Theos-Talk Archives (September 1994 Message tl00022)

This is by Brenda Tucker.

This is not the post which I intended to do today.  I'm putting off
the study of the "spirit and stone" till next week.

Bill,

Something to remember when reading THE SECRET DOCTRINE is that
definitions are not always going to help you.  There is so much
symbolism used in H.P.B.'s writing, and even if we understand her
symbolic meaning of the term, get ready for this meaning to
change again in her next reference to it.  Kabalists may use a
symbol in a slightly different manner than a Mason or an
Alchemist.  Also, it may help to remember that even in your
studying you are trying to help others.  Try to find the
information that will benefit others and not just that which will
fulfill a selfish desire.

Also, remember the saying about how people shouldn't be judged on
the answers they give, but on the questions they ask.

Secondly, since you are testing your belief that karma is to
teach you and are not interested in finding any connectedness
from the past between you and "soul mates" or even friends, I
have to say that this universal law doesn't really care what kind
of comfort you get from incarnating with strangers again and
again.  What's the problem? Don't you have a girlfriend? At
least, I hope you will admit that the facts about karma are not
going to be altered by any desire you may have to exclude souls
from reincarnating together.

Sure, it's plenty uncomfortable to HAVE to be born with people
that we are karmically tied to.  I also would like to escape from
this, but perhaps a little differently.  Hopefully by getting rid
of karma, we can rid ourselves of the necessity of reincarnation.

I'll try to quote from H.P.B.'s writings to see if these can make
any sense to you.

H.P.B., CW, Vol XI, p.  144-145:

"Karma thus, is simply ACTION, a concatenation of CAUSES and
EFFECTS.  That which adjusts each effect to its direct cause;
that which guides invisibly and as unerringly these effects to
choose, as the field of their operation, the RIGHT PERSON IN THE
RIGHT PLACE, is what we call KARMIC LAW." .....  "Suffice it to
say that Karma leads us to rebirth, and that rebirth generates
new Karma while working off the old, Sanchita Karma.  Both are
indissolubly bound up, one in the other.  Let us get rid of
KARMA, if we would get rid of the miseries of rebirths or -
REINCARNATION."

H.P.B., CW, Vol XII, p.  385:

"Thus, in truth, neither the blessings nor the curses of men can
influence, let alone alter, the Karma of the nations and men
which they have generated in their respective Pasts.  But people
are blind to this truth.  They see the decrees of retributive
sentences carried out in the marshalling of public events, but
refuse, nevertheless, to comprehend their true causes.  'Oh,'
they cry out, 'it is the immorality and untruthful nature of Mr.
A that has caused this new public scandal.  It is a calamity
brought through the hypocrisy of A, on B, and C, and D, and thus,
through them, it is affecting a whole nation! We righteous men
had nought to do with all this.  Ergo, our plain duty is now to
vilify A, agreeably to our pharisaical social code, to express
our holy horror of him, and wash our hands of the rest.' .......
But don't you know, that the building of a nest by a swallow, the
tumbling of a dirt-grimed urchin down the back stair, or the
chaff of your nursery maid with the butcher's boy, may alter the
face of nations, as much as can the downfall of a Napoleon? Yea,
verily so; for the links within links and the concatenations of
this Nidanic Universe are past our understanding.  "Every
transgression in the private life of a mortal, is, according to
Occult philosophy, a double-edged sword in the hand of Karma; one
for the transgressor, the other for the family, nation, sometimes
even for the race, that produced him.  If its one sharp edge cuts
him badly, its other edge may, at a future day, chop into
mincemeat those morally responsible for the sins of their
children and citizens.  One Cain-nation is made to bite the dust,
while its slaughtered Abel-sister resurrects in glory....."

H.P.B., THE SECRET DOCTRINE, Vol I, p.  639:

".....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....."

Don't forget that karma is the law of retribution as well as
Karma-Nemesis.

H.P.B., SD, Vol I, p.  305:

"It is not the Wave which drowns a man, but the PERSONAL action
of the wretch, who goes deliberately and places himself under the
IMPERSONAL action of the laws that govern the Ocean's motion.
Karma creates nothing, nor does it design.  It is man who plans
and creates causes, and Karmic law adjusts the effects; which
adjustment is not an act, but universal harmony, tending ever to
resume its original position, like a bough, which, bent down too
forcibly, rebounds with corresponding vigor.  If it happen to
dislocate the arm that tried to bend it out of its natural
position, shall we say that it is the bough which broke our arm,
or that our own folly has brought us to grief?"

