Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00097)

June 17 2004

Dear M and Friends:

The cycle of Reincarnation is not a fixed figure for all humans. It
is said by H P B and Mr. Judge that it depends on the "(noble,
altruistic and cooperative, brotherly thoughts feelings and deeds).
These we are told are the subjects that are mediated on and reviewed
in Devachan, and then built into our characters for the future
incarnations.
 
"The stay in Devachan is proportionate to the unfinished psychic
impulses originated in earth-life: those ...whose attractions were
preponderatingly material will be drawn back into rebirth by the force
of Tanha [desire for physical life]." M L p. 200

This AVERAGE period is said to be about 1500 years 

Another factor is that the quantity of human souls in incarnation now
and those which in the past may have been incarnating, is only an
estimate, a "statistic." Further, this estimate is based on very
little stable or lengthy observation. Hence it is not reliable. 300
years ago no one knows anything abut the total mass of human souls in
incarnation all around the world. Even today, there are many
differences between those estimates of population and the actual
numbers alive and using bodies.  

The validity of such statements is that they are offered with an
assumed "authority." And such authority has flaws, large ones. 

But there is far more to the intra-life states. Here are some
extracts from an article by H P B which bear careful study as they are
very helpful in securing a view of our own minds and its capacities.
Then in the after-death states, that which is assimilated to the
PERMANENT MIND (Higher Manas) is gone into.

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

LIFE AND DEATH --  


A conversation between a great eastern teacher, H. P. B., Colonel
Olcott -- reported by H. P. Blavatsky	[H. P.
Blavatsky Articles II 264, ... ]


	
P. 264	The Vedanta teaches us that the spirit of the spirit is
immortal, and that the human soul does not die in Parabrahman. 

P. 264	In the fundamental laws of the spiritual world there can be
no exceptions; but there are laws for the blind and laws for those who
see." 

P. 265	You speak about the “spirit of the spirit,” that is to say,
about the Atmā, confusing this “Spirit” with the “Soul of the Mortal,”
with [Lower] Manas. No doubt the Spirit is immortal, because being
without beginning it is without end; but it is not the Spirit that is
concerned in the present conversation. It is the human, self-conscious
soul. You confuse it with the former…

P. 265	…our teaching, which designates the period between two lives
as only temporary. Whether it is one year or a million, that this
entr'acte lasts between the two acts of the illusion life, the
posthumous state may be perfectly similar to the state of a man in a
very deep fainting-fit, without any breaking of the fundamental rules.


P. 265	But it is precisely Mandukya Upanishad…which teaches us
that between the Buddhi and the Manas, as between the Ishvara and
Prajna, there is no more difference in reality than between a forest
and its trees, between a lake and its waters.

P. 266	"You have no business to have any difficulties," said the
Master, "if you take the trouble not to confuse the abstract idea of
the whole with its casual change of form. 

Remember that if in talking about Buddhi we may say that it is
unconditionally immortal, we cannot say the same either about Manas,
or about Taijasi. [see Key, pp. 135-6, 159-60] 

Neither the former nor the latter have any existence separated from
the Divine Soul, because the one [Lower Manas] is an attribute of the
terrestrial personality, and the second [Taijasi -- the 'illumined'
with wisdom] is identically the same as the first, only with the
additional reflection in it of the Buddhi. [Manas Taijasi is the
Higher Manas]

In its turn, Buddhi would be an impersonal spirit without this element
[Manas], which it borrows from the Human Soul, and which conditions it
and makes out of it something which has the appearance of being
separate from the Universal Soul, during all the cycle of the man's
incarnations. [ see S D I 174-5, on the nature of the Monad --
Atma-Buddhi ] 

If you say therefore that Buddhi-Manas cannot die, and cannot lose
consciousness either in eternity or during the temporary periods of
suspension, you would be perfectly right; but to apply this axiom to
the qualities of Buddhi-Manas is the same as if you were arguing that
as the soul of Colonel Olcott is immortal, the red on his cheeks is
also immortal. And so it is evident you have mixed up the reality,
Sat, with its manifestation. 

