IV: A Few Epistemological Questions
1. Can one obtain true knowledge about the monad? (Is it possible, really, to "know" anything about the monad? Or can the monad be known at all?)
a. The premise in the Ageless Wisdom Teaching, is that, indeed, one can obtain true knowledge about the human monad, because one already is that very monad.
b. To the degree that it is possible to obtain radical Self-knowledge, it is possible to obtain knowledge of the monad.
c. One cannot be entirely objective about the monad because any contact with it is, for the human being as presently constituted, perhaps the deepest possible subjective experience.
d. It is, therefore, necessary to ‘study’ one’s ‘highest’, interior states of awareness to gather such knowledge.
e. We might ask, “During such states, can the mind, per se, gather knowledge?” We might say that such deep, interior ‘knowledge’ cannot, at first, apprehended through the mind; rather, the intuition which reveals wholeness, is the ‘organ’ through which initial apprehension occurs. At least the registrations of the intuition are an approach to monadic ‘knowledge’.
“Intuition is the synthetic understanding which is the prerogative of the soul and it only becomes possible when the soul, on its own level, is reaching in two directions: towards the Monad, and towards the integrated and, perhaps (even if only temporarily) coordinated and at-oned personality. It is the first indication of a deeply subjective unification which will find its consummation at the third initiation.
Intuition is a comprehensive grip of the principle of universality, and when it is functioning there is, momentarily at least, a complete loss of the sense of separateness. At its highest point, it is known as that Universal Love which has no relation to sentiment or to the affectional reaction but is, predominantly, in the nature of an identification with all beings. Then is true compassion known; then does criticism become impossible; then, only, is the divine germ seen as latent in all forms.
Intuition is light itself, and when it is functioning, the world is seen as light and the light bodies of all forms become gradually apparent. This brings with it the ability to contact the light centre in all forms, and thus again an essential relationship is established and the sense of superiority and separateness recedes into the background.”(GWP 2-3)f. Awareness of the human monad, or monadic awareness, is on the ‘line’ of the intuition, though ‘higher’. There is a line of energy which extends from the monad, through the buddhic or intuitional aspect of the spiritual triad, through the synthesis-love petal of the three synthesis petals of the egoic lotus, through the three love petals of the egoic lotus, through the astral permanent atom and the astral body, and thence to the heart within the head, the heart center and, presumably, the astral body.
g. The intuition (as here described) though of an exceedingly high nature, is still, so it would seem, the antechamber to monadic awareness.
h. We read of the intuition that
“at its highest point it is known as that Universal Love which has no relation to sentiment or to the affectional reaction but is, predominantly, in the nature of an identification with all beings.”
Perhaps the highest point of the intuition is not confined to the level of the buddhic plane but actually focussed on the monadic level. The term “Universal Love”, in this context, suggests the Love of the Solar Logos, which can be more fully accessed from the monadic plane than it can from the buddhic (though there will be resonances to this Love on the buddhic level).i. The monadic plane is, in many respects, a solar plane and is attuned to the energy of the Solar Logos. The monad is that “which has its home within the sun”, so the solar attunement is clear.
j. It can be questioned whether human monads on all rays will experience the kind of Universal Love here described by the Tibetan. Perhaps not to the same degree as the second ray monad, but the monad, per se, is focussed upon the second systemic plane which is ruled by the second ray planet Jupiter. The God of our Solar System is a God of Love, and the human monad is intimately connected with this Logos. Further, the monad, generically, is on the heart line, even though it is a center of will.
k. Therefore, to the extent that the highest aspect of intuition is functioning, and to the extent that the realization that “God is Love” and “God is a Consuming Fire” sweeps through the consciousness of the one who seeks to ‘know’ the monad—to that extent will the monad be known.
l. The mind however (even the sophisticated, pattern-apprehending abstract mind) will not the immediate instrument of recognition. The realization and re-cognitions will have to, as it were, impressed upon the mind by other and higher faculties. This impression, then, can be translated into terms, symbols and diagrams with which the mind is familiar.
m. There are, we are told, stores of knowledge in the monad—presumably from a vast anterior experience, and (according to hypothesis) from the inherent patterns residing within any M/monad.
“When atmic consciousness is developing by means of the intuition, the Initiate can contact the stores of knowledge inherent in the Monad, and thus learn the Words of Power.” (LOM 263-264)
”Knowledge” suggests that which is apprehensible by the mind. But what sort of mind would be required—a manasic mind, an atmic mind, a mind inherent in the monad itself which, surely, cannot be devoid of mind. If mind is an inherent faculty in the highest Universal Entities, it is, according to the proposed hypothesis concerning the origin of any M/monad, also an inherent faculty in such a M/monad.n. Our problem is that mind, as we usually know it, has severe limitations and seems to work within its own world—a world rather ‘distant’ from the plane of the monad.
o. In general it should be said that mind should not make the first ‘attack’ upon the monad; other faculties—exalted intuition, intensified will—are more suitable and more likely to succeed. But after attack has been make, and the monad has somewhat yielded its mysteries, the mind can translate that which has been, through other means, known.
2. How can one obtain true knowledge about the monad? (Do we need direct experience of the monad in order to know anything about it? Or what process is to be undertaken in order for us to know even something about it?)
a. Yes, direct experience is needed.
b. It is, of course, possible to study what has been written about the human monad from those (like DK) Who presumably know. One can also study the spiritual literature of the ages in which the highest states of consciousness/awareness/bliss are described as best the author can.
c. It is also possible to reason about what the human monad must be, but this is not the same as direct experience, and cannot really be called “knowledge”. It can only be called ‘thought about possible knowledge”.
d. The process by which one can approach knowledge about the human monad is twofold and apparently contradictory.
e. The first approach would be to accept nothing as the monad. It is a process of constant elimination and rejection. This is the ancient Vedantic technique which is intended to reach the True Self by accepting no definable state as the Self. It is primarily a first ray technique and carries much truth, for in searching for the monad, we are looking for the knower rather than the known and knowable.
f. The second approach would be to embrace everything as the monad. This would be a process of total inclusiveness, and can be equally as effective as the first method—perhaps, in this second ray solar system, moreso. There is nothing the essential monad is not, and this technique acknowledges that fact. It is based upon “I am Than” and “Naught is but Me”. This approach is just as destructive of limited identifications as the first method. What distinct and limited thing can the identity be when it is everything?
g. Maybe the best approach is to use both methods, for indeed the true identity (which, for practical purposes the monad is) is both everything and nothing.
h. The two approaches recommended are on the first and second ray lines. Is there an approach along the third ray line. This is not as easy to see, but perhaps by identifying with all activity, the seeker can grasp a kind of universal ubiquity (a kind of omnipresence) which is akin to monadic awareness.
3. Can the monad be experienced? (Or does one simply have to be it?)
a. The word “experience” has an “ex” in it, which separates the experiencer from that which is experienced. This will not do in the case of the human monad. Perhaps the coined word, ‘in-perience’ is more suggestive. Technically speaking, when we look for the Self (the one who is doing the ‘looking’) we are dealing with apperception rather than perception.
b. With regard to the contrast between knowledge through experience and knowledge through being—one already is the monad. It is just that one does not usually know this. So being the monad, in and of itself, is something common to all human beings—even the most ignorant. Being the monad is, therefore, not something people have to work at ‘doing’; further, the fact that they are the monad, helps very few to realize that fact.
c. Obviously, something further is needed. One must have awareness of the state of being. There are psychospiritual states in which consciousness and being seem to fuse and blend. The highest states of being need not be unconsciousness. Intensified beingness always seems to carry it own type of awareness, even though the awareness may be of no-thing in particular.
d. There is, rather, an awareness of substance—that which substands all particularity. Not only an awareness, but a ‘feeling at one with’ that substance. One knows one is the sub-stance. One cannot approach the monad through being alone, unless it is assumed that being (being higher on the epistemological hierarchy than consciousness) somehow subsumes consciousness.
e. If one sees photographs of Ramakrishna in the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi, he has an ecstatic look on his face. Obviously he knows that he is in a state of bliss. Being and consciousness fuse and blend at that high point. The monad cannot be approached without them both. Perhaps that is why the monad is sometimes called atma-buddhi.
