RE: Mystery of Death
Jan 31, 2006 04:15 AM
by W.Dallas TenBroeck
1/31/2006 4:04 AM
Welcome:
These may help --abnormal death
Kama-Loka -- 7-fold
"...the seven lokas of the "Kama-Loka"...the seventh, the "Territory
of Doubt."...Every such "world" within the Sphere of Effects has a
Tathagata, or "Dhyan Chohan"--to protect and watch over, not to interfere
with it." M L p. 108
(see Theosophical Articles & Notes, p 244)
Time in Kama-Loka -- Elementaries -- Danger of Mediumship
"...The rule is, that a person who dies a natural death, will remain from "a
few hours to several short years," within the earth's attraction, i.e., in
the Kama-Loka. But exceptions are, in the case of suicides and those who
die a violent death in general. Hence, one of such Egos, for instance, who
was destined to live--say 80 or 90 years, but who either killed himself or
was killed by some accident, let us suppose at the age of 20--would have to
pass in the Kama-Loka not "a few years," but in his case 60 or 70 years, as
an Elementary, or rather an "earth-walker;" since he is not, unfortunately
for him, even a "shell." Happy, thrice happy, (113) are those disembodied
entities, who sleep their long slumber and live in dream in the bosom of
Space ! And woe to those whose Trishna [desire to live] will attract them to
mediums, and woe to the latter, who tempt them with such an easy Upadana
[vehicle]... [more details on this]...And now, you may understand why we
oppose so strongly Spiritualism and mediumship... (114)... Could the
Spiritualists be only made to understand the difference between
individuality and personality, between individual and personal immortality
and some other truths, they would be more easily persuaded that Occultists
may be fully convinced of the monad's immortality, and yet deny that of the
soul--the vehicle of the personal Ego; that they can firmly believe in, and
themselves practice spiritual communications and intercourse with the
disembodied Egos of the Rupa-Loka, and yet laugh at the insane idea of
"shaking hands" with a "Spirit" !; that finally, that as the matter stands,
it is the Occultists and the Theosophists who are the true Spiritualists,
while the modern sect of that name is composed simply of materialistic
phenomenalists." M L p. 112-4
(see Theosophical Articles & Notes, p. 237-8)
Kama-Loka Consciousness -- Proportionate to Merit
"The good and pure sleep a quiet blissful sleep, full of happy visions of
earth-life and have no consciousness of being already for ever beyond that
life. Those who were neither good nor bad, will sleep a dreamless, still a
quiet sleep; while the wicked will in proportion to their grossness suffer
the pangs of a nightmare lasting years: their thoughts become living
things, their wicked passions--real substance, and they receive back on
their heads all the misery they have heaped upon others. Reality and fact
if described would yield a far more terrible Inferno than even Dante had
imagined."
M L p.123
Conscious State of Victims of Accident -- Dreamless Sleep
[ Explanation of state of consciousness of violent or accidental death
victims .]
"...In cases of good and innocent Egos...the latter gravitates irresistibly
towards the 6th [buddhi] and 7th [atma ], and thus--either slumbers
surrounded by happy dreams, or, sleeps a dreamless profound sleep until the
hour strikes...The victim whether good or bad is irresponsible for his
death, even if his death were due to some action in a previous life or an
antecedent birth; was an act...of the Law of Retribution, still, it was not
the direct result of an act deliberately committed by the personal ego of
that life during which he happened to be killed. Had he been allowed to
live longer he may have atoned for his antecedent sins still more
effectually: and even now, the Ego having been made to pay off the debt of
his maker (the previous Ego) is free from the blows of retributive justice.
The Dhyan Chohans who have no hand in the guidance of the living human Ego,
protect the helpless victim when it is violently thrust out of its element
into a new one, before it is matured and made fit and ready for it. We tell
you what we know, for we are made to learn it through personal experience...
