525fn] GLOS 203


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