4. What is the monad out-side (beyond) the mind (of the knower)?
a. The ‘experience’/’inperience’ of the monad is beyond the individual mind altogether. It lies beyond any sense of limited individuality.
b. If, as Ramakrishna says, “all egoism consists in ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’”, monadic awareness defeats that egoism. One no longer possesses—even oneself. Rather, one is possessed by the Great Life which lives one, breathes one, and is one. The use of the word “one” here (as a pronoun) is revealing. For one is, indeed the One, and the One is the monad—of whatever status.
V: Monadic Psychology
1. When, in the course of human evolution, can the monad, per se, be consciously experienced?
a. Until a human being is an initiate of the sixth degree, he cannot experience life as a monad on its own plane—the second subplane of the cosmic physical plane, also called the “monadic plane”. Thus, until that time, the fullness of monadic awareness is not his.
b. Although the monad is a conditioning factor since the very earliest days of evolution, it is an unconsciously conditioning factor, and affects the matter aspect rather than the consciousness aspect of divinity.
c. Even at the First Initiation the Monadic Influence is Registered—but By the Soul: “The first faint tremor of the impact of monadic "destiny" (I know not how else to express this concept) makes itself felt, but is registered only by the soul of the initiate and on the level of soul consciousness; it is never registered by the man on the physical plane who is taking the first initiation; his brain cannot respond to this high vibration. Theoretically, and as a result of the teaching of the Ageless Wisdom, the spiritual man (in incarnation) has known that he is essentially the indwelling Christ, and the attainment of the Christ consciousness has been and will be his goal; the knowledge here referred to concerns something higher still—the Self-identification of the soul on its own plane and the Self-recognition which relates that Self to the enveloping whole, the Monad. If I might word it symbolically, I would say that the soul, the Christ (after the first initiation), knows that the inevitable processes of Christ-expression on Earth have been started and that the attainment of ‘the full-grown man in Christ’ cannot be arrested. The centre of interest which has hitherto been directed to bringing this about now shifts and the soul on its own plane (not in the reflection of its consciousness on Earth) becomes determined to ‘go to the Father’ or to demonstrate the highest aspect of divinity, the will aspect.” (R&I 312-313)
“If you will carefully study these four statements you will see what is the knowledge referred to in this command given in Rule XIV to the initiate at the first initiation, the command to Know. It is the order to reorient the soul to the monad and not an order to reorient the personality to the soul, as is so oft believed.” (R&I 315)d. As the second initiation is taken, the influence of the human monad begins to emerge over the horizon of consciousness.
“Once the second initiation has been taken, the watching Hierarchy can begin to note the constant reorientation of the soul towards the monad, and the attractive power of that highest aspect over the initiate.” (DON 120)
The “attractive power” is experienced by the “initiate” and not only by the soul on its own plane.
Preparation for Monadic Response after the Second Initiation:
”2. Those who are preparing for the two next initiations, which are taken upon the ray of the Monad. You have here a cause of the transference of people from one ray to another. It is only an apparent transference, even though it entails passing into the group of a different Master. This takes place after the second initiation.” (LOM 267)
The Meaning of “Spirit” Conveyed to an Initiate of the Second Degree:
“The nature of Spirit is dealt with in the New Testament in one of the esoteric statements addressed by the Great Lord to the initiate, Nicodemus. As he was an initiate of the second degree it may be supposed that he had some glimmering of understanding as to the meaning of the words, which were spoken to him as part of his training in preparation for the third Initiation.
"The wind (prana or Spirit) bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit." (TCF 1229)
The Attempt to Express the Will Nature of the Monad after the Second Degree:
“The word Express, in its deepest meaning and when given at the second initiation, does not mean the necessity to express the nature of the soul. It means (behind all other possible meanings) the command to express the will nature of the monad and to "feel after" and embody the Purpose which lies behind the Plan, as a result of the developed sensitivity. Obedience to the Plan brings revelation of the hidden Purpose, and this is a phrasing of the great objective which impulses the Hierarchy itself. As the initiate learns cooperation with the Plan and demonstrates this in his life of service, then within himself and paralleling this activity to which he is dedicated as a personality and soul, there is also an awakening realisation of the Father aspect, of the nature of the will, of the existence and factual nature of Shamballa and of the universality and the livingness of whatever is meant by the word "Being." He knows and is beginning to express that pure Being as pure will in activity.” (R&I 315-316)
Invoking the Monad Before the Third Initiation:
“It is not possible for any disciple who has not taken the third initiation to ascertain [emphasis, MDR] his monadic ray, but any disciple building the antahkarana, and who has reached the stage of projection, should know his soul ray and his personality ray, and should remember that their fused or blended potency must perform the act of projection. The energy of the Monad can be evoked, but it results in a down-pouring towards its working agent and it is not an act of projection per se. The act of projection is the work of the "shadow and the reflection." (R&I 508-509)e. By the time the third initiation is taken it becomes possible for the disciple not only to feel the presence of the monad, but to “ascertain” his monadic ray.
f. As the fourth and fifth initiations are approached and passed, the power of the monadic ray grows in relation to the soul/triadal ray. By the time the initiate is a Master of the Wisdom, He is very much an expression of the monadic ray and very nearly knows, by direct experience, the full nature of monadic awareness..
“Though the etheric body of man is an expression of the seven ray qualities in varying degrees of force, the etheric body of a Master is an expression of monadic energy, and comes into full activity after the third initiation.” (EP II 294)
2. What type of experience is the experience of “monadic awareness”?
a. Regardless of commonalties between such experiences, an experience of the human monad will differ in important particulars for every human unit and will depend upon many factors—principally the point in evolution of the human unit and the number which characterizes the monadic ray (i.e., ray one, ray two, ray three, etc.). Though the experience is intensely subjective and has, throughout history, defied description in ordinary words—as witness the frustration felt by even the highest mystics when they tried to relate their deepest and highest spiritual experiences—still some indications can be offered.
b. The Monadic Awareness of the Christ:
“3. The exclamation of the Christ, ‘Father, not my will, but Thine be done,’ indicated His monadic and realised ‘destiny.’ The meaning of these words is not as is so oft stated by Christian theologians and thinkers, a statement of acceptance of pain and of an unpleasant future. It is an exclamation evoked by the realisation of monadic awareness and the focussing of the life aspect within the Whole. The soul, in this statement, is renounced, and the monad, as a point of centralisation, is definitely and finally recognised.” (R&I 314)c. In the state of monadic awareness (though probably reduced in intensity by the inhibitory presence of personality and soul) the ring-pass-not of identity will enlarge greatly. The experience of the personality can be described as “I am” or, perhaps, as ‘I am I and only I’; the experience of the soul, as “I am That”, or ‘We are united in Love’; the experience of the human monad (call it, perhaps, an ‘inperience’) as “I am That I am”, or “I am That and That am I”. It is an experience in which all identities are seen as One Identity.
Differentiating Between Three Identity Mantrams for Three States of Consciousness:
“That which must be emphasised is the little realised concept that this assertion of "I am" distinguishes not only man, but is the mantric word which preserves the integrity of all groups likewise. When man can say "I am That" he is beginning to sense his oneness with his group. When groups make a similar assertion they are beginning to realise their identity with all other groups. When a planetary Logos echoes the words "I am That" He is approaching the hour of synthesis, or of absorption. When a solar Logos utters the words, a year of Brahma will be drawing to a close, and the hour of conscious merging with His greater group will be approaching. Broadly (in relation to man) it might be stated that:
"I am" refers to the personality consciousness on three lower planes, or to all that is considered as inferior to the causal body. It concerns a man's realisation of his place upon the globe within a chain.
"I am That" refers to his egoic consciousness, and to the planes of the Triad. It concerns a man's realisation of his place within the chain, and his relationship to the group of which he forms a part.
"I am That I am" refers to a man's monadic consciousness, and his relationship to the planes of abstraction. It concerns his realisation of his position in the scheme.
