Theos-Talk Archives (February 2005 Message tt00559)

Feb 20 2005

Dear Chris.....

RE: MANAS - MIND dual and triple

May I suggest?  


Our main problem is knowing which "self" is thinking and talking (when we
are awake)

One ought to write a thesis on "How to Think !" For many years I asked
myself : How does one learn to think? Can thinking be improved? Who
controls? How is it controlled? Can it be focussed? [ I found the sutras
of PATANJALI helped a lot. A "master-psychologist."] 

Let me see if I can let some of the original texts do the explaining for me:

  
The VOICE OF THE SILENCE says "The Self of Matter and the SELF of SPIRIT can
never meet. One of the twain must disappear. There is no place for both."
Voice, p. 13

  
"Feel thyself abiding in all things, all things in SELF." Voice, p. 54


  
Apparently there is the ALL SELF (ATMAN).
 
Then, there is
 
1 The Lower (brain-)mind (Kama-Manas), and
 
2 The Higher (Wise) Mind (Buddhi-Manas).
 
The thread of "antaskarana" unites these two and the communications see to
be frequent depending on the desire of the Lower Mind to become pure in
motive and follow docilely the behests of the Buddhi-Manas.

 
Look again at the "Voice" p. 27.
 
"Saith the pupil:
 
O Teacher, what shall I do to reach to Wisdom?
 
O Wise one, what, to gain perfection?
 
Search for the Paths. But, O Lanoo, be of clean heart before thou startest
on thy journey. Before thou takest thy first step learn to discern the real
from the false, the ever-fleeting from the everlasting. Learn above all to
separate Head-learning from Soul-Wisdom, the "Eye" from the "Heart"
doctrine..
 
The seeds of Wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless space. To live and
reap experience the mind needs breadth and depth and points to draw it
towards the Diamond Soul. 
 
(1) Seek not those points in Maya's realm; but soar beyond illusions, search
the eternal and the changeless SAT, 
 
(2) mistrusting fancy's false suggestions.
 
For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. 
 
(3) It needs the gentle breezes of Soul-Wisdom to brush away the dust of
our illusions. Seek, O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul.
 
Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world
deceptions; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But within thy body - the
shrine of thy sensations-seek in the Impersonal for the "eternal man" (1);
and having sought him out, look inward: thou art Buddha. (2)
 
Shun praise, O Devotee. Praise leads to self-delusion. Thy body is not self,
thy SELF is in itself without a body, and either praise or blame affects it
not..
 
False learning is rejected by the Wise, and scattered to the Winds by the
good Law. Its wheel revolves for all, the humble and the proud. The
"Doctrine of the Eye" (3) is for the crowd, the "Doctrine of the Heart," for
the elect. The first repeat in pride: "Behold, I know," the last, they who
in humbleness have garnered, low confess, "thus have I heard". (1)
 
"Great Sifter" is the name of the "Heart Doctrine," O disciple. 
 
The wheel of the good Law moves swiftly on. It grinds by night and day. The
worthless husks it drives from out the golden grain, the refuse from the
flour. The hand of Karma guides the wheel; the revolutions mark the beatings
of the Karmic heart. 
 
True knowledge is the flour, false learning is the husk. If thou would'st
eat the bread of Wisdom, thy flour thou hast to knead with Amrita's (2)
clear waters. But if thou kneadest husks with Maya's dew, thou canst create
but food for the black doves of death, the birds of birth, decay and
sorrow.. 
 
If thou art taught that sin is born of action and bliss of absolute
inaction, then tell them that they err. Non-permanence of human action;
deliverance of mind from thraldom by the cessation of sin and faults, are
not for "Deva Egos." (3) Thus saith the "Doctrine of the Heart." 
 
The Dharma of the "Eye" is the embodiment of the external, and the
non-existing. 
 
The Dharma of the "Heart" is the embodiment of Bodhi, (4) the Permanent and
Everlasting." Voice 27-31.
 
An important point that is made here is (to me): the MORAL EVOLUTION of
man's mind is crucial. The fact that Karma always attaches itself to
choice, and we, as immortals, implies we always receive exactly what we
generate in terms of "good" and "evil."  
 
The old song: "there's no hiding place down there," mirrors this concept.
So we might as well be brotherly and do good always - or we eventually pay
for error and selfishness in pain and sorrow. No "escape." No "pardon." No
"forgiveness." No "secret" place where "God [Just Karma] will not discover
our hidden vices, and demand payment and restitution to our victims.
 
------------------------------
 
Let now look at what HPB's "Transactions" offers:  

This is interesting as it speaks of the dual Manas and indicates the secret
connection that always exists - the basis for the "voice of conscience," as
the Lower Manas can always consult the Higher Manas within for guidance. It
is again an application of Karma for Immortals in their Pilgrimage to
Perfection. 
 

