Lessons in Theosophy

Lesson 18,
The Beginning of the Universe

      “Everything in the Universe progresses steadily in the Great Cycle, while incessantly going up and down in the smaller cycles. Nature is never stationary during manvantara, as it is ever becoming, not simply being ....” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. I p. 257)

“During the period of Universal Pralaya, Cosmic Ideation [Spirit] is nonexistent....” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. I p. 328)

“... the variously differentiated states of Cosmic Substance [Matter] [have] resolved back again into the primary state of abstract potential objectivity.” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. I p. 328)

“...the One Eternal drops its reflection into the region of Manifestation....” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. I p. 231)

“... coeval and co-eternal SPIRIT-MATTER [makes] its appearance in the phenomenal world, before its first differentiation. When ‘the one becomes two.’” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. I p. 326)

      [The Absolute takes on] “... the limitations of matter ..., in the veiling of the Unconditioned in conditions, in the binding of the Free within bonds. The first thought that we have, as we watch the evolving of a universe, is that this manifestation of life is only possible by its limitations....” (Annie Besant, The Laws Of Higher Life, p. 48).

      “Coming forth from the depths of the One Existence [the Absolute], from the One beyond all thought and all speech, a Logos, by imposing on Himself a limit, circumscribing voluntarily the range of His own Being (emphasis added), ... and tracing the limiting sphere of His activity thus outlines the area of His universe. Within that sphere the universe is born, is evolved, and dies ; it lives, it moves...” (Annie Besant, The Laws Of Higher Life, p. 42).

      “The phenomenal spirit and matter of any universe are finite in their extent and transitory in their duration, but the roots of spirit and matter are eternal. The root of matter ... has been said ... to be ... a veil thrown over the One existence.... It is this ‘veil‘ which the Logos assumes for the purpose of manifestation, using it for the self-imposed limit which makes activity possible. From this He elaborates the matter of His universe....” (Annie Besant, The Laws Of Higher Life, p. 42).

      “... by the action of the Third Logos a ... field [the universe] has been provided for the development of Units of Consciousness [Monads], and that a Unit of Consciousness is a fragment, a portion of the Universal Consciousness, thought [moves] into separation as an individual entity veiled in matter, a Unit of the substance of the First Logos, to be sent forth on the second [Anupadaka] plane as a separate Being.” (Annie Besant, A Study in Consciousness, p. 34).

      [The Monad evolves his consciousness] “ ... by taking from each plane some of its matter, veiling himself in this matter and forming it into a sheath by which he can come into contact with that plane, gradually organising this sheath of matter into a body capable of functioning on its own plane as an expression of himself, receiving vibrations from the plane and transmitting them to him, receiving vibrations from him and transmitting them to the plane. As he veils himself in the matter of each successive plane he shuts away some of his consciousness, that of it which is too subtle for receiving or setting up vibrations in the matter of that plane. He has within him seven typical vibratory powers - each capable of producing an indefinite number of sub-vibrations of its own type — and these are shut off one by one as he endues veil after veil of grosser matter. The powers in consciousness of expressing itself in certain typical ways — using the word power in the mathematical sense, consciousness ‘to the third’, consciousness ‘to the fourth‘, etc.— are seen in matter as what we call dimensions. The physical power of consciousness has its expression in ‘three-dimensional matter‘, while the astral, mental, and other powers of con­sciousness need for their expression other dimensions of matter.” (Annie Besant, A Study in Consciousness, paragraph 58 online or pages 41-42 hardcopy).

      “ ... Atma-Buddi-Manas, the Jivatma, is described as a seed, a germ, of divine Life, containing the potentialities of its own heavenly Father, its Monad, to be unfolded into powers in the course of evolution. This is the ‘manhood’ of the divine Son of the First Logos, animated by the ‘Godhead’, the Monad — a mystery truly, but one which is repeated in many forms around us.

      “And now the nature, which was free in the subtle matter of his own plane, becomes bound by the denser matter, and his powers of consciousness cannot as yet function in this blinding veil. He is therein as a mere germ, an embryo, powerless, senseless, helpless, while the Monad on his own plane is strong, conscious, capable, so far as his internal life is concerned; the one is the Monad in Eternity, the other is the Monad in time and space; the content of the Monad eternal is to become the extent of the Monad temporal and spatial. This at present embryonic life will evolve into a complex being, the expression of the Monad on each plane of the universe. All-powerful internally on his own subtle plane, he is at first powerless, fettered, helpless, when enwrapped externally in denser matter, unable to receive through it, or to give out through it, vibrations. But he will gradually master the matter that at first enslaves him; slowly, surely, he will mould it for Self-expression; he is aided and watched over by the all — sustaining and preserving Second Logos, until he can live in it fully as he lives above, and become in his turn a creative Logos and bring forth out of himself a universe. The power of creating a universe is only gained, according to THE WISDOM, by involving within the Self all that is later to be put forth. A Logos does not create out of nothing, but evolves all from Himself; and from the experiences we are now passing through, we are gathering the materials out of which we may build a system in the future.” (Annie Besant, A Study in Consciousness, page 64 online or hardcopy).

