Theosophy Basics II : The seven aspects of thinking

[Guest guest]

Greetings:

 

In this section of the article, Shri Martin Euser explains the seven

aspects of

human thinking faculty.

 

Once again, let me express my sincere thanks to Shri Martin Euser for

his permission to post this essay to the Advaitin List.

 

Ram Chandran

Burke, VA

 

Note: To view the Egg scheme Chart correctly, copy the chart into a

wordprocessing software and choose the font Courier with size 10. The

chart is quite important to understand the logic behind section 1

completely.

 

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Theosophy Basics II : The Psychological Key To Man: Theosophy By Martin

Euser (euser)

 

Section 2. The seven aspects of thinking according to Theosophy.

 

Theosophy proceeds from a spiritual point of view. It states that

consciousness is primary to form or manifestation. Everything in the

universe has or better is life-consciousness that embodies itself in a

suitable form according to the inherent characteristic (this is the

fourth jewel of wisdom; see theosophy-basics part 1).

 

Thinking is a special mode of consciousness, certainly not the highest

form there is, and is typical of humans. The word 'man' is derived from

the Sanskrit word 'manas', meaning: thinker. So, we are unique beings in

having developed the faculty of thinking, at least to some degree.

 

Now, we can distinguish several mental activities and qualities. To give

some examples of these:

 

1.We can direct our mental attention to our body and outside affairs.

2.We can pay mental attention to our emotions. 3.We can plan actions.

4.We can desire to have some nice friends. 5.We can calculate our due

taxes. 6.We can try to understand how nature works or why others act as

they do. 7.We can have some inspiration to compose beautiful music, etc.

 

This diverse palette of activities involve all the use of

thought-energies, often converted into action of some kind.

 

Theosophy presents in this respect a practical, sevenfold, division of

thinking:

 

1.The physical aspect of thinking 2.The emotional aspect 3.The vital

aspect 4.The desire-aspect 5.The intellectual aspect " 6.The

understanding aspect " 7.The inspirational aspect "

 

A short description of these aspects will clarify their meaning. Also,

we will see that each of these aspects have a lower and higher form.

This can be understood as an example of the application of the sixth

jewel of wisdom (the duality of all that is manifested). All these

aspects or qualities of thinking are forces that are related to the

diverse monads and layers in the egg-scheme. The hierarchies of our

Cosmos reflect themselves in our constitution and also in our thinking

faculty. See lit.(1,2,8,9).

 

These aspects can hardly be separated in our thinking, though usually

one or two aspects are dominating. They work together comparable to a

piece of music where we can hardly separate the individual notes from

the whole, though key-chords can be recognized. Whether this music

sounds harmonious or dissonant is up to us!

 

Special emphasis will be laid on the development of the sixth aspect of

thinking (understanding). This will be described later.

 

Description of aspects.

 

1. The physical aspect of thinking.

 

This aspect is well known to us all. We say: "I'm hungry" and "I'm

tired", etc. Of course, we mean to express something as:

 

"My body is in a state of needing food", etc. This seems trivial, but it

is not. It indicates that we often identify ourselves with our body. Our

thoughts are very much involved with our body.

 

Interestingly enough, we can experience the opposite state of

consciousness when we are absorbed in doing something that really

interests us, causing us temporarily to forget about the needs of the

body.

 

Of course, we have to take care of our bodily needs. A proper question

arises in this respect: how much attention and time should we spend to

bodily needs and how much to other affairs? This pertinent question can

only be answered by us if we are conscious of the position our body

takes in the totality of life, i.e. when we are conscious of the proper

position of this aspect of thinking in relation to the other aspects. We

will come back to this question later on.

 

The higher form of this aspect can be found in dedication to the

well-being of others and oneself. Some examples: medical care, care for

bodily health for oneself and one's children, doing our duties regarding

the world ,etc. [in fact, we see that we can hardly separate the several

aspect of thinking. Vitality, emotion, aspiration, understanding, use of

our body, all these aspects/forces work together.]

 

The lower form of this aspect finds expression in thoughts of

separateness (the greatest heresy in Buddhism!). We often think that we

have nothing to do with others ('mind your own business'), but this is

not in accord with the spiritual point of view.

 

2. The emotional aspect of thinking.

 

This aspect of thinking is related to the reaction on sensory

impressions on our mind. If we don't use our conscious thinking before

reacting, then it can be said that we react instinctively, comparable to

what animals do. In fact the animal ego, and our body of course, is

closely involved with the lower aspects of thinking.

 

The emotional aspect is an important part of ourselves, as we all know.

 

The higher form of this aspect can be seen in emotional involvement with

issues in society, e.g. when we are committed to ameliorate bad

conditions in slums, stimulating others to give their best, etc.

