Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt00052)

Jan 4 2005

Re: UNCERTAINTY

Catching up finally.

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1

AKASHIC RECORDS

Your note:  

akashic records which are highly
subjective because they are interpretive. Looking at samsara, the lower
four planes, each plane up from the physical is more subjective because
there is less sharing or overlap of the monadic Not-I's. The akashic
records are recorded by the Lipakas on Globe G of the fourth or causal
plane and so are highly subjective/karmic in nature.  

BTW, according to G de Purucker (with whom I agree) the fourth plane is
pivotal with the three planes below mirroring or reflecting the three planes
above. In the same way that as we go from the fourth down to the physical
there is more sharing of Not-I's, so with the upper three planes so that on
the first and highest plane there is almost total sharing and it is this
that gives the observer there such an overwhelming sense of oneness.

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

DTB	Here are some quote I have on AKASA. I have nothing that
substantiates De Puruker's view. I find no reference to that.



AKASA


"AKASĀ (Sk.)	The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which pervades
all space; the primordial substance erroneously identified with Ether. But
it is to Ether what Spirit is to Matter, or Atmā to Kāma-Rūpa. It is...the
Universal Space in which lies inherent the eternal Ideation of the Universe
in its ever-changing aspects on the planes of matter and objectivity, and
from which radiates the First Logos, or expressed thought.

This is why it is stated in the Puranas that Akasa has but one attribute,
namely sound, for sound is but the translated symbol of Logos
[word-vibration]--"Speech" in its mystic sense...

Akasa--in another aspect, Kundalini--occult electricity, the alkahest of the
alchemists in one sense, or the universal solvent, the same anima mundi on
the higher plane as the astral light is on the lower."	Glos 13


[AKASA]	",...the invisible sky...the source of life, the reservoir of all
energy, and the propeller of every change of matter. In its latent state it
tallies exactly with our idea of the universal ether; in its active state
it became the Akasa, the all-directing and omnipotent god...occult
electricity; the alkahest of the alchemists in one sense, or the universal
solvent, the same anima mundi as the astral light..."	ISIS I xxvii


"...the existence of an imponderable, tenuous medium which interpenetrates
the entire globe, and in which all the acts and thoughts of every man are
felt and impressed...an enormous hypnotizing machine is about... "Akasa"
...the "Astral Light"--is entirely beyond our control, we are at the mercy
of the pictures made in it and reflected on us...we are moved, without our
knowledge, by the impressions made in the Astral Light...as the
evil thoughts and deeds are the more material and therefore more firmly
impacted into the Astral Light, while the good, being spiritual, easily fade
out, we are in effect at the mercy of the evil done." Echoes 5-6


 
ETHER -- AETHER


"ETHER. [ Often ]... confused with Akasa and with Astral Light. It is
neither, in the sense in which ether is described by physical Science.
Ether is a material agent, though hitherto undetected by any physical
apparatus; whereas Akasa is a distinctly spiritual agent, identical, in one
sense with the Anima Mundi [ "Soul of the World"...Alaya...the essence of
the seven planes of sentience, consciousness and differentiation, moral and
physical. In its highest aspect it is Nirvana and in its lowest Astral
Light... esoterically... our higher Egos are of an essence identical with
It, which is a radiation of the ever unknown Universal Absolute. Glos. 22-3
], while the Astral Light is only the 7th and highest principle of the
terrestrial atmosphere, as undetectable as Akasa and real Ether, because it
is something quite on another plane. The 7th principle of the earth's
atmosphere, as said, the Astral Light, is only the second on the Cosmic
scale. The scale of Cosmic Forces, Principles and Planes, of Emanations--on
the metaphysical--and Evolutions--on the physical plane--is the Cosmic
Serpent biting its own tail, the Serpent reflecting the Higher, and
reflected in its turn, by the lower Serpent. The Cadeuceus explains the
mystery [Glos 71], and the 4-fold Dodecahedron on the model of which the
universe is said by Plato to have been built by the manifested
Logos--synthesized by the unmanifested First-Born--yields geometrically the
key to Cosmogony and its microcosmic reflection--our Earth." Glos 115-6



AKASA AND THE ASTRAL LIGHT


"Before the path is entered, thou must destroy thy lunar body(*), cleanse
thy mind body(**), and make clean thy heart."

