Besant, Annie; Leadbeater, Charles W.: Thought-Forms (London, 1905)

DIFFICULTY OF REPRESENTATION 17

are already familiar to those who look at the picture and
accept the suggestion which it conveys. A person who
had never seen a tree could form but little idea of one
from even the most skilful painting. If to this difficulty
we add the other and far more serious one of a limitation
of consciousness, and suppose ourselves to be showing
the picture to a being who knew only two dimensions, we
see how utterly impossible it would be to convey to him
any adequate impression of such a landscape as we see.
Precisely this difficulty in its most aggravated form
stands in our way, when we try to make a drawing of
even a very simple thought-form. The vast majority of
those who look at the picture are absolutely limited to
the consciousness of three dimensions, and furthermore,
have not the slightest conception of that inner world to
which thought-forms belong, with all its splendid light
and colour. All that we can do at the best is to
represent a section of the thought-form ; and those whose
faculties enable them to see the original cannot but be
disappointed with any reproduction of it. Still, those
who are at present unable to see anything will gain at
least a partial comprehension, and however inadequate it
may be it is at least better than nothing.

All students know that what is called the aura of man
is the outer part of the cloud-like substance of his higher
bodies, interpenetrating each other, and extending beyond
the confines of his physical body, the smallest of all.
They know also that two of these bodies, the mental and
desire bodies, are those chiefly concerned with the
appearance of what are called thought-forms. But in
order that the matter may be made clear for all, and not
only for students already acquainted with theosophical