Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt01565)

Apl 24 2005

Re Nirmana-kaya, and chakras, etc.... (your query below)

Dear Gopi:

I am not sure if your analysing the "chakras" is correct. The ignorance is
mine as I have always felt it dangerous to approach this vast subject from
some other point of view than the "moral."  

What I mean is that our feelings and thoughts invariably impress the
skandhas / monads of which the whole of the manifested Universe is composed
[ S D I 289 ] -- all our "koshas" or "kayas" are made up of these. Karma
and reincarnation are intimately involved in those, and by that process the
whole of Nature is drawn into contact with and through us --- even if we
seem so insignificant. 

It is said that the purpose of our involution and involvement in matter is
so that we, as spiritual beings may elevate and reform it. This requires
deep thought. [ Please see S D II 167 in this regard. ]

In S D I 157 we are given the correspondences between several
philosophical schools. These enumerate or imply the Theosophical
"Principles," kayas, koshas, sheaths, "astral-bodies," vestures and
upadhis. (And, I suppose, the chakras.) 

Apparently these "vestures" are all composed of "monads" or "life-atoms" 

Gl. 216	MONAD (Gr.). The Unity, the one ; but in Occultism it often
means the unified triad, ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS, or 

the duad, Atma-Buddhi, that immortal part of man which reincarnates in the
lower kingdoms, and gradually progresses through them to Man and then to the
final goal— Nirvâna." Gl. 216

In FIVE YEARS OF THEOSOPHY, the 1st article THE ELIXIR OF LIFE deals with
the gradual formation of the "Permanent Astral." (see extract below)

{ Since you are familiar with the Chakras which are located physiologically
by most in the Sthulopadhi, instead of the Sukshmopadhi, you can build your
own list of correspondences. }

In my opinion the chakras provide evidence of physiological, psychological,
astral, manasic and higher development. But to try and crack the box of
secret powers starting with the purely physiological ( as in Hatha Yog ) is
usually fatal to any spiritual objective. It is very limited and selfish in
objective -- hence, usually gives no final SPIRITUAL results. At the end of
life, what of all that work and study from the "material point of view" will
be carried into Devachan? This is a question I constant ly ask myself.
"what is the long-term value ?"

What is the Sukshma sarira ? Let me use the Glossary:

Gl. 312	SŰKSHMA SARÎRA (Sk.). The dream-like, illusive body akin
to Mânasarűpa or “thought-body ”. It is the vesture of the gods, orthe
Dhyânis and the Devas. Written also Sukshama Sharîra and called Sukshmopadhi
by the Târaka Râja Yogis. (Secret Doctrine, I.,157)
 
SŰKSHMOPADHI (Sk.). In Târaka Râja Yoga the “principle” containing both the
higher and the lower Manas and Kâma. It corresponds to the Manomaya Koshaof
the Vedantic classification and to the Svapna state. (See “Svapna ”.)
Gl. 312

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

Gl. 231	NIRMÂNAKÂYA (Sk.). Something entirely different in esoteric
philosophy from the popular meaning attached to it, and from the fancies of
the Orientalists. Some call the Nirmânakâya body “Nirvana with remains”
(Schlagintweit, etc.) on the supposition, probably, that it is a kind of
Nirvânic condition during which consciousness and form are retained. Others
say that it is one of the Trikâya (three bodies), with the “power of
assuming any form of appearance in order to propagate Buddhism” (Eitel’s
idea); again, that “it is the incarnate avatâra of a deity” (ibid.), and so
on. Occultism, on the other hand, says that Nirmânakâya, although meaning
literally a transformed “body”, is a state. The form is that of the adept or
yogi who enters, or chooses, that post mortem condition in preference to the
Dharmakâya or absolute Nirvânic state. He does this because the latter kâya
separates him for ever from the world of form, conferring upon him a state
of selfish bliss, in which no other living being can participate, the adept
being thus precluded from the possibility of helping humanity, or even
devas. As a Nirmânakâya, however, the man leaves behind him only his
physical body, and retains every other “principle” save the Kamic—forhe has
crushed this out for ever from his nature, during life, and it can never
resurrect in his post mortem state. 

