Lower manas

Mental body — concrete mind (4)

Lower manas — the mental body of concrete thought, calculation, and reasoning about the sense-world. In the Besant-Leadbeater scheme the mental body has a 'lower' (rūpa, form-bound) and 'higher' (arūpa, formless) division; this principle is the lower. Powell's The Mental Body (1927) treats this principle in the Theosophical convention as a vehicle of bright yellow tone, the colour deepening with the focus and clarity of thought.

Sthūla śarīraLiṅga śarīraKāma rūpaLower manasLower manasHigher manasBuddhiĀtman

Point 4 of 7 in Theosophy — Seven Subtle Bodies

Cross-tradition overlaps

No overlapping points are registered for this point.

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Sources

Besant, The Ancient Wisdom (primary_canonical)

Besant, The Ancient Wisdom, ch. III, 'The Astral World,' describes the lower mental activity bound to concrete experience and its relation to the astral life; the lower-manas label is a Theosophical synthesis rather than a separate biological body.

A.E. Powell, The Mental Body (secondary)

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