      “It is this ‘veil’ which the Logos assumes for the purpose of manifestation, using it for the self-imposed limit which makes activity possible. From this He elaborates the matter of His universe, being Himself its informing, guiding, and controlling life. (Hence He is called ‘The Lord of Maya’ in some Eastern Scriptures, Maya, or illusion, being the principle of form; form is regarded as illusory, from its transitory nature and perpetual transformations, the life which expresses itself under the veil of form being the reality).
“digging holes in space”

      “Of what occurs on the two higher planes of the universe, the seventh and sixth, we can form but the haziest conception. The energy of the Logos as whirling motion of inconceivable rapidity ‘digs holes in space’ in this root matter, and this vortex of life encased in a film of the root of matter is the primary atom; these and their aggregations, spread throughout the universe, form all the subdivisions of spirit-matter of the highest or seventh plane. The sixth plane is formed by some of the countless myriads of these primary atoms, setting up a vortex in the coarsest aggregations of their own plane, and this primary atom en-walled with spiral strands of the coarsest combinations of the seventh plane becomes the finest unit of spirit-matter, or atom of the sixth plane. These sixth plane atoms and their endless combinations form the subdivisions of the spirit-matter of the sixth plane.” (Annie Besant, The Ancient Wisdom, pages 42-43 online or hardcopy).

      “This involution of the life of the Logos as the ensouling force in every particle, and its successive enwrapping in the spirit-matter of every plane, so that the materials of each plane have within them in a hidden, or latent condition, all the form and force possibilities of all the planes above them as well as those of their own – these two facts make evolution certain and give to the very lowest particle the hidden potentialities which will render it fit – as they become active powers – to enter into the forms of the highest beings. In fact, evolution may be summed up in a phrase : it is latent potentialities becoming active powers.” (Annie Besant, The Laws Of Higher Life, p. 44 online or hardcopy).

      “...man is regarded as Atma, taking on itself five different sheaths — an exceedingly luminous classification, because in each case you have this conception of the sheath that veils the true Self; so that the real process ... will be to get rid of sheath after sheath until the Self stands alone once more as it did at the beginning.” (Besant, Annie, The Building of the Cosmos, paragraph 49 online

      “The life coming forth from the Supreme puts on veil after veil of Maya, ... to evolve all the perfections that lie latent within it.

      “Now the first question is: Does not this life [from the Absolute] already contain within itself everything already developed, every manifested power, every possibility realized as actuality? The answer to that question, spoken over and over again, in symbols, allegories, and distinct words, is ‘No’. It contains everything in potency, but nothing at first in manifestation. It contains everything in germ, but nothing at first as developed organism..” (Annie Besant, Dharma, page 22 online or online)

• root-matter
• undifferentiated cosmic root-matter
• Mulaprakriti

“The term comes from the Greek, derived from the verbal root lege in, meaning to speak; thus logos originally signified the "word" by which the inward thought is expressed; the inward thought itself. Thus the philosophical concept in associating the term with the coming into being of a cosmos, or a system, is this: there must be a reason for the coming into being of a system, hence divine thought is instrumental in the process. With the formulation of the idea there must also be a means of expressing it, that is, carrying out of the idea. The same thing is present in the utterance of a word. Before the word may be produced as sound, there must be the ideation or thought of it; there must also be the desire of sufficient potency to produce "the sound of it. When the idea is transmitted by means of the sound, the resultant effect is the word — the Logos.” (Transactions of the Blavatsy Lodge vol. II p. 9)

• First Logos
• Second Logos
• Third Logos

      [The one Logos] “... works in three fundamental modes, which are symbolized in the great religions as those of the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer [in Hinduism]; or the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost [in Christianity]. In modern Theosophical. nomenclature, this triple activity is described as that of the First Logos (Father), the Second Logos (Son), and the Third Logos (Holy Ghost). The First Logos, the Second Logos and the Third Logos are but three Aspects of the one Solar Logos; while three in manifestation, [The Logos] is yet ever the one indivisible ...” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 197-198, online or hardcopy)

      “... the Logos of our system reveals Himself in three-fold aspect. ... in every great religion the Trimurti, or the Trinity, is the representation of the manifested God; and you know also, at least the more thoughtful and philosophic among you know, that the Three are but a three-fold manifestation of the One; the three aspects of the one — unmanifested Existence, that can be known only as it is manifested in the Universe.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 95 online or page 126 hardcopy)

