The Envelopes of the First Self (The Way of Man).
The Envelopes as Beings of Their Own. The Worlds of the First Self.
(3.2) Generals
(3.2.1) The four envelopes of incarnation – the organism, the etheric envelope, the emotional envelope, the mental envelope – which the monad is able to work with, are four mechanisms. In so far as the monad has been able to activate the molecules and molecular consciousness of these envelopes, the four envelopes function as one mechanism for the monad in the triad.
(3.2.2) The monad in the incarnated triad envelope makes use of its envelopes of incarnation as instruments of observation, apprehension, and expression.
(3.2.3) Man’s aura consists of four material envelopes: the etheric, emotional, mental, and the causal triad envelope. The aura makes up man’s total life from his birth to the end of his incarnation. The aura makes up the monad’s possibility of consciousness and the domain of the monad’s apprehension; it is the receiver of all impressions, subjective or objective, from the four worlds. The aura radiates energy and has in some people a magnetic effect. The colours of the aura indicate the individual’s level of development, especially the colours of the mental and emotional envelopes.
(3.2.4) Man in incarnation is three beings simultaneously, since he has consciousness in his physical etheric, emotional, and mental envelopes. The envelopes have been given the name of “beings”, since they possess molecular collective consciousness. The term “being” is nevertheless not quite satisfactory, since it is not the purpose of the envelopes to be beings of their own or express their own tendencies, but to be instruments for the consciousness expressions of the self. However, the term “being” has been chosen to emphasize the consciousness aspect in the individual’s envelopes and not, as is the case with the term “body”, to emphasize the matter aspect one-sidedly.
(3.2.5) The envelopes are never at rest, for they are pervaded in every second by countless vibrations in their worlds, vibrations produced by molecules with energy and consciousness. It is this influence from without that “telepathically” supplies the envelopes with all manner of illusions and fictions, which (if they are apprehended by the self) the individual takes to be his own feelings and thoughts.
(3.3) The Envelopes as Beings of Their Own
(3.3.1) The envelopes are called “beings”, since the matter of the envelopes has an actualized passive consciousness. This means that the envelopes are incapable of self-initiated consciousness expressions but have the ability to apprehend, record, and preserve vibrations that are carriers of consciousness expressions.
(3.3.2) The envelopes are easily activated by the faintest vibration. The envelopes are perfect robots that automatically reproduce all kinds of vibrations (consciousness expressions) they receive within their molecular domains. Therefore, the percentages of the different molecular kinds in the envelopes are very important. At his lowest two stages of development, for instance, man’s emotional envelope predominantly consists of the lower three or four molecular kinds (48:4-7). The lower the level of development within the stage, the greater the percentage of lower molecular kinds, and so the monad receives chiefly vibrations from the corresponding lower regions of the emotional world.
(3.2.3) The envelopes are directed by vibrations from the monad consciousness (the waking consciousness), from the subconscious of the first triad, and from without, from the worlds of the envelopes themselves.
(3.2.4) In addition, the envelopes have their own tendencies: an instinctive striving after obtaining ever stronger vibrations. In part this tendency is “innate”, since the envelopes are directed by impulses from the subconscious of the triad, from the tendencies the monad acquired in previous incarnations. Through its habits, similar feelings and thoughts, interests, etc., the monad gathers up molecules “infected” with these tendencies in its envelopes; these molecules, called “skandhas”, accompany the triad on the dissolution of the envelopes and at the subsequent incarnation. It is obvious that these skandhas can have either an inhibiting or a promoting effect. Often they are the germs of new, similar skandhas in a subsequent incarnation. Also habits can in this manner become inherited and innate and assert themselves even though the envelopes in the subsequent incarnation belong to quite different departments.
(3.2.5) What was said above explains why the self has difficulty in freeing itself from old habits, from old consciousness associations. They have a tendency to recur in various connections. This has a promoting effect if the individual has received nothing but “good” impressions. At the present stage of mankind’s development, however, impressions are by and large a burden, the more markedly so the more the individual strives after ennoblement.
(3.4) The Worlds of the First Self
(3.4.1) The worlds of the first self have been made in order that the monad learn to distinguish between the matter aspect and the consciousness aspect, become conscious of itself and no longer identify itself with its envelopes (the matter aspect): “I am not my envelopes.”
(3.4.2) The first self’s envelopes of incarnation make three modes of existence possible: life in the physical, emotional, and mental world. Of these modes of existence, physical life is without comparison the most important, since it is only in the physical world that man can acquire knowledge, qualities, and abilities. Life in the emotional world and life in the mental world are only periods of rest between incarnations. It is impossible for man to objectively explore those worlds. That is possible only for the second self.
(3.4.3) By activating emotional as well as mental consciousness man enhances his ability to better use these kinds of consciousness in new incarnations. This he does more efficiently in the physical world than in higher worlds. He activates emotionality by cultivating attraction - admiration, affection, and sympathy - and mentality by working up the knowledge he has acquired in the physical world.
(3.4.4) If he takes the apparent realization of his imaginings (apparent, since matter forms itself according to the expressions of consciousness) for objective reality, then he is ignorant of the nature of these matters and must believe in what he is seeing. This is part of the illusoriness of the emotional world and the fictitiousness of the mental world. With a knowledge of reality he will no longer be the victim of the pertaining illusions and fictions but can expediently help disoriented people to “find their bearings” in their new mode of existence, liberate them from the false notions about the “hereafter” that most people are afflicted with in physical life.
(3.5) The Self’s Dependence on Its Envelopes
(3.5.1) The envelopes of incarnation are not the self. The monad, the self, incarnates time and again until it can be sovereign in its envelopes. These envelopes are the monad’s own work, performed during all its incarnations ever since the monad received a causal envelope and in so doing passed from the animal to the human kingdom. The monad is long a slave to the energies of these vibrations, which the envelopes absorb from the vibrations of their worlds in accord with the affinity there is between the molecular kinds of the worlds and the corresponding molecular kinds of the envelopes. In this dependence of the envelopes on the collective consciousness and energy of the worlds appears mankind’s collective responsibility for all individuals in the human kingdom.
(3.5.2) During our incarnations we have all contributed to “poisoning” collective matter and its collective consciousness by our perverse attitude to the laws of life, perverse because of our ignorance. Instead of trying to realize the meaning of life - consciousness development - we have preferred to identify ourselves with the matter aspect and to lead an egotistical life, a life separated from the common consciousness. We have impregnated the consciousness of our molecules with this separative tendency, and this inevitably re-acts on everybody, since the matters of our envelopes at the dissolution of the envelopes are blended with the matters of their worlds and enter into the envelopes of incarnation of all people. The very separative tendency counteracts the meaning of life, which is everybody’s share in unity.