Theos-Talk Archives (April 1994 Message tl00010)

This is by Eldon Tucker.

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     In our human existence, we experience various cycles. One is
that of day and night, of waking and sleeping. In this cycle, we
are active on the earth in our ordinary personality while awake
here, and we are elsewhere, in higher realms, in deep sleep.
     There is the cycle of the year, and the seasons also affect
our daily activities. Yet another cycle is that of the lunar month,
with yet other influences. And there are other cycles, related to
the planets and stars, of an astrological nature, that have their
influences too.
     The word to emphasize is influence, for the cycles influence
us, they qualify our experience of life. They do not define or
create us, but there is an effect upon us.
     We participate in a cycle by being in relation to the Being
that creates the cycle. Living on the earth, for example, we
experience an earth day, rather than, say, a venus day or a sense
of daylessness in outer space.
     The night time does not cause us to be different than we are
in daylight hours. Rather, we adapt our behavior and lifestyle to
accommodate it. We would generally choose to sleep at night and do
our regular activities by day.
     If we were complete cut off from day and night, like living in
a cave, where the sunlight did not penetrate, our sleep cycle might
adjust to another time period, longer than 24 hours. But we adjust
to the 24 hours, as we do to the other cycles that we participate
in. We are affected by the cycles, and synchronize our activities
in accord with them.
     Consider our astrological chart. It contains information from
which we can analyze the cycles of various planets and their
influences upon us. The birth chart shows the influences that set
the keynote for our current incarnation. But we are not composed of
those influences.
     The birthchart does not show what we are. It shows certain
cycles in effect that each have their respective affect upon us.
But we are not created by, defined by, nor controlled by the cycles
that the chart reveals. We are, rather, coming into birth in a
world in which these are the prevailing conditions, conditions that
limit and affect what we can be and do, but do not make us whom we
are.
     We could be any type of person, from the most primitive,
unintelligent, cruel, evil, to the most sophisticated, brilliant,
kind, and good. We could be any type of person, and yet be born at
any particular moment. We are not prohibited from taking birth,
limited to but certain points of time. We may find conditions more
attractive to seek rebirth at certain times over others, but there
is nothing uniquely us in any particular birthchart.
     If you join a theosophical group, and attend a class, the
experience of the class might be affected by the other class
members and the history and personality of the group. Your
experience of the class may be qualified by such, but you yourself
are not whom you are, defined as a person, because of attending
that class. If you can get along with the group, you will have a
certain experience that would be different that if some of the
people or the group itself were different, and that draws out a
different part of you, but you are still yourself.
     It is the same in coming into rebirth. The various cycles,
including short-term cycles that may be signified by the astrologi-
cal planets, as well as the long-term cycles measured in subraces
and Root Races--these all qualify the experience of life on this
earth. But you participate in the cycles, rather than are created
and defined by them.
     The astrological planets may come and go. They may become
invisible in future Root Races, and others may become visible in
future times. What we observe in the heavens depends upon both the
condition and state of the other planets as well as the state of
humanity and the behavior of earth (Globe D) matter.
     The respective influences affect different parts of our
nature. The basic underlying influence is of the Seven Sacred
Planets, that reach us both directly and through a multitude of
indirect means. These Sacred Planets are not necessarily the
physical ones that we see with our modern telescopes. They are the
influences of great Beings, of great Hosts of Beings, and not of
the orbs of physical matter that our astronomers see.
     When we consider a planet, such as mercury, and say that it
rules the mind and thought, it is not literally true. Rather, it
signifies a particular cycle which has a keynote which affects us
in that way. As long as the keynote of that cycle is manasic in
nature, we can say that the cycle has an affect on our minds.
     But it is very possible that at other times the planetary
influences are not the same, and that their keynotes may be
different. The particular quality given expression in a cycle is
determined by the being from whom the cycle originates.
     We could, for instance, read a book. It could be a romantic
novel. The experience of reading that book has a certain effect on
us. Later, we read a theosophical book, and experience something
different. Still later, we read a computer textbook, and have a
third kind of experience.
     The cycle of reading the book is the same, but the quality or
effect of the cycle is different. The content of our experience is
different, and it qualifies the cycle. And for our lifeatoms, those
beings that experience us as the world in which they live, the
three repetitions of the cycle were experienced in three different
ways as well.
     Besides day and night, another cycle that we experience is
that of life and death, the cycle of reincarnation. From the
standpoint of the personality, it is an asynchronous cycle. There
is a birth, lifetime, and death, followed by a very long time until
the next rebirth, which happens under unpredictable circumstances.
     From the standpoint of the individuality, our lifetime on
earth is one phase of a synchronous cycle. After the physical
death,the human ego sleeps in devachan and the individuality or
higher self can go elsewhere to do its real thing. A different
story ...
