Theos-Talk Archives (January 2005 Message tt01044)

Jan 29 2005

Dear Friend 

See of this is of help:


Dal

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`TWO EGOS IN MAN ?  

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Re TWO EGOS IN MAN ( Higher and Lower Manas) 


Try and read what is available in SD II 167 on this point  

It may appear puzzling, but if we consider the immortality of Man as a MONAD
(ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS) and, that this is imperishable and immortal, then we may
see that our present "mind" (the "Personality") is only a continually
changing and passing phase -- as we, the truly IMMORTAL the BEING --
the "HIGHER SELF or Atma" -- pass through life after life aiming always at
making of each successive life an embodiment of increasing perfection and
amity -- towards the final GOAL. of TOTAL PERFECTION.  

There, We become "one with the Universe" and yet, we do not loose our
identity. This is WISDOM COMPLETE.  

But we need to continually bear in mind the one true fact. As GOD is
everywhere, IT is inside us as well. We need to allow IT to express itself
as all the great Rishis and Prophets of the past and present do. In them we
sense that the HIGHER SELF is, present and active. 

And why not ourselves also? We can TRY,

Isn't GOD omnipresent -- that is IN EVERYTHING ? -- then why not in us also?

If we are "gods in the making," then we have bright prospects ahead of us.  

If we fear "Satan," or the "devil" is it not our own ignorance, and or
limited vision of things (after all -- everything we acquire during this
life we abandon at death !) ,selfishness and desire for isolation, to own
and to hold, and pleasure through "excitement," that tempts and defeats our
higher more virtuous, brotherly aspirations? Shall we allow this to continue
and waste our opportunities? 

What are true, lasting, and valuable possessions?  

Are they only ours, or are they shared with all truly wise men?  

Does one have to be "shabby" to be "wise?"  

Are so-called "Yogis" helpful? How do we know who is a true Yogi? Is it not
through the inspiration that they offer, and the logic they teach? 

Does true wisdom ever advertise? 

What are the use of wealth and possessions if we "can't take them with us?"

On the other hand, are not character, wisdom and knowledge, and the ability
to be of help to others, virtues that are immortal, and which demark a truly
benevolent personage? Who says we can't become that?

Without the concepts of eternal and just, strict LAW that rules everything,
and the immortality of the human Soul/Spirit [ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS] that makes
every human an ETERNAL PILGRIM, what have we that is basic and solid to rely
on?  

DO OUR RELIGIONS TEACH US TO THINK and to be self-reliant, or do they choose
to ask us to adopt unproved faith and blind belief ? -- and trust in nothing
that is logical? 

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


Immortality had to be earned.  Is it not the effort to transmute “kama?” 
 
Can we say that the “Lower Manas” (or Kama-Manas) has to earn its
emancipation --  and freedom for it lies only through the practice of
compassion, mercy, pity and the gift of “brotherhood?”   

["It is by development that the soul becomes spirit, both being at the lower
and the higher rungs of one and the same ladder whose basis is the UNIVERSAL
SOUL or Spirit."   HPB Articles,  II 306 ]
 
Help me to an understanding of what HPB writes in the SECRET DOCTRINE, Vol.
2, p. 167.  As I read it, we are given an idea of the process of tutoring
that goes on in all humanity.  
 
 
I believe HPB refers to this again in TRANSACTIONS (pp. 65-7) where she
speaks of the nightly “confabulation” between our “Lower Mans” (itshigher
and truly moral aspects of course) and the HIGHER SELF – the ATMA.  
 
 
In any case the doctrine of the evolution of the Monads (and they fill all
space)  and the impact of our personal thoughts and feelings on them –
producing “skandhas” – seems to me to imply an ever proceeding and universal
progress towards “perfection.”  The time-limit for such an achievement,
being set only by the self-directed efforts of  the Lower Manas as
“Personality -- able to aspire -- to Impersonal and never ceasing BEING.
 
