RE: " I find only skandhas and their functioning processes"
Jul 07, 2005 04:19 AM
by W.Dallas TenBroeck
ABOUT THE SKANDHAS
SKANDHA or Skhanda (Sk.). Lit., “bundles”, or groups of attributes; everything finite, inapplicable to the eternal and the absolute. There are five—esoterically, seven—attributes in every humanliving being, which are known as the Pancha Shandhas. These are
(1) form, rûpa;
2) perception, vidâna;
(3) consciousness, sanjnâ;
(4) action, sanskâra;
(5) knowledge, vidyâna.
These unite at the birth of man and constitute his personality. After the maturity of these Skandhas, they begin to separate and weaken,
and this is followed by jarâmarana, or decrepitude and death.
Glos 301-2
SAMSKÂRA (Sk.). Lit., from Sam and Krî, to improve, refine, impress. In Hindu philosophy the term is used to denote the impressions left upon the mind by individual actions or external circumstances, and capable of being developed on any future favourable occasion—even in a future birth. The Samskâra denotes, therefore, the germs of propensities and impulses from previous births to be developed in this, or the coming janmâs or reincarnations. In Tibet, Samskâra is called Doodyed, and in China is defined as, or at least connected with, action or Karma. It is, strictly speaking, a metaphysical term, which in exoteric philosophies is variously defined; e.g., in Nepaul as illusion, in Tibet as notion, and in Ceylon as discrimination. The true meaning is as given above, and as such isconnected with Karma and its working.” Glos 287-8
PERSONALITY. In Occultism—which divides man into seven principles,considering him under the three aspects of the divine, the thinking or therational, and the animal man—the lower quaternary or the purely astrophysical being; while by Individuality is meant the Higher Triad, considered as a Unity. Thus the Personality embraces all the characteristics and memories of one physical life, while the Individuality is the imperishable Ego which re-incarnates and clothes itself in one personality after another.” Glos 252
PRINCIPLES. The Elements or original essences, the basic differentiationsupon and of which all things are built up. We use the term to denote the seven individual and fundamental aspects of the One Universal Reality in Kosmos and in man. Hence also the seven aspects in the manifestation in the human being—divine, spiritual, psychic, astral, physiological and simply physical.” Glos 262-3
INDIVIDUALITY. One of the names given in Theosophy and Occultism to the Human Higher EGO. We make a distinction between the immortal and divine Ego, and the mortal human Ego which perishes.
The latter, or “personality” (personal Ego) survives the dead body only for a time in the Kama Loka; the Individuality prevails forever.” Glos 154-5
From: The KEY TO THEOSOPHY :
THEOSOPHIST.
"l. That there is a life coincident with, and independent of the physical life of the body."
"2. That, as a necessary corollary, this life extends beyond the life of the body" (we say it extends throughout Devachan).
"3. That there is communication between the denizens of that state of existence and those of the world in which we now live."
All depend, you see, on the minor and secondary aspects of these fundamental propositions.
Everything depends on the views we take of Spirit and Soul, or Individuality and Personality. Spiritualists confuse the two "into one"; we separate them, and say that, with the exceptions above enumerated, no Spirit will revisit the earth, though the animal Soul may. But let us return once more to our direct subject, the SKANDHAS.
ENQUIRER. I begin to understand better now. It is the Spirit, so to say, ofthose Skandhas which are the most ennobling, which, attaching themselves to the incarnating Ego, survive, and are added to the stock of its angelic experiences. And it is the attributes connected with the material Skandhas, with selfish and personal motives, which, disappearing from the field of action between two incarnations, reappear at the subsequent incarnation as Karmic results to be atoned for; and therefore the Spirit will not leave Devachan. Is it so?
THEOSOPHIST. Very nearly so. If you add to this that the law of retribution, or Karma, rewarding the highest and most spiritual in Devachan, never fails to reward them again on earth by giving them a further development, andfurnishing the Ego with a body fitted for it, then you will be quite correct.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE SKANDHAS.
