Theos-Talk Archives (May 2003 Message tt00235)

Monday, May 26, 2003

Dear Betty:

Thank you. The will is the king faculty when wielded by the
BUDDHI-MANAS -- the wise mind.
Actually the will is a colorless force -- a power to create and
to do. Consequently the motive behind anything that is done or
said is important.

If one studies the injunctions of the VOICE OF THE SILENCE one is
able to distinguish between the two : Wisdom is that accumulated
study of the Ages ( S D I 272-3) which is universal and
impartial knowledge -- hence generous and educational. It
envisages the continuing education of the divine Ego in man
through incarnation after incarnation.

Its opposite is “folly” or the principle of ”Kama” -- desires and
passions. This is because their purview does not exceed the
present life in this body: the “personality.”

See if this is of additional help

Best wishes,

Dallas

-------------------------------


W I L L A N D F R E E - W I L L


______________________


"One common vital principle pervades all things, and this is
controllable by the perfected human will." ISIS, II, p.
590


"WILL -- In metaphysics and occult philosophy, Will is
that which governs the manifested universes in eternity. Will is
the one and sole principle of abstract eternal Motion, or its
ensoul­ing essence...It is [ "the first of all powers...the
property of all spiritual beings and displays itself in them the
more active­ly the more thy are freed from matter."--Van
Helmont]. Paracel­sus teaches that "determined will is the
beginning of all magical operations. It is because men do not
perfectly imagine and be­lieve the result, that the (occult) arts
are so uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain." ...Will
is septenary in its degrees of manifestation. Emanating from the
one, eternal, ab­stract and purely quiescent Will (Atma or
Layam), it becomes Bud­dhi in its Alaya state, descends lower as
Mahat (Manas), and runs down the ladder of degrees until the
divine Eros becomes, in its lower, animal manifestation, erotic
desire. Will as an eternal principle is neither spirit nor
substance but everlasting idea­tion." GLOS 370


"the Will has received no treatment, [in the Ocean ] inas­much as
that power or faculty is hidden, subtle, undiscoverable as to
essence, and only visible in effect."
(see : WQJ I 317-8) OCEAN, Preface.


"Will is the force of any and all degrees of intelligence; it is
inherent in consciousness as "the power to act." Q
& A. p. 40



DIVINE SPIRITUAL WILL CAUSED THE UNIVERSE TO BE
REBORN


"What is WILL?"...The great Universal Idea willed and the cosmos
sprang into existence. I will and my limbs obey. I will, and,
my thought traversing space, which does not exist for it,
[contacts and may dominate another]...the mysterious effects of
attraction and repulsion are the unconscious agents of that
will..."the principle of life"--akasa...Man, the most perfect of
organized beings on earth, in whom matter and spirit--i.e.,
will--are the most developed and powerful, is alone allowed to
give a conscious impulse to that principle which emanates from
him; and only he can impart to the magnetic fluid opposite and
various impulses without limit as to the direction..."
ISIS I 144


"...the soulless elemental spirits were evolved by the cea­seless
motion in the astral light. Light is force, and the lat­ter is
produced by the will. As this will proceeds from an
in­telligence which cannot err, for it has nothing of the
material organs of human thought in it, being the superfine pure
emanation of the highest divinity itself--{Plato's "Father") it
proceeds from the beginning of time, according to immutable laws,
to evolve the elementary fabric requisite for subsequent...human
races." IS I 285


"First come the SELF-EXISTENT on this Earth. They are the
'Spiritual Lives' projected by the absolute WILL and LAW, at the
dawn of every rebirth of the worlds. These LIVES are the divine
'Sishta,' (the seed-Manus, or the Prajapati and the Pitris)."
SD II 164


"...unless the higher Self or Ego gravitates towards its Sun--the
Monad--the lower Ego, or personal Self, will have the upper hand
in every case. For it is this Ego, with its fierce selfishness
and animal desire to live a Senseless life (Tanha), which is the
"maker of the tabernacle," as Buddha calls it in Dhammapada..."
SD II 110



MANIFESTATION NEEDS WILL -- DIVINE PLAN


"...the Universe (is) the result of the WILL of the CENTRAL
SPIRITUAL SUN--the only "God"--a Divine Universal Principle..."
Isis I p. 29


