Theos-Talk Archives (November 2004 Message tt00240)

Dear Friend "Sensaru"

One might also consider:


The ONE DEITY / GOD surrounds us.

If GOD is UNIVERSAL (omnipresent) then we are never separate from God.

If GOD is EVERYWHERE then we may say we are INSIDE GOD.

GOD and the UNIVERSE are one. All BEINGS are aspects and part of the 
ONE UNIVERSAL GOD.


Here is another instance, 5,000 years old:

Sri Krishna (Guru) states to Arjuna (chela) that HE (as the Universal
Spirit) is inside each of us.  

[ I am the Ego seated in the Heart of ALL BEINGS.] Chapter X Verse 20.
See also in Chapter 11, Verse 7.

I think we read and do not understand --- or do we mistrust Sri Krishna?

If we do not perceive IT [GOD] then, why?

How did such a condition arise?

How is it that we are confused and do not know we are all "Gods?"

How is it that we think we are separate from God -- especially if GOD 
is UNIVERSAL ?

This is a paradox hard for me to resolve. What has happened to our 
minds to become clouded with Kama and desires?

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

I think the SECRET DOCTRINE explains why:


"It is a strange law of Nature, that on this plane, the higher (Spiritual) 
Nature should be, so to say, in bondage to the lower. 

Unless the Ego takes refuge in the Atman, the ALL-SPIRIT, and 
merges entirely into the essence thereof, the personal Ego may goad it 
to the bitter end...

That which propels towards, and forces evolution, i.e., compels the growth 
and development of Man towards perfection, is 

(a) the MONAD, or that which acts in it unconsciously through a force 
inherent in itself; and 

(b) the lower astral body or the personal SELF...

unless the higher Self or EGO gravitates towards 
its Sun--the Monad--the lower Ego, or personal Self, will have the upper 
hand in every case. 

For it is this Ego, with its fierce Selfishness and animal desire to live a 
Senseless life (Tanha), which is "the maker of the tabernacle" as 
Buddha calls it...the Atman alone warms the inner man; i.e., it 
enlightens it with the ray of divine life and alone is able to impart to 
the inner man, or the reincarnating Ego, its immortality."
SD II 109-110

THEOSOPHY speaks of the U N G O D S 


"Every bright sun-god of antiquity--a glorious deity by day, and its own
opponent and adversary by night, named Dragon of Wisdom, because it was
supposed to contain the germs of night and day--has now been turned into the
antithetical shadow of God, SUN GOD (by day) and Adversary (by night)
-- Tribal Gods and has become Satan on the sole and unsupported authority
of despotic human dogma. After which all these producers of light and
shadow, all the Sun and Moon Gods, were cursed, and thus the one God chosen
out of the many, and Satan, were both anthropomorphised...History shows in
every race and even tribe, especially in the Semitic nations, the natural
impulse to exalt its own tribal deity above all others to the hegemony (508)
of the god; and proves that the God of the Israelites was such a tribal
God, and no more, even though the Christian Church, following the lead of
the "chosen" people, is pleased to enforce the worship of that one
particular deity...Jehovah has ever been in antiquity only "a god among
other Gods," (lxxxii, Psalm)..."	SD II 507-8


MAN -- THE MICROCOSMIC SUN.


Man is a "thinking atom" of living eternal substance, a microcosm of the
Macrocosmic Sun.

"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


In replications of the idea of the Central Sun we find:

"...there exists in Nature a triple evolutionary scheme for the formation of
the three periodical Upadhis...the Monadic (or spiritual), the intellectual,
and the physical evolutions. These are the finite aspects or the reflection
on the field of Cosmic Illusion of Atma, the seventh, the One Reality.

1.	The Monadic is...concerned with the growth and development into
still higher phases of activity of the Monad in conjunction with:--

2.	The Intellectual, represented by the Manasa-Dhyanis(the Solar Devas,
or the Agnishwatta Pitris) the "givers of intelligence and consciousness" to
man and:--

3.	The Physical, represented by the Chayyas of the lunar Pitris, round
which Nature has concreted the present physical body. This body serves as
the vehicle for the "growth"...and the transformations through Manas
and--owing to the accumulation of experiences--of the finite into the
infinite, of the transient into the Eternal and Absolute.

