Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00028)

June 5th 2004

RE: I'll wait for you there like a stone
Can THEOSOPHY be taught?

Dear M and friends: 


Theosophy is indeed difficult to explain to others. Possibly this
happens because we have to find a plane of common experience Or one
where the inquiry is baffled by a lack of existing explanations that
make sense.

The Hermetic statement of evolution you use is cryptic at best, unless
one has as a basis the idea of the universality of INTELLIGENCE that
ever-grows and progresses working its way through many channels --
ourselves as human "Minds" in particular. The Logic of a "spiritual
base" using a "material form" requires a complete revision of the
ideas that most early religious upbringing have furnished to us all,
regardless of the "religion" into which our family was involved. The
hard facts of "Science" have done away with most of the veils of
theologies. Now that same science of ours has to go into the causes
of physical existence and the many interactions we witness. It is
already moving in that direction, as instrumentation improves, it
shows there are forces and powers in "the very small" that only an
intelligent and conscious NATURE can install, maintain and erect
complex physical structures therefrom. 

The physical view of evolution has decided gaps (which H P B tries to
make plain starting with what she wrote in ISIS UNVEILED, and
completed with the SECRET DOCTRINE).

There are answers. I wonder if you are familiar with The OCEAN OF
THEOSOPHY ? It, I have found, was one of the most helpful texts as it
explains so many things in a simple clear way.

It is available on line through www.phy-ult-lodge-org/ 

In my experience one is able to hold the interest of others by finding
out what they know, and then offering the theosophical explanations
(with which we ought to be familiar). Usually it does little good by
trying to offer Theosophical "doctrines" that refute. See what you
think of this:  

If Theosophy is correct and is a record of both universal wisdom and
history, then (as an intuitive knowledge of facts) it is already
present in each of us (impacted in the human - and universal -
principle named: Buddhi). Our honest mind can see these truths, but
the "mind of custom" which is a repository of our present life's
"memory," has a built in tendency to revert to what it was taught
earlier and has been relying on for a long time.  

Someone once said cryptically: "Regaining the memory of our past
lives is the whole of the process." 

Now that makes sense to someone who is convinced of reincarnation (of
Spirit) and the immortality of his, and other "souls." But to the
average person who living intimately in and with his physical self,
has been taught they live only once, it mens nothing. Of course this
opens a discussion on what, if anything, is immortal And, what is
meant by "soul." ( for this H P B's The KEY TO THEOSOPHY is one of
the best resource books.

In other words, as I see it, the desire to know deeper and better is
one that has to arise in the student or the inquirer. Then the
"teacher" (really an information giver, and, preferably, a sound
logician) can respond. Possibly one of the best ways is by offering
counter-questions -- framed with the object of getting the inquirer
to think things out for him/her self. After all, why should anyone
accept or adopt our "orthodoxy" or "theology?" 

It (innate knowledge) can be drawn out as a logical, honest expression
from anyone, it is already there, but usually, it is found to be
overlaid by our early life's education and theological beliefs and
creeds we adopted because of the family environment we have had. Even
our "knowledge of science" has become a kind of creed, when it wanders
from description of facts, to speculations as to how those facts
originated.

The main value of science and its great powers of description and
logic is (as I see it) that it deals with FACTS of observation that
anyone can make. It universalizes. That is one of the functions of
THEOSOPHY taken as a whole: it universalizes -- and says that
possession of the TRUTH is not the property of any one or of any
single group, or "society.". 

It becomes a creed when "Scientists" defend unprovable speculations
they had to learn to pass their degree exams. Now facts that refute
some of those "teachings" are being found daily.  

The "science" I learned 65, or so, years ago has changed enormously in
that period of time. As an aspect of learning it is universal and
impersonal. It reveals some of the built-in aspects of NATURE and of
her intelligent LAWS that govern, establish and guide the many
patterns of life and living. 

One of its (science's) values lies in showing there is no one single
"Great Man" - an" anthropomorphic God" - that rules us and our little
Earth by His whims. Prayers and petitions for forgiveness are
useless, Law rules and we get faithfully and truly exactly that which
we started into motion. After all, Nature (which is our Earth, Solar
System, Milky Way, and Galaxy, taken as a whole) has constructed, and
made of chaos and disharmony, a vast demonstrable HARMONY in which all
kinds of situations, conditions and sentient creatures live and
co-exist.

