Theos-Talk Archives (October 2004 Message tt00121)

Oct 4 2004

Dear friends:

Is the future knowable?

THEOSOPHY states:

Apparently if one knows KARMA, then the view of the future is available as a
focus on ever more accurate probability.  

But an absolute view would only be seen if every minute contribution or
detraction from the vast Karmic component of forces is perceptible. Then all
cycles would be taken into account. [See "APHORISMS ON KARMA" below]

It is said that the "Maha Chohan" is one before whom the future stands as a
"open book." [p. 47, LETTERS FROM THE MASTERS OF WISDOM, 1st Series]

Best wishes,

Dallas

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APHORISMS ON KARMA


(1) There is no Karma unless there is a being to make it or feel its
effects.

(2) Karma is the adjustment of effects flowing from causes, during which the
being upon whom and through whom that adjustment is effected experiences
pain or pleasure.

(3) Karma is an undeviating and unerring tendency in the Universe to restore
equilibrium, and it operates incessantly.

(4) The apparent stoppage of this restoration to equilibrium is due to the
necessary adjustment of disturbance at some other spot, place, or focus
which is visible only to the Yogi, to the Sage, or the perfect Seer: there
is therefore no stoppage, but only a hiding from view.

(5) Karma operates on all things and beings from the minutest conceivable
atom to Brahma. Proceeding in the three worlds men, gods, and the elemental
beings, no spot in the manifested universe is exempt from its sway.

(6) Karma is not subject to time, and therefore he who knows what is the
ultimate division of time in this Universe knows Karma.

(7) For all other men Karma is in its essential nature unknown and
unknowable.

(8) But its action may be known by calculation from cause to effect; and
this calculation is possible because the effect is wrapped up in and is not
succedent to the cause.

(9) The Karma of this earth is the combination of the acts and thoughts of
all beings of every grade which were concerned in the preceding Manvantara
or evolutionary stream from which ours flows.

(10) And as those beings include Lords of Power and Holy Men, as well as
weak and wicked ones, the period of the earth's duration is greater than
that of any entity or race upon it.

(11) Because the Karma of this earth and its races began in a past too far
back for human minds to reach, an inquiry into its beginning is useless and
profitless.

(12) Karmic causes already set in motion must be allowed to sweep on until
exhausted, but this permits no man to refuse to help his fellows and every
sentient being.

(13) The effects may be counteracted or mitigated by the thoughts and acts
of oneself or of another, and then the resulting effects represent the
combination and interaction of the whole number of causes involved in
producing the effects.

(14) In the life of worlds, races, nations, and individuals, Karma cannot
act unless there is an appropriate instrument provided for its action.

(15) And until such appropriate instrument is found, that Karma related to
it remains unexpended.

(16) While a man is experiencing Karma in the instrument provided, his other
unexpended Karma is not exhausted through other beings or means, but is held
reserved for future operation; and lapse of time during which no operation
of that Karma is felt causes no deterioration in its force or change in its
nature.

(17) The appropriateness of an instrument for the operation of Karma
consists in the exact connection and relation of the Karma with the body,
mind, intellectual and psychical nature acquired for use by the Ego in any
life.

(18) Every instrument used by any Ego in any life is appropriate to the
Karma operating through it.

(19) Changes may occur in the instrument during one life so as to make it
appropriate for a new class of Karma, and this may take place in two ways:
(a) through intensity of thought and the power of a vow, and (b) through
natural alterations due to complete exhaustion of old causes.

(20) As body and mind and soul have each a power of independent action, any
one of these may exhaust, independently of the others, some Karmic causes
more remote from or nearer to the time of their inception than those
operating through other channels.

(21) Karma is both merciful and just. Mercy and Justice are only opposite
poles of a single whole; and Mercy without Justice is not possible in the
operations of Karma. That which man calls Mercy and Justice is defective,
errant, and impure.

(22) Karma may be of three sorts: (a) presently operative in this life
through the appropriate instruments; (b) that which is being made or stored
up to be exhausted in the future; Karma held over from past life or lives
and not operating yet because inhibited by inappropriateness of the
instrument in use by the Ego, or by the force of Karma now operating.

