Theos-Talk Archives (August 2005 Message tt00282)

8/25/2005 5:17 PM

Dear Jerry:

Re: "Traditions"

As I wrote, we (or at least I) are not seeking to identify differences, we
are seeking for the TRUTH -- all of us. In metallurgy (or old alchemy) we
might say we are seeking for the highest known value: "gold."

What are the rules and laws established by Nature -- to run our Universe,
our world and our physical and conscious existence, and mental presence? Are
they not the "gold" of the entire system? 

Are they not, since antiquity, set in place for our support, life and
well-being? [Not only ours, but that of all other beings, atoms, galaxies,
etc.] 

Where and how did they evolve? Who guided, devised and set them going? Are
they impossible to discover?  

Do not Science and Philosophy endeavour to solve those mysteries?

In mathematics, the rules of arithmetic may be seen as the source,
foundation and basics of the whole system of enumeration -- the enormous
complexity and measurement (in engineering, chemistry, physics, astronomy,
etc...) of detail that calculus expresses, is based on UNITY (the ONE) and
that in turn, may be imagined to radiate or emanate (?) from the
indescribable ZERO ( 0 ) that some denominate THE ABSOLUTE.  

We recognize intellectually this ONE [that to us is quite indistinct (for it
is either too large or to small) and, to many, it appears to be devoid of
qualities] when "manifested into objectivity," becomes the TWO ( 2 ). 

This has been designated a symbol for the countless indivisible (strings -
?) of ATMA-BUDDHI "monads." The symbolic analogy then proceeds to THREE (3
) that includes the PERCEIVER or MIND. [ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS] 

Suppose we were numismatists -- coin collectors. Then, we might seek to find
true and authentic old coins for our collection. Let us take the rarest:
GOLD.

Original minted gold coins have been counterfeited after that first casting
time for ages. But modern science enables us to assay them for their alloys
and impurities to the extent that a trained assayist can determine from a
sample the probable age and era of the casting of any coin. He discovers
when it was most likely cast, and whether the mix (impurities, other metals,
etc.) has been altered. It is a genuine science and records have been kept
and are available to the experts and the students. As time passes a regular
table in time has been created that gives the assayer an idea of when and
where a casting has taken place.

Counterfeiters will often make a mold of a truly old coin, then use "modern
refined" gold to cast a facsimile of it. Then they age it superficially,
and then endeavor to sell it as a genuine antique. But the actual material
used (alloys with other metals, and impurities common to the actual time and
place of origin) have been detected and recorded.

Unless this more thorough type of assay is used, he can be fooled.  

He may however decide to trust on "faith" and "belief" in the honesty and
veracity of the seller. The result is as all may expect.

Each seeker after TRUTH has to employ their own mind, trained to some
degree, so that he alone knows how much he can trust that. Very often our
desires and emotions try to make us decide in haste (and repent at leisure
?) without using the tedious kind of study needed to ensure accuracy and
logical reasons for conclusions offered. Then we find (as we have nowadays)
a number of concurrent dogmatic and authoritarian religions, opinions and
pronouncements -- and, perhaps, "traditions ?" -- and I have noticed that
indoctrination of the young proceeds all over the world. No alternatives are
offered !

The search for TRUTH leads any dedicated seeker (and, whether we know this
or not, all of us are such) day after day, and life after life, to acquire a
precise knowledge of the Universe we live in, and which has long been
established as a common and secure basis for all co-existent and
pre-existent beings. [As an example at hand, take the meticulous
fabrication of computers and the software that enables a "user" Mind -- as
well as many trained "programmer" Minds -- to run them with accuracy and
trust. There -- is constant verification with concurrent usage. Observe
the continual war between virus and anti-virus. Who are the "bad-guys?" ]

I think you will find these to be fair analogies to the general "search for
TRUTH" that many of us are engaged in. Dare we foist our findings on
others? Can we make any claims for "authority?" I would say NOT. 

In my esteem, "traditions" count for very little unless they can be
demonstrated to be invariably true on testing, to the basic composition and
running laws of our UNIVERSE. THEOSOPHY clams to be an exposition of this. 

You may say that our minds and emotions make us fallible, and I would agree
But why trust me? Consider the following:

1	If idealism and altruism resides in SPIRIT, and if this is
ubiquitous, then an aspect (ray, spark, etc.) of THAT is interiorly resident
in every being, monad, life-atom, human, -- and grain of sand -- each is
potentially, over an enormous period of time and experience, a human
mind-being. I know this is asking a lot because the implication is that all
Monads are immortals. We interiorly, are as monads, immortals. Hence, the
brotherhood of ALL, and the evolution of individual intelligence by means of
reincarnation and karma are needed, essential, basic and actual facts. 

