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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Div. B - Manas as a Cosmic, Systemic and Human Factor
2. Planetary Manas We sought in the foregoing, to understand somewhat the origin of manas - whether cosmic, or otherwise - through the consideration of human individualization and the method thereof. We saw that individualization is the conscious apprehension of the Self of its relation to all that constitutes the Not-Self, and that it is evoked in three ways, of which only two as yet are even dimly comprehensible. In each case this awakening of consciousness is preceded by a period of gradual development, is instantaneous at the moment of Self-Realization for the first time, and is succeeded by another period of gradual evolution. This period of gradual evolution leads up to another crisis which we call initiation. In one we have initiation into conscious existence, in the other initiation into spiritual existence or group identification. For a solar Logos individualization dates back to stages far anterior to the triplicity of solar systems which constitutes for Him the Eternal Now, but which from man's point of view embody the past, the present, and the future. A planetary Logos individualized in a previous system; a man individualizes in this; the planetary entities, now involutionary, will individualize in the next. a. Consciousness and Existence From the wider point of view the terms initiation and individualization are synonymous; they both express the idea of an expansion of consciousness, or of entrance into a new kingdom of nature. The faculty of acquiring knowledge [351] must be realized as paralleling the development of the sense of sight, or vision, as earlier pointed out. The fire of mind shone forth and illuminated animal man in Lemurian days, during that vast cycle wherein sight opened up for him the physical plane. The relationship between sight and mind is a very close one, and must not be lost from sight. In the first round, and in the first root-race of this round, hearing was the sense developed. In the second round and the second root-race touch was evolved. In the third round and corresponding root-race sight was added to the other two, and the Self which hears, and the Not-self which is touched, or apprehended as tangible, are related and connected by sight, - the correspondence to the intelligence that links. Thus is brought about the blending of the three fires, and illumination is present. But through all this evolutionary development the ONE Who hears, touches, and sees, persists and interprets according to the stage of the development of the manasic principle within Him. This basic Interpreter is the Entity Who is independent of an existence which ever necessitates a form. His is the life that causes matter to vibrate and He is therefore "fire by friction"; His is the life of pure Spirit which wills to be, and which utilizes form, and is therefore electrical impulse on the cosmic physical plane or "electric fire"; His is the life that not only animates the atoms and electrifies them by His Own nature, but likewise knows itself to be one with all yet apart from all, - the thinking, discriminating, Self-realizing something that we call MIND or Solar Fire. Universal mind or manas permeates all, and is equally that Self-knowing, individualized Entity Whose body contains our solar Logos as well as certain other solar Logoi; Whose fire, heat and radiation embrace certain other solar systems and unify them with our own system so that one complete vital body forms the manifestation of this mighty cosmic Being. [352] Vortices of force on the cosmic etheric plane form the etheric framework of seven solar systems in the same way that the bodies of the seven Heavenly Men are the etheric centers for a solar Logos, and as the seven centers in man (existing in etheric matter), are the animating electrical impulse of his life. To express the origin of manas apart from manifestation through a congery of systems, a solar system, or a man is for us impossible. Only as one grasps the fact that each planetary scheme, for instance, serves as the body of a Heavenly Man Who is the directing Mind in that scheme, and the animating principle of manas or the active discriminating faculty which every atom in that scheme evinces; only when it is realized that a solar Logos is similarly the manasic principle of those large atoms we call schemes in their totality; only when it is apprehended that a cosmic Logos is again the instigating mind of the still vaster atoms we call systems; only when it is admitted that man is the animating discriminative faculty of the tiny spheres which form his body of manifestation; and finally, only when all this is meditated upon, and its truth accepted, will this question of the origin of manas assume a less abstruse character, and the difficulty of its comprehension be less appalling. Man, the Thinker, the Knower, the manasic principle in the center of the many spheres which form his bodies, manipulates electrical force in three departments (the physical, astral and mental bodies) through seven centers which are the focal points of force, and of its intelligent dispersal throughout his little system to the myriads of lesser atoms, which are the cells in these spheres. A Heavenly Man equally, and in a wider sense, the Thinker and Knower, the manasic or mind principle plus the buddhic or Christ principle, manipulates electrical force through three principal vehicles or globes in atmic, buddhic, and manasic matter, dispersing it from thence [353] to the myriads of cells which correspond to the deva and human units. A solar Logos in a still wider sense is the permeating universal Mind, the manasic principle, plus the buddhic and the will principle, working in three major schemes, by means of seven centers of force, and through the myriads of groups which are the cells in His body, in the same way as human beings are the cells in the body of a Heavenly Man. The cosmic Logos of our system works similarly through three major systems (of which ours is not one), utilizing seven solar systems (of which ours is one), for the distribution of His force and having myriads of sevenfold groups as the cells of His body.
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