(23) Three fields of operation are used in each being by Karma: (a) the body
and the circumstances; (b) the mind and intellect; the psychic and astral
planes.

(24) Held-over Karma or present Karma may each, or both at once, operate in
all of the three fields of Karmic operation at once, or in either of those
fields a different class of Karma from that using the others may operate at
the same time.

(25) Birth into any sort of body and to obtain the fruits of any sort of
Karma is due to the preponderance of the line of Karmic tendency.

(26) The sway of Karmic tendency will influence the incarnation of an Ego,
or any family of Egos, for three lives at least, when measures of
repression, elimination, or counteraction are not adopted.

(27) Measures taken by an Ego to repress tendency, eliminate defects, and to
counteract by setting up different causes, will alter the sway of Karmic
tendency and shorten its influence in accordance with the strength or
weakness of the efforts expended in carrying out the measures adopted.

(28) No man but a sage or true seer can judge another's Karma. Hence while
each receives his deserts, appearances may deceive, and birth into Poverty
or heavy trial may not be punishment for bad Karma, for Egos continually
incarnate into poor surroundings where they experience difficulties and
trials which are for the discipline of the Ego and result in strength,
fortitude, and sympathy.

(29) Race-Karma influences each unit in the race through the law of
Distribution. National Karma operates on the members of the nation by the
same law more concentrated. Family Karma governs only with a nation where
families have been kept pure and distinct; for in any nation where there is
a mixture of family - as obtains in each Kaliyuga period - family Karma is
in general distributed over a nation. But even at such periods some families
remain coherent for long periods, and then the members feel the sway of
family Karma. The word "family" may include several smaller families.

(30) Karma operates to produce cataclysms of nature by concatenation through
the mental and astral planes of being. A cataclysm may be traced to an
immediate physical cause such as internal fire and atmospheric disturbance,
but these have been brought on by the disturbance created through the
dynamic power of human thought.

(31) Egos who have no Karmic connection with a portion of the globe where a
cataclysm is coming on are kept without the latter's operation in two ways:
(a) by repulsion acting on their inner nature, and (b) by being called and
warned by those who watch the progress of the world.

Path, March, 1893
 
-- W Q Judge

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

On Rounds and Cycles

There is this to offer:


THEOSOPHY A BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

Theosophy is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to shore of
the evolution of sentient beings; unfathomable in its deepest parts, it
gives the greatest minds their fullest scope, yet, shallow enough at its
shores, it will not overwhelm the understanding of a child. It is Wisdom,
for it is the science of sciences. It is therefore complete in itself and
sees no unsolvable mystery anywhere. It throws the word coincidence out of
its vocabulary. It hails the reign of law in everything and every
circumstance. 

The vast array of objects and men are not mere collections of atoms
fortuitously thrown together and thus without law evolving law, but down to
the smallest atom all is soul and spirit ever evolving under the rule of law
which is inherent in the whole. Theosophy teaches that the course of
evolution is the drama of the soul and that nature exists for no other
purpose than the soul's experience. 


SCALES OF INTELLIGENCE -- THE SAGES

The Theosophist asserts that there must be beings in the universe whose
intelligence is as much beyond ours as ours exceeds that of the black
beetle, and those possessing such advanced intelligence naturally take an
active and cooperative part in the government of the natural order of
things. They are the active, and wise assistants of Nature, [the UNIVERSE]
as a whole. The Theosophist adds that such Wise Sages are Intelligences
which were once human, and came like all of us from other and previous
worlds. 

The most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never, been without a
friend, but has a line of elder brothers who continually watch over the
progress of the less progressed, preserve the knowledge gained through aeons
of trial and experience, and continually seek for opportunities of drawing
the developing intelligence of the race to consider the great truths
concerning the destiny of the soul. 

We are therefore not appearing for the first time when we come upon this
planet, but have pursued a long, an immeasurable course of activity and
intelligent perception on other systems of globes, some of which were
destroyed ages before the solar system condensed. 


UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION -- ITS RECORDS

This immense reach of the evolutionary system means, that this planet on
which we now are, is the result of the activity and the evolution of some
earlier one that died long ago. It left its energy to be used in the
bringing into existence the earth. Further, the inhabitants of the Earth, in
their turn, came from some older world. They are now proceeding with their
destined work in the "matter" we are familiar with here. 

The Elder Brothers of the human race, keep the knowledge they have gained of
the laws of nature in all departments, and are ready when cyclic law permits
to use it for the benefit of mankind. They have always existed as a body,
all knowing each other, no matter in what part of the world they may be, and
all working for the race in many different ways. [see ISIS UNVEILED, Vol. 2,
pp. 98-103] 

They have stood by the cradle of nations and seen the vast achievements of
the ancients, watched sadly the decay of those who had no power to resist
the cyclic law of rise and fall; and while cataclysms seemed to show a
universal destruction of art, architecture, religion, and philosophy, they
have preserved the records of it all in places secure from the ravages of
either men or time. They have made minute observations, through trained
psychics among their own order, into the unseen realms of nature and of
mind, recorded the observations, and have preserved the record. And,
greater feat than all -- one which implies a knowledge of the very
foundations of nature -- they know what the ultimate divisions of time are
and what are the meaning and the times of the cycles. [ see SECRET DOCTRINE
Vol. I, pp. 272-3 ]


CYCLES OF KNOWLEDGE AND EVOLUTION

Under cyclic law, during a dark period in the history of mind, the true
philosophy disappears for a time, but the same law causes it to reappear.
It is the Master's work to preserve the true philosophy, but the help of the
companions is needed to rediscover and promulgate it. 

The periods, when out of the Great Unknown there comes forth the visible
universes, are eternal in their coming and going. These alternate with
equal periods of silence and rest in that Unknown. The object of these
mighty waves is the production of Perfect Man, the evolution of Soul, and
they always witness the increase of the number of Elder Brothers. The Elder
Brothers are the highest product of evolution through whom alone, in
cooperation with the whole human family, the further regular and workmanlike
prosecution of the plans of the Great Architect of the Universe can be
carried on. 


THEOSOPHY DEALS WITH OUR EARTH IN THE UNIVERSE

The teachings of Theosophy deal for the present with our earth, although its
purview extends to all the worlds, since no part of the manifested universe
is outside the single body of laws which operate upon us. Our globe being
one of the solar system is certainly connected with other planets, but as
the great human family has to remain with its material vehicle -- the earth
-- until all the units of the race which are ready, are perfected, the
evolution of that family is of greater importance to the members of it. 


SEVEN-FOLD NATURE AND MAN -- " 7 PRINCIPLES"

The universe evolves from the unknown, on seven planes, and in seven ways in
all worlds. And this sevenfold differentiation causes all the worlds of the
universe, and the beings thereon, to have a septenary constitution. 

The divisions of the sevenfold universe may be laid down roughly as: The
Absolute, Spirit, Mind, Matter, Will, Akasa or AEther, and Life. In place of
"the Absolute" we can use the word "Space." For "Space" is that which ever
is, and in which all manifestation must take place. 

Our knowledge begins with differentiation, and all manifested objects,
beings, or powers are only differentiations of the Great Unknown. 

The most that can be said of the Absolute" is that IT periodically
differentiates itself, and periodically withdraws the differentiated into
itself. As to "the Absolute," we can do no more than say IT IS. None of the
Great Teachers of the School ascribe qualities to "the Absolute," although
all qualities exist in It. 

The first differentiation -- speaking metaphysically as to time -- is
Spirit, with which appears Matter and Mind. This is a Unit, and, called the
"Monad." [ In manifestation, it is a triune Unity, consisting of:
ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS, or, Spirit - Wisdom - Mind] The Monad is held to be
immortal throughout the great life-cycle, whether Manvantara or Kalpa. It
is the basis for human Individuality.

The term "Akasa," taken from the Sanskrit, is used in place of AEther, to
properly designate that tenuous state of matter which is now sometimes
called "Ether" by modern science. Akasa is produced from Matter and Spirit.