Supposing we were to read something like this:


"How man has come to be the complex being that he is and why, are
questions that neither Science nor Religion makes conclusive answer
to. 

This immortal thinker having, such vast powers and possibilities, all
his because of his intimate connection with every secret part of
Nature from which he has been built up, stands at the top of an
immense and silent evolution. 

He asks why Nature exists, what the drama of life has for its aim, how
that aim may be attained. But Science and Religion both fail to give a
reasonable reply. 

Science does not pretend to be able to give the solution, saying that
the examination of things as they are is enough of a task. 

Religion offers an explanation both illogical and unmeaning and
acceptable but to the bigot, as it requires us to consider the whole
of Nature as a mystery and to seek for the meaning and purpose of life
with all its sorrow in the pleasure of a God who cannot be found out.
The educated and enquiring mind knows that dogmatic religion can only
give an answer invented by man while it pretends to be from God. 

What then is the universe for, and for what final purpose is man the
immortal thinker here in evolution? 
It is all for the experience and emancipation of the soul, for the
purpose of raising the entire mass of manifested matter up to the
stature, nature, and dignity of conscious god-hood. 

The great aim is to reach Self-Consciousness; not through a race or a
tribe or some favored nation, but by and through the perfecting, after
transformation, of the whole mass of matter as well as what we now
call soul. Nothing is or is to be left out. 

The aim for present man is his initiation into complete knowledge, and
for the other kingdoms below him that they may be raised up gradually
from stage to stage to be in time initiated also. This is evolution
carried to its highest power; it is a magnificent prospect; it makes
of man a god, and gives to every part of nature the possibility of
being one day the same; there is strength and nobility in it, for by
this no man is dwarfed and belittled, for no one is so originally
sinful that he cannot rise above all sin. 

Treated from the materialistic position of Science, evolution takes in
but half of life; while the religious conception of it is a mixture of
nonsense and fear. 

Present religions keep the element of fear, and at the same time
imagine that an Almighty being can think of no other earth but this
and has to govern this one very imperfectly. But the old theosophical
view makes the universe a vast, complete, and perfect whole. 

Now the moment we postulate a double evolution, physical and
spiritual, we have at the same time to admit that it can only be
carried on by reincarnation. This is, in fact, demonstrated by
science. It is shown that the matter of the earth and of all things
physical upon it was at one time either gaseous or molten; that it
cooled; that it altered; that from its alterations and evolutions at
last were produced all the great variety of things and beings.

This, on the physical plane, is transformation or change from one form
to another. The total mass of matter is about the same as in the
beginning of this globe, with a very minute allowance for some star
dust. Hence it must have been changed over and over again, and thus
been physically reformed and re-embodied. Of course, to be strictly
accurate, we cannot use the word reincarnation, because "incarnate"
refers to flesh. Let us say "embodied," and then we see that both for
matter and for man there has been a constant change of form and this
is, broadly speaking, "reincarnation." 

As to the whole mass of matter, the doctrine is that it will all be
raised to man's estate when man has gone further on himself. There is
no residuum left after man's final salvation which in a mysterious way
is to be disposed of or done away with in some remote dust-heap of
nature. The true doctrine allows for nothing like that, and at the
same time is not afraid to give the true disposition of what would
seem to be a residuum. It is all worked up into other states. 

The philosophy declares there is no inorganic matter whatever but that
every atom is alive and has the germ of self-consciousness, it must
follow that one day it will all have been changed. Thus what is now
called human flesh is so much matter that one day was wholly mineral,
later on vegetable, and now refined into human atoms. 

At a point of time very far from now the present vegetable matter will
have been raised to the animal stage and what we now use as our
organic or fleshy matter will have changed by transformation through
evolution into self-conscious thinkers, and so on up the whole scale
until the time shall come when what is now known as mineral matter
will have passed on to the human stage and out into that of thinker.
Then at the coming on of another great period of evolution the mineral
matter of that time will be some which is now passing through its
lower transformations on other planets and in other systems of worlds.


