Theos-Talk Archives (June 2001 Message tt00089)

Sunday, June 24, 2001

Dear Mauri:

Review what has already been sent to you,. Review what you read
in THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY (HPB)
The single purpose of using words is to exchange ideas and hence
a common vocabulary is necessary:
Zero “ 0 “ is the ABSOLUTE - concerning this SOURCE
whether in or out of “manifestation”
nothing can be said—we cannot compare it to anything—it a
“logical necessity.”

------------------ Passing to the
anifested” -------------------

One is the SPIRITUAL - The all enveloping
SOURCE

TWO is the MONAD in Evolution (SPIRIT AND
PRIMORDIAL MATTER as a UNIT)
It is called ATMA-BUDDHI or PURITY and
ACCUMULATED EXPERIENCE

THREE is the MONAD when it becomes SELF-CONSCIOUS
i.e. acquires an
Independent and free-willed MIND
It is called ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS
This is the INDIVIDUALITY

Let me interject below some comments
Best wishes,
Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: m [mailto:mhart@idirect.ca]
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2001 3:24 PM
To: Theosophy Study List
Subject: m/Monad


<<<Dallas: H.P.Blavatsky defines the MONAD as a COMBINED UNITY of
polar opposites: SPIRIT and PRIMORDIAL MATTER, whether on a
Universal scale or taken individually, as a base for our
Individual CONSCIOUSNESS and PRESENCE. She also considers this
COMPOUND as indissoluble and primordial.>>>


<<<JERRY: Dallas, you apparently keep missing the illogic here.
Each time I point it out, you keep coming back with the same old
illogical line - and I suspect it is this very failure to
maintain logic that will eventually put the TM out of business.
People today are looking for a logical coherent system. Buddhism
is growing in America, while Theosophy is not.
When you say that a monad is a compound, you are screwing things
up so bad that it makes the whole TM look bad. It could also
cause an outsider to refuse to listen to anything else you may
have to say. Furthermore, a “compound” is exactly what Buddha
tells us is a mayavic illusion. How can you continue with such
illogical statements? Blavatsky used the term Monad as opposite
to aggregate or compound - anything that is indivisible or
partless and she got this from both Buddhism and from Leibnitz,
who apparently coined the word.>>>

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

Dallas
WORDS VS IDEAS

1. Allow me to quote from H.P.Blavatsky. (which I do at
the end )

Ideas are more important than the words used to convey them. The
words are materializing forms and limits. They are used to
convey IDEAS. In my opinion one has to look behind the words.
It is because of this limitation that one cannot rely on
TRANSLATIONS. The WORDS have been manipulated by another mind.
They are the opinions of the originals. That being so, (in my
esteem) words are only guides and we have to search for the
meanings BEHIND them.

In this material world we are accustomed to abide by and rely on
forms. Science demonstrates that the FORMS are in constant
CHANGE. But something holds a space reserved for the replacement
atoms, molecules, cells, entities, etc… That is not visible or
tangible on this plane of perception. But its existence is a
logical necessity.

Theosophy, reintroduced through H P B the ancient and then
universal concept of the electro-magnetic ASTRAL BODY (as part of
the ASTRAL PLANE—which is next to the physical—and is, of course,
as everything else in Nature 7-fold). In its lowest aspect, it
serves to provide a lattice work or an electro-magnetic and
intangible frame (which endures for the life-time of the
Personality and dissipates at death) in which replacement atoms,
etc… find a lodging and where they can take over the work and
duties of those which leave.

ORGANIZATION in the UNIVERSE


One has to presume there is a REASON for the aggregation of these
structures.
[In passing let us note that:

1. The “ATOM” is already sub-physical, and so are the various
components of the ATOM which have been discovered.

2nd. There is a REASON for any and every structure or being in
the Universe.

3rd. The UNIVERSE has all this intricately interactive and
sensitive condition in place.

4th. Our Science is investigating and discovering that which IS
ALREADY IN PLACE.

5th. Ancient Science, which is codified by generations of the
WISE ( Adepts, Brothers, Masters, mahatmas, Bodhisattvas, Dhyan
Chohans, Buddhas, etc… and their disciples and chelas, etc…) is
the Source of Theosophical teaching. Every “religion” is found
to be derived from this singe WISDOM-SOURCE.

