copy of article on Theosophy
Nov 12, 1994 06:13 AM
by euser
Hi folks,
For those that are interested I enclose a copy of my latest
article on Theosophy. You probably need to save it to a file,
because it is quite long. You may like to comment on it, do
something with it or whatever.
I also include a few added lines, thus:
Add the term '(reincarnating)' in between the words 'Personal
ego' on the righthand side of the egg-scheme.
Add to the lefthand side of the
egg-scheme under the heading 'Physical soul' the words:
model-body, body
and add an explanation at the bottom of the table below the
egg-scheme:
The physical soul consists of the model-body (a template), the
formative cause of the physical body. The model-body is also a
carrier of vital forces, that express themselves in the physical
body.
** Here follows the article:
This article will be dedicated to a thorough analysis of the
_thinking_ faculty of man. It will also include some practical,
safe, exercises for analyzing your own stream of thoughts. On
the whole, it will be seen to provide the psychological
_masterkey_ to spiritual growth for the individual as well as the
collective, because it provides a _testable_ model of facts of
life. By applying the practical methods given, everybody can
recognize or verify the stated ideas about man, life and kosmos.
Philosophers in the West have spent much time thinking about many
topics. Rarely, however, did they analyze thinking _itself_.
Now, obviously, it is a most remarkable fact that we as humans
can reflect upon ourselves, ask ethical questions and make
conscious decisions about our acts. So, it would seem only
natural that we would ask ourselves the question: 'What _is_ the
thinking faculty?' or: 'How does this faculty work and what are
its attributes or aspects?'.
The fact is, that we rarely do so. Theosophy explains why this
is so, by stating that we are so to speak only beginners
regarding the use of the thinking faculty. This will become
apparent later on in this article.
For clarity I will divide this article in five sections:
Section 1 The composite constitution of man.
A grand scheme of what man essentially is.
Section 2 The seven aspects of thinking according to Theosophy.
A brief description of these aspects is provided.
Section 3 Thoughts and the thinking process.
This section and the next two contain
the psychological _key_ for changing your life.
Section 4 Controlling the flow of thoughts.
Changing the thought-pattern.
Section 5 Socratic thinking: a question of mentality.
What is lacking in our world?
Internetresources
Bibliography
Use of this text
Section 1. The composite constitution of man.
The purpose of this section is to present in shorthand a 'model'
of man, which can greatly enlarge our understanding about the
relationship between 'us' and the Universe. If we get a feeling
for this, it is easier to grasp what follows in the next
sections, because 'what is above, is below' (the Hermetic axiom).
Theosophy presents a kind of spiritual-material model of man.
Remember, matter is viewed as crystallized spirit and spirit as
rarified matter in Theosophy. Spirit and matter are ultimately
states of One Principle that is the One Life-force. Even science
recognizes the fact that matter and force are convertible into
one another.
The model below is sometimes called: the egg-scheme. See figure.
World of Archetypes ----------|----------------------------------------
(Several planes/spheres) | <--------/ / / /SupremeSpirit
----------|----------/ | -----| | -------------
| / | | |
Vehicular aspect | / | | |Consciousness
of Life | / | | |aspect of Life
( | ) / | | |
( *|* / ) | | |
( * | * ) | | |
( * | * ) | | |
Divine (-----------------------) | | | Divine Ego
Soul ( * | * / | |
( * | * / ) | |
( *|* / ) | |
( | / ) | |
( %|% / ) | |
( % | % <--/ ) | |
Spiritual (----------------------------------) / | Spiritual Ego
Soul ( % | % ) / |
( %|% / |
( | /) |
( +|+ <-----------/ ) /
Higher (------------ +-|-+ -------------) / Human ego
Human Soul ( +|+ ) / (individual ego)
( | __________________/ "I am"
( -|- / )
Human Soul (--------- - | - ----------) Personal ego
( -|- ) (personality)
( | ) "I am I"
Animal Soul (--------#|#---------)
( #|# ) Animal ego
( | )
( | )
Physical Soul (-----X------) Body
( | )
( | )
\|/
The circles within the egg-scheme are so-called 'monads': sparks
of the universal life-force. These are pure spirit. The monads
act as foci or knots for the stream of consciousness, that flows
from the Supreme Spirit at the top of _our_ hierarchy (= most
spiritual level in our hierarchy) down to the 'grosser' states of
consciousness-matter.
