Individuality

2002-8-26 15:30:00

Ben asks:
1. Is there any permanent Substance in name or form?

JJ:
No form is permanent but the undifferentiated substance (or Purpose) behind the form is eternal. The existence of any form is temporary for all form changes in shape and nature, but form itself is an eternal principle and will always exist.

Ben:
2. If the All is ONE, how can there, in truth, be any 'other', such as a Christ here and a Buddha there?

JJ:
I have talked about this at length in the past.

Here's a quote from my book The Molecular Relationship: "One of the best illustrations of this is the guitar string. When it is stationary there is before you only one string, but as soon as you pluck it there is immediately produced the illusion of three strings. There appears to be three strings until the vibration ends. Then we see one string again.

"So it is with creation. There appears to be three energies as long as the one energy of manifestation is vibrating, but creation is based upon the illusion of the three. In reality there is only one. While manifest creation is in existence in time and space the Trinity will be real to us, but when the vibration that creates all things is stilled then all the universe will go back to its source: The One Great Life who is God, or the Singularity as it is was called by Stephen Hawking."

Therefore out of the vibration of the One we have a C note here and a G note there with real effect upon the world of our experience.

Ben
3. Are DK's expressions but an attempt to present in words and concepts for the understanding and satisfaction of the human mind That which is ineffable?

JJ
I see no evidence of this. If it were so then his teachings are fairly meaningless and ephemeral.

Ben
4. Are not 'Buddha' and 'Christ' convenient word-symbols for dynamic aspects or qualities of Divinity, the ONE, as they manifest in samsara?

JJ
They are aspects and principles, but then there are individual entities who represent those aspects. In the quotes I gave DK was talking about the entity who was Siddhartha, the Buddha.

Ben
I recall the essence of one of the Buddha's sermons given 2.5 millennia ago. He spoke at length about the dakas and dakinis, the different Buddhas of the past and the wonders of the Buddhalands; he revealed a little of the inner workings of the hosts of heaven, describing their lofty attainment and labor in a most mystical and inspiring way.

The Buddha gave names and assigned qualities to all these different beings and he revealed that each had their purpose and function in the universe.

Then after he had finished his sermon, he smiled (and possibly gave a jolly Buddha-belly laugh) and said, "Now forget about all that I have said, because none of it is True!"


JJ
I'd have to see the actual sermon to see the direction of his thought, but if what he said was not true then he was making up a story to make a point. Either that or he was telling the audience that even the traditional heavens are temporary.

Here's another interesting quote from the Master Djwhal Khul on the Buddha

"The majority of the Masters then enter into realms wherein They are needed to impart, strengthen and enlighten that which is already fused, already strong and already full of light, but which needs that which He brings in order to express the all-encompassing whole."

"I have to leave you with these words as food for reflection as there is little further that I may say upon this point. In any case and for all deciding groups of Masters, the work with the Hierarchy is over, except for the few Who choose Path I. Part of the mistake which the Buddha made was connected with this subject of decision. He loved humanity so much that He felt He could not and did not choose the Path which He was in reality ordained to follow; He chose instead the Path of Earth Service-which was not His Path at all. This He knows and will in due time pass on to His rightful Path. This little incident will demonstrate the complete freedom of choice which distinguishes the sixth initiation.

"The seven Paths are, as you know from your study of Initiation, Human and Solar the following:

1. The Path of Earth Service.
2. The Path of Magnetic Work.
3. The Path of Training for Planetary Logoi.
4. The Path to Sirius.
5. The Ray Path.
6. The Path on which our Logos is found.
7. The Path of Absolute Sonship."

From Rays and Initiations:

It is interesting that the Buddha, who was the champion of non-attachment, was supposed to have chosen the Path to Sirius, but because of his attachment (a good attachment) to helping mankind, he continued beyond the appointed time on the path of Earth Service.

This also illustrates that the Buddha, even though he reached Nirvana, still operates as an individual entity.

The Oneness of God is as a body, but a body has many members. We'll talk more about this in future chapters of the Immortal.

Below are some additional quotes from the Alice A. Bailey books about the Buddha which indicate an individual entity still at work.

Hercules comprehended the true meaning of the Mutable Cross and, with full knowledge, mounted the Fixed Cross, with all its attendant difficulties and labours. The Buddha comprehended, through complete illumination, the meaning of both the Mutable and the Fixed Crosses, for the secret of revelation in Taurus was His, just as the secret of directed energy in Scorpio was the source of the strength of Hercules. But the Christ, knowing both the above secrets, also understood with a living comprehension, the mystery of the Cardinal Cross, because the light of the Transfiguration (undergone in Capricorn) revealed to Him the glory and transcendent mystery.

