Theos-Talk Archives (November 2001 Message tt00281)

Jerry,

You have done a great job [below] at giving HPB's text and giving 
your initial comments! I will try to read all of this and see what I 
can make of it. Hopefully Peter and others will do the same.

Thanks for getting the ball rolling.

Daniel


Jerry wrote:
> At Daniel's request, here is HPB's exact words from the SD Vol I in 
10 separate quotes, and I will start the discussion off with my own 
comments.
> 
> 
> ***********Quote # 1, SD Vol I pg 569*************
> And this shows that the ancient Initiates, who were followed more 
or less closely by all profane antiquity, meant by the term "ATOM," a 
Soul, a Genius or Angel, the first-born of the ever-concealed CAUSE 
of all causes; and in this sense their teachings become 
comprehensible. They claimed, as do their successors, the existence 
of Gods and Genii, angels or "demons," not outside, or independent 
of, the Universal Plenum, but within it. Only this Plenum, during the 
life-cycles, is infinite. They admitted and taught a good deal of 
that which modern Science teaches now --namely, the existence of a 
primordial "World-stuff or Cosmic Substance," from which worlds are 
formed, ever and eternally homogeneous, except during its periodic 
existence, when it differentiates its universal diffusion throughout 
infinite space; and the gradual formation of sidereal bodies from it. 
They taught the revolution of the Heavens, the Earth's rotation, the 
Heliocentric System, and the Atomic Vortices -- Atoms -- in reality 
Souls and intelligences. But those "Atomists" were spiritual, most 
transcendental, and philosophical Pantheists. It is not they who 
would have ever conceived, or dreamt that monstrous contrasted 
progeny, the nightmare of our modern civilized Race; namely -- 
inanimate material, self-guiding atoms, on the one hand, and an extra-
Cosmic God on the other.
> ****************************
> 
> JERRY: Rather than assuming inanimate matter directed by either 
chance or God, she is saying here that the most fundamental of 
particles are self-conscious and presumably guided by karma. Matter, 
as inanimate independent external solid substance does not exist. 
Modern science would agree with this, and would say that a vacuum, 
the total absence of matter in space, does not exist either.
> 
> *************Quote # 2, SD Vol I, pg 569************
> It may be useful to show what, in the teachings of the old 
Initiates, the Monad was, and what its origin.
> 
> Modern exact Science, as soon as it began to grow out of its teens, 
perceived the great, and, to it, hitherto esoteric axiom, that 
nothing -- whether in the spiritual, psychic, or physical realm of 
being -- could come into existence out of nothing. There is no cause 
in the manifested universe without its adequate effects, whether in 
space or time; nor can there be an effect without its primal cause, 
which itself owes its existence to a still higher one -- the final 
and absolute cause having to remain to man for ever an 
incomprehensible CAUSELESS CAUSE. But even this is no solution, and 
must be viewed, if at all, from the highest philosophical and 
metaphysical standpoints, otherwise the problem had better be left 
unapproached. It is an abstraction, on the verge of which human 
reason -- however trained to metaphysical subtleties -- trembles, 
threatening to collapse. This may be demonstrated to any European who 
would undertake to solve the problem of existence by the articles of 
faith of the true Vedantin, for instance. Let him read and study the 
sublime teachings on the subject of Soul and Spirit, of Sankaracharya 
(Viveka Chudamani)*, and the reader will realize what is now said.
> *************************
> 
> JERRY: Here she is struggling with the idea of a "causeless cause" 
and admits that such a thing cannot adequately be put into words. She 
is quite right. It can't. So, today we would simply call this an 
initial assumption of our thesis, and let it go, because today we 
realize and accept that all theses have such initial assumptions.
> 
> 
> *************Quote # 3, SD Vol I, pg 570************
> While the Christian is taught that the human soul is a breath of 
God -- being created by him for sempiternal existence, i.e., having a 
beginning, but no end (and therefore never to be called eternal) -- 
the Occult teaching says, "Nothing is created, but is only 
transformed. Nothing can manifest itself in this universe -- from a 
globe down to a vague, rapid thought -- that was not in the universe 
already; everything on the subjective plane is an eternal IS; as 
everything on the objective plane is an ever becoming -- because 
transitory."
