The Voice of the Silence

Wow! (link to online version of Blavatsky's book)

Here is a quote from early on in the book. N.B. This quote reflects exactly the "communications", or general sentiments, I received from my new guides following my initiation last October:

"Having become indifferent to objects of perception, the pupil must seek out the rajah of the senses, the Thought-Producer, he who awakes illusion.

The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real.

Let the Disciple slay the Slayer.

For: --

When to himself his form appears unreal, as do on waking all the forms he sees in dreams;

When he has ceased to hear the many, he may discern the ONE -- the inner sound which kills the outer.

Then only, not till then, shall he forsake the region of Asat, the false, to come unto the realm of Sat, the true.

Before the soul can see, the Harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion.

Before the Soul can hear, the image (man) has to become as deaf to roarings as to whispers, to cries of bellowing elephants as to the silvery buzzing of the golden fire-fly.

Before the soul can comprehend and may remember, she must unto the Silent Speaker be united just as the form to which the clay is modelled, is first united with the potter's mind.

For then the soul will hear, and will remember.

And then to the inner ear will speak --

THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE"

Thus ends the quote. Interestingly, Blavatsky refers to the state of Dharana as "the intense and perfect concentration of the mind upon some one interior object, accompanied by complete abstraction from everything pertaining to the external Universe, or the world of the senses." This is exactly what I was alluding to in my Jan. 27 blog entry, "The Ideal of Concentration". I wish also to state that achieving illumination is an extremely difficult process because we are immersed in an illusionary world. I believe it requires not only supreme effort and desire but supreme understanding, so that effort is not misdirected. The "rajah" referred to above dwells, I believe, in the heart. The requisite understanding pertains to fact that the mind is, in a sense, the enemy of the heart. Mental consciousness is focused on the objective (world), whereas heart consciousness is focused on the subjective (world).

"The Mind (Manas) which follows the rambling senses, makes the Soul (Buddhi) as helpless as the boat which the wind leads astray upon the waters." (Bhagavatgita II. 70)



Here are some other notes by Nils A. Amneus:

"Every individual Monad must, in the course of its evolutionary pilgrimage, inhabit all the various forms of Nature beginning with the lowest, gradually advancing through eternities of time and the various kingdoms, until it is ready to inhabit the higher forms. In each embodiment the Monad gains the experience and learns the lessons which that particular embodiment has to offer. When the lessons of that embodiment have been learned and there is no longer any need for experience in that type of body, the upward urge within the Monad causes it to seek higher forms in order to continue its evolution. In its new embodiment with its altered environment, the Monad has different experiences and develops different faculties, until these faculties operate in relative perfection. Then another forward step is taken, and so on, ad infinitum.

The various forms of Nature in which the Monad embodies itself may be likened to the rungs of a ladder, up which the evolving Monad climbs. Figuratively, the highest rung of one ladder takes the climber to an imaginary platform, a temporary goal, where he may rest and recuperate from his effort. But the urge from within allows him no long respite and he soon discovers that his platform supports another "evolutionary ladder" which he now begins to climb to reach the greater heights he dimly perceives above him.

We see below us on the Ladder of Life, Monads in an ever ascending scale of Evolution, reaching from the atom and the minerals to Man. All these Monads are heading towards the Human stage in an upward march that embraces time periods of incomprehensible duration. The Ancient Teachings tell us that there are above Man other Ladders, leading to heights inconceivable, which some day, in ages to come, Man shall begin to climb. The possibilities for growth are infinite, and Man's destiny is far greater than he can picture.

Evolution, then, is endless, but it is not one continuous, uninterrupted climb. There are temporary stopping places, relative beginnings and relative endings, but there never was a first beginning and there never will be a final end.

It will be noted that the subject of Evolution as presented by the Ancient Wisdom differs from the Darwinian Theory. According to the latter it is the forms of Nature that change, through a process of "natural selection" and "the survival of the fittest," by imperceptible degrees from one form into another. The Ancient Wisdom, on the other hand, states that the forms of Nature are relatively stable, although they do undergo some exceeding slow changes. But the real actor in the drama of Evolution is the indwelling Monad, and a distinction is made between this Monad and the vehicle or body it inhabits.

The Monad "migrates" through the ages, from lower to higher forms, up through the Kingdoms of Nature, until after aeons it reaches the Human Kingdom."