CHAPTER XI

THE MONAD AT WORK.

1. BUILDING HIS VEHICLES.

LET us now consider the work of the Monad in the shaping of his vehicles, when he has, as his representatives - as himself on the third, fourth, and fifth planes - Atma-Buddhi-Manas, with the causal body as the receptacle, the treasure­-house, of the experiences of each incarna­tion.

At the close of each period of life, that is to say, at the end of each devachanic existence, he must stimulate into renewed activity the three successive nuclei of the bodies he is to wear during his next life-period. First, he arouses the mental nucleus. This arousing consists in increasing the flow of life through the spirillae. It will be remembered that when the permanent units “went to [242] sleep”, the normal flow of life in the spirillae lessened, and, during the whole period of repose, this flow is small and slow.[69] When the time for reincarnation arrives, this flow is increased, the spirillae thrill with life, and the permanent units, one after another, behave as magnets, attracting round themselves appropriate matter. Thus when the mental unit is stimulated, it begins to vibrate strongly, according to the vibratory powers - the results of past experiences - stored up therein, drawing towards and arranging round itself appropriate matter from the mental plane. Just as a bar of soft iron becomes a magnet when a current is sent through a wire encircling it, and as matter within its magnetic field will at once arrange itself round that magnet, so is it with the permanent mental unit. When the life-current encircles it, it becomes a magnet, and matter within the field of its forces arranges itself round it and forms a new mental body. The matter attracted will be according to the complexity of the permanent unit. Not only will finer or [244] coarser matter be attracted, but the matter must also vary in the development of the atoms which enter into the formation of its aggregations. The molecules attracted will be composed of atoms the vibratory energies of which are identical with, or approach nearly to, or are in tune with, those of the attracting unit. Hence, according to the stage of evolution reached by the man, will be the develop­ment of the matter of his new mental vehicle. In this way, incarnation after incarnation, a suitable mental body is built up.

Exactly the same process is repeated on the astral plane in the building of the new astral body. The astral nucleus - the astral permanent atom - is similarly vivi­fied, and acts in a similar way.

The man is thus clothed with new mental and astral bodies which express his stage of evolution, and enable what­ever powers and faculties he possesses to express themselves duly in their own worlds.

But when we come to the shaping of the body on the physical plane a new [245] element appears. So far as the Monad is concerned, the work is the same. He vivifies the physical nucleus - the physical permanent atom - and it acts as a magnet like its fellows. But now it is as though a man interfered with the attraction and arrangement of matter within a magnetic field; the Elemental, charged with the duty of shaping the etheric double after the model given by the Lords of Karma, steps in and takes control of the work. The materials; indeed, may be gathered together, as a workman might carry bricks for the building of a house, but the builder takes the bricks, accepts or rejects, and sets them according to the plan of the architect.

The question arises: Why this differ­ence? Why, on reaching the physical plane, where we might expect a repetition of the previous processes, should an alien power take the control of the building out of the hands of the owner of the house? The answer lies in the working of the law of karma. On the higher planes, the sheaths express as much of the man as is developed, and he is not there working [245] out the results of his past relations with others. Each centre of Consciousness, on those planes, is working within its own circle; its energies are directed towards its own vehicles, and only so much of them as is finally expressed through the physical vehicle acts directly upon others. These relations with others complicate his karma on the physical plane, and the particular physical form that he wears during a particular life - period must be suitable for the working out of this com­plicated karma. Hence the need for the adjusting interference of the Lords of Karma. Were he at a point of evolution at which he entered into similarly direct relations with others on other planes, similar limitations of his power to shape his vehicles on those planes would appear. In the sphere of his external activities, whatever it may be, these limitations must present themselves.

Hence the shaping of the physical body is done by an authority higher than his own; he must accept the conditions of race, nation, family, circumstances, demanded by his past activities. This [246] limiting action of karma necessitates the building of a vehicle which is but a partial expression of the working con­sciousness - partial, not only because of the shutting off of power by the coarse­ness of the material itself, but also because of the external limitations above referred to. Much of his consciousness, even though ready for expression on the physical plane, may thus be excluded, and only a small part of it may appear on the physical plane as waking-con­sciousness.

