Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00995)

>Jerry S. writes
>	A "psychic" approach will only get you so far.  To
>go higher, beyond the human mind, you have to employ
>buddhi-manas techniques.
	Side note:  To go "beyond the human mind" is to cross
the Abyss, and enter the spiritual realms.  This is samadhi, which
has two flavors:  impure and pure.

>RI writes:
>The reason I was very interested by HPB's adding "Breath" to the Kabalistic
>~stone, plant, animal, man, angel, god~ is that it completes a possible
>"psychogenetic sequence" which has a curious parallel with my own "inner
>observations" during meditation.  Very roughly, as one sits in meditation and
>tries to hold the attention at the *ajna* chakra, for example [just for
>illustration--could be the ~Sound Current~ or other], the competing "internal
>attention-grabbers" seem to arise in this sequence:  1) the generalized
>"tingling" or "energy" sensation [animating, *prana*] ; 2) physical
>sensations--minor aches, itches, etc.[physical, *sthula*]; 3) inner pictures
>of the "day-dream" variety [desire-feeling, *kama*]; 4) a sort of "talking to
>oneself" is added to the pictures [desire-mental, *kama-manas*]; 5) the
>pictures fall away and an ongoing dispassionate monolog continues [mental,
>*manas*]; 6) the inner verbalization starts to dissolve into a strange sort
>of "place-holding thought without words" [Spirit-mental, Buddhi-manas]; 7) .
	This is an interesting assessment, and I suspect has a
lot of truth to it.  I am not so sure about the order, for myself, but
certainly sooner or later all of these will intrude in some fashion.  Of
course the "breath" is also needed to give a total of 7, and would seem to
correspond to the auric egg.

>Now, because these inner pictures appear so early in the "psychogenetic
>sequence," it has always made me suspicious that they are naturally
>more-often related to desire-feeling (*kama*) consciousness than something
>higher.
	Agreed.  You can always distinguish kama by whether
or not any emotional charge is present.

> In my own continued meditative practice, as my desires have faded
>and I am more often stabilized in the mental and "Diffused" states of
>consciousnesses, I have found that I have a greatly diminished aptitude and
>inclination for forming inner images etc.
	Inner images are prevalent on the astral and mental planes
where they almost always relate to the ego in some way.  Egoic images
disappear on the lower causal plane, where images are more universal
(images of past and future lives, etc).  In the higher causal (coma) there
are no images at all.  The source of our inner images is the Reincarnating
Ego, which is equivalent  to Jung's archetypal self.

>I was half-expecting you sooner or later to say that it was possible to
>somehow create/experience clear inner-imagery at the Buddhi-mental level.
	This is a tricky area and difficult to put into words.  In one sense,
the atma-buddhi level is formless, and therefore without imagery.
However, when we pathwork or yogically visit those areas, our atma-buddhi
is still attached to our manas, and so we often tend to see "spiritual images"
as it were, during our meditations.
	The language of the Reincarnating Ego is symbols or images.
The language of atma-buddhi is direct telepathic communication of ideas.
But these ideas usually mean nothing to us at all when we return to our
human condition.  So they are "translated" by our Reincarnating Ego into
colorful imagery, and it is this translation that we "remember" experiencing
on the higher planes.

> Does the foregoing quoted statement of yours indicate that you, also,
>do not think this is possible?  Are we in agreement even in this, after all?
	As I have said above, an actual atma-buddhi experience (on
the upper 4th, 5th, or 6th planes counting upward) is formless in and of
itself.  The imagery comes in during our attempt to recall the experience
and put it into a human context.  One of the advantages of doing this, is
that by concentrating on the symbolic imagery, a return to the area is
relatively easy.  For example, the Abyss itself is associated with a
great deal of imagery, most of which is associated with death because
entering implies the death of both the ego and Ego, and thus the end
of our human condition.  But this imagery only has value and meaning
before and after the experience, not during it.

>If we are, perhaps we are ready to talk real "technique-turkey.". . .
	OK.

>P.S.:  I was the happiest of men the other day:  I actually found a place (in
>COLLECTED WRITINGS, p.53) where HPB  puts *Buddhi* in parenthesis as a
>synonym for *Spirit*.
	Here is where I will have to ruffle Eldon's feathers a bit--the buddhi
is the vehicle for atma, and thus our spiritual body.  The following is from
my Enochian Workbook (Table 6) as being the components of our Body of
Light (the magical name for the mayavi-rupa):

	Enochian            Egyptian          Theosophy
                    etheric                  khaibit            linga-sarira
                    astral                    ka                    kama
                    mental                 ba                    lower manas
                    causal                 sahu               upper manas
                    spiritual               khu                  buddhi
                    divine                   khabs             atma


	Jerry S.
	Member, TI