Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00329)

t 12:30 PM 10/20/01 -0400, you wrote:
><<It's above space/time as we know it.>>>
>
>Eldon, you are correct. I think that this is the central point that I have
>been trying to make on this whole issue. When we compare HPB's 7-plane model
>with Buddhism we can easily see that the lower 4 planes are samsara and the
>upper 3 are nirvana. The Hinayana teach that nirvana is permanent and
>ultimate and absolute. This seems to be in accord with what Dallas and
>others keep saying re the permanency of atma-buddhi. However, the Mahayana
>and especially Dzogchen hold that the ultimate or permanent or abolute, if
>such exists at all, has to be beyond nirvana, and they teach that both
>samsara and nirvana are maya. Now, in a previous post of mine, I quoted
>Blavatsky in the SD as agreeing that all 7 planes are maya, so she is in
>full agreement with the Mahayana on this. Knowing this, I keep trying to
>point this out to Dallas when he advocates the permanacy of atma-buddhi. To
>many this is a small matter so technical as to be not worthy of interest,
>but it actually does has many ramifications and consequences on how we view
>Theosophy and especially on our Theosophical worldview. Thanks,
>
>Jerry S.
=======================
Dallas gave an answer in another post (see below)[actually H.P.B. gives it 
and Dallas is passing it on] It seems to me to clear up the question.
================================

"Higher Self The Supreme Divine spirit overshadowing
man. The crown of the upper spiritual Triad in man--Atman.
T. Glos. 141


"...Spirit (in the sense of the Absolute...invisible
All), or Atma. As this cannot be located or limited in
philosophy, being simply that which is in Eternity, and which
cannot be absent from even the tiniest geometrical or
mathematical point of the universe of matter or substance, it
ought not to be called, in truth, a "human" principle at all.
Rather, and at best, it is in Metaphysics that point in space
which the human Monad and its vehicle man occupy for the period
of every life. Now that point is imaginary as man himself, and
id an illusion, a maya; but for ourselves, as for other personal
Egos, we are a reality during that fit of illusion called life,
and we have to take ourselves into account, in our own
fancy...Occultism calls this seventh principle the synthesis of
the six, and gives it for vehicle the Spiritual Soul, Buddhi..."
HPB Key p. 119


"The student must not confuse this Spiritual Ego with the
"Higher Self" which is Atma, the God within us, and inseparable
from the Universal Spirit." Key p. 130-1fn


"This "Higher Self" is Atma... For Atman or the "Higher
Self" is really Brahma, the Absolute, and indistinguishable from
it. In hours of Samadhi, the higher spiritual consciousness of
the Initiate is entirely absorbed in the One essence, which is
Atman, and therefore being one with the whole, there can be
nothing objective for it...this term [Self] ought never to be
applied except to the One universal Self...even Buddhi, the
"Spiritual Soul," is not the Self, but the vehicle only of the
Self. All the other "selves"...ought never to be spoken or
written of without their qualifying and characteristic
adjectives." -- HPB Key p. 174