Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00021)

Nov 2 2002

Dear Tim:

What you write is most interesting. May I break in with some
observations and questions?

Contrary to Western pragmatics and materialism, Theosophy ( as
you will see in The SECRET DOCTRINE -- pp 14 -19 (the 3
Fundamentals) ) starts with the SOURCE of phenomena and not the
phenomena as we sense it. I wonder if we can investigate these?
The first 300 pages of the SECRET DOCTRINE provide a basis to
employ any of our philosophical or logical tools.

This gives wide latitude, of course. It is synthetic and creative
(inductive ?) rather than analytical, yet in its completeness it
includes both.

The matter of the ethical / moral configuration as a part of
reality and its philosophy is an essential. The “emotional
aspect” of things can no more be eliminated from consideration
than the concept that experience builds continuously the fund of
wisdom in the whole of Nature.

After all, can we not say: Nature (the universe, our world) has
been around for an enormous period of time and supports our
existence, petty and small though we may be. I would conclude we
may fairly look for the LAWS OF EXISTENCE all around us and
within the fabric of Nature.

As I read the S D, it starts with the abstractions of the
Universe, its source and purpose, and looks on our Earth and our
present personal existence as only a fraction of the great Whole.
It looks on these as propositions of logical necessity, not as
axioms to be accepted without due research and analysis. It
views all aggregated forms as a mass of intelligences all
developing cooperatively together. In and among these some seem
to advance and acquire a grater degree of intelligence, and with
effort, develop this faculty to an extraordinary degree.

We can trace aspects of this way of developing and thinking to
eastern and ancient schools. But that is only to say they were
preserved there. Philosophy and theosophy are ancient and are
universal. Our sense of location or history are irrelevant to
the concepts to be analysed or synthesized. I was reading H P B’
s LE PHARE DE L’INCONNU and it seems to offer may leads along
these lines. (August, September, October THEOSOPHIST 1889)

As to the law of the excluded middle, Theosophy visualizes a
corrective triangle of forcers whereby the polar extremes of say,
Spirit and Matter, (force and form) are equilibrated by
understanding, intelligence and consciousness. The Mind as a
faculty is, in general, the bridge, and provides for the
necessary give and take of any set of two opposites. It makes
relativity possible. [ The MONAD in evolution would then be
SPIRIT-MATTER-MIND. ] In the vat Pralayas that gulf periods of
manifestation the individual Monads, though resolved back into
the ABSOLUTE are said by H P B to retain their individual
particularity owing to the aggregations of “skandhas” they have
acquired during the prior periods of evolution in which they have
participated. ]

To live and experience is the only way, I agree, to discover the
way in which the universe, world, man and atom interrelate.
Buddhism has become interpreted in many ways. It is not
monolithic, but seems based (to me) on conditions and facts in
nature. I do not find that the Buddha subscribed to a
meaningless or a pointless existence, with NOTHING as a result of
long and protracted living according to the laws of brotherhood
and reciprocity -- charity and compassion for all. This seems to
make happiness reasonable and an ideal way of living, if all
participate in such an expressions and make it possible. I
therefore look on one of the results of evolution and
self-discipline (morally) for each Monad, to be the gradual
transformation of “Kama-- passion” into “Buddhi-compassion” or
wisdom.

I agree with you that theosophy covers vastly more than the
average, the superficial or the merely politic concepts of
current thinking..

But perhaps I am not reading you well, and I hope you will
correct me.

Let me subjoin a small section from The SECRET DOCTRINE to
illustrate my theme.

