Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00536)

Adam:

>I had always argued (to myself) that as Spirit and Matter (or Substance) is
>the prime duality, and as Spirit is equated by HPB with consciousness, then
>consciousness is one of the two poles of EXistence. Thus Life which is a non
>polar, non dualistic term must precede consciousness ... which is what I
>thought the SD was saying.

There are different ways that we can look at this. (I'm thinking it
would be fun to put this in my own words.)

At the highest level, Spirit-Matter is unified (Alaya) and its plane is
parentless (Anupapadaka), since there is no higher plane to emanate from.
Each plane successively emanates out of the one above it, and is considered
more material since the Spirit-Matter spilt widens. This creates a sense
of being on a more-material plane.

Anything in existence is life; all of manifestation is life. We
could call the non-existing or unmanifest also "life" as well,
except that in this case the life would be potential, without
visible form or attribute.

The fundamental nature of being (and of non-being as well) is
consciousness. Consciousness precedes existence, and continues
into the non-existant, when a being dissapears from the living
universe. Consciousness transcends the *apparent* separation of
Spirit and Matter, the apparent artificial distinctions created
by the action of our mind in producing maya, in making the external
world appear objective.

Our thirst for material, objective existence comes from a hunger for
self-consciousness (and self-expression, without which self-consciousness
remains but an abstraction). This leads us into embodied existence.

The appearance of the world in a bipolar form, in terms of
dualities, arises from a mode of consciousness that we entertain.
If we change our mode of consciousness, that appearance changes and
the world is correctly perceived as non-dualistic.

What I suspect is that the high point of evolution in a
manvanatara is at its end, if we run the course successfully.
At that time, we've fully developed our sheathes of consciousness,
and are fully alert and self-aware in all our principles, from
the physical through Atman, *while yet in the physical* on each
of the Globes. That is, we've fully expressed, to the greatest
possible extent, the wonders of the highest planes in and through
our being, all the way down and into the outer body or Sthula
Sharira. This represents a full spectrum of consciousness that is
*more* that we have when we leave everything behind, and go into
our nirvanic sleep, awaiting the next planetary manvanatara.
It represents the *fullness* of outer completion, much like the
feeling one gets upon writing the last word of a highly-creative
book.

-- Eldon