Published by Blavatsky Study Center. Online Edition copyright 2004.


Some Commentaries
on
[H.P.B.'s Esoteric]
Instructions I and II

by K.H.

[Reprinted from "Instruction VI," pp. 225-233 in E.S.T. Instructions:  Nos. IV, V and VI.  This publication was issued in 1901 by the The Eastern School of Theosophy, P.O. Box 1584, New York, N.Y.  Research has shown that much of this material from Master K.H. dates back to the 1880s. For more background information on "Instruction VI," see pp. xxiv and 197 in The Inner Group Teachings of H.P. Blavatsky, 2nd revised and enlarged edition, compiled and annotated by Henk J. Spierenburg, San Diego, California, Point Loma Publications, 1995.]

Instructions I, Page 6.

1.  Absolute = Atma.
2.  Archetypal = Auric Egg. In the unmanifested Logos exists the pattern of all things to be. Cosmic Ideation = Imagination, the plastic potency of the Soul, (or A. E.) in man.
3.  Spiritual Plane of Cosmic Motion or the Light or energy of the Logos which imprints the pattern on Cosmic Substance. Fohat, Buddhi - active, noetic force.
4.  Psychic, (Manasic) = Higher Manas.
5.  Sidereal,  (Psychic) = Magnetic force, nervous or life force, (Prana). Siderial force is that emanation from the stars and celestial bodies of which the spiritual form of man is composed. (Isis, Paracelsus). It is an identity of essence, the spirit of cometary matter. The spectroscope shows the composition of man and the stars to be identical.
6.  Astral Plane = Linga Sharira, Astral body, psychic force.
7.  Elemental = Kamic plane.

Page 8.

The occult properties of numbers depend largely upon their association with the moon. The even numbers belong to the Gods who have fallen into generation and are bad! 2 is a female number.

Page 9. Par. I, line 6.

The aura round the Master is white, moonlight color, but showing iridescent colors like an opal, white predominating.

Page 10, last line, Par. 2.

It is impossible to worship both sides, - the male and female of nature, - at once; one or the other must predominate. Only by following the absolute, sexless Unity, can the white path be trodden. Hence the necessity for chastity. The occult and the physical must never be mixed up. It is absolutely necessary to concentrate on one or the other. The tendency naturally is to Black Magic, and that is why several years of training are necessary to cut away every sort of prejudice before power can be entrusted to you. Before you can become an occultist you have to give up every prejudice, every liking, every feeling of preference for one thing or another. The adept must entirely separate himself from his personality. He must say, I am a power! It is easy to fall into Black Magic. A black magician prepares to do mischief without giving a thought to whether it will harm others. He is essentially selfish, for he works for a thing he personally loves. Apparent unselfishness may be really selfishness. A deed of kindness done with partiality may become evil, viz., by stirring up animosity in the minds of others. It is necessary when acting to lose all sense of identity and become an abstract power. There is good and evil in every point in the universe, and if one works however indirectly for one’s own partiality, one becomes to that extent a black magician. The opposite of Justice is partiality. When a man uses the powers of Nature indiscriminatingly, with partiality, and with no regard to justice, it is Black Magic. But to help a sick person is not Black Magic, but no personal preference must guide you. Like a blackleg, a black magician acts on certain knowledge. Magic is power over the forces of nature, viz., the Salvation Army by hypnotizing people and making them psychically drunk with excitement, is Black Magic. Bismarck and Beaconsfield are types of black magicians.

