Theos-Talk Archives (December 1993 Message tl00085)

One of the early doctrines that we are introduced to in our study of
Theosophy is the seven princples. These are the various ingredients that
combine together to form a complete consciousness.

We quickly learn that the terms that the ideas are clothed in are used
in a number of meanings. Often a deep truth, subject to possible
misunderstanding or abuse, will be hidden behind words that seem to
convey a simpler meaning. This quickly becomes apparent as we see how
many different things that are described in terms of the seven
principles.

We learn that the principles are not bodies, and they are not selves.
The selves are the Monads, with their corresponding Egos and Souls,
and they include the Divine Monad, the Spiritual, Human, and Beast
Monads. Each is a being in its own right, and of them, we are the
Human Monad, although not really, fully human until the Fifth Round.

Another thing that we learn is of the illusory, deceptive nature of
the psychical realm. It is easy to be mislead, to see what our thoughts
and expectations would have us see, to populate our experience with
the content of our own personal consciousness. We learn that the
psychical senses mislead, and we should rely on spiritual sight, which
describes the mind directly beholding something, as though by the
sense of sight, a form of knowing arrived at by directing the mind at
the object of contemplation.

Anywhere that we man manifest our consciousness, where we can come into
being, we clothe ourselves in the seven principles. That is, we take
on the fabric of consciousness. These principles are not bodies, except
for the lowest, the physical, the Sthula Sharira. And it is not required
for full consciousness. Without it, where we sufficiently advanced,
we could still exist in full awareness as a Nirmanakaya.

When we read of such a thing as a "astral body" or a "mental body",
it is something of a blind, since Kama and Kama-Manas are not bodies,
they are elements of consciousness, and bodies are the lowest of a
complete set of seven principles. The blind is for the teaching of
Monads, Egos, and Souls, which was interwoved with that of the seven
principles.

The *places* that we can come into being are called the globes. And
these globes or worlds are on different planes. When we say that they
are on different planes, we're saying that they emphasize a different
principle of consciousness as their keynote, not that they have any
fewer of the principles.

Each globe is composed of astral light, condensed into solid substance,
and the difference in material existence between one and the next is
related to which principle sounds the keynote of the nature of things
on that globe. The substance of a globe may, for example, be most
responsive to thought, but it could not be called "mental matter".
That would be taking a figure of speech as a literal reality.

On each globe, when we are fully-embodied, we have a physical body of
the corresponding type of matter. But when we speak of a physical body,
we're not talking about the matter that we see our physical earth,
Globe D, composed of. The other globes are not on the physical plane,
as we known it.

There is the Sthula Sharira or physical that correspondings to any
globe. That is, each globe has the element of consciousness to it that
we'd called physical. It has a physical plane consciousness to it
even if the globe itself is on a higher plane.

When we look at the sky with our Globe D eyes, we see only the matter
of other planets and celestial bodies that our Globe D is in relation
to. All of space would be filled with worlds were we to see all that
really surrounds us! But when we look out into space, it's incorrect
to say that we gaze with our *physical* eyes, because the sense of
sight is astral, based upon the sixth principle, the Linga Sharira, and
not physical itself.

We read that a plane is both a state of consciousness and that a plane
is a state of matter corresponding to the perceptive powers of a
particular set of senses. That is, the matter and the senses go
together, the sixth and seventh principles are interconnected. We only
perceive that matter which corresponds to our higher six principles.

The physical of any plane is that which has been brought forth from
Atman, then Buddhi, all the way down through the Linga Sharira, and
finally becoming the physical, the Sthula Sharira. The final step is
in the act of perception, the sixth principle, creating that which is
perceived, the seventh, the object beheld by the senses.

On other planes, we have unfolded from within our seven principles,
down through the senses, and then to the final step of the making of
the actual forms that contain us, the physical thereon.

We can exist on a globe with less than our seven principles. There
are actually three basic seats or upadhis of existence, the physical,
the intermediate, and the causal. This might correspond to the
separation of the seven principles into the Vital-Astral-Physical,
the Kama-Manas, and Buddhi-Manas. The principles can be separated by us
at these points without a resulting death.

When we leave the physical behind, we have no personal form, no body
of any kind. When we leave the astral, the Linga Sharira behind, we
have lost our sensory imput of the external world behind, and then only
see what we ourselves populate our surroundings with (e.g. images in
the astral light). And when we leave the life energy behind, the Prana,
we have lost our power to effect the external world and make karma,
and are now in a passive or subjective state of existence, a state of
being rather than a state of action. We are then in a state where, if
we where in the after-death states, would be called Kamaloka.

We can visit the other globes in our higher principles, and not have
to take on all the seven principles on them. We can visit without
becoming fully embodied thereon. This is what we do in devachan between
lives.

When we visit the other globes in our higher triad, then we have a
sense of self with pure thought, but no kama-manasic attachment to
the activities on those globes, no pull into full existence that would
lead to activities with resulting new karma. This is what we experience
in deep meditation, where we partake of the higher qualities of
consciousness without actually projecting our consciousness to any
other particular place.

We can experience an influence of the other globes, and thereby of
their ruling sacred planets, without the lengthy process of birth and
childhood and growth to maturity thereon. That is, we do not have to
grown to maturity a fully developed personality on any of the other
globes, with the resulting karmic web of involvements with other
people living there.

We do not need to evolve forth a Globe E personality, for
instance--with considerably more difficulty that our Globe D
personalities take, where we even able to know how to do it.  We just,
in our spiritual nature, partake of the inner nature of the other
globe, we experience it in our higher nature.

The globes are like a string of pearls, being Monads at different
stages of development. The stream of consciousness sweeps downward
through the Monads from the highest to the lowest, and circulates
back up again through each Monad in succession, back to the highest.

