Theos-Talk Archives (December 2004 Message tt00294)

Dec 20 2004

Dear Estela:

You ask on Dec 17:

"In our day and age, spirit and soul are interchangeable, yet according to 
Theosophy, they are distinct elements that comprise a human being.
In Theosophy spirit is the eternal and soul the temporary.

Why does Theosophy insist on these distinctions?

Why are we given this complex make-up of a human being, and why does 
Farthing start the section with Rebirth?"

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1

What and what is "Farthing?" A Text ? Where available?

2

Let me offer:

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MANAS (Mind) IN EVOLUTION
-- REINCARNATION


The mystery about reincarnation -- as to whether it is a fact or not,
revolves around our understanding of the nature and the powers of the Mind
(Manas).

Ordinarily the Mind is thought to be immaterial, or to be merely the name
for brain-action, in evolving thought.  

Thinking is still a process wholly unknown other than by inference. Yet it
i also held that if there is no brain, there can be no mind. A good deal of
attention has been paid to cataloging some mental functions and attributes,
but the terms in our language are absent to describe metaphysical and
spiritual facts about man. 

The reaction against religion in the West, prevented science from taking
anything but a materialistic view of man and nature. 


THE HIGHER MAN

Theosophy states 

(1)	the fifth principle is Manas, translated Mind. Other names may have
been given to it, but it is the Knower, The Perceiver, The Thinker. 

(2)	The sixth principle is Buddhi, or spiritual discernment;  

(3)	the seventh is Atma, or Spirit -- the ray from the Absolute Being.

English as a language, may suffice to describe in part what Manas is, but
not Buddhi, or Atma, and will leave many things relating to Manas
undescribed. 


THE LOWER MAN

The course of evolution developed the four lower principles (Desire,
Life-energy, Astral and Physical bodies) and produced at last, the physical
form of man with a brain of better and deeper capacity than that of any
other animal. 


APE-FORM DESCENDED FROM THE MAN-FORM

THEOSOPHY states in regard to the evolutionary scheme in the present 4th
ROUND that the "form" of mankind was FIRST brought into existence ahead of
the animal forms. [ S D 155, 163, 168-9, 180, 186-7, 288-90, 594fn, 635,
683-5, 736fn ]

With it as a primitive, a primordial base, all the various animal forms were
derived [ S D II p. 254 - 257 ].  

There is a law in the Science of paleogenesis and anthropology (dealing with
the study of ancient fossils), which states that a "specialized form" (as
the "ape-form," for instance) cannot be the progenitor of a "primitive form"
such as the skeletal form of "man" [ S D II 682 - 685]. The "specialized"
forms are all derived from the "primitive, primary" forms. This is a puzzle
in Science as it contradicts the current hypothesis that the human form is
derived by "ascent" from that of an "ape." 

Further, we find in the SECRET DOCTRINE the following scientific and
anthropological data: It implies that the specialized "APE-FORM" DESCENDED
from the more primitive MAN-FORM [see S D I 186, 190-1; II 87fn, 189,
262, 287, 646, 665fn, 666-70, 677-8, 680-5, 688-9, 729, ].  

The ape-form is that of a degenerated man [ S D II 717, 730].  

Apes imitate men and not the reverse [ S D II 676 & fn]

There is no "missing link" between the ape-form and the human form [S D II
190, 260, 720].

The ape-form is that of an unnatural cross-breed: [ S D I 183-5; II
201fn, 261-2]

The "ape-form" was evolved many millions of years ago in the 3rd ROUND  
[ S D II 186-7, 253-4, 261, 688fn, 729-30]

This man in form, was not man in mind, and needed the fifth principle, the
thinking, perceiving one, to differentiate him from the animal kingdom and
to confer the power of becoming Self-Conscious. The Monad (Atma-Buddhi) was
imprisoned in these forms, for without the presence of the Monad evolution
could not go forward. 


THE LIGHTING-UP OF THE MIND

Going back for a moment to the time when mankind was devoid of mind, the
question arises, "who gave the mind, where did it come from, and what is
it?" It is the link between the Spirit of God above and the personal below.
It was given to the mindless Monads by others who had gone through this
process ages upon ages before in other worlds, and it therefore came from
older evolutionary periods which had been carried out and completed long
before the solar system began. This is the strange theory which must be
stated if we are to tell the truth about Theosophy; and this is only handing
on what others have said before. 