2	Shall we agree that all beings are united in that FACT of a common
LIFE -- ever together ? Physical, emotional and mental environments are
largely shared by us all, regardless of physical distance.

3	Differences (form, emotion, feeling, desires, mind, experience in
this life) are passing phases of the embodied consciousness -- of memories
and of appearances, and they are continually changing as the laws of
progress and continual interaction, demand that the Monads (each being an
eternal being having individually, some degree of progress) continually move
and alter within the parameters of the astral (electro-magnetic) framework
that underlies the presence and the environment of any and all physical and
non-physical forms. Thus the descriptive concept of "Maya" (illusion) is
used for our present physical matter knowledge, situation, condition and
universe. The forms change constantly, our knowledge is continually
changing and expanding, while the interior ONE SPIRITUAL ENTITY is forever
the SAME individual. 

4	The "Eternal Pilgrim" [BUDDHI-MANAS] is the "Monad." The Monad is
described as SPIRIT-MATTER conjoined (sounds somewhat like the "String
Theory"). It is a duality and requires a coexistent MIND to serve as a
PERCEIVER and a link between these two extremes. Thus the "Duad" in
manifestation, is in our reality, always a "TRIAD."  

5	It is ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS [a Triad] in us which is the eternal and
changeless Perceiver and the ruler of our Lower (embodied brain - Mind) and
emotions. In the Kosmos it is MAHAT or the UNIVERSAL MIND.

[Have a look at what is said in the SECRET DOCTRINE, Vol. II, p. 167 (see
below) about a resident Tutor assisting the development of each independent
Mind being. I find there is a correlation to this as expressed by HPB in
TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE, pp. 64-5 (below)

If you will concede me this as a fair basis or "source" then, may we can
proceed to details that I think are valid.

I prefer using HPB's The SECRET DOCTRINE, The VOICE OF THE SILENCE and
The KEY TO THEOSOPHY as basic source explanations for the details THEOSOPHY
teaches. I do not feel I need an intermediary to explain them. I have time
and can use a dictionary and an encyclopedia when needed, "Google" is a
great help to secure source materials for study. 

But every one is free to choose their own "Path," and, spend as much time as
is needed to eventually achieve SUPREME PERFECTION.

I also would say that every human is a Mind and a Free Thinker.

Best wishes,

Dallas
===================
 
-----Original Message-----

From: Jerry Hejka-Ekins
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 12:39 PM
To: 
Subject: RE: Jerry HE: Does GdP actually teach this view given by Frank?

Dear Dallas,

DTB
>As I said I make little of any "traditions." That is because they do not
>unite but rather emphasize differences.  
  
JHE
You may not, but the tradition which you grew up does. For instance, I 
have never heard of a ULT group offering a class on the Secret Doctrine 
and Masters on the Path, where the two authors are given the same weight 
of authority. On the other hand, you have in many of your posts 
already given the Mahatmas, HPB and Judge higher authority over the 
others. That in itself is one of the distinctive aspects of your 
tradition--one that separates it from some other traditions. 

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

DTB	I would not put it in those words

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

DTB
>Each individual is on his own, whether singly or as a part of any "group."
>The naming of a "group" and its characteristics rules and regulations does
>not ensure unanimity of agreement, or of minute attention to continual and
>disciplined performance by any of the members. 

JHE
However, groups generally operate by consensus of the whole rather than 
unanimity. 

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

DTB	That is why I say a group is a hindrance

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

DTB
>The more time spent on describing, identifying and pursuing the differences
>of "traditions" etc., the less is devoted to studying THEOSOPHY itself and
>applying it is daily life.  


JHE
I prefer to approach all studies, including Theosophy within a context.  
If we do not understand context, then we become as naive children who 
cannot discriminate. It is of course good to have the open mind like the 
child, but not good to have the childish naivete. That can lead to 
dangerous waters. 

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

DTB	I the "context" universal and impersonal?

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

DTB
>Important question: is it the Higher or the Lower Self that
>is doing the controlling? Is it "wisdom-BUDDHI" or "folly-KAMA " that
>motivates us ?


JHE
With rare exceptions, people live out their lives in the interface of 
kama and manas. I have met people who have touched into the Buddhi, 
but only after years of training motivated by solid commitment. None 
of them are Theosophists. I just smile at the arrogance and ignorance 
of Theosophists who have told me that if I only lived in my buddhic 
body, I would find myself in agreement with their views.

