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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Division A - Manas or Mind and its Nature
6. Manas is the intelligent Will or Purpose of an Existence

Manas might finally be defined as the intelligent will and ordered purpose of every self-conscious entity. I would urge the student to bear in mind certain basic facts which will serve to keep his mind clear, and which will enable him to comprehend something of the place which this fire of mind holds in the cosmos and the solar system, and (needless to say), in his life also, - the reflection of the other two.

He should ever remember that manas is a principle of the Logos, and necessarily therefore is felt in all those [338] evolutions which are a part of His nature but is allied especially to the throat and head centers; it is the active intelligent factor which enables a solar Logos, a planetary Logos or Heavenly Man, and a human being to:

  1. Use intelligently a form or vehicle.
  2. Build faculty into the causal body.
  3. Reap the benefit of experience.
  4. Expand the consciousness.
  5. Make progress towards a specified goal.
  6. Discriminate between the two poles.
  7. Choose the direction in which his activity shall trend.
  8. Perfect the form as well as use it.
  9. Obtain control of active substance, and turn its forces into desired channels.
  10. Coordinate the different grades of matter, and synthesize the utilized forms till each and all show a unanimous line of action and express simultaneously the will of the Indweller.

All these ends are the result of the manasic development and perhaps the student might apprehend the underlying idea more clearly if it is realized that:

  1. The Spirit employs manas in all that concerns matter, the electrical substance, or the active akasha.
  2. The Spirit employs buddhi in all that relates to the psyche, that relates to the soul of the world, to the soul of an individual, or to the soul of every form.
  3. The Spirit employs will or atma in all that relates to the essence of all, to itself, considering the essence and the Self as pure Spirit as distinguished from spirit-matter.

In the first ease, the distinctive quality of manas is discrimination which enables the Spirit to differentiate between: [339]

  1. The Self and the Not-Self.
  2. Spirit and Matter.
  3. The planes and the subplanes.
  4. The different grades of atomic matter in the system.
  5. Vibrations, engendered by will, working through love-wisdom, and energizing substance.
  6. All that concerns forms of every kind and in every type of essential existence.

In the second case, the buddhic principle has for its distinctive quality love, and demonstrates as wisdom working through love and producing:

  1. Unity between all Selves.
  2. Group coherence.
  3. Qualities that are distinctively along the line of what we call love.
  4. Effective work in connection with evolution, or the fundamentals of hierarchical work.

In the third case the Spirit employs the will aspect or atma (in man), which has, for its distinctive feature, that coherent force which keeps the purpose of the entity ever in view, working it out through love in substantial form.
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