Theos-Talk Archives (July 2004 Message tt00229)

July 18 2004

RE: : Evolution and Emptiness  
TIME, MIND, ILLUSION, REALITY, MAYA,  
Mahatmas, and other Sacred Beings. 


Dear Pedro and Friends

As I understand it (reading your posting below), 

Nihilism is untenable for the simple reason that all who think EXIST, and
all who have or use forms EXIST (for however brief a space of time). The
nihilist is using his argumentative "lower mind" to propose the impossible.
He, as himself, is the best proof of its "unreality." His "memory" of 'his
own past' defeats the position. 

It is quite true that from the point of view of the ONE SPIRIT there cannot
be the separation of forms except artificially and on a transitory basis.
Hence the doctrine and philosophy of "maya" illusion arises. But the fact
of "memory" transcends those 'illusions.' Or at least strings them together
into a consecutive whole -- a "Nidana" (a logical, coherent concatenation).
This is one of the powers of the Mind.

Also, the idea that at the end of every "Manvantara" there has to be a
"return," or, a "reunion" with, and into, the ONE SPIRIT -- {consider this
idea philosophically, "it" (we) have never "left" the ONE SPIRIT -- we are
continually bathed (even now) in its wisdom and glory. Like "SPACE," it
cannot be "annihilated," nor can any event, once experienced in the company
of other immortal "Monads" be nonessed -- we are a part of their experience,
and of ours, and of their memories - it is ONE COHERENCE and ONE UNIVERSE}.


It is for this reason that the expression was used: "Recovery of the
memories of past lives is the whole of the process." 

Has the "matter" and the "substances" we presently use ( the 7-fold nature
of Man) changed the question: "How have we failed to continue to perceive
it (I mean THE ONE SPIRIT)?"   

But this (return after Manvantara to the ONE) does NOT, because we use the
term "Pralaya," mean "annihilation," since the accumulation of experiences
as "skandhas (samskaras)" provides 'memory' and a knowledge of the ONE SELF,
as an eternal basis for the INDIVIDUALITY of the great MASTERS OF WISDOM --
the MAHATMAS. They are the "Great Souls" because of this capacity, which in
us, is still potential, and in the process of development.

When asked who he was the Buddha is reported to have said: "I am awake."
To me this implies he was fully aware of all the memories accumulated over
his past lives and experiences. This is the perfect BUDDHI [Maha-Buddhi] --
the refined "substance" [Suddha Sattva - Glos p. 311; S D I 522, 532]
which serves as the perfected vehicle for the ATMA. 

It is with this in view that the doctrines of THEOSOPHY are offered as
humanity being in the "mind stage" of its present evolution is faced with
the opportunity of developing itself as individuals through self-effort into
such great Beings. In other words the limitations of form that restrict the
average ,mind can be eliminated and the True Inner self the HIGHER SELF, the
ATMA can be allowed to "shine forth." 

But the "illusion" is not such for those intelligences who employ those
"forms" and limit themselves to the kind of intelligence such an assumed
form provides.

It is a kind of voluntary exile for the "ray of the One Spirit" that makes
this sacrifice (see S D II 167. Also: S D II 58, 81, 103, 132-5, 184-5,
230, 254-5, 272, 282-7; S D I 225, 247, 638-9, ) 

Nirvana (Nibbana) is a condition of withdrawal from contact with
manifestation. It is achieved by voiding all Karmic links. In effect it is
a kind of spiritual selfishness, characterized by the term "Pratyekha
Buddha." [ Voice, p. 48fn, End of Frag. II, 78; MAHATMA LETTERS , (Barker
p. 114); S D Vol. II 109-110, THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY, pp. 261, 345;]

One question relates to the nature of "reality" In the SECRET DOCTRINE we
find:

REALITY

"(b) "Paranishpanna" is the absolute perfection to which all existences
attain at the close of a great period of activity, or Maha-Manvantara, and
in which they rest during the succeeding period of repose. In Tibetan it is
called Yong-Grub. Up to the day of the Yogâchârya school the true nature of
Paranirvana was taught publicly, but since then it has become entirely
esoteric; hence so many contradictory interpretations of it. It is only a
true Idealist who can understand it. Everything has to be viewed as ideal,
with the exception of Paranirvana, by him who would comprehend that state,
and acquire a knowledge of how Non Ego, Voidness, and Darkness are Three in
One and alone Self-existent and perfect. It is absolute, however, only in a
sense, for it must give room to still further absolute perfection, according
to a higher standard of excellence in the following period of activity —
just as a perfect flower must cease to be a perfect flower and die, in order
to grow into a perfect fruit...

