CHAPTER VI.

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Western European stream·Ancient Wisdom·CHAPTER VI.

Source context

Theme: unnamed doctrinal content of the sixth chapter of a Theosophical exposition of ancient wisdom

Steiner

not engaged in the GA corpus

Cross-tradition

Theosophical tradition (Blavatsky lineage)The parent work belongs to the Blavatsky-derived Theosophical stream that treated ancient wisdom as a unified primal tradition recoverable through comparative esotericism; this chapter participates in that framework without a verifiable specific-theme cross-tradition parallel identifiable from title alone.

THE BUDDHIC AND NIRVANIC PLANES.

We have seen that man is an intelligent self-conscious entity, the Thinker, clad in bodies belonging to the lower mental, astral, and physical planes; we have now to study the Spirit which is his innermost Self, the source whence he proceeds.

This Divine Spirit, a ray from the Logos, partaking of His own essential Being, has the triple nature of the Logos Himself, and the evolution of man as man consists in the gradual manifestation of these three aspects, their development from latency into activity, man thus repeating in miniature the evolution of the universe. Hence he is spoken of as the microcosm, the universe being the macrocosm: he is called the mirror of the universe, the image, or reflection, of God; and hence also the ancient axiom, "As above, so below." It is this infolded Deity that is the guarantee of man's final triumph; this is the hidden motive power that makes evolution at once possible and inevitable, the upward-lifting force that slowly overcomes every obstacle and every difficulty. It was this Presence that Matthew Arnold dimly “Let us make man in our image, after our likness.”—Gen. i. 26. “Let us make man in our image, after our likness.”—Gen. i. 26. sensed when he wrote of the "Power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness," but he erred in thinking "not ourselves," for it is the very innermost Self of all—truly not our separated selves, but our Self. This Self is the One, and hence is spoken of as the Monad,† and we shall need to remember that this Monad is the outbreathed life of the Logos, containing within itself germinally, or in a state of latency, all the divine powers and attributes. These powers are brought into manifestation by the impacts arising from contact with the objects of the universe into which the Monad is thrown; the friction caused by these gives rise to responsive thrills from the life subjected to their stimuli, and one by one the energies of the life pass from latency into activity. The human Monad—as it is called for the sake of distinction—shows, as we have already said, the three aspects of Deity, being the perfect image of God, and in the human cycle these three aspects are developed one after the other. These aspects are the three great attributes of the Divine Life as manifested in the universe, existence, bliss and intelligence,‡ the three Logos severally showing these forth with all the * Atmâ, the reflection of Paramâtma.7 † It is called the Monad, whether it be the Monad of spirit-matter, Atmâ; or the Monad of form, Atma-Buddhi; or the human Monad, Atmâ-Buddhi-Manas. In each case it is a unit and acts as a unit, whether the unit be one-faced, two-faced, or three-faced.

‡ Satchitânanda is often used in the Hindu scriptures as the abstract name of Brahman, the Trimurti being the concrete manifestations of these. 164 THE ANCIENT WISDOM perfection possible within the limits of manifestation. In man, these aspects are developed in the reversed order—intelligence, bliss, existence—“existence” implying the manifestation of the divine powers. In the evolution of man that we have so far studied we have been watching the development of the third aspect of the hidden Deity—the development of consciousness as intelligence. Manas, the Thinker, the human Soul, is the image of the Universal Mind, of the Third Logos, and all his long pilgrimage on the three lower planes is devoted to the evolution of this third aspect, the intellectual side of the divine nature in man. While this is proceeding, we may consider the other divine energies as rather brooding over the man, the hidden source of his life, than as actively developing their forces within him. They play within themselves, unmanifest. Still, the preparation of these forces for manifestation is slowly proceeding; they are being roused from that unmanifested life that we speak of as latency by the ever-increasing energy of the vibrations of the intelligence, and the bliss-aspect begins to send outwards its first vibrations—faint pulsings of its manifested life thrill forth. This bliss-aspect is named in the theosophical terminology Buddhi, a name derived from the Sanskrit word for wisdom, and it belongs to the fourth, or buddhic, plane of our universe, the plane in which there is still duality, but where there is no separation. Words fail me to convey the idea, for words belong to the lower planes where duality and separation are ever condual but inseparate 165 nected, yet some approach to the idea may be gained. It is a state in which each is himself, with a clearness and vivid intensity which cannot be approached on lower planes, and yet in which each feels himself to include all others, to be one with them, inseparate and inseparable.* Its nearest analogy on earth is the condition between two persons who are united by a pure, intense love, which makes them feel as one person, causing them to think, feel, act, live as one, recognizing no barrier, no difference, no mine and thine, no separation.† It is a faint echo from this plane which makes men seek happiness by union between themselves and the object of their desire, no matter what that object may be. Perfect isolation is perfect misery; to be stripped naked of everything, to be hanging in the void of space, in utter solitude, nothing anywhere save the lone individual, shut out from all, shut into the separated self—imagination can conceive no horror more intense.