Thus, instead of going into selfish bliss, he chooses a life of
self-sacrifice, an existence which ends only with the life-cycle, in order
to be enabled to help mankind in an invisible yet most effective manner.
(See The Voice of the Silence, third treatise, “The Seven Portals”.) 

Thus a Nirmânakâya is not, as popularly believed, the body “in which a
Buddha or a Bodhisattva appears on earth”, but verily one, who whether a
Chutuktu or a Khubilkhan, an adept or a yogi during life, has since become a
member of that invisible Host which ever protects and watches over Humanity
within Karmic limits. Mistaken often for a “Spirit”, a Deva, God himself,
&c., a 

Nirmânakâya is ever a protecting, compassionate, verily a guardian angel, to
him who becomes worthy of his help. 

Whatever objection may be brought forward against this doctrine; however
much it is denied, because, forsooth, it has never been hitherto made public
in Europe and therefore since it is unknown to Orientalists, it must needs
be “a myth of modern invention”—no one will be bold enough to say that this
idea of helping suffering mankind at the price of one’s own almost
interminable self-sacrifice, is not one of the grandest and noblest that was
ever evolved from human brain." Gl. 231

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

Gl. 338-9	TRIKÂYA (Sk) Lit., three bodies, or forms. This is a most
abstruse teaching which, however, once understood, explains the mystery of
every triad or trinity, and is a true key to every three-fold metaphysical
symbol. In its most simple and comprehensive form it is found in the human
Entity in its triple division into spirit, soul, and body, and in the
universe, regarded pantheistically, as a unity composed of a Deific, purely
spiritual Principle, Supernal Beings—its direct rays — and Humanity. 

The origin of this is found in the teachings of the pre-historic Wisdom
Religion, or Esoteric Philosophy. The grand Pantheistic ideal, of the
unknown and unknowable Essence being transformed first into subjective, and
then into objective matter, is at the root of all these triads and triplets.


Thus we find in philosophical Northern Buddhism (1) Âdi-Buddha (or
Primordial Universal Wisdom) ; ( 2) the Dhyâni-Buddhas (or Bodhisattvas);
(3) the Mânushi (Human) Buddhas. In European conceptions we find the same:
God, Angels and Humanity symbolized theologically by the God-Man. 

The Brahmanical Triműrti and also the three-fold body of Shiva, in Shaivism,
have both been conceived on the same basis, if not altogether running on the
lines of Esoteric teachings. 

Hence, no wonder if one finds this conception of the triple body—or the
vestures of Nirmânakâya, Sambhogakâya and Dharmakâya, the grandest of the
doctrines of Esoteric Philosophy— accepted in a more or less disfigured form
by every religious sect, and explained quite incorrectly by the
Orientalists. Thus, in its general application, the three-fold body
symbolizes Buddha’s statue, his teachings and his stűpas ; in the priestly
conceptions it applies to the Buddhist profession of faith called the
Triratna, which is the formula of taking “refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and
Sangha”. Popular fancy makes Buddha ubiquitous, placing him thereby on a par
with an anthropomorphic god, and lowering him to the level of a tribal
deity; and, as a result, it falls into flat contradictions, as in Tibet and
China. Thus the exoteric doctrine seems to teach that while in his Nirmâ
kâya body (which passed through 100,000 kotis of transformations on earth),
he, Buddha, is at the same time a Lochana (a heavenly Dhyâni-Bodhisattva),
in his Sambhogakâya “robe of absolute completeness”, and in Dhyâna,or a
state which must cut him off from the world and all its connections; and
finally and lastly he is, besides being a Nirmânakâya and a Sambhogakâya,
also a Dharmakâya “of absolute purity”, a Vairotchana or Dhyâni-Buddha in
full Nirvâna! (See Eitel’s Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary.) This is the jumble
of contradictions, impossible to reconcile, which is given out by
missionaries and certain Orientalists as the philosophical dogmas of
Northern Buddhism. If not an intentional confusion of a philosophy dreaded
by the upholders of a religion based on inextricable contradictions and
guarded
“mysteries”, then it is the product of ignorance. 