On the astral and psychic planes the Masters are always stronger than the Dugpas, because there, good is stronger than evil.  But on our material plane, evil is stronger than good, and the Adepts having to exercise cunning if acting on this plane, (which is contrary to their natures) encounter great difficulty and can only palliate evil effects. In powers not good there is an absence of good, but not presence of evil, and the higher you go, the more does evil become the absence of good. The first exercise of Dugpaship is to psychologize people. Every man has a potential Dugpa in him. When the 6th Race reaches its close, there will be no more Dugpas. A Dugpa may become converted during life, at the expense of terrible suffering and trials. Dugpas are usually destroyed by Kundalini, the astral fire. They consume themselves. The Dugpa is forced to his own destruction. He becomes fascinated, runs into the evil current and so destroys himself. The beasts of Dugpas have nothing but the animal in them, and even when they awaken the highest spirituality in them, it is the spirituality of the beast where there is nothing but vile, selfish instinct. On earth there is no evil power higher than the Dugpas. They cannot when seen psychically conceal the presence of red about them. It is always visible in their aura. The color is deep crimson red. The sign of the presence of a Dugpa is a cold, clammy, empty, snaky feeling. Do not mistake the above for another feeling, viz., when chelas materialize they create a vacuum around them, which feels to us like a change of atmosphere, like being suddenly removed to a high plateau in Thibet. (The one a dry cold like high atmosphere, the other clammy).

Page 12.

The universe has its vital organs which are strictly analogous to those of the human body. (See Jacob Boehme’s description for an illustration). The Dhyan Chohans stand to the circle of "Pass Not" in analogy to drops of blood circulating in the human body.

(The skull enclosing the brain, pineal gland, etc., = Mt. Meru).

Page 13, et seq.

The sexless, life-giving principle of universal nature was called Eros by the Greeks. Metaphysically it is the highest and noblest absolutely sexless power of creation, symbolized by Brahma, Curanos, Kronos, etc. It is the numenon of Fohat. Eros is thus a universal love, a desire for manifestation. It is an avoidable law, creating those divine powers which descend to the manifested plane and which may be regarded as the personified desire of the One Absolute. Eros is often called the one Ray in the Secret Doctrine. It is that which sets fire to the Absolute and produced manifestation.

The one Ray first becomes two (2) which meaning only divergence cannot stand; it therefore becomes three (3). The base of this triangle being the point of unmanifested Logos, from which preceeds the manifested Logos or Creative Word.

Diagramatically:

The upper triangle is the root, on the one side of the manifested, on the other of the unmanifested universe. Three (3) fall into four (4). The 4 is the square, a perfect quaternary, Nirvana above, which there is the first .

Aditi first emanated space; Martando, Brihaspati, etc., are the and the 7 zodiacal planets. The earth is the product of  , Lucifer. Neptune is the secret planet of the ancients. The under the thigh of Hercules influenced our system, and some other smaller ones, viz.: our sun has for its center the real (for it) sun under the thigh of Hercules.   The divine astral is a place or plane of nature. The divine spiritual is a state. Giordono Bruno speaking of the indestructibility of the central monad, says, "We are what we are, solely by the one substance of the Soul, round which, like round a center, the atoms develop and cluster. The building spirit expands through birth and growth to that body by which we exist, and is poured forth by the heart into which it may finally retire, wrapping itself up, like unto the warp of the web, in order to recede and go out again, by the same way on which it had come, and had entered life. For birth is the expansion of the center, life is the consistence, (stability of the sphere) death the contraction into the center." Then as regards the sphere we have, 1, , = Nirvanic condition. 2, , 3, , 4, , and we see it follows the same method as the universe.

The higher self is the perfect square o.   Manas or Mayavi Rupa + Buddhi and Atma, which together form a mirror in which is reflected Parabrahm which is the One Self. The Higher Self is shapeless, sexless, formless. It is a state of consciousness, is a breath, not a body or form. The highest form is the Mayavi Rupa. For the body it is Manas, and its form is that of the body when not modified by will power. It is a plastic potency. It contains the whole man minus the physical body and life. The Mayavi Rupa is the middle self, and the body used by Adepts with the Kama Rupa as its vehicle. It is the seat of the emotions and feelings, as well as the thoughts. It is the human soul. The Higher Self is a spark of the Universal Spirit - Atma-Buddhi - universal, eternal, senseless on this plane. The Higher Ego is Manas. When it rises to Atma-Buddhi it completes the trinity (or o) which is the One. Manas is the self-consciousness. It is limited to one Mahamanvantara. Buddhi passes from Mahamanvantara to Mahamanvantara. The Lower Self is Kama Manas, the animal soul, the lowest point of materiality. It is correlated to the 4th Round and 4th Globe. The Manasic element, the Lower Manas in union with Kama is the reascent beginning the battle ground of this stage. In 19th century man instinct (Kama) has been to a great extent crushed by the development of Manas or intelligence. The Manas is the fallen Angel, the inbreathed essence of the Manasa Putras, or those beings who collectively form the Mahat or manifested Logos. The Monad, Atma-Buddhi, does not really belong to this plane at all, but is, so to say, Parabrahmic. Therefore on this plane, Manas is the highest principle in man, and it is this Manas which makes of man either a God or Devil, according as the Divine Monad acts on this plane through the Manas, or as the Manas produces effects on this plane, by acting upon the God-Life power of the lower part of the Buddhi.

