Theos-Talk Archives (July 2003 Message tt00255)

S O U L
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MAN - THE SOLE FREE AGENT


"...man is a free agent during his stay on earth. He cannot
escape his ruling Destiny, but he has the choice of two paths
that lead him in that direction, and he can reach the goal of
misery--if such is decreed to him, either in the snowy white
robes of the Martyr, or in the soiled garments of a volunteer in
the iniquitous course; for, there are external and internal
conditions which affect the determination of our will upon our
actions, and it is in our power to follow either of the
two...this destiny is guided either by the heavenly voice of the
invisible prototype outside of us, or by our more intimate
astral, or inner man, who is but too often the evil genius of the
embodied entity called man. Both these lead on the outward man,
but one of them must prevail; and from the very beginning of the
invisible affray the stern and implacable law of compensation
steps in and takes its course, faithfully following the
fluctuations...this self-made destiny..."	SD I 639


"...Consciousness is not developed; Consciousness always is. It
is intelligence which is developed in different ways, in
different degrees of substance, on different planes of being.
The intelligence gained is an understanding of externalities in
their relation to Consciousness itself...This acquired
intelligence is the basis of the Archetypal World, in which types
are formulated...it is Consciousness first, last and all the time
at the root of all manifestation. Always the Perceiver is behind
every form. What is learned in regard to externalities or any
instrument is the amount of intelligence gained...as that
intelligence increases it becomes the basis on which better
instruments are formed."
Q & A 203-4


PURPOSE - THE GOAL

"...the Universe, which manifests periodically, for the purposes
of the collective progress of the countless lives."	SD I 268


"The soul emerges from the unknown, begins to work in and with
matter, is reborn again and again, makes karma, develops the six
vehicles for itself, meets retribution for sin and punishment for
mistake, grows stronger by suffering, succeeds in bursting
through the gloom, is enlightened by the true illumination,
grasps power, retains charity, expands with love for humanity,
and thenceforth helps all others who remain in darkness until all
may be raised up to the place with the "Father in Heaven" who is
the Higher Self." "The Mahatmas as Ideals & Facts" WQJ ART
II 39


"The course of Being is an ever-becoming. Ever-becoming is
endless, therefore beginningless. This solar system and its
planets of course had a beginning and will have an ending, but
every manifestation is but a further becoming of that which had
been. Periods of Manifestation and Non-Manifestation succeed
each other in Infinite Space, to which neither beginning nor
ending can be applied...The ancient way of stating any beginning
is, "the Desire first arose in It;" It referring to Spirit,
which is the cause and sustainer of all that was, is, or shall
be. There is a beginning to the first glimmerings of external
consciousness, which ever tends to widen its range of perception
and manifestation until it encompasses and becomes at one with
All; Potential Spirit having become Potent Intelligence. The
ending of the process results in a new beginning based upon the
totality of intelligence attained. Whatever begins in time ends
in time. Time is due to perceptions in Consciousness; as the
Secret Doctrine says...beginnings and endings pertain to that
"illusion," and not to the beginningless and endless Spirit which
is the Perceiver. As the Gita says: "The Spirit in the body, is
called Maheshwara, the great Lord, the Spectator, the admonisher,
the sustainer, the enjoyer, and also the Paramatma the highest
soul;" itself without beginning or ending, it makes beginnings
and endings in manifestations, which as manifestations are
beginningless and endless in their turn."	Q & A 102-3



SPIRITUAL SOUL - HIGHER MIND - EGO - BUDDHI-MANAS


"...the higher Mind in Man, or his Ego (Manas) is, when linked
indivisibly with Buddhi, a spirit..." GLOS 306-7


"...Occultism calls this the seventh principle [Atma], the
synthesis of the six, and gives it for vehicle the Spiritual
Soul, Buddhi...in conjunction these two are One, impersonal and
without any attributes (on this plane)..."	KEY, 120


"The SPIRITUAL divine EGO is the Spiritual Soul, or Buddhi in
close union with Manas, the mind-principle, without which it is
no EGO at all, but only the Atmic Vehicle." KEY 176


"Buddhi becomes conscious by the accretions it gets from Manas
after every new incarnation..."	SD I 244


"Plato defines Soul (Buddhi) as "the motion that is able to move
itself." "Soul"..."is the most ancient of all things, and the
commencement of motion," thus calling Atma-Buddhi "Soul,"...
which we do not."	KEY 114


"It is by development that the soul becomes spirit, both being at
the lower and the higher rungs of one and the same ladder whose
basis is the UNIVERSAL SOUL or spirit."
HPB II 306


"...there is no impossibility in supposing [ that the Ego is a
"god on a higher plane"] so surrounded by the clouds of matter as
to become latent or hidden until the time when the form suitable
for this plane is evolved...that Ego, who is the Spectator of all
things...[the Self] ..."	THEOSOPHICAL FORUM, Answers,
108