ENQUIRER. What becomes of the other, THE LOWER SKANDHAS OF THE PERSONALITY,after the death of the body? Are they quite destroyed?
THEOSOPHIST. They are and yet they are not -- a fresh metaphysical and occult mystery for you. They are destroyed as the working stock in hand of thepersonality; they remain as Karmic effects, as germs, hanging in the atmosphere of the terrestrial plane, ready to come to life, as so many avenging fiends, to attach themselves to the new personality of the Ego when it reincarnates.
ENQUIRER. This really passes my comprehension, and is very difficult to understand.
THEOSOPHIST. Not once that you have assimilated all the details. For then you will see that for logic, consistency, profound philosophy, divine mercyand equity, this doctrine of Reincarnation has not its equal on earth. It is a belief in a perpetual progress for each incarnating Ego, or divine soul, in an evolution from the outward into the inward, from the material to the Spiritual, arriving at the end of each stage at absolute unity with the divine Principle. From strength to strength, from the beauty and perfectionof one plane to the greater beauty and perfection of another, with accessions of new glory, of fresh knowledge and power in each cycle, such is the destiny of every Ego, which thus becomes its own Saviour in each world and incarnation.
ENQUIRER. But Christianity teaches the same. It also preaches progression.
THEOSOPHIST. Yes, only with the addition of something else. It tells us ofthe impossibility of attaining Salvation without the aid of a miraculous Saviour, and therefore dooms to perdition all those who will not accept the dogma. This is just the difference between Christian theology and Theosophy. The former enforces belief in the Descent of the Spiritual Ego into the Lower Self; the latter inculcates the necessity of endeavouring to elevate oneself to the Christos, or Buddhi state.
ENQUIRER. By teaching the annihilation of consciousness in case of failure,however, don't you think that it amounts to the annihilation of Self, in the opinion of the non-metaphysical?
THEOSOPHIST. From the standpoint of those who believe in the resurrection of the body literally, and insist that every bone, every artery and atom offlesh will be raised bodily on the Judgment Day ―of course it does. If you still insist that it is the perishable form and finite qualities that make up immortal man, then we shall hardly understand each other. And if you do not understand that, by limiting the existence of every Ego to onelife on earth, you make of Deity an ever-drunken Indra of the Puranic deadletter, a cruel Moloch, a god who makes an inextricable mess on Earth, andyet claims thanks for it, then the sooner we drop the conversation the better.
ENQUIRER. But let us return, now that the subject of the Skandhas is disposed of, to the question of the consciousness which survives death. This is the point which interests most people. Do we possess more knowledge in Devachan than we do in Earth life?
THEOSOPHIST. In one sense, we can acquire more knowledge; that is, we can develop further any faculty which we loved and strove after during life, provided it is concerned with abstract and ideal things, such as music, painting, poetry, etc., since Devachan is merely an idealized and subjective continuation of earth-life.
ENQUIRER. But if in Devachan the Spirit is free from matter, why should it not possess all knowledge?
THEOSOPHIST. Because, as I told you, the Ego is, so to say, wedded to the memory of its last incarnation. Thus, if you think over what I have said, and string all the facts together, you will realize that the Devachanic state is not one of omniscience, but a transcendental continuation of the personal life just terminated. It is the rest of the soul from the toils of life.
ENQUIRER. But the scientific materialists assert that after the death of man nothing remains; that the human body simply disintegrates into its component elements; and that what we call soul is merely a temporary self-consciousness produced as a bye-product of organic action, which will evaporate like steam. Is not theirs a strange state of mind?
THEOSOPHIST. Not strange at all, that I see. If they say that self-consciousness ceases with the body, then in their case they simply utter an unconscious prophecy, for once they are firmly convinced of what they assert, no conscious after-life is possible for them. For there are exceptions to every rule.
ON POST-MORTEM AND POST-NATAL CONSCIOUSNESS.*
ENQUIRER. But if human self-consciousness survives death as a rule, why should there be exceptions?