The Secret Doctrine teaches the progressive development of everything,
worlds as well as atoms; and this stupendous development has neither
conceivable beginning nor imaginable end. 

Our "Universe" is only one of an infinite number of Universes, all of them
"Sons of Necessity," because links in the great Cosmic chain of Universes,
each one standing in the relation of an effect as regards its predecessor,
and being a cause as regards its successor. 

The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an
outbreathing and inbreathing of "the Great Breath," which is eternal, and
which, being Motion, is one of the three aspects of the Absolute — Abstract
Space and Duration being the other two. 

When the "Great Breath" is projected, it is called the Divine Breath, and is
regarded as the breathing of the Unknowable Deity — the One Existence —
which breathes out a thought, as it were, which becomes the Kosmos. (See
"Isis Unveiled.") So also is it when the Divine Breath is inspired again the
Universe disappears into the bosom of "the Great Mother," who then sleeps
"wrapped in her invisible robes." S D I 42-3


"By "that which is and yet is not" is meant the Great Breath itself, which
we can only speak of as absolute existence, but cannot picture to our
imagination as any form of existence that we can distinguish from
Non-existence. 

The three periods — the Present, the Past, and the Future — are in the
esoteric philosophy a compound time; for the three are a composite number
only in relation to the phenomenal plane, but in the realm of noumena have
no abstract validity. 

As said in the Scriptures: "The Past time is the Present time, as also the
Future, which, though it has not come into existence, still is"; according
to a precept in the Prasanga Madhyamika teaching, whose dogmas have been
known ever since it broke away from the purely esoteric schools. 

Our ideas, in short, on duration and time are all derived from our
sensations according to the laws of Association. Inextricably bound up with
the relativity of human knowledge, they nevertheless can have no existence
except in the experience of the individual ego, and perish when its
evolutionary march dispels the Maya of phenomenal existence. 

What is Time, for instance, but the panoramic succession of our states of
consciousness? In the words of a Master, "I feel irritated at having to use
these three clumsy words — Past, Present, and Future — miserable concepts of
the objective phases of the subjective whole, they are about as ill-adapted
for the purpose as an axe for fine carving." One has to acquire Paramârtha
lest one should become too easy a prey to Samvriti—is a philosophical
axiom."
S D I 43-4

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


There are many current arguments about "illusion," "Maya," "Time," "Mind,"
and "Reality."  

On these the SECRET DOCTRINE offers for consideration:


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

(a) TIME is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of
consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist
where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but
"lies asleep."

The present is only a mathematical line which divides that part of eternal
duration which we call the future, from that part which we call the past. 

Nothing on earth has real duration, for nothing remains without change — or
the same — for the billionth part of a second; and the sensation we have of
the actuality of the division of "time" known as the present, comes from the
blurring of that momentary glimpse, or succession of glimpses, of things
that our senses give us, as those things pass from the region of ideals
which we call the future, to the region of memories that we name the past.
In the same way we experience a sensation of duration in the case of the
instantaneous electric spark, by reason of the blurred and continuing
impression on the retina. 

THE REAL PERSON OR THING does not consist solely of what is seen at any
particular moment, but is composed of the sum of all its various and
changing conditions from its appearance in the material form to its
disappearance from the earth. 

It is these "sum-totals" that exist from eternity in the "future," and pass
by degrees through matter, to exist for eternity in the "past." 

No one could say that a bar of metal dropped into the sea came into
existence as it left the air, and ceased to exist as it entered the water,
and that the bar itself consisted only of that cross-section thereof which
at any given moment coincided with the mathematical plane that separates,
and, at the same time, joins, the atmosphere and the ocean. 

