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    "num": 6,
    "slug": "05-chapter-ii-of-their-generation-and-of-their-impor",
    "title": "Chapter II. of their generation and of their impor-",
    "of": 12,
    "words": 6292,
    "text": "## Chapter II. of their generation and of their impor-\n\ntance may be repeated of those of the mental plane,\n\n114 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nwith here the additional responsibility on their cre-\nators of the greater force and permanence belonging\nto those of this higher world. The elemental es-\nsence of the mental plane is formed by the Monad\nin the stage of its descent immediately preceding its\nentrance into the astral world, and it constitutes\nthe second elemental kingdom, existing on the four\nlower subdivisions of the mental plane. The three\nhigher subdivisions, the \" formless,\" are occupied by\nthe first elemental kingdom, the elemental essence\nthere being thrown by thought into brilliant coixis-\ncations, colored streams, and flashes of living fire,,\ninstead of into definite shapes, taking as it were its\nfirst lessons in combined action, but not yet assum-\ning definite limitations of forms.\n\nOn the mental plane, in both its great divisions,\nexist numberless Intelligences, whose lowest bodies\nare formed of the luminous matter and elemental\nessence of the plane — Shining Ones who guide the\nprocesses of natural order, overlooking the hosts of\nlower entities before spoken of, and yielding sub-\nmission in their several hierarchies to their great\noverlords of the seven Elements.* They are, as\nmay readily be imagined, beings of vast knowledge,\nof great power, and most splendid in appearance,\nradiant, flashing creatures, myriad-hued, like rain-\nbows of changing supernal colors, of stateliest im-\n\n* These are the Arupa and Riipa Devas of the Hindus and\nthe Buddhists, the \" Lords of the heavenly and the earthly\" of\nthe Zoroastrians, the Archangels and Angels of the Christians\nand Mahommedans.\n\n\"invisible helpers.\" 115\n\npenal mien, calm energy incarnate, embodiments of\nresistless strength. 'The description of the great\nChristian Seer leaps to the mind, when he wrote of\na mighty angel : \" A rainbow was upon his head, and\nhis face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pil-\nlars of fire.\" * \" As the sound of many waters\" are\ntheir voices, as echoes from the music of the spheres.\nThey guide natural order, and rule the vast compa-\nnies of the elementals of the astral world, so that\ntheir cohorts carry on ceaselessly the processes of\nNature with undeviating regularity and accuracy.\n\nOn the lower mental plane are seen many chelas\nat work in their mental bodies, f freed for the time\nfrom their physical vestures. When the body is\nwrapped in deep sleep the true man, the Thinker,\nmay escape from it, and work imtrammelled by its\nweight in these higher regions. From here he can\naid and comfort his fellow-men by acting directly on\ntheir minds, suggesting helpful thoughts, putting\nbefore them noble ideas, more effectively and speed-\nily than he can do when encased in the body. He\ncan see their needs more clearly and therefore can\nsupply them more perfectly, and it is his highest\nprivilege and joy thus to minister to his struggling\nbrothers, without their knowledge of his service or\nany idea of theirs as to the strong arm that lifts\ntheir burden, or the soft voice that whispers solace\nin their pain. Unseen, unrecognized, he works,\n\n* Revelation^ x. i.\n\nf Usually called the May^vl Rupa. or iUusory body, when\narranged for independent functioning in the mental world.\n\nit6 the ancient wtsdom.\n\nserving his enemies as gladly and as freely as his\nfriends, dispensing to individuals the stream of be-\nneficent forces that are poured down from the great\nHelpers in higher spheres. Here also are some-\ntimes seen the glorious figures of the Masters,\nthough for the most part They reside on the highest\nlevel of the \" formless\" division of the mental plane ;\nand other Great Ones may also sometimes come\nhither on some mission of compassion requiring such\nlower manifestation.