Theos-Talk Archives (December 2003 Message tt00350)

Dec 24 2003


ROUND AND RACES


THE SAGES

The Theosophist agrees with the wise Prof. Huxley in the assertion that
there must be beings in the universe whose intelligence is as much
beyond ours as ours exceeds that of the black beetle, and those
possessing such advanced intelligence naturally take an active and
cooperative part in the government of the natural order of things. They
are the active, and wise assistants of Nature, [the UNIVERSE] as a
whole. The Theosophist adds that such Wise Sages are Intelligences
which were once human, and came like all of us from other and previous
worlds. 

The most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never, been without
a friend, but has a line of elder brothers who continually watch over
the progress of the less progressed, preserve the knowledge gained
through aeons of trial and experience, and continually seek for
opportunities of drawing the developing intelligence of the race to
consider the great truths concerning the destiny of the soul. 

We are therefore not appearing for the first time when we come upon this
planet, but have pursued a long, an immeasurable course of activity and
intelligent perception on other systems of globes, some of which were
destroyed ages before the solar system condensed. 


UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION  

This immense reach of the evolutionary system means, that this planet on
which we now are, is the result of the activity and the evolution of
some earlier one that died long ago. It left its energy to be used in
the bringing into existence the earth. Further, the inhabitants of the
Earth, in their turn, came from some older world. They are now
proceeding with their destined work in the "matter" we are familiar with
here. 

The Elder Brothers of the human race, keep the knowledge they have
gained of the laws of nature in all departments, and are ready when
cyclic law permits to use it for the benefit of mankind. They have
always existed as a body, all knowing each other, no matter in what part
of the world they may be, and all working for the race in many different
ways

They have stood by the cradle of nations and seen the vast achievements
of the ancients, watched sadly the decay of those who had no power to
resist the cyclic law of rise and fall; and while cataclysms seemed to
show a universal destruction of art, architecture, religion, and
philosophy, they have preserved the records of it all in places secure
from the ravages of either men or time. They have made minute
observations, through trained psychics among their own order, into the
unseen realms of nature and of mind, recorded the observations, and have
preserved the record. And, greater feat than all -- one which implies a
knowledge of the very foundations of nature -- they know what the
ultimate divisions of time are and what are the meaning and the times of
the cycles. [ see SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. I, pp. 272-3 ]


CYCLES OF KNOWLEDGE AND EVOLUTION

Under cyclic law, during a dark period in the history of mind, the true
philosophy disappears for a time, but the same law causes it to
reappear. It is the Master's work to preserve the true philosophy, but
the help of the companions is needed to rediscover and promulgate it. 

The periods, when out of the Great Unknown there comes forth the visible
universes, are eternal in their coming and going. These alternate with
equal periods of silence and rest in that Unknown. The object of these
mighty waves is the production of Perfect Man, the evolution of Soul,
and they always witness the increase of the number of Elder Brothers.
The Elder Brothers are the highest product of evolution through whom
alone, in cooperation with the whole human family, the further regular
and workmanlike prosecution of the plans of the Great Architect of the
Universe can be carried on. The Sanskrit "Mahatma" best identifies them.
It means "Great Soul," and as all men are Souls, the distinction of the
Mahatma lies in greatness. 


THEOSOPHY DEALS WITH OUR EARTH IN THE UNIVERSE

The teachings of Theosophy deal for the present with our earth, although
its purview extends to all the worlds, since no part of the manifested
universe is outside the single body of laws which operate upon us. Our
globe being one of the solar system is certainly connected with other
planets, but as the great human family has to remain with its material
vehicle -- the earth -- until all the units of the race which are ready,
are perfected, the evolution of that family is of greater importance to
the members of it. 


SEVEN-FOLD NATURE AND MAN  

The universe evolves from the unknown, on seven planes, and in seven
ways in all worlds. And this sevenfold differentiation causes all the
worlds of the universe, and the beings thereon, to have a septenary
constitution. 

The divisions of the sevenfold universe may be laid down roughly as: The
Absolute, Spirit, Mind, Matter, Will, Akasa or AEther, and Life. In
place of "the Absolute" we can use the word "Space." For "Space" is
that which ever is, and in which all manifestation must take place. 