The next point in connexion with this building that we must consider is the special work of organising the vehicles as expressions of consciousness, leaving apart the general building by desire and thought, with which we are so familiar. We are concerned here with details, rather than with broad outlines.

We know that while qualities are imparted to matter during the descent of the Second Logos, the arrangement of these specialised materials into relatively permanent forms belongs to His ascent. When the Monad, through his reflexion [247] as the Spiritual Man, assumes some directive power over his vehicles, he finds himself in possession of a form in which the sympathetic nervous system is playing a very large part, and in which the cerebro-spinal has not yet assumed predominance. He will have to work up a number of connecting links between this sympathetic system which he inherits and the centres which he must organise in his astral body, for his future independent functioning therein. But before any independent functioning in any higher vehicle is possible, it is necessary to carry it to a fairly high point as a transmitting vehicle, that is a vehicle through which he works down to his body on the physical plane. We must distinguish between the primary work of the organisation of the mental and astral vehicles that fits them to be transmitters of part of the consciousness of the Spiritual Man, and the later work of developing these same vehicles into independent bodies, in which the Spiritual Man will be able to function on their respective planes. Hence there are two [248] tasks to be performed: first the organisa­tion of the mental and astral vehicles as transmitters of consciousness to the physical body; secondly, the organisation of these vehicles into independent bodies, in which consciousness can function without the help of the physical body.

The astral and mental vehicles, then, must be organised in order that the Spiritual Man may use the physical brain and nervous system as his organ of consciousness on the physical plane. The impulse to such use comes from the physical world by impacts upon the various nerve-ends, causing waves of nervous energy to pass along the fibres to the brain: these waves pass from the dense brain to the etheric, thence to the astral, thence to the mental vehicle, arousing a response from the conscious­ness in the causal body on the mental plane. That consciousness, thus roused by impacts from without, gives rise to vibrations, which flow down in answer from the causal body to the mental, from the mental to the astral, from the astral to the etheric and dense physical; [249] the waves set up electric currents in the etheric brain, and these act on the dense matter of the nervous cells.

All these vibratory actions gradually organise the first inchoate clouds of astral and mental matter into vehicles which serve as effective fields for these constant actions and reactions. This process goes on during hundreds of births, started, as we have seen, from below, but gradually coming more and more under the control of the Spiritual Man; he begins to direct his activities by his memories of past sensations, and starts each activity under the impulse of these memories stimulated by desire. As the process continues, more and more forcible direction comes from within, and less and less directive power is exercised by the attractions and repulsions of external objects, and thus the control of the building up of the vehicles is largely withdrawn from the without and is centred in the within.

As the vehicle becomes more organised, certain aggregations of matter appear within it, at first cloudy and vague, then [250] more and more definitely outlined. These are the future chakras, or wheels, the sense-centres of the astral body, as distinguished from the astral sense-centres connected with the sense-organs and centres of the physical body.[70] But nothing is done to vivify these slowly growing centres for immense periods of time, and the connexion of them with the physical body is often delayed, even after they are functioning on the astral plane; for this connexion can only be made from the physical vehicle, wherein the fiery force of Kundalini resides. Before Kundalini can reach them, so that they can pass their observations on to the physical body, they must be linked to the sympathetic nervous system, the large ganglionic cells in that system being the points of contact. When these links are made, the fiery current can flow through, and observations of astral events can be transmitted fully to the physical brain. While they can only be thus linked with the physical vehicle, the building of them as centres and the gradual organisation [251] of them into wheels, can be begun from any vehicle, and will be begun in any individual from that vehicle which repre­sents the special type of temperament to which he belongs. According as a man belongs to one typical temperament or another, so will be the place of the greatest activity in the building up of all the vehicles, in the gradual making of them into effective instruments of consciousness to be expressed on the physical plane. This centre of activity may be in the physical, astral, lower, or higher mental body. In any of these, or even higher still, according to the temperamental type, this centre will be found in the principle which marks out the temperamental type, and from that it works “upwards” or “downwards”, shaping the vehicles so as to make them suitable for the expression of that tem­perament.

