Theos-Talk Archives (August 2001 Message tt00188)

Sunday, August 19, 2001


Dear Friends:

I found some quotations from H.P.Blavatsky and others relating to
this subject, and thought you might like to see them.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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



D R E A M S

===

Dreams Defined 1 - Dictionary


The Dictionary classifies dreams (or imaginary visions, or a
reality
suggestive of a vision - a conception of possibility), as:

1. occurring during sleep - thoughts, images, emotions, seeming
realities;

2. occurring while awake as :
1.	Visions -- state of mind , while awake, lost in imagining
2.	Reverie -- day-dreaming


SLEEPING


"...it is said, the infant lives because the combination of
healthy organs is able to absorb the life all around it in space,
and is put to sleep each day by the overpowering strength of the
stream of life, since the `preservers' among the cells of the
youthful body are not yet mastered by the other class
[`destroyers'].

These processes of going to sleep and waking up again are simply
and solely the restoring of the equilibrium in sleep and the
action produced by disturbing it when awake...in sleep we are
again absorbing and not resisting the Life Energy; when we wake
we are throwing it off. But as it exists around us as an ocean
in which we swim, our power to resist it is necessarily limited.
Just when we wake we are in equilibrium as to our organs and
life; when we fall asleep we are yet more full of life than in
the morning; it has exhausted us; it finally kills the body.
Such a contest could not be waged forever, since the whole solar
system's weight of life is pitted against the power to resist
focused in one small human frame."	Ocean p. 36 [ see also WQJ
Art. II 563, I 294 ]


"[ on going to sleep -- Answer by HPB ] It is said by Occultism
to be the periodical and regulated exhaustion of the nervous
centres, and especially of the sensory ganglia of the brain,
which refuse to act any longer on this plane, and, if they would
not become unfit for work, are compelled to recuperate their
strength on another plane or Upadhi. [vehicle] First comes the
Swapna, or dreaming state, and this leads to that of Sushupti.
Now it must be remembered that our senses are all dual, and act
according to the plane of consciousness on which the thinking
entity energies. Physical sleep affords the greatest facility for
its action on the various planes; at the same time it is a
necessity, in order that the various senses may recuperate and
obtain a new lease on life for the Jagrata, or waking state, from
the Swapna and Sushupti. According to Raja Yoga Turiya is the
highest state. As a man exhausted by one state of the life fluid
seeks another; as, for example, when exhausted by the hot air he
refreshes himself with cool water; so sleep is the shady nook in
the sunlit valley of life.

"Sleep is a sign that waking life has become too strong for the
physical organism, and that the force of the life current must be
broken by changing the waking for the sleeping state. [ follows
a description of the clairvoyant view of the atmosphere around a
person tired and one refreshed by sleep :

"...the person begins to be too strongly saturated with Life;
the life essence is too strong for his physical organs, and he
must seek relief in the shadowy side of that essence, which side
is the dream element, or physical sleep, on of the states of
consciousness."
--HPB Transactions p. 70-1 [ see also septenary nature of
our senses: SD I 534 ]



SWAPNA -- PSYCHIC -- DREAMS



"In the dream state we lose all knowledge of the objects which
while awake we thought real and proceed to suffer and enjoy in
that new state. [ see SD I 47 ] In this we find the
consciousness applying itself to objects partaking of course of
the nature of experiences of the waking condition, but at the
same time producing the sensations of pleasure and pain while
they last. [ see SD I 56 ] Let us imagine a person's body
plunged in a lethargy extending over twenty years and the mind
undergoing a pleasant or unpleasant dream, and we have a life
just of that sort, altogether different from the life of one
awake. For the consciousness of this dreamer the reality of
objects known during the waking state is destroyed. But as
material existence is a necessary evil and the one is which alone
emancipation or salvation can be obtained, it is of the greatest
importance and hence Karma which governs it...must be well
understood and then be accepted and obeyed."	Echoes. pp. 41-42


"Dreams are sometimes the result of brain action automatically
proceeding, and are also produced by the transmission into the
brain by the real inner person of those senses or ideas high or
low which the real person has seen while the body slept. They
are then strained into the brain as if floating on the soul as it
sinks into the body. These dreams may be of great use, but
generally the resumption of bodily activity destroys the meaning,
perverts the image, and reduces all to confusion.

But the great fact of all dreaming is that some one perceives
and feels therein and this is one of the arguments for the inner
person's existence.