Will is the force of Spirit in action. And Life (Jiva) is a resultant of
the action of Akasa, moved by Spirit, upon Matter. 

But the Matter here spoken of, is not that which is commonly known as such.
It is the Real Matter which is always invisible, and has sometimes been
called Primordial Matter. In the Brahmanical system it is called
"Mulaprakriti" (or "Root Matter"). And it is sometimes referred to as
"Maha-Buddhi." [In considering this, one may think of an "atom" as
essentially an eternal, individualized field of electro-magnetic Force.
Physical material is condensed in and around it by attraction. The
formation of worlds, and the reincarnation of human Souls, may be thought of
in similar terms, and follow a similar pattern.]

The ancient teaching always held, as is now admitted by Science, that we see
or perceive only the phenomena but not the essential nature, cause or being
of Matter. 


UNIVERSAL PLAN OF MANIFESTATION

Mind (the Universal Mind or Mahat) is the intelligent part of the Cosmos.
In the collection of seven differentiations roughly sketched above,
Universal Mind is that in which the Plan of the Cosmos is fixed or
contained. This Plan is brought over from a prior period of manifestation,
which added to its ever-increasing perfectness as it proceeds. No limit can
be set to its evolutionary possibilities in perfectness, because, as there
was never any beginning to the periodical manifestations of "the Absolute,"
there never will be an end, but forever the going forth and withdrawing into
the Unknown will go on. 

Wherever a world or system of worlds is evolving there the Plan has been
laid down in Universal Mind, the original force comes from Spirit, the basis
is Matter -- which is in fact invisible -- Life sustains all the forms, and
Akasa is the connecting link between Matter on one side and Spirit-Mind on
the other. 


END OF A CYCLE -- CATACLYSMS - DELUGES

When a world or a system comes to the end of certain great cycles, men
record a cataclysm in history or tradition. These universal traditions
abound, all pointing to early teaching and dim recollection of periodical
destructions and renovations. Just as there are periodical minor cataclysms
or partial destructions, so, the doctrine holds, there is, as a prototype,
the universal evolution and involution. 

Forever the Great Breath goes forth and returns again. As it proceeds
outwards, objects, worlds and men appear; as it recedes all disappear into
the original source. 

This is the waking and the sleeping of the "Great Being;" and is symbolized
as the "Day" and the "Night" of Brahma. It is the prototype of our waking
days and sleeping nights as men, and, of our disappearance at the end of one
short human life, and, it also implies our return (through reincarnation) to
take up our unfinished work in a new body, in a new day. 


EVOLUTION RECORDED IN BRAHMANICAL RECORDS

No mind can comprehend the "Infinite and Absolute Unknown," which IS, has no
beginning and shall have no end; which IS both last and first, because,
whether differentiated or withdrawn into ITSELF, IT ever is. This is the
"God" spoken of as the one around whose pavilion there is darkness. 

This cosmic and human chronology of the Hindus may still be laughed at by
western Orientalists and Scientists, yet they can furnish nothing better and
are continually disagreeing with each other on the same subject. As years
pass since Theosophy was promulgated, Science has come closer in their
estimates to the figures of the Oriental chronology.  

When this day opens, cosmic evolution, so far as relates to this solar
system, begins and occupies between one and two billions of years in
evolving the very ethereal first matter before the astral kingdoms of
mineral, vegetable, animal and men are possible. 


PLANS AND MATERIAL IN EVOLUTION

In these the, very distant and very silent past, Man could not have his
bodily temple to live in, until all the matter in and about his world had
been found by the Master, the spiritual and eternal Inner Man. Once found,
the plans for working it required to be carried out in detail, until all the
parts should be perfectly ready and fit for placing in the final structure. 

This is the gradual coming forth of the known and heterogeneous from the
unknown and homogeneous. The ancient Egyptian and Hindu Theosophists never
admitted a creation out of nothing, but ever strenuously insisted upon
evolution, by gradual stages. All the various powers and potentialities
needed, had to be well worked out in this slow but sure process. At last
man is put upon the scene: a sevenfold being, a miniature of the universe
and earth, which are sevenfold. 

