Theos-Talk Archives (April 2002 Message tt00206)

Thursday, April 18, 2002

Dear Friends:

An interesting question has arisen. We might all be interested
in discovering what Theosophy has to say on the subject.


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


ANIMALS and MEN


Question
     
My daughter recently lost her pet dog and is in mourning for it,
and she expressed the hope that the energy that made up her dog
was not lost but re-distributed. [Just as rubber balls can
disperse heat when agitated so as to collide in a closed
environment.]

This all made me think about the skandhas; but it also made me
realize I don't have enough study regarding the subject. Would
you if you have the time, be able to furnish some good ideas and
references? 



Answer:


Here in a paragraph is a statement of what I understand Theosophy
might be offering:

Then follows some explanations and quotations so we may see and
review and think about the logic that Theosophy provides us with.
 

PARA :  

A pet is an amalgamation of monads that are going through the
process of experiencing, and then developing the highest animal
intelligence. Here we have two things: 1. a Monad which leads
the others (of lesser intelligence and advancement; and 2. the
many monads which aggregate to give it a form -- they are of
lesser experience and intelligence, but they also profit from the
process at their level.) The quality of intelligence developing
in the animal kingdom has been called “instinct.” In the “higher
animals” it comes almost to a point of being a “personality.” In
the case of a “pet animal” its normal intelligence has been
temporarily “taken over” by the superior human mental and
emotional force of desire, love, dominance, and the human’s
desire for companionship. These are mainly Kamic forces and they
pertain to the humanized desire and emotional plane. For the
animal it is an unnatural state, as all animals should be allowed
to develop in the “wild” state for their proper evolution under
“Natural Law” to proceed. No Monad ever dies. Each Monad
fulfils it work under Nature’s laws. So the animal monad
migrates to a new animal form. In that it and its brother monads
can continue their evolution. We cannot attribute to animals a
spontaneity, such as we witness in the kind of response that a
human MIND adds to a relationship. So “redistribution” of the
many monads of the pet is a good way to look at it. Also
consider that love and affection are the result of a
psychological lack: the need for “company.” Some animals are
noted for the way in which they develop a group quality of
intelligence, peculiar to them as a class. In regard to humans,
the desire for “company” can be analyzed mentally if the human
wills to do so. We can all do that. Some find their company by
plunging into the depths of their own nature and they find in the
spiritual aspect the permanence they seek -- It is in their own
eternally resident ATMA -- the HIGHER SELF. Some rise to the
level of the Mind. Others add to that Compassion and seek to
assist others who need or who ask. Thus, in intellectual work
and heart study they generate a closer bond with the Companions
of the spiritual plane which are already resident. And others,
because of the strong bonds of Kama - desire -- develop the need
in themselves of physical companionship from “others.” But,
ideally the mixture that goes on throughout life is always
governed by Karma and the companionship and cooperation of
others. We are never completely alone. It is our Mind-principle
that is now active and working out the nature of our potentials
and relationship with other Monads regardless of their state or
level of evolution.
 
 
EXPLANATIONS
 
I had heard years ago of the use of the resilience of rubber to
disperse heat. The compression and de-tension does it in a
specific closed environment. But, as any closed environment, is
itself enclosed in a still larger one, the original force is
eventually dispersed, and the whole environment has its
temperature adjusted. The rule is ACTION AND REACTION ARE EQUAL
AND OPPOSITE. In Nature the exchange of the Monads is always
under Law, and the economy of Nature always tends to elevate and
never to depress or distort relationships. Only man’s
misdirected mind under the influence of selfishness and selfish
desire can do that.
 
Here is an example of how we might illustrate the transfer of
force and energy out of the subjective plane of desire and
thought on to the physical plane, where, as motion, it is
translated into heat or resolved into a new form -- this is one
way of understanding the phenomena of “materialization,” or, the
“precipitation of letters,” or, the transmission of “sounds”
across vast distances -- and as in one case Mr. Judge mentions,
of “perfume.” The will acting in invisible nature assembles the
needed atoms and the consolidates them till they become tangible.
Theosophy explains this.


PRECIPITATION

"Through the means of the Astral Light and the help of Elementals
the various material elements may be drawn down and precipitated
from the atmosphere upon either a plane surface or in the form of
a solid object; this precipitation may be made permanent, or it
may be of such a light cohesive power as soon to fade away. But
this help of the elementals can only be obtained by a strong will
added to a complete knowledge of the laws which govern the being
of the elementals."	Epitome, p. 20


"...an Initiate...is able to precipitate out of the viewless air
the carbon which we know is in it, forming the carbon into
sentences upon the paper, it is through this knowledge of the
occult higher chemistry, and the use of a trained and powerful
image-making faculty which every man possesses..."
Ocean, p. 12


"Mr. Sinnett sought for an explanation of the process and
elicited from the revered Mahatma...: :….Bear in mind these
letters are not written but impressed, or precipitated, and then
all mistakes corrected...[ M L p. 19 ] I have to think it over,
to photograph every word and sentence carefully in my brain
before it can be repeated by precipitation. As the fixing upon
chemically prepared surfaces of the images formed by the camera
requires a previous arrangement within the focus of the object to
be represented, for, otherwise--as often found in bad
photographs--the legs of the sitter might appear out of all
proportion with the head, and so on--some have to first arrange
our sentences and impress every letter to appear on paper in our
minds before it becomes fit to be read..."	M L p. 22

the modus operandi can thus be explained now more fully...


