Theos-Talk Archives (October 2004 Message tt00297)

Oct 18 2004

Re: Liberation and Morality

Zakk:

Look at it this way:

As I understand it from THEOSOPHY 

1	Every human being thinks all the time. Nothing happens physically,
emotionally or mentally in anticipation or retrospection without the mind
being involved.

2	The only times when we are not thinking is when we are asleep,
unconscious, (due to drugs, anesthesia, a blow to the head/brain, etc.) or,
we loose the physical body through its death -- then, in due course (Karmic
necessity and time) we (the Monad/THINKER) reincarnate in a new body
assembled principally from the old materials (also immortal Monads of lesser
experience) we were using (molecules, atoms, etc...) in an earlier
incarnation.  

3	This is reincarnation. The bonds and connections between the
Monad/THINKER and his instruments and vehicles are physical, emotional,
mental, and pertain to the achievement of wisdom (or, self-controlled, moral
actions), individually, of a quality of self-consciousness that bridges the
periods of unconsciousness we call sleep and death. 

4	The Law of evolution called Karma -- or universal interaction -- is
always operating on us as individuals, and of course on everyone else.  

If one may be permitted an analogy, the great mind of the Earth (and greater
still the MIND of the Solar System and that of the UNIVERSE ) are involved
in a prodigious mental process of forcing onward a total scheme of evolution
(from life-atom - to Buddha or Avatar). 

5	One might say that every immortal Monad is essentially a THINKER.
Man is a thinking Monad. The responsibility for the moral quality of his
thoughts generates personal Karma. This shapes his future and impinges on
all around him. 

6	In THEOSOPHY the MORAL quality of a human's thoughts is the most
important aspect of learning. Briefly we may say it is a control of
emotional impulses, passions and desires -- which on careful consideration,
are found to be largely irrational and self-destructive when carried out to
their ultimate conclusions.  

For example: take any "vice" and project its application forward asking for
the final achievement of such an urge. What does it result in? Why do all
the legal systems of every country revolve around moderation and
self-control? And finally why is it that so little study is madder of this
important aspect of all our lives? Can it be made by any other process than
using the mind? What are instincts, impulses, desires in themselves ?
where do they start and how do they end? Do the aggrandize the personality
or do they ultimately destroy it through excesses?

The human is essentially a mind being invested with a vehicle of flesh,
etc..., we are learning to control our lower nature (emotional and
desire-laden) by the superior power of a reasoned quality that balances all
efforts and all thoughts in view of an ultimate sublime harmony. 

Is this idealistic? Utopian? Perhaps it is, and if so does that make it
wrong? And, why is that so many people shy away from conducting such a study
and self-analysis? 

Consider "LIBERATION" From what? Why? This needs careful and deliberate
analysis to be well understood. At the moment, who is not "liberated?"
Why?  

"Releasement" from what? Why? 

And if a freedom from pain and suffering happens to be the aim and future
desire of the individual, then what is the nature of the state of such a
"Liberation?"  

What does it do for the individual himself?  

How does it affect others?  

Is it important to discover these things?

Best wishes, 

Dallas

=====================================
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Zakk Duffany [mailto:zakkduffany@e...] 
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 2:27 PM
To: Theosophy Study List
Subject: Re: Liberation


> "Man, made of thought, occupant of many bodies from time to time, is
> eternally thinking. His chains are through thought, his release due
> to nothing else." GITA NOTES, p. 141
>
> These "chains" are our karmic bonds and her "release" is Buddha's
> Liberation. Liberation is attained only by breaking the bonds of karma.
> Altruism, reading and studying, even compassion, produce yet more karma,
> not Liberation.
>
-----The above quote is interpreted by my myself to mean that the chains are
through thought. This would mean that that in which is not under the
definition of thought, does not produce more karma, or chains. The second
part of the sentence says "his release due to nothing else". This says to me
that
the cause of the chains is also the same cause of the releasement. ----