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

_____


[[Vol. 1, Page 1]] THE SECRET DOCTRINE


PROEM


PAGES FROM A PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD.
AN Archaic Manuscript -- a collection of palm leaves made
impermeable to water, fire, and air, by some specific unknown
process -- is before the writer's eye. On the first page is an
immaculate white disk within a dull black ground. On the
following page, the same disk, but with a central point. The
first, the student knows to represent Kosmos in Eternity, before
the re-awakening of still slumbering Energy, the emanation of the
Word in later systems. The point in the hitherto immaculate Disk,
Space and Eternity in Pralaya, denotes the dawn of
differentiation. It is the Point in the Mundane Egg (see Part
II., "The Mundane Egg"), the germ within the latter which will
become the Universe, the ALL, the boundless, periodical Kosmos,
this germ being latent and active, periodically and by turns. The
one circle is divine Unity, from which all proceeds, whither all
returns. Its circumference -- a forcibly limited symbol, in view
of the limitation of the human mind -- indicates the abstract,
ever incognisable PRESENCE, and its plane, the Universal Soul,
although the two are one. Only the face of the Disk being white
and the ground all around black, shows clearly that its plane is
the only knowledge, dim and hazy though it still is, that is
attainable by man. It is on this plane that the Manvantaric
manifestations begin; for it is in this SOUL that slumbers,
during the Pralaya, the Divine Thought,* wherein lies concealed
the plan of every future Cosmogony and Theogony. …


p. 2 THE SECRET DOCTRINE, I.

It is the ONE LIFE, eternal, invisible, yet Omnipresent, without
beginning or end, yet periodical in its regular manifestations,
between which periods reigns the dark mystery of non-Being;
unconscious, yet absolute Consciousness; unrealizable, yet the
one self-existing reality; truly, "a chaos to the sense, a Kosmos
to the reason." Its one absolute attribute, which is ITSELF,
eternal, ceaseless Motion, is called in esoteric parlance the
"Great Breath,"* which is the perpetual motion of the universe,
in the sense of limitless, ever-present SPACE. That which is
motionless cannot be Divine. But then there is nothing in fact
and reality absolutely motionless within the universal soul.
…From the beginning of man's inheritance, from the first
appearance of the architects of the globe he lives in, the
unrevealed Deity was recognized and considered under its only
philosophical aspect -- universal motion, the thrill of the
creative Breath in Nature. Occultism sums up the "One Existence"
thus: "Deity is an arcane, living (or moving) FIRE, and the
eternal witnesses to this unseen Presence are Light, Heat,
Moisture," -- this trinity including, and being the cause of,
every


p. 3 PROEM, S D I.

phenomenon in Nature.* 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; as a manifestation, it is
finite both in the coming direction and the opposite, the two
being the alpha and omega of successive reconstructions.
Kosmos -- the NOUMENON -- has nought to do with the causal
relations of the phenomenal World. It is only with reference to
the intra-cosmic soul, the ideal Kosmos in the immutable Divine
Thought, that we may say: "It never had a beginning nor will it
have an end." With regard to its body or Cosmic organization,
though it cannot be said that it had a first, or will ever have a
last construction, yet at each new Manvantara, its organization
may be regarded as the first and the last of its kind, as it
evolutes every time on a higher plane . . . .
A few years ago only, it was stated that: --
"The esoteric doctrine teaches, like Buddhism and Brahminism, and
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. In the poetical phraseology of Manu
these conditions are called the "Days" and the "Nights" of
Brahma. The latter is either "awake" or "asleep." The
Svabhavikas, or philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism
(which still exists in Nepal), speculate only upon the active
condition of this "Essence," which they call Svabhavat, and deem
it foolish to theorize upon the abstract and "unknowable" power
in its passive condition. Hence they are called atheists by both
Christian theologians and modern scientists, for neither of the


p. 4 THE SECRET DOCTRINE, I.

