Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00355)

Aug 19 2004



Dear friend M:



Re Transcendental Time and Evolution



I think we experience both all the time and are mainly unaware of their
passage. 



Our present evolution is concerned with mastering experience in the present
frame-work, [this means developing discrimination through the deliberated
use of right motive, or VIRTUE in all aspects of daily living] and, when the
time comes for understanding the extra-sensory (for the present) experiences
it will only occur when those senses and the necessary purity of motive
(un-selfishness of all motives, brotherhood, and the desire to help others)
have been developed.



It is hinted, I believe that the "path to adeptship" leads through such
extra-sensory experiences. So -- all in good time. We have to first refine
the "tools" we have at hand. No fanciful adventures yet. 



If you wish to have one of those hints, then read carefully the passage in
HPB's TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE, pp. 60-69. and even beyond to p.
78. This will open up for consideration the matter of "Dreams," and
dreaming. 



Meditation, (I mean DEEP thinking) leading to samadhi and turiya are other
areas. These are hinted at in S D I 157-8 and elsewhere. One ought to use
the S D INDEX to assist in such research.



Best wishes, 



Dallas



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



see this: (from TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE, p. 60 ) 





A. The nature and functions of real dreams cannot be understood unless we
admit the existence of an immortal Ego in mortal man, independent of the
physical body, for the subject becomes quite unintelligible unless we
believe-that which is a fact-that during sleep there remains only an
animated form of clay, whose powers of independent thinking are utterly
paralyzed. 



But if we admit the existence of a higher or permanent Ego in us-which Ego
must not be confused with what we call the "Higher Self," we can comprehend
that what we often regard as dreams, generally accepted as idle fancies,
are, in truth, stray pages torn out from the life and experiences of the
inner man, and the dim recollection of which at the moment of awakening
becomes more or less distorted by our physical memory. The latter catches
mechanically a few impressions of the thoughts, facts witnessed, and deeds
performed by the inner man during its hours of complete freedom. For our Ego
lives its own separate life within its prison of clay whenever it becomes
free from the trammels of matter, i.e., during the sleep of the physical
man. This Ego it is which is the actor, the real man, the true human self.
But the physical man cannot feel or be conscious during dreams; for the
personality, the outer man, with its brain and thinking apparatus, are
paralyzed more or less completely. 



We might well compare the real Ego to a prisoner, and the physical
personality to the gaoler of his prison. If the gaoler falls asleep, the
prisoner escapes, or, at least, passes outside the walls of his prison. The
gaoler is half asleep, and looks nodding all the time out of a window,
through which he can catch only occasional glimpses of his prisoner, as he
would a kind of shadow moving in front of it. But what can he perceive, and
what can he know of the real actions, and especially the thoughts, of his
charge? 



Q. Do not the thoughts of the one impress themselves upon the other? 



A. Not during sleep, at all events; for the real Ego does not think as his
evanescent and temporary personality does. During the waking hours the
thoughts and Voice of the Higher Ego do or do not reach his gaoler- the
physical man, for they are the Voice of his Conscience, but during his sleep
they are absolutely the "Voice in the desert." In the thoughts of the real
man, or the immortal "Individuality," the pictures and visions of the Past
and Future are as the Present; nor are his thoughts like ours, subjective
pictures in our cerebration, but living acts and deeds, present actualities.
They are realities, even as they were when speech expressed in sounds did
not exist; when thoughts were things, and men did not need to express them
in speeches; for they instantly realized themselves in action by the power
of Kriya-Sakti, that mysterious power which transforms instantaneously ideas
into visible forms, and these were as objective to the "man" of the early
third Race as objects of sight are now to us. 



Q. How, then, does Esoteric Philosophy account for the transmission of even
a few fragments of those thoughts of the Ego to our physical memory which it
sometimes retains?



A. All such are reflected on the brain of the sleeper, like outside shadows
on the canvas walls of a tent, which the occupier sees as he wakes. Then the
man thinks that he has dreamed all that, and feels as though he had lived
through something, while in reality it is the thought-actions of the true
Ego which he has dimly perceived. As he becomes fully awake, his
recollections become with every minute more distorted, and mingle with the
images projected from the physical brain, under the action of the stimulus
which causes the sleeper to awaken. These recollections, by the power of
association, set in motion various trains of ideas. 