6th. The Universe and every entity or being in it is ruled by
the LAWS of NATURE, also called the LAW of KARMA. The whole
gamut and panorama of beings from the Atom to the utmost limits
of the Galaxy is under one general law: HARMONY. The rights,
duties and responsibilities of the least of beings (or the most
ignorant beginners) are as sacred and worthy of preserving, ( by
the LAW of KARMA) as are the rights, duties and responsibilities
of the Greatest or the most Wise. This is the primary ”lesson”
to be grasped. No one has the right to tyrannize, or to make of
another a victim, or kill their bodily material form.

7th Every being or structure is aggregated out of Monads of
lesser experience. These are, in their essence, IMMORTALS (for
the term of the Maha-Manvantara -- S D II 69-70).

8th This introduces (for the Monads of increasing experience—S D
I 174-5 fn) the concept of REINCARNATION. The innumerable
Personalities, a new one being assumed at the time of each
rebirth by the INDIVIDUAL EGO, are manifestations of individual
and personal KARMA. The process of adjustment continually
proceeds under Karma, as the “form and the feeling” adjust to the
environment which being justly and wisely ruled, is essentially
generous, charitable, protective and brotherly.

9th. Every one of these Monads has a “Path” laid out for it
which in essence is similar to the ”paths” available to every
other Monad, new, or old. These “Paths” are not identical, but
include the element of responsibility arising from the universal
property belonging to all beings: free-will and the power of
self-choice. Thus, “diversity” is created by decisions made by
all these dependent/interdependent units, who, under nature’s
general tuition, are obliged to discover for themselves all the
workings of that UNIVERSE in which they live (stating with
themselves, and then, studying their Earth, Globe, Race, Galaxy,
etc… It is the study of Karma, which, operating every where in
the Universe is described as the Harmony of Diversities.

10th. We have not yet discussed the part that CONSCIOUSNESS
plays, and as Theosophy describes it, the individual Monad
emerges from the “Monadic Essence” [ S D I 619 ] and faces a very
long path of progress in which “time” (as we consider it) is not
a factor—infinitude is the illimitable “field” in which it will
work as it progresses through the elemental beings, the mineral,
the vegetable and the animal kingdoms (each representing a stage
of advance and a development of a new level of understanding in
it, and in its environment, as there monads cling to it, and
benefit from the atmosphere of its progress). Theosophy divides
these into “natural Impulse,” “Personal consciousness ( where
desire and mind co-exist ), “SELF consciousness,” and finally
“Universal SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.” In the last the personal
consciousness having been purified and made VIRTUOUS it is
trusted by Nature and Karma with the power to perceive and act as
one of natures “Assistants.”

I WILL APPEND AT THE END OF THIS a list of quotations on the
MONAD as Theosophy sees it. DTB