"The ancient philosophy affirmed that in consequence of the
manifestation of that Will--termed by Plato the Divine Idea--that
everything visible and invisible (62) sprung into existence. As
that Intelligent Idea, which, by directing its sole will-power
toward a center of localized forces called objective forms into
being, so can man, the microcosm of the great Macrocosm, do the
same in proportion to the development of his will-power. The
imaginary atoms...are like automatic workmen moved inwardly by
the influx of that Universal Will directed upon them, and which
manifesting itself as force, sets them into activity. The plan
of the structure to be erected is in the brain of the Architect,
and reflects his will; abstract as yet, from the instant of
con­ception it becomes concrete through these atoms which follow
faithfully every line, point and figure traced in the imagination
of the divine Geometer. " ISIS I 61-2


"...This desire for a sentient life shows itself in every­thing,
from an atom to a sun, and is a reflection of the Divine Thought
propelled into objective existence, into a law that the Universe
should exist...." [see S D II 176, 578] SD I 44


"Every objective manifestation, whether it be the motion of a
living limb, or the movement of some inorganic body, requires two
conditions: will and force--plus matter, or that which makes the
object so moved visible to our eye; and these three are all
convertible forces...In their turn they are directed or rather
overshadowed by the Divine intelligence...Behind these laws we
must search for the intelligent cause, which once having created
and set these laws in motion, has infused into them the essence
of its own consciousness...always "intelligence."...It is
diffi­cult, if not impossible, to conceive of intellection apart
from consciousness...Consciousness is a quality of the sentient
prin­ciple...the soul... when we lift our arm mechanically ...our
su­perficial senses cannot appreciate the interval between the
for­mulation of the purpose and the execution...our vigilant will
evolved force, and set our matter in motion." ISIS I 198-9


"...the Force which we call the divine Free-Will (is)
repre­sented by the Dhyani Buddhas..." TRANSACTIONS,
p. 129.


"This Free Force or Will, which is limitless and absolute, cannot
be said to act understandingly, but it is the one and sole
immutable Law of Life and Being. Fohat...is spoken of as the
synthetic motor power of all the imprisoned life-forces and the
medium between the absolute and conditioned Force. It is a link,
just as Manas is the connecting link between the gross matter of
the physical body and the divine Monad which animates it, but is
powerless to act upon the former directly." TRANS 134


"Will is the energy of Consciousness expressed in action, on any
plane of manifestation...the Spiritual Will (is)...developed by
true unselfishness, a sincere and full desire to be guided, ruled
and assisted by the Higher Self, and to do that which...the
Higher Self has in store for one by way of discipline or
experi­ence." Q & A p. 109


"One common vital principle pervades all things, and this is
controllable by the perfected human will." Isis, II, p. 590.




SOURCE OF THE WILL - FOHAT - UNIVERSAL LIFE AND
ENERGY


"Fohat is closely related to the "one life." From the Un­known
One, the Infinite TOTALITY, the manifested ONE, or the
pe­riodical Manvantaric Deity, emanates; and this is the
Universal Mind, which, separated from its Fountain-Source, is the
Demiurgos or the creative Logos...In its totality, viewed from
the stand­point of manifested Divine Thought in the esoteric
doctrine, it represents the Hosts of the higher creative
Dhyan-Chohans. Si­multaneously with the evolution of the
Universal Mind, the con­cealed Wisdom of Adi-Buddha--the One
Supreme and eternal--manif­ests itself as Avalokiteshwara (or
manifested Ishwara)...Heavenly Man...Logos...Atman. By the
action of the manifested Wisdom, or Mahat, represented by these
innumerable centers of spiritual En­ergy in the Kosmos, the
reflection of the Universal Mind, which is Cosmic Ideation and
the intellectual Force accompanying such ideation, becomes
objectively the Fohat of the Buddhist esoteric philosopher.
Fohat, running along the seven principles of Akasa, acts upon
manifested substance or the One Element...and by dif­ferentiating
it into various centers of Energy, sets in motion the law of
Cosmic Evolution, which, in obedience to the Ideation of the
Universal Mind, brings into existence all the various states of
being in the manifested Solar System.

