CHAPTER XIII
THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Could one but understand what Consciousness
really is, one would find the clue to all problems in evolution. For consciousness is the
highest expression of that One Existence which
is both force and matter, form and life.
OM, AMITAYA! measure not with words
The Immeasurable; nor sink the string of thought
Into the Fathomless. Who asks doth err,
Who answers, errs. Say nought!1
Yet such is the fabric of our nature that we
must ask, and we can find satisfaction in life only
as we deem ourselves to have found answers to
our questions. The answer of yesterday may
not satisfy us today; but we cannot be content
today, unless we find some answer for today,
though we may discard it tomorrow. An intellectual grasp of how consciousness evolves
only takes us part way to the realization of what
consciousness is. Nevertheless, the knowledge
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1
The Light of Asia, Book VIII.
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of how consciousness evolves is the science of
sciences.
The first great marvel about consciousness is
that the whole is in the part, the total is in the
unit. For, though the consciousness in an electron be as a pinpoint of consciousness, yet that
tiny unit is linked to the vast totality of consciousness which is the Logos. All of Him is
there, though we with our limitations can only
discover so much of Him as makes the electron.
Just as, when a myriad diffused rays of sunlight
are focused by a lens into a point, all the ray's
energies are there in that point, so is it with
every type of consciousness ensouling every
form. All possible revelations of consciousness
are in each ensouled unit, great or small. The
Mendelian biologist is only stating the occult
truth when he says that “Shakespeare once
existed as a speck of protoplasm not so big as a
small pin's head”1. Place a lens before a great
panorama extending for miles; the lens will
bring all the rays of the panorama in to one focal
point. The whole landscape will there exist in
the point, and yet there will be no picture to be
seen. It is only as we get away from the focal
point, that picture after picture will appear on
a screen placed to reflect the rays, each picture
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1
Bateson, Presidential Address, British Association, 1914.
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varying in size according to the distance from
the point where we place the screen. According to the distance is the size of the picture;
and according to the size will be the legibility of
the picture's details. The picture is all there
in the point; it is only as we get away from the
point that the picture steps out of nothing towards us. This is an apt illustration of the
evolution of consciousness.
The evolution of consciousness is also as the
drawing aside of a curtain which screens a
light; the action of drawing the curtain aside
adds nothing to the light. Having nothing to
gain, the Light only wills to banish the Darkness. Till we ourselves consciously identify
ourselves with the Light, we shall not realize
why It so wills. Its action is both a sacrifice
and a joy; the sacrifice comes from enduring
a limitation, the joy from a giving. To partake
of that Sacrifice and of that Joy is to attain
Divinity.
The evolution of consciousness in man is by
giving. The principle of growth for the animal
and vegetable kingdoms is competition, rivalry
and self-seeking; the principle of growth for
man is cooperation, renunciation and self-sacrifice. The Logos is eternally sacrificing
Himself on the cross of life and matter; only
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as man imitates Him does man grow into His
likeness. This is the great principle ever to
keep in mind. The consciousness in man unfolds hidden possibilities stage by stage, but
without self-sacrifice there, is no passing from
one stage to the next. Man must die to every
remnant of the brute in him, though it takes
hundreds of lives. When, after many births
and deaths, self-sacrifice has become instinctive
with him, then he knows that sacrifice is joy, the
only conceivable joy.
Before consciousness can evolve, it must first
have been in-volved. It is this process of involution which we have outlined in our next
diagram, Fig. 115.
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There are in it seven
horizontal divisions to make the seven great
planes of our solar system; and above them all
is the symbol of the Unmanifested Logos, before creative processes begin. Within the
circle, which represents the Absolute, is a triangle. This is the Trinity of the Logos.
Within that triangle is a Star; it represents the
Monad of man.
As the first step of involution, the Logos
descends on to the Adi plane; there all the
three great aspects, as Shiva, Vishnu and
Erahma, or Father, Son and Holy Ghost, function in perfection. When the Logos descends
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to the next plane, the Anupadaka, He endures
limitation, for His aspect as the First Logos is
there latent, and only the aspects as the Second
and Third Logos can find perfect expression.
This is represented in the diagram by omitting
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the side of the triangle which symbolizes the
First Logos. At the, next stage of descent, the
Logos undergoes still further limitation, and
the Third Logos alone can fully manifest on
the plane of Nirvana, the aspects of the Second
and First Logos finding it impossible to manifest
Their attributes on that plane. Only one line
of the triangle remains.
