Theos-Talk Archives (July 2004 Message tt00046)

June 2 2003

RE: "PERMANENT ASTRAL"

Dear Friend:



These further references might prove of use to you on this subject.  

I think they make clear the problems related to its development in a
disciple of practical THEOSOPHICAL teachings.


Best wishes,

Dallas

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

MAYAVI-RUPA - PERMANENT ASTRAL
				

By inner man I do not mean the higher self-the Ishwara before spoken of, but
that part of us which is called soul, or astral man, or vehicle, and so on.
All these terms are subject to correction, and should not be held rigidly to
the meanings given by various writers. Let us premise, first, the body now
visible; second, the inner man -- not the spirit; and third, the spirit
itself.


ASTRAL MAN and MAYAVI RUPA

Now while it is quite true that the second -- or inner man -- has latent all
the powers and peculiarities ascribed to the astral body, it is equally true
that those powers are, in the generality of persons, still latent or only
very partially developed.

This inner being is, so to say, inextricably entangled in the body, cell for
cell and fibre for fibre. He exists in the body somewhat in the way the
fibre of the mango fruit exists in the mango. In that fruit we have the
inside nut with thousands of fine fibres spreading out from it through the
yellow pulp around. And as you eat it, there is great difficulty in
distinguishing the pulp from the fibre. So that the inner being of which we
are speaking cannot do much when away from his body, and is always
influenced by it.

It is not therefore easy to leave the body at will and roam about in the
double. The stories we hear of this as being so easily done may be put down
to strong imagination, vanity, or other causes. One great cause for error in
respect to these doubles is that a clairvoyant is quite likely to mistake a
mere picture of the person's thought for the person himself.

In fact, among occultists who know the truth, the stepping out of the body
at will and moving about the world is regarded as a most difficult feat, and
for the reasons above hinted at. Inasmuch as the person is so interwoven
with his body, it is absolutely necessary, before he can take his astral
form about the country, for him to first carefully extract it, fibre by
fibre, from the surrounding pulp of blood, bones, mucous, bile, skin, and
flesh. Is this easy? It is neither easy nor quick of accomplishment, nor all
done at one operation. It has to be the result of years of careful training
and numerous experiments.

And it cannot be consciously done until the inner man has developed and
cohered into something more than irresponsible and quivering jelly. This
development and coherence are gained by perfecting the power of
concentration.

Nor is it true, as the matter has been presented to me by experiment and
teaching, that even in our sleep we go rushing about the country seeing our
friends and enemies or tasting earthly joys at distant points. In all cases
where the man has acquired some amount of concentration, it is quite
possible that the sleeping body is deserted altogether, but such cases are
as yet not in the majority.

Most of us remain quite close to our slumbering forms. It is not necessary
for us to go away in order to experience the different states of
consciousness which is the privilege of every man, but we do not go away
over miles of country until we are able, and we cannot be able until the
necessary ethereal body has been acquired and has learned how to use its
powers.


ASTRAL SENSES and POWERS


Now, this ethereal body has its own organs which are the essence or real
basis of the senses described by men. The outer eye is only the instrument
by which the real power of sight experiences that which relates to sight;
the ear has its inner master - the power of hearing, and so on with every
organ.

These real powers within flow from the spirit to which we referred at the
beginning of this paper. That spirit approaches the objects of sense by
presiding over the different organs of sense. And whenever it withdraws
itself the organs cannot be used. As when a sleep--walker moves about with
open eyes which do not see anything, although objects are there and the
different parts of the eye are perfectly normal and uninjured.

Ordinarily there is no demarcation to be observed between these inner organs
and the outer; the inner ear is found to be too closely interknit with the
outer to be distinguished apart. But when concentration has begun, the
different inner organs begin to awake, as it were, and to separate
themselves from the chains of their bodily counterparts. 

Thus the man begins to duplicate his powers. His bodily organs are not
injured, but remain for use upon the plane to which they belong, and he is
acquiring another set which he can use apart from the others in the plane of
nature peculiarly theirs.

