Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00541)

June 25 2005

Dear Friends:

Marc H asks: “Quite possibly the only thing holding the physical world
together is
the continuous motion of matter and energy, which was all invariably
created by smaller particles bound together by their own movement.”

Am of the opinion that there is a CAUSE to every change and further that
all changes are regulated by harmonious laws that distribute the energy and
force needed for the benefit of all.

Here are some useful statements we might all consider:



CAUSE


(b) The Father-Mother are the male and female principles in root-nature, the
opposite poles that manifest in all things on every plane of Kosmos, or
Spirit and Substance, in a less allegorical aspect, the resultant of which
is the Universe, or the Son. 

They are "once more One" when in "The Night of Brahmâ," during Pralaya, all
in the objective Universe has returned to its one primal and eternal cause,
to reappear at the following Dawn — as it does periodically. "Karana" —
eternal cause — was alone. To put it more plainly: 

Karana is alone during the "Nights of Brahmâ." 

The previous objective Universe has dissolved into its one primal and
eternal cause, and is, so to say, held in solution in space, to
differentiate again and crystallize out anew at the following Manvantaric
dawn, which is the commencement of a new "Day" or new activity of Brahmâ —
the symbol of the Universe. 

In esoteric parlance, Brahma is Father-Mother-Son, or Spirit, Soul and Body
at once; each personage being symbolical of an attribute, and each attribute
or quality being a graduated efflux of Divine Breath in its cyclic
differentiation, involutionary and evolutionary. In the cosmicophysical
sense, it is the Universe, the planetary chain and the earth; in the purely
spiritual, the Unknown Deity, Planetary Spirit, and Man — the Son of the
two, the creature of Spirit and Matter, and a manifestation of them in his
periodical appearances on Earth during the "wheels," or the Manvantaras. —
(See Part II. §: "Days and Nights of Brahmâ.") S D I 41



[CAUSES OF EXISTENCE ]

(a) "The Causes of Existence" mean not only the physical causes known to
science, but the metaphysical causes, the chief of which is the desire to
exist, an outcome of Nidana and Maya. 

This desire for a sentient life shows itself in everything, from an atom to
a sun, and is a reflection of the Divine Thought propelled into objective
existence, into a law that the Universe should exist. According to esoteric
teaching, the real cause of that supposed desire, and of all existence,
remains for ever hidden, and its first emanations are the most complete
abstractions mind can conceive. 

These abstractions must of necessity be postulated as the cause of the
material Universe which presents itself to the senses and intellect; and
they underlie the secondary and subordinate powers of Nature, which,
anthropomorphized, have been worshipped as God and gods by the common herd
of every age. It is impossible to conceive anything without a cause; the
attempt to do so makes the mind a blank. 
 

* In clearer words: "One has to acquire true Self-Consciousness in order to
understand Samvriti, or the 'origin of delusion.'" Paramârtha is the synonym
of the Sanskrit term Svasam-vedana, or "the reflection which analyses
itself." There is a difference in the interpretation of the meaning of
"Paramârtha" between the Yogâchâryas and the Madhyamikas, neither of whom,
however, explain the real and true esoteric sense of the expression. See
further, sloka No. 9. 
-----------------------------------------------------------

This is virtually the condition to which the mind must come at last when we
try to trace back the chain of causes and effects, but both science and
religion jump to this condition of blankness much more quickly than is
necessary; for they ignore the metaphysical abstractions which are the only
conceivable cause of physical concretions. 

These abstractions become more and more concrete as they approach our plane
of existence, until finally they phenomenalise in the form of the material
Universe, by a process of conversion of metaphysics into physics, analogous
to that by which steam can be condensed into water, and the water frozen
into ice. 

(b) The idea of Eternal Non-Being, which is the One Being, will appear a
paradox to anyone who does not remember that we limit our ideas of being to
our present consciousness of existence; making it a specific, instead of a
generic term. An unborn infant, could it think in our acceptation of that
term, would necessarily limit its conception of being, in a similar manner,
to the intrauterine life which alone it knows; and were it to endeavour to
express to its consciousness the idea of life after birth (death to it), it
would, in the absence of data to go upon, and of faculties to comprehend
such data, probably express that life as "Non-Being which is Real Being." 

