View source for Three Fundamental Propositions

The '''Three Fundamental Propositions''' are three basic postulates on which the book [[The Secret Doctrine (book)|''The Secret Doctrine'']] written by [[H. P. Blavatsky]] is based.

In the Proem of this book the author says:

<blockquote>Before the reader proceeds to the consideration of the [[Stanzas of Dzyan|Stanzas]] from the Book of Dzyan which form the basis of the present work, it is absolutely necessary that he should be made acquainted with the few fundamental conceptions which underlie and pervade the entire system of thought to which his attention is invited. These basic ideas are few in number, and on their clear apprehension depends the understanding of all that follows; therefore no apology is required for asking the reader to make himself familiar with them first, before entering on the perusal of the work itself.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, Ill: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 13</ref></blockquote>

== First Fundamental Proposition ==

In the Proem of [[The Secret Doctrine (book)|''The Secret Doctrine'']] Mme. Blavatsky wrote:<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, Ill: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 14-16</ref>

<blockquote>An Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable Principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude. It is beyond the range and reach of thought — in the words of Mandukya, “unthinkable and unspeakable.”
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To render these ideas clearer to the general reader, let him set out with the postulate that there is one [[Absolute|absolute Reality]] which antecedes all manifested, conditioned, being. This Infinite and Eternal Cause — dimly formulated in the “Unconscious” and “Unknowable” of current European philosophy — is the rootless root of “all that was, is, or ever shall be.” It is of course devoid of all attributes and is essentially without any relation to manifested, finite Being. It is “[[Be-ness]]” rather than Being (in [[Sanskrit]], [[Sat]]), and is beyond all thought or speculation.
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This “[[Be-ness]]” is symbolised in the [[The Secret Doctrine (book)|''Secret Doctrine'']] under two aspects. On the one hand, [[Space#Absolute abstract space|absolute abstract Space]], representing bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either exclude from any conception, or conceive of by itself. On the other, [[Motion#Absolute abstract motion|absolute Abstract Motion]] representing Unconditioned Consciousness. Even our Western thinkers have shown that [[Consciousness]] is inconceivable to us apart from change, and motion best symbolises change, its essential characteristic. This latter aspect of the one Reality, is also symbolised by the term “The [[Great Breath]],” a symbol sufficiently graphic to need no further elucidation. Thus, then, the first fundamental axiom of the Secret Doctrine is this metaphysical One [[Absolute]] — [[Be-ness]] — symbolised by finite intelligence as the theological Trinity.
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It may, however, assist the student if a few further explanations are given here.
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Herbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as to assert that the nature of the “First Cause,”(*) which the [[Occultism|Occultist]] more logically derives from the “Causeless Cause,” the “Eternal,” and the “Unknowable,” may be essentially the same as that of the [[Consciousness]] which wells up within us: in short, that the impersonal reality pervading the Kosmos is the pure [[noumenon]] of thought. This advance on his part brings him very near to the [[Esotericism|esoteric]] and [[Vedanta|Vedantin]] tenet.(†)
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[[Parabrahm]] (the One Reality, the [[Absolute]]) is the field of Absolute Consciousness, i.e., that Essence which is out of all relation to conditioned existence, and of which conscious existence is a conditioned symbol. But once that we pass in thought from this (to us) Absolute Negation, duality supervenes in the contrast of [[Spirit]] (or consciousness) and [[Matter]], Subject and Object.
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[[Spirit]] (or Consciousness) and [[Matter]] are, however, to be regarded, not as independent realities, but as the two facets or aspects of the [[Absolute]] ([[Parabrahm]]), which constitute the basis of conditioned Being whether subjective or objective.
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Considering this metaphysical triad as the Root from which proceeds all manifestation, the [[great Breath]] assumes the character of [[Logos#First Logos|precosmic Ideation]]. It is the ''fons et origo'' of force and of all individual consciousness, and supplies the guiding intelligence in the vast scheme of cosmic [[Evolution]]. On the other hand, precosmic root-substance ([[Mulaprakriti]]) is that aspect of the [[Absolute]] which underlies all the objective planes of Nature.
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Just as pre-Cosmic Ideation is the root of all individual consciousness, so [[mulaprakriti|pre-Cosmic Substance]] is the substratum of [[matter]] in the various grades of its differentiation.
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Hence it will be apparent that the contrast of these two aspects of the [[Absolute]] is essential to the existence of the “Manifested Universe.” Apart from [[Ākāśa|Cosmic Substance]], [[Mahat|Cosmic Ideation]] could not manifest as individual consciousness, since it is only through a [[vehicle]] (‡) of matter that consciousness wells up as “I am I,” a physical basis being necessary to focus a ray of the [[Mahat|Universal Mind]] at a certain stage of complexity. Again, apart from [[Mahat|Cosmic Ideation]], [[Ākāśa|Cosmic Substance]] would remain an empty abstraction, and no emergence of consciousness could ensue.
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The “Manifested Universe,” therefore, is pervaded by duality, which is, as it were, the very essence of its ex-istence as “[[Manvantara|manifestation]].”
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But just as the opposite poles of subject and object, [[spirit]] and [[matter]], are but aspects of the One Unity in which they are synthesized, so, in the manifested Universe, there is “that” which links [[spirit]] to [[matter]], subject to object.
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This something, at present unknown to Western speculation, is called by the [[Occultism|occultists]] [[Fohat]]. It is the “bridge” by which the “Ideas” existing in the “Divine Thought” are impressed on [[Ākāśa|Cosmic substance]] as the “laws of Nature.” [[Fohat]] is thus the dynamic energy of [[Mahat|Cosmic Ideation]]; or, regarded from the other side, it is the intelligent medium, the guiding power of all manifestation, the “Thought Divine” transmitted and made manifest through the [[Dhyan Chohans]],(§) the Architects of the visible World. Thus from [[Spirit]], or [[Mahat|Cosmic Ideation]], comes our consciousness; from [[Ākāśa|Cosmic Substance]] the several [[vehicles]] in which that consciousness is individualised and attains to self — or reflective — consciousness; while [[Fohat]], in its various manifestations, is the mysterious link between Mind and [[Matter]], the animating principle electrifying every atom into life.
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The following summary will afford a clearer idea to the reader.
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(1.) The [[Absolute]]; the [[Parabrahm]] of the [[Vedanta|Vedantins]] or the one Reality, [[Sat]], which is, as Hegel says, both Absolute Being and Non-Being.
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(2.) The first manifestation, the impersonal, and, in philosophy, [[Logos#First Logos|unmanifested Logos]], the precursor of the “[[Logos#Third Logos|manifested]].” This is the “First Cause,” the “Unconscious” of European Pantheists.
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(3.) Spirit-matter, Life; the “Spirit of the Universe,” the Purusha and Prakriti, or the [[Logos#Second Logos|second Logos]].
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(4.) Cosmic Ideation, [[Mahat]] or Intelligence, the Universal World-Soul; the Cosmic [[Noumenon]] of [[Matter]], the basis of the intelligent operations in and of Nature, also called Maha-Buddhi.
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The One Reality; its dual aspects in the conditioned Universe.</blockquote>