We find here and there cases where certain parts of this inner body have
been by some means developed beyond the rest. Sometimes the inner head alone
is developed, and we have one who can see or hear clairvoyantly or
clairaudiently; again, only a hand is developed apart from the rest, all the
other being nebulous and wavering. It may be a right hand, and it will
enable the owner to have certain experiences that belong to the plane of
nature to which the right hand belongs, say the positive side of touch and
feeling.

But in these abnormal cases there are always wanting the results of
concentration. They have merely protruded one portion, just as a lobster
extrudes his eye on the end of the structure which carries it. Or take one
who has thus curiously developed one of the inner eyes, say the left. 

This has a relation to a plane of nature quite different from that
appertaining to the hand, and the results in experience are just as diverse.
He will be a clairvoyant of a certain order, only able to recognize that
which relates to his one-sided development, and completely ignorant of many
other qualities inherent in the thing seen or felt, because the proper
organs needed to perceive them have had no development. He will be like a
two-dimensional being who cannot possibly know that which three-dimensional
beings know, or like ourselves as compared with four-dimensional entities.

In the course of the growth of this ethereal body several things are to be
observed. 

It begins by having a cloudy, wavering appearance, with certain centres of
energy caused by the incipiency of organs that correspond to the brain,
heart, lungs, spleen, liver, and so on. It follows the same course of
development as a solar system, and is, in fact, governed and influenced by
the very solar system to which the world belongs on which the being may be
incarnate. With us it is governed by our own solar orb. If the practice of
concentration be kept up, this cloudy mass begins to gain coherence and to
shape itself into a body with different organs. As they grow they must be
used. Essays are to be made with them, trials, experiments. In fact, just as
a child must creep before it can walk, and must learn walking before it can
run, so this ethereal man must do the same. But as the child can see and
hear much farther than it can creep or walk, so this being usually begins to
see and to hear before it can leave the vicinity of the body on any lengthy
journey.


DESTRUCTION of the MAYAVI RUPA 

Certain hindrances then begin to manifest themselves which, when properly
understood by us, will give us good substantial reasons for the practicing
of the several virtues enjoined in holy books and naturally included under
the term of Universal Brotherhood.   


ANGER

One is that sometimes it is seen that this nebulous forming body is
violently shaken, or pulled apart, or burst into fragments that at once have
a tendency to fly back into the body and take on the same entanglement that
we spoke of at first. This is caused by anger, and this is why the sages all
dwell upon the need of calmness. When the student allows anger to arise, the
influence of it is at once felt by the ethereal body, and manifests itself
in an uncontrollable trembling which begins at the centre and violently
pulls apart the hitherto coherent particles. If allowed to go on it will
disintegrate the whole mass, which will then reassume its natural place in
the body. The effect following this is, that a long time has to elapse
before the ethereal body can be again created. And each time this happens
the result is the same. Nor does it make any difference what the cause for
the anger may be. There is no such thing as having what is called "righteous
anger" in this study and escaping these inevitable consequences. Whether
your "rights" have been unjustly and flagrantly invaded or not does not
matter. The anger is a force that will work itself out in its appointed way.
Therefore anger must be strictly avoided, and it cannot be avoided unless
charity and love- absolute toleration-are cultivated.


ENVY

But anger may be absent and yet still another thing happen. The ethereal
form may have assumed quite a coherence and definiteness. But it is observed
that, instead of being pure and clear and fresh, it begins to take on a
cloudy and disagreeable color, the precursor of putrefaction, which invades
every part and by its effects precludes any further progress, and at last
reacts upon the student so that anger again manifests itself. This is the
effect of envy. Envy is not a mere trifle that produces no physical result.
It has a powerful action, as strong in its own field as that of anger. It
not only hinders the further development, but attracts to the student's
vicinity thousands of malevolent beings of all classes that precipitate
themselves upon him and wake up or bring on every evil passion. Envy,
therefore, must be extirpated, and it cannot be got rid of as long as the
personal idea is allowed to remain in us.


