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[12/27/2014 6:01:48 PM] *** Group call ***
[12/27/2014 6:04:31 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Furthermore, the ego is never likely to be wrong. He is, apparently, not deceived, about anything; but that he is ignorant of certain matters is quite clear for indeed the very purpose of incarnation is to remove that ignorance.

But, as we have seen, the fragment of the ego, which has been put down into lower matter, becomes so keenly and vividly conscious in that matter, that it thinks and acts as though it were a separate being; it forgets that it belongs to the less developed, but far wider consciousness of the ego, and sets up in the business of life on its own account, and tries to go as it wants, rather than as the ego wishes.

Furthermore, the ego, with all his mighty powers, is very much less accurate than the lower mind, and the personality, valuing above all the discriminating, powers of the lower mind which it is intended to develop, often comes in consequence to despise the far higher but vaguer self, and acquires a habit of thinking of itself as an independent ego.

We may note here that all through the course of our evolution there is always a danger that a man should identify himself with that point at which, or that vehicle in which, he is most fully conscious.

Hence, as we have seen, sometimes it seems as though the fragment worked against the whole; but the man who is instructed declines to be deluded and reaches back through the keen, alert consciousness of the fragment, to the true consciousness behind, which is as yet so little developed. That is what Mr. Sinnett called "giving allegiance to the higher self".

We have already seen that in the nature of things, there can be no evil in the causal body, or in the ego. But wherever there is a gap in the causal body there is a possibility that the lower vehicles may run into some sort of evil action. Thus for example, the astral elemental may take possession of the man and rush him (Page 194) into the commission of a crime. In such a case the ego is not sufficiently awake to step in and prevent the action, or perhaps he does not understand that the passion or greed of the astral body may force the lower self into commission of the crime. Evil, therefore,does not come from the Higher Self : it comes from a lack in the Higher Self: because, if the ego were more developed, he would check the man on the brink of the evil thought, and the crime would not be committed.

In ordinary men, the ego has not much grasp of the personality, nor a clear conception of his purpose in sending it forth; and, as we have seen, the small piece which meets us in the personality grows to have ways and opinions of its own. It is developing by the experience it gains, and this is passed on to the ego; but, together with this real development , it usually gathers a good deal which is hardly worthy of that name. It acquires knowledge, but also prejudices, which are not really knowledge at all. It does not become quite free of those prejudices—prejudices, be it noted, of knowledge, of feeling and of action - until the man reaches Adeptship. Gradually it discovers these things to be prejudices, and progresses through them; but it has always a great deal of limitation, from which the ego is entirely free.

In order to assist the ego in controlling his vehicles and to help to utilise them for his own purposes, a very great deal can be done by parents and teachers, during infancy and childhood. For it makes a vast difference when the good, rather than the evil germs in the child's bodies are aroused first. If by exceeding care before birth, and for several years after it, the parents are able to excite only the good tendencies, then the ego will naturally find it easy to express himself along those lines, and a decided habit is set up in that direction. Then, when an evil excitation comes, it finds a strong momentum in the direction of good, which strives in vain to overcome.

Similarly, if the evil tendencies have been aroused first, (Page 195) then excitations towards what is good have to struggle against the predisposition towards evil. In this case, there is in the personality a taste for evil, a readiness to receive and indulge in it. In the other case, however, there is strong natural distaste for evil, which makes the work of the ego much easier.

In the average man there is a perpetual strain going on between the astral and mental bodies, and also neither of these bodies is in the least in tune with the ego, or prepared to act as his vehicle. What is needed is the purification of the personality, and also the channel between it and the ego must be opened and widened.

Until this is done, the personality sees everything and everybody from its own very limited point of view. The ego cannot see what is really going on; he perceives only the distorted picture of the personality, which is like a camera, with a defective lens, that distorts the light-rays, and a faulty plate, which makes the result blurred, indistinct, and unequal.

Hence, in the case of most people, the ego cannot derive any satisfaction from the personality, until it is in the heaven-world. The ego himself knows the true from the false: he recognises truth when he sees it, and rejects the false. But, generally, when he casts an eye downwards into the personality, he finds so crazy a confusion of inconsequent thought-forms, that he can distinguish nothing definite. He turns away in despair, and decides to wait for the quietude of the heaven-world, before attempting to pick up the fragments of truth out of this unseemly chaos.

Under more peaceful conditions of devachan, as the emotions and thoughts of recent physical life come up one by one, and envisage themselves in the vivid light of that world, they are examined with clear vision, the dross is thrown away, and the treasure is kept.

