Theos-Talk Archives (July 2006 Message tt00360)

Part  11                                    The EGO in MAN

 

 

                        THE SPIRIT IN MAN

 

 

"...human consciousness" is but a Ray of the Divine.  Our Manas, or Ego,
proceeds from, and is the Son (figuratively) of Mahat.  Vaivaswatta Manu
(the Manu of our fifth race and Humanity in general) is the chief
personified representative of the think-ing Humanity of the fifth Root-race;
and therefore he is repre-sented as the eldest Son of the Sun and an
Agnishwatta Ancestor...Thought in its action on human brains is endless.
Thus Manu is, and contains the potentiality of all the thinking forms which
will be developed on earth from this particular source.  In the esoteric
teaching he is the beginning of this earth , and from him and his daughter
Ila humanity is born;  he is a unity which contains all the pluralities and
their modifica-tions.  Every manvantara has its own Manu, and from this Manu
the various Manus or rather all the Manasa of the Kalpas will proceed...he
may be compared to the white light which contains all the other rays, giving
birth to them by passing through the prism of differentiation and
evolution."          TRANS. 99

 

 

            MANAS MUST BE MORALLY PURIFIED TO SEE 

                                                THE MAHATMAS EVERYWHERE

 

 

            "Whoever...wants to see the real Mahatma, must use his
intellectual sight.  He must so elevate his Manas that its per-ceptions will
be clear and all mists created by Maya must be dispelled.  His vision will
then be bright and he will see the MAHATMAS wherever he may be, for, being
merged into the 6th and the 7th principles, which are ubiquitous and
omnipresent, the MAHATMAS may be said to be everywhere."           HPB ART I
294

 

 

 

                        BODHA: - WISDOM  --  BUDDHI: - 

                                                COGNITION & DISCRIMINATION

 

 

"Bodha means the innate possession of divine intellect or "understanding;"
"Buddha," the acquirement of it by personal efforts and merit;  while Buddhi
is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which divine knowledge
reaches the "Ego," the discernment of good and evil, "divine conscience"
also; and "Spiritual Soul," which is the vehicle of Atma.  "When Buddhi
absorbs our EGO-tism (destroys it) with all its Vikara, Avaloki-teshvara
becomes manifested to us, and Nirvana, or Mukti, is reached," "Mukti" being
the same as Nirvana, i.e., freedom from the trammels of "Maya" or illusion.

 

"Bodhi" is likewise the name of a particular state of trance condition,
called Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the culmination of
spiritual knowledge."                   SD I xix

 

 

"Most of us believe in the survival of the Spiritual Ego, in Planetary
Spirits and Nirmanakayas, those great Adepts of the past ages, who,
renouncing their right to Nirvana, remain in our spheres of being, not as
"spirits" but as complete spiritual human Beings.  Save their corporeal,
visible envelope, which they leave behind, they remain as they were, in
order to help poor humanity, as far as can be done without sinning against
Karmic law.  This is the "Great Renunciation," indeed;  an incessant,
conscious self-sacrifice throughout aeons and ages till that day when the
eyes of blind mankind will open and, instead of the few, all will see the
universal truth.  These Beings may well be regarded as God and Gods--if they
would but allow the fire in our hearts, at the thought of that purest of all
sacrifices, to be fanned into the flame of adoration, or the smallest altar
in their honor.  But they will not.  Verily, "the secret heart is fair
Devotion's (only) temple," and any other in this case, would be no better
than profane ostentation."                          HPB ARTICLES III 204

 

 

                        NIRMANAKAYA  -  BODHISATTVA

 

 

"Remember, thou that fightest for man's liberation,* each failure is success
and each sincere attempt wins its reward in time."  * This is an allusion to
a well-known belief in the East...that every additional Buddha or Saint is a
new soldier in the army of those who work for the liberation, or salvation
of mankind.  In Northern Buddhist countries,where the doctrine of the
Nirmanakayas--those Bodhisattvas who renounce well-earned Nirvana or the
Dharmakaya vesture (both of which shut them out forever from the world of
men) in order to invisibly assist mankind and lead it finally to
Paranirvana--is taught, every new Bodhisattva, or initiated great Adept, is
called the "liberator of mankind."
VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 69

 

 

"A Bodhisattva is, in the hierarchy, less than a "perfect Buddha."  In the
exoteric parlance these two are very much con-fused.  Yet the innate and
right popular perception, owing to that self-sacrifice has placed a
Bodhisattva higher in its rever-ence than a Buddha.

 

This same popular reverence calls "Buddhas of Compassion" those Bodhisattvas
who, having reached the rank of an Arhat (i.e., have completed the fourth or
seventh Path), refuse to pass into the Nirvanic state or "don the Dharmakaya
robe and cross to the other shore," as it would then become beyond their
power to assist men even so little as Karma permits.  They prefer to remain
invisibly (in Spirit, so to speak) in the world, and contribute towards
man's salvation by influencing them to follow the Good Law, i.e., lead them
on the Path of Righteousness..."    VOICE OF THE SILENCE, p. 77

 

 

 

 

 

            ADEPT WORK:  ASSISTING ALL GOOD MOVEMENTS 

                                                                        and
INDIVIDUALS

 

 

Q.:--    "What then are the Adepts doing?

