Speaker 1: The ninth lesson, the Mental Planes, Part One. In our
last lesson, we told you something about the operation of
the mind outside of the field of consciousness. In this lesson,
we will attempt to classify these out of consciousness plains
by directing your attention to the several mental planes above
and below the plane of consciousness. As we stated in
the last lesson, over ninety percent of our mental operations
are conducted outside of the field of consciousness, so that
the consideration of the plains is seen to be an
important subject. Man is a center of consciousness in the
great one life of the universe. His soul has climbed
a great many steps before it reached its present position
and stage of unfoldment, and it will pass through many
more steps until it is entirely free and delivered from
the necessity of its swaddling clothes. In his mental being,
man contains traces of all that has gone before, all
the experiences of himself and the great race movement of
which he is a part. And likewise his mind contains
faculties and mental planes which have not as yet unfolded
into consciousness, and of the existence of which he is
but imperfectly aware. All of these mental possessions, however, are
useful and valuable to him, even the lowest. The lowest
may be used to advantage under proper mastery, and are
only dangerous to the man who allows them to master
him instead of serving him as they should, considering his
present stage of development. In this consideration of the several
mental plains, we shall not confine ourselves to the technical
occult terms given to these several planes, but will place
them in general groups and describe the features and characteristics
of each, rather than branch off into long explanations of
the growth and reason of the several plains, which would
take us far away from the practical consideration of the subject.
Beginning at the lowest point of the scale, we see
that man has a body. The body is composed of
minute cells of protoplasm. These cells are built up of
countless molecules, atoms, and particles of matter, precisely the same
matter that composes the rocks, trees, air, et cetera around him.
The Yogi philosophy tells us that even the atoms of
matter have life and an elementary manifestation of mind, which
causes them to group together according to the law of
attraction forming different elements, combinations, et cetera. This law of
attraction is a mental operation and is the first evidence
of mental choice, action, and response. Below this is prana
or force, which strictly speaking, is also a manifestation of mind,
although for convenience we designate it as a separate manifestation
of the absolute. And therefore we find that this law
of attraction between the atoms and particles of matter is
a mental action, and that it belongs to man's mental kingdom,
because he has a body and this mental action is
continually going on in his body. So therefore this is
the lowest mental plane to be considered in the make
up of the man. This plane is of course far
sunken beneath the plane of consciousness, and is scarcely identified
with the personality of the man at all, but rather
belongs to them the life of the whole manifest in
the rock as well as in the man. But after
these atoms have been grouped by the law of attraction
and have formed molecules of matter, they are taken possession
of by a higher mental activity and built up into
cells by the mental action of the plant. The life
impulse of the plant begins by drawing to it certain
particles of inorganic matter chemical elements, and then building them
into a single cell. Oh mystery of the cell. The
intellect of man is unable to duplicate this wonderful process.
The mind principle on the vegetative plane, however, knows exactly
how to go to work, to select and draw to
itself just the elements needed to build up the single cell. Then,
taking up its abode in that cell, using it as
a basis of operation, it proceeds to duplicate its previous performance,
and so cell after cell is added by the simple
reproductive process of division and subdivision, the primitive and elemental
sex process, until the mighty plant is built up from
the humblest vegetable organism up to the greatest oak. The
process is the same, and it does not stop there.
The body of man is also built up in just
this way, and he has this vegetative mind also within
him below the plane of consciousness. Of course, to many
this thought of a vegetative mind may be somewhat startling,
but let us remember that every part of our body
has been built up from the vegetable cell. The unborn
child starts with the coalition of two cells. These cells
begin to build up the new body for the occupancy
of the child. That is, the mind principle in the
cells directs the work of course drawing upon the body
of the mother for nourishment, and supplies the nourishment in
the mother's blood, which supplies the material for the building
up of the child's body, is obtained by the mother
eating and assimilating the vegetable cells of plants directly or indirectly.
