Let us continue to examine the principles of life after death and introduce a few terms often used in esoteric texts. These terms have Sanskrit names, as early writers on this subject in the West had to source their initial knowledge from a culture that had a much better understanding of the whole process of life and death and what followed it.
The condition of life referred to in the previous presentation is Kamaloka, which means the place or world of Kama or desire. We have referred to this as the Emotional World, but it is a subset of this Emotional World. We discussed how their transition to the Emotional World can disorientate a monad. Yet others seem to know where they are going and easily waltz off and find their place in this world. Kamaloka needs to be examined as an environment unique to itself. In general terms, Kamaloka is a region populated by intelligent and semi-intelligent entities. It is crowded with many types and forms of living things, as diverse from each other as a blade of grass is different from a tiger, and a tiger is different from a person. This means that many other entities are living there besides deceased human beings. The Emotional World interpenetrates the physical world and is interpenetrated by it. However, as the states of matter in the two worlds differ, they coexist without the entities of either world being conscious of those of the other. Only under abnormal circumstances can consciousness of each other’s presence arise among the inhabitants of the two worlds.
Kamaloka is thus not divided off as a distinct locality but is separated from the rest of the emotional plane by the conditions of consciousness of the entities which belong to it, these entities being human beings who have shaken off the dense and etheric bodies but who have not yet disentangled themselves from Kama, i.e., the passional and emotional nature. This state is also called Pretaloka. A preta is a human being who has lost their physical body but is still saddled with the vesture of their animal nature. The Kamalokic condition is found on each sub-division of the emotional plane.
Many who die are at first in a condition of considerable uneasiness and others of absolute terror. When they encounter the thought forms that they and their kind have for centuries been making – thoughts of a personal devil, an angry and cruel deity and eternal punishment – they are often reduced to a sad state of fear. They may spend long periods of acute mental suffering before they can free themselves from the fatal influence of such foolish and utterly false conceptions. It ought, however, in fairness, to mention that it is only among what are called Protestant communities that this terrible evil assumes its most aggravated form. The Roman Catholic Church, with its doctrine of purgatory, approaches a more accurate representation of the actual concepts of the emotional plane and its devout members, at any rate, realise that the state in which they find themselves shortly after death is merely a temporary one. It is their business to raise themselves out of it through intense spiritual aspiration. At the same time, they accept any suffering that may come to them as necessary to wear away the imperfections in their character before they can pass to higher and brighter spheres. This is a very Christian perspective. I am sure the Hindus or Buddhists prepare for this transition in ways that allow their devotees to cope with the situation better than Protestants potentially do. Some religious traditions, including some Christians, all of Islam and the Jews, believe they are buried and have to wait for some “saviour” to return, blow a trumpet and release them from their grave to await judgment. These “soul” must also be confused when they find nothing has changed in their “lives”, yet everything has changed.
Although humanity should have been taught by their religion what to expect and how to live on the emotional plane, in most cases, this still needs to be done. Consequently, a good deal of explanation is needed regarding the new world they find themselves in. But, after death, precisely as before it, few attain an intelligent appreciation of evolution and, by understanding something of their position, know how to make the best of it. Today, large numbers of people, both “living” and “dead”, are engaged in looking after and helping those who have died in ignorance of the fundamental nature of the after-death life. Unfortunately, however, on the emotional plane, as on the physical, the ignorant are rarely ready to profit from the advice or example of the wise.
To a person who has already acquainted themselves with the actual conditions of life on the emotional plane before they die physically, one of the most pleasant characteristics of that life is its restfulness and complete freedom from those dominant necessities, such as eating and drinking, which burden physical life. On the emotional plane, people are free to do whatever they like and spend their time accordingly.
As already indicated, a person who has died physically is steadily withdrawing into themself. The whole cycle of life and death may be likened to an ellipse, of which only the lowest portion passes into the physical world. During the cycle’s first portion, the monad puts itself into matter. The central point of the curve should be a middle point in physical life when the force of the monad has expanded its outward rush and turns to begin the long process of withdrawal. This withdrawal of life force is what makes your hair turn grey. Thus, each physical incarnation may be regarded as a putting of the monad, whose temporary habitat is the higher part of the mental plane (47:1-3), outwards into the lower planes. The monad puts the persona out as though it were an investment and expects its investment to draw back added experience, which will develop new qualities. These are added to the store of memories, of lessons learnt, in the casual envelope.
The portion of the life after death spent on the emotional plane is, therefore, a distinct period of the overall withdrawal of the monad back towards the casual envelope. During the latter part of the physical life, the person’s thoughts and interests should be less and less directed towards merely physical matters. Similarly, during the time spent in the emotional life, the person should pay less and less attention to the lower emotional matter, out of which counterparts of physical objects are composed. The “departed soul” should occupy itself with the higher matter, out of which desire – and thought forms are made. It is not so much that the person has changed their location in space (though this is partially true), as they have moved the centre of their interest. Remember, what moves through the planes of matter is consciousness. Hence, the counterpart of the physical world, which they have left, gradually fades from their view, and their life becomes increasingly a life in the world of thought. The monad’s desires and emotions persist, and consequently, owing to the readiness with which emotional matter obeys the monad’s desires and thoughts, the forms surrounding it will be essentially the expression of its feelings, the nature of which mainly determines whether the monad’s life is one of happiness or discomfort. It is worth reiterating that in using the term “monad”, we are referring to the evolution of consciousness of the 1st Self as it experiences the joys and sorrows of the 1st Triad.
Although we are not dealing in this series of presentations with that portion of the life after death, which is spent in the “heaven-world”, i.e., on the mental plane (47:4-7), nevertheless, to understand altogether what is happening to the emotional body on the emotional plane, it is helpful to bear in mind that the emotional life is essentially an intermediate stage in the whole cycle of life and death; a preparation for the life on the mental plane. We will get to that life in the next series of presentations.
As we have seen, soon after physical death, the emotional body is set free: expressed from the point of view of consciousness, Kama-Manas, the desire-mind, is set free. From this, that portion of lower manas, which is not inextricably entangled with Kama, gradually frees itself, taking with it those portions of its experience as is fit for assimilation by the higher mental body, otherwise known as the causal envelope (47:1-3). Meanwhile, that portion of the lower manas or mind, which remains entangled with Kama or emotions, gives the emotional body a somewhat confused consciousness, a broken memory of life’s events just closed. If the emotions and passions are strong and the mental element weak, the emotional body will be strongly energised and will persist for a considerable time on the emotional plane. It will also show a significant amount of consciousness due to the mental matter entangled with it. On the other hand, if material life had just closed and was characterised by mentality and purity rather than passion, the emotional body would have been poorly energised. It will be a pale representation of the monad and will disintegrate and perish comparatively rapidly.
With that encouraging thought in mind, we will leave it there for today and resume next with a detailed look at life after death.