In sleep the inner man communes with higher intelligences, and
sometimes succeeds in impressing the brain with what is gained,
either a high idea or a prophetic vision, or else fails in
consequence of the resistance of the brain fiber. The karma of
the person also determines the meaning of a dream, for a kind may
dream that which relates to his kingdom, which the same thing
dreamed by a citizen relates to nothing of temporal consequence.
But, as said by Job: "In dreams and visions of the night man is
instructed."	Ocean, p. 143-4


"When one says "I dreamed," he is in the waking state and is
surrounded by the external conditions that go to make up that
state of consciousness; he is therefore comparing the state in
which he finds himself with another state whose surroundings are
not then present or evident...in the dreaming state, all that
made up his waking state is absent from his perceptions and he is
surrounded by a world of his own creation, which for the time
being is objective and real to him; his perceptions are "awake"
to the dream and immersed in it, so he has nothing before him to
compare the states of waking and dreaming with. Should he be
able to make comparisons , the dream state would cease and he
would be awake."	Answers to Questions, p. 94-5



SUSHUPTI -- DEEP SLEEP -- "DREAMS"


"Dreamless sleep is one of the seven states of consciousness
known in Oriental esotericism. In each of these states a
different portion of the mind comes into action; or as a
Vedantin would express it, the individual is conscious in a
different plane of his being. The term "dreamless sleep," in
this case is applied allegorically to the Universe to express a
condition somewhat analogous to that state of consciousness in
man, which, not being remembered is a waking state, seems a
blank, just as the sleep of the mesmerized subject seems to him
an unconscious blank when he returns to his normal condition,
although he has been talking and acting as a conscious individual
would."	SD I 47


"...dreamless sleep--one that leaves no impression on the
physical memory and brain, because the sleeper's Higher Self is
in its original state of absolute unconsciousness during those
hours...re-absorption is by no means such a "dreamless sleep,"
but, on the contrary, absolute existence, an unconditioned unity,
or a state, to describe which human language is absolutely
hopelessly inadequate...it can be attempted solely in the
panoramic
visions of the soul, through spiritual ideations of the divine
monad."	[ see also SD I 429 top ]	SD I 266


"Buddhi the Spiritual soul...because it is the direct cause of
Sushupti [deep sleep]...leading to Turiya...the highest state of
Samadhi [ Meditation ]...Buddhi becomes a "causal body" in
conjunction with Manas the incarnation of the Entity or Ego..."
Glossary, p. 74


"There are many kinds of "dreams"...the highest of them being
recollections of the activity and real awareness of the Inner
Man, but these are not ordinarily translatable into terms of
bodily consciousness."	Ans. to Quest. p. 95


"As a rule, all that we experience of a dream from the inner man
is a feeling, for the dream being strained through the brain is
all broken and confused. A dream that makes a profound
impression...cannot be a mere surface dream."	Ans. to Quest. 220


"In every night he enters that spiritual state, his own true
nature. Connection between the Lower and the Higher Manas must
be made during life in a body; it cannot be made at any other
time."	And. to Quest. 175


"Good resolutions are mind-painted pictures of good deeds,
fancies, day-dreams, whisperings of the Buddhi to the Manas..."
Letters from the Masters of Wisdom (I) p 60-1



"Turiya (Sk.) A state of the deepest trance--the 4th state of
the Taraka Raja Yoga, on the corresponds with Atma, and on this
earth within dreamless sleep--a causal condition...almost a
Nirvanic state if Samadhi, which is itself a beatific state of
the contemplative Yoga beyond this plane. A condition of the
higher Triad, quite distinct (though still inseparable) from the
conditions of Jagrat (waking), Swapna (dreaming), and Sushupti
[dreamless] (sleeping)" Glos. 345-6



SLEEP & DREAMS GENERAL



ASTRAL BODY AND SLEEPING


"In our dreams," says Paracelsus, "we are like the plants which
have also the elementary and vital body, but possess not the
spirit. In our sleep the astral body is free and can, by the
elasticity of its nature, either hover round in proximity with
its sleeping vehicle, or soar higher to hold converse with its
starry parents, or even communicate with its brothers at great
distances. Dreams of a prophetic character, prescience, and
present wants are the faculties of the astral spirit. To our
elementary and grosser body, these gifts re not imparted, for at
death it descends into the bosom of the earth and is reunited to
the physical elements while the several spirits return to the
stars..."	Isis I 170



[ more details on Dreams will be found:
Transaction of the Blavatsky Lodge, pp 58...,
Isis I 179; WQJ Art. I 294, 536
see Indexes to Judge and HPB Articles, SD,
Sleep and Dreams, R. Crosbie, F. P. p. 258, 66-67
Dreams and Karma	"	" Ans. to Quest. p. 219-221
Dreamless Sleep	SD I 38, 47, 266
Because for Children who ask Why? p. 70...
"The Psychology of Dreams" - Theosophy Mag. Vol. 6
Theosophist 10, p. 229 (S. Rao 3 States of Human Life)
"Seership"	Theos. Art. & Notes, p. 213

To consider: Trance, Meditation, Deep Sleep, Sushupti,
Turiya, Memory, personality, Individuality,
Will, Consciousness...