\n\nCommunication between intelligences functioning\nconsciously on this plane, whether human or non-\nhuman, whether in or out of the body, is practically\ninstantaneous, for it is with \" the speed of thought. \"\nBarriers of space have here no power to divide, and\nany soul can come into touch with any one by merely\ndirecting his attention to him. Not only is com-\nmunication thus swift, but it is also complete, if the\nsouls are at about the same stage of evolution ; no\nwords fetter and obstruct the communion, but the\nwhole thought iiashes from the one to the other, or,\nperhaps more exactly, eacli sees the thought as con-\nceived by the other. The real barriers between\nsouls are the differences of evolution; the less\nevolved can know only as much of the more highh-\nevolved as he is able to respond to ; the limitation\ncan obviously be felt only by the higher one, as the\nlesser has all that he can contain. The more evolved\na soul, tire more does he know of all around him, the\nnearer does he approach to realities; but the mental\n])lane has also its veils of illusion, it must be remem-\n\nALL WORLt)S ARE HERE. ttj^\n\nbered, though they be far fewer and thinner than\nthose of the astral and the physical worlds. Each\nsoul has its own mental atmosphere, and, as all im-\npressions must come through this atmosphere, they\nare all distorted and colored. The clearer and purer\nthe atmosphere, and the less it is colored by the per-\nsonality, the fewer are the illusions that can befall it.\nThe three highest subdivisions of the mental\nplane are the habitat of the Thinker himself, and he\ndwells on one or other of these, according to the\nstage of his evolution. The vast majority live' on\nthe lowest level, in various stages of evolution; a\ncomparatively few of the highly intellectual dwell\non the second level, the Thinker ascending thither\n— to use a phrase more suitable to the physical than\nto the mental plane — when the subtler matter of\nthat region preponderates in him, and thus necessi-\ntates the change; there is, of course, no \"ascend-\ning,\" no change of place, but he receives the vibra-\ntions of that subtler matter, being able to respond\nto them, and he himself is able to send out forces\nthat throw its rare particles into vibration. The\nstudent should familiarize himself with the fact that\nrising in the scale of evolution does not move him\nfrom place to place, but renders him more and more\nable to receive impressions. Every sphere is around\nus^ the astral, the mental, the buddhic, the nirvanic,\nand worlds higher yet, the life of the supreme God ;\nwe need not stir to find them, for they are here; but\nour dull unreceptivity shuts them out more effec*\nlively than millions of miles of mere space. We are\n\nIi8\n\n1.NCIENT WISDOM.\n\nconscious only of that which afEects us, which stirs\nns to responsive vibration, and as we become more\nand more receptive, as we draw into ourselves finer\nand finer matter, we come into contact with subtler\nand subtler worlds. Hence, rising from one level\nto another means that we arc weaving our vestures\nof finer materials and can receive through them the\ncontrasts of finer worlds ; and it means further that\nin the Self within these vestiires diviner powers are\nwaking from latency into activity, and are sending\nout their subtler thrills of life.\n\nAt the stage now reached by the Thinker, he is\nfully conscious of his surroundings and is in posses-\nsion of the memory of his past. He knows the bod-\nies he is wearhig, through which he is contacting\nthe lower planes, and he is able to influence and\nguide them to a great extent. He sees the difficul-\nties, the obstacles, they are approaching— the results\nof past careless living — and he sets himself to pour\ninto them energies by which they may be better\nequipped for their task. His direction is sometimes\nfelt in the lower consciousness as an imperiously\ncompelling force that will have its way, and that im-\npels to a course of action for which all the reasons\nmay not be clear to the dimmer vision caused by the\nmental and astral garments. Men who have done\ngreat deeds have occasionally l^ft on record their\nconsciousness of an inner uplifting and compelling\npower, which seemed to leave them no choice save\nto do as they had done. They were then acting as\nthe real men ; the Thinkers that are the inner men,\n\n« r«T,r. ,T^^ A ^ » ,,T. >»\n\nTHE IDEA CAME. 11$\n\nwere doing the work consciously through the bodies\nthat then were fulfilling their proper functions as\nvehicles of the individual. To these high poweris\nall will come as evolution proceeds.