The Mental Body and Mind
(Manas)

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Summary: A collection of statements by the Tibetan


     "The soul, in relation to the human being, is the mind principle in two capacities, or the mind expressing itself in two ways. These two ways are registered and become part of the organized equipment of the human body when it is adequately refined and sufficiently developed:
1. The lower concrete mind, the mental body, the "chitta" or mind stuff.

2. The higher spiritual or abstract mind.
     These two aspects of the soul, its two basic qualities, bring into being the human kingdom and enable man to contact both the lower kingdoms in nature and the higher spiritual realities. The first, the quality of mind in its lower manifestation, is owned potentially by every atom in every form in every kingdom in nature. It is a part of the body of nature, inherent and potential, and is the basis of brotherhood, of absolute unity, of universal synthesis and divine coherence in manifestation. The other, the higher aspect, is the principle of self-awareness, and when combined with the lower aspect produces the self-consciousness of the human being. When the lower aspect has informed and pervaded the forms in the subhuman kingdoms, and when it has worked upon those forms and their latent sentiency so as to produce adequate refinement and sentiency, the vibration becomes so potent that the higher is attracted and there is a fusion or at-one-ing. This is like a higher recapitulation of the initial union of spirit and matter which brought the world into being. A human soul is thus brought into existence and begins its long career. It is now a differentiated entity." ( Esoteric Psychology, Vol. I, p. 54/5)

     "The three personality types of energy are the etheric body, which is the vehicle of vital energy, the astral body which is the vehicle of the feeling energy or sentient force, and the mental body which is the vehicle of the intelligent energy of will that is destined to be the dominant creative aspect." ( Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, p. 8)

     "Manas has been defined as mind, or that faculty of logical deduction and reasoning, and of rational activity that distinguishes man from the animals. Yet it is something much more than that, for it underlies all manifestation, and the very shape of an ameoba, and the discriminative faculty of the lowest atom or cell, is actuated by mind of some kind or another . . . The fire of mind is fundamentally electricity, shown in its higher workings." ( A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 310)

     "Love is the great unifier, the prime attractive impulse, cosmic and microcosmic, but the mind is the main creative factor and the utilizer of the energies of the cosmos. Love attracts, but the mind attracts, repels and coordinates, so that its potency is inconceivable . . . The race is progressing into an era wherein men will function as minds; when intelligence will be stronger than desire, and when thought powers will be used for appeal and for guidance of the world, as now physical and emotional means are employed." ( A Treatise on White Magic, p. 125)

     "The developed man, with an integrated personality, gradually brings the etheric body under control of mental energy, and his physical plane activity is not then so much implemented by instinct or desire, as by thought energy, dedicated to and expressing the nature of the man's plan." ( Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. I, p. 699)

     "The mind creates or formulates those thought-forms (or embodied energies) which express, upon the mental plane, the measure of the disciple's understanding of the Plan, and his ability to convey the embodied mental energy to the etheric body -- unimpeded by the emotional nature or by any upsurging desire." ( Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. I, p. 698/9)

     "A thought-form is the result of two types of energy:

     That emanating in the first instance from the Ego [Soul] on abstract levels.
     That emanating in a secondary sense from the man on the physical plane through the medium of the brain." ( A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 958)

     "In all thought building . . . men have several things to do, which might be enumerated as follows:
     . . . To purify their lower desires, so that they are enabled to see clearly in the occult sense . . . An ability to lose sight of self-interest in group-interest, and thus co-operate with the plan. . . . To secure control over the mind . . . An ability, gradually developed once the mind is brought under control through concentration, to meditate in the occult sense, and thus bring through the plan from higher levels, (and) ascertain his individual share in the plan. . . . Finally, having constructed a thought-form, the next thing the servant of humanity has to learn is how to send it on its mission. . . . The average man is often the victim of his own thought-forms. He constructs them, but he is neither strong enough to send them out to do their work, nor wise enough to dissipate them when required." ( A Treatis on Cosmic Fire, p. 955/6)
 

     "Much that is to be seen now of a distressing nature in the world can be directly traced to the wrong manipulation of mental matter by man.
     The selfishness, the sordid motives, the prompt response to evil impulses for which the human race has been distinguished, has brought about a condition of affairs unparalleled in the system. A gigantic thought-form hovers over the entire human family, built by men everywhere during the ages, energised by the insane desires and evil inclinations of all that is worst in man's nature, and kept alive by the promptings of his lower desires. This thought-form has to be broken up and dissipated by man himself." ( A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 947/8)
 

     "Facing each earnest aspirant to the Mysteries, is the vitalized form which he himself constructed and nourished during the course of his previous incarnations, and which represents the sumtotal of his desires, motives and thoughts." ( A treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 953)

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