Theos-Talk Archives (July 2002 Message tt00066)

2

Some further statements about Man’s consciousness and potentials

Dallas

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Nirmanakaya -- Living, Invisible, 
Spirits Of The Sages

"...those EGOS of great Adepts who have passed away, and are also
known as Nirmanakayas;...for whom--since they are beyond
illusion--there is no Devachan, and who, having either voluntarily
renounced it for the good of mankind, or not yet reached Nirvana,
remain invisible on earth...they are re-born over and over again...Who
they are, "on earth"--every student of Occult science knows..."	SD II
615


The Mahatma is the Higher Manas -- 
Inseparable from the Atma


"The real Mahatma is then not his physical body but that higher Manas
which is inseparably linked to the Atma and its vehicle (6th
principle) -- a union effected by him in a comparatively very short
period by passing through the self-evolution laid down by the Occult
Philosophy." HPB ART I 293



Adept Work: Assisting all Good Movements 
and Individuals


Q.:--	"What then are the Adepts doing?
A.:-- (a) Assisting all good movements by acting on men from
behind the scenes through mental influence.
(b) Preparing as many men and women who are fit for it so
that they may, in their next incarnation, appear in the
world as active devotees to the good of the Human Family.
(c) Spreading now, through impulses given in many places
which must not be mentioned, a philosophy of life which will gradually
affect the race mind, and in particular the active, conquering Western
peoples, thus preparing the whole people to change and evolve yet
further and further until evils disappear and better days and people
reappear."   
WQJ ARTICLES II 53-4



Nirmanakayas Work -- Their Relations With Us


"Nirmanakayas. They are men who have become perfected--who could if
they chose reach up to and hold the very highest state of bliss, but
who refuse that bliss because it would mean forever to forsake all
chance of helping their fellow-men. They can, when the nature of the
person is true and aspiring strongly, communicate, if it is necessary
to help him. But there is no mistake in these communications. They
are personal, meant for that one as direct help. It is the within
which induces any outside help that we receive. It is a recognition
of the spiritual nature of ourselves and all beings which makes the
true condition. It is from the spiritual that the strength comes.
And it is for the perfection of humanity that all the Divine
Incarnations have labored."	RC -- FP p. 258




Manas must be Morally Purified to see 
the Mahatmas Everywhere


"Whoever...wants to see the real Mahatma, must use his intellectual
sight. He must so elevate his Manas that its perceptions will be
clear and all mists created by Maya must be dispelled. His vision
will then be bright and he will see the MAHATMAS wherever he may be,
for, being merged into the 6th and the 7th principles, which are
ubiquitous and omnipresent, the MAHATMAS may be said to be
everywhere." HPB ART I 294



Lighting Up Of Manas ( The Human Mind )


"...divine man dwelt in his animal--though externally human --form;
and, if there was instinct in him, no self-consciousness came to
enlighten the darkness of the latent 5th principle [Manas]. When
moved by the law of Evolution, the Lords of Wisdom infused into him
the spark of consciousness, the first feeling it awoke to life and
activity was a sense of solidarity, of one-ness with his spiritual
creators. As the child's first feeling is for its mother and nurse,
so the first aspirations of the awakening consciousness in primitive
man were for those whose element he felt within himself, and who yet
were outside, and independent of him. Devotion arose out of that
feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his nature; for
it is the only one which is natural in our heart, which is innate in
us, and which we find alike in human babe and the young of the animal.
This feeling of irrepressible, instinctive aspiration in primitive man
...(211) It lives undeniably, and has settled in all its ineradicable
strength and power in the Asiatic Aryan heart from the 3rd Race direct
through it first "mind-born" sons,--the fruits of Kriyasakti. As time
rolled on the holy caste of Initiates produced but rarely, and from
age to age, such perfect creatures: beings apart, inwardly, though
the same as those who produced them, outwardly...the 3rd primitive
race...was called into being, a ready and perfect vehicle for the
incarnating denizens of higher spheres, who took forthwith their
abodes in these forms born of Spiritual WILL and the natural divine
power in man. Its physical frame alone was of time and of life, as it
drew its intelligence direct from above. It was the living tree of
divine wisdom; and may therefore be likened to the Mundane Tree of
the Norse Legend, which cannot wither and die until the last battle of
life shall be fought, and while its roots are gnawed all the time by
the dragon Niddhogg; for even so, the first and holy son of
Kriyasakti had his body gnawed by the tooth of time, but the roots of
his inner being remained for ever undecaying and strong, because they
grew and expanded in heaven not on earth. He was the first of the
FIRST, and he was the seed of all the others. There were other "Sons
of Kriyasakti" produced by a second spiritual effort, but the first
one has remained to this day the Seed of divine Knowledge, the One and
the Supreme among the terrestrial "Sons of Wisdom." SD I 210-211


