Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00527)

Aug 26 2004

Dear Friend:

Consider that "Maya" could not be discussed unless interiorly to us there is
something that is the opposite of Maya -- and is "permanent."

In Theosophy it is designated: "The Supreme Spirit" -- its "ray" resident
in Humans is called the ATMA [or HIGHER SELF].

----------------------------
MAYA - ILLUSION  

"This "inferior nature" is only so relatively. It is the phenomenal and
transient which disappears into the superior at the end of a kalpa. It is
that part of God, or of the Self, which chose to assume the phenomenal and
transient position, but is, in essence, as great as the superior nature. The
inferiority is only relative. As soon as objective material, and subjective
spiritual, worlds appear, the first-named has to be denominated inferior to
the other, because the spiritual, being the permanent base, is in that sense
superior; but as an absolute whole all is equal. 

Included in the inferior nature are all the visible, tangible, invisible and
intangible worlds; it is what we call nature. The invisible and intangible
are nonetheless actual; we know that poisonous gas, though invisible and
intangible, is fatally actual and potential." GITA Notes p. 132-3...


"Maya, or the illusion of the senses in physical life." (IU Vol. I
xiv)

"But the very presence of forms denotes it to be the creation of Maya,"
(IU Vol. I 289)

".everything that bears a shape was created, and thus must sooner or later
perish, i.e., change that shape; therefore, as something temporary, though
seeming to be permanent, it is but an illusion, Maya."
(ISIS UNVEILED Vol. I. 290)

".spirit alone is no Maya, but the only REALITY in an illusionary universe
of
ever-passing forms." (IU Vol. I 290)


And a similar quote from the SD:


"Light is matter, and DARKNESS pure Spirit. Darkness, in its radical,
metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute light; while the latter in
all
its seeming effulgence and glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can
never
be eternal, and is simply an illusion, or Maya.". (SD Vol I 70)

"As declared by an American Theosophist, "The Monads (of Leibnitz) may from
one point of view be called force, from another matter. To occult Science,
force and matter are only two sides of the same
SUBSTANCE." (SD Vol I 623)  

".Spirit and Matter being One, as repeatedly stated. Spirit is matter on
the seventh plane; matter is Spirit -- on the lowest point of its cyclic
activity; and both -- are MAYA."	(SD Vol I 633)  

Here H.P.Blavatsky tells us that both matter and spirit are maya.
Yet this idea, that the lower four planes are maya while the upper three are
absolute is continued throughout the SD:

"When Buddhi absorbs our EGOtism (destroys it) with all its Vikaras,
Avalokiteshvara becomes manifested to us, and Nirvana, or Mukti, is
reached," "Mukti" being the same as Nirvana, i.e., freedom from the trammels
of "Maya" or illusion.	(SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. I xix)

"Mind, as we know it, is resolvable into states of consciousness, of varying
duration, intensity, complexity, etc. -- all, in the ultimate, resting on
sensation, which is again Maya."	(SD Vol I 2)

"Esoteric philosophy, regarding as Maya (or the illusion of ignorance) every
finite thing, must necessarily view in the same light every intra-Cosmic
planet and body, as being something organised, hence finite." 
(SD Vol I 11)

".the permutations (psychic, spiritual and physical), on the plane of
manifestation and form, of the sixth . are viewed by metaphysical
antiphrasis
as illusive and Mayavic." (SD Vol I 17-18)

".even Adi-Budha (first or primeval wisdom) is, while manifested, in one
sense an illusion, Maya, since all the gods, including Brahma, have to die
at the
end of the "Age of Brahma." (SD Vol I 54)

"THE SPARK HANGS FROM THE FLAME BY THE FINEST THREAD OF FOHAT. IT JOURNEYS
THROUGH THE SEVEN WORLDS OF MAYA.." (SD Vol I 34)

"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."	(SD Vol I 39)

"But the miner knows what the gold will look like when extracted from the
quartz, whereas the common mortal can form no conception of the reality of
things separated from the Maya which veils them, and in which they are
hidden.
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." (SD Vol I 45)

"We take up the gage over and over, life after life, in experience after
experience, never completely defeated if we always look to Krishna —our
higher self. And in the tale of Arjuna we find this also. For in a
succeeding book, called Anugita, is an account of the hero walking with
Krishna through the PALACE OF MAYA. The battle over, for the time, Arjuna
tells his friend that he has really forgotten much that he had told him (in
the Bhagavad-Gita) and asks for a succinct repetition. This is given to him
by the great warrior. 
The palace of maya is this body of illusion, built up around us by desire.
In our last birth we had all the advice given in this poem, and walking
today through the palace, which sometimes seems so lovely, we now and then
have reminiscences from the past. Sometimes we stoutly take up the fight;
but surely, if we have listened to the guide aright, we will compel
ourselves at last to carry it out until finished. "	Gita Notes, p. 30

UNITY - SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT - [Destroys Maya]

This chapter [VII] is devoted to the question of that spiritual discernment
by means of which the Supreme Spirit can be discerned in all things, and the
absence of which causes a delusion constantly recurring, the producer of
sorrow. Krishna says that this sort of knowledge leaves nothing else to be
known, but that to attain it the heart— that is, every part of the nature—
must be fixed on the Spirit, meditation has to be constant, and the Spirit
made the refuge or abiding-place. He then goes on to show that to have
attained to such a height is to be a mahatma. 

