Section 7

At the end of the devachanic period the mind body will hand on to the permanent causal body the character- istics thus fashioned, that they may be carried on into the next incarnation. These faculties, as the man re- turns, will clothe themselves in the matter of the rupa planes of the mind world, forming the more highly or- ganized and developed mind body for the coming earth life, and they will show themselves through the astral and physical bodies as the ' ' innate faculties, ' ' those with which the child comes into the world. During the pres- ent life we are gathering together materials in the way which I have sketched; during the devachanic life we work up these materials, changing them from separate efforts of thought into faculty of thought, into mental powers and activities. That is the immense change made during the devachanic life, and inasmuch as it is limited by the use we are making of the earth-life, we shall do well to spare no efforts now. The mind body of the next incarnation depends on the work we are doing in the mind body of the present ; here is then the immense im- portance to the evolution of the man of the use which he is now making of his mind body ; it limits his activities
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in Devachan, and by limiting those activities it limits the mental qualities with which he will return for his next life upon earth. We cannot isolate one life from another, nor miraculously create something out of noth- ing. Karma brings the harvest according to our sowing ; scanty or plentiful is the crop as the laborer gives seed and tillage.
The automatic action of the mind body, spoken of above, may perliaps be better understood if we consider the nature of the materials on which it draws for its building. TJie T'uiversal Mind, to which it is allied in its inmost nature, is the storehouse in its material aspect from which it draws these materials. They give rise to every kind of vibration, varying in quality and in power according to the combinations made. The mind body automatically draws to itself from the general storehouse matter that can maintain the combinations already existing in it, for there is a constant changing of particles in the mind body as in the physical, and the place of those which leave is taken by similar particles that come. If the man finds that he has evil tendencies and sets to work to change them, he sets up a new set of vibrations, and the mind body, moulded to respond to the old ones, resists the new, and there is conflict and suffering. But gradually, as the. older particles are thrown out and are replaced by others that answer to the new \'il3rations — being attracted from outside by their very ]>ower to respond to them — the mind body changes its cliaracter, changes, in fact, its materials, and its vibrations become antagonistic to the evil and attrac-
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tive to the good. Hence the extreme difficulty of the first efforts, met and combated by the old form-aspect of the Diind ; hence the increasing ease of right thinking as the old form changes, and finally, the spontaneity and the pleasure that accompany the new exercise.
Another way of helping the growth of the mind body is the practice of concentration ; that is, the fixing of the mind on a point and holding it there firmly, not allowing it to drift or wander. We should train our- selves in thinking steadily and consecutively, not al- lowing our minds to run suddenly from one thing to an- other, nor to fritter their energies away over a large numbe]' of insignificant thoughts. It is a good practice to follow a consecutive line of reasoning, in which one thought grows naturally out of the thought that went before it, thus gradually developing in ourselves the in- tellectual qualities which make our thoughts sequential and therefore essentially rational; for when the mind thus works, thought following thought in definite and orderly succession, it is strengthening itself as an in- strument of the Self for activity in the mind world. This development of the power of thinking with con- centration and sequence will show itself in a more clearly outlined and definite mind body, in a rapidly increasing growth, in steadiness and balance, the efforts being well repaid by the progress which results from them.
(&) The Causal Body. — Let us now pass on to the second mind body, known by its own distinctive name of causal body. The name is due to the fact that all the causes reside in this bodv which manifest themselves as
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effects on the lower planes. This body is the "body of of Manas, ' ' the form-aspect of the individual, of the true man. It is the receptacle, the storehouse, in which all the man's treasures are stored for eternity, and it grows as the lower nature hands up more and more that is worthy to be built into its structure. The causal body is that into which everything is woven which can endure, and in which are stored the germs of every quality, to be carried over to the next incarnation ; thus the lower manifestations depend wholly on the growth and de- velopment of this man for ''whom the hour never strikes. ' '
The causal body, it is said above, is the form-aspect of the individual. Dealing, as we do here, only with the present human cycle, we may say that until that comes into existence there is no man; there may be the physi- cal and etheric tabernacles prepared for his habitation; passions, emotions, and appetites may gradually be gathered to form the kamic nature in the astral body; but there is not man until the growth through the physi- cal and astral planes has been accomplished, and until the matter of the mind world is beginning to show it- self within the evolved lower bodies. When, by the pow- er of the Self preparing its own habitation, the matter of the mind plane begins slowly to evolve, then there is a downpouring from the great ocean of Atma-Buddhi which is ever brooding over the evolution of man — and this, as it were, meets the upward-growing, unfolding mind stuff, comes into union with it, fertilizes it, and at that point of union the causal body, the individual, is
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formed. Those who are able to see in those lofty regions say that this form-aspect of the true man is like a deli- cate film of subtlest matter, just visible, marking where the individual begins his separate life ; that delicate, colorless film of subtle matter is the body that lasts through the whole of the human evolution, the thread on which all the lives are strung, the re -incarnating Sutratma, the ''thread-self." It is the receptacle of all which is in accordance with the Law, of every attribute which is noble and harmonious and therefore enduring. It is that which marks the growth of man, the stage of evolution to which he has attained. Every great and noble thought, every pure and lofty emotion, is carried up and worked into his substance.