Perhaps it may be difficult to some to grasp
how an omnipotent Logos should suffer limitation, as He descends from plane to plane. We
can grasp the idea, if we take an example from
our knowledge of space relations. We all
know what a cube is; it has three dimensions,
of length, breadth and height. To everyone
who can walk round a cube, and look down
upon it, and look too at its bottom by lifting it,
a cube is a solid object, having six square faces,
with twelve bounding lines. But suppose we
put ourselves into the consciousness of a microbe who is on a piece of paper, a microbe
who is unable to lift himself out of the surface
of the paper. Then, when the cube is placed
on the paper, the microbe, coming up to the
cube, and walking round the cube where it
touches the paper, will see or feel only four
equal, impenetrable lines; with his highest
imagination, he may be able to conceive of a
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square, that is, a plane surface bounded by
four equal lines. But, since the microbe cannot leave the plane of the paper, the cube will
never be able to reveal itself to him as a cube,
a solid in three dimensions. The cube may
present its six faces in succession before the
microbe's eyes; but the microbe will say each
time: "It is only a square."
So too, when any object of three dimensions
presents itself to a consciousness which knows
only two dimensions, that object undergoes a
limitation. That limitation is not in the nature
of the object; it exists with reference to the
power which the object can exercise in the two-dimensional world. Similarly it is with the
limitations which the Logos undergoes, as He
descends from plane to plane. In His Nature,
He is ever the same; but as He works on the
planes which He creates, He suffers limitation
plane by plane, according to the materiality of
the plane.
During all the period of the descent of the
Logos on to the three highest planes, the human Monad dwells within Him. This fact is
symbolized in the diagram by the tiny star
within the triangle. There is never a moment
when each of us, as a Monad, does not live and
move and have our being in Him. Though at
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first we know nothing of Him, though we, even
when knowing, may for a while go contrary to
His Will, yet, in all the stages through which
we have gone, from mineral to plant, from
plant to animal and man, no separation from
Him has ever been possible. Thus speaks the
ancient stanza of The Secret Doctrine:1
The Spark hangs from the Flame by the finest
thread of Fohat. It journeys through the Seven Worlds
of Maya. It stops in the First, and is a Metal and a
Stone; it passes into the Second, and behold — a Plant;
the Plant whirls through seven changes and becomes a
Sacred Animal. From the combined attributes of these
Manu, the Thinker, is formed.
And ever, the Spark hangs from the Flame.
The sense of individuality, as a doer, begins in
the Monad when, on the plane of Nirvana, he
finds himself as a triplicity of Atma, Buddhi
and Manas, separate from the Flame as a spark,
and yet gaining from the Flame all the attributes of its light and fire. The triple Monad,
on the plane of Nirvana, is a miniature Logos,
in all ways in the image of his Maker. He is
represented in the diagram by the little
triangle.
Just as the Logos underwent a process of
involution, so too does the Monad in his turn.
1
By H. P. Blavatsky.
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All three aspects of the Monad reveal themselves on his true plane, that of Nirvana. The
moment he descends to the Buddhic plane, he
undergoes a limitation, and his aspect as the
Atma is veiled, and only Buddhi and Manas
manifest themselves. So one side of his triangle
becomes unmanifest and latent. Similarly,
when he descends one plane lower still, to
the mental plane, he undergoes a further limitation; and, in the causal body which he forms
there, only his aspect as Manas appears, the
other two being latent with regard to the higher
mental plane. Now only one side of his
triangle, its base, can manifest.
Once again, there begins the process of involution, and now of the Ego who lives in the
causal body. When the Ego descends into
incarnation, he undergoes limitation plane by
plane, as he makes successively the mental,
astral and physical bodies.
The evolution of consciousness is the process
of releasing the hidden energies, first of the Ego,
then of the Monad, and lastly of the Logos,
through the vehicles made on all the planes.
The mode of releasing the consciousness of the
Ego, by the process of training his vehicles, has
already been dealt with in Chapter VI, “Man in Life and in Death”, where the process is
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described with the aid of Fig. 53. After the
Ego has gained the requisite control of his vehicles, the next
stage in the expansion of his consciousness comes when he enters the Great
White Brotherhood. He is then taught, at the
First Initiation, how to function in full consciousness on the lowest sub-plane of Buddhi.
Then, for the first time, he begins to know, by
actual realization and not by mere belief, the
unity of all that lives, and how his destiny is
indissolubly linked with the destiny of all the
myriads of souls who with him form Humanity.
Nay, more, he realizes that they are a part of
him, and that all those divisions of “I” and
“thou,” of “mine” and “thine” which
mark existence on the planes below Buddhi,
are illusions. He has now, at this ascending
stage on the Buddhic plane, realized and
brought into manifestation two sides of his
triangle.