...The Solar system brought into existence by these agencies,
consists of Seven Principles, like everything else within these
centers...Fohat, then, is the personified electric vital power,
the transcendent binding Unity of all Cosmic energies, on the
unseen as on the manifested planes, the action of which
re­sembles--on an immense scale--that of a living Force created
by will, in those phenomena where the seemingly subjective acts
on the seemingly objective and propels it to action. Fohat is
not only the living Symbol and Container of that Force, but is
looked upon by the Occultists as an Entity--the forces he acts
upon be­ing cosmic, human and terrestrial, and exercising their
influence on all those planes respectively...He is
metaphysically, the ob­jectivized thought of the gods; the "Word
made flesh," on a low­er scale, and the messenger of Cosmic and
human ideations: the active force in Universal Life."
SD I 111-12
.Solar Energy, the electric vital fluid and the preserving 4th
prin­ (See also SD I 292-3 II 173 - Saktis)

"Upadana...[thirst for life, more life]...[in] Ahankara [the
sense of I-ness]...or the intense desire which produces WILL, and
it is in will which develops force, and the latter generates
mat­ter, or an object having form. Thus the disembodied Ego,
through this sole undying desire in him, unconsciously furnishes
the con­ditions of his successive self-procreations...which
depend on his mental state and Karma, the good and bad deeds of
his previous existence..." ISIS II 320



WILL IN THE ATOM


"Occultism regards every atom as an "independent entity," and
every cell as a "conscious unit." No sooner do such atoms group
and form cells, that these cells become endowed with
con­sciousness, each of its own kind, and with free-will to act
with­in the limits of law." HPB ART II p.
19


"...the imprisoned force and intelligence inherent in every atom
of differentiated as well as of homogeneous matter arrives at a
point when both become the slaves of a higher intelligent Force
which we call the divine Free-Will, represented by the Dhyani
Buddhas..." Transactions 129




WILL AS A FORCE IN MAN'S MENTAL POWERS


"Will is the force of Spirit in action." OCEAN 16


"Occultism regards every atom as an "independent entity" and
every cell as a "conscious unit." It explains that no sooner do
such atoms group to form cells, than the latter become endowed
with consciousness, each of its own kind, and with free-will to
act within the limits of law...memory has no special seat, no
special organ of its own in the human brain, but that it has
seats in every organ of the body...The seat of memory, then, is
assuredly neither here nor there, but everywhere throughout the
human body. To locate its organ in the brain is to limit and
dwarf the Universal Mind and its countless Rays (the Manasa
pu­tra) which inform every rational mortal."
HPB ARTICLES II 19


"Free will can only exist in a Man who has both mind and
consciousness, which act and make him perceive things both within
and without himself." TRANS 25


"The will of the outer man, our volition, is of course dor­mant
and inactive during dreams; but a certain bent can be given to
the slumbering will during its inactivity, and certain
after-results developed by the mutual inter-action..."
TRANS 66


"[Patanjali's Yoga Sutras]...propositions imply that the will is
not wholly dependent on the mind, but is separable from it;
and...that knowledge exists as an abstraction. The will and mind
are only servants for the soul's [Higher Manas] use, but so long
as we are wrapped up in material life and do not admit that the
real knower and only experiencer is the soul, just so long do
these servants remain usurpers of the soul's sovereignty...there
is a constant struggle between the Lower and the Higher Self..."
Pat. p. xiii


"...Will is a spiritual power, function or attribute con­stantly
present in every portion of the Universe. It is a color­less
power, to which no quality of goodness or badness is to be
assigned, but which may be used in whatever way man pleases...In
ordinary life it is not man's servant, but, being then guided
solely by desire, it makes man a slave to his desires. Hence the
old cabalistic maxim, "Behind Will stands Desire." Pat. p.
xiv


"...the human Will is all powerful and the Imagination is a most
useful faculty with a dynamic force. The Imagination is the
picture-making power of the human mind...it may be trained.
[then] it is the Constructor in the Human Workshop...it makes a
matrix in the Astral substance through which effects objectively
will flow. It is the greatest power, after Will, in the human
assemblage of complicated instruments...the Imagination [evolves]
in the Astral substance an actual image or form which may be then
used in the same way as an iron molder uses a mold of sand for
the molten iron. it is therefore the King faculty, inasmuch as
the Will cannot do its work if the Imagination be at all weak or
untrained. Ocean, 139


"Kriyasakti--the mysterious power of thought which enables it to
produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own
inherent energy. The ancients held that any idea will manif­est
itself externally, if one's attention (and Will) is deeply
concentrated upon it..." SD II 173
(see also SD I 293 )



DIVINE MIND -- RESIDENT IN MAN


"...the metaphysics of Occult physiology and psychology
pos­tulate within mortal man an immortal entity, "divine Mind,"
or Nous, whose pale and too often distorted reflection is that
which we call "Mind" and intellect in man--virtually an entity
apart from the former during the period of every incarnation--we
say that the two sources of "memory" are in these two
"principles."


