H.P. Blavatsky on Abstract Philosophy

H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine, vol 5, Adyar edition, pp. 428-29

It has often been explained that neither the cosmic planes or substance nor even the human principles - with the exception of the lowest material plane or world and the physical body, which, as has been said, are no "principles," - can be located or thought of as being in Space and Time. As the former are seven in One, so are we seven in One - that same absolute Soul of the World, which is both Matter and non-Matter, Spirit and non-Spirit, Being and non-Being. Impress yourselves well with this idea, all those of you who would study the mysteries of Self.

H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine I, p. 210

When, moved by the law of Evolution, the Lords of Wisdom infused into him [the human form] the spark of consciousness, the first feeling it awoke to life and activity was a sense of solidarity, of oneness with his spiritual creators."... "Devotion arose out of that feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his nature; for it is the only one which is natural in our heart, which is innate in us.

H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine 1, p. 181

Yes; "our destiny is written in the stars!" Only, the closer the union between the mortal reflection MAN and his celestial PROTOTYPE, the less dangerous the external conditions and subsequent reincarnations- which neither Buddhas nor Christs can escape.

H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine 1, p. 130

... in occult metaphysics there are, properly speaking, two "ones" - the One on the unreachable plane of Absolute-ness and Infinity, on which no speculation is possible, and the Second "One" on the plane of Emanations. The former can neither emanate nor be divided, as it is eternal, absolute, and immutable. The Second, being, so to speak, the reflection of the first One (for it is the Logos, or Isvara, in the Universe of Illusion), can do all this.

H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, III, p. 423

The Buddhists, on the other hand, deny either subjective or objective reality even to that one Self-Existence. Buddha declares that there is neither Creator nor an ABSOLUTE Being. Buddhist rationalism was ever too alive to the insuperable difficulty of admitting one absolute consciousness, as in the words of Flint - "wherever there is consciousness there is relation, and wherever there is relation there is dualism." The ONE LIFE is either "MUKTA" (absolute and unconditioned) and can have no relation to anything or to any one; or it is "BADDHA" (bound and conditioned), and then it cannot be called the ABSOLUTE; the limitation, moreover, necessitating another deity as powerful as the first to account for all the evil in this world. Hence, the Arahat secret doctrine on cosmogony admits but of one absolute, indestructible, eternal, and uncreated UNCONSCIOUSNESS (so to translate), of an element (the word being used for want of a better term) absolutely independent of everything else in the universe; a something ever present or ubiquitous, a Presence which ever was, is, and will be, whether there is a God, gods or none; whether there is a universe or no universe; existing during the eternal cycles of Maha Yugas, during the Pralayas as during the periods of Manvantara: and this is SPACE, the field for the operation of the eternal Forces and natural Law, the basis (as our correspondent rightly calls it) upon which take place the eternal intercorrelations of Akasa-Prakriti, guided by the unconscious regular pulsations of Sakti - the breath or power of a conscious deity, the theists would say - the eternal energy of an eternal, unconscious Law, say the Buddhists. Space then, or Fan Bar-Nang (Maha-Sunyata) or, as it is called by Lao-Tze, the "Emptiness" is the nature of the Buddhist Absolute.

H.P. Blavatsky, Coll. Wr. Vol. III, p.63

True pantheists do not say that everything is God -"... "but that God is in everything and the whole in God.