VANITY

Another effect is produced on this ethereal body by vanity. Vanity
represents the great illusion of nature. It brings up before the soul all
sorts of erroneous or evil pictures, or both, and drags the judgment so away
that once more anger or envy will enter, or such course be pursued that
violent destruction by outside causes falls upon the being. As in one case
related to me. The man had made considerable progress, but at last allowed
vanity to rule. This was followed by the presentation to his inner sight of
most extraordinary images and ideas, which in their turn so affected him
that he attracted to his sphere hordes of elementals seldom known to
students and quite indescribable in English. These at last, as is their
nature, laid siege to him, and one day produced all about the plane of his
astral body an effect similar in some respects to that which follows an
explosion of the most powerful explosive known to science. The consequence
was, his ethereal form was so suddenly fractured that by repercussion the
whole nature of the man was altered, and he soon died in a madhouse after
having committed the most awful excesses.

And vanity cannot be avoided except by studiously cultivating that
selflessness and poverty of heart advised as well by Jesus of Nazareth as by
Buddha.


FEAR

Another hindrance is fear. This is not, however, the worst of all, and is
one that will disappear by means of knowledge, for fear is always the son of
ignorance. Its effect on the ethereal form is to shrivel it up, or coagulate
and contract it. But as knowledge increases, that contraction abates,
permitting the person to expand. Fear is the same thing as frigidity on the
earth, and always proceeds by the process of freezing.


SUCCESS in CONCENTRATION


Success in the culture of concentration is not for him who sporadically
attempts it. It is a thing that flows from "a firm position assumed with
regard to the end in view, and unremittingly kept up." .students are too apt
to think that success in occultism can be reached as one attains success in
school or college, by reading and learning printed words. 

A complete knowledge of all that was ever written upon concentration will
confer no power in the practice of that about which I treat. Mere book
knowledge is derided in this school as much as it is by the clodhopper; not
that I think book knowledge is to be avoided, but that sort of acquisition
without the concentration is as useless as faith without works. It is called
in some places, I believe, "mere eye-knowledge." Such indeed it is; and such
is the sort of culture most respected in these degenerate times.



RAJA YOGA, VIRTUE and ALTRUISM


In starting these papers the true practice was called Raj Yoga. It discards
those physical motions, postures, and recipes relating solely to the present
personality, and directs the student to virtue and altruism as the bases
from which to start. This is more often rejected than accepted. 


VIRTUE AS A CONTINUOUS PRACTICE


So much has been said during the last 1800 years about Rosicrucians,
Egyptian Adepts, Secret Masters, Kaballah, and wonderful magical books, that
students without a guide, attracted to these subjects, ask for information
and seek in vain for the entrance to the temple of the learning they crave,
because they say that virtue's rules are meant for babes and Sunday-schools,
but not for them. 

And, in consequence, we find hundreds of books in all the languages of
Europe dealing with rites, ceremonies, invocations, and other obscurities
that will lead to nothing but loss of time and money. But few of these
authors had anything save "mere eye-knowledge." 'Tis true they have
sometimes a reputation, but it is only that accorded to an ignoramus by
those who are more ignorant.

The so-called great man, knowing how fatal to reputation it would be to tell
how really small is his practical knowledge, prates about "projections and
elementals," "philosopher's stone and elixir," but discreetly keeps from his
readers the paucity of his acquirements and the insecurity of his own mental
state. 

Let the seeker know, once for all, that the virtues cannot be discarded nor
ignored; they must be made a part of our life, and their philosophical basis
must be understood.

But it may be asked, if in the culture of concentration we will succeed
alone by the practice of virtue. The answer is No, not in this life, but
perhaps one day in a later life. The life of virtue accumulates much merit;
that merit will at some time cause one to be born in a wise family where the
real practice of concentration may perchance begin; or it may cause one to
be born in a family of devotees or those far advanced on the Path, as said
in Bhagavad-Gita. But such a birth as this, says Krishna, is difficult to
obtain; hence the virtues alone will not always lead in short space to our
object.  

We must make up our minds to a life of constant work upon this line. 

The lazy ones or they who ask for pleasure may as well give it up at the
threshold and be content with the pleasant paths marked out for those who
"fear God and honor the King." Immense fields of investigation and
experiment have to be traversed; dangers unthought of and forces unknown are
to be met; and all must be overcome, for in this battle there is no quarter
asked or given. 

Great stores of knowledge must be found and seized. The kingdom of heaven is
not to be had for the asking; it must be taken by violence. And the only way
in which we can gain the will and the power to thus seize and hold is by
acquiring the virtues on the one hand, and minutely understanding ourselves
on the other.

