Theos-Talk Archives (December 2003 Message tt00119)

THE IDEAL PLAN OF THE UNIVERSE
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The ancient esoteric philosophy (Love of Wisdom) seeks to take
inquirers out of the limiting realm of "forms," "customs, and
"traditions" -- and it points to their SOURCE. I continually
asks the questions: Why, Where, How, Who, When -- as leading
past any declaration of authority (as to research and
discovery) -- to the fact that NATURE (which we all live in)
already contains all.

Occultism (the invisible life, laws and courtesies of Nature)
surrounds us, and we are unaware of them. But we can always ask
questions that probe for basic facts.

Is it not the prime duty of Science to probe for answers, and
record their observations. It is noticed, through a study of
science, that there is a constant shifting of theories and
hypotheses as new facts (contradictory or modifying) are
discovered.

As already said, every discovery made has no value as novelty or
uniqueness. Nature (our Universe and Earth) already had the
order and procedures IN PLACE and in use. We had only to ask the
right questions and seek for the pathways of Laws that govern our
environment (visible and invisible) for us to use them.

Does this not show us that some of our common and present views
are laced with errors, such as 1. incorrect comprehension of
old philosophies and religious, scientific, and psychological
texts; 2. on the materialistic and anthropomorphic tendencies
of this present age?

In fact one might say that the intellectual mines of the ancients
are being constantly drawn on, and the wealth of ideas there are
being exposed again.

If one surveys the traces remaining to us of ancient sacerdotal
literature, we may think of India, China, Egypt, Persia, Greece,
Scandinavia, Tibet, and the "Popol Vuh" of the Mayas of
Guatemala. One might surmise that these point to a common source,
a foundation stone, a source of secret wisdom, which has been
vaguely named the "Ancient Mysteries."

Almost without exception we find ISIS UNVEILED, and the 
SECRET DOCTRINE speaking of the once "universal belief 
in a universal, divine Principle, absolute in its nature, and 
unknowable to the "brain" intellect or the conditioned and 
limited cognition of man." [ H.P.B.: THE MIND IN NATURE
-- ULT, H.P.B. Articles, Vol. II, pp. 220-1 ]

She continues:

"To imagine any witness to it, in the manifested universe, other
than as Universal Mind, the Soul of the universe--is impossible.
That which alone stands as an undying and ceaseless evidence and
proof of the existence of that One Principle, is the presence of
an undeniable design in kosmic mechanism, the birth, growth,
death and transformation of everything in the universe, from the
silent and unreachable stars down to the humble lichen, from man
to the invisible lives now called microbes.

Hence the universal acceptation of "Thought Divine," the Anima
Mundi of all antiquity. This idea of Mahat (the great) Akasha or
Brahma's aura of transformation with the Hindus, of Alaya, "the
divine Soul of thought and compassion" of the trans-Himalayan
mystics; of Plato's "perpetually reasoning Divinity," is the
oldest of all the doctrines now known to, and believed in, by
man. Therefore they cannot be said to have originated with
Plato, nor with Pythagoras, nor with any of the philosophers
within the historical period. Say the Chaldean Oracles: "The
works of nature co-exist with the intellectual, spiritual Light
of the Father. For it is the soul which adorned the great
heaven, and which adorns it after the Father."

"The incorporeal world then was already completed, having its
seat in the Divine Reason, says Philo, who is erroneously
accused of deriving his philosophy from Plato.

In the theogony of Mochus, we find Aether first, and then the
air; the two principles from which Ulom, the intelligible God
(the visible universe) is born.

In the Orphic Hymns, the Eros-Phanes evolves from the Spiritual
Egg, which the aethereal winds impregnate, wind being "the Spirit
of god," who is said to move in aether, "brooding over the
Chaos"--the Divine "Idea."

In the Hindu Kathopanishad, Purusha, the Divine Spirit, stands
before the original Matter; from their union springs the great
Soul of the World, "Maha-Atma, Brahma, the Spirit of Life;"
these later appellations are identical with the Universal Soul,
or Anima Mundi, and the Astral Light of the |Theurgists and
Kabalists." -- H.P.B. [CWB Vol. 13, p. 262 -- Sept. 1896]

>From all accounts the Universe we know manifests from an unknown
Source -- a background that is indefinable in our relative
dimensions and terms. Space does not apply, nor Motion, nor Time
to this ALL.  

