We now pick up the story of the soul and its vehicles at the point where the period of life on the causal plane ends, and it’s time for a fresh incarnation to be undertaken.
It is important to note that when the soul withdraws into the causal envelope, it takes with it its physical and emotional permanent atoms, as well as its mental unit or molecule. These particles of matter, one from each of the three lower planes, remain with the soul throughout all of its human incarnations. While they are withdrawn into the causal envelope, they are in a quiescent or latent condition.
When the time for reincarnation comes, the soul turns its attention outwards, and a surge of life emanates from it, awakening the mental unit and initiating the unfolding of the life-web. This life-web is made of Unity (46) matter and appears as a shimmering gold of inconceivable fineness and delicate beauty. It is formed of a single thread, which is an extension of the Sutratma or Life Thread. However, I cannot delve into further details about these matters here; I hope to address them in the next series.
Consider this: if most of us are unconscious in our causal envelope once we reach it, how do we know it is time to turn our gaze outwards into the lower planes of matter again? We don’t. It is our solar devas that know when it is time for us to begin the journey back to Earth. They have to match up our astrological chart to match the influences that were in play when we died. Our journey through the 4th Kingdom of Nature is one continuous play. We walk off the stage between acts and scenery changes. Our solar devas are also the ones who choose where we are to incarnate and what gender we should be to maximise the experience we are about to encounter. They need to do this while at the same time coordinating with a host of other solar devas, who are also preparing their charges to come into incarnation. This has to be done so that we meet the right people we need to interact with for our own growth as well as to transmute our karma. Speaking of karma, that is another group of monads, the Lipika Lords that also need to be consulted with regards to where we go and what tools we have at our disposal. Woven into this is family, racial group and planetary karma. This requires an amazing feat of coordination. To think that the returning soul could do this by itself whilst being unconscious is clearly not feasible.
OK, so we have now woken up. What next? The mental unit, otherwise known as the permanent mental molecule, resumes activity because the soul seeks to express itself once more on the lower mental plane, as far as the plasticity of its matter will permit.
Accordingly, the mental unit acts as a magnet, attracting mental matter and elemental essence that have vibratory powers resembling its own, allowing it to express its latent mental qualities. The process is somewhat automatic, although devas of the Second Elemental Kingdom assist by bringing suitable materials within reach of the mental unit.
The material is first shaped into a loose cloud around the mental unit. It is not yet a mental envelope but simply the materials from which the new mental envelope will be built. At this point, these qualities are not yet in action. They are simply the potential for certain characteristics. Currently, their only impact is to ensure that there is a suitable environment for them to develop and be expressed in the child’s mind.
The germs or seeds brought over from the past are known by the Buddhists as the Skandhas. They consist of material qualities, sensations, abstract ideas, tendencies of the mind, and mental powers. As we have seen in the course of our study, the pure essence of these seeds passed with the Soul into Devachan. All that was gross, base, and evil remained in a state of suspended animation. These are taken up by the Soul as it passes outwards towards terrestrial life and is built into the new “person of flesh”, which the “true person” is to inhabit.
The experiences of the past no longer exist as mental images in the new mental envelope. They perished long ago when the old mental envelope perished. Only their essence and effects on the faculty remain.
The same process occurs when the soul focuses on the emotional permanent atom and directs its will into it. This causes the mental unit (47:4) and the emotional permanent atom (48:1) to draw in material that can create mental and emotional envelopes that are identical to the ones the person had at the end of their last mental and emotional lives. Essentially, the person picks up their life in the mental and emotional worlds right where they left off last time.
A person’s mental and emotional bodies, acquired for their new life period, are the direct result of their past, and they form a crucial part of a person’s “ripe” or Prarabda karma.
The mental substance is initially evenly distributed throughout the ovoid. Only when the physical form emerges does the mental and emotional substance become attracted to it; they then start to shape themselves to match its form and gradually develop alongside it. Simultaneously, with this reorganisation, the mental and emotional substance becomes active, and both emotion and thought come into existence.
It should be noted that the coarser the types of mental substance incorporated into the mental sheath, the stronger the connection between mental and emotional substance, thus enhancing the Kama-Manas element, a topic we have discussed in previous presentations.
A young child cannot be said to have a definite mental or emotional envelope, but they have the matter out of which these bodies are constructed, both around and within them.
The person possesses various tendencies, some good and some evil. Whether these tendencies will reappear in the new life depends largely on the encouragement or lack of encouragement given to them by the child’s surroundings during their early years. Any of these tendencies, whether good or bad, can be easily stimulated into activity or, on the other hand, can be suppressed due to lack of encouragement.
When stimulated, the soul becomes a more powerful influence in a person’s life than it was in their previous existence. If neglected, it remains an undeveloped seed that eventually withers and dies and does not reappear in the next lifetime. In the early years, the soul has little control over a person’s actions, and so they rely on their parents to help them gain a stronger understanding and to provide suitable conditions. This places a great responsibility on parents.
The flexibility of a child’s developing mind and emotions is highly notable. Just as the physical body is pliable in youth, so are the emotional and mental aspects of a child. They react to and absorb every influence around them, whether positive or negative. Similar to the physical body, the mental and emotional aspects are easily shaped in early life but can become rigid and resistant to change as habits become established. To a much larger extent than many parents realise, they have control over their child’s future.
If we can imagine our friends with all their good qualities enormously intensified, and all the less desirable features weeded out of their characters, then we can picture the results that parents can produce in their children if they do their full duty by them.
The soul’s extraordinary sensitivity to its surroundings begins when it descends upon the embryo, long before birth, and often continues until maturity.
The mental envelope, or the material from which the mental envelope is built, becomes connected with the lower vehicles during prenatal life. This connection becomes closer and closer until, at around the end of the seventh year, the lower vehicles are as closely in touch with the soul as the stage of evolution allows. If the soul is sufficiently advanced, it begins to have a slight control over its vehicles, with what we call conscience being its guiding voice.
We have got to the point where the soul has built out its mental and emotional envelopes and is preparing to make contact with the foetus residing in its mother’s womb. As has been discussed in previous presentations, the organ that the monad is about to inhabit is not a principal part of its envelopes of incarnation. The development of the foetus has been carried out by a separate group of devas, based on a template initially sketched by the solar devas but then modified by the Lords of Karma and the Lords of Destiny. Your guardian angels are always going to try and get the best deal for you. They want to expand your consciousness. However, our past comes to haunt us, and we have to right the wrongs we have inflicted on others and our environment. The sooner we realise this, as individuals and collectively, the faster we are going to pass through the 4th Kingdom of Nature, the Human Kingdom and enter a new state of being, as 2nd Selves, where we are nice to one another as a core part of our being.
Let us continue the story of rebirth in the next presentation.