Some day we will begin to see why not one passing thought may be ignored,
not one flitting impression missed. This we can perceive is no simple task.
It is a gigantic work.

Did you ever reflect that the mere passing sight of a picture, or a single
word instantly lost in the rush of the world, may be basis for a dream that
will poison the night and react upon the brain next day. Each one must be
examined. If you have not noticed it, then when you awake next day you have
to go back in memory over every word and circumstance of the preceding day,
seeking, like the astronomer through space, for the lost one. And,
similarly, without such a special reason, you must learn to be able to go
thus backward into your days so as to go over carefully and in detail all
that happened, all that you permitted to pass through the brain. Is this an
easy matter?


EVOCATION

But let us for a moment return to the sham adepts, the reputed Masters,
whether they were well-intentioned or the reverse. Take Eliphas Levi, who
wrote so many good things, and whose books contain such masses of mysterious
hints. Out of his own mouth he convicts himself. With great show he tells of
the raising of the shade of Apollonius. 

Weeks beforehand all sorts of preparations had to be made, and on the
momentous night absurd necromantic performances were gone through. What was
the result? Why only that the so-called shade appeared for a few moments,
and Levi says they never attempted it again. Any good medium of these days
could call up the shade of Apollonius without preparation, and if Levi were
an Adept he could have seen the dead quite as easily as he turned to his
picture in a book. 

By these sporadic attempts and outside preparations, nothing is really
gained but harm to those who thus indulge. And the foolish dabbling by
American theosophists with practices of the Yogis of India that are not
one-eighth understood and which in themselves are inadequate, will lead to
much worse results than the apocryphal attempt recorded by Eliphas Levi.

As we have to deal with the Western mind now ours, all unused as it is to
these things and over-burdened with false training and falser logic, we must
begin where we are, we must examine our present possessions and grow to know
our own present powers and mental machinery. This done, we may proceed to
see ourselves in the way that shall bring about the best result.


RAMATIRTHA	[ W Q JUDGE ],  

extracts from THE CULTURE OF CONCENTRATION

PATH, February, 1890 W Q J Articles I, pp. 319-29

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

DUALITY OF THE ASTRAL


"The spiral movement is the double movement of the astral light, one spiral
inside the other. The diastole and systole of the heart are caused by that
double movement of the Akasa..."	WQJ LETTERS p. 87


"...the ASTRAL LIGHT exists in all places and interpenetrates
everything...to be able to see as he sees in the light is not all of the
seeing thus. That is, there are many sorts of such sight, e.g., he may see
now certain airy shapes and yet not see many others which at the same time
are as really present there as those he now sees. So it would seem that
there are "layers" or differences of states in the astral light...elementals
are constantly moving in the astral light--that is, everywhere. They...show
pictures to him who looks, and the pictures they show will depend on great
part upon the seer's thoughts, motives and development. These differences
are very numerous...pride must be eliminated. So one must be careful of
becoming even inwardly vain of being able to see any such things; for, if
that happens, it will follow that the one limited plane in which one may be
a seer will be accepted as the whole. That, then, will be falsity. But if
recognized as delusive, because partial, then it remains true--so far as it
goes. All true things must be total, and all totalities exist at once, each
in all...No our bodies, and all "false I" powers up to the individual soul,
are "partial forms," in common with the energic centers in astral light. So
it must follow that, no matter how much we and they participate in each
other, the resulting view of the one Truth is partial in its nature because
the two partial forms mingling together do not produce totality. But it
intoxicates..."
WQJ LETTERS 79


"Everything has its double on other planes, the fact being that nothing
visible in matter or space could be produced without such a basis...the
reason why people are seen on the astral plane with clothes of various cuts
and color, is because of the thought and desire of the person, which clothes
him thus..."	WQJ LETTERS 96