If she eats fruit, nuts, vegetables, et cetera, she obtains
the nourishment of the plant life directly. If she eats meat,
she obtains it indirectly, for the animal from which the
meat was taken built up the meat from vegetables. There
is no two ways about this. All nourishment of the
animal and human kingdom is obtained from the vegetable kingdom
directly or indirectly, and the cell action in the child
is identical with the cell action in the plant cells
constantly reproducing themselves and building themselves up into bodily organs parts,
et cetera, under the direction and guidance of the mind principle.
The child grows in this way until the hour of birth,
it is born, and then the process is but slightly changed.
The child begins to take nourishment, either from the mother's
milk or from the milk of the cow, or other
forms of food, and as it grows larger, it partakes
of many different varieties of food. But always it obtains
building material from the cell life of the plants. And
this great building up process is intelligent, purposeful to a
wonderful degree. Man with his boasted intellect cannot explain the
real thingness of the process. A leading scientist who placed
the egg of a small lizard under micro scopical examination
and then watched it slowly develop, has said that it
seemed as if some hand was tracing the outlines of
the tiny vertebrae and then building up around it. Think
for a moment of the development of the germ within
the egg of the humming bird or the ant, or
the gnat or the eagle. Every second a change may
be noticed. The germ cell draws to itself nourishment from
the other part of the egg, and then it grows
and reproduces another cell. Then both cells divide, then subdivide,
until there are millions and millions and millions of cells,
and all the while the building up process continues, and
the bird or insect assumes shape and form, until at
last the work is accomplished and the young bird emerges
from the egg. And the work thus commenced continues until
the death of the animal. For there is a constant
using up and breaking down of cell and tissue which
the organism must replace. And so the vegetative mind of
the plant or insect, or animal or man is constantly
at work, building up new cells from the food, throwing
out worn out and used up material from the system.
Not only this, but it attends to the circulation of
the blood in order that the materials for the building
up may be carried to all parts of the system.
It attends to the digestion and assimilation of the food,
the wonderful work of the organs of the body. It
attends to the healing of wounds, the fight against disease,
the care of the physical body, and all this out
of the plane of consciousness in the infant man, the
animal world, the vegetable kingdom ever at work, untiring, intelligent, wonderful,
And this plane of mind is in man as well
as in the plant, and it does its work without
aid from the conscious part of man, although man may
interfere with it by adverse conscious thought, which seems to
paralyze its efforts. Mental healing is merely the restoring of
normal conditions so that this part of the body may
do its work without the hindrance of adverse conscious thought.
On this plane of the mind is found all of
the vital functions and operations. The work is done out
of consciousness, and the consciousness is aware of this part
of the mind only when it makes demands upon the
conscious for food, et cetera. On this plane also resides
the elementary instinct that tends toward reproduction and sexual activity.
The demand of this part of the mind is always
increase and multiply, and according to the stage of growth
of the individual, is the mandate carried out. As we
shall see presently, the elementary impulses and desires that we
find rising into the field of consciousness come from this
plane of the mind. Hunger, thirst, and the reproductive desires
are its messages to the higher parts of the mind.
And these messages are natural and free from the abuses
and prostitution often observed attached to them by the intellect
of man. In connection with his unrestrained animal impulses. Gluttony
and unnatural lust arise not from the primitive demand of
this plane of the mind, For the lower animals even
are free from them to a great extent. But it
is reserved for man to so prostitute these primitive natural
tens deencies in order to gratify unnatural and artificial appetites,
which served to frustrate nature rather than to aid her.
As life advanced in the scale and animal forms appeared
on the scene, new planes of mind were unfolded in
accordance to the necessity of the living forms. The animal
was compelled to hunt for his food, to prey upon
other forms, and to avoid being preyed upon by others.