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

DTB	If the "Buddhi" represents wisdom acquired, then how can anyone avid
"living in it " or "appealing to its support in case of need?" It is
interior to us and not somewhere outside or something one can buy by
sacrifice, cash or promises of obedience.

Thanks Dal

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

Best wishes
Jerry

============== QUOTES ==============

S D II 167-8

"We now come to an important point with regard to the double evolution of
the human race, or the spiritual Dhyanis, had become "intellectual" through
their contact with matter, because they had already reached, during previous
cycles of incarnation, that degree of intellect which enabled them to become
independent and self-conscious entities, on this plane of matter. They were
reborn only by reason of Karmic effects. 

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

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

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

All such prematurely developed intellects (on the spiritual plane) in our
Race are abnormal; they are those whom we call the "Fifth-Rounders." Even in
the coming seventh Race, at the close of this Fourth Round, while our four
lower principles will be fully developed, that of Manas will be only
proportionately so. This limitation, however, refers solely to the spiritual
development. The intellectual, on the physical plane, was reached during the
Fourth Root-Race. Thus, those who were "half ready," who received "but a
spark," constitute the average humanity which has to acquire its
intellectuality during the present Manvantaric evolution, after which they
will be ready in the next for the full reception of the "Sons of Wisdom." 

While those which "were not ready" at all, the latest Monads, which had
hardly evolved from their last transitional and lower animal forms at the
close of the Third Round, remained the "narrow-brained" of the Stanza. This
explains the otherwise unaccountable degrees of intellectuality among the
various races of men - the savage Bushman and the European - even now. Those
tribes of savages, whose reasoning powers are very little above the level of
the animals, are not the unjustly disinherited, or the unfavoured, as some
may think - nothing of the kind. They are simply those latest arrivals among
the human Monads, which were not ready: which have to evolve during the
present Round, as on the three remaining globes (hence on four different
planes of being) so as to arrive at the level of the average class when they
reach the Fifth Round. One remark may prove useful, as food for thought to
the student in this connection. The MONADS of the lowest specimens of
humanity (the "narrow-brained" * savage South-Sea Islander, the African, the
Australian) had no Karma to work out when first born as men, as their more
favoured brethren in intelligence had. The former are spinning out Karma
only now; the latter are burdened with past, present, and future Karma. In
this respect the poor savage is more fortunate than the greatest genius of
civilised countries. " S D II 167-8


"This remark refers to divine Wisdom falling like lightning on, and
quickening the intellects of those who fight the devils of ignorance and
superstition. Up to the time when Wisdom, in the shape of the incarnating
Spirits of MAHAT, descended from on high to animate and call the Third Race
to real conscious life, humanity - if it can be so called in its animal,
senseless state -was of course doomed to - moral as well as to physical
death. 

The Angels fallen into generation are referred to metaphorically as Serpents
and Dragons of Wisdom. On the other hand, regarded in the light of the
LOGOS, the Christian Saviour, like Krishna, whether as man or logos, may be
said to have saved those who believed in the secret teachings from "eternal
death," to have conquered the Kingdom of Darkness, or Hell, as every
Initiate does. This in the human, terrestrial form of the Initiates, and
also because the logos is Christos, that principle of our inner nature which
develops in us into the Spiritual Ego - the Higher-Self - being formed of
the indissoluble union of Buddhi (the sixth) and the spiritual efflorescence
of Manas, the fifth principle.* "The Logos is passive Wisdom in Heaven and
Conscious, Self-Active Wisdom on Earth," we are taught. It is the Marriage
of "Heavenly man" with the "Virgin of the World" -Nature, as described in
Pymander; the result of which is their progeny - immortal man. "
S D II 230-1


"Q. What are the senses which act in dreams? 

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

The latter is highly spiritual, and is linked very closely with the higher
principles, Buddhi and Atma. These higher principles are entirely inactive
on our plane, and the higher Ego (Manas) itself is more or less dormant
during the waking of the physical man. This is especially the case with
persons of very materialistic mind. 

So dormant are the Spiritual faculties, because the Ego is so trammelled by
matter, that It can hardly give all its attention to the man's actions, even
should the latter commit sins for which that Ego-when reunited with its
lower Manas-will have to suffer conjointly in the future. 

