Theos-Talk Archives (October 2004 Message tt00208)

PART II	DEPT WORK

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



MONAD and the PERSONAL MAN


"At the birth of the future man, the monad, radiating with all the glory of
its immortal parent which watches it from the 7th sphere, becomes senseless.
It loses all recollection of the past, and returns to consciousness but
gradually, when the instinct of childhood gives place to reason and
intelligence. After the separation between the life-principle (astral
spirit) and the body takes place, the liberated soul--Monad, exultingly
rejoins the mother and father spirit, the radiant Augoeides, and the 2
merged into ONE, forever form, with a glory proportioned to the spiritual
purity of the past earth-life, the Adam who has completed the circle of
necessity, and is freed from the last vestige of his physical encasement.
Henceforth, growing more and more radiant at each step of his upward
progress, he mounts the shining path that ends at the point which he started
around the GRAND CYCLE."	ISIS I 303



WORK OF A GREAT REFORMER: BUDDHA GAUTAMA SIDDARTHA


BUDDHA SIDDHARTHA (Sk.)	The name given to Gautama, the Prince of
Kapilavastu, at his birth...he would not have been a mortal man, had he not
passed through hundreds and thousands of births previous to his
last...through every stage of transmigration from the lowest animate and
inanimate atom and insect, up to the highest--man, ...the hidden symbolism
in the sequence of these re-births (jataka) contains simply [that] every
human being who has ever existed has passed through the same evolution...as
soon as Gautama had reached the human form he began exhibiting in every
personality the utmost unselfishness, self-sacrifice and charity...the 4th
of the Sapta (7) Buddhas and Sapta Tathagatas...(67) Esoteric teachings
claim that he renounced Nirvana and gave up the Dharmakaya vesture to remain
a "Buddha of compassion" within the reach of the miseries of this world.
And the religious philosophy he left to it has produced for over 2,000 years
generations of good and unselfish men. His is the only absolutely bloodless
religion among all existing religions...[if the] simple, humane and
philosophical code of daily life left to us by the greatest Man-Reformer
ever known, should ever come to be adopted by mankind at large, then indeed
an era of bliss and peace would dawn on Humanity."	GLOS 65-67



MASTERS and ADEPTS ARE EVERYWHERE: -- 
RECORDERS OF PROGRESS


"There are scattered throughout the world, a handful of thoughtful and
solitary students, who pass their lives in obscurity, far from the rumors of
the world, studying the great problems of the physical and spiritual
universes. They have their secret records in which are preserved the fruits
of the scholastic labors of the long line of recluses whose successors they
are. The knowledge of their early ancestors, the sages of India, Babylon,
Nineveh, and the imperial Thebes; the legends and traditions commented upon
by the masters of Solon, Pythagoras, and Plato, in the (558) marble halls of
Heliopolis and Sais; traditions which in their days, already seemed to
hardly glimmer from behind the foggy curtain of the past;--all this, and
much more, is recorded on indestructible parchment, and passed with jealous
care from one adept to another. These men believe the story of Atlantis to
be no fable...In those submerged temples and libraries the archaeologist
would find, could he but explore them, the materials for filling the gaps
that now exist in what we imagine is history." ISIS I
557-558		
(see LIGHT ON THE PATH, p. 72-5)



INSPIRATION FROM THE NIRMANAKAYAS


"Most of us believe in the survival of the Spiritual Ego, in Planetary
Spirits and Nirmanakayas, those great Adepts of the past ages, who,
renouncing their right to Nirvana, remain in our spheres of being, not as
"spirits" but as complete spiritual human Beings. Save their corporeal,
visible envelope, which they leave behind, they remain as they were, in
order to help poor humanity, as far as can be done without sinning against
Karmic law. This is the "Great Renunciation," indeed; an incessant,
conscious self-sacrifice throughout aeons and ages till that day when the
eyes of blind mankind will open and, instead of the few, all will see the
universal truth. These Beings may well be regarded as God and Gods--if they
would but allow the fire in our hearts, at the thought of that purest of all
sacrifices, to be fanned into the flame of adoration, or the smallest altar
in their honor. But they will not. Verily, "the secret heart is fair
Devotion's (only) temple," and any other in this case, would be no better
than profane ostentation."	HPB ART. III 204