He was compelled to struggle for the unfoldment of latent
powers of his mind that would give him means to
play his part in the scheme of life. He was
compelled to do certain things in order to live and
reproduce his kind, and he demanded not in vain, For
there came to him, slowly and unfolding knowledge of the
things necessary for the requirements of his life. We call
this instinct, But pray remember by instinct we do not
mean the still highers something that is really rudimentary intellect
that we notice in the higher animals. We are speaking
now of the unreasoning instinct observed in the lower animals,
and to a certain degree in man. This instinctive plane
of mentality causes the bird to build its nest before
its eggs are laid, which instructs the animal mother how
to care for its young when born, and after birth,
which teaches the bee to construct its cell and to
store up its honey. These and countless other things in
animal life and in the higher form of plant life,
are manifestations of instinct, that great plane of the mind.
In fact, the greater part of the life of the
animal is instinctive, although the higher forms of animals have
developed something like rudimentary intellect or reason, which enables them
to meet new conditions where intellect alone fails them. And
man has this plane of mind within him below consciousness.
In fact, the lower forms of human life manifest but
little intellect, and live almost altogether according to their instinctive
impulses and desires. Every man has this instinctive mental region
within him, and from it are constantly arising impulses and
desires to perplex and annoy him, as well as to
serve him. Occasionally, the whole secret consists in whether the
man has mastery of his lower self or not. From
this plane of the mind arises the hereditary impulses, coming
down from generations of ancestors, reaching back to the cavemen,
and still further back into the animal kingdom. A queer
storehouse is this animal instincts, passion, appetites, desire, feelings, sensations, emotions,
et cetera. Are there. Hate, envy, jealousy, revenge, The lust
of the animals seeking the gratification of his sexual impulses,
et cetera. Et cetera are there and are constantly intruding
upon our intention until we have asserted our mastery. And
often the failure to assert this mastery comes from an
ignorance of the nature of the desire et cetera. We
have been taught that these thoughts were bad without being
told why, and we have feared them and thought them
the promptings of an impure nature or a depraved mind,
et cetera. This is all wrong. These things are not
bad of themselves. They came to us honestly. They are
our heritage from the past. They belong to the animal
part of our nature, and were necessary to the animal
in his stage of development. We have the whole menagerie
within us, but that does not mean that we should
turn the beasts loose upon ourselves or others. It was
necessary for the animal to be fierce, full of fight, passionate,
regardless of the rights of others, et cetera. But we
have outgrown that stage of development, and it is ignoble
for us to return to it or to allow it
to master us. This lesson is not intended as a
discourse upon ethics or morals. We do not intend going
into a discussion of the details of right and wrong,
for we have touched upon that phase of the subject
in other works. But we feel justified in calling your
attention to the fact that the human mind intuitively recognizes
the rightness of the living up to that which comes
to us from the highest parts of the mind, the
highest product of our enfoldment, and it likewise intuitively recognizes
the wrongness of the falling back into that which belongs
to the lower stages of our mentality, to the animal
part of us, that is our heritage from the past,
and that which has gone before While we may be
puzzled about many details of morals and ethics, and may
not be able to explain why we consider certain things
right or wrong, we still intuitively feel that the highest
right of which we are capable is the acting out
of that which is coming to us from the highest
pole of our mental being, and that the lowest wrong
consists in doing that which carries us back to the
life of the lower animals. In so far as mentality
is concerned, not because there is anything absolutely wrong in
und the mental processes and consequence of the animals. In themselves.
They are all right and perfectly natural in the animals.
But we intuitively recognize that for us to fall back
to the animal stage is a going backward in the
scale of evolution. We intuitively shrink at the exhibition of
brutality and animality on the part of a man or woman.
We may not know just why, but a little reflection
will show us that it is a sinking in the
evolutionary scale against which the spiritual part of us revolts
and protests. But this must not be construed to mean
that the advanced soul looks upon the animal world with
disgust or horror. On the contrary, there is nowhere to
be found a higher respect for animal life and being
than among the Yogi and other advanced souls. They delight
in watching the animals filling their places in life, playing
out their parts in the divine scheme of life. Their
animal passions and desires are actions viewed sympathetically and lovingly
by the advanced soul, and nothing wrong or disgusting is
seen there. And even the coarseness and brutality of the
savage races are so regarded by these advanced souls they
see everything as natural. According to the grade and degree
of development of these people, it is only when these
advanced souls view the degeneracies of civilized life that they
feel sorrow and pain, For here they see instances of
devolution instead of evolution, degeneration instead of regeneration, and advancement.
