LAYA STATE!

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THEOSOPHY, Vol. 46, No. 8, June, 1958

(Pages 362-365; Size: 13K)

 

THE LAYA STATE(1)

 

LAYA is the point of matter where every differentiation has ceased.

The term is Sanskrit, from the root Li, " to dissolve, to

disintegrate, " a point of equilibrium (zero-point) in physics and

chemistry. In Occultism Laya is the point where substance becomes

homogeneous and is unable to act or differentiate. The chemist goes to

the laya or zero-point of the plane of matter with which he deals, and

then stops short. The physicist or the astronomer counts by billions

of miles beyond the nebulae, and then they also stop short. The

semi-initiated Occultist will represent this laya-point to himself as

existing on some plane which, if not physical, is still conceivable to

the human intellect. But the full Initiate knows that the ring

" Pass-Not " is neither a locality nor can it be measured by distance,

but that it exists in the absoluteness of infinity. In this " Infinity "

of the full Initiate there is neither height, breadth nor thickness,

but all is fathomless profundity, reaching down from the physical to

the " para-para-metaphysical. " In using the word " down " essential depth

-- " nowhere and everywhere " -- is meant, not depth of physical matter.

 

Whatsoever quits the laya state, becomes active life. It is drawn into

the vortex of MOTION (the alchemical solvent of Life); Spirit and

Matter are the two states of the ONE, which is neither Spirit nor

Matter, both being the absolute life, latent. The old Initiates knew

of no " miraculous creation, " but taught the evolution of atoms (on our

physical plane), and their first differentiation from laya into the

.... primordial substance beyond the zero line: there where we place

Mulaprakriti, the " root-Principle " of the world stuff and of all in

the world. Wherever there is an atom of matter, a particle or a

molecule, even in its most gaseous condition, there is life in it,

however latent and unconscious.

 

Modern science is secure only in its own domain and region, within the

physical boundaries of our solar system, beyond which everything,

every particle of matter, is different from the matter it knows; which

matter exists in states of which science can form no idea. That

matter, which is truly homogeneous, is beyond human perceptions, if

perception is tied down merely to the five senses. We feel its effects

through those INTELLIGENCES which are the results of its primeval

differentiations, whom we name Dhyan Chohans ... the Building Powers.

That matter, the real primordial substance, the noumenon of all the

matter we know of, even some of the astronomers have been led to

believe in, and to despair of the possibility of ever accounting for

rotation, gravitation, and the origin of any mechanical, physical laws

-- unless those Intelligences be admitted by Science. From the Unknown

One, the infinite TOTALITY, the manifested ONE, or the periodical,

manvantaric Deity, emanates; and this is the Universal Mind which,

separated at its Fountain-Source ... represents in its totality the

Hosts of the higher creative Dhyan Chohans. Moreover, in occult

metaphysics there are, properly speaking two " ONES " -- the One on the

unreachable plane of Absoluteness and Infinity, on which no

speculation is possible, and the second " One " on the plane of

Emanations. The Second ... emanates from itself the seven Rays or

Dhyan Chohans. In other words, the homogeneous becomes the

heterogeneous, the " Protyle " differentiated into the Elements. But

these, unless they return into their primal Element, can never cross

beyond the Laya, or zero-point.

 

The Worlds, including our own, were of course, as germs, primarily

evolved from the ONE Element, in its second stage -- ( " Father-Mother, "

the differentiated World's Soul, not what is termed the " Over-Soul " by

Emerson), whether we call it, with modern science, Cosmic dust and

Fire Mist, or with Occultism -- Akasha, Jivatma, divine Astral Light,

or the " Soul of the World. " No world, as no heavenly body, could be

constructed on the objective plane, had not the Elements been

sufficiently differentiated already from their primeval Ilus, resting

in Laya. The latter term is not a synonym of Nirvana. It is, in fact,

the Nirvanic dissociation of all the substances, merged after a

life-cycle into the latency of their primary conditions. Our Kosmos

and Nature will run down only to reappear on a more perfect plane

after every Pralaya. The LAW for the birth, growth, and decay of

everything in Kosmos, from the Sun to the glow-worm in the grass, is

ONE. Substance, or that which is substance to our spiritual sight ...

exists everywhere and forms the first Upadhi (foundation) on which our

solar system is built. Outside the solar system it is to be found in

its pristine purity only between the stars of the Universe, the worlds

already formed and forming; those (worlds) in laya resting meanwhile

in the bosom of Substance.