two are able to understand the profound logic of their
philosophy. The former will allow of no other God than the
personified secondary powers which have worked out the visible
universe, and which became with them the anthropomorphic God of
the Christians -- the male Jehovah, roaring amid thunder and
lightning. In its turn, rationalistic science greets the
Buddhists and the Svabhavikas as the "positivists" of the archaic
ages. If we take a one-sided view of the philosophy of the
latter, our materialists may be right in their own way. The
Buddhists maintained that there is no Creator, but an infinitude
of creative powers, which collectively form the one eternal
substance, the essence of which is inscrutable -- hence not a
subject for speculation for any true philosopher. Socrates
invariably refused to argue upon the mystery of universal being,
yet no one would ever have thought of charging him with atheism,
except those who were bent upon his destruction. Upon
inaugurating an active period, says the Secret Doctrine, an
expansion of this Divine essence from without inwardly and from
within outwardly, occurs in obedience to eternal and immutable
law, and the phenomenal or visible universe is the ultimate
result of the long chain of cosmical forces thus progressively
set in motion. In like manner, when the passive condition is
resumed, a contraction of the Divine essence takes place, and the
previous work of creation is gradually and progressively undone.
The visible universe becomes disintegrated, its material
dispersed; and 'darkness' solitary and alone, broods once more
over the face of the 'deep.' To use a Metaphor from the Secret
Books, which will convey the idea still more clearly, an
out-breathing of the 'unknown essence' produces the world; and an
inhalation causes it to disappear. 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." --
(See "Isis Unveiled"; also "The Days and Nights of Brahma" in
Part II.)
This passage will be explained, as far as it is possible, in the
present work. Though, as it now stands, it contains nothing new
to the Orientalist, its esoteric interpretation may contain a
good deal which has hitherto remained entirely unknown to the
Western student.
The first illustration being a plain disc the second one in the
Archaic symbol shows , a disc with a point in it -- the first
differentiation in the periodical manifestations of the
ever-eternal nature, sexless and infinite "Aditi in THAT" (Rig
Veda), the point in the disc, or potential Space within abstract
Space. In its third stage the point is transformed into a
diameter, thus It now symbolises a divine immaculate
Mother-Nature within the all-embracing absolute Infinitude.
_____


p. 5 PROEM, S D I.

When the diameter line is crossed by a vertical one , it becomes
the mundane cross. Humanity has reached its third root-race; it
is the sign for the origin of human life to begin. When the
circumference disappears and leaves only the it is a sign that
the fall of man into matter is accomplished, and the FOURTH race
begins. The Cross within a circle symbolises pure Pantheism; when
the Cross was left uninscribed, it became phallic. It had the
same and yet other meanings as a TAU inscribed within a circle or
as a "Thor's hammer," the Jaina cross, so-called, or simply
Svastica within a circle
By the third symbol -- the circle divided in two by the
horizontal line of the diameter -- the first manifestation of
creative (still passive, because feminine) Nature was meant. The
first shadowy perception of man connected with procreation is
feminine, because man knows his mother more than his father.
Hence female deities were more sacred than the male. Nature is
therefore feminine, and, to a degree, objective and tangible, and
the spirit Principle which fructifies it is concealed. By adding
to the circle with the horizontal line in it, a perpendicular
line, the tau was formed -- -- -- the oldest form of the letter.
It was the glyph of the third root-race to the day of its
symbolical Fall -- i.e., when the separation of sexes by natural
evolution took place -- when the figure became , the circle, or
sexless life modified or separated -- a double glyph or symbol.
With the races of our Fifth Race it became in symbology the
sacr', and in Hebrew n'cabvah, of the first-formed races;* then
it changed into the Egyptian (emblem of life), and still later
into the sign of Venus, Then comes the Svastica (Thor's hammer,
or the "Hermetic Cross" now), entirely separated from its Circle,
thus becoming purely phallic. The esoteric symbol of Kali Yuga is
the five-pointed star reversed, thus -- the sign of human
sorcery, with its two points (horns) turned heavenward, a
position every

[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See that suggestive work, "The Source of Measures," where the
author explains the real meaning of the word "sacr'," from which
"sacred," "sacrament," are derived, which have now become
synonyms of "holiness," though purely phallic!
_____


