Theos-Talk Archives (July 2006 Message tt00167)

		WHY EVOLUTION ?  WHY THE UNIVERSE ?


"What then is the universe for, and for what final purpose is man the
immortal thinker here in evolution?  It is all for the experience and
emancipation of the soul, for the purpose of raising the entire mass of
manifested matter up to the stature, nature, and dignity of conscious
god-hood,  The great aim is to reach to self-consciousness...by and through
the perfecting after transformation, of the whole mass of matter as well as
what we now call soul.  Nothing is or is to be left out.  The aim for
present man is his initiation into complete knowledge, and for the other
kingdoms below him that they be raised up gradually from stage to stage to
be in time initiated also.  This is evolution carried to its highest power;
it is a magnificent prospect;  it makes of man a god, and gives to every
part of nature the strength and possibility of being one day the same;
there is strength and nobility in it, for by this no man is dwarfed and
belittled, for no one is so originally sinful that he cannot rise above all
sin...Present religions keep the element of fear..."	Ocean p. 60-1


" The Law for the birth, growth, and decay of everything in Kosmos, from the
Sun to the glow-worm in the grass, is ONE. It is an everlasting work of
perfection with every new appearance, but the Substance-Matter and Forces
are all one and the same. But this LAW acts on every planet through minor
and varying laws."	Secret Doctrine Vol I page 145. 


"...until every grain of dust has, by gradual transformation through
evolution, become a constituent part of the "living soul" and, until the
latter shall reascend the cyclic arc, and finally stand--its own Metatron or
Redeeming Spirit--at the foot of the upper step of the spiritual worlds, as
at the first hour of its emanation."  This covers the concept of Universal
evolution and includes all beings without exception."  	Isis II 420-422 


"In the hearts of all, at some time there arises the desire for knowledge.
He who thinks his desires will be fulfilled, as the little bird in the nest,
who has only to open his mouth to be fed, will very truly be
disappointed...The soul develops like the flower in God's sunlight, and
unconsciously to the soil in which it grows.  Shut out the light and the
soil grows damp and sterile, the flower withers or grows pale and sickly.
Each and every one is here for a good and wise reason.  If we find partially
the why we are here, then is there the more reason that we should by
intelligent contact with life, seek in it the farther elucidation of the
problem.  It is not for the study of ourselves so much, as the thought for
others that opens the door.  The events of life and their causes lead to
knowledge.  They must be studied when they are manifested in daily life."
WQJ Art. II 410-1


	THE  PRESIDING SPIRIT SUPPORTS THE COSMOS

"As stated in the last paper, the substratum, or support, for the whole
cosmos, is the presiding spirit, and all the various changes in life,
whether of a material nature or solely in mental states, are cognizable
because the presiding spirit within is not modifiable. Were it otherwise,
then we would have no memory, for with each passing event, we, becoming
merged in it, could not remember anything, that is, we would see no changes.


There must therefore be something eternally persisting, which is the witness
and perceiver of every passing change, itself unchangeable. All objects, and
all states of what Western philosophers call mind, are modifications, for in
order to be seen or known by us, there must be some change, either partial
or total, from a precedent state. The perceiver of these changes is the
inner man -- Arjuna-Krishna. 

This leads us to the conviction that there must be a Universal Presiding
Spirit, the producer as well as the spectator, of all this collection of
animate and inanimate things. 

The philosophy taught by Krishna holds that at first this spirit -- so
called, however, by me only for the purpose of the discussion -- remained in
a state of quiet with no objects, because as yet there was no modification.
But, resolving to create, or rather to emanate the universe, IT formed a
picture of what should be, and this at once was a modification willingly
brought about in the hitherto wholly unmodified spirit; thereupon the divine
Idea was gradually expanded, coming forth into objectivity; while the
essence of the presiding spirit remained unmodified, and became the
perceiver of its own expanded idea. 

Its modifications are visible (and invisible) nature. Its essence then
differentiates itself continually in various directions, becoming the
immortal part of each man -- the Krishna who talks to Arjuna. Coming like a
spark from the central fire, it partakes of that nature, that is, the
quality of being unmodifiable, and assumes to itself -- as a cover, so to
speak -- the human body (5) and thus, being in essence unmodified, it has
the capacity to perceive all the changes going on around the body. 

