RE: BBC E-mail: Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
Jan 27, 2004 03:11 AM
by Dallas TenBroeck
Jan 28 2004
Thanks Rudy:
Re Talking Parrot -- animal Intelligence vs human
intelligence
Very interesting -- indicates ability to respond inhuman terms WHEN
HUMANS ARE PRESENT.
Does it show any interest in teaching itself?
Does it show any interest in teaching other parrots?
Most pets show a rapport between owner the themselves on a high PSYCHIC
LEVEL. No free thought.
A good book on this (paper back) is Brooks -- UNITY OF ALL LIFE (I
think I remember the title correctly).
Are you all settled now and "back on line?
Dallas
See below for info. From Theosophy
--------------------------------------
ANIMALS and MEN and MONADS IN EVOUTION
Question
My daughter recently lost her pet dog and is in mourning for it, and
she expressed the hope that the energy that made up her dog was not lost
but re-distributed. [Just as rubber balls can disperse heat when in
collision and when agitated in a closed environment.]
This all made me think about the skandhas; but it also made me realize I
don't have enough study regarding the subject. Would you if you have
the time, be able to furnish some good ideas and references?
Answer:
I will say in a short para what an answer based on Theosophy might be.
Then I follow that with explanations to review and think about the logic
that Theosophy provides us with.
PARA :
A pet is an amalgamation of monads that are going through the process of
experiencing and then developing the highest animal intelligence. Here
we have two things: 1. a Monad which leads the others (of lesser
intelligence and advancement; and 2. the many monads which aggregate
to give it a form -- they are of lesser experience and intelligence, but
they also profit from the process at their level.) The quality of
intelligence developing in the animal kingdom has been called
"instinct."
In the "higher animals" it comes almost to a point of being a
"personality." In the case of a "pet animal" its normal intelligence has
been temporarily "taken over" by the superior human mental and emotional
force of desire, love, dominance, and the human's desire for
companionship. These are mainly Kamic forces and they pertain to the
humanized desire and emotional plane. For the animal it is an unnatural
state, as all animals should be allowed to develop in the "wild" state
for their proper evolution under "Natural Law" to proceed.
No Monad ever dies. Each Monad fulfils it work under Nature's laws. So
the animal monad migrates to a new animal form. In that it and its
brother monads can continue their evolution. We cannot attribute to
animals a spontaneity, such as we witness in the kind of response that a
human MIND adds to a relationship. So "redistribution" of the many
monads of the pet is a good way to look at it. Also consider that love
and affection are the result of a psychological lack: the need for
"company."
Some animals are noted for the way in which they develop a group quality
of intelligence, peculiar to them as a class. In regard to humans, the
desire for "company" can be analyzed mentally if the human wills to do
so. We can all do that. Some find their company by plunging into the
depths of their own nature and they find in the spiritual aspect the
permanence they seek -- It is in their own eternally resident ATMA --
the HIGHER SELF. Some rise to the level of the Mind. Others add to
that Compassion and seek to assist others who need or who ask. Thus, in
intellectual work and heart study they generate a closer bond with the
Companions of the spiritual plane which as I said, are already resident.
And others, because of the strong bonds of Kama - desire -- develop the
need in themselves of physical companionship from "others." But,
ideally the mixture that goes on throughout life is always governed by
Karma and the companionship and cooperation of others. We are never
completely alone. It is our Mind-principle that is now active and
working out the nature of our potentials and relationship with other
Monads regardless of their state or level of evolution.
---------------------
PETS and SKANDHAS
To lose a pet in which so much emotional love is reposed is always a
tragedy. Yes, the matter and the intelligence of the pet are influenced
and augmented to some extent by the nearness and care of the human mind
and its embodied FEELINGS. But Theosophy says that this is for the
animals an unnatural state, and that their own evolution of their
peculiar intelligence, ought to be allowed to proceed under the laws
Nature (the UNIVERSE) has established for animal evolution.
There is a rule in Occultism and that is that no chela or devotee should
own a "pet." [H.P.Blavatsky Articles II p. 95 top] As I understand it,
the forces that brought the Monads together, formed an aggregate, and
this is the conjunction of a body and the intelligence that can use it.
Thus there is some interference in the development of that intelligence
when an animal is made into the pet of a human being.
The animal intelligence, of course develops in a natural way when left
in the wild under the Laws of Nature in regard to that evolution. When
the animal dies, those "lives," or what we might call their "skandhas"
(so to say) -- all are monads -- are dispersed as living and immortal
forces. These are then said to be attracted to other animals of the
same, or some superior level of intelligence -- they are attracted, each
in its own way to some corresponding animal center where evolution needs
their presence. As "little lives" we must always remember, they are
Monads and never "die."
THE HUMAN MONAD
But looking at our own (the Individual, Human) imperishable Monad -- we
have been through that condition and "animal" experience -- perhaps on
the "moon" chain, (this is hinted at in S D I ) and with the "lighting
up of Manas" ( a little over 18 million years ago ( S D I 150, footnote)
our Monads became independent and self-conscious HUMAN MONADS.
