A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
Page 135
1. The actor.
2. The determined will.
3. Implements for committing the act, such as hands, tongue, etc.
4. The exercise of these implements.
5. The influence of antecedent conduct.
The work which a man does with his body, speech or mind, whether it be just or unjust, has these five essentials or factors engaged in the performance. (Gita, XVIII, 13, 14, 15.)
These five essentials of karma are divided into 2 groups in the Mahabharata:—1, man’s present action (including the first four essentials) and, 2, the result of his past action (which forms the fifth essential).
“At the same time it must be remarked that the result of human existence is not the work of a day or even a cycle. It is the aggregate sum of actions committed during innumerable previous existences. Each action may in itself be as slight as can be conceived, like the minutest filaments of cotton,—such that hundreds of them may be blown away by a single breath; and yet, as similar filaments when closely packed and twisted together form a rope, so heavy and strong that it can be used to pull elephants and even huge ships with, so the articles of man’s karma, however trivial each of them may be in itself, would yet by the natural process of accretion, combine themselves closely and form a formidable Pasa (rope) to pull the man with, i.e. to influence his conduct for good or evil.”—The Theosophist, Vol. VII, p. 60. (back)
(157) Atom and Electron: See Consciousness of the Atom, page 17-22. (back)
(158) The difficulty of giving one the Wisdom Religion is dealt with by H. P. B. in the Secret Doctrine as follows:—
1. Opinion must be reserved because:—
a. Complete explanation for initiates only.
b. Only a fragmentary portion of the esoteric meaning given.
c. Only adepts can speak with authority.—S. D., I, 188, 190. II, 55, 90.
d. The teachings are offered as a hypothesis.—II, 469.
2. We must lose sight entirely of:—
a. Personalities.
b. Dogmatic beliefs.
c. Special religions.—S. D., I, 3, 4.
3. We must be free from prejudice.—S. D., III, 1.
We must also:
a. Be free from conceit.
b. Free from selfishness.
c. Ready to accept demonstrated truth.
4. We must find the highest meaning possible. S. D., III, 487.
5. We must be also non-sectarian.—S. D., III, 110.
6. We must remember the handicap of language.—S. D., I, 197, 290, 293.
7. We must aim to become a disciple.—S. D., 188. II, 246. III, 129.
8. We must eventually develop powers.—S. D., I, 518. II, 85.
9. We must lead the life of Brotherhood. S. D., I, 190.
10. We must remember that H. P. B. makes no claim to infallibility.—S. D., II, 25 note, 273. I, 293.
H. P. B. says:—
“I speak with ‘absolute certainty’ only so far as my own personal belief is concerned. Those who have not the same warrant for their belief as I have would be very credulous and foolish to accept it on blind faith....What I do believe in is:—
1. The unbroken oral tradition revealed by living divine men during the infancy of mankind to the elect among men.
2. That it has reached us unaltered.
3. That the Masters are thoroughly versed in the science based on such uninterrupted teaching.”—Lucifer, Vol. V, p. 157.
“The Secret Doctrine is no ‘authority’ per se; but being full of quotations and texts from the Sacred Scriptures and philosophies of almost every great religion and school, those who belong to any of these are sure to find support for their arguments on some page or another. There are, however, Theosophists, and of the best and most devoted, who do suffer from such weakness for authority.”—Lucifer, Vol. III, p. 157. (back)
(159) See Preface and Introduction, Secret Doctrine, Vol. I. (back)
(163) The Fourth Round. The present (our) Round being the middle Round (between the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and the 5th, 6th and 7th) is one of adjustment and final equipoise between Spirit and matter. It is that point, in short, wherein the reign of true matter, its grossest state (which is as unknown to Science as its opposite pole—homogeneous matter or substance) stops and comes to an end. From that point physical man begins to throw off “coat after coat,” of his material molecules for the benefit and subsequent formation or clothing of the animal kingdom, which in its turn is passing it on to the vegetable, and the latter to the mineral kingdoms. Man having evoluted in the first Round from the animal via the two other kingdoms, it stands to reason that in the present Round he should appear before the animal world of this manvantaric period. But see the Secret Doctrine for particulars.—Lucifer, Vol. III, p. 253. (back)
(167) The human Ray. “Each human centre is a crystallised ray of the Absolute One that has worked through processes of evolution into what is known as a human being.”—Some Thoughts on the Gita. (back)
(168) The Divine Ray contains within itself seven other rays.
