Theos-Talk Archives (April 1996 Message tl01210)

There's a few stray comments I'd like to add to the discussion
on physical evolution.

1. The "survival of the fittest" explanation of evolution
   seems philosophically flawed. That is, it does not describe
   what happens very well. It should be "survival of the
   cooperators". Life is a cooperative endeavor, and as
   changes happen, those species that don't adapt to the
   changes and carve out new ecological niches to exist in
   -- they die off. The important point here is cooperation
   with others being important, not competitive individualism.

2. Some of the early races may have been essentially astral
   in nature, and so we can only trace backward our physical
   ancestry to a certain point. Perhaps this would only go
   back to the Third Race, when we were given our physical
   forms by the Lunar Pitris. (Maybe Rich could comment on
   this.)

3. Considerable information on how our bodies will work and
   even aspects of personality are encoded in our genes
   (in the DNA). I use the word "encoded" rather than
   "determined" because I go with the idea that we are
   basically non-physical beings using the physical form.

   The "impress" given the physical form at conception
   would be strongly determined by the person about to be
   born. The genes, I'd say, no more *cause* our lives than
   the brain *causes* thought. They both are attributes of
   the physical machinery we're using.

   The genes themselves may not be as fixed as we might
   think. I recall reading in "Turbulent Mirror" mention
   of an example where a creature changed its genetic
   structure in response to its environment. (I'm a bit
   fuzzy in my recall of details from the book, or I'd
   mention more about it.)

4. We are basically entities of consciousness. The seven
   principles outlined by HPB describe a breakout of that
   spectrum of consciousness into its various aspects like
   thought and understanding, feelings and desires,
   volition or motion, sense perceptions, etc.

   We are capable of (but not trained in) existing apart
   from the physical body, and could function as full humans
   minus the lowest principle, the physical body, the
   Sthula Sarira. We would exist in our full awareness,
   including sense perception, but not have a concrete,
   organic anchor to call "me".

    With sufficient training, we could create an ad hoc
    "anchor", the mayavi rupa, which would be something
    like a self-created materialization on whatever plane
    we would exist on.

    The various models of the organic physical machinery
    that we've been incarnating into lately (perhaps the
    last 18 million years since the middle of the Third
    Root Race) -- these models change over time. Their
    changes are only a minor aspect of human evolution,
    like the changing styles and fashions of the clothes
    that we wear.

    Far more significant changes are in our minds and
    hearts, as both individuals and cultures. It's in
    the inner lives, in the intangibles for which no
    physical artifacts remain, in which mankind has made
    its greatest strides, even if experienced in and
    through monkey-like physical forms.

There's a few more items I might mention, but I'm running
out of time, so I'll have to stop at this point ...

-- Eldon