P. 62 All such [Egoic-Buddhi-Manasic thoughts] are reflected on the brain
of the sleeper, like outside shadows on the canvas walls of a tent, which
the occupier sees as he wakes. Then the man [Kama-Manas] thinks that he has
dreamed all that, and feels as though he had lived through something, 

P. 62 .in reality it is the thought-actions of the true Ego
[Buddhi-Manas] which he has dimly perceived. As he becomes fully awake, his
recollections become with every minute more distorted, and mingle with the
images projected from the physical brain, under the action of the stimulus
which causes the sleeper to awaken. These recollections, by the power of
association, set in motion various trains of ideas. 

P. 62 To the dreamer (the Ego), on his own plane, the things on that
plane are as objective to him as our acts are to us. 

P. 62 The senses of the sleeper receive occasional shocks, and are
awakened into mechanical action; what he hears and sees are, as has been
said, a distorted reflection of the thoughts of the Ego. 

P. 62 [The EGO] . is highly spiritual, and is linked very closely with
the higher principles, Buddhi and Atma. These higher principles are entirely
inactive on our plane, and the higher Ego (Manas) itself is more or less
dormant during the waking of the physical man. 
P. 62 So dormant are the Spiritual faculties, because [in materialists]
the Ego is so trammelled by matter, that It can hardly give all its
attention to the man's actions, even should the latter commit sins for which
that Ego-when reunited with its lower Manas-will have to suffer conjointly
in the future. 

P. 63 [Conscience is] the impressions projected into the physical man by
this Ego [Buddhi-Manas] which constitute what we call "conscience"; and in
proportion as the Personality, the lower Soul (or [Kama] Manas), unites
itself to its higher consciousness, or EGO, does the action of the latter
upon the life of mortal man become more marked. 

P. 63 [the EGO] is the higher Manas illuminated by Buddhi; the principle
of self-consciousness, the "I-am-I," in short. It is the Karana-Sarira, the
immortal man, which passes from one incarnation to another.
[Atma-Buddhi-Manas - the Divine TRIAD] TR. 62-3

P. 63-4 "It often happens, indeed, that we have no recollection of having
dreamt at all, but later in the day the remembrance of the dream will
suddenly flash upon us. Of this there are many causes. It is analogous to
what sometimes happens to every one of us.. Something of what was seen,
done, or thought by the "night-performer," the Ego, impressed itself at that
time on the physical brain, but was not brought into the conscious, waking
memory, owing to some physical condition or obstacle. This impression is
registered on the brain in its appropriate cell or nerve-center, ... 

There is a sort of conscious telegraphic communication going on incessantly,
day and night, between the physical brain and the inner man. The brain is
such a complex thing, both physically and metaphysically, that it is like a
tree whose bark you can remove layer by layer, each layer being different
from all the others, and each having its own special work, function, and
properties. 

During sleep the physical memory and imagination are of course passive,
because the dreamer is asleep: his brain is asleep, his memory is asleep,
all his functions are dormant and at rest. It is only when they are
stimulated.that they are aroused. Thus the consciousness of the sleeper is
not active, but passive. The inner man, however, the real Ego, acts
independently during the sleep of the body; but it is doubtful if any of
us-unless thoroughly acquainted with the physiology of occultism- could
understand the nature of its action. " Tr. 62-4

P. 64 The former [Astral light] is the "tablet of the memory" of the
animal man, the latter [Akasa] of the spiritual Ego. The "dreams" of the
Ego, as much as the acts of the physical man, are all recorded, since both
are actions based on causes and producing results. Our "dreams," being
simply the waking state and actions of the true Self, must be, of course,
recorded somewhere. Read "Karmic Visions" in Lucifer,* and note the
description of the real Ego, sitting as a spectator of the life of the hero,
and perhaps something will strike you. 

P. 65 .the Esoteric Philosophy teaches us, the Astral Light is simply the
dregs of Akasa or the Universal Ideation in its metaphysical sense. Though
invisible, it is yet, so to speak, the phosphorescent radiation of the
latter, and is the medium between it and man's thought-faculties. It is
these which pollute the Astral Light, and make it what it is-the storehouse
of all human and especially psychic iniquities. 

In its primordial genesis, the Astral Light as a radiation is quite pure,
[Ex. see Kamadeva, Glos pp. 170-1] though the lower it descends approaching
our terrestrial sphere, the more it differentiates, and becomes as a result
impure in its very constitution. But man helps considerably to this
pollution, and gives it back its essence far worse than when he received
it." Tr pp. 64-5

P. 67 .the Self is the real Ego [Buddhi-Manas], and.it lives and acts.on
a different plane. 

P. 67 The external life is a "dream" to this Ego, while the inner life,
or the life on what we call the dream plane, is the real life for it. 