Footnotes:  

(*)	Lunar body: The astral form produced by the Kamic principle, the
Kamarupa, or body of desire.

(**)	Manasa-rupa. The first refers to the astral or personal Self; the
second to the individuality, or the reincarnating Ego, whose consciousness
on our plane, or the lower Manas, has to be paralysed."	Voice p. 12


"Learn that no efforts, not the smallest--whether in right or wrong
direction--can vanish from the world of causes. "A harsh word uttered in
past lives is not destroyed but ever comes again."	Voice p. 37


"Thou hast to saturate thyself with pure Alaya, become as one with Nature's
Soul-Thought. At one with it thou art invincible; in separation, thou
becomest the playground of Samvriti, origin of all the world's delusions.
All is impermanent in man except the pure bright essence of Alaya. Man is
its crystal ray; a beam of light immaculate within, a form of clay material
upon the lower surface."	Voice 62-3



IMPERISHABLE RECORD OF THOUGHT AND MOTIVE


"In the imperishable Record of the Masters you have written them all. There
are registered your every deed and thought; for, though not a chela, as you
say to my Brother Morya, nor even a "protegé"--as you understand the
term--still, you have stepped within the circle of our work, you have
crossed the mystic line which separates your world from ours, and now
whether you persevere of not; whether we become later on, in your sight,
still more living real entities or vanish out of your mind like so many
dream fictions...you are virtually ours. Your hidden Self has mirrored
itself in our Akasa; your nature is--yours, your essence is--ours. The
flame is distinct from the log of wood which serves it temporarily as fuel;
at the end of your apparitional birth--and whether we two, meet face to face
in our grosser rupas--you cannot avoid meeting us in Real Existence. Yea,
verily good friend your Karma is ours, for you imprinted it daily and hourly
upon the pages of that book where the minutest particulars of the individual
stepping inside our circle--are preserved; and that your Karma is your only
personality to be when you step beyond.

In thought and deed, by day, in soul-struggles by nights. you have been
writing the story of your desires and spiritual development. This, every
one does who approaches us with any earnestness of desire to become our
co-worker, he himself "precipitates" the written entries by the identical
process used by us when we write inside your closed letters and uncut pages
of books and pamphlets in transit...

During the past few months, especially, when your weary brain was plunged in
the torpor of sleep, your eager soul has often been searching after me, and
the current of your thought been beating against my protective barriers of
Akas as the lapping wavelets against a rocky shore. What that "inner Self,"
impatient, anxious--has longed to bind itself to, the carnal man, the
worldlings' master has not ratified: the ties of life are still as strong
as the chains of steel. Sacred indeed some of them are, and no one would
ask you to rupture them. There below, lies your long-cherished field of
enterprise and usefulness. Ours can never be more that a bright
phantom-world to the man of thorough "practical sense;" and if your case be
in some degree exceptional, it is because your nature has deeper
inspirations that those of others, who are still more "businesslike" and the
fountain-head of whose eloquence is in the brain not in the heart not in the
heart, which never was in contact with the mysteriously effulgent, and pure
heart of Tathagata.

If you hear seldom from me, never feel disappointed, my Brother, but
say--"It is my fault." Nature has linked all parts of her Empire together
by subtle threads of magnetic sympathy, and, there is a mutual correlation
even between a star and a man; thought runs swifter than the electric
fluid, and your thought will find me if projected by a pure impulse, as mine
will find, has found, and often impressed your mind. We may move in cycles
of activity divided--not entirely separated from each other.