'''[Footnotes by the author]'''

:(*) The “first” presupposes necessarily something which is the “first brought forth,” “the first in time, space, and rank” — and therefore finite and conditioned. The “first” cannot be the absolute, for it is a manifestation. Therefore, Eastern Occultism calls the Abstract All the “Causeless One Cause,” the “Rootless Root,” and limits the “First Cause” to the [[Logos#First Logos|Logos]], in the sense that Plato gives to this term]

:(†) See Mr. [[T. Subba Row|Subba Row]]’s four able lectures on the [[Bhagavadgītā (book)|Bhagavad Gita]], “Theosophist,” February, 1887.

:(‡) Called in Sanskrit: “[[Upadhi]].”

:(§) Called by Christian theology: Archangels, Seraphs, etc., etc.

== Second Fundamental Proposition ==

Verbatim quote:<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, Ill: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 16-17</ref>

:The Eternity of the Universe ''in toto'' as a boundless plane; periodically “the playground of numberless Universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing,” called “the manifesting stars,” and the “sparks of Eternity.” “The Eternity of the Pilgrim”(*) is like a wink of the Eye of Self-Existence (Book of Dzyan.) “The appearance and disappearance of Worlds is like a regular tidal ebb of flux and reflux.” (See Part II., “Days and Nights of Brahma.”)

:This second assertion of the Secret Doctrine is the absolute universality of that [[Law of Cycles|law of periodicity]], of flux and reflux, ebb and flow, which physical science has observed and recorded in all departments of nature. An alternation such as that of Day and Night, Life and Death, Sleeping and Waking, is a fact so common, so perfectly universal and without exception, that it is easy to comprehend that in it we see one of the absolutely fundamental laws of the universe.


