Karma rupa. It acts with conscious intention but not with conscious reasoning. It is thus distinguished on the one hand from the etheric body, which is a mere vehicle for finer vibrations that can take place in the denser matter of the physical body but which has no intention, and on the other from the mind, which acts by conscious reasoning; and it thus forms an intermediary between the two.

Hierarchy of Influences

The importance of recognising the place of this higher intermediary in the ascending scale of living principle is that for all practical purposes, the animal world does not rise higher than this in the scale. It is true that in particular instances we find the first dawning of the mental faculty in an animal, but it is only very faint; so this does not affect the broad general principle. The point to be noted is that up to this stage, human beings are built on the same lines as animals, and what distinguishes us is the addition in ourselves of a higher factor --- that of the reasoning mind exercising the power of conscious thought. Now it is the direction of this thought that influences the three lower factors. The sequence, going upwards, is as follows: movement is communicated to the physical body by