[266] You have forgotten that united to the Manas only, the luminosity
of Taijasi becomes a question of time, as the immortality and the
posthumous consciousness of the terrestrial personality of the man
become conditional qualities, depending on the conditions and beliefs
created by itself during its lifetime. Karma acts unceasingly, and we
reap in the next world the fruit of that which we ourselves have sown
in this life." 

P. 266-7 Our philosophy teaches us…that the punishment reaches
the Ego only in its next incarnation, and that immediately after our
death we meet only the rewards for the sufferings of the terrestrial
life, sufferings that were not deserved by us. So, as you may see, the
whole of the punishment consists in the absence of reward, in the
complete loss of the consciousness of happiness and rest. [see Key, p.
161]



UNMERITED SUFFERING	[compensation under Karma]


P. 267	Karma is the child of the terrestrial Ego, the fruit of the
acts of his visible personality, even of the thoughts and intentions
of the spiritual I. But at the same time it is a tender mother, who
heals the wounds given in the preceding life before striking this Ego
and giving him new ones. In the life of a mortal there is no mishap or
sorrow which is not a fruit and direct consequence of a sin committed
in his preceding incarnation; but not having preserved the slightest
recollection of it in his present life, and not feeling himself
guilty, and therefore suffering unjustly, the man deserves consolation
and full rest on the other side of the grave. 

For our spiritual Ego Death is always a redeemer and a friend. It is
either the peaceful sleep of a baby, or a sleep full of blissful
dreams and reveries." [see Key, pp. 161-2]

P. 268	Sleep is a general and unchangeable law for man as well as
for every other terrestrial creature, but there are various sleeps and
still more various dreams. 



ASSIMILATION OF SPIRITUAL SKANDHAS [in Devachan]


P 269	Without the previous interior consciousness and the belief
in the immortality of the soul, the soul cannot become Buddhi Taijasi.
[see Key, pp. 159, 164] It will remain Manas. 

But FOR THE MANAS ALONE THERE IS NO IMMORTALITY. 

IN ORDER TO LIVE A CONSCIOUS LIFE IN THE WORLD ON THE OTHER SIDE OF
THE GRAVE, THE MAN MUST HAVE ACQUIRED BELIEF IN THAT WORLD, IN THIS
TERRESTRIAL LIFE. 

These are the two aphorisms of the Occult Science, on which is
constructed all our Philosophy in respect to the posthumous
consciousness and immortality of the Soul. Sūtrātmā [Thread Soul --
the Higher Manas] gets only what it deserves.

P269 fn	In the Vedānta, Buddhi, in its combinations with the
moral qualities, consciousness, and the notions of the personalities
in which it was incarnated, is called Sūtrātmā, which literally means
the "thread soul,"[Higher Manas] because a whole long row of human
lives is strung on this thread like the pearls of a necklace. The
Manas must become Taijasi [Higher Manas] in order to reach and to see
itself in eternity, when united to Sūtrātmā. But often, owing to sin
[Kama] and associations with the purely terrestrial reason [Lower
Manas], this very luminosity disappears completely.

P. 269	After the destruction of the body there begins for the
Sūtrātmā [see Key, pp. 163, 167-170] either a period of full
awakening, or a chaotic sleep, or a sleep without reveries or dreams.
Following your physiologists who found the causality of dreams in the
unconscious preparation for them. in the waking state, why should not
we acknowledge the same with respect to the posthumous dreams? 

P. 269	…DEATH IS SLEEP. 

After death, there begins before our spiritual eyes a representation
of a programme that was learned by heart by us in our lifetime, and
was sometimes invented by us, the practical realization of our true
beliefs, or of illusions created by ourselves. These are the
posthumous fruit of the tree of life. 

Of course the belief or disbelief in the fact of conscious immortality
cannot influence the unconditioned actuality of the fact itself once
it exists. But the belief or disbelief of separate personalities
cannot but condition the influence of this fact in its effect on such
personalities. Now I hope you understand." [see Key, pp. 157-171] 

P. 269 fn	Without the full assimilation with the Divine Soul
[MONAD -- ATMA-BUDDHI], the terrestrial soul, or [Lower] Manas, cannot
live in eternity a conscious life. It will become Buddhi-Taijasi, or
Buddhi-Manas, only in case its general tendencies during its lifetime
lead it towards the spiritual world. 