 
Here are some quotes on which I base my thesis, and as an example, can we
also look at the concept of the “Higher Manas” (BUDDHI-MANAS) as regarded as
the true Individuality in 'man'  -- is it that which is the Reincarnating
Ego?
 
 
"This hierarchy of spiritual Beings, through which the Universal Mind comes
into action, is like an army -- a "Host," truly -- by means of which the
fighting power of a nation manifests itself, and which is composed of army
corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, and so forth, each with its separate
individuality or life, and its limited freedom of action and limited
responsibilities; each contained in a larger individuality, to which its own
interests are subservient, and each containing lesser individualities in
itself."  
                  SECRET DOCTRINE, Vol 1, p. 38
 
 
In the Secret Doctrine, there is that passage wherein it is asked:
 
 
"What is human mind in its higher aspect, whence comes it, if it is not a
portion of the essence... of a higher Being; one from a higher and divine
plane?"                 SECRET DOCTRINE , Vol2, p. 81
 
 
I wonder if this is a clue to grasping that referred to in the “3rd
Fundamental Proposition” of the SECRET DOCTRINE (p. 17)  -- the acquirement
of INDIVIDUALITY, i.e., "independent (conscious) existence" by the HIGHER
EGO, (Pilgrim Soul – Buddhi-Manas).  


 
 
It says this starts with “natural impulse,” and then, occurs a complete
change: independence and  moral responsibility.   It says there this
progress proceeds:  “by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by
its Karma).” 
 
 
For with reference to that change it appears that a Hierarchy of spiritual
beings (once “men” as we now are, but, working then as required, under the
necessity of ‘creatorship’) offers assistance, and actually takes up
residence in those aspects of developing independent MIND – for, do we not
also read:
 
 
"Each class of Creators endows man with what it has to give: the one builds
his external form; the other gives him its essence, which later on becomes
the Human Higher Self owing to the personal exertion of the individual."
                SECRET DOCTRINE  Vol 2, p. 95
 
 
"...[the Agnishwatta Pitris] were destined to incarnate as the Egos of the
forthcoming crop of Mankind.  The human Ego is neither Atman nor Buddhi, but
the higher Manas:  the intellectual fruition and the efflorescence of the
intellectual self-conscious Egotism--in the higher spiritual sense.  The
ancient works refer to it as Karana Sarira on the plane of the Sutratma,
which is the golden thread on which, like beads, the various personalities
of this higher Ego are strung...these beings were returning Nirvanees, from
preceding Maha-Manvantaras--ages of incalculable duration..."         S D II
79
 
 
The building of an “external form" may then be seen to refer to the
“aggregates” -- the lower principles in our sevenfold constitution.  There
an evolution takes place, and this seems to be that part of the creative
impulse which is referred to as "natural impulse" guided by “attraction.” 

This comes, because a 'vehicle' is required by the indwelling Spirit. And
so, these are brought together in the process of monadic development at a
lower level.
 
In this context we find:
 
"…it is only through a vehicle of matter that consciousness wells up as 'I
am I,' a physical basis being necessary to focus a ray of the Universal Mind
at a certain stage of complexity." (SD vol 1, p. 15)
 
 
Once MIND awakes in “Man,” the Monad is regarded as triple -
ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS. Up until this point we could say that everything,
including each blade of grass has the POTENTIALITY of 'self consciousness,
but it is only at the human stage evolution that it acquires it. 
 
If one turns to S D II 167 we are confronted with a real “mystery.” Theidea
that there are TWO EGOS in Man.  [Think of the ATMA, as the UNIVERSAL and
therefore, while everywhere, it is not the “property” of any one human.What
we term the ATMA-BUDDHIC MONAD is in reality BUDDHI -- the highest and most
refined substance capable of receiving and also veiling all the powers of
the ATMAN. We might consider this as a true and real “God-like” being.  It
is the THREE-IN-ONE.] 
 
