Secret Doctrine I study notes, Stanzas of Dzyan, Third Stanza 2/3

3.7. The radiant result of  the union of the two (the divine Ray and Chaos), the unparalleled refulgent glory, manifested Space, the progeny of unmanifested space, emerges from the depths of chaos. It is Oeaohoo, the younger (Avalokitesvara), the Logos, the synthesis of Universal Wisdom, the essence of manifested Wisdom.(a)

He shines forth like the sun. He is the Logos (this first manifestation, being the synthesis or the aggregate of Universal Wisdom). This one is four, and the four takes to itself three, and the union produces the seven in whom are the seven (the Seven Creative Hosts) which become the hosts and the multitudes, the root-number which is thirty-three (12 Adityas, the 8 Vasus, the 11 Rudras, and 2 Aswins).(b)

He lifts the veil and unfurls it from East to West. He shuts out the above and leaves the below to be seen as the great illusion. He marks the places for the stars and turns the upper space into infinite Akasha (the first radiation from the Root, the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic Substance, which becomes Astral Matter), and the one manifested element into pregenetic matter. (c)

3.8. Where was abstract matter? And where was the Eternal Matrix? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in your lamp? Abstract Matter is THAT (the concealed and the unrevealed Principle), and THAT is Light (the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered and now fecundated the Divine Egg); that male or temporary deity, as he, the emanation of the primordial Ray, is made to serve as a Vahan or vehicle for that divine Ray, which otherwise could not manifest itself in the Universe.

3.9. Light, is the unmanifested soul of things, and the soul of things (flame) is the creator, preserver and destoyer of light (fire),  the soul of things (fire) produces Cosmic heat, the energy that actuates matter after its first formation into atoms our plane (water of life) in chaos.

7. Behold, oh Lanoo!† the radiant Child of the two, the unparalleled refulgent Glory, Bright Space, Son of Dark Space, who emerges from the depths of the great Dark Waters. It is Oeaohoo, the Younger, the * * * (whom thou knowest now as Kwan-Shai-Yin. — Comment) (a).

Bright Space, son of dark Space: the Ray dropped at the first thrill of the new “Dawn” into the great Cosmic depths, from which it re-emerges differentiated as Oeaohoo the younger, (the “new LIFE”), to become, to the end of the life-cycle, the germ of all things. He is “the Incorporeal man who contains in himself the divine Idea,” — the generator of Light and Life, to use an expression of Philo Judaeus. (SD1, 70)

The radiant result of  the union of the two (the divine Ray and Chaos), the unparalleled refulgent glory, Bright Space, the progeny of dark space, emerges from the depths of chaos. It is Oeaohoo, the younger (Avalokitesvara), the Logos, the synthesis of Universal Wisdom, the essence of manifested Wisdom.(a)

He shines forth as the Sun. He is the blazing Divine Dragon of Wisdom. The Eka is Chatur (four), and Chatur takes to itself three, and the union produces the Sapta (seven) in whom are the seven which become the Tridasa‡ (the thrice ten) the hosts and the multitudes (b).

Blazing Dragon of Wisdom: is that which the Greek philosophers called the Logos, the Verbum of the Thought Divine; and secondly, because in Esoteric philosophy this first manifestation, being the synthesis or the aggregate of Universal Wisdom, Oeaohoo, “the Son of the Son,” contains in himself the Seven Creative Hosts (The Sephiroth), and is thus the essence of manifested Wisdom. “He who bathes in the light of Oeaohoo will never be deceived by the veil of Maya.” (SD1, 70-71)… “The “Dragon of Wisdom” is the One, the “Eka” (Sanskrit) or Saka. (SD1, 73)

Tri-dasa:  three times ten (30), alludes to the Vedic deities, in round numbers, or more accurately 33 — a sacred number. They are the 12 Adityas, the 8 Vasus, the 11 Rudras, and 2 Aswins — the twin sons of the Sun and the Sky. This is the root-number of the Hindu Pantheon, which enumerates 33 crores or over three hundred millions of gods and goddesses.

whereas, the gnostic Ophis contained the same triple symbolism in its seven vowels as the One, Three and Seven-syllabled Oeaohoo of the Archaic doctrine; i.e., the One Unmanifested Logos, the Second manifested, the triangle concreting into the Quaternary or Tetragrammaton, and the rays of the latter on the material plane. (SD1, 73)

The “Spirit of God moving on Chaos” was symbolized by every nation in the shape of a fiery serpent breathing fire and light upon the primordial waters, until it had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent with its tail in its mouth — which symbolises not only Eternity and Infinitude, but also the globular shape of all the bodies formed within the Universe from that fiery mist. (SD1, 74)

† By “God, the Father,” the seventh principle in Man and Kosmos are here unmistakeably meant, this principle being inseparable in its Esse and Nature from the seventh Cosmic principle. In one sense it is the Logos of the Greeks and the Avalokiteswara of the esoteric Buddhists. (SD1, 74)

He shines forth like the sun. He is the blazing dragon of divine wisdom, the Logos (this first manifestation, being the synthesis or the aggregate of Universal Wisdom). This one is four, and the four takes to itself three, and the union produces the seven in whom are the seven (the Seven Creative Hosts) which become the hosts and the multitudes, the root-number which is thirty-three (12 Adityas, the 8 Vasus, the 11 Rudras, and 2 Aswins).

Behold him lifting the Veil, and unfurling it from East to West. He shuts out the above and leaves the below to be seen as the great Illusion. He marks the places for the shining ones (stars) and turns the upper (space) into a shoreless Sea of Fire, and the One manifested (element) into the Great Waters (c).