Yes; the victims whether good or bad, sleep, to awake but at the hour of
the last Judgment, which is that hour of the supreme struggle between the
6th and the 7th, and the 5th and 4th at the threshold of the gestation
state. And even after that, when the 6th and 7th carrying off a portion of
the 5th have gone into their Akasic Samadhi [devachan ], even then it may
happen that the spiritual spoil from the 5th will prove too weak to be
reborn (132) in Deva-Chan; in which case it will there and then reclothe
itself in a new body, the subjective "Being" created from the Karma of the
victim (or no victim, as the case may be) and enter upon a new
earth-existence whether upon this or any other planet [read "Globe"]."
M L p. 131-2
"What you were taught is the Rule. [Bear always in mind that there are
exceptions...] Good and pure "accidents" sleep in the Akasa, ignorant of
their change; very wicked and impure--suffer all the tortures of a horrible
nightmare. The majority--neither very good nor very bad, the victims of
accident or violence (including murder)--some sleep, others become Nature
pisachas, and while a small minority may fall victims to mediums and derive
a new set of skandhas from the medium who attracts them. Small as their
number may be, their fate is to be the most deplored." M L p. 132
Motive -- Love, Hatred -- Immediate Rebirth
"Motive is everything and man is punished in a case of direct
responsibility, never otherwise." M L p,132
"Love and Hatred are the only immortal feelings..."
M L p. 127
"Unless a man loves well or hates as well, he will be neither in Deva-Chan
nor in Avitchi. "Nature spews the lukewarm out of her mouth" means only
that she annihilates their personal Egos (not the shells, nor yet the 6th
principle [buddhi ] ) in the Kama Loka and the Deva-Chan. This does not
prevent then from being immediately reborn--and, if their lives were not
very, very bad--there is no reason why the eternal Monad should not find the
page of that life intact in the Book of Life."
M L p. 134
Nature of Consciousness--Monad--Man's Evolutionary Rounds
"...Man (physically) is a compound of all the kingdoms, and spiritually--his
individuality is no worse for being shut up within the casing of an ant than
it is for being inside a king. It is not the outward or physical shape that
dishonors and pollutes the five principles--but the mental perversity. Then
it is but at his fourth round when arrived at the full possession of his
Kama-energy and is completely matured, that man becomes fully responsible,
as at the sixth he may become a Buddha and at the seventh before the
Pralaya--a "Dhyan Chohan."...He starts downward as a simply spiritual
entity--an unconscious seventh principle (a Parabrahm in contradistinction
to Para-parabrahm)--with the germs of the other six principles lying latent
and dormant in him...(76) [ follows a description of stages of
differentiation, round by round, a kind of 'gestation' process ]...Volition
and consciousness are at the same time self-determining and determined by
causes, and the volitions of man, his intelligence and consciousness will
awake but when his (77) fourth principle Kama is matured and completed by
its (seriatim) contact with the Kamas or energizing forces of all the forms
man has passed through in his previous three rounds. The present mankind is
at its fourth round (...as a genus...)...so the individual entities in them
are unconsciously to themselves performing their local earthly sevenfold
cycles--hence the vast difference in the degrees of their intelligence,
energy and so on. Now every individuality will be followed on its ascending
arc by the Law of retribution--Karma and death accordingly. The perfect man
or the entity which reaches full perfection, (each of his seven principles
being matured) will not be reborn here. His local terrestrial cycle is
completed...(The incomplete entities have to be reborn or reincarnated)...On
their fifth round after a partial Nirvana when the zenith of the grand cycle
is reached, they will be held responsible henceforth in their descents from
sphere to sphere, as they will have to appear on this earth as a still more
perfect and intellectual race. This downward course has not begun but will
soon...The above is the rule. The Buddhas and Avatars form the exception as
verily we have yet some Avatars left to us on earth."
M L p. 75-77
Kama-Loka - Suicides - Accidental Deaths
The Adept states: "We tell you what we know, for we are made to
learn it through personal experience." ML p. 131
1. Suicides:--
Though not separated completely from Buddhi and Atma yet there is a vast
gulf until the day when they would have normally died.
