The Mental Body

Functions of the mental body thus:

• To serve as the vehicle of the Self for the purpose of concrete thinking.
• To express such concrete thoughts through the physical body, working through the astral body, the etheric brain, and the cerebrospinal system.
• To develop the powers of memory and imagination.
• To serve, as evolution proceeds, as a separate vehicle of consciousness on the mental plane

The Mental Body

• The stronger the thought the larger the vibration; the more spiritual and unselfish the thought, the higher and more rapid is the vibration. Strength of thought produces brilliancy, spirituality produces delicacy of colour.
• The strong thought of a powerful thinker goes out into the mental world and is caught up by receptive and responsive minds. They reproduce his vibrations, strengthen the thought, and thus help to affect others, the thoughts becoming stronger and stronger and eventually influencing large numbers of people.
• Other methods of using the power of thought to heal, where there is injury the mind can turn its forces to the healing of the injury.
• Man is a creature of reflection; that which he reflects on in this life he becomes the same hereafter.
• An immense amount of suffering is caused by undisciplined imagination. It is important to realise that there is no power in objects of desire as such, unless and until we indulge in imaginations which are creative. 
• Each book is surrounded by a thought – aura built up by the thoughts of all who have read and studied it.
• Working through the mental body; visualisation is simply the power to see clairvoyantly the thought-form he has made.
• To distinguish between the impulse and intuition, calm consideration is necessary and delay is essential. An impulse dies away under such conditions, whilst an intuition grows clearer and stronger. Calmness and serenity enable the lower mind more clearly to hear the intuition and to feel its power. Intuition thus loses nothing, but rather gains from calm delay.
• The student must learn to think steadily and consecutively, not allowing the mind to run suddenly from one thing to another, nor to fritter away its energies over a large number of insignificant thoughts.
• From birth to the age of seven it is considered by many educationists that the child's physical nature should receive most attention ; up to the age of about fourteen the development of emotions should have chief consideration; up to the age of about twenty-one the teacher should appeal especially to the unfolding of the mind.

Meditation

• The student must learn not only to think, but also to cease thinking at will. When the work of thought is over it should be dropped completely and not allowed to drift on vaguely, touching the mind and leaving it, like a boat knocking itself against a rock. A man does not keep a machine running when it is not turning out work, needlessly wearing the machinery. 
• Patanjali in defining Yoga is –chitta-vritti-nirodha, which means restraint [nirodha], of the whirlpools [vritti] of the mind [chitta]
• Concentration means the firm fixing of the mind on one single point without wandering, and without yielding to any distractions caused by external objects, by the activity of the senses or by that of the mind itself.
• The best way to get rid of a "worry channel" is to dig another of an exactly opposite character. This may be done by dwelling in meditation on such a thought as "The Self is Peace; that Self am I. The Self is Strength; that Self am I".
• Meditation is the inexpressible longing of the inner man for the Infinite. Meditation is the blessed furnace in which souls are inflamed with Divine Love. The man of meditation is the man who wastes not time, scatters no energy, misses no opportunity. 
• What food is to the physical life, so is meditation to the spiritual life.

Meditation has many objects, of which the principal ones are as follows:

1. At least once a day a man shall think of high and holy things.
2. It accustoms the man to think of such matter, so that after a time they form a background to his daily life, to which his mind returns with pleasure when it is released from the immediate demands of his business.
3. It serves as a kind of astral and mental gymnastics, to preserve these higherbodies in health and to keep the stream of divine life flowing through them. For these purposes it should be remembered that the regularity of the exercises is of the first importance.
4. It may be used to develop character, to build into it various qualities and virtues.
5. It raises the consciousness to higher levels, so as to include the higher and subtler things; through it a man may rise to the presence of the Divine.
6. It opens the nature and calls down blessings from higher planes.
7. It is the way, even though it be only the first halting step upon the way, which leads to higher development and wider knowledge, to the attainment of clairvoyance, and eventually to the higher life beyond this physical world altogether.

How to Meditate?

