The Buddhic Plane

Wisdom Teachings
The Journey Inside

The intellectual abilities of man encompass analytical thinking and interpreting. This is reinforced through today’s educational system and is important in order to be effective in the external world. The development of the intellect should not be confused with spiritual development though. One of the spiritual abilities is the power of synthesis, through which we recognize the deeper correlations and the meaning of that which leads us to intellectual understanding. The intellect thinks critically. Wisdom sees everything according to its purpose, and unanimity dominates. “The apparent contrasts complement each other,” said Pythagoras.

The intellect or mind can be equated with the Manas-principle, spirituality with Buddhi or the light of wisdom, and highest Divinity with Atma. While Manas transmits messages from the environment to the inner man and also carries commands of will from within to the outside, Buddhi makes decisions about how to do things the right way. It knows what is good and bad, what we should do or what rather not. In terms of reasoning, there is a gap between what we know and what we do. We must build a bridge over this gap in order to live our lives in the light of wisdom. The bridge spans from the mental to the Buddhic plane, from intellect to intuition. In the beginning, intuition is only a flashlight; but over time it transforms into a daily occurrence. “You connect yourselves, thus you receive.” This is the promise of every master. “I guide and teach you from within. I will organize your personality from within. I will conduct the necessary transformations.”

Many people do not dare to meditate on the Buddhic plane. In this case, we choose a master who lives there, a Master of Wisdom. He is always on the Buddhic plane, and by meditating upon him we are already there ourselves - without knowing it. The daily contemplation is important to re-call him in ourselves. When we close our eyes, we visualize the shape we are invoking as beautiful and as full of light as we can, and we connect mentally with it. We can talk to him and tell him our problems. We can ask for guidance and advise. Then, the Buddhic plane will unfold in us, and we will hear in the heart what we should plan and do.

Without a teacher, we can easily get lost on the mental or Buddhic plane and become stuck. There is even a certain part of the Buddhic plane where twisting and manipulation can occur. This way, some religions distorted old wisdom concepts and claimed them their properties to gain advantage. For most people wisdom remains a concept as it appears in the books they study. It is only a mental burden for them without any real purpose. When some talk about wisdom, we feel like running away because all they do is recalling conceptual ideas. They have neither assimilated what they studied, nor have they experienced the wisdom. The purpose of studying wisdom is to step forward to the Atmic plane and to enter into self-awareness which we call the I AM or the soul. There, wisdom disappears, just as the mental concepts have disappeared before hand already. Everything disappears - only the beauty of the awareness of existence remains.

The reasoning capacity of an elephant does not fit into that of a fly. Buddhi, the capacity of the soul, is much greater than the capacity of the brain. Thus, it resides outside of the brain rather than within. The brain is only an instrument of the soul and, hence, the reasoning capacity of it. The initiate does not think with the brain, but outside of it. That is why many initiates are proclaimed insane by their fellow men who cannot understand them. The one, for example, who lives in the higher realms of the Buddhic plane does not consider anything to belong to him, while the average man constantly thinks in terms of “mine” and “yours”. For the initiate, it is an experience that everything belongs to the One, even he himself. He does not think “my possession, my house, my land…” When he contemplates upon the soul, he forgets his body. The idea of holding on to something belongs to the reasoning capacity and the lower levels of Buddhi.

When we divide the Buddhic planes into three parts, we find all wisdom books on the third and lowest part. The books are accessible by our mind; there is a certain logic in them and many explanations. When we ascend to the second and first level of the Buddhic plane, we find intuition in the second part and pure experience in the first. Intuition does not stand logic. We may develop a certain logic for intuition, but when it comes to experience things become more difficult. Oftentimes, in occult sciences such as astrology the act of interpretation derives from the intuitive plane; something make sense, although there is no logical explanation regarding the constellation of the planets. This is a common experience for those who work with astrology and homeopathy from the intuitive plane.

The mental body, too, we can divide into three parts: in the mental-emotional, the coloring of the mental lies somewhere between orange and pink. On the higher planes, the emotional aspect of the mental transforms into the love of wisdom. The intellectual-mental is filled with a bright orange color when the thinking is not crystallized, but clear and flexible. The orange color of the pure mental enables us to experience wisdom. Wisdom is experienced as golden-yellow and leads eventually to a honey-yellow color. The intuitive-mental is the body of intuition; also called the Buddhic body, which is of a bluish-white light. The motivate force of the body of wisdom is called causal body.

Orange is the color of light in the material, the spirit in matter. Golden-yellow is the color of the light of the pure Buddhic plane, the most subtle material, also called Devachan. Blue is the color of the spiritual plane, beyond matter. When we elevate ourselves to the Buddhic plane, we can perceive colors clearly and even hear their sounds. One symbol for contemplation is a blue center surrounded by golden-yellow which is framed by orange. If we see ourselves as spirit at the center of a circle, then the first circle around the center is the light, the soul itself; its enlightenment is called Buddhi. We don’t have to do anything to purify this light. Then there is the personality. Depending on how advanced we are, it is controlled by either higher or lower thinking. The mind needs to be cleared of impurities to a point where thinking becomes transparent. The light of the soul can shine through the body when thoughts are no longer drenched with personal motives and desires.

This, we want to accomplish through spiritual practice such as the daily singing of Gayatri. The true essence of Gayatri is the alignment with the Buddhic plane. We ask for a stimulation of the Buddhic plane in us so that the light can descend and rule over our thinking. “Tat Savitur Varenyam” – may the light embrace us. We meditate upon the source of all light, “Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi”, so that the light of the soul can descend: “Dhiyo Yonah Prachodayat”. And in the Great Invocation, we say, “From the Point of Light within the Mind of God - Let Light stream forth into the minds of men - Let Light descend on Earth.”

We can visualize how the light radiates from the head center, from the jewel in the lotus, and penetrates us from the Ajna center: “OM MANI PADME HUM”. Buddha gave it so. Hum is like OM a sound of invocation. The light should penetrate us to that extent that our personality is freed of all egotism and we recognize the soul in everything. We should contemplate upon this daily when we fill our system with the energy of the soul.

All those who continually stand in the light of the soul on the Buddhic plane are called Buddhas or Masters of Wisdom. Especially during the Vaisakh full moon, the full moon of the Buddha, we can open ourselves to receive the energies of the Buddhic plane.

Sources used: K.P. Kumar: Mithila / seminar notes – E. Krishnamacharya: Occult Anatomy / Full Moon Meditations. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.