Theos-Talk Archives (May 2004 Message tt00054)

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Dear Friends:

HPB was the "messenger" from the Lodge of the Masters of Wisdom.

CWL ( C W LEADBEATER ) was a student of H P B..

Why not use the SOURCE? THEOSOPHY instead of someone's
interpretation?

In what frame of logic can there be "Lords" of KARMA.?

Is not KARMA the universal timeless and utterly exact LAW ?  
No "loopholes." No manipulators. No "minor deities." 

So how can the LIPIKAS be: "the karma agents, a personalization, an
anthropomorphization of the natural compensation law?"

Also from the THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY p 173-4

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


"KARMA (Sk.).	Physically, action: 
Metaphysically, the LAW OF RETRIBUTION, 

THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT OR ETHICAL CAUSATION. 

Nemesis, only in one sense, that of bad Karma. It is the eleventh
Nidana in the concatenation of causes and effects in orthodox
Buddhism ; yet it is the power that controls all things, the
resultant of moral action, the metaphysical Samskâra, or the moral
effect of an act committed for the attainment of something which
gratifies a personal desire. 

There is the Karma of merit and the Karma of demerit. 

KARMA NEITHER PUNISHES NOR REWARDS, IT IS SIMPLY THE ONE UNIVERSAL
LAW WHICH GUIDES UNERRINGLY, AND, SO TO SAY, BLINDLY, ALL OTHER LAWS
PRODUCTIVE OF CERTAIN EFFECTS ALONG THE GROOVES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE
CAUSATIONS. 

When Buddhism teaches that “Karma is that moral kernel (of any being)
which alone survives death and continues in transmigration” or
reincarnation, it simply means that there remains nought after each
Personality but the causes produced by it ; causes which are undying,
i.e., which cannot be eliminated from the Universe until replaced by
their legitimate effects, and wiped out by them, so to speak, and
such causes—unless compensated during the life of the person who
produced them with adequate effects, will follow the reincarnated
Ego, and reach it in its subsequent re incarnation until a harmony
between effects and causes is fully reestablished. 

No “personality “— a mere bundle of material atoms and of instinctual
and mental characteristics—can of course continue, as such, in the
world of pure Spirit. 

ONLY THAT WHICH IS IMMORTAL IN ITS VERY NATURE AND DIVINE IN ITS
ESSENCE, NAMELY, THE EGO, CAN EXIST FOR EVER.

And as it is that Ego which chooses the personality it will inform,
after each Devachan, and which receives through these personalities
the effects of the Karmic causes produced, it is therefore the Ego,
that self which is the “moral kernel “ referred to and embodied
karma, “which alone survives death.”	
THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY 173-4


AGRA-SANDHÂNÎ (Sk.). The “Assessors” or Recorders who read at the
judgment of a disembodied Soul the record of its life in the heart of
that “Soul”. The same almost as the Lipikas of the Secret Doctrine.
(S D Vol. I p. 105.)	Glos p. 8

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


>From the SECRET DOCTRINE I 634 - 642


IT is the Spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal man that forms
the fundamental tenet in the Occult Sciences. To realize even
distantly such a process, the student has to believe (a) in the ONE
Universal Life, independent of matter (or what Science regards as
matter); and (b) in the individual intelligences that animate the
various manifestations of this Principle. ...

The ONE LIFE is closely related to the ONE LAW which governs the
World of Being—KARMA. Exoterically, this is simply and literally
"action," or rather an "effect-producing cause." 

Esoterically it is quite a different thing in its far-fetching moral
effects. It is the unerring LAW OF RETRIBUTION. To say to those
ignorant of the real significance, characteristics and awful
importance of this eternal immutable law, that no theological
definition of a personal deity can give an idea of this impersonal,
yet ever present and active Principle, is to speak in vain. 

Nor can it be called Providence. For Providence, with the Theists
(the Christian Protestants, at any rate), rejoices in a personal male
gender, while with the Roman Catholics it is a female potency ...
Karma—a sexless principle—does not. 

