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.