Theos-Talk Archives (August 2002 Message tt00114)

Aug 7 2002

Dear Friends:

In metaphysics as in mathematics ONE (1) emanates from
ZERO (0) [ NO NUMBER ] IMMUTABLE -- INDESCRIBABLE, but
assumed to be every-where present.


The gap, as I see it, is one of definition.

Definitions are all from the point of view of the mutable.
To me, the mutable units exhibit an intelligence derived
from the ONE CONSCIOUSNESS ( Jiv-Atma - the Universal LIFE).
The Intelligence resident in these many aspects of the
ZERO -- ONE that form the "mutable" are inevitably also a
part of the ZERO -- ONE. Hence there is within them that
which senses (without definition) the ever-present ZERO.
However the condition of any one, at any stage, is a
"reality" to it/them. Its sense of "reality," is of course
reflected from the universal potential of REALITY -- which
includes everything.

Since the ONE is to them (the units) a source they can
apprehend, (but not define) they refer to it as the ONE
UNITY -- SPIRIT. And, to IT they ascribe PERFECTION.
They recognize their limitations, but, are unable yet to
encompass THAT. They have not developed the terminology to
accurately express the inexpressible.

Yet, the SOURCE (the ZERO and the ONE in manifestation) is
apparent to them as a logical necessity.

Consequently they attempt by approximations in the realm of
metaphysics to arrive at some definitions.


In terms of ultimates the ZERO (0) is ever indefinable.
Some term it THAT.

The ONE (1) is only a temporary aspect of THAT. Yet the
one contains in potential an access to THAT.

And so on....

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

It occurs to me that the following will help present the
theosophical view and system better than I can, so I will
add this for your consideration":


_________________


Introductory

To make this a part of the foregoing let me say that this is
the basis for theosophical philosophy.



PURPOSE OF THE BOOK: THE SECRET DOCTRINE



"The synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy"
SD I Title Page


"There is no Religion Higher than Truth."
SD I Title Page


"This Work I dedicate to all True Theosophists, In every
Country, and of every Race, for They called it forth, and
for Them it was Recorded." H P BLAVATSKY
SD I Dedication



"...this work is written for the instruction of students of
Occultism..."
SD I 23



"These truths are in no sense put forward as a revelation
...what is contained [here] is to be found scattered
throughout thousands of...scriptures of the great Asiatic
and early European religions...What is now attempted is to
gather the oldest tenets together and to make of them one
harmonious whole...The Secret Doctrine is the essence of all
these...its logical coherence and consistency entitles this
new Genesis to rank...on a level with the "working
hypotheses" so freely accepted by modern science...because
it closely adheres to Nature, and follows the laws of
uniformity and analogy."
SD I Preface vii-viii



"The aim of this work [is]...

[ 1.] to show that nature is not "a fortuitous
concurrence of atoms," and

[ 2.] to assign to man his rightful place in the scheme
of the Universe;

[ 3.] to rescue from degradation the archaic truths
which are the basis of all religions; and

[ 4.] to uncover...the fundamental unity from which
they spring; finally,

[ 5.] to show that the occult side of nature has never
been approached by the Science of modern
civilization."
SD I Preface viii



"The Secret Doctrine, in the Stanzas given here, occupies
itself chiefly, if not entirely, with our Solar system, and
especially with our planetary chain." SECRET DOCTRINE I
60


"The Wisdom-Religion is the inheritance of all the nations,
the world over..."
SD I xviii


"...no theosophical book acquires the least additional value
from pretended authority."
SD I xix


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


THE ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY: OCCULTISM


"Esoteric Philosophy is alone calculated to withstand...the
repeated attacks on all and everything that man holds most
dear and sacred, in his inner spiritual life...[it]
reconciles all religions...It proves the necessity of an
absolute Divine Principle in nature [and]...denies Deity no
more than it does the Sun...the records we mean to place
before the reader embrace the esoteric tenets of the whole
world since the beginning of our humanity..."
SD I xx



