"The man's bodies"
Zélia de Toledo Piza
God is the perfect and absolute balance and, as such, it stays in rest. Any manifestation of the One has to be constituted of a vibratory state. In order that there were these varieties of forms and of consistences that are in the Universe, the vibratory state could not be of just one vibration, but of several. Vibrations that would produce matters of very subtle constitution to those that would produce the dense matter as this that we see and we touch in the evolutionary state in which we are, and that, by sign, is the densest possible state of reaching.
This means that we are submerged in a world that is organized inside of certain vibratory limits. The theosophy gives, to this limit known by the science, the name of physical plan. Then, above this plan, above just regarding the vibration degree, there are other plans, each one inside of specific vibratory limits, and all of them, in number of seven, are of the knowledge of the theosophy.
It would not be expected that the man appeared in the Universe completely turned off of the other plans, because everything constitutes a whole and is intimately related amongst them.
The man, in the evolutionary state in what he is, he doesn't notice the other plans, but he possesses seven bodies, each one of them with capacity of performance in a certain vibratory limit of the Universe. As larger the evolutionary degree, more he goes having the perception of the other plans.
Using the term "plans", we can acquire the idea that they are layers superposed, but this is not true. They are layers, so to speak, interlaced, and the least dense interpenetrate the densest layers.
Each being, therefore, possesses a body in each plan, and those seven bodies are interlinked. The subtlest bodies involve the physical body. The man brings, in itself, possibilities that, properly developed, will go on giving to him the capacity of perception of the other plans and, therefore, of their other bodies.
The seven bodies are, from the densest for the least dense:
1. Physical dense
2. Physical ethereal
3. Astral
4. Mental concrete
5. Mental abstract
6. Budhico
7. Atmico
Of the three subtler plans we still don't have great knowledge.
Of the four denser we already possess a lot of information, and the first three plans can be foreseen easily and until unmasked by the man that decides to take his initiation seriously.
1. Physical body:
The physical body is of the knowledge of all the ones that already frequented the school banks, but I would like to call the attention for the organs of the senses, which are the builders of our emotion, those that impel us to the actions, which will give as result, our experiences in the present life.
2. Body ethereal:
Constituted of less dense matter than the one of the physical, it involves him in the whole extension. His purpose is to establish connection between the physical and the less dense bodies. For that, it possesses countless centers of force properly distributed, and the main ones are called chakras and they will constitute a separated study.
Through him they pass, therefore, the messages picked by the physical, transmitted by the nervous system to the brain and then taken by the ethereal to the sensibility of the astral and the approval or disapproval of the mental.
As well as the physical needs the blood circulation for distribution of the necessary chemical principles for his survival, likewise, the physical would perish without the performance of the double ethereal, because this possesses a net of channels that make the cosmic energies circulate for our organism, revitalizing him. Those energies produce what is called personal magnetism. There are two types of energy, a positive one, "prana" and other negative. "apana". It is of the application of these energies that result the white magic and the black magic.
It is the first body to be formed after the fecundation of the ovum. He brings in itself the generating cosmic force of the form, linked to the Universal Conscience.
He is intimately linked to the physical body and, after the death; his disintegration follows closely the disintegration of the physical body. The double ethereal is the element that appears materialized in the spiritualistic sessions. He is less dense than the physical, but absorbing the vibrations emitted by the thought of the ones that take part in the session, it changes of state, becoming denser and visible. It is what is called of ectoplasm.
Separating the ethereal of the other plans there is a screen called screen Budhica. This screen is constituted to avoid the physical's direct contact with the other plans.
Disturbances in this screen can provoke phenomena the most varied, as for instance: paralysis, insensibility, hypnotic state and other parapsychological states.
Those disturbances can be provoked by the use of narcotics, alcohol in excess, cigarette and also for emotional shocks.