As the Trailokya, the Trikâya, and the Triratna are the three aspects of the
same conceptions, and have to be, so to say, blended in one, the subject is
further explained under each of these terms. (See also in this relation the
term “ Trisharana”.) Gl. 338-9

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

Gl 343-4	TRISHARANA (Sk.). The same as” Triratna ”and accepted by
both the Northern and Southern Churches of Buddhism. After the death of the
Buddha it was adopted by the councils as a mere kind of formula fidei,
enjoining “to take refuge in Buddha ”, “to take refuge in Dharma ”,and “to
take refuge in Sangha ”, or his Church, in the sense in which it is now
interpreted; but it is not in this sense that the “Light of Asia” wouldhave
taught the formula. 

Of Trikâya, Mr. E. J. Eitel, of Hong Kong, tells us in his Handbook of
Chinese Buddhism that this “trichotomism was taught with regard to the
nature of all Buddhas. Bodhi being the characteristic of a Buddha” —a
distinction was made between “essential Bodhi” as the attribute of the
Dharmakâya, i.e., “essential body”; “reflected Bodhi” as the attribute of
Sambhogakâya; and “practical Bodhi” as the attribute of Nirmânakâya.  

Buddha combining in himself these three conditions of existence, was said to
be living at the same time in three different spheres. Now, this shows how
greatly misunderstood is the purely pantheistical and philosophical
teaching. Without stopping to enquire how even a Dharmakâya vesture can have
any “attribute” in Nirvâna, which state is shown, in philosophical
Brahmanism as much as in Buddhism, to be absolutely devoid of any attribute
as conceived by human finite thought—it will be sufficient to point to the
following —(1) the Nirmânakâya vesture is preferred by the “Buddhasof
Compassion” to that of the Dharmakâya state, precisely because the latter
precludes him who attains it from any communication or relation with the
finite, i.e., with humanity; (2) it is not Buddha (Gautama, the mortal man,
or any other personal Buddha) who lives ubiquitously in “three different
spheres, at the same time ”, but Bodhi, the universal and abstract principle
of divine wisdom, symbolised in philosophy by Âdi-Buddha. It is the latter
that is ubiquitous because it is the universal essence or principle. It is
Bodhi, or the spirit of Buddhaship, which, having resolved itself into its
primordial homogeneous essence and merged into it, as Brahmâ (the universe)
merges into Parabrahm, the ABSOLUTENESS—that is meant under the name of
“essential Bodhi ”. 

For the Nirvânee, or Dhyâni Buddha, must be supposed—by living in
Arűpadhâtu, the formless state, and in Dharmakâya—to be that “ essential
Bodhi” itself. It is the Dhyâni Bodhisattvas, the primordial rays of the
universal Bodhi, who live in “reflected Bodhi” in Râpadhâtu, or theworld of
subjective “forms” ; and it is the Nirmânakâyas (plural) who upon ceasing
their lives of “ practical Bodhi”, in the “enlightened” or Buddha forms,
remain voluntarily in the Kâmadhâtu (the world of desire), whether in
objective forms on earth or in subjective states in its sphere (the second
Buddhakshetra). This they do in order to watch over, protect and help
mankind. 

Thus, it is neither one Buddha who is meant, nor any particular avatar of
the collective Dhyâni Buddhas, but verily Âdi-Bodhi—the first Logos, whose
primordial ray is Mahâbuddhi, the Universal Soul, ALAYA, whose flame is
ubiquitous, and whose influence has a different sphere in each of the three
forms of existence, because, once again, it is Universal Being itself or the
reflex of the Absolute. 