This is perhaps a "fanciful" scheme for the men of the present day,
who are so accustomed to being called bad, sinful, weak, and utterly
foolish from their birth that they fear to believe the truth about
themselves, but for the disciples of the ancient theosophists it is
not impossible or fanciful, but is logical and vast. Therefore as to
reincarnation and metempsychosis, we say that they are first to be
applied to the whole cosmos and not alone to man. But as man is the
most interesting object to himself, we will consider in detail its
application to him. 

Between Science and Theosophy there is a wide gulf, for the present
unbridged, on the question of the origin of man and the
differentiation of species. 

The ultimate origin or beginning of man is not to be discovered,
although we may know when and from where the men of this globe came.
Man never was not. If not on this globe, then on some others, he ever
was, and will ever be in existence somewhere in the Cosmos. 

Ever perfecting and reaching up to the image of the "Heavenly Man," he
is always becoming. 


EVOLUTION A MIXTURE OF ALL EXPERIENCES

But as the human mind cannot go back to any beginning, we shall start
with this globe. 

Upon this earth and upon the whole chain of Globes of which it is a
part seven races of men appeared simultaneously, coming over to it
from other globes of an older chain. And in respect to this earth --
the fourth of this chain -- these seven races came simultaneously from
another globe of this chain. 

This appearance of seven races together happens in the first and in
part of the second round of the globes. In the second round the seven
masses of beings are amalgamated, and their destiny after that is to
slowly differentiate during the succeeding rounds until at the seventh
round the seven first great races will be once more distinct, as
perfect types of the human race as this period of evolution will
allow. At the present time the seven races are mixed together, and
representatives of all are in the many so-called races of men as
classified by our present science. 

The object of this amalgamation and subsequent differentiation is to
give to every race the benefit of the progress and power of the whole
derived from prior progress in other planets and systems. For Nature
never does her work in a hasty or undue fashion, but, by the sure
method of mixture, precipitation, and separation, brings about the
greatest perfection. 

Hence man did not spring from a single pair. Neither did he come from
any tribe or family of monkey. It is hopeless to look to either
religion or science for a solution of the question. If we take up one
of the hypotheses of Science and admit for the moment that man and
monkey differentiated from one ancestor, we have then to decide where
the first ancestor came from. 

The first postulate of the Lodge on this subject is that seven races
of men appeared simultaneously on the earth, and the first negative
assumption is that man did not spring from a single pair or from the
animal kingdom. 

The varieties of character and capacity which subsequently appear in
man's history are the forthcoming of the variations which were induced
in the Egos in other and long anterior periods of evolution upon other
chains of globes. These variations were so deeply impacted as to be
equivalent to inherent characteristics. For the races of this globe
the prior period of evolution was passed on the chain of globes of
which our Moon is the visible representative. 


WHERE DID THE ANTHROPOIDS COME FROM?

The question of the anthropoid apes as related to man is settled by
the Masters of Wisdom, who say that instead of those being our
progenitors they were produced by man himself. 

In one of the early periods of the globe the men of that time begot
from large females of the animal kingdom the anthropoids, and in
anthropoid bodies were caught a certain number of Egos destined one
day to be men. The remainder of the descendants of the true anthropoid
are the descendants of those illegitimate children of men, and will
die away gradually, their Egos entering human bodies. 

Those half-ape and half-man bodies could not be ensouled by strictly
animal Egos, and for that reason they are known to the Secret Doctrine
as the "Delayed Race," the only one not included in the fiat of Nature
that no more Egos from the lower kingdoms will come into the human
kingdom until the next Manvantara. But to all kingdoms below man
except the anthropoids, the door is now closed for entry into the
human stage, and the Egos in the subordinate forms must all wait their
turn in the succeeding great Cycle. And as the delayed Egos of the
Anthropoid family will emerge into the man stage later on, they will
thus be rewarded for the long wait in that degraded race. All the
other monkeys are products in the ordinary manner of the evolutionary
processes. 

The words of one of the Masters of Wisdom, giving the esoteric
anthropology from the secret volumes, are thus: 

"The anatomical resemblance between Man and the higher Ape, so
frequently cited by the Darwinists as pointing to some former ancestor
common to both, presents an interesting problem the proper solution of
which is to be sought for in the esoteric explanation of the genesis
of the pithecoid stocks. We have given it so far as was useful by
stating that the bestiality of the primeval mindless races resulted in
the production of huge man-like monsters -- the offspring of human and
animal parents. 