Page 16.

The spiritual Ego, the Sutr-Atma or thread soul, the Karana Sharira (causal body), the Auric Egg or seventh principle. It is not the Monad (Atma-Buddhi). The Monad is force, and connected with the Will force or Atma. This Ego (spiritual) is closely connected with both Monad and Manas. The Monad is the son of the Ego. This Ego is the reflected image of the Logos in Karana Sharira. Under one aspect it is the 3rd double, the causal body. It is immortal: persistent throughout Manvantara. The Karana Sharira is the result of the action of the light of the Logos.

Page 17.

The aspects of the Auric Envelope, beginning with the lowest.

(1st) Linga Sharira. The double or shadow round which the physical body of the foetus is built. (See No. 3, pp. 11 and 12). The imagination of the mother, or accident to the child affects it. It is born and dies with man, cannot go far from the body in life, and disintegrates with the corpse. In physical aspect it is man’s vital double during life. After death it is only the gases given off by the decaying body. In origin and essence it is more. It is the protean or plastic body. It can assume all forms, (through the power of its parent so to say: parent - Auric Egg), and is seen near mediums. It is the numenon of the physical body, and exists in rudimentary condition before birth. (This includes A and B, two aspects). Lucifer, Dec., 1888.

(2nd) Mayavi Rupa (a) - it is the middle self, the body used by the Adepts with Kama Rupa as its vehicle. When in the body it is the Manas. It is the Human Soul. The seat of the emotions, feelings, and thoughts as well. It is the highest form. Its form is that of the body when not modified by will power. The Mayavi Rupa is the thought body, dream body, illusion body of the occultists. It draws both from Manas and Kama. It is dual in potentiality. In life it is the vehicle of thought; also of animal passions and desires. After death it is the Bhoot (spook), Kama Rupa (b); Mayavi Rupa (a), and Kama Rupa (b), are two phases of the same aspect. After death the thought power of (a) merges into the causal body or Ego (Auric Egg). Its (b), animal element, desire, power, astral vitality and thoughts, form the spook or Kama Rupa. The higher part (a) goes with the Monad to Devachan. The lower (b) forms this spook. Another way to put it is that Manas divides in two portions after death. Appearances of dying people produced by their thoughts, are this Mayavi Rupa. Lucifer, Dec., 1888.

(3rd) Karana Sharira, causal body, Karmic body, Sutr-Atma. It is not the Monad (Atma-Buddhi), nor Manas proper, but is a compound of the Monad and Manas in Devachan, and indissolubly connected with them. It is the third double (two aspects). There are three aspects of one thing. The first, Linga Sharira disappears with the body; the second, Mayavi Rupa, survives as a temporary independent entity in the Astral Light; the third, immortal throughout Manvantara; unless Nirvana ends it (by expansion with the All). (Lucifer Dec., 1888).

We have thus as the contents of the Auric Egg, seven aspects or principles.

This is when Manas (or Mayavi Rupa) Buddhi, Atma, and the reflected light of Parabrahm form the perfected quarternary. (See S. Row’s Notes on the Bhagavad Gita).

Page 18, Par. 2.

All illness, diseases and abnormalities of the body come from the Astral plane. The physical cannot affect the Astral.