It is the swan with the seven young ones.
It is the Logos of love-wisdom with the seven planetary Logoi.
It is the Grand Man of the Heavens, with the seven Heavenly Men.
It is the One Boundless Principle, with the seven principles.
This is subjectively.
It is the seven planets with their informing entities.
It is the seven planes with their animating principles.
Love-Wisdom is the manifestation of the astral (or desire) nature of the Solar Logos.—S. D., I, 103. (back)
(169) 1. The seven systemic planes are:
1. Divine plane . . . . . Logos . . . . . . .1st cosmic ether.
2. Monadic plane . . . .Monad . . . . . .2nd cosmic ether.
3. Spiritual plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3rd cosmic ether.
4. Intuitional plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4th cosmic ether.
5. Mental plane . . . . . Ego . . . . . . . . gaseous plane.
6. Astral plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .liquid plane.
7. Physical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .gross.
2. The seven differentiations in terms of fiery energy are:
a. Plane of divine life . . . . . . . . .Father . . . . . . . . Sea of fire.
b. Plane of monadic life . . . . . . .Son . . . . . . . . . . Akasha.
c. Plane of atma . . . . . . . . . . . . . Holy Ghost . . . .Aether.
d. Plane of buddhi, intuition. . . . Central . . . . . . . Air.
e. Plane of mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fire.
f. Plane of desire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Astral Light.
g. Plane of physical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ether
Thought . . . . . . Thoughtforms . . . . . . .Materialisation.
Microcosm . . . . . . . Macrocosm.
3. Planes of logoic evolution . . . . . . . . the seven planes.
Planes of Son’s evolution . . . . . . . . . . . the six planes.
Planes of monadic evolution . . . . . . . . the five planes.
Planes of human evolution . . . . . . . . . .the three worlds.
Seven is the number of the totality of manifestation.
Three is the number of consciousness.
One is the number of Life or Spirit.
4. Electric fire . . . . . . . Solar fire . . . . . . . Fire by friction.
Father . . . . . . . . . . . Son . . . . . . . . . . . . Holy Ghost.
Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . Consciousness . . . Matter. (back)
(173) Forms.
1. Divine ideation passes from the abstract to the concrete or visible form.
a. The objective is an emanation of the subjective.—S. D., I, 407.
b. Impulse is spirit energy causing objectivity.—S. D., I, 349; S. D., I, 683.
c. The Logos renders objective a concealed thought.—S. D., II, 28.
1. Privation . . . . . . . Separation. Initial impulse. Energy. Will.
2. Form . . . . . . . . . . Quality or shape. Nature. Love.
3. Matter . . . . . . . . . Objective sphere. Intelligent activity.
See S. D., III, 561.
3. Life precedes form.--S. D., I, 242.
a. The Thinker ever remains.—S. D., II, 28.
b. Force of life is the transformation into energy of the thought of the Logos.—See S. D., III, 179.
4. Spirit evolves through form and out of form.--S. D., I, 680.
a. Spirit has to acquire full self-consciousness.—S. D., I, 215.
b. Form imprisons spirit.—S. D., II, 775.
c. The principle of limitation is form.—S. D., III, 561.
d. Spirit informs all sheaths.—S. D., I, 669 note.
e. Spirit passes through the cycle of Being.—S. D., I, 160.
5. The devas are the origin of form.--S. D., I, 488.
They exist in two great groups:
a. The Ahhi are the vehicle of divine thought.—S. D., I, 70.
b. The Army of the Voice.—S. D., I, 124.