"...the Secret Doctrine of the Archaic ages is now permitted
to see the light, after long millenniums of the most
profound silence and secrecy..."
SD I xxii


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


ARCHAIC ESOTERIC SCHOOLS


"The members of several esoteric schools...claim to have in
their possession the sum total of sacred and philosophical
works in MSS, and type...once found, save three copies left
and stored carefully away, such works were all destroyed and
hidden during the reign of the Emperor Akbar [1562-1603]."
SD I xxiii


"There was a "primeval revelation" [ granted to the fathers
of the human race ] and it still exists; nor will it ever
be lost to the world, but will reappear..."
SD I xxx


"The Secret Doctrine was the universally diffused religion
of the ancient and prehistoric world."
SD I xxxiv


"[ The Secret Doctrine]...is not a religion, nor is its
philosophy new...it is as old as thinking man. Its tenets
have been cautiously given out to, and taught by, more than
one European Initiate...[such as] Ragon"
SD I xxxvi


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


THE SECRET DOCTRINE IN THIS CENTURY



"...in the 20th century...scholars will begin to recognize
that the Secret Doctrine has...[been] simply outlined...[it]
contains all that can be given out to the world in this
century"
SD I xxxvii-viii


"...it will take centuries before much more is given from
it...once the door permitted to be kept a little ajar, it
will be opened wider with every new century."
SD I xxxviii & Fn



"[ A new 5,000 year cycle is dawning--1897/98 ]...Fragments
have survived geological and political cataclysms...{and}
show that the now Secret Wisdom was once the one fountain
head, the ever-flowing perennial source...unobscured by the
hand of bigotry and fanaticism."
SD I xliv-xlv



"In the present work, detailed Cosmogony and the evolution
of the four races that preceded our Fifth race Humanity are
given work from which the many volumes of the
Kiu-ti...Siphra Dzeniouta...Sepher Jezirah...Shu-king [and]
the sacred volumes of the Egyptian Thoth-Hermes, the Puranas
in India, and the Chaldean Book of Numbers and the
Pentateuch itself [were derived]...taken down in Senzar, the
secret sacerdotal tongue, from the words of the Divine
Beings, who dictated it to the Sons of Light, in Central
Asia, at the very beginning of our (5th) race..."
SD I xliii



"...knowledge of the Occult and the powers it confers on
man, are not altogether fictions, but that they are as old
as the world itself." SD I xlv


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


H P B'S "POSITION"


"I have here made only a nosegay of culled flowers, and have
brought nothing of my own but the string that ties them."
SD I xlvi


"Every reader will inevitably judge the statements made from
the stand-point of his own knowledge, experience and
consciousness, based on what he has already learnt."
SD I xlvi


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


STATEMENTS FROM THE SECRET DOCTRINE

===========


A UNIVERSAL BASIS


"The first and Fundamental dogma of Occultism is Universal
Unity (or Homogeneity) under three aspects." SD I 58


"...Universe, the All...the abstract, ever incognizable
Presence, and its plane the Universal Soul..."
SD I p. 1


"The One Life, eternal, invisible, yet Omnipresent, without
beginning or end, yet periodical in its regular
manifestations ...eternal ceaseless Motion...the "Great
Breath"...in limitless, ever-present Space..."
SD I p. 2


"Occultism sums up the "one Existence" thus: "Deity is an
arcane, living (or moving) Fire, and the eternal witness to
this unseen Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture..."
SD I 2


"...there is but One Universal Element, which is infinite,
unborn, and undying, and that all the rest...are but so many
various differentiated aspects and transformations
(correlations)...of that One...then the first and chief
difficulty will disappear and Occult Cosmology may be
mastered."
SD I 75


"The esoteric doctrine teaches...like even the Kabala, that
the one infinite and unknown Essence exists from all
eternity, and in regular and harmonious successions is
either passive or active." [ Isis II 264 ]
SD I 3


SPACE -- THE ONE INFINITE WE SHARE IS ALL AROUND US
.