p. 6 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Occultist will recognize as one of the "left-hand," and used in
ceremonial magic.*
…. It is wrong and unjust to regard the Buddhists and Advaitee
Occultists as atheists. If not all of them philosophers, they
are, at any rate, all logicians, their objections and arguments
being based on strict reasoning. Indeed, if the Parabrahmam of
the Hindus may be taken as a representative of the hidden and
nameless deities of other nations, this absolute Principle will
be found to be the prototype from which all the others were
copied. Parabrahm is not "God," because It is not a God. "It is
that which is supreme, and not supreme (paravara)," explains
Mandukya Upanishad (2.28). IT is "Supreme" as CAUSE, not supreme
as effect. Parabrahm is simply, as a "Secondless Reality," the
all-inclusive Kosmos -- or, rather, the infinite Cosmic Space --
in the highest spiritual sense, of course. Brahma (neuter) being
the unchanging, pure, free, undecaying supreme Root, "the ONE
true Existence, Paramarthika," and the absolute Chit and
Chaitanya (intelligence, consciousness) cannot be a cognize, "for
THAT can have no subject of cognition." Can the flame be called
the essence of Fire? This Essence is "the LIFE and LIGHT of the
Universe, the visible fire and flame are destruction, death, and
evil." "Fire and Flame destroy the body of an Arhat, their
essence makes him immortal." (Bodhi-mur, Book II.) "The knowledge
of the absolute Spirit, like the effulgence of the sun, or like
heat in fire, is naught else than the absolute Essence itself,"
says Sankaracharya. IT -- is "the Spirit of the Fire," not fire
itself; therefore, "the attributes of the latter, heat or flame,
are not the attributes of the Spirit, but of that of which that
Spirit is the unconscious cause." Is not the above sentence the
true key-note of later Rosicrucian …


p. 7 PROEM.

philosophy? Parabrahm is, in short, the collective aggregate of
Kosmos in its infinity and eternity, the "THAT" and "THIS" to
which distributive aggregates can not be applied.* "In the
beginning THIS was the Self, one only" (Aitareya Upanishad); the
great Sankaracharya, explains that "THIS" referred to the
Universe (Jagat); the sense of the words, "In the beginning,"
meaning before the reproduction of the phenomenal Universe.
Therefore, when the Pantheists echo the Upanishads, which state,
as in the Secret Doctrine, that "this" cannot create, they do not
deny a Creator, or rather a collective aggregate of creators, but
only refuse, very logically, to attribute "creation" and
especially formation, something finite to an Infinite Principle.
With them, Parabrahmam is a passive because an Absolute Cause,
the unconditioned Mukta. It is only limited Omniscience and
Omnipotence that are refused to the latter, because these are
still attributes (as reflected in man's perceptions); and because
Parabrahm, being the "Supreme ALL," the ever invisible spirit and
Soul of Nature, changeless and eternal, can have no attributes;
absoluteness very naturally precluding any idea of the finite or
conditioned from being connected with it. And if the Vedantin
postulates attributes as belonging simply to its emanation,
calling it "Iswara plus Maya," and Avidya (Agnosticism and
Nescience rather than ignorance), it is difficult to find any
Atheism in this conception.** Since there can be neither two
INFINITES nor two ABSOLUTES in a Universe supposed to be
Boundless, this Self-Existence can hardly be conceived of as
creating personally. In the sense and perceptions of finite
"Beings," THAT is Non-"being," in the sense that it is the one
BE-NESS; for, in this ALL lies concealed its coeternal and coeval
emanation or inherent radiation, which, upon becoming
periodically Brahma (the male-female Potency) becomes or expands
itself into the manifested Universe. Narayana moving on the
(abstract) waters of Space, is transformed into the Waters of
concrete substance moved by him, who now becomes the manifested
WORD or Logos.

….



p. 9 PROEM.

…. The God of the Apostle-Initiate and of the Rishi being both
the Unseen and the Visible SPACE. Space is called in the esoteric
symbolism "the Seven-Skinned Eternal Mother-Father." It is
composed from its undifferentiated to its differentiated surface
of seven layers.
"What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is a
Universe or not; whether there be gods or none?" asks the
esoteric Senzar Catechism. And the answer made is -- SPACE.
It is not the One Unknown ever-present God in Nature, or Nature
in abscondito, that is rejected, but the God of human dogma and
his humanized "Word." In his infinite conceit and inherent pride
and vanity, man shaped it himself with his sacrilegious hand out
of the material he found in his own small brain-fabric, and
forced it upon mankind as a direct revelation from the one
unrevealed SPACE.** The Occultist …
_____