     It is useful to note, as an aside, that as we progress in our
study of the theosophical doctrines, as we find more and more
truths in them, that each unfolding of our understanding brings
even more unanswered questions. Things are not neatly wrapped up as
we learn more. We find that we have more and more questions to
puzzle over, even as we obtain certainty and clarity on much that
we have considered in our studies.
     Yet bigger cycles than that of day and night, and that of
rebirth, is the rise and fall of cultures and family races of
cultures, and of yet bigger racial cycles. Eventually humanity is
done with life on physical earth and moves onto another world on a
higher plane for its continued existence (from Globe D to Globe E).
     Over great time periods on 12 such globes, of which our
visible earth is but one, we pass through a Round. And there are 12
Rounds to our existence in humanity, before still greater experi-
ences in higher kingdoms.
     Our evolution is through the kingdoms of nature, which include
the Mineral, Plant, Animal, Human, and yet higher kingdoms.
     The type of experience in those kingdoms depends upon which
stream of evolution that we are in. There are three basic streams,
composed of Gods, Monads, and Atoms.
     The generic name for us as unique, indivisible, eternal,
timeless sparks of the Divine is Monads. But depending on which
stream of evolution that we are participating in, we might also be
referred to as Gods or Atoms.
     The Gods are those beings participating in the work of world
architects. The Monads are those working as the builders, taking
the plans of the architects and building and fashioning things in
life according to them. And the Atoms work as the materials or
substances out of which life is fashioned.
     The cycle of rebirth, and the experience of life and its
activities, is different for participants in each of these
evolutionary streams.
     As we achieve perfection, and complete our human evolution, we
will one day enter the lowest kingdom of the Dhyani-Chohans.
Following the normal course of evolution, we will have gone as
human builders to Dhyani-Chohanic builders. We will still be
participating in the role of applying desire and thought (Kama-
Manas) to the shaping and fashioning of the world.
     It is possible, thought, to start shifting to the work of the
architects. We do so when we participate in the Hierarchy of
Compassion, when we dedicate our lives to service, when we learn to
function from the higher standpoint of the individuality rather
than continuing to perfect our personalities.
     Following the process of hastened evolution, and taking the
great initiations, one enters the door into the lowest Dhyani-
Chohanic kingdom, becomes a Human Monad in the constitution of a
Dhyani-Chohan, and in the next Planetary Manvanatara participates
in the work of the Dhyani-Buddhas and Dhyani-Bodhisattvas, the work
of the architects, rather than being ordinary Dhyani-Chohans. (This
is a complex subject that cannot be explained in a single para-
graph, and is only mentioned here in passing.)
     There is a dual track, then, to our spiritual evolution. Going
through the cycles, we unfold the various faculties of conscious-
ness and have increasingly difficult experiences. We evolve from
one kingdom to the next, gaining increasing intelligence, capabili-
ty, self-conscious spirituality, and eventually reach cyclic
perfection, the end or completion of an evolutionary cycle through
the kingdoms of nature.
     The first track is this passage through the kingdoms and the
acquisition of faculties of consciousness and the return to our
evolutionary source.
     The second track is the acquisition of selflessness, the
development of compassion, the rising above the personal experienc-
es of life to learn to love and appreciate and participate in the
big picture. In this one, we go from materials, to builders, to
architects. In this second track, we progress or evolve or unfold
ourselves in a different manner than evolution in the ordinary
sense. We are not perfecting our selves, we are rather transcending
the selves, and learning to live in higher selves within.
     We are ultimately responsible for the beings that we are. We
are not defined by the cycles that we happen to fall under (like
those defined in the astrological chart).
     We are Buddhi, that karmic web of relationships that we create
our outer selves as. Through Buddhi, we co-create the world and
experience the saying that "you are your karma."
     In addition to creating our self through the karmic relation-
ships with those individuals that we know in life, we also do so by
the relationships that we experience with the creators of the
cycles of life. These relationships also help define the self that
we will manifest. We have a karmic relationship with them too, and
are affected.
     There is a give and take, an interplay of life energies in a
relationship with any person that we know in life. This helps
define our personality in a lifetime, and we both influence or
affect that other person as well as receive influences from and are
affected by that person.
     The same is true with the high Beings and creative intelli-
gences that govern and give life to our world. We enter into karmic
relationships with them too, but this kind of karma could be
considered group karma. And that karma also defines whom we are,
and establishes living links, living bonds with us whereby we are
influenced and changed.
     View life as an organic whole. Look for the creative intelli-
gences behind things. Master life by understanding it. And
understand it by understanding the great intelligences that make
our world and its life possible. Like living well with a friend by
knowing him well, let's know well all our Friends.