Theos-Talk Archives (November 2004 Message tt00295)

Nov 22 2004

Dear Mauri:

Perhaps this may interest you -- as following the sevens.

S D I 570 - 575

Dal

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"The monad [ATMA-BUDDHI] —a truly "indivisible thing," as defined by Good,
who did not give it the sense we now do—is here rendered as the Atma in
conjunction with Buddhi and the higher Manas. This trinity is one and
eternal, the latter being absorbed in the former at the termination of all
conditioned and illusive life. 

The monad, then, can be traced through the course of its pilgrimage and its
changes of transitory vehicles only from the incipient stage of the
manifested Universe. 

In Pralaya, or the intermediate period between two manvantaras, it loses its
name, as it loses it when the real ONE self of man merges into Brahm in
cases of high Samadhi (the Turiya state) or final Nirvana; "when the
disciple" in the words of Sankara, "having attained that primeval
consciousness, absolute bliss, of which the nature is truth, which is
without form and action, abandons this illusive body that has been assumed
by the atma just as an actor (abandons) the dress (put on)." 

For Buddhi (the Anandamaya sheath) is but a mirror which reflects absolute
bliss; and, moreover, that reflection itself is yet not free from ignorance,
and is not the Supreme Spirit, being subject to conditions, being a
spiritual modification of Prakriti, and an effect; Atma alone is the one
real and eternal substratum of all—the essence and absolute knowledge—the
Kshetragna. † It is called in the Esoteric philosophy "the One Witness," 

==============FOOTNOTES================
 
* Translated for the Theosophist, by Mohini M. Chatterji as "Crest Jewel of
Wisdom," 1886. (See Theosophist, July and August numbers). 

† Now that the revised version of the gospels has been published and the
most glaring mistranslations of the old versions are corrected, one will
understand better the words in St. John v., vi., and vii.: "It is the Spirit
that beareth witness because the Spirit is the truth." The words that follow
in the mistranslated version about the "three witnesses,"—hitherto supposed
to stand for "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost"—show the real
meaning of the writer (St. John) very clearly, thus still more forcibly
identifying his teaching in this respect with that of Sankaracharya. For
what can the sentence, "there are three who bear witness: the Spirit and the
Water and the Blood"—mean, if they bear no relation to, or connection with,
the more philosophical statement of the great Vedanta teacher, who, speaking
of the sheaths (the principles in man) Jiva, Vignanamaya, etc., which are,
in their physical manifestation, "water and blood" or life, adds that Atma
(spirit) alone is what remains after the [death], and while it rests in
Devachan, is referred to as "the Three Witnesses to Karma." 

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

Atma (our seventh principle) being identical with the universal Spirit, and
man being one with it in his essence, what is then the Monad proper? It is
that homogeneous spark which radiates in millions of rays from the primeval
"Seven;"—of which seven further on. It is the EMANATING spark from the
UNCREATED Ray—a mystery. In the esoteric, and even exoteric Buddhism of the
North, Adi Buddha (Chogi dangpoi sangye), the One unknown, without beginning
or end, identical with Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from its
darkness. 

This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the Supreme Buddha (also
called Dorjechang). As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot manifest, but
sends into the world of manifestation his heart—the "diamond heart,"
Vajrasattva (Dorjesempa). 

This is the second logos of creation, from whom emanate the seven (in the
exoteric blind the five) Dhyani Buddhas, called the Anupadaka, "the
parentless." 

These Buddhas are the primeval monads from the world of incorporeal being,
the Arupa world, wherein the Intelligences (on that plane only) have neither
shape nor name, in the exoteric system, but have their distinct seven names
in esoteric philosophy. 

These Dhyani Buddhas emanate, or create from themselves, by virtue of
Dhyana, celestial Selves—the super-human Bodhisattvas. These incarnating at
the beginning of every human cycle on earth as mortal men, become
occasionally, owing to their personal merit, Bodhisattvas among the Sons of
Humanity, after which they may re-appear as Manushi (human) Buddhas. The
Anupadaka (or Dhyani-Buddhas) are thus identical with the Brahminical
Manasaputra, "mind-born sons"—whether of Brahma or either of the other two
Trimurtian Hypostases, hence identical also with the Rishis and Prajapatis. 