When the initiate can say "I am That I am," then he has merged himself with his divine essence, and is freed from form.” (TCF 420)d. In the state of monadic awareness, there is an overwhelming sense of sameness no matter how much differentiation is beheld; and, probably, the sense of differentiation increases as well (differentiation within ‘seamlessness’), for synthesis, it is said, differentiates. The experience is one of “Unity in Diversity”. Even more, it is an experience of ‘Sameness in Diversity”.
It is mysterious—this conversion of differentiation into the factual apprehension of all things as the same substance. To a degree, this type of awareness is based upon an act of abstraction. Further it requires a refined sensitivity to that which is not material. The awareness has become sensitized to the fundamental contrast between being and non-being. The very fact that something is, evokes recognition. It is not so much what something is that awakens the attention, but that something is at all—this is the realization.
Is there something that all things share in common? The monadically aware consciousness is sensitive to this something. What all things share is simply that they are. Thus, they share being itself. This is often overlooked by consciousnesses more interested in what they see than that they see—at all.
The sense of sameness, therefore, is based upon the perception of shared being. Being is a great leveler, a great common denominator. Obviously, nothing that is, is without it. The realization of this fact can be shocking. The “raw fact of existence” stares us in the face for so many years and yet eludes notice, until one awakens to the shocking realization that something is rather than is not. Related to this is the further realization that all things that are—are—rather than are not.
The search for sameness is akin to the search for simplicity. The ability to apprehend simplicity is one of the last spiritual faculties to be developed on the path of discipleship. Utter simplicity and utter sameness are—the same.
The discovery of sameness ‘undercuts’ illusion. Illusion is based upon an irresolvable multiplicity. To dispel illusion we need to discover that which unites all that is perceived. One can look for harmonies and complementarities and find them, but not all things are harmonious or complementary. Only the solvent of being, itself—applied equally to all ‘existents’ can resolve the complex many into the utterly simple One.e. The state of monadic awareness conveys a deep sense of identification:
The barriers between different identities or entities are down; the sense of separation is abolished. That which is perceived is perceived as if from the ‘inside’.
This involves the abolition of the sense of the normal ‘location of identity’. Normally (for the personality consciousness), identity is experienced as if within that which is closest—namely the body and the various personality fields. As the faculty of identification grows, however, this ‘location of identity’ is transferred, as it were, ‘outside’ the normal personal fields (without, however, losing connection to its ‘original placement’).
The result is that the ‘location of identity’ can be transferred into whatever is perceived within the field of consciousness. The conviction develops—“I am that, and that, and that…etc.” There is nothing that I am not. “Naught is but me.” (EP I 417) Although this particular mantram pertains to high realizations upon the second ray, it (like the phrase “Isolated Unity”) is applicable to all manner of monadic realizations.
The “I am That” consciousness is of the soul. If it persists long enough and with sufficient intensity, it leads into the “I am That I am” awareness which is specifically monadic. The ‘thatness’ of any particular that, fades gradually into obscurity. The “that” could be anything; its characteristics matter not. Something other than itself is recognized as suffusing it. “I am That” speaks of unity with what is. “I am That I am” speaks of the hidden cause of that unity which, in monadic awareness, begins to emerge.
In a way, monadic awareness is a kind of subjective ‘solvent’, which dissolves lower states of consciousness and the boundaries which characterize them.
The seat of the “life aspect” is within the heart. Identification is successfully approached through a special activation of the heart.
Definition of Identification:
“Identification is realisation, plus esoteric experience, plus again an absorption into the Whole, and for all of this (as I have earlier pointed out) we have no terminology.” (R&I 60)
Seeing All Things as if Within the Self:
”The knowledge of the initiate has naught to do with consciousness as the mind recognises that factor in the evolutionary process; his knowledge is related to the faculty of the intuition and to that divine perception which sees all things as within itself.” (R&I 288)
Loving Understanding in Relation to Identification:
“The Ashrams of the Masters (to be found on all the rays) Who work in particular with humanity, are mostly to be found upon the buddhic levels of the triadal consciousness. There the note of "loving understanding" predominates, but even these words must be interpreted esoterically and not according to their usual and obvious meaning. It is not a case of "I understand because I love," or that "this," with love, understands "that." It is something far deeper, involving the idea of identification, of participation, and of synthetic realisation—lovely euphonious words, but meaning little to the non-initiates. (R&I 169)
Identification and Complete Unity:
“I wonder if I have succeeded in giving you at least a general idea of the possibilities lying ahead of the disciple, and incited you to definite conscious response to those possibilities. I cannot do other than speak in terms of consciousness, even though the life of the Triad—leading in its turn to identification with the Monad, as the personality life leads eventually to soul control and expression—has naught to do with consciousness or sensitivity as those terms are commonly understood. Yet remember how, in all my teachings upon occult unfoldment, I have used the word IDENTIFICATION. This is the only word I have found which can in any way convey the complete unity which is finally achieved by those who develop a sense of unity, and who refuse to accept isolation; separateness then fades out entirely. The isolated unity achieved is unity with the Whole, with Being in its totality (and this cannot as yet convey much to you).” (R&I 43-44)
Identification in Relation to the Higher Initiations:
“the state of consciousness or awareness is superseded when the higher initiations are taken and their place is filled by a state of being for which we have no word but the unsatisfactory one of identification. This state of being is something very different to consciousness as you understand it.” (R&I 82)
Description of Identification:
”Identification (to use the only word available for our purpose) is connected with dynamic life, with conscious enhancement, with completion and with creative sharing, plus process. It is a process of participation—consciously and constructively undertaken—in the life actions and reactions of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being; it is related to the network of life channels which keep the form aspect of the planetary Logos functioning as a ‘Divine Representation’." (R&I 172)
Identification Transcending Love and the Illumined Mind:
“Step by step, in the eleven rules already studied, we have seen the initiate or disciple carried from his position as an accepted disciple standing before the Angel of the Presence, to that point of attainment where the spiritual will is released in full service and with full comprehension at the time of the fourth initiation, where atma or pure spirit is in control, where the Spiritual Triad is expressing the nature of the Monad, where identification with the purpose of deity has transcended illumination of the mind, and has also transcended cooperation through pure love with the Plan.”(R&I 225)
Monad as Center of Universal Awareness of Identification:
“Consider for a moment that the initiate who has undergone the first major initiation (the Transfiguration) and the two initiations of the threshold (the Birth and Baptism of the Christian Mysteries) has created the antahkarana in order to establish direct relation between the Monad and the personality, between the centre of universal awareness or identification and the form-expression in the three worlds.” (R&I 279)
Identification Taking the Place of Inclusiveness:
“This, however, is only a beginning of an entirely new phase of development; consciousness eventually drops below the level of perception. It becomes as automatic and unregistered in its expression as animal instinct is to the human being. It functions, but the man is not consciously aware of it. It is a protective mechanism. The will aspect of the Monad supersedes but does not negate love (which has become, in its turn, instinctual); a one-pointed, rapier-like assumption of identification takes the place of the inclusiveness hitherto felt and practised.(R&I 282)
Passing Through the Door of Identification:
“Through the door of initiation, having attained the mystical vision, each aspirant will become aware of that within himself which permits of a spiritual perception of such an expansive nature that he gets his first real and individual glimpse of the divine Plan; from that moment his entire life is altered. Later (and this I cannot expect the student to understand; if he thinks he does, he is being misled by words), he will pass through the door of identification. This is a perfectly meaningless phrase, since its significance is most carefully guarded. Symbolically speaking and in order to preserve the concept of this door in the mind of humanity, true esoteric meetings are entered on the password. Only the WORD can enter through this door—this highest and widest of all doors. Once through that door and once eligible to the Council Chamber of the Great Lord, the Initiate will comprehend what is meant by "monadic impression." It is not impression by a Monad (that meaningless term) upon the brain of a man who has constructed the antahkarana and passed the fourth initiation. It is an innate responsiveness to the Purpose of the Universal Mind of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being.(TEV 73-74)
Identification, Initiation, Individualization:
“The work of evolution, being part of the determination of Deity to express divinity through form, is necessarily, therefore the task of revelation, and as far as man is concerned, this revelation works out as the growth of soul evolution and falls into three stages.