These two: Atma-Buddhi are passive for the intervening time, (to the hour of
the last judgment--when the last and final struggle between Atma-Buddhi on
one hand and Kama-Manas on the other occurs). (Theos. Articles & Notes,
p.239-40)
Suicide is death brought on voluntarily and with full and deliberate
knowledge of its immediate consequences. TA&N, 240)
If, in a fit on insanity a man commits suicide, he falls asleep like any
other victim of accident. TA&N (240)
2. Accidental Deaths:--
The victim, good or bad, is irresponsible for his death.
Even if the death by accident were due to past Karma, it is not the direct
result of a personal act of the Ego in this life.
The Dhyan-Chohans protect the hapless accident victim when it is violently
thrust out of its life before it has matured and been made ready for the new
place in a normal way.
TA&N, 239
In the case of accidental death, the 2 groups of principles
(Atma-Buddhi-Manas) and (Astral-Prana-Kama-Lower Manas) attract each other.
TA&N, 239-240
1. In the case of good and innocent egos the lower 4 gravitate
irresistibly towards Atma-Buddhi, and thus sleep,
1. a dreamless slumber, or
2. are surrounded by happy dreams until the hour when death would
have normally taken place occurs and the separation between the "higher" and
the "lower" principles occurs just before Devachan ("gestation state").
If at that time Atma-Buddhi carrying the essence of Higher
Manasic experience proves to have too little for the operation
of the process of "Akasic Samadhi" in Devachan the Manasic
principle will reclothe itself in a new body (the direct
result of the remaining Karma of the victim) and enter upon a
new life on earth. [ Quick reincarnation ? ] TA&N (240)
3. Seance Room "Spirits":--
The only "visitors" at seance rooms as astral forms are:
1. suicides, and
2. Elementaries -- Kama-lokic remains & "Black Magi
cians"
3. Executed criminals.
No pure Spirits visit any seance room. TA&N (240-1)
4. Victims of Vicious Indulgence:-- ( life shortening )
The cause of vice receives punishment. Motive IS everything, and man is
punished in a case of direct responsibility only.
Vicious indulgence can cause an earlier death than provided
for under the personal karma of that life. TA&N (240)
5. Murderers - Executed Persons:--
Under the influence of the last violent thoughts and feelings he felt before
execution, the executed person will be ever reviewing on the Astral Plane
his anger and fear, and will be receiving the impact of the changes made in
the lives of others influenced by his acts. TA&N, 240-1
Those who are vicious, and not insane, are only partly killed on execution.
>From the Astral Plane they will be affecting all those who are sensitive
enough to "feel and receive" them.
Especially at spiritualistic seances. There they project
scenes of blood and punishment into such weak persons, influ-
encing them to copy. [ They may also "haunt" astrally by
attraction the place of their crime or of execution.] TA&N 241
At scenes of collective murder, where victims are overwhelmed by a group and
killed, the struggle and emotional impact may be reenacted several times a
year for many years.
[ Ex.: Marathon ] Those sensitive to the Astral images will see this. TA&N
(241)
6. Insanity:--
Suicide and murder can be committed while insane. The period between death
of the body and the real death would be passed in sleep. (Theos.
Articles & Notes, p. 240 241)
Best wishes,
Dallas
============================
-----Original Message-----
From: Kees
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 4:44 AM
To:
Subject: Mystery of Death
Hello
My name is Kees. I am giving lectures at the Theosophical Society in
Utrecht / Netherlands, about the Mystery of Death. Very interesting topic.
Now am I looking for the difference between the process after a natural
death and an unnatural death, especially what H.P. Blavatsky has writing
about it.
snip
Of possible interest?
DEVACHAN - KAMA-LOKA -
SOME BASIC CONCEPTS
Theosophical doctrines draw our attention to some basic concepts:--
1. The Universe is All. IT has no limits, either in space
or in time. It is Immortal. It is Life.
2. The Universe operates under cyclic Law. Law cannot be
broken. It supports universal progression. Morally
It can be said to provide justice and compassion to
all beings. Universe = Nature in toto.