THEOSOPHIST. In the fundamental principles of the spiritual world no exception is possible. But there are rules for those who see, and rules for those who prefer to remain blind.
ENQUIRER. Quite so, I understand. This is but an aberration of the blind man, who denies the existence of the sun because he does not see it. But after death his spiritual eyes will certainly compel him to see. Is this what you mean?
THEOSOPHIST. He will not be compelled, nor will he see anything. Having persistently denied during life the continuance of existence after death, he will be unable to see it, because his spiritual capacity having been stunted in life, it cannot develop after death, and he will remain blind. By insisting that he must see it, you evidently mean one thing and I another. You speak of the spirit from the spirit, or the flame from the flame -- of Atma, in short ―and you confuse it with the human soul ―Manas. . . . You do not understand me; let me try to make it clear. The whole gistof your question is to know whether, in the case of a downright materialist, the complete loss of self-consciousness and self-perception after death is possible? Isn't it so? I answer, It is possible. Because, believing firmly in our Esoteric Doctrine, which refers to the post-mortem period, or theinterval between two lives or births, as merely a transitory state, I say,whether that interval between two acts of the illusionary drama of life lasts one year or a million, that post-mortem state may, without any breach of the fundamental law, prove to be just the same state as that of a man whois in a dead faint.
ENQUIRER. But since you have just said that the fundamental laws of the after death state admit of no exceptions, how can this be?
THEOSOPHIST. Nor do I say that it does admit of an exception. But the spiritual law of continuity applies only to things which are truly real. To onewho has read and understood Mundakya Upanishad and Vedanta-Sara all this becomes very clear. I will say more: it is sufficient to understand what we mean by Buddhi and the duality of Manas to gain a clear perception why the materialist may fail to have a self-conscious survival after death. Since Manas, in its lower aspect, is the seat of the terrestrial mind, it can, therefore, give only that perception of the Universe which is based on the evidence of that mind; it cannot give spiritual vision. It is said in the Eastern school, that between Buddhi and Manas (the Ego), or Iswara and Pragna* there is in reality no more difference than between a forest and its trees,a lake and its waters, as the Mundakya teaches. One or hundreds of trees dead from loss of vitality, or uprooted, are yet incapable of preventing theforest from being still a forest.
ENQUIRER. But, as I understand it, Buddhi represents in this simile the forest, and Manas-taijasi ╫ the trees. And if Buddha is immortal, how can that which is similar to it, i. e., Manas-taijasi, entirely lose its consciousness till the day of its new incarnation? I cannot understand it.
THEOSOPHIST. You cannot, because you will mix up an abstract representation of the whole with its casual changes of form. Remember that if it can be said of Buddhi-Manas that it is unconditionally immortal, the same cannot be said of the lower Manas, still less of Taijasi, which is merely an attribute. Neither of these, neither Manas nor Taijasi, can exist apart from Buddhi, the divine soul, because the first (Manas) is, in its lower aspect, a qualificative attribute of the terrestrial personality, and the second (Taijasi) is identical with the first, because it is the same Manas only with the light of Buddhi reflected on it. In its turn, Buddhi would remain only animpersonal spirit without this element which it borrows from the human soul, which conditions and makes of it, in this illusive Universe, as it were something separate from the universal soul for the whole period of the cycle of incarnation. Say rather that Buddhi-Manas can neither die nor lose itscompound self-consciousness in Eternity, nor the recollection of its previous incarnations in which the two― i.e., the spiritual and the human soul -- had been closely linked together. But it is not so in the case ofa materialist, whose human soul not only receives nothing from the divine soul, but even refuses to recognise its existence. You can hardly apply this axiom to the attributes and qualifications of the human soul, for it would be like saying that because your divine soul is immortal, therefore the bloom on your cheek must also be immortal; whereas this bloom, like Taijasi,is simply a transitory phenomenon.
ENQUIRER. Do I understand you to say that we must not mix in our minds the noumenon with the phenomenon, the cause with its effect?
