Theos-Talk Archives (January 2006 Message tt00150)

January 10, 2006





Dear Friends:



Here is Part II SYNTHESIS OF OCCULT SCIENCE



a most valuable exposition on this subject



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Part II SYNTHESIS OF OCCULT SCIENCE





II



"In reality, as Occult philosophy teaches us, everything which changes is
organic; it has the life principle in it, and it has all the potentiality of
the higher lives. If, as we say, all in nature is an aspect of the one
element, and life is universal, how can there be such a thing as an
inorganic atom!"(1) 



Man is a perfected animal, but before he could have reached perfection even
on the animal plane, there must have dawned upon him the light of a higher
plane. Only the perfected animal can cross the threshold of the next higher,
or the human plane, and as he does so there shines upon him the ray from the
suprahuman plane. 



Therefore, as the dawn of humanity illumines the animal plane, and as a
guiding star lures the Monad to higher consciousness, so the dawn of
divinity illumines the human plane, luring the monad to the supra-human
plane of consciousness. 



This is neither more nor less than the philosophical and metaphysical aspect
of the law of evolution. 



Man has not one principle more than the tiniest insect; he is, however, "the
vehicle of a fully developed Monad, self-conscious and deliberately
following its own line of progress, whereas in the insect, and even the
higher animal, the higher triad of principles is absolutely dormant." 





Monad -- CONSCIOUSNESS



The original Monad has, therefore, locked within it the potentiality of
divinity. It is plainly, therefore, a misnomer to call that process of
thought a "Synthetic Philosophy" that deals only with phenomena and ends
with matter on the physical plane. 





These two generalizations of Occult philosophy, 



endowing every atom with the potentiality of life, and 



regarding every insect or animal as already possessing the potentialities of
the higher planes though these powers are yet dormant, 



add to the ordinary Spencerian theory of evolution precisely that element
that it lacks, viz, the metaphysical and philosophical; and, thus endowed,
the theory becomes synthetical.



The Monad, then, is essentially and potentially the same in the lowest
vegetable organism, up through all forms and gradations of animal life to
man, and beyond. There is a gradual unfolding of its potentialities from
"Monera" to man, and there are two whole planes of consciousness, the sixth
and the seventh "senses," not yet unfolded to the average humanity. 



Every monad that is enclosed in a form, and hence limited by matter, becomes
conscious on its own plane and in its own degree. 



Consciousness, therefore, no less than sensitiveness, belongs to plants as
well as to animals. 



Self-consciousness belongs to man, because, while embodied in a form, the
higher triad of principles, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, is no longer dormant, but
active. This activity is, however, far from being fully developed. When this
activity has become fully developed, man will already have become conscious
on a still higher plane, endowed with the sixth and the opening of the
seventh sense, and will have become a "god" in the sense given to that term
by Plato and his followers.



In thus giving this larger and completer meaning to the law of evolution,
the Occult philosophy entirely eliminates the "missing links" of modern
science, and, by giving to man a glimpse of his nature and destiny, not only
points out the line of the higher evolution, but puts him in possession of
the means of achieving it.



The "atoms" and "monads" of the Secret Doctrine are very different from the
atoms and molecules of modern science. To the latter these are mere
particles of matter endowed with blind force: 



to the former, they are the "dark nucleoles," and potentially "Gods,"
conscious and intelligent from their primeval embodiment at the beginning of
differentiation in the dawn of the Manvantara. 



There are no longer any hard and fast lines between the "organic" and the
"inorganic"; between the "living" and "dead" matter. 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 that--



Runs through all time, extends through all extent,
Lives undivided, operates unspent.



It may be conceived that the "Ego" in man is a monad that has gathered to
itself innumerable experiences through aeons of time, slowly unfolding its
latent potencies through plane after plane of matter. It is hence called the
"eternal pilgrim."



The Manasic, or mind principle, is cosmic and universal. It is the creator
of all forms, and the basis of all law in nature. 



Not so with consciousness. Consciousness is a condition of the monad as the
result of embodiment in matter and the dwelling in a physical form.
Self-consciousness, which from the animal plane looking upward is the
beginning of perfection, from the divine plane looking downward is the
perfection of selfishness and the curse of separateness. 