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

DEVACHANIC "DREAMS"


"...Devachan being "but a dream," we should agree upon a
definition of the phenomena of dreams...(20)the Occultist
[states] there is a difference between a dream produced by
outward physiological causes and the one which reacts and becomes
in its turn the producer of super-sensuous perceptions and
feelings...he divides dream into the phenomenal and the
noumenal...the physiologist is entirely unfit to comprehend the
ultimate constitution of a disembodied Ego--hence the nature of
its "dreams." T A & N pp. 19-20



"...on the death of the body, there is a long period which
represents a general cleaning up, so to say, of all the personal
states of the life last lived, and a limitation to effect
states,. The personal thoughts have to be worked out, and not
until devachan is exhausted does the Ego again enter into its own
state and know what is to come from what has been...After death,
it is only the effects naturally ensuing from the last life lived
that must be worked out to their residuum, and in these the Ego
is detained from his true nature, which, however, before
returning to earth-life, he resumes for a time."
Ans. to Quest. 175




SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES


"The true student of Raja Yoga knows that everything has its
origin in the mind; that even this universe is the passing
before the Divine Mind of the images he desires to appear."	WQJ
ART II 560


"At the commencement of a great Manvantara [ great cycle of
evolution ], Parabrahm [ the ABSOLUTE ] manifests as Mulaprakriti
[ root-matter ] and then as the Logos ["Word"-thought-plan ].
This Logos is equivalent to the "Unconscious Universal Mind,"
etc., of Western Pantheists. It constitutes the Basis of the
Subject-side of manifested Being, and is the source of all
manifestations of individual consciousness.

Mulaprakriti or Primordial Cosmic Substance, is the foundation
of the Object-side of things--the basis of all objective
evolution and Cosmogenesis.

Force, then, does not emerge with Primordial Substance from
Parabrahmic Latency. It is the transformation into energy of the
supra-conscious thought of the Logos, infused, so to speak, into
the objectivization of the latter out of potential latency in the
One Reality.

Hence spring the wondrous laws of matter...Force succeeds
Mulaprakriti; but, minus Force, Mulaprakriti is for all
practical intents and purposes non-existent."	SD II 24-5	(see
also M L 89-91)


"...spiritual discernment, by means of which the Supreme Spirit
can be discerned in all things...To attain it, the heart--that
is, every part of the nature--must be fixed on the Spirit,
meditation has to be constant, and the Spirit made the refuge or
abiding-place...No particular theosophical classification for the
divisions of nature has been given out... "inferior nature" [ to
Krishna ] is only so, relatively. It is the phenomenal and
transient which disappears into the superior at the end of a
kalpa.

It is that part of God, or of the Self, which chose to assume
the phenomenal and transient position, but is, in essence, as
great as the superior nature. The inferiority is only relative;
as soon as objective material, and subjective spiritual, worlds
appear, the first-named has to be denominated inferior to the
other, because the spiritual being the permanent base, it is in
that sense superior; but in an absolute whole all is equal.

[ Note: One could say that Manvantara-manifestation is
characterized by the Sanskrit term Kamadeva -- that deity the
represents in time and space the reign of those forces peculiar
to all beings which reflect the desire-kama, and the passionate
aspect of each. Those being which are self-conscious have in
this time the opportunity of seeing their own kamic nature as an
aspect of the Universal, Eternal Man, of themselves. To perceive
this desire-nature implies the fat that the Real man is separate
from the mass of his desires, can know them in detail, and can
modify or adjust them. see Light on the Path, essay on Karma ]


Included in the inferior nature are all the visible, tangible,
invisible and intangible worlds; it is what we call Nature. The
invisible and intangible are none the less actual..."
Gita Notes 133


"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
selfishness..."	WQJ ART I 29


"...Time...[is] the panoramic succession of our states of
consciousness..."	S D I 44


"The "Absolute Consciousness,"..."behind" phenomena...is only
termed unconsciousness in the absence of any element of
personality...transcends human conception...Only the liberated
Spirit is able to faintly realize the nature of the source whence
it sprung and whither it must eventually return...we can but bow
in ignorance before the awful mystery of Absolute Being...the
Finite cannot conceive the Infinite..."	S D I 51