• In meditation, posture is not unimportant. The body should be put into a comfortable position, and then forgotten. If it is uncomfortable, it cannot be forgotten, as it would constantly call attention to itself.
• The position should be easy and relaxed, the head not sunken upon the chest but lightly balanced; the eyes and mouth closed, the spinal column [along which there is much magnetic flow] erect.
• The feet may be placed together or crossed with the right over the left. This locking of the extremities of the body helps to prevent the outflow of magnetism from the finger-tips, feet, etc.
• Many people meditate daily alone, with success; but there are even greater possibilities when a group of people concentrate their minds on the one thing.
• A striking example of the tremendous power of collective meditation where the crowd became so exalted that people were lifted right out of themselves by their emotions, thus experiencing a tremendous uplift of soul.
• A cold bath or a brisk walk beforehand is useful in order to overcome any tendency to sluggish circulation of the blood, which is obviously detrimental to brain activity
• There is an intimate connection between profound meditation and breathing. It is found in practice that as the body becomes harmonised in meditation the breathing grows deeper, regular and rhythmic, until by degrees it becomes so slow and quiet as to be almost imperceptible.
• There is no objection to simple, deep breathing provided undue strain is not placed upon the heart and lungs, and no attempt is made to concentrate the thought on the various centres, or chakrams, of the body.
• Good incense is also helpful, as it tends to purify the "atmosphere" from the occult standpoint. The student may also gain assistance from beautiful colours, flowers and pictures in his surroundings, and other means of uplifting the mind and feelings.
• He will also find it useful to observe certain dietetic restrictions and, if it can be done without detriment to health, to abstain from flesh-food and alcohol.
• Early morning is probably the most suitable time for meditation because desires and emotions are usually more tranquil after sleep and before the man plunges into the bustle of the world. But whatever time is chosen it should be when there is assurance of being undisturbed. Moreover, as already pointed out, it should always be at the same time, for regularity is of the essence of the prescription.
• The times selected by ancient devotees were sunrise, noon and sunset, these being magnetically the most suitable. It is well to cultivate the habit of turning the mind for a moment at the stroke of every hour during the day to the realisation of oneself as the Spiritual Man.
• It is not well to meditate immediately after a meal, for the obvious reason that it tends to draw blood away from the digestive organs; neither is meditation at night good, because the bodies are tired 
• Meditation is one means of acquiring the art of leaving the body in full Consciousness.
• "Be still, and know that I am God". In that silence and stillness the Voice of the Self shall be heard, the glory of the Self shall be seen. The cloud vanishes and the Self is made manifest.
• Very often the saint and the visionary may have overstrained their brains, so that the physical mechanism is distorted and rendered unstable.
• The development of the mental body, also affects the dream life, and tends to make the dreams become vivid, well-sustained, rational, even instructive.
• Meditation upon a virtue thus causes a man gradually to grow into the possession of that virtue.

Problem solving

• The problem to be solved should be quietly held in the mind when going to sleep; it should not be debated or argued, or sleep may be prevented; it should be merely stated to the mind and left. Then, when during sleep the Thinker is freed from the physical body and brain, he will take up the problem and deal with it. Usually the thinker will impress the solution on the brain so that it will be in the consciousness on awakening. It is a good plan to keep paper and pencil by the bed in order to note down the solution immediately on waking, because a thought thus obtained is very readily erased by the thronging stimuli from the physical world, and is not easily recovered.

In practising meditation the student may find useful a knowledge of the five stages of mind as expounded by Patanjali. He should recollect, however, that these stages are not confined to the mental plane, but exist, in appropriate form, on every plane. They are:-

1. Kshipta: the butterfly mind, which darts constantly from one object to another. It corresponds to activity on the physical plane.
2. Mudha: the confused stage in which the man is swayed and bewildered by emotions; it corresponds to activity in the astral world.
3. Vikshipta: the state of pre-occupation of infatuation by an idea; the man is possessed, we might say obsessed, by an idea. This corresponds to activity in the lower mental world. The man should learn Viveka, which has to do with the Cognitional aspect of consciousness.
4. Ekagrata: one-pointedness; the state of possessing an idea, instead of being possessed by it. This corresponds to activity on the higher mental plane. The man should here learn Vairagya , which has to do with the Activity aspect of consciousness.
5. Niruddha: self-control; rising above all ideas, the man chooses as he wills according to his illumined Will. This corresponds to activity on the buddhic plane.

When complete control has been acquired, so that the man can inhibit all motions of the mind, then he is ready for Samadhi, corresponding to Contemplation

Four States of Mind spoken of in Yoga.

1. Jagrat : waking consciousness
2. Svapna : dream consciousness; consciousness working in the astral body and able to impress its experiences upon the brain.
3. Sushupti : deep-sleep consciousness, working in the mental body, and not able to impress its experiences on the physical brain.
4. Turiya : trance consciousness, so far separated from the brain that it cannot readily be recalled by outer means.

