Mental body
Encyclopedia : M : ME : MEN : Mental body
| Planes of existence Subtle bodies | |
|---|---|
| Theosophy | |
|
Causal plane: Causal body Mental plane: Mental body Astral plane: body, projection Etheric plane: Etheric body Physical plane: Physical body | |
| Rosicrucian | |
|
The 7 Worlds & the 7 Cosmic Planes The Seven-fold constitution of Man The Ten-fold constitution of Man | |
| Thelema | |
| Body of Light | Thelemic mysticism | |
| Surat Shabda Yoga | |
| Cosmology | |
| Sufism | |
|
Sufi cosmology | |
| Hinduism | |
| Lokas - Kosas | |
| Buddhism | |
| Buddhist cosmology | |
| Kabbalah | |
| Atziluth - Beri'ah - Yetzirah - Asiyah Sephirah | |
| Fourth Way | |
|
Ray of Creation The Laws Three Centres Five Centres | |
| Popular culture | |
|
Plane (Dungeons & Dragons) Inner Plane Prime Material Plane Outer Plane | |
Vedantic Philosophy
In eastern vedantic philosophy, the words "mental body" and "mind" almost never refer to an entity independent of consciousness, certainly never in Advaita Vedanta in which consciousness is all that exists. Rather such terms generally speak only of the thoughts, impressions, or memories themselves and there is no distinction from consciousness. Ramakrishna "Gospel of Ramakrishna", Nisargadatta "I Am That" A good example of this for instance Meher Baba writes, "It is well to remember always that the beginning is a beginning in consciousness, the evolution is an evolution in consciousness, the end, if there be an end, is an end in consciousness." Meher Baba, "God Speaks," Dodd Mead, 1955 Thus any references in such works to the mind or "mental body" refer strictly to a class of human experiences. In this sense they mean something more equivalent to a western phrase like "He began to consider his entire body of thoughts." In such teachings any reference to a 'mental plane' refers to a state of consciousness and not a metaphysical 'place.' Here a person focuses more on thoughts and emotions than upon gross objects available to his five senses.
Theosophical and New Age conceptions
According to Theosophists C.W. Leadbeater Leadbeater, C. W., Man, Visible and Invisible, 1902 and Annie Besant Besant, Annie, Man and His Bodies, 1911 (Adyar School of Theosophy), and later Alice Bailey, the mental body is equivalent to the "Lower Manas" of Blavatsky's original seven principles of man Blavatsky, H.P., The Key to Theosophy, 1889. But the New Age writer Barbara Brennan describes the Mental body as intermediate between the Emotional and the Astral body in terms of the layers in the "Human Energy Field" or Aura Brennan, Barbara Ann, Hands of Light : A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field ([Mental body]), Bantam Books, 1987.
The mental body is usually considered in terms of an aura that includes thoughtforms. In Theosophical and Alice Bailey's teachings, it corresponds to the Mental plane.
The mind in the Western Wisdom Teachings
According to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Mysteries (Chapter IV: [The Constitution of Man: Vital Body - Desire Body - Mind]), 1911, ISBN 0-911274-86-3, the mind is the latest acquisition of the human spirit and is related to the Region of Concrete Thought, which is the lower region of the World of Thought. It is not yet an organized body and in most people it is still a mere inchoate cloud disposed particularly in the region of the head. It works as the link or focus between the threefold Spirit and the threefold body [link], in a reversed reflexion manner [link]: the mind is like the projecting lens of a stereopticon, it projects the image in one of three directions, according to the will of the thinker, which ensouls the thought-form.
His writings, called Western Wisdom Teachings, give a clear description on how the man's inner Spirit perceives, from the world of thought, the lower worlds through the mind: " We ourselves, as Egos, function directly in the subtle substance of the Region of Abstract Thought, which we have specialized within the periphery of our individual aura. Thence we view the impressions made by the outer world upon the vital body through the senses, together with the feelings and emotions generated by them in the desire body, and mirrored in the mind. From these mental images we form our conclusions, in the substance of the Region of Abstract Thought, concerning the subjects with which they deal. Those conclusions are ideas. By the power of will we project an idea through the mind, where it takes concrete shape as a thought-form by drawing mind-stuff around itself from the Region of Concrete Thought. " Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (Chapter III: [Man and the Method of Evolution]), 1909, ISBN 0-911274-34-0.
He also states that to the trained clairvoyant there appears to be an empty space in the center of the forehead just above and between the eyebrows and it looks like the blue part of a gas flame, but not even the most gifted seer can penetrate that veil, also known as "THE VEIL OF ISIS".
See also
Esoteric Science- Consciousness
- Mind
- Mind-body problem
- Philosophy of mind
- Theory of mind
References
Further readings
- Powell, Arthur E. The Mental Body
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.