H.P. Blavatsky, Coll. Wr. Vol. III, p.423

The Buddhists, on the other hand, deny either subjective or objective reality even to that one Self-Existence. Buddha declares that there is neither Creator nor an ABSOLUTE Being. Buddhist rationalism was ever too alive to the insuperable difficulty of admitting one absolute consciousness, as in the words of Flint - "wherever there is consciousness there is relation, and wherever there is relation there is dualism." The ONE LIFE is either "MUKTA" (absolute and unconditioned) and can have no relation to anything nor to any one; or it is "BADDHA" (bound an conditioned), and then it cannot be called the ABSOLUTE; the limitation, moreover, necessitating another deity as powerful as the first to account for all the evil in this world. Hence, the Arahat secret doctrine on cosmogony admits but of one absolute, indestructible, eternal, and uncreated UNCONSCIOUSNESS (so to translate), of an element (the word is used for want of a better term) absolutely independent of everything else in the universe; a something ever present or ubiquitous, a Presence which ever was, is, and will be, whether there is a God, gods or none; whether there is a universe or no universe; existing during the eternal cycles of Maha Yugas, during the Pralayas as during the periods of Manvantara: and this is SPACE, the field for the operation of the eternal Forces and natural Law, the basis (as our correspondent rightly calls it) upon which take place the eternal intercorrelations of Akasa-Prakriti, guided by the unconscious regular pulsations of Sakti - the breath or power of a conscious deity, the theists would say - the eternal energy of an eternal, unconscious Law, say the Buddhists. Space then, or Fan, Bar-nang (Maha-Sunyata) or, as it is called by Lao-Tze, the "Emptiness" is the nature of the Buddhist Absolute. (See Confucius' "Praise of the Abyss.")

[Current day Buddhists deny the above interpretation of Sunyata. Sunyata has more to do with the illusory nature of the universe, not with the emptiness of space. - the question remains whether the adepts agree.]

H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine 1, pp 277,78 from 'Two books of the stanza's of Dzyan'

what is called "unconscious nature" is in reality an aggregate of forces manipulated by semi-intelligent beings (elementals) guided by High Planetary Spirits (Dhyani Chohans), whose collective aggregate forms the manifested verbum of the unmanifested Logos, and constitutes at one and the same time the mind of the Universe and its immutable law.

H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine 1, pp 15 from 'Two books of the stanza's of Dzyan'

The one reality, the Absolute is the field of absolute consciousness, i.e., that Essence which is out of all relation to conditioned existence, and of which conscious existence is a conditioned symbol. But once that we pass in thought from this (to us) absolute negation, duality supervenes in contrast of spirit (or consciousness) and matter, subject and object.

... it is only through a vehicle of matter that consciousness wells up as "I am I", a physical basis being necessary to focus a ray of the universal mind at a certain stage of complexity.

... The 'manifested universe', therefore, is pervaded by duality, which is as it were the very essence of its existence as 'manifestation'. But just as the opposite poles of subject and object, spirit and matter, are but aspects of the one unity in which they are synthesised, so, in the manifested universe, there is 'that' which links spirit to matter, subject to object.

This something, at present unknown to Western speculation, is called by the occultists Fohat.

[Vol. 1, Page 2]] The Secret Doctrine

It is the ONE LIFE, eternal, invisible, yet Omnipresent, without beginning or end, yet periodical in its regular manifestations, between which periods reigns the dark mystery of non-Being; unconscious, yet absolute Consciousness; unrealisable, yet the one self-existing reality; truly, "a chaos to the sense, a Kosmos to the reason." Its one absolute attribute, which is ITSELF, eternal, ceaseless Motion, is called in esoteric parlance the "Great Breath,"* which is the perpetual motion of the universe, in the sense of limitless, ever-present SPACE. That which is motionless cannot be Divine. But then there is nothing in fact and reality absolutely motionless within the universal soul.

H.P. Blavatsky, Coll. Wr. XI, p. 277-78

God ... Is Nothing , without name and without qualities; it is for this reason that it is called Ain-Soph, for the word Ain means nothing.

It is not this immutable and absolute Principle, which is only the potentiality of being, from which the gods, or active principles of the manifested world, emanate. As the absolute has no relation to the conditioned and the limited, and could not possibly have any, that from which the emanations proceed is the "God that speaks" of Basilides, i.e., the logos which Philo calls "the second God" and the Creator of forms. "The second God is the Wisdom of the One God" (Quaestion. et Solut., Book II, 62). "But this logos, this 'Wisdom' is an emanation nevertheless?" will be the objection. "And to make anything emanate from Nothing is an absurdity!" Not at all. First, this "nothing" is so because it is the absolute, consequently the All. Then this "second God" is no more an emanation than the shadow our body casts on a white wall is an emanation of that body. In any case, the God is not the effect of a cause or of a premeditated act, or a deliberate and conscious will. It is merely the periodical effect of an immutable and eternal law, beyond time and space, of which the logos or creative intelligence is the shadow or reflection.

