Theos-Talk Archives (December 1993 Message tl00124)

When we study the seven principles of man, we hear them described in a
number of different ways. Their names will vary, and which of them are
considered actually to be principles will differ from one description
to the next.

Does this mean that one description is more true than the others, that
one enumeration is better than the next? No. It means that to illustrate
a certain point, one might be used, and to illustrate another point, a
different one used.

Some enumerations may be given at first, and others later on, because
the later ones deal with more difficult concepts, with ideas that
require a greater preparation.

One typical list of the seven principles would go:

Atman          - spirit   - supreme self
Buddhi         - soul     - wisdom or insight
Manas          - mind     - knowledge
Kama           - animal   - desire
Prana          - life     - life energy
Linga Sharira  - astral   - senses
Sthula Sharira - physical - body

We say with the above "one typical", because there are variations on
this list. And each such variation may have some purpose to it, some
concept that it seeks to illustrate.

One variation is that Manas is really two principles, Buddhi-Manas and
Kama-Manas. Another is that Shtula Sharira is not really a principle
of consciousness, because it is a form and not a type of self or
awareness. And a third is that Atman is not really a principle, because
it is universal, contained by all, the same for every creature in the
entire universe, and not at all personal or unique to us.

When we want to take the standpoint of there being a fixed, eternal,
supreme self in us, we'd take the standpoint of Atman being the
highest, the topmost *manifest* principle of consciousness. We would
enumerate our principles as starting with Atman, as originating out
of this great Self.

Consider, though, Buddhism, which teaches us that there is no fixed,
permanent, immutable Self, but rather an eternal stream of
consciousness. This idea, combined with the idea of emptiness or
sunyata, leads us to a different possible breakdown:

Auric Egg     - essence of being
Buddhi        - wisdom or insight
Buddhi-Manas  - higher mind
Kama-Manas    - personal mind
Kama          - desire
Prana         - life energy
Linga Sharira - senses

This shows our consciousness as arising out of an ever-changing
essence of being, a repository of our experience that makes up our
essential natures. There is no fixed Self in this enumeration.

Now which one is true? Do we have an essential Self, or are we without
self of any kind? The answer is that both are true. It depends upon
the *mode* that we are functioning in, as to which experience of life
that we partake of. There are actually three modes, and these are the
three kayas, the nirmanakaya, where there is a fixed self, the
sambhogakaya, where there is no fixed self, but is an existence of
total loss of self in the situation we find ourselves in, and the
dharmakaya, where there is no fixed self, nor awareness of any
particular situation.

It would depend, then, upon the mode of consciousness that we are
functioning, as to the apparent nature of reality to us at that time,
and the corresponding breakout of our principles.

The principles all come forth from within, one after the other in
succession, but which ones are appear to us depends upon how our
consciousness is functioning. Some may appear to be missing due to our
mode of consciousness, some may be missing due to not having acquired
self-consciousness in us, and some may not be directly knowable due to
the nature of the world that we exist in. There is much of the higher
principles that will have to remain unknowable to us, as fourth Round,
Globe D, human Egos.

There is a general correspondence between the principles and the
planes of consciousness, and the spaces of space, but only loosely so
with the globes themselves. The globes do not correspond to the
principles, but have a passing association with them. The globes, over
time, over the time period of planetary manvantaras, rise to higher
planes, and possible associate with different principles.

Globe D of a globe chain, corresponds to the lowest being in an
association of great Monads, it is a Being of a quite grand scale. It
functions as the lowest of a sutratman or golden chain of selves, and
it is the constitution or embodied nature of these selves that makes up
our planetary chain.

On each globe, our corresponding human Ego has its seven principles,
including its Manas, or thought, which is of a nature that takes in
understanding of the subplane that its globe spans over. On a greater
scale, our higher human Ego, or even higher, our spiritual Ego, has
its seven principles, including its Manas, but that Manas is of a
nature that takes in an understanding that spans a much bigger plane
than that of any any globe.

Our physical bodies, senses, vital natures, desires, thought life,
and spiritual natures are all composed of the substances of the
mother nature which we know, that of Globe D, and what we have made
ourselves is based upon what we have evolved forth from these materials.

As we evolved, we gradually establish our seat of consciousness in
higher and higher principles within, until we bring back that treasure
called self-consciousness into our unmanifest, our true inner natures.

There are higher schemes of existence, above and beyond what we know
in the planetary chain. As we circuit the globes of the chain, we
participate in the inner rounds, and participate in the current scheme.
As we rise higher within, we can leave it behind, and participate in
bigger circuits, bigger cycles of existence, bigger Rounds called the
outer rounds.

