Theos-Talk Archives (March 2003 Message tt00442)

Monday, March 31, 2003

Dear Adelasie:

I find that Theosophy teaches the immortal Monad now in the human
kingdom, has passed
passed through the "animal kingdom" and there it acquired instinct
and developed it to its fullest capacity. Instinct is said to be
sure, honest and generous to others.

When the Monad that we are at base enters the human kingdom it is at
first pure in intelligence as a little child may be. The 1st Vol. of
The SECRET DOCTRINE narrates all this and the process of acquiring
"coats of skin" as it descends into the depths of "matter."

The heterogeneous nature of matter all separative seems to confuse the
pure infant human intelligence and it acquires "evil" because it does
not know Karma. [ I attach an interesting series of quotes from H P
B's article THE ORIGIN OF EVIL which might help one grasp this idea ]

The Human Monad here and now is at the bottom of this cycle of
development and is faced with the problem of emerging from this
disturbing and confusing cloud of uncertainties -- on its cycling
back to the purity now of the "Lower" Mind (Kama-Manas) so that it
can merge with the HIGHER MIND and become an independent MIND BEING
centred in virtue and doing active good. It is then that it becomes
an active agent of Karma and the Universal Will.

Between Animal Monads and Human Monads there is actually no
difference. [Atma is the Universal Spirit of which the Monad
enshrines a "Ray." Buddhi is the Universal Wisdom of accumulated
experience of duration - timelessness.] The designations "animal" and
"human" are added only for the convenience of designating where they
are undergoing their current experience.

I hope this may help.

Dallas

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

THE ORIGIN OF EVIL H P B Articles,
Vol. I, p. 124 (U L T Edn.)


P. 124	The problem of the origin of evil can be philosophically
approached... [by] ancient wisdom... It attributes the birth of Kosmos
and the evolution of life to the breaking asunder of primordial,
manifested UNITY, into plurality, or the great illusion of form.
HOMOGENEITY having transformed itself into Heterogeneity, contrasts
have naturally been created; hence sprang what we call EVIL [ P. 130
This explanation of the problem and origin of evil being...of an
entirely metaphysical character, has nothing to do with physical
laws...]

P. 125	...believing but in One Reality, which is eternal Be-ness, the
"causeless CAUSE" from which he has exiled himself into a world of
forms, he regards the temporary and progressing manifestations of it
in the state of Maya (change or illusion), as the greatest
evil...but...as a process in nature, as unavoidable... It is the only
means by which he can pass from limited and conditioned lives of
sorrow into eternal life, or into that absolute "Be-ness," which is so
graphically expressed in the Sanskrit word SAT.

P. 125	The idea that matter and its Protean manifestations are the
source and origin of universal evil and sorrow is a very old one,

P. 125	Gautama Buddha ...the Sage and Philosopher, who sacrificed
himself for Humanity by living for it, in order to save it, [in
living, not in running away from life] by teaching men to see in the
sensuous existence of matter misery alone...his efforts were to
release mankind from too strong an attachment to life, which is the
chief cause of Selfishness--hence the creator of mutual pain and
suffering.

P. 126	His doctrine shows evil immanent, not in matter, which is
eternal, but in the illusions created by it: through the changes and
transformations of matter generating life--because these changes are
conditioned and such life is ephemeral.

P. 126	...if we would discern good from evil, light from darkness, and
appreciate the former, we can do so only through the contrasts between
the two.

P. 126	Buddha's philosophy points [to]...its esotericism, the
hidden soul of it, draws the veil aside and reveals to the Arhat all
the glories of LIFE ETERNAL in all the Homogeneousness of
Consciousness and Being...a fact to the Sage and esoteric Pantheist.

P. 126	...the root idea that evil is born and generated by the ever
increasing complications of the homogeneous material, which enters
into form and differentiates more and more as that form becomes
physically more perfect, has an esoteric side to it

P. 126	Its dead-letter aspect, however, became the subject of
speculation with every ancient thinking nation...in India the
primitive thought...has been disfigured by Sectarianism, and has led
to the ritualistic, purely dogmatic observances of the Hatha Yogis, in
contradistinction to the philosophical Vedantic Raja Yoga.

P. 127	It thus follows that the deeply religious Pantheism of the
Hindu and Buddhist philosopher...[lead him to consider that]...pain as
well as sorrow are illusions, due to attachment to this life, and
ignorance. Therefore he strives after eternal, changeless life, and
absolute consciousness in the state of Nirvana

P. 127	For the [Hindu]... philosopher there is but one real life,
Nirvanic bliss, which is a state differing in kind, not in degree
only, from that of any of the planes of consciousness in the
manifested universe. [He]...in his spiritual aspirations
[ignores]...even the integral homogeneous unit...He knows of, and
believes in only the direct cause of that unit, eternal and ever
living, because the ONE uncreated, or rather not evoluted.

P. 127	Hence all his efforts are directed toward the speediest
reunion possible with, and return to his pre-primordial condition,
after his pilgrimage through this illusive series of visionary lives,
with their unreal phantasmagoria of sensuous perceptions.