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

Mauri
Though I’m not a particularly ambitious student of Theosophy (I
seem to have trouble getting consistently “interested enough” in
even such a basically FASCINATING subject as Theosophy), the
recent exchange of words between Dallas, Mark, and Gerald has
had the effect of increasing my attention, at any rate. So
thanks, guys, for that. I guess some of us “students” can get so
laid back, along the way, that even Dallas will lose patience . .
. as in my case. Sorry about that, Dallas. What can I say?
Anyway, I’ve been paying a little more attention, lately (or did
I say that already?), and so thought I would try to sort out
some of my thoughts in writing about the recent topic of
Monad/monad. As always, the following is just so much thinking
out loud, rhetorical questioning and tentative sorting out on my
part (a fairly new student of Theosophy that I am), and hopefully
won’t be taken “much too seriously” the wrong way, especially as
I admittedly don’t know much.
Seems to me that, for “people today,” m/Monads seem difficult to
comprehend because . . . and here’s some of my interpretation as
one of the “people today:”
Our attempts to “see” beyond dualistic thoughts would seem to
have an interesting parallel (?) with our attempts to define
“m/Monad” in the sense that, while there might be said to be
descriptions of Monadic semblance or “reflection” in terms of
aggregates of Atma-Buddhi/Manas, at the same time those
aggregates are (I gather) expressive of no more than a
dualistic/interpretive/Manasic “expression/s” (of “ray/s”?) of a
Monad, rather than the Monad Itself?
In other words (?), when we (“too casually,” say?) refer to
aggregates of Atma-Buddhi/Manas that dualistically appear as
relevant to a description of a capital “M” “Monad” (which at the
same time is supposedly unitary and indivisible in essence?), we
might, at the same time, create the impression (for some newer
“people today” students, like myself?) that a “Monad” might
consist of parts (unitary parts?) that are all of primordial,
eternal, as well as ever-changing (?), especially if the unitary
source aspect of a small “m” monad is not always first defined to
the newer students (like myself) in that description? So thanks,
Gerald, for straightening us slow learners about the more “real”
nature of the m/Monad.
It wasn’t until Gerald pointed out the Monad’s
indivisible/partless nature as distinct from the “reflected”
aggregates that I began to start seeing the m/Monad as having
interpretive aspects to it that seem to sometimes get people, (as
they did me), a little confused.
In other words, it now SEEMS to me (according to my tentative
interpretations so far) that my “spiritual efforts” (within my
tentative/searching “what-if” parameters) are directed at some
kind of conscious realization of a “Monadic” essence; and that
that “Monadic essence” (the capital “M” designating it’s Intimate
“I” essence/relationship, as per my tentative interpretation) is
(really?) Unitary in a “Universal” sense: so that there is only
ONE (?) Monad that, in its expressive/reflective mode of
Atma-Buddhi/Manas, is like the “Soul” of “all that is” within
certain defined limits (?) and expresses itself (by way of
complex “rays,” “planes,” whatever?) in terms that we have partly
decided to call Atma, Buddhi, Manas, on a Mayavic and
INTERMEDIARY level of Reality?
So can we say that the multi-aspect or expression or effect or
ray or plane or whatever of a monad (Atma, Buddhi, Manas, or
whatever) is not the capital “M” Monad itself at all but merely
its Connection with it: Are plural “monads” really only so many
Connections with the Real Thing: a ONE Monad? So that
Atma-Buddhi/Manas, for example, as they apply to each of us
individually, might be considered as something like a product (a
product that has been called “monad” for the sake of convenience
and Mayavic appearance?) of the one and only Universal Monad?
OR (?): Can the “aggregates” of a monad be logically considered
as primordial, eternal, unitary themselves, WHEN TOGETHER (as if
they were a secondary/fragmentary “monadic/Monadic” but small-“m”
monadic “image” in some sense?), within certain defined limits,
after which, in the course of Evolution, those aggregates would
revert to an increasingly unitary Something/Monad, thereby
appearing to end/change their “eternal” more-Mayavic fragmentary
status, but really just changing much the way our recent selves
have changed over the years?
Speculatively,
Mauri

PS Reading the following one might wonder whether all of us
have a unique and separate “monad” that “shoots from itself” or
is there just one indivisible Monad that continually connects, by
way of rays or whatever, all that we know.
The following is from
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/mi-mo.htm
<http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/mi-mo.htm>
(notes inserted)
Monadic Ray

