Theos-Talk Archives (February 2004 Message tt00019)

Feb 2 2004

Dear Ariel:

The thought producer is Manas - mind. As I understand it is mid-way
between Kama (desires and passions) and "Buddhi" or Wisdom, and pure
knowledge. 

The "Real We" ( Buddhi-Manas) supervises and directs all thoughts -- o,
if an when Kama overcomes its benign influence (brotherhood based on
compassion and equity for all) then the intense selfishness of Kama
allows atrocities to occur.

No doubt the "Real Individual" inside suffers agonies from such
mal-applications. 

Have you had a look at TRANSACTIONS -- the section on DREAMS -- there
HPB gives us a view of the relation of the EGO (ATMA- Buddhi-Manas) to
the lower mind (Kama-Manas). I found that valuable to remember.

Our inner psychology is very interesting. THEOSOPHY gives us a key to
self-knowledge, self-reform and self-improvement. -- at least I think I
have profited from it.

Best wishes,

Dallas

-----------------------------

Have a look at this conversation with HPB

 
MENTAL DISCIPLINE


STUDENT. - Is there not some attitude of mind which one should in truth
assume in order to understand the occult in Nature?

SAGE. - Such attitude of mind must be attained as will enable one to
look into the realities of things. The mind must escape from the mere
formalities and conventions of life, even though outwardly one seems to
obey all of them, and should be firmly established on the truth that Man
is a copy of the Universe and has in himself a portion of the Supreme
Being. To the extent this is realized will be the clearness of
perception of truth. A realization of this leads inevitably to the
conclusion that all other men and beings are united with us, and this
removes the egotism which is the result of the notion of separateness.
When the truth of Unity is understood, then distinctions due to
comparisons made like the Pharisee's, that one is better than his
neighbor, disappear from the mind, leaving it more pure and free to act.


Student. - What would you point out as a principal foe to the mind's
grasping of truth?

Sage. - The principal foe of a secondary nature is what was once called
phantasy; that is, the reappearance of thoughts and images due to
recollection or memory. Memory is an important power, but mind in itself
is not memory. Mind is restless and wandering in its nature, and must be
controlled. Its wandering disposition is necessary or stagnation would
result. But it can be controlled and fixed upon an object or idea. Now
as we are constantly looking at and hearing of new things, the natural
restlessness of the mind becomes prominent when we set about pinning it
down. Then memory of many objects, things, subjects, duties, persons,
circumstances, and affairs brings up before it the various pictures and
thoughts belonging to them. After these the mind at once tries to go,
and we find ourselves wandering from the point. It must hence follow
that the storing of a multiplicity of useless and surely-recurring
thoughts is an obstacle to the acquirement of truth. And this obstacle
is the very one peculiar to our present style of life.


Student. - Can you mention some of the relations in which the sun stands
to us and nature in respect to Occultism?

Sage. - It has many such, and all important. But I would draw your
attention first to the greater and more comprehensive. The sun is the
center of our solar system. The life-energies of that system come to it
through the sun, which is a focus or reflector for the spot in space
where the real center is. And not only comes mere life through that
focus, but also much more that is spiritual in its essence. The sun
should therefore not only be looked at with the eye but thought of by
the mind. It represents to the world what the Higher Self is to the man.
It is the soul-center of the world with its six companions, as the
Higher Self is the center for the six principles of man. So it supplies
to those six principles of the man many spiritual essences and powers.
He should for that reason think of it and not confine himself to gazing
at it. So far as it acts materially in light, heat, and gravity, it will
go on of itself, but man as a free agent must think upon it in order to
gain what benefit can come only from his voluntary action in thought.


Student. - Will you refer to some minor one?

Sage. - Well, we sit in the sun for heat and possible chemical effects.
But if at the same time that we do this we also think on it as the sun
in the sky and of its possible essential nature, we thereby draw from it
some of its energy not otherwise touched. This can also be done on a
dark day when clouds obscure the sky, and some of the benefit thus be
obtained. Natural mystics, learned and ignorant, have discovered this
for themselves here and there, and have often adopted the practice. But
it depends, as you see, upon the mind.


Student. - Does the mind actually do anything when it takes up a thought
and seeks for more light?

Sage. - It actually does. A thread, or a finger, or a long darting
current flies out from the brain to seek for knowledge. It goes in all
directions and touches all other minds it can reach so as to receive the
information if possible. This is telepathically, so to say,
accomplished. There are no patents on true knowledge of philosophy nor
copyrights in that realm. 

