[cont'd.]
Astral Consciousness(Page 558)
That of some plants (e.g., sensitive) of ants, spiders, and some night-flies (Indian), but not of bees.
The vertebrate animals in general are without this consciousness, but the placental Mammals have all the potentialities of human consciousness, though at present, of course, dormant.
Idiots are on this plane. The common expression “he has lost his mind” is an Occult truth. For when through fright or other cause the lower mind becomes paralysed, then the consciousness is on the Astral Plane. The study of lunacy will throw much light on these points. This may be called the “nerve plane.” It is cognized by our “nervous centres” of which Physiology knows nothing, e.g., the clairvoyant reading with the eyes bandaged, reading with the tips of the fingers, the pit of the stomach, etc. This sense is greatly developed in the deaf and dumb.
Kâma-Prânic ConsciousnessThe general life-consciousness which belongs to all the objective world, even to the stones; for
if stones were not living they could not decay, emit a spark, etc. Affinity between chemical elements is a manifestation of this Kâmic consciousness.
Kâma-Mânasic ConsciousnessThe instinctual consciousness of animals and idiots in its lowest degrees, the planes of sensation; in man these are rationalized, e.g., a dog shut in a room has the instinct to get out, but cannot because its instinct is not sufficiently rationalized to take the necessary means; whereas a man at once takes in the situation and extricates himself. The highest degree of this Kâma-Mânasic consciousness is the psychic. Thus there are seven degrees from the instinctual animal to the rationalized instinctual and psychic.
Mânasic ConsciousnessFrom this plane Manas stretches upwards to Mahat.
Buddhic ConsciousnessThe plane of Buddhi and the Auric Envelope. From here it goes to the Father in heaven, Ãtmâ, and reflects all that is in the Auric Envelope. Five and six therefore cover the planes from the psychic to the divine.
Men and Pitris (Page 559)
MiscellaneousReason is a thing that oscillates between right and wrong. But Intelligence—Intuition—is higher, it is the clear vision.
To get rid of Kâma we must crush out all out material instincts—“crush out matter.” The flesh is a thing of habit; it will repeat mechanically a good impulse as well as a bad one. It is not the flesh which is always the tempter; in nine cases out of ten it is the Lower Manas, which, by its images, leads the flesh into temptation.
The highest Adept begins his Samâdhi on the Fourth Solar Plane, but cannot go outside the Solar System. When he begins Samâdhi he is on a par with some of the Dhyân Chohans, but he transcends them as he rises to the seventh plane (Nirvâna).
The Silent Watcher is on the Fourth Kosmic Plane.
The higher Mind directs the Will: the lower turns it into selfish Desire.
The head should not be covered in meditation. It is covered in Samâdhi.
The Dhyân Chohans are passionless, pure and mindless. They have no struggle, no passion to crush.
The Dhyân Chohans are made to pass through the School of Life. “God goes to School.”
The best of us in the future will be Mânasaputras; the lowest will be Pitris. We are seven intellectual Hierarchies here. This earth becomes the moon of the next earth.
The “Pitris” are the Astral overshadowed by Ãtma-Buddhi, falling into matter. The “Pudding-bags” has Life and Ãtmâ-Buddhi, but no Manas. They were therefore senseless. The reason for all evolution is the gaining of experience.
In the Fifth Round all of us will play the part of the Pitris. We shall have to go and shoot out our Chhâyâs into another humanity, and remain until that humanity is perfected. The Pitris have finished their office in this Round and have gone into Nirvâna; but they will return to do the same office up to the middle point of the Fifth Round. The Fourth or Kâmic Hierarchy of the Pitris becomes the “man of flesh.”
The astral body is first in the womb; then comes the germ that fructifies it. It is then clothed with matter, as were the Pitris.
The Chhâyâ is really the lower Manas, the shadow of the higher Mind. This Chhâyâ makes the Mâyâvi Rûpa. The Ray clothes itself (Page 560) in the highest degree of the Astral Plane. The Mâyâvi Rûpa is composed of the astral body as Upâdhi, the guiding intelligence from the heart, the attributes and qualities from the Auric Envelopes.
The Auric Envelope takes up the light of Ãtmâ, and overshadows the coronal circling round the head.
The Auric Fluid is a combination of the Life and Will principles, the life and the will being one and the same in Kosmos. It emanates from the eyes and hands, when directed by the will of the operator.
The Auric Light surrounds all bodies: it is the “aura” emanating from them, whether they be animal, vegetable, or mineral. It is the light, e.g., seen round magnets.
Ãtmâ-Buddhi-Manas in man corresponds to the three Logoi in Kosmos. They not only correspond, but each is the radiation from Kosmos to Microcosmos. The third Logos, Mahat, becomes Manas in man, Manas being only Mahat individualized, as the sun-rays are individualized in bodies that absorb them. The sun-rays give life, they fertilize what is already there, and the individual is formed. Mahat, so to say fertilizes, and Manas is the result.
Buddhi-Manas is the Kshetrajña.
There are seven planes of Mahat, as of all else.
The Human PrinciplesHere H.P.B drew two diagrams, illustrating different ways of representing the human principles. In the first:
the two lower are disregarded; they go out, disintegrate, are of not account. Remain five, under the radiation of Ãtmâ.
