The Evolution of Man: From Theosophy’s Sacred Teachings in “The Secret Doctrine” Volume 2, Part 2 of 2

Let us continue with selections from “The History of the Fourth Race” in “The Secret Doctrine, Volume 2,” in which Blavatsky discusses the concept of where our consciousness comes from.

Stanza 10. The History Of The Fourth Race.

“[…] Everything proceeds cyclically, the evolution of man like everything else, and the order in which he is generated is described fully in the Eastern Teachings, whereas it is only hinted at in the Kabbalah. Says the Book of Dzyan with regard to Primeval Man when first projected by the ‘Boneless,’ the Incorporeal Creator: ‘First, the Breath, then Buddhi, and the Shadow-Son [the Body] Were “created.” But where was the Pivot [the Middle Principle, Manas]? Man is doomed. When alone, the Indiscrete [Undifferentiated Element] and the Vâhan [Buddhi]— the Cause of the Causeless— break apart from manifested life.’ ‘Unless,’ explains the Commentary: ‘Unless cemented and held together by the Middle Principle, the Vehicle of the personal consciousness of Jîva.’

In other words, the two higher ‘principles’ can have no individuality on Earth, cannot be man, unless there is (a) the Mind, the Manas-Ego, to cognize itself, and (b) the terrestrial false Personality, or the Body of egotistical desires and personal Will, to cement the whole, as if round a Pivot—which it is, truly—to the physical form of man. It is the fifth and the fourth ‘principles’ —Manas and Kâma Rûpa— that contain the dual Personality; the real immortal Ego, if it assimilates itself to the two higher, and the false and transitory Personality, the Mâyâvi or Astral Body, so-called, or the Animal-human Soul— the two having to be closely blended for purposes of a full terrestrial existence. […]

The kingdom of spirits and spiritual action, which flows from and is the product of spirit volition, is outside and contrasted with and in contradiction to the kingdom of [Divine] souls and Divine action. […]”