Each of these three systems has its own laws, and is ruled and guided by
different sets of the highest Dhyanis or "Logoi." Each is represented in
the constitution of man, the Microcosm of the great Macrocosm; and it is
the union of these three streams in him which makes him the complex being he
now is."	SD I 181-2	(see also SD I 188-189)


"The spirit in man is the only real and permanent part of his being; the
rest of his nature being variously compounded...everything in man but his
spirit is impermanent... the Universe being one thing and not diverse, and
everything within it being connected with the whole and with every other
thing therein, of which upon the upper plane...there is perfect knowledge,
no act or thought occurs without each portion of the great whole perceiving
and noticing it. Hence all are inseparably bound together by the tie of
Brotherhood...it is taught that there is no creation of worlds...but that
their appearance is due strictly to evolution,

When the time comes for the Unmanifested to manifest as an objective
Universe, which it does periodically, it emanates a Power or "The First
Cause"--so called because it itself is the rootless root of that Cause, and
called in the East the "Causeless Cause."...The projection into time of the
influence or so-called "breath of Brahma" causes all the worlds and the
beings upon them to gradually appear. They remain in manifestation just as
long as that influence continues to proceed forth in evolution.

After long aeons the outbreathing, evolutionary influence slackens, and the
universe begins to go into obscuration, or pralaya, until, the "breath"
being fully indrawn, no objects remain, because nothing is but Brahm. Care
must be taken by the student to make a distinction between Brahm (the
impersonal Parabrahm) and Brahma the manifested Logos.

This breathing forth is known as a Manvantara, or the Manifestation of the
world between two Manus...For the purpose of a Manvantara two so-called
eternal principles are postulated, that is, Purusha and Prakriti (or spirit
and matter), because both are ever present and conjoined in manifestation.

This brings us to the doctrine of Universal Evolution as expounded by the
Sages of the Wisdom-Religion. The Spirit, or Purusha, they say, proceeds
from Brahma through the various forms of matter evolved at the same time,
beginning in the world of the spiritual from the highest and in the material
world from the lowest form...yet unknown to modern science. Thus,
therefore, the mineral, vegetable and animal forms each imprison a spark of
the Divine, a portion of the indivisible Purusha.

These sparks struggle to "return to the Father," or in other words, to
secure self-consciousness and at last come into the highest form, on Earth,
that of man, where alone self-consciousness is possible to them. The period
calculated in human time, during which this evolution goes on embraces
millions of ages. Each spark of divinity has, therefore, millions of ages
in which to accomplish its mission...all depends upon the individual's own
will and efforts.

Each particular spirit thus goes through the Manvantara, or enters into
manifestation for its own enrichment and for that of the Whole.

Mahatmas and Rishis are thus gradually evolved during a Manvantara, and
become after its expiration, planetary spirits, who guide the evolution of
other future planets. The planetary spirits of our globe are those who in
previous manvantaras...made the efforts, and became in the course of that
long period Mahatmas.

This system is thus seen to be based upon the identity of Spiritual Being,
and, under the name of "Universal Brotherhood," constitutes the basic idea
of the T S, whose object is the realization of that Brotherhood among men."
WQJ - Epitome pp. 9 - 12.


PERFECTION IN EVOLUTION: THE UNIVERSAL Man

	
The "Mahatma" is a "great Soul," a man who through evolution and moral
purification has mastered all the laws and mysteries of Nature. he knows
the Spiritual Central Sun and also is fully aware that a Ray of IT is
present in himself, as it is also present in all other beings. In this
connection, Mr. Judge wrote:

"A visitor from one of the other planets of the solar system who might learn
the term Mahatma after arriving here would certainly suppose that the
etymology of the word undoubtedly inspired the believers in Mahatmas with
the devotion, fearlessness, hope, and energy which such an ideal should
arouse in those who have the welfare of the human race at heart...The whole
sweep, meaning, and possibility of evolution are contained in the word
Mahatma. Maha is "great," Atma is "soul," and both compounded into one mean
those great souls who have triumphed before us not because they are made of
different stuff and are of some strange family, but just because they are of
the human race.