Personal rights of personal life are fully respected, save by potential
black magicians who would take anyone's property. But general truth
belongs to all, and when the unseen messenger from one mind arrives and
touches the real mind of another, that other gives up to it what it may
have of truth about general subjects. So the mind's finger or wire flies
until it gets the thought or seed-thought from the other and makes it
its own. But our modern competitive system and selfish desire for gain
and fame is constantly building a wall around people's minds to
everyone's detriment.


Student. - Do you mean that the action you describe is natural, usual,
and universal, or only done by those who know how and are conscious of
it?

Sage. - It is universal and whether the person is aware or not of what
is going on. Very few are able to perceive it in themselves, but that
makes no difference. It is done always. When you sit down to earnestly
think on a philosophical or ethical matter, for instance, your mind
flies off, touching other minds, and from them you get varieties of
thought. If you are not well-balanced and psychically purified, you will
often get thoughts that are not correct. Such is your Karma and the
Karma of the race. 

But if you are sincere and try to base yourself on right philosophy,
your mind will naturally reject wrong notions. You can see in this how
it is that systems of thought are made and kept going, even though
foolish, incorrect, or pernicious.


Student. - What mental attitude and aspiration are the best safeguards
in this, as likely to aid the mind in these searches to reject error and
not let it fly into the brain?

Sage. - Unselfishness, Altruism in theory and practice, desire to do the
will of the Higher Self which is the "Father in Heaven," devotion to the
human race. Subsidiary to these are discipline, correct thinking, and
good education.


Student. - Is the uneducated man, then, in a worse condition?

Sage. - Not necessarily so. The very learned are so immersed in one
system that they reject nearly all thoughts not in accord with
preconceived notions. The sincere ignorant one is often able to get the
truth but not able to express it. The ignorant masses generally hold in
their minds the general truths of Nature, but are limited as to
expression. And most of the best discoveries of scientific men have been
obtained in this sub-conscious telepathic mode. Indeed, they often
arrive in the learned brain from some obscure and so-called ignorant
person, and then the scientific discoverer makes himself famous because
of his power of expression and means for giving it out.


Student. - Does this bear at all upon the work of the Adepts of all good
Lodges?

Sage. - It does. They have all the truths that could be desired, but at
the same time are able to guard them from the seeking minds of those who
are not yet ready to use them properly. But they often find the hour
ripe and a scientific man ready, and then touch his cogitating mind with
a picture of what he seeks. He then has a "flash" of thought in the line
of his deliberations, as many of them have admitted. He gives it out to
the world, becomes famous, and the world wiser. This is constantly done
by the Adepts, but now and then they give out larger expositions of
Nature's truths, as in the case of H.P.B. This is not at first generally
accepted, as personal gain and fame are not advanced by any admission of
benefit from the writings of another, but as it is done with a purpose,
for the use of a succeeding century, it will do its work at the proper
time.


Student. - How about the Adepts knowing what is going on in the world of
thought, in the West, for instance?

Sage. - They have only to voluntarily and consciously connect their
minds with those of the dominant thinkers of the day to at once discover
what has been or is being worked out in thought and to review it all.
This they constantly do, and as constantly incite to further
elaborations or changes by throwing out the suggestion in the mental
plane so that seeking and receptive minds may use it.

WQJ -- PATH, December, 1894
 




-----Original Message-----
From: arielaretziel [mailto:arielaretziel@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 11:56 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Theos-World Re: "The Mind is the great slayer of the Real"


Thanx for the article, Dallas. This is one of those articles that should
be read 
and re-read by all serious students on this subject. I find that much
confusion 
arises from demonizing thought forms without any differentiation to
thought 
forms that are picked up from the Kama Rupa and thought forms picked up 
elsewhere. So one thinks all thought forms are bad. 

>From experience, I find everything is thought at a higher frquency.
Lower 
frequencies move slower, hence physical reality seems more solid as it
is 
changing at a slower rate. This is simply because there is more
inertia.

Another confusion is that all thought forms are projected from the Kama
Rupa, 
which is false. In most of us, perhaps this is true, but only to a
certain extant.  
We have various levels of control over this facility. But some people
learn to 
control and be aware of their projections by recieving higher frequency 
influences. This probably would not make much sense until one
experiences 
it. The easiset method is to be aware of how you use your environment in
a 
symbolic way, learning how physical objects are just vehicles for inner 
workings. 

So I hope people read this article by Wadia, as it is very good. Thanks
again.

