Monday, November 19, 2007

Origin Of Mind

It is a fundamental principle of occultism that life and consciousness are present in all beings and things. H.P. Blavatsky writes: 'Everything in the Universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is CONSCIOUS: i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind and on its own plane of perception. . . . There is no such thing as either "dead" or "blind" matter, as there is no "Blind" or "Unconscious" Law.' (SD 1:274) However, consciousness may be present in many different degrees of activity or latency.

The first three and a half root-races of humanity in the present, fourth round of the earth's evolution are said to have been intellectually dormant. The fire of selfconsciousness was kindled in nascent humanity by the incarnation of the mânasaputras (or 'sons of mind'), advanced beings from past manvantaras, towards the end of the third, Lemurian root-race.

To understand exactly what the mânasaputras are and do, it is useful to first consider the various parts of the human constitution. A human being is essentially a stream of consciousness and vitality pouring forth from the divine monadic essence. On each plane, or subplane, there are knots or foci in this stream of consciousness, each such knot being a monad, or consciousness-centre, acting though a suitable vehicle, or soul, and possessing an ego, in which its evolutionary experiences are stored up. The monads in man may be classified as follows:


divine or galactic monad (âtman)
spiritual or solar monad (buddhi)
mânasic, higher human, or chain monad (buddhi-manas)
psychic, lower human, or globe monad (kâma-manas)
beast monad (kâma-prâna)
astral monad (prâna-linga-sharîra)
physical monad (sthûla-sharîra)

Man is therefore a composite entity, and 'has within him a divinity, a Buddha or Christos, a Mânasaputra, a human being, an astral entity; and he is housed in an astral-vital-physical body' (FSO 446).

Human beings are essentially human monads, and at this stage of our evolution, lower human monads. Since each monad in our constitution is sevenfold, we can represent the human constitution in the form of a cross. The upright represents the series of ascending monads, while the horizontal represents the seven principles or qualities of each monad, and in our particular case, the globe monad.


Divine monad
|
Spiritual monad
|
Mânasic monad
|
Lower human monad
âtman---buddhi---manas---kâma---prâna---linga-sharîra---sthûla-sharîra
|
Beast monad
|
Astral monad
|
Physical monad

The seven principles of each monad may also be pictured as seven rungs leading from one monad to the next. At present our consciousness tends to be centred in the kâma-mânasic part of the lower human monad. When we have raised our consciousness to the buddhic and then âtmic part of the lower human monad, this monad will have become a mânasic monad and will then embody in the next, higher kingdom.

Above the human kingdom there are three kingdoms of dhyâni-chohans: the great ones, the lower gods, and the gods. There is probably a close connection between these three superhuman kingdoms and the mânasic, spiritual, and divine monads respectively. G. de Purucker states that the mânasaputras are egos from the moon-chain which attained mânasaputric dhyâni-chohanship when the moon-chain went into pralaya (Dia 3:30). Since all three dhyâni-chohanic classes have developed their mânasic faculties to the full, they may all be regarded, in one sense, as mânasaputras.

Where amidst the many monads in man is our own mânasaputra? G. de Purucker points out that there are in fact two mânasaputras within us: our own individual mânasaputra whose powers are not yet fully evolved, and the mânasaputra which awakened us in the third root-race (Dia 3:35, 53). Our own individual mânasaputra is the higher manas or buddhi-manas of the lower human monad (Dia 3:155), while the mânasaputra which inflamed us is the mânasic or higher human monad (Dia 2:280; 3:210-11). The two mânasaputra are usually children of the same parent star.

The close karmic bond between the two mânasaputras becomes clear if we consider what we, the animals, and the mânasaputras were on the moon-chain, the former embodiment of the earth-chain. The average and higher humans of the present earth-chain were the beast monads in the humans on the moon. At the end of the seventh round on the moon-chain these human monads entered the lower dhyâni-chohanic kingdom and therefore became mânasic monads. These are the mânasaputras which awakened our minds. In other words, when our mânasaputras were human monads on the moon, we were their beast monads. The beast monads in the higher lunar animals are now our own beast monads, and, if we make the grade, we shall act as their inflaming mânasaputras on the next embodiment of the earth-chain, when they will have become lower human monads (earth pitris), and we, higher human monads or mânasic monads (Dia 3:358-9; SOP 190).