 

A.:--  (a)     Assisting all good movements by acting on men from behind the
scenes through mental influence.

 

       (b)     Preparing as many men and women who are fit for it so that
they may, in their next incarnation, appear in the

world as active devotees to the good of the Human Family.

 

       (c)     Spreading now, through impulses given in many places which
must not be mentioned, a philosophy of life which will gradually affect the
race mind, and in particular the ac-tive, conquering Western peoples, thus
preparing the whole people to change and evolve yet further and further
until evils disap-pear and better days and people reappear."   

           WQJ ARTICLES  II  53-4

 

 

 

                        FINAL CHOICE OF NIRVANA OR RENUNCIATION 

                                                (AS A NIRMANAKAYA)

 

 

"... we know that at a certain period of progress, far above this sublunary
world, the adept reaches a point when he may, if he so chooses, formulate a
wish that he might be one of the Devas, one of the bright host of beings of
whose pleasure and glory and power we can have no idea.  The mere
formulation of the wish is enough.  At that moment he becomes one of the
Devas.  He then for a period of time which in its extent is incalculable,
enjoys that condition--then what?  Then he has to begin again low down on
the scale, in a mode and for a purpose which it would be useless to detail
here, because it could not be understood..."       WQJ ARTICLES  I  pp 8-9

 

 

 

"Nirmanakaya...is that ethereal form which one would assume when leaving his
physical he would appear in his astral body--having in addition all the
knowledge of an Adept.  The Bodhisattva develops it in himself as he
proceeds on the Path.  

 

Having reached the goal and refused its fruition, he remains on Earth, as an
Adept;  and when he dies, instead of going into Nirvana, he remains in that
glorious body he has woven for him-self, invisible to uninitiated mankind,
to watch over and protect it...Thus, to be enabled to help humanity, an
Arhat who has won the right to Nirvana, "renounces the Dharmakaya body" in
mystic parlance;  keeps, of the Sambhogakaya, only the great and com-plete
knowledge, and remains in his Nirmanakaya body.  The Eso-teric School
teaches that Gautama Buddha, with several of his Arhats, is such a
Nirmanakaya higher than whom, on account of the great renunciation and
sacrifice for mankind, there is none known."             VOICE  77-8

 

 

            INDIVIDUALITY PERSISTS THROUGH ANY PRALAYA 

                                                TO THE NEXT MANVANTARA

 

 

"...I maintain as an occultist on the authority of the Secret Doctrine, that
though merged entirely into Parabrahm, man's spirit while not individual per
se, yet preserves its distinct individuality in Paranirvana, owing to the
accumulation in it of the aggregates, or skandhas that have survived after
each death, from the highest faculties of the Manas.  

 

The most spiritual--i.e., the highest and divinest aspirations of every
personality follow Buddhi and the Seventh Principle into Devachan (Swarga)
after the death of the Monad...the individuality of the spirit-soul...is
preserved to the end of the great cycle (Maha-Manwantara) when each Ego
enters Paranirvana, or is merged in Parabrahm...however long the "night of
Brahma" or even the Uni-versal Pralaya...yet, when it ends, the same
individual Divine Monad resumes its majestic path of evolution, though on a
higher, hundredfold perfected and more pure chain of earths (266) than
before, and brings with it all the essence of compound spiritual-ities from
its previous countless rebirths."                HPB ARTICLES  III  265-6

 

 

 

            Man's Immortal Manvantaric Body -- 

                                                Thinking, Acting, Recording

 

 

"We should remember that we were self-conscious beings when this planet
began;  some even were self-conscious when this solar system began;  for
there is a difference in degree of development among human beings.  If the
planet or solar system began in a state of primordial substance or nebulous
matter ... then we must have had bodies of that state of substance,  In that
finest substance there are all the possibilities of every grade of matter,
and hence it is that within the true body of primordial matter all the
changes of coarser and coarser substance have been brought about;  and
within that body is all experience.  Our birth is within that body--a body
of a nature which does not change throughout the whole Manvantara.  Each one
has such a body of finest substance, of the inner nature, which is the real
container for the individual.  In it he lives and moves and has his being,
and yet even the great glory and fineness of that body is not the man;  it
is merely the highest vesture of the Soul.  The Real Man we are is the Man
that was, that is, and that ever shall be, for whom the hour will never
strike--Man, the thinker;  Man, the perceiver--always thinking, continually
acting...We are that One Spirit, each standing in a vast assemblage of
beings in this great universe, seeing and knowing what he can through the
instrument he has.  We are the Trinity--the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost;  or, in theosophical parlance, we are Atma, Buddhi, and Manas.  Atma
is the One Spirit, not belonging to any one, but to all.  Buddhi is the
sublimated experience of all the past.  Manas is the thinking power, the
thinker, the man, the immortal man.  There is no man without the Spirit..."