They are the sum-total of the substance of the four higher planes and of the three lower.
6. There is a form which combines all forms.—S. D., I, 118.
See S. D., I, 77.
This Form is the sum-total of all that is manifested, or the entire solar sphere or system. This contains:
a. The ten planetary schemes and all that is therein.
b. All the lesser interplanetary bodies.
c. The deva and human evolutions.
d. The kingdoms of nature everywhere.
e. The involutionary and evolutionary Gods.
f. Every atom of substance on every plane.
7. All forms are destroyed periodically.
Read carefully S. D., I, 397-401. (back)
(176) The Egoic Lotus “...the laws of karma are adjusted, the clue being found in the mastery of the sixteen rays of the Ego, for which sixteen rays sixteen mantras or words are given, the real pronunciation being however reserved for initiates only.”—Kali Upanishad.
“The mystery of the sixteen rays of the Ego will be revealed when the force of the Sacred Tetraktys is merged with that of the Holy Twelve.”—The Old Commentary.
The Primordial is the Ray and the direct emanation of the first Sacred Four.—S. D., I, 115, 116.
The Sacred Four are:—
Father . . . . . . . . . .Spirit. Existence. Unity.
The Son . . . . . . . . Soul. Love-Wisdom. Duality.
Mother . . . . . . . . . Matter. The trinity.
and their united manifestation making
The active evolving solar system, the logoic ring-pass-not.
This is the Macrocosm. (back)
(180) The sin of the Mindless. See S. D., II, 195, 201. This sin has to do with the period of the Separation of the Sexes in the early third rootrace, the Lemurian. The same historical fact is hinted at also in the Bible in Genesis VI, 2:4.
“They (the sexes) had already separated before the ray of divine reason had enlightened the dark region of their hitherto slumbering minds, and had sinned. That is to say, they had committed evil unconsciously by producing an effect which was unnatural.”
See also S. D., II, 721, 728. (back)
(181) The present Round, which is the fourth, is the one in which desire, or response to contact and sensation is being brought to its fullest expression. In the next round, the fifth, the fifth principle of mind, or manas, will reach fruition. (back)
(182) Note the correspondence that can be traced here. On the second plane we have the Law of Cohesion—love. On the second plane of the manifesting Triad, the Law of Magnetic Control—love. Again lower down on the second plane of the Personality, the Law of Love. The accuracy of the analogy is quite interesting, and provides room for speculation. (back)
(183) The Three Outpourings. “In the diagram the symbols of the three Aspects (of the Logos) are placed outside of time and space, and only the streams of influence from them descend into our system of planes....They represent in due order what are commonly called the three Persons of the Trinity....It will be seen that from each of them an outpouring of life or force is projected into the planes below. The first of these in order is the straight line which descends from the third Aspect; the second is that part of the large oval which lies on our left hand—the stream which descends from the second Aspect until it has touched the lowest point in matter, and then rises again up the side on our right hand until it reaches the lower mental level. It will be noted that in both of these outpourings the divine life becomes darker and more veiled as it descends into matter, until at the lowest point we might almost fail to recognise it as divine life at all; but as it rises again when it has passed its nadir it shows itself somewhat more clearly. The third outpouring which descends from the highest aspect of the Logos differs from the others in that it is in no way clouded by the matter through which it passes, but retains its virgin purity and splendour untarnished. It will be noted that this outpouring descends only to the level of the buddhic plane (the fourth plane) and that the link between the two is formed by a triangle in a circle, representing the individual soul of man—the reincarnating ego. Here the triangle is contributed by the third outpouring and the circle by the second....”—The Christian Creed, by C. W. Leadbeater, pp. 39, 40. (back)
(185) Why do we consider this matter of the devas of the middle system (as we might call those connected with this system and with buddhi and kamamanas) in our consideration of thought forms? For two reasons: One is that all that is in the solar system is but substance energised from the cosmic mental and astral planes, and built into form through the power of electrical law; all that can be known is but forms ensouled by ideas. Secondly, that in the knowledge of the creative processes of the system, man learns for himself how in time to become a creator. We might illustrate this by remarking that one of the main functions of the Theosophical movement in all its many branches is to build a form which can be ensouled, in due time, by the idea of Brotherhood. (back)
(186) The Life and the Lives. H. P. B. says in the Secret Doctrine.