 

The " imperishable Laya Centres " have a great importance, and their

meaning must be fully understood if we would have a clear conception

of the Archaic Cosmogony, whose theories have now passed into

Occultism. At present, one thing may be stated. The worlds are built

neither upon, nor over, nor in the Laya centres, the zero-point being

a condition, not any mathematical point. It may serve to elucidate the

meaning if we attempt to imagine a neutral centre -- the dream of

those who would discover perpetual motion. A " neutral centre " is in

one aspect the limiting point of any given set of senses. Thus,

imagine two consecutive planes of matter as already formed, each of

these corresponding to an appropriate set of perceptive organs. We are

forced to admit that between these two planes of matter an incessant

circulation takes place; and if we follow the atoms and molecules of

(say) the lower in their transformation upwards, these will come to a

point where they pass altogether beyond the range of the faculties we

are using on the lower plane. In fact, to us the matter of the lower

plane there vanishes from our perception into nothing -- or rather it

passes on to the higher plane, and the state of matter corresponding

to such a point of transition must certainly possess special and not

readily discernible properties.

 

The seven laya centres are the seven zero-points, using the term Zero

in the sense that chemists do, to indicate a point at which, in

esotericism, the scale of reckoning of differentiation begins. From

the Centres, beyond which esoteric philosophy allows us to perceive

the dim metaphysical outlines of the " Seven Sons " of Life and Light,

the Seven Logoi of the Hermetic and all other philosophers, begins the

differentiation of the elements which enter into the constitution of

the solar system. When Fohat is said to produce Seven Laya Centres, it

means that for formative or creative purposes, the GREAT LAW (Theists

may call it God) stops, or rather modifies its perpetual motion on

seven invisible points within the area of the manifested Universe.

" The Great Breath digs through Space seven holes into Laya to cause

them to circumgyrate during Manvantara " (Occult Catechism). We have

said that Laya is what Science may call the zero-point or line. It is

the realm of absolute negativeness, or the one real absolute Force,

the NOUMENON of the Seventh State of that which we ignorantly call and

recognize as " Force. " Or again, Laya is the noumenon of

undifferentiated Cosmic Substance which is itself unreachable and

unknowable to finite perception; the root and basis of all states of

objectivity and subjectivity too; the neutral axis, not one of the

many aspects, but its centre.

 

When a planet dies, its informing principles are transferred to a laya

or sleeping centre, with potential but latent energy in it, which is

thus awakened into life and begins to inform itself into a new

sidereal body. In the same way the " Monads " or Egos of the men of the

seventh Round of our Earth, after the globes of our planetary chain,

parting with their life-energy, will have informed and thereby called

to life other laya centres destined to live and act on a still higher

plane of being -- in the same way will the Terrene " Ancestors " create

those (future Races) which will become their superiors. The assertion

that all the worlds (Stars, planets, etc.) -- as soon as a nucleus of

primordial substance in the laya (undifferentiated) state is informed

by the freed principles of a just deceased sidereal body -- become

first comets, and then Suns to cool down to inhabitable worlds, is a

teaching as old as the Rishees.

 

The circle and the point, diagrammatically, form the symbol of the

sun, the life-centre of the particular spot of the Kosmos in which we

find ourselves. The circle is the sphere, and the point its focal

centre or laya-point, the Eye of Osiris, the lens, the window in the

Ark of Life as it floats on the waters of Space and looks upward to

the Creative Light of the firmament above (within). The sun as a

cosmic and radiant centre is a laya-point which forms the gateway

between the inner Space, which to us is dark and unknown, and this

outer space which is filled with those radiant vibrations that we

partly see or feel, which are built into the circling globes, and the

myriad forms that people them; the phenomenal vibrations we call

light, heat, electricity, etc. But as the " Root of Life is in every

drop of the Ocean of Immortality, " the symbol of the sun applies to

each life-centre, however small, to every cell in animal or vegetable

life, to every radiant life-point in both the Microcosm and the

Macrocosm. The term " point " must not be understood as applying to any

particular point in Space, for a germ exists in the centre of every

atom. ... The lotus-seed contains within itself a perfect miniature of

the future plant, which typifies the fact that the spiritual

prototypes of all things exist in the immaterial world before those

things become materialised on earth.

 

Everyone knows what the Caduceus is, already modified by the Greeks.

The original symbol -- with the triple head of the serpent -- became

altered into a rod with a knob, and the two lower heads were

separated, thus disfiguring somewhat the original meaning. Yet it is

as good an illustration as can be for our purpose, this laya rod

entwined by two serpents. Verily the wonderful powers of the magic

caduceus were sung by all the ancient poets, with a very good reason

for those who understood the secret meaning.