Sea of Fire: is then the Super-Astral (i.e., noumenal) Light, the first radiation from the Root, the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic Substance, which becomes Astral Matter. It is also called the “Fiery Serpent,” as above described. (SD1, 75)

All the Kabalists and Occultists, Eastern and Western, recognise (a) the identity of “Father-Mother” with primordial AEther or Akasa, (Astral Light)*; and (b) its homogeneity before the evolution of the “Son,” cosmically Fohat, for it is Cosmic Electricity. “Fohat hardens and scatters the seven brothers” (Book III. Dzyan); which means that the primordial Electric Entity — for the Eastern Occultists insist that Electricity is an Entity — electrifies into life, and separates primordial stuff or pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and consciousness.  (SD1,  75-76)

But there are two secret Hermetical operations, one spiritual, the other material-correlative, and for ever united. “Thou shalt separate the earth from the fire, the subtile from the solid . . . that which ascends from earth to heaven and descends again from heaven to earth. It (the subtile light), is the strong force of every force, for it conquers every subtile thing and penetrates into every solid. Thus was the world formed” (Hermes). (SD1, 76)

The veil is lifted and unfurled from East to West. The spiritual plane is shut out and the material plane is left to be seen as the great illusion. He marks the places for the stars and turns the upper space into infinite Akasha (the first radiation from the Root, the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic Substance, which becomes Astral Matter), and the one manifested element into pregenetic matter.

8. Where was the germ, and where was now darkness? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in thy lamp, oh Lanoo? The germ is that, and that is light; the white brilliant son of the dark hidden father (a).

Germ: the point in the Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense.sd 1 57 The Pythagorean Monad is also said to dwell in solitude and darkness like the “germ.” (SD1, 63)

Darkness: Darkness, then, is the eternal matrix in which the sources of light appear and disappear. “Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son,” says an old Eastern proverb. (SD1, 40-41)

That: In the Sanscrit Commentary on this Stanza, the terms used for the concealed and the unrevealed Principle are many. In the earliest MSS. of Indian literature this Unrevealed, Abstract Deity has no name. It is called generally “That” (Tad in Sanskrit), and means all that is, was, and will be, or that can be so received by the human mind.

Among such appellations, given, of course, only in esoteric philosophy, as the “Unfathomable Darkness,” the “Whirlwind,” etc. — it is also called the “It of the Kalahansa, the Kala-ham-sa,” and even the “Kali Hamsa,” (Black swan). Here the m and the n are convertible, and both sound like the nasal French an or am, or, again, en or em (Ennui, Embarras, etc.) (SD1, 78)

As to the strange symbol chosen, it is equally suggestive; the true mystic significance being the idea of a universal matrix, figured by the primordial waters of the “deep,” or the opening for the reception, and subsequently for the issue, of that one ray (the Logos), which contains in itself the other seven procreative rays or powers (the logoi or builders). (SD1, 80)

Light: the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered and now fecundated the Divine Egg, and calls cosmic matter to begin its long series of differentiations. (SD1, 68)

White Brillant Son of Dark Father: The “Swan or goose” (Hansa) is the symbol of that male or temporary deity, as he, the emanation of the primordial Ray, is made to serve as a Vahan or vehicle for that divine Ray, which otherwise could not manifest itself in the Universe, being, antiphrastically, itself an emanation of “Darkness” — for our human intellect, at any rate. It is Brahma, then, who is Kala-Hansa, and the Ray, the Hansa-Vahana. (SD1, 80)

The answer to the first question, suggested by the second, which is the reply of the teacher to the pupil, contains in a single phrase one of the most essential truths of occult philosophy. It indicates the existence of things imperceptible to our physical senses which are of far greater importance, more real and more permanent, than those that appeal to these senses themselves. Before the Lanoo can hope to understand the transcendentally metaphysical problem contained in the first question he must be able to answer the second, while the very answer he gives to the second will furnish him with the clue to the correct reply to the first. (SD1, 77)

Where was abstract matter? And where was the Eternal Matrix? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in your lamp? Abstract Matter is THAT (the concealed and the unrevealed Principle), and THAT is Light (the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered and now fecundated the Divine Egg); that male or temporary deity, as he, the emanation of the primordial Ray, is made to serve as a Vahan or vehicle for that divine Ray, which otherwise could not manifest itself in the Universe.

9. Light is cold flame, and flame is fire, and the fire produces heat, which yields water, the water of life in the great mother (Chaos) (a).

All these — “Light,” “Flame,” “Hot,” “Cold,” “Fire,” “Heat,” “Water,” and the “water of life” are all, on our plane, the progeny; or as a modern physicist would say, the correlations of electricity. (SD1, 81)

Electricity: Electricity, the one Life at the upper rung of Being, and Astral Fluid

Fire: the creator, the preserver and the destroyer; of light — the essence of our divine ancestors;

Flame: the Soul of things.

Cosmic heat: the energy that actuates matter after its first formation into atoms our plane

Water of Life: matter after its first formation into atoms our plane.

Now, why is Light called in the Stanzas “cold flame”? Because in the order of Cosmic evolution (as taught by the Occultist), the energy that actuates matter after its first formation into atoms is generated on our plane by Cosmic heat; and because Kosmos, in the sense of dissociated matter, was not, before that period. The first primordial matter, eternal and coeval with Space, “which has neither a beginning nor an end,” is “neither hot nor cold, but is of its own special nature,” says the Commentary (Book II). Heat and cold are relative qualities and pertain to the realms of the manifested worlds, which all proceed from the manifested Hyle, which, in its absolutely latent aspect, is referred to as the “cold Virgin,” and when awakened to life, as the “Mother.”… (SD1, 82)

Light, is the unmanifested soul of things, and the soul of things (flame) is the creator, preserver and destroyer of light (fire),  the soul of things (fire) produces Cosmic heat, the energy that actuates matter after its first formation into atoms our plane (water of life) in chaos.