In order to manifest themselves, these monads need to make use of
a dual pair of organized consciousness-matter. This dual pair is
split up in the egg-scheme at the lefthand side (vehicular aspect
= 'soul', carrier of consciousness') and at the righthand side
(Ego or center of consciousness).
Each ego in this scheme expresses the evolved faculties of the
corresponding ego-emanating monad. The divine ego expresses far
more faculties than the personal ego. Likewise, we as a person
have evolved more qualities of consciousness than the animal
monad, which forms a necessary part of our constitution. We need
it and of course 'our' body in order to express ourselves in this
world.
Our personal consciousness is centered in the personal ego. The
following table shows in a nutshell some of the developped
qualities of consciousness of the diverse monads. See also lit.
(1,2)
Divine Monad: Inspiration, Unity-consciousness;
Together with the spiritual monad: our inner god.
Spiritual Monad: Enlightenment-principle (=understanding, intuition)
Human Monad: Vitality, Emotion, Desire; also higher aspects of thought,
and part of the understanding faculty.
Personal Monad: Vitality, Emotion, Desire, Lower aspects of thought.
Animal Monad: Vitality, Emotion, Desire
The connection between the Human Monad and the Personal Monad
will become clearer in sections 2,3 and 4.
Note that we have in the recesses of our constitution a divine
core that is sometimes called: our 'Higher Self' (=Inner God).
This makes the notion of theurgy in the Gnostic literature
a bit more understandable. Iamblichus ("De Mysteriis")
writes interesting stuff about this. The working of the Divine
in man (= theurgy) is possible,
*just because there is a Divine element in man's constitution*
This requires a highly pure and selfless life as will be easily
understood.
Our responsibilities towards the animal monad and the body
are great but are completely unknown in our world.
Yet, we can imagine that we have a great influence on this ego
whether we think negatively or positively. This influence is
'stamped' into the fabric of consciousness of the animal ego.
Further elaboration of this and kindred subjects can be found
in lit. (1,2, and 7,8,9).
Deeper study of this scheme and related ones will reveal many
facts, like the connection of the more evolved monads with the
seven sacred planets, the solar system and Milky Way.
Gnostics speak of the Aeons (Angels, Archangels,etc.), Kabbalists
of the (Sephirotic) tree of life, Indian Purana's of the
Prajapati's. These are all names for the same hierarchical
emanations from the One Principle and are all involved in the
formation of our Kosmos. Remember, the third jewel of wisdom is
concerned with hierarchies (see my first article).
Also, the subject of cycles (second jewel) is heavily involved
with the relations between the several monads in our constitution
(and yes, so are the other jewels!). See lit.6.
If we progress in consciousness by our own and collective effort,
then we will transform ourselves from being a personal
soul-ego-monad to a human soul-ego-monad, taking along the animal
ego towards the stage of personal ego! This example shows the
interconnectedness of the monads. See lit. (1,2) for further
development of these thoughts.
We will not concern ourselves further with these often very
metaphysical (though important) subjects and confine ourselves to
something more tangible: our personality.
This will be the subject of all the following sections.
Section 2. The seven aspects of thinking according to Theosophy.
Theosophy proceeds from a spiritual point of view. It states
that consciousness is primary to form or manifestation.
Everything in the universe has or better _is_ life-consciousness
that embodies itself in a suitable form according to the inherent
characteristic (this is the fourth jewel of wisdom; see article
#1).
Thinking is a _special_ mode of consciousness, certainly not the
highest form there is, and is typical of humans. The word 'man'
is derived from the Sanscrit word 'manas', meaning: thinker. So,
we are unique beings in having developped the faculty of
thinking, at least to some degree. [thinking as a form of
perception..of thoughts..verderop behandelen]
Now, we can distinguish several mental activities and qualities.
To give some examples of these:
1. We can direct our mental attention to our body and outside
affairs.
2. We can pay mental attention to our emotions.
3. We can plan actions.
4. We can desire to have some nice friends.
5. We can calculate our due taxes.
6. We can try to understand how nature works or why others act
as they do.
7. We can have some inspiration to compose beautiful music, etc.
This diverse palette of activities involve all the use of
thought-energies, often converted into action of some kind.