And not only do they know this to be the fact,
but the degenerate specimens of mankind themselves feel and know it.
Compare the expression of the animal or savage going through
their natural life actions and performances. See how free and
natural are their expressions, how utterly apart are evidences of wrongdoing?
They have not as yet found out the fatal secret
of good and evil. They have not as yet eaten
the forbidden fruit. But on the contrary, look into the
faces of the degenerates and fallen souls of our civilized life.
See the furtive glance and the self consciousness of wrong
evident in every face. And this consciousness of wrong bears
heavily upon these people. It is heavier than the punishments
heaped upon them. That nameless something called conscience may be
smothered for a while, but sooner or later it comes
to light and demands the pound of flesh from its victim.
And yet you will say that it seems hard to
think that the same thing can be right in one
person and wrong in another. This seems like a hard
saying and a dangerous doctrine. But it is the truth,
and man instinctively recognizes it. He does not expect the
same sense of moral responsibility in a young child or
in a savage that he does in a mature, developed,
civilized man. He may restrain the child and the savage
for self protection and the welfare of all, but he
realizes the distinction, or at least should do so. And
not only is this true, but as man advances in
the scale. He casts off many ideas of wrong that
he once held, having outgrown the old ideas and having
grown into new conceptions. And the tendency is always upward
and onward. The tendency is constantly from force and restraint
toward love and freedom. The ideal condition would be one
in which there were no laws and no necessity for them,
a condition in which men had ceased to do wrong
because they had outgrown the desire, rather than from fear
or restraint or force. And while this condition as yet
seems afar off, there is constantly going on an unfoldment
of higher planes and faculties of the mind, which, when
once fully manifest in the race, will work a complete
revolution in ethics and laws and government, and for the better.
Of course, In the meantime, mankind moves along, doing the
best it can, making a steady, though slow progress. Part two.
There is another plane of the mind, which is often
called the instinct but which is but a part of
the plane of the intellect, although its operations are largely
below the field of consciousness. We allude to what may
be called the habit mind in order to distinguish it
from the instinctive plane. The difference is this, the instinctive
plane of mind is made up of the ordinary operations
of the mind, below the plane of the intellect, and
yet above the plane of the vegetative mind, and also
of the acquired experiences of the race, which have been
transmitted by hereditary et cetera. But the habit mind contains
only that which has been placed there by the person himself,
and which he has acquired by experience, habit and observation,
repeated so often until the mind knows it so well
that it is carried below the field of consciousness and
becomes second nature and akin to instinct. The text books
upon psychology are filled with illustrations and examples of the
habit phase or plane of the mental operations, and we
do not think it necessary to repeat instances of the
same kind here. Everyone is familiar with the fact that
tasks which at first are learned only by considerable work
and time, soon become fixed in some part of the mind,
until their repetition calls for little or no exercise of
conscious mental operation. In fact, some writers have claimed that
no one really learns how to perform a task until
he can perform it almost automatically. The pupil, who, in
the early stages of piano playing finds it most difficult
to control and manage his fingers, after a time is
able to forget all about his fingering and devote his
entire attention to the pages of his music. And after
this he he is able to apparently let his fingers
play the entire piece of music by themselves, without a
thought on his part. The best performers have told us
that in the moments of their highest efforts, they are
aware that the out of conscious portion of their mind
is doing the work for them, and they are practically
standing aside and witnessing the work being done. So true
is this that in some cases it is related that
if the performer's conscious mind attempts to take up the work,
the quality is impaired, and the musician and the audience
notice the difference. The same thing is true in the
case of the woman learning to operate the sewing machine.
