EVOLUTION: some basic ideas from Theosophy  by Frank Walter 

Evolution is such a wide-ranging doctrine that it covers all others in Theosophy. It’s governed by karma and in a way it is karma.  Let’s see what Encyclopaedia Britannica says about evolution. I quote: “A natural history of the cosmos, including organic beings, expressed in physical terms as a mechanical process”, and we couldn’t have anything very much further from the theosophical explanation of evolution. It doesn’t go very far in agreement with our teaching.  It stops at the area of matter and it ignores other trains of evolution. There are many other such ‘trains’, mainly the psychical and the spiritual. But Encyclopaedia Britannica doesn’t mention these other aspects of evolution at all.  In Theosophy on the other hand, the ‘lower’, or more material, grows into the ‘higher, or more spiritual, on all these planes. The planes themselves coexist by interpenetration. The only implication of their differences is where the self-consciousness of the individual is located. That is the only way you can differentiate from one plane or another. Most peoples’ consciousness is now on the physical plane, and we are conscious of it, all around, all of the time during our waking hours. We’re not conscious of the other planes of the universe most of the time.   Consider the etymology of the word “evolution”. It starts with a verb, an action word, a karma word, ‘to evolve’, that is the action word with which all begins. It’s from the Latin “evolvere”, to unroll, to unwrap, to bring out from within. From the action word we look for the recite word, the noun, “evolution”, and that is what I’m talking about. We are today expressing ourselves in English, an Indo-European language which takes us back to the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit. It becomes obvious that the teachings related to spiritual aspects of evolution are incredibly old. It goes right back to the beginning of things. Evolution is the oldest doctrine of mankind, it tells for what purpose we are here, the nearest word I have found, in Sanskrit, to evolution, is ‘Pavriti’. This word is closely linked to ‘Nivriti’  which is involution, the two go together. If with evolution something is unrolling - coming forth. Remember that nature abhors a vacuum, if something is going forth something must be going back! Something must be going back at the same time and that is involution.  Another Sanskrit word, very closely connected, is Svabhava. Svabhava is “character or qualities” that we bring with us as reincarnating egos at rebirth. Our svabhava goes back into recess while we have a bigger sleep, a longer sleep, than usual, at life’s end, but it waits as a potential of the next life. It’s held in abeyance. Svabhava has another meaning when it’s analysed. Svabhava is the becoming the self, the higher self, the word literally means “self-becoming”. Now that is the individuality as compared with the personality. That word “potential” is very ‘potent’ as a thought because in evolution it is the potential that is unrolled, and brought forth. We’re a microcosm of the macrocosm, we are parts of the whole. The part cannot be greater than the whole but it does contain the potential of the whole. In the Jewish mystical book, The Kabala, it says that the stone becomes a plant, the plant a beast, the beast a man, and the man a god, logically the stone becomes a god. How come? It takes place in steps because it had that potential, right from the beginning. 

At the risk of tiring you I would like to revert to my favourite reporter’s adverbs, those are the words “who”, “what”, “why”, “when”, “where”, and “how”.  

Who or What evolves? Absolutely everything evolves, the all evolves. From realms below the atom to realms to beyond the visible cosmos.  

Why does it evolve? Because growth and progress is the opportunity given us by nature. To be static is to be going nowhere but where we are now is an acute vibration. I would remind you that we are now in ‘Kali Yuga’, that is the Black Age, the Iron Age, the age where we have greater opportunity than any other age to improve ourselves, quickly. Please see the article: What is the Kali Yuga? http://www.theosophydownunder.org/ifensterl.php?newsletter.php  for a detailed explanation of Kali Yuga. To evolve is why we are here, karma will see that we avoid, or evade, nothing. 

When do we evolve? During those periods of time required and provided by karma. It will be during a cycle and remember that a cycle never returns to the exact point of its departure. It forms a spiral and finishes slightly away from the starting-point. I wouldn’t say up or down, but it’s away, it’s not just where it started from. There would be no point in going round and round in a complete circle we would learn nothing that way! 

Where. Where do we evolve? Whatever plane that our consciousness is centred upon at the time. At present we’re on the physical plane. In vast ages to come we shall function on the plane of mind. Still later, untold millions of years hence we will reach the spiritual plane. 

How will we evolve. Evolution is a dual process. It needs  involution as well. Which came first? That is the chicken and the egg all over again. Or perhaps, examining both sides of a coin is a more apt analogy. Which is the obverse and which is the reverse? Evolution and involution are two names for two phases of the same procedure. We unwind the potential and then it’s wound up again - ever onwards and upwards. You may have noticed that I have not at any time mentioned Charles Darwin, but I assure you that I have the greatest admiration for the work he did for science, so meticulous, so patient, and under such discomfort, hardship, and even danger. However, although popularly associated with evolution he doesn’t use the word himself, not in my copy of The Origin of Species, it’s not in his index, he doesn’t mention it as a chapter-heading, Darwin just doesn’t use the word! His publisher does, because a lot of his contemporaries took his ideas and adapted them to their own conceptions. But that is another matter altogether, that is not the evolution of which I am speaking.  So since this lecture has been about the ancient doctrine of evolution in the spiritual sense, it did not seem necessary to bring in Transformism. That was a French term used by Lamarck and was never intended to represent evolution. Well, I found a loose form “specialisation”, that is the giraffe having a long neck, the elephant having a tail at both ends, well one’s his trunk and the other one is his vanity-case I suppose! Or “accretion”, now there’s another word that is sometimes used, and by accretion we mean building-bricks, brick upon brick, like a house. That is not evolution in the sense I have in mind.  

I have tried to give you a basic introduction to the theosophical definition of evolution. Everything evolves, but most important to us now, is the human monad – spiritual self and we as human monads are evolving. For those interested in a deeper explanation of spiritual evolution, please see Evolution and Creation: a Theosophic Synthesis by Will Thackara available at: http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sunrise/52-02-3/sc-wtst3.htm 

The text is from a lecture delivered at a meeting of the Theosophical Society (Pasadena) in Melbourne, Australia. The views expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Theosophical Society (Pasadena). 

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