Power of Imagination (Page 561)
In the second:
the lower Quaternary is regarded as mere matter, objective illusion, and there remain Manas and the Auric Egg, the higher Principles being reflected in the Auric Egg. In all these systems remember the main principle, the descent and re-ascent of the Spirit, in man as in Kosmos. The Spirit is drawn downwards as by spiritual gravitation.
Seeking further for the cause of this, the students were checked, H.P.B giving only a suggestion on the three Logoi:
1. Potentiality of Mind (Absolute Thought).
2. Thought in Germ.
3. Ideation in Activity.
NotesProtective variation, e.g., identity of colouring of insects and of that on which they feed, was explained to be the work of Nature Elementals.
Form is on different planes, and the forms of one plane may be formless to dwellers on another. The Kosmocratores build on planes in the Divine Mind, visible to them though not to us. The principle of limitation—principium individuationis—is Form: this principle is Divine Law manifested in Kosmic Matter, which, in its essence, is limitless. The Auric Egg is the limit of man as Hiranyagarbha of the Kosmos.
The first step towards the accomplishment of Kriyâshakti is the use of the Imagination. To imagine a thing is to firmly create a model of what you desire, perfect in all its details. The Will is then brought into action, and the form is thereby transferred to the objective world. This is creation by Kriyâshakti.
Suns and Planets(Page 562)
A comet partially cools and settles down as a sun. It then gradually attracts round it planets that are as yet unattached to any centre, and thus, in millions of years, a Solar System is formed. The worn-out planet becomes a moon to the planet of another system.
The sun we see is a reflection of the true Sun: this reflection, as an outward concrete thing, is a Kâma-Rûpa, all the suns forming the Kâma-Rûpa of Kosmos. To its own system the sun is Buddhi, as being the reflection and vehicle of the true Sun, which is Ãtmâ, invisible on this plane. All the Fohatic forces—electricity, etc—are in this reflection.
The MoonAt the beginning of the evolution of our globe, the moon was much nearer to the earth, and larger than it is now. It has retreated from us, and shrunk much in size. (The moon gave all her Principles to the earth, while the Pitris gave only their Chhâyâs to man.)
The influences of the moon are wholly psycho-physiological. It is dead, sending out injurious emanations like a corpse. It vampirizes the earth and its inhabitants, so that any one sleeping in its rays suffers, losing some of his life-force. A white cloth is a protection, the rays not passing through it, and the head especially should be thus guarded. It has most power when it is full. It throws off particles which we absorb, and is gradually disintegrating. Where there is snow the moon looks like a corpse, being unable, through the white snow, to vampirize effectually. Hence snow-covered mountains are free from its bad influences. The moon is phosphorescent.
The Râkshakas of Lanka and the Atlanteans are said to have subjected the moon. The Thessalians learned from them their Magic.
Esoterically, the moon is the symbol of the Lower Manas; it is also the symbol of the Astral.
Plants which under the sun’s rays are beneficent are maleficent under those of the moon. Herbs containing poisons are most active when gathered under the moon’s rays.
A new moon will appear during the Seventh Round, and our moon will finally disintegrate and disappear. There is now a planet, the “Mystery Planet,” behind the moon, and it is gradually dying. Finally the time will come for it to send its Principles to a new Laya Centre, and there a new planet will form, to belong to another Solar System, the present Mystery Planet then functioning as moon to that new globe. This moon will have nothing to do with our earth, though it will come within our range of vision.
Why Cycles Return (Page 563
The Solar SystemAll the visible planets placed in our Solar System by Astronomers belong to it, except Neptune. There are also some others not known to Science, belonging to it, and “all moons which are not yet visible for next things.”
The planets only move in our consciousness. The Rulers of the seven Secret Planets have no influence on this earth, as this earth has on other planets. It is the sun and moon which really have not only a mental, but also a physical effect. The effect of the sun on humanity is connected with Kâma-Prâna, with the most physical Kâmic elements in us; it is the vital principle which helps growth. The effect of the moon is chiefly Kâma-Mânasic or psycho-physiological; it acts on the psychological brain, on the brain mind.
Precious StonesIn answer to a question, H.P.B said that the diamond and the ruby were under the sun, the saphire under the moon—“but what does it matter to you?”
TimeWhen once out of the body, and not subject to the habit of consciousness formed by others, time does not exist.
Cycles and epochs depend on consciousness: we are not here for the first time; the cycles return because we come back into conscious existence. Cycles are measured by the consciousness of humanity and not by Nature. It is because we are the same people as in past epochs that these events occur to us.
DeathThe Hindus look upon death as impure, owing to the disintegration of the body and the passing from one plane to another. “I believe in transformation, not in death.”
AtomsThe Atom is the Soul of the molecule. It is the six Principles, and the molecule is the body thereof. The Atom is the Ãtman of the objective Kosmos, i.e., it is on the seventh plane of the lowest Prakriti.
Terms(Page 564)
H.P.B began by saying that students ought to know the correct meaning of the Sanskrit terms used in Occultism, and should learn the Occult Symbology. To begin with one had better learn the correct Esoteric classification and names of the fourteen (7 x 2 ) and seven (Sapta) Lokas found in the exoteric texts. These are given there in a very confused manner, and are full of “blinds.” To illustrate this three classifications are given below.
LOKAS
The general exoteric, orthodox and tantric category:
Bhur-loka / --
Bhuvar-loka / --
Swar-loka / --
Mahar-loka / The second seven are reflected.
