Question about the causal state

[Greg Goode]

At 08:19 AM 10/10/97 -0500, Williams, Pat wrote:
>I'd appreciate a clear explanation of  what's meant when the term
>"causal" is used.

Here's a sketchy answer, I'll have a better one after checking some
references at home, if you don't have detailed answers by then.  The deep
sleep state is referred to as causal because the vasanas recede and become
dormant.  This is along the lines of the seed-as-cause-of-tree analogy.
The behavioral seeds are the vasanas, and the more subtle levels contain
the causes of what happens in the more gross levels.

The ego is said to be the one that undergoes the three states (waking,
dreaming, deep sleep), and while in the deep sleep state, the ego is said
to be the "causal body."

There are other schools (Rosicrusianism, Theosophy) with much more
elaborate definitions of the causal body, but they took the term from Vedanta.

--Greg Goode