It is quite difficult at first, but gradually it grows
to run itself. Those who have mastered the typewriter have
had the same experience. At first, each letter had to
be picked out with care and effort. After a gradual improvement,
the operator is enabled to devote her entire attention to
the copy and let the fingers pick out the keys
for themselves. Many operators learn rapid typing by so training
the habit mind that it picks out the letter keys
by reason of their position, the letters being covered over
in order to force the mind to adapt itself to
the new requirements. A similar state of affairs exists wherever
men or women have to use tools of any kind,
the tool soon is recognized by the mind and used
as if it were a part of the body, and
no more conscious thought is devoted to the manipulation than
we devote to the operation of walking, which, by the way,
is learned by the child only by the expenditure of
time and labor. It is astonishing how many things we
do automatically in this way. Writers have called our attention
to the fact that the average man cannot consciously inform
you how he puts on his coat in the morning,
which arm goes in first, how the coat is held,
et cetera. But the habit mind knows knows very well.
Let the student stand up and put on his coat
in the regular way, following the leadings of the habit mind.
Then after removing it. Let him attempt to put it
on by inserting the other arm first. For instance, he
will be surprised to find how awkward it will be
for him and how completely he has been depending upon
the habit mind. And tomorrow morning, let him find out
which shoe the habit mind has been putting on him first.
And then try to reverse the order, And notice how
flurried and disturb the habit mind will become, and how
frantically it will signal to the conscious mind something wrong
up there. Or try to button on your collar, reversing
the order in which the tabs are placed over the
button right before left or left before right, as the
case may be, and notice the involuntary protest. Or try
to reverse the customary habit in walking and attempt to
swing your right arm with the movement of your right leg,
and so on, and you will find it will require
the exercise of great will power. Or try to change
hands and use your knife and fork. But we must
stop giving examples and illustrations. Their number is countless. Not
only does the habit mind attend to physical actions, et cetera,
but it also takes a hand in our mental operations.
We soon acquire the habit of ceasing to consciously consider
certain things, and the habit mind takes the matter for granted,
and therefore we will think automatically on those particular questions
unless we are shaken out of the habit by a
rude jolt from the mind of someone else, or from
the presentation of some conflicting idea occasioned by our own
experience or reasoning processes. And the habit mind hates to
be disturbed and compelled to reverse its ideas. It fights
against it and rebels, and the result is that many
of us are slaves to old, outgrown ideas that we
realize are false and untrue, but which we find that
we cannot exactly get rid of. In our future lessons,
we will give methods to get rid of these old,
outgrown ideas. There are other planes of mind which have
to do with the phenomena known as psychic by which
is meant the phases of psychic phenomena known as clairvoyance, psychometry, telepathy,
et cetera. But we shall not consider them in this lesson,
for they belong to another part of the general subject.
We have spoken of them in a general way in
our fourteen lessons in Yogi Philosophy, et cetera. And now
we come to the plane of mind known to us
as intellect or the reasoning faculties. Webster defines the word
intellect as follows the part or faculty of the human
soul by which it knows, as distinguished from the power
to feel and to will, the thinking faculty the understanding.
The same authority defines the word reason as follows the
faculty or capacity of the human mind, by which it
is distinguished from the intelligence of the inferior animals. We
shall not attempt to go into a consideration of the
conscious intellect, for to do so we would be compelled
to take up the space of the remaining lessons of
the course. And besides, the student may find extended information
on this subject in any of the textbooks on psychology. Instead,
we will consider other faculties and planes of mind which
the said textbooks pass by rapidly or perhaps deny. And
one of these planes is that of unconscious reasoning or intellect.
To many, this term will seem paradoxical, but students of
the unconscious will understand just what is meant. Reasoning is
not necessarily conscious in its operations, in fact, a greater
part of the reasoning processes are performed by low or
above the conscious field. In our last lesson we have
given a number of examples proving this fact, but a
few more remarks may not be out of place nor
without interest to the student. In our last lesson you
will see many instances stated in which the subconscious field
of the intellect worked out problems, and then, after a time,
handed to the conscious reason the solution of the matter.