"Remember, thou that fightest for man's liberation * each failure is success
and each sincere attempt wins its reward in time." * This is an allusion to
a well-known belief in the East...that every additional Buddha or Saint is a
new soldier in the army of those who work for the liberation, or salvation
of mankind. In Northern Buddhist countries, where the doctrine of the
Nirmanakayas--those Bodhisattvas who renounce well-earned Nirvana or the
Dharmakaya vesture (both of which shut them out forever from the world of
men) in order to invisibly assist mankind and lead it finally to
Paranirvana--is taught, every new Bodhisattva, or initiated great Adept, is
called the "liberator of mankind."	VOICE OF THE SILENCE 69



COMPASSION -- SELF-SACRIFICE


"This same popular reverence calls "Buddhas of Compassion" those
Bodhisattvas who, having reached the rank of an Arhat (i.e., have completed
the fourth or seventh Path), refuse to pass into the Nirvanic state or "don
the Dharmakaya robe and cross to the other shore," as it would then become
beyond their power to assist men even so little as Karma permits. They
prefer to remain invisibly (in Spirit, so to speak) in the world, and
contribute towards man's salvation by influencing them to follow the Good
Law, i.e., lead them on the Path of Righteousness..."
VOICE OF THE SILENCE 77




WISDOM RELIGION PRESERVED SINCE ANTIQUITY --
ADEPTS WORK WITH HUMANITY 


"This ancient body of doctrine is known as the "Wisdom Religion" and was
always taught by adepts or initiates therein who preserve it through all
time. Hence, and from other doctrines demonstrated, it is shown that man,
being spirit and immortal, is able to perpetuate his real life and
consciousness, and has done so during all time in the persons of an ancient
and high brotherhood who concern themselves with the soul development of
man, held by them to include every process of evolution on all planes. The
initiates, being bound by the law of evolution, must work with humanity as
its development permits. Therefore from time to time they give out again
and again the same doctrine...this is the wisdom religion, and they are the
keepers of it."	WQJ ARTICLES I pp. 1 - 2



SAVIORS OF NATIONS AND OF MEN -- 
TEACHERS OF TRUTH -- ALIVE NOW


"At times they come to nations as great teachers and "saviors," who only
repromulgate the old truths and systems of ethics. This therefore holds
that humanity is capable of infinite perfection both in time and quality,
the saviors and adepts being held up as examples of that possibility. From
this living and presently acting body of perfected men H.P.Blavatsky
declared she received the impulse to once more bring forward the old ideas,
and from them also received several keys to ancient and modern doctrines.
Added...to the testimony through all time found in the records of all
nations we have this modern explicit assertion that the ancient learned and
humanitarian body of adepts still exists on this earth and takes an interest
in the development of the race." WQJ ARTICLES I PP. 1-2


"NIRMANAKAYA...is that ethereal form which one would assume when leaving his
physical he would appear in his astral body--having in addition all the
knowledge of an Adept. The Bodhisattva develops it in himself as he
proceeds on the Path. Having reached the goal and refused its fruition, he
remains on Earth, as an (78) Adept; and when he dies, instead of going into
Nirvana, he remains in that glorious body he has woven for himself,
invisible to uninitiated mankind, to watch over and protect it...Thus, to be
enabled to help humanity, an Arhat who has won the right to Nirvana,
"renounces the Dharmakaya body" in mystic parlance; keeps, of the
Sambhogakaya, only the great and complete knowledge, and remains in his
Nirmanakaya body. The Esoteric School teaches that Gautama Buddha, with
several of his Arhats, is such a Nirmanakaya higher than whom, on account of
the great renunciation and sacrifice for mankind, there is none known."
Voice 77-8