'''[Footnote by the author]'''

:(*) Pilgrim” is the appellation given to our [[Monad]] (the two in one) during its [[Reincarnation|cycle of incarnations]]. It is the only immortal and eternal [[principle]] in us, being an indivisible part of the integral whole — the Universal [[Spirit]], from which it emanates, and into which it is absorbed at the end of the [[Evolution#Cyclic evolution|cycle]]. When it is said to emanate from the one [[spirit]], an awkward and incorrect expression has to be used, for lack of appropriate words in English. The [[Vedanta|Vedantins]] call it [[Sutratma]] (Thread-Soul), but their explanation, too, differs somewhat from that of the [[Occultism|occultists]]; to explain which difference, however, is left to the [[Vedanta|Vedantins]] themselves.

== Third Fundamental Proposition ==

Verbatim quote:<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, Ill: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 17-18</ref>

:The fundamental identity of all [[Soul|Souls]] with the Universal [[Over-Soul]], the latter being itself an aspect of the [[Mulaprakriti|Unknown Root]]; and the obligatory pilgrimage for every [[Soul]] — a spark of the former — through the [[Cycle of Incarnation]] (or “Necessity”) in accordance with [[Evolution#Cyclic evolution|Cyclic]] and [[Karma|Karmic]] law, during the whole term. In other words, no purely spiritual [[Buddhi]] (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal [[Sixth principle]], — or the [[over-soul]], — has (a) passed through every [[elemental]] form of the phenomenal world of that [[Manvantara]], and (b) acquired [[individuality]], first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its [[Karma]]), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest [[Manas]], from mineral and plant, up to the holiest [[archangel]] ([[Dhyani-Buddha]]). The pivotal doctrine of the [[Esotericism|Esoteric]] philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own [[Ego]] through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of [[metempsychosis|metempsychoses]] and [[reincarnation|reincarnations]]. This is why the [[Hinduism|Hindus]] say that the Universe is [[Brahman|Brahma]] and [[Brahmā]], for [[Brahman|Brahma]] is in every atom of the universe, the six [[principles]] in Nature being all the outcome — the variously differentiated aspects — of the [[seventh principle|seventh]] and one, the only reality in the Universe whether Cosmical or [[Microcosmos|micro-cosmical]]; and also why the permutations (psychic, spiritual and physical), on the plane of manifestation and form, of the sixth ([[Brahmā]] the vehicle of [[Brahman|Brahma]]) are viewed by metaphysical antiphrasis as illusive and [[Māyā|Mayavic]]. For although the root of every atom individually and of every form collectively, is that [[seventh principle]] or the one Reality, still, in its manifested phenomenal and temporary appearance, it is no better than an evanescent illusion of our senses. (See, for clearer definition, Addendum “Gods, Monads and Atoms,” and also “Theophania,” “Bodhisatvas and Reincarnation,” etc., etc.)

== Closing remarks ==

Next follow some remarks that are not really part of the Third Fundamental Proposition but seem to be some closing words:<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, Ill: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 18-20</ref>

:In its absoluteness, the One Principle under its two aspects (of [[Parabrahman|Parabrahmam]] and [[Mulaprakriti]]) is sexless, unconditioned and eternal. Its periodical ([[Manvantara|manvantaric]]) [[emanation]] — or primal radiation — is also One, [[androgynous]] and phenomenally finite. When the [[radiation]] radiates in its turn, all its radiations are also [[androgynous]], to become male and female [[principles]] in their lower aspects. After [[Pralaya]], whether the great or the minor [[Pralaya]] (the latter leaving the worlds in statu quo)(*), the first that re-awakes to active life is the plastic [[Akasa]], [[Father-Mother]], the Spirit and Soul of [[Ether]], or the plane on the surface of the [[Circle]]. [[Space]] is called the “[[Mother]]” before its Cosmic activity, and [[Father-Mother]] at the first stage of re-awakening. (See Comments, [[Stanzas of Dzyan|Stanza]] II.) In the [[Kabala]] it is also Father-Mother-Son. But whereas in the Eastern doctrine, these are the [[Seventh Principle]] of the manifested Universe, or its “[[Triad#Higher Triad|Atma-Buddhi-Manas]]” ([[Spirit]], [[Soul]], Intelligence), the triad branching off and dividing into the seven cosmical and seven human [[principles]], in the Western [[Kabala]] of the [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Mysticism|mystics]] it is the [[Triad]] or [[Trinity]], and with their [[Occultism|occultists]], the [[Androgynous|male-female]] [[Jehovah]], Jah-Havah. In this lies the whole difference between the [[Esotericism|esoteric]] and the [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Trinity|trinities]]. The [[Mysticism|Mystics]] and the Philosophers, the Eastern and Western [[Pantheism|Pantheists]], synthesize their pregenetic [[triad]] in the pure divine abstraction. The orthodox, anthropomorphize it. [[Hiranyagarbha]], Hari, and Sankara — the three hypostases of the manifesting “Spirit of the Supreme Spirit” (by which title Prithivi — the Earth — greets [[Vishnu]] in his first [[Avatar]]) — are the purely metaphysical abstract qualities of formation, preservation, and destruction, and are the three divine Avasthas (lit. hypostases) of that which “does not perish with created things” (or Achyuta, a name of [[Vishnu]]); whereas the orthodox [[Christianity|Christian]] separates his personal creative Deity into the three personages of the [[Trinity]], and admits of no higher Deity. The latter, in [[Occultism]], is the abstract Triangle; with the orthodox, the perfect Cube. The creative god or the aggregate gods are regarded by the Eastern philosopher as Bhrantidarsanatah — “false apprehension,” something “conceived of, by reason of erroneous appearances, as a material form,” and explained as arising from the illusive conception of the Egotistic personal and [[Soul#Human soul|human Soul]] (lower [[fifth principle]]). It is beautifully expressed in a new translation of Vishnu Purana. “That [[Brahman|Brahma]] in its totality has essentially the aspect of [[Prakriti]], both evolved and unevolved ([[Mulaprakriti]]), and also the aspect of [[Spirit]] and the aspect of Time. [[Spirit]], O twice born, is the leading aspect of the Supreme [[Brahman|Brahma]].(†) The next is a twofold aspect, — [[Prakriti]], both evolved and unevolved, and is the time last.” Kronos is shown in the [[Orphism|Orphic]] theogony as being also a generated god or agent.