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


Q. This Ego, then, is the "Higher Ego"? 

A. Yes; it is the higher Manas illuminated by Buddhi; the principle of
self-consciousness, the "I-am-I," in short. It is the Karana-Sarira, the
immortal man, which passes from one incarnation to another. ...

.....................

Q. How does this process take place? 

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


Q. What distinguishes the "dreaming" memory and imagination from those of
waking consciousness? 

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


Q. What relation have the Astral Light and Akasa to memory? 

A. The former is the "tablet of the memory" of the animal man, the latter of
the spiritual Ego. The "dreams" of the Ego, as much as the acts of the
physical man, are all recorded, since both are actions based on causes and
producing results. Our "dreams," being simply the waking state and actions
of the true Self, must be, of course, recorded somewhere. Read "Karmic
Visions" [*Reprinted in HPB Articles, Vol. I, p. 382 -- from LUCIFER,
June 15, 1888 -- This is, interestingly, a date coincident with the death of
Frederick the III of Prussia of cancer of the throat -- that had just been
announced. So HPB knew of that and had an article on it IN THE PRESS at that
time ! --DTB] the description of the real Ego, sitting as a spectator of the
life of the hero, and perhaps something will strike you. 


Q. What, in reality, is the Astral Light? 

A. As the Esoteric Philosophy teaches us, the Astral Light is simply the
dregs of Akasa or the Universal Ideation in its metaphysical sense. Though
invisible, it is yet, so to speak, the phosphorescent radiation of the
latter, and is the medium between it and man's thought-faculties. It is
these which pollute the Astral Light, and make it what it is-the storehouse
of all human and especially psychic iniquities. In its primordial genesis,
the astral light as a radiation is quite pure, though the lower it descends
approaching our terrestrial sphere, the more it differentiates, and becomes
as a result impure in its very constitution. But man helps considerably to
this pollution, and gives it back its essence far worse than when he
received it. 


Q. Can you explain to us how it is related to man, and its action in
dream-life? 

A. Differentiation in the physical world is infinite. Universal ideation-or
Mahat, if you like it-sends its homogeneous radiation into the heterogeneous
world, and this reaches the human or personal minds through the Astral
Light. 


Q. But do not our minds receive their illuminations direct from the Higher
Manas through the Lower? And is not the former the pure emanation of divine
Ideation-the "Manasa-Putras," which incarnated in men? 

A. They are. Individual Manasa-Putras or the Kumaras are the direct
radiations of the divine Ideation-"individual" in the sense of later
differentiation, owing to numberless incarnations. In sum they are the
collective aggregation of that Ideation, become on our plane, or from our
point of view, Mahat, as the Dhyan-Chohans are in their aggregate the WORD
or "Logos" in the formation of the World. 

Were the Personalities (Lower Manas or the physical minds) to be inspired
and illumined solely by their higher alter Egos there would be little sin in
this world. But they are not; and getting entangled in the meshes of the
Astral Light, they separate themselves more and more from their parent Egos.


Read and study what Eliphas Levi says of the Astral Light, which he calls
Satan and the Great Serpent. The Astral Light has been taken too literally
to mean some sort of a second blue sky. This imaginary space, however, on
which are impressed the countless images of all that ever was, is, and will
be, is but a too sad reality. It becomes in, and for, man-if at all
psychic-and who is not?-a tempting Demon, his "evil angel," and the inspirer
of all our worst deeds. It acts on the will of even the sleeping man,
through visions impressed upon his slumbering brain (which visions must not
be confused with the "dreams"), and these germs bear their fruit when he
awakes. 


Q. What is the part played by Will in dreams? 

A. The will of the outer man, our volition, is of course dormant and
inactive during dreams; but a certain bent can be given to the slumbering
will during its inactivity, and certain after-results developed by the
mutual inter-action-produced almost mechanically-through union between two
or more "principles" into one, so that they will act in perfect harmony,
without any friction or a single false note, when awake.... One must be far
advanced on the "path" to have a will which can act consciously during his
physical sleep, or act on the will of another person during the sleep of the
latter, e.g., to control his dreams, and thus control his actions when
awake.


Q. We are taught that a man can unite all his "principles" into one-what
does this mean? 

A. When an adept succeeds in doing this he is a Jivanmukta: he is no more of
this earth virtually, and becomes a Nirvanee, who can go into Samadhi at
will. Adepts are generally classed by the number of "principles" they have
under their perfect control, for that which we call will has its seat in the
higher EGO, and the latter, when it is rid of its sin-laden personality, is
divine and pure. "
Trans pp. 61-6