The Senses and the Planes

I asked NotebookLM the following:

What did Meher Baba say about the process by which the senses were lost as one progressed up the planes of consciousness until only the sense of sight remained on the sixth plane?

Here was its response:

Source: Gemini

According to Meher Baba, as a soul evolves and progresses through the inner planes of consciousness, it gradually sheds its reliance on the varied senses of the physical body until only a singular, spiritual sense of "seeing" remains.

Baba described this process by categorizing the soul's experiences within the three spheres of existence—gross, subtle, and mental:

• The Gross Sphere: Souls with gross impressions experience the gross world through the physical body. In this state, consciousness is tied to a wide and diverse range of physical experiences, including seeing, hearing, smelling, eating, sleeping, and clearing the bowels.
  
  
• The Subtle Sphere (Planes 1–3): As the soul's consciousness turns inward and enters the subtle sphere, it becomes disentangled from the gross body and begins to use the subtle body. In the first three planes of the subtle sphere, the soul's sensory experiences are reduced to only three subtle faculties: seeing, smelling, and hearing.
  
  
• The Mental Sphere (Planes 5–6): When the soul transcends the fourth plane (which acts as a threshold) and enters the mental sphere, it becomes completely unconscious of both the gross and subtle bodies. Identifying strictly with the mental body (the mind), the soul in the mental world has now only one sense remaining: the mental sense of "seeing".

The Sixth Plane and the Third Eye By the time the pilgrim reaches the sixth plane of consciousness, the mind itself becomes the "Inner Eye". The soul has no thoughts, but functions entirely through feeling. On this plane, the soul uses its singular mental sense of sight to actually "see" God face-to-face continuously in everything and everywhere. Because the soul still identifies itself as the mind, it experiences the duality of the "seer" and the "seen" and suffers an intense longing to finally merge with the God it is continuously seeing.

The Metaphor of the Seven Doors Meher Baba also used a physical metaphor to describe this progressive withdrawal of the senses. He likened the spiritual journey to passing through the "Sevenfold Veil," comparing the stages of involution to the seven physical openings in the human face:

• 1st Plane: Entering the first plane involves passing through the first door, represented by the mouth.
  
  
• 2nd and 3rd Planes: Further progress through the subtle sphere involves passing through the second and third doors, represented by the right and left nostrils.
  
  
• 4th Plane: Arriving at the highest plane of the subtle sphere involves crossing the fourth and fifth doors, represented by the right and left ears.
  
  
• 5th Plane: Entering the mental sphere involves crossing the sixth and seventh doors, represented by the right and left eyes.
  
  
• 6th Plane: Once all these physical doors are passed, the pilgrim arrives at the "entrance to divinity" represented by the center of the forehead. Here, the inner "third eye" is fully opened, and the pilgrim achieves "conviction by sight," seeing God everywhere.

The One True Death

Meher Baba once said: “None dies, and none knows to die. The rare one who knows to die is never born again!” By this Baba means that whether we are incarnate or discarnate, we remain in illusion. We die physically only to be reborn again in the flesh. 8,500,000 cycles of life and death are necessary before we achieve true death, the death of the ego, after which no further physical incarnations are necessary. We have discovered the answer to that age-old question of "Who Am I?".

It is only when in a physical body that we can achieve freedom from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. This got me thinking about the inhabitants of the astral and mental planes. These planes are populated by beings, are part of creation and thus remain in illusion. I can suppose that after a great many incarnations, many reach a point of complete disillusionment with the physical plane. It no longer holds any appeal for them and their karmic liabilities are such that they are not drawn back to the physical plane to settle them. 

Unlike most of us, who in the afterlife enter a period of intense introspection, these individuals become free to interact with other entities who are on a similar wavelength. They can enter communities and enjoy the structures that these communities have built. There they can live and interact with others. They can later choose to act as guides and support those individuals who have died and are temporarily discarnate. Most of these individuals will lapse into deep subjectivity before long but in the meantime those permanently resident on the astral planes can be of assistance.

However, these dwellers on the astral plane will not achieve liberation there. For that, they will need to experience a physical incarnation and perhaps run the risk of getting trapped on the wheel of life and death again. This is not likely to happen however, given that they are not compelled to return because of karmic liabilities. They can take their time and plan an incarnation that will maximise their likelihood of making progress in the sense of entering a higher plane on the astral after death. Eventually, by this strategy, they may even enter the mental planes.

