By Victor M Fontane
Theosophical doctrines draw our attention to some basic concepts:
1. The Universe is Everything, it has no limits, neither in space nor in time. It is immortal. That's life.
2. The Universe operates under a cyclical Law. The law cannot be violated and support universal progression. Morally it can be said that it provides justice and compassion towards all beings. Universe = Nature in its entirety.
3. Each being is a unit of Life. In essence it is a ray of the Universal One. The unit is variously called Monad or "Life Atom", etc... it is a "perpetual motion machine" and is an immortal entity, it goes through all evolutionary processes, acquiring intelligence and experience. It is analogous to a solar system or a galaxy.
4. Every being participates in the immortality of the One in its essence. Therefore, it cannot be destroyed or annihilated as a Life Unit. Life or energy is universal and in its diversity animates each Monad or "unit of life."
5. In essence, each "part" (Life Unit) is linked by "electromagnetic" links with all the others. There is a whole; only the "units" seem to be separate, divided from each other in terms of our gross perceptions of "matter." Their unity is the basis of cooperation expressed as Universal Brotherhood.
6. To create a physical form, each "unit" gathers other units of lesser experience than it on the "Ladder of Being." By doing that you take responsibility their growth and well-being. Just as a "teacher" takes responsibility for the progress of many students. It is important to note that while the "Master" offers instruction based on his experience, it is the responsibility of the "students" to test it and adopt it when they are satisfied with its accuracy. We call this, in general terms, Evolution, seen as a whole.
7. Any "form" temporarily serves as a place for those beings of lesser experience to gain more experience and thus have the opportunity to "advance." Under the operation of the law of Karma, they acquire, each in their own way, a broader experience, a greater degree of consciousness. All those who have not yet achieved the state of "human mind", are called non-self-conscious "atoms of life". They are budding future men. They make up for the moment, the elemental, mineral, vegetable and animal, kingdoms or divisions of Nature.
8. When the level of self-consciousness (mind, manas, man, soul) is achieved through any of the "lives", he further advances, as a human being, through the process of reincarnation, using many successive physical bodies. Everyone lives within the same framework of rights, progression and mutual support. The entire evolutionary scheme is a vast brotherhood. In the condition/stage of man's mind, progress occurs through trial/error, and therefore consciousness or faculty of attention develops as individual studies and the working of universal laws operate in and around him.
Like the Universe, man has a sevenfold constitution:
Spirit - Atman, (a "Ray" of the Divine).
Discrimination-Intuition-Consciousness - Buddhi, (memory of experiences).
Thought, Intellect, Reason, - Mind - Manas, (choice and free will).
Emotion, Sensation, Egoism - Kama, (desire, passion).
Vitality, vital energy, magnetism. - Prana, Jiva (vitality, life force)
Shape of the electromagnetic model. - Astral body, (electromagnetic form).
Physical Body. (Known to us.)
9. The Universe, Man and all other beings go through an evolutionary cycle that is sevenfold and covers an immense time, during which each being goes through each of the seven phases that this sevenfold scheme provides, so that each can ensure the highest degree of perfection by his own experiences and voluntary decisions. All progress is through self-effort. [Very similar to our educational system.]
10. The self-conscious man, in which Manas (mind) or self-consciousness is the active principle, makes decisions. The motive triggers Karma. If decisions have a universal basis, they are "good" and progress for the unit, and the total adds up quickly. Should decisions focus on the self, as opposed to the overall good, the outcomes are 'bad'. Karma thus activated teaches unity through disciplinary circumstances what ideal decisions should be. This is how evolution proceeds. All karmic events are the direct result of choices made individually.
11. Graduates of this "School of Life" face the choice or responsibility of becoming, in turn, "teachers." That is, to actively collaborate in the dissemination process and explain this universal process. They are superior men. [Similar to the professors at our universities.]
12. These are designated Sages, Adepts, Masters of Wisdom, Arhats, Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, Dhyan Chohanes, Tathagatas, Prophets, etc... [ In history we can name Jesus, Gautama the Buddha, Krishna, Pythagoras, Lao Tse , Plato, Shankaracharya, Apollonius of Tyana and many others]. All came as reformers, and if their original teachings are compared all of them will be found to teach the same metaphysical doctrines and ethical practices.
13. The process of obtaining experience by humanity is called reincarnation. The "life atom" that is self-conscious, or the Real Man, uses a physical body that is assembled, as described above so that it lives. In this life process it not only advances (or regresses) depending on his choices, but at the same time serves to help and elevate with his example the entire mass of "atoms of life" to which has specific karmic responsibilities. Upon death, man's consciousness first passes into a state called Kama-Loka, where a separation between the moral and the immoral occurs. A second "death" occurs in a short time and the immoral side of our own nature is allowed to gradually disintegrate on the astral plane of Kama-Loka.
14. The superior and immortal Ego, the moral side of our being, passes into a state called Devachan, which has three stages:
(A) the rupa-loka, where the consciousness of the Ego is occupied with the noble, aspirational feelings and thoughts and actions of the last personal life. Once this assimilation process is completed, the MIND-EGO enters a spiritual plane where, united with the "Ray" of the Universal Spirit, it is almost omniscient.
(B) This second stage is called arupa-loka [formless stage]. In that condition he is able to review the last life lived from the perspective of all previous lives, and thus draw the line of his Karma.
(C) The third stage is preparation for a new incarnation, and he begins to attract to himself those personal elements (skandhas) that will be used to form his new personality.
15. Nature of Consciousness – Monad – Evolutionary Rounds of Man "...Man (physically) is a composite of all the kingdoms and spiritually, his individuality is no worse for being enclosed within the shell of an ant than within a king. It is not the external or physical form that dishonors and contaminates the five principles, but mental perversity. Then it is only in his fourth round that he has come into full possession of his Kama energy and is completely mature, that man becomes completely responsible, since in the sixth round he can become a Buddha and in the seventh before Pralaya—a “ Dhyan Chohan”.… He begins to descend as a simply spiritual entity: an unconscious seventh principle. (a Parabrahm as opposed to Para-parabrahm), with the germs of the other six principles lying dormant and latent in it [A description of the stages of differentiation follows, round by round, a sort of process of 'gestation']. Volition and consciousness are at the same time self-determining and determined by causes, and man's will, his intelligence and consciousness will awaken, but when his fourth Kama principle matures and completed by his contact (seriatim) with the Kamas or energizing forces of all the forms that man has gone through in his three previous rounds. The present humanity is in its fourth round (...as a genus...)...so the individual entities in them are unconsciously realizing for themselves their seven local earthly cycles, hence the great difference in the degrees of their intelligence, energy, etc. Now each individuality will be followed in its ascending arc by the Law of retribution – Karma and death accordingly. The perfect man or the entity that achieves total perfection (each of the seven principles of him in the process of maturation) will not be reborn here, his local terrestrial cycle is completed... (Incomplete entities have to be reborn or reincarnated). In their fifth round after a partial Nirvana when the zenith of the great cycle is reached, they will henceforth be responsible in their descents from sphere to sphere, as they will have to appear on this earth as a more perfect and intellectual race. This downward course has not begun but it will soon... The above is the rule. The Buddhas and Avatars form the exception since in truth we still have some Avatars left to us on earth."
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