MAYA -- ILLUSION



It is the "world of illusion" that man has created for himself. 



"Maya is the perceptive faculty of every Ego which considers itself a Unit,
separate from and independent of the One Infinite and Eternal Sat or
'be-ness." The "eternal pilgrim" must therefore mount higher, and flee from
the plane of self-consciousness it has struggled so hard to reach.



The complex structure that we call "Man" is made up of a congeries of almost
innumerable "Lives." Not only every microscopic cell of which the tissues
are composed, but the molecules and atoms of which these cells are composed,
are permeated with the essence of the "One Life." Every so-called organic
cell is known to have its nucleus, a center of finer or more sensitive
matter. The nutritive, all the formative and functional processes consist of
flux and re-flux, of inspiration and expiration, to and from the nucleus.



The nucleus is therefore in its own degree and after its kind a "monad"
imprisoned in a "form." Every microscopic cell, therefore, has a
consciousness and an intelligence of its own, and man thus consists of
innumerable "lives." This is but physiological synthesis, logically deduced
no less from the known facts in physiology and histology than the logical
sequence of the philosophy of occultism. 



Health of the body as a whole depends on the integrity of all its parts, and
more especially upon their harmonious association and cooperation. A
diseased tissue is one in which a group of individual cells refuse to
cooperate, and wherein is set up discordant action, using less or claiming
more than their due share of food or energy. 



Disease of the very tissue of mans body is neither more nor less than the
"sin of separateness." 



Moreover, the grouping of cells is upon the principle of hierarchies.
Smaller groups are subordinate to larger congeries, and these again are
subordinate to larger, or to the whole. Every microscopic cell therefore
typifies and epitomizes man, as man is an epitome of the Universe. 



As already remarked, the "Eternal Pilgrim," the Alter-Ego in man, is a monad
progressing through the ages. By right and by endowment the ego is king in
the domain of mans bodily life. It descended into matter in the cosmic
process till it reached the mineral plane, and then journeyed upward through
the "three kingdoms" till it reached the human plane. The elements of its
being, like the cells and molecules of mans body, are groupings of
structures accessory or subordinate to it. 



The human monad or Ego is therefore akin to all below it and heir to all
above it, linked by indissoluble bonds to spirit and matter, "God" and
"Nature." 



The attributes that it gathers, and the faculties that it unfolds, are but
the latent and dormant potentialities awaking to conscious life. 



The tissue cells constitute mans bodily structure, but the order in which
they are arranged, the principle upon which they are grouped, constituting
the human form, is not simply an evolved shape from the lower animal plane,
but an involved principle from a higher plane, an older world, viz, the
"Lunar Pitris." 





MANAS -- MIND



"Hanuman the Monkey" antedates Darwin's "missing link" by thousands of
millenniums. So also the Manasic, or mind element, with its cosmic and
infinite potentialities, is not merely the developed "instinct" of the
animal. Mind is the latent or active potentiality of Cosmic Ideation, the
essence of every form, the basis of every law, the potency of every
principle in the universe. 



Human thought is the reflection or reproduction in the realm of mans
consciousness of these forms, laws, and principles. Hence man senses and
apprehends nature just as nature unfolds in him. 



When, therefore, the Monad has passed through the form of the animal ego,
involved and unfolded the human form, the higher triad of principles awakens
from the sleep of ages and over-shadowed by the "Manasa-putra" and built
into its essence and substance. 



How could man epitomize Cosmos if he did not touch it at every point and
involve it in every principle? If mans being is woven in the web of destiny,
his potencies and possibilities take hold of divinity as the woof and
pattern of his boundless life. Why, then, should he grow weary or
disheartened? Alas! why should he be degraded, this heir of all things!



The peculiarity also of this theology, and in which its transcendency
consists, is this, that it does not consider the highest God to be the
principle of beings, but The Principle Of Principles, i.e. of deiform
processions from itself, all which are eternally rooted in the unfathomable
depths of the immensely great source of their existence, and of which they
may be called supersensuous ramifications and superluminous blossoms.



--Thomas Taylor. Introduction to Mystical Hymns of Orpheus



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Best wishes,



Dallas





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