1. Individualisation Personality.
2. Initiation Ego.
3. Identification Monad.” (EP II 8)f. In the state of monadic awareness there is an overwhelming sense of oneness:
Of course, so many of these descriptors of monadic awareness are related to each other. When one possesses even one of the realizations, one is very close to having them all.
An awareness of oneness demands both a monumental enlargement of consciousness and a most pointed concentration. Consciousness (at first through imagination) expands towards universality; it attempt to “take everything in”. Simultaneously to this expansion, it the ability to focus on the tiniest unit of existence (at least imaginatively) and recognize that it is not different from the whole.
The note of the number one sounds constantly through all multiple presentations to consciousness. Though there may be interest in any presented item or in all presented items as distinct, that unitary note continues to sound. That note (sounding through the perceiver) says to the presented ‘part’, “I cannot forget that you are the whole”. “Though I understand your qualities, I cannot see you as essentially distinct”.
The illusion of separateness is based upon the inability to achieve an apprehensive grasp of the whole. Particularities distract the attention, and the note of wholeness is lost. One forgets the whole for the part. A growing and emerging sensitivity to the Irreducible Substratum cures this.i. The first step is to see things in relation to each other, detecting the harmonies where possible.
ii. A next step is to, as it were, ‘isolate the whole’ while dealing with the part. When viewing the part, realize its indispensability to the whole—that the whole could not exist without that part.
iii. The next step is to see each part and the whole as the same. In this final realization, ‘God’ is completely incarnate in every aspect of Creation. The whole is entirely in the part; the part is not just within the whole, but is the whole. This seems nonsensical, unless the Substratum of Being is sensed.
Oneness and the Nirvanic State:
“It is but a dim reflection in the separated units (and therefore tinged with selfishness and separative pleasure) of the group condition called nirvanic. In this high state of consciousness each separate identity, though self-realising, shares in the group realisation, and therein lies bliss for the unit. Separation is no longer felt, only unity and essential oneness is known.” (TCF 737)
The Term “Monad” Begins to have Significance when Essential Oneness is Realized:
“At a later stage, when certain great transitions in consciousness have taken place and the form has lost its hold, even these divisions disappear, and the plan is seen as a whole, the Life is known in its essential oneness, and the term, monad, begins to have some real significance.” (TWM 384)
Three Words Conveying Universality and Oneness:
“These three words [Illumination, Understanding, Love] sum up the three qualities or aspects of the intuition and can be covered by the word, universality, or the sense of universal Oneness.” (GWP 5)
Realization of Oneness at the Sixth Initiation:
“At the sixth initiation, the initiate, functioning consciously as the love-aspect of the Monad, is brought (via his ‘Father’) into a still vaster recognition, and becomes aware of that Star which encloses his planetary star, just as that star has earlier been seen as enclosing his own tiny ‘Spark.’ He thus makes his conscious contact with the solar Logos, and realises within himself the Oneness of all life and manifestation.” (IHS 118)
Isolated Unity and a Mysterious Oneness with All that Is.
“In this Rule for accepted disciples and initiates we are faced with a similar condition on a higher turn of the spiral, but with this difference (one which you can hardly grasp unless at the point where the Word goes forth to you): that the initiate stands alone in "isolated unity," aware of his mysterious oneness with all that is.” (R&I 60)
A Great Universal Oneness with All That Is
“When the student realises that the great universal Oneness which he associates with monadic consciousness, is only the registration of impressions localised (and therefore limited) and defined within the etheric levels of the cosmic physical plane, he can perhaps grasp the implications of the wonder which will be revealed to the initiate who can transcend the entire cosmic physical plane (our seven planes of the human, superhuman and the divine worlds) and function upon another cosmic level. This is what the treading of the Way of the Higher Evolution enables a Master eventually to do.” (R&I 363-364)g. In the state of monadic awareness the sense of the vastness of life and its universality is palpable. The normal range of thought expands immeasurably, and both the exterior and interior Cosmos (in its many levels) are presented to the consciousness for consideration.
While there are always limits to what consciousness can apprehend, an individual in a state of monadic awareness feels compelled to stretch those limits.
The vastness of the Cosmos is not just an intellectual registration—it is a participatory experience. One feels involved in and extended through the entirety of Cosmos. Of course, any real consciousness of that which is sensed is a present impossibility, but the intimation of that which will be known (in further M/monadic states) is registered, and the sense of being begins to pervade the perceived vastness. One begins to participate identificatorily in the breadth of what the mind can apprehend.
Universal Scope of Divine Consciousness; Its Relation to the Monad:
“In making this statement I would again remind you that the third initiation is regarded by the Hierarchy as the first major initiation, whilst the two previous initiations are considered as only preparatory in their nature. The training given in preparation for them, and the consequent expansions of consciousness, reveal to the initiate the nature of the soul, the scope (widespread and universal) of the divine consciousness, and his relation to the Father, the Monad.” (R&I 522)h. The state of monadic awareness confers a indelible sense of being:
Being is a pure and unconditioned state. Being, in a sense, is unqualified. In itself, it is unaffected by the quality of that which is. There can be many differences in quality between the different things that are, but one thing they inevitably share—the fact that they are.
To sustain their happiness, most people will depend on how things are. The question, “How are you?” is essentially meant to determine whether you are happy or not.
Joy arises with the realization that, essentially, one is unified with all other beings, and that Goodness, Beauty and Truth underlie the whole. The joyous one understands himself to be far ‘larger’, more embracing, extensive and related than he thought, and rejoices in these realizations which persist regardless of appearances to the contrary.
Bliss arises through the realization of the ontological implications of the very fact of being. One realizes that there is something which can never be taken away (for quality is ever-impermanent); that there is something permanent right now, and ever-permanent—namely, the simple fact that one is. This realization more than assures one of one’s place in the Universe; it assures one of one’s identity as the Universe. When all conditions and qualities seem to fail, being remains.
With the realization of being comes the realization of abundant potential—nay, of infinite (extra-cosmic) potential. One feels oneself not only united to the virtually Inexhaustible Source, but, in fact, to be that Source. There comes the sense that one can never be defeated, and that the entire theme of this and every Cosmos is oneself, the Only Self.
Being and Negation
“His effort is towards something which means little as yet to those of you who read these words; it is for the realisation of Being, immovable, immutable, living and only to be comprehended in terms which embody the concept of ‘It is not this; it is not that.’ It is No-Thing; it is not thought or desire. It is life, Being, the whole, the One. It is not expressed by the words ‘I am’ or by the words ‘I am not.’ It is expressed by the words ‘I am that I am.’ Having said that, know you what I mean? It is the will-to-be which has found itself through the will-to-good.” (R&I 104)
Expressing Pure Being as Pure Will in Activity:
“As the initiate learns cooperation with the Plan and demonstrates this in his life of service, then within himself and paralleling this activity to which he is dedicated as a personality and soul, there is also an awakening realisation of the Father aspect, of the nature of the will, of the existence and factual nature of Shamballa and of the universality and the livingness of whatever is meant by the word ‘Being.’ He knows and is beginning to express that pure Being as pure will in activity.” (R&I 315-316)i. The state of monadic awareness confers an impressive sense of divine will and purpose.
The usual human being is limited to the expression of his own personal will and purpose. The reason for his existence and the place of that existence within the larger whole are initially concealed. Still more hidden from sight is the meaning of the planetary or solar whole in which he plays his tiny part, and the purpose and destiny of those great wholes.
The process of living, however, lifts one veil after another, and revelation gradually comes. A succession of greater purposes begin to dawn, and the individual realizes that these greater purposes are, essentially his own purposes. Increasingly, he knows himself to be a tiny but integral part of the manifestation of his Planetary Logos, and later of the god of the solar system, the Solar Logos. Contact with his monad confers this sense of planetary and solar participation.
With the realization of this participation, the nature of the will changes. The changing sense of identity changes the scope, quality and intensity of the will. From personal will, to the will of the soul which is ever group conscious, to planetary will, and at last to solar will, the human, manifested spirit progresses, ever more empowered, ever more willing to perform that which the higher will (awakening within him) demands.