 

The lower form of this aspect can be observed if someone feels hurt if a

critical remark is rightly made or when a good advice is construed as a

negative remark. More examples: false romance; strongly fluctuating

feelings of sympathy and antipathy; egocentric feelings of 'how bad this

world is' without any real concern for suffering of others and no active

participation in efforts to try to change things.

 

3. The vital aspect of thinking.

 

In (Western) societies we often see that people want to organize or fix

about everything you can think of. We can observe that a great deal of

energy or vitality is spent in these actions. It often turns out that we

didn't think properly before we acted. We didn't foresee the

consequences of our actions. Also, we are lacking in understanding that

we can often leave things to the wise mind of nature herself.

 

A positive example is using your vitality for positive ends. A negative

example is the destructive use of vitality for selfish purpose. This can

be literally destroying things, but also building up business by

manipulation, violence, and intimidation ('maffia').

 

4. The desire-aspect of thinking.

 

The desire-aspect or force plays a major role in human thinking. The

greater part of our actions arise from a desire towards something in

this world. This can be anything: work, money, status, etc. but also an

aspiration towards the realization of ideals. Theosophy looks at this

force as a neutral force, like electricity that flows through a wire

('the body').

 

Often, the notion of 'sin' is associated with 'desire'. This is a very

limited point of view and likely to cripple one's mind when one sticks

with the 'I-poor-sinner' syndrome.

 

Understanding the motive for our actions is of fundamental importance in

the process of acquiring self-knowledge. This motive can be selfish or

selfless. Rather than talking about 'good' or 'bad', which are relative

terms, different in each culture and historical period, we better use

the terms selfish or selfless as a criterion for judging our own acts

and thoughts. We can deceive ourselves, however, by subtle motives, e.g.

ambition which may be altruistic, or, on the other hand may involve

quite a bit of egoism, pride, etc.

 

It takes a lot of sincerity to see our motives clearly for what they

are. According to the degree of developed discrimination (discernment)

or understanding we will recognize these subtle motives.

 

Are we slaves of our passions or do we control our mind's activities?

This important subject is part of the discussion Krishna has with Arjuna

in the Bhagavad Gita.

 

Example of higher form: Lofty aspirations .

 

Example of lower form: Gross passions.

 

5. The intellectual aspect of thinking.

 

While most of us equate intellectuality with thinking, Theosophy states

that this is only one aspect of thinking, and not the highest. Intellect

works mostly with isolating problems out of their context. It gives

fragmented, partial, knowledge. It has a limited ability to get to the

core or essence of things, unless coupled with real understanding. It

often leads to fighting against symptoms, solving nothing.

 

Higher form: use of intellect to work out practical solutions in the

context of really understanding what the core of a problem is or what a

situation is really about.

 

Lower form: blindly relying on models in science or wherever, without

the necessary understanding of their inherent limits and shortcomings.

 

6. The understanding part of thinking.

 

Some people might equate understanding with intellectuality. That this

is not the case, will be clear by now. Understanding is sometimes

called: 'intuition'. Sometimes we 'see' at once a solution to a

complicated problem. We see this with the 'mental eye', so to speak. It

can take considerable time after this flash of insight occurred to us to

work this out in a systematic fashion by use of one's intellectual

aspect.

 

Understanding is involved with grasping the relationship between parts

and the whole. One sees the relationship between science, spirituality

and philosophy. One appreciates the fact that you cannot really separate

the individual from the collective, etc. One recognizes the built-in

harmony and order in man, nature, and, in the cosmos in general.

 

Theosophy calls this aspect of thinking: the *enlightenment* aspect. If

one has fully developed this aspect, not only on the thinking level, but

above that, one is technically called: a Buddha.

 

Example of higher form:

 

using one's understanding of things to help others, to improve

conditions of humanity, etc.

 

Example of lower form:

 

using one's understanding of the character of others to manipulate them.

 

7. The inspirational part of thinking.

 

The influence of inspiration can be seen in great works of art. Also,

mystics of all ages have witnessed great visions in a state of unity

consciousness, an experience of the actual wholeness of all life.

Sometimes we ourselves feel connected to all beings (to life in

general), absorbed into a feeling of unity, while walking in a forest,

etc.

 

In general terms, we can develop (identify ourselves with) this aspect

only through developing our understanding or intuitive faculty.

 

Example of higher form: creating masterpieces of art; bringing new

concepts into science (based on genuine intuition)

 

Example of lower (lowest) form: inspiring others to evil acts and

thoughts. Often in charming disguise: a wolf in sheep's clothes.

 

If all seven aspects of thinking are completely developed, we can speak

of a truly complete, harmonious, wholesome man. We have transformed

ourselves from a personal ego to a human ego! Remember, the human ego

type has developed all the aspects of thinking already. We, as persons,

have just started to evolve some of the higher aspects a little bit.