"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


"Esoteric philosophy teaches that everything lives and is
conscious, but not that all life and consciousness are similar to
those of human or even animal beings. Life we look on as the
"the one form of existence," manifesting in what is called
matter; or, as in man, what, incorrectly separating them we name
Spirit, Soul and Matter. Matter is the vehicle for the
manifestation or soul on this plane of existence, and soul is the
vehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation of spirit, and
those three are a trinity synthesized by Life, which pervades
them all."	SD I 49



PERCEIVER


"To the perceiver on any plane, perceptions are objective to
him; on a higher plane than this, would they not be his
"physics," although metaphysical to us ? From our plane, that
which is metaphysical becomes physical when embodied. "
FRIENDLY PHILOS. p. 78


"Every one of us is a Perceiver, just as much a Perceiver as we
ever were or ever will be. So is every atom of our body the
perceiver. But we look directly upon ideas; the lives below man
look directly upon sensation. We say waking, dreaming, sleeping,
because our attention has not been directed to the state of
nature beyond life or man ass immortal. But there are other
names for these states of consciousness. Think of the mineral
kingdom as a state of consciousness, and the forms built in that
state. Think of the animal kingdom as life in a given state of
consciousness with the appropriate forms built in them.

Now we--in the state called the Thinker, which is our natural
state--are not any the less the Perceiver, because we are also at
the same time the Thinker and the being which feels. But neither
are we the Thinker pure and simple, nor are we the creature that
is the experiencer of effects pure and simple=--nor are we the
Perceiver pure and simple. It is impossible to dissociate the
three. If a man were in the state called the Perceiver, and if
he were in that state pure and simple, all this that is a mystery
to us would be just as objective in the spiritual sense as we
here and now are objective to each other in the "sense use" of
the term." [J. G.] "QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT AN INFORMAL
OCEAN CLASS" Theos.. Movement., Nov. 1952.





"As to the "we," there is but one "we," or perceiver, who
perceives on any plane through the sheaths evolved by him on each
plane; his perceptions on any plane will depend on the quality
of the sheath or vehicle. Atma (spirit) or consciousness alone,
is what remains after the subtraction of the sheaths. It is the
ONLY witness--a synthesizing unity. On this plane--and this
means during waking consciousness or its dream effects--the
perceiver knows only what it knows on this plane (generally
speaking), (49) and through the ignorance of the Real, involves
itself in the cause and effect of physical nature, identifying
itself with body and sensations, and looking at other human
beings in the same light. This is a wrong attitude of mind. The
"we," at this end, is the identification of the perceiver with
this plane's perceptions--a misconception of the perceiver, a
dream--a play--in which the perceiver is so involved as to have
lost sight and memory of his real life.

The mind is both "carrier" and "translator" of both lower and
higher self; the attitude determines the quality and kind of
action, for one will act according to the attitude of mind firmly
held. The great and incalculable value of acting for and as the
Supreme is that there is nothing higher in the way of attitude,
and this endeavor must by its very nature bring about the best
results.

What moves the "mind" this way or that is usually desire for the
attractions of matter, and self-interest in them; these then move
and control the mind through the brain. "We," the Perceiver, do
not perceive anything but the "ideas" which the senses and organs
present. He is not fully awake on this plane; sometimes he gets
partly wakened, but drops off to sleep again, lulled by the
sounds and memories of his dream; sometimes "bad dreams" awake
him; sometimes he is awakened by the voices of those who are
awake.

The "Real" and the "unreal," the "fleeting" and the
"ever-lasting" are terms which will be more fully understood if
looked at from the point of view of the Perceiver. This is the
attitude of mind we should hold."	Friendly Philosopher 48-8



MIND


"Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness
grouped under Thought, Will, and Feeling. During deep sleep,
ideation ceases of the physical plane, and memory is in abeyance;
thus for the time-being "Mind is not," because the organ through
which the Ego manifests ideation and memory on the material plane
has temporarily ceased to function. A noumenon can become a
phenomenon on any plane of existence only by manifesting on that
plane through an appropriate basis or vehicle...The Ah-hi
(Dhyan-Chohans) are the collective hosts of spiritual beings--the
Angelic Hosts of Christianity...--who are the vehicle for the
manifestation of the divine or universal though and will. They
are the Intelligent Forces that give to and enact in Nature her
"laws," while themselves acting according to laws imposed upon
them in a similar manner by still higher Powers...This hierarchy
of spiritual Beings, through which the Universal Mind comes into
action, is like an army--a "Host,"	SD I 38



ANTASKARANA (Sk.) or Antah'karana ..."understanding"...