Even so of persons and things, which, dropping out of the to-be into the
has-been, out of the future into the past — present momentarily to our
senses a cross-section, as it were, of their total selves, as they pass
through time and space (as matter) on their way from one eternity to
another: and these two constitute that "duration" in which alone anything
has true existence, were our senses but able to cognize it there. "	S D
I 37


"What is Time, for instance, but the panoramic succession of our states of
consciousness?  

In the words of a Master, "I feel irritated at having to use these three
clumsy words — Past, Present, and Future — miserable concepts of the
objective phases of the subjective whole, they are about as ill-adapted for
the purpose as an axe for fine carving." One has to acquire Paramârtha lest
one should become too easy a prey to Samvriti—is a philosophical axiom."
S D I 44

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

(a) MIND is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness grouped
under Thought, Will, and Feeling. During deep sleep, ideation ceases on the
physical plane, and memory is in abeyance; thus for the time-being "Mind is
not," because the organ, through which the Ego manifests ideation and memory
on the material plane, has temporarily ceased to function. A noumenon can
become a phenomenon on any plane of existence only by manifesting on that
plane through an appropriate basis or vehicle; and during the long night of
rest called Pralaya, when all the existences are dissolved, the "UNIVERSAL
MIND" remains as a permanent possibility of mental action, or as that
abstract absolute thought, of which mind is the concrete relative
manifestation. The AH-HI (Dhyan-Chohans) are the collective hosts of
spiritual beings — the Angelic Hosts of Christianity, the Elohim and
"Messengers" of the Jews — who are the vehicle for the manifestation of the
divine or universal thought and will. They are the Intelligent Forces that
give to and enact in Nature her "laws," while themselves acting according to
laws imposed upon them in a similar manner by still higher Powers; but they
are not "the personifications" of the powers of Nature, as erroneously
thought. This hierarchy of spiritual Beings, through which the Universal
Mind comes into action, is like an army — a "Host," truly—by means of which
the fighting power of a nation manifests itself, and which is composed of
army corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, and so forth, each with its
separate individuality or life, and its limited freedom of action and
limited responsibilities; each contained in a larger individuality, to which
its own interests are subservient, and each containing lesser
individualities in itself. S D I p. 38


"Esoteric philosophy teaches that EVERYTHING LIVES AND IS CONSCIOUS, but not
that all life and consciousness are similar to those of human or even animal
beings. 

Life we look upon as "the one form of existence," manifesting in what is
called matter; or, as in man, what, incorrectly separating them, we name
Spirit, Soul and Matter. 

MATTER is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this plane of
existence, and soul is the vehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation
of spirit, and these three are a trinity synthesized by Life, which pervades
them all. 

The idea of universal life is one of those ancient conceptions which are
returning to the human mind in this century, as a consequence of its
liberation from anthropomorphic theology. 

Science, it is true, contents itself with tracing or postulating the signs
of universal life, and has not yet been bold enough even to whisper "Anima
Mundi!" .... It hardly seems possible that science can disguise from itself
much longer, by the mere use of terms such as "force" and "energy," the fact
that things that have life are living things, whether they be atoms or
planets. 

But what is the belief of the inner esoteric Schools? the reader may ask.
What are the doctrines taught on this subject by the Esoteric "Buddhists"? 

With them "Alaya" has a double and even a triple meaning. In the Yogâchârya
system of the contemplative Mahâyânâ school, Alaya is both the Universal
Soul (Anima Mundi) and the Self of a progressed adept. "He who is strong in
the Yoga can introduce at will his Alaya by means of meditation into the
true Nature of Existence." 

The "Alaya has an absolute eternal existence," says Aryâsanga — the rival of
Nagârjuna.  

In one sense it is Pradhâna; which is explained in Vishnu Purâna as: "that
which is the unevolved cause, is emphatically called by the most eminent
sages Pradhâna, original base, which is subtile Prakriti, viz., that which
is eternal, and which at once is (or comprehends) what is and what is not,
or is mere process." "Prakriti," however, is an incorrect word, and Alaya
would explain it better; for Prakriti is not the "uncognizable Brahma." 