In our case the One Being is the noumenon of all the noumena which we know
must underlie phenomena, and give them whatever shadow of reality they
possess, but which we have not the senses or the intellect to cognize at
present. The impalpable atoms of gold scattered through the substance of a
ton of auriferous quartz may be imperceptible to the naked eye of the miner,
yet he knows that they are not only present there but that they alone give
his quartz any appreciable value; and this relation of the gold to the
quartz may faintly shadow forth that of the noumenon to the phenomenon. But
the miner knows what the gold will look like when extracted from the quartz,
whereas the common mortal can form no conception of the reality of things
separated from the Maya which veils them, and in which they are hidden. 

Alone the Initiate, rich with the lore acquired by numberless generations of
his predecessors, directs the "Eye of Dangma" toward the essence of things
in which no Maya can have any influence. It is here that the teachings of
esoteric philosophy in relation to the Nidanas and the Four Truths become of
the greatest importance; but they are secret. “	S D I 44-5


[ FIRST CAUSE – CAUSELESS CAUSE ]

“…the "First Cause," * which the Occultist more logically derives from the
"Causeless Cause," the "Eternal," and the "Unknowable," may be essentially
the same as that of the Consciousness which wells up within us: in short,
that the impersonal reality pervading the Kosmos is the pure noumenon of
thought. This advance on his part brings him very near to the esoteric and
Vedantin tenet. * 
 
*The "first" presupposes necessarily something which is the "first brought
forth, the first in time, space, and rank" — and therefore finite and
conditioned. The "first" cannot be the absolute, for it is a manifestation.
Therefore, Eastern Occultism calls the Abstract All the "Causeless One
Cause," the "Rootless Root," and limits the "First Cause" to the Logos, in
the sense that Plato gives to this term. S D I 14-15


[ MOTION -- IN MANIFESTATION ] 

“(b) The "Breath" of the One Existence is used in its application only to
the spiritual aspect of Cosmogony by Archaic esotericism; otherwise, it is
replaced by its equivalent in the material plane — MOTION. 

The One Eternal Element, or element-containing Vehicle, is Space,
dimensionless in every sense; co-existent with which are — endless duration,
primordial (hence indestructible) matter, and motion — absolute "perpetual
motion" which is the "breath" of the "One" Element. This breath, as seen,
can never cease, not even during the Pralayic eternities. (See "Chaos,
Theos, Kosmos," in Part II.) 

But the "Breath of the One Existence" does not, all the same, apply to the
One Causeless Cause or the "All Be-ness" (in contradistinction to All-Being,
which is Brahma, or the Universe). Brahmâ (or Hari) the four-faced god who,
after lifting the Earth out of the waters, "accomplished the Creation," is
held to be only the instrumental, and not, as clearly implied, the ideal
Cause. No Orientalist, so far, seems to have thoroughly comprehended the
real sense of the verses in the Purâna, that treat of "creation." 

Therein Brahmâ is the cause of the potencies that are to be generated
subsequently for the work of "creation." When a translator says, "And from
him proceed the potencies to be created, after they had become the real
cause": "and from IT proceed the potencies that will create as they become
the real cause" (on the material plane) would perhaps be more correct? Save
that one (causeless) ideal cause there is no other to which the universe can
be referred. "Worthiest of ascetics! through its potency — i.e., through the
potency of that cause — every created thing comes by its inherent or proper
nature." If, in the Vedanta and Nyaya, nimitta is the efficient cause, as
contrasted with upadána, the material cause, (and in the Sankhya, pradhána
implies the functions of both); in the Esoteric philosophy, which reconciles
all these systems, and the nearest exponent of which is the Vedanta as
expounded by the Advaita Vedantists, none but the upadána can be speculated
upon; that which is in the minds of the Vaishnavas (the Vasishta-dvaita) as
the ideal in contradistinction to the real — or Parabrahm and Isvara — can
find no room in published speculations, since that ideal even is a misnomer,
when applied to that of which no human reason, even that of an adept, can
conceive. 



MOTIVE


Re: A Living Master within -- and Self-knowledge.
Eye and Heart doctrines -- Idealism and Selfishness.