THEOSOPHIST. I do say so, and repeat that, limited to Manas or the human soul alone, the radiance of Taijasi itself becomes a mere question of time; because both immortality and consciousness after death become, for the terrestrial personality of man, simply conditioned attributes, as they depend entirely on conditions and beliefs created by the human soul itself during the life of its body. Karma acts incessantly: we reap in our after-life onlythe fruit of that which we have ourselves sown in this.
ENQUIRER. But if my Ego can, after the destruction of my body, become plunged in a state of entire unconsciousness, then where can be the punishment for the sins of my past life?
THEOSOPHIST. Our philosophy teaches that Karmic punishment reaches the Egoonly in its next incarnation. After death it receives only the reward for the unmerited sufferings endured during its past incarnation.*The whole punishment after death, even for the materialist, consists, therefore, in the absence of any reward, and the utter loss of the consciousness of one's bliss and rest. Karma is the child of the terrestrial Ego, the fruit of the actions of the tree which is the objective personality visible to all, as much as the fruit of all the thoughts and even motives of the spiritual "I"; but Karma is also the tender mother, who heals the wounds inflicted by her during the preceding life, before she will begin to torture this Ego by inflicting upon him new ones. If it may be said that there is not a mental or physical suffering in the life of a mortal which is not the direct fruit andconsequence of some sin in a preceding existence; on the other hand, sincehe does not preserve the slightest recollection of it in his actual life, and feels himself not deserving of such punishment, and therefore thinks hesuffers for no guilt of his own, this alone is sufficient to entitle the human soul to the fullest consolation, rest, and bliss in his post-mortem existence. Death comes to our spiritual selves ever as a deliverer and friend. For the materialist, who, not withstanding his materialism, was not a badman, the interval between the two lives will be like the unbroken and placid sleep of a child, either entirely dreamless, or filled with pictures of which he will have no definite perception; while for the average mortal it will be a dream as vivid as life, and full of realistic bliss and visions.
ENQUIRER. Then the personal man must always go on suffering blindly the Karmic penalties which the Ego has incurred?
THEOSOPHIST. Not quite so. At the solemn moment of death every man, even when death is sudden, sees the whole of his past life marshalled before him, in its minutest details. For one short instant the personal becomes one with the individual and all-knowing Ego. But this instant is enough to show tohim the whole chain of causes which have been at work during his life. He sees and now understands himself as he is, unadorned by flattery or self-deception. He reads his life, remaining as a spectator looking down into the arena he is quitting; he feels and knows the justice of all the suffering that has overtaken him.
ENQUIRER. Does this happen to everyone?
THEOSOPHIST. Without any exception. Very good and holy men see, we are taught, not only the life they are leaving, but even several preceding lives in which were produced the causes that made them what they were in the life just closing. They recognise the law of Karma in all its majesty and justice.
ENQUIRER. Is there anything corresponding to this before re-birth?
THEOSOPHIST. There is. As the man at the moment of death has a retrospective insight into the life he has led, so, at the moment he is reborn on to earth, the Ego, awaking from the state of Devachan, has a prospective visionof the life which awaits him, and realizes all the causes that have led toit. He realizes them and sees futurity, because it is between Devachan andre-birth that the Ego regains his full manasic consciousness, and rebecomes for a short time the god he was, before, in compliance with Karmic law, he first descended into matter and incarnated in the first man of flesh. The"golden thread" sees all its "pearls" and misses not one of them. “ Key 153-163
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THE MORAL LAW OF COMPENSATION
For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field; and the beasts ofthe field shall be at peace with thee. - Job, Chap. V, v. 23, Christian Bible.
[Some selections from this article
It seems undeniable that this law is the most powerful, and the one having the most numerous and complicated ramifications of all the laws with which we have to deal. This it is that makes so difficult for a human spirit, theupward progress after which we all are striving, and it is often forced upon me that it is this law which perpetuates the world, with its delusions, its sadness, its illusions, and that if we could but understand it so as toavoid its operation, the nirvana for the whole human family would be an accomplished fact. ....