\n\nOn the third level of the upper region of the men-\ntal plane dwell the Egos of the Masters, and of the\nInitiates who are Their chelas, the Thinkers having\nhere a preponderance of the matter of this region\nin their bodies. From this world of subtlest mental\nforces the Masters carry on Their beneficent work\nfor humanity, raining down noble ideals, inspiring\nthoughts, devotional aspirations, streams of spiritual\nand intellectual help for men. Every force there\ngenerated rays out in myriad directions, and the\nnoblest, purest souls catch most readily these help-\nful influences. A discovery flashes into the mind of\nthe patient searcher into Nature's secrets; a new\nmelody entrances the ear of a great musician ; the\nanswer to a long-studied problem illumines the in-\ntellect of a lofty philosopher; a new energy of hope\nand love suffuses the heart of an unwearied phil-\nanthropist. Yet men think that they are left un-\ncared for, although the very phrases they use : \" the\nthought occurred to me,\" \"the idea came to me,\"\n•* the discovery flashed on me,\" unconsciously testify\nto the truth known to their inner selves though the\nouter eyes be blind.\n\nLet us now turn to the study of the Thinker and\nhis vesture as they are found in men on earth. The\nbody of the consciousness, conditioning it in the four\nlower subdivisions of the mental plane — the mental\n\nlio\n\nTHE AXCIEN'T '\n\nbody, as we tenn it — is formed of combinations of\nthe matter of these subdivisions. The Thinker, the\nindividual, the Human Soul — formed in the way de^\nscribed in the latter part of this chapter — when he\nis coming into incarnation, first radiates forth some\nof his energy in vibrations that attract round him,\nand clothe him in, matter drawn from the four lower\nBubdivisi'jns of his own plane. According to the\nnature oi the vibrations are the kinds of matter they\nattract; tne finer kinds answer the swifter vibrations\nand take form under their impulse; the coe\nkinds similarly answer the slower ones ; just as a wire\nwill sympathetically sound out a note— ?,c., a given\nnumber of vibrations — coming from a wire similar\nin weight and tension to itself, but will remain dumb\namid a chorus of notes from wires dissimilar to itself\nin these respects, so do the different kinds of matter\nassort themselves -a answer to different kinds of\nbrations. Exactly according to the vibrations sent\nout by the Thinker wil! be the nature of the mental\nbody that he thus draws around him, and this men-\ntal body is what is called the lower mind, the lower\nManas, because it is the Thinker clothed in the mat-\nter of the lower subdivisions of the mental plane\nand conditioned by it m his further working. None\nof his energies which are too subtle to move this\nmatter, too swift for its response, can express them-\nselves through it ; he is therefore limited by it,\nditioned by it, restricted by it in his expression of\nhimself. It is the first of his prison-houses during\nhis incarnate life, and while his energies are acting\n\nMtNt) And feeltn6. trit\n\nwithin it he is largely shut off from his own higher\nworld, for his attention is with the outgoing ener-\ngies and his life is thrown with them into the\nmental body, often spoken of as a vesture, or sheath,\ncr vehicle — any expression will serve which con-\nnotes the idea that the Thinker is not the mental\nbody, but formed it and uses it in order to express\nas much of himself as he can in the lower mental\nregion. It must not be forgotten that his energies,\nstill pulsing outwards, draw round him also the\ncoarser matter of the astral plane as his astral body ;\nand during his incarnate life the energies that ex-\npress themselves through the lower kinds of mental\nmatter are so readily changed by it into the slower\nvibrations that are responded to by astral matter\nthat the two bodies are continually vibrating to-\ngether, and become very closely interwoven; the\ncoarser the kinds of matter built into the mental\nbody, the more intimate becomes this union, so that\nthe two bodies are sometimes classed together and\neven taken as one.* When we come to study Re-\nincarnation we shall find this fact assuming vital\nimportance.\n\nAccording to the stage of evolution reached by\n\n* Thus the Theosopbist will speak of Ktoa-Manas, meaning\n^he mind as working in and with the desire-nature, affecting\nand affected by the animal nature. The Vedftntiii classes the\ntwo together, and speaks of the Self as working in the mano-\nmayakosha, the sheath composed of the lower mind, emotions,\nand passions. The European psychologist makes \"feelings*\none section of his tripartite division of \"mind,\" and includes\nunder feelings both emotions and sensations.\n\n1^^ Tiife Ai^ClENT WISDOM.\n\nthe man will be the type of mental body he forma\non his way to become again incarnate, and we may\nstudy, as we did with the astral body, the respective\nmental bodies of three types of men — (a) an un-\ndeveloped man; (d) an average man; (c) a spirit-\nually advanced man.