Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00103)

March 6 2005
 
            Re: Pi as a fractional number?  

And  MORAL CHOICES ?
 
 
Dear Vladimir, Lenny and friends:
 
 
May I add that(as I see it) apart from the mathematical, geometrical or
physical considerations, any insoluble or irrational ratio such as PI, or,
the "Golden Mean" PSI, exist because there is a mind that is able to grasp
such a concept and is not bound by merely transitory physical dimensions and
ideas.
 
 
            MIND AND BRAIN
 
The nature of this "mind" is what we seek to grasp. 
 
But in my experience, while its conclusions are real to the extent that they
establish themselves as our "memories," this mind eludes any physical loci
or foci.  Perhaps its cogitations cause our brains to begin working ?  
 
Are our "brains" merely the transmitting organ for such non-physical action
and volition?
 
 
            DUALITY OF MIND
 
 
Does this not introduce the concept of the duality of "Mind?"  
 
And does not this duality hinge on the knife edge of 
 
1          Personal selfishness and isolation,
 
                        vs.
 
2          universality and impersonality - as "a universal fact, or
truth?"     
 
 
            ETHICS or  MORALITY 
 
 
Thus, ethics or morality is reduced from guess-work to a well sharpened
knowledge of how KARMA works everywhere and with all beings in manifestation
(I mean the "life-atoms") ?
 
The so-called moral choices that we all make daily are then a matter of
applying to them before enactment, of such a test:  
 
They are either selfish or universally impersonal ?  
 
In making such choices we energise and use either:
 
 
1          The Lower mind (Kama-manas),
                        or,
 2          The Higher Mind (Buddhi-Manas)
 
How do you view this? 
 
Best wishes,	

Dallas

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

Ps Let me add some explanatory tables here from the "Key"


THE SEPTENARY NATURE OF MAN. 


ENQUIRER. Is it what we call Spirit and Soul, and the man of flesh? 
 
THEOSOPHIST. It is not. That is the old Platonic division. Plato was an
Initiate, and therefore could not go into forbidden details; but he who is
acquainted with the archaic doctrine finds the seven in Plato's various
combinations of Soul and Spirit... Now so plain is it that Plato and even
Pythagoras, while speaking but of three "principles," give them seven
separate functions, in their various combinations, that if we contrast our
teachings this will become quite plain. Let us take a cursory view of these
seven aspects by drawing two tables. 

===================================================================
 
THEOSOPHICAL DIVISION   LOWER QUATERNARY

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

SANSCRIT TERMS	EXOTERIC MEANING	EXPLANATORY

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

a. Rupa, or Sthula-Sarira a. Physical body	a. Is the vehicle of
all the other
"principles" during life.

  
b. Prana	b. Life, or Vital principle b. Necessary only to
a, c, d, and
the functions of the lower
Manas, which embrace all 	
those limited to the
(physical) brain.



  
c. Linga Sharira	c. Astral body	c. The
Double, the phantom body.

a. Is the vehicle of all the other 
"principles" during life.

  b. Necessary only to a, c, d, and 
the functions of the lower Manas, 
which embrace all those limited to the 
(physical) brain.
  
c. The Double, the phantom body.
  
d. This is the centre of the animal man, 
where lies the line of demarcation which 
separates the mortal man from the 
immortal entity.  
 
e. The seat of animal desires and passions 


d. Kama rupa d. The seat of animal desires d. This is
the centre 
and passions	of the animal man,
where 
lies the line of
demarcation 
which separates the
mortal 
man from the
immortal 
entity. 


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

 
 THE UPPER IMPERISHABLE TRIAD.

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

SANSCRIT TERMS	EXOTERIC MEANING	EXPLANATORY

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


e. Manas —a dual principle	e. Mind, Intelligence:	e. The
future state and the
which is the higher Karmic
destiny of man
human mind, whose	depend on
whether Manas
light, or radiation gravitates
more downward
links the MONAD, for	to Kama
rupa, the seat of
the lifetime, to the	the animal
passions, or up-
mortal man. wards to
Buddhi, the
in its functions
Spiritual Ego. In the
latter case,
the higher con-
sciousness
of the individual
Spiritual
aspirations of
mind
(Manas), assimilating
Buddhi, are
absorbed by it
and form the
Ego, which
goes into
Devachanic
bliss.*	
.				
  
f.  Buddhi  f. The Spiritual Soul f. The
vehicle of pure
universal spirit.

  
g.  Atma g. Spirit g. One with
the Absolute, as
its
radiation.  
  
The KEY TO THEOSOPHY pp 91-93


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


The KEY TO THEOSOPHY pp. 131-136



ON INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY   


ENQUIRER. But what is the difference between the two? I confess that I am
still in the dark. Indeed it is just that difference, then, that you cannot
impress too much on our minds.
 
   
THEOSOPHIST. I try to; but alas, it is harder with some than to make them
feel a reverence for childish impossibilities, only because they are
orthodox, and because orthodoxy is respectable. To understand the idea well,
you have to first study the dual sets of "principles": the spiritual, or
those which belong to the imperishable Ego; and the material, or those
principles which make up the ever-changing bodies or the series of
personalities of that Ego. Let us fix permanent names to these, and say
that:— 
   
I.         ATMA, the "Higher Self," is neither your Spirit nor mine, but
like sunlight shines on all. It is the universally diffused "divine
principle," and is inseparable from its one and absolute Meta-Spirit, as the
sunbeam is inseparable from sunlight. 
   
