View source for The Secret Doctrine vol. 1, Stanza I.6

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<center>'''STANZA I. — ''Continued''.'''</center>
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'''6. The [[Planetary Spirit#Builders|seven sublime Lords]] and the seven Truths had ceased to be (''a''), and the Universe, the [[Son (symbol)#Son of Necessity|son of necessity]], was immersed in [[Pariniṣpanna|Paranishpanna]] (''b'') (''absolute perfection, [[Nirvāṇa#Parinirvāṇa|Paranirvana]], which is [[Yongs-grub|Yong-Grub]]'') to be out-breathed by that which is and yet is not. Naught was (''c'').'''


(a) The seven sublime lords are the Seven Creative Spirits, the [[Dhyāni-Chohan|Dhyan-Chohans]], who correspond to the Hebrew [[Elohīm|Elohim]]. It is the same hierarchy of [[Archangel]]s to which St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and others belong, in the Christian theogony. Only while St. Michael, for instance, is allowed in dogmatic Latin theology to watch over all the promontories and gulfs, in the [[Esoteric Philosophy|Esoteric System]], the Dhyanis watch successively over one of the [[Round]]s and the great [[Root-Race|Root-races]] of our [[Planetary Chain|planetary chain]]. They are, moreover, said to send their Bhodisatvas, the human correspondents of the [[Dhyāni-Buddha|Dhyani-Buddhas]] (of whom vide infra) during every Round and Race. Out of the Seven Truths and Revelations, or rather revealed secrets, four only have been handed to us, as we are still in the [[Round#Fourth_Round|Fourth Round]], and the world also has only had four [[Buddha]]s, so far. This is a very complicated question, and will receive more ample treatment later on.

So far “There are only Four Truths, and Four Vedas” — say the [[Hinduism|Hindus]] and [[Buddhism|Buddhists]]. For a similar reason [[Irenaeus]] insisted on the necessity of Four Gospels. But as every new [[Root-race]] at the head of a [[Round]] must have its revelation and revealers, the next Round will bring the [[Round#Fifth Round|Fifth]], the following the [[Round#Sixth Round|Sixth]], and so on.

(b) “[[Pariniṣpanna|Paranishpanna]]” is the absolute perfection to which all existences attain at the close of a great period of activity, or [[Manvantara#Universal_manvantara|Maha-Manvantara]], and in which they rest during the succeeding [[Pralaya#Maha-pralaya|period of repose]]. In [[Tibetan]] it is called [[Yongs-Grub|Yong-Grub]]. Up to the day of the [[Yogācāra|Yogacharya]] school the true nature of [[Nirvāṇa#Parinirvāṇa|Paranirvana]] was taught publicly, but since then it has become entirely esoteric; hence so many contradictory interpretations of it. It is only a true Idealist who can understand it. Everything has to be viewed as ideal, with the exception of [[Nirvāṇa#Parinirvāṇa|Paranirvana]], by him who would comprehend that state, and acquire a knowledge of how Non Ego, Voidness, and [[Darkness]] are Three in One and alone Self-existent and perfect. It is absolute, however, only in a relative

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sense, for it must give room to still further absolute perfection, according to a higher standard of excellence in the following period of activity — just as a perfect flower must cease to be a perfect flower and die, in order to grow into a perfect fruit, — if a somewhat Irish mode of expression may be permitted.

The Secret Doctrine teaches the progressive development of everything, worlds as well as atoms; and this stupendous development has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end. Our “Universe” is only one of an infinite number of Universes, all of them [[Son (symbol)#Son of Necessity|“Sons of Necessity,”]] because links in the great Cosmic chain of Universes, each one standing in the relation of an effect as regards its predecessor, and being a cause as regards its successor.

The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and inbreathing of “the Great Breath,” which is eternal, and which, being Motion, is one of the three aspects of the Absolute — Abstract Space and Duration being the other two. When the “Great Breath” is projected, it is called the Divine Breath, and is regarded as the breathing of the Unknowable Deity — the One Existence — which breathes out a thought, as it were, which becomes the Kosmos. (See “Isis Unveiled.”) So also is it when the Divine Breath is inspired again the Universe disappears into the bosom of “the Great Mother,” who then sleeps “wrapped in her invisible robes.”

(c) By “that which is and yet is not” is meant the Great Breath itself, which we can only speak of as absolute existence, but cannot picture to our imagination as any form of existence that we can distinguish from Non-existence. The three periods — the Present, the Past, and the Future — are in the esoteric philosophy a compound time; for the three are a composite number only in relation to the phenomenal plane, but in the realm of noumena have no abstract validity. As said in the Scriptures: “The Past time is the Present time, as also the Future, which, though it has not come into existence, still is”; according to a precept in the Prasanga Madhyamika teaching, whose dogmas have been known ever since it broke away from the purely esoteric schools.* Our ideas, in short, on duration and time are all derived from our


'''Footnote'''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> See Dzungarian “Mani Kumbum,” the “Book of the 10,000 Precepts.” Also consult Wassilief’s “Der Buddhismus,” pp. 327 and 357, etc.

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sensations according to the laws of Association. Inextricably bound up with the relativity of human knowledge, they nevertheless can have no existence except in the experience of the individual ego, and perish when its evolutionary march dispels the Maya of phenomenal existence. What is Time, for instance, but the panoramic succession of our states of consciousness? In the words of a Master, “I feel irritated at having to use these three clumsy words — Past, Present, and Future — miserable concepts of the objective phases of the subjective whole, they are about as ill-adapted for the purpose as an axe for fine carving.” One has to acquire Paramartha lest one should become too easy a prey to Samvriti — is a philosophical axiom.*


'''Footnote'''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> In clearer words: “One has to acquire true Self-Consciousness in order to understand Samvriti, or the ‘origin of delusion.’ ” Paramartha is the synonym of the Sanskrit term Svasam-vedana, or “the reflection which analyses itself.” There is a difference in the interpretation of the meaning of “Paramartha” between the Yogacharyas and the Madhyamikas, neither of whom, however, explain the real and true esoteric sense of the expression. See further, sloka No. 9.

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