"the internal instrument, the Soul, formed by the thinking
principle and egoism" ... the Occultists explain it as the path
or bridge between the Higher and the Lower Manas, the divine Ego,
and the personal Soul of man. It serves as a medium of
communication between the two, and conveys from the Lower to the
Higher Ego all those personal impressions and thoughts of men
which can, by their nature, be assimilated and stored by the
undying Entity, and be thus made immortal with its, these being
the only elements of the evanescent Personality that survive the
death and time. It thus stands to reason that only that which is
noble spiritual and divine in man can testify in Eternity to his
having lived."
T. GLOSSARY, p. 23-4



"Every living creature, of whatever description, was, is, or
will become a human being in one or another Manvantara." HPB--
Transactions, p. . 23


"Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness
grouped under Thought, Will, and Feeling. During deep sleep,
ideation ceases of the physical plane, and memory is in abeyance;
thus for the time-being "Mind is not," because the organ through
which the Ego manifests ideation and memory on the material plane
has temporarily ceased to function. A noumenon can become a
phenomenon on any plane of existence only by manifesting on that
plane through an appropriate basis or vehicle...The Ah-hi
(Dhyan-Chohans) are the collective hosts of spiritual beings--the
Angelic Hosts of Christianity,,,--who are the vehicle for the
manifestation of the divine or universal though and will. They
are the Intelligent Forces that give to and enact in Nature her
"laws," while themselves acting according to laws imposed upon
them in a similar manner by still higher Powers...This hierarchy
of spiritual Beings, through which the Universal Mind comes into
action, is like an army--a "Host,"	SD I 38


"..."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 Art., Vol.
II, p. 13


"The matter-moving Nous, the animating Soul, immanent in every
atom, manifested in man, latent in the stone, has different
degrees of power; and this pantheistic idea of a general
spirit-Soul pervading all Nature is the oldest of all the
philosophical notions."	S D I 51


"There is a dual element in the mind of man. HPB wrote on this
as follows:

"this means that he would have to admit a lower (animal), and a
higher (or divine) mind in man, of what is known in Occultism as
the "personal" and the "impersonal" Egos. For, between the
psychic and the noetic, between the personality and the
individuality there exists the same abyss as between a "Jack the
Ripper," and a holy Buddha...These two we distinguish as the
Higher Manas (Mind or Ego) and the Kama-Manas, i.e., the
rational, but earthy or physical intellect of man, encased in,
and bound by. matter, therefore subject to the influence of the
latter: the all-conscious Self, that which reincarnates
periodically--verily the Word made flesh--and which is always the
same, while its reflected "Double," changing with every new
incarnation and personality, is, therefore, conscious but for a
life-period. The latter "principle," is the Lower Self, or that
which manifesting through our organic system, acting on this
plane of illusion, imagines itself the Ego Sum, and thus falls
into what Buddhist philosophy brands as the "heresy of
separateness." The former, we term Individuality, the latter
Personality."	HPB	"Psychic and Noetic Action"
HPB Articles II pp , 9-10, 20-1



HIGHER ASPECT OF THE LOWER MANAS


"..."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


"the one free force acts, helped in this by that portion of its
essence which we call imprisoned force, or material molecules.
The worker within, the inherent force, ever tends to unite with
its parent essence without; and thus, the Mother acting within,
causes the Web to contract; and the Father acting without, to
expand. Science calls this gravitation; Occultists, the work of
the universal Life-Force, which radiates from that Absolute and
Unknowable FORCE which is outside of all Space and Time. This is
the work of eternal Evolution and involution, or expansion and
contraction. [ Web cooling ]...it begins when the imprisoned
force and intelligence inherent in every atom of differentiated
as well as of homogeneous matter arrives at a point when both
become the slaves of a higher intelligent Force whose mission is
to guide and shape it.

It is the Force which we call the divine Free-Will, represented
by the Dhyani-Buddhas. When the centrepetal and centrifugal
forces of life and being are subjected by the one nameless Force
which brings order in disorder, and establishes harmony in
Chaos--then it begins cooling...Every form, we are told, is built
in accordance with the model traced for it in the Eternity and
reflected in the DIVINE MIND. There are hierarchies of "Builders
of form," and series of forms and degrees, from the highest to
the lowest. While the former are shaped under the guidance of
the "Builders," the gods, "Cosmocratores;" the latter are
fashioned by the Elementals or Nature Spirits."
TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE, p. 128-9


"...Buddhi and Atma...These higher principles are entirely
inactive on our plane, and the higher Ego (Manas) itself is more
or less dormant during the waking of the physical man....So
dormant are the Spiritual faculties, because the Ego is so
trammeled by matter, that It can hardly give all its attention to
man's actions, even should the latter commit sins for which that
Ego--when reunited with its lower Manas--will have to suffer
conjointly in the future. It is...the impressions projected into
the physical man by this Ego which constitute what we call
"conscience;" and in proportion as the personality, the lower
Soul (or Manas), unites itself to its higher consciousness, or
EGO, does the action of the latter upon the life of mortal man
become more marked."	TRANS 62-3