Janar-loka / --
Tapar-loka / --
Satya-loka / --
The Sankhya category, and that of some Vedantins
Brahma-loka / --
Pitri-loka / --
Soma-loka / --
Indra-loka / --
Gandharva-loka / --
Rakshasa-loka / --
Yaksha-loka / --
And an eighth / --
The Vedantic, the nearest approach to the Esoteric
Atala / --
Vitala / --
Sutala / --
Talatala (or Karatala) / --
Rasatala / --
Mahatala / --
Patala / --
Each and all correspond Esoterically to the Kosmic or Dhyân Chohanic Hierarchies, and to the human States of Consciousness and their subdivisions (forty-nine). To appreciate this the meanings of the terms used in the Vedântic classification must be first understood.
Talas and Lokas (Page 565)
Word / Means
Tala / Place
Atala / no place
Vitala / some change for the better: i.e., better for matter, in that more matter enters into it, or, in other words, it becomes more differentiated. This is an ancient Occult term
Sutala / good, excellent, place
Karatala / something that can be grasped or touched (from kara, a hand): i.e., the state in which matter becomes tangible.
Rasatala / place of taste; a place you can sense with one of the organs of sense.
Mahatala / exoterically “great place”; but, Esoterically, a place including all others subjectively, and potentially including all that precedes it.
Patala / something under the feet (from pada, foot), the upâdhi, or basis of anything, the antipodes, America, etc.
Each of the Lokas, places, worlds, states, etc., corresponds with and is transformed into five (exoterically) and seven (Esoterically) states or Tattvas, for which there are no definite names. These in the main divisions cited below make up the forty-nine Fires:
5 and 7 Tanmâtras, outer and inner senses.
5 and 7 Bhûtas, or elements.
5 and 7 Gnyânendryas, or organs of sensation.
5 and 7 Karmendryas, or organs of action.
These correspond in general to States of Consciousness, to the Hierarchies of Dhyân Chohans, to the Tattvas, etc. These Tattvas transform themselves into the whole Universe. The fourteen Lokas are made of seven with seven reflections: above, below; within, without; subjective, objective; pure, impure; positive, negative; etc.
Explanation of the States of Consciousness Corresponding to the Vedântic Classification of Lokas7. Atala The Ãtmic or Auric state or locality: it emanates directly from ABSOLUTENESS, and is the first something in the Universe. Its correspondence is the Hierarchy of non-substantial primordial Beings, in a place which is no place (for us), a state which is no state. This Hierarchy contains the primordial plane, all that was, and will be, from the beginning to the end of the Mahâmanvantara; all is there. This statement should not, however, be taken to imply Kismet: the latter is contrary to all the teachings of Occultism.
Here are the Hierarchies of the Dhyâni Buddhas. Their state is that of Parasamâdhi, of the Dharmakâya; a state where no progress is possible. The entities there may be said to be crystallized in purity, in homogeneity.
6. Vitala. Here are the Hierarchies of the celestial Buddhas, or Bodhisattvas, who are said to emanate from the seven Dhyâni Buddhas. It is related on earth to Samâdhi, to the Buddhic consciousness in man. No adept, save one, can be higher than this and live; if he passes into the Ãtmic or Dharmakâya state (Alaya) he can return to earth no more. These two states are purely hyper-metaphysical.
5. Sutala. A differential state corresponding on earth with the Higher Manas, and therefore with Shabda (Sound), the Logos, our Higher Ego; and also to the Manushi Buddha state, like that of Gautama, on earth. This is the third stage of Samâdhi (which is septenary). Here belong the Hierachies of the Kumâras—the Agnishvattas, etc.
4. Karatala corresponds with Sparsha (touch) and to the Hierarchies of ethereal, semi-objective Dhyân Chohans of the astral matter of the Mânasa-Manas, or the pure ray of Manas, that is the Lower Manas before it is mixed with Kâma (as in the young child). They are called Sparsha Devas, the Devas endowed with touch. These Hierarchies of Devas are progressive: the first have one sense; the second two; and so on to seven: each containing all the senses potentially, but not yet developed. Sparsha would be rendered better by affinity, contact.
3. Rasâtala, or Rûpatala: corresponds to the Hierachies of Rûpa or Sight Devas, possessed of three senses, sight, hearing, and touch. These are the Kâma-Mânasic entities, and the higher Elementals.
With the Rosicrucians they were the Sylphs and Undines. It corresponds on earth with an artificial state of consciousness, such as that produced by hypnotism and drugs (morphia, etc.).
2. Mahâtala. Corresponds to the Hierachies of Rasa or Taste Devas, and includes a state of consciousness embracing the lower five senses and emanations of life and being. It corresponds to Kâma and Prâna in man, and to Salamanders and Gnomes in nature.
1. Pâtala. Corresponds to the Hierarchies of Gandha or Smell Devas, the underworld or antipodes: Myalba. The sphere of irrational animals, having no feeling save that of self-preservation and gratification of the senses: also of intensely selfish human beings, walking or sleeping. This is why Nârada is said to have visited Pâtâla when he was cursed to be reborn. He reported that life there was very pleasant for those “who had never left their birth-place”; they were happy. It is the earthly state, and corresponds with the sense of smell. Here are also animal Dugpas, Elementals of animals, and Nature Spirits.
