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The Seven Principles Of Man
By A Besant
The Higher Triad
We ourselves, however, are not just a monad working through a physical body. We are the product of several different lines of evolution combined into that composite nature with which we are all so familiar. It would not be possible for a monad to work directly through a human body. The monad is pure spiritconsciousness, but the body is made of matter which is too dense and sluggish for the monad to work upon it directly. It would burn the body up, just as electricity would consume the physical flesh. So intermediate elements between the monad and body are needed. These must be of a more ethereal and spiritually sensitive nature than physical matter because they have to act as transformers. They must step down or conduct the spiritual energies of the monad into the physical organism. Then the directing power of the monad can inspire and shape our evolution through the experiences of human life. It must be remembered too that the monad which works through a human being is immensely more evolved and powerful than the comparatively unevolved monad acting, for example, through the form of a vegetable atom.
One of the more ethereal forms of energy-substance used by the monad as a vehicle to step down or transfer its energies to this earth plane is mind. Mind is a very definite line of human evolution. Our minds are developing all the time on their own lines while our bodies are growing and developing along theirs. And we also carry on mental evolution side by side with the spiritual evolution of the monad above, as well as the evolution of the body and its vital energies below. Mind is the link between the body and the monad.
And now we understand something more of Paul's meaning when he divided human nature into body, soul, and spirit. Soul is the intermediate portion of human nature, and the higher part of that soul is mind or intellect.
Before going farther and showing how these three elements resolve themselves naturally into seven, a question which has probably already occurred to the reader should be answered. Where do these human principles come from? The monad, as we have already seen, takes its rise, and is an emanation from, the universal cosmic life or spirit. It is in one sense the person himself, his immortal root-principle. But what is the origin of the mind?
Mind as a principle is latent in the monad. For the monad, springing as it does from the central fire of cosmic spirit, contains within itself the seeds or possibilities of everything, even as everything is contained within its cosmic origin. The part contains everything that the whole contains. One spark is of the same nature throughout as the flame which throws it off. One drop of the ocean is in miniature all that the whole ocean is. So each monad holds within itself, as being a part of the cosmic whole, all the elements and potencies and possibilities that evolution can unfold in the life span of this our universe. But in the beginning of this universal life span these potencies are latent, asleep, undeveloped. Then, as the ages pass, and the monad journeys on its evolutionary pilgrimage from the invisible spiritual and causal worlds "outward" into the visible world of forms and effects, latent potencies — mineral, vegetable, animal — are gradually unwrapped, unfolded, evolved. Finally the time comes when the monad is ready to take upon itself humanhood. It has advanced to the point where it has completely developed all its lower faculties and is now ready for evolution along mental and intellectual lines.
It was at this point then, ages ago in our evolution, that occurred what H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine calls "the incarnation of the manasaputras." As already explained, the monad is far above this human plane — too far for it to be able to awaken even the intellectual principle in the human constitution. For this reason at first the manasic or mind element was then still "asleep." This state of things has been explained as follows:
The course of evolution developed the lower principles and produced at last the form of man with a brain of better and deeper capacity than that of any other animal. But this man in form was not man in mind, and needed the fifth principle, the thinking, perceiving one, to differentiate him from the animal kingdom and to confer the power of becoming self-conscious. — W. Q. Judge, The Ocean of Theosophy, p. 53
Thus the intellect of the now almost human being overshadowed by its monad needed a spark, an impulse to awaken it into consciousness of itself.
This spark or awakening touch was given to those evolved human vehicles of the monad by the sons of universal mind. They are called in esoteric tradition the manasaputras, or "sons of mind." These beings called manasaputras are a hierarchy, or range or class, of spiritual entities. They perfected their intellectual evolution in a long, long past cycle of what was equivalent to human experience in a now vanished system of worlds. For this reason the highest of these manasaputras are by this time advanced in their evolution to the status of cosmic gods. They are great consciousnesses who make up, who are, the hierarchy of intellectual self-consciousness in our universe. As a great hierarchy or group they are what Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine referred to as mahat, or the universal mind.
It was these manasaputras or sons of cosmic mind who gave the spark, the creative impulse, which awakened mind in the human vehicle already evolved for that purpose by the monad.
This process was something like the lighting of a candle. You cannot have a flame unless you have the fuel prepared in some definite form ready for lighting. Even a bonfire must be started from carefully laid fuel. In the case of the lighting of mind in the evolved human vehicle, man might thus be compared to a candle. He was a psychological vehicle or instrument evolved by the overshadowing monad through long ages of evolution. The forces of nature also contributed, so that when the time came that the creative flash could be given by the manasaputras, a flame would spring up, never again to be extinguished. Thus what then was human only in form became in actuality manas, a thinker. And this thinking principle linked the monad more or less directly to the animal nature, and human evolution was thus immensely quickened.
It was then, as said, that man first became truly man. For what differentiates a human being from an animal? Is it not mind, the power to think, to reason, to plan? Man is not guided by instinct alone as the beasts are. He is self-conscious. Sharply developed in him is the ego, the part which realizes, "I am I, and not anyone else. I am myself, not my environment. I am separate from all other things. I can influence or control these other things and bend them to my own uses, and so control my environment. Thus I can shape my destiny to suit myself."
