Theos-Talk Archives (June 1996 Message tl00860)

M>what forces/consciousnesses/substances are involved in this causation?

J>	The forces are those of order and chaos.  In Hindu terms,
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are alive and well.  Individual karma, on
the astral-mental level is largely the effect of guilt and remorse.

	
	karma on astral-mental level: do you mean karma related to
kama-manasic acts? Desire for personal success, greed, ambition, etc.
seem to be the causal factors there, I think.
 Guilt and remorse are pseudo-realities, rather useless
(especially remorse) I'd say. I mean these feelings/thoughts
are in the psyche's content, but largely due to aeons of dogmatic
theology and inadequate education.


J>  We often suffer today for what we *think* we did in the past.
 For people with a lot of guilt, purification processes, prayers,
and so on work well.

	Yes, until they discover they're fooling themselves
with these things, contenting themselves with pseudo-realities.	

	


Jerry>	Manas is a principle.  I assume you mean here the human
monad (?).

	Yes. But manas is a principle *and* an entity, according to G de P.
	Iow, it is individualized consciousness. I take 'principle' to be
 a form of consciousness (however high it may be). Manas is an
 individualization of Mahat, thus an entity, I think. I checked HPB's
 glossary but found some very short descriptions only.

J>  You
can think of the lower manas as a ray of the higher, but "ray" gives
a false impression, at least to me.  I prefer manifestation or
expression on a lower plane--the Ego (individuality) is on the causal
plane while the ego (personality) is on the mental plane.

	A ray means a manifestation, issuing forth from some source,
in this case the Ego. Does causal plane equate with buddhi or buddhi-manas?
Personality is kama-manas and this is on astral/mental planes (mixed,
I gather). Again the duality of manas is the issue here. HPB says it is
only correctly explained in esoteric works (not very satisfying for the
student to be left in the dark..)



J> We do not have
to be subject to our skandhas, anymore than we need be
subjected or controlled by the planets.  We have free will, and
can (and should) start making some new, and better, skandhas.
In fact, skandhas can be eliminated in what is called the
jivamukti.

	Yes, that's entirely my concept of it.



M>Yes, I think so too. Did you use clairvoyant observation to come to that
>conclusion?
	
J>Memory.  Also, I like Tibetan Buddhism, and they teach
entrance at conception.

	Did you use some technique to revive those memories?

M> But you know more about it, having practiced
>Kundalini Yoga, don't you? What is this yoga all about? How does it work?
	
J>There are two basic kinds of yoga.  In one, we raise
consciousness to a higher level leaving the physical behind.

	Can you give names for this first one? Belongs the practice
of OBE (astral projection) to this first category?
	

J>  In
the other, we bring down spiritual energy into our body.  The latter
is what Kundalini Yoga does, and yes it is dangerous.  <snip>  One of
the goals is to spiritualize the physical body.  Sri Aurobindu tried
this for years and finally announced that because we were so far
into the Kali Yuga, it could no longer be done.  He may be right.

	Where would you classify a) Hatha Yoga  b) Raja/Jnana Yoga?
The practice of Hatha Yoga could effect our body, isn't it?
Raja Yoga has effects on psyche and thought-pattern and maybe on the body too?

Martin