Theos-Talk Archives (April 2003 Message tt00005)

Mar 2 2003

Dear Friends:

Re. PEACE, Nirvana and RENUNCIATION

I find that Theosophy teaches:

Each one chooses a "path" personal to themselves, and the way that
opens results from our freedom to do so.

This freedom stems from the fact that we (and every other being)
bathes in the ONE SPIRIT -- which is everywhere. All of us find
ourselves in place, at various self-chosen stages, in an great
"pilgrimage" toward PERFECTION -- the "pure state." The range of
such stages is vast as it starts with the Monads that have just
emerged from the "Monadic Essence" to THOSE who have taken on the
responsibility of "helping Nature and working on with Her."

"Let not thy "Heaven Born," merged I the sea of Maya, break from the
Universal Parent (SOUL), but let the fiery power retire into the
inmost chamber, the chamber of the Heart, and the abode of the World's
Mother. [S D I 540-1]

Then from the heart that Power shall rise into the sixth, the middle
region, the place between thine eyes, when it becomes the breath of
the ONE-SOUL, the voice which filleth all, thy Master's voice."
VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 10 [see S D II p. 303]

We have, at core, a "ray" of this ONE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT, and it can
never be destroyed, or taken away from us, even by thousands of
"deaths" endured by the dissolution of the physical forms we use,
incarnation after incarnation. It is the REINCARNATING SOUL --
BUDDHI-MANAS -- the 'vehicle of ATMA. Under the Karma of its own and
of Nature around it, it calls back to duty and to support, those
scattered "life atoms" - our skandhas. Thus a cooperative evolution
persists and proceeds with minute exactitude as to detail, and also
taking into account the greater trends of the life waves.

What happens to the "forms?" They too, are individually: "Monads."
But like we, when we were in earlier aeons "Monads of lesser
experience," they too fill those positions, as our disciples even if
we do not recognize this. Our decisions impact them and enhance or
deform them depending on the moral motives we choose to use. They are
the immortal vehicles of our Karma.

Like living tools they carry away and then return to bring us the
impress we gave them. If we have distorted or blunted them, they now
provide us with those same characteristics -- so that we may change
and restore to them their purity -- thus also restoring to ourselves
our integrity and allowing us to proceed.

In regard to "peace" --

There is a wonderful pledge attributed in the "Beginning" and made by
the "Mother of Mercy," the "Female Logos," Kwan Yin, that runs as
follows:


NEVER WILL I SEEK NOR RECEIVE
PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL SALVATION.
NEVER WILL I ENTER INTO
FINAL PEACE ALONE.
BUT FOREVER AND EVERYWHERE
WILL I LIVE AND STRIVE
FOR THE REDEMPTION OF EVERY
CREATURE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.


This is the vow of the RENUNCIATOR who is asked [ see end of VOICE OF
THE SILENCE --p. 78 ]


"Now bend thy head and listen well, O Bodhisattva--Compassion speaks
and sayeth: "Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer?
Shalt thou be saved and hear the whole world cry?"

Now thou hast heard that which was said.

Thou shalt attain the seventh step and cross the gate of final
knowledge, but only to wed woe if thou would'st be Tathagata, follow
in thy predecessor's steps, remain unselfish till the endless end.

Thou are enlightened--choose thy way."
VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 78


If one turns back a few pages (to 75) we find:


"But stay Disciple...Yet one word. Canst thou destroy divine
COMPASSION ? Compassion is no attribute. It is the Law of
LAWS--eternal Harmony, Alaya's SELF; a shoreless universal essence,
the light of everlasting right, and fitness of all things, the law of
Love eternal.

The more thou dost become at one with it, thy being melted in its
Being, the more thy Soul unites with that which Is, the more thou wilt
become COMPASSION ABSOLUTE.

Such is the Arya Path, Path of the Buddhas of perfection."
VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 75-6


Further back the VOICE OF THE SILENCE has warned us of the thorns that
line the Path of RENUNCIATION (p. 45-6 -- THE TWO PATHS).


"The PATH is one, disciple, yet in the end, two-fold. Marked are its
stages by four and seven Portals. At one end--bliss immediate, and at
the other--bliss deferred. Both are of merit the reward: the choice is
thine.

The One becomes the two, the Open and the Secret. The first one
leadeth to the goal, the second, to Self-Immolation.

When to the Permanent is sacrificed the Mutable, the prize is thine;
the drop returneth when it came. The Open PATH leads to the
changeless change--Nirvana, the glorious state of Absoluteness, the
Bliss past human thought.

Thus the first Path is--LIBERATION.

But Path the second is--RENUNCIATION, and therefore called the "Path
of Woe."

That Secret Path leads the Arhan to mental woe unspeakable; woe for
the living Dead (*), and helpless pity for the men of karmic sorrow,
the fruit of Karma Sages dare not still.

------------------------
(*) Men ignorant of the Esoteric truths and Wisdom, are called the
"living Dead."
============================

...The "Secret Way" leads also to Paranirvanic bliss--but at the close
of Kalpas without number; Nirvanas gained and lost from boundless pity
and compassion for the world of deluded mortals.

But it is said: "The last shall be the greatest." Samyak Sambuddha,
the teacher of Perfection, gave up his SELF for the salvation of the
World, by stopping at the threshold of Nirvana--the pure state."
VOICE OF THE SILENCE, pp. 44-46 [see also S D I, pp 207 -210 --
on the GREAT SACRIFICE -- the Para-Guru. ]

I hope this may be of use

Best wishes,

Dallas

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





-----Original Message-----
From: Kath
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 9:25 AM
To:
Subject: re: peace

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


Hello,

...but I wonder if it is really legitimate to retire into an inner
peace while such an atrocity is present in the world.

I wonder if I should focus on my own inner peace, when peace has been
taken from so many.

I wonder if my silence lends support to the murder and maiming of
innocent men, women, and children, as well as the thousands of animals
that have died needlessly.

I wonder if I should sit by and send out peaceful thoughts while * * *
are destroying a culture and creating a holocaust in our name.

I wonder if it would not be selfish for me to turn my head and
experience an inner bliss while children are crying for their dead
parents, and parents are crying for their dead children.

I wonder if it is proper to use my religion as an escape from being
responsible for the suffering that is going on, or if it is my
religious duty to speak against an illegal and immoral war waged ...
in my name.

Kath

CUT