Theosophy presents in this respect a practical, sevenfold,
division of thinking:
1. The physical aspect of thinking
2. The emotional aspect " "
3. The vital aspect " "
4. The desire-aspect " "
5. The intellectual aspect "
6. The understanding aspect "
7. The inspirative aspect "
A short description of these aspects will clarify their meaning.
Also, we will see that each of these aspects have a lower and
higher form themselves. This can be understood as an example of
the application of the sixth jewel of wisdom (the duality of all
that is manifested). All these aspects or qualities of thinking
are forces that are related to the diverse monads and layers in
the egg-scheme. The hierarchies of our Kosmos reflect themselves
in our constitution and also in our thinking faculty. See
lit.(1,2,8,9).
These aspects can hardly be separated in our thinking, though
usually one or two aspects are dominating. They work together
comparable to a piece of music where we can hardly separate the
individual notes from the whole, though key-chords can be
recognized. If this sounds harmonious or dissonant is up to us!
Special emphasis will be laid on the development of the sixth
aspect of thinking (_understanding_). This will be described
later.
Description of aspects.
-----------------------
1. The physical aspect of thinking.
This aspect is well known to us all. We say: "I'm hungry" and
"I'm tired", etc. Of course, we mean to express something as:
"My body is in a state of needing food", etc. This _seems_
trivial, but it is not. It indicates that we often identify
ourselves with our bodies. Our thoughts are very much involved
with our bodies.
Interesting enough, we can experience the opposite state of
consciousness, when we are absorbed in doing something that
really interests us, causing us temporarily to forget about the
needs of the body.
Of course, we have to take care of our bodily needs. A proper
question arises in this respect: how _much_ attention and time
should we spend to bodily needs and how much to other affairs?
This pertinent question can only be answered by us if we are
conscious of the place our body takes in the totality of life,
i.e. when we are conscious of the proper place of this aspect of
thinking in relation to the other aspects. We will come back to
this question later on.
The higher form of this aspect can be found in dedication to the
well-being of others and oneself. Some examples: medical care,
care for bodily health for oneself and one's children, doing our
duties regarding the world ,etc. [In fact, we see that we can
hardly separate the several aspect of thinking. Vitality,
emotion, aspiration, understanding, use of our body, all these
aspects/forces work together.]
The lower form of this aspect finds expression in thoughts of
seperateness (the greatest heresy in Buddhism!). We think often
that we have nothing to do with others ('mind your own
business'), but this is not in accord with the spiritual point of
view.
2. The emotional aspect of thinking.
This aspect of thinking is related to the reaction on sensory
impressions on our mind. If we don't use our conscious thinking
before reacting, then it can be said that we react instinctively,
comparable to what animals do. In fact the animal ego, and our
body of course, is closely involved with the lower aspects of
thinking.
The emotional aspect is an important part of ourselves, as we all
know.
The higher form of this aspect can be seen in emotional
involvement with issues in society, e.g. when we are committed
to ameliorate bad conditions in slums, stimulating others to give
their best, etc.
The lower form of this aspect can be observed if someone feels
hurt if a rightly critical remark is made or even a good advice
is construed as a negative remark. More examples: false romance;
strongly fluctuating feelings of sympathy and antipathy;
egocentric feelings of 'how bad this world is' without real
concern for suffering of others and no active partake in trying
to change things.
3. The vital aspect of thinking.
In (Western) societies we often see that people want to organize
or fix about everything you can think of. We can observe that a
great deal of energy or vitality is spent in these actions. It
often turns out that we didn't think properly _before_ we acted.
We didn't foresee the consequences of our actions. Also, we lack
in understanding that we can often leave things to the wise mind
of nature itself.
A positive example is using your vitality for positive ends.
A negative example is the destructive use of vitality for selfish
purpose. This can be literally destroying things, but also
building up business by manipulation or force ('maffia').
4. The desire-aspect of thinking.
The desire-aspect or force plays a major role in human thinking.
The greater part of our actions arise from a desire towards
something in this world. This can be anything: work, money,
status,etc. but also an aspiration towards the realization of
ideals. Theosophy looks at this force as a _neutral_ force, like
electricity that flows through a wire ('the body').
Often, the notion of 'sin' is associated with 'desire'. This is
a very limited point of view.