The antithesis to this is union, and perfect union is perfect bliss.

As this bliss-aspect of the Self begins to send out- *The reader should refer back to the Introduction, p. 36, and re-read the description given by Plotinus of this state, commencing: “They likewise see all things.” And he should note the phrases, “Each thing likewise is everything,” and “In each, however, a different quality predominates.”

The antithesis to this is union, and perfect union is perfect bliss.

† It is for this reason that the bliss of divine love has in many Scriptures been imaged by the profound love of husband and wife, as in the Bhagavad Purāna of the Hindus, the Song of Solomon of the Hebrews and Christians. This also is the love of the Sufi mystics, and indeed of all mystics. wards its vibrations, these vibrations, as on the planes below, draw round themselves the matter of the plane on which they are functioning, and thus is formed gradually the buddhic body, or bliss 167-body, as it is appropriately termed.* The only way in which the man can contribute to the building of this glorious form is by cultivating pure, unselfish, all-embracing, beneficent love, love that “seeketh not its own”—that is, love that is neither partial, nor seeks any return for its outflowing. This spontaneous outpouring of love is the most marked of the divine attributes, the love that gives everything, that asks nothing. Pure love brought the universe into being, pure love maintains it, pure love draws it upwards towards perfection, towards bliss. And wherever man pours out love on all who need it, making no difference, seeking no return, from pure spontaneous joy in the outpouring, there that man is developing the bliss-aspect of the Deity within him, and is preparing that body of beauty and joy ineffable into which the Thinker will rise, casting away the limits of separateness, to find himself himself, and yet one with all that lives. This is “the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” whereof wrote St. Paul, the great Christian Initiate; and he raised charity, pure love, above all other virtues, because by that alone can man on earth contribute to that glorious dwelling. For a similar reason * The Ānandamayakosha, or bliss-sheath, of the Vedāntins. It is also the body of the sun, the solar body, of which a little is said in the Upanishads and elsewhere. 167 167 is separateness called “the great heresy” by the Buddhist, and “union” is the goal of the Hindu; liberation is the escape from the limitations that keep us apart, and selfishness is the root-evil, the destruction whereof is the destruction of all pain.

The fifth plane, the nirvânic, is the plane of the highest human aspect of the God within us, and this aspect is named by Theosophists Atmâ, or the Self. It is the plane of pure existence, of divine powers in their fullest manifestation in our fivefold universe—what lies beyond on the sixth and seventh planes is hidden in the unimaginable light of God. This âtmic, or nirvânic, consciousness, the consciousness belonging to life on the fifth plane, is the consciousness attained by those lofty Ones, the first fruits of humanity, who have already completed the cycle of human evolution, and who are called Masters.* They have solved in Themselves the problem of uniting the essence of individuality with non-separateness, and live, immortal Intelligences, perfect in wisdom, in bliss, in power.

When the human Monad comes forth from the Logos, it is as though from the luminous ocean of Atmâ a tiny thread of light was separated off from the rest by a film of buddhic matter, and from this hung a spark which becomes enclosed in an egg-like casing of matter belonging to the formless levels of * Known also as Mahâttmâs, great Spirits, and Jivanmuktas, liberated souls, who remain connected with physical bodies for the helping forward of humanity. Many other great Beings also live on the nirvânic plane. 168 THE ANCIENT WISDOM the mental plane. “The spark hangs from the flame by the finest thread of Fohat.”* As evolution proceeds, this luminous egg grows larger and more opalescent, and the tiny thread becomes a wider and wider channel through which more and more of the atmospheric life pours down. Finally, they merge—the third with the second, and the twain with the first, as flame merges with flame and no separation can be seen.