"Man is the one free agent in nature. His intelligence makes him
free.

Will is not directly free elsewhere in nature; the law of Karma
adjusts the encroachments of matter on the flow of the Will,
which is the Power of Spirit. Only in the human kingdom, with
the birth of intelligence, Will becomes free; and, thus, at
last, Karma finds the aid of an agent independent of itself,
in­stead of a passive instrument for its compensating operations.
Thus, even the "Law of Laws" offers itself to become the servant
of man." STUDIES IN THE S D, p. 129



HIGHER MIND AND WILL


"These two we distinguish as the Higher Manas (Mind or Ego), and
the Kama-Manas, i.e., the rational, but earthly or physical
intellect of man, encased in, and bound by, matter, therefore
subject to the influence of the latter: the all-conscious SELF,
that which reincarnates periodically--verily the WORD made flesh
!--and which is always the same, while its reflected "Double,"
changing with every new incarnation and personality, is,
there­fore, conscious but for a life-period."
? ? ?


INTUITION - A SPIRITUAL FACULTY


"...intuitive knowledge is...different...It is a faculty of the
[divine] soul ...which animates all the external forms of the
individualized being...The would-be disciple has to arouse
him­self [lower Manas] to the consciousness of it by a fierce and
resolute and indomitable effort of will...only he who is
unnamable, who cannot be dominated, who knows he has to play the
lord...over all things save his own divinity, can arouse this
faculty [Will]. "With faith all things are possible."...Faith is
a great engine, an enormous power, which in fact can accomplish
all things...it is the covenant or engagement between man's
di­vine part and his lesser self." Light on Path, p.
49-50



LOWER MIND AND WILL [ IMMORTALITY IS EARNED ]


"The latter "principle" is the Lower Self, or that, which
manifesting through our organic system, acting on the plane of
illusion, imagines itself the Ego Sum, ...the "heresy of
sepa­rateness." The former, we term INDIVIDUALITY, the latter
Person­ality."
HPB ARTICLES II 20-21


"This raising of himself [Lower Manas] into an individual power
does in reality identify him with the nobler forces of life and
make him one with them. For they stand beyond the powers of this
earth and the laws of this universe. Here lies man's only hope
of success in the great effort; to leap right away from his
present standpoint to his next and at once become an intrinsic
part of the divine power as he has been an intrinsic part of the
intellectual power, of the great nature to which he belongs. He
stands always in advance of himself...It is the men who adhere to
this position, who believe in their power of progress, and that
of the whole race, who are the elder brothers, the pioneers."
L on P. p. 55


"...the disciple is expected to deal with the snake, his lower
self, unaided; to suppress his human passions and emotions by
the force of his own will."

"He can only demand assistance of a Master when this is
ac­complished, or...partially so. Otherwise the gates and
windows of his soul are blurred and blinded, and darkened, and no
knowl­edge can come to him." L on P. p. 63



"But for those who have the power to separate themselves from
[the herd of men] he [the Master] is always at hand. And for
those who are strong enough to conquer the vices of the per­sonal
human nature...he is consciously at hand, easily rec­ognized,
ready to answer..."

"But this conquering of [the lower] self implies a destruc­tion
of the qualities which most men regard as not only
in­destructible but desirable...The instinct of self-defense and
of self-preservation is part of it; the idea that one has any
right or rights...the pleasant concept of self-respect and of
virtue...They are drawn from the traditions of the Great
Brother­hood...Through all time the wise men have lived apart
from the mass..." L on P p. 73-4



WILL AND DESIRE


"...will acts according to desire, or, as the older thinkers used
to put it, "behind will stands desire." That is why the child,
the savage, the lunatic, and the wicked man so often ex­hibit a
stronger will than others. The wicked man has intensi­fied his
desires, and with that his will...So, to make our will strong we
must have fewer desires. Let these be high, pure, and
altruistic; they will give us strong will. No mere practice
will develop it per se, for it exists forever, fully developed in
itself. But practice will develop in us the power to call on
that will which is ours. Will and desire lie at the doors of
Meditation and Concentration. If we desire truth with the same
intensity...we will speedily acquire meditation and possess
con­centration. If we do all our acts, small and great, every
moment for the sake of the whole human race, as representing the
Supreme Self, then every cell and fiber of the body and inner man
will be turned in one direction, resulting in perfect
concentration...as the lighting up of the Supreme One, who then
becomes visible. Let us meditate on that which is in us as the
Highest Self, con­centrate upon it, and will to work for it as
dwelling in every human heart." WQJ ART. I 318