      “... the One unknown [the Absolute], without beginning or end, identical with Parabrahm [Hindu] and Ain-Soph [Jewish], emits a bright ray from its darkness. This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the Supreme Buddha (also called Dorjechang {Tibetan}).” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, page 571, online or hardcopy)

      [The Absolute] “, ... without beginning or end, identical with Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from its darkness. This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the Supreme Buddha (also called Dorjechang).” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, page 571), online or hardcopy)

      “As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot manifest, but sends into the world of manifestation his heart — the ‘diamond heart,’ Vajrasattva (Dorjesempa). This is the second logos of creation.” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, page 571), online or hardcopy)

      “Brahma (neuter), the unmanifested, is that Universe in abscondito, and Brahmâ, the manifested, is the Logos, made male-female in the symbolical orthodox dogmas.” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, page 9, online or hardcopy)

      “... Hindus say that the Universe is Brahma and Brahmâ, for Brahma is in every atom of the universe, the six principles in Nature being all the outcome — the variously differentiated aspects — of the SEVENTH and ONE, the only reality in the Universe whether Cosmical or micro-cosmical; and also why the permutations (psychic, spiritual and physical), on the plane of manifestation and form, of the sixth (Brahmâ the vehicle of Brahma) are viewed by metaphysical antiphrasis as illusive and Mayavic.” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, pages 17-18, online or hardcopy)

      “Each action in the making of [atoms] is due to the focussing of the consciousness of the Third Logos to that particular purpose.... Our physical atom is not ‘matter’; it is in reality myriads of points of the consciousness of the Third Cosmic Logos, held by the Solar Logos in a particular formation to do a specific work — that of building the physical plane.” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 205-206, online or hardcopy)

      “The work of the Third Logos, then, builds the seven great planes, with their sub-planes, of the solar system. That building is not complete, and it is still proceeding apace. He is the ensouling Force in the Matter of all the planes; electricity is one expression of His force through the matter of the physical plane; another expression, which is totally distinct, is Kundalini, the mysterious "serpent fire" which operates in all higher organisms.” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 208, online or hardcopy)

      [The work of the Second Logos] “... is essentially of an order best described as Life-Form; with this energy He ensouls the matter of the seven planes, and enables it to build forms which have that mysterious quality which we call “life”. This life builds the matter of the planes into varying forms, and, each form persists only so long as the life of the Second Logos holds the matter in that form.

      “Now for the first time appear the phenomena of birth, growth, decay and death. A form is born because the Life of the Second Logos has a work of evolution to do through that form; it grows while that work is progressing to its culmination; it shows signs of decay because the Second Logos slowly withdraws the life from the form, since the life has evolved all it can through that form; it dies when finally the "Second Logos withdraws all of the life, in order to send it back once again to build a newer and better form, which can give the evolving life the new experiences necessary for its further growth and self-revelation. On the physical plane, the expression of the force of the second Logos is Prana, Vitality. .” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 208, online or hardcopy)

      “It is this ensouling life of the Second Logos which gives to mental and astral matter their peculiarly living quality, so that the faintest vibration caused in the mental world by a thought, or in the astral world by desire, makes the mental and astral matter swiftly generate shapes and forms, and causes it to crystallize into ‘thought-forms’.” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 211, online or hardcopy)

      “The life of the Second Logos, after its lowest descent into matter as the mineral kingdom, now begins ... [the manifestations of the vegetable and animal kingdoms].” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 212, online or hardcopy)

      [The First Logos] “... sends a Fragment of Himself, a ‘Monad’, to make an Individuality in a Causal Body. A Soul of Man, made ‘in the image of his Maker’, then begins his evolution, which is to discover the Divinity in himself, in his fellowmen, and in all the life of nature which surrounds him. On the physical plane the expression of the force of the First Logos is the Immortal Soul in a mortal body.” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 213, online or hardcopy)

“As He shows Himself to us in His work the Solar Logos is undoubtedly triple — three and yet one, a religion has long ago told us.” (Charles Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible, paragraph 45 online or hardcopy)

      “It will be seen that on the seventh or highest plane of our system the triple manifestation of our Logos is imaged by three circles, representing His three aspects. Each of these aspects appears to have its own quality and power. In the First Aspect He does not manifest Himself on any plane below the highest, but in the Second He descends to the sixth plane, arid draws round Himself a garment of its matter, thus making a quite separate and lower expression of Him. In the Third Aspect He descends to the upper potion of the fifth plane, and draws round Himself matter of that level, thus making a third manifestation. It will be observed that these three manifestations on their respective planes are entirely distinct one from the other, and yet we have only to follow up the dotted lines to see that these separate persons are nevertheless in truth but aspects of the one. Quite separate, when regarded as persons, each on his own plane — quite unconnected diagonally, as it were; yet each having his perpendicular connection with himself at the level where these three are one.