The evolution on the fourth and fifth planes belongs to a future period of our race, but those who choose the harder path of swifter progress may tread it even now, as will be explained later.† On that path the bliss-body is quickly evolved, and a man begins to enjoy the consciousness of that loftier region, and knows the bliss which comes from the absence of separative barriers, the wisdom which flows in when the limits of the intellect are transcended. Then is the wheel escaped from which binds the soul in the lower worlds, and then is the first foretaste of the liberty which is found perfected on the nirvânic plane.

The nirvânic consciousness is the antithesis of annihilation; it is existence raised to a vividness and intensity inconceivable to those who know only the life of the senses and the mind. As the farthing rushlight to the splendor of the sun at noon, so is the nirvânic to the earth-bound consciousness, and to regard it as annihilation because the limits of the * Book of Dzyan, Stanza vii. 5; Secret Doctrine, vol. i. † See Chapter XI., on “Man’s Ascent.” 169 LIBERTY IS REACHED 169 earthly consciousness have vanished, is as though a man, knowing only the rushlight, should say that light could not exist without a wick immersed in tallow. That Nirvâna is has been borne witness to in the past in the Scriptures of the world by Those who enjoy it and live its glorious life, and is still borne witness to by others of our race who have climbed that lofty ladder of perfected humanity, and who remain in touch with earth that the feet of our ascending race may mount its rungs unfalteringly.

In Nirvâna dwell the mighty Beings who accomplished Their own human evolution in past universes, and who came forth with the Logos when He manifested Himself to bring this universe into existence. They are His ministers in the administration of the worlds, the perfect agents of His will. The Lords of all the hierarchies of the Gods and lower ministrants that we have seen working on the lower planes have here Their abiding-place, for Nirvâna is the heart of the universe, whence all its life-currents proceed. Hence the Great Breath comes forth, the life of all, and thither it is indrawn when the universe has reached its term. There is the Beatific Vision for which mystics long, there the unveiled Glory, the Supreme Goal.

The Brotherhood of Humanity—nay, the Brotherhood of all things—has its sure foundation on the spiritual planes, the atmic and buddhic, for here alone is unity, and here alone perfect sympathy is 170 THE ANCIENT WISDOM found. The intellect is the separative principle in man, that marks off the “I” from the “not I,” that is conscious of itself, and sees all else as outside itself and alien. It is the combative, struggling self-assertive principle, and from the plane of the intellect downwards the world presents a scene of conflict, bitter in proportion as the intellect mingles in it. Even the passion-nature is only spontaneously combative when it is stirred by the feeling of desire and finds anything standing between itself and the object of its desire; it becomes more and more aggressive as the mind inspires its activity, for then it seeks to provide for the gratification of future desires, and tries to appropriate more and more from the stores of Nature. But the intellect is spontaneously combative, its very nature being to assert itself as different from others, and here we find the root of separateness, the ever-springing source of divisions among men.

But unity is at once felt when the buddhic plane is reached, as though we stepped from a separate ray, diverging from all other rays, into the sun itself, from which radiate all the rays alike. A being standing in the sun, suffused with its light, and pouring it forth, would feel no difference between ray and ray, but would pour forth along one as readily and easily as along another. And so with the man who has once consciously attained the buddhic plane; he feels the brotherhood 171 that others speak of as an ideal, and pours himself out into any one who wants assistance, giving mental, moral, 171 found. The intellect is the separative principle in man, that marks off the “I” from the “not I,” that is conscious of itself, and sees all else as outside itself and alien. It is the combative, struggling self-assertive principle, and from the plane of the intellect downwards the world presents a scene of conflict, bitter in proportion as the intellect mingles in it. Even the passion-nature is only spontaneously combative when it is stirred by the feeling of desire and finds anything standing between itself and the object of its desire; it becomes more and more aggressive as the mind inspires its activity, for then it seeks to provide for the gratification of future desires, and tries to appropriate more and more from the stores of Nature. But the intellect is spontaneously combative, its very nature being to assert itself as different from others, and here we find the root of separateness, the ever-springing source of divisions among men.