It is a mistake of those who know nothing of the Universality of the Occult
doctrines from the very cradle of the human races, and especially so of
those scholars who reject the very idea of a "primordial revelation," to
teach that the Anima Mundi, the One Life or "Universal Soul," was made known
only by Anaxagoras, or during his age...as [also] Plato. That which he
called Mundane Intelligence, the nous ( nou' ), the principle that according
to his views is absolutely separated and free from matter and acts on
design, was called Motion, the ONE LIFE, or Jivatma, ages before the year
500 B.C. in India. Only the Aryan philosophers never endowed the principle,
which with them is infinite, with the finite "attribute" of "thinking."
S D I 49-50

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

"MAYA OR ILLUSION is an element which enters into all finite things, for
everything that exists has only a relative, not an absolute, reality, since
the appearance which the hidden noumenon assumes for any observer depends
upon his power of cognition.... Nothing is permanent except the one hidden
absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities. 

The existences belonging to every plane of being, up to the highest
Dhyan-Chohans, are, in degree, of the nature of shadows cast by a magic
lantern on a colourless screen; but all things are relatively real, for the
cogniser is also a reflection, and the things cognised are therefore as real
to him as himself.

Whatever reality things possess must be looked for in before or after they
have passed like a flash through the material world; but we cannot cognise
any such existence directly, so long as we have sense-instruments which
bring only material existence into the field of our consciousness. 

Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the things
belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only realities. 

As we rise in the scale of development we perceive that during the stages
through which we have passed we mistook shadows for realities, and the
upward progress of the Ego is a series of progressive awakenings, each
advance bringing with it the idea that now, at last, we have reached
"reality;" but only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness,
and blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions produced by
Maya." S D I 39-40

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


BEING AND NON-BEING

"The idea of Eternal Non-Being, which is the One Being, will appear a
paradox to anyone who does not remember that we limit our ideas of being to
our present consciousness of existence; making it a specific, instead of a
generic term. An unborn infant, could it think in our acceptation of that
term, would necessarily limit its conception of being, in a similar manner,
to the intrauterine life which alone it knows; and were it to endeavour to
express to its consciousness the idea of life after birth (death to it), it
would, in the absence of data to go upon, and of faculties to comprehend
such data, probably express that life as "Non-Being which is Real Being." 

In our case the One Being is the noumenon of all the noumena which we know
must underlie phenomena, and give them whatever shadow of reality they
possess, but which we have not the senses or the intellect to cognize at
present.... Alone the Initiate, rich with the lore acquired by numberless
generations of his predecessors, directs the "Eye of Dangma" toward the
essence of things in which no Maya can have any influence. It is here that
the teachings of esoteric philosophy in relation to the Nidanas and the Four
Truths become of the greatest importance; but they are secret."	S D
I 45

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

CAUSES OF EXISTENCE


"The Causes of Existence" mean not only the physical causes known to
science, but the metaphysical causes, the chief of which is the desire to
exist, an outcome of Nidana and Maya. 

This desire for a sentient life shows itself in everything, from an atom to
a sun, and is a reflection of the Divine Thought propelled into objective
existence, into a law that the Universe should exist. 

According to esoteric teaching, the real cause of that supposed desire, and
of all existence, remains for ever hidden, and its first emanations are the
most complete abstractions mind can conceive. 

These abstractions must of necessity be postulated as the cause of the
material Universe which presents itself to the senses and intellect; and
they underlie the secondary and subordinate powers of Nature, which,
anthropomorphized, have been worshipped as God and gods by the common herd
of every age. It is impossible to conceive anything without a cause; the
attempt to do so makes the mind a blank. 
 
[ In clearer words: "One has to acquire true Self-Consciousness in order to
understand Samvriti, or the 'origin of delusion.'" Paramârtha is the synonym
of the Sanskrit term Svasam-vedana, or "the reflection which analyses
itself." There is a difference in the interpretation of the meaning of
"Paramârtha" between the Yogâchâryas and the Madhyamikas, neither of whom,
however, explain the real and true esoteric sense of the expression. ]

This is virtually the condition to which the mind must come at last when we
try to trace back the chain of causes and effects, but both science and
religion jump to this condition of blankness much more quickly than is
necessary; for they ignore the metaphysical abstractions which are the only
conceivable cause of physical concretions. 