We have higher Egos that the lower human or personal Ego. Each Ego has
its own type of world, its own place of existence, its own, greater
scope of consciousness or plane to exist on. This bigger existence is
not in terms of number of worlds on which to exist, not bigger in
quantity, but rather bigger in the sense of containing more *in space.*

No Ego is eternal in an absolute sense, not even the divine. Each is
a ray of its respective Monad, and is *eternal* only in the sense of
existing for *an* eternity, for the duration of the world in which it
exists, for an manvantara of its own particular world, be it a
planetary or solar manvantara, or something still grander.

Now although we have a unqiue set of seven principles for our human Ego
on this earth, on globe D, the higher principles do not act directly
on the physical world. Each principle acts through the ones below it,
and the highest cannot affect earth life without a developed
intermediate nature to express them.

This is why, for instance, that an Avatara needs the intermediate
nature of a Buddha, the Buddha's Buddhi-Manas, as well as that of an
high Mahatma, his Kama-Manas, as well as a physical body through which
to act. An Avatara, with no evolved Globe D human Ego to act through,
cannot appear without the *loan* of the already-evolved intermediate
nature of highly developed humans. The physical form itself, combined
with sense perception and animating life energies, is but an empty
shell, without some sense of self, of relatedness to life, and of
volition or desire to do good in the world.

Our principles, in one sense, are like the colors that the spectrum
of light can be broked out into. Taking a prism, we can see apparently
white light breaking apart into a series of colors, from the
invisible, from one color to the next, ending with the invisible again.

We could pick certain specific places on the spectrum and say that these
are distinct *colors*, and the rest are a combination of them. But the
selection could also be made at different points, with a different set
of colors arrived at. Both sets of colors would be true, but either
would be a generalization of sorts.

Why are our principles typically broken out into seven or ten? Because
of the seven-fold nature of manifest life, or the ten-fold or even
twelve-fold nature of complete life, we find that nature patterns itself
after than number.

Our knowledge, and those of even the highest Dhyani-Chohans, knowledge
based upon personal experience and the penetrating sight of spiritual
vision, does not go beyond our solar system. We cannot say that life
takes on a seven-, ten-, or twelve-fold beyond what is known, we cannot
say that there aren't cycles of different numbers beyond our corner of
the universe. We can, though, say that the numbers we use are key in
the understanding of the inner workings of nature and of the inner side
of life. They provide us with a numerical key to unlocking some of the
Mystery Teachings.

The reason that we have a seven-fold nature to manifest life, is not
that there are precisely seven principles to man, no more that could we
say that there are precisely seven colors to the spectrum. The division
is to an extent arbitrary. The reason that seven is used is illustrated
in the fact that there are seven globes to a manifest globe chain,
*seven discrete places to visit* on the planes. We have a manifest
cycle of seven because there are seven places to visit or steps or
stages to the cyclic nature of our world, and not because consciousness
itself has a hard-and-fast division into seven.

Consciousness is wave-like, and more like a spectrum than like any
discrete object. It manifests in and through developed Egos, and is
limited in expression because of them.

We could take a spectral analysis, breaking apart the light from an
object, and from the varying spectrum determine what elements were in
the object, with their characteristic wavelengths. We could also break
apart the stream of consciousness in an individual, and determine what
Egos it was composed of.

The important thing to consider is that consciousness, per se, is not
an object, not a substance, not a body, not a world, but rather is
composed of intrinsic aspects of *being*, essential components of any
manifest entity, and follows an universal pattern that is exprienced
throughout existence.

Regardless of how grand a scale, we are capable of realizing and
making a conscious part of ourselves of all of our principles, even
as we continue to exist as Globe D human Egos. This includes an
appreciation and awareness of the spiritual and divine side to life,
which can be ever-present in the activities of the day, apart from any
hatha yoga, physical cultivation, or brain-mind study that we may
engage in.

We can make the highest parts of ourselves a living part of our
conscious stream of light, adding, so to say, the higher end of the
spectrum to our light, and the only limit to what we can accomplish
is that which we set for ourselves. Our biggest obstacle is our own
self-defined limits!

Let us free our minds and hearts from the bondage of the material
world and worlds which we are compelled to be reborn into. Let us
dwell deeply within, in our essential nature and being, going into
the quiet, still place of silence at the core of our being that is
untouched by outer things. Let us not just go there, but realize that
it is an essential part of our conscious existence too, and is
already present in our lives, awaiting but own attention in order to
be made self-conscious!

                        Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)