Mental Plane

• As self-consciousness is developed in the astral world, and the brain develops sufficiently to answer to its vibrations, astral consciousness becomes a part of the waking consciousness. Similarly, when mental self-consciousness is developed, and the brain answers to it, the waking consciousness includes the mental. And so on, until all the  consciousness on the five planes is included in the waking consciousness.
• Again, if a man possesses no physical body, then his jagrat or waking consciousness is his astral consciousness. Thus a wider definition of jagrat would be that it is that part of the total consciousness which is working through its outermost vehicle.
• The mesmerised or hypnotised person recollects in his brain nothing of his experiences; the yogi remembers everything that has happened to him.
• What a man thinks on, that he becomes; therefore think on the Eternal. And again : "Man is the creation of thought".
• In this work a man is employing his imagination – the great tool used in Yoga. If a man imagines in his thought that he has a certain quality, he is half way to possessing that quality; if he imagines himself free from a certain failing, he is half way to being free from that failing. So powerful a weapon is a trained imagination that a man may by its use rid himself of half his troubles and his faults.
• For once we have sufficiently experienced the bliss and joyousness of the higher life, by contrast the lower desires pale and lose their attractiveness.
• A mantram is a definite succession of sounds arranged by an occultist in order to bring about certain definite results. Those sounds, repeated rhythmically over and over again in succession, synchronise the vibrations of the vehicles into unity with themselves.

Devachan - Heaven world

• The man withdraws his consciousness into the mental body, ie., "rises" to the mental plane, and in so doing enters what is known as the heaven-world. This is usually called by Theosophists Devachan.
• Even astral life has possibilities of happiness far greater than anything that we can know in the physical life, but the heaven-life is out of all proportion more blissful than the astral. In each higher world the same experience is repeated, each far surpassing the preceding one. This is true not only of the feeling of bliss, but also of wisdom and breadth of view.
• Devachan is a state of consciousness, and may be entered at any time by one who has learned to withdraw his soul from his senses. The more a man evolves, the shorter becomes his astral, and the longer his mental life.
• Hall of Ignorance stands for the physical plane; the Hall of Learning for the astral and lower mental planes; and the Hall of Wisdom for the planes of higher mind and buddhi.
• The feeling of freedom in the mental world is so great that in comparison with it astral life seems a state of bondage.
• As the physical world is three-dimensional, and the astral world four-dimensional, so is the mental world five-dimensional.
• On the mental plane, however, men communicate directly by thought-transference, whatever their language may be.
• On the causal levels, it is possible to see not only what the man's past history has been, but also to a considerable extent the future that lies before him.
• Adepts or Masters for the most part reside on the highest or atomic level of the mental plane.
• Every human being, on his completion of his life on the astral and lower mental planes, obtains at least a flash of consciousness of the ego, in the causal body.
• Experience soon teaches him that nothing which is not good for all can ever be good for him, or for anyone.
• Instead of thinking of raising " ourselves" till we can unite with the glorified higher self, we should realise rather that the higher is the true self, and that to unite the higher to the lower really means to open out the lower, so that the higher may work more freely and fully in and through it.

The Qualifications for the path
Viveka, Vairagya, Shatsampati (Shama, Dama, Uparati, Titiksha, Shraddha, Samadhana), Mumuksha

Discipleship

• The Master can at any time send a thought through the pupil either as a suggestion or a message. If for example, the pupil is writing a letter or giving a lecture, the Master is subconsciously aware of the fact, and may at any moment throw into the mind of the pupil a sentence to be included in the letter or used in the lecture. In earlier stages the pupil is often unaware of this, and supposes the ideas to have arisen spontaneously in his own mind, but he very soon learns to recognise the thought of the Master.
• A true teacher will thus aid his disciples far more by keeping him near than by any spoken words.
• Devotional meditation: Think of the ideal man, the Master, or, if preferred, the deity, or any manifestation of the deity. Allow the thought to play upon the subject from different aspects, so that it constantly awakens admiration, gratitude, reverence, worship. Ponder upon all the qualities manifested in the subject and take each quality in all its aspects and relationships.
• The union between the pupil and the Master, that begins with Acceptance, is permanent, so that the higher vehicles of the pupil are always vibrating in common with those of his Master. The whole time he is being tuned up, thus growing more and more like the Master. At all times the thoughts of the pupil are largely  reoccupied with thoughts of his Master and His influence, so that, while he is sensitively open to Him, he is to a considerable extent closed to lower influences.
• Discrimination will give him mental power; desirelessness: emotional power; self-control: will-power.

-A.E. Powell
For Astral Body: http://globalholisticmotivators.blogspot.in/2013/05/the-astral-body-and-other-astral.html

For Etheric Double: http://globalholisticmotivators.blogspot.in/2013/05/the-etheric-double-health-aura-of-man.html

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