Q. It is difficult to see how the Ego can be acting during the night things
which have taken place long ago. Was it not stated that dreams are not
subjective? 



A. How can they be subjective when the dream state is itself for us, and on
our plane, at any rate, a subjective one? To the dreamer (the Ego), on his
own plane, the things on that plane are as objective to him as our acts are
to us. 

Q. What are the senses which act in dreams? 

A. The senses of the sleeper receive occasional shocks, and are awakened
into mechanical action; what he hears and sees are, as has been said, a
distorted reflection of the thoughts of the Ego. The latter is highly
spiritual, and is linked very closely with the higher principles, Buddhi and
Atma. These higher principles are entirely inactive on our plane, and the
higher Ego (Manas) itself is more or less dormant during the waking of the
physical man. This is especially the case with persons of very materialistic
mind. So dormant are the Spiritual faculties, because the Ego is so
trammelled by matter, that It can hardly give all its attention to the man's
actions, even should the latter commit sins for which that Ego-when reunited
with its lower Manas-will have to suffer conjointly in the future. It is, as
I said,

the impressions projected into the physical man by this Ego which constitute
what we call "conscience"; and in proportion as the Personality, the lower
Soul (or Manas), unites itself to its higher consciousness, or EGO, does the
action of the latter upon the life of mortal man become more marked. 





Q. This Ego, then, is the "Higher Ego"? 



A. Yes; it is the higher Manas illuminated by Buddhi; the principle of
self-consciousness, the "I-am-I," in short. It is the Karana-Sarira, the
immortal man, which passes from one incarnation to another. 





Q. Is the "register" or "tablet of memory" for the true dream-state
different from that of waking life? 



A. Since dreams are in reality the actions of the Ego during physical sleep,
they are, of course, recorded on their own plane and produce their
appropriate effects on this one. But it must be always remembered that
dreams in general, and as we know them, are simply our waking and hazy
recollections of these facts. 



It often happens, indeed, that we have no recollection of having dreamt at
all, but later in the day the remembrance of the dream will suddenly flash
upon us. Of this there are many causes. It is analogous to what sometimes
happens to every one of us. Often a sensation, a smell, even a casual noise,
or a sound, brings instantaneously to our mind long-forgotten events, scenes
and persons. Something of what was seen, done, or thought by the
"night-performer," the Ego, impressed itself at that time on the physical
brain, but was not brought into the conscious, waking memory, owing to some
physical condition or obstacle. This impression is registered on the brain
in its appropriate cell or nerve-center, but owing to some accidental
circumstance it "hangs fire," so to say, till something gives it the needed
impulse. Then the brain slips it off immediately into the conscious memory
of the waking man; for as soon as the conditions required are supplied, that
particular center starts forthwith into activity, and does the work which it
had to do, but was hindered at the time from completing. 





Q. How does this process take place? 



A. There is a sort of conscious telegraphic communication going on
incessantly, day and night, between the physical brain and the inner man.
The brain is such a complex thing, both physically and metaphysically, that
it is like a tree whose bark you can remove layer by layer, each layer being
different from all the others, and each having its own special work,
function, and properties. 





Q. What distinguishes the "dreaming" memory and imagination from those of
waking consciousness? 



A. During sleep the physical memory and imagination are of course passive,
because the dreamer is asleep: his brain is asleep, his memory is asleep,
all his functions are dormant and at rest. It is only when they are
stimulated, as I told you, that they are aroused. Thus the consciousness of
the sleeper is not active, but passive. The inner man, however, the real
Ego, acts independently during the sleep of the body; but it is doubtful if
any of us-unless thoroughly acquainted with the physiology of occultism-
could understand the nature of its action. 





Q. What relation have the Astral Light and Akasa to memory? 



A. The former is the "tablet of the memory" of the animal man, the latter of
the spiritual Ego. The "dreams" of the Ego, as much as the acts of the
physical man, are all recorded, since both are actions based on causes and
producing results. Our "dreams," being simply the waking state and actions
of the true Self, must be, of course, recorded somewhere. Read "Karmic
Visions" in Lucifer,* and note



[*Reprinted in "Theosophy" magazine for September, 1915.]



the description of the real Ego, sitting as a spectator of the life of the
hero, and perhaps something will strike you. 