This is purely speculative on my part. Baba does not talk much about the residents of the astral and mental planes and rightly focuses on what we can do here and now on the physical plane. It's easy to get distracted by astral travel, lucid dreaming, chakras, yogic practices and so forth, often reinforcing the ego in the process rather than diminishing it. Still, it's interesting to speculate about what's going on there.

The Materium

"The Materium" is a word that Clif High used in a recent video titled 20230114 - Reality Werkz Perfek and seems to refer simply to the material world. He tends to use his own peculiar words and phrases which is his prerogative I guess. One thing that he said struck a chord in me when he said that "only life fused into matter can produce change". This is something that I'd been thinking about recently and had formed an image that looks something like that shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Imagine the pyramid at the bottom as the materium or physical plane. Above are six truncated pyramids corresponding to the four astral planes (first, second, third and fourth), and the two mental planes (fifth and sixth). Only the lowermost pyramid is a full pyramid. Even though it is the smallest shape, it is the only one with a point obviously.

The terms "cutting edge" and "one-pointedness" come to mind. The material plane is where the work gets done, where changes can be made and consciousness can become one-pointed in order to reach its ultimate goal. It is where consciousness meets its maximum resistance. In the astral realm, consciousness can imagine a statue and it will appear. In the physical realm, it must be carved out of marble using the cutting edge of a chisel.

Meher Baba is also clear about God-consciousness being only attainable while in possession of a physical body. Once the body is dropped, a new apex for consciousness needs to be regrown. In other words, a new body must be formed. Even a consciousness that has attained the sixth plane  must return to a physical body once the current body has been dropped. 

Only through the assistance of a Perfect Master can a sixth plane consciousness attain liberation by entering the seventh plane. Once this plane has been attained there is no more rebirth. The seemingly endless cycle of illusory births and deaths is over. 

Across the Bridge

Figure 1: source

I was listening to Van Morrison's Across The Bridge Where Angels Dwell and was reminded of the widespread, popular images of of the scene where children are on or crossing a bridge while an angel is hovering over them". The image shown in Figure 1 is less common in that it's a photograph rather than a painting. 

The lyrics to the song go:

Across the bridge where angels dwell

Across the bridge where angels

Across the bridge where angels dwell 

 

Children play 

 

Beyond the place where time is still

Beyond the place where time is

Beyond the place where time is still 

 

Night is day 

 

Close your eyes in fields of wonder

Close your eyes and dream

Close your eyes in fields of wonder

Close your eyes and dream 

 

Along the path where heaven lies

Along the path where heaven

Along the path where heaven lies 

 

All is clear 

 

Ahead where home awaits the heart

Ahead where home is waiting

Ahead where home awaits the heart 

 

Peace is near 

 

Close your eyes in fields of wonder

Close your eyes and dream

Close your eyes in fields of wonder

Close your eyes and dream 

 

Across the bridge where angels dwell

Across the bridge where angels

Across the bridge where angels dwell 

 

Children play

Figure 2 shows another image of the scene.

Figure 2: source

I've also been playing the song on guitar and getting it sound reasonable enough. Below are the chords to accompany the lyrics.

[Verse 1]

G                         C

Across the bridge where angels dwell

G                         C

Across the bridge where angels

G                         C                    G

Across the bridge where angels dwell children play

  

[Verse 2]

G                        C

Beyond the place where time is still

G                        C

Beyond the place where time is

G                        C                      G

Beyond the place where time is still, night is day

 

[Chorus]

C           D        G         C

Close your eyes in fields of wonder

C           D        G

Close your eyes and dream

C           D        G         C

Close your eyes in fields of wonder

C           D        G

Close your eyes and dream

  

[Verse 3]

G                      C

Along the path where heaven lies

G                      C

Along the path where heaven

G                      C                  G

Along the path where heaven lies all is clear

 

[Verse 4]

G                   C

Ahead where home awaits the heart

G                     C

Ahead where home is waiting

G                   C                        G

Ahead where home awaits the heart, peace is near

  

[Chorus]

C           D        G         C

Close your eyes in fields of wonder

C           D        G

Close your eyes and dream

C           D        G         C

Close your eyes in fields of wonder

C           D        G

Close your eyes and dream

  

[Verse 5]

G                         C

Across the bridge where angels dwell

G                         C

Across the bridge where angels

G                         C                    G

Across the bridge where angels dwell children play 

Figure 3 shows a sculpture of the scene:

Figure 3: source

I discovered today that Jim Reeves has a song titled Across the Bridge with lyrics as follows:

I have lived a life of sin in this world I'm living in

I have done forbidden things I shouldn't do

I asked a beggar along the way if he could tell me where to stay

Where I could find real happiness and love that's true

Across the bridge there's no more sorrow

Across the bridge there's no more pain

The sun will shine across the river

And you'll never be unhappy again

Follow the footsteps of the King 'til you hear the voices ring

They'll be singing out the glory of the land

The river Jordan will be near, the sound of trumpet you will hear

And you'll behold the most precious place ever known to man

Across the bridge there's no more sorrow

Across the bridge there's no more pain

The sun will shine across the river

And you'll never be unhappy again

Across the bridge there's no more sorrow (Across the bridge there's no more sorrow)

Across the bridge there's no more pain (Across the bridge there's no more pain)

The sun will shine across the river

And you'll never be unhappy again...