Like the light in the sombre valley seen by the mountaineer from his peaks,
every bright though in your mind, my Brother, will sparkle and attract the
attention of your distant friend and correspondent. If thus we discover our
natural Allies in the Shadow-world--your world and ours outside the
precincts--and it is our law to approach every such an one if even there be
but the feeblest glimmer of the true "Tathagata" light within him--then how
far easier for you to attract us...Indulge not in apprehensions of what evil
might happen if things should not go as your worldly wisdom thinks they
ought; doubt not, for this complexion of doubt unnerves and pushes back
one's progress. To have cheerful confidence and hope is quite another thing
from giving way to the fool's blind optimism: the wise man never fights
misfortune in advance..."	M L pp, 266-8


"Experiment and induction will confer a great deal of knowledge about the
inferior nature...but before knowing the occult, hidden, intangible realms
and forces--often called spiritual, but not so in fact--the inner astral
senses and powers have to be developed and used. This development is not to
be forced, as one would construct a machine for performing some operation,
but will come in its own time as all our senses and powers have come. It is
true that a good many are trying to force the process, but at last they will
discover that human evolution is universal and not particular; one man
cannot go very far beyond his race before the time."
GITA NOTES p. 134


"A student of occultism after a while gets into what we may call a psychic
whirl, or a vortex of occultism. At first he is affected by the feelings
and influence of those about him. That begins to be pushed off and he
passes in to the whirl caused by the mighty effort of his Higher Self to
make him remember his past lives. Then those past lives affect him. They
become like clouds throwing shadows on his path...They begin to affect his
impulse to action in many various ways. To-day he has vague calling
longings to do something, and critically regarding him self, he cannot see
in this life any cause. It is the bugle note of a past life blown almost in
his face. It startles him; it may throw him down...He gets, too, a power
and a choice. If all his previous past lives were full of good, then
irresistible is the force for his benefit. But all alike marshal up in
front, and he hastens their coming by his effort. Into this vortex about
him others are drawn, and their germs for good or ill ripen with activity.
This is a phase of the operation of Karmic stamina...Do you wonder that in
the case of those who rush unprepared into the "circle of ascetics" and
before the time is the ripe moment, insanity sometimes results ? But then
that insanity is their safety for the next life, or for their return to
sanity."	WQJ LETTERS 15


"...pushing their demands upon the law...For this at once heightens their
magnetic vibrations, their evolutionary ratio; their flame burns more
brilliantly, and attracts all kinds of shapes and influences within its
radius, so that the fire is hot about him. And not for him alone; other
lives coming in contact with him feel this fierce energy; they develop more
rapidly, and, if they have a false or a weak place in their nature, it is
soon discovered and overthrows them for a time. This is the danger of
coming into "the circle of ascetics;" a man must be strong indeed who thus
thrusts himself in..."	WQJ LETTERS 50


"...you are not body, brain, or astral man, but that you are THAT, and
"THAT" is the Supreme Soul.”	WQJ LETTERS 116



PERMANENT ASTRAL AND OCCULT TRAINING
	

"...an entity, that is passing through the occult training in its successive
births, gradually has less and less (in each incarnation) of that lower
Manas until there arrives a time when its whole Manas, being of an entirely
elevated character, is centered in the higher individuality, when such a
person may be said to have become a Mahatma...

The real Mahatma is then not his physical body but that higher Manas which
is inseparably linked to the Atma and its vehicle (the 6th principle)--a
union effected by him in a comparatively very short period by passing
through the process of self-evolution as laid down by the Occult
Philosophy....whoever therefore wants to see the real Mahatma, must use his
intellectual sight. He must so elevate his Manas that its perception will
be clear and all mists created by Maya must be dispelled. His vision will
then be bright and he will see the Mahatmas wherever he may be, for, being
merged into the 6th and 7th principles, which are ubiquitous and
omnipresent, the Mahatmas may be said to be everywhere...although the whole
of humanity is within the mental vision of the Mahatmas, they cannot be
expected to take special note of every human being, unless that being by his
special acts draws their particular attention to himself.  