Q. What, in reality, is the Astral Light? 



A. As the Esoteric Philosophy teaches us, the Astral Light is simply the
dregs of Akasa or the Universal Ideation in its metaphysical sense. Though
invisible, it is yet, so to speak, the phosphorescent radiation of the
latter, and is the medium between it and man's thought-faculties. It is
these which pollute the Astral Light, and make it what it is-the storehouse
of all human and especially psychic iniquities. In its primordial genesis,
the astral light as a radiation is quite pure, though the lower it descends
approaching our terrestrial sphere, the more it differentiates, and becomes
as a result impure in its very constitution. But man helps considerably to
this pollution, and gives it back its essence far worse than when he
received it. 





Q. Can you explain to us how it is related to man, and its action in
dream-life? 



A. Differentiation in the physical world is infinite. Universal ideation-or
Mahat, if you like it-sends its homogeneous radiation into the heterogeneous
world, and this reaches the human or personal minds through the Astral
Light. 





Q. But do not our minds receive their illuminations direct from the Higher
Manas through the Lower? And is not the former the pure emanation of divine
Ideation-the "Manasa-Putras," which incarnated in men? 



A. They are. Individual Manasa-Putras or the Kumaras are the direct
radiations of the divine Ideation-"individual" in the sense of later
differentiation, owing to numberless incarnations. In sum they are the
collective aggregation of that Ideation, become on our plane, or from our

point of view, Mahat, as the Dhyan-Chohans are in their aggregate the WORD
or "Logos" in the formation of the World. Were the Personalities (Lower
Manas or the physical minds) to be inspired and illumined solely by their
higher alter Egos there would be little sin in this world. But they are not;
and getting entangled in the meshes of the Astral Light, they separate
themselves more and more from their parent Egos. Read and study what Eliphas
Levi says of the Astral Light, which he calls Satan and the Great Serpent.
The Astral Light has been taken too literally to mean some sort of a second
blue sky. This imaginary space, however, on which are impressed the
countless images of all that ever was, is, and will be, is but a too sad
reality. It becomes in, and for, man-if at all psychic-and who is not?-a
tempting Demon, his "evil angel," and the inspirer of all our worst deeds.
It acts on the will of even the sleeping man, through visions impressed upon
his slumbering brain (which visions must not be confused with the "dreams"),
and these germs bear their fruit when he awakes. 





Q. What is the part played by Will in dreams? 



A. The will of the outer man, our volition, is of course dormant and
inactive during dreams; but a certain bent can be given to the slumbering
will during its inactivity, and certain after-results developed by the
mutual inter-action-produced almost mechanically-through union between two
or more "principles" into one, so that they will act in perfect harmony,
without any friction or a single false note, when awake. But this is one of
the dodges of "black magic," and when used for good purposes belongs to the
training of an Occultist. One must be far advanced on the "path" to have a
will which can act consciously during his physical sleep, or act on the will
of another person during the sleep of the latter, e.g., to control his
dreams, and thus control his actions when awake.





Q. We are taught that a man can unite all his "principles" into one-what
does this mean? 



A. When an adept succeeds in doing this he is a Jivanmukta: he is no more of
this earth virtually, and becomes a Nirvanee, who can go into Samadhi at
will. Adepts are generally classed by the number of "principles" they have
under their perfect control, for that which we call will has its seat in the
higher EGO, and the latter, when it is rid of its sin-laden personality, is
divine and pure. 





Q. What part does Karma play in dreams? In India they say that every man
receives the reward or punishment of all his acts, both in the waking and
the dream state. 



A. If they say so, it is because they have preserved in all their purity and
remembered the traditions of their forefathers. They know that the Self is
the real Ego, and that it lives and acts, though on a different plane. The
external life is a "dream" to this Ego, while the inner life, or the life on
what we call the dream plane, is the real life for it. And so the Hindus
(the profane, of course) say that Karma is generous, and rewards the real
man in dreams as well as it does the false personality in physical life. 





Q. What is the difference, "karmically," between the two? 



A. The physical animal man is as little responsible as a dog or a mouse. For
the bodily form all is over with the death of the body. But the real SELF,
that which emanated its own shadow, or the lower thinking personality, that
enacted and pulled the wires during the life of the physical automaton, will
have to suffer conjointly with its factotum and alter ego in its next
incarnation. 