Understanding the *motive* for our acts is of fundamental
importance in the process of self-knowledge. This motive can be
selfish or selfless. Rather than talking about 'good' or 'bad',
which are relative terms, different in each culture and
historical period, we better use the terms selfish or selfless as
a criterion for judging our own acts and thoughts. We can
deceive ourselves, however, by subtle motives, e.g. ambition
which may be altruistic or may involve quite a bit of egoism,
pride, etc.
It takes a lot of sincerity to see our motives clearly for what
they are. According to the degree of developped discrimination
(discernment) or understanding we will recognize these subtle
motives better.
Are we slaves of our passions or do we control our mind's
activities? This important subject is part of the discussion
Krishna has with Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.
Example of higher form: Lofty aspirations .
Example of lower form: Gross passions.
5. The intellectual aspect of thinking.
While most of us equate intellectuality with thinking, Theosophy
states that this is only one aspect, and not the highest, of
thinking. Intellect works mostly with isolating problems out of
their context. It gives fragmented, partial, knowledge. It has
a limited ability to get to the core or essence of things, unless
coupled with real understanding. It often leads to fighting
against _symptoms_, solving nothing.
Higher form: use of intellect to work out practical solutions
in the context of really understanding what the core
of a problem is or what a situation is really about.
Lower form: sheer use of 'models' in science or wherever, without
the necessary understanding of its inherent limits
and shortcomings.
6. The understanding part of thinking.
Some people might equate understanding with intellectuality.
That this is not the case, will be clear by now. Understanding
is sometimes called: 'intuition'.
Sometimes we 'see' at once a solution to a complicated problem.
We see this with the 'mental eye', so to speak.
It can take considerable time after this flash of insight
occurred to us, to work this out in a systematic fashion, by use
of our intellectual aspect.
Understanding is involved with grasping the relationship between
parts and the whole. One sees the relationship between science,
spirituality and philosophy. One appreciates the fact that you
cannot really seperate the individual from the collective, etc.
One recognizes the inbuilt harmony and order in man, nature, the
Kosmos in general.
Theosophy calls this aspect of thinking: the *enlightenment*
aspect. If one has _fully_ developped this aspect,not only on
the thinking level but above that, one is technically called: a
Buddha.
Example of higher form:
use our understanding of things to help others, to improve
conditions of humanity,etc.
Example of lower form:
using our understanding of the character of others to manipulate
them.
7. The inspirative part of thinking.
The influence of inspiration can be seen in great works of art.
Also, mystics of all ages have witnessed great visions in a state
of unity consciousness, an experience of the actual wholeness of
all life. Sometimes we ourselves feel connected to all, absorbed
into a feeling of unity, while walking in a forest,etc.
In general terms, we can develop (identify ourselves with) this
aspect only through developping our understanding or intuitive
faculty.
Example of higher form:
creating masterpieces of art; bringing new concepts into science
(based on genuine intuition)
Example of lower (lowest) form:
inspiring others to evil acts and thoughts.
Often in charmfull disguise:'Operation Charm';
A wolf in sheep's clothes.
If all seven aspects of thinking are completely developped, we
can speak of a truly complete, harmonious, whole man. We have
transformed ourselves from a personal ego to a human ego!
Remember, the human ego type has developped already all the
aspects of thinking. We, as a person, have just started to
evolve some of the higher aspects a little bit.
Section 3. Thoughts and the thinking process.
The contemporary world with all its science and technology
doesn't know much about the thinking faculty, thoughts, etc.
Sure, science can register activities of the brain. A simple
question however remains: what lies behind these activities? What
is the cause or, maybe, are the causes, behind idea's, thoughts,
etc. Recall the experiences of telepathy many people have had.
And what about mystical experiences?
These last ones certainly point in the direction of the
possibility of spiritual communion with Higher, or better: Inner
worlds of silence (to most of us), worlds full of life to others.
The Old Wisdom-Religion (nowadays called Theosophy) clearly
states that One Life is at the foundation of all manifested.
Theosophy denies the existence of so called dead-matter. (The
minerals are not dead, but in a 'sleeping' state so to speak)
Everything has some mode of consciousness, _is_ consciousness,
enwrapped in some form, consisting in its turn of minor
consciousnesses. We see here again an example of the principle
of hierarchies.
The conclusion must be that even thoughts are living beings.
Besides having a vibratory aspect they have life in themselves.
We will present strong arguments for this shortly.