The 'inflaming' mânasaputra is sometimes referred to as our spiritual soul or highest human soul, and our own human soul may be regarded as its ray or projection (Dia 1:198; SOP 468). Our human souls are 'the children of the Mânasaputras, whose destiny it is to call them to selfconsciousness' (Dia 1:202). The mânasaputras are both ourselves and not ourselves. Although they are part of our constitution, they are not we, the lower human egos, but our higher natures which brought our egos forth; they are in fact a separate monad (Dia 3:360). It was their karmic duty to sacrifice themselves by overenlightening the lower human part of us and helping to raise it to their own high level. The mânasaputras continue to overenlighten us, but are also evolving in their own high sphere, presumably the janar-loka (BCW 12:Diagram V). In most cases they are scarcely conscious at the present time that they are the directing geniuses of some human being (Dia 3:39).

The 'inflaming' mânasaputra may be called our higher ego (Dia 2:296), though the higher human ego may also be regarded as an essential part of ourselves (i.e. of the lower human monad) which is not yet awakened (Dia 3:34). Strictly speaking, we should draw a distinction between the reembodying ego (or chain ego) and the reincarnating ego (or globe ego) (FSO 564-5; Dia 3:336-7). We could then call the 'inflaming' mânasaputra the reembodying ego and our own inner mânasaputra the reincarnating ego. However this distinction is not always made, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. On one occasion, G. de Purucker says that the sleeping human soul was awakened by the mânasaputras, enabling it to evolve the egoic reincarnating faculty and become a reincarnating ego, and that the destiny of the reincarnating ego is to become a mânasaputra itself (Dia 2:468-9). HPB simply says that 'our Egos, the Principle which reincarnates, are called in The Secret Doctrine, the Mânasaputra' (BCW 12:607fn).

Likewise, the higher human monad, or spiritual-intellectual monad, and the lower human monad, or human-animal monad, are sometimes referred to collectively as the human monad. On one occasion, for instance, it is said that an animal monad develops into a human monad, then into a mânasaputra or solar monad, and later into a divine monad (Dia 1:324). This would imply that the human monad is the chain-monad and the mânasaputra the solar monad, but elsewhere both these points are denied (Dia 2:461; 2:296). The varying meanings given to these terms are no doubt intended to prevent us from allowing our ideas to crystallize!

Just as there are two mânasaputras in us, so there are two inner gods: the divine monad (the god of the upright), and the as yet unevolved âtmic part of the human monad (the god of the horizontal). G. de Purucker explains that when the neophyte undergoing initiation cries: 'O god of me, why hast thou forsaken me!' this refers to the fact that the human ego must face the trials of initiation alone. But the second cry on the cross: 'O my divinity, how dost thou glorify me!' is uttered when the human ego has discovered the divinity at the heart of its own human monadic essence. Our task is therefore to discover the divinity of the horizontal as well as of the vertical (Dia 3:261-7).

At the very beginning of the fourth round, the human kingdom on this globe was represented by a relatively small number of shishtas. G. de Purucker writes: 'They began to feel the impulse of the inflowing of egos from the Third Round, coming from Globe C on to this Globe D. With each new impulse, the Shishtas in the bodies began to prepare more freely to provide the bodies for the coming stream of reembodying egos or mânasaputras. Hence, when the proper time came, the Shishtas had become millions instead of being, let us say, a few thousands. Then, among these Shishtas, the incoming Mânasaputras began to pick each one the body most closely allied to it by karmic destiny, and began to overshadow it little by little, but progressively more as the ages advanced; much as the incoming mind or Reincarnating Ego reincarnates little by little in the growing child.' (Dia 3:188)