The terms "ABSOLUTE" or "ABSOLUTENESS" are used to
convey a vague idea of an eternal, immutable, FULLY CONSCIOUS
EVER-LIVING SOURCE, which, being timeless, prevails whether there
is manifestation (whole or partial) or not; whether there is
limited "Time," or endless and impartite "DURATION;" whether
there is Space as we seek to measure it from the infinitely
'small,' to the infinitely 'large.' And whether there is Chaos
or Cosmos, disorder and confusion or order and growth.
It would be reasonable to assume that there are LAWS which
pertain to the succession of the unfinished "business" of all
beings (and of the WHOLE COMPOSITE KOSMOS) in their (ITS) endless
progression towards a "goal" which we vaguely define as
"PERFECTION." It may also be assumed that the Universe (like
man, when sleep follows daily activities) requires occasional
periods of "rest," where planes of consciousness and activity
other than the mere physical operate.

The teaching concerning alternating Pralayas and Manvantaras
(Obscurations, and Active periods) makes us consider the great
law of Cycles, which prevails everywhere. The Hindus named this
great coordinating Power: KARMA (or the exact effect that any
chosen action produces in terms of a consequent reaction upon the
chooser). Some believe that by their cessation from action their
share of "Karma" will be reduced to nothing; and they,
consequently (and hopefully) may be able to enter upon an
infinitely extended period of non-involvement with the Nidana
(concatenation of painful and joyous personal events -
Samsara) -- called Earth-life. But on deep consideration, even
that period of moksha {oblivion, or bliss (?)} or Nirvana, is
seen, in the progress of time, to be limited; and vast Karma
draws such Egos back (as "returning Nirvanees") into the stream
of Life and progress, in common with those companions of theirs
who have achieved a similar level of excellence. 
S.D. II 79-80, 94, 109-110]

Broadly speaking, the whole of the 1st Volume of the SECRET
DOCTRINE is devoted to giving a detailed view of the available
evidence relating to the re-manifestation of the Universe, and
taking our earth into particular account, as we are associated
closely (and jointly) with that continued progress. In a small
article titled ISIS UNVEILED AND THE VISHISTADVAITA,  
[ BCW, Vol. 7, pp. 51-2; ULT, H.P.B. Articles, Vol. .III, 
pp. 265-6 ] we find HPB writing:

"Like the Adwaitis, I make no difference between my Seventh
Principle [ATMA] and the Universal Spirit, or Parabrahm...nor do
I believe in an individual, segregated spirit in me, as a
something apart from the whole...

I maintain as an occultist, on the authority of the Secret
Doctrine, that though merged entirely into Parabrahm, man's
spirit while not individual per se, yet preserves its distinct
individuality in Parabrahm, owing to the accumulation in it of
the aggregates, or skandhas that have survived after each death,
from the highest faculties of the Manas.

The most spiritual --i.e., the highest and divinest aspirations
of every personality follow Buddhi and the Seventh Principle into
Devachan (Swarga) after the death of each personality along the
line of rebirths, and become part and parcel of the Monad....
That such Parabrahmic and Paranirvanic "spirits," or units have
and must preserve their divine (not human) individualities, is
shown in the fact that, however long the "night of Brahma" or
even the Universal Pralaya...yet, when it ends, the same
individual Divine Monad resumes its majestic path of evolution,
thought on a higher, hundredfold perfected and more pure chain of
earths than before, and brings with it all the essence of
compound spiritualities from its previous countless rebirths.
Spiritual evolution...is dual and the path of spirituality turns,
corkscrew-like within and around physical, semi-physical, and
supra-physical evolution." -- H.P.B.

In the S.D., Vol. I pp. 570-575 we are given a survey of the way
in which the re-manifestation of our Universe and our Earth, and
ourselves is accomplished -- Nature being assisted by a corps of
Divine volunteers (the Dhyani Buddhas and "Cosmocratores," once
men like we are, but, since then, having progressed further in
self-training, they offered Nature their services to assist in
the enormous work of assisting all creatures (Monads of whatever
level of evolution) to advance.