But unity is at once felt when the buddhic plane is reached, as though we stepped from a separate ray, diverging from all other rays, into the sun itself, from which radiate all the rays alike. A being standing in the sun, suffused with its light, and pouring it forth, would feel no difference between ray and ray, but would pour forth along one as readily and easily as along another. And so with the man who has once consciously attained the buddhic plane; he feels the brotherhood that others speak of as an ideal, and pours himself out into any one who wants assistance, giving mental, moral, astral, physical help exactly as it is needed. He sees all beings as himself, and feels that all he has is theirs as much as his; nay, in many cases, as more theirs than his, because their need is greater, their strength being less. So do the elder brothers in a family bear the family burdens, and shield the little ones from suffering and privation; to the spirit of brotherhood weakness is a claim for help and loving protection, not an opportunity for oppression. Because They had reached this level and mounted even higher, the great Founders of religions have ever been marked by Their overwelling compassion and tenderness, ministering to the physical as well as to the inner wants of men, to every man according to his need. The consciousness of this inner unity, the recognition of the One Self dwelling equally in all, is the one sure foundation of Brotherhood; all else save this is frangible.

This recognition, moreover, is accompanied by the knowledge that the stage in evolution reached by different human and non-human beings depends chiefly on what we may call their age. Some began their journey in time very much later than others, and, though the powers in each be the same, some have unfolded far more of those powers than others, simply because they have had a longer time for the process than their younger brethren. As well blame and despise the seed because it is not yet the flower, the bud because it is not yet the fruit, the babe because it is not yet the man, as blame and despise the germinal or baby souls around us because they have THE ANCIENT WISDOM not yet developed to the stage we ourselves occupy. We do not blame ourselves because we are not yet as Gods; in time we shall stand where our elder Brothers are standing. Why should we blame the still younger souls who are not yet as we? The very word brotherhood connotes identity of blood and inequality of development; and it therefore represents exactly the link between all creatures in the universe—identity of essential life, and differences 173 in the stages reached in the manifestation of that life. We are one in our origin, one in the method of our evolution, one in our goal, and the differences of our age and stature but give opportunity for the growth of the tenderest and closest ties. All that a man would do for his brother of the flesh, dearer to him than himself, is the measure of what he owes to each who shares with him the one Life. Men are shut out from their brothers’ hearts by differences of race, of class, of country; the man who is wise by love rises above all these petty differences, and sees all drawing their life from the one source, all as part of his family.

The recognition of this brotherhood intellectually, and the endeavor to live it practically, are so stimulative of the higher nature of man, that it was made the one obligatory object of the Theosophical Society, the single “article of belief” that all who would enter its fellowship must accept. To live it, even to a small extent, cleanses the heart and purifies the vision; to live it perfectly would be to eradicate all stain of separateness, and to let the pure 173 shining of the Self irradiate us, as a light through flawless glass.

Never let it be forgotten that this Brotherhood is, whether men ignore it or deny it. Man’s ignorance does not change the laws of Nature, nor vary by one hair’s-breadth her changeless, irresistible march. Her laws crush those who oppose them, and break into pieces everything which is not in harmony with them. Therefore can no nation endure that outrages Brotherhood, no civilization can last that is built on its antithesis. We have not to make Brotherhood; it exists. We have to attune our lives into harmony with it, if we desire that we and our works shall not perish.

It may seem strange to some that the buddhic plane—a thing to them misty and unreal—should thus influence all planes below it, and that its forces should ever break into pieces all that cannot harmonize itself with them in the lower worlds. Yet so it is, for this universe is an expression of spiritual forces, and they are the guiding, moulding energies pervading all things, and slowly, surely, subduing all things to themselves. Hence this Brotherhood, which is a spiritual unity, is a far more real thing than any outward organization; it is a life and not a form, “wisely and sweetly ordering all things.” It may take innumerable forms, suitable to the times, but the life is one; happy they who see its presence, and make themselves the channels of its living force.

The student has now before him the constituents 174 THE ANCIENT WISDOM of the human 175 constitution, and the regions to which these constituents respectively belong; so a brief summary should enable him to have a clear idea of this complicated whole.