"...it is the higher Manas illuminated by Buddhi; the principle
of self-consciousness, the "I-am-I"...It is the Karana-Sarira,
the immortal man, which passes from one incarnation to another."
TRANS 63


"There is a sort of conscious telegraphic communication going on
incessantly, day and night, between the physical brain and the
inner man...the consciousness of the sleeper is not active but
passive. The inner man, however, the real Ego, acts
independently during the sleep of the body...Read "Karmic
Visions" [ HPB ART I, 382 ]...and note the description of the
real Ego, sitting as a spectator of the life of the hero..."
TRANS 64-5



ILLUSION OR MAYA


"Maya or illusion is an element which enters into all finite
things, for everything that exists has only a relative, not an
absolute, reality, since the appearance which the hidden noumenon
assumes for any observer depends upon his power of cognition...
Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence
which contains in itself the noumena of all realities. The
existence belonging to every plane of being up to the highest
Dhyan Chohans, are, in degree, of the nature of shadows...but all
things are relatively real, for the cognizer is also a
reflection, and the things cognized are therefore as real to him
as himself. What ever reality things possess must be looked for
it them before or after they have passed like a flash through the
material world; but we cannot cognize any such existence
directly, so long as we have sense instruments which bring only
material existence into the field of our consciousness. Whatever
plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the things
belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only
realities. As we rise in the scale of development we perceive
that during the stages through which we have passed we mistook
shadows for realities, and the upward march of the Ego is a
series of progressive awakenings, each advance bringing with it
the idea that now, at last, we have reached "reality;" but only
when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and
blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions
produced by Maya."	SD I 39-40



THE BRAIN


"We might properly speak, then, of the memory of the end-organ
of vision or of hearing, of the memory of the spinal cord and of
the different so-called 'centers' of reflex action belonging to
the chords of the memory of the medulla oblongata, the
cerebellum, etc." This is the essence of Occult teaching...every
organ in our body has its own memory. For it is endowed with a
consciousness "of its own kind," every cell must of necessity
have also a memory of its own kind, as likewise its own psychic
and noetic action. Responding to the touch of both a physical
and a metaphysical Force, the impulse given by the psychic (or
psycho-molecular) Force will act from without within; while that
of the noetic (shall we call it Spiritual-dynamical ?) Force
works from within without. For, as our body is the covering of
the inner "principles," soul, mind, life, etc., so the molecule
or the cell is the body in which dwell its principles," the (to
our senses and comprehension) immaterial atoms which compose that
cell. The cell's activity and behavior are determined by its
being propelled either inwardly or outwardly, by the noetic or
the psychic Force, the former having no relation to the physical
cells proper. Therefore while the latter act under the
unavoidable law of the conservation and correlation of physical
energy, the atoms--being psycho-spiritual, not physical
units--act under laws of their own, just as Professor Ladd's
"Unit-Being," which is our "Mind-Ego," does, in his very
philosophical and scientific hypothesis.

Every human organ and each cell in the latter has a keyboard of
its own, like that of a piano, only that it registers and emits
sensations instead of sounds. Every key contains the
potentiality of good or bad, of producing harmony or disharmony.
This depends on the impulse given and the combination produced;
on the force of the touch of the artist at work, a "double-faced
Unity," indeed...For the whole of man is guided by this
double-faced Entity. If the impulse comes from the "Wisdom
above," the Force applied being noetic or spiritual, the results
will be actions worthy of the divine propeller...It is the
function of the physical, lower mind to act upon the physical
organs and their cells; but, it is the higher mind alone which
can influence the atoms interacting in those cells, which
interaction is alone capable of exciting the brain, via the
spinal "center" cord, to a mental representation of spiritual
ideas far beyond any objects on this material plane.