CHELASHIP AND THE ASTRAL PLANE AND NATURE


"Experiment and induction will confer a great deal of knowledge about the
inferior nature...but before knowing the occult, hidden, intangible realms
and forces--often called spiritual, but not so in fact--the inner astral
senses and powers have to be developed and used. This development is not to
be forced, as one would construct a machine for performing some operation,
but will come in its own time as all our senses and powers have come. It is
true that a good many are trying to force the process, but at last they will
discover that human evolution is universal and not particular; one man
cannot go very far beyond his race before the time."	GITA NOTES
p. 134


"A student of occultism after a while gets into what we may call a psychic
whirl, or a vortex of occultism. At first he is affected by the feelings
and influence of those about him. That begins to be pushed off and he
passes in to the whirl caused by the mighty effort of his Higher Self to
make him remember his past lives. Then those past lives affect him. They
become like clouds throwing shadows on his path...They begin to affect his
impulse to action in many various ways. To-day his has vague calling
longings to do something, and critically regarding him self, he cannot see
in this life any cause. It is the bugle note of a past life blown almost in
his face. It startles him; it may throw him down...

He gets, too, a power and a choice. If all his previous past lives were
full of good, then irresistible is the force for his benefit. But all alike
marshal up in front, and he hastens their coming by his effort. Into this
vortex about him others are drawn, and their germs for good or ill ripen
with activity. This is a phase of the operation of Karmic stamina...

Do you wonder that in the case of those who rush unprepared into the "circle
of ascetics" and before the time is the ripe moment, insanity sometimes
results ? But then that insanity is their safety for the next life, or for
their return to sanity."	WQJ LETTERS 15


"...pushing their demands upon the law...For this at once heightens their
magnetic vibrations, their evolutionary ratio; their flame burns more
brilliantly, and attracts all kinds of shapes and influences within its
radius, so that the fire is hot about him. And not for him alone; other
lives coming in contact with him feel this fierce energy; they develop more
rapidly, and, if they have a false or a weak place in their nature, it is
soon discovered and overthrows them for a time. This is the danger of
coming into "the circle of ascetics;" a man must be strong indeed who thus
thrusts himself in..."	WQJ LETTERS 50


"...you are not body, brain, or astral man, but that you are THAT, and
"THAT" is the Supreme Soul.	WQJ LETTERS 116


[ see ELIXIR OF LIFE 5 YEARS OF THEOSOPHY P. 1]

	

PERSONALITY AND THE ASTRAL PLANE -- OCCULTISM, ITS EFFECTS 


" Every student of Occultism...arouses two sets of forces...the other
opponents are far more difficult to meet, because they have their camp and
base of action upon the Astral and other hidden planes; they are all his
lower tendencies and faculties, that up to this time have been in the sole
service of his material life. By the mere force of moral gravity they fly
to the other side...and struggle against him. They have more efficiency in
producing despondency than anything else."	GITA NOTES, p. 18-19	(see
L on the P, p. 42)


"This place of dejection...is also the same thing as is mentioned in LIGHT
ON THE PATH as the silence after the storm...[ pp. 41-2, 54-6,] in the
astral world it is just the same. When one enters there for the first time,
a great silence falls, during which the regulated soul is imbibing its
surroundings and becoming accustomed to them. It says nothing but waits
quietly until it has become in vibration precisely the same as the plane in
which it is; when that is accomplished then it can speak properly, make
itself understood, and likewise understand. But the unregulated soul flied
to that plane of the astral world in a disturbed state, hurries to speak
before it is able to do so intelligibly and as a consequence is not
understood, while it increases its own confusion and makes it less likely
that it will soon come to understand.

In the T S, as well as out of it, we can see the same thing. People are
attracted to the astral plane; they hear of its wonders and astonishments
and like a child with a new toy in sight they hurry to grasp it. They
refuse to learn its philosophy because that seems dry and difficult. So
they plunge in, and as M. Joti said...they then "swim in it and cut capers
like a boy in a pool of water." ... But for the earnest student and true
disciple, the matter is serious. He has vowed to have the truth at whatever
cost..."	GITA NOTES,. p. 32-4

	
"The ASTRAL BODY is made up of matter of a very fine texture...and has a
great tensile strength, so that it changes but little during a
lifetime...[it] possesses [an] immense strength, and at the same time
possesses an elasticity permitting its extension to a considerable distance.
It is flexible, plastic, extensible and strong. The matter of which it is
composed is electrical and magnetic in its essence...Having been through a
vast period of evolution and undergone purifying processes of an
incalculable number, its nature has been refined to a degree far beyond the
gross physical elements we see and touch with the physical eye and hand.