The monad, that divine-spiritual-intellectual seed or originant
of each evolving being, does not itself descend into the planes
of matter, but shoots forth from itself a multitude of rays. Each
such rays forms the essential nature of the complex evolving
being to which it pertains, and hence the monad is the primal or
ultimate source of all that being’s life and characteristic
attributes, the immortal part of the being, whether that being be
human, animal, vegetable, mineral, or what not. In man it is his
essential self; it persists throughout all the evolutionary
transformations in the life cycle and gathers around itself the
life-atoms at each new incarnation of the reincarnating ego.
Thus the monad in any person is his inner god, the celestial
Buddha of his own septenary constitution, or again his individual
Immanent Christ.
Then the following seems to say that each person has a separate
”individual monad.”
The rays from the person’s individual monad which form the
complex essential nature of his being, are the sources of the
different centers in the human constitution, and in themselves
are children monads, as it were, from their common source.
But just saying “rays from the person’s individual monad” doesn’t
make clear to me whether the “individual” aspect of “one’s monad”
is unique and separate from (what?) all other individual unique
and separate “monads,” or are all “individualities” really
derivatives or “rays” of just ONE Universal Monad? If
“individualities” are more like products of “rays,” why call them
“monads” in the first place if they’re not really “monadic”
essentially? Or are those Monadic individual Mayavic products so
Mayavically “monadic” that that Mayavic definition for “monad”
has been adopted along with the general Manasic tendency to
concede to much of Maya? Or something like that?
=====
Monad, Monas [from Greek monas a unit, individual, atom] A unit,
a one; something nondivisible and which is therefore conceived of
as real, in contradistinction to compound things which (as
compounds) are not real.
In the Pythagorean system the Duad emanates from the higher and
solitary Monas, which is thus the First Cause or First Logos, the
Duad being the Second Cause or Logos; and from the second
emanates the third stage of individuality, the Triad, Third Cause
or Logos. In the human constitution the Monas signifies atman,
the Duad buddhi, and the Triad signifies manas.
The term monad was adopted from Greek philosophy by Bruno,
Leibniz, and others. According to Leibniz there can be but one
ultimate cosmic reality or monad, the universe; but he recognizes
an innumerable multiplicity of monads which pervade the universe,
copies or reflections of the universal monad regarded as real
except in their relation to the universal monad.
I tend to interpret the preceding as meaning that there is just
one Universal Monad and all else is “reflection” or “comparative
reality.” Taking all that into account, (and I suppose there’s
more?), the word “monad” seems to have a number of senses in
which it can be used.
He divides his derivative monads into three classes: rational
souls; sentient but irrational monads; and material monads, or
organic and inorganic bodies. As regards the material monads,
while recognizing that corporeal matter is compound, and the
attributes by which we perceive it unreal, unlike Berkeley, he
does not deny its existence but regards it essentially as
monadic. Thus his universe is an aggregate of individuals. The
relations of these individuals to each other and to the universal
is a supreme harmony, implying both individuality and
coordination, thus reconciling the antinomy of bonds of law and
freedom. The interrelations of various groups of monads is as a
series of hierarchies. Theosophical usage is largely the same as
that of Leibniz, as the focus or heart in any individual being,
of all its divine, spiritual, and intellectual powers and
attributes—the immortal part of its being. In The Secret Doctrine
we find a triadic union of gods-monads-atoms, related to each
other as spirit-soul-body (or more accurately spirit,
spirit-soul, and spirit-soul-body). Monads and atoms are related
to each other as the energic and the material side of
manifestation, the atoms being the reflections, veils, or
projections of and from the monads themselves.
Monads are the ultimate elements of the universe,
spiritual-substantial entities, self-motivated,
self-impelled, self-conscious, in infinitely varying degrees.
They engender other monads, which in turn engender others, and
thus springs up the host of living entities forming the immense
variety and unity of the manifested world. As any monad descends
into matter, it secretes from itself various veils or vehicles
adapted for its self-expression on the various cosmic planes.
Thus in man there is the divine monad, the spiritual monad, the
higher human or chain monad, the lower human or globe monad, the
animal monad, and the astral-physical monad. The following
diagram shows the relations between the cosmic principles; the
monads, egos and souls in the human being; and the human
principles
The monad, as its name implies, is ever-enduring as an
individual, although at the end of each manvantara it rises into
a still higher or divine stage of perfect union with the
boundless divine, only to re-issue forth again in due course as
the monad it was before, thus beginning a new, immensely long
time period of active individualized life as a spiritual
consciousness-center. Thus it is that even the monads evolve,
each on its own plane, for the hierarchies of the monads are
innumerable and exist in all-various degrees at stages of
evolutionary progression on the endless ladder of cosmic life.

