THOUGHT FORMS

Fancy rests upon images which have no real existence.

This means that these images have no real existence in so far as they are conjured up by men themselves, constructed by their will or desire and are consequently dissipated when attention is directed elsewhere.

“Energy follows thought” is a basic tenant of the Raja Yoga system and is true even where these images of fancy are concerned. These fancied images fall primarily into three groups, which the student would do well to consider.

[1] Those thought, forms which he constructs himself, which have an evanescent life and which are dependent upon the quality of his desires; being therefore neither good nor evil, low nor high, can be vitalized by low tendencies or idealistic aspirations, with all the intermediate stages to be found between these extremes. The aspirant has to guard himself in order that he may not mistake these for reality. An illustration might well be given here, in respect to the facility with which people judge they have seen one of the Brothers [or Masters of the Wisdom], whereas all they have perceived is a thought form of one of Them; the wish being father to the thought, they are the victim of that form of incorrect perception called by Patanjaly, fancy.

[2] Those thought forms which are created by the race, the nation, the group or the organization. Group thought forms of any kind [from the planetary form to that constructed by any band of thinkers] form the sum total of the “great illusion”. Herein lies a hint to the earnest aspirant.

[3] That thought forms created by a man since his first appearance in physical forms, and called the “Dweller on the Threshold.” Being created by the lower personal self and not by the soul, it is impermanent and is simply held together by the man’s lower energy. When the man begins to function as the soul this “image” he has created, through his “fancy” or his reaction to delusion, is dissipated by a supreme exertion. It has no real existence once there is nothing in the aspirant to feed it, and the realization of this enables him to free himself from its thraldom.

This is one of the sutras which, though apparently short and simple, is of the most profound significance; it is studied by high initiates who are learning the nature of the creative process of the planet, and who are concerned with the dissipation of planetary maya or illusion. [Sutra 9, The Light of the soul]  

Mental perception

Through the use of the mind the onlooker becomes aware of another grade of phenomena and is put en rapport with the thought world, or with that condition of substance in which is registered the thought impulses of our planet and its inhabitants, and with forms created by those vibratory impulses which express certain ideas and desires,--primarily at present the latter.  Owing to the erroneous perception brought about through the use of the senses and the wrong interpretation of the things sensed, these thought forms are in themselves distortions of the reality, and express only those lower impulses and reactions which emanate from the lower kingdoms in nature. Students should remember that it is only when man is really beginning to use his mental body [and is not used by it] that he contacts the thought forms created by the guides of the race and justly perceives them. 

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