Our knowledge begins with differentiation, and all manifested objects,
beings, or powers are only differentiations of the Great Unknown. 

The most that can be said of the Absolute" is that IT periodically
differentiates itself, and periodically withdraws the differentiated
into itself. As to "the Absolute," we can do no more than say IT IS.
None of the Great Teachers of the School ascribe qualities to "the
Absolute," although all qualities exist in It. 

The first differentiation -- speaking metaphysically as to time -- is
Spirit, with which appears Matter and Mind. This is a Unit, and, called
the "Monad." [ In manifestation, it is a triune Unity, consisting of:
ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS, or, Spirit - Wisdom - Mind] The Monad is held to be
immortal throughout the great life-cycle, whether Manvantara or Kalpa.
It is the basis for human Individuality.

The term "Akasa," taken from the Sanskrit, is used in place of AEther,
to properly designate that tenuous state of matter which is now
sometimes called "Ether" by modern science. Akasa is produced from
Matter and Spirit.

Will is the force of Spirit in action. And Life (Jiva) is a resultant
of the action of Akasa, moved by Spirit, upon Matter. 

But the Matter here spoken of, is not that which is commonly known as
such. It is the Real Matter which is always invisible, and has sometimes
been called Primordial Matter. In the Brahmanical system it is called
"Mulaprakriti" (or "Root Matter"). And it is sometimes referred to as
"Maha-Buddhi." [In considering this, one may think of an "atom" as
essentially an eternal, individualized field of electro-magnetic Force.
Physical material is condensed in and around it by attraction. The
formation of worlds, and the reincarnation of human Souls, may be
thought of in similar terms, and follow a similar pattern.]

The ancient teaching always held, as is now admitted by Science, that we
see or perceive only the phenomena but not the essential nature, cause
or being of Matter. 


UNIVERSAL PLAN 

Mind (the Universal Mind or Mahat) is the intelligent part of the
Cosmos. In the collection of seven differentiations roughly sketched
above, Universal Mind is that in which the Plan of the Cosmos is fixed
or contained. This Plan is brought over from a prior period of
manifestation, which added to its ever-increasing perfectness as it
proceeds. No limit can be set to its evolutionary possibilities in
perfectness, because, as there was never any beginning to the periodical
manifestations of "the Absolute," there never will be an end, but
forever the going forth and withdrawing into the Unknown will go on. 

Wherever a world or system of worlds is evolving there the Plan has been
laid down in Universal Mind, the original force comes from Spirit, the
basis is Matter -- which is in fact invisible -- Life sustains all the
forms, and Akasa is the connecting link between Matter on one side and
Spirit-Mind on the other. 


END OF A CYCLE -- CATACLYSMS - DELUGES

When a world or a system comes to the end of certain great cycles, men
record a cataclysm in history or tradition. These universal traditions
abound, all pointing to early teaching and dim recollection of
periodical destructions and renovations. Just as there are periodical
minor cataclysms or partial destructions, so, the doctrine holds, there
is, as a prototype, the universal evolution and involution. 

Forever the Great Breath goes forth and returns again. As it proceeds
outwards, objects, worlds and men appear; as it recedes all disappear
into the original source. 

This is the waking and the sleeping of the "Great Being;" and is
symbolized as the "Day" and the "Night" of Brahma. It is the prototype
of our waking days and sleeping nights as men, and, of our disappearance
at the end of one short human life, and, it also implies our return
(through reincarnation) to take up our unfinished work in a new body, in
a new day. 


HOW OLD IS OUR EARTH?

The real age of the world has long been involved in doubt for Western
investigators, who up to the present have shown unwillingness to take
instruction from the records of Oriental people much older than the
West. Yet with the Orientals is the truth about the matter. 

It is admitted that Egyptian civilization flourished many centuries ago,
and there are no living Egyptian schools of ancient learning to offend
modern pride. The inscriptions cut in rocks and written on papyri or
ancient books, obtain a little more credit today than the living thought
and record of the Hindus, Tibetans, Mayans and Chinese Those races and
their traditions, are still among us, and it would never do to admit
that such ancient, and recently conquered races, possesses knowledge
respecting the age of man and his world which the "West" still knows
nothing of. 