As time rolled on and the still semi-astral forms consolidated into
the physical, the descendants of these creatures were modified by
external conditions until the breed, dwindling in size, culminated in
the lower Apes of the Miocene period. 

With these the later Atlanteans renewed the sin of the "Mindless" --
this time with full responsibility. The resultants of their crime were
the species now known as the Anthropoid. . . . Let us remember the
esoteric teaching which tells us of Man having had in the Third Round
a gigantic Ape-like form on the astral plane. And similarly at the
close of the Third Race in this Round. Thus it accounts for the human
features of the Apes, especially of the later Anthropoids, -- apart
from the fact that these latter preserved by heredity a resemblance to
their Atlanto-Lemurian sires."

The same teachers furthermore assert that the mammalian types were
produced in the fourth round, subsequent to the appearance of the
human types. For this reason there was no barrier against fertility,
because the root-types of those mammals were not far enough removed to
raise the natural barrier. 

The unnatural union in the third race, when man had not yet had the
light of Manas given to him, was not a crime against Nature, since, no
mind being present save in the merest germ, no responsibility could
attach. 

But in the fourth round, the light of Manas being present, the renewal
of the act by the new race was a crime, because it was done with a
full knowledge of the consequences and against the warning of
conscience. The karmic effect of this, including as it does all races,
has yet to be fully felt and understood -- at a much later day than
now. 


EVOLUTION IN FORMS LOWER THAN THE HUMAN

As man (the Monad) came to this Globe from another Globe-chain, though
of course then a being of very great power before being completely
enmeshed in matter, so the lower kingdoms came likewise (as Monads of
lesser experience) in germ and type from the same earlier Globe-chain,
and carry on their evolution step by step upward by the aid of man,
who in all periods of manifestation, is at the front of the wave of
life. 

The Egos (Monads) in these lower kingdoms could not finish their
evolution in the preceding Globe-chain before its dissolution, and
coming to this, they go forward age after age, gradually approaching
nearer the human stage. One day they too will become men, and act as
the advance guard and guide for other lower kingdoms of this or other
Globes. 

And in the coming from the former planet (Moon-chain) there are always
brought with the first and highest class of beings some forms of
animal life, some fruits and other products, as models or types for
use here. It will not be profitable to go into this here with
particularity, for being too far ahead of the time it would evoke only
ridicule from some and stupidity from others. But the general forms of
the various kingdoms being so brought over, we have next to consider
how the differentiation of animal and other lower species began and
was carried on. 


GREAT MINDS ASSIST MONADIC EVOLUTION

This is the point where intelligent aid and interference from a mind
or mass of minds is absolutely necessary. 

Such aid and interference was and is the fact, for Nature unaided
cannot do the work right. But I do not mean that God or angel
interferes and aids. It is Man who does this. Not the man of the day,
weak and ignorant as he is, but Great Souls, high and holy men of
immense power, knowledge, and wisdom. Just such as every man would now
know he could become, if it were not that religion on one hand and
science on the other have painted such a picture of our weakness,
inherent evil and purely material origin that nearly all men think
they are puppets of God or cruel fate without hope, or remain with a
degrading and selfish aim in view both here and after. 

Various names have been given to these beings now removed from our
plane. They are the Dhyanis, the Creators, the Guides, the Great
Spirits, and so on by many titles. In theosophical literature they are
called the Dhyanis. 

By methods known to themselves and to the Great Lodge they work on the
forms so brought over, and by adding here, taking away there, and
often altering, they gradually transform by such alteration and
addition the kingdoms of nature as well as the gradually forming gross
body of man. 

This process is carried on chiefly in the purely astral period
preceding the gross physical stage, as the impulses thus given will
surely carry themselves forward through the succeeding times. When the
midway point of evolution is reached the species emerge on to the
present stage and not showing the connection to the eye of man nor to
our instruments. 

The investigations of the day have traced certain species down to a
point where, as is confessed, it is not known to what root they go
back. Taking oxen on one side and horses on the other, we see that
both are hoofed, but one has a split hoof and the other but one toe.
These bring us back, when we reach the oldest ancestor of each, to the
midway point, and there science has to stop. 

