Life on the Buddhic Plane
Inhabitants of the Buddhic Plane
“Divine love permeates the whole universe.” You can sound [that thought] on the buddhic plane, too, if you have conscious use of the buddhic vehicle. (1) I’m sounding this phrase very mildly now and am experiencing quite a build-up of divine love. (Paramahansa Yogananda in POG, 116.)
- (1) Paramahansa Yogananda’s assertion here could not be made if he did not have conscious use of the buddhic vehicle. My inference is that he is a resident of the Buddhic Plane.
Steward Edward White Describes the Buddhic Plane from the Vantage Point of the Mental Plane
I am informed almost everyone here is used to the Theosophical set of labels. (Stewart Edward White in PP, 213.)
Now, if you get higher than the concrete mental plane (1) and look for the chair again (2) you would bump into the idea of “chairness.” With people, there’s even an individualization on the next higher plane, but it’s difficult to describe in English. It’s a kind of at-oneness. You are still separate identities, but are more in harmony with each other.
Leichtman: More like a cell in the body of mankind?
Actually, more like a cell in the body of God. Either way you look at it, from the top side or the bottom side, it’s all right. … And going up beyond that is very difficult because it is….
Leichtman: Are you talking about the buddhic plane now?
If that’s a handy label for you, let’s use it. Now, the buddhic plane is very difficult to talk about at all because it is all sights, all sounds, all sensations, all feelings – without any of these things.
Leichtman: It would be the essence of these things, wouldn’t it?
Describing it is like trying to conceive of how a deaf man can hear music. He hears the music but doesn’t have the organs to hear it.
Leichtman: You have direct knowing and direct experience, without the intermediary of sensory impressions.
Yes, as a matter of fact, the “sensations” of that level are more closely akin to breathing than to seeing or listening. Things pass through you; you don’t assimilate them, but you get an awareness of them as they pass through you and go on. And the sense of separation is even less because everything is passing through everything else. This is why it is so difficult to talk about it in concrete terms.
It is indescribably beautiful, but it cannot be discussed in terms of seeing things or hearing things. You know and are aware – much more powerfully than at the lower levels – but not in the same context that your language is geared to describe.
Leichtman: I suppose you are still yourself, but your appreciation of the dimensions of your total self has expanded to encompass other individuals.
It has expanded, but not in a spatial sense. Our words are so inadequate for this kind of discussion – I say “going up in the planes” and you say “expanding,” but these terms are figurative. For a physical person – and there are many who have experienced mental and buddhic consciousness during physical lifetimes – you are really going within yourself. (Stewart Edward White in PP, 217-9.)
- (1) I am not convinced that White is a resident of the Buddhic Plane, but it appears that he has gone there on at least temporary visits, apparently while still in the physical body as well.(2) White has been using the example of a physical chair, which has correlates on the Astral and Mental Planes as well. Higher than the Mental Plane would be what Theosophists call the Buddhic Plane.
Service on the Buddhic Plane
I am rather intensely involved in bringing a stream of certain aspects of God’s love into the earth realm. These are energies which come from beyond the planet and I am involved in qualifying them and helping to transmit them so that they are more suitable for expression on earth. This consumes a great deal of my attention and effort and is a project which is very close to my heart. I am doing this now, as I’m talking about it. (Paramahansa Yogananda in POG, 135.)
I am deeply involved in the evolution of earth and am concerned about the development of people that I worked with in particular and humanity as a whole. My efforts are dedicated to helping the being who is the planet evolve. (Paramahansa Yogananda in POG, 135.)
I’m still present occasionally in the earth realm and can be depended on to pass these energies along. As some of my students know, I can be reached. (Paramahansa Yogananda in POG, 135.)
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