In a way you are right. Look carefully at what H P B says in SECRET
DOCTRINE I 632. There she tells us what the subdivisions of the
evolving points of consciences (Monads) are from stage to stage, as
Intelligence become first personalized, and then INDIVIDUALIZED, and
then, finally it becomes UNIVERSALIZED -- and we have a Mahatma, a
Buddha, a Krishna. But what Theosophy teaches us is that the Higher
Self the Atma is in us already. It is that MAHATMA, that Buddha or
Krishna. It is the lower self at present (our selfish personality)
which impedes it "shining forth." The "Lower self ( our selfish
personality) gives us the problems and difficulties.
PRINCIPLES ACTIVE IN MAN
The 3 principles active in us can be seen to be: the forces of Kama,
Manas and Buddhi ( desire, thought and wisdom ). We as MIND-BEINGS (as
Mind-Monads) are independent and free choosers. We have to elect what
aspect of our own "principles" we will emphasize and make into the
living power that directs our lives henceforth. We can only do that for
ourselves. We cannot do it for others, although we can, if they ask us,
make recommendations. The best of such advices are those that embody
the expression of Natural law. We must understand that in Nature
everything is already firmly established -- our Science, and our work to
discover are only the UNCOVERING of that which is innate, and already
functioning in existence, and operating there. We become aware of it.
But getting back to the process outlined in The SECRET DOCTRINE :
Prior to the individualizing of the Monads, we are told there is a
chaotic mass "monadic essence" (S D I 619) -- in that the "countless
spiritual forces" pursue their lawful rounds "Monadless" (632) for "they
are pure incorporealities," yet always, they are under LAW, and have a
basic relation to the Causeless Cause -- the WILL of the SUBJECTIVE
UNIVERSE. That we might translate as the ABSOLUTE -- essential as a
base, but totally incomprehensible and undefinable by beings whose
intelligence (yours and mine) is limited by some kind of form.
Thereafter we have the long process of experience leading eventually
back to SPIRITUAL UNIVERSALIZING -- we become a Force powerful for GOOD
alone, and assume some position in Nature for which we are best fitted.
=================================
Here are some references:
1
A N I M A L S and M E N
___________________
SPIRIT - SOUL - BODY-FORM
"...the "Spirit," or the divine portion of the soul is pre-existent as a
distinct being from all eternity."...(106) Both the human Spirit (or the
Individuality), the re-incarnating Spiritual Ego, and Buddhi, the
Spiritual Soul, are pre-existent. But, while the former exists as a
distinct entity, an individualization, the soul exists as pre-existing
breath, an unscient portion of an intelligent whole. Both were
originally formed from the Eternal Ocean of light, but as the
Fire-Philosophers... expressed it, there is a visible as well as
invisible spirit in fire." Key 105-6
NEPHESH - The Principle of Sentient Life - Animal "Soul"
"...(animals)...These are no less than man, informed with the same
principle of sentient life, the nephesh of the 2nd chapter of Genesis.
The Soul is by no means the Mind, nor can an idiot, bereft of the
latter, be called a "soul-less" being..." HPB Articles II 18
"...(the) animal soul (Nephesh of the Hebrew Kabalist)...the ray which
emanates from the Higher Manas or permanent EGO, and is that "principle"
which forms the human mind--in animals instinct." Transactions.
59
"...man has one "principle" more than the tiniest insect, but because
man is a perfected animal, the vehicle of a fully developed monad,
self-conscious and deliberately following its own line of progress,
whereas in the insect, and even the higher animal, the higher triad of
principles is absolutely dormant." Trans. 14-15
"A dog that has to exercise its own sagacity to find food, will sooner
develop psychical powers in that direction, than one that does nothing
but eat and sleep, and the individual or differentiated monad of the
former will sooner reach the condition necessary to enter the human
kingdom. The rudiments of hope, patience, faith, fidelity, confidence,
etc., are found in the animal kingdom." -- HPB Theosophist 5-
p. 223
"The difference between animals and men is this: the former are
ensouled by the "principles" potentially, the latter actually."
Key 104
MAN'S FORM IS AN ANIMAL
"Man...in his outward form, simply an animal, hardly more perfect than
his pithecoid-like ancestor of the 3rd Round. He is a living body, not
a living being, since the realization of existence, the "Ego-Sum,"
necessitates self-consciousness, and an animal can only have direct
consciousness, or instinct. The soul, whose body vehicle is the Astral,
ethereo-substantial envelope, could die, and man be still living on
earth--i.e., the soul could free itself from and quit the tabernacle for
various reasons--such as insanity, spiritual and physical depravity,
etc. Therefore that which living men (Initiates) can do, the Dhyanis,
who have no physical body to hamper them, can do still better."