The highest interest of humanity, as a whole, is their special concern, for
they have identified themselves with the Universal Soul which runs through
Humanity, and he, who would draw their attention, must do so through that
Soul which pervades everywhere. This perception of the Manas may be called
"faith" which should not be confounded with blind belief...This belief
should at the same time be accompanied by knowledge, i.e., experience, for
"true knowledge brings with it faith." Faith is the perception of the Manas
(the 5th principle), while knowledge, in the true sense of the term, is the
capacity of the Intellect, i.e.., it is spiritual perception...divine things
can be sensed only by divine faculties..." --HPB "Mahatmas and
Chelas" HPB Art. I 293-4 


"The first steps in true occultism are Self discipline, self knowledge and
devotion to the interests of others--i.e., unselfishness.

One cannot hope to be a chela until the elementary stages are gone through.
Your own heart will tell you how much you are prepared for chelaship.
Secondly, the adepts when they do take a chela nearly always stop psychic
powers for a while, until the disciple has got to know himself, his faults,
his follies, his vices and his thoughts as well as his virtues."

When the disciples are ready the teachers will appear. By doing just what
it can in studying theosophical doctrines, and with their minds the members
of a Branch will grow and teach each other, for as yet it is not teachers
that are wanted, but the preparation found in study, work and
self-discipline. The branch should also try to spread before the
people--without proselyting --the doctrines of Theosophy such as
Brotherhood, Karma and Reincarnation, and meanwhile should exemplify
Brotherhood, and act with energy as well as discrimination."
WQJ -- Practical Occultism, p. 148


"It is wise to remember that "Ishwara" the Spirit that is common to all
dwells inside of us and if that be so, our sincere belief in and reliance
upon it will gradually awaken us to the consciousness that we are that
spirit itself and not the miserable creatures which walk on this earth
bearing our names. Hence I would ever reflect on the spiritual unity of all
beings, continually saying to myself that I am actually that spirit. Our
difficulties are always due to the personality which is unwilling to give
itself up to the great idea that it has no real existence except in the one
Spirit."	WQJ -- Practical Occultism, p. 221


"Are you...desirous of pursuing occultism as such, or of studying
philosophically, or as enthusiastic adherents of a cause whose aim is to
raise as far as possible the race--to put it esoterically: "of lifting some
of the heavy Karma of the world?" Practical Occultism, p. 57


"The "accepted chela" is one whom no one knows save the Master, and to
become one often takes many incarnations of ceaseless effort for the good of
others. Hence it follows that to aspire without having performed those
actions and developed that character which ensures acceptance is a wrong
position to assume...Sages like Masters cannot "accept" mere aspirations for
the simple reason that the latter still are living on a plane of development
so much lower than the Master that there is a natural barrier, the same that
prevents the child under a preparatory master from being instructed by a
head professor...the work of merely preparing oneself for being a mere chela
on probation takes many years. That effort and work you can make and do,
for none can be refused or prevented. But it must be made. The rules
formulated after the experience of thousands of centuries cannot be broken
for the aspirations of the most devoted person."
Practical Occultism, p. 122-3


"...the body formed here in the world by these high beings [Mahatmas] and
hence in replying to you we have been governed by the rules given by Them.
Chelas or would-be chelas approaching through the T S have to join the body
formed by the Masters and have to work for the furtherance of its objects
unselfishly if through that channel they hope to get a fuller realization of
what seems desirable to them. Masters have over and over again declared
that they do not work for single individuals and will not to them be
revealed no matter whether those persons are in the T S or out of it unless
the conditions are complied with. Those are in part: a devotion to
humanity and a persistence in work to that end, and, to the end that all the
motives shall be purified, and also, the life. This is why there are many
persons of extraordinary attainments who, failing to find the recognitions
which they think their due, have denied the existence of the Masters--the
conditions had not been fulfilled."	Practical Occultism, p. 126-7