The manner in which this Light Of Mind was given to the Mindless Men can be
understood from the illustration of one candle lighting many. Given one
lighted candle and numerous unlighted ones, it follows that from one light
the others may also be set aflame. So in the case of Manas. It is the candle
of flame. 
The mindless men having four elementary principles of Body, Astral Body,
Life and Desire, are the unlighted candles that cannot light themselves. 


MIND IS A GIFT FROM OUR ELDER BROTHERS -- THE WISE

The "Sons of Wisdom," who are our predecessors, the Elder Brothers of the
family of men on any globe, have the Mind-light. It was derived by them
from others -- their "Elders," who reach back, and yet farther back, in
endless procession with no beginning or end. They set fire to the combined
lower principles, and the Monad, thus lighting up Manas in the new men. And
from there began the preparing of another great race for final initiation. 

This lighting up of the fire of Manas is symbolized in all great religions
and Freemasonry. In the East a priest appears holding a candle lighted at
the altar, and thousands of others come to him in a procession, to light
their candles from this one. 


MANAS THE IMMORTAL THINKER REINCARNATES

Manas, or the Thinker, is the reincarnating being. It is the immortal who
carries the results and values of all the different lives lived on earth or
elsewhere. 


MIND BECOMES DUAL IN THE PHYSICAL MAN

Its nature becomes dual as soon as it is attached to a body. For the human
Brain is a superior organism, and Manas uses it to reason from premises to
conclusions. This also differentiates man from animal, for the animal acts
from automatic, the so-called instinctual impulses. Whereas the man, can use
Reason. This is the lower aspect of the Thinker or Manas, and not, as some
have supposed, the highest and best gift belonging to man. 

Its other, and in Theosophy higher, aspect, is the intuitional, which knows,
and does not depend on reason. It is Manas allied to Buddhi -- spiritual
discrimination and Wisdom. The lower, and purely intellectual, is nearest
to the principle of Desire [Kama], and is thus distinguished from its other
side which has affinity for the spiritual principles (Buddhi and Atma)
above. If the Thinker, becomes wholly intellectual and centered in
materialism, the entire nature begins to trend downward; for intellect alone
is cold, heartless, selfish, because it is not lighted up by the two other
principles of universality and immortality: Buddhi and Atma. 


MANAS-MIND STORES ALL THOUGHTS

In Manas the thoughts of all lives are stored. That is to say: in any one
life, the sum total of thoughts underlying all the acts of the life-time
will be of one character in general, but may be placed in one or more
classes. That is, the business man of today is a single type; his entire
life thoughts represent but one single thread of thought. The artist, the
poet, or the musician, is another. The man who has engaged in business, but
also thought much upon fame and power which he never attained, is still
another. 

The great mass of self-sacrificing, courageous, and strong, poor people who
have but little time to think, constitute another distinct class. In all
these, the total quantity of life thoughts makes up the stream or thread of
a "life's meditation" -- "that upon which the heart was set" -- and those
are stored in immortal Manas. All those will be brought out again at any
time in whatever life the brain and bodily environments are similar to those
used in engendering that class of thoughts. 


PERCEPTION BY THE MIND

It is Manas which sees the objects presented to it by the bodily organs and
the actual organs (which are seated in the Astral body) within. 

When the open eye receives a picture on the retina, the whole scene is
turned into vibrations in the optic nerves which disappear into the brain,
and there Manas is enabled to perceive them as idea-pictures. And so with
every other organ or sense. 

If the connection between Manas and the brain be broken, intelligence will
not be manifested unless Manas has by training found out how to project the
astral body out and away from the physical, and thereby keep up
communication with fellow men. 


OUR ORGANS OF PERCEPTION ARE TOOLS FOR THE MIND

That the organs and senses do not cognize objects, hypnotism, mesmerism, and
spiritualism have now proved. For, as we see in mesmeric and hypnotic
experiments, the object seen or felt, and from which, all the effects of
solid objects may be sensed, is often only an idea existing in the
operator's brain. 

