Building the Bridge of Light to the Higher Self
The Higher Self or Ego:
The Master Dwjhal Kuhl speaks of the "Higher Self" or "Ego" as an aspect of the constitution of man/woman which is potentially of a threefold nature: 1. Spiritual Will or Atma; 2. Intuition or Buddhi or Love-Wisdom or the Christ principle (now better known as the Christ consciousness); and 3. Higher or Abstract Mind (Higher Manas). ("Initiation: Human and Solar" by Alice A. Bailey (Lucis Press)
1. Evolution or the process of making contact with the Higher Self in terms of awakening the energy centres (chakras)
It seems that a well-developed and controlled mind is necessary before one can make true, sustained contact. Dwjahl Kuhl speaks of “fires” that energize six centres in three triangles in a human being’s etheric body (the subtle body within which the physical body dwells and from which the physical body is regulated). The fire that energizes the triangle in the head is the higher correspondence to the triangle of prana, midway in the body, and its lower reflection at the base of the spine. In the head, two major etheric centres form the triangle – one over the pineal gland and one over the pituitary body – with the alta major centre (chakra) over the base of the skull. The fire that energises these centres in the head is called "the fire of mind/manas".
The triangle of prana midway in the etheric body is formed by the centre between the shoulder blades, the etheric centre over the diaphragm, and the double centre acting as one over the spleen in the etheric body. The etheric triangle at the base of the spine is formed by the etheric centre over the bottom of the spinal column and the two centres over the sex organs. The fires that energize these two triangles are "the fires of matter" or "the dual fire of matter".
When the fires of matter and the fire of mind merge, it results in a tremendous stimulation of the three higher centres, namely the one over the top of the head and those over the heart and the throat, and that area of the body is thus electrificied. The higher centres then form a field of attraction for the downflow of the third fire, that of Spirit, from the Ego. The many-petalled head centre over the top of the head then becomes exceedingly active. It is the synthetic head centre, and the sumtotal of all the other centres. The stimulation of the centres throughout the body is parallelled or duplicated by the concurrent vivification of the many-petalled lotus. It is the meeting place of the three fires, those of the body, those of the mind and those of the spirit. The at-one-ment with the Ego is completed when the head chakra (centre) is fully stimulated, and combustion then ensues. This stimulation and combustion are duplicated in the subtler vehicles or sheaths of the body and eventually cause the final consummation and liberation of the spirit.
The fires of matter (i.e. the fires of the two lower triangles) merge as a result of evolutionary growth at a normal, slow rate, as time passes (aeons and many, many lifetimes). The junction of the two fires of matter has been already been effected early in the history of man, and is the reason for the robust health that clean-living, high-thinking people normally enjoy. When the fires of matter have merged and pass still further upwards along the etheric spinal channel, they contact the fire of mind/manas as it radiates from the throat centre. This is the period when the human unit consciously aspires towards and begins to live a constructive life.
The dual fire of matter is then attracted upward, and merges with the fire of mind through a junction effected at the alta major centre. This etheric centre is situated at the base of the skull, and there is a slight gap between it and the point at which the two fires of matter issue from the spinal channel. An important part of the work the man who is developing thought power does, is to build a temporary channel in etheric matter to bridge that gap. (This channel is the reflection in physical matter of the antaskarana* that the Ego has to build in order to bridge the gap between the lower and higher mental bodies, between the causal** vehicle and the manasic permanent atom, which are on the lowest and the highest subplanes of the mental plane, respectively – as below, as above. Yes, there is a still higher Self than the Higher Self.)
The building of the bridge between the lower fires and the higher fires in the etheric body is the work that all advanced thinkers is unconsciously doing now. When the gap is completely bridged, the aspirant's astral body (combination of instincts and emotions) becomes coordinated with his mental body, and the fires of mind and of matter are blended. It completes the perfecting or integration of the personality, and this perfecting brings the aspirant to the portal of initiation – initiation being the end of one lesser cycle of development and the beginning of the transference of the whole work to a higher spiral of vibration.
When one aspires to control the fires of matter, one is literally playing with fire. The aspirant should therefore not look back, but upwards to the plane where dwells his/her immortal Spirit, and then by self-discipline, mind-control and a definite refining of his/her material bodies – subtle (etheric) and physical, as well as subjective (emotional), fit himself to be a vehicle for the down-pouring of the Ego or Higher Self and eventually of the Spirit – the even higher Self.