CYCLES FOR THE APPEARANCE OF SAGES


"...there never was yet a great World-reformer, whose name has passed into
our generation, who (a) was not a direct emanation of the LOGOS (under
whatever name known to us), i.e., an essential incarnation of one of "the
seven," of the "divine Spirit who is sevenfold;" and (b) who had not
appeared before, during the (359) past Cycles. They will recognize, then,
the cause which produces in history and chronology certain riddles of the
ages; the reason why, for instance, it is impossible for them to assign any
reliable date to Zoroaster, who is found multiplied by 12 and 14 in the
Dabistan; why the Rishis and Manus are so mixed up in their numbers and
individualities; why Krishna and Buddha speak of themselves as
re-incarnations, i.e., Krishna is identified with the Rishi Narayana, and
Gautama gives a series of his previous births; and why the former,
especially, being "the very supreme Brahma," is yet called Amsamsavatra--"a
part of the part" only of the Supreme on Earth...The esoteric doctrine
explains it by saying that each of these (as many others) had first appeared
on earth as one of the 7 powers of the LOGOS, individualized as a God or
"Angel" (messenger); then, mixed with matter, they had re-appeared in turn
as great sages and instructors who "taught the 5th Race," after having
instructed the two preceding races, had ruled during the Divine Dynasties,
and had finally sacrificed themselves, to be reborn under various
circumstances for the good of mankind, and for its salvation at certain
critical periods; until in their last incarnations they had become truly
only "the parts of a part" on earth, though de facto the One Supreme in
Nature."	SD II 358-9



CYCLES FOR THE APPEARANCE OF "SAVIORS"


"It is interesting to turn to the "Esoteric Character of the Gospels" [ HPB
ARTICLES III 169 fn ], by HPB. Theosophists--at any rate some of them--who
understand the hidden meaning of the universally expected Avatars, Messiahs,
and Sosioshes and Christs--know that it is no end of the world, but the
consummation of the age--that is, the close of the cycle--that is fast
approaching." [This was written November and December, 1887, and January,
1888.] She said, "There are several remarkable cycles that come to a close
at the end of this century [nineteenth]. First, the 5,000 years of the
Kali-Yuga cycle; again, the Messianic cycle of the Samaritan (also
Kabalistic) Jews, of the Man connected with Pices. It is a cycle historic
and not very long, but very occult, lasting about 2155 years, but having a
true significance only when computed by lunar months. It occurred 2410 and
255 B.C. or when the equinox entered into the sign of the Ram, and again
into that of Pices. When it enters in a few years, the sign of Aquarius,
psychologists will have some extra work to do, and the psychic
idiosyncrasies of man will enter on a great change." [ HPB Art III 169 fn ]


This "great change" I think can be stated in three words: Susceptibility to
suggestion, good, bad or indifferent. Look about you and see if it is not
so. Are the "Messiahs" of today using suggestion? ... Jesus said, "Take
heed lest no man lead you astray, for many shall come in my name, saying, 'I
am the Christ,' and shall lead many astray...If any man shall say unto you,
'Behold, he is in the wilderness,' go not forth; 'behold he is in the inner
chambers,' believe them not. For as the lightning (light) cometh from the
East, and is seen even in the West, so shall be the presence of the Son of
Man." The esoteric savior in no man, but is the divine principle in every
human being. What is needed is a knowledge of the Path that leads to Him or
It. Few know the Messenger when He comes, but it is possible for many to
know a true Message by putting it to every conceivable test. The "Messiah"
has come and gone; but (152) He has left the "Comforter"--His Message. He
will return, but not for several generations of men. it is possible for men
to get at the truth of these things if they will take the trouble to make
the search in all sincerity."	RC -- F P 151-2


