Theos-Talk Archives (March 2006 Message tt00825)

Carlos -- I have posted this passage from the Bowen Notes three 
times in recent weeks.  In order to realize the significance of 
references to the brain, please read "The Mind & The Brain," by 
Jeffrey Schwartz, research psychiatrist at UCLA that deals with much 
recent research.

To change an outcome, one must change what one does.  If the Notes 
are applied to the same old model of brain function, the same old 
understanding is obtained.  If one applies recent research to the 
Bowen Notes, new understanding is possible.

Best regards,
Krsanna

BOWEN NOTES

 "…One must not be a fool [Blavatsky said] and drive oneself into 
the madhouse by attempting too much at first. The brain is the 
instrument of waking consciousness, and every conscious mental 
picture formed means change and destruction of the atoms of the 
brain. Ordinary intellectual activity moves on well beaten paths in 
the brain, and does not compel sudden adjustments and destructions 
in its substance. But this new kind of mental effort calls for 
something very different-the carving out of new "brain paths," the 
ranking in different order of the little brain lives. If forced 
injudiciously it may do serious physical harm to the brain.
"This mode of thinking is what the Indians call Jnana Yoga. As one 
progresses in Jnana Yoga one finds conceptions arising which though 
one is conscious of them, one cannot express nor yet formulate into 
any sort of mental picture. As time goes on these conceptions will 
form into mental pictures. This is a time to be on guard and refuse 
to be deluded with the idea that the new found and wonderful picture 
must represent reality. It does not. As one works on one finds the 
once admired picture growing dull and unsatisfying, and finally 
fading out or being thrown away. This is another danger point, 
because for the moment one is left in a void without any conception 
to support one, and one may be tempted to revive the cast-off 
picture for want of a better to cling to. The true student will, 
however, work on unconcerned, and presently further formless gleams 
come, which again in time give rise to a larger and more beautiful 
picture than the last. But the learner will now know that no picture 
will ever represent the Truth. This last splendid picture will grow 
dull and fade like the others. And so the process goes on, until at 
last the mind and its pictures are transcended and the learner 
enters and dwells in the world of NO FORM, but of which all forms 
are narrowed reflections."
The True Student of The Secret Doctrine is a Jnana Yogi, and this 
Path of Yoga is the True Path for the Western student. It is to 
provide him with sign posts on that Path that the Secret Doctrine 
has been written.