We ended the previous presentation by noticing that people who focused their gaze in the direction of materiality had few opportunities to connect with the matter that exists in the Mental World. Those whose interests lay in the arts, music and philosophy would end endless opportunities to expand their consciousness. Let us continue to look at other groups of people. Remember, we are now looking at the Mental World as the last rest-stop on our journey back to our causal envelope after our latest incarnation.
A significant number of people primarily think about love and devotion. When someone deeply loves another person or feels a strong devotion to a deity, they create a strong mental image of that person or deity. This mental image naturally belongs in the Mental World. Now, I will share an important and interesting result. The love that creates and maintains an image is a powerful force, strong enough to reach and influence the friend’s higher mental plane monad, which is the true essence of the person being loved, not just their physical body. When the friend’s monad senses this love, it eagerly responds and merges with the thought form created for them, making the friend truly present with the person in a more impactful way than ever before. It doesn’t matter whether the friend is alive or deceased. The connection is made with the person themselves at their true level, not just with their physical presence. The essence always responds so a person with many friends can fully respond to each of them simultaneously. The number of friends one can connect with is limitless, much like social media on steroids! In the afterlife, each person is surrounded by the enlivened thought forms of all the friends they desire to be with. These thought forms are always the best version of the person, as they are created by the individual themselves.
In the limited Physical World, we tend to think of our friends as only the restricted version that we know on the physical plane. However, in the heavenly world, we are much closer to the true essence of our friends than we ever were on earth, as we are two stages, or planes, nearer to the home of their core being. There is a significant difference between life after death on the mental plane and life on the emotional plane. On the emotional plane, we encounter our friends during the sleep of their physical bodies, in their emotional forms; in other words, we are still interacting with their personalities. On the mental plane, however, we do not encounter our friends in the mental bodies they used on Earth. Instead, their core beings create entirely new and distinct mental vehicles, and the consciousness of their core beings works through these mental vehicles rather than the consciousness of their personalities. The mental plane activities of our friends are thus entirely separate in every way from the personalities of their physical lives. That could be a relief or a shock!
Therefore, any sorrow or trouble that may affect the living person’s personality cannot impact the thought form used by their monad as an additional mental layer. Even if they were aware of the personality’s sorrow or trouble, it wouldn’t trouble them, as they would perceive it from the perspective of the monad in the causal envelope. That is, they would see it as a lesson to be learned or as karma to be resolved. From this perspective, there is no delusion. On the other hand, it is the lower personality that is deluded, as what it perceives as troubles or sorrows are simply steps on the path of upward evolution for the real person in the causal envelope.
We also observe that a person in Devachan is not conscious of the personal lives of their friends on the physical plane. The mechanical reason for this has already been fully explained. There are also other equally compelling reasons for this arrangement. It would be impossible for a person in Devachan to be happy if they looked back and saw those whom they loved in sorrow, suffering, or engaging in sinful activities.
In Devachan, there is no separation due to space or time as we experience it on Plane 49. There can be no misunderstandings of words or thoughts. Instead, there is a much closer connection between souls than was ever possible during earthly life. On the mental plane, there is no barrier between souls. The extent to which soul life is real in us determines the depth of soul connection in Devachan. The soul of our friend exists in the form we have created and to the extent that their soul and ours can resonate in harmony. We can have no connection with those with whom the ties on earth were only of the physical and emotional bodies, or if they and we were in conflict in the inner life. Therefore, in devachan, no enemy can enter, because only a sympathetic accord of mind and heart can bring people together in the heaven-world. With those who are more evolved than us, we interact to the extent we can understand them; with those who are less advanced, we communicate to the best of their ability.
The student should remember that after death, the Desire-Elemental rearranges the emotional envelope into concentric layers of matter, with the densest layer on the outside. This confines the person to a specific sub-plane of the Emotional World based on the matter in the outermost layer of their emotional envelope. Unlike the Desire-Elemental, the Mental Elemental does not act in the same manner on the mental plane
There is another important difference between emotional and mental life. On the mental plane, a person is not required to pass through the various levels in sequence but is drawn directly to the level that best corresponds to their degree of development. They then spend their entire life in the mental envelope at that level. The varieties of this life are infinite, as each person creates their own experience.
In Devachan, the heaven world, all the valuable moral and mental experiences of the individual during their past life are reflected upon, contemplated, and gradually transformed into specific moral and mental abilities. These abilities will accompany them into their next reincarnation. The individual does not retain the actual memories of their past life within their mental envelope, as this envelope will eventually disintegrate. The memories of the past are only retained within the individual who has lived through them and will endure. However, the experiences from the past are transformed into capacities. For example, if an individual has deeply studied a subject, the effects of that study will manifest as a special ability to learn and master that subject in their next life. They will be born with a natural aptitude for that particular field of study, making it easier for them to absorb knowledge in that area. This is where Mozart got his head start. In Devachan, all thoughts and aspirations are utilised, with every aspiration being transformed into strength. Any past struggles and defeats become tools for future victory, while sorrows and errors are transformed into valuable components of wise and well-directed decisions. In Devachan, plans for benevolence that were hindered in the past due to a lack of power and skill are imagined and acted out step by step, resulting in the development of the necessary power and skill as mental abilities to be used in their next life on earth.
In devachan, as a Master has said, the monad collects “only the nectar of moral qualities and consciousness from every terrestrial personality”. It is worth remembering that what is not nectar is a bitter pill we have yet to swallow. Those “pills” are stored in our two permanent atoms and one permanent molecule. They reside there in our subconscious and surface expectedly or unexpectedly for us to deal with, hopefully, when we are able to resolve the issues that those pills release.
During the devachanic period, the monad reviews its store of experiences, which are the result of the previous earth-life. It separates and classifies these experiences, assimilating what is useful and rejecting what is no longer needed. Just as a worker cannot always be gathering materials and never using them to create goods, or a person cannot always be eating food and never digesting and assimilating it to build up their body, the monad cannot always be fully engaged in earth-life. Devachan, except for a very few individuals, is an absolute necessity in the grand scheme of things.
An incomplete understanding of the true nature of devachan has occasionally caused people to believe that the life of an ordinary person in the lower heaven-world (47:4-7) is merely a dream and an illusion. They mistakenly think that when such a person envisions themselves as happy with family and friends, or achieving success and joy, it is all just a cruel delusion. The idea originates from a misunderstanding of what actually constitutes reality, as far as we can ever comprehend it, and from a flawed perspective. It’s important to remember that most people are unaware of the full extent of their mental life, even when it is happening within their consciousness. Therefore, when they are presented with a depiction of mental life outside of their consciousness, they lose all sense of reality and feel as though they have entered a dream world. The truth, however, is that physical life does not compare favourably with life in the mental world in terms of reality.