The Essence of Man

Wisdom Teachings
Eternal Wisdom

Science explains that man has evolved out of matter, that the evolution has gone from mineral via plant and animal to man. From the standpoint of the wisdom teachings this theory is regarded as incomplete, since according to spiritual understanding, in contrast to Darwin, man is a double being, with a mortal and an immortal part. The real man is understood as the solar angel, who is enveloped by material sheets called bodies. The body part of man is subject to evolution and has ascended through evolution from the lower kingdoms like the mineral, plant, and animal kingdom, whereas the soul has descended from higher circles. The ascended part is called in the scriptures “the vehicle which doesn’t differ from the animal”. However, that which has descended is the real man, created in the “image of God”.

It is therefore not right to say that man originates from ape. If you compare the brain of an ape and that of a very primitive man, you always discover that there is a gap which cannot be explained. In nature all evolution happens very gradually, but the gap between the brain of the ape and that of the most primitive man could not be filled by any theory: The human brain is much further developed than that of the ape.

The Scriptures say that spiritual beings, the Manasa Devas, united with the material formations and implanted the divine fire of self-consciousness. Through the presence of the higher intelligences the higher possibilities of evolution awaken in us. If we don’t experience that which is divine in us and is linked to the Manasa Devas, we are not better than an animal. For if we use our bodies only to satisfy our desires, we don’t do anything else than the animal. Often the animal man in us is more active than the spiritual man. We find among us tigers who go aggressively for others, bulls who clutch and scorpions who sting. When the lower mind dominates and our actions are only related to the body, the soul does not express itself.

The sentence “You are dust and to dust you will return” was not said by the soul, the spiritual spark. We are an eternal being, which incarnated repeatedly, in order to experience the beauty of creation. In the east it is therefore believed that it is a great opportunity to be born in a human body, for it offers the possibility to realise the soul. You have to use this opportunity in order to transcend the illusion of death and also to do as much service as it is possible for you. Though a considerable part of humanity today still experiences itself as the transient body, there is more and more the awareness that we are the soul and only have a body for a temporary time. We are light beings, a sun ray who has decided to live here in this mortal form.

As a soul we come down with three forces, which work in us as Love, Light and Will. The body aspect is also threefold and consists of the mind, the senses and the physical body, which we see. This lower triad is material, the outer man, the upper triad is spiritual, the inner man. The spiritual triad reflects through the mind, and this reflection we call the human personality. The higher mind stands between the upper and the lower triad, we act with it in the objective world. Thus man is also considered to be a septenary, a music instrument with seven chords, three with high tones, three with low tones and a chord in the middle. A master can skilfully produce the notes of the seven centres on the seven chords. However, as ordinary men we only know how to deal with the three lower chords of the instrument. We only live on three planes instead of seven.

But we have the possibility to experience the higher and the lower. Man is therefore said to be a bridge between the material and the subtle worlds, the pivotal point at which creation culminates. In us the potential for experience is the best. In other kingdoms or on other planes creation is not so complete. The beings there have to be content either with the planes of light or of matter. The beings below the human kingdom have no contact with the higher kingdoms like that of the devas. The devas or angels cannot descend below man. They need physical vehicles in order to carry out the divine plan on earth; therefore they need the cooperation of man. The masters of wisdom have learned to completely cooperate with the plan of the devas.

The human body is best suited for experiencing the outer world, it is like a Mercedes among the cars. It was not our decision to get a human body. It was created by the intelligences of nature and given to us. So it doesn’t belong to us, and therefore we must not maltreat it. If we do this, it also will maltreat us. We should keep it like a car and take good care for it. When it gets old and unserviceable, we take another vehicle. We should not cling to it nor be confine by it.

A master of wisdom is not confined by a form. The eastern scriptures even speak of initiates in the form of elephants, swans, horses and cobras.

The challenge for us is to work through the body, for as soon as the soul has entered the body, it forgets its identity. We take on other identities as that of the soul and forget who we really are. This is the great illusion. Men feel themselves as males, women as females. This means that they define themselves in relation to the bodies they have. We feel as a father, mother, child. We define ourselves through our name, profession, and social status, through the colour of the skin, nationality and language. A definition is made in relation to something. However, if there is nothing to which it could relate, there is nothing to define. For ourselves we are no-one, only in relation to others we are something. We are pure consciousness and awareness of existence. It is also called I AM. The truth of existence, THAT, exists as I AM: THAT I AM. We are the unlimited and indefinable truth, which gets localised for a time and defined for specific purposes. When we fix the unlimited at a structure, we confine it. We live in our definitions and get stuck in our concepts.

We should try to get back to our origin by removing the obstacles of concepts we have created ourselves. So man is requested from time immemorial to ask himself the question when awakening: “Who am I?” At once we have many answers at the ready and thus leave the source from which we have emerged. But the question “Who asks whom, who am I?” cannot be defined. It is through this question that the sages dissolve all concepts about themselves. Meditation is the dissolution of all that we think about ourselves in order to retain the oceanic consciousness from which we emerge.

The second question is: “Where am I?”, and the answer is: “In the east”. In us the east exists as the ajna centre or the third eye. It corresponds to the pineal gland as the physical seat of the soul, whereas the pituitary is the seat of the personality. From the east, from the light of the soul, we can properly rule our lives. The third question says: “What shall I do?” This is not the work of the personality, but of the soul. When we have become the soul, we don’t see any more to ourselves but to what others need and how we can help them to solve their problems and to uplift themselves. This is not done through acting, but through being, like a magnet helps the iron particles to rearrange their disarranged system correctly. He who is in the equipoise of the soul spreads the magnetic vibration of being, which has a calming effect on the people and helps them to redress their balance too.

When we therefore meet people we should align with the soul, which approaches through a personality. Then there is an exchange of light through the eyes, and we can help, because we are standing in the soul. The moment we see the soul in the other, we are in the soul. It is the easiest way to be in the soul and to be active as a soul.

Sources used: K. P. Kumar: The Path to Immortality - Venus / seminar notes. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India. - H.P. Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine. The Theosophical Publishing House (www.theosociety.org).