"...Pythagoras...described the Soul as a self-moving Unit (monad)
composed of 3 elements, the Nous (Spirit), the phren (mind), and
the thumos (life, breath or the Nephesh of the Kabalists), which
3 correspond to our "Atma-Buddhi," (higher Spiritual-Soul), to
Manas (the EGO), and to Kama Rupa in conjunction with the lower
reflection of Manas."	KEY 94


"...[the Agnishwatta Pitris] were destined to incarnate as the
Egos of the forthcoming crop of Mankind. The human Ego is
neither Atman nor Buddhi, but the higher Manas: the intellectual
fruition and the efflorescence of the intellectual self-conscious
Egotism--in the higher spiritual sense. The ancient works refer
to it as Karana Sarira on the plane of the Sutratma, which is the
golden thread on which, like beads, the various personalities of
this higher Ego are strung...these beings were returning
Nirvanees, from preceding Maha-Manvantaras--ages of incalculable
duration..."	S D II 79


"The Ego does not enter the body at any time...the connection of
the Ego with the body--by means of the principle Manas--is made
in general, at seven years of age, and from then on the Ego is
involved or entangled in body. But before such material
entanglement it was first caught and involved in the passions and
desires...kama--which is always the efficient or producing cause
for the embodiment of the Ego. This kama is known to form a part
of the skandhas or aggregates, of which the material body is
one." FORUM, Answers by WQJ 47


"...man...Spiritual Fire is its instructor (Guru)...This fire is
the higher Self, the Spiritual Ego, or that which is eternally
reincarnating under the influence of its lower personal Selves,
changing with every re-birth, full or Tanha or desire to live.
It is a strange law of Nature, that on this plane, the higher
(Spiritual) Nature should be, so to say, in bondage to the lower.
Unless the Ego takes refuge in the Atman, the ALL-SPIRIT, and
merges entirely into the essence thereof, the personal Ego may
goad it to the bitter end...That which propels towards, and
forces evolution, i.e., compels the growth and development of Man
towards perfection, is (a) the MONAD, or that which acts in it
unconsciously through a force inherent in itself; and (b) the
lower astral body or the personal SELF...unless the higher Self
or EGO gravitates towards its Sun--the Monad--the lower Ego, or
personal Self, will have the upper hand in every case. For it is
this Ego, with its fierce Selfishness and animal desire to live a
Senseless life (Tanha), which is "the maker of the tabernacle" as
Buddha calls it...the Atman alone warms the inner man; i.e., it
enlightens it with the ray of divine life and alone is able to
impart to the inner man, or the reincarnating Ego, its
immortality."	SD II 109-110


MANAS - THE HUMAN SOUL - MIND - INTELLECTUALITY


"...the thinking Soul or mind..."	KEY 74


"...the Soul, Psuche..."	KEY 91


"...man and Soul have to conquer their immortality by ascending
towards the unity."	KEY 102


"...the Soul of man (or his higher "principles, and
attributes")...(as defined by Pythagoras, Plato, and Timmaeus of
Locris)...[ are derived ] from the Universal World Soul...AEther
(Pater Zeus)..."	KEY 104


"...the reasoning soul comes from within the Universal Soul..."
KEY 105


"From the fact that the soul (Higher Manas) is conjoined in the
body with the organ of thought (Lower Manas), and thus with the
whole of Nature, lack of discrimination follows, produces
misconceptions of duties and responsibilities." PAT 24-5


"...the work of the soul is to seek Wisdom, and the substance of
earthly wisdom is to know Universal Wisdom."	MODERN PANARION,
379


"Since Manas, in its lower aspect, is the seat of the terrestrial
mind, it can, therefore, give only that perception of the
Universe which is based on the evidence of that mind; it cannot
give spiritual vision."	KEY 158


"...Manas-Taijasi, the Buddhi-lit human soul...if it can be said
of Buddhi that it is unconditionally immortal, the same cannot be
said of Manas...no post-mortem consciousness or Manas-Taijasi,
can exist apart from Buddhi, the divine soul, because the first
(Manas) is, in its lower aspect, a qualificative attribute of the
terrestrial personality...In its turn, Buddhi would remain only
an impersonal spirit without this element which it borrows from
the human soul, which conditions and makes of it. in this
illusive Universe, as it were something separate from the
universal soul for the whole period of the cycle of incarnation.
Say rather that Buddhi-Manas can neither die nor lose its
compound self-consciousness in Eternity, nor the recollections of
its previous incarnations..."	HPB ART II 198-9


LOWER MANAS - PERSONALITY - ANIMAL SOUL


"Astral Soul," another name for the lower Manas, or Kama-Manas
so-called, the reflection of the Higher Ego." GLOS 37


"...Anoia, (folly, or the irrational animal Soul)..."	KEY 91


"...the instinctual soul...derived from and through and ever
influenced by the moon [astral light]..."	KEY 96


"The Soul of man (i.e., the personality) per se, is neither
immortal, eternal, nor divine."	KEY 106


"From the fact that the soul (Higher Manas) is conjoined in the
body with the organ of thought (Lower Manas), and thus with the
whole of Nature, lack of discrimination follows, produces
misconceptions of duties and responsibilities." PAT 24-5


"...the animal soul, that which becomes a ghost after death, when
lust or liking or the memory of ill-deeds holds it to the
neighbourhood of human beings..."	L on P p. 49




WHY THE UNIVERSE ? - WHY THE SOUL ?


