At the start of the article Matter is Eternal we stated:
“It is Absolute Abstract Matter, which is perfectly and literally ONE with Absolute Abstract Space, Absolute Abstract Motion, and Absolute Abstract Duration. Students of “The Secret Doctrine” and the “Mahatma Letters” will be aware that these are the four terms under which the Eastern Esoteric Science speaks of the One Supreme Reality.”
They are not attributes of the Absolute. The Absolute, by the very fact of Its Absoluteness, can have no attributes. They are, rather, the aspects of the Absolute and these aspects are ITSELF. In other words, they are not qualities or characteristics belonging to the Absolute but they are what the Absolute, or rather (to use the better term, often preferred by H. P. Blavatsky) Absoluteness, is.
This is all potentially confusing and very abstruse, which is why we have to endeavour to seize and comprehend the underlying ideas, principles, and truths, of which this verbiage is but the outer and unavoidably crude material clothing on this physical plane. Although we have to start off on the plane of words, we have to go beyond to the plane of abstract conception and perception or, in other words, metaphysical thinking.
If we decline to make any effort in this regard, claiming that it’s too difficult or too complicated or even declaring it to be unnecessary, we can never expect to awaken our Higher Manasic faculties and will always be stunted in our inner evolution. We must of course develop the “heart” but in so doing we must beware not to leave the “head” underdeveloped. The two should be in perfectly equal harmony, balance, and unison. This is the case with every true Adept and Master of Wisdom.
H. P. Blavatsky and her Adept-Teachers of the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood refer numerous times to Space, Motion, Duration, and Matter, in their absolute sense – meaning that they are not referring to astronomical or cosmic space, physical motion, chronological duration, or visible matter; in other words, not anything relative or conditioned, for “absolute” means, philosophically speaking, that which is completely beyond all relativity, differentiation, and finitude – and so we have compiled together some of their words on this subject. It seems to be a central and very important teaching in their Esoteric Doctrine and thus deserves more attention, consideration, and promulgation, from Theosophical students, than it has thus far received.
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“The word “God” was invented to designate the unknown cause of those effects which man has either admired or dreaded without understanding them, and since we claim and that we are able to prove what we claim – i.e. the knowledge of that cause and causes we are in a position to maintain there is no God or Gods behind them.
“The idea of God is not an innate but an acquired notion, and we have but one thing in common with theologies – we reveal the infinite. But while we assign to all the phenomena that proceed from the infinite and limitless space, duration and motion, material, natural, sensible and known (to us at least) cause, the theists assign them spiritual, super-natural and unintelligible and un-known causes. The God of the Theologians is simply an imaginary power, un loup garou as d’Holbach expressed it – a power which has never yet manifested itself. Our chief aim is to deliver humanity of this nightmare, to teach man virtue for its own sake, and to walk in life relying on himself instead of leaning on a theological crutch, that for countless ages was the direct cause of nearly all human misery. Pantheistic we may be called – agnostic NEVER.”
“The existence of matter then is a fact; the existence of motion is another fact, their self existence and eternity or indestructibility is a third fact. And the idea of pure spirit as a Being or an Existence – give it whatever name you will – is a chimera, a gigantic absurdity.”
– Master K.H., “The Mahatma Letters” p. 52-53, 56
“(5) What is the one eternal thing in the universe independent of every other thing?
“Space.
“(6) What things are co-existent with space?
“(i) Duration.
“(ii) Matter.
“(iii) Motion, for this is the imperishable life (conscious or unconscious as the case may be) of matter, even during the pralaya, or night of mind.
“When Chyang or omniscience, and Chyang-mi-shi-khon – ignorance, both sleep, this latent unconscious life still maintains the matter it animates in sleepless unceasing motion.” . . .
“Zhi gyu (cosmic matter), Thog (space), Nyug (duration), Khor wa (motion), all one.” . . .
“In short, motion, cosmic matter, duration, space, are everywhere and for perspicuity’s sake, let us place or fancy this multiplicity in or at the top of a circle (“boundless”). They are passive, negative, unconscious, yet ever propelled by their inherent latent life or force.”
