Theos-Talk Archives (February 1998 Message tt00188)

Dallas continues
>Ecstasy    Webster    -  being outside of "ones' self -- out of
>reason or self-control -- over-
> mastering feeling  --  In
>mysticism:  prophetic or poetic trance
> Apparently there are two levels/stages:  Controlled and
>uncontrolled
>
>Hence in theosophical psychology (as I read it) you have the
>condition of the Adept who
>controls and of the medium (or channeler) who is passive and is
>controlled by some external "influence"

It seems to me that passion is inherent in the condition of ectasy. The
medium might be "outside of himself" but this could be, and often is a
painful experience.
The condition of ectasy, I picture as consciousness spreading out as the
ripples do when you throw a pebble in a pond- there is a central point to
return to. But as I said before, normally this results in the consciousness
we have in dreamless sleep.

>As I understand it for an Adept to contact his "Divine Inner
>Self"  [ HIGHER SELF ] he has to so purify his personal [ Lower ]
>Self that it can become transparent to the "divine" and the
>"spiritual."  Hence, the study of and practice of morals on the
>thesis that we are at root immortals and that Karma operates
>incessantly and our 'motives' make or break or progress to that
>point of divine or spiritual contact.

I f one wishes to converse with the Higher Self one must use language it
undrerstands.
Some expect the Higher Self to be the same as the lower mind in function
only greater- a kind of super- brain power.

>To me it seems that the personal mind (my self here, awake in
>this body, now) has to make itself as pure as possible so that it
>can unerringly contact by will-power, its own
>HIGHER SELF
Not only that, by working on the lower members we make more of the Higher
Self.

>It thus seems to me that the inclination of the/my embodied,
>personal mind/self is towards a selfishness that desires to
>"protect" the status quo to which it is accustomed.

And also toward a wish for betterment. This may take the form ambitiousness.
Ambition may wrong, but growth itself is part of Nature and not selfish.
(Light on the Path)
The rose by making herself more beautiful makes the whole garden beautiful-
Goethe (roughly).

Fraternally,
Bruce