Today, we will take a look at causal thought. To recap, the mental plane is where the mind, or manas, operates within humans. This plane is divided into two parts: the higher part consists of three upper sub-planes, while the lower part consists of four lower sub-planes. These two divisions are referred to as arupa, meaning formless, and rupa, meaning having form. In humans, the Intellect uses the causal body for abstract thought, while the Mind uses the mental body for concrete thinking. The mind acquires knowledge by utilising the senses for observations. It works on its percepts and builds them into concepts. Its powers include attention, memory, reasoning by induction and deduction, imagination, and more.
The terms “arupa” and “rupa” denote a specific characteristic of the substance found in the mental plane. In the lower region of the mental plane, human thought can easily shape the substance into distinct forms. However, in the higher part of the mental plane, this does not happen. Instead, the more abstract thoughts at that level are perceived by clairvoyants as sudden flashes or streams.
On the arupa levels, the difference in the effect of thought is very noticeable, especially regarding the elemental essence. The disturbance caused by the matter of the plane is similar but much stronger in this more refined form of matter. However, in the elemental essence, no form is created at all, and the method of action is completely changed.
On the lower sub-planes, an elemental or thought form created there hovers around the person thought of, waiting for an opportunity to expend its energy on their mental, emotional, or even physical body. However, on the three higher sub-planes, the result is a lightning flash of the essence from the causal body of the thinker directly to the causal body of the object of their thought.
While on the lower sub-planes, our thoughts are focused on the mere personality. On the higher sub-planes, we influence the reincarnating soul, the real person. If the message is about the personality, it will reach that personality from above through the causal body. It must be fascinating to see the transition from an abstract or formless idea to a concrete or formed thought as the idea takes on the form of the four lower sub-planes.
Let’s consider the triangle as an example. Describing it in words, which belong to the planes of form, is challenging. The abstract idea of a triangle exists on the non-figure or formless levels. It represents a non-figure that is still a figure. The figure is not a particular one, as it is circumscribed by three lines, yet not any specific lines. Its three angles collectively make two right angles, yet they are not specific angles.
On the non-material levels, the abstract concept of a triangle has actual existence. With the sense of the causal body, it is perceived or understood. It is a conscious reality external to the observer, although it is not what we typically think of as a physical form.
When this abstract triangle comes into contact with the substance of the physical planes, it instantly transforms into an indefinite number of triangles, each with a distinct form. These triangles can take on various shapes, such as equilateral, isosceles, scalene, right-angled, acute-angled, and obtuse-angled, all becoming visibly real.
As the abstract idea is brought into the causal body, the observer becomes a source of triangles, which extend in all directions, much like a jet of water that shoots up as a somewhat coherent mass and then comes down as a fountain, separating into countless droplets of spray. This may be the best physical analogy of the process that can be given.
As was fully explained in the series on the Mental Body, concrete thought naturally takes the shape of the objects we think about: abstract ideas, when thrown down into the rupa levels, usually represent themselves by all kinds of perfect and beautiful geometrical figures. It should, however, be remembered that many thoughts that come down here are little more than mere abstractions, becoming concrete facts on the mental plane.
The concept of causal consciousness deals with the essence of a thing, while the lower mind focuses on its details. When using the mind, we discuss a subject or try to explain it; when using causal consciousness, we grasp the essence of the idea of the subject and think of it as a whole, similar to moving a piece while playing chess. The causal plane is a world of realities where we no longer deal with emotions, ideas, or conceptions but rather with the thing itself. It might be helpful to describe the process of reaching causal thought in more detail. While the lower mind focuses solely on mental images derived from sensations, reasons about tangible objects, and deals with the attributes that set one object apart from another, the soul, using causal consciousness, after clearly discerning between objects by contemplating their differences, starts to group them based on some common attribute that appears in several dissimilar objects and creates a link between them.
The subject of the exercise extracts and abstracts this common attribute, setting apart all objects that possess it from those that do not. In doing so, they develop the ability to recognise similarities within diversity, a step toward later recognising the underlying unity among the many. The subject organises everything around themself, which in turn enhances their ability to synthesise and to both construct and analyse.
Then, the subject takes another step and conceptualises the common property as an idea separate from any object in which it may appear. In doing so, they create a higher mental image beyond that of a concrete object—the image of an idea that does not physically exist in the world but at higher levels of the mind. This provides material for the soul, the Thinker themself, to work on.
The lower mind arrives at abstract ideas through reasoning. In doing so, it achieves its highest level of understanding, touching the boundaries of the formless world and faintly glimpsing that which exists beyond.
The Thinker, with their causal consciousness, perceives these ideas and regularly lives among them. As they practice and enhance their ability for abstract reasoning, they become more effective in their own world and begin their life of active engagement in their own sphere.
