Theos-Talk Archives (January 1994 Message tl00012)

This is by Brenda Tucker.

I'd like to present a large number of quotes from THE SECRET DOCTRINE,
but first try to explain in outline form what it is I'm getting at.
After discussion of the globes and rounds (Monadic evolution), it's
only appropriate that we take the next step and study the system for
the evolution of Ideas.  In contrast to what many people propose the
function of karma to be: a cushion for manifested existence, evolution
of thought works by a knowledge of the way that ideas become manifest
in the world about us, not always through our own personal self, I
would hope, but through the group of chelas and non-chelas acting in
harmony with divine law.

I.  Evolution of Ideas
     A. One of three evolutionary schemes
     B. Thoughts find their way into manifestation
     C. Fohat is the active law operating to manifest thought.
     D. The mind is won by mankind's battles.
II. Maya or Reflection, which is your choice?
     A. Prototypes live and then become reflections.
     B. All is either shadow or light.
     C.  The reflection (or true form) exists in the solar
         logos as on a "mirror" or on the "waters of space"
         before it reaches embodiment.
III.  Some ideas of karma may be only a perception of Maya.
      Focus on ideas proceeds differently.
IV.  Mysteries

All quotes which follow are found in THE SECRET DOCTRINE by
H.P.Blavatsky.

"It now becomes plain that there exists in Nature a triple
evolutionary scheme, for the formation of the three periodical
Upadhis; or rather three separate schemes of evolution, which in our
system are inextricably interwoven and interblended at every point.
These are the Monadic (or spiritual), the intellectual, and the
physical evolutions.  These three are the finite aspects or the
reflections on the field of Cosmic Illusion of ATMA, the seventh, the
ONE REALITY." p.181 Vol I

"Three distinct representations of the Universe in its three distinct
aspects are impressed upon our thought by the esoteric philosophy: the
PRE-EXISTING (evolved from) the EVER-EXISTING; and the PHENOMENAL the
world of illusion, the reflection, and shadow thereof.  During the
great mystery and drama of life known as the Manvantara, real Kosmos
is like the object placed behind the white screen upon which are
thrown the Chinese shadows, called forth by the magic lantern.  The
actual figures and things remain invisible, while the wires of
evolution are pulled by the unseen hands; and men and things are thus
but the reflections, ON the white field, of the realities BEHIND the
snares of Mahamaya, or the great Illusion." p.278 Vol I (I would say
that pre-existing is monadic, ever-existing is intellectual and
phenomenal is physical.)

"...man ought to be ever striving to help the divine evolution of
IDEAS, by becoming to the best of his ability a CO-WORKER WITH NATURE
in the cyclic task.  The ever unknowable and incognizable KARANA
alone, the CAUSELESS CAUSE of all causes, should have its shrine and
altar on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart invisible,
intangible, unmentioned, save through "the still small voice" of our
spiritual consciousness.  Those who worship before it, ought to do so
in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their Souls; making
their spirit the sole mediator between them and the UNIVERSAL SPIRIT,
their good actions the only priests, and their sinful intentions the
only visible and objective sacrificial victims to the PRESENCE." p.280
Vol I

"In its totality, viewed from the standpoint of manifested Divine
Thought in the esoteric doctrine, it represents the Hosts of the
higher creative Dhyani- Chohans.  Simultaneously with the evolution of
the Universal Mind, the concealed Wisdom of Adi-Buddha the One Supreme
and eternal manifests itself as Avalkitsvara (or manifested Isvara),
which is the Osiris of the Egyptians, the AhuraMazda of the
Zoroastrians, the Heavenly Man of the Hermetic philosopher, the Logos
of the Platonists, and the Atman of the Vedantins.  By the action of
the manifested Wisdom, or Mahat, represented by these innumerable
centres of spiritual Energy in the Kosmos, the reflection of the
Universal Mind, which is Cosmic Ideation and the intellectual Force
accompanying such ideation, becomes objectively the Fohat of the
Buddhist esoteric philosopher.  Fohat, running along the seven
principles of Akasa, acts upon manifested substance or the One
Element, as declared above, and by differentiating it into various
centres of Energy, sets in motion the law of Cosmic Evolution, which,
in obedience to the Ideation of the Universal Mind, brings into
existence all the various states of being in the manifested Solar
System." p.110, Vol I