\n\n(a) In the undeveloped man the mental body is\nbut little perceptible, a small amount of unorganized\nmental matter, chiefly from the lowest subdivision\nof the plane, being all that represents it. This is\nplayed on almost entirely from the lower bodies,\nbeing set vibrating feebly by the astral storms raised\nby the contacts with material objects through the\nsense-organs. Except when stimulated by these as-\ntral vibrations it remains almost quiescent, and even\nunder their impulses its responses are sluggish. No\ndefinite activity is generated from within, these\nblows from the outer world being necessary to arouse\nany distinct response. The more violent the blows,\nthe better for the progress of the man, for each re-\nsponsive vibration aids in the embryonic develop-\nment of the mental body. Riotous pleasure, anger,\nrage, pain, terror, all these passions, causing whirl-\nwinds in the astral body, awaken faint vibrations in\nthe mental, and gradually these vibrations, stirring\ninto commencing activity the mental consciousness,\ncause it to add something of its own to the impres-\nsions made on it from without. We have seen that\nthe mental body is so closely mingled with the as-\ntral that they act as a single body, but the dawning\nmental faculties add to the astral passions a certain\n\nSfeNSfe AND iiiNt) PICTURES. t^^\n\nStrength and quality not apparent in them when\nthey work as purely animal qualities. The impres-\nsions made on the mental body are more permanent\nthan those made on the astral, and they are con-\nsciously reproduced by it. Here memory and the\norgan of imagination begin, and the latter gradually\nmoulds itself, the images from the outer world work-\ning on the matter of the mental body and forming\nits materials into their own likeness. These images,\nbom of the contacts of the senses, draw round them-\nselves the coarsest mental matter; the dawning pow-\ners of consciousness reproduce these images, and\nthus accumulate a store of pictures that begin to\nstimulate action initiated from within, from the\nwish to experience again through the outer organs\nthe vibrations that were found pleasant, and to avoid\nthose productive of pain. The mental body then\nbegins to stimulate the astral, and to arouse in it the\ndesires that, in the animal, slumber until awakened\nby a physical stimulus; hence we see in the unde-\nveloped man a persistent pursuit of sense-gratifi-\ncation never found in the lower animals, a lust, a\ncruelty, a calculation to which they are strangers.\nThe dawning powers of the mind, yoked to the ser-\nvice of the senses, make of man a far more danger-\nous and savage brute than any animal, and the\nstronger and more subtle forces inherent in the\nmental spirit-matter lend to the passion-nature an\nenergy and a keenness that we do not find in the\nanimal- world. But these very excesses lead to their\nown correction by the sufferings which they cause.\n\nTHt ANCIE\n\nI'lSDOM.\n\nand these resultant experiences play upon the con-\nsciousness and set up new images on which the im-\nagination works. These stimulate the consciousness\nto resist many of the vibrations that reach it by way^\nof the astral body from the external world, and\nexercise its volition in holding the passions back i\nstead of giving them free rein. Such resistant vi-\nbrations are set up in, and attract towards, the men-\ntal body, finer combinations of mind-stuff, and tend\nalso to expel from it the coarser combinations that .\nvibrate responsively to the passional notes set up in\nthe astral body; by this struggle between the vibra-\ntions set up by passion -images and the vibration*\nset up by the imaginative reproduction of past ex-\nperiences, the mental body grows, begins to develop\na definite organization, and to exercise more and\nmore initiative as regards external activities. While.\nthe earth-life is spent in gathering experiences, the\nintermediate life is spent in assimilating them,\nwe shall see in detail in the following chapter, so\nthat in each return to earth the Thinker has an\ncreased stock of faculties to take shape as his mentiU\nbody. Thus the imdeveloped man, whose mind is\nthe slave of his passions, grows into the average\nman, whose mind is a battleground in which pas-\nsions and mental powers wage war with varying,\nsuccess, about balanced in their forces, but who i»\ngradually gaining the mastery over his lower nature.\n(b) In the average man, the mental body is much\nincreased in size, shows a certain amouLit of orga-\nnization, and contains a fair proportion of mat\n\nEXERCISE AND DISUSE. 