3. Each being is a unit of Life. In its essence it is a
ray of the Universal One. The unit is variously
called" Monad, or "Life-atom," etc... it is a
"perpetual motion machine" and is an immortal entity,
it passes through all evolutionary processes,
acquiring intelligence and experience.
It is analogous to a solar system, or to a galaxy.
4. Every being shares in the immortality of the One in its
essence. It therefore cannot be destroyed or
annihilated as a Unit of Life. Life or energy
is universal, and in its diversity it animates
every "unit of life."
5. In essence each "part" (Unit of Life), is united
through 'electro-magnetic' links with all others.
There is one whole; only the 'units' seem to be
separate, divided from one-another in terms of our
gross perceptions of "matter." Their unity is the
basis for cooperation expressed in brief as
Universal Brotherhood.
5. To make a physical form each 'unit' draws together
other units of lesser experience than itself on the
"Ladder of Being." In doing that it makes itself
responsible for their growth and well-being. Just
as a "teacher" makes himself responsible for the
progress of many pupils. It should be noted that
while the "Teacher" offers instruction based on
his experience, it is the responsibility of the
"pupils" to test and adopt it when they are
satisfied as to its accuracy. We call this, in
general terms : Evolution, when viewed as a whole.
6. Any "form," serves temporarily as a place for those
beings of lesser experience to acquire more ex-
perience and thus have opportunity to "advance."
Under the operation of LAW, Karma, they acquire,
each in its own way, a wider experience, a higher
degree of consciousness. All those who have not
yet reached the "human-mind" state, are called
non-self-conscious "life-atoms." They are in-
cipient men-to-be. They inform for the moment,
the elemental, mineral, vegetable and animal
kingdoms, or divisions, of Nature.
7. When the level of self-consciousness (mind, manas, man,
soul) is achieved by any of the "lives," it
proceeds further, as a human being, through the
process of reincarnation, using many successive
physical bodies. All live in the same framework
of law, progression and mutual support. The
whole evolutionary scheme is a vast brotherhood.
In the man-mind condition/stage, progress is by
trial/error, and thus the awareness or attentive
faculty is developed as the individual studies
the operation of universal laws operating in and
around him.
8. Like the Universe, man is seven-fold in constitution:
1. Spirit - Atman, (a "Ray" of the Divine.
2. Discrimination-Intuition-Conscience
- Buddhi, ( memory of experiences)
3. Thinking, Intellection, Reason,
- Mind - Manas, (choice & free will
4. Emotion, Sensation, Selfishness -
- Kama, ( desire, passion )
5. Vitality, Life-energy, magnetism -
- Prana, Jiva (vitality, life-force)
6. Electro-magnetic model form -
- Astral body, (electro-magnetic form)
7. Physical Body. (Known to us.)
9. The Universe, Man, and all other beings go through an
evolutionary cycle which is seven-fold, covering an immense time, during
which each being passes through every one of the seven phases that this
seven-fold scheme provides, so that each may secure the highest degree of
perfection by its own experiences and voluntary decisions. All progress is
by self-effort. [ Very much as in our educational system.]
10. The self-conscious man, in which Manas (mind) or self-
consciousness is the active principle, makes decisions. Motive actuates
Karma. If the decisions are universally-based, 'good' and progress for the
unit, and the whole accrues rapidly. Should decisions be self-focused, as
opposed to the general good, 'evil' results. Karma thus actuated, teaches
the unit through disciplining circumstances what the ideal decisions ought
to be. Thus evolution proceeds. All karmic events are the direct result of
the choices that are individually made.
11. Graduates from this "School-of-Life" face the choice
or responsibility of becoming, in their turn, "teachers."
That is, of actively assisting in the process of diffusing
and explaining this universal process. They are superior
men. [ Similar to the Professors in our Universities.]
12. These are designated Sages, Wise Men, Adepts,
Masters-of-Wisdom, Arhats, Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, Dhyan
Chohans, Tathagatas, Prophets, etc... [ In history we may
name Jesus, Gautama the Buddha, Krishna, Pythagoras, Lao
Tse, Plato, Shankaracharya, Appollonius of Tyanna, and many
others.] they all came as reformers, and if their original
teachings are compared it will be found that they all
taught the same metaphysical doctrines and practical
ethics.