Footnotes:
* antaskarana (also: "antakarana", or "antahkarana"): "Antaskarana is the lower Manas, the path of communication or communion between the personality and the higher Manas or human soul. ("Voice of the Silence", p. 71, as quoted in "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire")"The antaskarana is the imaginary path between the personal and the impersonal self, and is the highway of sensation; it is the battlefield for mastery over the personal self. It is the path of aspiration, and where one longing for goodness exists the antaskarana persists." ("Voice of the Silence", pp. 50, 55, 56, 88, as quoted in "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire")
** causal or egoic body or vehicle: "... the causal or egoic body is the transmitting point (when sufficiently equipped and built) between the higher and lower." ("A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", p.178) "The causal body is but the sheath of the Ego." ("A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", p. 179)
** "...Buddhi, the sixth or Christ principle" ("A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", p. 383)
From the teachings of Second-Ray Master, Dwjhal Kuhl, in the book, "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" by Alice A. Bailey; Lucis Press; softcover
2. Evolution or the process of making contact with the Higher Self in terms of raising the consciousness
Each unit of the human race forms part of the divine consciousness, and is that which is conscious of, or is aware of something without itself - something that knows itself from being differentiated from the vehicle or sheaths that enclose it, or the forms that environ it. At this particular stage in evolution, the average person is simply conscious of differentiation, or of being separated from all other members of the human family, thus, forming in himself/herself a unit among other units. He/she is self-recognizing or self-conscious. He/she is also aware of other human self-recognizing units. He/she also recognizes the fact that somewhere in the universe there exists a supreme Consciousness, whom he/she calls God, or Nature. Between this purely self-centred point of view and the theory of God Immanent there are many stages, each of which represents an expansion of consciousness, or an enlargement of the point of view that leads that self-recognizing unit, step by step, from self-recognition to the recognition of superior lives, to the fitting of himself to be likewise recognized as a superior self, and eventually to the occult (hidden) recognition of his own superior Self. He comes to recognize his Higher Self or Ego as his true Self, and, from that stage, passes on into that of group consciousness. Here he realizes first his egoic group and then other egoic groups.
This very high evolutionary stage is succeeded by the universal principle of Brotherhood; it involves not just a theoretical recognition, but a merging of the consciousness into that of the human consciousness, in its entirety; this is really that development of consciousness which enables a man to realize, not only his egoic group affiliations, but his place in the human Hierarchy on its own plane. He then knows himself, in fact, as part of one of the great Heavenly Men. This expands later into an almost inconceivably vast point of view – that of his place in the Grand Heavenly Man, as represented by the Logos Himself.
All these stages have to be taken systematically, and each one has to be mastered step by step. It is necessary first to understand that the place where the expansion takes place, and the realization has to be felt, has to be finally in the thinking, waking consciousness. The Ego on its own plane may well be aware of the unity of its consciousness with all other consciousnesses, and may realize its group as one with itself, but its instrument, the person in physical plane consciousness, has to raise his or her consciousness to that same plane and become likewise aware of his/her group, and should likewise regard himself/herself as the higher Self within the egoic group and not as a separated unit, or it will otherwise remain a theory, which is of no use whatsoever unless carried out in practice.
These stages have to be experienced in physical consciousness and be known experimentally and not just theoretically, before one is deemed ready to start the succeeding stages. This all amounts to an expansion of the higher consciousness until it dominates the lower, and the faculty of abstract conception being brought in, which eventually results in physical plane manifestation. It means that one has to make one's highest theories and ideals demonstrable facts, and is that blending of the higher and the lower and the equipping of that lower until it provides a fitting expression for the higher. It is here that the practice of meditation comes in.
True scientific meditation provides graded forms through which the consciousness is raised and the mind is gradually made group conscious (expanded) embracing, first, family and friends, then its environing associates and affiliated group and, eventually, the egoic group and other egoic groups, and, much, much later, that Man of the Heavens of which the egoic groups form a centre, and, lastly, the Grand Heavenly Man or Logos overshadowing all.
Every one who begins to aspire toward the Higher Self can no longer be regarded as an average person, nor can anybody who sees himself/herself in isolation, and who aspires to attain what is good for himself/herself. The aspirant seeks to merge his or her conscious self with his or her Higher Self and everything associated with it.
Aspiration towards the Ego and the bringing in of that higher consciousness is the next step, which is not achieved by devoting thirty minutes a day to perform a certain form of meditation. It involves the ability to attempt, hour by hour, all day long and every day, while still going about and diligently carrying out one’s daily duties, to keep the consciousness as near as possible to the high pitch of vibration that has been attained in the morning meditation. It presumes a determination to consider oneself at all times as being the Ego (Higher Self or Soul), and not as a differential personality. Later, as the Ego comes more and more in control of the lower threefold self, it involves, also, the ability to look upon oneself as part of a group, whose interests and desires, aims or wishes centres in the good of the group. It necessitates constant watchfulness every hour of the day to prevent the disciple (advanced aspirant) from falling back into a lower vibration. It entails a constant battle with the lower self that drags one down; it is a ceaseless fight to maintain the higher vibration. The aim should be the development of the habit of meditation at the back of the mind all day long, and living in the higher consciousness till that consciousness is so stable that the lower mind, desires and the physical elementals become so atrophied and starved through lack of nourishment that the threefold lower nature (the integrated personality) becomes simply the tool the Ego wields in the world in its purpose to help the race.
Thus, the aspirant builds a form, a definite thoughtform, that eventually provides him with a vehicle to step out of the lower consciousness into the higher, called a "mayavirupa" (nowadays mostly known as a “light body”, which acts as his intermediate channel. Such a vehicle or thoughtform is, usually, though not invariably, one of two kinds, namely the typical body of the mystic or the typical body of the occultist. (This article is based on: "Letters on Occult Meditation" received and edited by Alice A. Bailey (Lucis Press), pp. 141 - 145.) Continued in the link,"idealforms", which, in turn, is continued in a link accessed from there:"firebuild".
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