Reincarnation, karma, the sevenfold division, retribution, reward, struggle,
failure, success, illumination, power, and a vast embracing love for man,
all these lie in that single word.

The soul emerges from the unknown, begins to work in and with matter, is
reborn again and again, makes karma, develops the 6 vehicles for itself,
meets retribution for sin and punishment for mistake, grows strong by
suffering, succeeds in bursting through the gloom, is enlightened by true
illumination, grasps power, retains charity, expands with love for orphaned
humanity, and thenceforth helps all others who remain in darkness until all
may be raised up to the place with the "Father in Heaven" who is the Higher
Self."		
WQJ Art. II, p. 39-40


THE UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION OF MICROCOSMIC SUNS

Theosophical philosophy draws attention to the "scientific atom" which by
definition is called a "perpetual motion machine." It is deemed to have
originated in an unimaginable past time in Solar bodies and since then has
floated through space, aggregating with others and eventually forming the
physical forms of all beings, including mankind on our earth. Occult
philosophy says:

"...every atom of man's body has been evolving by imperceptible gradations,
from lower into higher forms, through the cycles--...a Spirit is a Ray, a
fraction of the Whole; and the Whole being Omniscient and Infinite, Its
fractions must partake, in degree, of the same abstract attributes. Man's
"Spirit" must become the drop of the ocean...instead of remaining the body
only. He must feel himself not only a part of the Creator, Preserver and
Destroyer, but of the Soul of the Three, the Parabrahmam, who is above these
and is the vitalizing, energizing and ever-presiding Spirit. He must fully
realize the sense of...the "ever still present," in which there is neither
past nor future, but one infinite eternity of present...."	Modern
Panarion, p. 171


"After circling so to say, along the arc of the cycle...when the Spirit-man
reaches our "planet" [ Globe--SD I ], which is one of the lowest, having
lost at every station some of the ethereal and acquired an increase of
material nature, both spirit and matter have become pretty much equilibrized
in him. But then he has the Earth's cycle to perform; and, as in the
process of involution and evolution downward, matter is ever striving to
stifle spirit, when arrived at to the lowest point of his pilgrimage, the
once pure Planetary Spirit [Trans. 23-4 ] will be found dwindled to--what
Science agrees to call a primitive or Primordial man--amidst a nature as
primordial--speaking geologically, for physical nature keeps pace with the
physiological as well as the spiritual man, in her cyclic career. 

At that point the great Law begins its work of selection. Matter found
entirely divorced from spirit is thrown into the still lower worlds--into
the sixth "Gate" or "way of rebirth." of the vegetable and mineral worlds,
and of the primitive animal forms. From thence, matter ground over in the
workshop of nature proceeds soulless back to its Mother Fount; while the
Egos purified of their dross are enabled to resume their progress once more
onward.  

It is here, then, that the laggard Egos perish by the millions. It is the
solemn moment of the "survival of the fittest," the annihilation of those
unfit. It is but matter (or material man) which is compelled by its own
weight to descend to the very bottom of the "circle of necessity" to there
assume animal form; as to the winner of that race throughout the
worlds--the Spiritual Ego, he will ascend from star to star, from one world
to another, circling onward to rebecome the once pure planetary Spirit, then
higher still, to finally reach its first starting point, and from thence--to
merge into mystery. No adept has ever penetrated beyond the veil of
primitive Kosmic matter. The highest, the most perfect vision is limited to
the universe of Form and Matter."	M L p. 46-7


"Occultism tells us that every atom, like the monad of Leibnitz, is a little
universe in itself; and that every organ and cell in the human body is
endowed with a brain of its own, with memory, therefore, experience and
discriminative powers. The idea of Universal Life composed of individual
atomic lives is one of the oldest teachings of esoteric philosophy, and the
very modern hypothesis of modern science, that of crystalline life, is the
first ray from the ancient luminary of knowledge that has reached our
scholars...Science divides matter into organic and inorganic bodies, only
because it rejects the idea of absolute life and a life-principle as an
entity; otherwise it would be the first to see that absolute life cannot
produce even a geometrical point, or an atom inorganic in its essence...as a
Life-Principle is, and must remain for the intellects of our civilized races
for ever a mystery on physical lines..."	HPB ARTICLES II, 180