This has occurred to many of us, if not indeed
to all of us. Who has not endeavored to solve
a problem or question of some sort, and after giving
it up, has had it suddenly answered and flashed into
consciousness when least expected. The experience is common to the race.
While the majority of us have noticed these things, we
have regarded them as exceptional and out of the general rule.
Not so, however, with students of the mental planes. The
latter have recognized these planes of reason and have availed
themselves of their knowledge by setting these unconscious faculties to
work for them. In our next lesson we will give
directions to our students regarding this accomplishment, which may prove
of the greatest importance to those who will take the
trouble to practice the directions given. It is a plan
that is known to the majority of men who have
done things in the world, the majority of them, however,
having discovered the plan for themselves as the result of
a need or demand upon the inner powers of mind.
The plane of mind immediately above that of intellect is
that known as intuition. Intuition is defined by Webster as
follows dire apprehension or cognition, immediate knowledge as imperception or consciousness,
involving no reasoning process, quick or ready insight or apprehension.
It is difficult to explain just what is meant by
intuition except to those who have experienced it, and these
people do not need the explanation. Intuition is just as
real a mental faculty as is intellect, or, to be
more exact, is just as much a collection of mental faculties.
Intuition is above the field of consciousness, and its messages
are passed downward, though its processes are hidden. The race
is gradually unfolding into the plane of intuition, and the
race will someday pass into full consciousness on that plane.
In the mean time, it gets but flashes and glimpses
from the hidden region. Many of the best things we
have come from that region. Art, music, the love of
the beautiful and good poetry, the higher form of love,
spiritual insight to a certain degree, intuitive perception of truth,
et cetera, et cetera. Come from this region. These things
are not reasoned out by the intellect, but seem to
spring full, born from some unknown region of the mind.
In this wonderful region dwells genius. Many, if not all,
of the great writers, poets, musicians, artists, and other examples
of genius have felt that their power came to them
from some higher source. Many have thought that it emanated
from some being kindly to them, who would inspire them
with power and wisdom. Some transcendent power seemed to have
been called into operation, and the worker would feel that
his product or creation was not his handiwork, but that
of some outside intelligence. The Greeks recognized this something in
man and called it man's demon. Plutarch, in his Discourse
on the Demon that Guided Socrates, speaks of the vision
of Tamarchus, who, in the case of Triphonius, saw spirits
which were partly attached to human bodies, and partly over
and above them, shining luminously over their heads. He was
informed by the oracle that the part of the spirit
which was immersed in the body was called the soul,
but that the outer and unimmersed portion was called the demon.
The oracle also informed him that every man has his demon,
whom he is bound to obey. Those who implicitly follow
that guidance are the prophetic souls, the favorites of the gods.
Gerter also spoke of the Damon as a power higher
than the will, and which inspired certain natures with miraculous energy.
We may smile at these conceptions, but they are really
very close to the truth. The higher regions of the mind,
while belonging to the individual and a part of himself,
are so far above his ordinary consciousness that, to all
intents and purposes, messages from them are as orders from
another and higher soul. But still the voice is that
of the eye, speaking through its sheaths as best it
is able. This power belongs to every one of us,
although it manifests own in the degree that we are
able to respond to it. It grows by faith and confidence,
and closes itself up and withdraws into its recesses when
we doubt it and would question its veracity and reality.
What we call originality comes from this region. The intuitive
faculties pass on to the conscious mind some perception of
truth higher than the intellect has been able to work
out for itself, and lo it is called the work
of genius. The advanced occultist knows that in the higher
regions of the mind are locked up intuitive perceptions of
all truth, and that he who can gain access to
these regions will know everything intuitively and as a matter
of clear sight, without reasoning or explanation. The race has
not as yet reached the heights of intuition. It is
just beginning to climb the foothills, but it is moving
in the right direction. It will be well for us
if we will open ourselves to the higher inner guidance
and be willing to be led by the spirit. This
is a far different thing from being led by outside intelligence,
which may or may not be qualified to lead. But
the spirit within each of us has our interests at heart,
and is desirous of our best good, and is not
only ready but willing to take us by the hand
and lead us on. The higher self is doing the
best it can for our development and welfare, but is
hampered by the confining sheaths. And alas many of us
glory in these sheaths, and consider them the highest part
of ourselves. Do not be afraid to let the light
of the Spirit pierce through these confining sheaths and dissolve them.
