VI. The Planetary Life - A Center in the Solar System

We shall now endeavor to apply whatever knowledge is available to you at this time in relation to the planetary Life, expressing itself as a center in the solar system. We shall also study its secondary expression through the medium of three major centers: Shamballa, the Hierarchy, and Humanity.

The fundamental concept of hylozoism underlies all the esoteric teaching upon the theme of manifesting life. All forms are composed of many forms, and all forms - aggregated or single in nature - are the expression of an indwelling or ensouling life. The fusion of life with living substance produces another aspect of expression: that of consciousness. This consciousness varies according to the natural receptivity of the form, according to its point in evolution, and to its position also in the great chain of Hierarchy.

However, dwarfing every other concept, is the concept of life itself. There is - as far as we have ever been permitted to know - only one Life, expressing itself as Being, as responsive consciousness, and as material appearance. That One Life knows itself (if such a term can be used) as the will-to-be, the will-to-good, and the will-to-know. It will be obvious to you that these are only terms or methods organized to convey a better picture than heretofore.

This is also a brief preamble to another statement, which can be worded as follows: The planetary Logos, the One in Whom we live and move and have our being, is the informing, ensouling life of this planet, the Earth; it is His life which integrates the planet as a whole, and His life which pours through all forms - great or small - which, [183] in their aggregate, constitute the planetary form. Preserve, therefore, in your conscious imagination and by means of the innate symbol-making faculty which all men possess, the concept of our planet as a great lotus composed of many interweaving energies, located within the greater form of the solar system which is, as we know, esoterically portrayed as a twelve-petalled lotus. This lotus, the Earth, is responsive to the many entering energies with which I dealt at some length in my book upon Esoteric Astrology. (A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. III.)

At the heart of this vast sea of energies is to be found that cosmic Consciousness to Whom we give the name of Sanat Kumara, the Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days. It is His Will-to-Be which brought His manifested form into the tangible arena of life; it is His Will-to-Good which activates the Law of Evolution and carries His Form, with the myriad lesser forms of which it is composed, on to the ultimate glory which He alone visions and knows. It is His consciousness and His sensitive response to all forms and to all states of being and to all possible impacts and contacts which guarantees the developing consciousness of all the many lives within or upon this Earth of ours.

This great Center of Existence works through a triangle of energies or through lesser centers, each of which is brought into active expression by one of the three major Rays or Energies. The Center which is created by the Ray of Will or Power is called Shamballa and its major activity is bequeathing, distributing and circulating the basic principle of life itself to every form which is held within the planetary ring-pass-not of the planetary Life or Logos. This energy is the dynamic incentive at the heart of every form and the sustained expression of the intention of Sanat Kumara - an intention working out as the planetary Purpose which is known only to Him. [184]