The Mental State of Being
The next step in our spiritual evolution
How do we live? And how should we be living? Discussing these questions is the entire point of this blog. If everything ends with the body there is no reason to limit oneself in any way. “Do what thou wilt” is the motto of the Illuminati, which gives a good hint at what they believe. However, most people believe that death is just another beginning. The percentage of Americans that accept the afterlife as fact has remained consistently in the low to mid 70th percentile—since the mid-1940s.[1]
But does this reflect on how we actually live? How many are hypocrites—professing to believe one thing while doing something quite opposite? Most, most likely. After all, this age of Kali is not called the Age of Hypocrisy for nothing. And I’ll confess to being guilty at various times of my life, looking back and saying to myself “Just what was I thinking?” Not thinking actually.
Perhaps we are guilty due to the fact that the Judeo-Christian faiths don’t say much philosophically about what happens, but offer limited dogma (“Accept _____ as your savior and you will be saved from your sins!”) and threats (“If you don’t accept _____ you will burn in hell forever!”). Indeed, I’ve been told this exact same thing by one earnest, and seemingly well-wishing person.
Or, perhaps we’re hypocrites because we have no idea what’s coming up in the next stage of our lives?
In today’s post we are going on a philosophical journey into the afterlife using the philosophy of the Vedas, and exploring what goes on when the final curtain falls.
If you have any questions, please put them in the comments section, and I will answer every one of them. And please let me know your thoughts there as well. A word or two in the comments lets me know that my efforts are worthwhile. A little feedback is much appreciated and very encouraging.
If you found this worthwhile, please also like and share.
Rest assured, there is a better way to live.
At some point in time the physical material body will no longer be able to function, and we will depart from it. That event is called death, but actually it is only the death of the body. Because we, the spiritual energy, are the actual life force, after we have left the body it no longer displays the symptoms of life. Actually the body is just material energy which is always dead, or without life—just like your chair, or your clothing—but it has the symptoms of life because we, the life force, are within.
We depart from the material body sheathed in the mental body, and at that point enter the mental state of being—in the mental world.
What is the mental body?
As stated in a previous post, the mental body is made up of subtle material energies—mind substance, intelligence substance and ego substance. These energies are too subtle to perceive with our physical senses, which is why we do not see people depart when they die. This subtle body acts as an interface between the body of material energy and you, the spiritual energy. Because you, the living being, are within the mental body, the mental body also appears to be alive, just as the physical body did.
The above image illustrates seven layers of the human energy field, giving some idea of the subtle material body. “From the point of view of the scientist, each layer can be considered to be a level of higher vibrations, occupying the same space as the levels of vibration below it and extending beyond. Thus we have seven bodies all occupying the same space at the same time, each one extending out beyond the last, something we are not used to in “normal” daily life. The structured layers contain all the forms that the physical body has, including internal organs, blood vessels, etc.” Image and quote from Barbara Brennan’s “Hands of Light.”
Getting to know your mental body is easy. Close your eyes. Now feel the person you know yourself to be with all of your relationships, your memories, your abilities, your daily activities, your desires and emotional state. That feeling of self is your mental conception of life. Like the material body it is not a permanent state of existence. The mental concept of self grows and changes along with the changes and experiences of the physical body. As you grow from young to old, your mental conception of self likely changes. If you marry or divorce, change occupations, grow rich or poor, your mental conception of self may change, or may not, depending on how you choose to see yourself. Some aspects of your mental identity can also change independently of the body, and there are many teachers who instruct people that to change the external circumstances of their lives they must first change their mental conception of life, because the material aspects of life are based on, and determined by, one’s mental state.
The Mental World
When the time of “death” comes you will separate from the body. You may look down and see your body. Many become confused at this point thinking “how can I be there, when I am here?” This confusion is due to not having learned the first lesson of spiritual life—that you are not the body. You are seeing the material body from the mental body.
Now you are in the mental world—a world made up of mind substance—which is a world created by your state of your mind. It’s very different than the physical plane. Think of a place and you will immediately find yourself there. Think of person and you will immediately be in their presence—but they won’t be able to hear you since you are on a different plane of existence. Go wherever you want without any obstacles. Walls or buildings present no obstacle—you will pass right through them, which will also happen when you attempt to grasp something, or touch a person. Yes, you are now what is called a ghost, but only those who are very attached to the physical plane will remain Earth-bound, and not be able to move on.
We already have experience of the mental world in the dream state. Although our bodies are lying in our beds, we depart from them and enter the mental world, where we are doing all sorts of things, with all sorts of people.
The mental world after death is similar but much more real. Indeed, it will seem more real than the material life we left behind. You will continue to have a body like the one you left behind, but it will not be debilitated in any way, even if your body was crippled or sick. And your senses will be much more acute than Earthly senses. Colors, sounds, sensations will seem much more intense and real that your Earthly experience ever was.
It is important to understand that the duality of mind/body, inner/outer of the material plane vanishes in the mental world. There is no physical body that made up half of that duality. Now there is only mind. Who you are mentally is the person everyone sees, and your very nature is immediately understood by anyone that sees you. If you were a thief in Earthly life you have brought that state of mind with you, and you cannot hide that fact. Everyone will know you are a thief simply by looking at you. The same if you were a murderer, or a compassionate healer. The person you were in material life is exactly the person you are in the mental world, and there is no hiding it. Also there is no hiding your thoughts because they will be immediately known by everyone present. Communication is instant and does not require words.