States of Consciousness (Page 567)
Further Explanations of the Same Classifications7. Auric, Ãtmic, Alayic, sense or state. One of full potentiality, but not of activity.
6. Buddhic; the sense of being one with the universe; the impossibility of imagining oneself apart from it.
(It was asked why the term Alayic was here given to the Ãtmic and not to the Buddhic state. Ans. These classifications are not hard and fast divisions. A term may change places according as the classification is exoteric, Esoteric or practical. For students the effort should be to bring all things down to states of consciousness. Buddhi is really one and indivisible. It is a feeling within, absolutely inexpressible in words. All cataloguing is useless to explain it.)5. Shâbdic, sense of hearing.
4. Spârshic, sense of touch.
3. Rûpîc, the state of feeling oneself a body and perceiving it (rûpa = form).
2. Râsic, sense of taste.
1. Gândhic, sense of smell.
All the Kosmic and anthropic states and senses correspond with our organs of sensation, Gnyânendryas, rudimentary organs for receiving knowledge through direct contact, sight, etc. These are the faculties of Sharîra, through Netra (eyes), nose, speech, etc., and also with the organs of action, Karmendryas, hands, feet, etc.
Exoterically, there are five sets of five, giving twenty-five. Of these twenty are facultative and five Buddhic. Exoterically Buddhi is said to perceive; Esoterically it reaches perception only through the Higher Manas. Each of these twenty is both positive and negative, thus making forty in all. There are two subjective states answering to each of the four sets of five, hence eight in all. These being subjective can (Page 568) not be doubled. Thus we have 40 + 8 = 48 “cognitions of Buddhi.” These with Mâya, which includes them all, make 49. (Once that you have reached the cognition of Mâya, you are an Adept.)
-- / 5 / + / 5 / Tanmatras / 2 / -- / -- / --
-- / 5 / + / 5 / Bhuta / 2 / -- / -- / --
-- / 5 / + / 5 / Gnyaneendryas / 2 / -- / -- / --
-- / 5 / + / 5 / Karmendryas / 2 / -- / -- / --
TOTALS 20 / + / 20 / + / 8 / + / MAYA / = / 49
The LokasIn their exoteric blinds the Brâhmans count fourteen Lokas earth included), of which seven are objective, though not apparent, and seven subjective, yet fully demonstrable to the Inner Man. There are seven Divine Lokas and seven infernal (terrestrial) Lokas.
-- / SEVEN DIVINE LOKAS / -- / SEVEN INFERNAL TERRESTRIAL LOKAS
1 / Bhurloka (the earth / 1 / Patala (our earth)
2 / Bhuvarloka (between the earth and the sun [Munis]) / 2 / Mahatala
3 / Svarloka (between the sun and the Pole Star [Yogîs]). / 3 / Rasatala
4 / Maharloka (between the earth and the and the utmost limit of the Solar System * / 4 / Talatala (or Karatala)
5 / Janarloka (beyond the Solar System, the abode of the Kumâras who do not belong to this plane). / 5 / Sutala
6 / Taparloka (still beyond the Mahâtmic region, the dwelling of the Vairâja deities). / 6 / Vitala
7 / Satyaloka (the abode of the Nirvanîs). / 7 / Atala
* [All these “spaces” denote the special magnetic currents, the planes of substance, and the degrees of approach that the consciousness of the Yogi, or Chela, performs towards assimilation with the inhabitants of the Lokas.]
[GRAPHIC PAGE 568A missing)
Man and Lokas (Page 569)
These the Brâhmans read from the bottom.
Now all these fourteen are planes from without within, and (the seven Divine) States of Consciousness through which man can pass—and must pass, once he is determined to go through the seven paths and portals of Dhyâni; one need not be disembodied for this, and all this is reached on earth, and in one or many of the incarnations.
See the order: the four lower ones (1, 2, 3, 4), are rûpa; i.e., they are performed by the Inner Man with the full concurrence of the diviner portions, or elements, of the Lower Manas, and consciously by the personal man. The three higher states cannot be reached and remembered by the latter, unless he is a fully initiated Adept. A Hatha Yogî will never pass beyond the Maharloka, psychically, and the Talâtala (double or dual place), physico-mentally. To become a Râja Yogî, one has to ascend up to the seventh portal, the Satyaloka. For such, the Master Yogîs tells us, is the fruition of Yajna, or sacrifice. When the Bhûr, Bhuvar and Svarga (states) are once passed, and the Yogi’s consciousness centered in Maharloka, it is in the last plane and state between entire identification of the Personal and the Higher Manas.
One thing to remember: while the infernal (or terrestrial) states are also the seven divisions of the earth, for planes and states, as much as they are Kosmic divisions, the divine Saptaloka are purely subjective, and begin with the psychic Astral Light plane, ending with the Satya or Jîvanmukta state. These fourteen Lokas, or spheres, form the extent of the whole Brahmânda (world). The four lower are transitory, with all their dwellers, and the three higher eternal; i.e., the former states, planes and subjects, to these, last only a Day of Brahmâ, changing with every Kalpa: the latter endure for an Age of Brahmâ.
In Diagram V. only Body, Astral, Kâma, Lower Manas, Higher Manas, Buddhi and Auric Ãtmâ are given. Life is a Universal Kosmic Principle, and no more than Ãtman does it belong to individuals.