SD I 134-5
MAN A PERFECTED ANIMAL -- VEHICLE OF A MONAD
"...man is a perfected animal, the vehicle of a fully developed monad,
self-conscious and deliberately following its own line of progress,
whereas in the insect, and even the higher animal, the higher triad of
principles is absolutely dormant." Trans. 14-15
LIGHTING UP OF THE MANAS (MIND)
"Having passed through all the kingdoms of nature in the previous three
Rounds, his physical frame--one adapted to the thermal conditions of
those early periods--was ready to receive the divine Pilgrim at the
first dawn of human life, i.e., 18,000,000 years ago. It is only at the
(255) mid-point of the 3rd Root-Race that man was endowed with Manas.
Once united the two and then the three made one; for though the lower
animals, from the amoeba to man, received their monads, in which all the
higher qualities are potential, all have to remain dormant till each
reaches its human form, before which stage manas (mind) has no
development in them. In the animals every principle is paralyzed, and
in a fetus-like state, save the 2nd (vital) and the 3rd (the astral),
and the rudiments of the 4th (Kama, which is desire, instinct) whose
intensity and development varies and changes with the species." S D II
254-5
"Atma-Buddhi [ Monad ] is dual and Manas is triple; inasmuch as the
former has two aspects, and the latter three, i.e., as a principle per
se, which gravitates, in its higher aspect, to Atma-Buddhi, and follows,
in its lower nature, Kama, the seat of terrestrial divisions awakening
to intelligence; and the third and last decidedly animal: i.e., Manas
succumbs to the temptations of Kama." Men are made complete only during
their third, toward the fourth cycle (race). They are made "gods" for
good or evil, and responsible only when the two arcs meet (after 3 1/2
Rounds towards the fifth Race). They are made so by the Nirmanakaya
(spiritual or astral remains) of the Rudra-Kumaras, "cursed to be reborn
on earth again; meaning doomed in their natural turn to reincarnation
in the higher ascending arc of the terrestrial cycle." SD II
254-5fn
KAMA - CENTER OF THE ANIMAL MAN
"...(d) Kama rupa -- The seat of animal desires and passions. --
This is the center of the animal man, where lies the line of demarcation
which separates the mortal man from the immortal entity." Key 91
HIGHER AND LOWER MIND DEFINED
" [ Plato teaches ] ... "when the Soul, psuche, "allies herself to the
Nous (divine spirit or substance), she does everything aright and
felicitously;" but the case is otherwise when she attaches herself to
Anoia, (folly, or the irrational animal Soul). Here, then, we have
Manas (or the Soul in general) in its two aspects: when attaching
itself to Anoia (our Kama rupa, or the "Animal Soul" in "Esoteric
Buddhism," runs towards entire annihilation, as far as the personal Ego
is concerned; when allying itself to the Nous (Atma-Buddhi) it merges
into the immortal, imperishable Ego, and then its spiritual
consciousness of the personal that was, becomes immortal."
Key 93
ANIMALS REINCARNATE
[ Animals ] "...they do reincarnate, but that which from them goes forth
to reincarnation is not similar to the reincarnating principle of the
human being. Were we to suppose that the monads now going through the
present animal life were reincarnating in a haphazard way, then surely
law disappears our philosophy tumbles to the ground, and a reign of
terror in the scheme of evolution ensues." WQJ Art II 486
"In calling the animal "Soulless," it is not depriving the beast, from
the humblest to the highest species, of a "soul." but only of a
conscious surviving Ego-soul, i.e., that principle which survives after
a man, and reincarnates like a man. The animal has an astral body, that
survives the physical body for a short period; but its (animal) Monad
does not reincarnate in the same, but in a higher species, and has no
"Devachan" of course. It has the seeds of all the human principles in
itself, but they are latent."
S D II 196fn
KARMA OF ANIMALS
"Animals have Karma, or consequence of act, but they have not man's
responsibility. While they seem to suffer and enjoy, it is all without
any self-consciousness, and hence is less in itself and less lasting in
effect. Their karma is bound up with man; and he is the responsible
one and will have to bear the responsibility, although they feel the
burden directly." WQJ Art II 566
"...the effect of Karma upon the animals...(15) the whole of creation
waits upon man and groans that he keeps back the enlightenment of all.
What happens when...you crush out the life of a common croton bug ?
Well, it is destroyed and you forget it. But you brought it to an
untimely end, short though its life would have been. Imagine this being
done at hundreds and thousands of places...Each of these little
creatures had life, and energy; each some degree of intelligence, The
sum total of effects of all these deaths of small things must be
appreciable. If not, then our doctrines are wrong and there is no wrong
in putting our the life of a human being ... [animals] killed for
sport..." WQJ Art I 14-5
"The brutes unconsciously are aware of the general human opposition,
which in each human being they see focalized." WQJ Letters 87
ANIMAL MONADS -- THEIR EVOLUTION AND PROGRESS
"While it is stated that no more animal monads can enter on the
man-stage, it is not said nor inferred that the incoming supply of
monads for the animal kingdom has stopped. They may still be coming in
from other "worlds" for evolution among the animals of this globe...It
is quite possible also that the animal monads may be carried on to other
members of the earth-chain in advance of man for the purpose of
necessary development, and this would lessen the number of their
appearances here...the animals, however, being devoid of developed
Manas, have no Devachan and must be forced onwards to the next planet in
the chain...as it gives them a chance for development in readiness for
the time when the monads of that kingdom shall begin to rise to a new
human kingdom. They have lost nothing, but, on the contrary, will be
the gainers." WQJ Art I 103
WHAT IS A "MONAD" ?