To say that the reviling of a righteous man will condemn one to a life of abeggar in the next existence is definite enough in statement, but it is put forward without a reason ....no Theosophist will believe that any punishment, save that which man himself inflicts, is ordered. As this world is a world produced by law, moved by law, and governed by the natural operation of laws which need no one to operate them, but which invariably and unerringly operate themselves, it must follow that any punishment suffered in this way is not suffered through any order, but is suffered because the natural law operates itself. ...
So then we should know in what manner the law operates, which condemns the reviler of a righteous man to beggary in his next existence. That knowledgeonce gained, we may be able to find for ourselves the manner and power of placating, as it were, this terrible monster of compensation by performing some particular acts which shall in some way be a restoration of the harmony which we have broken, if perchance we have unconsciously or inadvertentlycommitted the sin.
Let us now imagine a boy born of wealthy parents, but not given proper intelligence. He is, in fact, called an idiot. But instead of being a mild idiot, he possesses great malice which manifests itself in his tormenting insects and animals at every opportunity. He lives to be, say, nineteen and has spent his years in the malicious, although idiotic, torment of unintelligent, defenseless animal life. He has thus hindered many a spirit in its upward march and has beyond doubt inflicted pain and caused a moral discord. This fact of his idiocy is not a restoration of the discord. Every animal thathe tortured had its own particular elemental spirit, and so had every flower that he broke in pieces. What did they know of his idiocy, and what did they feel after the torture but revenge? And had they a knowledge of his idiocy, being unreasoning beings, they could not see in it any excuse for hisacts.
He dies at nineteen, and after the lapse of years is reborn in another nation - perchance another age - into a body possessing more than average intelligence. He is no longer an idiot, but a sensible active man who now has a chance to regenerate the spirit given to every man, without the chains of idiocy about it. What is to be the result of the evil deeds of his previous existence? Are they to go unpunished? I think not. But how are they to be punished; and if the compensation comes, in what manner does the law operateupon him? To me there seems to be but one way, that is through the discordproduced in the spirits of those unthinking beings which he had tortured during those nineteen years. But how? In this way. In the agony of their torture these beings turned their eyes upon their torturer, and dying, his spiritual picture through the excess of their pain, together with that pain and the desire for revenge, were photographed, so to speak, upon their spirits - for in no other way could they have a memory of him - and when he became a disembodied spirit they clung to him until he was reincarnated when they were still with him like barnacles on a ship. They can now only see through his eyes, and their revenge consists in precipitating themselves down his glance on any matter he may engage in, thus attaching themselves to it for the purpose of dragging it down to disaster. [WQJ ART I P. 129]
This leads to the query of what is meant by these elementals precipitating themselves down his glance. The ancients taught that the astral light - Akasa - is projected from the eyes, the thumbs and the palms of the hands. Nowas the elementals exist in the astral light, they will be able to see onlythrough those avenues of human organism which are used by the astral lightin traveling from the person. The eyes are the most convenient. So when this person directs his glance on any thing or person, the astral light goes out in that glance and through it those elementals see that which he looks upon. And so also, if he should magnetize a person, the elementals will project themselves from his hands and eyes upon the subject magnetized and do it injury.
Well then, our reincarnated idiot engages in a business which requires his constant surveillance. The elementals go with him and throwing themselves upon everything he directs, cause him continued disaster.
But one by one they are caught up again out of the orbit of necessity into the orbit of probation in this world, and at last all are gone, whereupon he finds success in all he does and has his chance again to reap eternal life. ...There is no other reasonable explanation of the passage quoted than the theory faintly outlined in the foregoing poor illustration. And I only offer it as a possible solution or answer to the question as to what is the rationale of the operation of the Moral Law of Compensation ...
W. Q. Judge Theosophist, October, 1881
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Concerning "Skandhas" (Samskaras ?).
I have a problem and wonder if there is an answer for it.
The SECRET DOCTRINE (Vol. 1, p. 289) indicates that:--
"...there is not one finger's breadth of void Space in the whole Boundless(Universe)..."