Each such Monad is a seven-principled being on its own plane of
consciousness. And on each such Globe we also may fully clothe our
consciousness in the seven principles. We are not, though, required
to *fully* clothe our consciousness, and can pass through the globes
with just the higher principles. It is even possible to pass a globe
without *existing* at all thereon, that that would be by only
clothing ourselves in the highest triad (principles eight, nine, and
ten, the unmanifest ones).

The globes all interpenetrate and affect each other. And they are
paired up. Globes C & E are on the same plane, for instance, and
might, from one point of view, represent the dual nature of the same
being, and partake of the nature of the plane that the two globes are
one. One part of the nature is downward, matter-seeking, which would
be the nature of life on Globe C. The other part is upward,
spirit-seeking, the nature of life on Globe E.

Our globe, Globe D, is an exception, since on it we reach a turning
point. It partakes of both natures, the downward and the upward. We
fell both pulls. The natural course of existence is to exhaust the
downward pull of matter and to have an inner transformation, where we
learn to turn about and yearn and reach out for the spiritual again.

There is danger though, of failure, where the turn is not made, and
we become lost to the planetary chain. Our physical plane, as we know
it, is *not* the lowest plane, and it is as possible to fail and
drop below our planetary chain as it is to one day to transcend it for
higher worlds.

Now the Kamaloka of the Globe D personality is a state of consciousness
on Globe D itself, where we are functioning apart from the lowest
principles. We are still in existence, and still interconnected with
others in our essential natures, but we are not in a causal state.

We have, in this state, given up our participation in the activities
of life on the globe. We have given up our form, our external sensory
imput, and our ability to affect things, our life energies. We are
dead to the world, and have no body or form thereon. We are blind to
the world, and see only what we make ourselves. We are impotent to act
in the world, and can only affect ourselves.

Kamaloka is not accociated with other globes, but is one of several
states of consciousness that we have on this globe. It is one of several
states that we have all the time, and one that we go through in
succession during our after death states, as we not only shift away
from the principles, but drop them, one after the other, until we are
freed of all existence on this globe.

When we depart our physical body, in dream, vision, trance, the typical
experience is not to visit other realms of being, but rather to just
experience our intermediate principles here on Globe D. We populate the
world about us with the content of our own consciousness. The beings
that we see arise from our own nature. And we have not visited other
planes through coming into being on the higher globes.

It is possible to have existences on the other globes. It is possible
if we are spiritually progressed, have undergone initiation, and are
assisted in the activity by the Mahatmas. We need to be on the Path,
to have dedicated our lifes to the betterment of the world, and have
special help in the hastening of our evolution.

When we would exist on one of the other globes, we would have that
existence as our primary focus in life, and probably not have
incarnation on Globe D. We would be going through the difficult process
of fashioning ourselves a personality out of the substance of a higher
globe, a higher plane, and that would be the central focus of our
life for a period of time.

We would have our embodiments on that globe rather than on Globe D,
and would appear to be freed of the requirement to seek rebirth on the
earth, because that requirement would have temporarily transferred to
the other globe.

When, in this state, we would pass through Globe D, we would not
fully clothe our consciousness in it, we would not take up all seven
principles, including a physical form, but would rather pass through
its atmostphere only in our higher principles.

This process of seeking rebirth on the other globes is necessary to
allow us to one day become Fifth Rounders, where we have outstripped
humanity in our evolution by an entire Round, and have become Mahatmas.
It is quite an involved subject, and needs a lot of review to give a
clear outline of it. It involves the deep mysteries of initiation, and
little has been spoken plainly of about it.

When we hear of others moving their circle of rebirth to another globe,
and having advanced ahead on the Path, we must not assume that the same
would be good for ourselves. We do not ready ourselves for further
progress by external imitation. To take any step requires an inner
readiness, a ripening that happens over time, and it not a matter of
simply acting like someone greater.

We do not become Masters by pretending to be them, by doing and saying
the things that they do.  We become Masters by internally *becoming*,
by a steady growth towards the light, by a inner awakening that
happens over time due to the constant, continual dwelling of our minds
and hearts in the spiritual.

It is possible, for humanity in general, to exist on Globe E when the
human lifewave has moved there. It is also possible for certain
individuals, involved in the work of the Hierarchy of Compassion, with
help, to exit on Globe E before that time. But it is not possible for
any of us, on our own, unassisted, to fully embody ourselves on Globe E,
anymore than it would be possible for any of us to write "The Secret
Doctrine" from what we already know, unassisted.

We might read of the various globes and want to exist on them. But
not only is our progress not helped by seeking experience on other
planes (globes), it is often hindered, and that is why we are taught
as a general rule *to shut down the psychical side to life* as an
aspect of our spiritual training, as a prerequisite to chelalife.

Our spiritual progress is made by the higher nature infilling our
lives. It is a natural, embracing, ruling experience, and there's no
sense of guilt or should be's to it. We are not preaching to ourselves,
but rather are blessed with a living presence and an active force in
our lives.

The training is one of consciousness, not of sense perception on
whatever plane, and it does not matter what place on earth we may
travel to, or whatever heavenworld or plane or globe we may visit, if
we haven't changed ourselves the visit has been in vain.

We are taught to seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all else will
be given to us. And we do that. In our training, we seek the heavenly,
the spiritual and divine essence of our beings, and the whole
emphasis of our work is to dwell in that nature, to put that aspect of
consciousness before everything else. It is the keynote, the primary,
the controlling focus of our consciousness, and the personality and
the mayavic senses are lived in, and subject to our inner nature,
rather than the ruling forces in our lives.

By dwelling in the highest, we make that our home, within our
consciousness, we make it habitual to sit it in, to live in it, and
one day our higher principles will become our seat of consciousness,
and instead of being Human Monads, we will have become something more.

                           Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)