From the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan, H.P. Blavatsky, p. 306

Siva, in his primitive meaning, is at one and the same time the all-destroying and the all-regenerating power of nature. The Hindu trinity is an allegorical representation of the chief elements: fire, earth and water. All three, Brahmâ, Vishnu and Siva represent these elements by turn, in the various phases, but Siva is much more the god of fire than Vishnu; he burns and cleanses at the same time, creating out of the ashes, like the Phoenix, new forms, full of renewed life. Siva-Samkara is the destroyer and Siva-Râkshara, the regenerator. He is represented with a flame in his left hand, with the sceptre of death and of resurrection (sûlayudh) in his right hand.

H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled 1, p. 271; Laws of Manu ch i,§§5,6

"This universe," says Manu [ch i, §§5, 6], "existed only in the first divine idea, yet unexpanded, as if involved in darkness, imperceptible, indefinable, undiscoverable by reason, and undiscovered by revelation, as if it were wholly immersed in sleep; then the sole self-existing Power himself undiscerned ... appeared with undiminished glory, expanding his idea, or dispelling the gloom." Thus speak the first code of Buddhism. Plato's idea is the Will, or Logos, the deity which manifests itself. It is the Eternal Light from which proceeds, as an emanation, the visible and material light.

H.P. Blavatsky, Isis 1, p. 284

The universal aether was not, in their [the ancient Greeks] eyes, simply a something stretching, tenantless, throughout the expanse of heaven; it was a boundless ocean peopled like our familiar seas with monstrous and minor creatures, and having in its every molecule the germs of life. Like the finny tribes which swarm in our oceans and smaller bodies of water, each kind having its habitat in some spot to which it is curiously adapted, some friendly and some inimical to man, some pleasant and some frightful to behold, some seeking the refuge of quiet nooks and landlocked harbors, and some traversing great area's of water, the various races of the elemental spirits were believed by them to inhabit the different portions of the great ethereal ocean, and to be exactly adapted to their respective conditions. If we will only bear in mind the fact that the rushing of planets through space must create as absolute a disturbance in this plastic and attenuated medium, as the passage of a cannon shot does in the air or that of a steamer in the water, and on a cosmic scale, we can understand that certain planetary aspects, admitting our premises to be true, may produce much more violent agitation and cause much stronger currents to flow in a given direction, than others. With the same premises conceded, we may also see why, by such various aspects of the stars, shoals of friendly or hostile "elementals" might be poured in upon our atmosphere, or some particular portion of it, and make the fact appreciable by the effects which ensue.

H.P. Blavatsky, Isis 1, p. 428

...it is not spirit that dwells in matter, but matter which clings temporarily to spirit; and that the latter alone is an eternal, imperishable abode for all things visible and invisible.

Esoteric philosophers held that everything in nature is but a materialization of spirit. The Eternal First Cause is latent spirit, they said, and matter from the beginning. ...

With the first idea, which emanated from the double-sexed and hitherto-inactive Deity, the first motion was communicated to the whole universe, and the electric thrill was instantaneously felt throughout the boundless space. Spirit begat force, and force matter; and thus the latent deity manifested itself as a creative energy.

