Theos-Talk Archives (June 1996 Message tl00899)

>	karma on astral-mental level: do you mean karma related to
>kama-manasic acts? Desire for personal success, greed, ambition, etc.
>seem to be the causal factors there, I think.
> Guilt and remorse are pseudo-realities, rather useless
>(especially remorse) I'd say. I mean these feelings/thoughts
>are in the psyche's content, but largely due to aeons of dogmatic
>theology and inadequate education.
	According to G de P, karma exists on every cosmic plane.
All of the things you mention are karma-producing, yes.  But don't
throw guilt and remorse out the window just yet.  Suppose you
did something that you believed was wrong.  You later feel guilty
whenever you think of it, and so you stop thinking of it.  But
repressed feelings don't fade away, they lurk in the unconscious
and fester, and eventually cause all kinds of problems, usually
a neurosis of some kind.  This is our personal karma.  This
example shows the fact that we can suffer from karma due to guilt
even when we never really did anything wrong, or if we magnified
the action in our minds, and so we suffer needlessly.  This is
because our memory is intricately connected with our personal
karma.  This happens all the time, because karma effects us
through our emotions and thoughts too, and it is well known in
psychology that the mind cannot always distinguish between "reality"
and "fantasy" (which is exactly why guided imagery works so well).

>	Yes, until they discover they're fooling themselves
>with these things, contenting themselves with pseudo-realities.	
	As long as we have feelings of guilt, purification
is absolutely necessary.  Once we get over the guilt, then we
can put such things behind us.

>	A ray means a manifestation, issuing forth from some source,
	OK, then a ray it is.

> Does causal plane equate with buddhi or buddhi-manas?
	This is a tricky question, and one that different
theosophists will answer in different ways.  I would say that
it is buddhi, and the mental plane is manas, mainly because
it is easier (Occam's Razor) and also because HPB says that
there is one principle associated with each plane.

>Personality is kama-manas and this is on astral/mental planes (mixed,
>I gather).
	Kama-manas implies emotions and thoughts, or affective
and cognitive functioning, and so is the personality, yes.


> Again the duality of manas is the issue here. HPB says it is
>only correctly explained in esoteric works (not very satisfying for the
>student to be left in the dark..)
	Everything, including manas, is dualistic, yes.  Buddhi-manas
is the mind looking at the highest subplanes of the mental plane and into
the causal via the intuition.  kama-manas is the mind looking at the lowest
subplanes of the mental plane and below the mental plane
into the astral via the emotions.  Manas, our thinking-principle, can look
in either direction.  It is sometimes divided into a lower manas and
higher manas for convenience in order to illustrate some point, but
we have one manas, not two.

>Did you use some technique to revive those memories?
	Guided imagery while in yogic meditation.  It is
rather easy to do.

>	Can you give names for this first one? Belongs the practice
>of OBE (astral projection) to this first category?
	Yes, OBE is a technique used here.  Probably the best
known yoga in this instance is Raja Yoga, where the physical,
astral, and mental bodies are silenced, so that consciousness
can focus in the higher bodies.  Patajali's Yoga is well known
for this.

>Where would you classify a) Hatha Yoga
	Excellent for health and physical well-being.  Not much
good for anything else.

> b) Raja/Jnana Yoga?
	Raja Yoga teaches us to silence our lower bodies, as
noted above.  The beginner is fearful, because silencing the body
and personality is equal to death, which the ego rightly fears.  But
when done successfully, there is a direct experience of that which
exists beyond our human-ness.  Jnana strives for the same goal
as Raja, but takes a completely different path.

>The practice of Hatha Yoga could effect our body, isn't it?
	That is exactly what it was designed to do, yes.

>Raja Yoga has effects on psyche and thought-pattern and maybe
>on the body too?
	Its only effects are temporary, and these are the silencing
of the body and ego so that consciousness can rise above them.
I have practiced, at one time or another, all of these except Hatha
(I have never been able to get my body into the lotus position).
I have had a degree of success with Raja, Jnana, and Kundalini
Yogas, all of which are effective when used properly.

	Jerry S.
	Member, TI