Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00052)

In a message dated 11/03/02 4:56:26 PM, wry1111@earthlink.net writes:

>Leon, in Mahayana Buddhism, there is not an effort to understand "the 'root'
>of Consciousness" or "the root of matter," as you have put it, as this
>would lead to an extreme, which is called "eternalism," which would be
>contradictory to the teaching of Mahayana Buddhism, which is to act from
>a middle ground in such a way that as to relieve the suffering of sentient
>beings by generating great compassion (boddhichitta) which is considered
>the antidote to the sufferings of sentient beings. It is hard to understand
>the incredible force of "great compassion" unless one has come into contact
>with it, and it is my understanding that most people have not experienced
>the power of this kind and quality of compassion, but just that of the
>"baby" boddhichitta (conventional compassion).
>
>Leon, re. your statement about Buddha: "His purpose was to instill the
>value of detachment from the forms of matter in his disciples and the 
recognition
>that each individual, as an apparently separate conscious being was, in
>fact, unchanging and in essential oneness or unity with the primal source
>of all consciousness." This is NOT Buddhism. The teaching of Buddhism is
>that everything is changing and that there is NOT a "primal source of all
>consciousness." This is a KEY teaching of Buddhism, in that the whole 
religion
>is based on it.

Thank you for your comments, and I respect your profound knowledge of the 
Buddhistic teachings. However, I never said that Mahayana Buddhism is an 
effort to understand "the root of consciousness" or "the root of matter." 

Those questions are, on the other hand, my primary interest from an occult 
metaphysical and scientific point of view -- that has little to do with the 
laudable Buddhist interest in "relieving the suffering of sentient beings by 
generating great compassion" during this current cycle of their existence. 
In fact, I very much admire this aspect of Buddhism, and have been practicing 
an equivalent of the "eight fold path" (which I call "Dzyan") in my personal 
life. Although, I am not a Buddhist of any sort in an organized religious 
sense -- since I see Gautama, the Buddha, as being no different in his 
understanding of the true nature of reality than any great "Master of Wisdom" 
-- some of whose disciples formalized religious movements on their Behalf. 
However, their moral-ethical basis (or religious practices and teachings) 
cannot answer the questions of pure scientific theosophy (or occult 
metaphysics) that I am asking -- and attempting to answer in modern 
scientific terms (the language of this age) as best I can.

I have no argument with the necessity for the "middle path" to fulfill the 
goals of Mahayana Buddhism, but I see this as no different, in essence, than 
the path of Lao Tse, Jesus, Krishna, Hermes-Thoth, Pythagorus, etc. As a 
result of this "free thinking" on my part, I believe that "a theosophist is 
one who is in the true service of humanity," and can say that "I am a member 
of no cult or sect but a member of each and all." (This, of course, being 
limited to the esoteric ideas and truths concerning the true nature of 
reality that are their common roots.)

Because Mahayana Buddhism bases its teachings on a denial of "eternalism" 
(whatever that means) doesn't negate the fact that consciousness, mind and 
matter exist as intimately connected universal attributes in the here and 
now, and as far back in the cyclic "lives" or "manvantaras" of the Cosmos 
that we care to go. It is reasonable to assume, then, that these triune 
functions, whether asleep or awake, either had a beginning somehow and 
somewhere, or are the fundamental aspects of the Cosmos (based on a single 
unified and fundamental law) -- that continues to exist, whether absorbed and 
asleep in the Absolute or as a manifest plenum consisting of phenomenal 
consciousness (or Spirit), mind, and matter (substance) which are intimately 
linked through seven, ten or twelve coadunate but not consubstantial fields, 
phases, states, or planes, in infinite (subjective or objective) permutations 
and combinations -- that never had a beginning nor will ever have an end. If 
the latter is the case, then it's also reasonable to assume that, together, 
the "rootless roots" of these related aspects of reality, are "eternal" (in 
the infinite sense). Thus, there are the possibilities of an infinite number 
of universes -- of which this is only one of them. Modern science (e.g., 
Superstring/M-brane theory) is getting very close to confirming this. 

However, I understand the necessity of Buddha's limiting of his concerns (and 
those of his disciples) solely to the finite or "non eternal" cycle of this 
manvantara and its associated "sentient beings" -- that have, in themselves, 
also a finite and temporary existence. Nevertheless, this does not negate 
the possibility that the fundamental and triune "roots" of this temporary 
existence, are, in themselves, eternal. Thus, the eternal Monad reflects 
itself everywhere. This idealistic as well as scientific "esoteric 
Bodhi-ism," goes far beyond (deeper than) the pragmatic "exoteric Buddhism" 
studied and practiced (for obvious reasons) by the current religious 
disciples of the Buddha.

I hope you understand that my position, with relation to the eternality of 
the Absolute rootless root of all, is not a contradiction of the Buddha's 
Mahayana teachings... But, that it goes far beyond the limited scope of his 
concern for the welfare of sentient beings during this limited and finite 
phase of their existence in the present state of the Cosmos. I think that 
the fundamental metaphysical teachings of theosophy in the SD, based on the 
pure "occultism" that underlies it, make this perfectly clear. 

Respectfully,
LHM
http://tellworld.com/Astro.Biological.Coenergetics/ABC_bw.html