This Self must be recognized as being within, pondered over, and as much as
possible understood, if we are to gain any true knowledge. 

We have thus quickly, and perhaps in an inadequate way, come down to a
consideration of Arjuna as composed of all these generals and heroes
enumerated in this chapter, and who are, as we said, the various powers,
passions and qualities included in the Western terms "brain and mind." 
	G. Notes  Ch 2  pp  26-30


"In Evolution, as it is now beginning to he understood, there is supposed to
be in all matter an impulse to take on a higher form-a supposition clearly
expressed by Manu and other Hindu philosophers of the highest antiquity. The
philosopher's tree illustrates it in the case of the zinc solution. The
controversy between the followers of this school and the Emanationists may
he briefly stated thus The Evolutionist stops all inquiry at the borders of
' the Unknowable "; the Emanationist believes that nothing can be
evolved-or, as the word means, unwombed or born-EXCEPT IT HAS FIRST BEEN
INVOLVED, THUS INDICATING THAT LIFE IS FROM A SPIRITUAL POTENCY ABOVE THE
WHOLE."	 
 	THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY,   pp. 113-4



	INVOLUTION OF IDEALS INTO OBJECTIVE FORMS


"This visible universe of spirit and matter...is but the concrete image of
the ideal abstraction;  it was built on the model of the first divine idea.
Thus our universe existed from eternity in a latent state.  The soul
animating this purely spiritual universe is the central sun, the highest
deity itself.  It was not himself who built the concrete form of his idea,
but his "first-begotten;"  and as it was constructed on the geometrical
figure of the dodecahedron [Plato, Timaeus ], the first -begotten "was
pleased to employ 12,000 years in its creation."	Isis I 342


"...every living creature and thing on earth, including man, evolved from
one common primal form."	SD II 659


SVAYAMBHU	(Sk.)	A metaphysical and philosophical term, meaning "the
spontaneously self-produced" or the "self-existent being."  An epithet of
Brahma.  Svayambhu is also the name of the first Manu."	Glos 315
  	 [see 	Isis I xvi, 590, II 39, 391, 443, SD I 52, 375,   Isis II
128, 307 ]


"It is the Spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal man that forms the
fundamental tenet in the Occult Sciences...the One Universal Life,
independent of matter...and...the individual intelligences that animate the
various manifestations of this Principle...The One Life is closely related
to the one law which governs the World of Being--Karma."     S D  I  634



	THE EVOLUTIONARY SCHEME	(Threefold: Spirit, Mind, Body)


"...there exists in Nature a triple evolutionary scheme for the formation of
the three periodical Upadhis...the Monadic (or spiritual), the intellectual,
and the physical evolutions.  These are the finite aspects or the reflection
on the field of Cosmic Illusion of Atma, the seventh, the One Reality.

1.	The Monadic is...concerned with the growth and development into
still higher phases of activity of the Monad in conjunction with:--

2.	The Intellectual, represented by the Manasa-Dhyanis(the Solar Devas,
or the Agnishwatta Pitris) the "givers of intelligence and consciousness" to
man and:--

3.	The Physical, represented by the Chhayas of the lunar Pitris, round
which Nature has concreted the present physical body.  This body serves as
the vehicle for the "growth"...and the transformations through Manas
and--owing to the accumulation of experiences--of the finite into the
infinite, of the transient into the Eternal and Absolute.

