Zirkoff B. - EI. Instruction No.4: Difference between revisions

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<center><big>'''INSTRUCTION NO. IV'''</big></center>

 

 

<center><big>'''STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS'''</big></center>

[NOTE:––“Kosmos” (spelt with a K) was used by H.P.B. in the sense of the Manvantaric manifestation as a whole; she often applies the adjective “cosmic” (with a c) to phenomena of the Solar System, and speaks of that system as the Cosmos, and the Universe. Let the student note the passage in The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 13: “The reader has to bear in mind,” etc,; and pp. 20, 21: “The history of cosmic evolution,” etc. Unfortunately, this distinction was constantly missed by proofreaders, and we meet the term Kosmos applied to the solar systems, where she would have written cosmos. Here we shall follow her rule, often expressed, and use the word KOSMOS only for the Whole. Macrocosmos will apply to the solar system, including its seven planes. The term Prakriti will cover the objective plane of the solar system, {{Page aside|657}}with its subdivisions. The term Microcosmos will be applied to man. The student is advised to clearly realize and bear in mind this nomenclature, as H.P.B. laid great stress on the definite adoption of terms, and their systematic use. At the best, the study of the States of Consciousness is exceedingly difficult, and its successful pursuit becomes impossible unless the nomenclature, at least, is clear.]

 

 

<center><big>'''DIAGRAM IV'''</big></center>

Figure A, Macrocosmic.––The student will observe that the study of the States of Consciousness is confined to Consciousness as manifesting in the solar system. Any attempt to figure Consciousness in KOSMOS would have deceived the student by inducing him to believe that such Kosmic Consciousness could be explained, whereas the whole of even the lowest plane of Kosmos transcends the highest Adept on earth. As to its explanation in material words, as well try to confine infinitude in a nutshell. One thing alone we know of Kosmic Consciousness, viz. that it is absolutely outside all terms of earth consciousness.

Figure A, therefore, must be taken to represent the seven planes of Consciousness in the solar system only. These may be figured as six within a seventh, which synthesizes all. Now it must always be borne in mind that diagrams can only show one aspect of a truth, and that they are only meant to help the student to an apprehension of the aspect symbolized. Let us remember we are dealing with Forces and States of Consciousness, and not with water-tight compartments. Thus Fohat, placed on the fourth plane, is, in reality, everywhere; it runs like a thread through all, and has its own seven divisions, each with its seven subdivisions; the Fohatic consciousness is a State of Consciousness everywhere: when consciousness passes into the Fohatic state it is “on the Fohatic plane.” Jîva, or the Jîvic State of Consciousness, is everywhere also, and so with all the other states. Consciousness is one: it has seven states, or aspects, or planes, and each of these is everywhere. The highest, seventh, or synthesizing, state is that of the Auric Envelope,<ref>The student is reminded of the injunction to secrecy as to the Auric Egg. It has been broken by some Esotericists.</ref> the Hiranyagarbha, containing the Âtmic elements and the Karma of the Manifesting Macrocosm.

The “SILENT WATCHER” [see The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, pp. 207, 208] is on the fourth plane.

The Pratyeka-Buddha, the Buddha of Selfishness<ref>See The Voice of the Silence, Fragment II, p. 43, and Note 38.</ref>––called because of this spiritual selfishness “the rhinoceros,” the solitary animal––can never pass beyond the third plane, that of Jîva. Such a one has conquered, indeed, his material desires, but he has not yet freed himself from his mental and spiritual longings. It is the Buddha of Compassion only that can transcend this third macrocosmic plane.

Figure B, Prâkritic.––Prakriti, the lowest plane of macrocosmic consciousness, represents the “body” of the solar systems, with its own seven subdivisions, or the seven states of Prâkritic consciousness, each corresponding to a state of the macrocosmic consciousness.

[NOTE.––H.P.B. did not explain Prâkritic consciousness. She left the student to work it out by correspondences with the macrocosmic and microcosmic, merely pointing out that the Prâkritic consciousness, or that on the objective plane of the solar systems––objective as regards the systems, i.e., densest as to material––had its own seven stages, each such sub-stage forming one of the forty-nine sub-stages of the solar system. It must be remembered that the word “objective” is correlative to the observer; the Prâkritic astral plane is objective to clairvoyants and some animals; it needs development beyond that normal in the Fifth Race to reach the higher Prâkritic planes as objective; only the Adept can pass into the macrocosmic planes beyond the Prâkritic.]

Figure C, Microcosmic or Human.––This figure represents the human consciousness, which may be on any of the planes or sub-planes of Prakriti. The names represent the correspondences of the human principles, so called, with the Prâkritic and the macrocosmic States of Consciousness. The numbers in all the figures are added merely for convenience or reference, and for no other reason, as has been explained already so many times.

Special attention should be paid to the triangle with its apex in the Mânasic state and its base in the Kâma-Mânasic state. The apex is Manas, the Higher Ego, the Christos. This, on sending out its Ray, becomes “crucified between two thieves.” For the personal Ray is {{Page aside|660}}partly pure, partly impure, dragged down by Kâma on the one side and reaching up towards the Higher Manas on the other. It is the double-faced entity. One “thief,” the pure part of the Lower Manas, repents and goes with the Christos to Paradise, i.e., becomes the aroma of the personality, the consciousness of the Devachanic entity. The other, the impure part, clings to Kâma, and is dissipated with it in Kâma-Loka. Thus the reincarnating Ray may be separated, for convenience, into two portions; the lower Kâmic Ego is dissipated in Kâma-Loka; the Mânasic part accomplishes its cycle and returns to the Higher Ego. It is, in reality, this Higher Ego which is, so to speak, punished, which suffers, and this is the true crucifixion of the Christos, the most abstruse, but yet the most important mystery of Occultism, whereof more will be said hereafter.

[NOTE.––The term Para-Ego was adopted by H.P.B., as descriptive of the seventh sub-plane of the lowest Prakriti, to signify that that plane was beyond individuality. She pointed out that “Âtma-Buddhi, on this Prâkritic plane, act more in the atoms of the body, and in such organisms as bacilli and microbes than in man as a whole.” Hence they are well-nigh senseless on this plane, what we call consciousness being very dull. “The Atom,” she said on another occasion, “is the Âtman of the lowest Prakriti.”]

We will now proceed to discuss the nature of the septenary consciousness on the two lowest planes of Prakriti, the Objective and the Astral, viz. the seven States of Consciousness on the Objective Terrestrial plane, that of globe D [in the diagram on p. 200, Vol. I of The Secret Doctrine]; and also the seven States of Consciousness on the Astral Prâkritic plane. First of all we must remember that perceptive life proper begins on the Astral sub-plane on every plane. It is not the physical, or objective, molecules which see, hear, etc.