Theos-Talk Archives (July 2004 Message tt00222)

July 17 2004

Dear K H

May I offer for consideration?

In such a matter does not the comparative positions imply a third, a
superior one which is able to see both and decide with impartiality ?

If there is in our Universe LAW, then selection would point to that which
harmonizes? Or am I wrong?

Interdependence is then perceived. It is the one all-inclusive nature of
evolution and of the ex-istence of all forms. It also pre-supposes that
each of such "forms" is energized by its own eternal Power -- a MONAD
(using the Theosophical definition).

The concept of "voidness" merely says that if one removes an object to
another position, the SPACE it occupied, as an ALWAYS EXISTENT, as a
constant, does not change as it is always there, whether occupied or not.

Our present day Science deals with the measurement of objective materials.
But there are substances that its physical plane instruments cannot yet
measure.  

Our minds however are not limit matter alone, so they transcend the self-
made limits of Science. They ask, for instance "Why" is this? Likewise,
there are forces and energies that are not based on "substance / matter."

Those who are self-limited to matter and forms, may speak of those as "Maya.
" And they would be right from their limited point of view. 

But this, it seems to me, then brings us to the Source of any "thing," any
"form." It is the pursuit by us using our minds of the ultimate cause. 

And that is what we only "see" of its existence is a deduction -- a mental
concept, nebulous though it may be, of the various kinds of effects it
imposes on substances that are at one or other of the seven stages of
development.

Dallas

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Allow me to quote from the SECRET DOCTRINE : ( I 327-333)


"To say this, after having defined it as the Unknown Deity, abstract,
impersonal, sexless, which must be placed at the root of every Cosmogony
and its subsequent evolution, is equivalent to saying nothing at all. It is
like attempting a transcendental equation of conditions for the true values
of a set, having in hand for deducing them only a number of unknown
quantities. 

Its place is found in the old primitive Symbolic charts, in which, as shown
in the text, it is represented by a boundless darkness, on the ground of
which appears the first central point in white ！ thus symbolising coeval
and co-eternal SPIRIT-MATTER making its appearance in the phenomenal world,
before its first differentiation. When "the one becomes two," it may then
be (328) referred to as Spirit and matter. 

To "Spirit" is referable every manifestation of consciousness, reflective
or direct, and of unconscious purposiveness (to adopt a modern expression
used in Western philosophy, so-called) as evidenced in the Vital Principle,
and Nature's submission to the majestic sequence of immutable law. "Matter"
must be regarded as objectivity in its purest abstraction ！ the self-
existing basis whose septenary manvantaric differentiations constitute the
objective reality underlying the phenomena of each phase of conscious
existence. 

During the period of Universal Pralaya, Cosmic Ideation is nonexistent; and
the variously differentiated states of Cosmic Substance are resolved back
again into the primary state of abstract potential objectivity. 

Manvantaric impulse commences with the re-awakening of Cosmic Ideation (the
"Universal Mind") concurrently with, and parallel to the primary emergence
of Cosmic Substance ！ the latter being the manvantaric vehicle of the
former ！ from its undifferentiated pralayic state. 

Then, absolute wisdom mirrors itself in its Ideation; which, by a
transcendental process, superior to and incomprehensible by human
Consciousness, results in Cosmic Energy (Fohat). 

Thrilling through the bosom of inert Substance, Fohat impels it to
activity, and guides its primary differentiations on all the Seven planes
of Cosmic Consciousness. 

There are thus Seven Protyles (as they are now called), while Aryan
antiquity called them the Seven Prakriti, or Natures, serving, severally,
as the relatively homogeneous basis, which in the course of the increasing
heterogeneity (in the evolution of the Universe) differentiate into the
marvellous complexity presented by phenomena on the planes of perception. 

The term "relatively" is used designedly, because the very existence of
such a process, resulting in the primary segregations of undifferentiated
Cosmic Substance into its septenary bases of evolution, compels us to
regard the protyle of each plane as only a mediate phase assumed by
Substance in its passage from abstract, into full objectivity. 

Cosmic Ideation is said to be non-existent during Pralayic periods, for the
simple reason that there is no one, and nothing, to perceive its effects.
There can be no manifestation of Consciousness, semi-consciousness, or even
"unconscious purposiveness," except through the (329) vehicle of matter;
that is to say, on this our plane, wherein human consciousness in its
normal state cannot soar beyond what is known as transcendental
metaphysics, it is only through some molecular aggregation or fabric that
Spirit wells up in a stream of individual or sub-conscious subjectivity. 