The astral body is the guiding model for the physical one, and all the other
kingdoms have the same astral model. Vegetables, minerals, and animals have
the ethereal double, that this theory is the only one which will answer the
questions how it is that the seed produces its own kind and all sentient
beings bring forth their like."
OCEAN 39-40

	
	

REFERENCES


Astral Travel	WQJ ART I 324

Astral Organs	WQJ ART I 325-6

Effect of Passions and Vice on "Permanent Astral"    	
WQJ ART I 526-8, 462,

Effect of Hypnosis and Insanity	WQJ ART I 431, 556-7

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

Also, please consider this:

			
Re TWO EGOS IN MAN ( Higher and Lower Manas) 


Try and read what is available in SD II 167 on this point  

It may appear puzzling, but if we consider the immortality of Man as a MONAD
(ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS) and, that this is imperishable and immortal, then we may
see that our present "mind" (the "Personality") is only a continually
changing and passing phase -- as we, the truly IMMORTAL BEING -- the
"HIGHER SELF or Atma" pass through life after life aiming always at making
of each successive life an embodiment of increasing perfection and amity --
towards the final GOAL. of TOTAL PERFECTION.  

There, we become "one with the Universe" and yet, we do not loose our
identity. This is WISDOM COMPLETE.  

But we need to continually bear in mind the one true fact. As GOD is
everywhere, IT is inside us as well. We need to allow IT to express itself
as all the great Rishis and Prophets of the past and present do. In them we
sense that the HIGHER SELF is, present and active. 

And why not ourselves also? We can TRY,

Isn't GOD omnipresent -- that is IN EVERYTHING ? -- then why not in us also?
If we are "gods in the making," then we have bright prospects ahead of us.  

If we fear "Satan," or the "devil" is it not our own ignorance, and or
limited vision of things (after all -- everything we acquire during this
life we abandon at death !) ,selfishness and desire for isolation, to own
and to hold, and pleasure through "excitement," that tempts and defeats our
higher more virtuous, brotherly aspirations? Shall we allow this to continue
and waste our opportunities? 

There are other references to be consulted:

In the SECRET DOCTRINE (TWO EGOS IN MAN: II 167)  

in addition look at: --


S D Vol. I 106, 150fn, 180, 184, 188fn, 210, 225, 247, 275, 380, 288fn,
421, 539fn, 609, 638-9, 


S D Vol. II	42, 79-80, 93-4, 103 top, 109, 132-5, 163, 171, 176fn,
184-5, 228
230, 234, 241, 246, 254-5, 272, 275, 282-7, 507, 615, 

What are true, lasting, and valuable possessions?  

Are they only ours, or are they shared with all truly wise men?  

Does one have to be "shabby" to be "wise?"  

Are so-called "Yogis" helpful? How do we know who is a true Yogi? Is it not
through the inspiration that they offer, and the logic they teach? 

Does true wisdom ever advertise? 

What are the use of wealth and possessions if we "can't take them with us?"

On the other hand, are not character, wisdom and knowledge, and the ability
to be of help to others, virtues that are immortal, and which demark a truly
benevolent personage? Who says we can't become that?

Without the concepts of eternal and just, strict LAW that rules everything,
and the immortality of the human Soul/Spirit [ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS] that makes
every human an ETERNAL PILGRIM, what have we that is basic and solid to rely
on?  

DO OUR RELIGIONS TEACH US TO THINK and to be self-reliant, or do they choose
to ask us to adopt unproved faith and blind belief ? -- and trust in nothing
that is logical? 

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


-----Original Message-----
From: Morlight
Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 5:51 PM
To: Dallas 
Subject: Re: [bn-study] RE: After-Death States



Dallas :

>June 27 2004
>
>
>Dear Friend  

>
>The "permanent astral" relates, as I understand it to the specialized
>group of "Monads of lesser experience" that accompany the Ego-Monad (
>ATMA-BUDDHI) of each one of us and form the basis for the physical
>forms we use.
>
>SNIP