Theos-Talk Archives (November 2004 Message tt00175)

 www.AnandGholap.net

17. The physical plane mayserve the student as a model from which by analogy he may gain an idea of the subdivisions of spirit-matter of other planes. When a Theosophist speaks of a plane, he means a region throughout which spirit-matter exists, all whose combinations are derived from a particular set of atoms; these atoms,in turn, are units possessing similar organisations, whose life is the life of the LOGOS veiled in fewer or more coverings according to the plane, and whose form consists of the solid, or lowest subdivision of matter, of theplane immediately above. A plane is thus a division in nature, as well as a metaphysical idea. 
18. Thus far we have been studying the results in our own physical world of the evolutionof spirit-matter in our division of the first or lowest plane of our system. For countless ages the fashioning of materials has been going on, the current of the evolution of spirit-matter, and in the materials of our globe we see the outcome at the present time. But when we begin to study the inhabitants of the physical plane, we come to the evolution of form, ( ) the building of organisms out of these materials. 

19. When the evolution of materials had reached a sufficiently advanced state, the secondgreat life-wave from the LOGOS gave the impulse to the evolution of form, and He became the organising force (As Ātmā-Buddhi, indivisible in action, and therefore spoken of as the Monad. All forms have Ātmā-Buddhi ascontrolling life.) - of His Universe, countless hosts of entities, entitled Builders -- ( Some are lofty spiritual Intelligences, but the name coverseven the building Nature-spirits The subject is dealt with in Chapter XII ) - taking part in the building up of forms out of combinations of spirit-matter. The life of the LOGOS abiding in each form is its central, controlling, and directing energy. 

20. This building of forms on the higher planes cannot here be conveniently studied in detail; it may suffice to say that all forms exist as Ideas in the mind of the LOGOS, and that in this second life-wave these were thrown outwards as models to guide the Builders. On the third and second planes the early spirit-matter combinations are designed to give it facility in assuming shapes organised to act as units, and gradually to increase its stability when shaped into an organism. 

21. This process went on upon the third and second planes, in what are termed the three elemental kingdoms, the combinations of matter formed therein being called generally "elemental essence," and this essence being moulded into forms by aggregations, the forms enduring for a time and then disintegrating. The outpoured life, or Monad, evolved through these kingdoms and reached in due course the physical plane, where it began to draw together the ethers and hold them in filmy shapes, in which life-currents played and into which the denser materials were built, forming the first minerals. In these are beautifully shown - as may be seen by reference to any book on crystallurgy - thenumerical and geometrical lines on which forms are constructed, and from them may be gathered plentiful evidence that life is working in all minerals, although much "cribbed, cabined, and confined." The fatigue to which metals are subject is another sign that they are living things, but it is here enough to say that the occult doctrine so regards them, knowing the already-mentioned processes by which life has been involved in them. 

22. Great stability of form having been gained in many of the minerals, the evolving Monad elaborated greater plasticity of form in the vegetable kingdom, combiningthis with stability of organisation. These characteristics found a yet more balanced expression in the animal world, and reached their culmination ofequilibrium in man, whose physical body is made up of constituents of mostunstable equilibrium, thus giving great adaptability, and yet which is held together by a combining central force which resists general disintegration even under the most varied conditions. 

23. Man's physical body has two main divisions: the dense body, made of constituents fromthe three lower levels of the physical plane, solids, liquids, and gases: and the etheric double, violet-gray or blue-gray in colour, interpenetrating the dense body and composed of materials drawn from the four higher levels. The general function of the physical body is to receive contacts from the physical world, and send the report of them inwards, to serve as materials from which the conscious entity inhabiting the body is to elaborate knowledge. Its etheric portion has also the duty of acting as a medium through which the life-currents poured out from the sun can be adapted to the uses of the denser particles. 

24. The sun isthe great reservoir of the electrical, magnetic, and vital forces for our system, and it pours out abundantly these streams of life-giving energy. They are taken in by the etheric doubles of all minerals, vegetables, animals, and men, and are by them transmuted into the various life-energies neededby each entity. ( When thus appropriated the life is called Prana, and it becomes the life-breath of every creature. Prana is but a name for the universal life while it is taken in by an entity and is supporting its separated life.) 


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