As the monadic influence comes into prominence, the individual feels within himself an irresistibility of will which is not his own—at least it does not ‘belong’ to the self which he had thought himself to be.
Inspired by this new, dynamic and ever-intensifying will, he realizes his essential invincibility. Those aspects of his nature which are of the form may be defeated and destroyed, but this newly discovered will can never be subdued by any conditions. It is permanent-in-Cosmos; conditions are not. There is no force in Cosmos stronger than it, because it is the very force of Cosmos Itself—however incompletely revealed at the human level.
This is a magnificently empowering experience, transforming the defeat which form had long inflicted upon soul and spirit into a promise of permanent victory, and the willing patience to see all life processes through until that victory is achieved.
The realization of the nature of monadic will and its successful appropriation and application is the first step towards Omnipotence.
Monadic Will as the Purpose of the “One in Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being”:
“Upon the Path of Initiation, the monadic will (of which the egoic will is the reflection and the individual self-will is the distortion) is gradually transmitted, via the antahkarana, direct to the man upon the physical plane. This produces the higher correspondence of those qualities so glibly spoken of by the well-trained but dense esotericist—transmutation and transformation. The result is the assimilation of the individual will and the egoic will into the purpose of the Monad which is the purpose—undeviating and unalterable—of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being. This is the field of the true burning, for our ‘God is a consuming Fire.’ This is the burning bush or the burning tree of life of Biblical symbolism.” (R&I 31)
The Effects Upon the Will at the Third Initiation:
“For the first time the expanded consciousness of the initiate can contact Shamballa and the One Who rules there, the Lord of the World. For the first time, the focussed purpose which brought Sanat Kumara into incarnation makes an impact upon the enlightened brain of the initiate, bringing something new and different into his equipment, into his nature and his consciousness. I know not how else to express these ideas. It is a blinding conviction of an unalterable will, carrying all before it, oblivious of time and space, aware only of intensity of direction, and carrying with it two major qualifications or basic recognitions to the initiate: a sense of essential being which obliterates all the actions and reactions of time and space, and a focussed will-to-good which is so dynamic in its effect that evil disappears. Evil is after all only an impelling sense of difference, leading inevitably to separative action.” (R&I 175-176)
The Monad Realized as Embodied Purpose:
“Later, the soul itself is superseded by the Monad, and that Monad becomes, in verity, embodied purpose.” (EP I 39)j. The experience of monadic awareness is an experience of fire:
Fire destroys impediments to freedom. The monad is the principle of freedom itself, and its influence burns away obstacles to freedom in the lower nature.
Those who come under the will of the monad will have many fiery and consequently liberating experiences. The average personality is very far from being able to withstand the energies of the higher planes. Monadic fire conditions the personality so that it can bear these energies.
The Work of the Monad in Relation to Fire:
“But the burning ground referred to here is something very different. When the blazing light of the sun is correctly focussed on or through a glass it can cause ignition. When the blazing light of the Monad is focussed directly upon the personality, via the antahkarana and not specifically through the soul, it produces a blazing fire which burns up all hindrances in a steady, sequential process. Wording it otherwise, when the will aspect streams from the Monad and focusses through the personal will (as the mind can grasp and realise it) it destroys as by fire all elements of self-will. As the energy of Shamballa streams out and makes a direct contact with humanity (omitting the transmission via the Hierarchy, which has hitherto been customary), you have what has been seen in the world today, a destructive conflagration or a world burning ground. When the antahkarana of a group is rightly constructed, then the individualised group-will will disappear in the full consciousness of the monadic purpose or clear directed will. These are points which the disciple preparing for initiation has to consider as he prepares for the higher initiations, and these are the points which any group or ashram in preparation for initiation has also to consider.” (R&I 29-30)
“Fire is the sumtotal of that which destroys form, produces complete purity in that which is not itself, generates the warmth which lies behind all growth, and is vitality itself.” (R&I 82)k. The state of monadic awareness is an experience of vibrant livingness:
The monad is focussed at a frequency altogether higher than that of the normal personality states or even than the relatively progressive states of soul infusion. When impediments in the lower nature have been burned away, the life-giving fiery energies flow freely into the chakras. Animation increases. The downward ‘drag’ of low vibration is overcome. The number of registrable impacts is greatly augmented. Monadic vitality enlivens the vehicles and, hence, the consciousness working through them. The energy of “Life more Abundantly” is embodied in the lower worlds of form. The quality of life is immeasurably enhanced.
The Livingness of Life and the Unalterable Being of the Monad:
“it does teach the ‘livingness of Life’ and the state of ‘unalterable Being.’ This unalterable Being constitutes the nature of the Monad, and it is to this condition of awareness that Christ attained when He functioned as a World Saviour and thereby guaranteed, by the force of His achievement as a personality-soul, the same point of attainment for us, for we are equally and essentially sons of the Father or expressions of the Monad, the One.” (R&I 317-318)
Livingness in the Highest Monadic Experience:
“the great goal of all religious teaching will be the resurrection of the spirit in man, and eventually in all forms of life, from the lowest point in evolution to the highest monadic experience. The emphasis in the future will be upon the ‘livingness of the Christ nature’—the proof of which will be the Risen Christ—and upon the use of the will invoking this ‘living display.’ The glory and the radiance of the Transfiguration initiation will eventually be relegated to its destined place, and what is meant by the ‘display of life’ will dimly be sensed in its unimaginable beauty.” (R&I 318)l. The state of monadic awareness conveys an undeniable sense of immortality:
Within the state of monadic awareness, it is not simply that one knows that he is an immortal being who will live forever. In addition there is a sense of living that immortality now. The conviction of present immortality casts out fear and brings an extraordinary keenness to life. One knows oneself to be a “god” (a living monad) and takes steps towards conquering the enforced relinquishments of death.
“The centres in the human being deal fundamentally with the FIRE aspect in man, or with his divine spirit. They are definitely connected with the Monad, with the will aspect, with immortality, with existence, with the will to live, and with the inherent powers of Spirit. They are not connected with objectivity and manifestation, but with force, or the powers of the divine life.” (TCF 165)m. The state of monadic awareness conveys an unalterable sense of destiny:
Usually, the sense of the way ahead is bounded by ignorance. The human being often has insufficient foresight to see him even to the conclusion of the day he is living. Plans for the future exist, but are uncertain and fairly vague as regards particulars.
With monadic awareness comes the power to see the way which leads into the spirit. One senses with assurance the inevitability of the synthetic state which must eventuate. One also feels possessed of the irresistible will required to tread Path to that Destiny. The certainty of inevitability supervenes, and one is greatly empowered by this compelling vision.
Monadic Destiny Felt with the Christ Consciousness: “The first faint tremor of reaction to monadic ‘destiny’ and to the widespread universal influence a Son of God can exert makes itself felt in the consciousness of the Christ—as it will in the consciousness of all those who obey His injunction and arrive at the perfection which He pointed out as possible.” (ROC 27)
Christ, and His Realization of Monadic Destiny: “3. The exclamation of the Christ, ‘Father, not my will, but Thine be done,’ indicated His monadic and realised ‘destiny.’ The meaning of these words is not as is so oft stated by Christian theologians and thinkers, a statement of acceptance of pain and of an unpleasant future. It is an exclamation evoked by the realisation of monadic awareness and the focussing of the life aspect within the Whole. The soul, in this statement, is renounced, and the monad, as a point of centralisation, is definitely and finally recognised. “ (R&I 314)n. The state of monadic awareness conveys a profound sense of endurance:
Impatience and lack of endurance is fundamentally based upon a lack of confidence in the inevitability of spirit-satisfaction. One wants now, because one is fundamentally uncertain of fulfillment. One fails to persist for the same reason—an underlying, semi-conscious sense of futility.
In the state of monadic awareness, the irresistible, invincible power of the monad is revealed and the certainty that what it intends will be realized.