Further expansions of consciousness, at the
Second, Third and Fourth Initiations, give him
mastery of the remaining sub-planes of the
Buddhic plane, till, at the Fifth Initiation,
that of the Asekha, his consciousness works
unbrokenly on the plane of Nirvana. The
triangle of the Monad is now complete, and
the “Eternal Pilgrim” has now returned
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home, “rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with
him”.
Him the Gods envy from their lower seats;
Him the Three Worlds in ruin should not shake;
All life is lived for him, all deaths are dead;
Karma will no more make.
New houses. Seeking nothing, he gains all;
Foregoing self, the Universe grows “I”.
If any teach Nirvana is to cease,
Say unto such they lie.
If any teach Nirvana is to live,
Say unto such they err; not knowing this,
Nor what light shines beyond their broken lamps,
Nor lifeless, timeless, bliss.1
At this stage of the Asekha Adept, the
Monad knows, by direct realization, that marvel
of marvels — that, Spark though he be, he is
the Flame. He is thenceforth the Christos,
the “Anointed”, crowned with that kingly
Crown which, as the Son of God, he went forth
“to war” to gain.
From this time, the triangle of the Monad is
in direct contact with the Triangle of the
Logos, though only with one line of it, with its
base, which is the aspect of the “Holy Ghost”.
Hence Christian tradition tells us that there are
two baptisms, one of water and the other of
“fire”. John the Baptist could give the first
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1 The Light of Asia, Book VIII.
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baptism, with water; but only a Christos could
give the second, with the Holy Ghost and fire:
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier
than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear;
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and
with fire.”
It is when the Monad is so baptized “with
the Holy Ghost and with fire”, that he can say
in triumph and in dedication: “As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father ....
I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die .... I and my Father
are one.”
To further heights still, inconceivable now to
us, does the Eternal Pilgrim go, making, on the
Anupadaka plane, his Buddhi one with the
Buddhi of the great Triangle and, at last, on the
Adi plane, making his Atma one with the
eternal Atma of all that is, was and ever shall
be, the Logos of our System.
Man's ascent to Divinity can be studied from
many points of view, and another such is given
in the next diagram, Fig. 116. The fundamental thought in it is that, as is the kind of
impact on a consciousness from outside, so is
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the discovery of the world by that consciousness. Response to impacts, physical, astral or
mental, gives us a knowledge of the world;
according to the type of response is the expansion of consciousness in the individual.
A physical
stone responds, in the main, only to the impacts of heat and cold and pressure; therefore
it knows only the physical world. A plant
responds to astral vibrations of like and dislike; and hence it has an instinct of adaptation
to environment; it knows both the physical
and astral worlds, though the latter only dimly.
The animal responds to the vibrations of the
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lower mental world, and so thinks as well as
feels; it therefore knows the physical, astral
and mental worlds, though the last only
vaguely, But man is capable of being affected
by the higher mental world, which means that
his vision of the universe is from that plane.
The lower astral world is thrown by man into
activity by animal feelings like anger, lust, envy
and jealousy, As man's astral body gets refined, and he is capable of affection, devotion
and sympathy, though they may be strongly
tinged with his personal needs, he discovers the
higher astral world of feeling. In a similar
fashion, the disjointed, unrelated thoughts
which we have concerning things in general
enable us to contact the lower mental world of
particularized thought. It is only when we
can arrange our ideas into categories of thought
and feeling, and discover laws from them, that
we reach up to the vision of the higher mental
world, To think with the causal body is to
rise above particularized thoughts, and to come
to those universal thoughts concerning religion,
philosophy, science and art which characterize
the philosophic mind.
Beyond the highest attribute of pure thought,
man has yet another faculty, or instrument of
cognition, which, for want of a better term,
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Theosophy calls by the Hindu philosophical
term Buddhi. Its characteristic is that an
object is known by it, not by examination from
outside, but by identification with it by the
knower. Buddhi is a mode of consciousness
which is neither thought alone, nor feeling
alone, nor both simply combined; yet at once
it is both, and more still, a kind of indescribable
being-thought-feeling. One can only say that,
when Buddhi affects the higher mental plane,
the mind grasps universal concepts; and that,
when the force of Buddhi is reflected on a pure
astral nature, the tenderest of sympathies result.
Buddhi is a Divine Intuition, surer than knowledge, because it judges not only from a past
and a present but also from a future, more
precise in understanding than the profoundest
emotion, because the knower at will becomes
the known. Hindu philosophers have termed
it arsha-buddhi, the Buddhi of Rishis or saints,
not of common men.