The triple MANAS is the connecting link from Them to the “personality
(Kama-Manas) of this incarnation.”  It is this combined “Higher and Lower
Manas” which is under evolution here on our Earth.  It has to be dual: 
Higher and Lower so that it can bridge the enormous gap in intelligence.  
 
Patanjali, for instance, states that the whole Universe is called into being
for the development of the “Soul.” (p. 24-5). 
 
The Lower Mind has to be transformed by its OWN EFFORTS and its own
SELF-DISCIPLINE, a series of disciplines chosen by it, so that it becomes
INDIVIDUALIZED, impersonalized and universal in outlook, hence merciful and
compassionate – as the “ideal Teacher,” it carefully encourages everypupil
to develop the knowledge and powers innate in itself on it own.  
 
It is the Lower Manas that has to transform itself entirely into HIGHER
MANAS (or BUDDHI-MANAS) and thus, it becomes, so to say, the “new” MAHATMA. 

 
In this effort, generated and sustained by itself,  it is assisted by the
whole host of Elder Brothers, those who have already become MAHATMAS, and
the whole of the ideal Universe.  
 
In effect:  the immortal Monad emerges from the “Monadic Essence (S D  I 
619) and by dint of experience and self-devised effort, it develops the
instinct and then the intellect, and thereafter refines the intellect (which
is Kama-enwrapped) out of the concepts of the transitory ”personality,”into
the unlimited fields and timelessness of the true Immortal, the
INDIVIDUALITY that it is --  and thus secure as its final Goal :  CONSCIOUS
IMMORTALITY.  [ See VOICE OF THE SILENCE pp 72 to 79]
 
There is the ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS of a spiritual Sage.  It is in each of us,
humans, without exception.  It is also called the HIGHER SELF.  The HIGHER
EGO is BUDDHI-MANAS.  Between it and the KAMA-MANAS is the thread of
connection (Antaskarana) to that LOWER MANAS (the “son” of Mind) -- to the
present consciousness (the brain-mind) which is “ours” in use daily.
 
It (the divine Man, working through the Mind) is seated in a highly
developed Kamic nature (natural, pure instinct), and these two begin working
together [the Spiritual] as an advisor, or a tutor only, not as an enforcer
-- see what H P B says in TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE between pp. 66
and 76 on the nightly confabulations of the Embodied mind with the Higher
Self during “deep seep”] .
 
  
"The Occult doctrine teaches that while the monad is cycling on downward
into matter, these very Elohim - or Pitris, the lower Dhyan-Chohans - are
evolving pari passu with it on a higher and more spiritual plane, descending
also relatively into matter on their own plane of consciousness, when, after
having reached a certain point, they will meet the incarnating senseless
monad, encased in the lowest matter, and blending the two potencies, Spirit
and Matter, the union will produce that terrestrial symbol of the "Heavenly
Man" in space.” 
        S D  I 247
 
 
>From there, it is the Manasic entity, the 'self-reflective' consciousness,
that truly does the round of rebirths and only through its own efforts does
it “lift itself,” and therefore some aspect of all humanity, up to
continuous conscious union with ATMA-BUDDHI. The S D further states
mystically: 
 
 
"...man...Spiritual Fire is its instructor (Guru)...This fire is the higher
Self, the Spiritual Ego, or that which is eternally reincarnating under the
influence of its lower personal Selves, changing with every re-birth, full
of Tanha or desire to live.  
 
It is a strange law of Nature, that on this plane, the higher (Spiritual)
Nature should be, so to say, in bondage to the lower.  Unless the Ego takes
refuge in the Atman, the ALL-SPIRIT, and merges entirely into the essence
thereof, the personal Ego may goad it to the bitter end...
 