Q. But the two, the higher and the lower, Manas are one, are they not? 



A. They are, and yet they are not-and that is the great mystery. The Higher
Manas or EGO is essentially divine, and therefore pure; no stain can pollute
it, as no punishment can reach it, per se, the more so since it is innocent
of, and takes no part in, the deliberate transactions of its Lower Ego. Yet
by the very fact that, though dual and during life the Higher is distinct
from the Lower, "the Father and Son" are one, and because that in reuniting
with the parent Ego, the Lower Soul fastens upon and impresses upon it all
its bad as well as good actions-both have to suffer, the Higher Ego, though
innocent and without blemish, has to bear the punishment of the misdeeds
committed by the lower Self together with it in their future incarnation.
The whole doctrine of atonement is built upon this old esoteric tenet; for
the Higher Ego is the antitype of that which is on this earth the type,
namely, the personality. It is, for those who understand it, the old Vedic
story of Visvakarman over again, practically demonstrated. Visvakarman, the
all-seeing Father-God, who is beyond the comprehension of mortals, ends, as
son of Bhuvana, the holy Spirit, by sacrificing himself to himself, to save
the worlds. The mystic name of the "Higher Ego" is, in the Indian
philosophy, Kshetrajna, or "embodied Spirit," that which knows or informs
kshetra, "the body." Etymologize the name, and you will find in it the term
aja, "first-born," and also the "lamb." All this is very suggestive, and
volumes might be written upon the pregenetic and postgenetic development of
type and antitype-of Christ-Kshetrajna, the "God-Man," the First-born,
symbolized as the "lamb." The Secret Doctrine shows that the Manasa-Putras
or incarnating EGOS have taken upon themselves, voluntarily and knowingly,
the burden of all the future sins of their future personalities. Thence it
is easy to see that it is neither Mr. A. nor Mr. B., nor any of the
personalities that periodically clothe the Self-Sacrificing EGO, which are
the real Sufferers, but verily the innocent Christos within us. Hence the
mystic Hindus say that the Eternal Self, or the Ego (the one in three and
three in one), is the "Charioteer" or driver; the personalities are the
temporary and evanescent passengers; while the horses are the animal
passions of man. It is, then, true to say that when we remain deaf to the
Voice of our Conscience, we crucify the Christos within us. But let us
return to dreams. 



Q. Are so-called prophetic dreams a sign that the dreamer has strong
clairvoyant faculties? 



A. It may be said, in the case of persons who have truly prophetic dreams,
that it is because their physical brains and memory are in closer relation
and sympathy with their "Higher Ego" than in the generality of men. The
Ego-Self has more facilities for impressing upon the physical shell and
memory that which is of importance to such persons than it has in the case
of other less gifted persons. Remember that the only God man comes in
contact with is his own God, called Spirit, Soul and Mind, or Consciousness,
and these three are one. 



But there are weeds that must be destroyed in order that a plant may grow.
We must die, said St. Paul, that we may live again. It is through
destruction that we may improve, and the three powers, the preserving, the
creating and the destroying, are only so many aspects of the divine spark
within man. 





Q. Do Adepts dream? 



A. No advanced Adept dreams. An adept is one who has obtained mastery over
his four lower principles, including his body, and does not, therefore, let
flesh have its own way. He simply paralyzes his lower Self during Sleep, and
becomes perfectly free. A dream, as we understand it, is an illusion. Shall
an adept, then, dream when he has rid himself of every other illusion? In
his sleep he simply lives on another and more real plane.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE. Pp. 60 -69

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



best wshes,



Dallas



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





-----Original Message-----
From: Morten N

Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2004 6:19 AM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] Re: TIME & EVOLUTION and freedom





Hallo Dallas and all,



My views are:



I think you have misunderstood me.

I talked about --- the experience of "time" and "evolution".

So what about the --- expereince of transcended time and evolution ?

...You know you will have to expereince it...

If Blavatsky wrote a lot about that then allright. I havn't seen exactly

that mentioned much thouh.

Yes. She wrote a lot about "time" and "evolution", but that was not what I

referred to.





from

M. Sufilight







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