Those having a superficial knowledge of the science of mesmerism
know how the thoughts of the mesmerizer, though silently
formulated in his mind are instantly transferred to that of the
subject. It is not necessary for the operator...to be present
near the subject to produce the above result...The work of
writing the letters in question is carried on by a sort of
psychological telegraphy; the Mahatmas very rarely write their
letters in the ordinary way. [see M L p. 460 ] An
electromagnetic connection, so to say, exists on the
psychological plane between a Mahatma and his chelas, one of whom
acts as his amanuensis. [ see M L p. 480 ] When a Master wants a
letter to be written in this way, he draws the attention of the
chela, whom he selects for the task...The thoughts arising in the
mind of the Mahatma are then clothed in word, pronounced
mentally, and forced along the astral currents he sends towards
the pupil to impinge on the brain of the latter. Thence they are
borne by the nerve-currents to the palms of his hands and the
tips of his fingers, which rest on a piece of magnetically
prepared paper. As the thought-waves are thus impressed on the
tissue, materials are drawn to it from the ocean of akas,
(permeating every atom of the sensuous universe) by an occult
process...and permanent marks are left... .the success of such
writing...depends chiefly upon these things: (1) The force and
the clearness with which the thoughts are propelled and (2) the
freedom of the receiving brain from disturbance of every
description...To turn to the sources of error in the
precipitation. Remembering the circumstances under which
blunders arise in telegrams, we see that if a Mahatma somehow
becomes exhausted [ see M L p. 422 ] or allows his thoughts to
wander off during the process, or fails to command the requisite
intensity in the astral currents along which his thoughts are
projected, or the distracted attention of the pupil produces
disturbances [see M L p. 423] in his brain and nerve-centers, the
success of the process is very much interfered with."

HPB "Precipitation" Articles II 505-7 

[ see also: ML pp. 420-427 - on composition, and
precipitation ]

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

 
PETS and SKANDHAS

 
To lose a pet in which so much emotional love is reposed is
always a tragedy. Yes, the matter and the intelligence of the
pet are influenced and augmented to some extent by the nearness
and care of the human mind and its embodied FEELINGS. But
Theosophy says that this is for the animals an unnatural state,
and that their own evolution of their peculiar intelligence,
ought to be allowed to proceed under the laws Nature (the
UNIVERSE) has established for animal evolution.
 
There is a rule in Occultism and that is that no chela or devotee
should own a “pet.” [ H.P.Blavatsky Articles II p. 95 top] As I
understand it, the forces that brought the Monads together,
formed an aggregate, and this is the conjunction of a body and
the intelligence that can use it. Thus there is some
interference in the development of that intelligence when an
animal is made into the pet of a human being. 

The animal intelligence, of course develops in a natural way when
left in the wild under the Laws of Nature in regard to that
evolution. When the animal dies, those “lives,” or what we might
call their “skandhas” (so to say) -- all are monads -- are
dispersed as living and immortal forces. These are then said to
be attracted to other animals of the same, or some superior level
of intelligence -- they are attracted, each in its own way to
some corresponding animal center where evolution needs their
presence. As “little lives” we must always remember, they are
Monads and never “die.”  
 

THE HUMAN MONAD
 
But looking at our own (the Individual, Human) imperishable
Monad -- we have been through that condition and “animal”
experience -- perhaps on the “moon” chain, (this is hinted at in
S D I ) and with the “lighting up of Manas” ( a little over 18
million years ago ( S D I 150, footnote) our Monads became
independent and self-conscious HUMAN MONADS.
 
In a way you are right. Look carefully at what H P B says in
SECRET DOCTRINE I 632. There she tells us what the subdivisions
of the evolving points of consciences (Monads) are from stage to
stage, as Intelligence become first personalized, and then
INDIVIDUALIZED, and then, finally it becomes UNIVERSALIZED -- and
we have a Mahatma, a Buddha, a Krishna. But what Theosophy
teaches us is that the Higher Self the Atma is in us already. It
is that MAHATMA, that Buddha or Krishna. It is the lower self at
present (our selfish personality) which impedes it “shining
forth.” The “Lower self ( our selfish personality) gives us the
problems and difficulties.   
 
 
PRINCIPLES ACTIVE IN MAN
 
The 3 principles active in us can be seen to be: the forces of
Kama, Manas and Buddhi ( desire, thought and wisdom ). We as
MIND-BEINGS (as Mind-Monads) are independent and free choosers.
We have to elect what aspect of our own “principles” we will
emphasize and make into the living power that directs our lives
henceforth. We can only do that for ourselves. We cannot do it
for others, although we can, if they ask us, make
recommendations. The best of such advices are those that embody
the expression of Natural law. We must understand that in Nature
everything is already firmly established -- our Science, and our
work to discover are only the UNCOVERING of that which is innate,
and already functioning in existence, and operating there. We
become aware of it.
 
