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[6:00:43 PM] *** Group call ***
[6:01:06 PM] Thuan Thi Do:
Regarding the ego as the real man, and looking at him on his own plane, we see him to be indeed a glorious being. The only way in which down here we can form a conception (Page 170) of what he really is, is to think of him as some splendid angel. But the expression of this beautiful being on the physical plane may fall far short of all this: in fact, it must do so: first, because it is only a tiny fragment; secondly, because it is so cramped by its conditions.

If a man puts his finger into a hole in the wall, or into a small metal pipe, so that he cannot even bend the finger, it is obvious that he could express but very little of himself through that finger. Much like this is the fate of that fragment of the ego which is put down into this dense body.

We may carry the analogy a little further, by supposing that the finger has a considerable amount of consciousness of its own, so that, shut off as it is from the rest of the body, it temporarily forgets that it is merely a part of the whole body. Forgetting the freedom of the wider life, it tries to adapt itself to the hole, it gilds its sides and makes it an enjoyable hole by acquiring money, property, fame and so forth,not realising that it only begins really to live when it withdraws itself from the hole altogether, and recognises itself as a part of the body. Clumsy as is the image, it may yet give some sort of idea of the relation of the personality to the ego.

Other, and more picturesque analogies are to be found in certain ancient myths. Thus Narcissus was a youth of great beauty, who fell in love with his own image reflected in the water, and was so attracted by it that he fell in and was drowned, and was afterwards changed by the gods into a flower and bound to earth. This of course refers to the ego looking down upon the waters of the astral plane and the lower world, reflecting itself in the personality, identifying itself with that personality, falling in love with its image, and being bound to earth.

So also Proserpine, while picking the narcissus, was seized and carried off by Desire to the underworld; and although she was rescued from complete captivity by the efforts of her mother, yet after that she (Page 171) had to spend her life half in the lower world and half in that above: that is to say, partly in material incarnation, and partly out of it.

Another old mystery-teaching was that of the Minotaur, which signified the lower nature in man—the personality which is half man and half animal. This was eventually slain by Theseus, who typifies the higher self, or the individuality, which has been gradually growing and gathering strength, until at last it can wield the sword of its Divine Father, the Spirit.

Guided through the labyrinth of illusion, which constitutes these lower planes, by the thread of occult knowledge given him by Ariadne [who represents - intuition], the higher self is enabled to slay the lower, and to escape safely from the web of illusion. Yet there still remains for him the danger that, developing intellectual pride, he may neglect intuition, even as Theseus neglected Ariadne, and so fail for a time to realise his highest possibilities.

It is abundantly clear that a view of reincarnation can be obtained, in proper perspective, only if we regard it from the point of view of the ego. Each movement of the ego towards the lower planes is a vast circular sweep. The limited vision of the personality is apt to take a small fragment of the lower arc of the circle, and regard it as a straight line, attaching quite undue importance to its beginning and ending, while the real turning point of the circle entirely escapes it.

From the point of view of the ego, during the earlier part of that little fragment of existence on the physical plane, which we call life, the outward force of the ego is still strong: at the middle of it, in ordinary cases, that force becomes exhausted, and the great inward sweep begins.

Nevertheless, there is no sudden or violent change, for this is not an angle, but still part of the curve of the same circle - exactly corresponding to the moment of aphelion in a planet's course round its orbit. Yet it is the real turning point of that little cycle of evolution, though with us it is not marked in any way. (Page 172) In the old Indian scheme of life it was marked as the end of the grihasta or "householder" period of the man's earthly existence.

In that ancient system, a man spent the first twenty-one years of his life in education, and the next twenty-one in doing his duty as householder and head of the family. But then, having attained middle life, he gave up altogether his worldly cares, resigned his house and property into the hands of his son, and retired with his wife into a little hut near by, where he devoted the next twenty-one years to rest and spiritual converse and meditation. After that came the fourth stage, of perfect isolation and contemplation in the jungle, if he wished it. In all this, the middle of life was the real turning-point, and it is evident that it is a much more important point than either physical birth or death, for it marks the limit of the outgoing energy of the ego, the change, as it were, from his out-breathing to his in-breathing.

From this point, there should be nothing but a steady drawing inward of the whole force of the man and his attention should be more and more withdrawn from mere earthly things and concentrated on those of higher planes. Such considerations cannot fail to impress upon us how exceedingly ill-adapted to real progress are the conditions of modern European life.

In this arc of evolution, the point at which the man drops his physical body is not a specially important one: by no means so important, in fact, as the next change, his death on the astral plane, and his birth into the heaven-world, or otherwise expressed, the transfer of his consciousness from the astral to mental matter, in the course of the steady withdrawal mentioned.

As was mentioned in Chapter XIII, the whole course of the movement down into matter is called in India the pravritti marga, literally the path of pursuit of forthgoing; the nivritti marga is the path of return, of retirement of renunciation. These terms are relative, and can be applied to the whole course of the (Page 173) evolution of the ego, to an individual incarnation in a personality, etc..