Each of these three systems has its own laws, and is ruled and guided by
different sets of the highest Dhyanis or "Logoi."  Each is represented in
the constitution of man, the Microcosm of the great Macrocosm;  and it is
the union of these three streams in him which makes him the complex being he
now is."	SD I 181-2		(see also SD  I  188-189)


"Every Spiritual Individuality [Higher Manas] has a gigantic evolutionary
journey to perform, a tremendous gyratory progress to accomplish.  First--at
the very beginning of the great Mahamanvanataric rotation, from first to
last of the man-bearing "planets," as on each of them, the monad has to pass
through the seven successive races of man...up to the present fifth race, or
rather variety, and through two more races, before he has done with this
one.  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...when I say "man," I mean a
human being of our type.  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..."	Mahatma Letters, p. 119


"The ultimate origin or beginning of man is not to be discovered, although
we may know when and from where the men of this globe came from.  Man never
was not.  If not on this globe, then on some other, he ever was, and will
ever be in existence somewhere in the Cosmos.  Ever perfecting and reaching
up to the image of the Heavenly Man, he is always becoming."	Ocean  p.
127


"The object of [the] amalgamation and precipitation is to give to every race
the benefit of the progress and power of the whole derived from prior
progress in other planets and systems .Nature never does her work in a hasty
or undue fashion, but, by the sure method of mixture, precipitation, and
separation, brings about the greatest perfection...Hence man did not spring
from a single pair.  Neither did he come from any tribe or family of
monkey...7 races of men appeared simultaneously on the earth..."
Ocean  p. 122-3



	MANKIND - THE APEX OF PHYSICAL FORM EVOLUTION


"The spirit in man is the only real and permanent part of his being;  the
rest of his nature being variously compounded...everything in man but his
spirit is impermanent...the Universe being one thing and not diverse, and
everything within it being connected with the whole and with every other
thing therein, of which upon the upper plane...there is perfect knowledge,
no act or thought occurs without each portion of the great whole perceiving
and noticing it.  Hence all are inseparably bound together by the tie of
Brotherhood...it is taught that there is no creation of worlds...but that
their appearance is due strictly to evolution,


When the time comes for the Unmanifested to manifest as an objective
Universe, which it does periodically, it emanates a Power or "The First
Cause"--so called because it itself is the rootless root of that Cause, and
called in the East the "Causeless Cause."...The projection into time of the
influence or so-called "breath of Brahma" causes all the worlds and the
beings upon them to gradually appear.  They remain in manifestation just as
long as that influence continues to proceed forth in evolution.

After long aeons the outbreathing, evolutionary influence slackens, and the
universe begins to go into obscuration, or pralaya, until, the "breath"
being fully indrawn, no objects remain, because nothing is but Brahm.  Care
must be taken by the student to make a distinction between Brahm (the
impersonal Parabrahm) and Brahma the manifested Logos.

This breathing forth is known as a Manvantara, or the Manifestation of the
world between two Manus...For the purpose of a Manvantara two so-called
eternal principles are postulated, that is, Purusha and Prakriti (or spirit
and matter), because both are ever present and conjoined in manifestation.

This brings us to the doctrine of Universal Evolution as expounded by the
Sages of the Wisdom-Religion.  The Spirit, or Purusha, they say, proceeds
from Brahma through the various forms of matter evolved at the same time,
beginning in the world of the spiritual from the highest and in the material
world from the lowest form...yet unknown to modern science.  Thus,
therefore, the mineral, vegetable and animal forms each imprison a spark of
the Divine, a portion of the indivisible Purusha.

These sparks struggle to "return to the Father," or in other words, to
secure self-consciousness and at last come into the highest form, on Earth,
that of man, where alone self-consciousness is possible to them.  The period
calculated in human time, during which this evolution goes on embraces
millions of ages.  Each spark of divinity has, therefore, millions of ages
in which to accomplish its mission...all depends upon the individual's own
will and efforts.

Each particular spirit thus goes through the Manvantara, or enters into
manifestation for its own enrichment and for that of the Whole.

Mahatmas and Rishis are thus gradually evolved during a Manvantara, and
become after its expiration, planetary spirits, who guide the evolution of
other future planets.  The planetary spirits of our globe are those who in
previous manvantaras ...made the efforts, and became in the course of that
long period Mahatmas.