12$\n\ndrawn from the second, third, and fourth subdivi-\nsions of the mental plane. The general law which\nregulates all the building up and modifying of the\nmental body may here be fitly studied, though it is\nthe same principle already seen working in the\nlower realms of the astral and physical worlds. Ex-\nercise increases, disuse atrophies and finally de-\nstroys. Every vibration set up in the mental body\ncauses a change in its constituents, throwing out of\nit, in the part affected, the matter that cannot vi-\nbrate sympathetically, and replacing it by suitable\nmaterials drawn from the practically illimitable store\naround. The more a series of vibrations is repeated,\nthe more does the part affected by them increase in\ndevelopment; hence, it -may be noted in passing,\nthe injury done to the mental body by over-special-\nization of mental energies. Such mistaken direc-\ntion of these powers causes a lopsided development\nof the mental body; it becomes proportionately over-\ndeveloped in the region in which these forces are\ncontinually playing and proportionately undeveloped\nin other parts, perhaps equally important. A har-\nmonious and proportionate all-round development\nis the object to be sought, and for this are needed a\ncalm self-analysis and a definite direction of means\nto ends. A knowledge of this law further explains\ncertain familiar experiences, and affords a sure hope\nof progress. When a new study is commenced, or\na change in favor of high morality is initiated, the\nearly stages are found to be fraught with difficulties ;\n§ometitn^s th^ effort i? even abandoned because the\n\n126 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nobstacles in the way of its success appear to be in-\nsurmountable. At the beginning of any new men-\ntal undertaking, the whole automatism of the mental\nbody opposes i' ; the materials, habituated to vibrate\nin a particular way, cannot a''.ommodate themselves\nto the new impulses, and the early stage consists\nchiefly of sending out thrills rf force which are frus-\ntrated, so far as setting up vibrations in the mental\nbody are concerned, but which are the necessary\npreliininai-y to any such sympathetic vibrations, as\nthey shake out of the body .he old refractory mate-\nrials and draw into it the sympathetic kinds. Dur-\ning this process, the man is not conscious of any\nprogress; he is conscious only of the frustration of\nhis efforts and of the dull resistance he 'ncounters.\nPresently, if he persists, as the newly attracted\nmaterials begin to function, he succeeds better in\nhis attempts, and at last, when all the old materials\nare expelled and the new are working, he finds him-\nself succeeding without an effort, and his object is\naccomplished. The critical time is during the first\nstage; but if he trust in the law, as sure in its work-\ning as every other law in Nature, and persistently\nrepeat his efforts, he miisi succeed; and a knowledge\nof this fact may cheer Iiim when otherwise he would\nbe sinking in despair. In this way, then, the aver-\nage man may work on, finding with joy that as he\nsteadily resists the promptings of the lower nature-\nhe is conscious they are losing their power over him,\nfor he is expelling from his mental body all the\nmaterials that arc capable of being thrown by them\n\nA PERFEGTED MENTAL BODY. 127\n\ninto sympathetic vibrations. Thus the mental body\ngradually comes to be composed of the finer con-\nstituents of the four lower subdivisions of the men-\ntal plane, until it has become the radiant and ex-\nquisitely beautiful form which is the mental body\nof the\n\n{c) Spiritually developed man. From this body\nall the coarser combinations have been eliminated,\nso that the objects of the senses no longer find in it,\nor in the astral body connected with it, materials\nthat respond sympathetically to their vibrations. It\ncontains only the finer combinations belonging to\neach of the four subdivisions of the lower mental\nworld, and of these again the materials of the third\nand fourth subplanes very much predominate in its\ncomposition over the materials of the second and\nfirst, making it responsive to all the higher work-\nings of the intellect, to the delicate contacts of the\nhigher arts, to all the pure thrills of the loftier emo-\ntions. Such a body enables the Thinker who is\nclothed in it to express himself much more fully in\nthe lower mental region and in the astral and physi-\ncal worlds; its materials are capable of a far wider\nrange of responsive vibrations, and the impulses\nfrom a loftier realm mould it into nobler and subtler\norganization. Such a body is rapidly becoming\nready to reproduce every impulse from the Thinker\nwhich is capablo of expression on the lower sub-\ndivisions of the mental plane; it is growing into a\nperfect instrument for activities in this lower men-\ntal world.