– Master M., “Cosmological Notes” to A. O. Hume, “The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett” p. 376-386
“The One Eternal Element, or element-containing Vehicle, is Space, dimensionless in every sense; co-existent with which are – endless duration, primordial (hence indestructible) matter, and motion – absolute “perpetual motion” which is the “breath” of the “One” Element. This breath, as seen, can never cease, not even during the Pralayic eternities.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 55
“The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and inbreathing of “the Great Breath,” which is eternal, and which, being Motion, is one of the three aspects of the Absolute – Abstract Space and Duration being the other two.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 43
“It is the ONE LIFE, eternal, invisible, yet Omnipresent, without beginning or end, yet periodical in its regular manifestations, between which periods reigns the dark mystery of non-Being; unconscious, yet absolute Consciousness; unrealisable, yet the one self-existing reality; truly, “a chaos to the sense, a Kosmos to the reason.” Its one absolute attribute, which is ITSELF, eternal, ceaseless, Motion, is called in esoteric parlance the “Great Breath,” which is the perpetual motion of the universe, in the sense of limitless, ever-present SPACE. That which is motionless cannot be Divine. But then there is nothing in fact and reality absolutely motionless within the universal soul.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 2
“It is a fundamental law in Occultism, that there is no rest or cessation of motion in Nature.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 97
“This is why the Absolute and the unknown deific Principle, is called “Absolute Motion” in the Secret Doctrine – a “motion,” which has certainly nothing to do with, nor can it be explained by, that which is called motion on Earth.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, editorial comment on “The Vision of Scipio,” “Theosophical Articles and Notes” p. 182
“That every phenomenon in the visible Universe has its genesis in motion, is an old axiom in Occultism; . . . it is the first to say that all psychic activity, from its lowest to its highest manifestations is “nothing but – motion.” Yes, it is MOTION; but not all “molecular” motion, . . . Motion as the GREAT BREATH . . . ergo “sound” at the same time – is the substratum of Kosmic-Motion [i.e. by “Kosmic,” HPB means the entirety of the manifested Universe, whereas by “Cosmic” she typically means our solar system only; the Great Breath or Absolute Abstract Motion is above and beyond everything manifested, yet it is the Motion behind all manifested motion]. It is beginningless and endless, the one eternal life, the basis and genesis of the subjective and the objective universe; for LIFE (or Be-ness) is the fons et origo of existence or being. But molecular motion is the lowest and most material of its finite manifestations.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “Psychic and Noetic Action”
“Look around you and see the myriad manifestations of life, so infinitely multiform; of life, of motion, of change.”
– Master K.H., “The Mahatma Letters” p. 140
“See the Abhidharma Kosha Vyākhyā, the Sutta Pitaka, any Northern Buddhist book, all of which show Gautama Buddha saying that . . . the body is constantly changing, and that neither man, animal, nor plant is ever the same for two consecutive days or even minutes. “Mendicants! Remember that there is within man no abiding principle whatever, and that only the learned disciple who acquires wisdom, in saying ‘I am’ — knows what he is saying.””
– Master K.H., “The Mahatma Letters” p. 111
“To render these ideas clearer to the general reader, let him set out with the postulate that there is one 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.
“This “Be-ness” is symbolised in the Secret Doctrine under two aspects. On the one hand, 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, 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.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 14
“From whence does this motion come? This motion is the spirit itself. The word atman [i.e. the Higher Self or Seventh Principle of the sevenfold human constitution, the ONE Universal Self of all, pure eternal Spirit]. . . itself carries the idea of eternal motion, coming as it does from the root AT, or eternal motion; and it may be significantly remarked, that the root AT is connected with, is in fact simply another form of, the roots AH, breath, and AS, being. . . . The primeval current of the life-wave . . . this is the all-pervading source of the evolution and involution of the universe.”
– Rama Prasad in “Nature’s Finer Forces,” quoted by H. P. Blavatsky in “Psychic and Noetic Action”
“The one element not only fills space and is space, but interpenetrates every atom of cosmic matter.”
“. . . the circle, the Mahakasha – endless space – [stands] for the seventh Universal Principle.”
“The book of Khiu-te teaches us that space is infinity itself. It is formless, immutable and absolute. Like the human mind, which is the exhaustless generator of ideas, the Universal Mind or Space [Note: Here “Universal Mind” is referring to the Absolute rather than to the manifested Manvantaric Mind or Mahat; HPB also uses the term this way in most of “Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge” but it is generally not used in this context.] has its ideation which is projected into objectivity at the appointed time; but space itself is not affected thereby.”