Thus, a passage is found in Anugita, which, read esoterically, shows
plainly, though under another imagery, the same idea and system. 

It says: 

"Whatever entities there are in this world, moveable or immoveable, they are
the very first to be dissolved (at pralaya); and next the developments
produced from the elements (from which the visible Universe is fashioned);
and, after these developments (evolved entities), all the elements. Such is
the upperward gradation among entities. Gods, Men, Gandharvas, Pisachas,
Asuras, Rakshasas, all have been created by Svabhava (Prakriti, or plastic
nature), not by actions, nor by a cause"—i.e., not by any physical cause. 

"These Brahmanas (the Rishi Prajapati?), the creators of the world, are born
here (on earth) again and again. Whatever is produced from 
 
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—Footnote continued from previous page— subtraction of the sheaths and that
it is the ONLY witness, or synthesized unity. The less spiritual and
philosophical school, solely with an eye to a trinity made three witnesses
out of "one," thus connecting it more with earth than with heaven. 

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

them is dissolved in due time in those very five great elements (the five,
or rather seven, Dhyani Buddhas, also called "Elements" of Mankind), like
billows in the ocean. 

These great elements are in every way beyond the elements that make up the
world (the gross elements). And he who is released even from these five
elements (the tanmatras) * goes to the highest goal." 

"The Lord Prajapati (Brahma) created all this by the mind only," i.e., by
Dhyana, or abstract meditation and mystic powers like the Dhyani Buddhas
(vide supra). 

Evidently then, these "Brahmanas" are identical with the Bodhisattvas (the
terrestrial) of the heavenly Dhyani Buddhas. Both, as primordial,
intelligent "Elements," become the creators or the emanators of the monads
destined to become human in that cycle; after which they evolve themselves,
or, so to say, expand into their own selves as Bodhisattvas or Brahmanas, in
heaven and earth, to become at last simple men --"the creators of the world
are born here, on earth again and again"—truly. 

In the Northern Buddhist system, or the popular exoteric religion, it is
taught that every Buddha, while preaching the good law on earth, manifests
himself simultaneously in three worlds: in the formless, as Dhyani Buddha,
in the World of forms, as a Bodhisattva, and in the world of desire, the
lowest (or our world) as a man. Esoterically the teaching differs: 

The divine, purely Adi-Buddhic monad manifests as the universal Buddhi (the
Maha-buddhi or Mahat in Hindu philosophies) the spiritual, omniscient and
omnipotent root of divine intelligence, the highest anima mundi or the
Logos. 

This descends "like a flame spreading from the eternal Fire, immoveable,
without increase or decrease, ever the same to the end" of the cycle of
existence, and becomes universal life on the Mundane Plane. 

>From this Plane of conscious Life shoot out, like seven fiery tongues, the
Sons of Light (the logoi of Life); then the Dhyani-Buddhas of contemplation:
the concrete forms of their formless Fathers—the Seven Sons of Light, still
themselves, to whom may be applied the Brahmanical mystic phrase: "Thou art
'THAT'—Brahm." 

It is from these Dhyani-Buddhas that emanate their chhayas (Shadows) the
Bodhisattvas of the celestial realms, the prototypes of the
super-terrestrial Bodhisattvas, and of the terrestrial Buddhas, and finally
of men. The "Seven Sons of Light" are also called "Stars." 

The star under which a human Entity is born, says the Occult teaching, will
remain for ever its star, throughout the whole cycle of its incarnations in
one Manvantara. But this is not his astrological star. The latter is
concerned and connected with the personality, the former with 

----------------------FOOTNOTE-------------------------------------
 
* The Tanmatras are literally the type or rudiment of an element devoid of
qualities; but esoterically, they are the primeval noumenoi of that which
becomes in the progress of evolution a Cosmic element in the sense given to
the term in antiquity, not in that of physics. They are the logoi, the seven
emanations or rays of the logos. 

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the INDIVIDUALITY. The "Angel" of that Star, or the Dhyani-Buddha will be
either the guiding or simply the presiding "Angel," so to say, in every new
rebirth of the monad, which is part of his own essence, though his vehicle,
man, may remain for ever ignorant of this fact. 