As fulfillment is understood as inevitable (whether or not the personality continuously wills that fulfillment) a profound patience takes the place of fitful discontinuous efforts. Monadically inspired, one simply endures until that which is inevitable comes to pass. One recognizes in oneself the power to outlast any transient set of circumstances. Victory is assured by persistence; compared to the fleeting states with which it is surrounded, the monad is persistence itself.
“This point at the centre is in reality, therefore, all that IS and the other three aspects of life—as listed—are merely indications of its existence. It is that which has capacity to withdraw to its Source, or to impose upon itself layer upon layer of substance; it is the cause of the return of the so-called Eternal Pilgrim to the Father's Home after many aeons of experience, as well as that which produces experiment, leading to eventual experience and final expression.” (TEV 169-170)o. To experience the monad instills a vibrant sense of bliss:
Bliss arises within a state of ‘unfettered beingness of spirit’. It is an unbounded state, in which no apparently encapsulated aspect of spirit is separated from any other. Bliss is a transcendental state of relatively completed synthesis. Surely there must be something relative in it, for it is not reasonable to suppose that the bliss of the human monad is equivalent to that realized by far greater Monads. Yet, as far as the human being is concerned, bliss comes in the phase in which the human enterprise is coming to completion—at least for the monad concerned.
Bliss lies beyond the joyous state of soul “surety”. The joyous soul is sure of the Good, the Beautiful and the True, and is identified with them and their processes. Defeat is no longer possible and victory is imminent. But the true consummating victory is experienced as bliss which is an intensification of loving relations—an intensification to the point of realized identicalness of being. Bliss arises with the obliteration of difference and the ecstatic celebration of sameness.
Bliss cannot come to the unready; it must be laboriously and painfully earned over the ages. Every increase of light leads thereto. Every harmonization, every bridge of love and beauty prepares the way. But the intensification of beingness/perception required is unexpectedly extreme. The realization of identicality is hard won after aeons—though then may come suddenly as a surprise.
It seems clear that one must not strive after bliss; bliss is the result of achieved synthesis, not the cause. One can labor at the realization of synthesis by removing every irresolvable, inhibitory difference; then bliss will arise.
Sacrifice?!
Bliss Bestowed by the Monad:
“I would remind you here that happiness is the result of achieved personality desire; joy is the expression of the soul's surety, whilst bliss is the consummation which the monad bestows upon the initiate.” (DINA I 181)
Realization of the Purpose of Deity Brings Bliss:
“None are as yet Lords of ceaseless will and none realise as yet the plan of the monad nor the true goal towards which all are striving. Some day all will. But potentially every human unit is all these three, and some day the appearances which were called personalities, that mask or veil reality, will fully reveal the qualities of Deity. When that time comes, the purpose for which all creation waits will burst upon the awakened vision, and we shall know the true meaning of bliss, and why the morning stars sang together. Joy is the strong basic note of our particular solar system.” (EP I 49)
Bliss, of the Nature of Spirit:
“Third, bliss, which is the nature of the Spirit and about which speculation is fruitless until the soul realises its oneness with the Father. This realisation follows upon an earlier stage wherein the personal self is at-oned with the soul. Therefore speculation and analysis as to the nature of bliss is profitless to the average man whose metaphors and terminologies must perforce be personal and related to the world of the senses.” (TWM 369) “
The Bliss of Nirvanic Realization:
It is but a dim reflection in the separated units (and therefore tinged with selfishness and separative pleasure) of the group condition called nirvanic. In this high state of consciousness each separate identity, though self-realising, shares in the group realisation, and therein lies bliss for the unit. Separation is no longer felt, only unity and essential oneness is known.” (TCF 737) “
Bliss Springs from the Head:
"Out of the lotus in the head springs the flower of bliss. Its earliest form is joy.” (DINA I 157)
Nothing Remains but Bliss:
"Therefore be full of joy, O pilgrim on the Way towards enlightened Being, for gain and loss are one; darkness and light eternally reveal the True; love and desire eternally invoke the Life.
Naught disappears but pain. Nothing remains but bliss,—the bliss of knowledge true, of contact real, of light divine, the Way to God." (EP II 33-34)
3. What is the relationship of the experience of the human monad to the experience of the “Presence”?
a. A “presence” is a newly detected energy, usually different from the energies or forces usually registered.
b. A subtle entity can be, to our consciousness, a “presence”.
c. Another human being projecting his thought or psychological energy can be, to us, a presence.
d. The soul, coming into focus through the quieting of the personality can be a Presence.
e. And, of course, the human monad is, for the human being, that which is known as the “Presence”—the Energy/Entity which is veiled by the Angel of the Presence—the Solar Angel.
f. This Presence will first be noticed as “something other”.
g. It will noticed that when this Presence is registered the energy system begins to change and consciousness, too, changes significantly. Both changes are in the nature of empowerments.
h. The key to the “Presence” is that it is never absent. It is, forever, the abiding Factor in all existence.
i. It is subtler than any thing whatsoever. It is like the number, one, divisible into all numbers. It pervades and substands all ‘perceivables’ and yet is more real than any of them.
j. The true “Presence” is, ultimately, the One Monad, and, in any M/monad, is the Essence.
k. The Presence is the ‘Universal Constant’—understood metaphysically.
l. The “Technique of the Presence” (practiced for centuries as a spiritual discipline) will, practiced rightly and enduringly, lead to monadic identification.
4. Why are the terms “synthesis” and “synthetic” applied to the human monad?
a. Synthesis is a condition in which all barriers or obstructions to the flow of life, consciousness or intelligence have been removed.
b. In a synthesized state, one central purpose is expressed throughout the whole; one consciousness is aware throughout the whole and is aware that it is thus aware; one life force, perfectly organized and perfectly distributed, animates the whole.
c. In the monadic state of being/awareness, so many integrations and fusions have been accomplished, that the intercourse between all aspects of a living system is complete. No aspect “lives unto itself”; all aspects are but reflections of the pervasive monadic oneness—a systemic synthesis.
5. What is the relation between the human monad and the spiritual triad?
a. The spiritual triad is to the human monad as the human personality is to the soul.
b. The three major qualities of the human monad are Will, Wisdom and Activity. These are expressed through the three aspects of the spiritual triad:
i. The will of the human monad expresses through the atmic aspect of the spiritual triad (which resonates with spiritual will of the Planetary Logos).
ii. The wisdom of the human monad expresses through the buddhic aspect of the spiritual triad (which resonates with spiritual intuition of the Planetary Logos).
iii. The activity of the human monad expresses through the manasic aspect of the spiritual triad (which resonates with the abstract thinking of the Planetary Logos).
6. What is the experience/awareness of the human monad compared to that of the spiritual triad?
a. The experience/awareness of the human monad is synthetic. It occurs ‘above’ the level of the Brahmic Aspect—the five systemic planes which are still ruled by the Third Divine Aspect. It is clear that the experience of the spiritual triad still occurs within the domain of Brahma (as the Brahmic Aspect is considered from the perspective of the Solar Logos).
b. In the experience/awareness of the human monad, the trinity of triadal aspects are merged into one; there is a greater measure of ‘formlessness’. In the experience/awareness of the spiritual triad, one or other of the Three Divine Aspects is accentuated.
c. The experience/awareness of the human monad is one of release from even the planes of superhuman evolution. The experience/awareness of the spiritual triad occurs within the domain of superhuman evolution.
d. In the experience/awareness of the spiritual triad, one is still a “man”, even as the Master of the Wisdom is still a “man”. One is conditioned by the number five. In the experience/awareness of the human monad, one realizes that, essentially, one is not any longer a “man”. There is a sense of release even from high triadal forms.
e. The experience/awareness of the spiritual triad is still largely planetary; the unit is focussed in the mind, heart and will of the Planetary Logos. In the experience/awareness of the human monad, the truly solar life has begun. One realizes that one is actually a part of the ‘Sun’/Solar Logos (on its three levels).