"The Universe (visible and invisible--compounded of purity,
action and rest)...exists for the sake of the soul's experience
and emancipation...For the sake of the soul alone, the Universe
exists..."	PAT 25-6


"the soul is the Perceiver; is assuredly vision itself pure and
simple; unmodified; and looks directly upon ideas." PAT 26


"Spirit is universal...It cannot know itself except as Soul.
Spirit is the "power to become;" Soul is "the becoming." Spirit
is the power to see and know; Soul is the seeing and knowing.
Soul is the accumulation of perceptions and experiences by means
of which Spiritual Identity is realized." Q & A 21
(see GLOS 306)


"...a soul which thirsts after a reunion with its spirit, which
alone confers upon it immortality, must purify itself through
cyclic transmigration..."	KEY 111


"What then is the universe for, and for what purpose is man the
immortal thinker here in evolution? It is all for the experience
and emancipation of the soul, for the purpose of raising the
entire mass of manifested matter up to the stature, nature, and
dignity of conscious god-hood. The great aim is the reach
self-consciousness; not through a race or a tribe of some
favored nation, but by and through the perfecting, after
transformation, of the whole mass of matter as well as what we
now call soul. Nothing is or is to be left out. The aim for
present man is his initiation into complete knowledge, and for
the other kingdoms below him that they may be raised up gradually
from stage to stage to be in time initiated also. This is
evolution carried to its highest power; it is a magnificent
prospect; it makes of man a god, and gives to every part of
nature the possibility of being some day the same; there is
strength and nobility in it, for by this no man is dwarfed and
belittled, for no one is so originally sinful that he cannot rise
above all sin."	OCEAN, 60-1



"Starting upon the long journey immaculate; descending more and
more into sinful matter, and having connected himself with every
atom in manifested Space--the Pilgrim, having struggled through
and suffered in every form of life and being, is only at the
bottom of the valley of matter, and half through his cycle, when
he has identified himself with collective Humanity. This, he has
made in his own image. In order to progress upwards and
homewards, the "God" has to now ascend the weary uphill path of
the Golgotha of Life. It is the martyrdom of self-conscious
existence. Like Visvakarman he has to sacrifice himself to
himself in order to redeem all creatures, to resurrect from the
many into the One Life. Then he ascends into heaven indeed;
where, plunged into the incomprehensible absolute Being and Bliss
of Paranirvana, he reigns unconditionally, and whence he will
re-descend again at the next "coming," which one portion of
humanity expects in its dead-letter sense as the second advent,
and the other as the last "Kalki Avatar." SD I 268


"Theosophy considers humanity as an emanation from divinity on
its return path hereto. At an advanced point upon the path,
Adeptship is reached by those who have devoted several
incarnations to its achievement...many incarnations are necessary
for it after the formation of a conscious purpose and the
beginning of the needful training..."	KEY 214-5



SOUL AND SPIRITUAL CULTIVATION	- PROGRESS


"There is That which must ever remain unknown, because it is the
Knower in every body, It cannot be known because Its
potentiality of knowing is Infinite. There is that in ourselves
which is our very Self and which is unchanged and exhaustless
through infinitudes of experiences; it is the unknowable in us
as well as in all Nature; from It all manifestation proceeds.
We learn what is the Self by seeing what is the non-Self...the
Self ever remains unchanged, while at the same time the
receptacle of all perceptions and experiences...we are not the
experience, the knowledge or the power--they are our possessions.
The whole process of growth is one of realization of the Oneness
and eternity of the Self in us and in all creatures and forms of
manifestation."	Q & A 12-13


"The object of the student is to let the light of [the] spirit
shine through the lower coverings. This "spiritual culture" is
only attainable as the grosser interests, passions, and demands
of the flesh are subordinated to the interests, aspirations and
needs of the higher nature; and this is a matter of both system
and established law.

This spirit can only become the ruler when the firm intellectual
acknowledgment or admission is first made that IT alone is. ...it
being not only the person concerned, but also the whole, all
selfishness must be eliminated from the lower nature before its
divine state can be reached. So long as the smallest personal or
selfish desire--even for spiritual attainment for our own
sake--remains, so long is the desired end put off.. When
systematically trained in accordance with the aforesaid system
and law, men attain to clear insight Echoes.