This system is thus seen to be based upon the identity of Spiritual Being,
and, under the name of "Universal Brotherhood," constitutes the basic idea
of the T S, whose object is the realization of that Brotherhood among men."
WQJ-Epitome, pp. 9 - 12


"...man came to this globe from another planet, though of course then a
being of very great power before being completely enmeshed in matter, so the
lower kingdoms came likewise in germ and type from other planets, and carry
on their evolution step by step upward by the aid of man, who is, in all
periods of manifestation, at the front of the wave of life...This is the
point where the intelligent aid and interference from a mind or mass of
minds is absolutely necessary.  Such aid and interference was and is the
fact, for nature unaided cannot do the work right...It is Man who does this.
Not the man of the day, weak and ignorant  as he is, but great souls, high
and holy men of immense power, knowledge and wisdom...just as every man
would now know he could become...Various names have been given to these
beings now removed from our plane.  They are the Dhyanis, the Creators, the
Guides, the Great Spirits, and so on by many titles..."	Ocean  p. 130-1
[ see SD II 79-80, 93-4 ]				


"By methods known to themselves and to the Great Lodge they work on the
forms so brought over, and by adding here, taking away there, and often
altering, they gradually transform...This process is carried on chiefly in
the purely astral period preceding the gross physical stage, as the impulses
thus given will surely carry themselves forward through the succeeding
times.  When the midway point of evolution is reached the species emerge on
to the present stage..."	Ocean p. 131-2


"The object of all this differentiation, amalgamation and separation is well
stated by another of the Masters, thus:  "Nature consciously prefers that
matter should be indestructible in organic rather than inorganic forms, and
works slowly but incessantly towards the realization of this object--the
evolution of conscious life out of inert material."	Ocean p. 133-4


"Man occupies the most important place in the whole scheme of evolution.  He
stands where Spirit and matter meet.  He is the link between the higher
beings and those below.  He has so to act, so to think and act, in and upon
and with this physical matter that he raises it all up, and gives it another
tendency, another trend.  By the very constitution of his nature, by reason
of his being connected as he is in a physical body with all nature, the
Secret Doctrine states that man can become greater than any one of the Dhyan
Chohans and equal to all of them put together.  That is the goal which lies
before him--the goal of the "Kingly Mystery"--the seeing and knowing and
feeling and acting universally.  For there is a power in man which enables
him to judge aright;  he has the all-seeing eye--the all-encompassing sight
which permits him to see the justice of all things.  And always there is
present the power of choice in one direction or another.  The questions
before each human being are:  Whom will ye serve?  Will you serve the higher
spiritual nature, or the body of flesh?"	F P p. 225



	THE POWER OF EVOLUTION


"The active Power, the "Perpetual motion of the great Breath" only awakens
Kosmos at the dawn of every new Period, setting it into motion by means of
the two contrary Forces [Fn.:  "...male/female, positive/negative,
physical/spiritual, the two being the one Primordial Force"], and thus
causing it to become objective on the plane of Illusion.  In other words,
that dual motion transforms the Kosmos from the plane of the Eternal Ideal
into that of finite manifestation, or from the Noumenal to the phenomenal
plane.  

Everything that is, was, and will be, eternally IS, even the countless
forms, which are finite and perishable only in their objective, not in their
ideal Form.  They existed as Ideas, in the Eternity [ Fn.:  "Occultism
teaches that no form can be given to anything, either by nature or by man,
whose ideal type does not already exist on the subjective plane.  More than
this;  that no such form or shape can possibly enter man's consciousness, or
evolve in his imagination, which does not exist in prototype, at least as an
approximation.], and, when they pass away, will exist as reflections.

Neither the form of man, nor that of any animal, plant or stone has ever
been created, and it is only on this plane of ours that it commenced
"becoming," i.e., objectivizing into its present materiality, or expanding
from within outwards, from the most sublimated and supersensuous essence
into its grossest appearance.

Therefore our human forms have existed in the Eternity as astral or ethereal
prototypes;  according to which models the Spiritual Beings...whose duty it
was to bring them into objective being and terrestrial Life, evolved the
protoplasmic forms of the future Egos from their own essence.  After which,
when this human Upadhi, or basic mould was ready, the natural terrestrial
Forces began to work on those supersensuous moulds which contained, besides
their own, the elements of all the past vegetable and future animal forms of
this globe in them.  Therefore, man's outward shell passed through every
vegetable and animal body before it assumed the human shape."   	S D
I 281



	SOURCE OF MAN'S CONSCIOUSNESS


"The legend of the "Fallen Angels" in its esoteric signification, contains
the key to the manifold contradictions of human character;  it points to the
secret of man's self-consciousness;  it is the angle-iron on which hinges
his entire life-cycle...On a firm grasp of this doctrine depends the correct
understanding of esoteric anthropogenesis.  It gives a clue to the vexed
question of the Origin of Evil;  and shows how man himself is the separator
of the One into various contrasted aspects.