In my understanding:  

Motive relates to the reason why we do anything on a voluntary basis. Can we
impersonally determine what our motives are? I the Universe the same
principles operate on a Cosmic scale. The Law of Karma rules the coming and
going of universes and worlds, as it also does of the Monads in evolution we
call the members of humanity.

What tools have we got? How much do we know of our "lower" and our "higher"
natures? What are the "principles of the Cosmos corresponding to ours?

If there is the possibility of self-knowledge and self-control, then is not
the "controller" wiser, and "superior" to that which is controlled? Is not
the Universal Self (of which we have a "ray") superior and the natural
controller of the "lower self?" 

All our motives ought to be overlooked and controlled by the Mind -- the
"Real Actor" who is always "behind the screen" of the physical matter of our
"personality."   

When Mind and the "Real Actor /EGO" work together, we have the functioning
of intuition, and the "Voice of Conscience" prevails.

Gratitude is a feeling of mutual (not exclusive) satisfaction as well as a
recognition of the brotherhood of all spiritual/souls, which considering
themselves as "brothers in eternity," work with and for each other as a
family. (see S D I 209-10 as an example of what is written in S D I
207-8). It is the instinctive feeling of reverence for those who are wiser
than we are. We then desire to help and serve Them in their work of
educating others. Promulgation. .

Are there two Egos in Man?  

One (EGO) being universal, impartial, impersonally just and fair to all? and
the (ego, or 'lower self' the other), being intensely selfish, isolated and
demanding of possessions and attention? For how long till death forces to
part with all those things?  

If we consider reincarnation of the spirit /soul as a fact, then the
capacity to understand and to do things is more important that possessions
of any kind. This capacity is what is transferred forward into a new
personality.

We might under this scheme of consideration say that the "Living Master" is
internal to us all the time and represents the IDEAL action. The
application and knowledge of the 7 principles in man gives us the mental and
philosophical tools for this type of understanding. 

When we find an individual who has the bold energy and fearlessness to
exhibit outwardly, at all times, the nature and power of the "Living
interior Master," we find that we respond to it --- and at the same time,
the "lower self" feeling its self threatened reacts to argue against this
and often urges to reject ideal actions. Again, why is this so? 

There seems to be a constant conflict of personal / ideal going on in the
daily and hourly decision making faculty of each of us. If so, then why does
this happen?

Looking at some more posts made and questions asked. Can we not sense that
this living of ours on the whole, is a kind of School -- a "testing-ground?"
Are we not seeking instinctively and then with greater assurance to alter
our "selfishness" into a generous regard for all as our brothers? -- to
whom a fair share and a just opportunity are due?  

Lets take an example: If we carefully study what are the records and ideas
attributed in the New Testament to Jesus in THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, we may
be able to detect these ideals being expressed. Every great Teacher has
expressed the same ideals no matter how far back we trace. The Brotherhood
of all Religions is, for those who study the beginnings and proceedings,
historically of several religions, a provable, recorded series of facts.  

Dogmas, rituals and priestly assertions have provided since those times, in
each case, the separations between sects, and creeds -- and, also have
provided psychology with the present confusion of idealism and selfishness.
We admire the fearlessness of those who dare to act in an ideal way.  

But we are still too fearful to completely emulate them. Budha, Krishna,
Pythagoras, Plato, Lao Tse, Patanjali, Confucius, and others have all
pointed to the same ideals as a "path" whereby we can each regulate our
personal desires and passions.

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

[ CONSCIOUSNESS ]

To know itself or oneself, necessitates consciousness and perception (both
limited faculties in relation to any subject except Parabrahm), to be
cognized. 

Hence the "Eternal Breath which knows itself not." 

Infinity cannot comprehend Finiteness. 

The Boundless can have no relation to the bounded and the conditioned. In
the occult teachings, the Unknown and the Unknowable MOVER, or the
Self-Existing, is the absolute divine Essence. And thus being Absolute
Consciousness, and Absolute Motion — to the limited senses of those who
describe this indescribable — it is unconsciousness and immoveableness. 

Concrete consciousness cannot be predicated of abstract Consciousness, any
more than the quality wet can be predicated of water — wetness being its own
attribute and the cause of the wet quality in other things.

Consciousness implies limitations and qualifications; something to be
conscious of, and someone to be conscious of it. 