Secret Doctrine I study notes, Stanzas of Dzyan, Third Stanza 1/3

Stanza III describes the Re-awakening of the Universe to life after Pralaya. It depicts the emergence of the “Monads” from their state of absorption within the one; the earliest and highest stage in the formation of “Worlds,” the term Monad being one which may apply equally to the vastest Solar System or the tiniest atom. (SD1, 21)

3.1. The last vibration of the seventh eternity (7^th noumenal phase of infinite Time) of the solar pralaya thrills through infinitude. The Universal Matrix develops from limitless subjectivity to limitless objectivity, from an ideal prototype.

3.2. The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing simultaneously the whole universe, and abstract matter in the eternal matrix: primordial matter with the latent Spirit in it.

3.3. The Eternal Matrix radiates light, and the light of Divine Intelligence drops one solitary ray into Primordial matter, chaos. The ray shoots through the eternal power of becoming and causes it to drop into the the non-eternal periodical abstract matter, which condenses into the primordial form of everything manifested.

3.4. The triple logos transforms into the sacred quaternary. The World Egg becomes seven inside, seven outside. The World Egg (Radiant Essence, which has the three aspects of the Avasthas) differentiates and spreads the world-stuff (primordial matter in its first form) throughout the depths of space.

3.5. Unconditioned Reality remains, the Omnipresent Spiritual Ray remains, the first differentiation of cosmic matter remains, and still the septenary root from which all proceeds is one.

3.6. Unconditioned Reality was in every particle of the eternal Universe and the Universe was radiant cosmic matter, which was the essence of abstract Fire, Heat, and Motion. Pralaya was no more. It disappeared in its own essence, the body of the divine Ray and Chaos.

1. The last vibration of the seventh eternity thrills through infinitude (a). The mother swells, expanding from within without like the bud of the lotus (b).

Seventh Eternity: The seemingly paradoxical use of the sentence “Seventh Eternity,” thus dividing the indivisible, is sanctified in esoteric philosophy. The latter divides boundless duration into unconditionally eternal and universal Time and a conditioned one (Khandakala). One is the abstraction or noumenon of infinite time (Kala); the other its phenomenon appearing periodically, as the effect of Mahat (the Universal Intelligence limited by Manvantaric duration)… Therefore, the “last vibration of the Seventh Eternity” was “fore-ordained” — by no God in particular, but occurred in virtue of the eternal and changeless Law which causes the great periods of Activity and Rest, called so graphically, and at the same time so poetically, the “Days and Nights of Brahma.” (SD1, 62)

Seven Eternities:  aeons or periods, Manvantara, and extending throughout a Maha-Kalpa or the “Great Age” — 100 years of Brahma — making a total of 311,040,000,000,000 of years  sd35. …made to apply both to the Maha-Kalpa or “the (great) Age of Brahma,” as well as to the Solar pralaya and subsequent resurrection of our Planetary System on a higher plane. (SD1, 53)

Mother: The expansion “from within without” of the Mother, called elsewhere the “Waters of Space,” “Universal Matrix,” etc., … (SD1, 62)

Expanding from within without: does not allude to an expansion from a small centre or focus, but, without reference to size or limitation or area, means the development of limitless subjectivity into as limitless objectivity… does not allude to an expansion from a small centre or focus, but, without reference to size or limitation or area, means the development of limitless subjectivity into as limitless objectivity. “The ever (to us) invisible and immaterial Substance present in eternity, threw its periodical shadow from its own plane into the lap of Maya.” It implies that this expansion, not being an increase in size — for infinite extension admits of no enlargement — was a change of condition. (SD1, 62)

Bud of a lotus: It “expanded like the bud of the Lotus”; for the Lotus plant exists not only as a miniature embryo in its seed (a physical characteristic), but its prototype is present in an ideal form in the Astral Light from “Dawn” to “Night” during the Manvantaric period, like everything else, as a matter of fact, in this objective Universe; from man down to mite, from giant trees down to the tiniest blades of grass. (SD1, 62-63)

The last vibration of the seventh eternity (7th noumenal phase of infinite Time) of the solar pralaya thrills through infinitude. The Universal Matrix develops from limitless subjectivity to limitless objectivity from an ideal prototype.

2. The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing (simultaneously) the whole universe, and the germ that dwelleth in darkness: the darkness that breathes (moves) over the slumbering waters of life (a).

Germ: the point in the Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense. (SD1, 57) The Pythagorean Monad is also said to dwell in solitude and darkness like the “germ.” (SD1, 63)

Darkness: Darkness, then, is the eternal matrix in which the sources of light appear and disappear. “Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son,” says an old Eastern proverb. (SD1, 40-41)

The “breath” of Darkness moving over “the slumbering Waters of life”: primordial matter with the latent Spirit in it… recalls the first chapter of Genesis. Its original is the Brahminical Narayana (the mover on the Waters), who is the personification of the eternal Breath of the unconscious All (or Parabrahm) of the Eastern Occultists. The Waters of Life, or Chaos — the female principle in symbolism — are the vacuum (to our mental sight) in which lie the latent Spirit and Matter. (SD1, 63)

The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing simultaneously the whole universe, and abstract matter in the eternal matrix: primordial matter with the latent Spirit in it.

3. “Darkness” radiates light, and light drops one solitary ray into the waters, into the mother deep. The ray shoots through the virgin-egg; the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal (periodical) germ, which condenses into the world egg (a).