– Master K.H., “The Mahatma Letters” p. 97, 346, 404
“Space is the ever Unseen and Unknowable Deity in our philosophy.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 336
“Duration is; it has neither beginning nor end. . . . Duration is beginningless and endless; Time is finite. . . . Time can be divided; Duration – in our philosophy, at least – cannot. . . . Duration with us is the one eternity, not relative, but absolute. . . . Duration is like Space, which is an abstraction too, and is equally without beginning or end. . . . In reality Space is what the ancients called the One invisible and unknown (now unknowable) Deity. . . . In the occult catechism (Vide Secret Doctrine) it is asked: “What is that which always is, which you cannot imagine as not being, do what you may?” The answer is – SPACE. For there may not be a single man in the universe to think of it, not a single eye to perceive it, nor a single brain to sense it, but still Space is, ever was, and ever will be, and you cannot make away with it. . . . Try, rather, if you can think of anything with Space excluded and you will soon find out the impossibility of such a conception. Space exists where there is nothing else, and must so exist whether the Universe is one absolute vacuum or a full Pleroma. . . . Space and Duration, being eternal, cannot be called attributes, as they are only the aspects of that Infinite. Nor can that Infinite, if you mean by it The Absolute Principle, have any attributes whatever, as only that which is itself finite and conditioned can have any relation to something else.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge” p. 11-13
“The “Parent Space” is the eternal, ever present cause of all – the incomprehensible DEITY, whose “invisible robes” are the mystic root of all matter, and of the Universe. Space is the one eternal thing that we can most easily imagine, immovable in its abstraction and uninfluenced by either the presence or absence in it of an objective Universe. It is without dimension, in every sense, and self-existent. Spirit is the first differentiation from THAT, the causeless cause of both Spirit and Matter. It is, as taught in the esoteric catechism, neither limitless void, nor conditioned fulness, but both. It was and ever will be.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 35
“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. . . . “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.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 8, 9
“Space then, or “Fan, Bar-nang” (Maha Sunyata) or, as it is called by Lao-tze, the “Emptiness” is the nature of the Buddhist Absolute. (See Confucius’ “Praise of the Abyss.”)”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “Editorial Appendix”
“. . . did you ever suspect that Universal, like finite, human mind might have two attributes, or a dual power – one the voluntary and conscious, and the other the involuntary and unconscious or the mechanical power. . . . The possibility of the first or the voluntary and conscious attribute in reference to the infinite mind . . . will remain for ever a mere hypothesis, whereas in the finite mind it is a scientific and demonstrated fact. The highest Planetary Spirit [i.e. used here in the sense of a Dhyan Chohan, a celestial being or cosmic god] is as ignorant of the first as we [i.e. the Mahatmas, Masters of the Wisdom] are, and the hypothesis will remain one even in Nirvana, as it is a mere inferential possibility, whether there or here.
“Take the human mind in connexion with the body. Man has two distinct physical brains; the cerebrum with its two hemispheres at the frontal part of the head – the source of the voluntary nerves; and the cerebellum, situated at the back portion of the skull – the fountain of the involuntary nerves which are the agents of the unconscious or mechanical powers of the mind to act through. And weak and uncertain as may be the control of man over his involuntary, such as the blood circulation, the throbbings of the heart and respiration, especially during sleep – yet how far more powerful, how much more potential appears man as master and ruler over the blind molecular motion – the laws which govern his body (a proof of this being afforded by the phenomenal powers of the Adept and even the common Yogi) than that which you will call God, shows over the immutable laws of Nature.
“Contrary in that to the finite, the “infinite mind,” which we name so but for argument’s sake, for we call it the infinite FORCE – exhibits but the functions of its cerebellum, the existence of its supposed cerebrum being admitted as above stated, but on the inferential hypothesis deduced from the Kabalistic theory (correct in every other relation) of the Macrocosm being the prototype of the Microcosm. So far as we know the corroboration of it by modern science receiving but little consideration – so far as the highest Planetary Spirits have ascertained (who remember well have the same relations with the trans-cosmical world, penetrating behind the primitive veil of cosmic matter as we have to go behind the veil of this, our gross physical world -) the infinite mind displays to them as to us no more than the regular unconscious throbbings of the eternal and universal pulse of Nature, throughout the myriads of worlds within as without the primitive veil of our solar system.
“So far – WE KNOW. Within and to the utmost limit, to the very edge of the cosmic veil we know the fact to be correct – owing to personal experience; for the information gathered as to what takes place beyond – we are indebted to the Planetary Spirits, to our blessed Lord Buddha. This of course may be regarded as second-hand information. There are those who rather than to yield to the evidence of fact will prefer regarding even the planetary gods as “erring” disembodied philosophers if not actually liars. Be it so. Everyone is master of his own wisdom – says a Tibetan proverb and he is at liberty either to honour or degrade his slave -. However I will go on for the benefit of those who may yet seize my explanation of the problem and understand the nature of the solution.
