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Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
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MICROCOSM
A symbol of the little world of the human
soul, which contains all the elements, qualities and potencies of
the great world of the universe (Macrocosm).
"It is in man, the microcosm, in whom all the universe meets, that
the Divine ideas chiefly unfold themselves, and that in proportion
as his receiving surface is purified and expanded.” - J. BRIERLEY,
The Eternal Religion, p. 239.
"Man is the Microcosm epitomizing in himself the whole universe." -
GIBB, Hist. of Ottoman Poetry, Vol. I. p. 56.
"The human soul stands in the centre of the All; and just as the
World is a huge Man, man is a little world" (Basra teaching). - DE
BOER, Hist. of Philos. in Islam, p. 92.
“These four Worlds form together an unit, a single great Man, the
Macrocosm or Adam Illa-ah." "The Qabbalah in presenting the earthly
man as the Microcosm or inferior copy of the prototypic Heavenly
Adam, asserts the existence of four divisions or worlds, which are
to be found in a greater or less degree in each." - MYER, Qabbalah,
pp. 198, 331.
The "four worlds are the buddhic, mental, astral, and physical
planes. These constitute the World-Soul, as they do also the human
soul.
Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
- MATTHEW v. 48.
The microcosm is only partially evolved, and therefore imperfect.
When it is fully evolved, it will be as perfect as the Macrocosm on
the higher planes.
"As God contains all things in Himself, so it is in our soul; the
soul is the microcosmos in which all things are contained and are
led back to God" (Eckhart). - PFLEIDERER, Develop. of Christianity,
p. 152.
“Erigena's mysticism appears especially in his root conception of
man's soul. There is an ultimate ground of truth in the depth of
personal consciousness. Man is an epitome of the universe, a
meeting-place of the above and the below, a point of union for the
heavenly and the sensuous. We understand the world only because the
forms or patterns of it- the Ideas which it expresses-are in our own
minds. So that a mind which wholly fathomed itself would thereby
fathom everything, and we can rise to Divine contemplation because
God is the ground and reality of our soul's being. - R. M. JONES,
Mystical Religion, p. 127.
“The loftiest purpose of God, in all His dealings, is to make us
like Himself; and the end of all religion is the complete
accomplishment of that purpose. There is no religion without these
elements- consciousness of kindred with God, recognition of Him as
the sum of all excellence and beauty, and of His will as
unconditionally binding upon us, aspiration and effort after a full
accord of heart and soul with Him and with His law, and humble
confidence that that sovereign beauty will be ours.... The full
accord of all the soul with His character, in whom, as their native
home, dwell 'whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely,' and the full glad conformity of the will to His sovereign
will, who is the life of our lives-this, and nothing shallower,
nothing narrower, is religion in its perfection." - A. MACLAREN,
Sermons, 2nd Series, pp. 212-3.
“The seed a means to an end, and the end may as well be the bird or
the insect (if eaten) as the plant; and man qua physical may very
well come to similar ends. But the image of God in man cannot be
simply a means like the seed. It must be an end in itself, the one
true end of the entire cycle." - H. M. GWATKIN, Knowledge of God,
Vol. I. p. 237.
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