"Every Spiritual Individuality has a gigantic evolutionary journey to
perform, a tremendous gyratory progress to accomplish. First--at the very
beginning of the great Mahamanvanataric rotation, from first to last of the
man-bearing "planets," as on each of them, the monad has to pass through the
seven successive races of man...up to the present fifth race, or rather
variety, and through two more races, before he has done with this one. Each
of the 7 races send 7 ramifying branchlets from the Parent Branch: and
through each of these in turn man has to evolute before he passes on to the
next higher race; and that--seven times...The branchlets typify varying
specimens of humanity -- physically and spiritually--and no one of us can
miss one single rung of the ladder...when I say "man," I mean a human being
of our type. There are other and innumerable manvantaric chains of globes
bearing intelligent beings--both in and out of our solar system--the crowns
or apexes of evolutionary being in their respective chains, some--physically
and intellectually--lower, others immeasurably higher than the man of our
chain..."	Mahat. Let. 119


"What then is the universe for, and for what final purpose is man the
immortal thinker here in evolution? It is all for the experience and
emancipation of the soul, for the purpose of raising the entire mass of
manifested matter up to the stature, nature, and dignity of conscious
god-hood, The great aim is to reach to self-consciousness...by and through
the perfecting after transformation, of the whole mass of matter as well as
what we now call soul. Nothing is or is to be left out. The aim for
present man is his initiation into complete knowledge, and for the other
kingdoms below him that they be raised up gradually from stage to stage to
be in time initiated also. This is evolution carried to its highest power;
it is a magnificent prospect; it makes of man a god, and gives to every
part of nature the strength and possibility of being one day the same;
there is strength and nobility in it, for by this no man is dwarfed and
belittled, for no one is so originally sinful that he cannot rise above all
sin...Present religions keep the element of fear..." Ocean p. 60-1


"...until every grain of dust has, by gradual transformation through
evolution, become a constituent part of the "living soul" and, until the
latter shall reascend the cyclic arc, and finally stand--its own Metatron or
Redeeming Spirit--at the foot of the upper step of the spiritual worlds, as
at the first hour of its emanation." This covers the concept of Universal
evolution and includes all beings without exception." Isis II
420-422 


"In the hearts of all, at some time there arises the desire for knowledge.
He who thinks his desires will be fulfilled, as the little bird in the nest,
who has only to open his mouth to be fed, will very truly be
disappointed...The soul develops like the flower in God's sunlight, and
unconsciously to the soil in which it grows. Shut out the light and the
soil grows damp and sterile, the flower withers or grows pale and sickly.

Each and every one is here for a good and wise reason. If we find partially
the why we are here, then is there the more reason that we should by
intelligent contact with life, seek in it the farther elucidation of the
problem. It is not for the study of ourselves so much, as the thought for
others that opens the door. The events of life and their causes lead to
knowledge. They must be studied when they are manifested in daily life."
WQJ Art. II 410-1

Nothing is or is to be left out. The aim for present man is his initiation
into complete knowledge, and for the other kingdoms below him that they be
raised up gradually from stage to stage to be in time initiated also. This
is evolution carried to its highest power; it is a magnificent prospect;
it makes of man a god, and gives to every part of nature the strength and
possibility of being one day the same; there is strength and nobility in
it, for by this no man is dwarfed and belittled, for no one is so originally
sinful that he cannot rise above all sin...Present religions keep the
element of fear..."  
Ocean p. 60-1

 
SUN IS A SYMBOL OF UNIVERSAL LIFE: FIRE.

On p. 182, HPB Art. II, HPB speaks of the Universal Deity. She calls it
also the Thought Divine, and the Universal Vital Principle. With this as a
starting point she offers these ideas:

"Absolute Life, and the Life principle are entitative during manvantara.
(180) They are represented in the S D Vol. I p 120 top by the "Two Ones"
and symbolically by the point in the circle.

Universal Life includes all that lives, and the atoms - this is one of the
oldest esoteric truths.