Let us take the life of an ordinary man and try to see how much of that life will pass upwards for the building of the causal body, and let us imagine it pic- torially as a delicate film ; it is to be strengthened, to be made beautiful with color, made active with life, made radiant and glorious, increasing in size as the man grows and develops. At a low stage of evolution he is not showing much mental quality, but rather he is manifest- ing much passion, much appetite. He feels sensations and seeks them; they are the things to which he turns. It is as though this inner life of the man put forth a little of the delicate matter of which it is composed, and round that the mind body gathers; and the mind body puts forth into the astral world, and there comes into contact with the astral body, and becomes connected with it, so that a bridge is formed along which anything
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capable of passing can pass. The man sends his thoughts downwards by this bridge into the world of sensations, of passions, of animal life, and the thoughts intermingle with all of these animal passions and emotions ; thus the mind body becomes entangled with the astral body, and they adhere to each other and are difficult to separate when the time of death comes. But if the man, during the life which he is spending in these lower regions, has an unselfish thought, a thought of service to some one he loves, and makes some sacrifice in order to do service to his friend, he has then set up something that is able to endure, something that is able to live, something that has in it the nature of the higher world ; that can pass up- wards to the causal body and be worked into its sub- stance, making it more beautiful, giving it, perhaps, its first touch of intensity of color; perhaps all through the man's life there will only be a few of these things that are able to endure, to serve as food for the growth of the real man. So the growth is very slow, for all the rest of his life does not aid it; all his evil tendencies, born of ignorance and fed by exercise, have their germs drawn inward and thrown into latency as the astral body which gave them home and form is dissipated in the astral world; they are drawn inward into the mind body and lie latent there, lacking material for expres- sion in the ^devachanic world ; when the mind body in its turn perishes, the}^ are drawn into the causal body, and there still lie latent, as in suspended animation. They are thrown outwards as the Ego, returning to earth-life, reaches the astral world, reappearing there as evil ten-
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dencies brought over from the past. Thus the causal body may be spoken of as the storehouse of evil as well as good, being all that remains of the man after the lower vehicles are dissipated, but the good is worked in- to its texture and aids its growth, while the evil, with the exception noted below, remains as germ.
But the evil which a man works in life, when he puts into execution his thought, does more injury to the causal bod}^ than merely to lie latent in it, as the germ of future sin and sorrow. It is not only that the evil does not help the growth of the true man, but where it is subtle and persistent it drags away, if the expression may be permitted, something of the individual himself. If vice be persistent, if evil be continually followed, the mind body becomes so entangled with the astral that after death it cannot free itself entirely, and some of its very substance is torn away f]*om it, and when the astral dis- sipates this goes back to the mind stuff of the mind world and is lost to the individual ; in this way, if we think again of our image of a film, or bubble, it may be to some extent thinned by vicious living — not only de- layed in its progress, but something wrought upon it which makes it more difficult to build into. It is as though the film were in some way affected as to capacity of growth, sterilized or atrophied to some extent. Be- yond this, in ordinary cases, the harm wrought to the causal body does not go.