But Absolute Consciousness contains the cognizer, the thing cognized and the
cognition, all three in itself and all three one. 

No man is conscious of more than that portion of his knowledge that happens
to have been recalled to his mind at any particular time, yet such is the
poverty of language that we have no term to distinguish the knowledge not
actively thought of, from knowledge we are unable to recall to memory. 

To forget is synonymous with not to remember. How much greater must be the
difficulty of finding terms to describe, and to distinguish between,
abstract metaphysical facts or differences. 

It must not be forgotten, also, that we give names to things according to
the appearances they assume for ourselves. We call absolute consciousness
"unconsciousness," because it seems to us that it must necessarily be so,
just as we call the Absolute, "Darkness," because to our finite
understanding it appears quite impenetrable, yet we recognize fully that our
perception of such things does not do them justice. 

We involuntarily distinguish in our minds, for instance, between unconscious
absolute consciousness, and unconsciousness, by secretly endowing the former
with some indefinite quality that corresponds, on a higher plane than our
thoughts can reach, with what we know as consciousness in ourselves. But
this is not any kind of consciousness that we can manage to distinguish from
what appears to us as unconsciousness. “
S D I 54 - 56


PRINCIPLES – MAN – NATURE.
==============================

Principles 1 to 7 -- CONSCIOUS COMMUNICATION [from BCW IV, 101-102]
  
[The author of the article "MEDIUMS AND YOGIS", identified only by three
stars, in the course of his explanation of the difference between yogis and
mediums, says: "As the magnetic power is directed to any particular
faculty, so that faculty at once forms a direct line of communication with
the spirit, which, receiving the impressions, conveys them back to the
physical body."  

To this HPB remarks:]	SIXTH PRINCIPLE---SPIRITUAL SOUL.

 
In the normal or natural state, the sensations are transmitted from the
lowest physical to the highest spiritual body, i.e., from the first to the
6th principle (the 7th being no organized or conditioned body, but an
infinite, hence unconditioned principle or state), the faculties of each
body having to awaken the faculties of the next higher one, to transmit the
message in succession, until they reach the last, when, having received the
impression, the latter (the spiritual soul) sends it back in an inverse
order to the body.  

Hence, the faculties of some of the "bodies" (we use this word for want of a
better term) being less developed, they fail to transmit the message
correctly to the highest principle, and thus also fail to produce the right
impression upon the physical senses, as a telegram may have started for the
place of its destination faultless, and have been bungled up and
misinterpreted by the telegraph operator at some intermediate station.  

This is why some people, otherwise endowed with great intellectual powers
and perceptive faculties, are often utterly unable to appreciate---say, the
beauties of nature, or some particular moral quality; as, however perfect
their physical intellect---unless the original material or rough physical
impression conveyed has passed in a circuit through the sieve of every
"principle"---(from 1,2,3,4,5,6 up to 7, and down again from 7,6,5,4,3,2, to
No. 1)---and that every "sieve" is in good order---the spiritual perception
will always be imperfect.  

The Yogi, who, by a constant training and incessant watchfulness, keeps his
septenary instrument in good tune and whose spirit has obtained a perfect
control over all, can, at will, and by paralysing the functions of the four
intermediate principles, communicate from body to spirit and vice
versa---direct.
 
[The author says: "The Yogi forms a direct connection between his spiritual
soul and any faculty, and, by the power of his trained will, that is by
magnetic influence, concentrates all his powers in the soul, which enables
him to grasp the subject of his enquiry and convey it back to the physical
organs, through the various channels of communication."  


HPB ADDS:]
 
Or---direct, which is oftener the case, we believe.

>From the physical to the Spiritual body and concentrating it there, as we
understand it.
[from BCW IV, 101-102]


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

The health of the transmission lines, even for a beginner might center
around the general attitude they maintain as live flows on, far more than
any specific event.  

HPB indicates something like this in her DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE TWO EDITORS,
and also infers it in PSYCHIC AND NOETIC ACTION like this: 
 
" …each cell bears a long record of impressions connected with its parent
organ, and each cell has a memory and a consciousness of its kind, or call
it instinct if you will. These impressions are, according to the nature of
the organ, physical, psychic, or mental, as they relate to this or another
plane. 