The solitary ray dropping into the mother deep: Divine Thought or Intelligence, impregnating chaos. This, however, occurs on the plane of metaphysical abstraction, or rather the plane whereon that which we call a metaphysical abstraction is a reality. (SD1, 64)

The Virgin-egg : Eternal Egg, abstract Egg-ness, or the power of becoming developed through fecundation, is eternal and for ever the same. (SD1, 64)

The non-eternal periodical germ: just as the fecundation of an egg takes place before it is dropped; so the non-eternal periodical germ which becomes later in symbolism the mundane egg, contains in itself, when it emerges from the said symbol, “the promise and potency” of all the Universe. (SD1, 64)

World Egg: Mundane Egg, … it suggests the idea of infinity as an endless circle. It brings before the mind’s eye the picture of Kosmos emerging from and in boundless space, a Universe as shoreless in magnitude if not as endless in its objective manifestation. The simile of an egg also expresses the fact taught in Occultism that the primordial form of everything manifested, from atom to globe, from man to angel, is spheroidal, the sphere having been with all nations the emblem of eternity and infinity — a serpent swallowing its tail…. The mystery of apparent self-generation and evolution through its own creative power repeating in miniature the process of Cosmic evolution in the egg, both being due to heat and moisture under the efflux of the unseen creative spirit, justified fully the selection of this graphic symbol. The “Virgin Egg” is the microcosmic symbol of the macrocosmic prototype — the “Virgin Mother” — Chaos or the Primeval Deep…. The Golden Egg was surrounded by seven natural elements (ether, fire, air, water), “four ready, three secret.” It may be found stated in Vishnu Purana, where elements are translated “Envelopes” and a secret one is added: “Aham-kara” (see Wilson’s Vishnu Purana, Book I., p. 40). (SD1, 65)

The male Creator (under whatever name) springs forth from the Virgin female, the immaculate root fructified by the Ray. Who, if versed in astronomy and natural sciences, can fail to see its suggestiveness? Cosmos as receptive Nature is an Egg fructified — yet left immaculate; once regarded as boundless, it could have no other representation than a spheroid. (SD1, 65)

The Eternal Matrix radiates light, and the light of Divine Intelligence drops one solitary ray into Primordial matter,chaos. The ray shoots through the eternal power of becoming and causes it to drop into the the non-eternal periodical abstract matter, which condenses into the primordial form of everything manifested.

4. (Then) the three (triangle) fall into the four (quaternary). The radiant essence becomes seven inside, seven outside (a). The luminous egg (Hiranyagarbha), which in itself is three (the triple hypostases of Brahma, or Vishnu, the three “Avasthas”), curdles and spreads in milk-white curds throughout the depths of mother, the root that grows in the ocean of life (b).

Radiant Essence: World Egg, Luminous Egg, Hiranyagargha.

Curds: the first differentiation, and probably refer also to that cosmic matter which is supposed to be the origin of the “Milky Way” — the matter we know. This “matter,” which, according to the revelation received from the primeval Dhyani-Buddhas, is, during the periodical sleep of the Universe, of the ultimate tenuity conceivable to the eye of the perfect Bodhisatva — this matter, radical and cool, becomes, at the first reawakening of cosmic motion, scattered through Space; appearing, when seen from the Earth, in clusters and lumps, like curds in thin milk. These are the seeds of the future worlds, the “Star-stuff.” (SD1, 68-69)

Root: as already explained, pure knowledge (Sattva),* eternal (Nitya) unconditioned reality or sat (Satya), whether we call it Parabrahmam or Mulaprakriti, for these are the two aspects of the one. (SD1, 68-69) … Whatever meaning various schools may give the term, Sattva is the name given among Occult students of the Aryasanga School to the dual Monad or Atma-buddhi, and Atma-buddhi on this plane corresponds to Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti on the higher plane. (SD1, 69)

“The radiant essence curdled and spread throughout the depths” of Space. From an astronomical point of view this is easy of explanation: it is the “milky way,” the world-stuff, or primordial matter in its first form. (SD1 67)

This “churning” relates to a period before the earth’s formation, and is in direct connection with that other universal legend, the various and contradictory versions of which culminated in the Christian dogma of the “War in Heaven,” and the fall of the Angels. (SD1, 68)

The triple logos transforms into the sacred quaternary. The World Egg becomes seven subjectively, seven objectively. The World Egg (Radiant Essence, which has the three aspects of the Avasthas) differentiates and spreads the world-stuff (primordial matter in its first form) throughout the depths of space.

5. The root remains, the light remains, the curds remain, and still Oeaohoo (a) is one (b).

Light: the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered and now fecundated the Divine Egg, and calls cosmic matter to begin its long series of differentiations. (SD1, 68)

Oeaohoo: “Father-Mother of the Gods” in the Commentaries, or the six in one, or the septenary root from which all proceeds…. In one sense, Oeaohoo is the “Rootless Root of All”; hence, one with Parabrahmam; in another sense it is a name for the manifested one life, the Eternal living Unity. (SD1, 68)

This refers to the Non-Separateness of all that lives and has its being, whether in active or passive state. (SD1, 68)

Unconditioned Reality remains, the Omnipresent  Spiritual Ray remains, the first differentiation of cosmic matter remains, and still the septenary root from which all proceeds is one.

6. The root of life was in every drop of the ocean of immortality (Amrita)* and the ocean was radiant light, which was fire and heat and motion. Darkness vanished and was no more.† It disappeared in its own essence, the body of fire and water, of father and mother (a).*

† See Commentary No. 1 to this Stanza. * See “Kwan-Shai-Yin.” The real name from the text cannot be given.