Ever since the ignorant monks and theologians of Asia Minor and Europe
succeeded in imposing the Mosaic account of the genesis of earth and man
upon the coming western evolution, the most learned even of our
scientific men have stood in fear of the years that elapsed since Adam,
or have been warped in thought and perception whenever their eyes turned
to any chronology different from that of the Jews.

But the Master Theosophists know what is to be the resurrection of the
old pyramid builders of the Nile valley, and where the plans of those
ancient master masons have been hidden from the profane eyes until the
cycle should roll round again for their bringing forth. When Egypt and
India were younger there was a constant intercourse between them. They
both, thought alike, but fate ruled that of the two the Hindus only
should preserve the old ideas among a living people. 


EVOLUTION RECORDED 

No mind can comprehend the "Infinite and Absolute Unknown," which IS,
has no beginning and shall have no end; which IS both last and first,
because, whether differentiated or withdrawn into ITSELF, IT ever is.
This is the "God" spoken of as the one around whose pavilion there is
darkness. 

This cosmic and human chronology of the Hindus may still be laughed at
by western Orientalists and Scientists, yet they can furnish nothing
better and are continually disagreeing with each other on the same
subject. As years pass since Theosophy was promulgated, Science has come
closer in their estimates to the figures of the Oriental chronology.
The Brahmanical records of Hindustan, and their doctrine about the days,
nights, years and life of Brahma, who representing the universe and the
worlds, at once upset the interpretation so long given to the Mosaic
tradition, insofar as time is concerned.  

The Day of Brahma is said to last one thousand years, and his night is
of equal length... A Day of Brahma is made up of what are called
Manvantaras -- or period between two men -- fourteen in number. These
include four billion three hundred and twenty million mortal, or earth
years, which is one Day of Brahma. [4,320,000,000 years] And Brahma's
"Night" is of similar duration.

When this day opens, cosmic evolution, so far as relates to this solar
system, begins and occupies between one and two billions of years in
evolving the very ethereal first matter before the astral kingdoms of
mineral, vegetable, animal and men are possible. 


PLANS AND MATERIAL IN EVOLUTION

In these the, very distant and very silent past, Man could not have his
bodily temple to live in, until all the matter in and about his world
had been found by the Master, the spiritual and eternal Inner Man. Once
found, the plans for working it required to be carried out in detail,
until all the parts should be perfectly ready and fit for placing in the
final structure. 

This is the gradual coming forth of the known and heterogeneous from the
unknown and homogeneous. The ancient Egyptian and Hindu Theosophists
never admitted a creation out of nothing, but ever strenuously insisted
upon evolution, by gradual stages. All the various powers and
potentialities needed, had to be well worked out in this slow but sure
process. At last man is put upon the scene: a sevenfold being, a
miniature of the universe and earth, which are sevenfold. 

Each of Man's seven principles is derived from one of the great first
seven divisions. And each relates to a planet, by analogy, or a scene of
evolution; and to a race in which that evolution was carried out. So
the first sevenfold differentiation is important to be borne in mind,
since it is the basis of all that follows; just as the universal
evolution is septenary so the evolution of humanity, sevenfold in its
constitution, is carried out upon a septenary Earth. This is spoken of
in Theosophical literature as the Sevenfold Planetary Chain, and is
intimately connected with Man's special evolution. [see SECRET DOCTRINE
Vol. I, pp. 570-574]


CONSOLIDATION OF MATERIALS AND FORMS

This second step takes some three hundred millions of years, and then
still more material processes go forward for the production of the
tangible (physical matter) kingdoms of nature, including man. This
covers over one and one-half billions of years. And the number of solar
years included in the present "human" period is over eighteen millions
of years. [SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. I, pp. 150, footnote]

During all these ages before man's physical body came into being,
evolution was carrying on the work of perfecting various powers which
are now our possession. This was accomplished by the Ego or Real Man
going through experience in countless conditions of matter, all
different one from the other, and the same plan in general was and is
pursued as prevails in respect to the general evolution of the universe.