“It is the peculiar faculty of the involuntary power of the infinite mind – which no one could ever think of calling God, – to be eternally evolving subjective matter into objective atoms (you will please remember that these two adjectives are used but in a relative sense) or cosmic matter to be later on developed into form. And it is likewise that same involuntary mechanical power that we see so intensely active in all the fixed laws of nature – which governs and controls what is called the Universe or the Cosmos. . . . We say and affirm that that motion – the universal perpetual motion which never ceases never slackens nor increases its speed not even during the interludes between the pralayas, or “nights of Brahma” but goes on like a mill set in motion, whether it has anything to grind or not (for the pralaya means the temporary loss of every form, but by no means the destruction of cosmic matter which is eternal) – we say this perpetual motion is the only eternal and uncreated Deity we are able to recognise. . . .
“If you ask me “Whence then the immutable laws? – laws cannot make themselves” – then in my turn I will ask you – and whence their supposed Creator? – a creator cannot create or make himself. . . . But do you think that you are right when saying that “the laws arise.” Immutable laws cannot arise, since they are eternal and uncreated, propelled in the Eternity and that God himself if such a thing existed, could never have the power of stopping them. . . . The difficulty of explaining the fact that “unintelligent Forces can give rise to highly intelligent beings like ourselves,” is covered by the eternal progression of cycles, and the process of evolution ever perfecting its work as it goes along.”
– Master K.H., “The Mahatma Letters” p. 137-138, 139, 141
“Official science sees in motion simply a blind, unreasoning force or law; Occultism, tracing motion to its origin, identifies it with the Universal Deity, and calls this eternal ceaseless motion – the “Great Breath.”“
– H. P. Blavatsky, “Kosmic Mind”
“Whatsoever quits the Laya (homogeneous) state, becomes active conscious life. Individual consciousness emanates from, and returns into Absolute consciousness, which is eternal MOTION.”
– “Esoteric Axioms,” quoted by H. P. Blavatsky at the start of “Kosmic Mind”
“We will say that it is, and will remain for ever demonstrated that since motion is all-pervading and absolute rest inconceivable, that under whatever form or mask motion may appear — whether as light, heat, magnetism, chemical affinity or electricity — all these must be but phases of One and the same universal omnipotent Force, a Proteus they [i.e. some Victorian era philosophers and scientists] bow to, as the Great “Unknown” — (See Herbert Spencer) and we, simply call the “One Life” the “One Law” and the “One Element.””
– Master K.H., “The Mahatma Letters” p. 159
“Infinity cannot comprehend Finiteness. The Boundless can have no relation to the bounded and the conditioned. In the occult teachings, the Unknown and the Unknowable MOVER, or the Self-Existing, is the absolute divine Essence. And thus being Absolute Consciousness, and Absolute Motion – to the limited senses of those who describe this indescribable – it is unconsciousness and immoveableness. Concrete consciousness cannot be predicated of abstract Consciousness, any more than the quality wet can be predicated of water – wetness being its own attribute and the cause of the wet quality in other things. Consciousness implies limitations and qualifications; something to be conscious of, and someone to be conscious of it. But Absolute Consciousness contains the cognizer, the thing cognized and the cognition, all three in itself and all three one. No man is conscious of more than that portion of his knowledge that happens to have been recalled to his mind at any particular time, yet such is the poverty of language that we have no term to distinguish the knowledge not actively thought of, from knowledge we are unable to recall to memory. To forget is synonymous with not to remember. How much greater must be the difficulty of finding terms to describe, and to distinguish between, abstract metaphysical facts or differences. It must not be forgotten, also, that we give names to things according to the appearances they assume for ourselves. We call absolute consciousness “unconsciousness,” because it seems to us that it must necessarily be so, just as we call the Absolute, “Darkness,” because to our finite understanding it appears quite impenetrable, yet we recognize fully that our perception of such things does not do them justice. We involuntarily distinguish in our minds, for instance, between unconscious absolute consciousness, and unconsciousness, by secretly endowing the former with some indefinite quality that corresponds, on a higher plane than our thoughts can reach, with what we know as consciousness in ourselves. But this is not any kind of consciousness that we can manage to distinguish from what appears to us as unconsciousness.”
– H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 56
In closing, it may be of interest to note that there are three apparently synonymous Oriental terms which are what H. P. Blavatsky and her Adept-Teachers translate into English as “Absolute SPACE.”