=============
The Sanskrit word is Prabhavâpyaya, “the place, or rather plane,
whence emerges the origination, and into which is the resolution
of all things,” says a commentator. (SD I 46)
All proceeds from Prabhavâpyaya, the evolution of
the creative and sentient principles in the gods, and even of the
so-called creative deity himself. (SD ii 107)


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

DTB The equivalent of PRABHAVAPYAYA is the
ABSOLUTE in non-manifestation.
=================================

QUOTES ON THE MONAD


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.” T. Glossary p.
216

“The breath ( human Monad) needed a form; the Fathers gave it,
The breath needed a gross body; the Earth moulded it. The
Breath needed the Spirit of Life; the Solar Lhas breathed it
into its form . The breath needed a mirror of its body (astral
shadow ); “We gave it our own, “ said the Dhyanis. The breath
needed a vehicle of desires (Kama-rupa) ; “It has it, said the
Drainer of Waters (Sushi, the fire of passion and animal
instinct) . The breath needed a mind to embrace the Universe;
“We cannot give that,” said the Fathers. “I never had it.,”
said the Spirit of the Earth. “The form would be consumed were
I to give it mine,” said the Great (solar) Fire . . . (nascent)
Man remained an empty, senseless Bhuta . . . Thus have the
boneless given life to those who became (later) men with bones in
the third (race . . . “ Stanza IV (17) of Dzyan, S
D II 105

“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


“…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 Egotism (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


“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


“Man tends to become a God and then—God, like every other atom in
the Universe.”
S D I p. 159

“The same difficulty of language is met with in describing the
“stages” through which the Monad passes. Metaphysically
speaking, it is of course an absurdity to talk of the
“development” of a Monad, or to say that it becomes “Man.” . . .
It stands to reason that Monad cannot either progress or develop,
or even be affected by the changes of states it passes through.
It is not of this world or plane, and may be compared only to an
indestructible star of divine light and fire, thrown down on our
Earth as a plank of salvation for the personalities in which it
indwells. It is for the latter to cling to it; and thus
partaking of its divine nature, obtain immortality. Left to
itself the Monad will cling to no one; but, like the “plank,” be
drifted away to another incarnation by the unresisting current of
evolution.” S D I p. 174-5fn


“. . . 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



“Kwan-Shi-Yin . . . means “the Lord that is seen,” and in one
sense, “the divine self perceived by Self “ (the human)—the Atman
or seventh principle merged in the Universal, perceived by, or
the object of perception to, Buddhi, the sixth principle or
divine Soul in man. In a still higher sense,
Avalokiteshvara—Kwan-Shi-Yin, referred to as the seventh
Universal principle, is the Logos perceived by the Universal
Buddhi—or Soul, as the synthetic aggregate of the Dhyani Buddhas.
. . the omnipresent universal Spirit manifested in the temple of
Kosmos or Nature.” S D I p. 471-2


“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 (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 re-appear 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


“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




MONADIC and SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION

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

There seem to be 3 unexplained mysteries:

1. the “Lighting up of Manas”;

2. the “focus” of the MONAD in the animal, and its “selection”
for the hu­man kingdom; and

3. “spiritual evolution.”

How does Theosophy distinguish and explain these ?

The Greeks used the MONAD to indicate the supreme indivisible
Unity of ALL, the ONE. Relating to man’s constitution it
designates often the unified triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the duad,
Atma-Buddhi, or that immortal part of man which reincarnates, the
‘Individuality’ which draws together the immor­tal life-atoms now
enshrined in what we term the “lower kingdoms,” and gradually
transmutes them, galvanizing them into that spiritualized
sub­stance which the Adept uses as his Personality, when
incarnated.

In so doing each element of the ‘personality’ is given its
fullest scope to develop within the framework of universal law.
The aggregate consciousness of the personality is like a child,
and like a child it is presented by karma with those
circumstances and opportunities that it has been molding for
itself by its choices. As a child, it is guarded and succored by
the Individuality, which acts as its parent and teacher to lead
it through tri­al, error and success to become responsible and
aware of its natural duty.