The stream of thoughts that pass through our mind consists of
hosts of living beings. Our thinking faculty is so to speak the
capability of *perceiving* thought-forms or images. We will see
soon that we do not have to passively undergo the influences of
these beings.
The concept of the stream of thought as a host of LIVING beings
provides an important *key* to changing our lives! By applying
this knowledge (see also subsequent sections) we can open new
vistas of perception and experience. Of course, we have to
experience the correctness of this point of view in our own
thinking, before we can apply this key.
Let's have a look at the characteristics of living beings. What
is required for something to be called alive?
1. Living beings are subject to the processes of birth and death.
2. Living beings require food of some kind.
3. Living beings have a character of their own.
4. Living beings can procreate in some way.
5. Living beings do have some consciousness of their own.
Analysis of thoughts will learn, that they conform to all of
these points:
#1. Regarding history, one often talks of the 'birth of an idea'
in a certain era. Many examples can be given. Not only such
dramatic events as the French Revolution but many other
gradually unfolding episods like the Renaissance, the
industrial revolution, the computer-era, the information
super-highway, etc. can be seen in this way.
After birth of an idea, it will grow, evolve to some extent
and finally die, to be replaced by another idea (thought).
#2. We all know that we often have some desires, maybe to buy
something or so. If we fulfill this desire, the associated
thought often quickly dies. If we can't fulfill it, one of
two things can happen: we either forget about it or this
desire becomes real strong, up to the point that we _have_ to
fulfill this desire. We almost drive ourselves crazy untill
we have got this wish fulfilled. We are constantly feeding
this thought with our desire-energy (the fourth aspect of
thinking), making this thought real strong and big. Many
examples can be found of this process, showing that we can
loose control of ourselves and get entangled in some acts
resulting in a real messy situation. Oh, how do we desire
that we never had done these things..
Thoughts take form and last longer corresponding to the degree
to which they are sustained. They will die sooner when we spend
little attention to them.
#3. The own character of a thought can be understood as follows:
if we recall the fact that we are sometimes confronted with
strange or incomprehensible thoughts, which we soon forget,
then we can understand this to be due to the deviance of the
character of these thoughts from our own character. These
thoughts simply cannot find a proper soil in us to root and
sprout.
Inversely, a thought or idea will strike a note in our
consciousness much easier if the character of this idea
conforms to the character of our personality.
Racist ideas will easier resonate in one's mind if one has an
element of or tendency towards racism already in oneself.
Art will be more appreciated if we have a sense of beauty or
harmony developped in ourselves.
#4. The procreation of thought might seem a little odd at first sight.
Yet, we all know about this. If a teacher tells us about
something, and we 'buy' it, then these thoughts find a
fertile soil in our minds, enabling them to grow, flower and
come to fruition. On our turn we can transfer these ideas to
others ('sow these thought-seeds'), where they can find a new
life, etc.
#5. A thought has its _own_ consciousness. We all know, that we can
be quite 'obsessed' by thoughts sometimes. We have great
difficulty to break out of some strong thought-influence.
The thought has grown to gigantic proportions, blocking other
thoughts out of our consciousness. How to deal with such a
situation? We _must_ concentrate with all our efforts on
other thoughts, do some action, to break out of this iron
hold. A constructive approach is given in the next section.
A positive example of this own consciousness is when we are
caught by some grand, inspirative thought, leading us into
unselfish acts we normally would not do.
In order to investigate the nature of thoughts as living beings,
it is advised to see oneself more as a _witness_ of thoughts than
as a creator of thoughts. Think of oneself as a part of the One
Life that is the essence of all. That will make it easier to get
in the state of witnessing thoughts.
A good exercise to learn in what 'track' your thoughts naturally
flow, is to observe your thought-flow on the moments before you
fall asleep. Just observe as a witness (in this exercise). You
can learn to recognize the quality or character of these
thoughts, and, to recognize the several aspects of thinking.
This will be a help in the process of getting to understand
yourself better. You can also do this exercise on a quiet moment
of the day. If you don't like what you see, then you can apply
the methods in the next sections for changing your
thought-pattern.
The thinking process.
Theosophy makes a division in _conscious_ thinking and
_unconscious_ thinking. This has to be clarified.