In answer to questions on the diagram, H.P.B, said that Touch and Taste have no order. Elements have a regular order, but Fire pervades them all. Every sense pervades every other. There is no universal order, that being first in each which is most developed.Students must learn the correspondences: then concentrate on the organs and so reach their corresponding states of consciousness. Take them in order beginning with the lowest, and working steadily (Page 570) upwards. A medium might irregularly catch glimpses of higher, but would not thus gain orderly development.
The greatest phenomena are produced by touching and centering the attention upon the little finger.
The Lokas and Talas are reflections the one of the other. So also are the Hierarchies in each, in pairs of opposites, at the two poles of the sphere. Everywhere are such opposites: good and evil, light and darkness, male and female.
H.P.B could not say why blue was the colour of the earth. Blue is a colour by itself, a primary. Indigo is a colour, not a shade of blue, so is violet.The Vairâjas belong to, are the fiery Egos of, other Manvantaras. They have already been purified in the fire of passions. It is they who refused to create. They have reached the Seventh Portal, and have refused Nirvâna, remaining for succeeding Manvantaras.
The seven steps of Antahkarana correspond with the Lokas.
Samâdhi is the highest state on earth that can be reached in the body.
Beyond that the Initiate must have become a Nirmânakâya.
Purity of mind is of greater importance than purity of body. If the Upâdhi be not perfectly pure, it cannot preserve recollections coming from a higher state. An act may be performed to which little or no attention is paid, and it is of comparatively small importance. But if thought of, dwelt on in the mind, the effect is a thousand times greater.
The thoughts must be kept pure.
Remember that Kâma, while having bad passions and emotions, helps you to evolve by giving also the desire and impulse necessary for rising.
The flesh, the body, the human being in his material part, is, on this plane, the most difficult thing to subject. The highest Adept, put into a new body, has to struggle against it and subdue it, and finds its subjugation difficult.
The Liver is the General, the Spleen is the Aide-de-Camp. All that the Liver does not accomplish is taken up and completed by the Spleen.
H.P.B was asked whether each person must pass through the fourteen states, and answered that the Lokas and Talas represented planes on this earth, through some of which all must pass, and through all of which the disciple must pass, on his way to Adeptship. Everyone passes through the lower Lokas, but not necessarily through the corresponding Talas. There are two poles in everything; seven states in every state.
Yogîs in Svarloka (Page 571) Vitala represents a sublime as well as an infernal state. That state which for the mortal is a complete separation of the Ego from the personality is for a Buddha a mere temporary separation. For the Buddha it is a Kosmic state.
The Brâhmans and Buddhists regard the Talas as hells, but in reality the term is figurative. We are in hell whenever we are in misery, suffer misfortune and so on.
Forms in the Astral LightThe Elementals in the Astral light are reflections. Everything on earth is reflected there. It is from these that photographs are sometimes obtained through mediums. The mediums unconsciously produce them as forms. The Adepts produce them consciously through Kriyâshakti, bringing them down by a process that may be compared to the focussing of rays of light by a burning glass.
States of ConsciousnessBhûrloka is the waking state in which we normally live; it is the state in which animals also are, when they sense food, a danger, etc.
To be in Svarloka is to be completely abstracted on this plane, leaving only instinct to work, so that on the material plane you would behave as an animal. Yogîs are known who have become crystallized in this state, and then they must be nourished by others. A Yogî near Allahabad had been for fifty-three years sitting on a stone; his Chelâs plunge him into the river every night and then replace him. During the day his consciousness returns to Bhûrloka, and he talks and teaches. A Yogî was found on an island near Calcutta round whose limbs the roots of trees had grown. He was cut out, and in the endeavour to awaken him so many outrages were inflicted on him that he died.Q. Is it possible to be in more than one state of consciousness at once?
A. The consciousness cannot be entirely on two planes at once. The higher and lower states are not wholly incompatible, but if you are on the higher you will wool-gather on the lower. In order to remember the higher state on returning to the lower, the memory must be carried upwards to the higher. An Adept may apparently enjoy a dual consciousness; when he desires not to see he can abstract himself; he may be in a higher state and yet return answers to questions (Page 572) addressed to him. But in this case he will momentarily return to the material plane, shooting up again to the higher plane. This is his only salvation in adverse conditions.
The lower you go in the Talas the more intellectual you become and the less spiritual. You may be a morally good man but not spiritual. Intellect may remain very closely related to Kâma. A man may be in a Loka to which he belongs. Thus a man in Bhûrloka only may pass into the Talas and go to the devil. If he dwells in Bhuvarloka he cannot become as bad. If he has reached the Satya state he can go into any Tala without danger; buoyed up by his own purity he can never be engulfed. The Talas are brain intellect states, while the Lokas—or more accurately the three higher—are spiritual.
Manas absorbs the light of Buddhi. Buddhi is Arûpa, and can absorb nothing. When the Ego takes all the light of Buddhi, it takes that of Ãtmâ, Buddhi being the vehicle, and thus the three become one. This done, the full Adept is one spiritually, but has a body. The fourfold Path is finished and he is one. The Masters bodies are, as far as they are concerned, illusionary, and hence do not grow old, become wrinkled, etc.
The student, who is not naturally psychic, should fix the fourfold consciousness in a higher plane and nail it there. Let him make a bundle of the four lower and pin them to a higher state. He should centre on this higher, trying not to permit the body and intellect to draw him down and carry him away. Play ducks and drakes with the body, eating, drinking and sleeping, but living always on the ideal.