In hypnotism there are many experiments, all of which go to show that so
called matter is not per se solid or dense; that sight does not always
depend on the eye and rays of light proceeding from an object; that the
intangible for one normal brain and organs, may be perfectly tangible for
another; and that physical effects in the body may be produced solely from
an idea. 

The well-known experiments of producing a blister by a simple piece of
paper, or preventing a real blistering plaster from making a blister, by
force of the idea conveyed to a subject, either that there was to be or not
to be a blister, conclusively prove the power of effecting an impulse on
matter by the use of that which is called Mind (Manas). 

But all these phenomena are the exhibition of the powers of Lower Manas
acting in the Astral Body and the fourth principle [Kama] -- Desire, using
the physical body as the field for the exhibition of the forces.


THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 

In the same way Manas, using the astral body, has only to impress an idea
upon the other person to make the latter see the idea and translate it into
a visible body from which the usual effects of density and weight seem to
follow. 


LOWER MANAS AND ITS POWERS

It is this Lower Manas which retains all the impressions of a life-time and
sometimes strangely exhibits them in trances or dreams, delirium, induced
states, here and there in normal conditions, and very often at the time of
physical death. But it is so occupied with the brain, with memory and with
sensation, that it usually presents but few recollections out of the mass of
events that years have brought before it. 

It interferes with the action of Higher Manas [Buddhi-Manas] because just at
the present point of evolution, Desire [Kama] and all corresponding powers,
faculties, and senses are the most highly developed, thus obscuring, as it
were, the white light of the spiritual side of Manas. It (Lower - [Kama]
Manas) is tinted by each object presented to it, whether it be a
thought-object or a material one. That is to say, Lower Manas operating
through the brain is at once altered into the shape and other
characteristics of any object, mental or otherwise. This causes it to have
four peculiarities. 

1.	First, to naturally fly off and away from a selected point, object,
or subject; 
.	
2.	Second, to fly to some pleasant idea; 
.	
3.	Third, to fly to an unpleasant idea; 
.	
4.	Fourth, to remain passive and considering nothing.
.	
The first is due to memory and the natural motion of Manas; the second and
third are due to memory alone; the fourth signifies sleep when not abnormal.
And when abnormal is trending toward insanity. 


HIGHER MANAS AND ITS WORK

These mental characteristics all belonging to Lower [Kama] Manas. It is
these which the Higher [Budhi] Manas, aided by Buddhi and Atma, has to fight
and conquer. 


GENIUSES AND SAGES


Higher [Buddhi] Manas, if able to act, becomes what we sometimes call
Genius. If completely master, then one may become a "god." Our memory
continually presents pictures to Lower Manas, and the result is that the
Higher Manas is obscured. 

Sometimes, however, along the pathway of life we do see here and there men
who are geniuses or great seers and prophets. In these the Higher powers of
Manas are active, and the person is illuminated. Such were the great Sages
of the past, men like Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, Zoroaster, and others.
Poets, too, such as Tennyson, Longfellow, and others, are men in whom Higher
Manas now and then sheds a bright ray on the man below, to be soon obscured,
however, by the effect of dogmatic religious education which has given
memory certain pictures that always prevent Manas from gaining full
activity. 

In this higher Trinity [atma-buddhi-manas], we have the God above each one;
this is Atma, (the 7th principle) and may be called the Higher Self.  

Next, (the sixth) is the spiritual part of the soul called Buddhi; when
thoroughly united with Manas (the fifth) this may be called the Divine Ego,
or the Spiritual Soul. 


THE REINCARNATING SELF IS AN IMMORTAL

The inner Ego (Manas), who reincarnates, taking on body after body, storing
up the impressions of life after life, gaining experience and adding it to
the Divine Ego, suffering and enjoying through an immense period of years,
is the fifth principle -- Manas -- not united to Buddhi. 

This is the "permanent individuality" which gives to every man the feeling
of being himself and not some other; that which, through all the changes of
the days and nights from youth to the end of life, makes us feel one
identity through all the period; it bridges the gap made by sleep; in like
manner it bridges the gap made by the sleep of death. It is this, and not
our brain, that lifts us above the animal. 