Hence, if it is philosophical to speak of Bodhi, which “as Dhyâni Buddha
rules in the domain of the spiritual” (fourth Buddhakshetra or region of
Buddha); and of the
p344
Dhyâni Bodhisattvas “ruling in the third Buddhakshetra ”or the domainof
ideation; and even of the Mânushi Buddhas, who are in the second
Buddhakshetra as Nirmanakâyas—to apply the “idea of a unity in trinity” to
three personalities—is highly unphilosophical."	Gl. 343-4

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


DTB resumes:

Theosophy does of course cover the chakras not by using them in the accepted
Brahmanical way, but rather, because THEOSOPHY covers many systems and goes
back to the root of them all, it describes the MORAL motives and powers that
when practised as Sri Krishna teaches in the BHAGAVAD GITA, lead to a
control of the Kamic nature and it is then only natural that the "chakras"
alter.

But to say that the chakras make the changes is probably not accurate.

First there is a change in the moral nature of the individual and then it
is noticed that the corresponding vestures, principles, "bodies,," and
"chakras" have altered.

In other words they are the RESULT of a moral and manasic change in life
orientation of an individual."  

Well, see what you get out of this and let me know,

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

PS	from: FIVE YEARS OF THEOSOPHY p. 16.....

"Furthermore, History and Science teach us plainly that certain physical
habits conduce to certain moral and intellectual results. There never yet
was a conquering nation of vegetarians. Even in the old Aryan times, we do
not learn that the very Rishis, from whose lore and practice we gain the
knowledge of Occultism, ever interdicted the Kshetriya (military) caste from
hunting or a carnivorous diet. Filling, as they did, a certain place in the
body politic in the actual condition of the world, the
16 
Rishis as little thought of interfering with them, as of restraining the
tigers of the jungle from their habits. That did not affect what the Rishis
did themselves. 

The aspirant to longevity then must be on his guard against two dangers.
He must beware especially of impure and animal * thoughts. For Science shows
that thought is dynamic, and the thought-force evolved by nervous action
expanding outwardly, must affect the molecular relations of the physical
man. The inner men,† however sublimated their organism may be, are still
composed of actual, not hypothetical, particles, and are still subject to
the law that an “action” has a tendency to repeat itself; a tendency toset
up analogous action in the grosser “shell” they are in contact with, and
concealed within. 

And, on the other hand, certain actions have a tendency to produce
actual physical conditions unfavourable to pure thoughts, hence to the state
required for developing the supremacy of the inner man. 

To return to the practical process. A normally healthy mind, in a
normally healthy body, is a good starting-point. Though exceptionally
powerful and self-devoted natures may sometimes recover the ground lost by
mental degradation or physical misuse, by employing proper means, under the
direction of unswerving resolution, yet often things may have gone so far
that there is no longer
————————————————————
* In other words, the thought tends to provoke the deed.—G. M.
† We use the word in the plural, reminding the reader that, according to our
doctrine, man is septenary.—G. M.
17 
stamina enough to sustain the conflict sufficiently long to perpetuate this
life; though what in Eastern parlance is called the “merit” of the effort
will help to ameliorate conditions and improve matters in another.

However this may be, the prescribed course of self-discipline commences
here. It may be stated briefly that its essence is a course of moral,
mental, and physical development, carried on in parallel lines—one being
useless without the other. The physical man must be rendered more ethereal
and sensitive; the mental man more penetrating and profound; the moral man
more self-denying and philosophical. And it may be mentioned that all sense
of restraint—even if self-imposed—is useless. Not only is all “goodness”
that results from the compulsion of physical force, threats, or bribes
whether of a physical or so-called “spiritual’ nature) absolutely useless to
the person who exhibits it, its hypocrisy tending to poison the moral
atmosphere of the world, but the desire to be “good” or “pure,” to be
efficacious must be spontaneous It must be a self-impulse from within, a
real preference for something higher, not an abstention from vice because of
fear of the law: not a chastity enforced by the dread of Public Opinion; not
a benevolence exercised through love of praise or dread of consequences in a
hypothetical Future Life.*