.The "Fallen Angels,"...are Humanity itself.  The Demon of Pride, Lust,
Rebellion, and Hatred, has never had any being before the appearance of
physical conscious man.  It is man who has begotten, nurtured, and allowed
the fiend to develop in his heart;  he, again, who has contaminated the
indwelling god in himself by linking the pure spirit with the impure demon
of matter...Add to it the claim that a portion of Mankind in the 3rd
Race--all those Monads of men who had reached the highest point of Merit and
Karma in the preceding Manvantara--owed their psychic and rational natures
to divine Beings hypostatizing into their 5th principles...The divine man
dwelt in the animal, and, therefore when the separation took place in the
natural course of evolution--when also "all the animal creation was united,"
and males were attracted to females--that race fell..." 	SD II 274-5



	PERFECTION OF MANKIND'S CONSCIOUSNESS


"A visitor from one of the other planets of the solar system who might learn
the term Mahatma after arriving here would certainly suppose that the
etymology of the word undoubtedly inspired the believers in Mahatmas with
the devotion, fearlessness, hope, and energy which such an ideal should
arouse in those who have the welfare of the human race at heart...The whole
sweep, meaning, and possibility of evolution are contained in the word
Mahatma.  Maha is "great," Atma is "soul," and both compounded into one mean
those great souls who have triumphed before us not because they are made of
different stuff and are of some strange family, but just because they are of
the human race.

Reincarnation, karma, the sevenfold division, retribution, reward, struggle,
failure, success, illumination, power, and a vast embracing love for man,
all these lie in that single word.

The soul emerges from the unknown, begins to work in and with matter, is
reborn again and again, makes karma, develops the 6 vehicles for itself,
meets retribution for sin and punishment for mistake, grows strong by
suffering, succeeds in bursting through the gloom, is enlightened by true
illumination, grasps power, retains charity, expands with love for orphaned
humanity, and thenceforth helps all others who remain in darkness until all
may be raised up to the place with the "Father in Heaven" who is the Higher
Self."	 WQJ Art. II, p. 39-40



	EVOLUTIONARY TIME SCALES :	Globes, Rounds, Races, 

"The universe evolves from the unknown, into which no man or mind, however
high, can inquire, on 7 planes or in 7 ways or methods in all worlds, and
this 7-fold differentiation causes all the worlds to have a septenary
constitution...The divisions of the 7-fold universe may be laid down roughly
as:  The Absolute, Spirit, Mind, Matter, Will, Akasa or AEther, and Life.
In place of "the Absolute" we can use the word Space.  For Space is that
which ever is, and in which all manifestation must take place."
Ocean, p. 14



"...the Earth is 7-fold.  It is an entity, and not a mere lump of gross
matter...The earth is one of 7 globes in respect to man's consciousness
only, because when he functions on one of the seven he perceives it as a
distinct globe and does not see the other 6...the 7 globes are in
"coadunition with each other but not in consubstantiality" (SD I
166)...these globes are united in one mass though differing from each other
in substance, and this difference...is due to change in center of
consciousness."	Ocean p. 23-24


"The stream or mass of Egos which evolves on the 7 globes of our chain is
limited in number, yet the actual quantity is enormous...the whole number of
Monads now going through evolution on our Earth Chain came over from the old
7 planets or globes [Moon]...a "life wave," meaning a stream of
Monads...This journey went on for four circlings round the whole and then
the whole stream or army of Egos from the old Moon Chain had arrived, and
being complete, no more entered after the middle of the Fourth Round.  The
same circling process of these differently arrived classes goes on for 7
complete Rounds of the whole 7 planetary centers of consciousness
[Globes]...and when the 7 are ended as much perfection as is possible in the
immense period occupied will have been attained, and then this chain or mass
of "globes" will die in its turn to give birth to still another series."
Ocean p. 25-26