                        RC -- FP p. 237

 

 

                                    PROGRESSIVE INITIATIONS

 

 

"In a secret work upon the Mysteries and the rites of Ini-tiation, in which
very rough but correct prints are given of the sacramental postures, and of
the trials to which the postulant was subjected, the following details are
found:

 

            (1)        The neophyte--representing the Sun, as
"Sahasrakirana" [GLOS 284] "he of the 1,000 rays"--is shown kneeling before
the "Hierophant."  The latter is in the act of cutting off seven locks of
the neophyte's long hair, (fn:--...the esoteric truth that the 7 locks
symbolize the septenary physical or terrestrial man, thus cut off and
separated from the spiritual...) and in the following--

 

            (2)--illustration, the postulant's bright crown of golden beams
is thrown off, and replaced by a wreath of sharp ligneous spines,
symbolizing the loss. (fn.:--...Sanjana--pure spiritual conscience--is the
inner perception of the neophyte (or chela) and Initiate;  the scorching of
it by the too ardent beams of the Sun being symbolical of the 7 cardinal
sins, and as to the 7 cardinal virtues--to be gained by the Sakridagamin
(the candidate "for new birth"), they could be attained by him only through
severe trial and suffering)...

 

            In order to become a "Perfect One," the Sakridagamin ("he who
will receive new birth," lit.) had, among other trials, to descend into
Patala, the "nether world," after which process only he could hope to become
an "Anagamin"--one who will be reborn no more."  The full Initiate had the
option of either entering this 2nd Path by appearing at will in the world of
men under a human form, or he could choose to first rest in the world of
Gods (the Devachan of the Initiates), and then only be reborn on this our
earth.  Thus, the next stage shows the postulant preparing for this journey.

 

            (3)        Every kind of temptation--we have no right to
enumerate these or speak of them--was being placed on his way.  If he came
out victorious over these, then the further Initiation was pro-ceeded with;
if he fell---it was delayed, often entirely lost for him.

 

            These rites lasted 7 days."                     HPB ARTICLES  II
528-9

 

 

 

 

                        CHRESTOS  AND  CHRISTOS

 

 

"One has to die in chrestos, i.e., kill one's personality and its passions,
to blot out every idea of separateness from one's "Father," the Divine
Spirit in man' to become one with the eternal and absolute Life and Light
(SAT) before one can reach the glorious state of Christos, the regenerated
man, the man in spiritual freedom."
HPB ARTICLES III 190 fn

 

 

"...Christ--the true esoteric Saviour--is no man, but the Divine Principle
in every human being.  He who (169) strives to resurrect the Spirit
crucified in him by his own terrestrial passions, and buried deep in the
"sepulchre" of his sinful flesh;  he who has the strength to roll back the
stone of matter from the door of his own inner sanctuary, he has the risen
Christ in him.  The "Son of Man" is no child of the bond-woman--flesh, but
verily of the free-woman--Spirit, the child of man's own deeds, and the
fruit of his own spiritual labour."  HPB ARTICLES  III  168-9

 

 

"We may learn from the Gospel according to Luke, that the "worthy" were
those who had been initiated into the mysteries of the Gnosis..."those who
knew that they could die no more, being equal to the angels as sons of God
and sons of the Resurrection."  In other words, they were the great adepts
of whatever religion;  and the words apply to all those, who, without being
Initiates, strive and succeed, through personal efforts to live the life and
to attain the naturally ensuing spiritual illumination in blend-ing their
personality--(the "Son") with (the "Father"), their individual divine
Spirit, the God within them.  This "resurrec-tion" can never be monopolized
by the Christians, but is the spiritual birth-right of every human being
endowed with soul and spirit, whatever his religion may be.  Such individual
is a Christ-man. On the other hand, those who choose to ignore the Christ
(principle) within themselves, must die unregenerate heathens--baptism,
sacraments, lip-prayers, and belief in dogmas notwithstanding."  HPB
ARTICLES III 176

 

 

 

                        THE  PATH  OF THE INDIVIDUALITY

 

 

"H.P.B. said, "Do not follow me nor my path;  follow the Path I show, the
Masters who are behind." [HPB ARTICLES I 123]  This she knew to be the safe
course for all, for each one will judge of the words and deeds of a
personality from his own stand-point and understanding, some under-rating,
some exaggerating, and some with indifference...there is recognition of
those who are traveling the same path, and in that recognition, there is
comfort and help which extends from the smallest to the greatest--a great
band of brothers which includes the Masters as the Guides and the
Consummation.  "Whosoever does it unto the least of these, does it unto me."
RC -- FP. p. 151-2

 

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