"In the shoreless ocean of space radiates the central, spiritual, and
Invisible sun. The universe is his body, spirit and soul; and after this
ideal model are framed all things. These three emanations are the three
lives, the three degrees of the gnostic Pleroma, the three "Kabalistic
Faces," for the Ancient of the ancient, the body of the aged, the great
En-Soph, "has a form and then he has no form." The invisible "assumed a
form when he called this universe into existence," says the Sohar, the Book
of Splendor. The first light is His soul, the Infinite, Boundless, and
Immortal breath; under the efflux of which the universe heaves it mighty
bosom, infusing intelligent life throughout creation. The second emanation
condenses cometary matter and produces forms within the cosmic circle; sets
the countless worlds floating in the electric space, and infuses the
unintelligent, blind life-principle into every form. The third, produces
the whole universe of physical matter; and as it keeps gradually receding
from the Central Divine Light its brightness wanes and it becomes Darkness
and the Bad--pure matter, the "gross purgations of the celestial fire" of
the Hermetists."	[ see diagrams Isis II 264-5 ]


MANVANTARA -- A UNIVERSAL AWAKENING - 
SUNS REAPPEAR


"Taking now this globe...its government and evolution proceed under Manu or
man, and from this is the term Manvantara or "between two Manus." The
course of evolution is divided into 4 Yugas...The present age for the West
and India is Kali Yuga (the black age), especially in respect to moral and
spiritual development...Kali--is very rapid, its motion being accelerated
precisely like certain astronomical periods known to-day in regard to the
Moon...The first 5,000 years of Kali Yuga will end between the years 1897
and 1898. This Yuga began about 3,102 years before the Christian era, at
the time of Krishna's death [18th of February]...at the present time we are
in a cycle of transition, when, as a transition period should indicate,
everything in philosophy, religion and society is changing." Ocean p.
125-126


"Our knowledge begins with differentiation, and all manifested objects,
beings, or powers are only differentiations of the Great Unknown...The first
differentiation--speaking metaphysically as to time--is Spirit, with which
appears Matter and Mind. Akasa [term used in place of AEther...tenuous
state of matter] is produced from Matter and Spirit, Will is the force of
Spirit in action, and Life is a resultant of the action of Akasa, moved by
Spirit, upon Matter...the real Matter is always invisible ...Primordial
Matter... Mulaprakriti... [we see or perceive only the phenomena of
matter]...Mind is the intelligent part of the Cosmos, and...is that in which
the plan of the Cosmos is fixed or contained...brought over from a prior
period of manifestation...no limit can be set to its evolutionary
possibilities in perfectness...Because there never was a beginning to the
periodical manifestations of the Absolute, there never will be any end..."
Ocean 15-16


"...evolution on the Earth, it is stated that the stream of Monads begins
first to work up the mass of matter in what are called the elemental
conditions when all is gaseous or fiery...no evolution is possible without
the Monad as vivifying agent...next comes the mineral, when the whole mass
hardens, the Monads being imprisoned within. Then the first Monads emerge
into vegetable forms which they construct themselves...the first class of
Monads emerges from the vegetable and produces the animal, then the human
astral and shadowy model...When the middle of the 4th Round is reached no
more Monads emerge into the human stage...

"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 4th Round.
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...7 great races have to evolve here on this planet, and
the entire collection of races has to go 7 times round the whole series of 7
globes.
 
"Human beings did not appear here in two sexes first. The first were of no
sex, then they altered into hermaphrodite, and lastly separated into male
and female. And this...was over 18,000,000 years ago."	Ocean p. 27-28



UNIVERSAL LIFE LEADS TO WORLD EVOLUTION


"...man came to this globe from another planet, though of course then a
being of very great power before being completely enmeshed in matter, so the
lower kingdoms came likewise in germ and type from other planets, and carry
on their evolution step by step upward by the aid of man, who is, in all
periods of manifestation, at the front of the wave of life...This is the
point where the intelligent aid and interference from a mind or mass of
minds is absolutely necessary. Such aid and interference was and is the
fact, for nature unaided cannot do the work right...It is Man who does this.
Not the man of the day, weak and ignorant as he is, but great souls, high
and holy men of immense power, knowledge and wisdom...just as every man
would now know he could become...Various names have been given to these
beings now removed from our plane. They are the Dhyanis, the Creators, the
Guides, the Great Spirits, and so on by many titles..."	Ocean p. 130-1