Throughout the first two Parts, it was shown that, at the first
flutter of renascent life, Svabhavat, "the mutable radiance of the
Immutable Darkness unconscious in Eternity," passes, at every new
rebirth of Kosmos, from an inactive state into one of intense
activity; that it differentiates, and then begins its work through
that differentiation. This work is KARMA. 

The Cycles are also subservient to the effects produced by this
activity. "The one Cosmic atom becomes seven atoms on the plane of
matter, and each is transformed into a centre of energy; that same
atom becomes seven rays on the plane of spirit, and the seven
creative forces of nature, radiating from the root-essence . . . .
follow, one the right, the other the left path, separate till the end
of the Kalpa, and yet are in close embrace. 

What unites them? KARMA." ...

The true Buddhist, recognising no "personal god," nor any "Father"
and "Creator of Heaven and Earth," still believes in an absolute
consciousness, "Adi-Buddhi"; and the Buddhist philosopher knows that
there are Planetary Spirits, the "Dhyan Chohans." 

But though he admits of "spiritual lives," yet, as they are temporary
in eternity, even they, according to his philosophy, are "the maya of
the day," the illusion of a "day of Brahma," a short manvantara of
4,320,000,000 years. ...the whole of the visible Kosmos consists of
"self-produced beings, the creatures of Karma." 

Thus regarding a personal God "as only a gigantic shadow thrown upon
the void of space by the imagination of ignorant men," † they teach
that only "two things are (objectively) eternal, namely Akasa and
Nirvana"; and that these are ONE in reality, and but a maya when
divided. "Buddhists deny creation and cannot conceive of a Creator."
...

If a Vedantic Brahmin of the Adwaita Sect, when asked whether he
believes in the existence of God, is always likely to answer, as
Jacolliot was answered—"I am myself 'God';" a Buddhist (a Sinhalese
especially) would simply laugh, and say in reply, "There is no God;
no Creation." Yet the root philosophy of both 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"— for
matter with them has quite another significance than it has with
either Christian or materialist— and that every creature is subject
to Karma. ...for esoteric philosophy solved, ages ago, the problem of
what man was, is, and will be; of man's origin,
life-cycle—interminable in its duration of successive incarnations or
rebirths—and finally of his absorption into the source from which he
started. ...man's inner, spiritual, psychic, or even moral, nature
cannot be left to the tender mercies of an ingrained materialism; for
not even the higher psychological philosophy of the West is able, in
its present incompleteness and tendency towards a decided
agnosticism, to do justice to the inner; especially to his higher
capacities and perceptions, and those states of consciousness...

To make the working of Karma, in the periodical renovations of the
Universe, more evident and intelligible to the student when he
arrives at the origin and evolution of man, he has now to examine
with us the esoteric bearing of the Karmic Cycles upon Universal
Ethics. 

The question is, do those mysterious divisions of time, called Yugas
and Kalpas by the Hindus, and so very graphically—Kuklos—"cycle,"
ring or circle, by the Greeks, have any bearing upon, or any direct
connection with, human life? Even exoteric philosophy explains that
these perpetual circles of time are ever returning on themselves,
periodically, and intelligently in Space and Eternity. There are
"Cycles of matter" * and there are "Cycles of Spiritual evolution."
Racial, national, and individual cycles. May not esoteric speculation
allow us a still deeper insight into the workings of these? ...

According to the teachings, Maya, or the illusive appearance of the
marshalling of events and actions on this earth, changes, varying
with nations and places. 

But the chief features of one's life are always in accordance with
the "Constellation" one is born under, or, we should say, with the
characteristics of its animating principle or the deity that presides
over it, whether we call it a Dhyan Chohan, as in Asia, or an
Archangel, as with the Greek and Latin churches. ..

Yes; "our destiny is written in the stars!" Only, the closer the
union between the mortal reflection MAN and his celestial PROTOTYPE,
the less dangerous the external conditions and subsequent
reincarnations—which neither Buddhas nor Christs can escape. 

This is not superstition, least of all is it Fatalism. 