In the above passages we saw the Tibetan term “Thog,” sometimes also written “tho-ag” and “tho-og.” “Thog” literally means “primordial.” We also saw the Sanskrit expression “Mahakasha,” i.e. “Maha-Akasha” or “Great Akasha.” In Sanskrit, “Akasha” is the word for “Space” and hence “Mahakasha” was used by the Master for what he spoke of as “Endless Space” or Space in its absolute, abstract, eternal, infinite sense, the “divine ground” of all existence.
Finally, HPB used the term “Maha Sunyata.” “Sunyata” is generally written and correctly pronounced as “Shunyata” and is a Sanskrit word literally meaning “Emptiness” or “Voidness.” “Maha Shunyata” is “Great Emptiness” or “Great Voidness.” This term (also defined as “Space” and “Eternal Law” in HPB’s “Theosophical Glossary” entries for “Maha Sunyata” and “Sunyata”) is used rather differently in Theosophy and in the real Esoteric Buddhism, however, to how it is typically used in much of Buddhism. For more on this, please see The Essence of Buddhism and Nagarjuna, Madhyamaka & Prasangika.
For the Mahatmas or Brothers, as we have seen, Absolute Abstract Space is both “the voidness of the seeming full, [and] the fulness of the seeming void.” (“The Voice of The Silence” p. 55-56, original edition, translated by H. P. Blavatsky from the Book of the Golden Precepts)
This esoteric teaching on Space, Motion, Duration, Matter presented in this article cannot be found in this form, nor this extensively, anywhere else apart from the original Theosophical literature. It was part of the Trans-Himalayan Masters’ Secret Doctrine that They saw fit to divulge to the world. However, some striking traces of it can be found in some of the lesser known and more obscure esoteric teachings of Vajrayana or Tibetan Buddhism.
As we observed in The Essence of Buddhism: “Some of the tantric (i.e. esoteric) teachings of Tibetan Buddhism state that at the ultimate level of non-dual reality, there is an indivisible unity of “absolute Space” and “primordial consciousness” or “primordial wisdom.” This is also expressed as absolute Space (i.e. that bare, boundless, unconditioned, unmanifest Space beyond, behind, or hidden within manifested space or the space we see in the sky) ever vibrating with infinite energy. It was only many decades after Blavatsky’s death that it became known to anyone outside Tibet that such teachings can be found in some of the more obscure Tibetan Buddhist tantras.”
And knowing that HPB and the Masters also repeatedly refer to the One Ultimate Reality or Divine Principle as FIRE, one can bear in mind that the nature of Fire is eternal motion. Fire is perhaps the clearest and most vivid image and representation of ceaseless motion, for whereas the other elements – air, water, and earth – can be, and sometimes are, completely still, unmoving, and physically motionless, fire is constantly in motion and there is no such thing as a completely still, motionless, unmoving flame or fire. In “Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge” it is stated that “Motion is the eternal dark, invisible Fire.” (p. 115) The great abstractness of the subject of this article can thus be lessened by mentally substituting the word “Motion” with “Fire” and thinking in such terms as “the Fire of Space” or “Fiery Space.” In the Stanzas of Dzyan on which “The Secret Doctrine” is based, infinite Space is spoken of as “A SHORELESS SEA OF FIRE.”
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“Behind everything that exists is the Sustainer of all that exists, of all that ever was, is, or shall be. Nothing exists without It. It is omnipresent, and It is infinite. But, if we take that idea and endeavor to confine it to the form of any Being whatever, we shall find we have attempted the impossible. We cannot hold the idea of being with that which is omnipresent and infinite. No being can exist outside of Space which itself is, whether there is void or fulness, whether there are planets, gods or men, or none; which itself is not altered in any way by objects occupying it; which is illimitable – without beginning and without end. A Being must exist in Space, and so must be less than Space. We can then call the Highest Power any name we choose – the Supreme, the Self – so long as we do not limit It, or give It attributes. We may not say It is pleased, nor angry, nor rewards, nor punishes; doing so, we limit It. If Space itself cannot be measured or limited, how can we limit the Supreme? The Highest Power cannot be less than Space.” (Robert Crosbie, “The Foundation of Religion”)
“A being could be neither infinite, supreme, nor omnipresent; for there is That in which all beings, however high, or planets, or solar-systems, have their existence – Space, which exists whether there is anything in it or not; which has no beginning nor ending; which always is; which is outside as well as inside of every being. Any being must be less than Space; could the Absolute be less than Space? Illimitability and infinitude are not in relation to any being whatever; hence creation from the point of view of a Creator has to be abandoned.” (Robert Crosbie, “The Origin of Evil”)
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