"...the true Theosophist is the true Altruist who sinks his
personal desires for progress in a secret and fascinating art, so
that he may give this true view of life, of death, and of
immor­tality to as many of his fellow-men as he can reach."
T. Forum, p. 22


"The ever unknowable and incognizable Karana alone, the
Cau­seless Cause of all causes, should have its shrine and altar
on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart--invisible,
in­tangible, unmentioned, save through "the still small voice" of
our spiritual consciousness. Those who worship before it, ought
to do so in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their
Souls; making their spirit the sole mediator between them and
the Universal spirit, their good actions the only priests, and
their sinful intentions the only visible and objective
sacrifi­cial victims to the Presence." SD I 280


"...This desire for a sentient life shows itself in every­thing,
from an atom to a sun, and is a reflection of the Divine Thought
propelled into objective existence, into a law that the Universe
should exist...." SD I 44 [ See also S D
II 176, 578 ]


"...unless the higher Self or Ego gravitates towards its Sun--the
Monad--the lower Ego, or personal Self, will have the upper hand
in every case. For it is this Ego, with its fierce selfishness
and animal desire to live a Senseless life (Tanha), which is the
"maker of the tabernacle," as Buddha calls it in Dhammapada..."
SD II 110



"The old Hermetic statement is: "Behind will stands desire," and
it is true. Will is a pure colorless force, which is moved into
action by desire. If desire does not give a direc­tion the will
is motionless; and just as desire indicates, so the will
proceeds to execute." G N 36


"Desire causes the will to fix itself on objective life; in that
plane it produces force and out of that comes matter in its
objective form." ECHOES 38


"Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind,"
that "which connects entity with non-entity" (or Manas the fifth,
with Atma, the seventh, esoterically) say the Sages. This is the
first stage." SD II 578-9, 176



USE OF THE WILL


"...in the AEther they (ancient priests) placed the Eternal Idea
pervading the Universe, or the Will which becomes Force, and
creates or organizes matter." (see also ISIS II 320) ISIS I
57


"Call the phenomena (of matter) force, energy, electricity or
magnetism, will, or spirit-power, it will ever be the partial
manifestation of the soul, whether disembodied or imprisoned for
a while in its body--of a portion of that intelligent,
omnipo­tent, and individual will, pervading all nature, and
known, through the insufficiency of human language to express
correctly psychological images, as--GOD." ISIS I 58


"Such an action at a distance is just what constitutes the
fundamental character of what is called magical; for such is the
immediate action of our will, an action liberated from the causal
conditions of physical action, viz., contact."--Schopenhauer
quoted by HPB. ISIS I 59


"Light is force, and the latter is produced by the will. As this
will proceeds from an intelligence which cannot err, for it has
nothing of the material organs of human thought in it, being of
the superfine pure emanation of the highest divinity itself...it
proceeds from the beginning of time, according to immutable laws,
to evolve the elementary fabric requisite for subsequent
generations of what we term human races...from the universal
ether to the incarnate human spirit, they (our "igno­rant"
ancestors) traced one uninterrupted series of entities...a
descent from the spirit, primal source of all, to the
"degrada­tion of matter." ISIS I 285


"...how can a will manifest itself intelligently and
uncon­sciously at the same time ? It is difficult...to conceive
of intellection apart from consciousness...(199) Consciousness is
a quality of the sentient principle...the soul, and the latter
of­ten displays activity even while the body is asleep or
paralyzed. When we lift our arm mechanically...our superficial
senses cannot appreciate the interval between the formulation of
the purpose and its execution. Latent as it seemed to us, our
vigilant will evolved force, and set our matter in motion..."
ISIS I 198-9


"...Paracelsus writes of the wonderful magical power of man's
spirit. "It is possible," he says, "that my spirit, with­out the
help of the body, and through a fiery will alone, and without a
sword, can stab and wound others...the exertion of will is a
great point in medicine...Every imagination of man comes through
the heart, for this is the sun of the microcosm, and out of the
microcosm proceeds the imagination into the great world
(universal ether)...the imagination of man is a seed, which is
material." "Fixed thought is also a means to an end. The
magi­cal is a great concealed wisdom, and reason is a great
public foolishness..." Paracelsus quoted by HPB. ISIS I
360-1 fn



"Every mesmerizer knows the power of the will during an in­tense
desire bent on any particular subject. "ISIS II 21