7. What are the spheres of application of the human monad, spiritual triad and soul when compared to each other?
a. The sphere of application of the soul is the most familiar. That of the spiritual triad is unfamiliar to many. The sphere of application of the human monad is the least familiar of all.
b. Everyone recognizes what a personality does; it functions in the three lower worlds with increasing intelligence and demonstrates, for the most part, selfishly or self-referentially.
c. When human beings live a life of service and helpfulness, what they are and what they do as souls is recognized.
d. When the range of their service becomes planetary and relatively outstanding, they are recognized as ‘higher’ souls or spiritual triads, for the spiritual triad is planetary in scope, and through it the many can be helped rather than just the few.
e. The human monad’s ‘sphere of application’ is vaster yet. A human being consciously centered in the monad is no longer, strictly speaking, a human being (as a Master is) but, rather, a Chohan.
f. When the human monad begins to be influential, it abstracts a man in the direction of Planetary Purpose. Greater intimacy with one of the Masters becomes a possibility and conscious, focussed work for one of the Three Great Departments of Hierarchy becomes a fact, not just a theory.
g. When the conscious influence of the human monad begins, one is deliberately seeking to polarize within the world of the spiritual triad. Polarization within true world of the human monad is yet too distant, too unattainable for the ‘downwardly’ projected beam of monadic life/consciousness (i.e., the human soul). When the monadic ray inspires the initiate, this ray is added to the soul/triadal ray and empowers it. The capacity to think in terms of ever vaster wholes (even more vast than the planetary whole) begins to dawn.
h. Work in relation to the spiritual triad (which can be begun before the monadic ray makes itself consciously felt) concerns one or other of the synthesis petals of the Egoic Lotus. The synthesizing of all that has gone before—of knowledge/action, desire/love, sacrifice/will is in process. The sacrifice petals may not yet be fully open, but already the three synthesis petals are receiving considerable stimulation.
i. When, however, the influence of the human monad truly begins to be felt consciously, even a further stage of synthesis begins. There is not only a continuation of the process by which a synthesis petal synthesizes an entire lower tier of petals, but, there is instituted a process whereby the jewel in the lotus (the reflection of the human monad within the causal body) synthesizes the three synthesis petals themselves.
j. Every human soul has to bring his realization to a point which will allow him to pass through the “needle’s eye”. It is the monadic influence which, in a way, compresses all, bringing all to that point, even while it expands the awareness immensely.
k. So we can see that the human monadic sphere of application is initially very abstract, and deals with those high states of awareness which can be achieved only at the very latest stages of human evolution—the period following the third initiation when the preparation for the destruction of the causal body is underway.
l. That there will be effects and repercussions ‘below’ is without question. But it would be wrong to look for evidences of monadic activity ‘below’ without considering first the synthesis which is being attempted under the monadic ray.
m. The monad will develop awareness of the planetary center of which it is a constituent. This will mean awareness of an entire globe, awareness of an entire chain, and, eventually, awareness of all chains within a planetary scheme.
n. The scope of the human monad’s awareness at length becomes not only planetary but solar systemic. The monad is “that which has its home within the sun”, and the awareness becomes extended through the domain pervaded by the Solar Logos.
o. These latter developments (both planetary and solar systemic) can only be expected after a monad has “come to itself” at the sixth initiation, when its true development—as a monad, per se—begins.
8. How does the experience of the monad differ from the experience of the soul?
a. The experience of the soul is largely one of love and unity (regardless of the soul ray).
b. The experience of the soul is still an experience of form (albeit a higher form) and is cognizant of quality.
c. Soul experience is based upon the cohesiveness which underlies and harmoniously relates form to form, and consciousness to consciousness.
d. The experience of the monad transcends an awareness of form, per se. Identification negates the even the subtle separations of form from form, or consciousness from consciousness.
9. How does the experience of the monad differ from the experience of the personality?
a. These two types of experience are altogether incommensurate.
b. The experience of the personality is one of separation and relative isolation. The experience of monadic awareness has already transcended love and unity and is based upon a realized identicalness. The personality, however, sees distinction everywhere.
c. Whereas the personality experiences isolation as separation and fragmentation, the monadic state of awareness experiences isolation as identification-in-being; such a state is often called “Isolated Unity”. Speaking of the high initiate, the Tibetan says,
“he has become universal in his attitude to all forms of life, and is also identified with the ‘isolated unity’ of Sanat Kumara.” (R&I 141)
It becomes clear that if Sanat Kumara dwells in a state of “Isolated Unity”, these words can be used to describe the state characteristic of the human monad—though naturally, the “Isolated Unity” of Sanat Kumara would be many times intensified compared to that of the human monad.
10. Is there any guidance from the Tibetan in the manner of differentiating between the effect of monadic influence, and the effect of these three types of influence.
a. “The Monad is Life, the sustaining force, a Lord of persevering and ceaseless devotion to the pursuit of a seen and determined objective. The soul is a Lord of love and wisdom, whilst the personality is a Lord of knowledge and of intelligent activity.” (EP I 48-49)
b. As one ascends through these states of consciousness/awareness (from personality, to soul, to spiritual triad, to monad) the sense of the reality of form diminishes. Form becomes but a fleeting presentation to consciousness—evidence of the energic reality from which it derives.
11. How early will the influence of the human monad begin to demonstrate in the life of the personality or soul?
a. The human monad is active with respect to the personality from the very first appropriation of permanent atoms. It basically conditions the methods by which the personality is built over aeons, and fundamentally and geometrically conditions the energy flows within the etheric body.
b. So the human monad’s influence is ever present, though the developing human consciousness is oblivious to it until the very latest states of human evolution. This means that the human being for long ages does not know who he really is.
c. From the time of the first initiation the monad is focally influential in the life of the soul. The first three initiations are taken within the causal body, and to these the monad is attentive. (cf. R&I 312-313, 315)
d. From the time of the second initiation, the monad can begin to be a conscious presence in the life of the individual human consciousness.
e. After the second initiation, the disciple must begin to acknowledge the growing presence of the monad and its energy, though such a presence is still more felt than consciously known.
f. After the third initiation, the human monad becomes a conscious fact in the life of the developing soul-infused personality.
12. What are some of the best ways for the disciple/initiate to contact the human monad and to experience its energy?
a. Care about reality.
b. Reflect and meditate deeply and constantly upon the significance and meaning of the human monad. If pondering and reflecting upon love is one of the best ways to understand and experience love (as stated below by the Tibetan), then, the same can be said in relation to the human monad.
“The true way to love is to reflect and meditate deeply and constantly upon the significance and the meaning of love, its origin, its expression through the soul, its qualities, goals and objectives.” (DINA I 735)c. Seek to perceive synthesis in all things.
d. Seek to resolve into sameness, all differentiation presented to consciousness.
e. Reject the apparent reality of difference.
f. Find the heart in all life forms and identify with it, for life is anchored in the heart and the monad is the life.
g. Discover the true meaning of ‘sub-stance’.
h. Refuse ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’.
i. Remind yourself daily of the ‘Great Fact’.
j. “Live in the Eternal” and “Know the Self as One”.
13. What will be the ‘signs’ of the coming in of the monadic ray? What will be the evidence of such influence?
a. This question was largely treated under the extensive section on “monadic awareness”.
b. Certainly there will be disturbance. The nature of the disturbance will depend upon the soul ray and monadic ray and their interplay.
c. A strong sense of “divine discontent” will almost certainly emerge. The disciple may become utterly dissatisfied with what he regards as his present limitations. Barriers are challenged; focussed attempts are made to break through previously accepted boundaries. A larger, wider more encompassing life is sought, and also a life of greater intimacy with fundamental principles.
d. Obstructions which previously could be tolerated are no longer. They are confronted and burned away. More drastic measures than heretofore are welcomed and applied.
e. There is a greater willingness to take risks. The disciple realizes that the life of form is expendable and that greater issues are at stake which will call for the sacrifice of form. The form is forced in a manner more extreme than during the time when soul, per se, was the internal driving force.
f. Because the monad, no matter what its ray, is qualified by the first aspect, there may arise a greater willingness to disrupt comfortable unities in the search for a synthesis based on fundamental principles. The disciple (though well-established in group consciousness) may be increasingly willing to pursue his own course of action in the search for break-throughs. Caution must be exerted, however, to ensure that monadic energy is not appropriated by an inflated, egoistic personality intent on its own selfish objectives. This happened during the Second World War when a group of loveless, highly accomplished personalities contacted the Shamballic Force.