Unconsciousness thinking is what we all do too often. We
uncritically accept the dogma's of science, commercial slogans,
technological innovations (are these ever being discussed
worldwide or even nationwide on their ethical implications?),
political propaganda, etc,etc. It's quite easy for strong
personalities to force these idea's into the minds of the people,
as long as these last ones don't know anything about the effects
of thoughts on the situation in the world. Yet, we should know
better. We all know how war propaganda can drive people crazy.
This ignorance about the thought-process and the effects of
thoughts on others and ourselves has brought many disasters to
mankind. We are in the illusion that we think consciously, that
we control our thoughts, while the facts point in another
direction.. Fact is that we are drifting on the waves of
thoughts projected and amplified by strong personalities who have
clear reasons to do so (for personal gain, political power,
commercial reasons, etc.). Mind, that this is all cleverly
done.. We are made to believe to have so many rights (what about
our duties?), made to believe that we need this or that latest
object of technology (do we need it really?), made to belief
almost anything. It's a scary situation.
How can we break out of this passive kind of thinking? By
*conscious* thinking.
The _recognition_ of thoughts as living beings is an important
step towards conscious thinking, because it leaves no room for
doubt about the responsibility one has for one's thoughts.
Thoughts are simple, elemental beings that follow slavishly the
impulse that is given to them. They mostly express their own
consciousness when the thought-process gets out of control...
Many psychological disturbances could be prevented if these facts
were known and the knowledge of these things was correctly
applied.
In order to illustrate the process of thinking, one can think of
the technique of transmitting radio or television waves. A
receiver can pick up certain frequencies and by attuning to one
of the channels messages are made visible and can be understood.
Likewise, a person picks up thoughtwaves that lie within his
bandwidth of thoughtfrequencies. The human thinking faculty can
function both as a transmitter and receiver.
When we look at a child, we can observe that it has its own
character already at birth. Gradually it starts expressing its
character during the first years of life. This character forms
so to speak the bandwidth within which thoughts can be received
or perceived. Nurture, education, and all kind of other factors
influence the child and limit this bandwidth further by offering
a narrow perspective on life. Not that the child doesn't resist
tradition and prejudice, e.g in puberty, but the milieu's
influences are usually too strong to resist. And so another
'decent' citizen is born, neatly adapted to the utilitarian way
of life.
This explains why new, refreshing ideas have so much trouble to
enter into the human mind. Our minds are just too crystallized
in traditional concepts and notions of life. The receiving
brainmind can only pick up thoughts of certain frequencies and
(re)transmit them. This fact is unconsciously (?) misused for
commercial and political ends.
How to change this all? First of all, the process of change
should begin with the individual himself, because he must realize
in which mental situation or state he is in. Then only he can
decide to change his way of thinking. He can tune in to other
frequencies of thought, i.e. the higher aspects of thinking we
spoke of before, finer qualities of thought.
Now, we _won't_ book any success if we try to combat our faults
of character. Why not? This is because by combat we *feed* our
thoughts, which are living beings. So they will grow stronger
instead of starve to death. Instead of combat, we should forget
about the unwanted thoughts, let them die. For this we need
_recognition_ of these thoughts and give them a positive impulse
by simply thinking an opposite, positive thought. By thinking
and acting according to this positive thoughts we outweigh,
outbalance the effect of the negative thoughts. By persisting in
this practice we can change the quality of thoughts and also make
our thinking faculty function on other frequencies, more
brotherly, spiritual, positive, etc. After some practice we will
even no longer receive these negative thoughts.
By using this information about thoughts and the thinking
process, we can make a big step towards selfless thinking,
enhancing our understanding of things and open up the road to
inspirative thinking! This is a _practical_, _feasible_,
_testable_ procedure which every sincere person can apply to his
or her own life!
Section 4. Controlling the flow of thoughts.
Changing our thought-pattern.
The reason for getting control over our thought-life will be
clear by now: by controlling the kind of thoughts that enter into
our minds, we can exert a powerfull, positive, harmonious
influence on this world and also avoid being carried away by
harmfull desires.
We can use the force of thoughts without any danger if we
concentrate our mind on a high _ideal_, that aims at the
well-being of humanity in general, e.g. the ideal of human
brotherhood.
Think about this ideal and eliminate all elements in your
thinking that are in conflict with this, by replacing these with
positive building stones (thoughts).