"The centripetal and the centrifugal forces, which are male and
female, positive and negative, physical and spiritual, the two being
the one Primordial Force." and "Occultism teaches that no form can be
given to anything, either by nature or by man, whose ideal type does
not already exist on the subjective plane.  More than this; that no
such form or shape can possibly enter man's consciousness, or evolve
in his imagination, which does not exist in prototype, at least as an
approximation." p.282 Footnotes, Vol I

"Maya or illusion is an element which enters into all finite things,
for everything that exists has only a relative, not an absolute,
reality, since the appearance which the hidden noumenon assumes for
any observer depends upon his power of cognition.  To the untrained
eye of the savage, a painting is at first an unmeaning confusion of
streaks and daubs of colour, while an educated eye sees instantly a
face or a landscape.  Nothing is permanent except the one hidden
absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all
realities.  The existences belonging to every plane of being, up to
the highest Dhyan-Chohans, are, in degree, of the nature of shadows
cast by a magic lantern on a colourless screen; but all things are
relatively real, for the cogniser is also a reflection, and the things
cognised are therefore as real to him as himself.  Whatever reality
things possess must be looked for in them before or after they have
passed like a flash through the material world; but we cannot cognise
any such existence directly, so long as we have sense-instruments
which bring only material existence into the field of our
consciousness.  Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in,
both we and the things belonging to that plane are, for the time
being, our only realities.  As we rise in the scale of development we
perceive that during the stages through which we have passed we
mistook shadows for realities, and the upward progress of the Ego is a
series of progressive awakenings, each advance bringing with it the
idea that now, at last, we have reached reality; but only when we
shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own
with it, shall we be free from the delusions produced by Maya." p.39
Vol I

"Yes; "Our destiny is written in the stars!" Only, the closer the
union between the mortal reflection MAN and his celestial PROTOTYPE,
the less dangerous the external conditions and subsequent
reincarnations which neither Buddhas nor Christs can escape.  This is
not superstition, least of all is it Fatalism.  The latter implies a
blind course of some still blinder power, and man is a free agent
during his stay on earth.  He cannot escape his ruling Destiny, but he
has the choice of two paths that lead him in that direction, and he
can reach the goal of misery if such is decreed to him, either in the
snowy white robes of the Martyr, or in the soiled garments of a
volunteer in the iniquitous course; for, there are external and
internal conditions which affect the determination of our will upon
our actions, and it is in our power to follow either of the two.
Those who believe in Karma have to believe in destiny, which, from
birth to death, every man is weaving thread by thread around himself,
as a spider does his cobweb; and this destiny is guided either by the
heavenly voice of the invisible prototype outside of us, or by our
more intimate astral, or inner man, who is but too often the evil
genius of the embodied entity called man.  Both these lead on the
outward man, but one of them must prevail- and from the very beginning
of the invisible affray the stern and implacable law of compensation
steps in and takes its course, faithfully following the fluctuations.
When the last strand is woven, and man is seemingly enwrapped in the
network of his own doing, then he finds himself completely under the
empire of this self-made destiny.  It then either fixes him like the
inert shell against the immovable rock, or carries him away like a
feather in a whirlwind raised by his own actions, and this is KARMA."
p.639, Vol I

"The expansion from within without of the Mother, called elsewhere the
Waters of Space, Universal Matrix, etc., does not allude to an
expansion from a small centre or focus, but, without reference to size
"or limitation or area, means the development of limitless
subjectivity into as limitless objectivity.  The ever (to us)
invisible and immaterial Substance present in eternity, threw its
periodical shadow from its own plane into the lap of Maya.  It implies
that this expansion, not being an increase in size for infinite
extension admits of no enlargement was a change of condition.  It
expanded like the bud of the Lotus ; for the Lotus plant exists not
only as a miniature embryo in its seed (a physical characteristic),
but its prototype is present in an ideal form in the Astral Light from
Dawn to Night during the Manvantaric period, like everything else, as
a matter of fact, in this objective Universe; from man down to mite,
from giant trees down to the tiniest blades of grass." p.62-63, Vol I