Ocean: The celestial Ocean, the AEther . . . . is the Breath of the Father, the life-giving principle, the Mother, the Holy Spirit, . . . . for these are not separated, and their union is life.” (SD1, 75)

Fire, Heat, Motion: not the fire, heat, and motion of physical science, but the underlying abstractions, the noumena, or the soul, of the essence of these material manifestations — (SD1, 69)

Darkness: The essence of darkness being absolute light, Darkness is taken as the appropriate allegorical representation of the condition of the Universe during Pralaya, or the term of absolute rest, or non-being, as it appears to our finite minds. … According to the tenets of Eastern Occultism, Darkness is the one true actuality, the basis and the root of light, without which the latter could never manifest itself, nor even exist. Light is matter, and Darkness pure Spirit. Darkness, in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute light; while the latter in all its seeming effulgence and glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and is simply an illusion, or Maya. (SD1, 70)

Fire / Father: may be taken here to mean the divine Ray (SD1, 70)

Water/ Mother: may be taken here to mean Chaos. (SD1, 70)

The solitary ray dropping into the mother deep: Divine Thought or Intelligence, impregnating chaos. This, however, occurs on the plane of metaphysical abstraction, or rather the plane whereon that which we call a metaphysical abstraction is a reality. (SD1, 64)

Waters of Life, or Chaos — the female principle in symbolism — are the vacuum (to our mental sight) in which lie the latent Spirit and Matter. (SD1, 63)

Unconditioned Reality was in every particle of the eternal Universe and the Universe was radiant cosmic matter, which was the essence of abstract Fire, Heat, and Motion. Pralaya was no more. It disappeared in its own essence, the body of the divine  Ray and Chaos.

Secret Doctrine I study notes, Stanzas of Dzyan, Second Stanza

The stage described in Stanza II. is, to a western mind, so nearly identical with that mentioned in the first Stanza, that to express the idea of its difference would require a treatise in itself. Hence it must be left to the intuition and the higher faculties of the reader to grasp, as far as he can, the meaning of the allegorical phrases used. Indeed it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain. (SD1, 21)

2.1  Where were the builders, the creators of the Universe?  In the unknown darkness of their Chohanic Paranirvana, the producers of form from no-form, the root of the world – cosmic space and the plastic essence that fills the Universe, rested in the bliss of non-being.

2.2  There was neither silence nor sound, because there were no ears to hear. There was nothing except eternal motion which is unconscious.

2.3  The time had not yet come; the ray of darkness becomes a ray of light and flashes into abstract matter (the point in the mundane egg). The dual creative power in Nature (Spirit, the male, generative principal, and Ether the passive female principle) from which everything in the universe is emanated, was still latent.

2.4  The Primordial Substance had not become receptive for the ray of the Logos (Fohatic impress of the Divine Thought), in order for it to differentiate from the three (triple logos) and transform into four, passing out of pre-cosmic latency into objectivity.

2.5   The Seven creators of our planetary chain were not yet born from the web of light. The eternal matrix alone was Spirit-Substance, the plastic essence, and the plastic essence was in the eternal matrix.

2.6  Spirit and substance are abstract matter (the point in the mundane egg), and abstract matter is one. The universe was still concealed in the Divine thought and (which had not yet penetrated into) the primordial substance.

 1. . . . . Where were the builders, the luminous sons of manvantaric dawn (a)? . . . . In the unknown darkness in their Ah-hi (Chohanic, Dhyani-Buddhic) Paranishpanna, the producers of form (rupa) from no-form (arupa), the root of the world — the Devamatri* and Svabhava, rested in the bliss of non-being (b).

Builders, Sons of Manvantaric Dawn: the real creators of the Universe; and in this doctrine, which deals only with our Planetary System, they, as the architects of the latter, are also called the “Watchers” of the Seven Spheres, which exoterically are the Seven planets, and esoterically the seven earths or spheres (planets) of our chain also. (SD1, 53)

Paranishpanna: the summum bonum, the Absolute, hence the same as Paranirvana. (SD1,  53)

Devamatri: “Mother of the Gods,” Aditi, or Cosmic Space. In the Zohar, she is called Sephira the Mother of the Sephiroth, and Shekinah in her primordial form, in abscondito. (SD1, 53)

Svabhava: the “Plastic Essence” that fills the Universe, is the root of all things. Svabhavat is, so to say, the Buddhistic concrete aspect of the abstraction called in Hindu philosophy Mulaprakriti. It is the body of the Soul, and that which Ether would be to Akasa, the latter being the informing principle of the former. Chinese mystics have made of it the synonym of “being.” In the Ekasloka-Shastra of Nagarjuna (the Lung-shu of China) called by the Chinese the Yih-shu-lu-kia-lun, it is said that the original word of Yeu is “Being” or “Subhava,” “the Substance giving substance to itself,” also explained by him as meaning “without action and with action,” “the nature which has no nature of its own.” Subhava, from which Svabhavat, is composed of two words: Su “fair,” “handsome,” “good”; Sva, “self”; and bhava, “being” or “states of being.” (SD1, 61)

Where were the builders, the creators of the Universe?  In the unknown darkness of their Chohanic Paranirvana, the producers of form from no-form, the root of the world – cosmic space and the plastic essence that fills the Universe, rested in the bliss of non-being.

2. . . . . Where was silence? Where were the ears to sense it? No! there was neither silence, nor sound (a). Naught save ceaseless, eternal breath (Motion) which knows itself not (b).