At this spot the wisdom of the Masters comes in to show that back of
this is the astral region of ancient evolution, where were the
root-types in which the Dhyanis began the evolution by alteration and
addition which resulted in the differentiation afterwards on this
gross plane into the various families, species, and genera. [SECRET
DOCTRINE, Vol. II, pp. 735-6]

A vast period of time, about 300,000,000 years, was passed by earth
and man and all the kingdoms of nature in an astral stage. Then there
was no gross matter such as we now know. This was in the early rounds
when Nature was proceeding slowly with the work of perfecting the
types on the astral plane, which is matter, though very fine in its
texture. 

At the end of that stretch of years the process of hardening began,
the form of man being the first to become solid, and then some of the
astral prototypes of the preceding rounds were involved in the
solidification, though really belonging to a former period when
everything was astral. When those fossils are discovered it is argued
that they must be those of creatures which co-existed with the gross
physical body of man. 

While that argument is proper enough under the other theories of
Science, it becomes only an assumption if the existence of the astral
period be admitted. But it may be said that neither the bee nor the
wheat could have had their original differentiation in this chain of
globes, but must have been produced and finished in some other from
which they were brought over into this. Why this should be so I am
willing to leave for the present to conjecture. [SECRET DOCTRINE Vol.
II, pp. 373]

To the whole theory it may be objected that Science has not been able
to find the missing links between the root-types of the astral period
and the present fossils or living species. Neither class of missing
link will be discovered by Science under her present methods, for all
of them exist in the astral plane and therefore are invisible to the
physical eye. They can only be seen by the inner astral senses, which
must first be trained to do their work, and until Science admits the
existence of the astral and inner senses she will never try to develop
them. Always, then, Science will be without the instruments for
discovering the astral links left on the astral plane in the long
course of differentiation. The fossils spoken of above, which were, so
to say, solidified out of date, form an exception to the impossibility
of finding any missing links, but they are blind alleys to Science
because she admits none of the necessary facts. 

The object of all this differentiation, amalgamation, and separation
is well stated by another of the Masters, thus: 

"Nature consciously prefers that matter should be indestructible in
organic rather than inorganic forms, and works slowly but incessantly
towards the realization of this object -- the evolution of conscious
life out of inert material." 


See if this is helpful as a method of presentation, and, makes sense
and can be used in whole or in part.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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-----Original Message-----
From: M
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 7:57 PM
To: 
Subject: I'll wait for you there like a stone


When attempting to explain theosophy to friends
(non-theosophists) ridicule seems to be general
outcome. Although interested many cannot grasp the
fundamental concepts enough to appreciate the deeper
meanings of theosophy. For example, a statement such
as:

"The Breath becomes a stone; the stone, a plant; the
plant, an animal; the animal, a man; the man, a
spirit; and the spirit, a god".

would imply, through a literal interpretation, that
evolution proceeds from a stone to plant....to man and
so forth. It seems to be a very anthropocentric
evolutionary progression. Why, I have often been
asked, is it not evolution from animal to lion, or
animal to kangaroo, or even animal to fungus? It is
hard to explain that "man" does not actually mean a
hominoid with five fingers and five toes, an opposable
thumb etc; but "man" is a type of association between
different elements in the manvantara; "man" is a
frequency of consciousness along a continuum of
consciousness similar to different, seemingly distinct
sounds being different frquencies of noise along a
continuum of noise.

>From this little I here this is how I've interpreted
the recent posts from my own karmic perspective.
Here's something else my own karmicity has thrown up
of late: there is a strong analogy between the
theosophical concept of the ego and biological
organisms. I've been struggling to find the right
words for this but I'll try the best I can. The
personal ego is analogous to an individual organism
(i.e. that tree or bird outside your window); the
reincarnating ego is analogous to the biological
concept of the species; and the higher self is all of
organic matter - the unbroken chain of evolution that
connects all of us to to every single individual,
population and species that has ever existed on earth.
Just as the personal ego exists because of karma,
accumulated karma, collective karma etc, so the
individual exists because of the past evolutionary
history (karma) of its species.....starting to lose
it. I hope all of this is not completely off the mark.

Regards,
Mic