The Spirit in Man


"...human consciousness" is but a Ray of the Divine. Our Manas, or
Ego, proceeds from, and is the Son (figuratively) of Mahat.
Vaivaswatta Manu (the Manu of our fifth race and Humanity in general)
is the chief personified representative of the thinking Humanity of
the fifth Root-race; and therefore he is represented as the eldest
Son of the Sun and an Agnishwatta Ancestor...Thought in its action on
human brains is endless. Thus Manu is, and contains the potentiality
of all the thinking forms which will be developed on earth from this
particular source. In the esoteric teaching he is the beginning of
this earth , and from him and his daughter Ila humanity is born; he
is a unity which contains all the pluralities and their modifications.
Every manvantara has its own Manu, and from this Manu the various
Manus or rather all the Manasa of the Kalpas will proceed...he may be
compared to the white light which contains all the other rays, giving
birth to them by passing through the prism of differentiation and
evolution."	TRAN. 99



Progressive Initiations


"In a secret work upon the Mysteries and the rites of Initiation, in
which very rough but correct prints are given of the sacramental
postures, and of the trials to which the postulant was subjected, the
following details are found:
(1)	The neophyte--representing the Sun, as "Sahasrakirana" [GLOS
284] "he of the 1,000 rays"--is shown kneeling before the
"Hierophant." The latter is in the act of cutting off seven locks of
the neophyte's long hair, (fn:--...the esoteric truth that the 7 locks
symbolize the septenary physical or terrestrial man, thus cut off and
separated from the spiritual...) and in the following--

(2)--illustration, the postulant's bright crown of golden beams is
thrown off, and replaced by a wreath of sharp ligneous spines,
symbolizing the loss. (fn.:--...Sanjana--pure spiritual conscience--is
the inner perception of the neophyte (or chela) and Initiate; the
scorching of it by the too ardent beams of the Sun being symbolical of
the 7 cardinal sins, and as to the 7 cardinal virtues--to be gained by
the Sakridagamin (the candidate "for new birth"), they could be
attained by him only through severe trial and suffering)...

In order to become a "Perfect One," the Sakridagamin ("he who will
receive new birth," lit.) had, among other trials, to descend into
Patala, the "nether world," after which process only he could hope to
become an "Anagamin"--one who will be reborn no more." The full
Initiate had the option of either entering this 2nd Path by appearing
at will in the world of men under a human form, or he could choose to
first rest in the world of Gods (the Devachan of the Initiates), and
then only be reborn on this our earth. Thus, the next stage shows the
postulant preparing for this journey.

(3)	Every kind of temptation--we have no right to enumerate these
or speak of them--was being placed on his way. If he came out
victorious over these, then the further Initiation was proceeded with;
if he fell---it was delayed, often entirely lost for him.

These rites lasted 7 days."	HPB ARTICLES II 528-9


	
Bodha: - Wisdom -- Buddhi: - 
Cognition & Discrimination
	

"Bodha means the innate possession of divine intellect or
"understanding;" "Buddha," the acquirement of it by personal efforts
and merit; while 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 Vikara, 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.

"Bodhi" is likewise the name of a particular state of trance
condition, called Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the
culmination of spiritual knowledge."	SD I xix


Nirmanakaya - Bodhisattva


"Remember, thou that fightest for man's liberation,* each failure is
success and each sincere attempt wins its reward in time." * This is
an allusion to a well-known belief in the East...that every additional
Buddha or Saint is a new soldier in the army of those who work for the
liberation, or salvation of mankind. In Northern Buddhist countries,
where the doctrine of the Nirmanakayas--those Bodhisattvas who
renounce well-earned Nirvana or the Dharmakaya vesture (both of which
shut them out forever from the world of men) in order to invisibly
assist mankind and lead it finally to Paranirvana--is taught, every
new Bodhisattva, or initiated great Adept, is called the "liberator of
mankind."	VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 69


"A Bodhisattva is, in the hierarchy, less than a "perfect Buddha." In
the exoteric parlance these two are very much confused. Yet the
innate and right popular perception, owing to that self-sacrifice has
placed a Bodhisattva higher in its reverence than a Buddha.