But getting back to the process outlined in The SECRET DOCTRINE :
Prior to the individualizing of the Monads, we are told there is
a chaotic mass “monadic essence” (S D I 619) -- in that the
“countless spiritual forces” pursue their lawful rounds
“Monadless” (632) for “they are pure incorporealities,” yet
always, they are under LAW, and have a basic relation to the
Causeless Cause -- the WILL of the SUBJECTIVE UNIVERSE. That we
might translate as the ABSOLUTE -- essential as a base, but
totally incomprehensible and undefinable by beings whose
intelligence (yours and mine) is limited by some kind of form.
Thereafter we have the long process of experience leading
eventually back to SPIRITUAL UNIVERSALIZING -- we become a Force
powerful for GOOD alone, and assume some position in Nature for
which we are best fitted.
 
=================================
 
Here are some references:
 
1
 
 
A N I M A L S and M E N 
 
___________________
 
  
SPIRIT - SOUL - BODY-FORM
 
 
"...the "Spirit," or the divine portion of the soul is
pre-existent as a distinct being from all eternity."...(106) Both
the human Spirit (or the Individuality), the re-incarnating
Spiritual Ego, and Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul, are pre-existent.
But, while the former exists as a distinct entity, an
individualization, the soul exists as pre-existing breath, an
unscient portion of an intelligent whole. Both were originally
formed from the Eternal Ocean of light, but as the
Fire-Philosophers... expressed it, there is a visible as well as
invisible spirit in fire."	Key 105-6
 
 
NEPHESH - The Principle of Sentient Life - Animal
“Soul”
 
 
"...(animals)...These are no less than man, informed with the
same principle of sentient life, the nephesh of the 2nd chapter
of Genesis. The Soul is by no means the Mind, nor can an idiot,
bereft of the latter, be called a "soul-less" being..."	HPB
Articles II 18
 
 
"...(the) animal soul (Nephesh of the Hebrew Kabalist)...the ray
which emanates from the Higher Manas or permanent EGO, and is
that "principle" which forms the human mind--in animals
instinct."	Transactions. 59
 
 
"...man has one "principle" more than the tiniest insect, but
because man is a perfected animal, the vehicle of a fully
developed monad, self-conscious and deliberately following its
own line of progress, whereas in the insect, and even the higher
animal, the higher triad of principles is absolutely dormant."
Trans. 14-15
 
"A dog that has to exercise its own sagacity to find food, will
sooner develop psychical powers in that direction, than one that
does nothing but eat and sleep, and the individual or
differentiated monad of the former will sooner reach the
condition necessary to enter the human kingdom. The rudiments of
hope, patience, faith, fidelity, confidence, etc., are found in
the animal kingdom."	-- HPB Theosophist 5- p. 223 
 
  
"The difference between animals and men is this: the former are
ensouled by the "principles" potentially, the latter actually."
Key 104
 
  
MAN'S FORM IS AN ANIMAL -- VEHICLE OF A MONAD


"Man...in his outward form, simply an animal, hardly more perfect
than his pithecoid-like ancestor of the 3rd Round. He is a
living body, not a living being, since the realization of
existence, the "Ego-Sum," necessitates self-consciousness, and an
animal can only have direct consciousness, or instinct. The
soul, whose body vehicle is the Astral, ethereo-substantial
envelope, could die, and man be still living on earth--i.e., the
soul could free itself from and quit the tabernacle for various
reasons--such as insanity, spiritual and physical depravity, etc.
Therefore that which living men (Initiates) can do, the Dhyanis,
who have no physical body to hamper them, can do still better."
SD I 134-5
 
 
"...man is a perfected animal, the vehicle of a fully developed
monad, self-conscious and deliberately following its own line of
progress, whereas in the insect, and even the higher animal, the
higher triad of principles is absolutely dormant."	Trans.
14-15
 
 
LIGHTING UP OF THE MANAS (MIND)
 
 
"Having passed through all the kingdoms of nature in the previous
three Rounds, his physical frame--one adapted to the thermal
conditions of those early periods--was ready to receive the
divine Pilgrim at the first dawn of human life, i.e., 18,000,000
years ago. It is only at the (255) mid-point of the 3rd
Root-Race that man was endowed with Manas. Once united the two
and then the three made one; for though the lower animals, from
the amoeba to man, received their monads, in which all the higher
qualities are potential, all have to remain dormant till each
reaches its human form, before which stage manas (mind) has no
development in them. In the animals every principle is
paralyzed, and in a fetus-like state, save the 2nd (vital) and
the 3rd (the astral), and the rudiments of the 4th (Kama, which
is desire, instinct) whose intensity and development varies and
changes with the species."	S D II 254-5
 
