Mind stands for a very vaguely defined and complex group of phenomena connected with the functioning of consciousness. In the lower end it includes feeling and emotions, while in the higher aspects it comprises abstract thought and the little understood faculty called intuition. The physical being has only a vague, if any, awareness of how the causal body works and the manner in which consciousness works through it. The lack of full understanding of the mind is the failure to understand that the brain is not the originator of mental phenomena. Rather, it is the screen on which the phenomena of the different worlds produce their shadows.

The brain collects and brings together vibrations coming through the different sense avenues as well as various types of energies which come down from higher, super-physical worlds. However, the only way anyone can understand the realities that are beyond the physical is to be able to go behind the screen and be in touch with the higher subtle truths.

The truth one would discover is that one has a complex constitution, a set of vehicles that connect one with all the higher and higher inner planes. Each vehicle sends its peculiar vibration into the brain and produces the complex and varied phenomena of one's physical consciousness. One's sensations and feelings are due to the repercussions of the cerebrospinal system caused by the vibrations coming from the astral plane. For one to fully understand the working of the subtle and the gross, one has to evolve to a much higher level of awareness than most of humanity has as yet reached.

Thoughts are due to the reproduction in the physical brain of vibrations coming from the mental plane. One's true intuitions are the faint echoes of vibrations coming down from subtler fields of still higher planes. Thoughts may be grouped under two broad sub-heads; concrete thought dealing with names and forms, and abstract thoughts dealing with concepts and abstract principles. Both sets appear in one's physical consciousness through the physical brain.

The mental plane consists of seven sub-planes. The lower four sub-planes form one group which serves as the medium for concrete thoughts, whereas the higher three sub-planes form another group which serves as the medium for abstract thoughts. All scientific generalizations and laws, all philosophical systems and all principles that are concerned with defining the relations of things or ideas, one to another, come within the domain of abstract thought.

The division of thoughts into these two groups of sub-planes is a natural division since the matter belonging to these two groups of sub-planes enters into two entirely distinct vehicles of consciousness; the lower mental body as the vehicle of concrete thoughts and the higher mental body as the vehicle of abstract thoughts.

The lower mental body is the subtlest constituent of the transitory personality, while the higher mental body, which is called the causal body, forms the lowest vehicle of the immortal ego who endures from life to life, going through the evolutionary process over eons of time. The line of demarcation between the lower and higher mind, not only separates the two mental principles, but also the lower and higher in man.

The brain is an instrument which reproduces faintly, in one's physical consciousness, the vibrations which are first produced in the causal body; these vibrations lose much of their intensity and clarity in the transmission from the causal down to the physical brain. It is only when an abstract idea is projected into the lower mind that it takes on a definite shape and form, and the abstract changes into the concrete condition. Those beings on the causal plane have full knowledge and the ability to function in every sphere of life and they are not hampered by details. If they want details they just lower their minds and easily obtain them.

Another function of the causal body is giving birth to the human soul which goes through the process of human evolution. The qualities that were lying in a germinal condition in the soul are slowly raised from a latent state to potency; thereby the soul passes from a savage condition to that of perfection, evolving according to the laws of reincarnation and karma. This gradual unfoldment of human and divine characteristics is marked by a parallel development of the causal body, which shows itself in an increase in the size and luminosity of its aura, as well as the appearance of bands of brilliant colors in the aura. It is possible, by the study of the aura of the causal body, to know the stage of development one has reached.

Also, the causal body functions as the repository of the fruits of human evolution and these fruits are gathered during the course of the successive lives of the ego. During the time spent in heaven, at the close of a life cycle, the experiences of the life last spent on earth are slowly digested, and the essence of them in the form of virtues, is transferred to, and made a part of, the constitution of the causal body.

The personality distills all of its experiences. And before it dissolves and vanishes forever, it hands over the distilled product, the essence of all life’s experiences, to its parent, the ego, who gave it birth. The ego absorbs into its constitution all of the valuable lessons learned in that life and it starts each new life with the accumulated lessons learned during the previous lives. Thereby, the growth of the causal body goes on.

This accounts for the fact that when we start a new life with a new set of physical, astral, and lower mental bodies, we have no memory of the experiences gone through in the previous lives. However, we do have the fullest advantages of all those past experiences in the form of faculties and powers developed in all those lives and now embodied in the causal body. The reason there is no memory of the experiences gone through in the previous lives is because the new mental body did not pass through those experiences and therefore has no record of those experiences.

It is the ego who passed through all those experiences and retains the memory of all past lives. This memory can be revived by one who has risen to a level of consciousness where one can bring down, into the physical brain, mental pictures concerned with the past lives.

Much of the evil we see in people is merely due to the lack of development of the corresponding opposite good qualities and faculties in the causal body. During the process of evolving, through different experiences, different qualities which constitute a perfect character are developed in an irregular fashion and not one after the other in an orderly fashion. Until the total picture of an individual is completed, the picture will always appear unfinished and lopsided. However, when it is completed it will appear perfect in all aspects; hence, a cosmic status.

We always develop different qualities in our character in different orders and we start developing them at different times, and these are the lessons of life that are assigned to one in each lifetime here on earth. If we start to complete one portion of the picture of ourselves in a lifetime and we fail to finish that portion, then surely the picture is incomplete regarding that specific portion or lesson to be learned. So, in the next lifetime, we have new portions to complete, plus the incomplete one to pick up and finish.

What we generally call vices are, in most cases, due to the absence of the corresponding virtues that still have to be unfolded in the causal body. The vices are the dark streaks in the spectrum of our character. Most sinful people are really incompletely developed, not having a needed completed virtue to offset a certain vice. All of us are in this world to strive to complete our portraits. Some are just starting theirs and others have theirs nearly complete. It all depends where one is in consciousness. It is meant that we should all reach perfection and complete our portraits. Yet, the end result does not include producing the same identical pattern. We must all be perfect. We must all develop in an all-around manner, yet we must also be unique. No two individualities are ever meant to be exactly the same. How this is done is one of life’s greatest mysteries which we cannot hope to solve until we are perfected.

The causal body, not only serves as the repository of the myriad of experiences we have gone through in all of our incarnations, but it is also the repository of the good and bad karma that we have created during our incarnations on this earth. These remain as seeds or impressions in the causal body and as they come into fruition they determine the conditions of our future lives. This is why this vehicle is called the causal body. A certain amount of this accumulated karma must be worked out in each lifetime and some more is accumulated each lifetime. A running account is maintained and it is only exhausted at the time of one's liberation.

The main purpose of evolution is to become what you are and each personality serves a specific purpose during each lifetime and each soul is destined to become unique. There is a steady pressure on the growth of the soul throughout the period of evolution and it is a pressure from within which guarantees the attainment of its perfection in accordance with its own individual uniqueness. Each soul has a definite part to play in the process of evolution and its growth takes place in such a manner as it is fitted to play that role in life.