The depth and variety of the brain convolutions in man are caused by the
presence of Manas, and are not the cause of mind. And when we either wholly,
or now and then, become consciously united with Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul,
we "behold God," as it were. This is what the ancients all desired to see,
but what the moderns do not believe in, the latter preferring rather to
throw away their own right to be great in nature, and to worship an
imaginary god, made up solely of their own fancies, and not very different
from weak human nature. 


WORK OF THE REINCARNATING MIND-MANAS

This permanent individuality in our present race has therefore been through
every sort of experience, for Theosophy insists on its permanence and in the
necessity for its continuing to take part in evolution. It has a duty to
perform, consisting in raising up to a higher state all the matter concerned
in the chain of globes to which the earth belongs. 


PAST CIVILIZATIONS

We have all lived and taken part in civilization after civilization, race
after race, on earth, and will so continue throughout all the Rounds and
Races until the seventh is complete. At the same time it should be
remembered that the matter of this globe, connected with it, has also been
through every kind of form, with possibly some exceptions in very low planes
of mineral formation. 

But in general all the matter visible, or held in space still
unprecipitated, has been molded at one time or another into forms of all
varieties, many of these being such as we now have no idea of. The processes
of evolution, therefore, in some departments, now go forward with greater
rapidity than in former ages because both Manas and matter have acquired
facility of action. 

Especially is this so in regard to man, who is the farthest ahead of all
things or beings in this evolution. He is now incarnated and projected into
life more quickly than in earlier periods when it consumed many years to
obtain a "coat of skin." This coming into life over and over again cannot be
avoided by the ordinary man because Lower Manas is still bound by Desire
[Kama], which is the preponderating principle at the present period. Being
so very influenced by Desire, Manas is continually deluded while in the
body, and being thus deluded is unable to prevent the action upon it of the
forces set up in the life time [by free-choice and consequent Karma]. 

These forces are generated by Manas, that is, by the thinking of a whole
life time. Each thought makes a physical as well as mental link with the
Desire in which it is rooted. All life is filled with such thoughts, and
when the period of rest after death is ended, Manas continues to be bound by
innumerable electrical magnetic threads to earth by reason of the thoughts
of the last life, and therefore by Desire, for it was Desire that caused so
many thoughts and ignorance of the true nature of things. This is called by
the Hindu philosophies "maya." (illusion).

An understanding of this doctrine of man being really a thinker and made of
thought, will make clear all the rest in relation to incarnation and
reincarnation. 

The body of the inner man is made of thought, and this being so, it must
follow that if the thoughts have more affinity for earth-life than for life
elsewhere a return to life here is inevitable. 

At the present day Manas is not fully active in the race, as Desire still is
uppermost. In the next cycle of the human period Manas will be fully active
and developed in the entire race. Hence the people of the earth have not yet
come to the point of making a conscious choice as to the path they will
take; but when in the cycle referred to, Manas is active, all will then be
compelled to consciously make the choice to right or left, the one leading
to complete and conscious union with [the One Spirit] Atma, the other to the
annihilation of those beings who prefer that path of an isolated
selfishness.

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THEOSOPHY -- A BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

Theosophy is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to shore of
the evolution of sentient beings; unfathomable in its deepest parts, it
gives the greatest minds their fullest scope, yet, shallow enough at its
shores, it will not overwhelm the understanding of a child.  

It is Wisdom, for it is the science of sciences. It is therefore complete
in itself and sees no unsolvable mystery anywhere. It throws the word
coincidence out of its vocabulary.  

It hails the reign of law in everything and every circumstance. 

Theosophy teaches that the course of evolution is the drama of the soul and
that nature exists for no other purpose than the soul's experience. 


SCALES OF INTELLIGENCE -- THE SAGES

The Theosophist asserts that there must be beings in the universe who
possess advanced intelligence and naturally take an active and cooperative
part in the government of the natural order of things. They are the active,
and wise assistants of Nature, [the UNIVERSE] as a whole. The Theosophist
adds that such Wise Sages are Intelligences which were once human, and came
like all of us from other and previous worlds. 