 
"Atma-Buddhi [ Monad ] is dual and Manas is triple; inasmuch as
the former has two aspects, and the latter three, i.e., as a
principle per se, which gravitates, in its higher aspect, to
Atma-Buddhi, and follows, in its lower nature, Kama, the seat of
terrestrial divisions awakening to intelligence; and the third
and last decidedly animal: i.e., Manas succumbs to the
temptations of Kama." Men are made complete only during their
third, toward the fourth cycle (race). They are made "gods" for
good or evil, and responsible only when the two arcs meet (after
3 1/2 Rounds towards the fifth Race). They are made so by the
Nirmanakaya (spiritual or astral remains) of the Rudra-Kumaras,
"cursed to be reborn on earth again; meaning doomed in their
natural turn to reincarnation in the higher ascending arc of the
terrestrial cycle."	
SD II 254-5fn
 
 
KAMA - CENTER OF THE ANIMAL MAN
 
 
"...(d) Kama rupa -- The seat of animal desires and passions.
-- This is the center of the animal man, where lies the line of
demarcation which separates the mortal man from the immortal
entity."	Key 91
 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER MIND DEFINED
  
" [ Plato teaches ] ... "when the Soul, psuche, "allies herself
to the Nous (divine spirit or substance), she does everything
aright and felicitously;" but the case is otherwise when she
attaches herself to Anoia, (folly, or the irrational animal
Soul). Here, then, we have Manas (or the Soul in general) in its
two aspects: when attaching itself to Anoia (our Kama rupa, or
the "Animal Soul" in "Esoteric Buddhism," runs towards entire
annihilation, as far as the personal Ego is concerned; when
allying itself to the Nous (Atma-Buddhi) it merges into the
immortal, imperishable Ego, and then its spiritual consciousness
of the personal that was, becomes immortal."	Key 93
 
 
ANIMALS REINCARNATE
  
[ Animals ] "...they do reincarnate, but that which from them
goes forth to reincarnation is not similar to the reincarnating
principle of the human being. Were we to suppose that the monads
now going through the present animal life were reincarnating in a
haphazard way, then surely law disappears our philosophy tumbles
to the ground, and a reign of terror in the scheme of evolution
ensues." WQJ Art II 486
 
 
"In calling the animal "Soulless," it is not depriving the beast,
from the humblest to the highest species, of a "soul." but only
of a conscious surviving Ego-soul, i.e., that principle which
survives after a man, and reincarnates like a man. The animal
has an astral body, that survives the physical body for a short
period; but its (animal) Monad does not reincarnate in the same,
but in a higher species, and has no "Devachan" of course. It has
the seeds of all the human principles in itself, but they are
latent."	S D II 196fn
 
 
KARMA OF ANIMALS
  
"Animals have Karma, or consequence of act, but they have not
man's responsibility. While they seem to suffer and enjoy, it is
all without any self-consciousness, and hence is less in itself
and less lasting in effect. Their karma is bound up with man;
and he is the responsible one and will have to bear the
responsibility, although they feel the burden directly."	
WQJ Art II 566  
 
 
"...the effect of Karma upon the animals...(15) the whole of
creation waits upon man and groans that he keeps back the
enlightenment of all. What happens when...you crush out the life
of a common croton bug ? Well, it is destroyed and you forget
it. But you brought it to an untimely end, short though its life
would have been. Imagine this being done at hundreds and
thousands of places...Each of these little creatures had life,
and energy; each some degree of intelligence, The sum total of
effects of all these deaths of small things must be appreciable.
If not, then our doctrines are wrong and there is no wrong in
putting our the life of a human being ... [animals] killed for
sport..."	WQJ Art I 14-5
	
 
"The brutes unconsciously are aware of the general human
opposition, which in each human being they see focalized."
WQJ Letters 87
  
 
ANIMAL MONADS -- THEIR EVOLUTION AND PROGRESS
 
 
"While it is stated that no more animal monads can enter on the
man-stage, it is not said nor inferred that the incoming supply
of monads for the animal kingdom has stopped. They may still be
coming in from other "worlds" for evolution among the animals of
this globe...It is quite possible also that the animal monads may
be carried on to other members of the earth-chain in advance of
man for the purpose of necessary development, and this would
lessen the number of their appearances here...the animals,
however, being devoid of developed Manas, have no Devachan and
must be forced onwards to the next planet in the chain...as it
gives them a chance for development in readiness for the time
when the monads of that kingdom shall begin to rise to a new
human kingdom. They have lost nothing, but, on the contrary,
will be the gainers."	WQJ Art I 103
 
 
WHAT IS A "MONAD" ?
 