\n\n12S THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nA clear under standing of the nature of the mental\nbody would much modify modern education, and\nwould make it far more serviceable to the Thinker\nthan it is at present. The general characteristics of\nthis body depend on the past lives of the Thinker on\nearth, as will be thoroughly understood when we\nhave studied Reincarnation and Karma. The body\nis constituted on the mental plane, and its materials\ndepend on the qualities that the Thinker has gar-\nnered within himself as the results of his past ex-\nperiences. All that education can do is to provide\nsuch externa] stimuli as shall arouse and encourage\nthe growth of the usefiil faculties he already pos-\nsesses, and stunt and help in the eradication of those\nthat are undesirable. The drawing out of these in-\nborn faculties, and not the cramming of the mind\nwith facts, is the object of true education Nor\nneed memory be cultivated as a separate faculty,\nfor memory depends on attention — that is, on the\nsteady concentration of the mind on the subject\nstudied — and on the natural affinity between the\nsubject and the mmd. If the subject be liked — that\nis, if the mind has a capacity for it — memory will\nnot fail, provided due attention be paid. Therefore\neducation should cultivate the habit of steady con-\nv'^ntration, of sustained attention, and should be\ndirected according to the inborn faculties of the\npupil.\n\nLet us now pass into the \"formless\" divisions of\nthe mental plane, the region which is man's true\nhome during the cycle of his reincarnations, into\n\nTHE AURIC EGG. 1 29\n\nwhich he is bom, a baby soul, an infant Ego, an\nembryonic individuality, when he begins his purely\nhuman evolution. *\n\nThe outline of this Ego, thv; Thinker, is oval in\nshape, and hence H. P. Blavatsky speaks of this\nbody of Manas which endures throughout all his in-\ncarnations as the Auric Egg. Formed of the matter\nof the three highest subdivisions of the mental\nplane, it is exquisitely fine, a film of rarest subtlety,\neven at its first inception ; and, as it develops, it be-\ncomes a radiant object of supernal glory and beau-\nty, the shining One, as it has been aptly named, f\nWhat is this Thinker? He is the divine Self, as al-\nready said, limited, or individualized, by this subtle\nbody drawn from the materials of the ** formless\"\nregpion of the mental plane. J This matter — drawn\naround a ray of the Self, a living beam of the one\nLight and Life of the universe — shuts off this ray\nfrom its Source, so far as the external world is con-\ncerned, encloses it within a filmy shell of itself, and\nso makes it ** an individual.\" The life is the Life of\nthe LoGCs, but all the powers of that Life are lying\nlatent, concealed; everj^'thing is there potentially,\ngerminally, as the tree is hidden within the tiny\ngerm in the seed. This seed is dropped into the\n\n* See Chapters VII. and VIII., on \"Reincarnation.\"\n\nt This is the Augoiedes of the Neo-Platonists. the \" spiritual\noody* of S. Paul.\n\n* The Self, working in the Vignyinamayakosha, the sheath\nof discriminative knowledge, according to the Ved&ntic classiii<\ngation.\n\n130 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nsoil of human life that its latent forces may be\nquickened into activity by the sun of joy and the\nrain of tears, and be fed by the juices of the life-soil\nthat we call experience, until the germ grows into a\nmighty tree, the image of its generating Sire. Hu-\nman evolution is the evolution of the Thinker; he\ntakes on bodies on the Ibwer mental, the astral, and\nthe physical planes, wears them through earthly,\nastral, lower mental life, dropping them' successively\nat the regular stages of this life-cycle as he passes\nfrom world to world, but ever storing up within\nhimself the fruits he has gathered by their use on\neach plane. At first, as little conscious as a baby's\nearthly body, he almost slept through life after life,\ntill the experiences playing on him from without\nawakened some of his latent forces into activity;\nbut gradually he assumed more and more part in the\ndirection of his life, until, with manhood reached,\nhe took his life into his own hands, and an ever-\nincreasing control over his future destiny.