Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00014)

Jan 1 2005

Dear Friend:

You ask:

"How is it a vast co-operative, and how it is not a cooperative...
Is it something I and it would benefit by my joining...
Descriptive extremes works for me... 
Take it as high and deep as you are capable, Please...  

Let me offer for consideration the following:


We all look at Nature, at our Universe (either through telescopes or
microscopes) and wonder how it originated and how it got to be so difficult
to be fully understood.  

To be told that 30 (or more) billions of years of antiquity lie between us
here on little Earth and the furtherest regions of the Kosmos that the
Hubble telescope reveals, has little bearing on how we behave to each other
in daily life. 

How can such information be made practical? But if we are told that LAWS of
Nature are uniform here and there, and in the vast past we were far closer
than now, the importance of community and family relationships are seen to
acquire a new dimension of importance. 

I have over the years tested THEOSOPHY and its expressions, doctrines and
their logic; and have been satisfied that they did no more than transmit a
very ancient and continuous system of science, research, study, testing,
philosophizing, and compiling evidence of that which Nature employs
continually and with great sensitivity to support life everywhere.  

We could ask ourselves why this complexity is there, and how is this care
for
uncountable myriads of beings of so many diverse natures and degrees of
intelligence actually done. We may see in imagination, hierarchies of
dependent and semi-dependent (and semi-independent) agents that serve as
links passing on laws, ideas and actions from one to another, so that
apparent
disharmony is eventually resolved into a grand symphony. Is this not the
basis for a universal, cooperative brotherhood?

We are for ever confronted with such ideas as cooperation, free and fair
exchanges, consideration and care for one-another, interactions on a most
generous basis, etc... There is no isolation or selfishness in this
approach, but
only a vast and quite reasonable coexistence and mutual help in action. 

So, considering this complexity, I asked myself if there were any laws,
short-cuts, correspondences, and analogies that could be traced. I looked
carefully into the many departments of Science, and the fine arts, and
discovered that emphasis had been placed on the repetition of phenomena, as
the faithful demonstration of universal, inviolable and continuous laws.
[And yet certain phenomena that were considered disruptive and
"out-of-line," were being either neglected or suppressed. I ask: Why ?]

Mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, logic and psychology,
the history, not only of events of government, invasions, religious
fanaticism, as we have all been taught -- are expressed in brief compressed
manner -- but also those of most myths and religions. We have a very wide
spread of "history" and of "opinions" about it. How to get stability and
truth from that?  

Perhaps we ought to look for regularities and repetitions while not
loosing sight of the conflicting diversities and curious incidents of
apparent dissent. The only way I could devise for myself was making
extensive notes as I read and studied and thought.

In THEOSOPHY I discovered a well balanced review of the chief religions of
the world. They showed a sequence. Also, it is apparent that there has
always been duality in every religion: (1) the superficial religion of rites
and rituals for the average masses, and (2) the deeper gnosis of the
priesthood.


See if this is of help.

2

You also ask:

"Is it something I and it would benefit by my joining..."

I would say we are already fully involved in this situation. We are
actively trying to understand it implications.

Have a look at this:

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

2
"THE IDEAL PLAN OF THE UNIVERSE" 



The ancient esoteric philosophy (Love of Wisdom) seeks to take
inquirers out of the limiting realm of "forms," "customs, and
"traditions" -- and it points to their SOURCE. I continually
asks the questions: Why, Where, How, Who, When -- as leading
past any declaration of authority (as to research and
discovery) -- to the fact that NATURE (which we all live in)
already contains all.

Occultism (the invisible life, laws and courtesies of Nature)
surrounds us, and we are unaware of them. But we can always ask
questions that probe for basic facts.

Is it not the prime duty of Science to probe for answers, and
record their observations. It is noticed, through a study of
science, that there is a constant shifting of theories and
hypotheses as new facts (contradictory or modifying) are
discovered.

As already said, every discovery made has no value as novelty or
uniqueness. Nature (our Universe and Earth) already had the
order and procedures IN PLACE and in use. We had only to ask the
right questions and seek for the pathways of Laws that govern our
environment (visible and invisible) for us to use them.

Does this not show us that some of our common and present views
are laced with errors, such as 1. incorrect comprehension of
old philosophies and religious, scientific, and psychological
texts; 2. on the materialistic and anthropomorphic tendencies
of this present age?