The latter implies a blind course of some still blinder power, and
man is a free agent during his stay on earth. He cannot escape his
ruling Destiny, but he has the choice of two paths that lead him in
that direction, and he can reach the goal of misery—if such is
decreed to him, either in the snowy white robes of the Martyr, or in
the soiled garments of a volunteer in the iniquitous course; for,
there are external and internal conditions which affect the
determination of our will upon our actions, and it is in our power to
follow either of the two.

Those who believe in Karma have to believe in destiny, which, from
birth to death, every man is weaving thread by thread around himself,
as a spider does his cobweb; and this destiny is guided either by the
heavenly voice of the invisible prototype outside of us, or by our
more intimate astral, or inner man, who is but too often the evil
genius of the embodied entity called man. Both these lead on the
outward man, but one of them must prevail; and from the very
beginning of the invisible affray the stern and implacable law of
compensation steps in and takes its course, faithfully following the
fluctuations. When the last strand is woven, and man is seemingly
enwrapped in the net-work of his own doing, then he finds himself
completely under the empire of this self-made destiny. It then either
fixes him like the inert shell against the immovable rock, or carries
him away like a feather in a whirlwind raised by his own actions, and
this is—KARMA. " SECRET DOCTRINE I 634 - 640


==================================

I prefer the original definitions in my studies,


Best wishes,

Dallas

======================================

-----Original Message-----
From: krish
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 3:18 AM
To: 
Subject: Re:: Neuralsurfer wants to know.... 
UNIVERSAL RECORD OF EVERYTHING DONE

Are lipikas, the karma agents, a personalization, a
anthropomorphization of the natural compensation law?

CWL used to refer as Lords of Karma, who, for me, works as operative
divinities, angels, powers that maintain the karma distributively
working on.

Krishtar

===================================
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dallas TenBroeck 
To: AA-BNStudy 
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 9:19 PM
Subject: RE: .. UNIVERSAL RECORD OF EVERYTHING DONE


Tuesday, May 04, 2004

RE: Neuralsurfer wants to know.... 
UNIVERSAL RECORD OF EVERYTHING DONE

Dear Friends and T: 

Knowledge as statement of fact, or as a "picture" of an event
does exist p-- for everything.

Look at this IN THE THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY p. 190


"LIPI (Sk.) To write. See “Lipikas” in Vol. I. of the S D, pp.
104-5, 128-9,
   
LIPIKAS (Sk.). The celestial recorders, the “Scribes”, those who
record every word and deed, said or done by man while on this
earth. As Occultism teaches, they are the agents of KARMA—the
retributive Law." T Glos 190

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

from the SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. 1 104-5


"The Lipi-ka, from the word lipi, "writing," means literally the
"Scribes."* 

Mystically, these Divine Beings are connected with Karma, the Law
of Retribution, for they are the Recorders or Annalists who
impress on the (to us) invisible tablets of the Astral Light,
"the great picture-gallery of eternity" — a faithful record of
every act, and even thought, of man, of all that was, is, or ever
will be, in the phenomenal Universe. 

As said in "Isis," this divine and unseen canvas is the BOOK OF
LIFE. As it is the Lipika who project into objectivity from the
passive Universal Mind the ideal plan of the universe, upon which
the "Builders" reconstruct the Kosmos after every Pralaya, it is
they who stand parallel to the Seven Angels of the Presence, whom
the Christians recognise in the Seven "Planetary Spirits" or the
"Spirits of the Stars;" for thus it is they who are the direct
amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation — or, as called by Plato, the
"Divine Thought." 

The Eternal Record is no fantastic dream, for we meet with the
same records in the world of gross matter. 

"A shadow never falls upon a wall without leaving thereupon a
permanent trace which might be made visible by resorting to
proper processes," says Dr. Draper. 

. . . "The portraits of our friends or landscape-views may be
hidden on the sensitive surface from the eye, but they are ready
to make their appearance as soon as proper developers are
resorted to. A spectre is concealed on a silver or a glassy
surface, until, by our necromancy, we make it come forth into the
visible world. Upon the walls of our most private apartments,
where we think the eye of intrusion is altogether shut out, and
our retirement can never be profaned, there exist the vestiges of
all our acts, silhouettes of whatever we have done." † 

Drs. Jevons and Babbage believe that every thought, displacing
the particles of the brain and setting them in motion, scatters
them throughout the Universe, and they think that "each particle
of the existing matter must be a register of all that has
happened." (Principles of Science, Vol. II. p. 455.) Thus the
ancient doctrine has begun to acquire rights of citizenship in
the speculations of the scientific world. 

