Theos-Talk Archives (October 1994 Message tl00026)

This is by Eldon Tucker

---- The Ultimate is Not Bipolar

       In considering the idea of a Dark Brotherhood, we
can further understand it when contrasted with the White
Brotherhood, with the Hierarchy of Compassion. By
drawing comparisons, we can see what it can and cannot
be.
       A basic theosophical concept is the doctrine of
emanation. The highest and most divine does not directly
govern the material world. There are a number of
intermediate stages or grades. We have the planes, one
above the other, each influenced by the next higher one,
and influencing the one below it. We also have classes
of beings, each higher than the next, each both
receiving support from higher classes and offering
support to lower classes of beings.
       With the Hierarchy of Compassion, we have ordinary
good people, then pre-Chelas, Chelas, Mahatmas,
Bodhisattvas, Human Buddhas, then still higher, the
Dhyani-Chohans, known collectively as Celestial
Bodhisattvas, Celestial Buddhas, and still higher. For a
particular world or universe, there is a highest class
of beings, but that class is in relationship with the
lowest of yet a higher world. There *exists* no ultimate
Highest, the progression upwards is endless.
       This entire upward chain is ultimately rooted in
the Boundless All, in the Grand Mystery, in That or
*Tat*. It is the basis for all that is. A universe comes
into being by the unfolding, by the emanation of various
classes of beings out of a higher world; the universe
goes from the unmanifest to the manifest, arising out of
this Golden Chain, this line of Compassion or
connectedness of Life, this Guruparampara.
       How again does a universe arise? It flows
forth from a Laya-Center allowing passage downwards from
higher universes. It comes forth from on high. A
universe never arises from the reverse process, from
what would be the equivalent of a toilet
overflowing, from the welling up of darkness from below,
flowing out from lower worlds.
       It is a false symmetry to assume that since there
is light and life and compassion and intelligence
emanated from above, showing forth into our world and
raising it, that there would be darkness and death and
hatred and stupidity emanated from below, overflowing
into our world from below and degrading it. There is not
a bipolar Boundless All, with mirror opposite to the
Golden Chain, with endless series of darker and yet
darker hierarchies, rooted in Ultimate Evil.
       (Mulaprakriti, for instance, is not the dark
opposite of Parabrahman, not the ultimate darkness of
matter as contrasted with the ultimate light of spirit.
Mulaprakriti is the first veil of Parabrahman, it is
Pradhana or Brahman. There are a number of different
terms for the first emanation from the Highest of a
world, but they refer to an unfolding of the Highest,
not a counter unfolding from a Lowest.)
       There is evil, there are somewhat organized groups
of evil beings, and not just human, but of the same
grade as Dhyani-Chohans as well, called the Mamo-
Chohans. It's hard to say how high this evil might go. I
have yet to hear of a "Logos of Darkness" or yet higher
a "Dark Star" as the polar opposite to our Parent Star,
the home of our Divine Monad.
       We have two classes of good and evil men, and of
good and evil Chohans. The first class are "free
agents", individuals of an exceptional nature, more
advanced than common folk, with an exceptional talent
and inclination for good or evil. The second class are
"team players", individuals participating in some form
of organization or Hierarchy.
       The first class are self-centered in the sense of
being preoccupied with individual experiences, and
disinterested in the world. They are eventually drawn to
a solitary nirvana or avichi (as a Pratyeka Buddha or
the dark equivalent of one).
       The second class are interested in others, in
nature and participation in life. They cooperate with
the natural forces of life, either with forces of
creation and life, or forces of destruction and death.
Because of this cooperation, they end up in close
cooperation with each other as well, and naturally tend
to organize. This tendency to organize is not because
there is some arbitrarily imposed requirement to join
some organization. It is rather because of the law of
karma, and of affinities, wherein we draw to ourselves
others of like nature, responsive to our life energies.
In a sense, in life, we *exteriorize* the contents of
our consciousness, populating our surroundings with
appropriate beings; in another sense, we draw to
ourselves others that share in the same experiences of
life that we do.
       There is an intent, a purpose to life. It is to
fulfill Tanha, the thirst for material existence. And
that desire arises out of a need to further awaken Self-
Consciousness, to become more *real*, more consciously
inclusive, more aware of the dual mystery of Oneness yet
a multitude of Others.
       We come into being, acquire material forms through
material evolution, and eventually reach an appropriate
state of concreteness where we satisfy that urge to "get
real." That enhanced sense of reality is raised, through
further evolution, until it is reabsorbed in our divine
nature, in our Monad, and becomes a permanent part of
us.
       The whole purpose and basis for anything existing
is to further this process. There is not a mirror-
opposite source, of ultimate evil, of anti-Monads,
bringing about material existence out of a need to
become more self-conscious agents of evil, to "raise" a
sense of corruption back into their natures. This is a
false symmetry, that of a bipolar cosmology, with two
sources: ultimate good and ultimate evil. It is wrong.
There is one source, the good.
       The evil that we see about us cooperates in the
process of good. It performs the work of destruction of
old forms so that new ones can be built. It does the
work of teaching, at times, in fulfilling the role of
"enemies." We learn much more from opponents that
sincerely wish us ill, and approach us with genuine
malice, because our higher natures are more directly
challenged to live out the good.
       How long does evil exist? How long can corrupt
individuals and organizations, broken off from the light
and love and compassion of life, persist? Depending upon
how advanced an individual or group, to the end of some
appropriate cycle of existence, be it a lifetime, a
Subrace, or some greater time period, some Manvantara.
The corrupt center of consciousness in one can only
exist until the dissolution of the world in which it
resides, after which it experiences an avichi, a hell-
like existence, on some lower world, before returning to
its place in the normal evolutionary scheme at the next
cycle of its world.