Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00027)

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FIRST THIS ...
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>From Theosophy World #10:
TECHNICAL TERMS IN STANZA II
by David Reigle

>There are seven technical terms in stanza II of the "Book of Dzyan"
<snip>
>"svābhāvat," a fundamental concept in THE SECRET DOCTRINE which poses
>fundamental problems.

<snip>

>> The esoteric doctrine teaches, like Buddhism and Brahminism, and
>> even the Kabala, that the one infinite and unknown Essence exists
>> from all eternity, and in regular and harmonious successions is
>> either passive or active. In the poetical phraseology of Manu
>> these conditions are called the "Days" and the "Nights" of
>> Brahmā. The latter is either "awake" or "asleep." The
>> Svabhāvikas, or philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism
>> (which still exists in Nepaul), speculate only upon the active
>> condition of this "Essence," which they call Svābhāvat,

**NOTE**

>> and deem it foolish to theorize upon the abstract and "unknowable"
>> power in its passive condition.

<snip>

>Earlier, the Mahatma K.H. in the first of a series of letters of
>instruction to A. O. Hume wrote (Chron. ed. p. 165):

>> To comprehend my answers you will have first of all to view the
>> eternal ESSENCE, the Swabhāvat not a compound element you call
>> spirit-matter, but as the one element for which the English has no
>> name. It is both passive and active, pure SPIRIT ESSENCE in its
>> absoluteness and repose, pure matter in its finite and conditioned
>> state -- even as an imponderable gas or that great unknown which
>> science has pleased to call FORCE.

<snip>

>All this fits together, then, in supporting the idea that the
>Sānkhya prakriti matches the svabhāva doctrine taught in THE
>SECRET DOCTRINE. But any gain from this match in supporting the
>teachings of THE SECRET DOCTRINE is soon lost. The Sānkhya
>school has been practically non-existent in India for centuries.
>Why is this? Because the Advaita Vedānta school, called in THE
>SECRET DOCTRINE the nearest exponent of the Esoteric philosophy
>(vol. I, p. 55), and its foremost teacher, Shankarācārya,
>called in THE SECRET DOCTRINE "the greatest Initiate living in
>the historical ages" (vol. I, p. 271), refuted its
>substance-principle thoroughly and repeatedly (see, for example,
>Shankarācārya's commentary on brahma-sūtra 1.1.5 ff., his
>summation at 1.4.28, then 2.1.1 ff., etc.). Thus the Sānkhya
>doctrines were studied in India only to be refuted by the
>dominant Vedānta school, much as the Sarvāstivāda doctrines were
>studied in Tibet only to be refuted by the dominant Madhyamaka
>school.

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THEN THIS ...
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>From Theos-l Digest #873
SHRI SHANKARACHARYA
BY H. V.

>A beautiful story is told of Him, when He went to Kashi (or Benares),
>early in life. On his way to a bath in the holy river Ganga, His way was
>obstructed by a chandala-the lowest of outcastes-whose touch is pollution to
>the Brahmana. His disciples ran forward, shouting to the chandala to
>withdraw, but the latter held his ground, and put the pertinent question,
>how the Master could reconcile such proud exclusiveness with

**NOTE**
>His doctrine of the One Life in all.

>At once Shri Shankaracharya did homage to the chandala, exclaiming that here
>indeed was His Guru; who had taught Him to look on phenomena rightly.

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NOTED WITHOUT COMMENT
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Mark
--------
WITHOUT WALLS: An Internet Art Space
http://www.withoutwalls.com
E-mail: mark@withoutwalls.com

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