The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page]] 634 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
[[This page continued from previous section ]] XVI.
CYCLIC EVOLUTION AND KARMA.
I T is the Spiritual evolution of the inner , immortal man that forms the fundamental tenet in the Occult Sciences.
To realize even distantly such a process, the student has to believe ( a ) in the ONE Universal Life, independent of matter (or what Science regards as matter); and ( b ) in the individual intelligences that animate the various manifestations of this Principle.
Mr.
Huxley does not believe in "Vital Force," others do.
Dr.
J.
H.
Hutchinson Sterling's work "Concerning Protoplasm" has made no small havoc of this dogmatic negation.
Professor Beale's decision is also in favour of a Vital Principle; and Dr.
B.
W.
Richardson's lectures on the "Nervous Ether," have been sufficiently quoted from.
Thus, opinions are divided.
The ONE LIFE is closely related to the one law which governs the World of Being -- K ARMA.
Exoterically, this is simply and literally "action," or rather an "effect-producing cause." Esoterically it is quite a different thing in its far-fetching moral effects.
It is the unerring L AW OF R ETRIBUTION.
To say to those ignorant of the real significance, characteristics and awful importance of this eternal immutable law, that no theological definition of a personal deity can give an idea of this impersonal, yet ever present and active Principle, is to speak in vain.
Nor can it be called Providence.
For Providence, with the Theists (the Christian Protestants, at any rate), rejoices in a personal male gender, while with the Roman Catholics it is a female potency, "Divine Providence tempers His blessings to secure their better effects," Wogan tells us.
Indeed "He" tempers them, which Karma -- a sexless principle -- does not.
Throughout the first two Parts, it was shown that, at the first flutter [[Vol.
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of renascent life, Svabhavat, "the mutable radiance of the Immutable Darkness unconscious in Eternity," passes, at every new rebirth of Kosmos, from an inactive state into one of intense activity; that it differentiates, and then begins its work through that differentiation.
This work is K ARMA.
The Cycles are also subservient to the effects produced by this activity.
"The one Cosmic atom becomes seven atoms on the plane of matter, and each is transformed into a centre of energy; that same atom becomes seven rays on the plane of spirit, and the seven creative forces of nature, radiating from the root-essence .
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follow, one the right, the other the left path, separate till the end of the Kalpa, and yet are in close embrace.
What unites them?
K ARMA." The atoms emanated from the Central Point emanate in their turn new centres of energy, which, under the potential breath of Fohat , begin their work from within without, and multiply other minor centres.
These, in the course of evolution and involution, form in their turn the roots or developing causes of new effects, from worlds and "man-bearing" globes, down to the genera, species, and classes of all the seven kingdoms* (of which we know only four ) .
For "the blessed workers have received the Thyan - kam , in the eternity" (Book of "The Aphorisms of Tson - ka - pa ") .
"Thyan-kam" is the power or knowledge of guiding the impulses of cosmic energy in the right direction.
The true Buddhist, recognising no "personal god," nor any "Father" and " Creator of Heaven and Earth," still believes in an absolute consciousness , "Adi-Buddhi"; and the Buddhist philosopher knows that there are Planetary Spirits, the "Dhyan Chohans." But though he admits of "spiritual lives," yet, as they are temporary in eternity, even they, according to his philosophy, are "the maya of the day ," the illusion of a "day of Brahma," a short manvantara of 4,320,000,000 years.
The "Yin-Sin" is not for the speculations of men, for the Lord Buddha has strongly prohibited all such inquiry.
If the Dhyan Chohans and all the invisible Beings -- the Seven Centres and their direct Emanations, the minor centres of Energy -- are the direct reflex of the O NE Light, yet men are far removed from these, since the whole of the visible Kosmos consists of " self - produced beings, the creatures of Karma.
" Thus regarding a personal God "as only a gigantic shadow thrown upon the void of space by the imagination of ignorant men,"** they teach that only "two things are (objectively) eternal, namely Akasa and Nirvana "; and that these are ONE in reality, and but a maya when divided.
"Buddhists deny creation and cannot conceive of a Creator.
" "Everything has come out of Akasa (or Svabhavat [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Vide Stanza VI .
(Book I.) and Commentary.
** Buddhist Catechism , by H.
S.
Olcott, President of the Theosophical Society.
[[Vol.
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on our earth) in obedience to a law of motion inherent in it, and after a certain existence passes away.
Nothing ever came out of nothing." ( Buddhist Catechism.
) If a Vedantic Brahmin of the Adwaita Sect, when asked whether he believes in the existence of God, is always likely to answer, as Jacolliot was answered -- "I am myself 'God';" a Buddhist (a Sinhalese especially) would simply laugh, and say in reply, "There is no God; no Creation." Yet the root philosophy of both Adwaita and Buddhist scholars is identical , and both have the same respect for animal life, for both believe that every creature on earth, however small and humble, "is an immortal portion of the immortal matter" -- for matter with them has quite another significance than it has with either Christian or materialist -- and that every creature is subject to Karma.
The answer of the Brahmin is one which would suggest itself to every ancient philosopher, Kabalist, and Gnostic of the early days.
It contains the very spirit of the Delphic and Kabalistic commandments, for esoteric philosophy solved, ages ago, the problem of what man was , is , and will be; of man's origin, life-cycle -- interminable in its duration of successive incarnations or rebirths -- and finally of his absorption into the source from which he started.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the origin of the cosmos: Svabhavat passing from inactive to active state, the one Cosmic atom differentiating into seven atoms and seven rays, and the emanation of new centres of energy through Fohat.
The passage is explicitly titled 'Cyclic Evolution and Karma' and describes the periodic process of Svabhavat passing from inactive to active state, the rebirth of Kosmos, and the interminable life-cycle of successive incarnations as the fundamental cosmic process.
The cosmic law that manifests as each being's own duty — right order known not as abstract truth but as the specific obligation of one's nature and station (svadharma), so that maintaining the cosmos and performing one's proper work are one act; the Gita's 'one's own duty, though defective, is better than another's well performed.' Sits beside asha_cosmic_order and maat_cosmic_order as a right-order concept but is distinct in individuating the order into personal vocation; distinct from good_thought_word_deed (ethical triad) in binding duty to cosmic station.
Karma is presented as the 'unerring LAW OF RETRIBUTION' governing all beings, functioning as a cosmic moral order to which every creature is subject, though the passage emphasizes retribution rather than personal duty/station.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
Every creature is described as 'an immortal portion of the immortal matter,' and the passage speaks of 'individual intelligences that animate the various manifestations of this Principle,' implying fragments of the ONE Life distributed in all beings.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage centrally describes the ONE Cosmic atom becoming seven atoms on the matter plane and seven rays on the spirit plane, with atoms emanating new centers of energy through Fohat, forming a cascading hierarchy from the Central Point down through all kingdoms of nature.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage explicitly names 'evolution and involution' and describes the directional process from the Central Point through emanation and differentiation down through successive planes to the seven kingdoms of nature.
Karma is the central organizing concept of the entire passage, defined both exoterically as 'effect-producing cause' and esoterically as the 'unerring LAW OF RETRIBUTION,' governing all cyclic evolution and binding all beings.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The passage describes man's ultimate 'absorption into the source from which he started' after his interminable life-cycle of successive incarnations, framing the soul's journey as a return to origin.
The passage is centrally about 'successive incarnations or rebirths,' 'renascent life,' 'every new rebirth of Kosmos,' and the 'life-cycle — interminable in its duration of successive incarnations,' making transmigration a core theme.