Mother-LoveMother-love is an instinct, the same in the human being and in the animal, and often stronger in the latter. The continuance of this love in human beings is due to association, to blood magnetism and to psychic affinity. Families are sometimes formed of those who have lived together before, but often not. The causes at work are very complex and have to be balanced. Sometimes when a child with very bad karma is to be born, parents of a callous type are chosen, or they may die before the Karmic results appear. Or the suffering through the child may be their own Karma. Mother-love as an instinct is between Rasâtala and Talâtala.
Consciousness and Self-Consciousness (Page 573)
The Lipikas keep man’s Karmic record, and impress it on the Astral Light.
Vacillating people pass from one state of consciousness to another.
Thought arises before desire. The thought acts on the brain, the brain on the organ, and then desire awakes. It is not the outer stimulus that arouses the organ.
Thought therefore must be slain ere desire can be extinguished. The student must guard his thoughts. Five minutes’ thought may undo the work of five years; and though the five years’ work will be run through more rapidly the second time, yet time is lost.
Consciousness
H.P.B began by challenging the views of consciousness in the West, commenting on the lack of definition in the leading Philosophies. No distinction was made between consciousness and self-consciousness, and yet in this lay the difference between man and the animal. The animal was conscious only, not self-conscious; the animal does not know the Ego as Subject, as does man. There is therefore an enormous difference between the consciousness of the bird, the insect, the beast, and that of man.
But the full consciousness of man is self-consciousness—that which makes us say, “I do that.” If there is pleasure is must be traced to some one experiencing it. Now the difference between the consciousness of man and animals is that while there is a Self in the animal, the animal is not conscious of the Self. Spencer reasons on consciousness, but when he comes to a gap he merely jumps over it.
So again Hume, when he says that on introspection he sees merely feelings and can never find any “I,” forgets that without an “I” no seeing of feelings would be possible. What is it that studies the feelings? The animal is not conscious of the feeling “I am I.” It has instinct, but instinct is not self-consciousness. Self-consciousness is an attribute of the mind, not of the soul, the anima, whence the very name animal is taken. Humanity had no self-consciousness until the coming of the Mânasaputras in the Third Race. Consciousness, brain-consciousness, is the field of the light of the Ego, of the Auric Egg, of the Higher Manas. The cells of the leg are conscious, but they are the slaves of the idea; they are not self-conscious, they cannot originate an idea although when they are tired they can convey to the brain an uneasy sensation, and so give rise to the idea of fatigue. Instinct is the lower state of consciousness. Man has consciousness running through the (Page 574) four lower keys of his septenary consciousness; there are seven scales of consciousness in his consciousness, which is none the less essentially and pre-eminently one, a unit. There are millions and millions of states of consciousness, as there are millions and millions of leaves; but as you cannot find two leaves alike, so you cannot find two states of consciousness alike; a state is never exactly repeated.
Is memory a thing born in us that it can give birth to the Ego? Knowledge, feeling, volition, are colleagues of the mind, not faculties of it. Memory is an artificial thing, an adjunct of relativeness; it can be sharpened or left dull, and it depends on the condition of the brain-cells which store all impressions; knowledge, feeling, volition, cannot be correlated, do what you will. They are not produced from each other, nor produced from mind, but are principles, colleagues. You cannot have knowledge without memory, for memory stores all things, garnishing and furnishing. If you teach a child nothing, it will know nothing. Brain-consciousness depends on the intensity of the light shed by the Higher Manas on the Lower, and the extent of affinity between the brain to this light. Brain-mind is conditioned by the responsiveness of the brain to this light; it is the field of consciousness of the Manas. The animal has the Monad and the Manas latent, but its brain cannot respond. All potentialities are there, but are dormant. There are certain accepted errors in the West which vitiate all their theories.
How many impressions can a man receive simultaneously into his consciousness and record? The Western say one: Occultists say normally seven, and abnormally fourteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-one, up to forty-nine, impressions can be simultaneously received. Occultism teaches that the consciousness always receives a sevenfold impression and stores it in the memory. You can prove it by striking at once the seven notes of the musical scale: the seven sounds reach the consciousness simultaneously, but the untrained ear can only recognize them one after another, and if you choose you can measure the intervals. The trained ear will hear the seven notes at once simultaneously. And experiment has shown that in two or three weeks a man may be trained to receive seventeen or eighteen impressions of colour, the intervals decreasing with patience.
Memory is acquired for this life, and can be expanded. Genius is the greatest responsiveness of the brain and brain-memory to the Higher Manas. Impressions on any sense are stored in the memory.
Scales of Consciousness (Page 575)
Before a physical sense is developed there is a mental feeling which proceeds to become a physical sense. Fishes who are blind, living in the deep sea, or subterranean waters, if they are put into a pond will in a few generations develop eyes. But in their previous state there is a sense of seeing, though no physical sight; how else should they in the darkness find their way, avoid dangers, etc.? The mind will take in and store all kinds of things mechanically and unconsciously, and will throw them into the memory as unconscious perceptions. If the attention is greatly engrossed in any way, the sense perception of any injury is not felt at the time, but later the suffering enters into consciousness. So, returning to our example of the seven notes struck simultaneously, we have one impression, but the ear is affected in succession by the notes one after another, so that they are stored in the brain-mind in order, for the untrained consciousness cannot register them simultaneously. All depends on training and on attention. Thus the transference of a sensation passing from any organ to the consciousness is almost simultaneous if your attention is fixed on it, but if any noise distracts your attention, then it will take a fraction more of a second before it reaches your consciousness. The Occultist should train himself to receive and transmit along the line of the seven scales of his consciousness every impression, or impressions, simultaneously. He who reduces the intervals of physical time the most has made the most progress.