The most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never, been without a
friend, but has a line of elder brothers who continually watch over the
progress of the less progressed, preserve the knowledge gained through aeons
of trial and experience, and continually seek for opportunities of drawing
the developing intelligence of the race to consider the great truths
concerning the destiny of the soul [Mind]. 


UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION -- ITS RECORDS

This immense reach of the evolutionary system means, that this planet on
which we now are, is the result of the activity and the evolution of some
earlier one that died long ago. It left its energy to be used in the
bringing into existence the earth. Further, the inhabitants of the Earth, in
their turn, came from some older world. They are now proceeding with their
destined work in the "matter" we are familiar with here. 

The Elder Brothers of the human race, keep the knowledge they have gained of
the laws of nature in all departments, and are ready when cyclic law permits
to use it for the benefit of mankind. They have always existed as a body,
all knowing each other, no matter in what part of the world they may be, and
all working for the race in many different ways. [see ISIS UNVEILED, Vol. 2,
pp. 98-103] 

They have stood by the cradle of nations and seen the vast achievements of
the ancients, watched sadly the decay of those who had no power to resist
the cyclic law of rise and fall; and while cataclysms seemed to show a
universal destruction of art, architecture, religion, and philosophy, they
have preserved the records of it all in places secure from the ravages of
either men or time. They have made minute observations, through trained
psychics among their own order, into the unseen realms of nature and of
mind, recorded the observations, and have preserved the record. And,
greater feat than all -- one which implies a knowledge of the very
foundations of nature -- they know what the ultimate divisions of time are
and what are the meaning and the times of the cycles. [ see S D Vol. I,
pp. 272-3 ]

When this day opens, cosmic evolution, so far as relates to this solar
system, begins and occupies between one and two billions of years in
evolving the very ethereal first matter before the astral kingdoms of
mineral, vegetable, animal and men are possible. 


PLANS AND MATERIAL IN EVOLUTION

In these the, very distant and very silent past, Man could not have his
bodily temple to live in, until all the matter in and about his world had
been found by the Master, the spiritual and eternal Inner Man. Once found,
the plans for working it required to be carried out in detail, until all the
parts should be perfectly ready and fit for placing in the final structure. 

This is the gradual coming forth of the known and heterogeneous from the
unknown and homogeneous. The ancient Egyptian and Hindu Theosophists never
admitted a creation out of nothing, but ever strenuously insisted upon
evolution, by gradual stages. All the various powers and potentialities
needed, had to be well worked out in this slow but sure process. At last
man is put upon the scene: a sevenfold being, a miniature of the universe
and earth, which are sevenfold. 


CONSOLIDATION OF MATERIALS AND FORMS

This second step takes some three hundred millions of years, and then still
more material processes go forward for the production of the tangible
(physical matter) kingdoms of nature, including man. This covers over one
and one-half billions of years. And the number of solar years included in
the present "human" period is over eighteen millions of years. [S D . I,
pp. 150, footnote]

During all these ages before man's physical body came into being, evolution
was carrying on the work of perfecting various powers which are now our
possession. This was accomplished by the Ego or Real Man going through
experience in countless conditions of matter, all different one from the
other, and the same plan in general was and is pursued as prevails in
respect to the general evolution of the universe.

That is, details were first worked out in spheres of being very ethereal,
metaphysical, in fact. Then the next step brought the same details to be
worked out on a plane of matter a little more dense, until at last it could
be done on our present plane of what we miscall "gross matter." This is
called the "descent of Spirit into Matter."

Theosophy alone, inclusive of all systems and every experience, gives the
key, the plan, the doctrine, the truth of these great natural processes. 

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 Fourth
Round. 

The object of this amalgamation and subsequent differentiation is to give to
every race the benefit of the progress and power of the whole derived from
prior progress in other planets and systems. For Nature never does her work
in a hasty or undue fashion, but, by the sure method of mixture,
precipitation, and separation, brings about the greatest perfection. 

What has become at last "man" is of vastly greater age, for before the
present two sexes appeared, the human creature was sometimes of one shape
and sometimes of another, until the whole plan had been fully worked out
into our present form, function, and capacity. 