These abstractions become more and more concrete as they approach our plane
of existence, until finally they phenomenalise in the form of the material
Universe, by a process of conversion of metaphysics into physics, analogous
to 
that by which steam can be condensed into water, and the water frozen into
ice."

... [the] "Material Cause of the Universe." The Purânic Commentators
explain it by Karana — "Cause" — but the Esoteric philosophy, by the ideal
spirit of that cause. It is, in its secondary stage, the Svâbhâvat of the
Buddhist philosopher, the eternal cause and effect, omnipresent yet
abstract, the self-existent plastic Essence and the root of all things,
viewed in the same dual light as the Vedantin views his Parabrahm and
Mulaprakriti, the one under two aspects. It seems indeed extraordinary to
find great scholars speculating on the possibility of the Vedanta, and the
Uttara-Mimansa especially, having been "evoked by the teachings of the
Buddhists," S D I 44-6


”THE TWELVE NIDANAS or causes of being. Each is the effect of its antecedent
cause, and a cause, in its turn, to its successor; the sum total of the
Nidanas being based on the four truths, a doctrine especially characteristic
of the Hinayana System. They belong to the theory of the stream of catenated
law which produces merit and demerit, and finally brings Karma into full
sway. It is based upon the great truth that reincarnation is to be dreaded,
as existence in this world only entails upon man suffering, misery and pain;
Death itself being unable to deliver man from it, since death is merely the
door through which he passes to another life on earth after a little rest on
its threshold—Devachan. The Hînayâna System, or School of the "Little
Vehicle," is of very ancient growth; while the Mahâyânâ is of a later
period, having originated after the death of Buddha. Yet the tenets of the
latter are as old as the hills that have contained such schools from time
immemorial, and the Hînayâna and Mahâyânâ Schools (the latter, that of the
"Great Vehicle") both teach the same doctrine in reality. Yana, or Vehicle
(in Sanskrit, Vahan) is a mystic expression, both "vehicles" inculcating
that man may escape the sufferings of rebirths and even the false bliss of
Devachan, by obtaining Wisdom and Knowledge, which alone can dispel the
Fruits of Illusion and Ignorance." S D I 39

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


MAHATMAS -- BUDDHAS -- BODHISATTVAS -- DHYANIS


"(a) The seven sublime lords are the Seven Creative Spirits, the
Dhyan-Chohans, who correspond to the Hebrew Elohim. It is the same hierarchy
of Archangels ... in the Esoteric System, the Dhyanis watch successively
over one of the Rounds and the great Root-races of our planetary chain. 

They are, moreover, said to send their Bhodisatvas, the human correspondents
of the Dhyani-Buddhas ... during every Round and Race. Out of the Seven
Truths and Revelations, or rather revealed secrets, four only have been
handed to us, as we are still in the Fourth Round, and the world also has
only had four Buddhas, so far. This is a very complicated question, and will
receive more ample treatment later on. [see S D I 570-575] S D I 42


"The "Absolute Consciousness," they [Pantheists] tell us, "behind"
phenomena, which is only termed unconsciousness in the absence of any
element of personality, transcends human conception. 

Man, unable to form one concept except in terms of empirical phenomena, is
powerless from the very constitution of his being to raise the veil that
shrouds the majesty of the Absolute. 

Only the liberated Spirit is able to faintly realise the nature of the
source whence it sprung and whither it must eventually return. . . . 

As the highest Dhyan Chohan, however, can but bow in ignorance before the
awful mystery of Absolute Being; and since, even in that culmination of
conscious existence — "the merging of the individual in the universal
consciousness" ... the Finite cannot conceive the Infinite, nor can it apply
to it its own standard of mental experiences, how can it be said that the
"Unconscious" and the Absolute can have even an instinctive impulse or hope
of attaining clear self-consciousness?  

...the Occultist would say that it applies perfectly to the awakened MAHAT,
the Universal Mind already projected into the phenomenal world as the first
aspect of the changeless ABSOLUTE, but never to the latter. "Spirit and
Matter, or Purusha and Prakriti are but the two primeval aspects of the One
and Secondless," we are taught. 