"I produce myself among creatures" has reference to voluntary and conscious
incarnation of high spiritual beings--avatars, saviors of the people
--including not only the incarnation itself but the influence of a spiritual
kind that attends the being...The Gita says that They come "whenever there
is an insurrection of vice and injustice in the world." There is an analogy
between this and what was hinted about earthquakes by WQJ, who wrote at the
time of an earthquake that some soul of use had been born...There is reason
to think that the mission of Jesus was a minor one, being in a falling
cycle, and that it was not so much to disclose as to cover up the avenues to
occult knowledge, so that the following times of the decadence of
spirituality should (202) not have dangerous weapons left for selfish,
unprincipled and ignorant people to use; hence he accentuated ethics. This
does not mean that the being known as Jesus was inferior to the one known as
Buddha. They might have been one and the same being, in reality. The
statement is that the "missions" or efforts were of a different nature
because of the different cycles and peoples...We cannot judge of the nature
of any of these great incarnations, to the extent of saying that one is
superior to the other...Allied to our period, if we consider that the
quality of the cycle varies in importance, and, consequently, in the degree
of the being needed at any time, we find the conjunction of the cycles above
spoken of points to a most important period, and consequently, to important
"beings"--which may give us a clue to what the Messengers HPB and WQJ really
were. Other periods of less importance bring incarnations of probationary
chelas who are on their trial."
RC -- FP p. 201-2



NIRMANAKAYAS WORK -- THEIR RELATIONS WITH US


"Nirmanakayas. They are men who have become perfected--who could if they
chose reach up to and hold the very highest state of bliss, but who refuse
that bliss because it would mean forever to forsake all chance of helping
their fellow-men. They can, when the nature of the person is true and
aspiring strongly, communicate, if it is necessary to help him. But there
is no mistake in these communications. They are personal, meant for that
one as direct help. It is the within which induces any outside help that we
receive. It is a recognition of the spiritual nature of ourselves and all
beings which makes the true condition. It is from the spiritual that the
strength comes. And it is for the perfection of humanity that all the
Divine Incarnations have labored."	RC -- FP p. 258



"PERFECTED" SOULS -- STAND AS EXAMPLES: - WE CAN EMULATE


"No one can know anything for another. Each one has to know for himself.
Each one has to do his own learning. The object of Theosophy is to teach
man what he is, to show man what he is, and to present to him the necessity
of his knowing for himself. No vicarious atonement, no vicarious
transmission of knowledge, is possible. But the direction in which
knowledge lies can be pointed out; the steps which will lead us in that
direction may be shown, as can be done only by those who have passed that
way before...It is the doctrine of Krishna, of Buddha, of Jesus, no less
than the doctrine of H.P.B... The very fact of suffering is a blessing.
Karma and Reincarnation show us that suffering is brought about by wrong
thought and action; through our sufferings we may be brought to a
realization that a wrong course has been pursued. We learn through our
sufferings.

Life is one grand school of Being, and we have come to that stage where it
is right for us to learn to understand the purpose of existence; to grasp
our whole nature firmly; to use every means in our power in every
direction...to bring the whole of our nature into accord, so that our lower
instrument may be "in line" and thus more and more fully reflect our divine
natures."	RC -- FP p. 263



SAVIORS MAY TEACH -- WE HAVE TO MAKE THE EFFORT


"Savior after Savior has come to the earth for our benefit, but no one can
give us any more benefit than to point to the truths that have been given
all down the ages. We must take advantage of that knowledge and advance out
of the state in which we have placed ourselves. No Savior can save us. No
God can protect us. No devil can torment us. For both God and the devil
are within. The devil is the misunderstanding of our nature...It is the God
in us which demands self-advancement, self-induced and self-devised
exertions, and the full acceptance of responsibility."
FP p. 300
	

"...to realize our own responsibility to all others and to act in accordance
is to have become unselfish, and to have done away with the prime cause of
sin, sorrow and suffering...We must take care of each other, not of
ourselves...truth, as we know, always explains."	RC--FP p.
308

 

WE ARE NEVER "LEFT ALONE," or "ABANDONED" 


"Never have we been left alone. Always there are beings greater in
evolution than we, who return to this field of physical existence to help
us, to wake us up to a perception of our natures. Such has been the mission
of all Divine Incarnations down the ages. Those beings have come and lived
among us, have become "in all things like unto us," as was said of Jesus, in
order that the human words They spoke should be words we would understand.
They meet us on the basis of our ideas and try to clarify them and set them
in a true course. They can do nothing to stop what (338) we have done and
what we want to do; They can not interfere; but They can help us to see
the right direction, if we are so willed...Always They try to help us, even
when we are proceeding along wrong lines and bringing upon ourselves the
suffering such wrong lines entail--even then They try to direct the results
into a better channel..."	RC -- FP p. 337-8