And as Matter existing apart from perception is a mere abstraction, both of
these aspects of the ABSOLUTE ！ Cosmic Substance and Cosmic Ideation ！
are mutually inter-dependent. In strict accuracy ！ to avoid confusion and
misconception ！ the term "Matter" ought to be applied to the aggregateof
objects of possible perception, and "Substance" to noumena; for inasmuch as
the phenomena of our plane are the creation of the perceiving Ego ！ the
modifications of its own subjectivity ！ all the "states of matter
representing the aggregate of perceived objects" can have but a relative
and purely phenomenal existence for the children of our plane. 

As the modern Idealists would say, the co-operation of Subject and Object
results in the Sense-object or phenomenon. But this does not necessarily
lead to the conclusion that it is the same on all other planes; that the co-
operation of the two on the planes of their septenary differentiation
results in a septenary aggregate of phenomena which are likewise non-
existent per se, though concrete realities for the Entities of whose
experience they form a part, in the same manner as the rocks and rivers
around us are real from the stand-point of a physicist, though unreal
illusions of sense from that of the metaphysician. 

It would be an error to say, or even conceive such a thing. From the stand-
point of the highest metaphysics, the whole Universe, gods included, is an
illusion; but the illusion of him who is in himself an illusion differs on
every plane of consciousness; and we have no more right to dogmatise about
the possible nature of the perceptive faculties of an Ego on, say, the
sixth plane, than we have to identify our perceptions with, or make them a
standard for, those of an ant, in its mode of consciousness. 

The pure object apart from consciousness* [* Cosmic Ideation focussed in a
principle or upadhi (basis) results as the consciousness of the individual
Ego. Its manifestation varies with the degree of upadhi, e.g., through that
known as Manas it wells up as Mind-Consciousness; through the more finely
differentiated fabric (sixth state of matter) of the Buddhi resting on the
experience of Manas as its basis ！ as a stream of spiritual INTUITION.]
is unknown to us, while living on the plane of our three-dimensional World;
as we know only the mental states it excites in the perceiving Ego. And, so
long as the contrast of Subject and Object endures ！ to wit, as long as we
enjoy our five senses and no more, and do not know how to divorce our all-
perceiving Ego (the Higher Self) from the thraldom of these senses ！ so
long will it be impossible for the personal Ego to break through the
barrier which separates it from a (330) knowledge of things in themselves
(or Substance). 

That Ego, progressing in an arc of ascending subjectivity, must exhaust the
experience of every plane. But not till the Unit is merged in the ALL,
whether on this or any other plane, and Subject and Object alike vanish in
the absolute negation of the Nirvanic State (negation, again, only from our
plane), is scaled that peak of Omniscience ！ the Knowledge of things-in-
themselves; and the solution of the yet more awful riddle approached,
before which even the highest Dhyan Chohan must bow in silence and
ignorance ！ the unspeakable mystery of that which is called by the
Vedantins, the PARABRAHMAM. 

Therefore, such being the case, all those who sought to give a name to the
incognizable Principle have simply degraded it. Even to speak of Cosmic
Ideation ！ save in its phenomenal aspect ！ is like trying to bottle up
primordial Chaos, or to put a printed label on ETERNITY. 

What, then, is the "primordial Substance," that mysterious object of which
Alchemy was ever talking, and which became the subject of philosophical
speculation in every age? 

What can it be finally, even in its phenomenal pre-differentiation? Even
that is ALL in manifested Nature and ！ nothing to our senses. It is
mentioned under various names in every Cosmogony, referred to in every
philosophy, and shown to be, to this day, the ever grasp-eluding PROTEUS in
Nature. We touch and do not feel it; we look at it without seeing it; we
breathe it and do not perceive it; we hear and smell it without the
smallest cognition that it is there; for it is in every molecule of that
which in our illusion and ignorance we regard as Matter in any of its
states, or conceive as a feeling, a thought, an emotion. . . . 

In short, it is the "upadhi," or vehicle, of every possible phenomenon,
whether physical, mental, or psychic. In the opening sentences of Genesis,
as in the Chaldean Cosmogony; in the Puranas of India, and in the Book of
the Dead of Egypt, it opens everywhere the cycle of manifestation. It is
termed "Chaos," and the face of the waters, incubated by the Spirit
proceeding from the Unknown, under whatever name. (See "Chaos, Theos,
Kosmos.") ... [Indian thought]

"From INTELLIGENCE (called MAHAT in the Puranas) associated with IGNORANCE
(Iswar, as a personal deity) attended by its projective power, in which the
quality of dulness (tamas, insensibility) predominates, proceeds Ether ！
from ether, air; from air, heat; from heat, water; and from water, earth
"with everything on it." "From THIS, from this same SELF, was the Ether
produced," says the Veda. ...(331) ..