"...the One All is like Space...Space is neither a
"limitless void," nor a "conditioned fullness"..
. SD I 8


"Space is called in the esoteric symbolism "the
Seven-Skinned Eternal Mother-Father."
SD I 9


"...there can neither be two Infinities nor two Absolutes in
a Universe supposed to be Boundless..."
SD I 7


"...not even the highest Dhyani-Chohans have ever
penetrated the mysteries beyond the boundaries that separate
the milliards of Solar systems from the "Central Sun," as it
is called."[ see SD I 142 ]
SD I 13


"The One Eternal Element...is Space, dimensionless in every
sense; co-existent with which are--endless duration,
primordial (hence indestructible) Matter, and
motion--absolute "perpetual motion" which is the "breath" of
the "One" Element."
SD I 55


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



MOTION: LIFE - LAW - PROGRESS
[NO "CHANCE" IN NATURE]



"...universal motion, the thrill of the creative Breath in
Nature."
SD I 2


"Intra-Cosmic motion is eternal and ceaseless; cosmic
motion (the visible, or that which is subject to perception)
is finite and periodical. As an eternal abstraction it is
the ever-present...Kosmos--the Noumenon--has nought to do
with the causal relations of the phenomenal World."
SD I 3



"This process has been going on from all eternity, and our
present universe is but one of an infinite series, which had
no beginning and will have no end." [ Isis II 265 ]
SD I 4



"...atoms actuated by a ceaseless motion...the idea of
affinity--an occult teaching."
SD I 2



"The ray of the "Ever Darkness" becomes, as it is emitted, a
ray of effulgent light or life, and flashes into the
"Germ"--the point in the Mundane Egg...matter in its
abstract sense...a germ exists in the center of every atom,
and these collectively form "the Germ"...the collectivity of
these forms the noumenon of eternal and indestructible
matter." SD I 57


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



UNIVERSAL MIND: INTELLIGENCE -- MANKIND -- PROGRESS



"...the universal mystery, the doctrine of the identity of
man's essence with god-essence..."
SD I 78



"...the term "Divine Thought," like that of "Universal
Mind,"...would mean absolute Wisdom..."
SD I 1fn



"...entities called Primordial Man, Dhyani-Buddhas, or
Dhyan-Chohans, the "Rishi-Prajapati" of the Hindus, the
Elohim...the Planetary Spirits of all nations..."
SD I 10



"The "Builders," the "Sons of Manvantaric Dawn," are the
real creators of the Universe...they are the architects [of
our Planetary System, and ]...are also called the "Watchers"
of the Seven Spheres, which exoterically are the seven
earths or spheres (planets) of our chain..."
SD I 53



"...Absolute Consciousness"...behind phenomena...is only
termed unconsciousness in the absence of any element of
personality...Only the liberated Spirit is able to faintly
realize the nature of the source whence it sprung and wither
it must eventually return...as the highest
Dhyan-Chohan...can but bow in ignorance before the awful
mystery of Absolute Being...the Finite cannot conceive the
Infinite, nor can it apply to it its own standards of mental
experiences...the Occultist would say that it applies
perfectly to the awakened Mahat, the Universal Mind already
projected into the phenomenal world as the first aspect of
the changeless Absolute..."Spirit and Matter...are but the
two primeval aspects of the One and Secondless..."
SD I 51



"The idea that things can cease to exist and still be, is a
fundamental one in Eastern psychology."
SD I 54




"The "Divine Thought" does not imply the idea of a Divine
thinker. The Universe, not only past, present, and
future--which is a human and finite idea expressed by finite
thought--but in its totality, the Sat...the absolute being,
with the Past and Future crystallized in an eternal Present,
is that Thought itself reflected in a secondary or manifest
cause." SD I 61