Then full of the essence and penetrated by the light of its Divine
Soul [MONAD -- ATMA-BUDDHI], the Manas will disappear in Buddhi, will
assimilate itself with Buddhi, still preserving a spiritual
consciousness of its terrestrial personality; otherwise Manas, that is
to say, the human mind, founded on the five physical senses, our
terrestrial or our personal soul, will be plunged into a deep sleep
without awakening, without dreams, without consciousness, till a new
reincarnation. [In this article Sūtrātmā is used for the principle
later called the Higher Manas, and Manas for that later called the
Lower Manas, or Kama-Manas.--EDS.]

P. 270	…the Vedāntins, acknowledging two kinds of conscious
existence, the terrestrial and the spiritual, point only to the latter
as an undoubted actuality. As to the terrestrial life, owing to its
changeability and shortness, it is nothing but an illusion of our
senses. 

OUR LIFE IN THE SPIRITUAL SPHERES MUST BE THOUGHT AN ACTUALITY BECAUSE
IT IS THERE THAT LIVES OUR ENDLESS, NEVER-CHANGING IMMORTAL I, THE
SŪTRĀTMĀ. 

Whereas in every new incarnation it clothes itself in a perfectly
different personality, a temporary and short-lived one, in which
everything except its spiritual prototype is doomed to traceless
destruction.

P. 270	Is it possible that my personality, my terrestrial
conscious I [Lower Manas], is to perish tracelessly?" "According to
our teachings, not only is it to perish, but it must perish in all its
fullness, except this principle in it [Higher Manas] which, united to
Buddhi, has become purely spiritual and now forms an inseparable
whole.
[se Key, pp. 176, 184-5]

P. 270	…in the case of a hardened Materialist it may happen that
neither consciously nor unconsciously has anything of its personal I
ever penetrated into Buddhi. The latter will not take away into
eternity any atom of such a terrestrial personality. YOUR SPIRITUAL I
IS IMMORTAL, but from your present personality it will carry away only
that which has deserved immortality, that is to say only the aroma of
the flowers mowed down by death." [see Key, p. 157-70]

P. 270	Your real I is not, as you ought to know yourself, your
body that now sits before me, nor your Manas Sūtrātmā, [Higher Manas]
but your Sūtrātmā -Buddhi." 

P. 271	THE SPIRITUAL EGO OF THE MAN MOVES IN ETERNITY LIKE A
PENDULUM BETWEEN THE HOURS OF LIFE AND DEATH, but if these hours, the
periods of life terrestrial and life posthumous, are limited in their
continuation, and even the very number of such breaks in eternity
between sleep and waking, between illusion and reality, have their
beginning as well as their end, the spiritual Pilgrim himself is
eternal. 

Therefore the hours of his posthumous life, when unveiled he stands
face to face with truth and the short-lived mirages of his terrestrial
existences are far from him, compose or make up, in our ideas, the
only reality. 

Such breaks, in spite of the fact that they are finite, do double
service to the Sūtrātmā [Higher Manas], which, perfecting itself
constantly, follows without vacillation, though very slowly, the road
leading to its last transformation, when, reaching its aim at last, it
becomes a Divine Being. [see Voice, pp 76-79]

P. 271	They not only contribute to the reaching of this goal, but
without these finite breaks Sūtrātmā-Buddhi could never reach it. 

Sūtrātmā [the thread-sou: Higher manas] is the actor, and its numerous
and different incarnations are the actor's parts. I suppose you would
not apply to these parts, and so much the less to their costumes, the
term of personality. 

Like an actor the soul is bound to play, during the cycle of births up
to the very threshold of Paranirvāna, many such parts, which often are
disagreeable to it, but like a bee, collecting its honey from every
flower, and leaving the rest to feed the worms of the earth, our
spiritual individuality, the Sūtrātmā, collecting only the nectar of
moral qualities and consciousness from every terrestrial personality
in which it has to clothe itself, forced by Karma, unites at last all
these qualities in one, having then become a perfect being, a Dhyān
Chohan. 

