We ended the last presentation by acknowledging that what we think we are as an individual is a small fraction of who we truly are, but that reality has to be revealed through the expansion of consciousness. That process is laborious, involving the monad evolving through four stages of consciousness. But here we are now, self-conscious, and on the home stretch, even if the journey home involves 47 further expansions through 46 planes of matter, to arrive back where we started, on Plane 1, a fully self-actuating monad.
Back to the present and following the ancient maxim, “as above, so below”, the relationship between the Monad, the soul, and the personality can be understood. The soul is to the Monad what the personality is to the soul. However, by the time we observe the personality, it has been divided so much that what we see does not truly represent the whole reality. Despite this limitation, we strive to comprehend the entirety from this inadequate fragment. This diagram represents the relationship between the three units of consciousness we have been discussing. The Monad, the soul, and the personality can be compared to the flame, the fire, and the fuel, respectively.
The correspondence between the Monad and the soul, and the soul and the personality, can be further explained. Just as the soul is triple, so is the Monad. The three constituents of the Monad exist on the first three planes of our Solar System: the Adi, the Anupadaka, and the Atma planes. On the atmic plane, the Monad takes a manifestation known as the Monad in its atmic vesture or the triple Atma. This is similar to what the causal envelope is for the soul.
The soul has three lower bodies – mental, emotional, and physical. The mental envelope is on the lower part of the soul’s own plane, and the physical envelope is two planes below. Similarly, the Monad, viewed as the triple Atma or spirit, has three lower manifestations – Atma, buddhi, and manas. The first of these is on the lower part of the Monad’s own plane, and the lowest is two planes below that.
The causal envelope is to the Monad what the physical envelope is to the soul. If we think of the soul as the soul of the physical envelope, we may consider the Monad as the soul of the soul in turn.
The causal envelope takes from the personality whatever is helpful for its growth and, through its inner or upper side, passes on the essence of all experiences into the third aspect of Atma. This enables the manasic aspect of Atma to act without the causal envelope, without a permanent limiting vehicle. This sheds light on the phenomenon of the perishing of the causal envelope, or individuality, which was discussed previously.
This diagram attempts to illustrate complex correspondences and relationships between the monad and soul. The entire higher triad, atma-buddhi-manas, can also be seen as the buddhi of the even more comprehensive triad of Monad, Soul, and Personality. This larger buddhi is threefold – will, wisdom, and activity – and its third aspect, Kriyashakti, eventually comes into operation in the envelope to awaken its organs and unleash its latent powers.
The statement in Light On The Path that the “warrior” in man is “eternal and sure” can be relatively true of the soul in relation to the lower self and absolutely true with regard to the Monad in relation to the soul. The soul, as we have seen, may make mistakes at an earlier stage but is far less likely to do so than the personality. On the other hand, the Monad makes no mistakes, although its knowledge of conditions down here may be somewhat vague. However, its instinct must be on the side of right, for it is divine. Neither the soul nor the Monad has accurate knowledge yet because their evolution is not complete. They serve as guides for us, and one cannot do other than follow them. But even as guides, they are themselves unfolding.
In presenting the diagram of the three triad structures extending from the monad to the physical vehicle, Blavatsky presented us with a model that reflected our passage through the solar system. We know this is the Cosmic Physical World and is the lowest of the seven worlds that make up the entire universe. Not much was said about the stages beyond the monad on its own plane, 43:1, except that it was a divine spark of an even greater flame. Hylozoics informs us that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that above the monad on Plane 43 are 42 other planes of matter or consciousness, depending on which way you want to model it.
We should take note that the concept of the triple manifestations of the Monad is similar to the Christian idea of the “three persons in one God,” as mentioned in the Athanasian creed. It teaches that people should worship “One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.” This means that we should not mix up the work and function of the three separate manifestations, each on its own level, while also remembering the eternal unity of the “substance” that underlies all of them on the highest plane, where these three are one.
Unfortunately, the Church couched this perception of reality in the form of a god, a son who was or was not the same as god, depending on which camp you belonged to. There was also a mysterious holy ghost who was always hanging around for some reason, which most people never knew really what for. The arguments that raged around this concept divided Christianity from its outset and still have echoes today. If they only had access to this diagram, think of all the arguments that would have been avoided, not to mention the burnings at the stake.
These considerations are not just theoretical but also have practical implications for life. Even though we may not fully comprehend the complete meaning of such teachings, we should at least be aware that there are these three lines of force, and yet all the forces are one and the same. Without this understanding, we cannot comprehend the method by which our world came into being, nor can we understand a human, who is “made in His own image” and therefore is also three and yet one – atma-buddhi-manas, and yet one Spirit.
We can think of the three parts of the higher self as three aspects of a great consciousness or mind. They are all three modes of cognition. Atma is not the Self, but it is this consciousness knowing the Self. Buddhi is this consciousness, knowing the life in the forms through its own direct perception. Manas is the same consciousness looking out upon the world of objects. Kama-Manas is a portion of higher manas immersed in that world and affected by it. The true self is the Monad, whose life is something greater than consciousness, which is the life of this complete mind, the Higher Self.
The same truth can be expressed in various ways. In humanity, Atma, Buddhi, and Manas reflect the characteristics of the great Trinity. Atma represents self-consciousness and the will, providing self-direction. Manas, on the other hand, represents the consciousness of the world, and its thought power drives all our actions, including those performed with our hands. Meanwhile, buddhi, positioned between the two, embodies the essence of consciousness and subjectivity.
Beyond this middle member, triple in character, lies the Monad in Humanity, which represents Parabrahman, the state of his true and absolute nirvana, beyond consciousness. Atma represents the state of his false and relative nirvana, the nirvanic or atmic plane, his last illusion, which persists between the Fourth (Arhat) and Fifth (Adept) Initiations. Just as the Monad lies above the trinity of consciousness, the personal bodies lie outside or beneath it, and they are only known through reflection in manas.
Although general theosophical thought did not model much beyond the existence of the Monad, although they located it on the wrong plane, that of Anupadaka, luminaries such as Arthur Powell were prepared to speculate that it was possible to presume — though here he stated that he was going far beyond actual knowledge — that when we have finally and fully realised that the Monad is the true human, we will find, beyond that again, yet further and more glorious extensions of our existence. He postulated that the Spark has never been separated from the Fire, but that, as the soul stands behind the personality, as the Monad stands behind the soul, so a Planetary Angel stands behind the Monad, and the Solar Deity Himself stands behind the Planetary Angel. Perhaps, even further still, it may be that, in some way infinitely higher, and so at present utterly incomprehensible, a greater Deity stands behind the Solar Deity, and behind even that, through many stages, there must rest the Supreme over all. But even thought fails him there, and he considered silence as the only true reverence. Current esoteric knowledge allows us to draw a table like this, postulating a succession of hierarchies that extend all the way up to a galactic ruler.
We have one more presentation to go to wrap up our look at the soul and the monad.