This same popular reverence calls "Buddhas of Compassion" those
Bodhisattvas who, having reached the rank of an Arhat (i.e., have
completed the fourth or seventh Path), refuse to pass into the
Nirvanic state or "don the Dharmakaya robe and cross to the other
shore," as it would then become beyond their power to assist men even
so little as Karma permits. They prefer to remain invisibly (in
Spirit, so to speak) in the world, and contribute towards man's
salvation by influencing them to follow the Good Law, i.e., lead them
on the Path of Righteousness..."	
VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 77



Final Choice of Nirvana or Renunciation 
(as a Nirmanakaya)


"... we know that at a certain period of progress, far above this
sublunary world, the adept reaches a point when he may, if he so
chooses, formulate a wish that he might be one of the Devas, one of
the bright host of beings of whose pleasure and glory and power we can
have no idea. The mere formulation of the wish is enough. At that
moment he becomes one of the Devas. He then for a period of time
which in its extent is incalculable, enjoys that condition--then what?
Then he has to begin again low down on the scale, in a mode and for a
purpose which it would be useless to detail here, because it could not
be understood..." WQJ ARTICLES I pp 8-9


"Nirmanakaya...is that ethereal form which one would assume when
leaving his physical he would appear in his astral body--having in
addition all the knowledge of an Adept. The Bodhisattva develops it
in himself as he proceeds on the Path. Having reached the goal and
refused its fruition, he remains on Earth, as an Adept; and when he
dies, instead of going into Nirvana, he remains in that glorious body
he has woven for himself, invisible to uninitiated mankind, to watch
over and protect it...Thus, to be enabled to help humanity, an Arhat
who has won the right to Nirvana, "renounces the Dharmakaya body" in
mystic parlance; keeps, of the Sambhogakaya, only the great and
complete knowledge, and remains in his Nirmanakaya body. The Esoteric
School teaches that Gautama Buddha, with several of his Arhats, is
such a Nirmanakaya higher than whom, on account of the great
renunciation and sacrifice for mankind, there is none known."
VOICE 77-8


Individuality Persists Through any Pralaya or Maha-pralaya
to the Next Manvantara


"...I maintain as an occultist on the authority of the Secret
Doctrine, that though merged entirely into Parabrahm, man's spirit
while not individual per se, yet preserves its distinct individuality
in Paranirvana, owing to the accumulation in it of the aggregates, or
skandhas that have survived after each death, from the highest
faculties of the Manas. The most spiritual--i.e., the highest and
divinest aspirations of every personality follow Buddhi and the
Seventh Principle into Devachan (Swarga) after the death of the
Monad...the individuality of the spirit-soul...is preserved to the end
of the great cycle (Maha-Manwantara) when each Ego enters Paranirvana,
or is merged in Parabrahm...however long the "night of Brahma" or even
the Universal Pralaya...yet, when it ends, the same individual Divine
Monad resumes its majestic path of evolution, though on a higher,
hundredfold perfected and more pure chain of earths (266) than before,
and brings with it all the essence of compound spiritualities from its
previous countless rebirths."		
HPB ARTICLES III 265-6



Man's Immortal Manvantaric Body -- 
Thinking, Acting, Recording


"We should remember that we were self-conscious beings when this
planet began; some even were self-conscious when this solar system
began; for there is a difference in degree of development among human
beings. If the planet or solar system began in a state of primordial
substance or nebulous matter ... then we must have had bodies of that
state of substance, In that finest substance there are all the
possibilities of every grade of matter, and hence it is that within
the true body of primordial matter all the changes of coarser and
coarser substance have been brought about; and within that body is
all experience. Our birth is within that body--a body of a nature
which does not change throughout the whole Manvantara. Each one has
such a body of finest substance, of the inner nature, which is the
real container for the individual. In it he lives and moves and has
his being, and yet even the great glory and fineness of that body is
not the man; it is merely the highest vesture of the Soul. The Real
Man we are is the Man that was, that is, and that ever shall be, for
whom the hour will never strike--Man, the thinker; Man, the
perceiver--always thinking, continually acting...We are that One
Spirit, each standing in a vast assemblage of beings in this great
universe, seeing and knowing what he can through the instrument he
has. We are the Trinity--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;
or, in theosophical parlance, we are Atma, Buddhi, and Manas. Atma is
the One Spirit, not belonging to any one, but to all. Buddhi is the
sublimated experience of all the past. Manas is the thinking power,
the thinker, the man, the immortal man. There is no man without the
Spirit..."	
RC -- FP p. 237