But where the Ego has become strong both in in- tellect and will without at the same time increasing in unselfishness and love, where it contracts itself round its
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own separated centre instead of expanding as it grows, building a wall of selfishness around it and using its developing powers for the "I" instead of for the all; in such cases arises the possibility alluded to in so many of the world-scriptures, of more dangerous and ingrained evil, of the Ego setting itself consciously against the Law, of fighting deliberately against evolution. Then the causal body itself, wrought on by vibrations on the men- tal plane of intellect and will, but both turned to selfish ends, shows the dark hues which result from contraction, and loses the dazzling radiance which is its characteris- tic property. Such harm cannot be worked by a poorly developed Ego nor by ordinary passional or mental faults ; to effect injury so far reaching the Ego must be highly evolved, and must have its energies potent on the manasic plane. Therefore is it that ambition, pride, and the powers of the intellect used for selfish aims are so far more dangerous, so far more deadly in their effects, than the more palpable faults of the lower nature, and the ''Pharisee" is often further from the "kingdom of God" than ''the publican and the sinner." Along this line is developed the "black magician," the man who conquers passion and desire, develops will and the higher powers of the mind, not to gladly offer them as forces to help forward the evolution of the whole, but in order to grasp all he can for himself as unit, to hold and not to share. These set themselves to maintain separation as against unity, they strive to retard instead of to quicken evolution ; therefore they vibrate in discord with the whole instead of in harmony, and are in danger of
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that rending of the Ego which means the loss of all the fi'uits of evolution.
All of us who are beginning to understand some- thing of this causal body can make its evolution a defi- nite object in our life ; we can strive to think unselfishly and so contribute to its growth and activity. Life after life, century after century, millennium after millennium, this evolution of the individual proceeds, and in aiding its growth by conscious effort we are working in har- mony with the divine will, and carrying out the purpose for which we are here. Nothing good that is once woven into the texture of this causal body is ever lost, nothing is dissipated ; for this is the man that lives for ever.
Thus we see that by the law of evolution everything that is evil, however strong for the time it may seem, has within itself the germ of its own destruction, while everything that is good has in it the seed of immortality ; the secret of this lies in the fact that everything evil is inharmonious, that it sets itself against the kosmic law; it is therefore sooner or later broken up by that law, dashed into pieces against it, crushed into dust. Every- thing that is good, on the other hand, being in harmony with the law, is taken on by it, carried forward; it be- comes part of the stream of evolution, of that **not our- selves which makes for righteousness," and therefore it can never perish, can never be destroyed. Here lies not only the hope of man but the certainty of his final triumph; however slow the growth, it is there; however long the way, it has its ending. The individual which is our Self is evolving, and cannot now be utterly de-
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stroyed; even though by our folly we may make the growth slower than it need be, none the less everything we contribute to it, however little, lasts in it for ever, and is our possession for all the ages that lie in front.
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Other Bodies.
We may rise one step further, but in doing so we enter a region so lofty it is well-nigh beyond our tread- ing, even in imagination. For the causal body itself is not the highest, and the ''Spiritual Ego" is not Manas, but Manas united to, merged in, Buddhi. This is the culmination of the human evolution, the end of the revo- lution on the wheel of births and deaths. Above the plane with which we have been dealing lies a yet higher, sometimes called that of Turiya, the plane of Buddhi.* Here the vehicle of consciousness is the spiritual body, the Anandamayakosha, or body of bliss, and into this Yogis can pass, and in it taste the eternal bliss of that glorious world, and realize in their own consciousness the underlying unity which then becomes to them a fact of experience and no longer only an intellectual belief. We may read of a time that comes to the man when he has grown in love, wisdom, and power, and when he passes through a great gateway, marking a distinct stage in his evolution. It is the gateway of Initiation, and the man led through it by his Master rises for the first time into the spiritual body, and experiences in it the unity which underlies all the diversity of the physical world and all its separateness, which underlies the sep- arateness of the astral plane and even of the mental region. When these are left behind and the man,
* This plane has also been called that of Sushupti. See Manuals iv. and v.
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clothed in the spiritual body, rises beyond them, he then finds for the first time in his experience that separate- ness belongs only to the three lower worlds; that he is one with all others, and that, without losing self-con- sciousness, his consciousness can expand to embrace the consciousness of others, can become verily and indeed one with them. There is the unity after which man is always yearning, the unity he has felt as true and has vainly tried to realize on lower planes ; there it is realiz- ed beyond his loftiest dreamings, and all humanity is found to be one with his innermost Self.