It was the Buddha who clarified for man the nature of desire and its results, with the unhappy effects which desire produces when persistent and unenlightened. It was the Christ Who taught the transmutation of desire into aspiration which, from the expression given to it in The New Testament, was the effort of the human will (hitherto animated by, or expressed through, desire) to conform itself to the will of God-this without understanding but conformity, in perfect trust and with the inner assurance that the will of God must be all that is good, both in the individual and in the whole.

Hercules-Scorpio: Strength through testing.
Buddha-Taurus: Illumination through struggle.
Christ-Pisces: Resurrection through sacrifice.

Herein lies the distinction between the Christ and the Buddha. The latter revealed the process, but the Christ embodied in Himself both goal and process. He revealed the cosmic principle of love and by its means-embodied in Himself-He produced effects also and momentous changes in the world through those presented to Him for initiation.

The time has now come when a distinction must be made by esotericists between the words "spiritual" and "divine." They are not the same, nor do they have the same significance. The quality of spirituality is Love. The quality of divinity is Will. There is a definite distinction between the two and the mediating principle (or that which relates or unites the two qualities) is Wisdom. Of that Wisdom the Buddha was the expression in time and space; that means that there was only a relative and limited manifestation of that fusing linking principle. His great achievement, unrealized by Him, was an innate and (at that time, not now) unconscious recognition of the distinction between love and will, and an ability to express in Himself a fusing, blending energy which could and did bring together love and will, soul and Monad. At the same time (and later in full expression in Palestine) the Christ demonstrated-for the teaching of humanity-the at-one-ment of love and intelligence, of soul and personality. These are points of real importance to have in mind.

The Buddha behind the initiatory process is extremely active at this time; He works through the Christ and the Lord of the second ray, drawing the needed energy from the constellations Capricorn and Aquarius.

As you know, the first human being out of that "centre which we call the race of men" to achieve this point was the Christ; in that first great demonstration of His point of attainment (through the medium of what was then a new type of initiation) the Christ was joined by the Buddha. The Buddha had attained this same point prior to the creation of our planetary life, but conditions for taking the third initiation [Page 386] were not then available, and He and the Christ took the initiation together. At this initiation, and since then for all initiates of that degree of attainment, They stood in the Presence of the One Initiator, the Lord of the World, and not in the Presence of the Initiate Who was then Head of the Hierarchy. This third initiation was taken in a fourth ray Ashram, the Ray of Harmony through Conflict.

This word He has lately given in the case of the Buddha, Who has expiated His most understandable mistake and will now move forward-in His own good time-on to the Path which will lead Him to His rightful field of expression.

The practical point for aspirants and disciples to remember is that the Science of Invocation and Evocation entered a new phase when Christ came and presented Himself before humanity; He then gave the teaching which summarized all the past and indicated the new aspects of the future teaching. He opened the door to the Way of the Higher Evolution, hitherto closed, just as the Buddha epitomized in Himself the achievements of the Lighted Way and the attainment of all knowledge and wisdom. Christ, in opening this "greater door beyond the lesser door," anchored-if I may so inadequately express it-the Will of God on Earth, particularly in relation to the consciousness of men. He lifted the entire Science of Invocation and Evocation to the mental plane and made possible a new approach to divinity. It is difficult to give you a symbol which could clarify this matter in your mind. But the one given may carry some enlightenment:

The Buddha, for instance, in His Four Noble Truths, stated in reality the platform upon which the initiate of the third initiation takes his stand. He desires nothing of a personal nature; he is liberated from the three worlds. The Christ pictured for us and emphasized the fourth initiation with its tremendous transition from the Fixed Cross to the Mount of Ascension, symbol of transition, through initiation.

To this we should also add the Four Noble Truths, as enunciated by the Buddha and which are so well known to all of us, summarizing as they do the causes and the sources of all the troubles which concern humanity. There are many translations of these truths to which I have referred; they all convey the same longing and appeal and they are all essentially correct as to meaning.

This is the "noble middle Path" of the Buddha and marks the fine line of demarcation between the pairs of opposites, and between the two streams which he has learnt to recognize-one going up unto the gates of heaven, and the other passing down into the nethermost hell.

By the exercise of the two main weapons of the aspirant, discrimination and dispassion, he gains that quality which is called in this rule "the vital power". Just as the eye is the instrument of choice in choosing the way of travel on the physical plane and has besides a potency all its own whereby it attracts and develops its [Page 230] own sign language, so a vital power is felt in the aspirant.

5. This Sirian influence was not recognized, and little of it was definitely focused in the Hierarchy, until Christ came and revealed the love of God to humanity. He is the expression, par excellence, of a Sirian initiation, and it is to that high place He will eventually go-no matter what duties or hierarchical obligations may take Him elsewhere between that time and now. The Buddha was originally to have chosen the fourth Path but other plans confront Him now and will probably claim His choice.