ous
existence, whether the original cause be present or not.
Now, in the ease of the filth principle above mentioned-the entity that
came into existence by the combination of Brahmam and Prakriti--if the
general proposition (in the "Fragments of Occult Truth") is correct,
this principle, which corresponds to the physical intelligence, must
cease to exist whenever the Brahmam or the seventh Principle should
cease to exist for the particular individual; but the fact is certainly
otherwise. The general proposition under consideration is adduced in
the "Fragments" in support of the assertion that whenever the seventh
principle ceases to exist for any particular individual, the sixth
principle also ceases to exist for him. The assertion is undoubtedly
true, though the mode of stating it and the reasons assigned for it, are
to my mind objectionable.
It is said that in cases where tendencies of a man's mind are entirely
material, and all spiritual aspirations and thoughts were altogether
absent from his mind, the seventh principle leaves him either before or
at the time of death, and the sixth principle disappears with it. Here,
the very proposition that the tendencies of the particular individual's
mind are entirely material, involves the assertion that there is no
spiritual intelligence or spiritual Ego in him, it should then have been
said that, whenever spiritual intelligence ceases to exist in any
particular individual, the seventh principle ceases to exist for that
particular individual for all purposes. Of course, it does not fly off
anywhere. There can never be any thing like a change of position in the
case of Brahmam.* The assertion merely means that when there is no
recognition whatever of Brahmam, or spirit, or spiritual life, or
spiritual consciousness, the seventh principle has ceased to exercise
any influence or control over the individual's destinies.
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* True--from the standpoint of Aryan Exotericism and the Upanishads, not
quite so in the case of the Arahat or Tibetan esoteric doctrine; and it
is only on this one solitary point that the two teachings disagree, as
far as we know. The difference is very trifling, though, resting as it
does solely upon the two various methods of viewing the one and the same
thing from two different aspects. (See Appendix, Note IV.)
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I shall now state what is meant (in the Aryan doctrine) by the seven
principles above enumerated.
I. Prakriti.
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