Ariel


--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Dallas TenBroeck" <dalval14@e...> 
wrote:
> Sunday, February 01, 2004
> 
> "The Mind is the great slayer of the Real"
> 
> Dear Friends:
> 
> To me this appears to indicate that the VOICE OF THE SILENCE is an
> important study in the probations of chelaship -- on the Path of
> Occultism.
> 
> 
> In recent days some discussion concerning this topic arose and various
> opinions were offered. Here is one that seem very useful to us to
> consider: --
> 
> 
> "THE MIND IS THE GREAT SLAYER OF THE REAL"
> 
> 
> The asceticism which The Voice of the Silence advocates is that of the
> thinking principle - the withdrawal of the mind from its present
> position in which it is a slave. 
> 
> The mind is a victim of internal images composed of elemental-lives
> which form the desire-principle, and these awaken the senses to
activity
> and make them the feeders of that principle. Man's objective world is
> but a reflection - a shadowy emanation - of this subjective plane of
> desire-images. 
> 
> In the waking state of consciousness man does not live in the world of
> the mind but in that of the senses ensouled by desires within which
the
> mind is captive. Man's so-called reasoning is not a pure activity
> engendered by the mind but is premised on sense- impressions which are
> permeated by desires. 
> 
> Even men of Science in using their minds proceed from sense-data to
> deductions, and, though in most of them personal desires in connection
> with the objects of observation are in abeyance, they yet suffer from
> their dependence on desire-shot senses. The eyes of a drunken man see
> things askew: the mind of one who in drawing his conclusions depends
on
> the senses fraught with the desire-principle also sees askew. 
> 
> Sense-data to be true and sense-observations to be accurate must be
> devoid of the forces of the desire-principle. When Esoteric Philosophy
> calls the world of objects illusory it means that it is so not in the
> sense that the objects do not exist but in the sense that our
valuation
> of them is false. The objective world may well be compared to a great
> bazaar in which desire-enslaved minds, not knowing the true prices of
> things, are taken in, have to bargain, to haggle and to wrangle for
> things needed and have to be tempted to want and to acquire other
> things. The mind thus exploited in the bazaar of the objective world
> gains experience and learns to evaluate each object at its proper
worth,
> and then - and not before then - man begins to live in that world. 
> 
> Our difficulty, then, as will be readily seen, does not inhere in the
> objects but in our ignorance of the true values of those objects, due
to
> our desires in which the mind is imprisoned. Desires by themselves,
> unaided by the power of thought, would be innocuous; energized by it
> they make man the worst of the animal kingdom. 
> 
> Therefore our textbook [the "Voice"] calls this mind the Slayer of the
> Real and at the very outset gives the injunction to the Disciple to
slay
> the Slayer. It also states the method - "become indifferent to objects
> of perception." This mind, captivated by desire, which courses in the
> nervous system of the body, is called the chief of the senses, and it
is
> this mind-sense which makes man different from the animal - capable of
> becoming superior to it as also of developing into the most cunning
and
> the most carnal of beasts. 
> 
> [7] Having become indifferent to objects of perception, the pupil must
> seek out the Rajah of the senses, the Thought- Producer, he who awakes
> illusion. The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real. Let the Disciple
> slay the Slayer. 
> Voice, pp. 1-2 ULT; 1 TUP
> 
> It is the activity of this mind in the objective world which has first
> to be handled by the aspirant-chela. Unless we see that these objects
> become channels, offer food to internal images and help to satisfy our
> cravings we shall not be able to evaluate them correctly. We value an
> object in terms of the satisfaction or the delight which it gives to
our
> desire-fraught senses. This is the cause of illusion which is
ignorance
> - not total absence of knowledge but the false evaluation of objects,
> mistaking lust for love. 
> 
> If thou would'st cross the first Hall safely, let not thy mind
> mistake the fires of lust that burn therein for the sunlight of life.
> [pp. 7; 6] 
> 
> The Thought-Producer" makes love out of lust and when this is seen in
> actual life-experience a real step forward is taken by the
practitioner.
> When this is seen the weakness of the world of objects compared to the
> strength of the world of images is recognized. It is this seeing, when
> not understood, which tempts the aspirant to run away from the world
to
> the jungle. 
> 
> When a seeker after the Light within sees the activity of the outer
> world of objects he naturally attempts to close the windows through
> which the objects attack him. In that retreat, psychological or
> physical, a short respite from that attack is all that he obtains.
Very
> soon he locates the root of his trouble: the attraction or the
aversion
> which the objects exert over him are not in the external objects but
in