The adepts have each their Dhyani-Buddha, their elder "twin Soul," and they
know it, calling it "Father-Soul," and "Father-Fire." It is only at the last
and supreme initiation, however, that they learn it when placed face to face
with the bright "Image." 

How much has Bulwer Lytton known of this mystic fact when describing, in one
of his highest inspirational moods, Zanoni face to face with his Augoeides? 

The Logos, or both the unmanifested and the manifested WORD, is called by
the Hindus, Iswara, "the Lord," though the Occultists give it another name.
Iswara, say the Vedantins, is the highest consciousness in nature. "This
highest consciousness," answer the Occultists, "is only a synthetic unit in
the world of the manifested Logos—or on the plane of illusion; for it is the
sum total of Dhyan-Chohanic consciousnesses." 

"Oh, wise man, remove the conception that not-Spirit is Spirit," says
Sankaracharya. 

Atma is not-Spirit in its final Parabrahmic state, Iswara or Logos is
Spirit; or, as Occultism explains, it is a compound unity of manifested
living Spirits, the parent-source and nursery of all the mundane and
terrestrial monads, plus their divine reflection, which emanate from, and
return into, the Logos, each in the culmination of its time. 

There are seven chief groups of such Dhyan Chohans, which groups will be
found and recognised in every religion, for they are the primeval SEVEN
Rays. Humanity, occultism teaches us, is divided into seven distinct groups
and their sub-divisions, mental, spiritual, and physical.* The monad, then,
viewed as ONE, is above the seventh principle (in Kosmos and man), and as a
triad, it is the direct radiant progeny of the said compound UNIT, not the
breath (and special creation out of nihil) of "God," as that unit is called;
for such an idea is quite unphilosophical, and degrades Deity, dragging it
down to a finite, attributive condition. As well expressed by the translator
of the "Crest-Jewel of Wisdom"—though Iswara is "God" "unchanged in the
profoundest depths of pralayas and in the intensest activity of the
manvantaras" . . ., still "beyond (him) is 

---------------------------FOOTNOTE---------------------------------------
 
* Hence the seven chief planets, the spheres of the indwelling seven
spirits, under each of which is born one of the human groups which is guided
and influenced thereby. There are only seven planets (specially connected
with earth), and twelve houses, but the possible combinations of their
aspects are countless. As each planet can stand to each of the others in
twelve different aspects, their combinations must, therefore, be almost
infinite; as infinite, in fact, as the spiritual, psychic, mental, and
physical capacities in the numberless varieties of the genus homo, each of
which varieties is born under one of the seven planets and one of the said
countless planetary combinations. See Theosophist, for August, 1886. 

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


'ATMA,' round whose pavilion is the darkness of eternal MAYA." * The
"triads" born under the same Parent-planet, or rather the radiations of one
and the same Planetary Spirit (Dhyani Buddha) are, in all their after lives
and rebirths, sister, or "twin-souls," on this Earth. † 

This was known to every high Initiate in every age and in every country: "I
and my Father are one," said Jesus (John x. 30). ‡ When He is made to say,
elsewhere (xx. 17): "I ascend to my Father and your Father," it meant that
which has just been stated. It was simply to show that the group of his
disciples and followers attracted to Him belonged to the same Dhyani Buddha,
"Star," or "Father," again of the same planetary realm and division as He
did. It is the knowledge of this occult doctrine that found expression in
the review of "The Idyll of the White Lotus," when Mr. T. Subba Row wrote:
"Every Buddha meets at his last initiation all the great adepts who reached
Buddhahood during the preceding ages . . . every class of adepts has its own
bond of spiritual communion which knits them together. . . . . The only
possible and effectual way of entering into such brotherhood . . . . is by
bringing oneself within the influence of the Spiritual light which radiates
from one's own Logos. I may further point out here . . . . that such
communion is only possible between persons whose souls derive their life and
sustenance from the same divine RAY, and that, as seven distinct rays
radiate from the 'Central Spiritual Sun,' all adepts and Dhyan Chohans are
divisible into seven classes, each of which is guided, controlled, and
overshadowed by one of the seven forms or manifestations of the divine
Wisdom." ("Theosophist," Aug., 1886.) 