"...a Monad [ Atma-Buddhi ] cannot either progress or develop, or even
be affected by the change of states it passes through. It is not on
this world or plane, and may be compared only to an indestructible star
of divine light and fire, thrown down on to our (175fn) Earth as a plank
of salvation for the personalities in which it indwells. It is for the
latter to cling to it; and thus partaking of its divine nature, obtain
immortality. Left to itself the Monad will cling to no one; but, like
the "plank," be drifted away to another incarnation by the unresisting
current of evolution...the evolution of the external form or body round
the astral is produced by the terrestrial forces, just as in the case of
the lower kingdoms; but the evolution of the internal or real MAN is
purely spiritual. It is now no more a passage of the impersonal Monad
through many and various forms of matter--endowed at best with instinct
and consciousness on quite a different plane--as in the case of external
evolution, but a journey of the "pilgrim-soul" through various states of
not only matter but self consciousness and self-perception, or
perception from apperception." S D I 174-5fn
MONAD -- A CONCRETE MANIFESTATION OF THE UNIVERSAL ENERGY
AT A PARTICULAR LEVEL OF EVOLUTION
"...the Monadic, or rather Cosmic, Essence...in the mineral, vegetable
and animal, though the same throughout the series of cycles from the
lowest elemental up to the Deva Kingdom, yet differs in the scale of
progression ...the more correct phraseology...would have been to call it
"the Monad manifesting in that form of Prakriti called the Mineral
Kingdom." The atom as represented in the ordinary scientific
hypothesis, is not a particle of something, animated by a psychic
something, destined after aeons to blossom as a man. But it is a
concrete manifestation of the Universal Energy which itself has not yet
become individualized; a sequential manifestation of the one Universal
Monas. The ocean (of matter) the life-impulse reaches the evolutionary
stage of man-birth. The tendency towards segregation into individual
Monads is gradual, and is the higher animals comes almost to the point."
S D I 178
"...it is our Dhyan-Chohanic essence--the causality of the primal cause
which creates physical man--which is the living, active and potential
matter, pregnant per se with that animal consciousness of a superior
kind, such as is found in the ant or the beaver, which produces the long
series of physiological differentiations...every type in the visible has
its prototype in the invisible Universe..." S D II 120
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE ABYSS
BETWEEN THE PSYCHIC AND THE NOETIC
"...Self-consciousness belongs alone to man and proceeds from the SELF,
the higher Manas. Only, whereas the psychic element (or Kama-manas) is
common to both the animal and the human being--the far higher degree of
its development in the latter resting merely on the greater perfection
and sensitiveness of his cerebral cells--no physiologist...will ever be
able to solve the mystery of the human mind, in its highest spiritual
manifestation, or in its dual aspect of the psychic and the noetic (or
the manasic)...he would have to admit a lower (animal), and a higher (or
divine) mind in man, or what is known in Occultism as the "personal" and
the "impersonal" (10) Egos. For, between the psychic and the noetic,
between the personality and the individuality, there exists the same
abyss as between a "Jack the Ripper," and a holy Buddha."
HPB Art II 9-10
"Between man and animal--whose Monads (or Jivas) are fundamentally
identical--there is the impassable abyss of Mentality and
Self-consciousness. What is human mind in it higher aspect, whence
comes it, if it is not a portion of the essence--and, in some rare cases
of incarnation, the very essence--of a higher Being: one from a higher
and divine plane? Can man--a god in the animal form--be the product of
Material Nature by evolution alone. even as is the animal, which differs
from man in external shape, but by no means in the materials of its
physical fabric, and is informed by the same, though undeveloped,
Monad--seeing that the intellectual potentialities of the two differ as
the Sun does from the Glow-worm ? And what is it that creates such a
difference, unless man is an animal plus a living god within his
physical shell ?" S D II 81
PHYSICAL MAN
"The physical man is as little responsible as a dog or a mouse. For the
bodily form all is over with the death of the body. But for the real
SELF, that which emanated its own shadow, or the lower thinking
personality, that enacted and pulled the wires during the life of the
physical automaton, will have to suffer conjointly with its factotum and
alter ego in the next incarnation." Trans.