That is, details were first worked out in spheres of being very
ethereal, metaphysical, in fact. Then the next step brought the same
details to be worked out on a plane of matter a little more dense, until
at last it could be done on our present plane of what we miscall "gross
matter." This is called the "descent of Spirit into Matter."

When the rough work was completed, when the human "temple" was erected,
many more ages were required for all the servants, and the councilors to
learn their parts, so that man, the Master, might be able to use the
physical temple for its best and highest purposes. Theosophy alone,
inclusive of all systems and every experience, gives the key, the plan,
the doctrine, the truth of these great natural processes. 

To state it in another way. The Plan comes first in the Universal Mind,
after which the astral model or basis is made, and when that astral
model is completed, the whole process is gone over so as to condense the
matter, up to the middle of the Fourth Round. 

In the vast stretch of time which began after the first almost
intangible matter had been gathered and kneaded, the material and
vegetable kingdoms had sole possession here with the Master -- man --
who was hidden from sight, within, carrying forward the plans for the
foundations of the human temple. All of this requires many, many ages,
since we know that nature never leaps. 

It is stated that the stream of Monads begins first to work up the mass
of matter in what are called elemental conditions when all is gaseous or
fiery. For the ancient and true theory is that no evolution is possible
without the "Monads" as the innumerable vivifying agents. In this first
stage there is no animal or vegetable. Next comes the mineral when the
whole mass hardens, the Monads being all imprisoned within. Then the
first Monads emerge into vegetable forms which they construct
themselves, and no animals yet appear. Next the first class of Monads
emerges from the vegetable and gradually produce the animal forms.
Then, the human astral and shadowy model is constructed, and we have
minerals, vegetables, animals and future men, for the second and later
classes are still evolving in the lower kingdoms. 

Upon this earth and upon the whole chain of Globes of which it is a part
seven races of men appeared simultaneously, coming over to it from other
globes of an older chain. And in respect to this earth -- the fourth of
this chain -- these seven races came simultaneously from another Globe
of this chain. This appearance of seven races together happens in the
first and in part of the second Round of the globes. In the second round
the seven masses of beings are amalgamated, and their destiny after that
is to slowly differentiate during the succeeding rounds until at the
seventh round the seven first great races will be once more distinct, as
perfect types of the human race as this period of evolution will allow.
At the present time the seven races are mixed together, and
representatives of all are in the many so-called races of men as
classified by our present science. The object of this amalgamation and
subsequent differentiation is to give to every race the benefit of the
progress and power of the whole derived from prior progress in other
planets and systems. For Nature never does her work in a hasty or undue
fashion, but, by the sure method of mixture, precipitation, and
separation, brings about the greatest perfection. And this method was
one known to the Alchemists, though not fully understood in all its
bearings even by them. But there is no vagueness on the point that seven
great "Races, or types" have to evolve here on this planet, and that the
entire collection of races has to go seven times round the whole series
of seven Globes. 

When the middle of the Fourth Round is reached no more Monads emerge
into the human stage, and will not until a new planetary mass,
reincarnated from ours, is made. This is the whole process roughly
given, but with many details left out, for in one of the Rounds man
appears before the animals. But this detail need lead to no confusion. 

What has become at last "man" is of vastly greater age, for before the
present two sexes appeared, the human creature was sometimes of one
shape and sometimes of another, until the whole plan had been fully
worked out into our present form, function, and capacity. 

This is found referred to in ancient books, where man is said to have
been at one time globular in shape. This was at a time when the
conditions favored such a form, and of course, it was longer ago than
eighteen millions of years. And when this globular form was the rule,
the sexes as we know them, had not differentiated and hence there was
but one sex, or if one prefers, no sex at all. 

Human beings did not appear here in two sexes first. The first were of
no sex, then they altered into hermaphrodite, and lastly separated into
male and female. And this separation into male and female for human
beings was over 18,000,000 years ago. For that reason is it said, in
these ancient schools, that our humanity is 18,000,000 years old and a
little over.


