When the Lower Man is Sufficiently
Purified, He Receives Visions of Truth in Dreams
The Theosophical Movement
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The following text is reproduced
from “The
Theosophical Movement”
magazine, January 2004 edition, pp. 82-84.
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We experience dreams when we fall asleep
every night. It is so commonplace an occurrence that we hardly pay any
attention to it. Dreams have very important lessons to teach us, but we
scarcely heed them. The three planes of human life - waking, dreaming and deep
sleep - contain the key to the deepest mystery of man, which the ancients well
understood.
The Upanishads
contain important expositions on the three planes of human life, and draw
lessons from them leading to most sublime truths of the psychological mysteries
of man. In the Old Testament there are numerous references to dreams. In the
Book of Job it is said that in the dreams and visions of the night, man is
instructed. The first step on the Path of Atma Vidya, the Science of the Soul,
the Science of all sciences, is a careful and a thorough study of the three
states of our existence.
Modern science has
paid superficial attention to this important phenomenon. It is considered to be
of little consequence, because mind is taken to be a secondary effect of
electro-biomolecular activity of the brain, not independent of the body, and
doomed to disappear like a puff of steam after the death of the body.
The basic premise
of the ancient science of psychology, on the other hand, is that mind is independent
of body and not a product of physical evolution. It is a ray of the Universal
Mind, evolving through countless reincarnations under Karmic Law; and this
higher godly Manas is only partially incarnate as the lower mind-being, the
mortal man. Hence, man is a dual mind-being: higher immortal and lower mortal;
good and evil, wise and foolish. It is
this basic truth that underlies the three planes of human life - waking, dream,
and dreamless sleep - and it contains the key to the mysteries of the complex
nature of man.
Even ordinary,
chaotic, meaningless dreams teach us many lessons, if we only pay careful
attention to them. The first lesson even ordinary dreams teach us is the fact
that the sensorium is not in the physical body but independent of it. We see,
hear, smell, taste and touch in the dream state - when the body is fast asleep,
and when senses and most part of the brain are in abeyance - as vividly as when
we are awake. Linga Sharira or the Astral Body is the real seat of the
sensorium.
The second lesson
dreams teach is the fact that the inner self is independent of the body, as we
experience all the emotions and mental states when the body is fast asleep,
oblivious of the external world. When from the dream state he passes into the
deep sleep or Sushupti state, the personal man is wholly unconscious of his
existence. When he returns to the waking state through the dream state, he does
not lose his self-identity in spite of all these transformations. He feels sure
that he was the same self in the waking life, during dream experiences, and
also during the state of deep sleep - the state of apparent oblivion.
The deep sleep
state, in fact, refreshes him with new energy, deep peace, inner joy and
contentment, when he awakes in the morning. This would not be the case were the
deep sleep state an oblivion of self. It is noteworthy that the unchanging
self-identity runs like an unbroken thread through all the myriad experiences
of the three states, and remains the same Self. This supports the proposition
of ancient psychology that Self or Ego is distinct from and unaffected by
myriads of sensations and experiences it undergoes as it cycles through the
three planes of being; naught adheres to the Self. It is the Perceiver of them
all, but “stands on high unaffected,” Kutastha.
Theosophy teaches
that when the deep sleep state is reached, after the dream state, the Ego
regains temporarily its original freedom, a high spiritual state, full of
knowledge and bliss, because the Ego-Manas is a son of the Universal Mind or
Mahat. In The Voice of the Silence the deep sleep state is called the Hall of
Wisdom wherein the Ego feeds on ambrosia and revels in its celestial freedom.
After enjoying the
freedom, when the time comes for waking, the Ego returns from its celestial
home to its bodily prison. It can only return by the gate of the dream state.
As it is beginning to assume the bodily apparatus, the lower brain-mind begins
to awaken in the dream state and sees for a time the activity of its Divine
Parent, the Ego. The Ego in turn tries to impress the lower mind with its
knowledge and wisdom - of past, present and future. But the spiritual
impressions so received are lost, as they get mixed up with the chaotic
impressions of the waking experiences of the lower mind which troop into the
dream state, and we wake up none the wiser. Thus spiritual knowledge of the Ego
is lost every time we wake up in the morning, because we have made our mind and
brain coarse and unfit for the reception of superfine spiritual impressions of
the Divine Ego.
Our waking life
has effect on dream life, and vice versa. If the waking life is full of mere
personal concerns of selfish pursuits and lower desires, as is normally the
case with the majority of people, the dream life is polluted with impure lower
impressions. To receive benefits from our Divine Parent Ego in the dream state
and to bring them back to the waking state, the latter has to be kept clean and
pure. This means, performing duties dispassionately, as sacrifices to the God
within, “with calmness ever present,” thus elevating and ennobling our
lives. The brain-mind so purified and
becalmed enters the dream state fit to receive and retain the impressions of
the Higher Ego, which can be brought back more or less intact to the waking
life for the benefit of our fellow-men and ourselves.
There are any
number of instances of high-minded men and women receiving knowledge and
illumination through dreams.
When the lower man
is sufficiently purified and attuned to the Ego within, he will receive
illumination and visions of truth in dreams. Very pure and holy men have been
so inspired even during the waking state.
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On the role of the esoteric movement in the
ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by
Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in
2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist,
the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
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