(a) The idea that things can cease to exist and still be, is a fundamental one in Eastern psychology…. Existence as water may be said to be, for Oxygen and Hydrogen, a state of Non-being which is “more real being” than their existence as gases; and it may faintly symbolise the awaken or reappear again, when the dawn of the new Manvantara recalls it to what we call existence. (SD1, 54)

Eternal Breath: The “Breath” of the One Existence is used in its application only to the spiritual aspect of Cosmogony by Archaic esotericism; otherwise, it is replaced by its equivalent in the material plane — Motion. The One Eternal Element, or element-containing Vehicle, is Space, dimensionless in every sense; co-existent with which are — endless duration, primordial (hence indestructible) matter, and motion — absolute “perpetual motion” which is the “breath” of the “One” Element. This breath, as seen, can never cease, not even during the Pralayic eternities. (SD1, 55)

There was neither silence nor sound, because thee were no ears to hear. There was nothing except eternal motion which is unconscious.

3. The hour had not yet struck; the ray had not yet flashed into the germ (a); the matri-padma (mother lotus) had not yet swollen (b).

Ray: The ray of the “Ever Darkness” becomes, as it is emitted, a ray of effulgent light or life, and flashes into the “Germ” .  (sd1 57)

Germ: the point in the Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense. (SD1, 57)

Matri-Padma: (Mother Lotus)  One of the symbolical figures for the Dual creative power in Nature (matter and force on the material plane) is Padma, the water-lily of India. The Lotus is the product of heat (fire) and water (vapour or Ether); fire standing in every philosophical and religious system as a representation of the Spirit of Deity,† the active, male, generative principle; and Ether, or the Soul of matter, the light of the fire, for the passive female principle from which everything in this Universe emanated. (SD1, 57)

The time had not yet come; the ray of darkness becomes a ray of light and flashes into abstract matter (the point in the mundane egg).The dual creative power in Nature (Spirit, the male, generative principal, and Ether the passive female principle) from which everything in the universe is emanated, was still latent.

4. Her heart had not yet opened for the one ray to enter, thence to fall as three into four in the lap of Maya, (a).

The Primordial Substance had not yet passed out of its precosmic latency into differentiated objectivity, or even become the (to man, so far,) invisible Protyle of Science. But, as the hour strikes and it becomes receptive of the Fohatic impress of the Divine Thought (the Logos, or the male aspect of the Anima Mundi, Alaya) — its heart opens. It differentiates, and the three (Father, Mother, Son) are transformed into four. (SD1, 58)

“The ever (to us) invisible and immaterial Substance present in eternity, threw its periodical shadow from its own plane into the lap of Maya.” (SD1, 62-63)

The Primordial Substance had not become receptive for the ray of the Logos (Fohatic impress of the Divine Thought), in order for it to diffentiate from the three (triple logos) and transform into four, passing out of pre-cosmic latency into objectivity.

5. The Seven (Sons) were not yet born from the Web of Light. Darkness alone was Father-Mother, Svabhava, and Svabhava was in darkness (a).

Sevens Sons: in the Stanzas given here, occupies itself chiefly, if not entirely, with our Solar System, and especially with our planetary chain. The “Seven Sons,” therefore, are the creators of the latter.

Web of light: No explanation provided.

Svabhava:  the “Plastic Essence” that fills the Universe, is the root of all things. (see sloka 2, 1) (SD1, 61)

Darkness: Darkness, then, is the eternal matrix in which the sources of light appear and disappear. “Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son,” says an old Eastern proverb. (SD1, 40-41)

Father-Mother:  the male and female principles in root-nature, the opposite poles that manifest in all things on every plane of Kosmos, or Spirit and Substance, in a less allegorical aspect, the resultant of which is the Universe, or the Son.  (SD1, 41)

The Seven creators of our planetary chain were not yet born from the web of light. The eternal matrix alone was Spirit-Substance, the plastic essence, and the plastic essence was in the eternal matrix.

6. These two are the Germ, and the Germ is — one. The Universe was still concealed in the Divine Thought and the Divine Bosom.

Germ: the point in the Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense. (SD1, 57)

Divine thought: The Universe, not only past, present, and future — which is a human and finite idea expressed by finite thought — but in its totality, the Sat (an untranslateable term), the absolute being, with the Past and Future crystallized in an eternal Present, is that Thought itself reflected in a secondary or manifest cause. (SD1, 61)

Spirit and substance are abstract matter (the point in the mundane egg), and abstract matter is one. The universe was still concealed in the Divine thought and (which had not yet penetrated into)  the primordial substance.

 

Secret Doctrine I study notes, Stanzas of Dzyan, First Stanza

Presented here is a paraphrased rendering of the Stanzas of Dzyan, first stanza, from The Secret Doctrine, Volume I,  by Helena Blavatsky. It was thought that replacing the technical eastern terms with the explanations and definitions of the text would make for easier reading for new readers. I tried my best, through a careful reading of the text, to give the most accurate phrasing I could. The Theosophical Glossary and the Secret Doctrine Commentary were also consulted. (I did not consult O Lanoo! by Harvey Tordoff during the composition, but the book is well done and is recommended.) 

 

1.1.  The ever present cause of all, or space, wrapped in her noumena of undifferentiated cosmic matter slumbered for the seven periods of a manvantara (comprising a maha-kalpa).

1.2.  All Consciousness lay asleep in the space-time continuum of duration, and so the illusion of time did not exist.

1.3.  There was no universal mind, because there were no celestial beings to manifest it.

1.4.  The seven paths to nirvana/moksha did not exist; neither did the 12 nidanas (causes of misery) or maya (illusion); for there was no one to produce and get ensnared by them.

1.5.  The eternal matrix filled the boundless all. For Spirit, Substance and Universe were one once more, and the Universe had not awakened for the new cycle of being.

1.6.  The seven creative spirits and the seven truths were no more, and the universe, a link in the Great cosmic chain of Universes, was immersed in absolute perfection, to be emanated by absolute existence. Nothing existed.