It will be seen now in connection with the
————————————————————
* Col. Olcott clearly and succinctly explains the Buddhist; doctrine of
Merit or Karma, in his” Buddhist Catechism “ (Question 83).—G. M.
18  
doctrine of the tendency to the renewal of action, before discussed, that
the course of self-discipline recommended as the only road to Longevity by
Occultism is not a “visionary” theory dealing with vague “ideas,” but
actually a scientifically devised system of drill. It is a system by which
each particle of the several men composing the septenary individual receives
an impulse, and a habit of doing what is necessary for certain purposes of
its own free-will and with “pleasure.” Every one must be practised and
perfect in a thing to do it with pleasure. This rule especially applies to
the case of the development of Man. “Virtue” may be very good in its way—it
may lead to the grandest results. But to become efficacious it has to be
practised cheerfully not with reluctance or pain. As a consequence of the
above consideration the candidate for Longevity at the commencement of his
career must begin to eschew his physical desires, not from any sentimental
theory of right or wrong, but for the following good reason. As, according
to a well-known and now established scientific theory, his visible material
frame is always renewing its particles; he will, while abstaining from the
gratification of his desires, reach the end of a certain period during which
those particles which composed the man of vice, and which were given a bad
predisposition, will have departed. At the same time, the disuse of such
functions will tend to obstruct the entry, in place of the old particles, of
new particles having a tendency to repeat the said acts. And while this is
the particular result as regards certain “ vices)” the general result of an
19 
abstention from “gross” acts will be (by a modification of the well-known
Darwinian law of atrophy by non-usage) to diminish what we may call the
“relative” density and coherence of the outer shell (as a result of its
less-used molecules); while the diminution in the quantity of its actual
constituents will he “made up” (if tried by scales and weights) by the
increased admission of more ethereal particles.

What physical desires are to be abandoned and in what order? First and
foremost, he must give up alcohol in all forms; for while it supplies no
nourishment, nor any direct pleasure (beyond such sweetness or fragrance as
may be gained in the taste of wine, &c., to which alcohol, in itself, is
non-essential) to even the grossest elements of the “physical” frame, it
induces a violence of action, a rush so to speak, of life, the stress of
which can only be sustained by very dull, gross, and dense elements, and
which, by the operation of the well-known law of Re-action (in commercial
phrase, “supply and demand”) tends to summon them from the surrounding
universe, and therefore directly counteracts the object we have in view.

Next comes meat-eating, and for the very same reason, in a minor degree.
It increases the rapidity of life, the energy of action, the violence of
passions. It may be good for a hero who has to fight and die, but not for a
would-be sage who has to exist and . . . 

Next in order come the sexual desires; for these, in addition to the
great diversion of energy (vital force) into other channels, in many
different 
20  
ways, beyond the primary one (as, for instance, the waste of energy in
expectation, jealousy, &c.), are direct attractions to a certain gross
quality of the original matter of the Universe, simply because the most
pleasurable physical sensations are only possible at that stage of density.
Alongside with and extending beyond all these and other gratifications of
the senses (which include not only those things usually known as “vicious,”
but all those which, though ordinarily regarded as “innocent,” have yetthe
disqualification of ministering to the pleasures of the body—the most
harmless to others and the least “gross” being the criterion for those to be
last abandoned in each case)—must be carried on the moral purification.

Nor must it be imagined that “ austerities” as commonly understood can,
in the majority of cases, avail much to hasten the “etherealizing” process.
That is the rock on which many of the Eastern esoteric sects have foundered,
and the reason why they have degenerated into degrading superstitions. The
Western monks and the Eastern Yogees, who think they will reach the apex of
powers by concentrating their thought on their navel, or by standing on one
leg, are practising exercises which serve no other purpose than to
strengthen the willpower, which is sometimes applied to the basest purposes.
These are examples of this one-sided and dwarf development. It is no use to
fast as long as you require food. The ceasing of desire for food without
impairment of health is the sign which indicates that it should be taken in
lesser and ever decreasing quantities until the extreme
21 
limit compatible ‘with life is reached. A stage will be finally attained
where only water will be required.