\n\nThe growth of the permanent body which, with\nthe divine consciousness, forms the Thinker is ex*\ntremely slow. Its technical name is the causal body,\nbecause he gathers up within it the results of all ex-\nperiences, and these act as causes, moulding future\nlives. It is the only permanent one among the bod-\nies used during incarnation, the mental, astral and\nphysical bodies being reconstituted for each fresh\nlife ; as each perishes in turn, it hands on its harvest\nto the one above it, and thus all the harvests are\nfinally stored in the permanent body; when thf\n\nMATERIALS OF THE CAUSAL BaDY. I31\n\nThinker returns to incarnation, he sends out his en-\nergpies, constituted of these harvests, on each succes-\nsive plane, and thus draws round him new body\nafter body suitable to his past. The growth of the\ncausal body itself, as said, is very slow, for it can\nvibrate only in answer to impulses that can be ex-\npressed in the very subtle matter of which it is com-\nposed, thus weaving them into the texture of its\nbeing. Hence the passions, which play so large a\npart in the early stages of human evolution, cannot\ndirectly affect its growth. The Thinker can work\ninto himself only the experiences that can be repro-\nduced in the vibrations of the causal body, and these\nmust belong to the mental region, and be highly in-\ntellectual or loftily moral in their character; other-\nwise its subtle matter can give no sympathetic\nvibration in answer. A very little reflection will\nconvince any one how little material, suitable for the\ngrowth of this lofty body, he affords by his daily\nlife; hence the slowness of evolution, the little prog-\nress made. The Thinker should have more of him-\nself to put out in each successive life, and, when\nthis is the case, evolution goes swiftly forward.\nPersistence in evil courses reacts in a kind of in-\ndirect way on the causal body, and does more harm\nthan the mere retardation of growth ; it seems after\na long time to cause a certain incapacity to respond\nto the vibrations set up by the opposite good, and\nthus to delay growth for a considerable period after\nthe evil has been renounced. Directly to injure\nth^ causal body evil of a highly intellectual ^n4\n\n132 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nrefined kind is necessary, the \" spiritual evil\" men-\ntioned in the various Scriptures of the world. This\nis fortunately rare, rare as spiritual good, and found\nonly among the highly progressed, whether they be\nfollowing the Right-hand or the Left-hand Path. *\n\nThe habitat of the Thinker, of the Eternal Man, is\non the fifth subplane, the lowest level of the \" form-\nless*' region of the mental plane. The great masses\nof mankind are here, scarce yet awake, still in tne\ninfancy of their life. The Thinker develops con-\nsciousness slowly, as his energies, playing on the\nlower planes, there gather experience, which is in-\ndrawn with these energies as they return to him\ntreasure-laden with the harvest of a life. This Eter-\nnal Man, the individualized Self, is the actor in\nevery body that he wears; it is his presence that\ngives the feeling of \" I\" alike to body and mind, the\n\"I\" being that which is self-conscious and which,\nby illusion, identifies itself with that vehicle in which\nit is most actively energizing. To the man of the\nsenses the '* I** is the physical body and the desire-\nnature ; he draws from these his enjoyment, and he\nthinks of these as himself, for his life is in them.\nTo the scholar the \" I\" is the mind, for in its exer-\ncise lies his joy and therein his life is concentrated.\n\n* The Right-hand Path is that which leads to divine man-\nhood, to Adeptship used in the service of the worlds. Tha\nLeft-hand Path is that which also leads to Adeptship, but to\nAdeptship that is used to frustrate the progress of evolution\nand is turned to selfish individual ends. They are sometimes\n^all^d the White and Blapk Paths respectively.\n\nPew can rise to the abstract heights of spiritual\nphilosophy, and feel this Eternal Man as \"I,\" with\nmemory ranging back over past lives and hopes\nranging forward over future births. The physiolo-\ngists tell us that if we cut the finger we do not really\nfeel the pain there where the blood is flowing, but that\nthe pain is felt in the brain, and is by imagination\nthrown outwards to the place of injury ; the feeling of\npain in the finger is, they say an illusion; it is put by\nimagination at the point of contact with the object\ncausing the injury; so also will a man feel pain in\nan amputated limb, or rather in the soace the limb\nused to occupy. Similarly does the one \"I,\" the\nInner Man, feel suffering and joy in the sheaths\nwhich enwrap him, at the points of contact with the\nexternal world, and feels the sheath to be himself,\nknowing not that this feeling is an illusion, and that\nhe is the sole actor and experiencer in every sheath.