"Among thousands of mortals a single one perhaps strives for perfection, and
among those so striving perhaps a single one knows me as I am. "

This points out the difficulty to be met in any one life, but is not cause
for discouragement. It simply makes clear the fact, and thus also punctures
the boastful claims of those who would pretend to have reached perfection
but do not show it in their acts. 

He then gives an eightfold division of his inferior nature, or that part of
the Universal One which can be known. This is not the nature of man, and
does not oppose the theosophical sevenfold system of human principles. No
particular theosophical classification for the divisions of nature has been
given out. It would, on the one hand, not be understood, and on the other,
disputes leading to no good end would follow. He might as well have stated
the twenty-fivefold division held by some other school.

MAYA - ILLUSION  

This "inferior nature" is only so relatively. It is the phenomenal and
transient which disappears into the superior at the end of a kalpa. It is
that part of God, or of the Self, which chose to assume the phenomenal and
transient position, but is, in essence, as great as the superior nature. The
inferiority is only relative. As soon as objective material, and subjective
spiritual, worlds appear, the first-named has to be denominated inferior to
the other, because the spiritual, being the permanent base, is in that sense
superior; but as an absolute whole all is equal. 

Included in the inferior nature are all the visible, tangible, invisible and
intangible worlds; it is what we call nature. The invisible and intangible
are nonetheless actual; we know that poisonous gas, though invisible and
intangible, is fatally actual and potential.

Experiment and induction will confer a great deal of knowledge about the
inferior nature of God and along that path the science of the modern West is
treading, 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. [See CULTURE OF CONCENTRATION - Judge]

Krishna points out to Arjuna a gulf between the inferior and the superior.
This latter is the Knower and that which sustains the whole universe, and
from it the inferior nature springs. So the materialistic and scientific
investigator, the mere alchemist, the man who dives into the occult moved by
the desire for gain to himself, will none of them be able to cross the gulf
at all, because they do not admit the indwelling Spirit, the Knower. 

The superior nature can be known because it is in fact the Knower who
resides in every human being who has not degraded himself utterly. But this
must be admitted before any approach to the light can be made. And but few
are really willing, and many are unable, to admit the universal character of
the Self. They sometimes think they do so by admitting the Self as present,
as contiguous, as perhaps part tenant. This is not the admission, it leaves
them still separate from the Self. All the phenomenal appearances, all the
different names, and lives, and innumerable beings, are hung suspended, so
to say, on the Self. Thus: 
And all things hang on me as precious gems upon a string. 

A number of pre-eminently great and precious things and powers are here
enumerated and declared to be the Self; while next the very DELUSIONS AND
IMPERFECTIONS of life and man are included. Nothing is left out. This is
certainly better than an illogical religion which separates God from the
delusions and cruelties of nature, and then invents a third thing, in the
person of a devil, who is the source of human wickedness. 

All this further accentuates the difficulties in the way. Krishna says the
illusion is difficult to surmount, but that success can be attained by
taking refuge in the Self —for he is the Self. The entire congregation of
worshipers who are righteous find favor with the Self, but those who are
spiritually wise are on the path that leads to the highest, which is the
Self. 

This means, as Krishna says, that those who with the eye of spiritual wisdom
see that the Self is all, begin to reincarnate with that belief ingrained in
them. Hitherto they had come back to earth without that single idea, but
possessed of many desires and of ideas which separated them from the Self.
Now they begin to return fully at rest in the Self and working out their
long-accumulated karma. And at last they become what was mentioned in the
opening verses, a mahatma or great soul. 

There is, however, a large number of persons who are in the class which has
been deprived of spiritual discernment "through diversity of desires" or who
have not yet had discernment for the same reason. The verse reads as
follows: 
Those who through diversity of desires are deprived of spiritual wisdom
adopt particular rites subordinated to their own natures, and worship other
Gods. 
Although these words, like the rest of the colloquy, were spoken in India
and to a Hindu, they are thoroughly applicable in the West. 

Every mode of thought and of living may be called a rite gone over by each
one as his conscious or unconscious religion. A man adopts that which is
conformable, or subordinate, to his own nature, and being full of desires he
worships or follows other gods than the Supreme Self. In India the words
would more particularly mean the worship, which is quite common, of idols
among those who are not educated out of idolatry; but they would also mean
what is said above. 
----------------------------

I hope these are helpful.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew S
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 9:04 AM
To: 
Subject: RE: Reality

I do believe in maya (illusion) or the Buddhist concept of anicca
(transitoriness), but the idea of being stuck in our own heads (I.e. our own
"reality") forever still scares the bejesus out of me.  

CUT