In fact one might say that the intellectual mines of the ancients
are being constantly drawn on, and the wealth of ideas there are
being exposed again.


ANCIENT MYSTERIES -- PAST THEOGONIES

If one surveys the traces remaining to us of ancient sacerdotal
literature, we may think of India, China, Egypt, Persia, Greece,
Scandinavia, Tibet, and the "Popol Vuh" of the Mayas of
Guatemala. One might surmise that these point to a common source,
a foundation stone, a source of secret wisdom, which has been
vaguely named the "Ancient Mysteries."

Almost without exception we find ISIS UNVEILED, and the SECRET
DOCTRINE speaking of the once "universal belief in a universal,
divine Principle, absolute in its nature, and unknowable to the
"brain" intellect or the conditioned and limited cognition of
man." [ H.P.B.: THE MIND IN NATURE -- ULT, H.P.B. Articles,
Vol. II, pp. 220-1 ]

She continues:

"To imagine any witness to it, in the manifested universe, other
than as Universal Mind, the Soul of the universe--is impossible.
That which alone stands as an undying and ceaseless evidence and
proof of the existence of that One Principle, is the presence of
an undeniable design in kosmic mechanism, the birth, growth,
death and transformation of everything in the universe, from the
silent and unreachable stars down to the humble lichen, from man
to the invisible lives now called microbes.

Hence the universal acceptation of "Thought Divine," the Anima
Mundi of all antiquity. This idea of Mahat (the great) Akasha or
Brahma's aura of transformation with the Hindus, of Alaya, "the
divine Soul of thought and compassion" of the trans-Himalayan
mystics; of Plato's "perpetually reasoning Divinity," is the
oldest of all the doctrines now known to, and believed in, by
man. Therefore they cannot be said to have originated with
Plato, nor with Pythagoras, nor with any of the philosophers
within the historical period. Say the Chaldean Oracles: "The
works of nature co-exist with the intellectual, spiritual Light
of the Father. For it is the soul which adorned the great
heaven, and which adorns it after the Father."

"The incorporeal world then was already completed, having its
seat in the Divine Reason, says Philo, who is erroneously
accused of deriving his philosophy from Plato.

In the theogony of Mochus, we find Aether first, and then the
air; the two principles from which Ulom, the intelligible God
(the visible universe) is born.

In the Orphic Hymns, the Eros-Phanes evolves from the Spiritual
Egg, which the aethereal winds impregnate, wind being "the Spirit
of god," who is said to move in aether, "brooding over the
Chaos"--the Divine "Idea."

In the Hindu Kathopanishad, Purusha, the Divine Spirit, stands
before the original Matter; from their union springs the great
Soul of the World, "Maha-Atma, Brahma, the Spirit of Life;"
these later appellations are identical with the Universal Soul,
or Anima Mundi, and the Astral Light of the |Theurgists and
Kabalists." -- H.P.B. [CWB Vol. 13, p. 262 -- Sept. 1896]


An ABSOLUTE SOURCE

>From all accounts the Universe we know manifests from an unknown
Source -- a background that is indefinable in our relative
dimensions and terms. Space does not apply, nor Motion, nor Time
to this ALL.  

The terms "ABSOLUTE" or "ABSOLUTENESS" are used to
convey a vague idea of an eternal, immutable, FULLY CONSCIOUS
EVER-LIVING SOURCE, which, being timeless, prevails whether there
is manifestation (whole or partial) or not; whether there is
limited "Time," or endless and impartite "DURATION;" whether
there is Space as we seek to measure it from the infinitely
'small,' to the infinitely 'large.' And whether there is Chaos
or Cosmos, disorder and confusion or order and growth.
It would be reasonable to assume that there are LAWS which
pertain to the succession of the unfinished "business" of all
beings (and of the WHOLE COMPOSITE KOSMOS) in their (ITS) 
endless progression towards a "goal" which we vaguely define as
"PERFECTION." It may also be assumed that the Universe (like
man, when sleep follows daily activities) requires occasional
periods of "rest," where planes of consciousness and activity
other than the mere physical operate.