p. 10 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

accepts revelation as coming from divine yet still finite Beings,
the manifested lives, never from the Unmanifestable ONE LIFE;
from those entities, called Primordial Man, Dhyani-Buddhas, or
Dhyan-Chohans, the "Rishi-Prajapati" of the Hindus, the Elohim or
"Sons of God," the Planetary Spirits of all nations, who have
become Gods for men. …
. p. 11 PROEM.
of a highly philosophical page in the World's Cosmogony. (See
Book III., Gupta Vidya and the Zohar.) Left in their symbolical
disguise, they are a nursery tale, an ugly thorn in the side of
science and logic, an evident effect of Karma. …
The Occult Catechism contains the following questions and
answers:
"What is it that ever is?" "Space, the eternal Anupadaka."* "What
is it that ever was?" "The Germ in the Root." "What is it that is
ever coming and going?" "The Great Breath." "Then, there are
three Eternals?" "No, the three are one. That which ever is is
one, that which ever was is one, that which is ever being and
becoming is also one: and this is Space."
"Explain, oh Lanoo (disciple)." -- "The One is an unbroken Circle
(ring) with no circumference, for it is nowhere and everywhere;
the One is the boundless plane of the Circle, manifesting a
diameter only during the manvantaric periods; the One is the
indivisible point found nowhere, perceived everywhere during
those periods; it is the Vertical and the Horizontal, the Father
and the Mother, the summit and base of the Father, the two
extremities of the Mother, reaching in reality nowhere, for the
One is the Ring as also the rings that are within that Ring.
Light in darkness and darkness in light: the 'Breath which is
eternal.' It proceeds from without inwardly, when it is
everywhere, and from within outwardly, when it is nowhere --
(i.e., maya,** one of the centres***). It expands and

p. 12 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

contracts (exhalation and inhalation). When it expands the mother
diffuses and scatters; when it contracts, the mother draws back
and ingathers. This produces the periods of Evolution and
Dissolution, Manwantara and Pralaya. The Germ is invisible and
fiery; the Root (the plane of the circle) is cool; but during
Evolution and Manwantara her garment is cold and radiant. Hot
Breath is the Father who devours the progeny of the many-faced
Element (heterogeneous); and leaves the single-faced ones
(homogeneous). Cool Breath is the Mother, who conceives, forms,
brings forth, and receives them back into her bosom, to reform
them at the Dawn (of the Day of Brahma, or Manvantara). . . . ."
For clearer understanding on the part of the general reader, it
must be stated that 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, to reign supreme over the others during
the whole of the Fifth. The remaining two are as yet absolutely
beyond the range of human perception. These latter will, however,
appear as presentments during the 6th and 7th Races of this
Round, and will become known in the 6th and 7th Rounds
respectively.* These seven elements with their numberless
Sub-Elements …


p. 13 PROEM.

far more numerous than those known to Science) are simply
conditional modifications and aspects of the ONE and only
Element. …


p. 14 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

The Secret Doctrine establishes THREE FUNDAMENTAL
PROPOSITIONS: --
(a) An Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable PRINCIPLE
on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the
power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any human
expression or similitude. It is beyond the range and reach of
thought -- in the words of Mandukya, "unthinkable and
unspeakable."
To render these ideas clearer to the general reader, let him set
out with the postulate that there is one absolute Reality which
antecedes all manifested, conditioned, being. This Infinite and
Eternal Cause -- dimly formulated in the "Unconscious" and
"Unknowable" of current European philosophy -- is the rootless
root of "all that was, is, or ever shall be." It is of course
devoid of all attributes and is essentially without any relation
to manifested, finite Being. It is "Be-ness" rather than Being
(in Sanskrit, Sat), and is beyond all thought or speculation.
This "Be-ness" is symbolised in the Secret Doctrine under two
aspects. On the one hand, absolute abstract Space, representing
bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either
exclude from any conception, or conceive of by itself. On the
other, absolute Abstract Motion representing Unconditioned
Consciousness. Even our Western thinkers have shown that
Consciousness is inconceivable to us apart from change, and
motion best symbolises change, its essential characteristic. This
latter aspect of the one Reality, is also symbolised by the term
"The Great Breath," a symbol sufficiently graphic to need no
further elucidation. Thus, then, the first fundamental axiom of
the Secret Doctrine is this metaphysical ONE ABSOLUTE --
BE-NESS -- symbolised by finite intelligence as the theological
Trinity.
It may, however, assist the student if a few further explanations
are given here.
Herbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as
to assert that the nature of the "First Cause,"* which the
Occultist more logically derives from the "Causeless Cause," the
"Eternal," and the "Unknowable," may be essentially the same as
that of the Consciousness which wells up within us: in short,
that the impersonal reality pervading