1.7.  The causes of existence, the chief of which is tanha, the desire to exist, were no more; the previous visible world and the invisible world were resting in the noumenon of all the noumena which underlies phenomena.

1.8.  The one form of existence, the basis and source of all things, stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, as in a dreamless sleep; life pulsated unconscious in universal space, throughout that all-presence which is sensed by the inner spiritual eye.

1.9.  Where was the purified soul, when the universal soul was in absolute reality and the great cycle was without progenitors (Dhyan-Chohans)?

The First Stanza describes the state of the one all during Pralaya, before the first flutter of re-awakening manifestation.

A moment’s thought shows that such a state can only be symbolised; to describe it is impossible. Nor can it be symbolised except in negatives; for, since it is the state of Absoluteness per se, it can possess none of those specific attributes which serve us to describe objects in positive terms. Hence that state can only be suggested by the negatives of all those most abstract attributes which men feel rather than conceive, as the remotest limits attainable by their power of conception. (SD1, 21)

STANZA I.

1. “The Eternal Parent (Space), wrapped in her ever invisible robes, had slumbered once again for seven eternities (a).”

Eternal parent: The “Parent Space” is the eternal, ever present cause of all — the incomprehensible deity. (SD1, 35)

Invisible robes: the mystic root of all matter, and of the Universe. the noumenon of undifferentiated Cosmic Matter. It is not matter as we know it, but the spiritual essence of matter, and is co-eternal and even one with Space in its abstract sense. (SD1, 35)

Seven Eternities:  aeons or periods, Manvantara, and extending throughout a Maha-Kalpa or the “Great Age” — 100 years of Brahma — making a total of 311,040,000,000,000 of years  (SD1, 35). …made to apply both to the Maha-Kalpa or “the (great) Age of Brahma,” as well as to the Solar pralaya and subsequent resurrection of our Planetary System on a higher plane. (SD1, 53)

The ever present cause of all, or space,  wrapped in her noumena of undifferentiated cosmic matter slumbered for the seven periods of a manvantara (comprising a maha-kalpa).

2. Time was not, for it lay asleep in the infinite bosom of duration.

Time: Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but “lies asleep.” (SD1, 37

Duration: Even so of persons and things, which, dropping out of the to-be into the has-been, out of the future into the past — present momentarily to our senses a cross-section, as it were, of their total selves, as they pass through time and space (as matter) on their way from one eternity to another: and these two constitute that “duration” in which alone anything has true existence, were our senses but able to cognize it there. (SD1, 37)

All Consciousness lay asleep in the space-time continuum of duration, and so the illusion of time did not exist.

3. . . . Universal mind was not, for there were no Ah-hi (celestial beings) to contain (hence to manifest) it (a).

Mind: Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness grouped under Thought, Will, and Feeling. (SD1, 38)

Ah-Hi: The Ah-hi (Dhyan-Chohans) are the collective hosts of spiritual beings — the Angelic Hosts of Christianity, the Elohim and “Messengers” of the Jews — who are the vehicle for the manifestation of the divine or universal thought and will. (SD1, 38)

There was no universal mind, because there were no celestial beings to manifest it.

4. The seven ways to bliss (Moksha* or Nirvana) were not (a). The great causes of misery (Nidana† and Maya) were not, for there was no one to produce and get ensnared by them (b).

Seven ways to bliss: There are seven “Paths” or “Ways” to the bliss of Non-Existence, which is absolute Being, Existence, and Consciousness. (SD1, 39)

Great causes of misery: The “12” Nidanas (in Tibetan Ten-brel chug-nyi) the chief causes of existence, effects generated by a concatenation of causes produced. (SD1, 38)

Maya: Maya or illusion is an element which enters into all finite things, for everything that exists has only a relative, not an absolute, reality, since the appearance which the hidden noumenon assumes for any observer depends upon his power of cognition. (SD1, 39)

The seven paths to nirvana/moksha did not exist; neither did the 12 nidanas (causes of misery) or maya; for there was no one to produce and get ensnared by them.

5. Darkness alone filled the boundless all (a), for father, mother and son were once more one, and the son had not awakened yet for the new wheel* and his pilgrimage thereon (b).

Darkness: Darkness, then, is the eternal matrix in which the sources of light appear and disappear. “Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son,” says an old Eastern proverb. (SD1, 40-41)

Father-Mother:  the male and female principles in root-nature, the opposite poles that manifest in all things on every plane of Kosmos, or Spirit and Substance, in a less allegorical aspect, the resultant of which is the Universe, or the Son.  (SD1, 41)

Wheel: That which is called “wheel” is the symbolical expression for a world or globe, ... The “Great Wheel” is the whole duration of our Cycle of being, or Maha Kalpa, i.e., the whole revolution of our special chain of seven planets or Spheres from beginning to end; the “Small Wheels” meaning the Rounds, of which there are also Seven. (SD1, 41)

The eternal matrix filled the boundless all. For Spirit, Substance and Universe were one once more, and the Universe had not awakened for the new cycle of being.

6. The seven sublime Lords and the seven Truths had ceased to be (a), and the Universe, the son of necessity, was immersed in Paranishpanna (b) (absolute perfection, Paranirvana, which is Yong-Grub) to be out-breathed by that which is and yet is not. Naught was (c).

