Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00000)

May 31 2004

Re: ATMA -- BUDHI -- MASTERS OF WISDOM  

Dear Gopi:


Thank you, but, I hope I grasp your problem.  

May we look a this together?

As a student of THEOSOPHY I have found in its literature that which to
me explains this. Here is a summary:

I keep reminding myself that at best our embodied brain-mind in its
highest aspect seeks wisdom as an iron filing seeks a magnet. The
Magnet, while passive itself, issues a surrounding force (magnetism)
that distinguishes the iron filings from sand, dust, water, etc...and
other aspects of matter not affected by "magnetic force." 

I am of the opinion that any real Truth is always attracted to and
sustained by the great TRUTH (MAHA-BUDDHI). This is an aspect of the
ONE, the UNIVERSAL SELF.

It relates the enormous varieties of beings (great and small, distant
and infinitely present) and, all experiences of individualized
INTELLIGENCE.  

One might say that the "quality" of CONSCIOUSNESS and AWARENESS, when
focussed in the smallest LIFE-BEING (a MONAD) [and this concept
visualizes something far smaller that the smallest sub-atomic
particles so far discovered] provides that "ray" of the supreme
SPIRIT, with a basis for perception, sensation and growth.

I also think it is fair to add. The concept when expanded makes our
whole Universe a vast collection of many spiritual beings, all are
living under many aspects of the ONE LAW, and further their continuous
movement defines what we call "matter." I believe we can say we are
confronted with a real problem in understanding.  

1	SPIRIT envelops everything and it is limitless (includes both
"great and small"). Since it is Universal it is also CONSCIOUSNESS
(as potential awareness and as actual awareness when individualized).

2.	MOVEMENT implies intelligent and regulated processes, so that
every unit has it own living space in the vast WHOLE.  

Therefore LAW and KARMA form an essential part of all individualized
SPIRITUAL SELVES. In this we may also see the great poles of the
"OPPOSITES" -- and their mutual attraction and repulsion.  

What is called GRAVITY is a manifestation of this eternal balance, and
it establishes the relations of those "accumulations of skandhas" that
make up all FORMS on any plane or level of being.  

At the center of every "form" (or 'being') is a "Ray" of the ONE. The
aggregation by mutual attraction of such units under the guidance of
a more experienced UNIT, brings a form into existence. From that
springs KAMA or attraction. And this, when translated into human
psychological terms is found designated "desires, passions and
emotional urges." Thus KAMA and MANAS form the bridge between SPIRIT
AND MATTER. Surrounding ever Monad is an atmosphere that reflects its
own condition in this eternal conflict between the supreme freedom of
WISDOM and the selfish limits of ignorance and isolation. The
Buddhi-Manas in every human is ultimately restored to the position of
an agent of Nature and of the ABSOLUTE. We can secure this
information by a careful reading of the SECRET DOCTRINE and the
MAHATMA LETTERS 

I we look on these as expressed in the BHAGAVAD GITA we that the three
GUNAS (SATTVA--Spirit, TAMAS -- inert forms of 'matter;' and RAJAS
-- activity under law and manasic guidance I think we may detect the
same philosophical basis expressed in moral terms of personal conduct.
Arjuna (as Kama-Manas) is continuously advised by his mentor, Sri
Krishna (ATMA-BUDDHI, or our Higher Self), to perform all necessary
actions (dharma) without concern in their results.

3	MATTER is only a maya, because the monads as life-atoms
continually change positions and come and go under the laws of
individual attraction and sympathy. They form an appearance which
envelops the individualized consciousness and which therefore may be
designated "MIND."  

Kosmically, this is Universal Mind or MAHAT. Individually, it is
MANAS -- and this Manas has two aspects -- the "lower" bound to Kama
or personal desires (called Kama-Manas), and the "higher aspect"
attached to Buddhi, and, called the Wise Mind, or Buddhi-Manas.

All "Monads" which have attained the 'Manasic stage,' have strongly
bonded both aspects of the SPIRITUAL and the MATERIAL into an
intelligent, thinking entity composed of "monads of lesser
experience." It is their duty to impress these "lesser Monads" with
the universal, and impersonal rules and laws of righteous livelihood.
We find Gautama the Buddha expressing this in Book Eight in THE LIGHT
OF ASIA.

We might say (I think) that the whole of Mankind, and each individual
human is an example of this 'Manasic linked to Kama' stage. This
individualized Manasic Unit (with its attendant accumulation of
"skandhas") then, progresses incarnation after incarnation. The
objective of such a protracted course is to spiritualize the
surrounding Skandhas, and restore the divisive influence of Kama to a
regulated condition where it assists (and does not obstruct by
selfishness and isolation) the whole of individual and Cosmic
evolution. It is the continual creation of "Cosmos" out of "Chaos."
The process is also called "Nitya pralaya." ( S D I 371,
TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE. Pp. 133-36 )

If successful, the individualized Monad becomes a Mahatma -- a Great
Soul. And finally a BUDDHA -- or ONE who embodies the Universal Law
and has achieved "Keval Gnyan" or Universal Wisdom and Universal
Vision, so that KARMA is always perceived at its many tasks and is
intelligently assisted.. 