SENSES OF PERCEPTION AND ACTION	

In these early conditions and states, the senses existed in germ, as it
were, or in idea, until the astral plane which is next to this one was
first arrived at, and then they were concentrated so as to become the
actual senses we now use through the agency of the outer physical
organs. 

These outer organs of sight, touch and hearing, smelling and tasting,
are often mistaken by the unlearned or the thoughtless for the real
organs and senses; but he who stops to think, must see that the senses
are interior, and that their outer organs are but mediators, or links,
between the visible universe and the real perceiver within. 


MONADIC EVOLUTION	

Considering our Earth, the view put forward by Theosophy regarding its
genesis, its evolution and the evolution of the Human, Animal and other
Monads, is quite different from modern ideas, and in some things
contrary to accepted theories. We find that the Scientific theories of
today are not stable. They change with each century, while the
Theosophical one never alters. It is the result of age-old and
continuous verification by the Elder Brothers. These have now caused
its repromulgation and pointed to its confirmation in ancient books and
traditions. To them, it is a statement of facts in nature. The modern
Scientific theories in an attempt to speculatively rebuild an unknown
past, are, on the contrary, always doubtful, changeable, and continually
altered. There are continuous attempts to secure proof of these
theories, but nothing has proved conclusive so far.


ROUNDS, GLOBES, RACES

The sevenfold Earth is a living oneness -- a sentient entity -- and not
a mere lump of gross matter. Being an entity of a septenary nature,
there must be six other Globes which roll with it in space. 

This company of seven Globes has been called the "Earth Chain," or, the
"Planetary Chain." To make this concept clear Theosophy states: The
earth is one of seven globes, in respect to man's consciousness only,
because when he functions on one of the seven he perceives it as a
distinct globe and does not see the other six. 

This is in perfect correspondence with man himself who has six other
constituents of which only the gross body is visible to him because he
is now functioning on the physical Earth, or the fourth Globe -- and his
body represents the Earth. We have a statement that these Globes are
united in one mass, each interpenetrating the others, but differing from
each other in substance, and, that this difference of substance is due
to change of center of consciousness. To explain further: 

The whole seven "Globes" constitute one single mass or Great Globe, and
they all interpenetrate each other. We have to say "Globe," because the
ultimate shape is globular or spherical. 

In studying the diagrams used in the Secret Doctrine to illustrate the
scheme, one has to pay close attention to the accompanying explanations
and cautions given by H. P. Blavatsky. Both she and her Adept teachers
say, that the seven globes of our chain are in "coadunition with each
other but not in consubstantiality." [Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 166,
200] This is further enforced by cautions not to rely on statistics, or
plane surface diagrams, but to look at the metaphysical and spiritual
aspect of the theory as stated in English. 


THE EARTH HAS REINCARNATED

The Earth Chain of seven Globes as thus defined is the direct
reincarnation of a former chain of seven Globes, and that former family
of seven was the Moon chain, the moon itself being the visible
representative of the fourth Globe of the old chain. 

When that former vast entity composed of the Moon and six others, all
united in one mass, reached its limit of life, it died just as any being
dies. Each one of the seven sent its energies into space and gave
similar life or vibration to cosmic dust -- matter, -- and the total
cohesive force of the whole kept the seven energies together. [ see
SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. I pp. 152-154, 171-181 ]

This resulted in the evolving of the present Earth Chain of seven
centers of energy or evolution combined in one mass. As the Moon was the
fourth of the old series it is on the same plane of perception as the
Earth, and as we are now confined in our consciousness largely to Earth,
we are only able to see one of the old seven -- our Moon. When we are
functioning on any of the other seven planes of consciousness, we will
perceive the corresponding old corpse as a Moon.


NUMBER OF EGOS INCARNATING IS FIXED

The stream or mass of Egos which evolves on the seven Globes of our
chain is limited in number, yet the actual quantity is enormous. For
though the universe is limitless and infinite, yet in any particular
portion of Cosmos in which manifestation and evolution have begun, there
is a limit to the extent of manifestation and to the number of Egos
engaged therein. 