Seven Sublime Lords: - (a) The seven sublime lords are the Seven Creative Spirits, the Dhyan-Chohans, who correspond to the Hebrew Elohim….in the Esoteric System, the Dhyanis watch successively over one of the Rounds and the great Root-races of our planetary chain. (SD1, 42)

Seven Truths: Out of the Seven Truths and Revelations, or rather revealed secrets, four only have been handed to us, as we are still in the Fourth Round, and the world also has only had four Buddhas, so far. (SD1, 42)

Sons of Necessity: a link in the great Cosmic chain of Universes, each one standing in the relation of an effect as regards its predecessor, and being a cause as regards its successor. (SD1, 43)

Paranishpanna: Paranirvana, the absolute perfection to which all existences attain at the close of a great period of activity, or Maha-Manvantara, and in which they rest during the succeeding period of repose. In Tibetan it is called Yong-Grub. (SD1, 42)

That which is and yet is not: the Great Breath itself, which we can only speak of as absolute existence, but cannot picture to our imagination as any form of existence that we can distinguish from Non-existence. (SD1, 43)

The seven creative spirits and the seven truths were no more, and the universe, a link in the Great cosmic chain of Universes, was immersed in absolute perfection, to be emanated by absolute existence. Nothing existed.

7. The causes of existence had been done away with (a); the visible that was, and the invisible that is, rested in eternal non-being, the one being (b).

The Causes of Existence: not only the physical causes known to science, but the metaphysical causes, the chief of which is the desire to exist, an outcome of Nidana and Maya… According to esoteric teaching, the real cause of that supposed desire, and of all existence, remains for ever hidden, and its first emanations are the most complete abstractions mind can conceive. (SD1, 44)

Eternal Non-Being, which is the One Being: the One Being is the noumenon of all the noumena which we know must underlie phenomena, and give them whatever shadow of reality they possess, but which we have not the senses or the intellect to cognize at present… It is here that the teachings of esoteric philosophy in relation to the Nidanas and the Four Truths become of the greatest importance; but they are secret. (SD1, 45)

The causes of existence, the chief of which is tanha, the desire to exist, were no more; the previous visible world and the invisible world was resting in the noumenon of all the noumena which underlies phenomena.

8. Alone, the one form of existence stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, in dreamless sleep (a); and life pulsated unconscious in universal space, throughout that All-Presence which is sensed by the “Opened Eye”* of the Dangma (b).†

One Form of Existence: the basis and source of all things. The Sanskrit word is Prabhavapyaya, “the place, or rather plane, whence emerges the origination, and into which is the resolution of all things,” says a commentator. (SD1, 46)

Dreamless sleep: one of the seven states of consciousness known in Oriental esotericism… in this case is applied allegorically to the Universe to express a condition somewhat analogous to that state of consciousness in man, which, not being remembered in a waking state, seems a blank, just as the sleep of the mesmerised subject seems to him an unconscious blank when he returns to his normal condition, although he has been talking and acting as a conscious individual would. (SD1, 47)

Opened Eye of the Dangma: “The Eye of Siva,”  Dangma means a purified soul, one who has become a Jivanmukta, the highest adept, or rather a Mahatma so-called. His “opened eye” is the inner spiritual eye of the seer, and the faculty which manifests through it is not clairvoyance as ordinarily understood, i.e., the power of seeing at a distance, but rather the faculty of spiritual intuition, through which direct and certain knowledge is obtainable. This faculty is intimately connected with the “third eye,” which mythological tradition ascribes to certain races of men. (SD1, 46)

The one form of existence, the basis and source of all things, stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, as in a dreamless sleep; life pulsated unconscious in universal space, throughout that all-presence which is sensed by the inner spiritual eye.

9. But where was the Dangma when the Alaya of the Universe (Soul as the basis of all, Anima Mundi) was in Paramartha (a) (Absolute Being and Consciousness which are Absolute Non-Being and Unconsciousness) and the great wheel was Anupapadaka (b)?

Alaya: (Soul as the basis of all, Anima Mundi) Alaya is literally the “Soul of the World” or Anima Mundi, the “Over-Soul” of Emerson, and according to esoteric teaching it changes periodically its nature. Alaya, though eternal and changeless in its inner essence on the planes which are unreachable by either men or Cosmic Gods (Dhyani Buddhas), alters during the active life-period with respect to the lower planes, ours included. During that time not only the Dhyani-Buddhas are one with Alaya in Soul and Essence, but even the man strong in the Yoga (mystic meditation) “is able to merge his soul with it” (Aryasanga, the Bumapa school). This is not Nirvana, but a condition next to it. (SD1,  48)

Paramartha: “Paramartha” is self-consciousness in Sanskrit, Svasamvedana, or the “self-analysing reflection” — from two words, parama (above everything) and artha (comprehension), Satya meaning absolute true being, or Esse. In Tibetan Paramarthasatya is Dondampaidenpa. The opposite of this absolute reality, or actuality, is Samvritisatya — the relative truth only — “Samvriti” meaning “false conception” and being the origin of illusion, Maya; in Tibetan Kundzabchi-denpa, “illusion-creating appearance.” (SD1, 48)

Anupapadaka:  “parentless,” or without progenitors, is a mystical designation having several meanings in the philosophy. By this name celestial beings, the Dhyan-Chohans or Dhyani-Buddhas, are generally meant. But as these correspond mystically to the human Buddhas and Bodhisattwas, known as the “Manushi (or human) Buddhas,” the latter are also designated “Anupadaka,” once that their whole personality is merged in their compound sixth and seventh principles — or Atma-Buddhi, and that they have become the “diamond-souled” (Vajra-sattvas), the full Mahatmas. The “Concealed Lord” (Sangbai Dag-po), “the one merged with the absolute,” can have no parents since he is Self-existent, and one with the Universal Spirit (Svayambhu), the Svabhavat (sic) in the highest aspect. (SD1, 51)

Where was the purified soul, when the universal soul was in absolute reality and the great cycle was without progenitors (Dhyan-Chohans)?