13. The process of securing experience by mankind is
called reincarnation. The "Life-atom" that is self-
conscious, or the Real Man, uses a physical body which is
assembled, as above described for it to live in. In this
life process it not only advances (or recedes) depending on
its choices, but at the same time serves to assist and
elevate by its example the whole mass of "life-atoms" for
which it has specific karmic responsibilities.
At death the man-consciousness passes first into a
state called Kama-Loka, where a separation between the
moral, and the immoral occurs. A 2nd "death" occurs in a
short while and the immoral side of one's nature is allowed
to disintegrate gradually in the astral plane of Kama-Loka.
The higher, immortal Ego, the moral side of our being,
passes into a state called Devachan, which has three stages
1st the rupa-loka, where the consciousness of the Ego is
occupied with the aspirational and noble feelings, thoughts
and actions of the last personal life. This process of
assimilation being over, the MIND-EGO enters a spiritual
plane where, united with the "Ray" of the Universal Spirit,
it is quasi-omniscient. This 2nd stage is called the
arupa-loka [formless stage]. In that condition it is able
to review the life last lived within the perspective of all
previous lives, and thus trace the line of its Karma. The
3rd stage is one of preparation for a new incarnation, and
it begins to draw to itself those personal elements
(skandhas) which will be used to make up its new
personality.
DEVACHAN
A brief, concise and helpful description of Devachan is found reprinted
on p. 258-9 of PRACTICAL OCCULTISM by W. Q. Judge:
"...Devachan is a state where the Ego enjoys and does not suffer, suffering
being reserved for the earth life. It is not a question of memory strictly
speaking, but is a state where the causes generated on this earth which can
exhaust in no other state, do so exhaust themselves, leaving the causes
relating to this plane of earth life to be afterwards exhausted here, and as
it is, like this life, a state of illusion, the Ego naturally enlarges all
its conceptions of what it thought best and highest when it was alive, for
such are the causes that relate to that state." WQJ--Pract. Occ. p. 258-9
The last article has particular reference to the states called: Rupa
and Arupa in Devachan.
[ p.32 in particular ]
"As physical existence has its cumulative intensity from infancy to
prime, and its diminishing energy thenceforward to dotage and death, so the
dream-life of devachan is lived correspondentially... [bottom] As in actual
earth-life, so there is for the Ego in devachan--the first flutter of
psychic life, the attainment of prime, the gradual exhaustion of force
passing into semi-unconsciousness, gradual oblivion and lethargy, total
oblivion and--not death but birth: birth into another personality, and the
resumption of action which daily begets new congeries of causes, that must
be worked out in another term of Devachan, and still another physical
rebirth as a (196) new personality..." M L p. 195
"...the sensations, perceptions and ideation of a devachanee in Rupa-Loka,
will of course, be of a less subjective nature than they would be in
Arupa-Loka, in both of which the devachanic experiences will vary in their
presentation to the subject-entity, not only as regards form, color, and
substance, but also in their formative potentialities. But not even the
most exalted experience of a monad in the highest devachanic state in
Arupa-Loka (the last of the seven states)--is comparable to that perfectly
subjective condition of pure spirituality from which the monad emerged to
"descend into matter," and to which at the completion of the grand cycle it
must return. [ on to p. 200]...The "reward provided by nature for men who
are benevolent in a large, systematic way" and who have not focused their
affections upon an individual or specialty, is that--if pure--they pass the
quicker for that through the Kama and Rupa Lokas into the higher sphere of
Tribhuvana, since it is one where the formulation of abstract ideas and the
consideration of general principles fill the thought of its occupants."
M L p. 199
In her article The Mysteries of After Life, ( HPB Articles, Vol. II, 203 )
HPB writes:
"The spiritual Ego of man moves in Eternity like a pendulum between the
hours of life and death. But if these hours marking the periods of
terrestrial and spiritual life are limited in their duration, and if the
very number of such stages in Eternity between sleep and awakening, illusion
and reality, has its beginning and its end, on the other hand the spiritual
"Pilgrim" is eternal.