"The object of all this differentiation, amalgamation and separation is well
stated by another of the Masters, thus: "Nature consciously prefers that
matter should be indestructible in organic rather than inorganic forms, and
works slowly but incessantly towards the realization of this object--the
evolution of conscious life out of inert material."	Ocean p. 133-4


THE SUN IN MAN


"Nature," the physical evolutionary Power, could never evolve intelligence
unaided--she can only create "senseless forms,"...The "Lunar Monads" cannot
progress, for they have not yet had sufficient touch with the forms (182)
created by "Nature" to allow of their accumulating experiences through its
means. It is the Manasa-Dhyanis who fill the gap, and they represent the
evolutionary power of Intelligence or Mind, the link between "Spirit" and
"Matter"--in this Round."	SD I 181-182


"...The Host of Dhyanis, whose turn it was to incarnate as the Egos of the
immortal, but, on this plane, senseless monads--that some "obeyed" (the law
of evolution) immediately when the men of the 3rd Race became
physiologically and physically ready, i.e., when they had separated into
sexes. These were those early conscious Beings who, now adding conscious
knowledge and will to their inherent Divine purity, created by Kriyasakti
the semi-Divine man, who became the seed on earth for future adepts. Those,
on the other hand, who, jealous of their intellectual freedom (unfettered
as it then was by the bonds of matter), said:--"We can choose...we have
wisdom,"...and incarnated far later--these had their first Karmic punishment
prepared for them. They got bodies (physiologically) inferior to their
astral models, because their chhayas had belonged to progenitors of an
inferior degree in the 7 classes. As to those "Sons of Wisdom" who had
"deferred" their incarnation till the 4th Race, which was already tainted
(physiologically) with sin and impurity, they produced a terrible cause, the
Karmic result of which weighs on them to this day...the bodies they had to
inform had become defiled through their own procrastination...This was the
"Fall of the angels," because of their rebellion against Karmic Law. The
"fall of man" was no fall, for he was irresponsible..."	SD II 228  


NIRMANAKAYA -- LIVING SUNS:  		
INVISIBLE, SPIRITS OF THE WISE.
			

"...those Egos of great Adepts who have passed away, and are also known as
Nirmanakayas; ...for whom--since they are beyond illusion--
there is no Devachan, and who, having either voluntarily renounced it for
the good of mankind, or not yet reached Nirvana, remain invisible on
earth...they are re-born over and over again ... Who they are, "on
earth"--every student of Occult science knows..."	SD II 615


"When our great Buddha--the patron of all the adepts, the reformer and the
codifier of the occult system, reached first Nirvana on earth, he became a
Planetary Spirit, i.e.,--his spirit could at one and the same time rove the
interstellar spaces in full consciousness, and continue at will on Earth in
his original and individual body. For the divine Self had so completely
disfranchised itself from matter that it could create at will an inner
substitute for itself, and leaving it in the human form for days, weeks,
sometimes years, affect in no wise by the change either the vital principle
or the physical mind of its body...that is the highest form of adeptship man
can hope for on our planet. But it is as rare as the Buddhas themselves,
(44) the last Khobilgan who reached it being Sang-Ko-Pa of Kokonor (XIV
Century), the reformer of esoteric as well as of vulgar lamaism. Many are
those who "break through the egg shell," few who, once out are able to
exercise their Nirira namastaka fully, when out of the body. Conscious life
in Spirit is as difficult for some natures as swimming, is for some
bodies...The planetary Spirit of that kind (the Buddha like) can pass at
will into other bodies--of more or less etherealized matter, inhabiting
other regions of the Universe. There are many other grades and orders, but
there is no separate and eternally constituted order of Planetary
Spirits..."	Mahat. Let. 43-4









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

Hope this might help as it gives the view THEOSOPHY offers.

Best wishes,

Dallas
 
======================================
-----Original Message-----
From: sensaru
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 10:04 AM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] RE: Just a comment

it is possible that what we know as God is simply the consciousness of a 
vast being of whom is one of an infinite number of vast beings who are
also the consciousness of another vast being.