:At this stage of the re-awakening of the Universe, the sacred symbolism represents it as a perfect [[Circle]] with the (root) point in the Centre. This sign was universal, therefore we find it in the [[Kabala]] also. The Western [[Kabala]], however, now in the hands of [[Christianity|Christian]] [[mysticism|mystics]], ignores it altogether, though it is plainly shown in the [[Zohar (book)|''Zohar'']]. These sectarians begin at the end, and show as the symbol of pregenetic Kosmos this sign , calling it “the Union of the Rose and Cross,” the great mystery of occult generation, from whence the name — [[Rosicruciansim|Rosicrucians]] (Rose Cross)!

:As may be judged, however, from the most important, as the best known of the [[Rosicruciansim|Rosicrucians]]’ symbols, there is one which has never been hitherto understood even by modern [[mysticism|mystics]]. It is that of the “Pelican” tearing open its breast to feed its seven little ones — the real creed of the Brothers of the [[Rosicruciansim|Rosie-Cross]] and a direct outcome from the Eastern Secret Doctrine. [[Brahman|Brahma]] (neuter) is called [[Kalahansa]], meaning, as explained by Western Orientalists, the Eternal Swan or goose (see [[Stanzas of Dzyan|Stanza]] III., Comment. 8), and so is [[Brahmā]], the Creator. A great mistake is thus brought under notice; it is [[Brahman|Brahma]] (neuter) who ought to be referred to as Hansa-vahana (He who uses the swan as his [[Vehicle]]) and not [[Brahmā]] the Creator, who is the real [[Kalahansa]], while [[Brahman|Brahma]] (neuter) is hamsa, and “A-hamsa,” as will be explained in the Commentary. Let it be understood that the terms [[Brahman|Brahma]] and [[Parabrahman|Parabrahmam]] are not used here because they belong to our Esoteric nomenclature, but simply because they are more familiar to the students in the West. Both are the perfect equivalents of our one, three, and seven vowelled terms, which stand for the One All, and the One “All in all.”

:Such are the basic conceptions on which the Secret Doctrine rests.


'''[Footnotes by the author]'''

:(*) It is not the physical organisms that remain in ''statu quo'', least of all their psychical principles, during the great Cosmic or even Solar [[pralayas]], but only their [[Akasha|Akasic]] or astral “photographs.” But during the minor [[pralayas]], once over-taken by the “Night,” the planets remain intact, though dead, as a huge animal, caught and embedded in the polar ice, remains the same for ages.

:(†) Thus Spencer, who, nevertheless, like Schopenhauer and von Hartmann, only reflects an aspect of the old [[esotericism|esoteric]] philosophers, and hence lands his readers on the bleak shore of Agnostic despair — reverently formulates the grand mystery; “that which persists unchanging in quantity, but ever changing in form, under these sensible appearances which the Universe presents to us, is an unknown and unknowable power, which we are obliged to recognise as without limit in Space and without beginning or end in time.” It is only daring Theology — never Science or philosophy — which seeks to gauge the Infinite and unveil the Fathomless and Unknowable.

== Notes ==

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[[Category:Theosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Concepts in The Secret Doctrine]]