"...a Monad [ Atma-Buddhi ] cannot either progress or develop, or
even be affected by the change of states it passes through. It
is not on this world or plane, and may be compared only to an
indestructible star of divine light and fire, thrown down on to
our (175fn) 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 unresisting current of
evolution...the evolution of the external form or body round the
astral is produced by the terrestrial forces, just as in the case
of the lower kingdoms; but the evolution of the internal or real
MAN is purely spiritual. It is now no more a passage of the
impersonal Monad through many and various forms of
matter--endowed at best with instinct and consciousness on quite
a different plane--as in the case of external evolution, but a
journey of the "pilgrim-soul" through various states of not only
matter but self consciousness and self-perception, or perception
from apperception."	S D I 174-5fn
 
 
"...the Monadic, or rather Cosmic, Essence...in the mineral,
vegetable and animal, though the same throughout the series of
cycles from the lowest elemental up to the Deva Kingdom, yet
differs in the scale of progression ...the more correct
phraseology...would have been to call it "the Monad manifesting
in that form of Prakriti called the Mineral Kingdom." The atom
as represented in the ordinary scientific hypothesis, is not a
particle of something, animated by a psychic something, destined
after aeons to blossom as a man. But it is a concrete
manifestation of the Universal Energy which itself has not yet
become individualized; a sequential manifestation of the one
Universal Monas. The ocean (of matter) the life-impulse reaches
the evolutionary stage of man-birth. The tendency towards
segregation into individual Monads is gradual, and is the higher
animals comes almost to the point."	S D I 178
 
 
"...it is our Dhyan-Chohanic essence--the causality of the primal
cause which creates physical man--which is the living, active and
potential matter, pregnant per se with that animal consciousness
of a superior kind, such as is found in the ant or the beaver,
which produces the long series of physiological
differentiations...every type in the visible has its prototype in
the invisible Universe..."	S D II 120
 
 
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS and The Abyss 
Between the Psychic and the Noetic
 
 
"...Self-consciousness belongs alone to man and proceeds from the
SELF, the higher Manas. Only, whereas the psychic element (or
Kama-manas) is common to both the animal and the human being--the
far higher degree of its development in the latter resting merely
on the greater perfection and sensitiveness of his cerebral
cells--no physiologist...will ever be able to solve the mystery
of the human mind, in its highest spiritual manifestation, or in
its dual aspect of the psychic and the noetic (or the
manasic)...he would have to admit a lower (animal), and a higher
(or divine) mind in man, or what is known in Occultism as the
"personal" and the "impersonal" (10) 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."	HPB Art II 9-10
 
 
 
"Between man and animal--whose Monads (or Jivas) are
fundamentally identical--there is the impassable abyss of
Mentality and Self-consciousness. What is human mind in it
higher aspect, whence comes it, if it is not a portion of the
essence--and, in some rare cases of incarnation, the very
essence--of a higher Being: one from a higher and divine plane?
Can man--a god in the animal form--be the product of Material
Nature by evolution alone. even as is the animal, which differs
from man in external shape, but by no means in the materials of
its physical fabric, and is informed by the same, though
undeveloped, Monad--seeing that the intellectual potentialities
of the two differ as the Sun does from the Glow-worm ? And what
is it that creates such a difference, unless man is an animal
plus a living god within his physical shell ?"	S D II 81
 
 
PHYSICAL MAN
 
"The physical man is as little responsible as a dog or a mouse.
For the bodily form all is over with the death of the body. But
for the real SELF, that which emanated its own shadow, or the
lower thinking personality, that enacted and pulled the wires
during the life of the physical automaton, will have to suffer
conjointly with its factotum and alter ego in the next
incarnation."	Trans. 67
 
 
SOURCE OF THE MIND ( MANAS )
 		
"...the Manasa Devas who endowed man with the consciousness of
his immortal soul: that consciousness which hinders man "from
foreseeing death," and makes him know he is immortal. ( Fn.: --
The monad of the animal is as immortal as that of man, yet the
brute knows nothing of this; it lives an animal life of
sensation just as the first human would have lived, when
attaining physical development in the Third Race, had it not been
for the Agnishwatta, and the Manasa Pitris.") [Myth of
Prometheus, further explained.]	S D II 525
 
 
LATENT AND ACTIVE "FIRES" OF THE MIND
 
 
"The doctrine teaches that the only difference between animals
and inanimate objects on earth, between an animal and a human
frame, is that in some the various "fires" are latent, and in
others they are active. The vital fires are in all things and
not an atom is devoid of them. But no animal has the three
higher principles awakened in him; the are simply potential,
latent, and thus non-existing. And so would the animal frames of
men be to this day, had they been left as then came out from the
bodies of their Progenitors, whose shadows they were, to grow,
unfold only by the powers and forces immanent in matter." S
D II 267
 
 
HUMAN 'MAGNETISM' -- PET ANIMALS
 
 
"...A Lanoo (disciple) has to dread external living influence
alone (magnetic emanations from living creatures). For this
reason while at one with all, in his inner nature, he must take
care to separate his outer (external) body from every foreign
influence; none must drink out of, or eat in his cup but
himself. He must avoid bodily contact (i.e., being touched or
touch) with human, as with animal being. [No pet animals are
permitted and it is forbidden even to touch certain trees and
plants. A disciple has to live, so to say, in his own atmosphere
in order to individualize it for occult purposes.]" ...Occultism
is concerned with the inner man who must be strengthened and
freed from the dominion of the physical body and its
surroundings, which must become his servants. Hence the first
and chief necessity of Chelaship is a spirit of absolute
unselfishness and devotion to Truth; then must follow
self-knowledge and self-mastery. These are all important; while
outward observance of fixed rules of life is a matter of
secondary moment."		
HPB Art II 94-6
 
