Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00387)

Aug 20 2004



Dear Friends and F:



Please tell me where in the Buddhist scheme Atma is avoided as a starting
point for evolution?



As I understand it ATMA is the spiritual whole of the entire UNIVERSE.



HPB explains this in The KEY TO THEOSOPHY, and I am sure you have seen
this. (Check the INDEX at the rear of the book.) 



Not only is it (ATMA) the "beginning" and the "end," but it is present all
the whole. Right now we are immersed in the ONE SPIRIT - which is ATMA.



Only our physical brain-mind makes us think we are separate. Separate from
what ? We need air, water, food, shelter, companionship, etc . so we are
never isolated. We share most things in life, including our thoughts and
emotions. 



No being, high or low, near or distant, is outside of the ONE ATMA.



However in the view that THEOSOPHY offers of the TOTAL EVOLUTIONARY scheme,
when the cycle for manifestation arrives, the ONE splits into two parts:
Spirit and Matter. But that is not all, because in trying to understand
each other, this pair uses a common medium called the Mind - which can think
and also record how it feels -- as a kind of "bridge. This intelligent and
sensitive "bridge" can be understood to exist because of mutual trust and
"understanding." 



Thus, united by a "bridge," some name it the Intelligence, or that which is
called the UNIVERSAL MIND - Mahat -- is also present. It is the free and
independent Mind principle, and it is that which gives us our sense of
"Self," and our "Individuality." 



This causes the entire Universe to be filled with the "manifesting LIVES" or
the "Pilgrims of Eternity."



There is no place where the "void of space" is not filled with minute points
of vibrant life - where the individual fractions and "rays" of the One Atma
live and work towards their own individualization, and perception of
themselves - as we do - And there is sure to come a day when they can stand
face to face with the UNIVERSE THAT IS ATMA. And that is what we are now
(as humans) working towards. 



To explain: 



Every "life-atom" (Monad) whether it be a metaphysical "atom," or a
molecule, cell, chemical or physical substance, etc. has a "form" adopted to
its needs as an independent intelligence. These are cemented one to the
rest by lines of sympathetic force - and the older assume (under Universal
and impersonal Law) responsibility and guidance for those who have less
experience (and may be called "younger.") 



"Forms and physical bodies" are created by the mutual affinity or repulsion
of billions of other "monads" all working together or making individual
decisions to leave that association - (chemistry and physics show this quite
clearly). These cluster around some one Monad which is on the point of
attaining Self-Consciousness. 



That is our present situation, for each of us, as a human being: the
attaining of the final stages of SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS that leads to a complete
grasp of the entirety of the UNIVERSE - or UNIVERSAL SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
That is the finality of WISDOM or Universal Knowledge. 



But looking further, one may perceive that these innumerable deathless
individualities (the MONADS) have, as an innate property (which comes from
the "Atmic Ray" inside), the ability to respond to and record their
experiences. They are the ever-living "building blocks of Nature, and are
to be found everywhere. WE, have to look within, to discover this truth.



Think of them (Monads or "life-atoms") as present in the Suns and in the
voids between galaxies - and in all structures and creatures on any planet
where Nature affords an opportunity of living, experiencing and growing in
individual intelligence. This may be challenged, but a careful survey of
all substances our sciences know, reveals these rules and laws operate
there. 



Human individualized intelligence is a natural outcome of many cycles of
experience concentrated in a single Monad. 



The capacity you and I exhibit in communication, (as an example) shows that
progressively, our mental capacity rises to the level of considering our own
ability to guide aspects of our improvement - that is if you will agree with
me that the whole evolutionary experience has the aspect of a vast School in
which all beings (including the human minds we have) participate. 



As such, over a long period, we have refined the substances and materials
(made up of many "monads" of lesser experience than our own individual
"Self") we use in our bodies, to permit thinking on these themes to develop.




THEOSOPHY would say: You are quite correct in saying the "physical" is
being refined by the use that we, as mental beings, make in terms of our
individual motives and decisions of usage. 



Taken as a whole this is the area of psychology where the desires and
emotions and the mind of Man are always interacting. We see that the Atmic
being inside us, the OBSERVER and the WITNESS, uses the Mind as its tool to
direct and control our feeling and desires and emotions. It never changes.
But the tools of mind and emotions are under constant reconstruction.



THEOSOPHY is an aspect of Mahayana Buddhism, and these are its teachings.
Zen Buddhism is a school that derives its name from Zen or Dzyan (Sanskrit
Gnyan) - WISDOM in English. If you study all it teaches you will find the
basic teaching of the two schools agree. 



Best wishes,



Dallas





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Subject: [bn-study] Food for thought



Our triple scheme of human evolution - physical, mental, spiritual - is
the reason why using Atma as the goal in the beginning is avoided by
Buddhists. 



The physical has to be divinized by the mental before the spiritual can
become Atmic. 



Hence the emphasis by Zen on the workings of the mind and the thoughts that
come are to be allowed to go after their utility is over. 



CUT



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