Theos-Talk Archives (December 2001 Message tt00199)

Jerry,

I am busy and way behind on catching up with mails.

JERRY: G de P says that even non-duality is a relative absolute, but I
think he does so simply to keep us from reifying it (anyway, his teaching
here is identical to the Middle Way school of Buddhism which reifies nothing
at all).<<<

I don't want to sound difficult but I would have thought that Purucker's
teaching could not be more unlike what you present as the Middle Way school
of Buddhism. The whole thrust of Purucker's work is the evolution of
'entities' from elementals which eventually become Gods, which become Cosmic
Entities or Hierarchs, then Universal Hierarchs etc etc continually getting
grander and grander as entities the more they evolve. Is this what the
Middle Way school teaches, the evolution of entities on grander and grander
scales without end?

<<<HPB also writes that:
"The Great Breath of the Secret Doctrine is ATMAN, the etymology of which is
'eternal motion'." (ES Instruction No 3)>>>

JERRY: The above quote demonstrates clearly that atma is maya, because
Non-Dual Be-Ness initially manifests as duality into Space and Motion, the
core of our mayavic manifestation. Motion logically implies impermanence,
Peter, or can you find a way to deny that?<<<

I can see what you are saying here, but I don't think I would see it that
way. It is not SPACE and MOTION but the resultant manifestation which is
only relatively real (a Maya).

Nor do I believe that motion logically implies impermanence. To use an
analogy, a musical note is a kind of motion yet it remains the same
note/vibration. It is not the motion that makes it impermanent, rather it
is the motion/vibration that makes the note what it is. It is the lack of
energy to sustain it which causes it to die out. If the energy was perpetual
the motion and hence the note would continue for ever despite the fact that
it was Motion. We might also consider the following:

"Its [Parabrahm's] one absolute attribute, which is ITSELF, eternal
ceaseless Motion, is called in esoteric parlence the GREAT BREATH, which is
the perpetual motion of the universe, in the sense of limitless, ever
present SPACE." (SD I 2)

Shall we say that Parabrahm is impermanent because its one attribute "which
is ITSELF" is eternal ceaseless motion? I don't think so.

<<<"...Atman in man, being of an unalloyed essence, the primordial FIRE (or
the eternal and universal “that which has stood, stands and will still
stand”) IS OF ALL THE PLANES." (CW XII 559, caps added)>>>

JERRY: So on the surface we have her saying in one place that each principle
is on a [separate] plane and in another that atma is on every plane. So gee,
either she is crazy or she has to be interpreted. I opt for the latter.<<<

I guess we each form an interpretation/understanding of what she says
regardless of her sanity or otherwise. We just need to check back with the
context to get a sense of whether the intepretation is valid. On the
particulat point you are making - if we remember that HPB says that ATMA is
not really a principle at all and is given as such so as not to create
confusion, then it makes sense that if it is not a principle then it was
never on a separate plane.

<<<" Atma... is no entity but an emanation from the Absolute, and
indivisible in reality from it." (CW XIV 49)>>>

JERRY: Big deal. My car is an emanation from the Absolute and indivisible in
reality from it. So is my toothbrush. What isn't?<<<

Gosh! Think of the parking fees during pralaya!

I would have thought that your car and toothbrush are not emanations from
the Absolute, as such, but the Mineral Monad(s) passing through that kingdom
of nature are. I would say that it is because ATMAN is in everything from
the lowest to the highest Spiritual Entities ("it is OF all the planes")
that we can say that at the heart of each and every being is Parabrahm.

If we consider HPB's statement, above, that the Great Breath of the Secret
Doctrine is ATMAN, and consider that it is this which permeates Cosmos as
the ONE LIFE during manifestation - then one way of understanding it is that
during a Manvantara ATMAN is not simply a radiation FROM the first Logos,
Universal Spirit or the Dhyani Buddhas & so on. It radiates THROUGH them.
FROM and THROUGH being the key words.

...Peter