]
--------------------------------------------------



MIND - INTELLIGENCE - CONSCIOUSNESS



"Esoteric philosophy teaches that everything lives and is
conscious..."
SD I 49


"Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of
Consciousness grouped under thought, Will, and
Feeling..."Universal Mind" remains as a permanent
possibility of mental action..."
SD I 38


"Dreamless sleep is one of the seven states of
consciousness..."
SD I 47


"...Mundane Intelligence...Nous, the principle that...is
absolutely separated and was free from matter and acts on
design, was called Motion, the One Life, or Jivatma..."
SD I 50


"To know itself or oneself, necessitates consciousness and
perception (both limited faculties in relation to any
subject except Parabrahm [the Absolute], to be
cognized...The Boundless can have no relation to the bounded
and conditioned...Concrete consciousness cannot be
predicated of abstract Consciousness...Consciousness implies
limitations and qualifications; something to be conscious
of, and someone to be conscious of it. But Absolute
Consciousness contains the cognizer, the thing cognized and
the cognition, all three in itself and all three one."
SD I 56


"To forget is synonymous with not to remember...We call
absolute consciousness "unconsciousness," because it seems
to us that it must necessarily be so, just as we call the
Absolute, "Darkness," because to our finite understanding it
appears quite impenetrable, yet we recognize that our
perception...does not do them justice..."
SD I 56



"The Mahat (Understanding, Universal Mind, Thought, etc...)
before it manifests as Brahmaa or Siva, appears as Vishnu
[Krishna]...Mahat has several aspects...[and] is called the
Lord, in the Primary Creation, and is, in this sense,
Universal Cognition or Thought Divine; but...when Mahat
develops into the feeling of Self-Consciousness--I--then it
assumes the name of Ego-ism...translated into our esoteric
phraseology, means when Mahat is transferred into the human
Manas...and becomes Ahamship"
SD I 75


[ I am that I am -- explained numerically SD I
78 ]



MANIFESTATION AS A PERIODICAL PROCESS



"The idea of Eternal Non-Being, which is the One Being...is
the noumenon of all the noumena which we know must underlie
phenomena, and give them whatever shadow of reality they
possess, but which we have hot the senses or the intellect
to cognize at present."
SD I 45



"Spirit is the first differentiation from That, the
causeless cause of both Spirit and Matter."
SD I 35



"...Akasa, Father-Mother, the Spirit and soul of Ether, or
the plane on the surface of the circle."
SD I 18



"In the Kabala it
is...Father-Mother-Son..."Atma-Buddhi-Manas" (Spirit, Soul,
Intelligence), the triad branching off and dividing into
seven cosmical and seven human principles..."
SD I 18



"The Secret Doctrine...postulates a "One Form of Existence"
as the basis and source of all things...the place whence
emerges the origination, and into which is the resolution of
all things."
SD I 46


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


EVOLUTION - PROGRESS OF INDIVIDUALIZED
IMMORTALS
[ FROM THE "LIFE-ATOM" TO THE "GALAXY" ]



"The Secret Doctrine teaches the progressive development of
everything, worlds as well as atoms; and this stupendous
development has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable
end. Our "Universe" is only one of an infinite number of
Universes, all of them "Sons of Necessity," because links in
the great Cosmic chain..."
SD I 43



"...the upward progress of the Ego is a series of
progressive awakenings, each advance bringing with it the
idea that now, at last, we have reached "reality;" but only
when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and
blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions
produced by Maya [illusion]."
SD I 40


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



A SEVENFOLD UNIVERSE



"...any septenary division at once gives a clue to
tremendous occult powers, the abuse of which would cause
incalculable evil to humanity."
SD I xxxv



"[ "keys"]...The said key must be turned seven times before
the whole system is divulged...Happy he, who understands the
whole!"
SD I xxxviii



"Wise is he who holds to the golden mid-point, who believes
in the eternal justice of things."
SD I xli