“Occultism does not accept anything inorganic in the Kosmos. The expression employed by Science ‘inorganic substance’ means simply that the latent life, slumbering in the molecules of so-called ‘inert matter’ is incognisable. All is Life, and every atom of even mineral dust is a Life, though beyond our comprehension and perception....Life therefore is everywhere in the Universe...wherever there is an atom of matter, a particle or a molecule, even in its most gaseous condition, there is life in it however latent and unconscious.”—S. D., I, 269, 281, 282.` (back)
(187) The Life and the Lives.
1. Everything lives and is conscious, but all life and consciousness is not similar to the human.—S. D., I, 79.
a. Life is the one form of existence manifesting in matter.
b. Matter is the vehicle for the manifesting of soul.
c. Soul is the vehicle for the manifesting of Spirit.
Therefore: 1st Logos, 2nd Logos, 3rd Logos co-operate.
Illustration:
Life of the 3rd Logos—animating atoms of matter.
Life of the 2nd Logos—animating the forms, or aggregate of atoms.
Life of the 1st Logos—animating the composite forms.
2. The one Life synthesises this triplicity.
Let us work this out in the Macrocosm and Microcosm.
Fohat, Prana, Electricity, Magnetic Fluid, are all terms used for this one vitalising life.
The Microcosm is animated and vitalised by prana, and its actions controlled by the indwelling Thinker.
The Macrocosm is animated and vitalised by Fohat; its actions are controlled by the informing Intelligence we call the Logos. (back)
(188) “...Agni, who is the source of all th
at gives light and heat. So that there are different species of Agni (fire); but “whatever other fires there may be, they are but the ramifications of Agni, the immortal” (Rig Veda, L, 59 I). The primary division of Agni is threefold. “Agni,” says the Vishnu Parana, “has three sons, Suchi, Pavamana, and Pavaka” (I, x). Suchi means the Saura, or Solar fire; Pavamana means Nirmathana, fire produced by friction, as the friction of two pieces of wood; and Pavaka means the vaidyuta or fire of the firmament, i.e. the fire of the lightning, or electric fire.
The sources of these three fires I may observe in passing, constitute the three principal deities spoken of in the Veda, namely, Surya, the sun, representing the solar fire; Indra (and sometimes, Vayu) the rain-producing deity, representing the fire of the firmament; and Agni, representing the terrestrial fire, the fire produced by friction (Nirukta, VII, 4); and all these three, be it remembered, are merely the ramifications of one Agni; which in its turn is an emanation from the Supreme One, as the reader will find from the allegorical description given of Agni as being the mouth-born son of Brahma, in the Vishnu purana.
Now, each of the triple forms of Agni has numerous subdivisions. The solar fire is distinguished by several divisions according to the nature of the rays emitted by the great luminary.”—The Theosophist, Vol VII, p. 196. (back)
(189) H. P. B. in the Secret Doctrine refers to “...the solution of the riddle...before which even the highest Dhyan Chohan must bow in silence and ignorance—the Unspeakable Mystery of that which is called by the Vedantins, Parabrahman.”—S. D., I, 352. (back)
(191) The Lunar Pitris.
“The great Chohans called the Lords of the Moon, of the airy bodies: “Bring forth Men,” they were told, “men of your nature. Give them their forms within. She (Mother Earth) will build coverings without (for external bodies). Males—females will they be. Lords of the Flame also....They went each on his allotted lands: Seven of them each on his lot. The Lords of the Flame remained behind. They would not go. They would not create.”—Stanza III, 12, 13, S. D., II, 79, 81. (back)