[ Article on "house-pets" and magnetic retardation.]  
Theosophy Mag. Vol. 22, p. 402
 
 
 
KAMA-LOKA AND ASTRAL FORMS OF ANIMALS
 
"Still it [ Kama-loca on the astral plane ] exists, and it is
there that the astral eidolons of all beings that have lived,
animals included, await their second death. For the animals it
comes with the disintegration and the entire fading out of their
astral particles to the last."	Key 143
 
 
"Seers of modern times have declared that such eidolons or spooks
assume the appearance of beasts or reptiles according to their
dominant forms, having a natural affinity for the lower types,
such as the animal kingdom, gravitated gradually in that
direction and were at last absorbed on the astral plane of
animals, for which they furnished the sidereal particles needed
by them as well as by men. But this is no sense meant that the
man himself went into an animal, for before this result had
eventuated, the ego might have already re-entered life with a new
physical and astral body...it must be true that each man [is]
responsible and accountable for the fate of his astral body left
behind at death, since that fate results directly from the man's
own acts and life."	WQJ Art I 105
 
	
 
RESPECT FOR LIFE IN ANIMALS
 
 
"...the root philosophy of both the Adwaita and Buddhist scholars
is identical, and both have the same respect for animal life, for
both believe that every creature on earth, however small and
humble, "is an immortal portion of the immortal matter"...and
that every creature is subject to Karma."	S D I 636
 
 
MANAS - MIND SETS THE HUMAN APART FROM THE ANIMAL
 
 
"...you possess the I am I consciousness. Hence...the
consciousness functions in many different planes of experience,
and in each one uses the means or instruments appropriate
thereto. And in order to pass from one plane to another, holding
intelligence in each, the presence of Manas is necessary as one
of the integral parts or powers of the Self, for without Manas we
are only of the brute or lower kingdoms. For one moment consider
the brutes who, moving and dwelling in the mental plane with man,
know nothing of our manasic sensations. It is because Manas is
dormant in them; but in you it has begun to awake, thus enabling
you as man to note the effects upon yourself of the motions of
the qualities of nature."	WQJ Forum Ans. 63
 
 
HUMAN EGOS LIMITED FOR EACH MANVANTARIC CYCLE
 
 
"The inrush of new Egos ceased at a period long passed. What can
be drawn from this is that the Egos and Monads now involved in
the earth's evolution are restricted from this on to the end of
this Manvantara from coming into the human stage of evolution,
with the exception of those confined in the true anthropoid ape
family...(106) The Egos in lower kingdoms will become men--but
not in this Manvantara--and then will have to begin the next
Manvantara to help those below them."	WQJ Forum Ans. 105-6
 
 
MAN'S THOUGHTS IN THE ASTRAL LIGHT AFFECT ANIMALS
  
"The animal kingdom is affected by us through the astral light.
We have impressed the latter with pictures of cruelty,
oppression, dominion, and slaughter. [In Christian countries
theological permission is given to kill and dominate animals.
Hunting, wanton killings become a habit.]...if these people could
catch elementals as easily as then can animals, they would kill
them for amusement when they did not want them for use; and, if
the elementals refused to obey, then their death would follow as
a punishment. All this is perceived by the elemental world,
without conscience of course; but, under the laws of action and
reaction, we receive back from it exactly that which we give."
WQJ ART. I 411
 
 
PROTECTION AND KINDNESS TO ANIMALS
 
 
"...the purest as the noblest of all existing systems of ethics,
Buddhism - -inculcates kindness and protection to every living
creature, from animal and bird down to the creeping thing and
even the reptile. Alone, our Western religion stands in its
isolation, as a monument to the most gigantic human selfishness
ever evolved by human brain, without one word in favor of, or for
the protection of the poor animal."	HPB Art II 328
 
 
MAN'S ANIMAL NATURE -- Its Discipline and Elevation
 
[ Read Through the Gates of Gold -- by M.C. -- pp 79-84 ]
 
 
MAN'S AND NATURE'S LIFE-ATOMS -- Their Interaction
 
[ Read SD II 671 - 3 ; SD II 513 ]
 
 
MAN: FOCAL POINT OF NATURE'S LABORATORY
 
 
"Those atoms [ Skandhas ] fly from all of us at every instant.
They seek their appropriate center; that which is similar to the
character of him who evolves them. We absorb from our fellows
whatever is like unto us. it is thus that man reincarnates if
the lower kingdoms. He is lord of nature, the key, the focus,
the highest concentrator of Nature's laboratory. And the atom he
condemns to fall thus to beasts will return to him in some future
life for his detriment or his sorrow. But he, as immortal man,
cannot fall. That which falls is the lower, the personal, the
atomic. He is the brother and teacher of all below him. See
that you do not hinder and delay all nature by your failure in
virtue."	WQJ Art I 111
 
 
 