p. 15 PROEM.

the Kosmos is the pure noumenon of thought. This advance on his
part brings him very near to the esoteric and Vedantin tenet.*
Parabrahm (the One Reality, the Absolute) is the field of
Absolute Consciousness, i.e., that Essence which is out of all
relation to conditioned existence, and of which conscious
existence is a conditioned symbol. But once that we pass in
thought from this (to us) Absolute Negation, duality supervenes
in the contrast of Spirit (or consciousness) and Matter, Subject
and Object.
Spirit (or Consciousness) and Matter are, however, to be
regarded, not as independent realities, but as the two facets or
aspects of the Absolute (Parabrahm), which constitute the basis
of conditioned Being whether subjective or objective.
Considering this metaphysical triad as the Root from which
proceeds all manifestation, the great Breath assumes the
character of precosmic Ideation. It is the fons et origo of force
and of all individual consciousness, and supplies the guiding
intelligence in the vast scheme of cosmic Evolution. On the other
hand, precosmic root-substance (Mulaprakriti) is that aspect of
the Absolute which underlies all the objective planes of Nature.
Just as pre-Cosmic Ideation is the root of all individual
consciousness, so pre-Cosmic Substance is the substratum of
matter in the various grades of its differentiation.
Hence it will be apparent that the contrast of these two aspects
of the Absolute is essential to the existence of the "Manifested
Universe." Apart from Cosmic Substance, Cosmic Ideation could not
manifest as individual consciousness, since it is only through a
vehicle** of matter that consciousness wells up as "I am I," a
physical basis being necessary to focus a ray of the Universal
Mind at a certain stage of complexity. Again, apart from Cosmic
Ideation, Cosmic Substance would remain an empty abstraction, and
no emergence of consciousness could ensue.
The "Manifested Universe," therefore, is pervaded by duality,
which is, as it were, the very essence of its EX-istence as
"manifestation."


p. 16 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

But just as the opposite poles of subject and object, spirit and
matter, are but aspects of the One Unity in which they are
synthesized, so, in the manifested Universe, there is "that"
which links spirit to matter, subject to object.
This something, at present unknown to Western speculation, is
called by the occultists Fohat. It is the "bridge" by which the
"Ideas" existing in the "Divine Thought" are impressed on Cosmic
substance as the "laws of Nature." Fohat is thus the dynamic
energy of Cosmic Ideation; or, regarded from the other side, it
is the intelligent medium, the guiding power of all
manifestation, the "Thought Divine" transmitted and made manifest
through the Dhyan Chohans,* the Architects of the visible World.
Thus from Spirit, or Cosmic Ideation, comes our consciousness;
from Cosmic Substance the several vehicles in which that
consciousness is individualised and attains to self -- or
reflective -- consciousness; while Fohat, in its various
manifestations, is the mysterious link between Mind and Matter,
the animating principle electrifying every atom into life.
The following summary will afford a clearer idea to the reader.
(1.) The ABSOLUTE; the Parabrahm of the Vedantins or the one
Reality, SAT, which is, as Hegel says, both Absolute Being and
Non-Being.
(2.) The first manifestation, the impersonal, and, in philosophy,
unmanifested Logos, the precursor of the "manifested." This is
the "First Cause," the "Unconscious" of European Pantheists.
(3.) Spirit-matter, LIFE; the "Spirit of the Universe," the
Purusha and Prakriti, or the second Logos.
(4.) Cosmic Ideation, MAHAT or Intelligence, the Universal
World-Soul; the Cosmic Noumenon of Matter, the basis of the
intelligent operations in and of Nature, also called MAHA-BUDDHI.
The ONE REALITY; its dual aspects in the conditioned Universe.