They may be called “states of consciousness” only for the want of a better
expression—as there are states of instinctual, mental, and purely abstract,
or spiritual consciousness. 

If we trace all such “psychic” actions to brain work, it is only because in
that mansion called the human body the brain is the front door, and the only
one which opens out into Space. 

All the others are inner doors, openings in the private building, through
which travel incessantly the transmitting agents of memory and sensation. 

The clearness, the vividness, and intensity of these depend on the state of
health and the organic soundness of the transmitters. But their reality, in
the sense of trueness or correctness, is due to the “principle” they
originate from, and the preponderance in the Lower Manas of the noëtic orof
the phrenic (“Kamic,” terrestrial) element."
[HPB Articles, II, pp. 22-3]


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

PLANES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

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

In SECRET DOCTRINE 

I 157, 7 Principles, 4 Koshas (sheaths), 4 States of ‘consciousness,

I 181-2, 3 Lines of Evolution: Spiritual, Intellectual, Physical,

I 200-2, Evolutionary progress: 7 Rounds, 7 Globes, 7 “Races”, 
7 “Sub-races” 

Compared with Kabala,

I 240-6; Principles of Theosophy and of Kabala compared,

II 596	Principles of the Universe (Kosmos) and of Man compared

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

"The "Absolute Consciousness,"..."behind" phenomena...is only termed
unconsciousness in the absence of any element of personality...transcends
human conception...Only the liberated Spirit is able to faintly realize the
nature of the source whence it sprung and whither it must eventually
return...we can but bow in ignorance before the awful mystery of Absolute
Being...the Finite cannot conceive the Infinite..."	S D I 51


"Esoteric philosophy teaches that everything lives and is conscious, but not
that all life and consciousness are similar to those of human or even animal
beings. Life we look on as the "the one form of existence," manifesting in
what is called matter; or, as in man, what, incorrectly separating them we
name Spirit, Soul and Matter. Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation
or soul on this plane of existence, and soul is the vehicle on a higher
plane for the manifestation of spirit, and those three are a trinity
synthesized by Life, which pervades them all."	SD I 49


"Every atom is endowed with and moved by intelligence, and is conscious in
its own degree, on its own plane of development. This is a glimpse of the
One Life...selfishness is the curse of selfishness..."	WQJ ART I 29


"...Time...[is] the panoramic succession of our states of consciousness..."
S D I 44


"Free-will can only exist in a man who has both mind and consciousness,
which act and make him perceive things both within and without himself."

"Consciousness is a condition of the monad as a result of embodiment in
matter and the dwelling in a physical form."	WQJ ART I 29


"the one free force acts, helped in this by that portion of its essence
which we call imprisoned force, or material molecules. The worker within,
the inherent force, ever tends to unite with its parent essence without;
and thus, the Mother acting within, causes the Web to contract; and the
Father acting without, to expand. Science calls this gravitation;
Occultists, the work of the universal Life-Force, which radiates from that
Absolute and Unknowable FORCE which is outside of all Space and Time. This
is the work of eternal Evolution and involution, or expansion and
contraction. [ Web cooling ]...it begins when the imprisoned force and
intelligence inherent in every atom of differentiated as well as of
homogeneous matter arrives at a point when both become the slaves of a
higher intelligent Force whose mission is to guide and shape it.

It is the Force which we call the divine Free-Will, represented by the
Dhyani-Buddhas. When the centrepetal and centrifugal forces of life and
being are subjected by the one nameless Force which brings order in
disorder, and establishes harmony in Chaos--then it begins cooling...Every
form, we are told, is built in accordance with the model traced for it in
the Eternity and reflected in the DIVINE MIND. There are hierarchies of
"Builders of form," and series of forms and degrees, from the highest to the
lowest. While the former are shaped under the guidance of the "Builders,"
the gods, "Cosmocratores;" the latter are fashioned by the Elementals or
Nature Spirits."	TRANS 128-9



"Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness grouped
under Thought, Will, and Feeling. During deep sleep, ideation ceases of the
physical plane, and memory is in abeyance; thus for the time-being "Mind is
not," because the organ through which the Ego manifests ideation and memory
on the material plane has temporarily ceased to function. A noumenon can
become a phenomenon on any plane of existence only by manifesting on that
plane through an appropriate basis or vehicle...The Ah-hi (Dhyan-Chohans)
are the collective hosts of spiritual beings--the Angelic Hosts of
Christianity...--who are the vehicle for the manifestation of the divine or
universal though and will. They are the Intelligent Forces that give to and
enact in Nature her "laws," while themselves acting according to laws
imposed upon them in a similar manner by still higher Powers...This
hierarchy of spiritual Beings, through which the Universal Mind comes into
action, is like an army--a "Host."	SD I 38  


"..."Mind" is manas, or rather its lower reflection, which whenever it
disconnects itself, for the time being, with kama, becomes the guide of the
highest mental faculties, and is the organ of the free-will in physical
man...." 
HPB Art., Vol. II, p. 13



TRANSACTIONS of the BLAVATSKY LODGE (ULT) p, 79 [ List ]

Waking

“Lucid” ( Waking-dreaming )

Dreaming

Prophetic
Allegorical
Dreams sent by Adepts
Retrospective
Warning
Confused
Fancies & Chaotic pictures
Day dreams	

Nightmares
	
Deep sleep

Trance

Induced Visions
Hypnosis
Samadhi
Turiya
Mediumship (Channeling)

Hallucination

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

[ more details on Dreams will be found:
Transaction of the Blavatsky Lodge, pp 58...,
Isis I 179; WQJ Art. I 294, 536
see Indexes to Judge and HPB Articles, SD,
Sleep and Dreams, R. Crosbie, F. P. p. 258, 66-67
Dreams and Karma	"" Ans. to Quest. p. 219-221
Dreamless Sleep	SD I 38, 47, 266
“Because for Children who ask Why?” p. 70...
"The Psychology of Dreams" - Theosophy Mag. Vol. 6
Theosophist 10, p. 229 (S. Rao 3 States of Human Life) 
"Seership"	Theos. Art. & Notes, p. 213

To consider: Trance, Meditation, Deep Sleep, Sushupti, 	
Turiya, Memory, personality, Individuality, 	
Will, Consciousness...					


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


PATANJALI

[ Study of the interplay of the mind principle as intermediary between the
Spiritual and the Physical vehicles of Man, Its training, development and
emancipation. ]



KEY TO THEOSOPHY (HPB) 

[ In The Key to Theosophy Mme. Blavatsky gives the same general facts
relating to Kama-loca and to Devachan, and traces the progress of the
principles of man after the death of the body. Skandhas are considered by
her as the "carriers" of man's karma. She proceeds in the next chapters (x,
xi) to explain the nature of the Mind - "Thinking Principle" - and
Reincarnation as a universal process of progression. KEY pp. 143 - 226 ]


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


CORRESPONDENCE OF THE 7 COSMIC AND 7 HUMAN "PRINCIPLES."
[ from: SD II 596]


========================================================
Human aspects or	Cosmic aspects or
Principles	Principles
========================================================

Triple aspect of the Deity

1.	Universal Spirit (Atma)	The Unmanifested Logos

2.	Spiritual Soul (Buddhi)	Universal (latent) Ideation
(see Fnote p. 597)

3.	Human Soul, Mind (Manas)	Universal (or Cosmic) active
Intelligence

Spirit of the Earth


4.	Animal Soul (Kama-Rupa)	Cosmic Chaotic energy

5.	Astral Body (Linga-Sarira)	Astral Ideation, reflecting 
terrestrial things.

6.	Life Essence (Prana)	Life Essence or Energy

7.	Body (Sthula Sarira)	The Earth.
[from: SD II
596]

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

Best wishes,

Dallas
==================================
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Hamilton Jr.
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 9:44 PM
To: Theosophy
Subject: The breath of life - What this could mean

I see a continuing motif of the "breath of life" in the SD and various
other places. In the beginning of the Secret Doctrine vol.1 H.P.B
compares the physical instance of the universe an exhaling of sorts,
and the disintegration of which is the inhaling. However each instance
of it is unique and a part of the continuous cycle of existence. .....


Quite possibly the only thing holding the physical world together is
the continuous motion of matter and energy, which was all invariably
created by smaller particles bound together by their own movement.

Any thoughts on this?

...You must excuse me, I stay up at 1 in the morning and I come up
with stuff like this.

-Mark H.