> ******************************
> 
> JERRY: Here she combines the upper three planes and calls them "the 
subjective plane" and she combines the lower four into "the objective 
plane." Her phrase "an eternal IS" must be taken in a relative sense.
> 
> 
> ***************Quote # 4, SD Vol I, pg 570**********
> The monad -- a truly "indivisible thing," as defined by Good, who 
did not give it the sense we now do -- 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. In Pralaya, or the intermediate period between two 
manvantaras, it loses its name, as it loses it when the real ONE self 
of man merges into Brahm in cases of high Samadhi (the Turiya state) 
or final Nirvana; "when the disciple" in the words of 
Sankara, "having attained that primeval consciousness, absolute 
bliss, of which the nature is truth, which is without form and 
action, 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 yet 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.** It is called in the Esoteric 
philosophy "the One Witness," and, while it rests in Devachan, is 
referred to as "the Three Witnesses to Karma."
> **************************
> 
> JERRY: Here she explains that although a monad is truly 
indivisible, she is using it in the sense of atma-buddhi-manas which 
clearly is divisible. Why? Well, for one thing, an Adept is able to 
combine these three into an experiential unit for which there is no 
English equivalent. She mentions its "pilgrimage" and the absorption 
of manas at the end of the manvantara (when the lower four planes go 
into praylaya), all of which indicates that it changes/grows over 
time. The phrase "loses its name" is a poetical way of saying "loses 
its personal sense of identity." Here she equates buddhi with the 
anandamaya sheath, the Body of Bliss and tells us that atman drops 
off this body during pralaya. Atman alone survives the pralaya of the 
four lower planes. In other words, manas is on the mental plane and 
buddhi is on the causal plane, and both dissolve along with those 
planes during pralaya. Atman, being on the spiritual plane survives, 
and then sends out a new buddhi and manas at the next manvantara. 
Why? In order for it to grow and progress over time.
> 
> 
> ************Quote # 5 SD Vol I, pg 571***********
> 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;" -- of which seven further on. It 
is the EMANATING spark from the UNCREATED Ray -- a mystery. In the 
esoteric, and even exoteric Buddhism of the North, Adi Buddha (Chogi 
dangpoi sangye), the One unknown, without beginning or end, identical 
with Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from its darkness.
> *************************************
> 
> JERRY: Just as atma is the essence of man, so "the universal 
Spirit" is the essence of atma. Both man and atma are expressions or 
rays. Here she is giving us a deep teaching - just as every human 
being is a ray from atma, and atma is a ray from the "Monad proper" 
so even the "Monad proper" is itself a ray. A mystery indeed, and one 
that is more in line with Mahayana Buddhism than with Hinduism or 
Vedanta.
> 
> 
> ************Quote # 6 SD Vol I, pg 571***********
> This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the Supreme Buddha 
(also called Dorjechang). As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot 
manifest, but sends into the world of manifestation his heart -- 
the "diamond heart," Vajrasattva (Dorjesempa). This is the second 
logos of creation, from whom emanate the seven (in the exoteric blind 
the five) Dhyani Buddhas, called the 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 Brahminical Manasaputra, "mind-born sons" -- whether of Brahma or 
either of the other two Trimurtian Hypostases, hence identical also 
with the Rishis and Prajapatis. Thus, a passage is found in Anugita, 
which, read esoterically, shows plainly, though under another 
imagery, the same idea and system. It says: "Whatever entities there 
are in this world, moveable or immoveable, they are the very first to 
be dissolved (at pralaya); and next the developments produced from 
the elements (from which the visible Universe is fashioned); and, 
after these developments (evolved entities), all the elements. Such 
is the upperward gradation among entities. Gods, Men, Gandharvas, 
Pisachas, Asuras, Rakshasas, all have been created by Svabhava 
(Prakriti, or plastic nature), not by actions, nor by a cause" -- 
i.e., not by any physical cause.
> *************************
> 
> JERRY: In Vajrayana, Vajradhara is considered the first Buddha, the 
Dharmakaya Buddha, from which all wisdom flows. He is considered to 
be the Supreme Buddha indeed, supreme in this solar system anyway. 
