Theos-Talk Archives (December 1993 Message tl00013)

We now approach a silent, still part of ourselves, a dark, unknown
part of our natures that is both a mystery, yet also is an important
element of our lives. Our ninth principle, which might be called
swabhava, is eternal, timeless, unchanging, but yet in relation to time.

This principle of consciousness is both simple, plain, obvious, and
at the same time a sacred mystery, not spoken of in simple words outside
the halls of the Mysteries. We might, hear, were we to approach its
study, in such a hall:

"Enter ye in silent awe, as ye come face-to-face with thy God, and He
takes off his mask, his final veil, and ye behold his true face, his
pure self, undefined by participation in creation and its creatures!"

This principle is one level removed, one above and beyond the experience
of nirvana or personal non-existence. It is the sense of the ultimate
meaning or purpose to life, and goest beyond what we can ever attain
or hope to attain in life, no matter how hard we strive!

In one sense, the ninth principle is like a mathematical limit, which
can be approached closer and closer, but never reached. Yet it
consists of shomething that we are and we know! It is like an attractor,
in terms of chaos, an force which shapes and molds our destiny, always
drawing forth qualities which we aspire to, but never attain, a higher
influence.

It contains all noble, high virtues, *as essential parts of being,*
qualities after which we continually aspire, but never fully attain.
No matter how perfect we make ourselves, how evolved, how completely
we master the lessons of life, there are yet other stages or
realizations to come.

We never attain utter perfection, perfection is not a place or state,
but rather a direction, a calling to be a certain way. And this
direction or calling, this consciousness of perfection, is the nature
of the ninth principle.  Like the true north, to which all good
compasses point, this principle represents the draw, the ideals, that
drive our lives.

In being our essential nature, our unique purpose in life, the
specialness to your being as an individual Monad, it could be called
Swabhava. It is the fuller treasury of experience, above and beyond
the Auric Egg.

Whereas the Auric Egg is the karmic treasure of experience, *in relation
to time,* the sum or totality of our past as the living present, the
ninth principle, Swabhava, could be considered the treasure box, the
form that shapes the treasures that can and will be collected. Swabhava
is the sum of the experiences of the past, the awareness of the living
present, *and the future too.* It encompasses all of time, and is yet
different and higher that time itself.

Swabhava is the Treasure of timelessless. It is not based upon the
accumulation of experience, but higher than that, it is the essential
nature, untouched by experience, untouched by the moment-to-moment
accumulation of karma.

It would not be correct to just call it a higher plane, where things
are seen relatively timeless to us here, from our point of view. It is
timelessness as an actuality, and not timeless just because we've
stepped into another universe and experience time there *instead of
here.* Rather, we have rised in our own inner nature to that part of
ourselves that is rooted in timelessness, is the unchanging,
ever-eternal nature of life itself.

Acting alone, Swabhava is unchanging, the experience of the Changless,
one's pure nature untouched by either manifest existence nor by the
sweep of time. In relation to time, it is ever-present Ideals, Goals,
our Purpose in Being, the driving power of our special purpose and
meaning in life.

Considering our globe chain for a moment, we know of twelve globes,
on the seven planes of existence. The upper five globes are on the
highest three planes, the formless planes, and the lower seven
glboes are on the four lower planes, the planes of form.

There are no globes higher than these, although there are three
higher planes or principles on which we could exist. On each plane,
for each principle, there are both downward states, corresponding
to the pathway of the Downward Arc, and upward states, corresponding
to the sweep of the Upward Arc. These are the non-places at which
we pass through during the experience of the Rounds.

For Swabhava, there is the upwards and downwards sweep, the upwards
and downwards states that we experience. The downwards is our
purpose in life. The upwards is Swabhava in relation to the tenth,
the highest principle.

We must not take lightly our consideration of the ninth principle.
We are talking about the *second* level of unmanifest being, really
a state of non-being. We are talking about one aspect of our
experience of non-existence, and are delving into deep mysteries,
staring into the blackness of the unknown and seeking to *recall*
what may be found therein.

What is the timeless? Can it change too? Certainly not as we know it,
not as we know change. Is there something to it that can itself grow
and evolve? It does have its seven lowest sub-principles, but what
they are is a mystery in itself!

When we gaze at these deep Truths, when we approach them in our
contemplation, we must do so with the greatest reverence, the greatest
sense of devotion and religious feeling. We are looking deeper than,
beyond our very God at the heart of our being, seeking to look and
gaze upon our eternal essence, our very reason for existence at all!

Above and behind all that we've made ourselves is that unique nature
that *is us*. There are no words that can describe its experience.
But it too forms part of the backdrop to the experience of life. It is
one of the essential ingredients to consciousness and it integral to
our every thought, feeling, and activity in or outself of life.

It is beyond holiness, beyond mystery, beyond divinity. We approach
our Ideal Self, our Heavenly Man, and it is us. It contains those
grand virtues, noble qualities that we hold sacred, that not just
deeply touch us but are truly the fabric of our very nature. They are
both sought for, driving the endless self-becoming in life, and are
*already a part of ourselves*, as a unchanging principle or element
of our consciousness.

Beyond radiant, beyond any form of expression, Swabhava lends a
direction to life, based upon our own unique meaning and  purpose for
being, for why we should every have been Monads at all!

Swabhava drives the sweep of time. It unifies past, present, and future,
but dwells in none of them. It is both always present, and never
attained. It is *always present* in its upwards reaching, in its
aspiring upwards to the tenth principle. And it is *never-attained*,
as it reaches down to the eighth principle.

It is indestructable since it never exists as anything, and never has
beginning nor end, in time nor in space. It just *is*, but does not
*exist*. Were it not there to pull us along the sweep of time, there
would be no us, we would never be at all.

Truly a deep, holy Mystery, the ninth principle of consciousness is
treasure of consciousness that we should approach in quiet and
stillness, that we should approach in the sanctuaries of our hearts,
and gaze upon in solitude. And we should take the utmost care when we
leave the solitude and dare speak about it. For should we betray it,
it will leave us, and we will lose our right to return, to come to it
again in this lifetime.

                               Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)