The forty "Assessors" who stand in the region of Amenti as the
accusers of the Soul before Osiris, belong to the same class of
deities as the Lipika, and might stand paralleled, were not the
Egyptian gods so 

------------------------FOOTNOTES--------------------------------
--
   
* These are the four "Immortals" which are mentioned in Atharva
Veda as the "Watchers" or Guardians of the four quarters of the
sky (see ch. lxxvi., 1-4, et seq.). 

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

little understood in their esoteric meaning. The Hindu
Chitra-Gupta who reads out the account of every Soul's life from
his register, called Agra-Sandhani; the "Assessors" who read
theirs from the heart of the defunct, which becomes an open book
before (whether) Yama, Minos, Osiris, or Karma — are all so many
copies of, and variants from the Lipika, and their Astral
Records. Nevertheless, the Lipi-ka are not deities connected with
Death, but with Life Eternal. 

Connected as the Lipika are with the destiny of every man and the
birth of every child, whose life is already traced in the Astral
Light not fatalistically, but only because the future, like the
PAST, is ever alive in the PRESENT — they may also be said to
exercise an influence on the Science of Horoscopy. We must admit
the truth of the latter whether we will or not. For, as observed
by one of the modern adepts of Astrology, "Now that photography
has revealed to us the chemical influence of the Sidereal system,
by fixing on the sensitized plate of the apparatus milliards of
stars and planets that had hitherto baffled the efforts of the
most powerful telescopes to discover them, it becomes easier to
understand how our solar system can, at the birth of a child,
influence his brain — virgin of any impression — in a definite
manner and according to the presence on the zenith of such or
another zodiacal constellation."† S D I 104-5
   
---------------------------------

Thee is also this illustrative story:

THE TELL-TALE PICTURE GALLERY

A Tale by W. Q. Judge


Although the gallery of pictures about which I now write has long
ago been abandoned, and never since its keepers left the spot
where it was has it been seen there, similar galleries are still
to be found in places that one cannot get into until guided to
them. They are now secreted in distant and inaccessible spots--in
the Himalaya mountains; beyond them, in Tibet; in underground
India; and such mysterious locations.  

The need for such reports by spies or for confessions by
transgressors is not felt by secret fraternities which possess
such strange recorders of the doings, thoughts, and conditions of
those whom they portray. In the brotherhoods of the Roman
Catholic Church, or in Free-masonry, no failure to abide by rules
could ever be dealt with unless some one reported the delinquent
or he himself made a confession.  

Every day mason after mason breaks both the letter and spirit of
the vows he made, but, no one knowing or making charges, he
remains a mason in good standing. The soldier in camp or field
oversteps the strictest rules of discipline, yet it if done out
of sight of those who could divulge or punish he remains
untouched.  

And in the various religious bodies, the members continually
break, either in act or in thought, all the commandments, unknown
to their fellows and the heads of the Church, with no loss of
standing. But neither the great Roman Church, the Free-masons,
nor any religious sect possesses such a gallery as that of which
I will try to tell you, one in which is registered every smallest
deed and thought.

I do not mean the great Astral Light that retains faithful
pictures of all we do, whether we be Theosophists or Scoffers,
Catholics or Free-masons, but a veritable collection of
simulacrae deliberately constructed so as to specialize one of
the many functions of the Astral Light.

It was during one of my talks with the old man who turned into a
wandering eye that I first heard of this wonderful gallery, and
after his death I was shown the place itself. It was kept on the
Sacred Island where of old many weird and magical things existed
and events occurred. You may ask why these are not now found
there, but you might as well request that I explain why Atlantis
sank beneath the wave or why the great Assyrian Empire has
disappeared.  

They have had their day, just as our present boasted civilization
will come to its end and be extinguished. Cyclic law cannot be
held from its operation, and just as sure as tides change on the
globe and blood flows in the body, so sure is it that great
doings reach their conclusion and powerful nations disappear.

