Sorry to put this in so late -- it is the planes as an analogy to one of those stick figure family window decals:
Another useful image I have found helpful in understanding the planes is that of the stick figure family window decal commonly found on suburban mom vans. The decal consists of crude drawings of the family the car belongs to and their pets. On the physical plane, the sticker is a strip of plastic stamped with ink much the same as any other decal. The plastic is a petroleum byproduct. On the etheric plane, the decal’s plasticity creates its vibe or vibration. It will be affixed to the car window for a number of years via static electricity, and its clinginess Its durable properties belong to the etheric plane. When it eventually peels off and becomes plastic waste, its brittleness and tendency to curl will be etheric plane characteristics. On the astral plane, we begin to deal with the stick figure images that were mere ink in relief on the physical plane. Science as we know it dismisses the images as important or meaningful, and by skipping those meanings, renders itself incomplete and piecemeal. To a squirrel who peers at the van from a tree, the images mean nothing, and in that sense the modern scientist who dismisses the importance of the images resides on the same intellectual level as the squirrel. To most people, the images and the way they are depicted elicits an emotional response. Some will respond with hatred: they will be mildly irritated, with the thought that family decals are kitschy virtue signals that need to be filed under Nobody Cares. Some will like the sticker and want to buy one for their own mom van someday. Some will be filled with sadness and longing because they cannot have children. Most won’t care one way or another, but they won’t have any trouble understanding what the decal represents. On the mental plane, the abstract concept of family comes into play. Each stick person on the decal has their role in the family. The family is the concept that inspired someone to make the stick person decal in the first place. Other concepts that made the creation of the sticker possible are the innovation of cling plastics from petroleum and the invention of the car. None of these mental plane attributes of the sticker have any particular human emotion attached to them, but without them, the sticker would not have come into being. Subtler than the mental plane are the three subtlest planes: spiritual, causal, and divine. In there somewhere is the causal plane, and this is the plane where the idea of family first took root. I’ll speak only for myself, but at this point the planes become too subtle for me to understand. This plane has to do with the causes that gave rise to the mental concepts of the sticker.
Re: A car and a driver walked into a bar...
Another useful image I have found helpful in understanding the planes is that of the stick figure family window decal commonly found on suburban mom vans. The decal consists of crude drawings of the family the car belongs to and their pets. On the physical plane, the sticker is a strip of plastic stamped with ink much the same as any other decal. The plastic is a petroleum byproduct. On the etheric plane, the decal’s plasticity creates its vibe or vibration. It will be affixed to the car window for a number of years via static electricity, and its clinginess Its durable properties belong to the etheric plane. When it eventually peels off and becomes plastic waste, its brittleness and tendency to curl will be etheric plane characteristics. On the astral plane, we begin to deal with the stick figure images that were mere ink in relief on the physical plane. Science as we know it dismisses the images as important or meaningful, and by skipping those meanings, renders itself incomplete and piecemeal. To a squirrel who peers at the van from a tree, the images mean nothing, and in that sense the modern scientist who dismisses the importance of the images resides on the same intellectual level as the squirrel. To most people, the images and the way they are depicted elicits an emotional response. Some will respond with hatred: they will be mildly irritated, with the thought that family decals are kitschy virtue signals that need to be filed under Nobody Cares. Some will like the sticker and want to buy one for their own mom van someday. Some will be filled with sadness and longing because they cannot have children. Most won’t care one way or another, but they won’t have any trouble understanding what the decal represents. On the mental plane, the abstract concept of family comes into play. Each stick person on the decal has their role in the family. The family is the concept that inspired someone to make the stick person decal in the first place. Other concepts that made the creation of the sticker possible are the innovation of cling plastics from petroleum and the invention of the car. None of these mental plane attributes of the sticker have any particular human emotion attached to them, but without them, the sticker would not have come into being. Subtler than the mental plane are the three subtlest planes: spiritual, causal, and divine. In there somewhere is the causal plane, and this is the plane where the idea of family first took root. I’ll speak only for myself, but at this point the planes become too subtle for me to understand. This plane has to do with the causes that gave rise to the mental concepts of the sticker.