Karana-Sharira
Kāraṇa-Śarīra (IAST)
Translation: "Causal Body"A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: कारणशरीर
Transliteration: Kāraṇa-Śarīra
Translation: "causal body"
Definition:
- The sheath of bliss enveloped in ignorance, according to Advaita Vedānta.
- It is also called Ānandamaya-Kośa.
The Serpent Power (Arthur Avalon)
"The first or Causal Body of any particular Jīva, therefore, is that Prakṛti (Avidyā Śakti) which is the cause of the subtle and gross bodies of this Jīva which are evolved from it. This body lasts until Liberation, when the Jīvātman ceases to be such and is the Paramātman or bodiless Spirit (Videha-mukti). The Jīva exists in this body during dreamless sleep (Suṣupti). The second and third bodies are the differentiation through evolution of the causal body, from which first proceeds the subtle body, and from the latter is produced the gross body."
The Atman Project (Ken Wilber)
THE DHARMAKAYA: THE CAUSAL REALMS
"Beyond the high-subtle lies the causal region, known variously as the alaya-vijnana (Yogacara Buddhism), the ananda-mayakosa (Hinduism), pneuma (Christian mysticism), karana-sarira (Vedanta), Binah and Chokmah (Kabbalah). In general Mahayana Buddhist terms, this is the Dharmakaya realm (the term I will use). Again, for convenience, we divide it into the low-causal and the high-causal.[...]
The low-causal, which classically is revealed in a state of consciousness known as savikalpa samadhi, represents the pinnacle of God-consciousness, the final and highest abode of Ishvara, the Creatrix of all realms. This represents the culmination of events which began in the high-subtle. In the high-subtle, recall, the self was dissolved or reabsorbed into the archetypal deity, as that deity—a deity which from the beginning has always been one's own Self and highest Archetype.
Now at the low-causal, that deity-Archetype itself condenses and dissolves into final-God, which is here seen as an extraordinarily subtle audible-light or bija-mantra from which the individual ishtadeva, yidam, or Archetype emerged in the first place. Final-God is simply the ground or essence of all the archetypal and lesser-god manifestations which were evoked—and then identified with—in the subtle realms. In the low-causal, all of these archetypal Forms simply reduce to their Source in final-God, and thus, by the very same token and in the very same step, one's own Self is here shown to be that final-God, and consciousness itself thus transforms upwards into a higher-order identity with that Radiance. Such, in brief, is the low-causal, the ultimate revelation of final-God in Perfect Radiance and Release."
THE HIGH-CAUSAL
"Beyond the low-causal, into the high-causal, all manifest forms are so radically transcended that they no longer need even appear or arise in Consciousness. This is total and utter transcendence and release into Formless Consciousness, Boundless Radiance. There is here no self, no God, no final-God, no subjects, and no thingness, apart from or other than Consciousness as Such.
Note the overall progression of the higher unity structures: In the subtle realm, the self dissolves into archetypal Deity (as ishtadeva, yidam, dhyani-buddha, etc.). In the low-causal, that Deity-Self in turn disappears into final-God, which is its Source and Essence. Here, in the high-causal, the final-God Self is reduced likewise to its own prior Ground: it dissolves into Formlessness. Each step is an increase in consciousness and an intensification of Awareness until all forms return to perfect and radical release in Formlessness.
John Blofeld describes beautifully this progression from the Vajrayana Buddhist view: "As the rite progresses, this deity [ishtadeva] enters the adept's body and sits upon a solar-disc supported by a lunar-disc above a lotus in his heart; presently the adept shrinks in size until he and the deity are coextensive [the beginning of the subtle realm]; then, merging indistinguishably [becoming one with deity in the high-subtle realm], they are absorbed by the seed-syllable from which the deity originally sprang [the low-causal]; this syllable contracts to a single point [final-God]; the point vanishes and deity and adept in perfect union remain sunk in the samadhi of voidness [the high-causal] . . ."
We already heard Lex Hixon, representing the Hindu view, describe the progression into the subtle realm. But he naturally continues the account into the causal: After the ishtadeva-archetype has emerged and one has identified with it (in the high-subtle realm), then "that Archetype dissolves into its own essence, or ground [the causal realm]. . . . There is now perfect release into the radiance of formless Consciousness. There is no ishtadeva, no meditator, and no meditation, nor is there any awareness of an absence of these. There is only radiance . . ."
Precisely the same sequence is described by Zen texts on koan study. After the initial stages of concentrating on the koan (this is equivalent to visualizing the ishtadeva or dhyani-buddha), a point is reached where the individual dissolves into the koan—he becomes one with the koan in a superabundance of consciousness: not a loss of awareness but an extraordinary intensification of it. This is called "the man forgotten"—that is, the separate subject is forgotten in union with the koan, which now alone is. This is the subtle state. As this process intensifies, the koan itself is forgotten—that is, it dissolves itself into its own prior ground of Formlessness. This is called "the dharma (the koan) forgotten" or "both man and dharma forgotten"—and this is the high-causal of formless samadhi. This overall process is so consistently and similarly described by all the traditions which reach this high realm that we can now be quite certain of its general features. They are unmistakable.
Let us note that this state itself—the high-causal of "both man and dharma forgotten" or "both subject and object forgotten"—is known as nirvikalpa samadhi (Hinduism), nirodh (Hinayana Buddhism), jnana samadhi (Vedanta) —and it is the eighth of the ten Zen ox-herding pictures which depict the stages to supreme Enlightenment."
References:
- Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
- Avalon, Arthur (1950). The Serpent Power: Being the Shat-Chakra-Nirūpana and Pādukā-Panchakā. Adyar, Madras: Ganesh & Co. (Madras) Ltd. p. 55-56.
- Wilber, Ken (1996). The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development. Quest Books. p. 65-66.