The Quality of the Mental Plane
Now comes the most important thing to know about the mental world: your consciousness, or state of mind, that you are currently creating in this life, is what creates your reality there. Let me repeat this for emphasis: your state of mind immediately generates your reality there.
If you have attempted to be good, to use your life to do good, to follow the principles of your religion (irrespective of what it may be), have been caring of others, and kind, truthful, practiced the golden rule, and have endeavored, even slightly, to know and understand God, that consciousness developed by such endeavors will manifest a wonderful world of happiness and light, a world of joy and happiness.
However, if you have ignored goodness, have ignored church and religion, have simply followed the dictates of your mind and engaged in all manners of sense pleasures, have been a selfish person of ill will, lying, cheating, thieving, and killing, thinking only of yourself at the expense of others – that mental state will manifest as a world of darkness, despair, pain and suffering. This is why such things are called “sinful,” and to be avoided—not only because of the trouble you give to others—but because those deed will also cause you a great deal more pain in the afterlife.
Who you have become by the end of your life is reflected back to you in every detail. Since that state is created by your very own consciousness, there is no way for you to escape it, because you cannot quickly change your state of mind to escape who you have become.
These are the worlds of heaven and hell. God does not create them, nor condemn us to them, but we, ourselves, create them, by our thoughts and actions in this life.
Our Motivation is the Most Important
Most important, and even more important than our actions, are the motivations behind our actions. And it is our motivations that determine who we become. For example, many people give in charity, but with different motivations. One wants to help the recipient of his gift, while another wants to be known as a charitable person in order to gain the respect and honor of others. A third may give charity to get the good karma he will receive in a future life. And so on. The motivation behind our actions is what determines the development of our consciousness, and the experience we will have in the mental world.
The reason why all religions teach us to be good, and do good to others, is that those actions are not good just for others, but good for ourselves. We cannot do good without receiving good. Doing good uplifts our consciousness, and will result in a joyful experience after the present life.
Sadly, the majority of people are not taught the great value of this Earthly life, which gives us the opportunity to improve ourselves. It is because of the duality of this Earth life that we can choose the better over the lesser, to accept the good, and to learn and grow. Once leaving this body doing so will be much more difficult. Here we have a great opportunity to change our state of consciousness, to become better persons, by giving of ourselves and doing good for others. Understanding this we will do well for ourselves by using this life to lift ourselves up. Just as we prepare ourselves for our future years by studying in youth, we must also prepare ourselves for the afterlife by doing good, by prayer, and by striving to know ourselves as spiritual beings, and to know and serve, the Supreme Spiritual Being, God.
Being ignorant of these principles, or ignoring them, and living selfish lives, thinking only of ourselves, we are condemning ourselves to future reactions worse than anything that can be imagined here. Again, not as a punishment from a vindictive God, but simply due to the nature of the world we will soon enter.
But whatever state our choices create for us in the mental world, it is not an eternal state of being. When our pious credits are exhausted we will have to leave heaven, and when we have been purified we will leave hell, to once again be born in the material world.
Preparing to Return
Our experience of the mental plane will make us realize that we are not that body we left behind. Gradually we will let go of the ego and identity of the last life. We will, however, have the opportunity to learn from the activities of the previous life, both good and bad, and grow spiritually, integrating what we have learned into the understanding that we will take with us into the next life.
Our unfulfilled desires and karmic reactions are what force us to take birth again. Our desires and karmic credit both determine the details of the next life experience: whether we will have a male or female body, the degree of our handsomeness/beauty, the degree of education we will have, where we will be born, and to what parents, and the amount of wealth we will have. None of this takes place by chance—all of it is the result of our own endeavors and actions in the previous life. Life is a continuum. Just like you wake up and continue the activities of the previous day(s), the next life will be a continuation of this life. We will continue with the same consciousness that we left off with in the previous life, and be given the opportunity to do better.
Another thing that is very important to know, is that whatever we think of at the time of death will determine our next birth. There is no guarantee that we will return as a human being. If we think of our family pets, we could return as a cat or dog. We are given free will in human life and if we abuse that we may be put into life forms of plants or animals. The best way to insure a human birth is to endeavor to know who we are as spiritual beings, and to know God and our relationship with Him.
Life does not begin at conception. Life is eternal. But our next body will begin to develop only when we, the spiritual energy, is present, at the very beginning of the fertilization of the ovum of our mother. In other words, material life begins at conception. But if our mother chooses to have an abortion, to murder our newly developing body, we will be forced to return to the mental world to wait for another opportunity body, with which to fulfill our desires.
There is a great deal more than can be said about the mental world, heaven and hell, but that goes far beyond the scope of this introduction.
We have had an unlimited number of previous lives, and where we go from here will be determined by what we do in this life. But it is possible, if we want to, to make this our last life in the material world, to finally free ourselves from this unending cycle of repeated birth, disease, old age and death. We can do that by developing our relationship with God and learning about God’s kingdom in the spiritual world. In that world we will live eternally, with no more change of bodies. We will live in a state of absolute and unending bliss with no unhappiness or sorrow of any kind. That is the third possible state of existence – the spiritual state of being.
[1] https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/paradise-polled-americans-and-afterlife