P. 67 The physical animal man (Kama-Manas] is as little responsible as a
dog or a mouse. For the bodily form all is over with the death of the body. 
But the real SELF, that which emanated its own shadow, or the lower thinking
personality, that enacted and pulled the wires during the life of the
physical automaton, will have to suffer conjointly with its factotum and
alter ego in its next incarnation. 


P 67-8 The Higher Manas or EGO is essentially divine, and therefore pure;
no stain can pollute it, as no punishment can reach it, per se, the more so
since it is innocent of, and takes no part in, the deliberate transactions
of its Lower Ego. 

P. 68 Yet by the very fact that, though dual and during life the Higher
is distinct from the Lower, "the Father and Son" are one, and because that
in reuniting with the parent Ego, the Lower Soul fastens upon and impresses
upon it all its bad as well as good actions-both have to suffer, the Higher
Ego, though innocent and without blemish, has to bear the punishment of the
misdeeds committed by the lower Self together with it in their future
incarnation.
[S D II 167]

P. 68 The whole doctrine of atonement is built upon this old esoteric
tenet; for the Higher Ego is the antitype of that which is on this earth the
type, namely, the personality. " Tr. Pp. 67-8
 
P. 69 The mystic name of the "Higher Ego" is, in the Indian philosophy,
Kshetrajna, or "embodied Spirit," that which knows or informs kshetra, "the
body." Etymologize the name, and you will find in it the term aja,
"first-born," and also the "lamb." All this is very suggestive, and volumes
might be written upon the pregenetic and postgenetic development of type and
antitype-of Christ-Kshetrajna, the "God-Man," the First-born, symbolized as
the "lamb." 

P. 68 The Secret Doctrine shows that the Manasa-Putras or incarnating
EGOS have taken upon themselves, voluntarily and knowingly, the burden of
all the future sins of their future personalities. Thence it is easy to see
that it is.not any of the personalities that periodically clothe the
Self-Sacrificing EGO, which are the real Sufferers, but verily the innocent
Christos within us. [S D II 167]

P. 68 . the Eternal Self, or the Ego (the one in three and three in one),
is the "Charioteer" or driver; the personalities are the temporary and
evanescent passengers; while the horses are the animal passions of man. It
is, then, true to say that when we remain deaf to the Voice of our
Conscience, we crucify the Christos within us.. 

P. 69 .in the case of persons who have truly prophetic dreams, that it is
because their physical brains and memory are in closer relation and sympathy
with their "Higher Ego" than in the generality of men. The Ego-Self has more
facilities for impressing upon the physical shell and memory that which is
of importance to such persons than it has in the case of other less gifted
persons. Remember that the only God man comes in contact with is his own
God, called Spirit, Soul and Mind, or Consciousness, and these three are
one. 
P. 69 the three powers, the preserving, the creating and the destroying,
are only so many aspects of the divine spark within man. TR, pp. 68-9

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

Antaskarana

* The original for Understanding is Sattva, which Sankara (acharya) renders
antahkarana. 

"Refined," he says, "by sacrifices and other sanctifying operations." 

In the Katha Upanishad, at p. 148, Sattva is said by Sankara to mean BUDDHI
- a common use of the word.. Whatever meaning various schools may give the
term, Sattva is the name given among Occult students of the Aryasanga School
to the dual Monad or Atma-buddhi, and Atma-buddhi on this plane corresponds
to Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti on the higher plane. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Incarnation and Karma

"According to the teachings, Maya, or the illusive appearance of the
marshalling of events and actions on this earth, changes, varying with
nations and places. But the chief features of one's life are always in
accordance with the "Constellation" one is born under, or, we should say,
with the characteristics of its animating principle or the deity that
presides over it, whether we call it a Dhyan Chohan, as in Asia, or an
Archangel, as with the Greek and Latin churches.
[ S D I 570-5, II 167] 
 
In ancient Symbolism it was always the SUN (though the Spiritual, not the
visible, Sun was meant), that was supposed to send forth the chief Saviours
and Avatars. 

Hence the connecting link between the Buddhas, the Avatars, and so many
other incarnations of the highest SEVEN. 

The closer the approach to one's Prototype, "in Heaven," the better for the
mortal whose personality was chosen, by his own personal deity (the seventh
principle - [ATMA]), as its terrestrial abode. For, with every effort of
will toward purification and unity with that "Self-god," one of the lower
rays breaks and the spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and ever higher
to the ray that supersedes the first, until, from ray to ray, the inner man
is drawn into the one and highest beam of the Parent-SUN. 

