Theos-Talk Archives (August 2007 Message tt00098)

Henry:



Here are some ideas that come to mind in reading your questions.


>Are there realities beyond thought? Some branches or
>types of meditation strive to reach the place of no
>thought.

 

While we are alive, we are composite beings. At death, the parts go back to
their various realms for their respective after-death experiences. The part
of that composite being that is us as we know ourselves is the human monad.
As such, we have the greatest opportunity to learn and grow while in life,
since we have the beneficial influence of the other parts working with us,
including our inner teacher or Manasaputra.

 

There are many different aspects of experiencing life, many ways of looking
at and interacting with it. They are always active in us to some degree, but
many are still unconsciousness. Through inner work we may develop some
awareness or consciousness of them. One is thought, another feelings or
desire, and there are many others. 

 

To reach a place of "no thought" is really to have one's attention in
another type of consciousness. Thought continues, but may be forgotten, just
as we may forget that we are breathing even though it still happens as long
as we live.


>When this no thought is reached, do I still exist?



As long as you are alive, you exist. Leaving existence happens at sleep,
death, or when you move beyond the need to reincarnate in our world. From
the standpoint of this plane, there is no thought nor senses nor anything
else as one has shifted elsewhere. It sleep, the transfer is in dreamless
sleep; dreams are subjective consciousness tied to the experience of this
world and not an experience of the next. The same is true of Kamaloka and
Devachan in the afterlife; they are subjective states related to the life
just past and are not the subsequent experience of live in another realm. 

 

Where ever you exist, you have thought, but you also have other aspects of
consciousness that you might call "no thought." All are ingredients of a
full-spectrum experience of life.

 

>When I am in no thought,do I know?



You still have though and know things even if you are for the moment unaware
of it because of a focus of attention elsewhere within.

 

>When I am in no thought, do I have awareness?



You have an awareness of whatever part of your inner constitution that you
are focused on, to the extent you have awakened awareness in that part of
yourself.


>Is there something outside the field of thought, and if so,
>what is it?



There are many things, most of which we cannot know since no one has
awakened to them. The first place to start getting an idea about them is to
read about the attributes of the higher principles - Atman, Buddhi, and
Higher Manas.

 

n  Eldon



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