Theos-Talk Archives (January 2004 Message tt00435)

MANAS Higher and Lower


	
Re: use of the word EGO
KEY 171.; S D I 445

I think that the resolution is through an understanding of the nature of
the triune MONAD in man. I also think that we are trying to impose a
single word/term parameter in definition and may be losing the IDEAS
that the words embody. If we get the ideas straight, then we can use
any number of descriptive words. But, as usual, students are trying to
get a "short-hand" ready among themselves so as to communicate ideas
more rapidly. 

EGO is a term used in "Manifestation." [ In one sense there are no
separate EGOS when Manifestation is withdrawn into the ALL - the
ABSOLUTENESS. ] However that period of time has an end and under KARMA
manifestation starts anew. The dormant MONADS in their billions awake
and start at the point where they "went to sleep."

How does SPIRIT (THE ONE MONAD) manifest?

IN MANIFESTATION the Monad is triune. [ SD I 570-75 ]	

ATMA-BUDDHI-MANAS are a unit. This is because Buddhi and Manas give
ATMA its contact with evolutionary and personal conditions. Without
those two "principles" there could be no direct contact and the "lower
principles" would be unconscious. They would be "alive" and developing
as "MATERIAL" vehicles but the link afforded by the MIND to the SPIRIT
would be absent.

If one should ask when was the first CAUSE of manifestation, I would
only say that it is lost in the "night of time." Metaphysically it is
said to begin with the CAUSELESS-CAUSE. But this will be unsatisfactory
to a finite mind such as ours limited by its views acquired only during
this one life.

This leads logically to the question: "How can we verify this ?" And
there we are forced back into the position of saying: "You, we, all,
are all in the middle of it." That is a fact. So if you want a
"beginning." You will have to look for yours, and I for mine. But,
taking absolutes and metaphysics in to account, we are forced ultimately
to say that there has to be "a Cause." And we cannot find it. However,
if we are able to ask such a question and search for an answer, this is
proof that within each of us is "Something," a Living able to ask, to
understand, and to seek. It is not diverse but UNITARY. Such questions
come to the embodied mind as pictures wafted to it in its meditations by
the HIGHER SELF - the INNER, RESIDENT "TUTOR."

Technically ATMA-BUDDHI is named the MONAD [ SD I 178; KEY, 91-2, 
119-120, 129, ] But the MONAD is also defined in SD I 174-5 fn, and
elsewhere (see INDEX to SD ). 

This is what the LIGHTING UP OF MANAS implies, as I see it.
[ see SD I 150fn, 159; II 69 264 411 608 ]

If one takes the consideration of what HPB teaches about the triple line
of evolution [ SD I 181 ] and also uses the INDEX TO THE S D then the
matter ought to become clear.

Ego is Latin and means "I" or "My Self." It is the EMBODIED SELF in its
present condition as a "LOWER MANASIC self." But the Lower manasic self
is only a mirror of the potential of its "Father," - the Higher Manas
the true immortal EGO, linked to Buddhi and to Atma - those three
forming the DIVINE TRIAD in evolving Man.

WE all of us, are in this condition just now.

But, because of the antaskaranic link between the lower and the higher
Manas, there is for the EMBODIED MIND (Lower Manas) a "higher aspect to
it." Our present mind is a "RAY" of the HIGHER MANAS - which is
IMMORTAL along with ATMA and BUDDHI. When we aspire to act nobly, we
activate the higher aspect of the lower manas, and the antaskaranic
link.

The Devachanic interlude includes that aspect of meditative review of
the last lived personal life which cements the noble aspects of our
aspirations, deeds and thoughts to the Atma-Buddhic MONAD permanently
- so that the memory of this last lived personality resides permanently
in the eternal, immortal MONAD. All the rest, being unworthy, is lost
with the relative skandhas that relate to it and these are returned as
aspects of our KARMA in succeeding lives to be purified and then
translated into their ultimate permanency. [ SD I 220, II 374fn 196fn
281;
KEY 107-8 ]


But why not sort this out as clearly as possible ?


MONAD -- a UNIT (of what ?) SPIRIT UNDIFFERENTIATED UNIVERSAL
indescribable, illimitable.

MANIFESTATION - MANVANTARA	-- the result of KARMA on a KOSMIC
SCALE.	

Prior causes bring on all manifestation.	The entities that lived
and worked in the pat will return with the rest of those that they are
related to by KARMIC ties.

In Man, this process is Analogetically the circling process of life,
death and rebirth. [ HPB Articles III, p. 265 ; KEY 107-8, 147-148 ]

The HUMAN MONAD is SPIRIT. Without BUDDHI it could have no contact with
manifestation. [ SD I 570-575 ]

BUDDHI is the accumulated record of all experience relating not only to
individual "rays" or MONADS in manifestation, but also on a Kosmic scale
to the UNIVERSAL MONAD, whether in or out of manifestation. For IT
there is MAHA-BUDDHI. [ All the eternal record of experience is
impacted eternally in the AKASA which is an aspect of MAHA-BUDDHI. ] [
All these terms are in the T. Glossary. ]

MANAS is both disembodied and embodied because the Spiritual Manas sends
a ray to unite with the personal material form once that evolution has
brought on a sensitivity in that form which is ready to receive and
mirror it..

This is the acme of MATERIAL EVOLUTION - the providing of a condition in
which those Monadic rays" that have evolved through the "lower kingdoms"
can continue their evolution as SELF-CONSCIOUS beings.  
It is in this stage and condition (ours) that the HIGHER ASPECT of LOWER
MANAS can voluntarily learn to see that KARMA is universal, and that
EVOLUTION leads to the goal of UNIVERSAL PERFECTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
whereby it becomes a truly UNIVERSAL BEING - with all knowledge and
power in its grasp.

But this great future is only available to those who grasp from this
stage on the idea that they have to know KARMA, and knowing Karma, they
abide by its rules and regulations VOLUNTARILY.

If we desire to consider FREEDOM, then the only freedom that any being
has is the freedom to be evil. That is if we define EVIL as
contravening deliberately LAW (KARMA). Is it not strangely perverse
that in us there is an aspect that desires to be so independent that it
stands against the whole UNIVERSE and its great and harmonious, generous
and brotherly laws ? Why should that be so ? And that is a question
that each has to answer for him or herself.

Hope that this is of help

Dallas

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Dallas