P. 128	...the Eastern Pantheist...submits to the inevitable, and tries
to blot out from his path in life as many "descents into rebirth" as
he can, by avoiding the creation of new Karmic causes. [for example:
the key idea of the Jains]... The Buddhist philosopher knows that the
duration of the series of lives of every human being--unless he
reaches Nirvana "artificially" ("takes the kingdom of God by violence
")...is given, allegorically in the forty-nine days passed by Gautama
the Buddha under the Bo-tree...And the Hindu sage is aware, in his
turn, that he has to light the first, and extinguish the forty-ninth
fire before he reaches his final deliverance. Knowing this, both sage
and philosopher wait patiently for the natural hour of deliverance

P. 128 Fn	This is an esoteric tenet...the Theosophist...may compute
the 7 by 7 of the forty-nine "days" and the forty-nine "fires," and
understand that the allegory refers esoterically to the seven human
consecutive root-races with their seven subdivisions. Every monad is
born in the first and obtains deliverance in the last seventh race.
Only a "Buddha" is shown reaching it during the course of one life.

P. 128	The seeds of evil and sorrow were indeed the earliest result
and consequence of the heterogeneity of the manifested universe. Still
they are but an illusion produced by the law of contrasts, which, as
described, is a fundamental law in nature. Neither good nor evil would
exist were it not for the light they mutually throw on each other.

P. 129	Being, under whatever form, having been observed from the
World's creation to offer these contrasts, and evil predominating in
the universe owing to Ego-ship or selfishness, the rich Oriental
metaphor has pointed to existence as expiating the mistake of nature;
and the human soul (psuche), was henceforth regarded as the scapegoat
and victim of unconscious OVER-SOUL.

P. 129	Ignorance alone is the willing martyr, but knowledge is the
master, of natural Pessimism.

P. 129	If, instead of that, man proceeding on his life-journey
looked...but within himself and centered his point of observation on
the inner man, he would soon escape from the coils of the great
serpent of illusion. From the cradle to the grave, his life would then
become supportable and worth living, even in its worst phases.

P. 129	It is like a chink...through which breaks in a ray of light
from the eternal...illuminating the inner senses, whispers to the
prisoner...of the origin and the dual mystery of our being...it is
a...proof of the presence in man of THAT which knows, --that there is
another and a better life, once that the curse of earth-lives is lived
through.

P. 130	Eastern wisdom teaches that spirit has to pass through the
ordeal of incarnation and life, and be baptised with matter before it
can reach experience and knowledge. After which only it receives the
[second] baptism of soul, or self-consciousness, and may return to its
original condition of a god, plus experience, ending with omniscience.

P 130	In other words, it can return to the original state of the
homogeneity of primordial essence only through the addition of the
fruitage of Karma, which alone is able to create an absolute conscious
deity, removed but one degree from the absolute ALL.

P. 130	...evil must have existed before Adam and Eve, who, therefore,
are innocent of the slander of the original sin. For, had there been
no evil or sin before them, there could exist neither tempting Serpent
nor a Tree of Knowledge of good and evil in Eden.

P. 134	...we read .... : "In the evolution of isolated individuals,
in the evolution of the organic world, in that of the Universe, as in
the growth and development of our planet--in short wherever any of the
processes of progressive complexity take place, there we find, apart
from the transition from unity to plurality, and homogeneity to
heterogeneity, a CONVERSE TRANSFORMATION--the transition front
plurality to unity, from the heterogeneous to the homogeneous. . . . "

P. 134	In this case material nature repeats the law that acts in
the evolution of the psychic and the spiritual: both descend but to
reascend and merge at the starting-point. The homogeneous formative
mass or element differentiated in its parts, is gradually transformed
into the heterogeneous; then, merging those parts into a harmonious
whole, it recommences a converse process, or reinvolution, and returns
as gradually into its primitive or primordial state.
P. 135-6 Modern Society is permeated with an increasing cynicism
and honeycombed with disgust of life. This is the result of an utter
ignorance of the operations of Karma and the nature of Soul
evolution...Once the basis of the Great Law is grasped--and what
philosophy can furnish better means for such a grasp and final
solution, than the esoteric doctrine of the great Indian Sages--
P.136	The reasonableness of Conscious Existence can be proved only
by the study of the primeval--now esoteric--philosophy. And it says
"there is neither death nor life, for both are illusions; being (or
BENESS) is the only reality." ... "Life is Death," said Claude
Bernard. The organism lives because its parts are ever dying. The
Survival Of The Fittest is surely based on this truism. The life of
the superior whole requires the death of the inferior, the death of
the parts depending on and being subservient to it. And, as life is
death, so death is life, and the whole great cycle of lives form but
ONE EXISTENCE--the worst day of which is on our planet.
He who KNOWS will make the best of it. For there is a dawn for every
being, when once freed from illusion and ignorance by Knowledge; and
he will at last proclaim in truth and all Consciousness to Mahamaya:
BROKEN THY HOUSE IS, AND THE RIDGE-POLE SPLIT!
DELUSION FASHIONED IT!
SAFE PASS I THENCE--DELIVERANCE TO OBTAIN. . . .

[from the DHAMMAPADA Gautama Buddha


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-----Original Message-----
From: adelasie
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2003 1:28 PM
To:
Subject: [bn-study] Re: Animal vs Human faculties

One thing I find difficulty with in our literature is mention of
animals as somehow inferior to humans, as in "our animal (lower)
nature," when in my experience, animals are reliably more noble than
humans ever are. I understand the difference to be consciousness,
that we are charged to reflect our inner nobility with awareness.
Nevertheless, your story about the elephant (they still use elephants
to build buildings where you are? how marvelous that these amazing
creatures still have useful work to do) is a good example of how we
could take lessons from our younger brothers on the path.

Adelasie