EVOLUTION PASSING FROM GLOBE TO GLOBE

The whole number of Monads now going through evolution on our Earth
Chain came over from the old seven Globes which I have described. This
mass of Egos has also been called a "life wave," meaning the stream of
Monads. [ see SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. I pp 171-175 ]

It reached this planetary mass, represented to our consciousness by our
central point -- our Earth, and began on Globe A or No. I, coming like
an army, or river. The first portion began on Globe A and went through a
long evolution there in bodies suited to such a state of matter, and
then passed on to B, and so on through the whole seven greater states of
consciousness which have been called Globes. 

When the first portion left A, others streamed in and pursued the same
course, the whole army proceeding with regularity round the septenary
route. 

This journey went on for four circlings round the whole, and then the
whole stream or army of Egos from the old Moon Chain had arrived, and
being complete, no more entered after the middle of the Fourth Round. 

The same circling process of these differently arrived classes goes on
for seven complete "Rounds" of the whole seven planetary centers of
consciousness, and when the seven are ended as much perfection as is
possible in the immense period occupied, will have been attained, and
then this chain or mass of "Globes" will die in its turn to give birth
to still another series. 

Hence we have the Rounds and Races. These are all periods of time.

The Round is a circling of the seven centers [Globes] of planetary
consciousness. [ S D I 200 ]


"RACES"

The Race, is the racial development on one of those seven. [This has
nothing to do with our modern definition of ethnic "races," or of the
color of the skin.] "Race" as used in Theosophy is a period of time.

There are seven Races for each Globe, but the total of forty-nine Races
only makes up seven Great Races, (the special septenate of Races on each
Globe or planetary center composing in reality one race of seven
constituents or special peculiarities of function and power). 

As no complete Race could be evolved in a moment on any Globe, the slow,
orderly processes of nature, which allow no jumps, must proceed by
appropriate means. Hence Sub-Races have to be evolved one after the
other before the Perfect Root Race is formed. Then the Root Race sends
off its offshoots while it is declining and preparing for the advent of
the next Great Race. 

Illustrating this, it is taught that on the Americas is to be evolved
the new -- sixth -- Race; and here all the races of the earth are now
engaged in a great amalgamation from which will result a very highly
developed Sub-Race, after which others will be evolved by similar
processes until the new one is completed. 

Between the end of any great Race and the beginning of another there is
a period of rest, so far as the globe is concerned, for then the stream
of human Egos leaves it for another one of the chain in order to go on
with further evolution of powers and faculties there. 


PERFECTION AND THE END OF EVOLUTION

Each one of the Globes is used by evolutionary law for the development
of seven "Races," and of senses, faculties and powers appropriate to
that state of matter. (the experience of the whole seven Globes being
needed to make a perfect development in man's consciousness and
character). 

Upon this earth and upon the whole chain of Globes of which it is a part
seven races of men appeared simultaneously, their destiny is to slowly
differentiate during the succeeding rounds until at the seventh round
the seven first great races will be once more distinct, as perfect types
of the human race as this period of evolution will allow. At the present
time the seven races are mixed together, and representatives of all are
in the many so-called races of men as classified by our present science.
The object of this amalgamation and subsequent differentiation is to
give to every race the benefit of the progress and power of the whole
derived from prior progress in other planets and systems. For Nature
never does her work in a hasty or undue fashion, but, by the sure method
of mixture, precipitation, and separation, brings about the greatest
perfection. 

But when the last, the seventh Race has appeared and fully perfected
itself, in the 7th Round and the 7th Globe, a great dissolution comes
on, similar to that which preceded the birth of the earth's chain. Then
the world disappears as a tangible thing, and so far as the human ear is
concerned there is silence. This, it is said, is the root of the belief
so general, that the world will come to an end, that there will be a
judgment-day, or that there have been in the past, universal floods,
earthquakes, submergences of continents, or fires. 

Subsequent to that, which is our future, the whole mass is spiritualized
with full consciousness and the entire body of globes raised up to a
higher plane of development.




-----Original Message-----
From: arturo carvajal [mailto:arturo_carvajal@hotmail.com] 
 
Subject: [bn-study] RE: SD QOD December 23, 2003

what 'round' is refering to?? 5th subrace of the 5th Root Race??
 

Arturo