Vajradhara is said to have taught the inner teachings of Mahamudra to 
the great sage Tilopa, and this led eventually to the formation of 
the Kagu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
> 
> ************Quote # 7 SD Vol I, pg 572************
> "These Brahmanas (the Rishi Prajapati?), the creators of the world, 
are born here (on earth) again and again. Whatever is produced from
> them is dissolved in due time in those very five great elements 
(the five, or rather seven, Dhyani Buddhas, also called "Elements" of 
Mankind), like billows in the ocean. These great elements are in 
every way beyond the elements that make up the world (the gross 
elements). And he who is released even from these five elements (the 
tanmatras)* goes to the highest goal." "The Lord Prajapati (Brahma) 
created all this by the mind only," i.e., by Dhyana, or abstract 
meditation and mystic powers like the Dhyani Buddhas (vide supra). 
Evidently then, these "Brahmanas" are identical with the Bodhisattvas 
(the terrestrial) of the heavenly Dhyani Buddhas. Both, as 
primordial, intelligent "Elements," become the creators or the 
emanators of the monads destined to become human in that cycle; after 
which they evolve themselves, or, so to say, expand into their own 
selves as Bodhisattvas or Brahmanas, in heaven and earth, to become 
at last simple men --"the creators of the world are born here, on 
earth again and again" -- truly. In the Northern Buddhist system, or 
the popular exoteric religion, it is taught that every Buddha, while 
preaching the good law on earth, manifests himself simultaneously in 
three worlds: in the formless, as Dhyani Buddha, in the World of 
forms, as a Bodhisattva, and in the world of desire, the lowest (or 
our world) as a man. Esoterically the teaching differs: The divine, 
purely Adi-Buddhic monad manifests as the universal Buddhi (the Maha-
buddhi or Mahat in Hindu philosophies) the spiritual, omniscient and 
omnipotent root of divine intelligence, the highest anima mundi or 
the Logos. This descends "like a flame spreading from the eternal 
Fire, immoveable, without increase or decrease, ever the same to the 
end" of the cycle of existence, and becomes universal life on the 
Mundane Plane. From this Plane of conscious Life shoot out, like 
seven fiery tongues, the Sons of Light (the logoi of Life); then the 
Dhyani-Buddhas of contemplation: the concrete forms of their formless 
Fathers -- the Seven Sons of Light, still themselves, to whom may be 
applied the Brahmanical mystic phrase: "Thou art 'THAT' -- Brahm." It 
is from these Dhyani-Buddhas that emanate their chhayas (Shadows) the 
Bodhisattvas of the celestial realms, the prototypes of the super-
terrestrial Bodhisattvas, and of the terrestrial Buddhas, and finally 
of men. The "Seven Sons of Light" are also called "Stars."
> *************************
> 
> JERRY: This is a long and difficult paragraph, mixing up both 
Hinduism and Buddhism. Buddhism teaches that creation is due to 
karma, period. I have also never seen this definition of the 
bodhisattva. Buddhism teaches that the bodhisattva is simply a human 
being treading a spiritual Path that leads to buddhahood.
> 
> 
> ************Quote # 8 SD Vol I, pg 572***********
> The star under which a human Entity is born, says the Occult 
teaching, will remain for ever its star, throughout the whole cycle 
of its incarnations in one Manvantara. But this is not his 
astrological star. The latter is concerned and connected with the 
personality, the former with the INDIVIDUALITY. The "Angel" of that 
Star, or the Dhyani-Buddha will be either the guiding or simply the 
presiding "Angel," so to say, in every new rebirth of the monad, 
which is part of his own essence, though his vehicle, man, may remain 
for ever ignorant of this fact. The adepts have each their Dhyani-
Buddha, their elder "twin Soul," and they know it, calling it "Father-
Soul," and "Father-Fire." It is only at the last and supreme 
initiation, however, that they learn it when placed face to face with 
the bright "Image." How much has Bulwer Lytton known of this mystic 
fact when describing, in one of his highest inspirational moods, 
Zanoni face to face with his Augoeides?
> ************************
> 
> JERRY: This paragraph contains the basis of the idea of the seven 
rays, which is described quite well by Wood in his book by that name. 
I have found nothing in Eastern texts, so far, to substantiate this 
teaching.