Do the "life-atoms," the "skandhas," and the "Monads" represent co-existentor interdependent aspects of that which "fills" the otherwise seeming "void" of SPACE ?
Or, are all three designations merely qualitative differences ? ( By this,I mean that the eternal and imperishable Monad (as a center of force) receives different "names" according to the functions which it performs at one time or another ? )
Then, on p. 631, Vol. 1 of the same book (SD) I read (in summary) that esoteric philosophy teaches an objective Idealism -- which apparently consists of a tremendous multitude of Monads in the various stages that are described on the next page (632) as:
1. conscious spiritual Egos,
2. Elementals, and,
3. Atoms.
A fourth category is also mentioned there:
4 "countless spiritual Forces--Monadless, for they are pure incorporealities, except under certain laws when they assume
a form--not necessarily human." [ This latter designation and category is a puzzle to me -- or could this be another description of the nature of the"Monadic-Essence ? ]
On p. 671-2 of Vol. 2, SD one may read: "...Occultism teaches that –
1) the life-atoms of our (Prana) life-principle are never entirely lost when a man dies...the atoms best impregnated with the life-principle (an independent, eternal, conscious factor) are partially...drawn once more together and become the animating principle of the new body in every new incarnation of the Monads. ...
2) as the indivisible Soul is ever the same, so are the atoms of the lowerprinciples (body, its astral, or life double, etc.) drawn as they are by affinity and Karmic law always to the same individuality in a series of various bodies, etc...."
I wonder if the "skandhas" are not "elementals" to which our thoughts and feelings attach themselves ?
Are they then part of one or another (perhaps the 2nd category ?) of the "monadic hosts ?" or, of the "countless spiritual forces-- Monadless..." There is a statement made that every thought and feeling that we generate isattached to an "elemental." [ WQJ Articles I 410 ]
As I understand Theosophical doctrines we carry (as the imperishable Ego-Soul, or technically: Atma-Buddhi-Manas) a complete record of all that we thought, felt or did during the last life into what is called "Kama-loka."
Now the Monad with its army of attendant "noble and spiritual" skandhas (those which carry the memory of its better moments in the last life) 'ascends' into the state called Devachan (Land of the Gods) or Sukhavati, and thereit is said to engage in an active meditation on those impressions for a period that is determined by their quantity and quality.
When these are finally assimilated into its permanent memory, so as to become a part of its "character," Karma asserts its attractive nature, and the Monad (our INDIVIDUALITY) is drawn back to earth-life and incarnation again
Simultaneously, as this physical and personal focus is made available in a new family, the more material "skandhas" -- those that were dispersed afterthe "Second Death" -- are also re-attracted to the mother, and help to form the necessary "personal" sheaths such as the astral, physical bodies, andthe personal Prana and "seed" for the Kama-manas intelligence (a combination of Kama and Manas, or desire/passion and Mind) of the incarnating Ego. Thus, constituting an environment that leads to the birth of a new baby form, for the continued development of the imperishable and eternal "Pilgrim" -- the MONAD that we are at core, and which we call our "spiritual" HIGHER-SELF.
So it seems to me that even the "Skandhas" are made up of Monads that are at some lower stage of development and experience than the "human" Monad is,and, so to say, constitute its "attendants."
Does this sound reasonable ?
Dallas
=======================================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Meredith
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 3:00 PM
To: Theosophy Study List
Subject: Re: " I find only skandhas and their functioning processes"
Yes I understand what an aggregate is. I also have read quite a bit
about skandhas over the past decades. My question was more along the lines
of what are the parts or pieces or components actually made of. Pieces of
what? It would appear that a skandha is actually a mental construct (a
model, if you prefer) that has no existence without the mind that
constructed it and chooses to believe in it. As one philosopher put it,
"The skandhas are analyzed into existence."
It also would appear that from another perspective a set of skandhas would
maintain the view that it was the skandhas themselves that analyzed
themselves into being.
Of course from another perspective this would be viewed as a very adept form
of creative skandha gamesmanship.
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