II.        BUDDHI (the spiritual soul) is only its vehicle. Neither each
separately, nor the two collectively, are of any more use to the body of
man, than sunlight and its beams are for a mass of granite buried in the
earth, unless the divine Duad is assimilated by, and reflected in, some
consciousness. Neither Atma nor Buddhi are ever reached by Karma, because
the former is the highest aspect of Karma, its working agent of ITSELF in
one aspect, and the other is unconscious on this plane. This consciousness
or mind is, 
   
III.         MANAS,* the derivation or product in a reflected form
 
*  MAHAT or the "Universal Mind" is the source of Manas. The latteris
Mahat, i.e., mind, in man. Manas is also called Kshetrajna, "embodied
Spirit," because it is, according to our philosophy, the Manasa-putras, or
"Sons of the Universal Mind," who created, or rather produced, the thinking
man, "manu," by incarnating in the third Race mankind in our Round. It is
Manas, therefore, which is the real incarnating and permanent Spiritual Ego,
the INDIVIDUALITY, and our various and numberless personalities only its
external masks of Ahamkara, "the conception of I," or EGO-SHIP. 
   
It is, therefore, when inseparably united to the first two, called the
SPIRITUAL EGO, and Taijasi (the radiant). This is the real Individuality, or
the divine man. It is this Ego which —having originally incarnated in the
senseless human form animated by, but unconscious (since it had no
consciousness) of, the presence in itself of the dual monad —made of that
human-like form a real man. 
   
It is that Ego, that "Causal Body," which overshadows every personality
Karma forces it to incarnate into; and this Ego which is held responsible
for all the sins committed through, and in, every new body or personality
—the evanescent masks which hide the true Individual through the long series
of rebirths. 
The KEY TO THEOSOPHY pp. 131-136


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


KEY TO THEOSOPHY pp. 173 - 176


"The Spiritual realm would all the while be the proper habitat of the
Soul, which would never entirely quit it; and ...  
that non-materializable portion of the Soul which abides permanently
on the spiritual plane may fitly, perhaps, be spoken of as the HIGHER SELF."

   
This "HIGHER SELF" is ATMA, and of course it is "non-materializable," as
Mr. Sinnett says. Even more, it can never be "objective" under any
circumstances, even to the highest spiritual perception. 
   
For Atman or the "HIGHER SELF" is really Brahma, the ABSOLUTE, and
indistinguishable from it. In hours of Samadhi, the higher spiritual
consciousness of the Initiate is entirely absorbed in the ONE essence, which
is Atman, and therefore, being one with the whole, there can be nothing
objective for it. ...   
   
To avoid henceforth such misapprehensions, I propose to translate
literally from the Occult Eastern terms their equivalents in English, and
offer these for future use. 
   
                                                      Atma the
inseparable ray of the Universal
            THE HIGHER                         and ONE SELF. It is the God
above, more
                  SELF is                 {           than within,us. Happy
the man who suc-
                                                           ceeds in
saturating his inner Ego with it!

   
                                                      the Spiritual soul
or Buddhi, in close union with
            THE SPIRITUAL                    Manas, the mind-principle,
without which it
                divine EGO is          {         is no EGO at all, but only
the Atmic Vehicle.          
    
                                                          
                                                       Manas, the "Fifth"
Principle, so called,
                                                             independently
of Buddhi. The Mind-Prin-
                                                             ciple is only
the Spiritual Ego when merged
            THE INNER, or                       into one with Buddhi,—no
materialist being
             HIGHER "EGO"         {        supposed to have in him such an
Ego, how-
                   is ever great his
intellectual capacities. It is 
                                                              the permanent
Individuality or the "Re-
                                                              incarnating
Ego." 
                                                           
                                                          
                                      
                                                             the physical
man in conjunction with his lower
       THE LOWER,                       Self, i. e., animal instincts,
passions, desires,
             or PERSONAL          {         etc. It is called the "false
personality," and
              " EGO"    is                            consists of the lower
Manas combined with
                                                         Kama-rupa, and
operating through the
                                                          Physical body
and its phantom or "double." 

   
The remaining "Principle" "Prana," or "Life," is, strictly speaking, the
radiating force or Energy of Atma— as the Universal Life and the ONE SELF,
—ITS lower or rather (in its effects) more physical, because manifesting,
aspect. Prana or Life permeates the whole being of the objective Universe;
and is called a "principle" only because it is an indispensable factor and
the deus ex machina of the living man. 
 
KEY TO THEOSOPHY pp. 173 - 176

===================================
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir 
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 1:13 PM
To: 
Subject: Re  Pi as a fractional number?
 
 
Sunday, March 6, 2005,  leonmaurer wrote:
 
> If we wish to nit pick further :-) we might say that length is also
distance
> from one point to another along any path straight or curved.
 
This  kind  of  length  is  useless  and  senseless  for,  with such a
definition,  between  two  given  fixed  points  you  would be able to
measure virtually any such "length" -- from zero to infinity.
 
 
Best regards,
 Vladimir