2. AN EVOLVING MAN.

A special case may be taken to facili­tate the understanding of this process - a [252] temperament in which the concrete mind predominates. We will trace the Spiritual Man through the third, fourth, and fifth Root Races. When we look at him at work in the third Race, we find him very infantile mentally, even though the mind is the predominant note of his type. The surging life around him, that he can neither understand nor master, works strongly upon him from outside, and powerfully affects his astral vehicle. This astral vehicle will be retentive of impres­sions, in consequence of the temperament, and the desires will stimulate the infantile mind to efforts directed to their satis­faction. His physical constitution differs from that of the fifth Race man; the sympathetic system is still dominant, and the cerebro-spinal system subordinate, but parts of the sympathetic system are beginning to lose much of their effective­ness as instruments of consciousness, belonging, as such instruments, to the stage below the human. There are two bodies in the brain especially connected with the sympathetic system in their inception, although now forming part of [253] the cerebro-spinal - the pineal gland and the pituitary body. They illustrate the way in which a part of the body may function in one manner at an early stage, may then lose its special use and function little, if at all, and at a later stage of evolution may again be stimulated by a higher kind of life, which will give it a new use and function at a higher stage of evolution.

The development of these bodies belongs to the invertebrate rather than to the vertebrate kingdom, and the “third eye” is spoken of by biologists as the “invertebrate eye”. It is, however, still found, as an eye among vertebrates, for a snake was lately found in Australia which showed on the top of the head a peculiar arrangement of semitrans­parent scales; when these were cut away a complete eye was found under­neath - an eye complete in its parts although not functioning. That third eye was functioning among the Lemurians in the vague and general way characteristic of the lower stages of evolution, and specially characteristic of the sympathetic [254] system. As our man advanced from the Lemurian into the Atlantean Race, the third eye ceased to function, the brain developed round it, and it became the appendage now called the pineal gland. As a Lemurian, he had been psychic, the sympathetic system being largely affected by the surgings of the undeveloped astral body. As an Atlan­tean, he gradually lost his psychic powers, as the sympathetic system became sub­ordinate and the cerebro-spinal grew stronger.

The growth of the cerebro-spinal system would be more rapid in this Atlantean than in those of other temperaments, because the main activity would be in the concrete mind, and would thus stimu­late and fashion it; the astral body would lose its predominance sooner, and would become more rapidly a transmitter of mental impulses to the brain. Hence, when our man passed on into the fifth Race, he would be peculiarly ready to take advantage of its characteristics; he would build a large and well-proportioned brain; he would utilise, his astral chiefly [255] as a transmitter, and would build his chakras from the mental plane.

3. THE PITUITARY BODY AND PINEAL GLAND.

To return to the second of the two bodies mentioned above - the pituitary body. This is regarded as developed from a primeval mouth, in direct con­tinuity with the alimentary canal of the invertebrates. It ceased to function as a mouth in the vertebrates, and became a rudimentary organ; but it has retained a peculiar function in connexion with the growth of the body. It is active during the normal period of physical growth, and the more actively it functions, the greater the growth of the body. In giants it has been found that this organ is peculiarly active. Moreover, the pituitary body sometimes again begins to function in later life, when the bony framework of the body is set, and then causes abnormal and monstrous growth at the free points of the body, hands, feet, nose, etc., giving rise to disfigurement of a most distressing kind. [256]

As the cerebro-spinal system became dominant, the earlier function of these two bodies disappeared; but these organs have a future as well as a past. The past was connected with the sympathetic system; the future is connected with the cerebro­spinal system. As evolution goes on, and the chakras in the astral body are vivified, the pituitary body becomes the physical organ for astral, and later, for mental clairvoyance. Where too great a strain is made upon the astral faculty of sight, while in the physical body, inflammation of the pituitary body sometimes results. This organ is the one through which the knowledge gained by astral vision is trans­mitted to the brain; and it is also used in vivifying the points of contact between the sympathetic system and the astral body, whereby a continuity of consciousness is established between the astral and physical planes.