67
SOURCE OF THE MIND ( MANAS )
"...the Manasa Devas who endowed man with the consciousness of his
immortal soul: that consciousness which hinders man "from foreseeing
death," and makes him know he is immortal. ( Fn.: -- The monad of the
animal is as immortal as that of man, yet the brute knows nothing of
this; it lives an animal life of sensation just as the first human
would have lived, when attaining physical development in the Third Race,
had it not been for the Agnishwatta, and the Manasa Pitris.") [Myth of
Prometheus, further explained.] S D II 525
LATENT AND ACTIVE "FIRES" OF THE MIND
"The doctrine teaches that the only difference between animals and
inanimate objects on earth, between an animal and a human frame, is that
in some the various "fires" are latent, and in others they are active.
The vital fires are in all things and not an atom is devoid of them.
But no animal has the three higher principles awakened in him; the are
simply potential, latent, and thus non-existing. And so would the
animal frames of men be to this day, had they been left as then came out
from the bodies of their Progenitors, whose shadows they were, to grow,
unfold only by the powers and forces immanent in matter." S D II
267
HUMAN 'MAGNETISM' -- PET ANIMALS
"...A Lanoo (disciple) has to dread external living influence alone
(magnetic emanations from living creatures). For this reason while at
one with all, in his inner nature, he must take care to separate his
outer (external) body from every foreign influence; none must drink out
of, or eat in his cup but himself. He must avoid bodily contact (i.e.,
being touched or touch) with human, as with animal being. [No pet
animals are permitted and it is forbidden even to touch certain trees
and plants. A disciple has to live, so to say, in his own atmosphere in
order to individualize it for occult purposes.]" ...Occultism is
concerned with the inner man who must be strengthened and freed from the
dominion of the physical body and its surroundings, which must become
his servants. Hence the first and chief necessity of Chelaship is a
spirit of absolute unselfishness and devotion to Truth; then must
follow self-knowledge and self-mastery. These are all important; while
outward observance of fixed rules of life is a matter of secondary
moment."
HPB Art II 94-6
[ Article on "house-pets" and magnetic retardation.]
Theosophy Mag. Vol. 22, p. 402
KAMA-LOKA AND ASTRAL FORMS OF ANIMALS
"Still it [ Kama-loca on the astral plane ] exists, and it is there that
the astral eidolons of all beings that have lived, animals included,
await their second death. For the animals it comes with the
disintegration and the entire fading out of their astral particles to
the last." Key 143
"Seers of modern times have declared that such eidolons or spooks assume
the appearance of beasts or reptiles according to their dominant forms,
having a natural affinity for the lower types, such as the animal
kingdom, gravitated gradually in that direction and were at last
absorbed on the astral plane of animals, for which they furnished the
sidereal particles needed by them as well as by men. But this is no
sense meant that the man himself went into an animal, for before this
result had eventuated, the ego might have already re-entered life with a
new physical and astral body...it must be true that each man [is]
responsible and accountable for the fate of his astral body left behind
at death, since that fate results directly from the man's own acts and
life." WQJ Art I 105
RESPECT FOR LIFE IN ANIMALS
"...the root philosophy of both the Adwaita and Buddhist scholars is
identical, and both have the same respect for animal life, for both
believe that every creature on earth, however small and humble, "is an
immortal portion of the immortal matter"...and that every creature is
subject to Karma." S D I 636
MANAS - MIND SETS THE HUMAN APART FROM THE ANIMAL
"...you possess the I am I consciousness. Hence...the consciousness
functions in many different planes of experience, and in each one uses
the means or instruments appropriate thereto. And in order to pass from
one plane to another, holding intelligence in each, the presence of
Manas is necessary as one of the integral parts or powers of the Self,
for without Manas we are only of the brute or lower kingdoms. For one
moment consider the brutes who, moving and dwelling in the mental plane
with man, know nothing of our manasic sensations. It is because Manas
is dormant in them; but in you it has begun to awake, thus enabling you
as man to note the effects upon yourself of the motions of the qualities
of nature." WQJ Forum Ans. 63
HUMAN EGOS LIMITED FOR EACH MANVANTARIC CYCLE
"The inrush of new Egos ceased at a period long passed. What can be
drawn from this is that the Egos and Monads now involved in the earth's
evolution are restricted from this on to the end of this Manvantara from
coming into the human stage of evolution, with the exception of those
confined in the true anthropoid ape family...(106) The Egos in lower
kingdoms will become men--but not in this Manvantara--and then will have
to begin the next Manvantara to help those below them."
WQJ Forum Ans. 105-6
MAN'S THOUGHTS IN THE ASTRAL LIGHT AFFECT ANIMALS
"The animal kingdom is affected by us through the astral light. We have
impressed the latter with pictures of cruelty, oppression, dominion, and
slaughter. [In Christian countries theological permission is given to
kill and dominate animals. Hunting, wanton killings become a
habit.]...if these people could catch elementals as easily as then can
animals, they would kill them for amusement when they did not want them
for use; and, if the elementals refused to obey, then their death would
follow as a punishment. All this is perceived by the elemental world,
without conscience of course; but, under the laws of action and
reaction, we receive back from it exactly that which we give."