This means that the mânasaputras actually 'descended' before the third root-race. However, it was only in the latter part of the third root-race (beginning in the fifth subrace) that the psychophysical constitution of the bulk of humanity was sophisticated enough to begin to manifest our latent mental faculties and the awakening of our minds could truly begin. This process is continuing even today, at different rates according to our karmic background. However, what happened in the third root-race was a recapitulation of what took place in the third round (beginning, presumably, in the fifth root-race). But even in the first and second rounds, there were selfconscious 'humans', in whom the mânasaputras had incarnated. These must have been those who had reached the very highest human stage by the close of the seventh round on the moon.

The mânasaputras which called our latent mental powers into selfconscious activity are dhyâni-chohans of the lowest class (SOP 176). However, the whole process was started off by even higher mânasaputras, dhyâni-chohans who were already mânasaputras on the moon-chain (SOP 190, 468). 'They were the Mahâtmans on the moon become gods when the moon men became dhyânized' (SOP 267). It was these beings which incarnated among the men of the third root-race as the divine teachers and guides. They taught the arts and sciences, founded the first mystery schools, and struck the keynotes of spiritual wisdom. When their work was accomplished, they returned to their own sublime spheres. These mânasaputras must have been dhyâni-chohans of the higher two classes (Dia 3:360). We know, at any rate, that the bulk of the lowest dhyâni-chohanic life-wave is just opening its first root-race on globe C (SOP 196; Dia 2:358).

How do the mânasaputras accomplish their work? G. de Purucker says that the mânasaputra does not literally 'come down' into the flesh. '"Incarnation" and "descent" when so used are figures of speech. What actually happens is that the Mânasaputra surrounds, incloses, with its own aura, with its vital atmosphere, the soul which it is its karmic duty to "awaken".' (Dia 2:470) The mânasaputra infused a portion of its own spiritual-intellectual fire, its own psycho-vital life into the as yet sleeping, undeveloped human soul, just as the fire penetrates into the molecules of gold and makes it glow molten (Dia 2:471). The process may also be likened to the kindling of an unlighted candle by the flame of a burning candle.

De Purucker says that the mânasaputras 'quickened and enlightened in us the Manas-manas of our manas-septenary, because they themselves are typically mânasic in their essential characteristic or svabhâva. Their own essential or mânasic vibrations, so to say, could cause that essence of Manas in ourselves to vibrate in sympathy, much as the sounding of a musical note will cause sympathetic response in something like it, a similar note in other things.' (OG 99) In other words, the life-atoms composing the soul and aura of the mânasaputras evoked sympathetic (mânasic) vibrations in our own human soul.

Something similar takes place in the relationship between parents and children, teacher and pupil, master and chela. The child learns not only by instruction, example, and imitation, but also by the interchange of life-atoms, especially on the unseen levels of our constitution.

The human brain is a deposit of thought-fluid and therefore of the mânasic essence in the individual; it is 'the focus of the Mânasaputric influence working through the human Manas'. 'During the lifetime of the body, the life-atoms in the brain are continuously bathed with âkâsha; and it is through the âkâsha in the human constitution that the Mânasaputra works' (Dia 3:371). It is because of this connection with the Mânasaputric fluid that the life-atoms of the brain are the most ethereal in the human body.

Every kingdom helps to advance the evolution of the kingdom below it. This, too, takes place by an exchange of life-atoms (SOP 176; FSO 620). Without this inspiring influence of the higher kingdoms, the pace of evolution would be desperately slow. But in reality, nature is interlinked in all its parts: 'From Gods to men, from Worlds to atoms, from a star to a rush-light, from the Sun to the vital heat of the meanest organic being -- the world of Form and Existence is an immense chain, whose links are all connected' (SD 1:604).


Abbreviations:
BCW H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings

Dia Dialogues of G. de Purucker

FSO Fountain-Source of Occultism

OG Occult Glossary (2nd ed.)

SD The Secret Doctrine

SOP Studies in Occult Philosophy
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