We come across a reference to the three Logoi (Verbum, Word). 
The first is the "idea" of manifestation - The Unmanifested Logos.
The second is the Manifesting Logos - the transition between the
Non-Manifested and the Manifested Logos, which is the third.
There is a correspondence here to Paramita Viraga, the balance one
of the seven stages to Adeptship: (Voice p. 52)

"VIRAGA - (1) indifference to pleasure as to pain,
(2) illusion conquered,
(3) truth alone perceived."  


CYCLES and KARMA

The teaching concerning alternating Pralayas and Manvantaras
(Obscurations, and Active periods) makes us consider the great
law of Cycles, which prevails everywhere. The Hindus named this
great coordinating Power: KARMA (or the exact effect that any
chosen action produces in terms of a consequent reaction upon the
chooser). Some believe that by their cessation from action their
share of "Karma" will be reduced to nothing; and they,
consequently (and hopefully) may be able to enter upon an
infinitely extended period of non-involvement with the Nidana
(concatenation of painful and joyous personal events -
Samsara) -- called Earth-life. But on deep consideration, even
that period of moksha {oblivion, or bliss (?)} or Nirvana, is
seen, in the progress of time, to be limited; and vast Karma
draws such Egos back (as "returning Nirvanees") into the stream
of Life and progress, in common with those companions of theirs
who have achieved a similar level of excellence.
[S.D. II 79-80, 94, 109-110]


IMMORTALITY and ETERNITY

Broadly speaking, the whole of the 1st Volume of the SECRET
DOCTRINE is devoted to giving a detailed view of the available
evidence relating to the re-manifestation of the Universe, and
taking our earth into particular account, as we are associated
closely (and jointly) with that continued progress. In a small
article titled ISIS UNVEILED AND THE VISHISTADVAITA,  
[ BCW, Vol. 7, pp. 51-2; ULT, H.P.B. Articles, Vol. .III, 
pp. 265-6 ] we find HPB writing:

"Like the Adwaitis, I make no difference between my Seventh
Principle [ATMA] and the Universal Spirit, or Parabrahm...nor do
I believe in an individual, segregated spirit in me, as a
something apart from the whole...

I maintain as an occultist, on the authority of the Secret
Doctrine, that though merged entirely into Parabrahm, man's
spirit while not individual per se, yet preserves its distinct
individuality in Parabrahm, owing to the accumulation in it of
the aggregates, or skandhas that have survived after each death,
from the highest faculties of the Manas.

The most spiritual --i.e., the highest and divinest aspirations
of every personality follow Buddhi and the Seventh Principle into
Devachan (Swarga) after the death of each personality along the
line of rebirths, and become part and parcel of the Monad....
That such Parabrahmic and Paranirvanic "spirits," or units have
and must preserve their divine (not human) individualities, is
shown in the fact that, however long the "night of Brahma" or
even the Universal Pralaya...yet, when it ends, the same
individual Divine Monad resumes its majestic path of evolution,
thought on a higher, hundredfold perfected and more pure chain of
earths than before, and brings with it all the essence of
compound spiritualities from its previous countless rebirths.
Spiritual evolution...is dual and the path of spirituality turns,
corkscrew-like within and around physical, semi-physical, and
supra-physical evolution." -- H.P.B.


DEVELOPING MIND IN NATURE

In the S.D., Vol. I pp. 570-575 we are given a survey of the way
in which the re-manifestation of our Universe and our Earth, and
ourselves is accomplished -- Nature being assisted by a corps of
Divine volunteers (the Dhyani Buddhas and "Cosmocratores," once
men like we are, but, since then, having progressed further in
self-training, they offered Nature their services to assist in
the enormous work of assisting all creatures (Monads of whatever
level of evolution) to advance.


The IMMORTAL MONAD a FOUNDATION

The concept of the basic unit of life, the MONAD is an important
one to continually bear in mind. It is a unit of SPIRIT/MATTER.
It has in it the entire potential of all Nature, but is restrained from 
any individual misuse by its companions and the
great law of karma / compassion. The MONAD is a component of every
aspect of life and of development in the Universe. Emanating
from the undifferentiated "Monadic essence," (S.D. I 619), the
monads pass through successively the elemental stages (3) and
then through the "kingdoms" (3 -- mineral, vegetable, animal) to
the Human stage. Man is a Mind-Monad, and his self-awareness is
the current field of decision. It is probably because of this
crisis that theosophy has been offered again in a most coherent
and logical way to our thoughtful world.