That which propels towards, and forces evolution, i.e., compels the growth
and development of Man towards perfection, is (a) the MONAD, or that which
acts in it unconsciously through a force inherent in itself;  and (b) the
lower astral body or the personal SELF...unless the higher Self or EGO
gravitates towards its Sun--the Monad--the lower Ego, or personal Self, will
have the upper hand in every case.  For it is this Ego, with its fierce
Selfishness and animal desire to live a Senseless life (Tanha), which is
"the maker of the tabernacle" as Buddha calls it...the Atman alone warms the
inner man; i.e., it enlightens it with the ray of divine life and alone is
able to impart to the inner man, or the reincarnating Ego, its
immortality."   SD II 109-110
 
 
Paradoxically, might we not say:  it has to 'separate' itself from this
identification with form - to know that the "I am" is not 'this body', and
'these lower (morally) thoughts and feelings,' while realizing,
simultaneously, that One-ness IS ("I am That"). 
 
Perhaps this conscious non-identification with form (separateness), and
striving towards an even 'deeper' INDIVIDUALITY (unitedness) is what is
referred to below:
 
 
"This sentence: "The thread between the silent watcher and his shadow (man)
becomes stronger" -- with every re-incarnation -- is another psychological
mystery, that will find its explanation in Book II. For the present it will
suffice to say that the "Watcher" and his "Shadows" -- the latter numbering
as many as there are re-incarnations for the monad -- are one. 

The Watcher, or the divine prototype, is at the upper rung of the ladder of
being; the shadow, at the lower. Withal, the Monad of every living being,
unless his moral turpitude breaks the connection and runs loose and "astray
into the lunar path" -- to use the Occult expression -- is an individual
Dhyan Chohan, distinct from others, a kind of spiritual individuality of its
own, during one special Manvantara. 

Its Primary, the Spirit (Atman) is one, of course, with Paramatma (the one
Universal Spirit), but the vehicle (Vahan) it is enshrined in, the Buddhi,
is part and parcel of that Dhyan-Chohanic Essence; and it is in this that
lies the mystery of that ubiquity, which was discussed a few pages back. "My
Father, that is in Heaven, and I – are one," -- says the Christian
Scripture; in this, at any rate, it is the faithful echo of the esoteric
tenet." S D, Vol 1, p. 265
 
 
We further find (on this subject) in The VOICE OF THE SILENCE a mystic
injunction of singular power for the intuitive occultist:
 
“Seek O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul….seek in the Impersonal for the
“Eternal Man,” and having sought him out, look inward:  thou art Buddha.” 
                 VOICE OF THE SILENCE , p. 28-9.
 

“Thyself and Mind like twins upon a line.  The Star that is thy goal burns
overhead.  The three that dwell in glory and in bliss ineffable, now in the
world of Maya have lost their names.  They have become one star, the fire
that burns but scorches not, that file which is the Upadhi of the flame.”
                  VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 21
 

“And now thy Self is lost in SELF, Thyself unto THYSELF, merged in THAT SELF
from which thou first didst radiate.  Where is thy individuality, Lanoo,
where the Lanoo himself?  It is the spark lost in the fire, the drop within
the ocean, the ever-present ray become the All and the eternal radiance.”  
                VOICE OF THE SILENCE , p. 22.
 

“Silence they thoughts and fix thy whole attention on thy Master, whom yet
thou dost not see, but whom thou feelest.  Merge into one sense thy senses,
if thou would’st be secure against the foe.  ‘Tis by that sense alonewhich
lies concealed within the hollow of thy brain, that the steep path which
leadeth to thy Master may be disclosed before they Soul’s dim eyes.”
                VOICE OF THE SILENCE , p. 17-18
 