"...Occult Science recognizes Seven Cosmical Elements--four
entirely physical, and the fifth (Ether) semi-material, as
it will become visible in the air towards the end of our
Fourth Round..."
SD I 12



"The 7 Stanzas given...represent the 7 terms of this
abstract formula [which can be applied...to all
evolution...] .the 7 "creations" [Puranas]..." SD
I 21 SD I 21



"...the septenary hierarchy of conscious Divine Powers, who
are the active manifestations of the One Supreme Energy.
SD I 22


"...the "last vibration of the Seventh Eternity"...without
reference to size or limitation or area means the
development of limitless subjectivity into as limitless
objectivity...a change of condition...the temporary
reflection, the shadow of the eternal ideal prototype in
Divine thought...(as the Hermetic "Pymander")..."
SD I 63


"...the "Son," cosmically Fohat, for it is Cosmic
Electricity. "Fohat hardens and scatters the seven
brothers."...the primordial Electric Entity...electrifies
into life, and separates primordial stuff or pregenetic
matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and
consciousness."
SD I 76


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



SYMBOLOGY -- NUMBERS -- UNIVERSAL GEOMETRY



Universal Symbology is introduced as a development of
primordial ideas: Circle, Line, Triangle, Cross" SD I
pp. 4-5


"...Quaternary (Father, Mother, Son, as a Unity, and...as a
living manifestation)...is purely astronomical,
mathematical, and pre-eminently metaphysical...Horus, Or
Osiris, etc...is born through, not from an immaculate
source, personified by the "Mother"...the abstract Deity
being sexless, and not even a Being but Be-ness, or Life
itself..."
SD I 59



"...Jehovah, or Jod-he-vau-he is androgyne, or both male and
female. Above, the Son is the whole Kosmos; below, he is
Mankind."
SD I 60



"The "Mundane Egg" is...one of the most universally adopted
symbols, highly suggestive as it is, equally in the
spiritual physiological, and cosmological sense. Therefore,
it is found in every world-theogony...associated with the
serpent symbol...an emblem of eternity, infinitude,
regeneration, and rejuvenation, as well as of wisdom..."
SD I 65



"In the "Book of Dzyan," as in the Kabala, there are two
kinds of numerals to be studied--the figures, often simple
blinds, and the Sacred Numbers, the values of which are
known to the Occultists through Initiation. The former is
but a conventional glyph, the latter is the basic symbol of
all...one is purely physical, the other purely metaphysical,
the two standing in relation to each other as matter stands
to spirit--the extreme poles of the One Substance."
SD I 66



* = 1
* * = 2
* * * = 3
* * * * = 4 Sum
Total = 10


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


LIGHT AND DARKNESS



"The "Light" is the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which
has entered and now fecundated the divine Egg, and calls
cosmic matter to begin its long series of differentiations.
The curds are the first...and probably refer to that cosmic
matter which is supposed to be the origin of the "Milky
Way"--the matter we know."
SD I 69


"Darkness adopted illumination in order to make itself
visible...[in] Eastern Occultism, Darkness is the one true
actuality, the basis and root of light, without which the
latter could never manifest itself, nor even exist. Light
is matter, and Darkness pure Spirit. Darkness in its
radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute
light..."
SD I 70


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



TIME AND DURATION



"Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our
states of consciousness as we travel through eternal
duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness
exists in which the illusion can be produced, but "lies
asleep." SD I 37



"The Past time is the Present time, as also the Future,
which, though it has not come into existence, still is"...
Time...but the panoramic succession of our states of
consciousness..."
SD I 43-44


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


REALITY - PERMANENCY



"Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute
existence which contains in itself the noumena of all
realities...but all things are relatively real, for the
cognizer is also a reflection, and the things cognized are
therefore as real to him as himself."
SD I 39


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



DEATH AND REGENERATION



"[Brahmins]...no philosopher among them will view "death" in
any other sense than as a temporary disappearance from the
manifested plane of existence, or as a periodical rest."
SD I 8


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

DTB