The matter-moving Nous, the animating Soul, immanent in every atom,
manifested in man, latent in the stone, has different degrees of power; and
this pantheistic idea of a general Spirit-Soul pervading all Nature is the
oldest of all the philosophical notions...
 
(b) The term Anupadaka, "parentless," or without progenitors, is a mystical
designation having several meanings in the philosophy. By this name
celestial beings, the Dhyan-Chohans or Dhyani-Buddhas, are generally meant.
But as these correspond mystically to the human Buddhas and Bodhisattwas,
known as the "Mânushi (or human) Buddhas," the latter are also designated
"Anupadaka," once that their whole personality is merged in their compound
sixth and seventh principles — or Atma-Buddhi, and that they have become the
"diamond-souled" (Vajra-sattvas), the full Mahatmas. [Fn -- Vajra —
diamond-holder. In Tibetan Dorjesempa; sempa meaning the soul, its
adamantine quality referring to its indestructibility in the hereafter. The
explanation with regard to the "Anupadaka" given in the Kala Chakra, the
first in the Gyu(t) division of the Kanjur, is half esoteric. It has misled
the Orientalists into erroneous speculations with respect to the
Dhyani-Buddhas and their earthly correspondences, the Manushi-Buddhas.]

The "Concealed Lord" (Sangbai Dag-po), "the one merged with the absolute,"
can have no parents since he is Self-existent, and one with the Universal
Spirit (Svayambhu), the Svâbhâvat in the highest aspect. 

The mystery in the hierarchy of the Anupadaka is great, its apex being the
universal Spirit-Soul, and the lower rung the Mânushi-Buddha; and even every
Soul-endowed man is an Anupadaka in a latent state. 

Hence, when speaking of the Universe in its formless, eternal, or absolute
condition, before it was fashioned by the "Builders" — the expression, "the
Universe was Anupadaka." S D I 51-2

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

I hope these definitions will make the teachings of THEOSOPHY clearer.

Best wishes,

Dallas
 
==============================

-----Original Message-----
From: prmoliveira
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2004 2:15 AM
To: 
Subject: Mahatmas, Evolution and Emptiness

--- , "Katinka H" wrote:
 
Your explanation of sunnyata brings it close to Nihilism, which is one of
the extremes Nagarjuna tried to avoid, as I understand it. But it is why I
relate emptiness to maya: the idea that everything we see, feel, think and
can imagine is illusionary in nature and temporary as well. Still, sunnyata
itself is the one constant. 

According to common usage Nihilism implies rejection and/or denial of the
views of a certain philosophical school or position. From my limited
understanding of the doctrine of Sunyata, it is a clear perception of the
relativity, conditionedness and non-ultimacy of all views, which include all
"dharmas". The source for this teaching seems to be in the Buddha's dialogue
with Vacchagotta as recorded in the Majjima-nikaya: "The Tathagata, O
Vaccha, is free from all 
theories."

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

DTB	Because the Buddha KNOWS.

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


The mahatmas weren't classical buddhists - I think that much is 
Clear from the Mahatma Letters. They revered Buddha, but that doesn't mean
they were main-stream Tibetan Buddhists. On the other hand, atma as 
it is taught in the Mahatma Letters isn't really the same atma that
Buddha denied in the an-atma (= anatta = no soul) doctrine. A useful
article on this is, I think: Another way of showing this is that in
Mahayana Buddhism we all have a Buddha-nature and this Buddha-nature is in
everything. Sounds like Atma, doesn't it? 

Not really. There has been interminable debate on this point, 
Katinka, and I am sure we will not solve it. The link you posted 
certainly doesn't. The nature of Sunyata, as presented in the works 
of Nagarjuna and other Buddhist masters, does not harmonize with what 
the Indian teachers say about Atma. For exemple, in the 
Vivekachudamani by Sankaracharya, there are quite a number of 
aphorisms describing the nature of Atma in quite categorical and 
positive terms. But if Subba Row and HPB could be both chelas of the 
same Master, even when belonging to different schools, there is hope 
for other students as well!

CUT