"Experiment and induction will confer a great deal of knowledge about the
inferior nature...but before knowing the occult, hidden, intangible realms
and forces--often called spiritual, but not so in fact--the inner astral
senses and powers have to be developed and used. This development is not to
be forced, as one would construct a machine for performing some operation,
but will come in its own time as all our senses and powers have come. It is
true that a good many are trying to force the process, but at last they will
discover that human evolution is universal and not particular; one man
cannot go very far beyond his race before the time."	Gita Notes, p. 134


"A student of occultism after a while gets into what we may call a psychic
whirl, or a vortex of occultism. At first he is affected by the feelings
and influence of those about him. That begins to be pushed off and he
passes in to the whirl caused by the mighty effort of his Higher Self to
make him remember his past lives. Then those past lives affect him. They
become like clouds throwing shadows on his path...They begin to affect his
impulse to action in many various ways. To-day he has vague calling
longings to do something, and critically regarding him- self, he cannot see
in this life any cause. It is the bugle note of a past life blown almost in
his face. It startles him; it may throw him down...He gets, too, a power
and a choice. If all his previous past lives were full of good, then
irresistible is the force for his benefit. But all alike marshal up in
front, and he hastens their coming by his effort. Into this vortex about
him others are drawn, and their germs for good or ill ripen with activity.
This is a phase of the operation of Karmic stamina...Do you wonder that in
the case of those who rush unprepared into the "circle of ascetics" and
before the time is the ripe moment, insanity sometimes results ? But then
that insanity is their safety for the next life, or for their return to
sanity."	WQJ -- Letters That Have Helped Me, p. 15



MANVANTARIC BODY USED BY THE ADEPTS
"KUMARAS" -- THE CUSTODIANS OF THE MYSTERIES -- 
				
			
The Undying Race

"Alone a handful of primitive men -- in whom the spark of divine Wisdom
burnt bright, and only strengthened in its intensity as it got dimmer and
dimmer with every age in those who turned it to bad purposes--remained the
elect custodians of the Mysteries revealed to mankind by the divine
Teachers. There were those among them, who remained in their Kumaric
condition from the beginning; and tradition whispers, what the secret
teachings affirm, namely, that these Elect were the germs of a Hierarchy
which never died since that period:--
 
"The inner man of the first * * * only changes his body from time to time;
he is ever the same, knowing neither rest nor Nirvana, spurning Devachan and
remaining constantly on Earth for the salvation of mankind ..." "Out of the
seven virgin-men (Kumara) four sacrificed themselves for the sins of the
world and the instruction of (282) the ignorant, to remain till the end of
the present Manvantara. Though unseen, they are ever present. When people
say of one of them, "He is dead;" behold, he is alive and under another
form. These are the Head, the Heart, the Soul, and the Seed of undying
knowledge (Gnyana). Thou shalt never speak, O Lanoo, of these great ones
(Maha...) before a multitude, mentioning them by their names. The wise
alone will understand."
(Catechism of the Inner Schools.)	SD II 281-2


"...the early sub-races had evolved an intermediate race in which...the
higher Dhyan Chohans had incarnated. ( fn.) This is the "undying race" as
it is called in Esotericism, and exoterically the fruitless generation of
the first progeny of Daksha, who curses Narada, the divine Rishi ... by
saying "Be born in the womb; there shall not be a resting place for thee in
all these regions;" after this Narada, the representative of that race of
fruitless ascetics, is said, as soon as he dies in one body, to be reborn in
another."	SD II 275 - fn


"Happily for the human race the "Elect Race" had already become the vehicle
of incarnation for the (intellectually and spiritually) highest Dhyanis
before Humanity had become quite material. When the last sub-races...of the
3rd Race had perished with the great Lemurian Continent, "the seeds of the
Trinity of Wisdom" had already acquired the secret of immortality on Earth,
that gift which allows the same great personality to step ad libitum from
one worn-out body into another."	SD II 276


"...there exists a power which can create human forms--ready-made sheaths
for the "conscious monads" or Nirmanakayas of past Manvantaras to incarnate
within ... (653) a living Entity consolidating the astral body with
surrounding materials..." SD II 652-3