Nor is it of any use for this particular purpose of longevity to abstain
from immorality so long as you are craving for it in your heart; and so on
with all other unsatisfied inward cravings. To get rid of the inward desire
is the essential thing, and to mimic the real thing without it is barefaced
hypocrisy and useless slavery.

So it must be with the moral purification of the heart. The “basest”
inclinations must go first— then the others. First avarice, then fear, then
envy, worldly pride, uncharitableness, hatred ; last of all ambition and
curiosity must be abandoned successively. The strengthening of the more
ethereal and so-called “spiritual” parts of the man must go on at the same
time. Reasoning from the known to the unknown, meditation must be practised
and encouraged. Meditation is the inexpressible yearning of the inner Man to
“go out towards the infinite,” which in the olden time was the real meaning
of adoration, but which has now no synonym in the European languages,
because the thing no longer exists in the West, and its name has been
vulgarized to the make-believe shams known as prayer, glorification, and
repentance. Through all stages of training the equilibrium of the
consciousness—the assurance that all must be right in the Kosmos, and
therefore with you a portion of it—must be retained. The process of life
must not be hurried but retarded, if possible; to do otherwise may do good
to others—perhaps even to your-
22  
self in other spheres, but it will hasten your dissolution in this.

Nor must the externals be neglected in this first stage. Remember that
an adept, though “existing” so as to convey to ordinary minds the idea of
his being immortal, is not also invulnerable to agencies from without. The
training to prolong life does not, in itself, secure one from accidents. As
far as any physical preparation goes, the sword may still cut, the disease
enter, the poison disarrange. This case is very clearly and beautifully put
in “Zanoni,” and it is correctly put and must be so, unless all “adeptism”
is a baseless lie. The adept may be more secure from ordinary dangers than
the common mortal, but he is so by virtue of the superior knowledge,
calmness, coolness and penetration ‘which his lengthened existence and its
necessary concomitants have enabled him to acquire; not by virtue of any
preservative power in the process itself. He is secure as a man armed with a
rifle is more secure than a naked baboon; not secure in the sense in which
the deva (god) was supposed to be securer than a man.


If this is so in the case of the high adept, how much more necessary is
it that the neophyte should be not only protected but that he himself should
use all possible means to ensure for himself the necessary duration of life
to complete the process of mastering the phenomena we call death ! It may be
said, why do not the higher adepts protect him? Perhaps they do to some
extent, but the child must learn to walk alone; to make him independent of
his own efforts in respect to safety,
23 

would be destroying one element necessary to his development—the sense of
responsibility. What courage or conduct would be called for in a man sent to
fight when armed with irresistible weapons and clothed in impenetrable
armour? Hence the neophyte should endeavour, as far as possible, to fulfill
every true canon of sanitary law as laid down by modern scientists. Pure
air, pure water, pure food, gentle exercise, regular hours, pleasant
occupations and surroundings, are all, if not indispensable, at least
serviceable to his progress. It is to secure these, at least as much as
silence and solitude, that the Gods, Sages, Occultists of all ages have
retired as much as possible to the quiet of the country, the cool cave, the
depths of the forest, the expanse of the desert, or the heights of the
mountains. Is it not suggestive that the Gods have always loved the “high
places”; and that in the present day the highest section of the Occult
Brotherhood on earth inhabits the highest mountain plateaux of the earth ?*
Nor must the beginner disdain the assistance of medicine and good medical
regimen. He is still an ordinary mortal, and he requires the aid of an
ordinary mortal. [-- and much more]	Pp. 16 - 22
 
==================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Gopi Chari 
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 8:55 PM
To: 
Subject: [bn-study] RE: teachers


Dear Dallas,

>From what I read in Patanjali Sutras, Nirmana Kaya is not a body after
death. It is the body one develops during the transition from Heart
Chakra to higher Chakras realizing higher truths. Only after the
Nirmana Kaya develops the Ajna chakra will unfold. Then only the Higher
Realms are available.

Gopi