Further, the Secret Doctrine affirms: --
(b.) The Eternity of the Universe in toto as a boundless plane;
periodically "the playground of numberless Universes incessantly
manifesting and disappearing," called "the manifesting stars,"
and the "sparks of Eternity." "The Eternity of the Pilgrim"** is
like a wink

[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

** "Pilgrim" is the appellation given to our Monad (the two in
one) during its cycle of incarnations. 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
_____


p. 17 PROEM.

of the Eye of Self-Existence (Book of Dzyan.) "The appearance and
disappearance of Worlds is like a regular tidal ebb of flux and
reflux." (See Part II., "Days and Nights of Brahma.")
This second assertion of the Secret Doctrine is the absolute
universality of that law of periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb
and flow, which physical science has observed and recorded in all
departments of nature. An alternation such as that of Day and
Night, Life and Death, Sleeping and Waking, is a fact so common,
so perfectly universal and without exception, that it is easy to
comprehend that in it we see one of the absolutely fundamental
laws of the universe.
Moreover, the Secret Doctrine teaches: --
(c) 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. In
other words, 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 (a) passed through every elemental form of the
phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and (b) 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. …
--------------------
Best wishes,

Dallas



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



-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy L
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 3:51 PM
To:

Subject: Re: Manas & Logic

In philosophy, and in math, it is necessary to create a system
based on unprovable assumptions, which are called axioms, and
sometimes propositions. I'm sure Blavatsky was aware of this part
of philosophy and as theosophy partakes of philosophy or attempts
to expand on it, these things are also necessary here.

The ones usually used are identity (a=a), non-contradiction, (not
[a and not a]) the law of the excluded middle (either a or not
a). Also are the ideas are first cause, meaning the chain of
causes and effects has a beginning.

Remember that these ideas are western, specifically Aristotelian.
While I personally agree with all of them, I would say almost all
buddhists, as well as many more existential philosphers do not.
The problem with chains of deductive reasoning is first that any
bad propositions create bad results. As Gerald says 'garbage in,
garbage out.' Also it has been proved mathematically much to the
chagrin of people like me, that axiomatic systems are fatally
flawed. This was proved by Godel's Theorem.

This does not mean that axiomatic systems are not useful, as math
can be. It only means that they are largely models of reality
rather than its true expressions.

Also, Bacon had the idea back a ways that inductive reasoning and
exploration was far superior to deductive reasoning. We see this
applied today in science. Remember that Theosophy is not just a
religious ideal but a science.

I think Blavatsky left us the widom she had learned, and do not
believe that she meant theosophy and its texts to be the last
word. And I do not think that being doctrinaire is useful in any
religious context. The best people of a religion have a personal
experience of religion and hardly any doctrine at all.

So I recommend going out and living and gaining experience,
writing it down and analyzing it as the best method for gaining
spiritual insight.

Off the topic a little. My feeling is that Buddhism's logic
breaks down when it comes to morality. If life is fundamentally
meaningless and empty, then what's the use of compassion? If
happiness is an illusion why not nihilism?

All this leaves out the emotional aspect, which I believe is just
as important as the logical aspect. I have lived like a nihilist
and I can tell you that all it got me was miserable, and that
once I decided to have some values, purely based on emotional
content that I have had a much better life. The head and heart
have to work together.

Again, as an esotericist my interest is in a method for having
experiences like Blavatsky had and Buddhist monks have. Because
it is the experience of something greater that is the goal of
esoteric religion. Exoteric religion, religion for the many, is
basically a doctrine to make people happier and more fulfilled by
following some basic rules.
Theosophy is not exoteric religion.
Tim.





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