The “Mystery of Buddha” is that of several other Adepts—perhaps of many.
The whole trouble is to understand correctly that other mystery: that of
the real fact, so abstruse and transcendental at first sight, about the
“Seven Principles” in man, the reflections in man of the seven powers in
Nature, physically, and of the seven Hierarchies of Being, intellectually
and spiritually. Whether a man—material, ethereal, and spiritual—is for
the clearer comprehension of his (broadly‐speaking) triple nature, divided
into groups according to one or another system, the foundation and the
apex of that division will be always the same. There being only three
Upâdhis (bases) in man, any number of Koshas (sheaths) and their aspects
may be built on these without destroying the harmony of the whole. Thus,
while the Esoteric System accepts the septenary division, the Vedântic
classification gives five Koshas, and the Târaka Râja Yoga simplifies them
into four—the three Upâdhis synthesized by the highest principle, Âtmâ.
That which has just been stated will, of course, suggest the question:
“How can a spiritual (or semi‐spiritual) personality lead a triple or even
a dual life, shifting respective ‘Higher Selves’ _ad libitum_, and be
still the one eternal Monad in the infinity of a Manvantara?” The answer
to this is easy for the true Occultist, while for the uninitiated profane
it must appear absurd. The “Seven Principles” are, of course, the
manifestation of one indivisible Spirit, but only at the end of the
Manvantara, and when they come to be re‐united on the plane of the One
Reality does the unity appear; during the “Pilgrim’s” journey the
reflections of that indivisible One Flame, the aspects of the one eternal
Spirit, have each the power of action on one of the manifested planes of
existence—the gradual differentiations from the one unmanifested plane—on
that plane namely to which it properly belongs. Our earth affording every
Mâyâvic condition, it follows that the purified Egotistical Principle, the
astral and personal Self of an Adept, though forming in reality one
integral whole with its Highest Self (Âtmâ and Buddhi) may, nevertheless,
for purposes of universal mercy and benevolence, so separate itself from
its divine Monad as to lead on this plane of illusion and temporary being
a distinct independent conscious life of its own under a borrowed illusive
shape, thus serving at one and the same time a double purpose: the
exhaustion of its own individual Karma, and the saving of millions of
human beings less favoured than itself from the effects of mental
blindness. If asked: “When the change described as the passage of a Buddha
or a Jîvanmukta into Nirvâna takes place, where does the original
consciousness which animated the body continue to reside—in the Nirvânî or
in the subsequent reincarnations of the latter’s ‘remains’ (the
Nirmânakâya)?” the answer is that _imprisoned_ consciousness may be a
“certain knowledge from observation and experience,” as Gibbon puts it,
but _disembodied_ consciousness is not an effect, but a cause. It is a
part of the whole, or rather a Ray on the graduated scale of its
manifested activity, of the one all‐pervading, limitless Flame, the
reflections of which alone can differentiate; and, as such, consciousness
is ubiquitous, and can be neither localized nor centred on or in any
particular subject, nor can it be limited. Its effects alone pertain to
the region of matter, for thought is an energy that affects matter in
various ways, but consciousness _per se_, as understood and explained by
Occult philosophy, is the highest quality of the sentient spiritual
principle in us, the Divine Soul (or Buddhi) and our Higher Ego, and does
not belong to the plane of materiality. After the death of the physical
man, if he be an Initiate, it becomes transformed from a human quality
into the independent principle itself; the conscious Ego becoming
Consciousness _per se_ without any Ego, in the sense that the latter can
no longer be limited or conditioned by the senses, or even by space or
time. Therefore it is capable, without separating itself from or
abandoning its possessor, Buddhi, of reflecting itself at the same time in
its astral man that was, without being under any necessity for localizing
itself. This is shown at a far lower stage in our dreams. For if
consciousness can display activity during our visions, and while the body
and its material brain are fast asleep—and if even during those visions it
is all but ubiquitous—how much greater must be its power when entirely
free from, and having no more connection with, our physical brain.