Jim Reeves was one of the singers whose songs Meher Baba enjoyed listening to. Here are chords to the song. Although I've yet to try playing it on guitar, it doesn't look too difficult.

[Verse 1]

C

I have lived a life of sin

 

In this world I'm living in

       G7                                C

I have done forbidden things I shouldn't do

 C

I ask a beggar along the way

 

If he could tell me where to stay

              G7                                  C

Where I could find real happiness and love that's true

  

[Refrain]

C

Across the bridge there's no more sorrow

                                  G7

Across the bridge there's no more pain

             C     C7         F

The sun will shine across the river

           C        G7      C

And you'll never be unhappy again

 

[Instrumental]

C      G7      C 

 

[Verse 2]

 C

Follow the footsteps of the King

 

Till you hear the voices ring

           G7                           C

They'll be singing out the glory of the Land

 C

The river Jordan will be near

 

The sound of trumpet you will hear

           G7

And you'll behold the most precious place

              C

Ever known to man

  

[Refrain]

 C

Across the bridge there's no more sorrow

                                  G7

Across the bridge there's no more pain

             C     C7         F

The sun will shine across the river

           C        G7      C

And you'll never be unhappy again

  

[Final]

 C

Across the bridge there's no more sorrow

                                  G7

Across the bridge there's no more pain

             C     C7         F

The sun will shine across the river

           C        G7      C

And you'll never be unhappy again 

 

There is a wealth of symbolism associated with bridges:

The bridge is inherently symbolic of communication and union, whether it be between heaven and earth or two distinct realms. For this reason it can be seen as the connection between God and Man. It may be the passage to reality, or merely a symbol for travel and crossing.  Source.

Bridge, as a noun, translates to jembatan in Indonesia while bridge, as a verb, translates to menjembatani. Just as there is the question "why did the chicken cross the road?" with an accompanying answer of "to get to the other side", likewise it could be asked "why was the bridge built?" and the answer might come back "to get to the other side" (of the river, gorge or whatever). In other words a bridge can be quite mundane and yet sometimes quite beautiful. Figure 4 shows a pedestrian (in both senses of the word), simple and (to my mind at least) beautiful bridge.

Figure 4

Of course, both Van Morrison and Jim Reeves are singing about non-physical bridges linking two different planes of consciousness or areas of experience. There are seven planes of consciousness beyond the gross consciousness of the physical realm and, to enter each one and cross the bridge so to speak, the help of a higher consciousness is required. As the seventh plane is the level of God-consciousness, only a Perfect Master or God-realised being can help someone to cross that final bridge and enter the seventh, and ultimate, heaven.

Baba further explained the significance of the number seven:

 

The evolution of creation has seven stages. There are seven planes and seven types of desires. All these sevens should be eradicated once and for all.

However, the number seven is significant. There are seven types of sanskaras, seven types of colors, seven types of flights of imagination and seven types of sounds. The reason all these have seven variations is that in the beginning of creation – with the start of the original whim in the Beyond, Beyond state of God – there was a clash between Matter (Akash) and Energy (Pran), and Energy’s powers were divided into seven forces.

The original sound coming out of the Creation, or Om Point, also turns into seven sounds. This higher music of the mental and subtle planes is indescribably sweet. Even if you listened to it for twenty-four hours without a break, you would not tire of it. It is enrapturing; one absolutely drowns in its melody. But remember that in the mental and subtle sphere, the sweetness of this music’s sounds are only shadows of the Original Sound.

In the gross world, the shadow of this melody is again divided into seven parts; only expert singers can express these tones and octaves. Sound is created by contact between two things. When you speak, your voice passes through seven veils; but you do not notice this because the sound comes so quickly. Your physique, a by-product of your sanskaras, determines whether your voice is sweet or harsh.

Everything is made up of seven: seven sub-divisions of the first subtle plane (the astral), seven stages of evolution, seven planes and seven heavens in involution. 

Source.