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STANZAS I AND II (SLOKAS I AND 2).

JANUARY, 1889.

London:

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,

7, DUKE STREET, ADELPHI, W.C.

New York:

W. Q. JUDGE, 132, NASSAU STREET

1890.

All Rights Reserved.

[The following transactions are compiled from shorthand notes taken at the meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society, from January 10th to June 20th, 1889, being somewhat condensed from the original discussions.

"The Secret Doctrine" being based upon the archaic stanzas of the "Book of Dzyan," and these being too abstruse for most of the new students of Exoteric philosophy, the members of the "B. L. of the T. S." agreed to devote the debates of the weekly meetings to each stanza and sundry other metaphysical subjects.

The questions were put by members who, for the most part, supported their objections and exceptions on modern scientific grounds, and assumed logical deductions based thereon. As such objections are generally the common property of students of "The Secret Doctrine," it has been judged unnecessary to incorporate them in full, so that their substance alone has been retained. The answers in all cases are based on the shorthand Reports, and are those of Esoteric Philosophy as given by H P. B. herself.]

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Meeting held at 17, Lansdowne Road, London, W., on January 10th, 1889, at 8.30 b.m., MR. T. B. HARBOTTLE in the chair..

Subject:

THE STANZAS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE-VOL. I.

STANZA I.

Sloka (1). THE ETERNAL PARENT (Space), WRAPPED IN HER
EVER INVISIBLE ROBES, HAD SLUMBERED ONCE
AGAIN FOR SEVEN ETERNITIES.

Q. Space in the abstract is explained in the Proem (pp. 8 and 9) as follows:-

Absolute unity cannot pass to infinity; for infinity presupposes the limitless extension of something, and the duration of that 'something'; and the One All is like Space-which is its only mental and physical representation on this Earth, or our plane of existence-neither an object of, nor a subject to, perception. If one could suppose the Eternal Infinite All, the Omnipresent Unity, instead of being in Eternity, becoming through periodical manifestation a manifold Universe, or a multiple personality, that Unity would cease to be one. Locke's idea that 'pure Space is capable of neither resistance nor motion' is incorrect. Space is neither a limitless void' nor a conditioned fulness,' but both, being on the plane of absolute abstraction, the ever-incognisable Deity, which is void only to finite minds, and on that of mayavic perception, the Plenum, the absolute Container of all that is, whether manifested or unmanifested; it is, therefore, that ABSOLUTE ALL. There is no difference between the Christian Apostle's In Him we live and move and have our being,' and the Hindu Rishi's, The Universe lives in, proceeds from, and will return to, Brahma (Brahma)'; for Brahma (neuter), the unmanifested, is that Universe in abscondito, and Brahmâ, the manifested, is the Logos, made male-female in the symbolical orthodox dogmas. The God of the Apostle-Initiate, and of the Rishi, being both the Unseen and the Visible. SPACE. Space is called, in the esoteric symbolism, The Seven-Skinned Eternal Mother-Father.' It is composed from its undifferentiated to its differentiated surface of seven layers.

"What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is a Universe or not; whether there be gods or none?' asks the esoteric Senzar Catechism. And the answer made is-SPACE."*

* S. D., I., 8.

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