The phenomena of divine consciousness have to be regarded as
activities of our mind on another and a higher plane, working
through something less substantial than the moving molecules of
the brain...Occultism teaches that the liver and the spleen-cells
are the most subservient to the action of our "personal" mind,
the heart being the organ par excellence through which the
"Higher" Ego acts--through the Lower Self."
HPB-- "Psychic and Noetic Action" -- HPB Art. II, pp. 22-3


"...the plastic power of the imagination is much stronger in
some persons than in others. The mind is dual in its
potentiality; It is physical and metaphysical. The higher part
of the mind is connected with the spiritual soul or Buddhi, the
lower with the animal soul, the Kama principle. There are
persons who never think with the higher faculties of their mind
at all; those who do so are the minority and are thus, in a
way, beyond, if not above, the average of human kind. The
idiosyncrasy of the person determines in which "principle" of the
mind the thinking is done, as also the faculties of a preceding
life, and sometimes the heredity of the physical. This is why it
is so very difficult for a materialist--the metaphysical portion
of whose brain is almost atrophied--to raise himself, or for one
who is naturally spiritually minded, to descend to the level of
the matter-of-fact vulgar thought...[ Thinking to be developed in
the higher mind ? ]...Certainly it can be developed, but only
with great difficulty, a firm determination, and through much
self-sacrifice...This difference depends simply on the innate
power of the mind to think on the higher or on the lower plane,
with the astral...or with the physical brain. Great intellectual
powers are often no proof of, but are the impediments to
spiritual and right conceptions...The person who is endowed with
this faculty of thinking about even the most trifling things from
the higher plane of thought has, by virtue of that gift which he
possesses, a plastic power of formation, so to say, in his very
imagination...his thought will be so far more intense that the
thought of an ordinary person, that by his very intensity it
obtains the power of creation...thought is an energy. This
energy in its action disturbs the atoms of the astral atmosphere
around us...the rays of thought have the same potentiality for
producing forms in the astral atmosphere as the sun rays have
with regard to a lens. Every thought so evolved with energy from
the brain, creates nolens volens a shape."	HPB-- Dialogues --
HPB Art. II 42-3


"...the human brain is simply the canal between two planes--the
psycho-spiritual and the material--through which every abstract
and metaphysical idea filters from the Manasic down to the lower
human consciousness. Therefore the ideas about the infinite and
the absolute are not, nor can they be, within our brain
capacities. They can be faithfully mirrored only by our
Spiritual consciousness, thence to be more of less faintly
projected on to the tables of our perceptions on this plane.
Thus while the records of even important events are often
obliterated from our memory, not the most trifling action of our
lives can disappear from the "Soul's" memory, because it is no
memory for it, but an ever-present reality on the plane which
lies outside our conceptions of space and time. "Man is the
measure of all things," said Aristotle; and surely he did not
mean by man, the form of flesh, bones and muscles ? ... As our
world is mostly formed of imperceptible beings which are the real
constructors of its continents, so likewise is man."
HPB--Memory in the Dying--	HPB Art. II 378-9


"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 this Universe an organ of
thought, a "brain." The latter, though not objective to our
senses, is none the less existing; it is to be found in the
Entity called Kosmos (Adam Kadmon in the Kabbalah). As in the
Microcosm Man, so in the Macrocosm, or the Universe. Every organ
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."
(see Lucifer, Vol. 7, p. 476fn)


"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 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...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."	Theos. Art. & Notes, p. 208







MEMORY


"Our "memory" is but a general agent, and its "tablets," with
their indelible impressions, but a figure of speech; the
"brain-tablets" serve only as a upadhi or a vahan (basis or
vehicle) for reflecting at a given moment the memory of one or
another thing. The records of past events, of every minutest
action, and of passing thoughts, in fact, are realty impressed on
the imperishable waves of the Astral Light, around us and
everywhere, not in the brain alone; and these mental pictures,
images, and sounds, pass from these waves via the consciousness
of the personal Ego or Mind (the lower Manas) whose grosser
essence is astral, into the "cerebral reflectors," so to say, of
our brain, whence they are delivered by the psychic to the
sensuous consciousness. This at every moment of the day, and
even during sleep."	Theos. Art. & Notes, p. 209


"...Genius--an abnormal aptitude of mind--that develops and
grows, or the physical brain, is vehicle, which becomes...fitter
to receive and manifest from within outwardly the innate and
divine nature of man's over-soul."
HPB-- "Genius"	-- HPB Art. II 119



THE MONAD


"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


"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."	[see SD I pp. 173-4 footnotes]
T. Glossary, p. 216


"Metaphysically speaking, it is of course an absurdity to talk
of the "development" of a Monad, or to say that it becomes
"Man."...a 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 to
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 unresting current of
evolution."	SD I 174-5 fn.


"...the whole secret of Life is in the unbroken series of its
manifestations: whether in, or apart from, the physical
body...yet it is itself part and parcel of that Eternity; for
life alone can understand life... It is Jiva, the Monad in
conjunction with Manas, or rather its aroma--that which remains
from each personality, when worthy, and hangs from Atma-Buddhi,
the Flame, by the thread of life."	SD I 238


"(e) Manas -- a dual principle in its functions. Mind,
Intelligence: which is the higher human mind, whose light, or
radiation links the MONAD, for the lifetime, to the mortal man.