-------------------------------FOOTNOTE------------------------------
 
* The now universal error of attributing to the ancients the knowledge of
only seven planets, simply because they mentioned no others, is based on the
same general ignorance of their occult doctrines. The question is not
whether they were, or were not, aware of the existence of the later
discovered planets; but whether the reverence paid by them to the four
exoteric and three secret great gods—the star-angels, had not some special
reason. The writer ventures to say there was such a reason, and it is this.
Had they known of as many planets as we do now (and this question can hardly
be decided at present, either way), they would have still connected with
their religious worship only the seven, because these seven are directly and
specially connected with our earth, or, using esoteric phraseology, with our
septenary ring of spheres. (See supra.) 

† It is the same, only still more metaphysical idea, as that of the
Christian Trinity—"Three in One"—i.e., the Universal "over-Spirit,"
manifesting on the two higher planes, those of Buddhi and Mahat; and these
are the three hypostases, metaphysical, but never personal. 

‡ The identity, and at the same time the illusive differentiation of the
Angel-Monad and the Human-Monad is shown by the following sentences: "My
Father is greater than I" (John xiv. 26) ; "Glorify your Father who is in
Heaven" (Matt. v. 16); "The righteous will shine in the kingdom of their
Father" (not our Father) (Matt. xiii. 43) "Know ye not ye are a temple of
God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (I Cor. iii. 16); "I ascend
to my Father," etc., etc. 

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

It is then the "Seven Sons of Light"—called after their planets and (by the
rabble) often identified with them—namely Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars,
Venus, and—presumably for the modern critic, who goes no deeper than the
surface of old religions*—the Sun and Moon, which are, according to the
Occult teachings, our heavenly Parents, or "Father," synthetically. Hence,
as already remarked, polytheism is really more philosophical and correct, as
to fact and nature, than anthropomorphic monotheism. Saturn, Jupiter,
Mercury, and Venus, the four exoteric planets, and the three others, which
must remain unnamed, were the heavenly bodies in direct astral and psychic
communication with the Earth, its Guides, and Watchers—morally and
physically; the visible orbs furnishing our Humanity with its outward and
inward characteristics, and their "Regents" or Rectors with our Monads and
spiritual faculties. 

In order to avoid creating new misconceptions, let it be stated that among
the three secret orbs (or star-angels) neither Uranus nor Neptune entered;
not only because they were unknown under these names to the ancient Sages,
but because they, as all other planets, however many there may be, are the
gods and guardians of other septenary chains of globes within our systems. 

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

Best wishes,


Dallas
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Mauri 
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 6:06 AM
To: 
Subject: re "The Seven Beings in the Sun ..."

<<"The Seven Beings in the Sun are the 
Seven Holy Ones, Self-born from the 
inherent power in the matrix of Mother 
substance. It is they who send the 
Seven Principal Forces, called rays, 
which at the beginning of Pralaya will 
centre into seven new Suns for the next 
Manvantara. The energy from which they 
spring into conscious existence in every 
Sun, is what some people call Vishnu, 
which is the Breath of the 
Absoluteness." (SDI, 290)>>

I wonder if there might be a kind of 
intuitive sense that might help to keep 
one maintain some sort of distinction 
between essentially dualistic 
notions/reality, on the one hand, and 
... "everything else" (quotes per 
"ineffableness" and whatever 
"less-dualistic aspects/influences" 
there might be re "everything else"...) 
so that one might maintain a sense of 
p/Perspective that might, in turn, help 
one in one's "just being" and in one's 
Theosophical studies and in one's daily 
life in general. (Every time I write 
"Theosophical studies" I wonder if I 
should have that in quotes.) Anyway, 
I've been working on 
attaining/maintainig a perspective of 
sorts on things in general, with the 
result, (apparently ...), that, among 
other things, those efforts seem to be 
related to my having become (among other 
things ...) the kind of speculator I am. 
I seem to think that it's possible to be 
a speculator of sorts in this world, and 
a "knower" of sorts in "the other 
world," while, possibly, in some 
cases/situations, one might acquire a 
tendency ("per karma/maya," say ...) to 
pick up various relational "knowings" in 
this world, as well.

Speculatively,
Mauri