Man alone has this power of self-conscious free will. He has the power of self-directed choice. And this he derives from manas the ego, the self-conscious thinker, awakened in him by the manasaputras. But, if this is the case, why is it, at present at least, that we do not show more power of free will over ourselves and our destiny? For the answer to this important question the reader is referred to Mahatmas and Chelas and The Key to Theosophy, pp. 180-6. It is this manas, this thinker, which in its higher aspects forms the third element of what we call the higher human triad. But before studying the other two principles which make up this higher triad, let us take a quick glance over the whole of composite human nature.
In the following diagram it is interesting to note that Sanskrit words are used to describe the different aspects of our septenary constitution. This is made necessary by the limitations of European languages. Western science, religion, and philosophy have so long forgotten the knowledge of the metaphysical and spiritual facts of being that no words have been developed to indicate or describe these higher and lower states of consciousness. But in the Orient the ancient sacred science — theosophy or the esoteric tradition — has been kept alive. Thus we find in the Sanskrit language, all ready for use, the words needed to make these seven principles easily understandable to those unfamiliar with them. And another reason for the use of Sanskrit is that these terms will then be the same in all languages, thus avoiding the translation of lengthy descriptions.
In the following diagram, the brackets indicate the relationships and some of the interactions of the seven principles.
It will be noticed first of all that what we have called the monad appears to be dual — composed of two principles, atman and buddhi. And yet we have been speaking all along of the monad as a unit of consciousness. But when these two principles are understood, their inseparable existence in human evolution will be understood.
The Sanskrit word atman means "self." Every being anywhere, no matter how small, no matter how great, is a self. All these multimyriad selves are derived from the cosmic self, the universal atman or cosmic life, as sparks are derived from their originating flame. There is the self or atman of our universe from which is derived the atman, the informing consciousness, of the solar system; and so on down the mighty scale of evolving beings until we reach mankind. And below mankind every being in all the kingdoms including atoms and electrons and elementals is a monadic self derived from the universal atman or self of the universe.
At the root of our being dwells our atman, the I AM, our self — our sense of existence, of being alive. This sense of I AM is universal. It is the same in all creatures. And it is universal and the same in all because the inmost spiritual consciousness of every organism is an integral part of the universal self or atman, as a drop is an integral part of the encompassing ocean. And each single drop is like in composition and nature to every other drop and to the whole ocean itself.
This consciousness of I AM is sometimes difficult to understand, if we have never thought about it before. We are all so familiar with the ego — it is about all that we know of ourselves. We are steeped in the consciousness of our differentness from everyone else. However, we can get some idea of what is meant by watching the young babe. Or we can find it in ourselves when we first awake in the morning — aware of being alive and comfortable but not yet aroused to the sharp edges of our daily lives.
Atman, the I AM sense in each one of us, is universal and therefore unlike the ego or manas from which we derive our sense of "I am I." For this ego-sense is different in every person while, as said, the sense of pure selfhood, of being alive and active, is the same in all creatures, whether human or otherwise. The understanding of this basic selfhood of universal origin in each of us leads to the realization of true spiritual brotherhood and develops all our highest, because spiritual, powers.
It has already been noted that atman, the heart of the monad, is in its nature too far above this human plane to work directly here. So the first vehicle or garment with which it clothes itself is buddhi. This word buddhi imbodies the idea, "to awaken." Thus the buddhic faculty in human beings leads to understanding, seeing into things, because it makes us awake or aware. How many there are who are still asleep — unawakened! They are not interested in the common life of humanity — in other people, in the horror of world conditions. Enough if they and theirs have a job and a car and a chance to enjoy life! But the person who has begun to think, to question, to seek, is waking up, particularly if his interest spreads out irresistibly from his own problems to an interest in the problems of others.
Buddhi as a principle is spiritual consciousness of the highest kind existing in that grade of evolution to which mankind belongs. When viewed from the universal standpoint of atman, buddhi is a garment or veil or vehicle of primary substance. But this "substance" is so close to the plane of the divine that viewed from below, from the standpoint of our comparatively gross mentality, it is pure consciousness. And so we can describe buddhi as spiritual consciousness. Dr. de Purucker in his Occult Glossary thus explains this principle:
Buddhi is the principle or organ in man which gives to him spiritual consciousness, and is the vehicle of the most high part of man — the atman. Buddhi is the faculty in man which manifests as understanding, judgment, discrimination, etc., and it is an inseparable veil or garment of the atman.
The use of this word "inseparable" explains why we can speak of the monad when viewed from our point of view as a unit.
Buddhi steps down the energies of atman to manas, the ego. From the standpoint of the ego, buddhi is practically a universal principle. It is therefore the seat or organ of impersonal love, that "love of all creatures" which is divine. And in the same sense buddhi is the origin of human conscience, our sense of rectitude and duty. Conscience is rooted in our feeling of duty towards others. It is also a sense of what is right. The right thing is the universal thing — that which everyone ought to do when acting in harmony with spiritual law and order. The ego is willful — seeks itself and its own way. Buddhi moves us to the sacrifice of egotistical feelings and actions to the principle of universal good. A study of the higher triad with its different aspects and their practical relation to our daily problems would be one of the greatest contributions to psychology ever made. For the ancient wisdom teaches us to seek and to realize and make use of the almost unlimited spiritual powers which are stored there. It shows how to use them for the mastery of the lower animal and selfish nature by the higher triad. It is of incomparably greater utility and inspiration than digging into the libido and other underground byways of poor human nature. And as the student goes deeper into this study, he learns the sharp and important difference between the spiritual and the personal will — a knowledge which will be of simply inestimable value to him. These points will become clear after reading Chapter 5 of this Manual.