Each of Man's seven principles is derived from one of the great first seven
divisions. And each relates to a planet, by analogy, or a scene of
evolution; and to a race in which that evolution was carried out. So the
first sevenfold differentiation is important to be borne in mind, since it
is the basis of all that follows; just as the universal evolution is
septenary so the evolution of humanity, sevenfold in its constitution, is
carried out upon a septenary Earth. This is spoken of in Theosophical
literature as the Sevenfold Planetary Chain, and is intimately connected
with Man's special evolution. [see SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. I, pp. 570-574]


CONSOLIDATION OF MATERIALS AND FORMS

This second step takes some three hundred millions of years, and then still
more material processes go forward for the production of the tangible
(physical matter) kingdoms of nature, including man. This covers over one
and one-half billions of years. And the number of solar years included in
the present "human" period is over eighteen millions of years. [SECRET
DOCTRINE Vol. I, pp. 150, footnote]

During all these ages before man's physical body came into being, evolution
was carrying on the work of perfecting various powers which are now our
possession. This was accomplished by the Ego or Real Man going through
experience in countless conditions of matter, all different one from the
other, and the same plan in general was and is pursued as prevails in
respect to the general evolution of the universe.

That is, details were first worked out in spheres of being very ethereal,
metaphysical, in fact. Then the next step brought the same details to be
worked out on a plane of matter a little more dense, until at last it could
be done on our present plane of what we miscall "gross matter." This is
called the "descent of Spirit into Matter."

When the rough work was completed, when the human "temple" was erected, many
more ages were required for all the servants, and the councilors to learn
their parts, so that man, the Master, might be able to use the physical
temple for its best and highest purposes. Theosophy alone, inclusive of all
systems and every experience, gives the key, the plan, the doctrine, the
truth of these great natural processes. 

To state it in another way. The Plan comes first in the Universal Mind,
after which the astral model or basis is made, and when that astral model is
completed, the whole process is gone over so as to condense the matter, up
to the middle of the Fourth Round. 

It is stated that the stream of Monads begins first to work up the mass of
matter in what are called elemental conditions when all is gaseous or fiery.
For the ancient and true theory is that no evolution is possible without the
"Monads" as the innumerable vivifying agents. In this first stage there is
no animal or vegetable. Next comes the mineral when the whole mass hardens,
the Monads being all imprisoned within. Then the first Monads emerge into
vegetable forms which they construct themselves, and no animals yet appear.
Next the first class of Monads emerges from the vegetable and gradually
produce the animal forms. Then, the human astral and shadowy model is
constructed, and we have minerals, vegetables, animals and future men, for
the second and later classes are still evolving in the lower kingdoms. 


MONADIC EVOLUTION	

Considering our Earth, the view put forward by Theosophy regarding its
genesis, its evolution and the evolution of the Human, Animal and other
Monads, is quite different from modern ideas, and in some things contrary to
accepted theories. We find that the Scientific theories of today are not
stable. They change with each century, while the Theosophical one never
alters. It is the result of age-old and continuous verification by the
Elder Brothers. These have now caused its repromulgation and pointed to its
confirmation in ancient books and traditions. To them, it is a statement of
facts in nature. 


ROUNDS, GLOBES, RACES

The sevenfold Earth is a living oneness -- a sentient entity -- and not a
mere lump of gross matter. Being an entity of a septenary nature, there must
be six other Globes which roll with it in space. 

This company of seven Globes has been called the "Earth Chain," or, the
"Planetary Chain." To make this concept clear Theosophy states: The earth
is one of seven globes, in respect to man's consciousness only, because when
he functions on one of the seven he perceives it as a distinct globe and
does not see the other six. 

This is in perfect correspondence with man himself who has six other
constituents of which only the gross body is visible to him because he is
now functioning on the physical Earth, or the fourth Globe -- and his body
represents the Earth. We have a statement that these Globes are united in
one mass, each interpenetrating the others, but differing from each other in
substance, and, that this difference of substance is due to change of center
of consciousness. To explain further: 

The whole seven "Globes" constitute one single mass or Great Globe, and they
all interpenetrate each other. We have to say "Globe," because the ultimate
shape is globular or spherical. 