 
==============================
 

                SOURCE OF THE SPIRIT IN MAN
 
 
"...The Host of Dhyanis, whose turn it was to incarnate as the Egos of the
immortal, but, on this plane, senseless monads--that some "obeyed" (the law
of evolution) immediately when the men of the 3rd Race became
physiologically and physically ready, i.e., when they had separated into
sexes.  These were those early conscious Beings who, now adding conscious
knowledge and will to their inherent Divine purity, created by Kriyasakti
the semi-Divine man, who became the seed on earth for future adepts.  Those,
on the other hand, who, jealous of their intellectual freedom  (unfettered
as it then was by the bonds of matter), said:--"We can choose...we have
wisdom,"...and incarnated far later--these had their first Karmic punishment
prepared for them.  They got bodies (physiologically) inferior to their
astral models, because their chhayas had belonged to progenitors of an
inferior degree in the 7 classes.  As to those "Sons of Wisdom" who had
"deferred" their incarnation till the 4th Race, which was already tainted
(physiologically) with sin and impurity, they produced a terrible cause, the
Karmic result of which weighs on them to this day...the bodies they had to
inform had become defiled through their own procrastination...This was the
"Fall of the angels," because of their rebellion against Karmic Law.  The
"fall of man" was no fall, for he was irresponsible..."       SD II 228
 
 
"...divine man dwelt in his animal--though externally human --form;  and,if
there was instinct in him, no self-consciousness came to enlighten the
darkness of the latent 5th principle [Manas].  When moved by the law of
Evolution, the Lords of Wisdom infused into him the spark of consciousness,
the first feeling it awoke to life and activity was a sense of solidarity,
of one-ness with his spiritual creators.  As the child's first feeling is
for its mother and nurse, so the first aspirations of the awakening
consciousness in primitive man were for those whose element he felt within
himself, and who yet were outside, and independent of him.  DEVOTION arose
out of that feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his nature; 
for it is the only one which is natural in our heart, which is innate in us,
and which we find alike in human babe and the young of the animal.  This
feeling of irrepressible, instinctive aspiration in primitive man ...  It
lives undeniably, and has settled in all its ineradicable strength and power
in the Asiatic Aryan heart from the 3rd Race direct through it first
"mind-born" sons,--the fruits of Kriyasakti.  As time rolled on the holy
caste of Initiates produced but rarely, and from age to age, such perfect
creatures:  beings apart, inwardly, though the same as those who produced
them, outwardly...the 3rd primitive race...was called into being, a ready
and perfect vehicle for the incarnating denizens of higher spheres, who took
forthwith their abodes in these forms born of Spiritual WILL and the natural
divine power in man.  Its physical frame alone was of time and of life, as
it drew its intelligence direct from above.  It was the living tree of
divine wisdom;  and may therefore be likened to the Mundane Tree of the
Norse Legend, which cannot wither and die until the last battle of life
shall be fought, and while its roots are gnawed all the time by the dragon
Niddhogg;  for even so, the first and holy son of Kriyasakti had his body
gnawed by the tooth of time, but the roots of his inner being remained for
ever undecaying and strong, because they grew and expanded in heaven not on
earth.  He was the first of the FIRST, and he was the seed of all the
others.  There were other "Sons of Kriyasakti" produced by a second
spiritual effort, but the first one has remained to this day the Seed of
divine Knowledge, the One and the Supreme among the terrestrial "Sons of
Wisdom."        SD I 210-211
 
 
"No sooner had the mental eye of man been opened to understanding, than the
Third Race felt itself one with the ever-present as the ever to be unknown
and invisible ALL, the One Universal Deity...feeling in himself his inner
God, each felt he was a Man-God in his nature, though an animal in his
physical Self... (SD II 272) the evolution of Spirit into matter could never
have been achieved;  nor would it have received its first impulse, had not
the bright Spirits sacrificed their own respective super-ethereal essences
to animate the man of clay, by endowing each of his inner principles with a
portion, or rather, a reflection of that essence."         SD II 273
 