KRISHNA' s TEACHINGS -- LINE OF TRANSMISSION


"This exhaustless doctrine of Yoga I formerly taught unto Vivaswat; (the
SUN, first manifestation of divine wisdom at the beginning of evolution)
Vivaswat communicated it to Manu (generic title for the reigning spirit of
the sensuous universe; the present one being Vivaswata Manu) and Manu made
it known unto Ikshwaku; (the founder of the Indian Solar dynasty --
[Suryavansa]) and being thus transmitted from one unto another it was
studied by the Raja-rishees, (Royal Sages) until in the course of time the
mighty art was lost, O harasser of thy foes. It is even the same
exhaustless, secret, eternal doctrine I have this day communicated unto thee
because thou art my devotee and my friend."	GITA p. 30


"...in the early part of a new creation called a Manwantara...a great Being
descends among men and imparts certain ideas and aspirations which
reverberate all through the succeeding ages until the day when the general
dissolution--the night of Brahma--comes on...Although "Vivaswata" as a name
for the sun reveals nothing to our western ears, there is a great truth
hidden behind it, just as to-day there is as great a mystery behind our
solar orb [see WQJ ARTICLES II 121]. He was the Being appointed to help and
guide the race at its beginning. He had himself, ages before, gone through
incarnation during other creations, and had mounted step-by-step the long
ladder of evolution until by natural right he had become a god. The same
process is going on to-day, preparing some Being for similar work in ages to
come. And it has gone on in the limitless past also; and always the
Supreme Spirit as Krishna (104) teaches the Being, so that he may implant
those ideas necessary for our salvation."
GITA NOTES p. 103-4



THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY


"In the Krita age, Vishnu, in the form of Kapila and other (inspired
sages)...imparts to the world true wisdom as Enoch did. In the Treta age he
restrains the wicked, in the form of a universal monarch (the Chakravartin--
or the 'Everlasting King' of Enoch) and protects the three worlds (or
races). "In the Dwapara age, in the person of Veda-Vyasa, he divides the
one Veda into four, and distributes it into hundreds (Sata) of branches."
Truly so; the Veda of the earliest Aryans, before it was written, went
forth into every nation of the Atlanto-Lemurians, off-shoots of the never
dying tree of wisdom have scattered their dead leaves even on
Judaeo-Christianity. And at the end of the Kali. our present age, Vishnu,
or the "Everlasting King" will appear as Kalki, and re-establish
righteousness upon earth. The minds of those who live at that time shall be
awakened, and become as pellucid as crystal. "The men who are those changed
by virtue of that peculiar time (the 6th race) shall be as the seeds of
other human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws
of the Krita age of purity;" i.e., it shall be the 7th race, the race of
"Buddhas," the "Sons of God," born of immaculate parents." SD II 483


ADEPTS SHIELD AND TRANSMIT SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE


"...there is the true center of which the sun in heaven is a symbol and
partial reflection. This center let us place for the time with the Dhyan
Chohans or planetary spirits. It is all knowing and so intensely powerful
that, were a struggling disciple to be suddenly introduced to its presence
unprepared, he would be consumed, both body and soul. And this is the goal
we are all striving after, and many of us asking to see even at the opening
of the race. But for our protection a cover, or umbrella, has been placed
beneath IT. The ribs are the Rishees, or Adepts, or Mahatmas; the Elder
Brothers of the race. The handle is in every man's hand. And although each
man is, or is to be, connected with some particular one of those Adepts, he
can also receive the influence from the true centre coming down through the
handle.

