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More on Avalokiteswara from Koot Hoomi

Nov 20, 2004 08:20 AM
by Daniel H. Caldwell


KH writes in THE MAHATMA LETTERS:

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

. . . And thus according to Mr. Massey's 
philosophical conclusion we have no God? 
He is right -- since he applies the name 
to an extra-cosmic anomaly, and that we, 
knowing nothing of the latter, find --
each man his God -- within himself in his 
own personal, and at the same time, -- 
impersonal Avalokiteswara. . . .

. . . Avalokita Isvar literally interpreted 
means "the Lord that is seen." "Iswara" implying 
moreover, rather the adjective than the noun, 
lordly, self-existent lordliness, not Lord. It is,
when correctly interpreted, in one sense "the 
divine Self perceived or seen by Self," the 
Atman or seventh principle ridded of its
mayavic distinction from its Universal Source 
-- which becomes the object of perception for, 
and by the individuality centred in Buddhi,
the sixth principle, -- something that happens only in the highest
state of Samadhi. This is applying it to the microcosm. In the other
sense Avalokitesvara implies the seventh Universal Principle, as the
object perceived by the Universal Buddhi "Mind" or Intelligence which
is the synthetic aggregation of all the Dhyan Chohans, as of all
other intelligences whether great or small, that ever were, are, or
will be. Nor is it the "Spirit of Buddhas present in the Church," but
the Omnipresent Universal Spirit in the temple of nature -- in one
case; and the seventh Principle -- the Atman in the temple -- man --
in the other. Mr. Rhys Davids might have, at least remembered, the
(to him) familiar simile made by the Christian Adept, the Kabalistic
Paul: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit
of God dwelleth in you" -- and thus avoided to have made a mess of
the name. Though as a grammarian he detected the use of the "past
particle passive" yet he shows himself far from an inspired "Panini"
in overlooking the true cause and saving his grammar by raising the
hue and cry against metaphysics. And yet, he quotes Beale's [Beal]
Catena as his authority, for the invention, when, in truth, this work
is perhaps the only one in English that gives an approximately
correct explanation of the word, at any rate, on page 374. "Self-
manifested" -- How? it is asked. "Speech or Vach was regarded as the
Son or the manifestation of the Eternal Self, and was adored under
the name of Avalokitesvara, the manifested God." This shows as
clearly as can be -- that Avalokitesvara is both the unmanifested
Father and the manifested Son, the latter proceeding from, and
identical with, the other; -- namely, the Parabrahm and Jivatman, the
Universal and the individualized seventh Principle, -- the Passive
and the Active, the latter the Word, Logos, the Verb. Call it by
whatever name, only let these unfortunate, deluded Christians know
that the real Christ of every Christian is the Vach, the "mystical
Voice," . . .

. . . [Do you] know the meaning of the white and black interlaced
triangles, of the Parent [Theosophical] Society's seal . . . ?
Shall I explain? -- the double triangle viewed by the Jewish
Kabalists as Solomon's Seal, is, as many of you doubtless know the
Sri-antara of the archaic Aryan Temple, the "mystery of Mysteries," a
geometrical synthesis of the whole occult doctrine. The two
interlaced triangles are the Buddhangums of Creation. They contain
the "squaring of the circle," the "philosophical stone," the great
problems of Life and Death, and -- the Mystery of Evil. . . .Of
course you know that the double-triangle -- the Satkiri Chakram of
Vishnu -- or
the six-pointed star, is the perfect seven. In all the old Sanskrit
works -- Vedic and Tantrik -- you find the number 6 mentioned more
often than the 7 -- this last figure, the central point being
implied, for it is the germ of the six and their matrix . . . the
central point standing for seventh, and the circle, the Mahakasha --
endless space -- for the seventh Universal Principle. In one sense,
both are viewed as Avalokitesvara, for they are respectively the
Macrocosm and the microcosm. The interlaced triangles -- the upper
pointing one -- is Wisdom concealed, and the downward pointing one --
Wisdom revealed (in the phenomenal world). The circle indicates the
bounding, circumscribing quality of the All, the Universal Principle
which, from any given point expands so as to embrace all things,
while embodying the potentiality of every action in the Cosmos. As
the point then is the centre round which the circle is traced -- they
are identical and one, and though from the standpoint of Maya and
Avidya -- (illusion and ignorance) -- one is separated from the other
by the manifested triangle, the 3 sides of which represent the three
gunas -- finite attributes. In symbology the central point is Jivatma
(the 7th principle), and hence Avalokitesvara, the Kwan-Shai-yin, the
manifested "Voice" (or Logos), the germ point of manifested
activity; -- hence -- in the phraseology of the Christian
Kabalists "the Son of the Father and Mother," and agreeably to ours --
"the Self manifested in Self -- Yih-sin, the "one form of
existence," the child of Dharmakaya (the universally diffused
Essence), both male and female. Parabrahm or "Adi-Buddha" while
acting through that germ point outwardly as an active force, reacts
from the circumference inwardly as the Supreme but latent Potency.
The double triangles symbolize the Great Passive and the Great
Active; the male and female; Purusha and Prakriti. Each triangle is a
Trinity because presenting a triple aspect. The white represents in
its straight lines: Gnanam -- (Knowledge); Gnata -- (the Knower); and
Gnayam -- (that which is known). The black-form, colour, and
substance, also the creative, preservative, and destructive forces
and are mutually correlating, etc., etc. . . .
-------------------------------------------

Daniel
http://hpb.cc









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