The Universe, our World, as a whole is the living crucible for
this marvelous process

Manas—a dual principle in its functions. I Mind. Intelligence:
which is the higher human mind, whose light or radiation links
the MONAD, for the lifetime, of the mortal man. I The future
state and the Karmic destiny of man depend on whether Manas
gravitates more downward to Kamarupa the seat of the animal
passions, or upwards to Buddhi, the Spiritual Ego. In the latter
case, the higher consciousness of the individual Spiritual
aspirations of mind (Manas), assimilating Buddhi, are absorbed by
it and form the Ego, which goes into Devachanic bliss. (fn.)...
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. In some
men it is the higher Intelligence (Manas or the 5th) which
dominates the rest...”
KEY TO THEOSOPHY, p. 90

Buddhi. I The Spiritual Soul. -- The vehicle of pure
universal spirit.

Atma. I Spirit -- One with the Absolute, as its
radiation.
KEY, p. 92

.when the Soul, psuche [ animal soul ], “allies herself to the
Nous (divine spirit or substance) [fn. “as this spirit is
‘substance,’ then, of course, Buddhi and not Atma is meant, as
the latter cannot philosophically be called ‘substance’ under any
circumstance. We include Atma among the human “principles” in
order not to create additional confusion. In reality it is no
“human” but the universal absolute principle of which Buddhi, the
Soul-Spirit, is the carrier.”] she does everything aright and
felicitously” KEY, p. 92-93


It is not Atma, or even Atma-Buddhi, regarded as the dual Monad,
which is the individual, or divine man, but Manas; for Atman is
the Universal ALL, and becomes the HIGHER SELF of man only in
conjunction with Buddhi, its vehi­cle, which links IT to the
individuality (or divine man). For it is Buddhi-Manas which is
called the Causal body, (the United 5th and 6th Principles) and
which is Consciousness, that connects it with every personality
it in­habits on earth. KEY, p. 119-20


The monad—a truly “indivisible thing,”...—is rendered here 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. In Pralaya...it
loses its name, as it loses it when the real ONE self of man
merges into Brahm in case of high Samadhi (the Turiya state) or
final Nirvana; “when the disciple” ... abandons this illusive
body that has been assumed by the atma just as an actor
(abandons) the dress (put on).” For Buddhi (the Anandamaya
sheath) is but a mirror which reflects absolute bliss; and,
moreover, that reflec­tion itself is not free from ignorance, and
is not the Supreme Spirit, be­ing subject to conditions, being a
spiritual modification of Prakriti, and an effect; Atma alone is
the one real and eternal substratum of all—the essence and
absolute knowledge—the Kshetragna. [fn.: ...that atma (spirit)
alone is what remains after the subtraction of the sheaths and
that it is the ONLY witness, or synthesized unity.”] It is
called in the Esoteric philosophy “the One Witness,” (571) and,
while it rests in Devachan, is referred to as “the Three
Witnesses to Karma.” SD I 570-1

Atma (our seventh principle) being identical with the universal
Spirit, and man being one with it in his essence, what is 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. In the
esoteric and even exoteric Buddhism of the North, Adi Buddha...
the One unknown, without beginning or end, identical with
Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from its darkness.
SD I 571


“The ancients...taught that each of these departed worlds, having
per­formed its physical evolution, and reached—through birth,
maturity, old age and death—the end of its cycle, had returned to
its primitive subjective form of a spiritual earth. “As well as
man, and every other living thing upon it, our planet has had its
spiritual and physical evolution. From an impalpable ideal
thought under the creative Will of Him of whom we know nothing,
and but dimly con­ceive in imagination, this globe became fluidic
and semi-spiritual, then condensed itself more and more, until
its physical development—matter, the tempting demon—compelled it
to try its own creative faculty. Matter defied SPIRIT, and the
earth, too, had its “Fall.” “The allegorical curse under which
it labors, is that it only pro­creates, it does not create. Our
physical planet is but the handmaiden, or rather the
maid-of-all-work, of the spirit, its master...the Elohim are made
to say “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” “And this
curse will last until the minutest particle of matter on earth
shall have outlived its days, until every grain of dust has, by
gradual transformation through evolution, become a constituent
part of a “living soul,” and, until the latter shall re-ascend
the cyclic arc, and finally stand—its own Metatron, or Redeeming
Spirit—at the foot of the upper step of the spiritual worlds, as
at the first hour of its emanation.. Beyond that lies the great
“Deep”—A MYSTERY ! ISIS II 420