Theos-Talk Archives (November 2001 Message tt00389)

***************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.
=================

PETER comments: HPB writes of the real ONE self merging into Brahm at the
end of the Pralaya. HPB links this Pralaya to the "final Nirvana"
suggesting it is something more than the pralaya of the four lower planes,
which Jerry proposes, for the latter is only a partial, not a final,
pralaya.

ATMAN does not grow or progress over time, nor does it go on any
pilgrimages. What has it to learn if, as HPB puts it in the passage
above?...:

"Atma alone is the one real and eternal substratum of all -- the essence and
absolute knowledge -- the Kshetragna."

The Human Monad is properly speaking Buddhi, the Divine Soul. It is the
Pilgrim which 'goes' through all the cycles. See 3rd Fundamental
Proposition, SD I 17. But since Buddhi cannot be thought of without Atma,
of which it is the vehicle, the Human Monad is called "Atma-Buddhi".
Atman, is often referred to by HPB as the Divine Monad. The Human Monad
(Atma-Buddhi) is its ray, so to speak, and is also known as "the spark which
hangs from the Flame" (see SD I 238). The flame in this case being ATMAN.

At the end of the Cycle Atman doesn't cast off Buddhi, for these two are
inseparable in the same way that Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti are inseparable.
It casts off what is called the "illusory reflection" which "itself is not
yet free from ignorance." This is the illusory 'spiritual personality' or
'form' acquired by Buddhi from the accumulation, through Manas, of the
spiritual aroma of each personality it overshadowed during the cycle of
incarnations. HPB puts it this way:

"Buddhi per se can have neither self-consciousness nor mind; viz., the sixth
principle in man can preserve an essence of 'personal' self-consciousness or
'personal individuality' ... by absorbing within itself its own waters,
which have run through that finite faculty [ie Manas, Ahankara]". CW IV 581)

While this "illusory reflection", albeit spiritual, lasts only until the end
of the Manvanatara, its essence is retained by the Monad when it enters
Paranirvana at the end of the Great Cycle. Hence:

"Nor is the individuality -- nor even the essence of the personality, if any
be left behind -- lost, because re-absorbed [in paranirvana]. For, however
limitless -- from a human standpoint -- the paranirvanic state, it has yet a
limit in Eternity. Once reached, the same monad will re-emerge therefrom, as
a still higher being, on a far higher plane, to recommence its cycle of
perfected activity." SD I 266

My further speculation would be that this "illusory reflection" is also
connected to what is called "the remains" of the Buddha ie what remains of
the purified elements of his human principles after he has entered Nirvana,
and which acts as his 'Bodhisattva' (as HPB uses that term) on earth. These
remains are referred to as "the Divine ex-personality" of the Buddha. It is
said that it was this 'astral' Guatama which was the vehicle for the Monad
of Samkharacharaya when he incarnated. This 'astral Guatama' is said to
associate itself in many a mysterious way with Avataras and great saints.
(for more info see CW XIV 389 onwards)

...Peter