Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00306)

Jerry S:

>>Is the term "abyss" meant to imply a "dark night of the soul"
>>experience for those that cross it? Then it would be akin to
>>the western experience of transcending the personality of
>>rising to the pure experience of unqualified consciousness.

>They are different but similar thing. The Abyss is
>an objective "place" in the invisible worlds around us. It is
>the demarcation line between the upper three cosmic planes
>arupa and the lower four rupa.

Yes it exists on different scales of being. In us there's
an gap between

Auric Egg / Buddhi / Manas

and

Kama-Manas / Kama / Prana / Linga-Sharira

that corresponds to this gap in the planes. We have this
gap both within our constitution and externally in the
world in which we live.

>The Dark-Night-of-the-Soul
>is an anguishing experience that most of us go through at
>some point in which the human mind eventually
>comes to terms with the fact that its limited nature will never
>allow it to fully understand or comprehend the infinite spirit.

This happens when we recognize the emptiness of our external
life and start looking within for something more. That search
leads us to the Path and to an awakening spirituality.

It happens again in Initiation when we are separated from
our higher self our Manasaputra and become a Manasaputra
in our own right.

It happens at different situations in life when we step outside
our old limits and become something more.

>Technically the Abyss marks the end or beginning of
>the Ego not the ego/personality which is limited to the
>3rd plane. Thus the Abyss stands just above the
>Reincarnating Ego and just below the atma.

I wouldn't put it that high but rather place it somewhere
between higher and lower Manas. It separates the ordinary
sense of self and personality and the pure functioning of
mind where mind does not objectify the external world.

>>It would be more like a "sweet melting" leading
>>to a sense of "eternal delight" rather than a "dive into
>>the dark unknown" or a "shattering".

>It is "eternal delight" to atmic consciousness
>but the Abyss is a "dark unknown" of incoherence and
>insanity e.g. the unconscious to the ego/personality.

It depends upon how awake and pervasive the influence of the
higher principles are. If the qualities of Atma and Buddhi
are starting to prevade our constitution then it's more like
a fade-out of the lower and a fade-in of the higher with no
dark in-between space. We have the sweetness of the higher
in our lives and we shift our emphasis to it. This is different
than when the higher principles are mostly mute in our external
personality. In that case it's like a jump into the unknown
betcause there's no continunity. In one case Atma and Buddhi
are present and still persent in increasing intensity as the
lower principles fade out to the background. In the other case
Atma and Buddhi are not realized and one is fading out from
the lower principles and moving into a black unknown an abyss
with no qualities of consciousness perserving a continunity over
the transition.

>It is exactly what the ego sees when it faces the
>unconscious in Jungian terms. Not a pretty sight
>because the ego sees its own death within.

But the ego doesn't die. It's just I think it improves.
It creates the everyday maya of an objective material world.
This and other byproducts of its existence which cloud our
minds and darken our hearts -- all disappear. The personality
becomes a clear lens to view life through rather than a narrow
box to be locked up within.

-- Eldon