In studying the diagrams used in the Secret Doctrine to illustrate the
scheme, one has to pay close attention to the accompanying explanations and
cautions given by H. P. Blavatsky. Both she and her Adept teachers say, that
the seven globes of our chain are in "coadunition with each other but not in
consubstantiality." [Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 166, 200] This is further
enforced by cautions not to rely on statistics, or plane surface diagrams,
but to look at the metaphysical and spiritual aspect of the theory as stated
in English. 


THE EARTH HAS REINCARNATED

The Earth Chain of seven Globes as thus defined is the direct reincarnation
of a former chain of seven Globes, and that former family of seven was the
Moon chain, the moon itself being the visible representative of the fourth
Globe of the old chain. 

When that former vast entity composed of the Moon and six others, all united
in one mass, reached its limit of life, it died just as any being dies. Each
one of the seven sent its energies into space and gave similar life or
vibration to cosmic dust -- matter, -- and the total cohesive force of the
whole kept the seven energies together. [ see SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. I pp.
152-154, 171-181 ]


NUMBER OF EGOS INCARNATING IS FIXED

The stream or mass of Egos which evolves on the seven Globes of our chain is
limited in number, yet the actual quantity is enormous. For though the
universe is limitless and infinite, yet in any particular portion of Cosmos
in which manifestation and evolution have begun, there is a limit to the
extent of manifestation and to the number of Egos engaged therein. 


EVOLUTION PASSING FROM GLOBE TO GLOBE

The whole number of Monads now going through evolution on our Earth Chain
came over from the old seven Globes which I have described. This mass of
Egos has also been called a "life wave," meaning the stream of Monads. [
see SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. I pp 171-175 ]

Hence we have the Rounds and Races. These are all periods of time.

The Round is a circling of the seven centers [Globes] of planetary
consciousness. [ S D I 200 ]


"RACES"

The Race, is the racial development on one of those seven. [This has nothing
to do with our modern definition of ethnic "races," or of the color of the
skin.] "Race" as used in Theosophy is a period of time.

There are seven Races for each Globe, but the total of forty-nine Races only
makes up seven Great Races, (the special septenate of Races on each Globe or
planetary center composing in reality one race of seven constituents or
special peculiarities of function and power). 

Illustrating this, it is taught that on the Americas is to be evolved the
new -- sixth -- Race; and here all the races of the earth are now engaged in
a great amalgamation from which will result a very highly developed
Sub-Race, after which others will be evolved by similar processes until the
new one is completed. 


PERFECTION AND THE END OF EVOLUTION

Each one of the Globes is used by evolutionary law for the development of
seven "Races," and of senses, faculties and powers appropriate to that state
of matter. (the experience of the whole seven Globes being needed to make a
perfect development in man's consciousness and character). 

Upon this earth and upon the whole chain of Globes of which it is a part
seven races of men appeared simultaneously, their destiny is to slowly
differentiate during the succeeding rounds until at the seventh round the
seven first great races will be once more distinct, as perfect types of the
human race as this period of evolution will allow. At the present time the
seven races are mixed together, and representatives of all are in the many
so-called races of men as classified by our present science. The object of
this amalgamation and subsequent differentiation is to give to every race
the benefit of the progress and power of the whole derived from prior
progress in other planets and systems. For Nature never does her work in a
hasty or undue fashion, but, by the sure method of mixture, precipitation,
and separation, brings about the greatest perfection. 

But when the last, the seventh Race has appeared and fully perfected itself,
in the 7th Round and the 7th Globe, a great dissolution comes on, similar to
that which preceded the birth of the earth's chain. 

Subsequent to that, which is our future, the whole mass is spiritualized
with full consciousness and the entire body of globes raised up to a higher
plane of development.

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

Best wishes,

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

-----Original Message-----
From: mika 
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 5:10 AM
To: 
Subject: Re: planes/globes


From: "Zakk Duffany" wrote:

Again I have to say that if the future is knowable, then it must be
fixed, and in that case we cannot have free will.