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Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
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SACRIFICER, THE
A symbol of the Supreme, who in manifestation
limits his own nature and conditions his activity.
“ The name of the First Celestial Emperor was Tae-haou,-Excessive
Splendour. He was also called Fuh-he, or Paou-he, the Sacrificer.'
The tradition is that he had no father, was the first to reign, and
that his name was Fung, meaning wind, spirit, breath." - Chinese
Records, KIDD, China.
The First Logos is the Supreme Ineffable Potency, which, in the
second aspect of its forthgoing, is said to have been the
"sacrifice" and the "sacrificer," inasmuch as it is that limitation
of being which is offered to itself, or that limitation of itself
which is endured for the sake of its sentient universe. It is
inwardly received that the Supreme is Self-derived, neither
begotten, nor created, but Self-existent. Wind, spirit, breath, are
all symbols of emanation, to which the forth-pouring from the
Absolute is comparable.
“The Tandya-brahmana makes the Lord of creatures offer himself up as
a sacrifice. Even Sacrifice (Yajna) itself was sometimes personified
as a god." - MON. WILLIAMS, Religious Thought in India, p. 23.
"Soma thought, I must not become sacrificial food for the gods with
my whole self.' That form of his which was most pleasing he
accordingly put aside. Then as to why he is called Yajna
(sacrifice). Now when they press him, they slay him; and when they
spread him, they cause him to be born." - Sata. Bráh., III. 9, 4,
22-3.
The Divine Life (Soma) in emanating becomes dual,-higher and lower.
The higher Self (the most pleasing) remains inoperative and
potential. The lower Self limits itself (is sacrificed) in matter
during the period of involution. When fully involved he dies. Then
afterwards, when the "crucified" Self, or Archetypal Man, from One
becomes many (is spread), he is born in each soul or quality during
the period of evolution.
“Christ is the offering, Christ is the priest, Christ is the offerer…
Thus in the self-same type the offerer sets forth Christ in His
person, as the One who became man to meet God's requirements: the
offering presents Him in His character and work, as the victim by
which the atonement was ratified; while the priest gives us a third
picture of Him, in His official relation, as the appointed mediator
and intercessor." - A. JUKES, Law of the Offerings, pp. 36, 37.
“Hence arose the myths which represent sacrifice ag the first act in
the cosmogony. It was by sacrifice,-it is not said to whom, that the
gods delivered the world from chaos, just as it is by sacrifice that
man prevents it from lapsing back into it, and the dismemberment of
the primeval giant Purusha, whose skull was fabled to form the
heavens and his limbs the earth, came to be regarded in India as the
first act of sacrifice. What is more, the gods being inseparable
from the world, their existence must have been preceded by
sacrifice; hence the singular myth which represents the Supreme
Being as sacrificing himself in order to give birth to other
existences." - A. BARTH, The Religions of India, p. 37.
"Chaos” being the condition out of which arises the first duality,-
spirit and matter,-it is said that the primal differentiations
(gods) delivered the soul (world) from chaos by sacrifice. This they
did by becoming involved in matter, as the first qualities of
Spirit.
Man prevents the soul from lapsing back into unfruitfulness by the
sacrifice of his lower nature, which implies the evolution of his
higher, and the reappearance of the ideals (gods).
"Purusha," the Spirit involved in matter, that is, the introduction
into the vibrations of atoms of all the energies and qualities
afterwards to be evolved out of atomic vibrations, is the Archetypal
Man whose dismemberment, or division into many, constitutes the
origin of the human race with its multitude of separate souls.
The "sacrifice" is the involution and apparent death (latency) of
the Divine qualities. But the Gods are inseparable from the souls,
and as the highest ideals, they come to life within us as our
natures are purified and perfected.
“But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law. To redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father." - GALATIANS iv. 4-6.
When the Absolute outbreathed, the Second Logos was emanated to
become the Divine Sacrifice, as Spirit involved in Matter,-Māyā,
Mother,- the veil of matter (feminine) in which manifestation takes
place. Spirit thereby becomes conditioned, i.e. limited by law.
Matter is receptive to energy or vibration, adapted to take impress
from Spirit, and so are originated phenomena-the expressions of
Spirit in nature.
After the involution of the World-soul, the One Soul separates into
many souls, each of which has to evolve the qualities and Spirit
with which it is endowed. It is in this evolution that the
redemption takes place, for there arise in the souls the inner
spiritual vibrations, which, once established, play upon the several
egos "under the law," and raise them to the “adoption of sons," who
cry, as it were, for union with their Divine source.
"At the centre of all existence, at the beginning of all beginnings,
is a divine act of sacrifice; without that primordial sacrifice,
there would have been no material universe, no human life as such,
no splendour of human achievement, and no glorious end worth
striving for. God in Christ laid down his life in creation when time
began, we are the product of it, and so are all our struggles and
pain. ...The life of God has been laid down in us, triumphs in us,
and in us will ascend in glory and majesty to the Eternal again." -
R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., The Book of Destiny.
"In its generalised form this high truth (Divine Self-sacrifice) has
been recognised even in Buddhism. In all the world there is not one
spot so large as a mustard seed where the Buddha has not surrendered
his body for the good of the creatures' (L. Hearn). Here Buddha is
plainly not Gautama, but the divine in man. Christians can point,
with far more force, to the sacrament or symbol of this divine
sacrifice in the historical Passion of the Son of God." - W. R.
INGE, Paddock Lectures, p. 71.
"God has no self-life, but realises His life in the life of all, and
in giving of Himself away becomes the life of all- it means the
clear recognition of this by the heart, and such an action following
on the recognition as unites us in similar sacrifice to the life of
God, till we too find our only being along with Him, in the being of
all which lives by Him." - STOPFORD A. BROOKE, Serm., Individuality.
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