WQJ ART. I 411
PROTECTION AND KINDNESS TO ANIMALS
"...the purest as the noblest of all existing systems of ethics,
Buddhism - -inculcates kindness and protection to every living creature,
from animal and bird down to the creeping thing and even the reptile.
Alone, our Western religion stands in its isolation, as a monument to
the most gigantic human selfishness ever evolved by human brain, without
one word in favor of, or for the protection of the poor animal."
HPB Art II 328
MAN'S ANIMAL NATURE -- ITS DISCIPLINE AND ELEVATION
[ Read Through the Gates of Gold -- by M.C. -- pp 79-84 ]
MAN'S AND NATURE'S LIFE-ATOMS -- THEIR INTERACTION
[ Read SD II 671 - 3 ; SD II 513 ]
MAN: FOCAL POINT OF NATURE'S LABORATORY
"Those atoms [ Skandhas ] fly from all of us at every instant. They
seek their appropriate center; that which is similar to the character
of him who evolves them. We absorb from our fellows whatever is like
unto us. it is thus that man reincarnates if the lower kingdoms. He is
lord of nature, the key, the focus, the highest concentrator of Nature's
laboratory. And the atom he condemns to fall thus to beasts will return
to him in some future life for his detriment or his sorrow. But he, as
immortal man, cannot fall. That which falls is the lower, the personal,
the atomic. He is the brother and teacher of all below him. See that
you do not hinder and delay all nature by your failure in virtue."
WQJ Art I 111
----------------------------------------------------
2
M o n a d
MONAD (Gr.) The Unity, the one.; but in Occultism it often means
the unified triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or the duad, Atma-Buddhi, that
immortal part of man which reincarnates in the lower kingdoms, and
gradually progresses through them to Man and then to the final
goal-Nirvana." T. Glossary p. 216
"The breath ( human Monad) needed a form; the Fathers gave it, The
breath needed a gross body; the Earth moulded it. The Breath needed
the Spirit of Life; the Solar Lhas breathed it into its form . The
breath needed a mirror of its body (astral shadow ); "We gave it our
own, " said the Dhyanis. The breath needed a vehicle of desires
(Kama-rupa) ; "It has it, said the Drainer of Waters (Sushi, the fire
of passion and animal instinct) . The breath needed a mind to embrace
the Universe; "We cannot give that," said the Fathers. "I never had
it.," said the Spirit of the Earth. "The form would be consumed were I
to give it mine," said the Great (solar) Fire . . . (nascent) Man
remained an empty, senseless Bhuta . . . Thus have the boneless given
life to those who became (later) men with bones in the third (race . . .
" Stanza IV (17) of Dzyan, S D II 105
"Pilgrim" is the appellation given our Monad (the two in one [
Atma-Buddhi ] ) during its cycle of incarnation. It is the only
immortal and eternal principle in us, being an indivisible part of the
integral whole-the Universal Spirit, from which it emanates, and into
which it is absorbed at the end of the cycle. When it is said to
emanate from the one spirit, an awkward and incorrect expression has to
be used, for lack of appropriate words in English.. The Vedantins call
it Sutratma (Thread Soul) . . ." SD II 16-17fn
".Buddhi is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which divine
knowledge reaches the "Ego," the discernment of good and evil, "divine
conscience" also; and "Spiritual Soul," which is the vehicle of Atma.
"When Buddhi absorbs our Ego-tism (destroys it) with all its Vikaras,
Avalokiteshvara becomes manifested to us, and Nirvana, or Mukti, is
reached, "Mukti" being the same as Nirvana, i.e., freedom from the
trammels of "maya" or illusion." S D I p. xix
"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 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 now to 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."
S D I p. 268
"Man is certainly no special creation, and he is the product of Nature's
gradual perfective work, like any other living unit on this Earth. But
this is only with regard to the human tabernacle. That which lives and
thinks in man and survives that frame, the masterpiece of evolution-is
the "Eternal Pilgrim," the Protean differentiation in space and time of
the One Absolute "unknowable." . . . For we, too, claim that it is
the "Soul," or the inner man, that descends on Earth first, the psychic
astral, the mould 0n which the physical man is gradually built-his
Spirit, intellectual and moral faculties awakening later on as that
physical stature grows and develops. "Thus incorporeal Spirits to
smaller forms reduced their shapes immense ,". . . and became the men of
the Third and Fourth Races. Still later, ages after, appeared the men
of our Fifth Race, reduced from the still gigantic (in our modern sense)
stature of their primeval ancestors, to about half of that size at
present." S D II p. 728
"Sattva is the name given among Occult students of the Aryasangha School
to the dual Monad or Atma-buddhi, and Atma-buddhi on this plane
corresponds to Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti on the higher plane." S D I
p. 69fn
"The Sixth principle in Man (Buddhi, the Divine Soul) though a mere
breath, in our conceptions, is still something material when compared
with divine "Spirit" (Atma) of which it is the carrier or vehicle..