It was only a few months previous to the old man’s death, when
approaching dissolution or superior orders, I know not which,
caused him to reveal many things and let slip hints as to others.
He had been regretting his numerous errors one day, and turning
to me said,

“And have you never seen the gallery where your actual spiritual
state records itself?”

Not knowing what he meant I replied: “I did not know they had
one here.”

“Oh, yes; it is in the old temple over by the mountain, and the
diamond gives more light there than anywhere else.”

Fearing to reveal my dense ignorance, not only of what he meant
but also of the nature of this gallery, I continued the
conversation in a way to elicit more information, and he
supposing I had known of others, began to describe this one. But
in the very important part of the description he turned the
subject as quickly as he had introduced it, so that I remained a
prey to curiosity. And until the day of his death he did not
again refer to it. The extraordinary manner of his decease,
followed by the weird wandering eye, drove the thought of the
pictures out of my head.

But it would seem that the effect of this floating, lonely,
intelligent eye upon my character was a foretoken of my
introduction to the gallery. His casual question, in connection
with his own shortcomings and the lesson impressed on me by the
intensification and concentration of all his nature into one eye
hat ever wandered about the Island, mad me turn my thoughts
inward so as to discover and destroy the seeds of evil in myself.
Meanwhile all duties in the temple where I lived were assiduously
performed.  

One night after attaining to some humility of spirit, I feel
quietly asleep with the white moonlight falling over the floor,
and dreamed that I met the old man again as when alive, and that
he asked me if I had yet seen the picture gallery.

:No,” said I in the dream, “I had forgotten it,” awakening then
at sound of my own voice.

Looking up, I saw in the moonlight a figure of one I had not seen
in any of the temples. This being gazed at me with clear, cold
eyes, and afar off sounded what I supposed its voice.

“Come with me.”

Rising from the bed I went out into the night, following this
laconic guide. The moon was full, high in her course, and all
the place was full of her radiance. In the distance the walls of
the temple nearest the diamond mountain appeared self-luminous.
To that the guide walked, and we reached the door now standing
wide open. As I came to the threshold, suddenly the lonely,
grey, wandering eye of my old dead friend and co-disciple floated
past looking deep into my own, and I read its expression as if it
would say,

“The picture-gallery is here.”

We entered, and, although some priests were there, no one seemed
to notice me. Through the court, across a hall, down a long
corridor we went, and then into a wide and high roofless place
with but one door. Only the stars in heaven adorned the space
above, while streams of more than moonlight poured into it from
the diamond, so that there were no shadows nor any need for
lights. As the noiseless door swung softly shut behind us, sad
music floated down in one spot, but was quickly swallowed in the
light.



“Examine with care, but touch not and fear nothing,” said my
taciturn companion. With these words he turned and left me alone.

But how could I say I was alone ! The place was full of faces.
They were ranged up and down the long hall; near the floor,
above it; higher, on the walls; in the air; everywhere except
in one aisle; but not a single one moved from its place, yet
each was seemingly alive. And at intervals strange watchful
creatures of the elemental world moved about from place to place.
Were they watching me or the faces? Now I felt they had me in
view, for sudden glances out of the corners of their eyes shot my
way; but in a moments something happened showing they guarded or
watched the faces.

I was standing looking at the face of an old friend about my own
age who had been sent to another part of the island, and it
filled me with sadness unaccountably. One of the curious
elemental creatures moved silently up near it. In amazement I
strained my eyes, for the picture of my friend was apparently
discoloring. Its expression altered every moment. It turned
from white to grey and yellow, and back to grey, and the suddenly
if grew all black as if with rapid decomposition.(*) Then again
that same sad music, I had heard on entering floated past me,
while the blackness of the face seemed to cast a shadow, but not
for long. The elemental pounced upon the blackened face, now
soulless, tore it in pieces and by some process unknown to
itself dissipated the atoms and restored the brightness of the
spot. But alas ! my of friend’s picture was gone, and I felt
within me a heavy, almost unbearable gloom as of despair. 
[(*) FN: Compare with Mr. Judge’s “Culture of Concentration”
article, where the several vices are described. -- W. Q. J
Articles Vol. I, p. 319.]