A person like this would not be very interested in sensory experiences, external observations, or mental focus on images of external objects. Their powers are turned inward, and they no longer seek external fulfilment. Such a person remains calm, engrossed in the depths of Philosophy, contemplating the deeper aspects of life and thought, seeking to understand causes rather than focusing on effects, and getting closer to recognising the underlying unity beneath the diversity of external nature.
The process of transitioning from the lower mental to the causal consciousness through a systematic practice of concentration, meditation, and contemplation is detailed in the series on The Mental Body, so there’s no need to repeat it here.
Thoughts have a much greater impact on the higher levels of the mental plane than on the lower levels. One reason for this is that few can yet think on these higher levels, so any thoughts generated there have a significant influence, as there are not many other thoughts in that realm to contend with.
The thoughts of an ordinary person typically originate in the mental body, on the lower mental levels, and then take on the appropriate emotional essence as they descend. However, when a person is active on the causal levels, their thoughts start there and first take on the elemental essence of the lower mental plane. As a result, these thoughts are much finer, more penetrating, and overall more effective.
When a thought is focused solely on higher objects, its vibrations may be too refined to manifest on the emotional plane at all. However, if they affect lower matter, they will do so with a much more profound impact than thoughts generated closer to the level of that lower matter. Taking this principle further, it’s evident that the thought of an Initiate, originating on the Unity Plane (46) above the Mental World, will be infused with the elemental essence of the causal sub-planes. Similarly, the thought of an Adept will emanate from the plane of Atma (45), wielding the tremendous and entirely immeasurable powers of regions beyond the understanding of ordinary humanity. Hence, the truth of the saying is that the work of one day, on levels such as these, may well surpass in efficiency the toil of a thousand years on the physical plane.
Students who are not accustomed to causal thought, to thinking in principles, should be careful not to cause headaches at first when trying to think abstractly. Headaches, in this instance, mean that the brain’s mechanism is being strained. Meditation, when practised regularly for several years, should establish a certain tendency of causal consciousness to be affected by consciousness in the mental body. When that has been established, abstract thought at the causal levels should be possible without the risk of straining the thinking mechanism.
When the effort to form an abstract conception, say of a triangle, has been successful, the student may at first feel a little dazed in the attempt to grasp the abstract idea. Later, the consciousness will suddenly change and become clear. That means that the centre of consciousness has been transferred from the mental to the causal body, and the student becomes conscious in their causal body of a distinct existence outside themself. The “intuition” of the causal body acknowledges the external, while the “intuition” of Unity consciousness (46) recognises the internal, allowing one to perceive things from within. Through intellectual intuition, one can comprehend things that are outside oneself.
It’s important to remember that despite the differences in functioning between the higher and lower mind, Manas, the Thinker, remains unified as the Self in the causal body. It serves as the origin of countless types of energies and vibrations, which radiate outward from it. The most subtle and delicate of these vibrations are manifested in the substance of the causal body, which is the only material subtle enough to resonate with them. These constitute what is known as the Pure Reason, whose thoughts are abstract and whose method of acquiring knowledge is intuition. Its very essence is knowledge, and it immediately recognises truth as being consistent with itself.
As previously explained, the subtle vibrations emanate from the one Thinker, drawing the material of the lower mental world toward them and giving rise to the activities of the lower mind.
The terminology used to describe the faculties of the mind can be confusing. As our understanding of psychology advances, more precise terms will likely be adopted to differentiate the various functions of consciousness and mental faculties.
It was previously mentioned that the nature of Manas is knowledge, as it reflects the cognitive aspect of the Self on the mental plane. This enables the ability to perceive truth intuitively, bypassing the slower reasoning process in the lower mind. When the true nature of the Self, characterised by knowledge, encounters a truth, it produces a coherent image, while falsehoods create distorted images due to irregular vibrations.
As the influence of the lower mind diminishes, the soul’s inherent powers become more dominant. Intuition, similar to direct vision on the physical plane, supersedes reasoning, analogous to the sense of touch on the physical plane, as the primary mode of perception.
Intuition develops from reasoning in a continuous manner, similar to how the eye develops from touch. Genuine intuition should be distinguished from pseudo-intuition, which is simply impulse driven by desire and is actually lower than reasoning.
Thinking helps to develop physical atoms, so individuals who engage in thoughtful activities enhance their own thinking abilities and provide more high-quality material for others, thus promoting higher thinking. In the human etheric body, the brow chakra, which utilises dark blue prana, is associated with the principle of higher manas.
I hope I have brought some clarity to a topic that requires a completely different way of perceiving it, using a tool, our mind, to try and formulate a model, which itself is based on form, when what we seek to understand is not form.