Theos-Talk Archives (October 1999 Message tl00365)

>>Jerry--would you mind giving me a short-form version of your karma=creator
model.  Thanks, Randy>>

OK. Here is a brief synopsis (4 steps) of the universe model that I like and
use:

Step 1.  Basically, it all begins with the assumption of a divine Monad that
has inherent self-creativity.  This Monad is an expression of Beness.  There
are countless such Monads, all exactly alike and all outside of space and
time.  This Monad is truly monadic in that it can't be divided into parts
(this is how a monad is defined).  It is a consciousness-center, so that we
actually have a monad with two distinguishing characteristics: consciousness
and creativity, where these are inherent characteristics, not components.

Step 2.  This monad self-manifests into space and time as a "ray" called the
spiritual monad.  The spiritual monad is a triad:  a self (purushsa), a
not-self (prakriti) and a connecting force called Fohat.  This spiritual
monad is the beginning of what is called duality, and the I and Not-I form
the first basic dual polarity. These spiritual monads together form the
Cause or impetus for the entire 7-plane solar system of our universe. At
this point, they are karmaless except in the sense that they are themselves
the karmic manifestation of the divine Monads.  They carry the skandhas or
shistas remaining from the previous manvantara, and use these to form this
one.

Step 3.  Because the divine Monad is self-creative, its manifestation, the
spiritual monad, is self-creative also.  So just as the divine Monad sent
out a ray from itself, so do these monads. These manifested monads fill the
upper three cosmic planes, with slightly more definition on each plane down.
Then we have an Abyss, which is a kind of demarcation line dividing
spiritual from the material, the nirvanic from the samsaric, the formless
from form, and so on; this is yet another play on the theme of dualities and
the Abyss serves as a cosmic Fohat connecting the two.

Step 4.  The "rays" now join together to form what is called atma or atman,
a kind of spiritual collection of triadic monads located just above the
Abyss on the third plane down.  Here they also form what is called a
lifewave, a collection or host of individual living conscious beings called
jivas.  We are a part of the lifewave that is manifesting as human beings
and is therefore called the human lifewave. As this lifewave descends
through the Abyss into the lower planes, it develops more and more
individuals; again the collective vs the individual is another play on the
overall duality theme of our universe. On the fourth plane down it manifests
individual vehicles called buddhi and now we have atma-buddhi as the
spiritual or "higher" man, also called the individuality.  Then comes manas
on the fifth plane down, and kama on the sixth, and finally a physical body
on the seventh, the physical plane.  All of this creativity is through
karmic processes, and caused or driven by our own inner spiritual/divine
natures working together.

Karma is both individual and collective. We all pretty much see karma in the
individual sense, but the collective sense is harder to see for most people.
Sometimes things happen to us without any known cause, and we can say that
this is either karma from a past life or collective karma; it can be either
and I would challenge anyone to know which is working at any time because I
haven't been able to see any real difference between the two.  Collective
karma and karma from past lives are pretty much two views of the same thing.
As a fallout from collective human karma, for example, we all have to eat
and breathe air.  We all laugh when happy and we all cry when sad.  Science
calls these things "instincts" but they are really part of our collective
karma (Jung's collective unconscious fits nicely here).

I see no real need to project gods and goddesses, unless we want to
personify spiritual forces (which is OK, so long as we know we are doing
it).

This is a very brief look at a universe model that "feels right" to me at
this time in my development. And it incorporates a lot of what Blavatsky
gave out in the Secret Doctrine. It also incorporates a lot of Buddhism. It
also "fits" with my experience to date.

Jerry S.