H.P.B., CW, XII, p.  651:

"Every human being is surrounded by his own emotional and
passional as well as psychovital atmosphere, which is really a
portion of the lower layers of his auric egg.  Now this
atmosphere is alive and vibrating with varying intensities, has
its own psycho-auric individuality or vibrational frequency.  It
becomes obvious therefore that the ray-point, which likewise
possesses its own frequency, is drawn more or less on the line of
magnetic attraction to the atmosphere of the parent or parents
whose vibrational frequency is most sympathetic to its own and
with whom its karmic affinities are strongest.  To round out the
picture, I might add that both hate and intense psychic
dislike-each of which is a kind of inverted love-sometimes
produce strong psychoauric attractions, thus explaining the
pathetic situation of parent and child who repel each other."

Bill, maybe the idea which you are especially attracted to is the
"heresy of separateness," described by H.P.B., CW Vol XII, p.
407:

"Eastern Philosophy-occult or exoteric-does not admit of an "I"
separate from the Universe, objective or subjective, material or
spiritual- otherwise than as a temporary illusion during the
cycle of our incarnations.  It is this regrettable ILLUSION, the
"heresy of separateness" or personality, the idea that our "I" is
distinct in eternity from the Universal Ego, that has to be
conquered and destroyed as the root of selfishness and all evil,
before we can get rid of rebirths and reach Nirvana.

One last comment: Since I mentioned a quote by H.P.B.  regarding
the monad whose external forms remain at all times except upon
entering Nirvana, you might like to see a further explanation of
this thought since it can get confusing.  Also, this is something
to try to remember in studying.  Each time you make a realization
or find some truth, leave room for it to change or grow with
further study.

H.P.B., CW, Vol XII, p.  58:

"The 'Spiritual Monad' is eternal because uncreate, but its
'Individual persistence'-in human form and bodies on this
terrestrial chain or during the life-cycle, lasts only 'one
manvantara.' This does not prevent the same Spiritual Monad
starting at the end of Mahapralaya (the Grand Age of Rest) into
another and more perfect 'life-cycle with the fruit of the
accumulated experiences of all the personalities the 'individual'
Ego (manas) had informed."

Well, enough said.

Sarah,

Who is Frank? Is this someone who wrote to you e-mail? Can you
give me the date on which he posted?

I found some information you might like to read.  Jerry H-E
recommended some reading in Collected Writings Vol XII.  If you
can get your hands on this volume, it really explains "astral
body" and much more.  Read "Psychic and Noetic Action" and the
second half of "E.S.  Instruction No.  III."

I think what you are experiencing can be used in a very good
manner as the following selections describe.  I'm hoping that
everyone can really be encouraged by what follows.  (Jerry H-E,
the picture you portray is such a slow-moving one.) These quotes
can also supply you with some terms (but I warn you, nobody uses
them much, so you may still have to explain them):

H.P.B., CW, Vol XII, p.406-7:

"Our 'memory' is but a general agent, and its 'tablets,' with
their indelible impressions, but a figure of speech: the 'brain
tablets' serve only as a upadhi or a vahan (basis, or vehicle)
for reflecting at a given moment the memory of one or another
thing.  The records of past events, of every minutest action, and
of passing thoughts, in fact, are really impressed on the
imperishable waves of the ASTRAL LIGHT, around us and everywhere,
not in the brain alone; and these mental pictures, images, and
sounds, pass from these waves via the consciousness of the
personal Ego or Mind (the lower Manas) so to say, of our brain,
whence they are delivered by the psychic to the sensuous
consciousness."

ibid, p.  367:

"Now, although the former (Higher Ego) is the vehicle of all
knowledge of the past, the present, and the future, and although
it is from this fountainhead that its "double" catches occasional
glimpses of that which is beyond the senses of man, and transmits
them to certain brain cells (unknown to science in their
functions), thus making of man a SEER, a soothsayer, and a
prophet; yet the memory of bygone events-especially of the earth,
earthy-has its seat in the Personal Ego alone.  No memory of a
purely daily-life function, of a physical, egotistical, or of a
lower mental nature-such as e.g., eating and drinking, enjoying
personal sensual pleasures, transacting business to the detriment
of one's neighbor, etc.  etc., has aught to do with the "Higher"
Mind or Ego.  Nor has it any direct dealings on the physical
plane with either our brain or our heart- for these two are the
organs of a power higher than the Personality-but only with our
passional organs, such as the liver, the stomach, the spleen,
etc.  Thus it only stands to reason that the memory of such-like
events must be first awakened in that organ which was the first
to induce the action remembered afterwards, and conveyed it to
our "sense-thought," which is entirely distinct from the
"supersensuous" thought.  It is only the higher forms of the
latter, the superconscious mental experiences, that can correlate
with the cerebral and cardiac centres.  The memories of physical
and selfish (or personal) deeds, on the other hand, together with
the mental experiences of a terrestrial nature, and of earthly
biological functions, can, of necessity, only be correlated with
the molecular constitution of various Kamic organs, and the
"dynamical association" of the elements of nervous system in each
particular organ."