> the internal images - memory pictures of the past, not only of this
life
> but also of previous incarnations. 
> 
> Withhold thy mind from all external objects, all external
> sights. Withhold internal images, lest on thy Soul-light a dark shadow
> they should cast. 
> [pp. 20; 19] 
> 
> This is the formidable work compared to which retreating from the
> objects of the senses is easy. If in the first exercise the chela
learns
> the illusory nature of the objective world, now he encounters the
> delusive nature of his own subjective world. Looking for the God
within
> he comes upon the devil; seeking soul- light, he finds darkness - so
> thick that he does not realize that it is a shadow. "O dark, dark,
dark,
> amid the blaze of noon." [Milton, Samson Agonistes line 80] It is in
> that dark that we meet our fancy-created idols, our thought-created
> images, our desire-created phantoms. 
> 
> But that darkness has the peculiar power of deluding our
consciousness.
> Very soon the sphere of darkness looks to us the region of pearly
light
> - of soothing, restful, twilight sleep. The Maya of the objective
world
> is but an effect caused by the Moha-delusion of this sphere of
> self-created subjectivity, lighted up by human passions. 
> 
> This is the world of Probationary Learning, which the Chela has to
> abandon, [8] and he cannot do so till he understands it. The first
real
> pitched battle of the greatest of all wars is in this region, called
the
> Astral Light. When the Power of his Vow, made in the objective world,
> stirs in him, the fighter in the Astral Light feels that he is in a
> place where he ought not to be; that he must not listen to the sounds
of
> these images, but to the word of the Soul within. 
> 
> Theoretically every student knows that Lower Manas is different from
> Higher Manas, that Kama-Manas is demoniac and Buddhi-Manas divine. 
But
> the truth has to be experienced and we know the nature of the Soul's
> mind when we overthrow some of the enemy troops, i.e., when we destroy
> some of our thought-created images. 
> 
> The great temptation for the Probationary Chela issues forth from the
> enhanced sense-delight when the plasticity of astral light is handled
> and absorbed; it is like the exhilarated state of the person who has
> just taken strong drink. Often, instead of fighting right away the
> already created images, he falls prey to the temptation of creating
new
> ones. In the objective world we have to control the wandering mind,
but
> here we have to fight the creative mind. Thus come a period of intense
> fight, and victory ensues when the soldier-soul has grasped this
truth: 
> 
> Ere thy Soul's mind can understand, the bud of personality must
> be crushed out; the worm of sense destroyed past resurrection. [pp.
13;
> 12] 
> 
> The grasping of this truth means that the Probationer has seen that he
> is other than the Personality, that the worm which early and late
feeds
> upon the senses, once crushed, would lead to the death of the
separative
> and ever-separating self which makes the Personality the supreme
enemy.
> The glimpse of the Soul which uncovers the inimical nature of the
> Personality makes the fighting Probationer take refuge in that Inner
> Soul. And this implies some knowledge of the nature and the powers of
> that Soul. 
> 
> Silence thy thoughts and fix thy whole attention on thy Master,
> whom yet thou dost not see, but whom thou feelest. [pp. 17; 16] 
> 
> Thyself and mind, like twins upon a line, the star which is thy
> goal burns overhead. [pp. 21; 19] 
> 
> THE MASTER IS THE HIGHER SELF, "the equivalent of Avalokitesvara, and
> the same as Adi-Budha ... Christos with the ancient Gnostics." [3fn.;
> 73-4 note 4] 
> 
> Unless this Master is felt as a Presence in Hall the second, that of
> Probationary Learning, entrance into the third, the Hall of Wisdom,
> remains closed. It is through the mind of the Soul that we touch the
> radiance of the God within, and it is through contact with the great
> Gurus that we touch the radiance of the God within Nature - Compassion
> Absolute. 
> 
> When the mind-activity is silenced, the soul, aided by the Light of
the
> Spirit, perceives itself as distinct and separate from the mind. Freed
> from Kama, it sees the possibility, nay, the certainty of a perfect
> unison with its Star - its Father in Heaven. In the translucent lake
of
> the pure mind the star in high heaven reflects itself, and even that
> reflected [9] influence stirs the mind to behold the glory that is -
the
> greater glory to be. It is not sufficient to silence the thoughts; it
is
> necessary to perceive the Star of Hope - the PARENT STAR, THE
> DHYANI-BUDDHIC SOURCE OF OUR EXISTENCE. 
> 
> The obliterating of the internal images is the same as crushing the
> craving for sensuous existence. The process demands that we centre our
> attention on the inner Light. But turning away from internal images is
> not to be accompanied by turning away from the objective world. To be
in
> the midst of objects but not to be their slave makes the fight a long
> one; for, in the long past we have created a whole army of personal
> thought-images; by our moods we have given birth to a brood of vices;
by
> our mental indulgence we have committed many sins. One by one we have 