The septenary gradation, and the innumerable subdivisions and differences,
made by the ancients between the powers of Ether collectively, from its
outward fringe of effects, with which our Science is so familiar, up to the
"Imponderable Substance," once admitted as the "Ether of Space," now about
to be rejected, has been ever a vexing riddle for every branch of
knowledge. 

The mythologists and symbologists of our day, confused by this
incomprehensible glorification, on the one hand, and degradation on the
other, of the same deified entity and in the same religious systems, are
often driven to the most ludicrous mistakes. ... (332) Anaxagoras of
Clazomenae, firmly believed that the spiritual prototypes of all things, as
well as their elements, were to be found in the boundless Ether where they
were generated, whence they evolved, and whither they returned ！ an Occult
teaching. 

It thus becomes clear that it is from Ether in its highest synthetic
aspect, once anthropomorphised, that sprung the first idea of a personal
creative deity. With the philosophical Hindus the elements are Tamas, i.e.,
"unenlightened by intellect, which they obscure." (333)

..."Primordial Chaos" and of the Root-Principle ... were connected in the
ancient philosophies with Akasa, wrongly translated ─ther, and also with
Maya (illusion) ！ of which Ishwara is the male aspect. We shall speak
further on of the intelligent "principle," or rather of the invisible
immaterial properties, in the visible and material elements, that "sprung
from the primordial Chaos." 

For, "What is the primordial Chaos but ─ther?" it is asked in "ISIS
UNVEILED." Not the modern Ether... but such as was known to the ancient
philosophers long before the time of Moses; but ─ther, with all its
mysterious and occult properties, containing in itself the germs of
universal creation. 

Upper ─ther or Akasa, is the celestial virgin and mother of every existing
form and being, from whose bosom, as soon as "incubated" by the Divine
Spirit, are called into existence Matter and Life, Force and Action. AEther
is the Aditi of the Hindus, and it is Akasa. Electricity, magnetism, heat,
light, and chemical action are so little understood even now that fresh
facts are constantly widening the range of our knowledge. Who knows where
ends the power of this protean giant ！ ─ther; or whence its mysterious
origin? Who, we mean, that denies the spirit that works in it, and evolves
out of it all visible forms? ..."

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

This is from SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. II, p. 23.....


"(b) This expression shows in plain language that the Spirit-Guardian of
our globe, which is the fourth in the chain, is subordinate to the chief
Spirit (or God) of the Seven Planetary Genii or Spirits. [see S D I 570-
575] 

As already explained, the ancients had, in their Kyriel of gods, seven
chief Mystery-gods, whose chief was, exoterically, the visible Sun, or the
eighth, and, esoterically, the second Logos, the Demiurge. The seven (who
have now become the "Seven Eyes of the Lord" in the Christian religion)
were the regents of the seven chief planets; but these were not - (23)
reckoned according to the enumeration devised later by people who had
forgotten, or who had an inadequate notion of, the real Mysteries, and
included neither the sun, the moon, nor the earth. 

The sun was the chief, exoterically, of the twelve great gods, or zodiacal
constellations; and, esoterically, the Messiah, the Christos (the subject
anointed by the Great BREATH, or the ONE) surrounded by his twelve
subordinate powers, also subordinate, in turn, to each of the seven
"Mystery-gods" of the planets. 

"The seven higher make the Seven Lhas create the world," states a
Commentary; which means that our Earth, leaving aside the rest, was created
or fashioned by terrestrial spirits, the "Regents" being simply the
supervisors. 

This is the first germ, the seed of that which grew later into the Tree of
Astrology and Astrolatry. 

The Higher ones were the Kosmocratores, the fabricators of our solar
system. This is borne out by all the ancient Cosmogonies...

Heaven's belt, the signs of the Zodiac (the Sacred animals), are as much
the Bne' Alhim (Sons of the Gods or the Elohim) as the Spirits of the
Earth; but they are prior to them. Soma and Sin, Isis and Diana, are all
lunar gods or goddesses, called the fathers and mothers of our Earth, which
is subordinate to them. But these, in their turn, are subordinate to their
"Fathers" and "Mothers" - the latter interchangeable and varying with each
nation - the gods and their planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn Bel,
Brihaspati, etc. 