These thoughts will touch many minds and create a driving-force
for changing conditions in this world. Persistent and purposeful
thinking is necessary to achieve this. By practising
selflessness and selfforgetfulness one will also see effective
ways to help others to help _themselves_.
Many, but not enough, people are doing this kind of things
already for a long time. Do you want to join them?
Changing the thought-pattern. A further investigation.
We have seen already how we can change our thought-pattern. To
elucidate this process further we will look at some important
issues of character.
Marcus Aurelius says in his 'Meditations' that:
"your life is what your thoughts make of it".
This truth is based upon the fact that behind each act there
stands a corresponding thought and the fact that a repeated act
becomes a _habit_. Habits form our character, i.e. our pattern
of life. A critical investigation into our own thought-life will
render an understanding of these facts. From this follows the
conclusion that changing our habits of thinking will lead to
changes in our character! Of course, we will have to exercise
this practice of changing our habits of thinking.
The direction of change should be towards impersonal, selfless
thoughts. There are great examples in history of men and women
who practiced great self-forgetfulness, worked for the benefit of
all, fought against dogmatism, group-interests and injustice,
created great pieces of art,etc. These were the real founders of
civilizations! They can be our examples. Everybody can become a
purveyor of culture and help build a society in which every human
being has the opportunity to open out the best qualities that are
within him or her.
The only thing one has to do is to use the creative powers that
are within oneself. The technique is simple: use your
imaginative power by creating an image of how you want to be!
On the one hand you know what your character is now, on the other
hand you know how you want to be (and potentially are, deep
inside: the human ego!). You can make your personality
transparant to the inner qualities of the human ego (a separate,
but connected entity), allowing these energies to flow through
your personality. This can be called "attunement to the
spiritual worlds", "building the bridge to the inner worlds",
"setting up spiritual vibrations",etc., greatly influencing the
world for the better. These forces work all through the astral
light, the connecting sphere or spheres for inner and outer
planes of being, explaining for example how a thought-impuls
leads to a movement of the body, how telepathy works,etc. (see
lit. 3,4,5,6,7).
By this process you will transform yourself gradually into a more
complete human being. The higher aspects of thinking will be
able to express themselves in you. Our personality is connected
with the human ego. Our thinking faculty is derived from the
human ego. It is from one perspective a kind of 'reflection' of
the pure ray of thought, emanating from our human ego, onto the
turbulent mirror of our brain-mind. More information can be
found in lit.(3).
You will have to form an image of yourself of how you want to be
and perfect this image. This ideal picture will grow and refine
to the extent that your understanding of life will grow.
You will encounter difficulties, no doubt about that, as you will
experience relapses in old modes of thinking and acting. This
should be a stimulus to persist in changing your habits of
thinking. A helpful exercise, sometimes ascribed to Pythagoras,
consists of looking back at , evaluate, the events of the day
when you go to bed. Ask yourself: "What did I do this day?",
"did I do as I planned to do?", "what did I _learn_ from this
day?", "what things can I do better?", "Did I hurt somebody?",
etc. This is very useful for coping with the world's affairs and
will help you to profit more from deep sleep since you already
'processed' some stresses and strains from the day. Of course,
this exercise should be done with a sincere attitude of mind.
Also, you will understand your weaknesses more clearly as your
consciousness is raised. This is only to be expected and these
weaknesses should not be combatted but forgotten.
One becomes what one thinks. One is that with what one
_identifies_ oneself with. Think about yourself as a man or
woman who is capable of understanding the background of life and
who is capable of realizing high ideals in practical life. Be a
creator of uplifting ideas and you will become a living
embodiment of these!
Section 5. Socratic thinking: a question of mentality.
What is lacking in our world?
Plato differentiates between Wisdom and knowledge. In his
dialogues, Socrates proceeds from the point of view that he knows
nothing with _certainty_. This enabled him to question people
about their opinions, showing that their opinion was based on
ignorance of the _real_ causes of life's manifestations. It
enabled him also to avoid _dogmatism_, as his thinking was not
cloaked or veiled with personal opinions or concepts.
Thus, he was able to put himself mentally in the position of
others and understand what the other meant. Seen from the
perspective of the different aspects of thinking we can say that
Socrates tried to use the higher aspects of his thinking,
avoiding prejudice and tradition. This is a _practice_ of the
faculty of understanding and discrimination!