Consciousness, Its Seven Scales
There are seven scales or shades of consciousness, of the Unit; e.g., in a moment of pleasure or pain; four lower and three higher.
Consciousness, Its Seven Scales
1 / Physical sense-perception: / Perception of the cell (if paralyzed, the sense is there, though you do not feel it).
2 / Self-perception or apperception: / I.e., self-perception of cell.
3 / Psychic apperception: / Of astral double, döppelganger, carrying it higher to the Physical feeling, sensations of pleasure and pain, of quality.
4 / Vital perception / Of astral double, döppelganger, carrying it higher to the Physical feeling, sensations of pleasure and pain, of quality.
These are the four lower scales, and belong to the psycho-physiological man.
5 / Manasic discernment of the Mânasic self-perception. Lower Manas. / --
6 / Will perception: / Volitional perception, the voluntary taking in of an idea; you can regard or disregard physical pain.
7 / Spiritual, entirely conscious apperception: ** / Because it reaches the Higher, self- conscious conscious Manas.
**Apperception means self-perception, conscious action, not as with Leibnitz, but when attention is fixed on the perception
(Page 576) You can take these on any planes: e.g., bad news passes through the four lower stages before coming to the heart.
Or take Sound:
1. It strikes the ear.
2. Self-perception of the ear.
3. On the psychic or mental, which carries it to
4. Vital (harsh, soft; strong, weak; etc.).
The EgoOne of the best proofs that there is an Ego, a true Field of Consciousness is the fact already mentioned, that a state of consciousness, is never exactly reproduced, though you should live a hundred years, and pass through milliards and milliards. In an active day, how many states and substates there are; it would be impossible to have cells enough for all. This will help you to understand why some mental states and abstract things follow the Ego into Devachan, and why others merely scatter in space. That which touches the Entity has an affinity for it, as a noble action is immortal and goes with it into Devachan, forming part and parcel of the biography of the personality which is disintegrating. A lofty emotion runs through the seven stages, and touches the Ego, the mind that plays its tunes in the mind-cells. We can analyze the work of consciousness and describe it; but we cannot define consciousness unless we postulate a Subject.
BhûrlokaThe Bhûrloka begins with the Lower Manas. Animals do not feel as do men. The dog thinks more of his master being angry than of the actual pain of the lash. The animal does not suffer in memory and in imagination, feeling past and future as well as actual present pain.
Vibrations and Impressions (Page 577)
Pineal Gland
The special physical organ of perception is the brain, and perception is located in the aura of the pineal gland. This aura answers in vibrations to any impressions, but it can only be sensed, not perceived, in the living man. During the process of thought manifesting in consciousness, a constant vibration occurs in the light of this aura, and a clairvoyant looking at the brain of a living man may almost count, see with the spiritual eye, the seven scales, the seven shades of light, passing from the dullest to the brightest. You touch your hand; before you touch it the vibration is already in the aura of the pineal gland, and has its own shade of colour. It is this aura which causes the wear and tear of the organ, by the vibrations its sets up. The brain, set vibrating, conveys the vibrations to the spinal cord, and so to the rest of the body. Happiness as well as sorrow sets up these strong vibrations, and so wears out the body. Powerful vibrations of joy or sorrow may thus kill.
The Heart
The septenary disturbance and play of light around the pineal gland are reflected in the heart, or rather the aura of the heart, which vibrates and illumines the seven brains of the heart, just as does the aura round the pineal gland. This is the exoterically four- but Esoterically seven-leaved lotus, the Saptaparna, the cave of Buddha, with its seven compartments.
Astral and EgoThere is a difference between the nature and the essence of the Astral Body and the Ego. The Astral Body is molecular, however etherealized it may be: the Ego is atomic, spiritual. The Atoms are spiritual, and are for ever invisible on this plane; molecules form around them, they remaining as the higher invisible principles of the molecules. The eyes are the most Occult of our senses; close them and you pass to the mental plane. Stop all the senses and you are entirely on another plane.
IndividualityIf twelve people are smoking together, the smoke of their cigarettes may mingle, but the molecules of the smoke from each have an affinity with each other, and they remain distinct for ever and ever, no matter (Page 578) how the whole mass may interblend.
So a drop of water, though it fall into the ocean retains its individuality. It has become a drop with a life of its own, like a man, and cannot be annihilated. Any group of people would appear as a group in the Astral Light, but would not be permanent; but a group meeting to study Occultism would cohere and the impression would be more permanent. The higher and the more spiritual the affinity, the more permanent the cohesion.
Lower ManasThe Lower Manas is an emanation from the Higher Manas, and is of the same nature as the Higher. This nature can make no impression on this plane, nor receive any: an Archangel, having no experience, would be senseless on this plane, and could neither give nor receive impressions. So the Lower Manas clothes itself with the essence of the Astral Light; this astral envelope shuts it out from its Parent, except through the Antahkarana which is its only salvation. Break this and you become an animal.