As I grew accustomed to the surroundings, my senses perceived
every now and then sweet but low musical sounds that appeared to
emanate from or around these faces. So, selecting one, I stood
in front of it and watched. It was bright and pure. Its eyes
looked into mine with the half-intelligence of a dream. Yet it
grew now and then a little brighter, and as that that happened I
heard the gentle music. This convinced me that the changes in
expression were connected with the music.

But fearing I would be called away, I began to carefully scan the
collection, and found that all my co-disciples were represented
there, as well as hundreds whom I had never seen, and every
priest high or low whom I had observed about the island. Yet the
same saddening music every now and then reminded me of the scene
of the blacking of my friend’s picture. I knew it meant others
blackened and were being destroyed by the watchful elementals who
I could vaguely perceive were pouncing upon something whenever
those notes sounded. They were like the wails of angels when
they see another mortal going to moral suicide.

Dimly after a while there grew upon me an explanation of this
gallery. Here were the living pictures of every student or
priest of the order founded by the Adepts of the Diamond
Mountain. These vitalized pictures were connected by invisible
cords with the character of those they represented, and like a
telegraph instrument they instantly recorded the exact state of
the disciple’s mind; when he made a complete failure, they grew
black and were destroyed; when he progressed in spiritual life,
their degrees of brightness or beauty showed his exact standing.


As these conclusions were reached, louder and stronger musical
tones filled the hall. Directly before me was a beautiful,
peaceful face; its brilliance outshone the light around, and I
knew that some unseen brother--how far or near was unknown to
me--had reached some height or advancement that corresponded to
such tones.

Just then my guide reentered; I found I was near the door; it
was open; and together we passed out, retracing the same course
by which we had entered. Once outside the setting of the moon
showed how long I had been in the gallery. The silence of my
guide prevented speech, and he returned with me to the room I had
left. There he stood looking at me, and once more I heard as it
were from afar his voice in inquiry, as if he said but

“Well ?”

Into my mind came the question, “How are those faces made ?”
>From all about him, but not from his lips, came the answer,

“You cannot understand. They are not the persons, and yet they
are made from their minds and bodies.”

“Was I right in the idea that they were connected with those they
pictured by invisible cords along which the person’s condition
was carried?”

“Yes, perfectly. And they never err. From day to day they
change for better or worse. Once the disciple has entered this
path his picture forms there; and we need no spies, no officious
fellow disciples to prefer charges, no reports, no machinery.
Everything registers itself. We have but to inspect the images to
know just how the disciple gets on or goes back.”

“And those curious elementals,” thought I, “do they feed on the
blackened images?”

“They are our scavengers. They gather up and dissipate the
decomposed and deleterious atoms that formed the image before it
grows black--no longer fit for such good company.”
   
“And the music--did it come from the images?”

“Ah, boy, you have much to learn. It came from them, but it
belongs also to every other soul. It is the vibration of the
disciple’s thoughts and spiritual life; it is the music of his
good deeds and his brotherly love.”

Then came to me a dreadful thought, “How can one--if at
all--restore his image once it has blackened in the gallery?”

But my guide was no longer there. A faint rustling sound was
all--and three deep notes as if upon a large bronze bell.

-- Bryan Kinnevan
W. Q. Judge

PATH June 1889

=======================================================


Our ability to see or hear or view such records may be varied.

Best wishes

Dallas

============================
   

-----Original Message-----

From: thal

Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 12:35 PM
To: 
Subject: Neuralsurfer wants to know....

Eye think it's quite probable that Knowledge is there to be Known
and to be "registered and utilized" just as "the ideal man of the
future" (?, yikes) can/will in all likelyhood both retain his
individuality (own mind) and network - ie.... that seams to be,
how the
progression proceeds.
       
The knowledge is not there so much to be known as to be
registered and utilized as needed. We are receiving stations and
not 
warehouses IMHO. 

Really that is the ideal man of the future will not have a 
mind per se but use his brain as network that will link him up to
any idea at any time, just like the internet!
  
Net







   
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