H.P. Blavatsky, C.W. IV, p. 297
  1. Spirit got itself entangled with gross matter for the same reason that life gets entangled with the foetus matter. It followed a law, and therefore could not help the entanglement occurring.
  2. We know of no eastern philosophy that teaches that "matter originated out of spirit." Matter is as eternal and indestructable as Spirit and one cannot be made cognizant to our senses without the other - even to our, the highest, spiritual sense. Spirit per se is a non-entity and non-existence. It is the negation of every affirmation and of all that is.
  3. No one ever held - as far as we know - that Spirit could get annihilated under whatever circumstances. Spirit can get divorced of its manifested matter, its personality, in which case, it is the latter that is annihilated. Nor do we believe that "Spirit breathed out Matter"; but that, on the contrary, it is Matter which manifests Spirit. Otherwise, it would be a puzzle indeed.
H.P. Blavatsky, C.W. IV, p. 336

[H. P. Blavatsky on Narayana]

It is that same Principle which may be understood and realized but in our innermost thought, in solemn silence and in reverential awe. It is but during such moments of illumination that man may have a glimpse of it, as from and in the Eternity. It broods in (not over) the Waters of Life, in the boundless chaos of cosmic Ether as the manifested or the unmanifested universe. This Narayana is the seventh principle of the manifested solar system. It is the Antaratma, or the latent spirit everywhere present in the five tanmatras, which in their admixture and unity, constitute what is called by Western occultists the pre-adamite earth. This principle or Paramanu is located by the ancient Rishis of India (as may be seen in Maha-Narayana or Taittiriya Upanishad) in the centre of astral fire. Its name of Narayana is given to it, because of its presence in all the individual spiritual monads of the manifested solar system. This principle is, in fact, the Logos, and the one ego of the Western Occultists and Kabalists, and it is the Real and Sole deity to which the ancient Rishis of Aryavarta addressed their prayers, and directed their aspirations.

H.P. Blavatsky, C.W. IV, p. 225

[The reason why] while science is searching still and may go on searching forever to solve the problem "What is life?" the Occultist can afford to refuse taking the trouble, since he claims, with as much good reason as any given to the contrary, that Life, whether in its latent or dynamical form, is everywhere. That it is as infinite and as indestructible as matter itself, since neither can exist without the other, and that electricity is the very essence and origin of - Life itself. "Purush" is non-existent without "Prakriti"; nor, can Prakriti, or plastic matter have being or exist without Purush, or spirit, vital energy, Life. Purush and Prakriti are in short the two poles of the one eternal element, and are synonymous and convertible terms.

H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine Vol. i, 220-21, Adyar Ed.

And they [the adepts] tell us plainly:

Whenever you are able to attune your consciousness to any of the seven chords of 'Universal Consciousness,' those chords that run along the sounding-board of the Kosmos, vibrating from one Eternity to another; when you have studied thoroughly the 'Music of the Spheres,' then only will you become quite free to share your knowledge with those with whom it is safe to do so. Meanwhile, be prudent. Do not give out the great Truths that are the inheritance of the future Races, to our present generation. Do not attempt to unveil the secret of Being and Non-Being to those unable to see the hidden meaning of Apollo's Heptachord, the lyre of the radiant god, in each of the seven strings of which dwelleth the Spirit, Soul and Astral Body of the Kosmos, whose shell only has now fallen into the hands of modern science...

Secret Doctrine, vol. 1, p. 43

The Secret Doctrine teaches the progressive development of everything, worlds as well as atoms; and this stupendous development has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end. Our "Universe" is only one of an infinite number of Universes, all of them "Sons of Necessity," because links 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.

The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and inbreathing of "the Great Breath," which is eternal, and which, being Motion, is one of the three aspects of the Absolute -- Abstract Space and Duration being the other two. When the "Great Breath" is projected, it is called the Divine Breath, and is regarded as the breathing of the Unknowable Deity -- the One Existence -- which breathes out a thought, as it were, which becomes the Kosmos. (See "Isis Unveiled.") So also is it when the Divine Breath is inspired again the Universe disappears into the bosom of "the Great Mother," who then sleeps "wrapped in her invisible robes."

H.P. Blavatsky, C.W. V, p. 76

The Occultist postulates an ascending scale of subjectivity which grows continually more real as it gets farther and farther from illusionary earthly objectivity: its ultimate, Reality - Parabrahm.