"Therefore are the hours of his post-mortem life--when, disembodied
he stands face to face with truth and not the mirages of his transitory
earthly existences during the period of that pilgrimage which we call "the
cycle of rebirths"--the only reality in our conception..."
HPB Art. II 203
"Every Spiritual Individuality has a gigantic evolutionary journey to
perform, a tremendous gyratory progress to accomplish...from first to last
of the man-bearing planets, as on each of them, the monad has to pass
through seven successive races of man...Each of the 7 races send 7 ramifying
branchlets from the Parent Branch: and through each of these in turn man
has to evolute before he passes on to the next higher race; and that seven
times...The branchlets typify varying specimens of humanity--physically and
spiritually--and no one of us can miss one single rung of the ladder...There
are other and innumerable manvantaric chains of globes bearing intelligent
beings--both in and out of our solar system--the crowns or apexes of
evolutionary being in their respective chains, some--physically and
intellectually--lower, others immeasurably higher than the man of our
chain." M L p. 119
Absorption of Lower Principles into Higher Ones after Death
"The world of effects are not lokas or localities. They are the shadow of
the world of causes their souls--worlds having like men their seven
principles which develop and grow simultaneously with the body. Thus the
body of man is wedded to and remains for ever within the body of his planet;
his individual jivatma life principle that which is called in physiology
(72) animal spirits returns after death to its source--Fohat; his linga
shariram will be drawn into Akasa; his kamarupa will recommingle with the
Universal Sakti--the Will-Force, or universal energy; his 'animal soul'
borrowed from the breath of Universal Mind will return to the Dhyan Chohans;
his sixth principle--whether drawn into or ejected from the matrix of the
Great Passive Principle must remain in its own sphere--either as part of the
crude material or as an individualized entity to be reborn in a higher world
of causes. The seventh will carry it from the Devachan and follow the new
Ego to its place of re-birth..." M.L. p. 71-2
After Death:--Pure Spirits cannot Communicate, but can be Visited in
Spirit
"... but, you are mistaken when adding to the above the assurance that 'the
spirits of the departed hold direct psychic communication with Souls that
are still connected with a human body'--for, they do not."...I trust you
have given up the queer idea...that there can possibly be human
intelligences inhabiting purely spiritual regions ?...However ethereal and
purified of gross matter they may be, the pure Spirits are still subject to
the physical and universal laws of matter. They cannot if even they would
span the abyss that separates their worlds from ours. They can be visited
in Spirit, their Spirit cannot descend and reach us. They attract, they
cannot be attracted, their Spiritual polarity being an insuperable
difficulty in the way." Mahatma Letters, p. 45
Food for Devachanic Reflection -- Last Thoughts
"Very true that "moment" lasts from the first to the last; but then it
lasts but as the key-note of the whole harmony, a definite tone of
appreciable pitch, around which cluster and develop in progressive
variations desires, hopes, dreams, which, in connection with that particular
"moment" had ever crossed the dreamer's brain during his life-time, without
having ever found their realization on earth, and which he now finds fully
realized in all their vividness in devachan, without ever suspecting that
all the blissful reality is but the progeny begotten by his own fancy, the
effects of the mental causes produced by himself.
"That particular one moment which will be most intense and uppermost in the
thought of his dying brain at the time of dissolution will of course
regulate all the other "moments;" still the latter--minor and less vivid
though they be--will be there also, having their appointed plan in the
phantasmagorical marshaling of past dreams, and must give variety to the
whole. No man on earth, but has some decided predilection if not a
domineering passion; no person, however humble and poor--and often because
of all that--but indulges in dreams and desires unsatisfied though these be.
Is this monotony? Would you call such variations ad infinitum on the one
theme, and that theme modeling itself, on, and taking color and its definite
shape from, that group of desires which was the most intense during life "a
blank destitution of all knowledge...?" M L 192
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