The intuition, however, is not the Spirit, but is one
of its channels of communication to us. There are other
and still higher planes of mind, but the intuition is
the one next in the line of unfoldment, and we
should open ourselves to its influence and welcome its unfoldment.
Above the plane of intuition is that of the cosmic knowing,
upon which we will find the consciousness of the oneness
of all. We have spoken of this plane in our
lesson on the Unfoldment of consciousness. When one is able
to conscious on this plane, this exalted plane of mind,
he is able to see, fully, plainly, and completely that
there is one great life underlying all the countless forms
and shapes of manifestation. He is able to see that
separateness is only the working fiction of the universe. He
is able to see that each ego is but a
center of consciousness. In the great ocean of life, all
in pursuance of the divine plan, and that he is
moving forward toward higher and higher planes of manifestation, power,
and individuality in order to take a greater and grander
part in the universal work and plans. The cosmic knowing
in its fullness has come to but few of the race,
but many have had glimpses more or less clear of
its transcendent wonder, and others are on the borderland of
this plain. The race is unfolding gradually, slowly but surely,
and those who have had this wonderful experience are preparing
others for a like experience. The seed is being sown,
and the harvest will come later. This and other phases
of the higher forms of consciousness are before the race.
The individuals who read this lesson are perhaps nearer to
it than they think. Their interest in the lessons is
an indication of that hunger of the soul, which is
a prophecy of the satisfaction of the cry for spiritual bread.
The law of life heeds these cries for aid and
nourishment and responds accordingly, but along the lines of the
highest wisdom and according to the real requirements of the individual.
Let us close this lesson with a quotation from Light
on the Path, which bears directly upon the concluding thought.
Read it carefully, and let it sink down deep into
your inner consciousness, and you will feel the thrill of
joy that comes to him who is nearing the goal.
Look for the flower to bloom in the silence that
follows the storm, not till then it shall grow. It
will shoot up, It will make branches and leaves and
form buds while the storm lasts. But not until the
entire personality of the man is dissolved and melted. Not
until it is held by the divine fragment which has
created it as a mere subject for grave experiment and experience.
Not until the whole nature has yielded and become subject
unto its higher self. Can the bloom open? Then will
come a calm such as comes in a tropical country
after the heavy rain, when nature works so swiftly that
one may see her action. Such a calm will come
to the harassed spirit, And in the deep silence, the
mysterious event will occur, which will prove that the way
has been found. Call it by whatever name you will.
It is a voice that it speaks where there is
none to speak. It is a messenger that comes, a
messenger without form or substance, or it is the flower
of the soul that has opened. It cannot be described
by any metaphor, but it can be felt after, looked for,
and desired, even among the raging of the storm. The
silence may last a moment of time, or it may
last a thousand years, but it will end. Yet you
will carry its strength with you again and again. The
battle must be fought in won. It is only for
an interval that nature can be still. The concluding three
lessons of this series will be devoted to a practical
course of instruction in the development of the hidden plains
of the mind, or rather in the development of the
power of the individual to master the same and may
make use of them in his life. He will be
taught to master the lower principles, not only in the
surmounting of them, but in the transmitting of the elemental
forces toward his higher ends. Power may be obtained from
this part of the mind under the direction of the will,
and the student will be told how to set the
unconscious intellect to work for him, And he will be
told how to develop and train the will. We have
now passed the line between the theoretical and the practical
phases of the subject, and from now on it will
be a case of train, develop, cultivate and apply. Knowing
what lies back of it all. The student is now
prepared to receive the instructions which he might have misused before.
Peace be with thee all mantram affirmation, I am the
master of my soul.