Fohat, in his capacity of Divine Love (Eros), the electric Power of
affinity and sympathy, is shown allegorically as trying to bring the
pure Spirit, the Ray inseparable from the One absolute, into union with
the Soul, the two constituting ion Man the Monad, and in Nature the
first link between the ever unconditioned and the manifested."
S D I p. 119
" The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over Soul,
the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown Root; and the
obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul-a spark of the former-through the
Cycle of Incarnation (or "Necessity") in accordance with Cyclic and
Karmic law, during the whole term. . . . no purely spiritual Buddhi
(divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the
spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth
principle,--or the over soul,--has passed through every elemental form
of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and acquired individuality,
first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised
efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees
of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and
plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani Buddha),
The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or
special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal
effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and
reincarnations." S D I p. 17
"Man tends to become a God and then-God, like every other atom in the
Universe."
S D I p. 159
"The same difficulty of language is met with in describing the "stages"
through which the Monad passes. Metaphysically speaking, it is of
course an absurdity to talk of the "development" of a Monad, or to say
that it becomes "Man." . . . It stands to reason that Monad cannot
either progress or develop, or even be affected by the changes of states
it passes through. It is not of this world or plane, and may be
compared only to an indestructible star of divine light and fire, thrown
down on our Earth as a plank of salvation for the personalities in which
it indwells. It is for the latter to cling to it; and thus partaking
of its divine nature, obtain immortality. Left to itself the Monad will
cling to no one; but, like the "plank," be drifted away to another
incarnation by the unresisting current of evolution." S D I p.
174-5fn
". . . the Monad or Jiva per se cannot be even called spirit; it is a
ray, a breath of the Absolute, or the Absoluteness rather, and the
Absolute Homogeneity, having no relations with the conditioned and
relative finiteness, is unconscious on our plane. Therefore, besides
the material which will be needed for its future human form, the monad
requires a spiritual model, or prototype, for that material to shape
itself into; and, an intelligent consciousness to guide its evolution
and progress, neither of which is possessed by the homogeneous monad, or
by the senseless though living matter,. The Adam of dust requires the
Soul of Life to be breathed into him: the two middle principles, which
are the sentient life of the irrational animal and the Human Soul, for
the former is irrational without the latter. [ Kama and Manas or
Kama-Manas ] It is only when . . . man has become separated into male
and female, that he will be endowed with this conscious, rational,
individual Soul, (Manas) "the principle, or the intelligence of the
Elohim," to receive which, he has to eat of the fruit of Knowledge from
the Tree of Good and Evil. . . . after having reached a certain point,
they [ the "Elohim," or Pitris, lower Dhyan Chohans ] will meet the
incarnating senseless monads, encased in the lowest matter, and blending
the two potencies, Spirit and Matter, the union will produce that
terrestrial symbol of the "Heavenly Man" in space-perfect man, In
Sankhya philosophy Purusha (spirit) is spoken of as something impotent
unless he mounts on the shoulders of a Prakriti (matter), which, left
alone, is-senseless. But in the secret philosophy they are viewed as
graduated. . . Both are inseparable, yet ever separated. . . . the two
poles of the same homogeneous substance, the root-principle of the
universe." S D I p. 247
". . . to complete the septenary man, to add to his three lower
principles and cement them with the spiritual Monad-which could never
dwell in such a form otherwise than in an absolutely latent state-two
connecting principles are needed: Manas and Kama. This requires a
Spiritual Fire of the middle principle from the fifth and third states
of Pleroma. But this fire is the possession of the Triangles, not of
the (perfect) Cubes, which symbolize Angelic Beings: [ Footnote : The
triangle becomes a Pentagon (five-fold) on Earth. ] . . . The human Ego
is neither Atman nor Buddhi, but the higher Manas: the intellectual
fruition and the efflorescence of the intellectual self-consciousness
Egotism-in the higher spiritual sense. The ancient works refer to it as
Karna 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 which have rolled away in
the Eternal. . . The thread of radiance which is imperishable and
dissolves only in Nirvana, re-emerges from it in its integrity on the
day when the Great Law calls all things back into action. . . " S D II
p. 80
"Kwan-Shi-Yin . . . means "the Lord that is seen," and in one sense,
"the divine self perceived by Self " (the human)-the Atman or seventh
principle merged in the Universal, perceived by, or the object of
perception to, Buddhi, the sixth principle or divine Soul in man. In a
still higher sense, Avalokiteshvara-Kwan-Shi-Yin, referred to as the
seventh Universal principle, is the Logos perceived by the Universal
Buddhi-or Soul, as the synthetic aggregate of the Dhyani Buddhas. . .
