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