3. Astral body:
Constituted of matter still less dense, it is the headquarters of our emotions. What feels in us, unlike of what we think, is not the brain, but this body. That means that, if the messages picked by the senses, arrived to the brain and there they parked, they would not express any emotion. That, which feels, is the astral. As all our emotional reactions are translated by vibrations, this body comes with characteristic colorations, that depend on the type of elaborated emotion and that have been described by clairvoyants.
These vibrations have the capacity to attract the harmonic vibrations that are in the space, increasing her potential, be positive or negative. For that reason, those that feed in these life low emotions, they attract for him, that potential of negative energy and more and more they be unable of reacting for a transformation.
In compensation, those that are surrounded of noble and altruistic thoughts, they also attract the potential of similar energy, which turns them more and more high.
If the astral body were the last of our bodies, he would be eternally guideless and it would lead the man to the total unbalance and disorganization. To control the astral the man possesses the mental that is a body still subtler. Thence the need of the meditation, that is, of the use of the mental, to balance any of our emotional disturbances.
After the death, the being lives in this plan the necessary time to drain the vibrations, or better, the emotional energies accumulated during the terrestrial life. It is necessary that the man balances his astral as soon as possible; analyzing all their excesses as well as all their represses, because both will bring torments during the being's permanence in the astral, after the death.
The ideal would be the domain of the astral by the man while he is a live and, for that, the theosophy knows special processes.
During the sleep, our existence is all in the astral and, if we get, with the use of our will, to remember the dreams, we will go analyzing and chiseling our astral one to such point that we will start to dominate him. Thus, the passage for this new state, after the death, would not be painful.
4. Concrete mental body:
Constituted of matter still less dense, it also involves our physical body. It is the headquarters of our thoughts and of our reasoning.
His matter is in constant movement and his subtleness makes possible the continuous and constant elaboration of the images corresponding to our thoughts. Each one of those thoughts is there printed, even after having interrupted the forms, awaiting opportunity for his materialization. Here the great importance of the quality of our thoughts. They follow the law of Karma - after the cause, they await the effect.
They are constituted of vibrations and, therefore, as it was already said regarding our emotions, they hover in the space, as waves of a radio broadcasting station, waiting for receiving apparel capable to capture them.
As for the mental, I want to focus the fact that more and more we need to go disconnecting of the reasoning, that is, we need more and more to go disconnecting of the images, for us to enter in the state called "budhi" state, which is the capacity to see directly without argumentation. This is only gotten through the meditation. The common man doesn't manage to do it, thence to be called of soul the group emotion and reason.
The being also does, after the death, an apprenticeship in this plan.
5. Abstract mental body
6. Body budhico
7. Body atmico
These three less dense bodies constitute the man's spiritual part. It is a state of being close to the stability and perfection of the One. It will only be understood by that who reaches that state, because, even if somebody already knew it, be could not describe it inside of the limits of our knowledge.
They form what is known also as causal body and it is there that are printed the characteristics and the values that will constitute the stock for the next reincarnation. This stock is reincarnated in a being whose soul is new. This is the reason why we don't remind ourselves of the last lives. This fact gives us idea of the how important is the environment and the child's education of the one who brings the virgin soul. The mother since the time of gestation can influence in a decisive way on the soul of the new being.
Only a being very developed, for ends of special mission, can be reincarnated with his previous soul.
Through the exposed, we can deduce, in last analysis, that we are ternary:
1. Physical - constituted by the dense and ethereal.
2. Soul - constituted by the astral and mental concrete.
3. Spirit - constituted by the mental abstract, by "budhi" and by "atmã".
Behind and above all those bodies, impelling them to the continuous evolver, it is the divine flash or Purusha that encourages each one of us. If we stop one minute to meditate on this detail, we will be flabbergasted in the face of the responsibility that was imposed to us. The part that is under our control and domain is, so to speak, the temple of the Divine Flash. Without our cooperation, she can do nothing. Only to us, with our free will and our will, fits to take care of these bodies. It is necessary to balance them in such a way that so they are really a vehicle, the most perfect possible, inside of their evolutionary limitations, so that our Purusha removes of this life his best and more complete experience.