MONADIC EVOLUTION	

Considering our Earth, the view put forward by Theosophy regarding its
genesis, its evolution and the evolution of the Human, Animal and other
Monads, is quite different from modern ideas, and in some things contrary to
accepted theories.  

We find that the Scientific theories of today are not stable. They change
with each century, while the Theosophical one never alters. It is the
result of age-old and continuous verification by the Elder Brothers. These
have now caused its repromulgation and pointed to its confirmation in
ancient books and traditions. To them, it is a statement of facts in
nature. The modern Scientific theories in an attempt to speculatively
rebuild an unknown past, are, on the contrary, always doubtful, changeable,
and continually altered. There are continuous attempts to secure proof of
these theories, but nothing has proved conclusive so far.

	
THE EARTH HAS REINCARNATED

The Earth Chain of seven Globes as thus defined is the direct reincarnation
of a former chain of seven Globes, and that former family of seven was the
Moon chain, the moon itself being the visible representative of the fourth
Globe of the old chain. 


PERFECTION AND THE END OF EVOLUTION

Each one of the Globes is used by evolutionary law for the development of
seven "Races," and of senses, faculties and powers appropriate to that state
of matter. (the experience of the whole seven Globes being needed to make a
perfect development in man's consciousness and character). 

At the present time the seven races are mixed together, and representatives
of all are in the many so-called races of men as classified by our present
science. The object of this amalgamation and subsequent differentiation is
to give to every race the benefit of the progress and power of the whole
derived from prior progress in other planets and systems. For Nature never
does her work in a hasty or undue fashion, but, by the sure method of
mixture, precipitation, and separation, brings about the greatest
perfection. 

But when the last, the seventh Race has appeared and fully perfected itself,
in the 7th Round and the 7th Globe, a great dissolution comes on, similar to
that which preceded the birth of the earth's chain. Then the world
disappears. 
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.

In considering this, one may think of an "atom" as essentially an eternal,
individualized field of electro-magnetic Force. Physical material is
condensed in and around it by attraction. The formation of worlds, and the
reincarnation of human Souls, may be thought of in similar terms, and follow
a similar pattern.

The ancient teaching always held, as is now admitted by Science, that we see
or perceive only the phenomena but not the essential nature, cause or being
of Matter. 


UNIVERSAL PLAN OF MANIFESTATION

Mind (the Universal Mind or Mahat) is the intelligent part of the Cosmos.
In the collection of seven differentiations roughly sketched above,
Universal Mind is that in which the Plan of the Cosmos is fixed or
contained. This Plan is brought over from a prior period of manifestation,
which added to its ever-increasing perfectness as it proceeds. No limit can
be set to its evolutionary possibilities in perfectness, because, as there
was never any beginning to the periodical manifestations of "the Absolute,"
there never will be an end, but forever the going forth and withdrawing into
the Unknown will go on. 

Wherever a world or system of worlds is evolving there the Plan has been
laid down in Universal Mind, the original force comes from Spirit, the basis
is Matter -- which is in fact invisible -- Life sustains all the forms, and
Akasa is the connecting link between Matter on one side and Spirit-Mind on
the other. 


END OF A CYCLE -- CATACLYSMS - DELUGES

When a world or a system comes to the end of certain great cycles, men
record a cataclysm in history or tradition. These universal traditions
abound, all pointing to early teaching and dim recollection of periodical
destructions and renovations. Just as there are periodical minor cataclysms
or partial destructions, so, the doctrine holds, there is, as a prototype,
the universal evolution and involution. 


HOW OLD IS OUR EARTH?

The real age of the world has long been involved in doubt for Western
investigators, who up to the present have shown unwillingness to take
instruction from the records of Oriental people much older than the West.
Yet with the Orientals is the truth about the matter. 

But the Master Theosophists know what is to be the resurrection of the old
pyramid builders of the Nile valley, and where the plans of those ancient
master masons have been hidden from the profane eyes until the cycle should
roll round again for their bringing forth. When Egypt and India were younger
there was a constant intercourse between them. They both, thought alike, but
fate ruled that of the two the Hindus only should preserve the old ideas
among a living people. 


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Best wishes and seasons greetings.  

Have a fine 2005


Dallas

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