Theos-Talk Archives (November 1993 Message tl00014)

Jim Anderson:

     Considering the quote from "The Mahatma Letters":

          "an adept ... may, at his will .. instead of reincarnating
     himself only after bodily death, do so, and repeatedly--during
     his life if he chooses. He holds the power of choosing for
     himself new bodies--whether on this or any other planet--while
     in possession of his old form..."

There are a number of things that this quote could refer to.

     First is the power to consciously die, to leave behind the
currently physical body and take up a new one by conscious choice. The
new body could be a new conception, or the taking over of the body,
typically of a child, of someone about to die.

     The second thing that the quote might refer to is the fact that
on any of the globes and planets that an Adept might visit, on either
the inner rounds or the outer rounds, there is the possibility of
a body to "incarnate" into. When we pass through the other globes in
the after-death states, we do so unconsciously, in the bosom of the
Monad, asleep and unaware of the outer world, without really taking
on bodies on the globes as we pass through them. An Adept could
take on a body on another globe, in addition to that on globe D,
but I would say that he could not be consciously functioning and
active in both at the same time. One of the two bodies would always
be asleep or apparently in meditation.

     The third thing that the quote could refer to would the
possession of two bodies on globe D. But again, I would say that only
one would be awake and active at a time. Such a situation would be
very difficult to deal with, having and switching back and forth
between two personalities. One of the two would "sleep" a lot. An
example, although not an Adept, would be with W.Q. Judge, who was
said to also be a Raja, an easterner, to have a second personality
and body at the same time.

     There is no value to multiple personalities/bodies to switch
between, in a general sense, because as we progress spiritually the
emphasis in consciousness is away from the personal, and we are
increasingly able to live out all of our karma in the (a single)
personality.

     The fourth aspect of multiple bodies might refer to the
mayavi-rupa, a form for conscious existence created out of the
astral light, a type of existence where we have the full six
principles, minus the physical, and still might be seen by people.
While apart from the physical body, we could project our
consciousness elsewhere, and exist in a temporary, mind-born form.
This is not something appropriate, though, for the typical human
experience, but is rather a form of existence in the nirmanakaya,
the type of existence that sixth rounders, bodhisattvas or buddhas,
might take on.

     Even the Buddha was born as a man in a body of flesh, and
Avataras, as well, appear through and in living men. Participation
in globe D life requires a physical form, of some sort. Those
without either forms, or some means of affecting others with bodies,
remain but on-lookers.

     There are spheres of causes and those of effects. Those of
causes are where self-conscious manifested life is possible, like
our globe D physical earth. Surrounding it is the astral light,
extending from the gross physical forms up to the loftiest akasha.
Anything that is to happen self-consciously must be in close
proxmity to the earth, which is a staging area for manifestation.

     When in the after-death states, in the astral, in dreams,
new karma is not made, because we are away from such a sphere of
causes. We are creating our environment and world, and not subject
to the will and rule of law of those beings that make up the
laws of nature.

     To put the whole thing simply, I would say that although we
might have more than one car in the garage, we only drive one at
a time. When you consider something like a colony of ants, a
beehive, or a city of people, there is not a group being that is
incarnating as all the separate ants, bees, or people at once.

     Consider a beehive. The bees are living according to the
preprogrammed pattern of consciousness that we'd call instinct.
They are born into a certain family, and cooperate and interact
as members of that birth family. There is a sense of belonging to
a certain hive, a sense of physical kinship with the fellow bees.
They perform their functions according to instinct, tradition, the
roles that they have been born into, and it just happens that
as bees they interact in groups of a certain size. Were they birds,
they might associate in flocks. Even as people, we seek out various
groups to participate in.

     I cannot agree with the idea that separate individual entities,
all self-consciously functioning apart from one another, are but
aspects of a single being. I would consider the idea of group souls,
individualization, a parallel path of evolution through the deva
kingdom bypassing the human kingdom, differences in essential nature
due to being on one of the seven rays, and twin souls as examples of
ideas that arose in the Besant/Leadbeater branch of Theosophy. All
these ideas arose from, perhaps, a misunderstanding of the essential
nature of the Monad, and an attempt to christianize and popularize
the theosophical teachings.

     I think that the nature of the Monad is an important topic to
discuss, and we aren't really exploring it when we say "I believe it
is this way" and others say "No, I believe it to be this other way."
We can use quotes as the start of discussion--not as the final word
on anything--and can derive great value from the exploration of the
Teachings. The Teachings are explored, to an extent, as an exercise
of logic and philosophy.

     We hold up one Truth, then examine it from many different angles,
relating the many other great Truths to it. And when we are finished,
the final result is not to have *proved* something, but rather to have
*revealed* something new. We never succeed in *converting* others, and
there is no value in doing so. What we achieve, if successful, is
the slight lifting of the veil of Isis, the giving expression to a
new Truth that was not seen before.

                           Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)