to
> slay them. 
> 
> Woe, then, to thee, Disciple, if there is one single vice thou
> has not left behind ... . Woe unto him who dares pollute one rung with
> miry feet ... .His sins will raise their voices like as the jackal's
> laugh and sob after the sun goes down; his thoughts become an army,
and
> bear him off a captive slave. 
> [Voice, pp. 16-17; 15-16] 
> 
> This does not mean that the Probationer is expected to be flawless ere
> he starts, but he has to learn and attain purity ere he passes through
> the Golden Gate into the Hall of Wisdom, and has won the right to
abide
> therein permanently. 
> 
> As a Probationer he has his day when he basks in the radiance of the
> Spiritual Sun, and then his night - the dark night of the Soul, during
> which his mind-sins laugh the jackal's laugh which is the cry of
agony,
> terrifying to him, tempting him to his fall, nay, to his very doom.
The
> jackals move in packs and therefore are able to hunt down sheep and
even
> antelopes. When unable to obtain living prey they feed on carrion, and
> cunningly they follow cheetahs and even lions in order to finish the
> carcass after the latter have eaten their fill. 
> 
> The comparison of our lower thoughts to jackals is most apt, for they
> attack in packs our high thoughts and our noble aspirations, and when
> they cannot prey upon these living images they sniff out slumbering
and
> dying ones and gorge on the latter - a phenomenon which is related to
> precipitation of Karma and the like. Also, like the jackal, our lower
> thought-images have an offensive odour, for they, too, like the
jackal,
> secrete foulness from the base of their tails.
>  
> Now, we are told how we should deal with these our past creations: 
> 
> One single thought about the past that thou hast left behind
> will drag thee down and thou wilt have to start the climb anew. Kill
in
> thyself all memory of past experiences. Look not behind or thou art
> lost. [pp. 18; 16-17] 
> 
> If we do not choke off the memory of the past, if we dwell in it, we
> re-live the past subjectively and rejuvenate the thought- images. But
> now we have increased our power of thought and so those images express
> themselves more strongly. All students of Theosophy know that a [10]
> storehouse of past Karma exists, but all do not know that in the
> subjective realm ghosts and elementaries of dead objective actions
often
> work havoc. 
> 
> The last quotation of the first Fragment of our textbook that we
should
> consider is this: 
> 
> Before the path is entered, thou must destroy thy lunar body,
> cleanse thy mind-body, and make clean thy heart. [pp. 12; 11] 
> 
> In a footnote H.P.B. explains that the astral form produced by Kama
has
> to be destroyed. The Kama-rupa, ordinarily, is formed after the death
of
> the body and ere the Ego goes into Devachan, freeing itself from that
> form. 
> 
> But in the life of the Probationer, as he enters the kingdom of the
> quickened, leaving behind that of the dead, there is the Kama-rupa
> phenomenon related to that of the Dweller on the Threshold. 
> 
> The quickened soul becomes consciously alive when, by chasing away 
from
> the field of the mind all Kama-fed thought-images, he begins to live
by
> the power of the clean heart, i.e., by the influence of Buddhi. For
this
> dual process - dispersing the Kama-rupa and awakening Buddhi so that
it
> can ensoul Manas, the objective world proves of great benefit. 
> 
> The objective world of actions is not only valuable for enabling us to
> compare, to contrast and discriminatively to learn to concentrate, but
> it also proves a most helpful sphere when the strife of the subjective
> kind is on, of which mention is made above. 
> 
> The way the Probationer has to learn to make use of the objective
world
> is through the right performance of duty. Duty is the axis round which
> his objective world rotates: mistakes made about Duty, neglect of or
> dilatoriness in that which should be done, undertaking that which is
not
> our business, etc., all become sins of omission and of commission. 
> 
> If a Probationer is rightly busy with real duty he finds no time for
> "mischief" - unconsciously done. Furthermore when attacks come from
the
> subjective side of his lower nature, a wise engagement of the senses
and
> the brain in objective functioning weakens the attack. 
> 
> Occultism advocates that we do not strengthen the enemy by brooding
> about him, nor by directly fighting him. Take no particular notice of
> the enemy, but keep the consciousness busy with protective and
> profitable mental and physical work. 
> 
> No Probationer can meditate and study hours on end and therefore calls
> of mundane duty like the earning of livelihood, etc., are highly
> beneficial and very necessary. Not the invention of special work but
the
> doing of what there is to do expands the field of duty till humanity
> becomes our family and the world our country. Duty is the Divinity
that
> shapes our objective world to perfection: Duty is the God of the
> objective world - that is the Truth: 
> 
> OM TAT SAT. 
> 
> [ by B. P. Wadia]
> =========================================
> 
> Best wishes 
> 
> 
> Dallas


 

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