"...if he but exercise his will and call his deity to
his help, man can transcend the powers of the angel."
ISIS II 277


"the human Will is all-powerful and the Imagination is a most
useful faculty with a dynamic force. The Imagination is the
picture-making faculty of the human mind...when trained it is the
Constructor in the Human Workshop." [referring to Lower Manas ]
OCEAN, p. 139


"Fear, O Disciple, kills the will and stays all action. If
lacking in the Shila virtue--the pilgrim trips, and Karmic
peb­bles bruise his feet along the rocky path."
VOICE 58


Will--a controlling influence. Example of accelerated plant
growth. "The will creates; for the will in motion is force, and
force produces matter." ISIS I 139-40


"Dwelling on the Fundamentals and the endeavor to
help oth­ers is the true concentration. Mr. Judge wrote: "Thus
the Will is freed from the domination of desire, and at last
subdues the mind itself." FRIENDLY PHILOSOPHER.
p. 401


"Dispassion is the having overcome one's desires...Dispas­sion,
carried to the utmost is indifference regarding all else than
soul, and this indifference arises from a knowledge of soul as
distinguished from all else." ( Concentration and will )
PATANJALI, p. 6-7


"Self-knowledge: this means the philosophy of life;
Self-discipline: this means the ethics of action;
Self-control: this means that equilibrium in
the
individual, whose universal presence we
call law.

The key-note of the wisdom in man is that Intelligence in
"Nature." That key note is impersonality. When so regarded, and
so employed, that key makes of the man a Mahatma. What is "Law"
in Nature becomes Will in the individual."
THEOSOPHY MAG. Vol. 24, p. 272-3



WILL AND THE ADEPTS


"Adepts are generally classified by the number of "princi­ples"
they have under their perfect control, for that which we call
will has its seat in the higher Ego..." TRANSACTIONS,
p. 67


"It is through the power to see and use these "abstract" forms
that the Adept is able to evolve before our eyes any object that
is desired...Countless myriad of forms are in that ideal sphere,
and matter exists in the astral light, or even in the atmosphere,
that has passed through all forms possible for us to conceive of.
All that the Adept has to do is to select the "ab­stract form"
desired, then to hold it before him with a force and intensity
unknown to the men of this hurried age, while he draws into its
boundaries the material to make it visible. How easy this is to
state, how difficult to believe; yet quite true...the oftener
this is done with any one form the easier it becomes. And so it
is with nature: Her ease of production grows like a habit.

It is by means of these correlations of color, sound, form,
number, and substance--that the trained will of the Initiate
rules and uses the denizens of the elemental world. Many
theoso­phists have had slight conscious relations with
elementals, but always without their will acting, and, upon
trying to make ele­mentals see, hear, or act for them, a total
indifference on the part of the nature spirits is all they have
got in return. These failures are due to the fact that the
elemental cannot understand the thought of the person; it can
only be reached when the exact scale of being to which it belongs
is vibrated whether it be that of color, form, sound, or whatever
else." HPB-- Path III 42fn



===================================



-----Original Message-----
From: B J. Mc
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2003
To:
Subject: [bn-study] REINCARNATION -- Ocean Ch. X

I have been reading the articles recommended by the Compiler at
Wisdom World, a jewel encrusted oeuvre. It is my first thorough
orientation to the subject matter. Relevant to this discussion,
the following passage ignited a chain reaction within me:
THEOSOPHY, Vol. 88, Issue 3, March/April 2000
(Pages 119-125; )

FACETS OF INQUIRY
[Article number (8) in this Department]
"To develop spiritually, many sources say you must strengthen
your will, but many also say that you have to surrender your will
to a higher power. Which of these is correct? " ...
DUALITY OF WILL
..."We have a higher, spiritual self (the individuality) that is
immortal, that persists from life to life; and we have a lower,
material self (the personality) that is mortal, that lasts but a
single life."
This single sentence so completely changed my understanding that
it is not possible to convey its subtle/profound impact. By this
~ "(the personaltiy)...lasts but a single life" ~ I felt a
palpable release from bondage to this self. Previously,
unconsciously, there had been an internal instinctive struggle to
protect and preserve this self, if nothing else as a vehicular
necessity for immortality. Perhaps a common youthful error. My
point is that, literally, in the flash of a moment this
comprehension caused a laser-like sweep throughout my
consciousness. A complete readjustment of perspective. As a
result, for the first time, perception of the higher self was
realized beyond the intellectual. The personal self dissolved
into the higher.
cut


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