The accumulation relates to the work in the entire Universe and our
Earth of many progressive groups of associated "skandhas." They are
the Manasa-Putras, whose collectivity on a Kosmic scale is the
UNIVERSAL MIND. (Trans p. 135)

What re they? Monads ( ATMA-BUDDHIC MONADS) and the SECRET DOCTRINE
states they are imperishable. They, individually, are progressing
towards their own independent stage of becoming an independent
Manasa..

I am of the opinion the experience of the profound long "sleep" of a
Pralaya, or even a Maha Pralaya does not obliterate them. [That is a
period of time when all manifestation returns to the ONE
ABSOLUTENESS.] This is (as I understand it) according to the teachings
of THEOSOPHY [Sanatana Dharma].

Look at it as the accumulated individual Karma that is established by
any MONAD for either "good or ill." Until the final balance is
settled there will be always an existence for it on the highest planes
of being. As I see it such a "final balance " never occurs.

KARMA is indestructible and gives the eternal motive power (the ONE
FORCE) for all manifestation. It unites the polar extremes of SPIRIT
and PRIMORDIAL MATTER.

PRIMORDIAL PURE MATTER is called Mulaprakriti ( ROOT MATTER) and also
MAHABUDDHI (Great Wisdom) in Theosophical technical philosophy.

This is altogether getting very deep. Tell me if you think there is
merit in this?

Best wishes,


Dallas

PS HPB says: [ ISIS UNVEILED AND THE VISHISHTADVAITA ]


"A sceptic in my early life, I had sought and obtained through the
Masters the full assurance of the existence of a principle (not
Personal God)--"a boundless and fathomless ocean" of which my "soul"
was a drop. 

Like the Adwaitis, I made no difference between my Seventh Principle
and the Universal Spirit, or Parabrahm; nor did, or do I believe in an
individual, segregated spirit in me, as a something apart from the
whole. And see, for proof, my remark about the "omnipotence of man's
immortal spirit"--which would be a logical absurdity upon any theory
of egoistic separation. 

My mistake was that throughout the whole work I indifferently employed
the words Parabrahm and God to express the same idea: a venial sin
surely, when one knows that the English language is so poor that even
at this moment I am using the Sanskrit word to express one idea and
the English one for the other! 

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

The most spiritual--i.e., the highest and divinest aspirations of
every personality follow Buddhi and the Seventh Principle into
Devachan (Swarga) after the death of each personality along the line
of rebirths, and become part and parcel of the Monad. The personality
fades out, disappearing before the occurrence of the evolution of the
new personality (rebirth) out of Devachan: but the individuality of
the spirit-soul [dear, dear, what can be made out of this English!] is
preserved to the end of the great cycle (Maha-Manwantara) when each
Ego enters Paranirvana, or is merged in Parabrahm. 
To our talpatic, or mole-like, comprehension the human spirit is then
lost in the One Spirit, as the drop of water thrown into the sea can
no longer be traced out and recovered. But de facto it is not so in
the world of immaterial thought. 

This latter stands in relation to the human dynamic thought, as, say,
the visual power through the strongest conceivable microscope would to
the sight of a half-blind man: and yet even this is a most
insufficient simile--the difference is "inexpressible in terms of
foot-pounds." 

That such Parabrahmic and Paranirvanic "spirits," or units, have and
must preserve their divine (not human) individualities, is shown in
the fact that, however long the "night of Brahma" or even the
Universal Pralaya (not the local Pralaya affecting some one group of
worlds) yet, when it ends, the same individual Divine Monad resumes
its majestic path of evolution, though on a higher, hundredfold
perfected and more pure chain of earths than before, and brings with
it all the essence of compound spiritualities from its previous
countless rebirths. 

Spiral evolution, it must be remembered, is dual, and the path of
spirituality turns, corkscrew-like, within and around physical,
semi-physical, and supra-physical evolution. But I am being tempted
into details which had best be left for the full consideration which
their importance merits to my forthcoming work, the Secret Doctrine. 
       
H. P. BLAVATSKY [HPB Artiocles, III 265-6]

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Gopi C
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 9:46 AM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-study] Re: ATMA -- BUDHI -- MASTERS OF WISDOM -- ADEPTS

Dear Dallas,

That is precisely the point.

Your quotation:

"BUDHI IS THE IMMORTAL EGO. Budhi cannot be described. It is
feeling,
the accumulated experiences--all our experience is in feeling."

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

In this the words 'accumulated experiences' are puzzling to me.
Accumulated means to me there must be beginning. That is what exactly
I
was requesting you to elaborate for me. This then agrees with what I
saw,
Budhi is eternal not 'our mind bound' where my mind is transient.

I am still confused with the word 'accumulate'!

Gopi