ibid, p.  370:

"...if what is called "association of ideas" has much to do with
the awakening of memory, the mutual interaction and consistent
interrelation between the personal "Mind-Entity" and the organs
of the human body have far more so.  A hungry stomach evokes the
vision of a past banquet, because its action is reflected and
repeated in the personal mind.  But even before the memory of the
personal Self radiates the vision from the tablets wherein are
stored the experiences of one's daily life-even to the minutest
details- the memory of the stomach has already evoked the same."

ibid, p.  368:

"Responding to the touch of both a physical and a metaphysical
Force, the impulse given by the psychic (or psycho-molecular)
Force will act from without within.  For, as our body is the
covering of the inner "principles," soul, mind, life, etc., so
the molecule or the cell is the body in which dwell its
"principles," the (to our senses and comprehension) immaterial
atoms which compose that cell.  The cell's activity and behavior
are determined by its being propelled either inwardly or
outwardly, by the noetic or the psychic Force, the former having
no relation to the physical cells proper.  Therefore, while the
latter act under the unavoidable law of the conservation and
correlation of physical energy, the atoms-being psycho-spiritual,
not physical units-act under laws of their own,......  Every
human organ and each cell in the latter has a keyboard of its
own, like that of a piano, only that it registers and emits
sensations instead of sounds.  Every key contains the
potentiality of good or bad, of producing harmony or disharmony.
This depends on the impulse given and the combinations produced;
on the force of the touch of the artist at work, a "double-faced
Unity," indeed.  And it is the action of this or the other "Face"
of the Unity that determines the nature and the dynamical
character of the manifested phenomena as a resulting action, and
this whether they be physical or mental.  For the whole life of
man is guided by this double-faced Entity.  If the impulse comes
from the "Wisdom above," the Force applied being noetic or
spiritual, the results will be actions worthy of the divine
propeller; if from the "terrestrial, devilish wisdom" (psychic
power), man's activities will be selfish, based solely on the
exigencies of his physical, hence animal, nature."

ibid, p.371:

"This leads us to see the difference between the pure noetic and
the terrestrial psychic visions of seership and mediumship.  The
former can be obtained by one of two means; (a) on the condition
of paralysing at will the memory and the instinctual, independent
action of all the material organs and even cells in the body of
flesh, an act which, once that the light of the Higher Ego has
consumed and subjected for ever the passional nature of the
personal, lower Ego, is easy, but requires an adept; and (b) of
being a reincarnation of one, who, in a previous birth, had
attained through extreme purity of life and efforts in the right
direction almost to a YOGI state of holiness and saintship.
There is also a third possibility of reaching in mystic visions
the plane of the higher Manas; but it is only occasional and does
not depend on the will of the Seer, but on the extreme weakness
and exhaustion of the material body through illness and
suffering......  In all other cases of abnormal seership, of
so-called clairaudience, clairvoyance and trances, it is
simply-mediumship."

ibid, p.  374:

"Blessed is he who has acquainted himself with the dual powers at
work in the ASTRAL Light; thrice blessed he who has learned to
discern the Noetic from the Psychic action of the "Double-Faced"
God in him, and who knows the potency of his own Spirit-or "Soul
Dynamics."

I know it seems as if I've put the whole article here, but
there's more and it is truly fascinating.  Thank you for helping
me to do this reading.

I spoke with the Roger and Elaine Gemme, board director and wife
in California, and she told me something interesting I thought I
might pass on.  Her parents donated the San Antonio Branch
property.  I'm not sure about her maiden name, so I don't know
what name you should ask about, but Joyce probably knows who
Elaine Gemme's parents are.  Elaine's daughter was also expecting
twins "any time" about a week ago when we spoke.  Are being born
under a grand trine, as you know.  I never liked Mars in Cancer
much.  My Mars is trine Saturn, so I have some similarity to the
Jupiter, Saturn, Mars trine only my Saturn wasn't in Pisces, it
was in Scorpio.