Man Makes his own Immortality


"...It is owing to this rebellion of intellectual life against the
morbid inactivity of pure spirit, that we are what we
are--self-conscious, thinking men, with the capabilities and
attributes of Gods in us, for good as much as for evil. Hence the
REBELS are our saviours. Let the philosopher ponder well over this,
and more than one mystery will become clear to him. It is only by the
attractive force of the contrasts that the two opposites--Spirit and
Matter--can be cemented on Earth, and, smelted in the fire of
self-conscious experience and suffering, find themselves wedded in
Eternity..."	SD II 103



"Perfected Souls" -- Stand as Examples: -  
We Have to Emulate


"No one can know anything for another. Each one has to know for
himself. Each one has to do his own learning. The object of
Theosophy is to teach man what he is, to show man what he is, and to
present to him the necessity of his knowing for himself. No vicarious
atonement, no vicarious transmission of knowledge, is possible. But
the direction in which knowledge lies can be pointed out; the steps
which will lead us in that direction may be shown, as can be done only
by those who have passed that way before...It is the doctrine of
Krishna, of Buddha, of Jesus, no less than the doctrine of H.P.B...
The very fact of suffering is a blessing. Karma and Reincarnation
show us that suffering is brought about by wrong thought and action;
through our sufferings we may be brought to a realization that a wrong
course has been pursued. We learn through our sufferings.

Life is one grand school of Being, and we have come to that stage
where it is right for us to learn to understand the purpose of
existence; to grasp our whole nature firmly; to use every means in
our power in every direction...to bring the whole of our nature into
accord, so that our lower instrument may be "in line" and thus more
and more fully reflect our divine natures."	
RC -- FP p. 263



How to "Perfect" Ourselves


"There is no difference between the teachings of Jesus and the
teachings of the Buddha, although those teachings are recorded in
different languages and an interval of six hundred years separated the
two great Teachers. What is true of these two is likewise true of all
the other many Saviours of different times and peoples--they all
taught the same fundamental ideas.

This fact suggests that there is a body of Men, of perfected men,
product of past civilizations and evolution, our Elder Brothers, in
fact, who have acquired and are Custodians of the knowledge and
experience gained through aeons of time. Their knowledge is actually
the Science of Life, for it enters into every department of existence,
of nature...We have each of us the same power to know that is Theirs.
But they have ex-tended the faculties of the instruments which they
possess. They have improved what they have. They have better brains.
They have better bodies. How did they acquire them? By fulfilling
every duty which faced them, regardless of what came to themselves.
They thought nothing of acquiring power and knowledge for themselves;
they thought only of gaining power that they might expend it for the
benefit of every living creature. in so doing they opened the doors
to the full play of the power of the Spirit within...

The great work of evolution proceeds from within outwards. The Soul
is the Perceiver; it looks directly on ideas. The action of the will
is through ideas. The ideas give the direction. Small ideas, small
force; large ideas, large force; the Force itself is illimitable,
for it is the force of Spirit, infinite and exhaustless. What we lack
are universal ideas..."
RC -- FP p. 269-270



We Have to Take Responsibility for Self-Reform 
and Self-Training


"Saviour after Saviour has come to the earth for our benefit, but no
one can give us any more benefit than to point to the truths that have
been given all down the ages. We must take advantage of that
knowledge and advance out of the state in which we have placed
ourselves. No Saviour can save us. No God can protect us. No devil
can torment us. For both God and the devil are within. The devil is
the misunderstanding of our nature...It is the God in us which demands
self-advancement, self-induced and self-devised exertions, and the
full acceptance of responsibility." RC--FP p. 300



"...to realize our own responsibility to all others and to act in
accordance is to have become unselfish, and to have done away with the
prime cause of sin, sorrow and suffering...We must take care of each
other, not of ourselves...truth, as we know, always explains."
RC--FP p. 308


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