the omnipresent universal Spirit manifested in the temple of Kosmos or
Nature." S D I p. 471-2
"The monad-a truly "indivisible thing," . . . is here rendered as the
Atma in conjunction with Buddhi and the higher Manas. This trinity is
one and eternal, the latter being absorbed in the former at the
termination of all conditioned and illusive life. The monad, then, can
be traced through the course of its pilgrimage and its changes of
transitory vehicles only from the incipient stage of the manifested
Universe. . . . Atma alone is the one real and eternal substratum of
all-the essence and absolute knowledge-the kshetragna. { Footnote:
.atma (spirit) alone is what remains after the subtraction of the
sheaths and that it is the only witness, or synthesized unity." )
S D I p. 570-1
"Atma (our seventh principle) being identical with the universal Spirit,
and man being one with it in his essence, what it then the Monad proper
? It is that homogeneous spark which radiates in millions of rays from
the primeval "Seven;" . . . It is the emanating spark from the uncreated
ray-a mystery. . . . Adi-Buddha. . . the One unknown, without beginning
or end, identical with Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from
its darkness.. This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the
Supreme Buddha . . . As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot manifest,
but sends into the world of manifestation his heart-the "diamond heart,"
Vajrasattva . . . This is the second logos of creation, from whom
emanate the seven . . . Dhyani Buddhas, called Anupadaka, "the
parentless."
These Buddhas are the primeval monads from the world of incorporeal
being, the Arupa world, wherein the Intelligences (on that plane only)
have neither shape nor name, in the exoteric system, but have their
distinct seven names in esoteric philosophy. These Dhyani Buddhas
emanate, or create from themselves, by virtue of Dhyana, celestial
Selves-the super-human Bodhisattvas. These incarnating at the beginning
of every human cycle on earth as mortal men, become occasionally, owing
to their personal merit, Bodhisattvas among the Sons of Humanity, after
which they may re-appear as Manushi (human) Buddhas.
The Anupadaka (or Dhyani Buddhas) are thus identical with the
Brahmanical Manasaputra, "mind-born sons"-whether of Brahma or either of
the other two Trimurtian Hypostases, hence identical also with the
Rishis and Prajapatis.." S D I p. 571
"Plato . . . the great Initiate Philosopher said: for the ego (the
"Higher Self" when merged with and in the divine Monad) is Man, and yet
the same as the "other," the Angel in him incarnated, as the same with
the universal Mahat."
S D II p 88
WHAT IS A "MONAD" ?
"...a Monad [ Atma-Buddhi ] cannot either progress or develop, or even
be affected by the change of states it passes through. It is not on
this world or plane, and may be compared only to an indestructible star
of divine light and fire, thrown down on to our (175fn) Earth as a plank
of salvation for the personalities in which it indwells. It is for the
latter to cling to it; and thus partaking of its divine nature, obtain
immortality. Left to itself the Monad will cling to no one; but, like
the "plank," be drifted away to another incarnation by the unresisting
current of evolution...the evolution of the external form or body round
the astral is produced by the terrestrial forces, just as in the case of
the lower kingdoms; but the evolution of the internal or real MAN is
purely spiritual. It is now no more a passage of the impersonal Monad
through many and various forms of matter--endowed at best with instinct
and consciousness on quite a different plane--as in the case of external
evolution, but a journey of the "pilgrim-soul" through various states of
not only matter but self consciousness and self-perception, or
perception from apperception." S D I 174-5fn
MONAD -- A CONCRETE MANIFESTATION OF THE UNIVERSAL ENERGY
AT A PARTICULAR LEVEL OF EVOLUTION
"...the Monadic, or rather Cosmic, Essence...in the mineral, vegetable
and animal, though the same throughout the series of cycles from the
lowest elemental up to the Deva Kingdom, yet differs in the scale of
progression ...the more correct phraseology...would have been to call it
"the Monad manifesting in that form of Prakriti called the Mineral
Kingdom." The atom as represented in the ordinary scientific
hypothesis, is not a particle of something, animated by a psychic
something, destined after aeons to blossom as a man. But it is a
concrete manifestation of the Universal Energy which itself has not yet
become individualized; a sequential manifestation of the one Universal
Monas. The ocean (of matter) the life-impulse reaches the evolutionary
stage of man-birth. The tendency towards segregation into individual
Monads is gradual, and is the higher animals comes almost to the point."
S D I 178
"...it is our Dhyan-Chohanic essence--the causality of the primal cause
which creates physical man--which is the living, active and potential
matter, pregnant per se with that animal consciousness of a superior
kind, such as is found in the ant or the beaver, which produces the long
series of physiological differentiations...every type in the visible has
its prototype in the invisible Universe..." S D II 120
------------------------------------------------------------------------
==================
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 4:25 PM
To: dalval14@earthlink.net
Subject: BBC E-mail: Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
Rodolfo Don saw this story on BBC News Online and thought you
should see it.
** Message **
This is a fascinating science article that appeared on the BBC online
page.
Rudy
** Parrot's oratory stuns scientists **
The finding of a parrot which knows nearly 1,000 words is causing
scientists to look again at theories of animals' communication powers.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3430481.stm >
** BBC Daily E-mail **
Choose the news and sport headlines you want - when you want them, all
in one daily e-mail
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/dailyemail/ >
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