The Key to Theosophy: Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science and Philosophy for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society Has Been FoundedBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
The Key to Theosophy: Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science and Philosophy for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society Has Been Founded
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
pass on to the _Human_ Soul, _Manas_ or _mens_, every one will
agree that the intelligence of man is _dual_ to say the least:
_e.g._, the high-minded man can hardly become low-minded; the very
intellectual and spiritual-minded man is separated by an abyss
from the obtuse, dull, and material, if not animal-minded man.
ENQ. But why should not man be represented by two “principles” or two
aspects, rather?
THEO. Every man has these two principles in him, one more active than
the other, and in rare cases, one of these is entirely stunted
in its growth, so to say, or paralysed by the strength and
predominance of the other _aspect_, in whatever direction.
These, then, are what we call the two principles or aspects of
_Manas_, the higher and the lower; the former, the higher Manas,
or the thinking, conscious EGO gravitating toward the spiritual
Soul (Buddhi); and the latter, or its instinctual principle,
attracted to _Kama_, the seat of animal desires and passions in
man. Thus, we have _four_ “principles” justified; the last three
being (1) the “Double,” which we have agreed to call Protean, or
Plastic Soul; the vehicle of (2) the life _principle_; and (3)
the physical body. Of course no physiologist or biologist will
accept these principles, nor can he make head or tail of them.
And this is why, perhaps, none of them understand to this day
either the functions of the spleen, the physical vehicle of the
Protean Double, or those of a certain organ on the right side of
man, the seat of the above-mentioned desires, nor yet does he know
anything of the pineal gland, which he describes as a horny gland
with a little sand in it, which gland is in truth the very seat
of the highest and divinest consciousness in man, his omniscient,
spiritual and all-embracing mind. And this shows to you still more
plainly that we have neither invented these seven principles, nor
are they new in the world of philosophy, as we can easily prove.
ENQ. But what is it that reincarnates, in your belief?
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