 
"The course of Being is an ever-becoming.  Ever-becoming is endless,
therefore beginningless.  This solar system and its planets of course hada
beginning and will have an ending, but every manifestation is but a further
becoming of that which had been.  Periods of Manifestation and
Non-Manifestation succeed each other in Infinite Space, to which neither
beginning nor ending can be applied...The ancient way of stating any
beginning is, "the Desire first arose in It;"  it referring to Spirit, which
is the cause and sustainer of all that was, is, or shall be.  There is a
beginning to the first glimmerings of external consciousness, which ever
tends to widen its range of perception and manifestation until it
encompasses and becomes at one with All;  Potential Spirit having become
Potent Intelligence.  The ending of the process results in a new beginning
based upon the totality of intelligence attained.  Whatever begins in time
ends in time.  Time is due to perceptions in Consciousness;  as the Secret
Doctrine says...beginnings and endings pertain to that "illusion," and not
to the beginningless and endless Spirit which is the Perceiver.  As the Gita
says:  "The Spirit in the body, is called Maheshwara, the great Lord, the
Spectator, the admonisher, the sustainer, the enjoyer, and also the
Paramatma the highest soul;"  itself without beginning or ending, it makes
beginnings and endings in manifestations, which as manifestations are
beginningless and endless in their turn."               Q & A 102-3
 
 
"There is That which must ever remain unknown, because it is the Knower in
every body,  It cannot be known because Its potentiality of knowing is
Infinite.  There is that in ourselves which is our very Self and which is
unchanged and exhaustless through infinitudes of experiences;  it is the
unknowable in us as well as in all Nature;  from It all manifestation
proceeds.  We learn what is the Self by seeing what is the non-Self...the
Self ever remains unchanged, while at the same time the receptacle of all
perceptions and experiences...we are not the experience, the knowledge or
the power--they are our possessions.  The whole process of growth is one of
realization of the Oneness and eternity of the Self in us and in all
creatures and forms of manifestation."   
             Q & A 12-13
 
 
"The object of the student is to let the light of [the] spirit shine through
the lower coverings.  This "spiritual culture" is only attainable as the
grosser interests, passions, and demands of the flesh are subordinated to
the interests, aspirations and needs of the higher nature;  and this is a
matter of both system and established law.
 
This spirit can only become the ruler when the firm intellectual
acknowledgment or admission is first made that IT alone is. ...it being not
only the person concerned, but also the whole,  all selfishness must be
eliminated from the lower nature before its divine state can be reached. So
long as the smallest personal or selfish desire--even for spiritual
attainment for our own sake--remains, so long is the desired end put off..
When systematically trained in accordance with the aforesaid system and law,
men attain to clear insight into the immaterial, spiritual world, and their
interior faculties apprehend truth as immediately and readily as physical
faculties grasp the things of sense, or mental faculties those of
reason..."            EPITOME 14
 
 
The dual nature of the mind is quite extraordinary when one comes to think
about it.
 
We have such potential for good, and such potential for evil.
 
Sometimes it seems as if the mind is the bridge between the two. Sometimes
it seems that the mind is both of these.   There are some lines from a
Persian poet which say,

 
"I sent my soul out on the invisible,
some message of the after-life to tell,
and when at last it did return and spake,
         it said,
'I am myself, both heaven and hell'

 
Perhaps this touches on the creative 'Powers of the Mind'.  Life is not
something that simply happens to us.  The world we live in is something
created by us. Our future is created by us, in the present.
 
 
================================================
Best wishes, 


Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Teos9
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 2:14 AM
To: 
Subject: Re: EGO

In a message dated 1/25/2005 11:24:30 PM Eastern Standard Time,
MerGirlDivine@aol.com writes:
In the teachings of Theosophy is the ego considered to be a good or a bad
thing? In most spiritualities that I have looked at the ego is a bad
thing. It is something that we are supposed to eradicate.
The ego is supposed to be the "I", which is really not supposed to exist.

Thanks in advance for any replies
In Theosophy, one often finds the word ego/Ego, spelled with and without
capitalization. The meanings of each spelling is generally accepted to refer
to our higher or lower nature. "Ego" is most often used to refer to our
higher spiritual self, the Atma-Budhi-Manas triad. While "ego" is used to
refer to our lower personality self, the rational
mental-astral/emotional-etheric/dense physical, triad. Watching for these
two keys, can be very instructive in interpreting what is being said.
 
Best, 
 
Louis