A careful analysis of these dialogues,e.g. Symposion and
Apology, will render much food for thought as to how the Socratic
method works.
What is lacking in our world.
If we apply the Socratic method of thinking to the belief-systems
of people about life and to human life in this world in general,
we will discover that there is quite some dogmatism involved, as
well in religious,philosophic as scientific sense. Often, the
visions held are in conflict with observable facts. Not to
mention the fact that that there are great differences of opinion
between radically different beliefsystems as religion and science
(yes, science too! - see Paul Feyerabend's "against method"). If
we think critically about this, and don't pay any attention to
authorities then we end up with the question: "who is right?".
Now, obviously, this is not a question of: 'what does the
majority of people believe', because truth can only be found by
those who have the consciousness to perceive this truth.
We need a philosophy of life that can answer all pertinent
questions about life, death, suffering, morality, etc. This
philosophy should not conflict with the basic facts of science
(but will conflict with the many speculative theories) and should
conform to the _universal_ ideas common to all great religions
and philosophies (often clothed in allegories and symbolism).
This philosophy should be the natural synthesis of science,
religion and philosophy. It must point the way to a society in
which each individual can realize his best abilities, express his
higher aspects of thinking and lead to peace and understanding.
Finally, it should give safe guidelines for our actions and
thinking.
As I pointed out in my first article and corroborated this with
this second, Theosophy _is_ such a synthesis.
References to Internetresources
Spirit-WWW Site: http://zeta.cs.adfa.oz.au/Spirit.html
Theosophy-WWW Site: http://actrix.gen.nz/users/paul/theos.html
A discussion list on Theosophy (through Email) is available on
request, if permission of the participants of this list is got.
Bibliography
1. Fundamentals of the esoteric philosophy. G. de Purucker.
TUP-press.
ISBN 0-911500-63-4
ISBN 0-911500-64-2
A good introduction to the Secret Doctrine
(H.P.Blavatsky's masterwork).
2. Esoteric instructions #9 , G.de Purucker.
Point Loma Publications, Inc.
P.O. Box 6507
San Diego, Calif. 92106
3. The key to Theosophy. H.P.Blavatsky.
Theosophical University Press (TUP). Postoffice Bin C,
Pasadena, Cal. 91109 - 7107 USA tel. (818) 798-3378
An excellent intro to Theosophy.
ISBN 0-911500-06-5 cloth
ISBN 0-911500-07-3 softcover
Other useful books:
4. The ocean of Theosophy. W.Q. Judge. TUP-press (see #1)
ISBN 0-911500-25-1 cloth
ISBN 0-911500-26-x paper
A concise intro to Theosophy.
5. Echoes of the Orient. W.Q. Judge. (3 volumes)
Point Loma Publications, Inc.
P.O. Box 6507
San Diego, Calif. 92106
Contains many excellent magazine articles (vol. 1 ,2)
and comments & suggestions about esoteric teachings (vol.3)
6. The Secret Doctrine (2 vol's), H.P. Blavatsky. (TUP).
ISBN 1-55700-001-8 cloth
ISBN 1-55700-002-6 softcover
7. The esoteric tradition (2 volumes). G. de Purucker. (TUP)
A thorough work on many theosophical teachings.
Contains also comments on science in the thirties.
ISBN 0-911500-65-0 cloth
ISBN 0-911500-66-9 paper
8. Fountain-source of occultism. G. de Purucker. (TUP)
An advanced book on esoteric topics.
ISBN 0-911500-70-7 cloth
ISBN 0-911500-71-5 softcover
9. The dialogues of G. de Purucker (TUP)
Very diverse, but offers valuable insights on practical
human problems and also profound themes of Theosophy.
ISBN 0-911500-59-6 (3 volumes)
10. Man in evolution. G. de Purucker. (TUP)
A book that analyzes Theosophy in relation to science.
ISBN 0-911500-55-3
NOTE on the use of this text.
All non-commercial use of this text for educational purposes,
discussion, etc. is freely allowed. The same applies for my
first article on theosophy:
science+religion=Theosophy(1).
The _only_ requirement is that a reference is made to the
location of these original texts, i.e. one of the WWW-sites
above mentioned. The reason for this is that people should be
able to lookup these original articles for purposes of reference
and context. Also, interested people can get a copy from me on
request through E-mail.
Martin Euser
E-mail: euser@xs4all.nl
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