So much the worse for such terrestrial personalities from whom it
could not gather anything. Of course, such personalities cannot
outlive consciously their terrestrial existence."	[see Key, pp.
131, 168]

P. 271-2 What I mean is that immortality does not cover the
non-existing; for everything that exists in Sat, [Absoluteness] or
has its origin in Sat, immortality as well as infinity, are
unconditioned. 

Mulaprakriti [Root-Matter] is the reverse of Parabrahman, but they are
both one and the same. 

THE VERY ESSENCE OF ALL THIS, THAT IS TO SAY, SPIRIT, FORCE AND
MATTER, HAVE NEITHER END NOR BEGINNING, BUT THE SHAPE ACQUIRED BY THIS
TRIPLE UNITY DURING ITS INCARNATIONS, THEIR EXTERIOR SO TO SPEAK, IS
NOTHING BUT A MERE ILLUSION OF PERSONAL CONCEPTIONS. 

This is why we call the posthumous life the only reality, and the
terrestrial one, including the personality itself, only imaginary." 

P. 272	Sūtrātmā [Higher Manas] is sure to seize the smallest
opportunity of using the spiritual qualities in each of its
incarnations. 

P. 272-3 When travelling in a railway train you may fall asleep and
sleep all the time, while the train stops at many stations; but surely
there will be a station where you will awake, and the aim of your
journey will be reached in full consciousness. 

P. 272	…[It is a ] comparison of death to sleep, but remember, the
most ordinary of mortals knows three different kinds of
sleep--dreamless sleep, a sleep with vague chaotic dreams, and at last
a sleep with dreams so very vivid and clear that for the time being
they become a perfect reality for the sleeper….exactly the analogous
case happens to the soul freed from its body.  

After their parting there begins for the soul, according to its
deserts, and chiefly to its faith, either a perfectly conscious life,
a life of semi-consciousness, or a dreamless sleep which is equal to
the state of non-being. 

P. 273	A bad man, or simply a great egotist, who adds to his full
disbelief a perfect indifference to his fellow beings, must
unquestionably leave his personality for ever at the threshold of
death. He has no means of linking himself to the Sūtrātmā, and the
connection between them is broken for ever with his last sigh  

P. 273	but…a Materialist…will sleep only one station. There will be a
time when he will recognize himself in eternity, and will be sorry he
has lost a single day of the life eternal…

Take a comparison of eternity with a single life of a man, which is
composed of so many days, weeks, months, and years. If a man has
preserved a good memory in his old age he may easily recall every
important day or year of his past life, but even in case he has
forgotten some of them, is not his personality one and the same
through all his life? For the Ego every separate life is what every
separate day is in the life of a man." 

P. 273	…with our accepted views of material life the words 'live'
and 'exist' are not applicable to the purely subjective condition
after death; and were they employed in our Philosophy without a rigid
definition of their meanings, the Vedāntins would soon arrive at the
ideas which are common in our times…the life on the other side of the
grave is the land where there are no tears, no sighs, where there is
neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and where the just realize
their full perfection." 
 
============================

Best wishes, 

Dallas
 

-----Original Message-----
From: mary w
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 11:46 AM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: study digest: June 12, 2004

Hi ...


I used to view reincarnation in terms of linear evolution. 
As I lived with that notion for a number of years it made less and
less
sense to me. Now I view the process more like the development of an
embryo, which begins with a single zygote and develops into a
seemingly
miraculous group of cells. The past life memories some people have so
clearly can occur as a result of our complex connection to a universal
whole - and may not be derived from a purely linear connection.

In The THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY Mme. Blavatsky describes the "Monad" as:
"The Unity, the ONE; but in Occultism it often means the unified
triad,
Atma-Buddhi-Mannas, 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."

Recently I was studying the current scientific data on global warming
and
noticed that (within the limited sphere of scientific evidence), there
are
far more people on the planet today than have existed in all previous
centuries combined. A purely linear approach to reincarnation seems
limited in view of these findings.

Hope this helps somehow! Please write more.

---
Distributed by Reed Carson P.O. Box 160 Windham NY 12496 USA
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