Volume 2 of the S.D. is devoted to a study of the process of
human evolution, physically, psychically, intellectually and
spiritually. (S.D. I 157, 181-2)

There we learn that the physical is the least important of the
processes. But its importance lies in the fact that every
immortal Monad has to pass through that stage in its progressive
development. We in our bodies afford them, here and now, the
field for such progress. Our responsibility is high. As we
choose so do they advance or are detained, if our choices are
selfish and ungenerous. To them, at their incipient level of
individualizing intelligence, we are their "Universe." We to
them are like the "Dhyan Chohans" are to us -- Powers, Forces of
inspiration or of desperation.

Mankind serves as a kind of filter, or as transfer point in the
evolution of the countless MONADS that make up all SPACE (whether
we designate it as "visible" or ":invisible," whether we call it
"Light Matter" or "Dark Matter").. The active human mind
provides this point of change and alteration. We who are
mind-men will have to study and become aware of the full range of
our potentials.


PUPIL -- TEACHERS

Theosophy offers the concept of the Pupil-Teacher link which at
all levels and in all planes of being represents her marvelous
adaptive processes. It underlines the fact that at all levels we
are in constant contact with each-other -- even when we are
unaware of that.

What we may learn of evolution in S.D. Vol. I, can, by analogy,
be applied to our dealings in our life-time with the "Monads"
entrusted to us by Nature. As such, every immortal Monad passes
through all the conditions and stages that the Universe can
offer. The reincarnation of the Universe, the reincarnation of a
world, and the reincarnation of a Man are all evidence of the
economy of Nature which unites all its many disparate parts into
a harmony of diversity. Her infinite sensitivity to the needs of
the least, as of the greatest of her "children" will be found
represented in one or another of the many pages of the SECRET
DOCTRINE.	See also: S.D. I 282-3


PERPETUAL MOTION ?

All the Christian Kabalists understood well the Eastern root idea: The
active Power, the "Perpetual motion of the great Breath" only
awakens Kosmos at the dawn of every new Period, setting it into motion by
means of the two contrary Forces,* and thus causing it to become objective
on the plane of Illusion. In other words, that dual motion transfers Kosmos
from the plane of the Eternal Ideal into that of finite manifestation, or
from the Noumenal to the Phenomenal plane. Everything that is, was, and will
be, eternally IS, even the countless forms, which are finite and perishable
only in their objective, not in their ideal Form. They existed as Ideas, in
the Eternity, and, when they pass away, will exist as reflections Neither
the form of man, nor that of any animal, plant or stone has ever been
created, and it is only on this plane of ours that it commenced "becoming,"
i.e., objectivisng into its present materiality, or expanding from within
outwards, from the most sublimated and supersensuous essence into its
grossest appearance. Therefore our human forms have existed in the Eternity
as astral or ethereal prototypes; according to which models, the Spiritual
Beings (or Gods) whose duty it was to bring them into objective being and
terrestrial Life, evolved the protoplasmic forms of the future Egos from
their own essence. After which, when this human Upadhi, or basic mould was
ready, the natural terrestrial Forces began to work on those supersensuous
moulds which contained, besides their own, the elements of all the past
vegetable and future animal forms of this globe in them. 

Therefore, man's outward shell passed through every vegetable and animal
body before it assumed the human shape. As this will be fully described in
Book II., with the Commentaries thereupon, there is no need to say more of
it here.

[Footnote(s)
--------------------------------------------------------

* The centripetal and the centrifugal forces, which are male and female,
positive and negative, physical and spiritual, the two being the
one Primordial Force.

** Occultism teaches that no form can be given to anything, either by nature
or by man, whose ideal type does not already exist on the subjective plane.
More than this; that no such form or shape can possibly enter man's
consciousness, or evolve in his imagination, which does not exist in
prototype, at least as an approximation. S.D. I 282

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

Ask further if you will,

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Cosmic

Sent: Friday, December 31, 2004 6:16 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: 

Part 2 -- Ancient Cataclysms

How is it a vast co-opertive, and how it is not a cooperative...

Is it something I and it would benefit by my joining...

Descriptive extremes works for me... 

Take it as high and deep as you are capable, Please...