The pineal gland becomes connected with one of the chakras in the astral body, and through that with the mental body, and serves as a physical organ for the transmission of thought from one brain [257] to another. In thought transmission the thought may be flashed from mind to mind, mental matter being used as the medium for transmission; or it may be sent down to the physical brain, and by means of the pineal gland may be sent, via the physical ether, to the pineal gland in another brain, and thus to the receiving consciousness.

While the centre of activity lies in the dominant principle of the man, the con­nexion of the chakras with the physical body must be made, as said, from the physical plane. The object of this con­nexion is not to make the astral vehicle a more efficient transmitter to the physical body of the energies of the Spiritual Man, but to enable the astral vehicle to be in full touch with the physical. There may be different centres of activity for the build­ing up of transmitting vehicles, but it is necessary to start from the physical plane in order to bring the results of the activities of bodies functioning on other planes within the waking-consciousness. Hence the high importance of physical purity in diet and other matters. [258]

People often ask: How does knowledge gained on higher planes reach the brain, and why is it not accompanied by a memory of the circumstances under which it was acquired? Anyone who practises meditation regularly knows that much knowledge that he has not gained by study on the physical plane appears in the brain. Whence comes it? It comes from the astral or mental plane, where it was acquired, and reaches the brain in the ordinary way above described; the con­sciousness has assimilated it on the mental plane directly, or it has reached it from the astral, and sends down thought-waves as usual. It may have been communicated by some entity on the higher plane, who has acted directly on the mental body. But the circumstances of the communication may not be remembered, for one of two reasons, or for both. Most people are not what is technically called “awake” on the astral and mental planes; that is their faculties are turned inwards, are occupied with mental processes and emotions, and are not engaged in the observation of the external phenomena of, those planes. [259] They may be very receptive, and their astral and mental bodies may easily be thrown into vibration, and the vibrations convey the knowledge which is thus given, but their attention is not turned to the person making the communication. As evolution goes on, people become more and more receptive on the astral and mental planes, but do not therefore become aware of their surroundings.

The other reason for the lack of memory is the absence of the connecting links with the sympathetic system before mentioned. A person may be “awake” on the astral plane and functioning actively thereon, and he may be vividly conscious of his surroundings. But if the connecting links between the astral and physical systems have not been made, or are not vivified, there is a break in con­sciousness. However vivid may be the consciousness on the astral plane, it can­not, until these links are functioning, bring through and impress on the physical brain the memory of astral experiences. In addition to these links, there must be the active functioning of the pituitary body, [260] which focusses the astral vibrations much as a burning glass focusses the rays of the sun. A number of the astral vibrations are drawn together and made to fall on a particular point, and vibrations being thus set up in dense physical matter, the further propagation of these is easy. All this is necessary for “remembering”.

4. THE PATHS OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

The question arises: Does conscious­ness always travel along the same path to reach its physical vehicle? Transits, we know, are sometimes made directly through the atomic sub-planes from plane to plane, and sometimes by passing through each sub-plane from the seventh to the first before reaching the atomic sub­-plane next below. Which of these paths does consciousness follow In its normal working, in the ordinary process of think­ing, the wave comes steadily down through each successive sub-plane, from the mental through the seven astral sub-planes to the physical etheric, and so to the dense ner­vous matter. This wave sets up electrical [261] currents in the etheric matter, and these affect the protoplasm of the grey cells. But when the peculiar flashes of con­sciousness occur, as in flashes of genius, or as in sudden illuminative ideas which flash into the mind - such a flash as comes to the scientific man when out of a great mass of facts there suddenly springs forth the unifying underlying law - then the consciousness pours downward through the atomic sub-planes only, and thus reaches the brain. This is the illuminative idea which justifies itself by its mere appearance, like the sunlight, and does not gain in compelling power by any process of reasoning. Thus reasoning comes to the brain by the successive sub-planes; authoritative illumination by the atomic sub-planes only. [262]