We are looking at the soul on its own plane. We ended the last presentation by outlining how it is easier to predict future events when reviewing possible outcomes for younger souls. An individual who is spiritually developed will meditate at their own level, which may not necessarily align with the meditation being performed by their personality. The goal for a well-developed individual is to elevate their consciousness to the buddhic/Unity plane (46) and through its various stages, irrespective of what their personality may be doing at the time. This individual may also participate in personal meditation, although their own meditations are very different.
It’s important to note that the soul is not just the mind (manas) but the spiritual Triad of Atma-Buddhi-Manas. At our current level of consciousness, the soul resides in the causal envelope on the higher mental plane. As the soul evolves, its consciousness will be focused on the buddhic plane (46). Eventually, when the soul achieves Adeptship, its consciousness will be focused on the plane of Atma (45).
However, it’s crucial to understand that as the soul progresses, the mind is not lost. When the soul ascends to the buddhic plane (i4), it brings the mind with it into an expression of the mind that has always existed on the buddhic plane but has not been fully activated until now. This is an important concept to focus on, as many occultists and those following the eastern traditions of spiritual enquirer think that entry into Unity Consciousness (46), which they term Nirvana, involves the dissolution of the self and a loss of individuality altogether.
Similarly, when the soul ascends to the plane of Atma (45), the mind and the spiritual intuition (Buddhi) exist within it as fully as ever. At this point, the triple spirit is fully manifested on its own plane in all three aspects. The spirit is truly sevenfold. It is triple on its own plane, that of Atma, dual on the buddhic, and single on the mental. Its unity is the soul’s synthesis, making seven. Although the soul draws itself into the higher, it retains definiteness on the lower.
The clearest and best description of the human trinity, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, is found in The Key to Theosophy by H.P. Blavatsky.
THE HIGHER SELF is Atma, the inseparable ray of the Universal and ONE SELF. It is the God above more than within us. Happy the man who succeeds, in saturating his inner Ego with it.
THE SPIRITUAL divine SOUL is the spiritual soul, or Buddhi, in close union with Manas, the mind principle, without which it is no Ego at all, but only the Atmic vehicle.
THE INNER OR HIGHER EGO is Manas, the fifth principle, so called, independently of Buddhi. The mind-principle is the Spiritual Ego only when merged into one with Buddhi……It is the permanent individuality or the reincarnating Ego.
This is from the The Key to Theosophy. It should be noted that where Blavatsky uses the term “ego”, we use the term “soul”.
Once a soul becomes at least partially conscious of its surroundings and other souls, it leads a life with its own interests and activities on its own plane. However, it’s important to remember that the soul only puts a small part of itself into the personality, and that part often gets caught up in interests that are different from the general activities of the soul. Consequently, the soul doesn’t pay much attention to the lower life of the personality unless something unusual happens.
At this stage, the soul usually comes under the influence of a Master, often becoming conscious of anything outside itself through that connection. The Master’s influence has a tremendous power that magnetises the soul, brings its vibrations into harmony, and accelerates its development. The Master’s influence is like sunshine on a flower, causing rapid evolution. This explains why progress is slow in the earlier stages but accelerates greatly when the Master turns his attention to the individual, developing and arousing their will to participate in the work. Note the word “work”. Adepts don’t shine their beneficence on us just because we have pretty faces. We are expected to work for our supper.
In the presentations that dealt with the devachan, it was explained that a soul who is loved by many people might have a part in many heavens simultaneously, embodying the thought images made of it by its friends. These images are of great evolutionary benefit to the soul, providing additional opportunities for the development of qualities such as affection. This is a direct result and reward of the loveable qualities that draw the affectionate regard of many people.
From time to time, the influence of a force on the soul of a surviving friend may even be evident in the personality of that friend in the physical world. While the influence is on the soul through a specific thought image, the personality of the surviving friend is a reflection of that same soul. If the soul has been significantly altered, it is possible that this alteration may be reflected in the physical manifestation on this lower plane.
However, there are two potential limitations to the effectiveness of communication between the concerned soul and those who create images of it. First, the image may be incomplete and flawed, so many of the higher qualities of the soul may not be represented and may therefore not be able to manifest through it.
Secondly, it is possible that the soul is not actually as good as the image that has been created of it, so the soul may not be able to fully embody it. This is unlikely to happen and could only occur when a completely unworthy subject has been foolishly idealised. These aspects of the matter have been thoroughly addressed in the presentations on “The Mental Envelope.”
The more developed a person’s soul is, the more they can express themselves through thought images. As a person reaches the level of a Master (45), they can consciously use these thought images to help and teach their students. This must be like having a glorified avatar.
To help students understand thought images in devachan, we will examine two diagrams
The first shows a soul X in devachan surrounded by thought images, lower-case a’, b’, c’, d’, e’, and f’ of their six friends A, B, C, D, E, and F, respectively.
A and F are also in devachan, in their mental bodies, a and f; B and E are on the emotional plane, in their emotional bodies b and e; C and D are still alive in the physical world in their physical bodies c and d.
The diagram shows that the thought images made by X of their six friends are connected directly to the souls A, B, C, D, E, and F, not to their personal expressions on the physical, emotional, or mental planes.
The diagram shows that the personalities a, b, c, etc., are unaware of the events taking place in the thought images a’, b’, c’, etc., except through their own souls A, B, C, etc.
The second diagram depicts four souls, A, B, C, and D, who are all close friends. A, B, and C are in devachan, while D is still in its physical body.
Each of A, B, and C creates a thought image of each of their three friends, and these images are animated by the respective souls. A, B, and C each have three representations of themselves: one through their own mental bodies, and two through the thought images in the devachan of the others.
On the other hand, D has four representations of itself: one through its own physical personality and three more through the thought images created by its three friends.
Understanding how a soul can appear simultaneously in the devachanic images of several people, among other soul-world phenomena, reveals that the soul does not need to physically travel in order to move from one place to another.
In the series “The Mental Envelope,” we described the musical chord of a person and explained how this chord is used to locate that person, wherever they may be in the three worlds. The chord consists of the person’s own note and those of the three lower vehicles: mental, emotional, and physical. Suppose the person has none of these lower vehicles at the time. In that case, the same mechanism holds true, as the causal envelope always includes the mental unit and the emotional and physical permanent atoms, which are sufficient to produce the distinctive sound.
The combination of sounds that produce a person’s chord is that person’s true occult name. This should not be confused with the hidden name of the Augoeides, which is the chord of the three principles of the soul, produced by the vibrations of the atoms of Atma, buddhi, and manas, and the Monad behind them.
By now, it should be clear that mastering the four envelopes, the etheric, the emotional, the mental and finally, the causal, should lead to some conclusion. Masterful though all these structures are, they are temporary, even the causal envelope. Behind them and what is termed the higher spiritual triad of atma, buddhi and manas in Theosophical parlance lies the Monad. How does the self become consciously aware of itself on Plane 43? The answer lies in the mysteries surrounding the processes of initiation. This will be the topic in the next series of presentations.