g. There will be, increasingly, a tendency to think in wholes, to love with greater encompassment, and to will that which is completely indifferent to the normally considered welfare of the personality and even to the individuality (the soul consciousness within the causal body). This is part of a growing attitude towards the form which treats it merely as a instrument—valuable if it serves and expendable if it does not.
h. The soul-infused personality life will be subjected to greatly increased pressure. Comfort will become entirely secondary. Larger objectives loom before the vision, and with them will arise the willingness to carry them out despite the cost to the lower personal/individual man.
i. The sense of identity is under pressure. There arises a resistance against considering oneself merely a localized, limited human being. One seeks to go to the roots of identity and discovers it to be a deeper and more pervasive ‘substance’ than heretofore experienced.
j. The understanding of the meaning of will will almost certainly change. Will turns into willingness. What the personality wants is not will. Even what the soul seeks to express is not will. The true will drives forward that which the planet needs.
k. The Divine Plan and Divine Purpose assume an increasingly great importance in the motivations of the disciple. Cooperation with the Plan and recognition of the Purpose take on an unaccustomed urgency. The life becomes filled with purposes, plans and projects far greater than one’s own.
14. How does one know when one has actually contacted the human monad? How shall one avoid being misled?
a. Many types of contact with a number of different aspects of the human energy system are possible. Not all powerful or influential contacts are monadic—in fact, the odds are against it.
b. Clearly, a keen discrimination based upon a real understanding of the monad, its qualities and its likely effects upon the lower aspects of the energy system is needed.
c. For one thing, a certain stage in the evolutionary process must have been reached before conscious monadic contact is a possibility. Correct spiritual orientation and instinct (qualities of the first degree) and a sufficiency of mental illumination and spiritual intelligence (qualities of the second degree) must be operative. A movement towards disidentification from form and abstraction into the higher reaches of the human energy system must be in process. The limitations of form must be keenly felt.
d. Also, for those already familiar with the energy of the soul and with the consciousness which contact with the soul induces in the personality life, an energy of a qualitatively and quantitatively different nature and order will be noticed if, indeed, it is the monad which is making impact. Just as there was a crisis when the soul intervened in the life of the personality, another crisis of a still higher order can be expected when the monad intervenes in the life of the soul-infused personality. One may, for instance, become aware of two possible spiritual directions, and of two differing sets of requirements for each. The energies of cohesiveness, unitiveness and attentive responsibility induced by the soul may find themselves in contrast with the impressive energies of the monad leading toward liberation.
15. How important is it for the human being to come en rapport with the human monad? If it is important, why is it important?
a. In the life of the incarnated human being, the human monad is always an influential presence, but for ages remains undetected. It is not, at first, a conscious “Presence” as later it will be.
b. This monad will influence the energy flows within the etheric body, the basic dynamics of the concrete mind, the “petal”-dynamics within the causal body, and certainly the major focus within the spiritual triad, but for all this—still remain undetected.
c. Many spiritually-inclined people can lead productive lives of discipleship without troubling themselves about the specific influence of their monadic aspect.
d. But there will inevitably come a time (and for many, in these days of unusual spiritual pressure and opportunity, that time has arrived) when the magnetism of the first divine aspect becomes irresistible.
e. Shamballa is drawing ever closer to humanity and the Will of the Lord of the World is driving human and planetary evolution as never before. Human beings are being given an opportunity to cooperate with this driving Divine Will and the Divine Purpose from which it originates.
f. The opportunity being offered by the Planetary Logos to more deeply contact Divine Purpose, Plan and Will is unique in the history of humanity and promises unprecedented progress for the human race. In many respects humanity (due to many grievous errors) is far behind where it might have been in the evolutionary process. Opportunity for advancement should therefore be seized.
g. Further, we are told that the time-space schedule of the Planetary Logos demands an understanding and enactment of group initiation, and presumably of a new order of spiritual training which will accelerate the progress of humanity and the planet. This new method of training is based upon recognition of and contact with the monad—the One.
h. Thus, the opportunity to understand this highest aspect of the human energy system and cooperate with it, is evolutionarily critical and this time, and cannot be dismissed as unnecessary no matter what the difficult adjustments required of the personality and soul consciousness and vehicles in order to adapt to its powerful influence.
i. Always humanity needs new goals and a new horizon to inspire its aeonial quest. The opportunity to live life under the impression of the monad is just such a goal.
16. What, really and essentially, is will?
a. Will is action, so directed, as to fulfill conception.
b. Will is the power allocated to fulfill the Fixed Design.
c. Will is the bridge between being and becoming.
d. Will is the power of impression of a superior pattern upon an inferior pattern.
e. Will is the power which being exerts to become itself—in objectivity.
17. What is the relationship between any M/monad and Will?
a. Every M/monad is endowed with an inherent aspect of the One Fixed Design (conceived of by itself-as-the-One-Monad at the beginning of Cosmic Time—for this Cosmos).
b. It is the Will of the One Monad to actuate this Conception, this ‘Idea at the Beginning’, to Become It, as it were.
c. We might say that this ‘Will to Become the Original Conception or Fixed Design’ is the Great Theme of the One Monad. This Will is the ‘Great and Sustained Intent’ of the one and only Universal Entity.
d. Through every emanated M/monad, therefore, this Will or Intent thrills. The Original Intent of the One Monad is inherent is any M/monad of whatsoever scope, though the registration of the fulness of that Intent varies with the M/monad’s ‘emanative distance’ from the One Monad and with the depth of prakritic immersion of the M/monad in question.
e. One can only imagine how powerful must be this Original Intent—the Intent of the One Monad to Become in Self-perceived objectivity what It already Is within Its Self-Conceived World of Being (the Universal Archetypal World).
f. When the human being begins to contact his monadic aspect, a portion of this Original Intent, or Original Purpose, and the driving Will to actualize it enters the human energy system as a directive force.
g. Thus, a human being’s contact with the human monad is, in effect, contact with an attenuated portion of the Fixed Design and with the Will to objectify that Design. This is why we human beings are so clarified and empowered by contact with ‘our’ monadic source.
h. While the One Monad is not the Will, it is possessed of Will, and all Its actions are driven by that Will.
i. The Will is the power by which the One Monad acts.
j. Will is a Divine Faculty antecedent to Action (though everything, simply by being, is an action of a type).
k. Power is the potential for movement.
l. Will is a special type of directed power, focussed for the fulfillment of pattern.
m. When one contacts a M/monad, one contacts (to varying degrees) the power which sustains the Archetypal World of Being and the Power which drives the Archetypal Purpose into manifestation.
n. Because the Archetypal Purpose—which, from the Beginning, is—must become its own Reflection in the ‘Mosaic Worlds’, the Will of the One Monad is invincible, and in its own sphere, the will of any M/monad is relatively invincible.
o. M/monads can, however fail. The One Monad cannot fail, but Its emanative extensions can—temporarily. Such a failure simply means that the Self-imposed ignorance of the One Monad (engineered through emanative-Self-veiling and, in this case, manifesting through one or other particular M/monadic emanation) has generated a particular M/monad the projection of which into denser worlds persists in a state unrelieved by the inner pressure towards return, unrelieved by M/monadic light, love and power. In other words, this particular M/monad’s living extension of itself into the lower worlds is simply too ignorant to desire or will or know how to ‘return’. Thus, benighted and unrelieved by access to its essential M/monadic nature, this M/monadic projection, this M/monad in extension (this filament of identity and power from that M/monad) ‘forgets’ its source, or is incapable of really registering its source, and, thus, conducts affairs in the lower worlds in such a way as to run persistently counter to the intended Fixed Design of the M/monad which projected it.
Thus, failure is forgetfulness of source, and ultimately, ex-communication from source resulting in the creation of patterns below which run counter to the M/monadic ‘Pattern Above’. When the M/monad-in-extension no longer has any hope of correcting the lower pattern, failure is declared, and the M/monad which sent the projection forth must retract it and, as it were, ‘try again’ at a later date.