BUDDHI


"Adi-Budhi" (Sk.) Primeval Intelligence or Wisdom; the eternal Budhi or
Universal Mind. Used of Divine Ideation, "Mahabuddhi" being synonymous with
Mahat."	Glos. 6


"It is MULAPRAKRITI [ root-matter or Mahabuddhi ] which conceals or veils
Parabhram; Sephira the light that emanates first from Ain-Soph...it is Gaea
who springs from Chaos, preceding Eros...It is the goddess and goddesses who
come first...From IT, strictly speaking, nothing can proceed, neither a
radiation nor an emanation." Glos. 2
 

BUDDHI (Sk.)	Universal Soul or Mind. Mahabuddhi is a name of Mahat (see
"Alaya"); also the spiritual Soul in man (the 6th principle) the vehicle of
Atma, exoterically the 7th." Glos 67


MAHA BUDDHI (Sk) "Mahat. The Intelligent Soul of the World. The 7
Prakritis or 7 "natures" or planes, are counted from Mahabuddhi downwards."
Glos. 199


COSMIC BUDDHI, the emanation of the Spiritual Soul Alaya, is the vehicle of
Mahat only when that Buddhi corresponds to Prakriti. Then it is called
Maha-Buddhi. This Buddhi differentiates through 7 planes, whereas the
Buddhi in man is the vehicle of Atman, which vehicle is of the essence of
the highest plane of Akasa and therefore does not differentiate. The
difference between Manas and Buddhi in man is the same as the difference
between the Manasaputra and the Ah-hi in Kosmos."	Glos. 199


"BODHA means the innate possession of divine intellect or "understanding;" 
"BUDDHA," the acquirement of it by personal efforts and merit; while Buddhi
is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which divine knowledge
reaches the "Ego," the discernment of good and evil, "divine conscience"
also; and "Spiritual Soul," which is the vehicle of Atma. "When Buddhi
absorbs our EGO-tism (destroys it) with all its Vikara, Avalokiteshwara
becomes manifested to us, and Nirvana, or Mukti, is reached," "Mukti" being
the same as Nirvana, i.e., freedom from the trammels of "Maya" or illusion.


"BUDDHI is the IMMORTAL EGO. Buddhi cannot be described. It is feeling,
the accumulated experiences--all our experience is in feeling. Manas is the
Higher Mind, that part of the Buddhi which is in action; the creative power
of Buddhi. There is a continuous line of experience as Perceivers--all
beings are Perceivers. They are limited by the power of their self-created
instruments. In all perceptions is the quality of the instrument through
which that perception comes."	Answers to Quest. p. 6


"Bodhi" is likewise the name of a particular state of trance condition,
called Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the culmination of
spiritual knowledge." S D I xix


=====================================================
2

G S
Your mention of energy brings up an interesting point: Science
has discovered that matter and energy are two aspects of the same thing
just as HPB says that matter and spirit are two aspects of the same thing.
What is the relationship between the energy of science and the spirit of
Theosophy? Does the equation energy = spirit = emptiness hold?

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

DTB	Personally I don't know how to deal with "emptiness" unless you are
implying the ABSOLUTE as an eternal background having noting to do with the
Universe during the times of "manifestation."  

So our conditions and limitations would not apply there.

We are however faced with a paradox since "manifestations" periodically roll
out of non-manifestation.  

Hence I would say that time and karma (not as we might measure them) apply. 
Likewise (S D I 27 Sloka 8) reference is made to the "Opened eye of the
Dangma (the wise) " This to me implies that there are "THOSE" whose
consciousness is not obliterated in the vast normal "sleep" of a
Maha-Pralaya."

Are THEY, then to be called: "Masters of the ABSOLUTE " 

And even if we might define Them, of what use is such to us?

Immortality and timelessness as well as "emptiness" are all figurative and
apparently limited by our own Lower Mind capacity of visualization. 

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Gerald Schueler [mailto:gschueler@earthlink.net] 
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 1:26 PM
To: Theosophy Study List
Subject: RE: [bn-study] Re: UNCERTAINTY

CUT