\nLet us now consider, in this light, the relations\nbetween the higher and lower mind and their action\non the brain. The mind, Manas, the Thinker, is\none, and is the Self in the causal body; it is the\nsource of innumerable energies, of vibrations of in-\nnumerable kinds. These it sends out, raying out-\nwards from itself. The subtlest and finest of these\nare expressed in the matter of the causal body,\nwhich alone is fine enough to respond to them; they\nform what we call the Pure Reason, whose thoughts\nare abstract, whose method of gaining knowledge is\nintuition; its very \"nature is knowledge,\" and it\nrecoafnizes truth at sight as congruous with itself.\n\nTHE ANCIENT WJSboW.\n\nLess subtle vibrations pass outwards, attracting ttd\nmatter of the lower mental region, and these are the\nLower Manas, or lower mind — the coarser energies\nof the higher expressed in denser matter ; these we\ncau the intellect, comprising reason, judgment, im-\nagination, comparison, and the other mental facul-\nties; its thoughts are concrete, and its method is\nlogic; it argues, it reasons, it infers. These vibra-\ntions, acting through astral matter on the etheric\nbrain, and by that on the dense physical brain, set\nup vibrations therein, which are the heavy and slow\nreproductions of themselves — heavy and slow, be-\ncause the energies lose much of their swiftness in\nmoving the heavier matter. This feebleness of re-\nsponse when a vibration is initiated in a rare me-\ndium and then passes into a dense one is familiar to\nevery student of physics. Strike a bell in air and it\nsounds clearly; strike it in hydrogen, and let the\nhydrogen vibrations have to set up the atmospheric\nwaves, and how faint the result. Equally feeble\nare the workings of the brain in response to the\nswift and subtle impacts of the mind; yet that is all\nthat the vast majority know as their \" consciousness. \"\nThe immense importance of the mental workings\nof this \"consciousness\" is due to the fact that it is\nthe only medium whereby the Thinker can gather\nthe harvest of experience by which he grows. While\nit is dominated by the passions it runs riot, and he\nis left unnourished and therefore unable to develop;\nwhile it is occupied wholly in mental activities con-\ncerned with the outer world, it can arouse only his\n\ntHE THINKER AT WORK. 1 35\n\nlower energies ; only as he is able to impress on re\nthe true object of its life, does it commence to fulfil\nits most valuable functions of gathering what will\narouse and nourish his higher energies. As the\nThinker develops he becomes more and more con-\nscious of his own inherent powers, and also of the\nworkings of his energies on the lower planes, of the\nbodies which those energies have drawn around\nhim. He at last begins to try to influence them,\nusing his memory of the past to guide his will, and\nthese impressions we call \"conscience\" when they\ndeal with morals, and \"flashes of intuition\" when\nthey enlighten the intellect. When these impres-\nsions are continuous enough to be normal, we speak\nof their aggregate as \"genius.\" The higher evolu-\ntion of the Thinker is marked by his increasing\ncontrol over his lower vehicles, by their increasing\nsusceptibility to his influence, and their increasing\ncontributions to his growth. Those who would de-\nliberately aid in this evolution may do so by a care-\nful training of the lower mind and of the moral\ncharacter, by steady and well-directed effort. The\nhabit of quiet, sustained, and sequential thought,\ndirected to non-worldly subjects, of meditation, of\nstudy, develops the mind-body and renders it a bet-\nter instrument ; the effort to cultivate abstract think-\ning is also useful, as this raises the lower mind to-\nwards the higher, and draws into it the subtlest\nmaterials of the lower mental plane. In these and\ncognate ways all may actively co-operate in their\nown higher evolution, each step forward making the\n\n136 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nsucceeding steps more rapid. No eflEcrt, not even\nthe smallest, is lost, but is followed by its full effect,\nand every contribution gathered and handed inwards\nis stored in the treasure-house of the causal body for\nfuture use. Thus evolution, however slow and halt-\ning, is yet ever onf/ard,\", and the divine Life, ever\nunfolding in every soul, slowly subdues all things to\nitself.",
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