"In the same manner as a man approaches a mirror placed upon a stand,
beholds in it his own image, so the energy or reflection of Vishnu
(the Sun) is never disjoined but remains in the Sun as in a mirror
that is there stationed" (Vishnu Purana).  p.290, Vol I

MYSTERIES

"The Divine Thought does not imply the idea of a Divine thinker.  The
Universe, not only past, present, and future which is a human and
finite idea expressed by finite thought but in its totality, the Sat
(an untranslatable term), the absolute being, with the Past and Future
crystallized in an eternal Present, is that Thought itself reflected
in a secondary or manifest cause.  Brahma (neuter) as the Mysterium
Magnum of Paracelsus is an absolute mystery to the human mind.
Brahm, the male-female, its aspect and anthropomorphic reflection, is
conceivable to the perceptions of blind faith, though rejected by
human intellect when it attains its majority." p.61, Vol I (What does
this mean, "human intellect when it attains its majority"? Does this
mean a fabricated mind becomes replaced by a mind of our own making?)

"This desire for a sentient life shows itself in everything, from an
atom to a sun, and is a reflection of the Divine Thought propelled
into objective existence, into a law that the Universe should exist.
According to esoteric teaching, the real cause of that supposed
desire, and of all existence, remains for ever hidden, and its first
emanations are the most complete abstractions mind can conceive.
These abstractions must of necessity be postulated as the cause of the
material Universe which presents itself to the senses and intellect;
and they underlie the secondary and subordinate powers of Nature,
which, anthropomorphized, have been worshipped as God and gods by the
common herd of every age." p.44, Vol I

"There was no "EVIL thought" that originated the opposing Power, but
simply THOUGHT per se; something which, being cogitative, and
containing design and purpose, is therefore finite, and must thus find
itself naturally in opposition to pure quiescence, the as natural
state of absolute Spirituality and Perfection.  It was simply the law
of Evolution that asserted itself; the progress of mental unfolding,
differentiated from spirit, involved and entangled already with
matter, into which it is irresistibly drawn.  Ideas, in their very
nature and essence, as conceptions being relation to objects, whether
true or imaginary, are opposed to absolute THOUGHT, that unknowable
ALL of whose mysterious operations ...  can be said, but that "it has
no kinship of nature with Evolution," which it certainly has not."
p.490, Vol II

"...  "the highest trinity are capable of understanding," which is
Mulaprakriti (the veil), the Logos, and the conscious energy "of the
latter," or its power and light-; or "matter, force and the Ego, or
the one root of self, of which every other kind of self is but a
manifestation or a reflection." It is then only in this " light" (of
consciousness) of mental and physical perception, that practical
Occultism can throw this into visibility by geometrical figures;
which, when closely studied, will yield not only a scientific
explanation of the real, objective, existence of the "Seven sons of
the divine Sophia," which is this light of the Logos, but show by
means of other yet undiscovered keys that, with regard to Humanity,
these "Seven Sons" and their numberless emanations, centres of energy
personified, are an absolute necessity.  Make away with them, and the
mystery of Being and Mankind will never be unriddled, not even closely
approached.  p.429-430, Vol I

    ------------------------------------------------

So how does mankind help the evolution of ideas? By placing on their
heart the incognizable absolute and dwelling in the heart, they allow
for the working of the natural forces on the noble ideas contemplated.
With mankind, as our thoughts reach higher and higher planes, there is
a mysterious force at work which causes those very same thoughts to
reflect and manifest on the physical plane.  As a result, a great work
is accomplished not by attention to the circumstances we see around us
on a plane of illusion or Maya, but through attention to the inner
side of life.  By concentrating on noble thoughts and the working of
certain laws of nature, the manifested world changes according to
plan.  Not by trying to process good karma through a "selfish" sort of
physical action, but by non-attachment, unselfishness, and humility,
we allow the thoughts to manifest wherever there may be a receptive
energy for their use.