Thus, "the events of humanity do run coordinately with the number forms,"
since the single units of that humanity proceed one and all from the same
source-the central and its shadow, the visible SUN. 

For the equinoxes and solstices, the periods and various phases of the Solar
course, astronomically and numerically expressed, are only the concrete
symbols of the eternally living verity, though they do seem abstract ideas
to uninitiated mortals. And this explains the extraordinary numerical
coincidences with geometrical relations, as shown by several authors. 

Yes; "our destiny is written in the stars!" Only, the closer the union
between the mortal reflection MAN and his celestial PROTOTYPE, the less
dangerous the external conditions and subsequent reincarnations-which
neither Buddhas nor Christs can escape. This is not superstition, least of
all is it Fatalism. The latter implies a blind course of some still blinder
power, and man is a free agent during his stay on earth. 

He cannot escape his ruling Destiny, but he has the choice of two paths that
lead him in that direction, and he can reach the goal of misery-if such is
decreed to him, either in the snowy white robes of the Martyr, or in the
soiled garments of a volunteer in the iniquitous course; for, there are
external and internal conditions which affect the determination of our will
upon our actions, and it is in our power to follow either of the two. 

Those who believe in Karma have to believe in destiny, which, from birth to
death, every man is weaving thread by thread around himself, as a spider
does his cobweb; and this destiny is guided either by the heavenly voice of
the invisible prototype outside of us, or by our more intimate astral, or
inner man, who is but too often the evil genius of the embodied entity
called man. Both these lead on the outward man, but one of them must
prevail; and from the very beginning of the invisible affray the stern and
implacable law of compensation steps in and takes its course, faithfully
following the fluctuations. When the last strand is woven, and man is
seemingly enwrapped in the net-work of his own doing, then he finds himself
completely under the empire of this self-made destiny. It then either fixes
him like the inert shell against the immovable rock, or carries him away
like a feather in a whirlwind raised by his own actions, and this is-KARMA."
S D I 638-9

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

5 D II 167-8

We now come to an important point with regard to the double evolution of the
human race. 

The Sons of Wisdom, or the spiritual Dhyanis, had become "intellectual"
through their contact with matter, because they had already reached, during
previous cycles of incarnation, that degree of intellect which enabled them
to become independent and self-conscious entities, on this plane of matter.
They were reborn only by reason of Karmic effects. 

They entered those who were "ready," and became the Arhats, or sages,
alluded to above. This needs explanation. 

It does not mean that Monads entered forms in which other Monads already
were. They were "Essences," "Intelligences," and conscious spirits; entities
seeking to become still more conscious by uniting with more developed
matter. 
Their essence was too pure to be distinct from the universal essence; but
their "Egos," or Manas (since they are called Manasaputra, born of "Mahat,"
or Brahma) had to pass through earthly human experiences to become all-wise,
and be able to start on the returning ascending cycle. 

The Monads are not discrete principles, limited or conditioned, but rays
from that one universal absolute Principle. The entrance into a dark room
through the same aperture of one ray of sunlight following another will not
constitute two rays, but one ray intensified. It is not in the course of
natural law that man should become a perfect septenary being, before the
seventh race in the seventh Round. Yet he has all these principles latent in
him from his birth. Nor is it part of the evolutionary law that the Fifth
principle (Manas), should receive its complete development before the Fifth
Round. 

All such prematurely developed intellects (on the spiritual plane) in our
Race are abnormal; they are those whom we call the "Fifth-Rounders." Even in
the coming seventh Race, at the close of this Fourth Round, while our four
lower principles will be fully developed, that of Manas will be only
proportionately so. This limitation, however, refers solely to the spiritual
development. 

The intellectual, on the physical plane, was reached during the Fourth
Root-Race. Thus, those who were "half ready," who received "but a spark,"
constitute the average humanity which has to acquire its intellectuality
during the present Manvantaric evolution, after which they will be ready in
the next for the full reception of the "Sons of Wisdom." S D II
167-8

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

Sorry - a lot to think over, but very interesting when we begin to mediate
on the possibility of our inner self being involved in this aspect of
universal evolution.
No wonder we are so often reminded we are "gods" interiorly and that our
Kama-Manas is the "God in the making." 

I think we all say the same things ? 

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: christinaleestemaker Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 3:17 AM
To: 
Subject: Re: Mind & Manas



" ....If he focused on the lower mind, that all has to do with the level of 
the people to whom he is speaking.

And if he makes the lower the higher, we all need to do that.!

If you have the trinity in yourself (atma/buddhi/manas) there is no 
duality but trinity.

Christina ....
CUT