The light, life, knowledge, and power falling upon this cover permeate in
innumerable streams the whole mass of men beneath, whether they be students
or not. As the disciple strives upward, he begins to separate himself from
the great mass of human beings, and becomes in a more or less definite
manner connected with the ribs. Just as the streams of water flow down from
the points of the ribs of our umbrellas, so the spiritual influences pour
out from the adepts who form the frame of the protecting cover, without
which poor humanity would be destroyed by the blaze from the spiritual
world."	WQJ ARTICLES II 38



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR CHOICE PREVAILS


"Admitting that the Adepts have great powers, they have disclaimed the power
to alter human nature in any other was than through the processes of
evolution and always strictly under a rigid law of justice." 

"The Adepts do not yet appear publicly and proclaim themselves to the
world...because the cycle must run its course, since, if they proclaimed
themselves out of time a wrong result would be produced, just as a note,
good in itself, is a producer of discord when sounded out of time, place or
tune. This reason is the reason deduced from the law of cycles."	WQJ
ARTICLES II 53-4



ADEPT WORK NOW


"In this civilization especially we are inclined to look outside instead of
inside ourselves. Nearly all our progress is material and thus superficial.
Spirit is neglected or forgotten, while that which is not spirit is
enshrined as such. The intuitions of the little child are stifled until at
last they are almost lost, leaving the many at the mercy of judgments based
upon exterior reason. How then can one who has been near the Golden
Gates--much more he who passed through them--be other than silent in
surroundings where the golden refulgence is unknown or denied. Obliged to
use the words of his fellow travelers, he gives them a meaning unknown to
them, or detaches them from their accustomed relation. Hence he is
sometimes vague, often misleading, seldom properly understood. But not lost
are any of these words, for the sound through the ages, and in future eras
they will turn themselves into sentences of gold in the hearts of disciples
yet to come."	WQJ ARTICLES II 354



SACRIFICE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS FOR BENEFITING MATTER

		
"...the surname Christos is based on, and the story of the Crucifixion
derived from, events that preceded it. Everywhere, in India as in Egypt, in
Chaldea as in Greece, all these legends were built upon one and the same
primitive type; the voluntary sacrifice of the logoi--the rays of the one
LOGOS, the direct manifested emanation from the One ever-concealed Infinite
and Unknown--whose rays incarnated in mankind. They consented to fall into
matter, and are, therefore, called the "Fallen Ones." 
HPB ART III 189



REFINEMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS and 
DEFINITION OF RESPONSIBILITY


"...an absolute consciousness, "Adi-Buddhi"; and the Buddhist philosopher
knows that there are Planetary Spirits, the "Dhyan Chohans."... If the Dhyan
Chohans and all the invisible Beings--the Seven Centres and their direct
Emanations, the minor centres of Energy--are the direct reflex of the ONE
LIGHT, yet men are far removed from these, since the whole of the visible
Kosmos consists of "self-produced beings, the creatures of Karma." ... they
teach that only "two things are (objectively) eternal, namely Akasa and
Nirvana;" and that these are ONE in reality, and but a maya when divided."
SD I 635-6



SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION


"It is the Spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal man that forms the
fundamental tenet in the Occult Sciences...the ONE Universal Life,
independent of matter... and... the individual intelligences that animate
the various manifestations of this Principle...The ONE Life is closely
related to the one law which governs the World of Being--KARMA." SD
I 634



INTELLIGENCE INNATE IN ALL BEINGS DEMONSTRATED BY CYCLES


"The essential faculty possessed by all the cosmic and terrestrial elements,
of generating within themselves a regular and harmonious series of results,
a concatenation of causes and effects is an irrefutable proof that they are
either animated by an extra or intra INTELLIGENCE, or conceal such within or
behind the manifested veil...Newton...recognized fully the limits that
separate the action of natural Forces from that of the INTELLIGENCES that
set the innumerable laws into order and action... To become complete and
comprehensible, a cosmological theory has to start with a primordial
Substance diffused throughout boundless Space, of an intellectual and divine
Nature. That substance must be the Soul and Spirit, the Synthesis and 7th
Principle of the manifested Kosmos, and to serve as a spiritual Upadhi to
this, there must be the 6th, its vehicle--primordial physical
matter...though its nature must for ever escape our limited normal senses."
SD I 59


End Part II


Best wishes, 


Dallas