If already words fail to describe what Buddhi
is, how may one describe that faculty of the
Monad which expresses itself on the Nirvanic
plane? Suffice it to say that, as Buddhi is different and more wonderful than pure thought
and pure emotion, so is the Atma aspect of the
soul more wonderful still than Buddhi.
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The cultural growth of humanity will not be
complete till all can function on the plane of
Nirvana. So far, the highest achievement of
mankind has been to touch, through the efforts
of a few geniuses, the Buddhic plane through
Art. We must, however, not forget that
"art" is not merely painting, sculpture,
music, etc. Art also manifests through Devotion, through Love,
through Philosophy, whenever these touch the realm of Buddhi. But it is
as if only yesterday that mankind discovered
art, and that there exists a realm of being
where man can fashion objects of beauty that
are joys forever, and create not for a day but
for all time.
When the mind of a genius, whether in religion or art, in philosophy or science, breaks
through into the Buddhic plane, what he creates enshrines the essence of art. If as scientist
he deals with nature's facts, he conceives and
presents them so artistically that his science is
luminous with intuition; if as philosopher he
creates a system, he broods. with tenderness on
both the small and the great, and enwraps them
with a beauty and a unity. The ethical precepts of the great Teachers are revelations of
the purest art, for their commandments are
universal in their applicability to all men's
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problems, and un-ageing in their freshness and
beauty at all epochs of time.
Any one expression of art contains within it
some of the characteristics of all the others; a
picture is a sermon, and a symphony is a philosophy.
When Buddhi gives its message, religion is science, and art is philosophy, and all
four are love. It is only on the lower mental
plane of particularized thoughts that the unity
breaks into diversity, and then he who cannot
sense the unity through one particular expression sees the particulars as contradicting each
other. Man the thinker, the lover, the doer,
when the Buddhi is awake in him, achieves a
unity of himself which he cannot fully reveal
except on the Buddhic plane.
Mankind is being taught to attain to That,
which exists out of time and space, by using
time and space. Our highest tool of cognition,
so far, is creative art. How its various aspects
are related to each other is one of the problems
in philosophy; one mode of their relation is
suggested in diagram, Fig. 117.
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In literature of the highest type, we have
both a brilliant "word-painting" and a graphic dramatization of events and ideas. From
literature, according as it uses time-values or
space-values, the arts develop. On the side
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of time, literature leads to drama, and drama
tends to poetry, and poetry through its essential
musical quality leads on to music.
On the side of space, the word-painting of
literature is linked to painting, and painting
that uses two dimensions rises to a three-dimensional manifestation in sculpture, and sculpture
to those wonderful abstract conceptions of
rhythm and beauty which architecture gives.
It is not difficult to see how drama, narrating
events in time, is related to paintinig, which
depicts events in space. Sculpture is like
dumb poetry, while poetry sculptures image
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after image from the matter of the imagination.
The description of Goethe and Lessing, that
architecture is "frozen music", gives us the
clue to the relation between music and architecture.
All true forms of art lead man's consciousness
to grasp those values in life which the Monad
knows on the Buddhic plane. The artistic
sense of humanity is rudimentary as yet, but
with the growth of Brotherhood more of art will
be sensed in life. On the other hand, with the
development in men of their artistic sense, there
will be a greater power to realize Brotherhood.
Lastly, when we have come to the utmost
limits of artistic creation, and begin to feel in us
powers and realizations not expressible even in
the highest art, then shall we know those actvities of creation which characterize the Monad
on his true plane of Atma. But in what manner we shall join the splendor of Nirvana and
this earth of ours into one realm of Action is a
mystery of the future.
* * * *
To understandfully the evolution of consciousness is to solve the mystery of God's
nature. Yet since all life is He, and since we
too are fragments of Him, our growth in consciousness is both a discovery of Him and a
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growing into His likeness. Yet while we discover Him, it is ourselves whom we discover.
This is the mystery of consciousness, that the
part is the Whole. But to know this is one
thing, and to be this another. To be the Whole
is only possible as we act as the Whole, and
that is, by giving ourselves as fully and freely
to all within our little circle of being, as the
Whole gives Himself to all within the vast
circle of His Being. It seems incredible that
we shall ever be capable of imitating the Whole.
Yet because that indeed is our destiny, He has
sent us forth from Him to live our separated
lives. That the only life worth living is to
join in His eternal Sacrifice is the testimony of
all who have come from Him, and are consciously returning to Him.
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