Kâma
Kâma is life, it is the essence of the blood. When this leaves the blood the latter congeals. Prâna is universal on this plane; it is in us the vital principle, Prânic, rather than Pranâ.
Self-HoodQualities determine the properties of “Self-hood.” As, for instance two wolves placed in the same environment would probably not act differently.
The field of the consciousness of the Higher Ego is never reflected in the Astral Light. The Auric Envelope receives the impressions of both the Higher and the Lower Manas, and it is the latter impressions that are also reflected in the Astral Light. Whereas the essence of all things spiritual, all that which reaches, or is not rejected by the Higher Ego is not reflected in the Astral Light, because it is on too low a plane. But during the life of a man, this essence, with a view to Karmîc ends, is impressed on the Auric Envelope, and after death and the separation of the Principles is united with the Universal Mind (that is to say, those “impressions” which are superior to even the Devachanic Plane), to await there Karmically until the day when the Ego is to be reincarnated. [There are thus three sets of impressions, which we may call the Kâmic, Devachanic and Mânasic.] For the entities no matter how high, must have their Karmic rewards and punishments on earth.
The Crucifixion of the Christos (Page 579)
These spiritual impressions are made more or less on the brain, otherwise the Lower Ego would not be responsible. There are some impressions, however, received through the brain, which are not of our previous experience. In the case of the Adept the brain is trained to retain these impressions.
The reincarnating Ray may, for convenience, be separated into two aspects: the lower Kâmic Ego is scattered in Kâma Loka; the Mânasic part accomplishes its cycle and returns to the Higher Ego. It is, in reality, this Higher Ego which is, so to speak, punished, which suffers. This is the true crucifixion of the Christos — the most abstruse but yet the most important mystery of Occultism; all the cycle of our lives hangs on it. It is indeed the Higher Ego that is the sufferer; for remember that the abstract consciousness of the higher personal consciousness will remained impressed on the Ego, since it must be part and parcel of its eternity. All our grandest impressions are impressed on the Higher Ego, because they are of the same nature as itself.
Patriotism and great actions in national service are not altogether good, from the point of view of the highest. To benefit a portion of humanity is good; but to do so at the expense of the rest is bad. Therefore, in patriotism, etc., the venom is present with the good. For though the inner essence of the Higher Ego is unsoilable, the outer garment may be soiled. Thus both the bad and the good of such thoughts and actions are impressed on the Auric Envelope and the Karma of the bad is taken up by the Higher Ego, though it is perfectly guiltless of it. Thus both sets of impressions after death, scatter in the Universal Mind, and at reincarnation the Ego sends out a Ray which is itself, into a new personality, and there suffers. It suffers in the Self-consciousness that it has created by its own accumulated experiences.
Every one of our Egos has the Karma of past Manvantaras behind. There are seven Hierarchies of Egos, some of which, e.g., in inferior tribes, may be said to be only just beginning the present cycle. The Ego starts with Divine Consciousness; no past, no future, no separation. It is long before realizing that it is itself. Only after many births does it begin to discern, by this collectivity of experience, that it is individual. At the end of its cycle of reincarnation it is still the same Divine Consciousness, but it has now become individualized Self-consciousness.
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The feeling of responsibility is inspired by the presence of the Light of the Higher Ego. As the Ego in its cycle of re-birth becomes more and more individualized, it learns more and more by suffering to recognize its own responsibility, by which
it finally gains Self-consciousness, the consciousness of all the Egos of the whole Universe. Absolute Being, to have the idea of sensation of all this, must pass through all experience individually, not universally, so that when it returns it should be of the same omniscience as the Universal Mind plus the memory of all that it has passed through.
At the Day “Be with us” every Ego has to remember all the cycles of its past reincarnations for Manvantaras. The Ego comes in contact with this earth, all seven Principles become one, it sees all that it has done therein. It sees the stream of its past reincarnations by a certain divine light. It sees all humanity at once, but still there is ever, as it were, a stream which is always the “I.”
We should therefore always endeavour to accentuate our responsibility.
The Higher Ego is, as it were, a globe of pure divine light, a Unit from a higher plane, on which is no differentiation. Descending to a plane of differentiation it emanates a Ray, which it can only manifest through the personality which is already differentiated. A portion of this Ray, the Lower Manas, during life, may so crystallize itself and become one with Kâma that it will remain assimilated with Matter. That portion which retains its purity forms Antahkarana. The whole fate of an incarnation depends on whether Antahkarana will be able to restrain the Kâma-Manas or not. After death the higher light (Antahkarana) which bears the impressions and memory of all good and noble aspirations, assimilates itself with the Higher Ego, the bad is dissociated in space, and comes back as bad Karma awaiting the personality.The feeling of responsibility is the beginning of Wisdom, a proof that Ahankâra is beginning to fade out, the beginning of losing the sense of separateness.
Kâma RûpaThe Kâma Rûpa eventually breaks up and goes into animals.
All red-blooded animals come from man. The cold-blooded are from the matter of the past. The blood is the Kâma Rûpa.
The white corpuscles are the scavengers, “devourers”; they are oozed out of the Astral through the spleen, and are of the same essence as the Astral. They are the seat-born of the Chhâyâ. Kâma is everywhere in the body. The red cells are drops of electrical fluid, the perspiration of all the organs oozed out from every cell. They are the progeny of the Fohatic Principle.Rising Above the Brain (Page 581)