      “Thus we see a very real meaning in the insistence of the Church ‘that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance’ — that is to say, never confusing in our minds the work and functions of the three separate manifestations, each on his own plane, yet never for a moment forgetting the Eternal Unity of the ‘substance’, that which lies behind all alike on the highest plane.” (Charles Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible, paragraphs 46-47 online or hardcopy)

      “The greatest schism which has ever occurred in the Christian Church was that between the Eastern and Western branches, the Greek Church and the Roman. The doctrinal reason alleged for it was the supposed corruption of the truth, by the introduction into the Creed of the word filioque at the Council of Toledo in the year 589.

      “The question at issue was whether the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father alone, or from the Father and the Son. Our diagram enables us to see what was the point at issue; and furthermore, it shows us, curiously enough, that both parties were right, and that if they had only clearly understood the matter there need have been no schism at all.

      “The Latin Church held, quite reasonably, that there could be no manifestation on the fifth plane of a Force which admittedly came from the seventh, without a passage through the intermediate sixth, so they declared that He proceeded from the Father and the Son. The Greek Church, on the other hand, insisted absolutely on the distinctness of the Three Manifestations, and quite rightly protested against any theory of a procession from the First Manifestation through the Second such as would be typified in our diagram if we drew a diagonal line through the First, Second, and Third. The dotted line on the right of [the above plate], showing how the Third Aspect descends through the planes and finally mani­fests on the Fifth, is of course the key to the true line of procession, and the absolute harmony of the two conflicting ideas.” (Charles Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible, paragraphs 46-47 online or hardcopy)

      “The wonderful way in which man is made in the image of God may be seen by comparing the triad of the human soul with the Trinity in manifestation above it. So astonishingly material have been the orthodox conceptions, that this text has literally been interpreted as referring to the physical body of man, and made to mean that God created man’s body in a shape which He foresaw as that which Christ would choose to assume when He came on earth.

      “A glance at [the plate above] shows us at once the true mean­ing of those words. Not the physical body of man, but the constitution of his soul, reproduces with marvellous exactitude the method of Divine manifestation. Just as three aspects of the Divine are seen on the seventh plane, so the Divine Spark of the spirit in man is seen to be triple in its appearance on the fifth plane. In both cases the Second Aspect is able to descend one plane lower, and to clothe itself in the matter of that plane; in both cases the Third Aspect is able to descend two planes and repeat the process. So in both cases there is a Trinity in Unity, separate in its manifesta­tions, yet one in the reality behind.” (Charles Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible, paragraphs 55-56 online or hardcopy)

      “It is from this Third Aspect that the first movement towards the formation of the system comes. Previous to this movement we have in existence nothing but the atomic state of matter in each of the planes of nature, none of the aggregations or combinations which make up the lower sub-planes of each having yet been formed. But into this sea of virgin matter (the true Virgin Maria) pours down the Holy Spirit, the Lifegiver, as He is called in the Nicene Creed; and by the action of His glorious vitality the units of matter are awakened to new powers and possibilities of attraction and repulsion, and thus the lower subdivisions of each plane come into existence. It will be seen that this is symbolized in the diagram by a line descending from the lowest circle straight through all the planes, growing broader and darker as it comes, to show how the Divine Spirit becomes more and more veiled in matter as it descends, until many are quite unable to recognize it as divine at all. Yet the living force is nevertheless there, even when it is most strictly confined in the lowest of its forms.

      “Into this matter thus vivified, the second great out-pouring of the Divine Life descends. Thus the Second Person of the Trinity takes form not of the ‘virgin’ or unproductive matter alone, but of the matter which is already instinct and pulsating with the life of the Third Person, so that both the life and the matter surround Him as a vesture, and thus in very truth He is ‘incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary’, which is the true rendering of a prominent passage in the Christian creed. (See The Christian Creed.)” (Charles Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible, paragraphs 55-56 online or hardcopy)

• Bendit, Laurence J., Man and His Universe - Part 1
  http://www.theosophical.ca/ManUniverse.htm
• Besant, Annie, Building of the Cosmos, and Other Lectures
  http://www.anandgholap.net/Building_Of_The_Cosmos-AB.htm
• Besant, Annie, Self and It's Sheaths
  http://www.anandgholap.net/Self_And_It's_Sheaths-AB.html
• Two Students of Theosophy, Theosophical Gleanings
  http://www.theosophical.ca/TheosGleanings.htm
• Wright, Claude Falls, Modern Theosophy. An Outline of Its Principles
  http://www.theosophical.ca/Moderntheos.htm
• Barborka, Geoffrey, The Divine Plan
  http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=64






Next: Lesson 19, The Secret Doctrine




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