The future state and karmic destiny of man depend on whether
Manas gravitates more downward to Kama rupa, 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.

(f) Buddhi. The Spiritual Soul. The vehicle of pure
universal spirit.

(g) Atma. Spirit. One with the Absolute, as its radiation.
KEY, p. 92


INTUITION


"...a projection of our perceptive consciousness, a projection
which acts from the subjective to the objective...awakens in us
spiritual senses and the power to act; these senses assimilate
to themselves the essence of the object or of the action under
examination, and represent it to us as it really is, not as it
appears to our physical senses and to our cold
reason...omniscience." HPB I 428


"...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 a 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 downwards 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',"
(SD I 329) The "eternal pilgrim" must therefore mount higher,
and flee from the plane of self-consciousness it has struggled so
hard to reach."	WQJ ART I 29


"The "Absolute Consciousness,"..."behind" phenomena...is only
termed unconsciousness in the absence of any element of
personality...transcends human conception...Only the liberated
Spirit is able to faintly realize the nature of the source whence
it sprung and whither it must eventually return...we can but bow
in ignorance before the awful mystery of Absolute Being...the
Finite cannot conceive the Infinite..."	S D I 51


"the one free force acts, helped in this by that portion of its
essence which we call imprisoned force, or material molecules.
The worker within, the inherent force, ever tends to unite with
its parent essence without; and thus, the Mother acting within,
causes the Web to contract; and the Father acting without, to
expand. Science calls this gravitation; Occultists, the work of
the universal Life-Force, which radiates from that Absolute and
Unknowable FORCE which is outside of all Space and Time. This is
the work of eternal Evolution and involution, or expansion and
contraction. [ Web cooling ]...it begins when the imprisoned
force and intelligence inherent in every atom of differentiated
as well as of homogeneous matter arrives at a point when both
become the slaves of a higher intelligent Force whose mission is
to guide and shape it.

It is the Force which we call the divine Free-Will, represented
by the Dhyani-Buddhas. When the centrepetal and centrifugal
forces of life and being are subjected by the one nameless Force
which brings order in disorder, and establishes harmony in
Chaos--then it begins cooling...Every form, we are told, is built
in accordance with the model traced for it in the Eternity and
reflected in the DIVINE MIND. There are hierarchies of "Builders
of form," and series of forms and degrees, from the highest to
the lowest. While the former are shaped under the guidance of
the "Builders," the gods, "Cosmocratores;" the latter are
fashioned by the Elementals or Nature Spirits."	Trans 128-9


"The universal force cannot be regarded as a conscious force as
we understand the word consciousness, because it would
immediately become a personal god. It is only that which is
enclosed in a form, a limitation of matter, which is conscious of
itself on this plane. This Free Force or Will, which is
limitless and absolute, cannot be said to act understandingly,
but it is the one and sole immutable Law of Life and Being.
Fohat, therefore, is spoken of as the synthetic motor power of
all imprisoned life-forces and the medium between the absolute
and conditioned Force. It is a link, just as Manas is the
connecting link between the gross matter of the physical body and
the divine Monad which animates it, but is powerless to act upon
the former directly."	Trans., 134


MATTER -- SUBSTANCE


Q'LIPPOTH	(Heb.) or Klippoth [Glos 178].	The world of Demons or
Shells...Q'lippoth contains the matter of which stars, planets,
and even men are made, shows that Samael with his legions is
simply chaotic, turbulent matter, which is used in its finer
state by spirits to robe themselves in. For speaking of the
"vesture" or form (rupa) of the incarnating Egos, it is said in
the Occult Catechism that they, the Manasaputra 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, in other words,
primordial ilus. And these dregs are what the Egyptians have
called Typhon and modern Europeans Satan, Samael, etc..."	Glos
268-9
[ see also Klippoth Glos. pp. 178-9 ]



SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE


"Sudda 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-ism rather than any essence."	T. GLOSSARY, p. 311


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



-----Original Message-----
From: Wes Amerman [mailto:wamerman@socal.rr.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2001 5:16 PM
To: basic@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-basic] More RE: Dreams

Dear Friend,

Rather than say you "have this correct," or not, it might be
better to state
that we seem to have a similar understanding of the principles
involved. I
think the radio analogy is a good one, as it helps distinguish
between the
instrument and the Perceiver who listens in.

I'm certainly no "authority" on dreams, and would suggest that
each of us is
ultimately responsible for what we accept or reject. When you've
read
Judge's article, let us know if you have any further observations
or
questions.

Best Regards,
Wes

---------------