"Each one of the globes is used by evolutionary law for the development of 7
races, and of senses, faculties and powers appropriate to that state of
matter:  the experience of the whole 7 globes being needed to make a perfect
development.  Hence we have Rounds and Races.  The Round is a circling of
the 7 centers of planetary consciousness;  the Race the racial development
on one of those 7...as no complete race could be evolved in a moment on any
globe, the slow, orderly processes of nature, which allow no jumps must
proceed by appropriate means."		Ocean p. 26



"It has been repeatedly stated that evolution as taught by Manu and Kapila
was the groundwork of the modern teachings, but neither Occultism nor
Theosophy has ever supported the wild theories of the present
Darwinists--least of all the descent of man from an ape...Man belongs to a
kingdom distinctly separate from that of the animals...Every Round repeats
on a higher scale the evolutionary work of the preceding Round.   

With the exception of some higher anthropoids...the Monadic inflow, or inner
evolution, is at an end till the next Manvantara...the full-blown human
Monads have to be first disposed of, before the new crop of candidates
appears on this Globe at the beginning of the next cycle.  

There is a lull;  and this is why, during the Fourth Round, man appears on
Earth earlier than any animal creation...what the Occultists have never
admitted...is that man was an ape in this or in any other Round;  or that he
ever could be one, however much he may have been "ape-like."  		S D
I  186-7


"A vast period of time, about 300,000,000 years, was passed...at the end of
that stretch of years the process of hardening began, the form of man being
the first to become solid, and then some of the astral prototypes of the
preceding rounds were involved in the solidification, though really
belonging to a former period when everything was astral.  When these fossils
are discovered it is argued that they must be those of creatures which
coexisted with the gross physical body of man...[the missing links] all
exist on the astral plane..."	Ocean  p. 132-3


"The real age of the world is...almost incalculable, and that of man as he
is now formed is over 18,000,000 of years.  What has become at last man is
of vastly greater age, for before the present two sexes appeared the human
creature was sometimes of one shape and sometimes of another, until the
whole plan had been fully worked out into our present form, function and
capacity....[his shape was] at one time globular...when conditions favored
such a form...This was accomplished by the Ego or real man going through
experience in countless conditions of matter all different one from the
other, and the same plan in general was and is pursued as prevails in
respect to the general evolution of the universe...details were first worked
out in spheres of being very ethereal, metaphysical in fact.  Then the next
step brought the same details to be worked out on a plane of matter a little
more dense, until at last it could be done on our present plane of what we
miscall gross matter.  In these anterior states the senses existed in
germ...in idea, until the astral plane which is next to this one was arrived
at, and then they were concentrated so as to be the actual senses we now use
through the agency of the different outer organs...he who stops to think
must see that the senses are interior and that their outer organs are but
mediators between the visible universe and the real perceiver within."
Ocean  p. 21


"...evolution on the Earth, it is stated that the stream of Monads begins
first to work up the mass of matter in what are called the elemental
conditions when all is gaseous or fiery...no evolution is possible without
the Monad as vivifying agent...next comes the mineral, when the whole mass
hardens, the Monads being imprisoned within.  Then the first Monads emerge
into vegetable forms which they construct themselves...the first class of
Monads emerges from the vegetable and produces the animal, then the human
astral and shadowy model...When the middle of the 4th Round is reached no
more Monads emerge into the human stage...

"The plan comes first in the universal mind, after which the astral model or
basis is made, and when that astral model is completed, the whole process is
gone over so as to condense the matter up to the middle of the 4th Round.
Subsequent to that, which is our future, the whole mass is spiritualized
with full consciousness and the entire body of globes raised up to a higher
plane of development...7 great races have to evolve here on this planet, and
the entire collection of races has to go 7 times round the whole series of 7
globes.

"Human beings did not appear here in two sexes first.  The first were of no
sex, then they altered into hermaphrodite, and lastly separated into male
and female.  And this...was over 18,000,000 years ago."		Ocean  p.
27-28

---------------------------------------------

Best wishes,

Dallas