----------------------------------------------------
 
2
 
M o n a d
 
	
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.”	T. Glossary p.
216
 
  
“The breath ( human Monad) needed a form; the Fathers gave it,
The breath needed a gross body; the Earth moulded it. The
Breath needed the Spirit of Life; the Solar Lhas breathed it
into its form . The breath needed a mirror of its body (astral
shadow ); “We gave it our own, “ said the Dhyanis. The breath
needed a vehicle of desires (Kama-rupa) ; “It has it, said the
Drainer of Waters (Sushi, the fire of passion and animal
instinct) . The breath needed a mind to embrace the Universe;
“We cannot give that,” said the Fathers. “I never had it.,”
said the Spirit of the Earth. “The form would be consumed were
I to give it mine,” said the Great (solar) Fire . . . (nascent)
Man remained an empty, senseless Bhuta . . . Thus have the
boneless given life to those who became (later) men with bones in
the third (race . . . “
Stanza IV (17) of Dzyan, S D II 105
 
 
“Pilgrim” is the appellation given our Monad (the two in one [
Atma-Buddhi ] ) during its cycle of incarnation. It is the only
immortal and eternal principle in us, being an indivisible part
of the integral whole—the Universal Spirit, from which it
emanates, and into which it is absorbed at the end of the cycle.
When it is said to emanate from the one spirit, an awkward and
incorrect expression has to be used, for lack of appropriate
words in English.. The Vedantins call it Sutratma (Thread Soul)
. . .”	SD II 16-17fn
 
 
“…Buddhi is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which
divine knowledge reaches the “Ego,” the discernment of good and
evil, “divine conscience” also; and “Spiritual Soul,” which is
the vehicle of Atma. “When Buddhi absorbs our Ego-tism (destroys
it) with all its Vikaras, Avalokiteshvara becomes manifested to
us, and Nirvana, or Mukti, is reached, “Mukti” being the same as
Nirvana, i.e., freedom from the trammels of “maya” or illusion.”
S D I p. xix
 
 
“Starting upon the long journey immaculate; descending more and
more into sinful matter, and having connected himself with every
atom in manifested Space—the Pilgrim, having struggled through
and suffered in every form of life and being, is only at the
bottom of matter, and half through his cycle, when he has
identified himself with collective Humanity. This, he has made
in his own image.  
 
In order to progress upwards and homewards, the “God” has now to
ascend the weary uphill path of the Golgotha of Life. It is the
martyrdom of self-conscious existence. Like Visvakarman he has
to sacrifice himself to himself in order to redeem all creatures,
to resurrect from the many into the One Life. Then he ascends
into heaven indeed; where, plunged into the incomprehensible
absolute Being and Bliss of Paranirvana, he reigns
unconditionally, and whence he will re-descend again at the next
“coming,” which one portion of humanity expects in its
dead-letter sense as the second advent, and the other as the
last “Kalki Avatar.” S D I p. 268
 
 
“Man is certainly no special creation, and he is the product of
Nature’s gradual perfective work, like any other living unit on
this Earth. But this is only with regard to the human
tabernacle. That which lives and thinks in man and survives that
frame, the masterpiece of evolution—is the “Eternal Pilgrim,” the
Protean differentiation in space and time of the One Absolute
“unknowable.” . . . For we, too, claim that it is the “Soul,”
or the inner man, that descends on Earth first, the psychic
astral, the mould 0n which the physical man is gradually
built—his Spirit, intellectual and moral faculties awakening
later on as that physical stature grows and develops. “Thus
incorporeal Spirits to smaller forms reduced their shapes immense
,”. . . and became the men of the Third and Fourth Races. Still
later, ages after, appeared the men of our Fifth Race, reduced
from the still gigantic (in our modern sense) stature of their
primeval ancestors, to about half of that size at present.”	S
D II p. 728
 
 
“Sattva is the name given among Occult students of the Aryasangha
School to the dual Monad or Atma-buddhi, and Atma-buddhi on this
plane corresponds to Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti on the higher
plane.”	S D I p. 69fn
 
 
“The Sixth principle in Man (Buddhi, the Divine Soul) though a
mere breath, in our conceptions, is still something material when
compared with divine “Spirit” (Atma) of which it is the carrier
or vehicle.. Fohat, in his capacity of Divine Love (Eros), the
electric Power of affinity and sympathy, is shown allegorically
as trying to bring the pure Spirit, the Ray inseparable from the
One absolute, into union with the Soul, the two constituting ion
Man the Monad, and in Nature the first link between the ever
unconditioned and the manifested.”	S D I p. 119
 
 
“ The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over
Soul, the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown Root;
and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul—a spark of the
former—through the Cycle of Incarnation (or “Necessity”) in
accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term. . .
. no purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an
independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued
from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle,--or the
over soul,--has passed through every elemental form of the
phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and acquired individuality,
first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and
self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending
through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the
highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest
archangel (Dhyani Buddha), 
 
The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits no
privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego
through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of
metempsychoses and reincarnations.”	S D I p. 17
 
	
“Man tends to become a God and then—God, like every other atom in
the Universe.”
S D I p. 159
 