(c) "His breath gave life to the seven," refers as much to the sun, who
gives life to the Planets, as to the "High One," the Spiritual Sun, who
gives life to the whole Kosmos. The astronomical and astrological keys
opening the gate leading to the mysteries of Theogony can be found only in
the later glossaries, which accompany the Stanzas. 

In the apocalyptic Slokas of the Archaic Records, the language is as
symbolical, if less mythical, than in the Puranas. Without the help of the
later commentaries, compiled by generations of adepts, [ see S D I 272-3]
it would be impossible to understand the meaning correctly. 

In the ancient Cosmogonies, the visible and the invisible worlds are the
double links of one and the same chain. 

As the invisible Logos, with its seven hierarchies (represented or
personified each by its chief angel or rector), form one POWER, the inner
and the invisible; so, in the world of Forms, the Sun and the seven chief
Planets constitute the visible and active potency; the latter "Hierarchy"
being, so to speak, the visible and objective Logos of the invisible and
(except in the lowest grades) ever-subjective angels. 

Thus - to anticipate a little by way of illustration - every Race in its
(24)
evolution is said to be born under the direct influence of one of the
Planets: Race the first, receiving its breath of life from the Sun, as will
be seen later on; while the third humanity - those who fell into
generation, or from androgynes became separate entities, one male and the
other female - are said to be under the direct influence of Venus, "the
little sun in which the solar orb stores his light."
 
The summation of the Stanzas in Book I. showed the genesis of Gods and men
taking rise in, and from, one and the same Point, which is the One
Universal, Immutable, Eternal, and absolute UNITY. In its primary
manifested aspect we have seen it become: 
(1) in the sphere of objectivity and Physics, Primordial Substance and
Force (centripetal and centrifugal, positive and negative, male and female,
etc., etc.); 

(2) in the world of Metaphysics, the SPIRIT OF THE UNIVERSE, or Cosmic
Ideation, called by some the LOGOS. 

This LOGOS is the apex of the Pythagorean triangle. When the triangle is
complete it becomes the Tetraktis, or the Triangle in the Square, and is
the dual symbol of the four-lettered Tetragrammaton in the manifested
Kosmos, and of its radical triple RAY in the unmanifested, or its noumenon. 

Put more metaphysically, the classification given here of Cosmic Ultimates,
is more one of convenience than of absolute philosophical accuracy. At the
commencement of a great Manvantara, Parabrahm manifests as Mulaprakriti and
then as the Logos. 

This Logos is equivalent to the "Unconscious Universal Mind," etc., of
Western Pantheists. It constitutes the Basis of the SUBJECT-side of
manifested Being, and is the source of all manifestations of individual
consciousness. 

Mulaprakriti [MAHABUDDHI] or Primordial Cosmic Substance, is the foundation
of the OBJECT-side of things - the basis of all objective evolution and
Cosmogenesis. Force, then, does not emerge with Primordial Substance from
Parabrahmic Latency. It is the transformation into energy of the supra-
conscious thought of the Logos, infused, so to speak, into the
objectivization of the latter out of potential latency in the One Reality. 

Hence spring the wondrous laws of matter: hence the "primal impress" so
vainly discussed by Bishop Temple. Force thus is not synchronous with the
first objectivization of Mulaprakriti. But as, apart from it, the latter is
absolutely and necessarily inert - a mere abstraction - it is unnecessary
to weave too fine a cobweb of subtleties as to the order of succession of
(25) the Cosmic Ultimates. Force succeeds Mulaprakriti; but, minus Force,
Mulaprakriti is for all practical intents and purposes non-existent.* 
S D II 23 

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

In metaphysics the Brahmanical and the Buddhist systems employ at time,
different terms but have identical ideas as I see them. 

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Katinka Hesselink [mailto:mail@k...] 
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 10:05 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Theos-World Emptiness

Hi,

Dependent origination implies interdependent origination. Dependent
origination means that everything needs something outside itself for
its subsistence (and 'creation' or origin - hence origination).
Interdependence is merely a way of saying: this means that everything
is ultimately based on everything else. Everything is interdependent.
One doesn't need modern science to see that. For me it helps that I
know a bit about ecology, but a mere seed of that knowledge is
necessary to understand this. 

Sunnyata means void. To deny that means to deny the whole doctrine.
How to understand it is another issue, but it is not useful to say
sunnyata isn't void. That is meaningless. 

Alaya Vijnana is store consciousness: it stores all the past actions,
thoughts, feelings and what is learnt... It has nothing to do with the
future. It is comparable to the auric egg / auric envolope in HPB's
Esoteric Instructions. I'll elaborate on that in my next Lucifer7 (my
monthly newsletter, see my website). 

CUT