Page 18, Par. 3, line 2.

It must be remembered that the seven principles are not seven distinct entities, but really aspects of one and the same unity, the form and characters which the one assumes depending upon the will.

Pages 48 to 49.

Various kinds of intelligence portrayed in animals are rudimentary, namely, the intelligence of the elephant is like that of more spiritual Manas. That of the ape the cunning of the lower Manas. It is said in the East that the last animal incarnation is that of the elephant, perhaps the exoteric fact is the husk of the following truth. The elephant symbolizes the union of Manas and Buddhi, the Divine Soul, the Jewel. (After tabular diagram, No. 2).

The American Art Journal says that one of the most wonderful discoveries recently made is that a beam of light produces sound. A beam of light is thrown through a lens on a glass vessel that contains lamp black, colored silk worsted, or other substances. A disk having slits or openings cut in it, is made to revolve swiftly in this beam of light, so as to cut it up, making alternate flashes of light and shadow. On putting the ear to the glass vessel, strange sounds are heard so long as the flashing beam is falling on the vessel. A beam of sunlight is made to pass through a prism, so as to produce the solar spectrum or rain-bow; the disk is turned and the collected light of the rain-bow is made to break through it. Now place the ear to the vessel containing the silk, etc. As the collected lights of the spectrum fall upon it, sounds will be given by different parts of the spectrum and there will be silence in other parts. If the vessel contains red worsted and the green light flashes upon it, loud sounds will be given; only feeble sounds will be heard when the red and blue parts of the rain-bow fall upon the vessel, and other colors make no sound at all. Green silk gives sound best in red light. Every kind of material gives more or less sound in different colors, and no sound in others. (See Lucifer, May, 1890, Notes on Colors).

In Thibet the followers of the right hand path, Gya-dugpas, yellow caps; black dugpas, red caps. The yellow is the color of blood seen by transmitted light. The red is that of blood seen by reflected light. Yellow is the color of the Sun or of the zodiacal light, the color of the blood of the atonement of the sacrifice of the Gods who incarnated in man for his salvation from ignorance and unconsciousness. The red is the sign of the joy felt by the evil powers, when they got hold of the secret of the Gods or creative powers. It is thus the blood of the woman, female or evil side of nature. Red signifies the covenant of the fall, or brutalization of humanity. From the Sun emanates its life, blood, which falling on all things in nature, makes them live and grow by immaculate conception. Thus when blood or the life fluid is held up between the eye and the light, one really looks through the external delusive thing, at the divine light. While red blood, blood seen by reflected light, is the thing itself, seen as a separate object or mayavic appearance, in looking at which the light is lost sight of. Thus those whose gaze is centered on the external or red, worship nature on the purely earthly plane, and are the left hand Adepts, Dugpas. Those who behold the light through the external appearance worship nature on the astral, psychic, and spiritual planes, and are the white.

The science of color depends not so much on the colors themselves as on their combinations. Green, however, is distinctly bad, because it reflects the most material aspects of nature. Sound and color are always associated, the connection lying in the fact that the number of vibrations is the same in both cases.

Page 53.

The Aura of all persons shows various combinations and shades of color, though the pure prismatic colors are rarely to be seen. The power of perceiving those colors can be developed by concentrating the mind on the Astral Light. Great experience is needed, however, to distinguish and interpret the various shades and gradations.

Page 54.

The rates of vibration for the various colors of the spectrum as given by Science from their standpoint, quoted in the footnotes, page 54, are wrong from that of occultism. The reason is this. The scientific calculation is based on the assumption that the velocities of transmission of all the colors are the same. Namely, if we call "W" length of the wave of any given color in ether, and "V" the velocity of transmission of that color, and "N" number of vibrations or waves of that color per unit of time, then the formula connecting these is W = V/N. But in order to calculate the rates of vibration Science assumes that the various Vs of the different colors are all equal to one another. This assumption is false and even two well-known scientists in the most recent determination of the velocity of light were forced by their experiments to say that it appears as if the velocity of red and of blue light are different.