On the pravritti marga, on which are the vast majority of men, desires are necessary and useful, these being the motives that prompt him to activity. On the nivritti marga desire must cease. What was desire in the privritti marga, becomes will on the nivritti marga: similarly thought, alert, flighty, changing becomes reason: work, activity, restless action, becomes in its turn sacrifice, its binding force thus being broken.
[6:24:32 PM] *** Call ended, duration 23:38 ***
[6:24:35 PM] *** Group call ***
[6:29:54 PM] *** Thuan Thi Do added Hai van Le ***
[6:43:26 PM] *** Call ended, duration 18:45 ***
[6:43:29 PM] *** Group call ***
[6:59:18 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_186.jpg
[6:59:43 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_187.jpg
[7:21:46 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_189.jpg
[7:26:37 PM] Thuan Thi Do: STANZA III. — Continued.
8. Where was the germ, and where was now darkness? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in thy lamp, oh Lanoo? The germ is that, and that is light; the white brilliant son of the dark hidden father (angel).

(angel) The answer to the first question, suggested by the second, which is the reply of the teacher to the pupil, contains in a single phrase one of the most essential truths of occult philosophy. It indicates the existence of things imperceptible to our physical senses which are of far greater importance, more real and more permanent, than those that appeal to these senses themselves. Before the Lanoo can hope to understand the transcendentally metaphysical problem contained in the first question he must be able to answer the second, while the very answer he gives to the second will furnish him with the clue to the correct reply to the first.

In the Sanscrit Commentary on this Stanza, the terms used for the concealed and the unrevealed Principle are many. In the earliest MSS. of Indian literature this Unrevealed, Abstract Deity has no name. It is called generally “That” (Tad in Sanskrit), and means all that is, was, and will be, or that can be so received by the human mind.

Among such appellations, given, of course, only in esoteric philosophy, as the “Unfathomable Darkness,” the “Whirlwind,” etc. — it is also called the “It of the Kalahansa, the Kala-ham-sa,” and even the “Kali Hamsa,” (Black swan). Here the m and the n are convertible, and

Vol. 1, Page 78 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
both sound like the nasal French an or am, or, again, en or em (Ennui, Embarras, etc.) As in the Hebrew Bible, many a mysterious sacred name in Sanscrit conveys to the profane ear no more than some ordinary, and often vulgar word, because it is concealed anagrammatically or otherwise. This word of Hansa or esoterically “hamsa” is just such a case. Hamsa is equal to a-ham-sa, three words meaning “I am he” (in English), while divided in still another way it will read “So-ham,” “he (is) I” — Soham being equal to Sah, “he,” and aham, “I,” or “I am he.” In this alone is contained the universal mystery, the doctrine of the identity of man’s essence with god-essence, for him who understands the language of wisdom. Hence the glyph of, and the allegory about, Kalahansa (or hamsa), and the name given to Brahma neuter (later on, to the male Brahma) of “Hansa-Vahana,” he who uses the Hansa as his vehicle.” The same word may be read “Kalaham-sa” or “I am I” in the eternity of Time, answering to the Biblical, or rather Zoroastrian “I am that I am.” The same doctrine is found in the Kabala, as witness the following extract from an unpublished MS. by Mr. S. Liddell McGregor Mathers, the learned Kabalist: “The three pronouns image_il, Hoa, Atah, Ani; He, Thou, I; are used to symbolize the ideas of Macroprosopus and Microprosopus in the Hebrew Qabalah. Hoa, “He,” is applied to the hidden and concealed Macroprosopus; Atah, “Thou,” to Microprosopus; and Ani, “I,” to the latter when He is represented as speaking. (See Lesser Holy Assembly, 204 et seq.) It is to be noted that each of these names consists of three letters, of which the letter Aleph image_il, A, forms the conclusion of the first word Hoa, and the commencement of Atah and Ani, as if it were the connecting link between them. But image_il is the symbol of the Unity and consequently of the unvarying Idea of the Divine operating through all these. But behind the image_il in the name Hoa are the letters image_il and image_il, the symbols of the numbers Six and Five, the Male and the Female, the Hexagram and the Pentagram. And the numbers of these three words, Hoa Atah Ani, are 12, 406, and 61, which are resumed in the key numbers of 3, 10, and 7, by the Qabalah of the Nine Chambers, which is a form of the exegetical rule of Temura.”
[7:57:49 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Ô Leadbeater: http://www.colourmusic.info/theos.gif
[8:04:36 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://www.kheper.net/topics/chakras/Fig7-3-small.gif
[8:22:54 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://hpb.theosophy.org.nz/sites/hpb.theosophy.org.nz/files/images/chakras1.jpg
[8:24:11 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://hpb.theosophy.org.nz/content/fields-consciousness
[8:26:02 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/thomas/jaqua.htm
[9:42:46 PM] *** Call ended, duration 2:59:13 ***
[9:44:15 PM] *** Hai van Le has changed the conversation topic to "thong thien hoc" ***
[9:46:02 PM] *** Group call, duration 00:20 ***