 
“The same difficulty of language is met with in describing the
“stages” through which the Monad passes. Metaphysically
speaking, it is of course an absurdity to talk of the
“development” of a Monad, or to say that it becomes “Man.” . . .
It stands to reason that 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 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 unresisting current of
evolution.”	S D I p. 174-5fn
 
 
“. . . the Monad or Jiva per se cannot be even called spirit; it
is a ray, a breath of the Absolute, or the Absoluteness rather,
and the Absolute Homogeneity, having no relations with the
conditioned and relative finiteness, is unconscious on our plane.
Therefore, besides the material which will be needed for its
future human form, the monad requires a spiritual model, or
prototype, for that material to shape itself into; and, an
intelligent consciousness to guide its evolution and progress,
neither of which is possessed by the homogeneous monad, or by the
senseless though living matter,. The Adam of dust requires the
Soul of Life to be breathed into him: the two middle principles,
which are the sentient life of the irrational animal and the
Human Soul, for the former is irrational without the latter. [
Kama and Manas or Kama-Manas ] It is only when . . . man has
become separated into male and female, that he will be endowed
with this conscious, rational, individual Soul, (Manas) “the
principle, or the intelligence of the Elohim,” to receive which,
he has to eat of the fruit of Knowledge from the Tree of Good and
Evil. . . . after having reached a certain point, they [ the
“Elohim,” or Pitris, lower Dhyan Chohans ] will meet the
incarnating senseless monads, encased in the lowest matter, and
blending the two potencies, Spirit and Matter, the union will
produce that terrestrial symbol of the “Heavenly Man” in
space—perfect man, In Sankhya philosophy Purusha (spirit) is
spoken of as something impotent unless he mounts on the shoulders
of a Prakriti (matter), which, left alone, is—senseless. But in
the secret philosophy they are viewed as graduated. . . Both are
inseparable, yet ever separated. . . . the two poles of the same
homogeneous substance, the root-principle of the universe.”	S
D I p. 247
 
 
“. . . to complete the septenary man, to add to his three lower
principles and cement them with the spiritual Monad—which could
never dwell in such a form otherwise than in an absolutely latent
state—two connecting principles are needed: Manas and Kama.
This requires a Spiritual Fire of the middle principle from the
fifth and third states of Pleroma. But this fire is the
possession of the Triangles, not of the (perfect) Cubes, which
symbolize Angelic Beings: [ Footnote : The triangle becomes a
Pentagon (five-fold) on Earth. ] . . . The human Ego is neither
Atman nor Buddhi, but the higher Manas: the intellectual
fruition and the efflorescence of the intellectual
self-consciousness Egotism—in the higher spiritual sense. The
ancient works refer to it as Karna Sarira on the plane of the
Sutratma, which is the golden thread on which, like beads, the
various personalities of this higher Ego are strung.. . . these
Beings were returning Nirvanees, from preceding
Maha-Manvantaras—ages of incalculable duration which have rolled
away in the Eternal. . . The thread of radiance which is
imperishable and dissolves only in Nirvana, re-emerges from it
in its integrity on the day when the Great Law calls all things
back into action. . . “	S D II p. 80
 
 
 
“Kwan-Shi-Yin . . . means “the Lord that is seen,” and in one
sense, “the divine self perceived by Self “ (the human)—the Atman
or seventh principle merged in the Universal, perceived by, or
the object of perception to, Buddhi, the sixth principle or
divine Soul in man. In a still higher sense,
Avalokiteshvara—Kwan-Shi-Yin, referred to as the seventh
Universal principle, is the Logos perceived by the Universal
Buddhi—or Soul, as the synthetic aggregate of the Dhyani Buddhas.
. . the omnipresent universal Spirit manifested in the temple of
Kosmos or Nature.”	S D I p. 471-2
 
 
“The monad—a truly “indivisible thing,” . . . 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. . . . Atma alone is
the one real and eternal substratum of all—the essence and
absolute knowledge—the kshetragna. { Footnote: …atma (spirit)
alone is what remains after the subtraction of the sheaths and
that it is the only witness, or synthesized unity.”} 
S D I p. 570-1


“Atma (our seventh principle) being identical with the universal
Spirit, and man being one with it in his essence, what it then
the Monad proper ? It is that homogeneous spark which radiates
in millions of rays from the primeval “Seven;” . . . It is the
emanating spark from the uncreated ray—a mystery. . . .
Adi-Buddha. . . the One unknown, without beginning or end,
identical with Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from
its darkness.. This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the
Supreme Buddha . . . As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot
manifest, but sends into the world of manifestation his heart—the
“diamond heart,” Vajrasattva . . . This is the second logos of
creation, from whom emanate the seven . . . Dhyani Buddhas,
called 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 Brahmanical Manasaputra, “mind-born sons”—whether of Brahma
or either of the other two Trimurtian Hypostases, hence identical
also with the Rishis and Prajapatis….”	S D I p. 571
 
 
“Plato . . . the great Initiate Philosopher said: for the ego
(the “Higher Self” when merged with and in the divine Monad) is
Man, and yet the same as the “other,” the Angel in him
incarnated, as the same with the universal Mahat.”	S
D II p 88
 
 
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