The human Monad is Atmâ-Buddhi-Manas, or, as sometimes translated, the Spirit, Spiritual Soul, and Soul, of man. The fact that these three are but aspects of the Self makes possible man’s immortal existence, and though these three aspects are manifested separately and successively, their substantial unity renders it possible for the Soul to merge itself in the Spiritual Soul, giving to the latter the precious essence of individuality, and for this individualized Spiritual Soul to merge itself in the Spirit, coloring it—if the phrase may be permitted with the hues due to individuality, while leaving uninjured its essential unity with all other rays of the Logos and with the Logos Himself. These three form the seventh, sixth, and fifth principles of man, and the materials which limit or encase them, i.e., which make their manifestation and activity possible, are drawn respectively from the fifth (nirvânic), the fourth (buddhic), and the third (mental) planes of our universe. The fifth principle further takes to itself a lower body on the mental plane, in order to come into contact with the phenomenal worlds, and thus intertwines itself with the fourth principle, the desire-nature, or Kâma, belonging to the second or astral plane. Descending to the first, the physical, plane, we have the third, second and first principles—the specialized life, or Prâna; the 175 etheric double, its vehicle; the dense body, which contacts the coarser materials of the physical world. We have already seen that sometimes Prâna is not regarded as a “principle,” and then the interwoven desire and mental bodies take rank together as Kâmamanas; the pure intellect is called the Higher Manas, and the mind apart from desire Lower Manas. The most convenient conception of man is perhaps that which most closely represents the facts as to the one permanent life and the various forms in which it works and which condition its energies, causing the variety in manifestation. Then we see the Self as the one Life, the source of all energies, and the forms as the buddhic, causal, mental, astral, and physical (etheric and dense) bodies.* Putting together the two ways of looking at the same thing, we may construct a table:

PRINCIPLES.

Atmâ. Spirit - Buddhi. Spiritual Soul. - Higher Manas - Lower Manas - Human Soul - Mental Body

LIFE FORMS.

Atmâ - Bliss-Body - Causal Body - Mental Body.

*Those of our readers who are more familiar with the Vedântin classification may find the following table of the form-side useful:

Buddhic body Causal body Mental body Astral body Physical body etheric dense Prâmamayakosha. Annamayakosha.

PRINCIPLES IN BODY 177

PRINCIPLES. FORMS.

Kâma. Animal Soul Astral Body Linga Sharira* Etheric Double Sthûla Sharira Dense Body It will be seen that the difference is merely a question of names, and that the sixth, fifth, fourth, and third “principles” are merely Atmâ working in the buddhic, causal, mental, and astral bodies, while the second and first “principles” are the two lowest bodies themselves. This sudden change in the method of naming is apt to cause confusion in the mind of the student, and as H. P. Blavatsky, our revered teacher, expressed much dissatisfaction with the then current nomenclature as confused and misleading, and desired others and myself to try and improve it, the above names, as descriptive, simple, and representing the facts, are here adopted.

The various subtle bodies of man that we have now studied form in their aggregate what is usually called the “aura” of the human being. This aura has the appearance of an egg-shaped luminous cloud, in the midst of which is the dense physical body, and from its appearance it has often been spoken of as though it were nothing more than such a cloud. What is usually called the aura is merely such parts of the subtle bodies as extend beyond the periphery of the dense physical body; each body is complete * Linga Sharira was the name originally given to the etheric body, and must not be confused with the Linga Sharira of Hindu philosophy. Sthûla Sharira is the Sanskrit name for the dense body. 12 12 in itself, and interpenetrates those that are coarser than itself; it is larger or smaller according to its development, and all that part of it that overlaps the surface of the dense physical body is termed the aura. The aura is thus composed of the overlapping portions of the etheric double, the desire body, the mental body, the causal body, and in rare cases the buddhic body, illuminated by the atmospheric radiance. It is sometimes dull, coarse, and dingy; sometimes magnificently radiant in size, light, and color; it depends entirely on the stage of evolution reached by the man, on the development of his different bodies, on the moral and mental character he has evolved.

All his varying passions, desires, and thoughts are herein written in form, in color, in light, so that "he that runs may read" if he have eyes for such script. Character is stamped thereon as well as fleeting changes, and no deception is there possible as in the mask we call the physical body. The increase in size and beauty of the aura is the unmistakable mark of the man's progress, and tells of the growth and purification of the Thinker and his vehicles. THE ANCIENT WISDOM

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