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)?
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