The concept of the basic unit of life, the MONAD is an important
one to continually bear in mind. It is a unit of SPIRIT/MATTER.
It has in it the entire potential of all Nature, but is
restrained from any individual misuse by its companions and the
great law of karma/compassion. The MONAD is a component of every
aspect of life and of development in the Universe. Emanating
from the undifferentiated "Monadic essence," (S.D. I 619), the
monads pass through successively the elemental stages (3) and
then through the "kingdoms" (3 -- mineral, vegetable, animal) to
the Human stage. Man is a Mind-Monad, and his self-awareness is
the current field of decision. It is probably because of this
crisis that theosophy has been offered again in a most coherent
and logical way to our thoughtful world.

Volume 2 of the S.D. is devoted to a study of the process of
human evolution, physically, psychically, intellectually and
spiritually. (S.D. I 157, 181-2)

There we learn that the physical is the least important of the
processes. But its importance lies in the fact that every
immortal Monad has to pass through that stage in its progressive
development. We in our bodies afford them, here and now, the
field for such progress. Our responsibility is high. As we
choose so do they advance or are detained, if our choices are
selfish and ungenerous. To them, at their incipient level of
individualizing intelligence, we are their "Universe." We to
them are like the "Dhyan Chohans" are to us -- Powers, Forces of
inspiration or of desperation.

Mankind serves as a kind of filter, or as transfer point in the
evolution of the countless MONADS that make up all SPACE (whether
we designate it as "visible" or ":invisible," whether we call it
"Light Matter" or "Dark Matter").. The active human mind
provides this point of change and alteration. We who are
mind-men will have to study and become aware of the full range of
our potentials.

Theosophy offers the concept of the Pupil-Teacher link which at
all levels and in all planes of being represents her marvelous
adaptive processes. It underlines the fact that at all levels we
are in constant contact with each-other -- even when we are
unaware of that.

What we may learn of evolution in S.D. Vol. I, can, by analogy,
be applied to our dealings in our life-time with the "Monads"
entrusted to us by Nature. As such, every immortal Monad passes
through all the conditions and stages that the Universe can
offer. The reincarnation of the Universe, the reincarnation of a
world, and the reincarnation of a Man are all evidence of the
economy of Nature which unites all its many disparate parts into
a harmony of diversity. Her infinite sensitivity to the needs of
the least, as of the greatest of her "children" will be found
represented in one or another of the many pages of the SECRET
DOCTRINE.


Passage for consideration
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S.D. I 282-3

All the Christian Kabalists understood well the Eastern root idea: The
active Power, the "Perpetual motion of the great Breath" only awakens
Kosmos at the dawn of every new Period, setting it into motion by means
of the two contrary Forces,* and thus causing it to become objective on
the plane of Illusion. In other words, that dual motion transfers Kosmos
from the plane of the Eternal Ideal into that of finite manifestation,
or from the Noumenal to the Phenomenal plane. Everything that is, was,
and will be, eternally IS, even the countless forms, which are finite
and perishable only in their objective, not in their ideal Form. They
existed as Ideas, in the Eternity,** and, when they pass away, will
exist as reflections Neither the form of man, nor that of any animal,
plant or stone has ever been created, and it is only on this plane of
ours that it commenced "becoming," i.e., objectivisng into its present
materiality, or expanding from within outwards, from the most sublimated
and supersensuous essence into its grossest appearance. Therefore our
human forms have existed in the Eternity as astral or ethereal
prototypes; according to which models, the Spiritual Beings (or Gods)
whose duty it was to bring them into objective being and terrestrial
Life, evolved the protoplasmic forms of the future Egos from their own
essence. After which, when this human Upadhi, or basic mould was ready,
the natural terrestrial Forces began to work on those supersensuous
moulds which contained, besides their own, the elements of all the past
vegetable and future animal forms of this globe in them.

Therefore, man's outward shell passed through every vegetable and animal
body before it assumed the human shape. As this will be fully described
in Book II., with the Commentaries thereupon, there is no need to say
more of it here.


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


* The centripetal and the centrifugal forces, which are male and female,
positive and negative, physical and spiritual, the two being the
one Primordial Force.


** Occultism teaches that no form can be given to anything, either by
nature or by man, whose ideal type does not already exist on the
subjective plane. More than this; that no such form or shape can
possibly enter man's consciousness, or evolve in his imagination, which
does not exist in prototype, at least as an approximation. S.D. I 282

DTB