Monad
Monad (μονάς monas) is a Greek word for "unit". With the Pythagoreans it was a term for Divinity, the source or the One. In Theosophy the word monad refers to the two highest principles, ātman and buddhi, which assimilate the highest attributes of manas during the process of evolution.
Theosophical view
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky wrote:
The Monad of every living being . . . is an individual Dhyan Chohan, distinct from others, a kind of spiritual individuality of its own, during one special Manvantara. Its Primary, the Spirit (Atman) is one, of course, with Paramatma (the one Universal Spirit), but the vehicle (Vahan) it is enshrined in, the Buddhi, is part and parcel of that Dhyan-Chohanic Essence.[1]
The original dual monad, compelled by the circle of necessity, engages in a process of evolution from which emerges as a triad after assimilating the essence of manas during the stage of human evolution:
Monad (Gr.). The Unity, the one; but in Occultism it often means the unified triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or the duad, Atma-Buddhi, that immortal part of man which reincarnates in the lower kingdoms, and gradually progresses through them to Man and then to the final goal— Nirvâna.[2]
Although the Monad is usually referred to as a combination of the seventh, sixth, and even fifth principles, as a unity, it is beyond even the seventh:
The monad, then, viewed as ONE, is above the seventh principle (in Kosmos and man), and as a triad, it is the direct radiant progeny of the said compound UNIT, not the breath (and special creation out of nihil) of “God,” as that unit is called; for such an idea is quite unphilosophical, and degrades Deity, dragging it down to a finite, attributive condition.[3]
The dual Monad
Ātman and buddhi, being universal, are not endowed with individual consciousness. Therefore the dual Monad is not conscious:
The sixth and seventh principles apart from the rest constitute the eternal, imperishable, but also unconscious “Monad.”[4]
The triple Monad
When the dual Monad absorbs the highest attributes of the fifth principle or manas, it becomes conscious:
To awaken in it [the Monad] to life the latent consciousness, especially that of personal individuality, requires the monad plus the highest attributes of the fifth [principle].[5]
The astral Monad
In Isis Unveiled the "astral monad" is mentioned in relation to the concept of reincarnation.[6] Because these passages brought a controversy, the Mahatma K.H. had to explain in one of his letters that they "recognise in the astral monad the personal Ego", adding that the "personal, or astral monad, the "moi fluidique" [is] the manas, or the intellectual mind, the 5th principle".[7]
Pythagorean Monad
Leibniz's Monad
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (July 1, 1646 – November 14, 1716) was a German mathematician and philosopher described. His best known contribution to metaphysics is his theory of simple substances or monads, published in his book Monadology. According to Leibniz, monads are elementary particles, being the ultimate elements of the universe. They are "substantial forms of being" with blurred perception of each other. The monads are centers of force, of which space, matter, and motion are merely phenomena. They are eternal, indecomposable, individual, subject to their own laws, un-interacting, and each reflecting the entire universe in a pre-established harmony.
Online resources
Articles
- Monad at Theosopedia
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 265.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 216.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 573.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 68 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 194.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 68 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 194.
- ↑ See Isis Unveiled vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), pp. 351.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 85b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 260.