> 
> **************Quote # 9, SD Vol I, pg 573**********
> The Logos, or both the unmanifested and the manifested WORD, is 
called by the Hindus, Iswara, "the Lord," though the Occultists give 
it another name. Iswara, say the Vedantins, is the highest 
consciousness in nature. "This highest consciousness," answer the 
Occultists, "is only a synthetic unit in the world of the manifested 
Logos -- or on the plane of illusion; for it is the sum total of 
Dhyan-Chohanic consciousnesses." "Oh, wise man, remove the conception 
that not-Spirit is Spirit," says Sankaracharya. Atma is not-Spirit in 
its final Parabrahmic state, Iswara or Logos is Spirit; or, as 
Occultism explains, it is a compound unity of manifested living 
Spirits, the parent-source and nursery of all the mundane and 
terrestrial monads, plus their divine reflection, which emanate from, 
and return into, the Logos, each in the culmination of its time. 
There are seven chief groups of such Dhyan Chohans, which groups will 
be found and recognised in every religion, for they are the primeval 
SEVEN Rays. Humanity, occultism teaches us, is divided into seven 
distinct groups and their sub-divisions, mental, spiritual, and 
physical.* The monad, then, viewed as ONE, is above the seventh 
principle (in Kosmos and man), and as a triad, it is the direct 
radiant progeny of the said compound UNIT, not the breath (and 
special creation out of nihil) of "God," as that unit is called; for 
such an idea is quite unphilosophical, and degrades Deity, dragging 
it down to a finite, attributive condition. As well expressed by the 
translator of the "Crest-Jewel of Wisdom" -- though Iswara 
is "God" "unchanged in the profoundest depths of pralayas and in the 
intensest activity of the manvantaras" . . ., still "beyond (him) 
is 'ATMA,' round whose pavilion is the darkness of eternal MAYA."* 
The "triads" born under the same Parent-planet, or rather the 
radiations of one and the same Planetary Spirit (Dhyani Buddha) are, 
in all their after lives and rebirths, sister, or "twin-souls," on 
this Earth.**
> *******************
> 
> JERRY: Here she again discusses the 7 Rays. She also gives us the 
true nature of the "monad." She says that when "viewed as ONE" the 
monad is "above the seventh principle" which is to say, above atma. 
This is exactly what I have been saying - the true indivisible Monad 
is above or beyond even atma, which is its "radiant progeny." I am 
not sure how this can be said any clearer, but obviously some folks 
don't follow her here. She is saying that atma (and atma-buddhi-manas 
as a triad) is a ray of the indivisible monad. By "above" she means 
on a higher plane.
> 
> Iswara as God, exists at the top of the causal (fourth) plane. Atma 
exists on the third plane, and thus is "Beyond" Iswara. This seems 
pretty clear.
> 
> 
> **************Quote # 10, SD Vol I, pg 574*********
> This was known to every high Initiate in every age and in every 
country: "I and my Father are one," said Jesus (John x. 30).*** When 
He is made to say, elsewhere (xx. 17): "I ascend to my Father and 
your Father," it meant that which has just been stated. It was simply 
to show that the group of his disciples and followers attracted to 
Him belonged to the same Dhyani Buddha, "Star," or "Father," again of 
the same planetary realm and division as He did. It is the knowledge 
of this occult doctrine that found expression in the review of "The 
Idyll of the White Lotus," when Mr. T. Subba Row wrote: "Every Buddha 
meets at his last initiation all the great adepts who reached 
Buddhahood during the preceding ages . . . every class of adepts has 
its own bond of spiritual communion which knits them 
together. . . . . The only possible and effectual way of entering 
into such brotherhood . . . . is by bringing oneself within the 
influence of the Spiritual light which radiates from one's own Logos. 
I may further point out here . . . . that such communion is only 
possible between persons whose souls derive their life and sustenance 
from the same divine RAY, and that, as seven distinct rays radiate 
from the 'Central Spiritual Sun,' all adepts and Dhyan Chohans are 
divisible into seven classes, each of which is guided, controlled, 
and overshadowed by one of the seven forms or manifestations of the 
divine Wisdom." ("Theosophist," Aug., 1886.)
> ************************
> 
> JERRY: "I and my Father are one" refers to the fact that each are 
expressions of the other: the indivisible monad expresses itself in 
atma, which expresses itself in the lower principles. Also, the 
divine monad, expresses itself in the spiritual monad, and so on all 
the way down to the mineral monad. Here again is more teaching on the 
7 Rays.
> 
> Jerry S.
> --