The disciple should, of course, try to bring about that condition, while still in the physical body, body purifying the personality, and harmonising it with the ego or soul. (Page 196)
 
[12/27/2014 7:05:36 PM] Thuan Thi Do:

Although the ego is undoubtedly only very partially expressed by his physical body, yet it would be inaccurate to speak of him as dissociated from that body. If we imagine the ego as a solid body, and the physical plane as a surface, then, if the solid is laid on the surface, obviously the plane figure, representing the contact of the solid with the surface, would be an exceedingly partial expression of the solid. Further, if the various sides of the solid were laid on the surface successively, we might obtain impressions which differed considerably from one another. All of them would be imperfect and partial, because in all cases the solid would have an extension in an entirely different direction, which could in no way be expressed on the flat surface.

In the case of an ordinary man, we shall obtain a nearly accurate symbolism of the facts if we suppose the solid to be conscious, only so far as it is in contact with the surface. Nevertheless, the results gained, through the expression, of such consciousness, would inhere in the solid considered as a whole, and would be present in any later expression of it, even though that might differ considerably from previous expressions.

When the ego is still undeveloped, he cannot respond to more than a very few of the extremely fine vibrations of the higher mental plane, so that they pass through him practically without affecting him. At first it needs powerful and comparatively coarse vibrations to affect him: as these do not exist on his own plane, he has to put himself down to lower levels in order to find them.

Hence full consciousness comes to him at first only in the lowest and densest of his vehicles, his attention being focussed for a long time in the physical plane; so that although that plane is so much lower than his own, and offers so much less scope for activity, yet in those early stages he feels himself much more alive when he is working there.

As his consciousness increases, and widens its scope, he gradually begins to work more and more in matter (Page 197) one stage higher, i.e., in astral matter. At a much later stage, when he has attained to clear working in astral matter, he begins to be able also to express himself through the matter of his mental body. Still later, the end of his present effort is achieved when he works as fully and clearly in the matter of the causal body on the higher mental plane as he does now on the physical plane.

When an ego becomes sufficiently developed to come under the direct influence of a Master, the amount of that influence, which can be passed on to the personality, depends upon the connection between that personality and the ego, which is very different in different cases: there is, in fact, an infinite variety in human life.

As the spiritual force rays upon the ego, something of it must flow through to the personality always, because the lower is attached to the higher, just as the hand is attached to the body by the arm. But the personality can receive only what it has made itself able to receive.

There is also another important factor which comes into operation. The Master often plays upon the qualities in the ego which are much obscured in the personality, so that, in such a case, very little comes down to the personality. Just as only those experiences of the personality can be handed on to the ego, which are compatible with the nature and interests of the ego, so only those impulses, to which the personality can respond, can express themselves in it. We must also bear in mind that whilst the ego tends to exclude the material, and receive the spiritual, so the general tendency of the personality - at least in the earlier stages—is to exclude the spiritual, and receive the material.

A clairvoyant may sometimes see these influences at work. Thus, on a certain day, he may notice a characteristic of the personality much intensified, with no outward reason. The cause is often to be found in what is taking place at some higher level—the stimulation of that quality in the ego. A man may find himself for (Page 198) example, overflowing with affection or devotion, and quite unable on the physical plane to explain why. The cause is usually the stimulation of the ego or, on the other hand,it may be that the ego is taking some special interest in the personality for the time being.

The relationship between a pupil and his Master is not at all unlike that of the personality to the ego. Just as the ego may be considered to put down a small fragment of himself into the personality, and express himself - however imperfectly—through that personality, so in the same sort of way the pupil not merely represents the Master, but is the Master in a very real sense, but the Master under tremendous limitations; those limitations consist, not only of the conditions of the lower planes themselves, but also, of course, of the personality of the pupil, which is by no means transcended.

Furthermore, even if the pupil's ego had gained perfect control of his lower vehicles, there would still be the difference between the size of the ego of the pupil and of the ego of the Master, because the pupil is naturally a smaller ego than the Master whom he follows, and therefore can be only an incomplete, representative of Him.

Meditation is a method of drawing the attention of the ego: it should however be born in mind that, in the practice of meditation, instead of trying to interrupt the ego, and draw him down to the personality, we should strive to reach up to him in his higher activity. Higher influence is certainly invited by meditation, which is always effective, even though on the physical plane things may seem to be very dull, and quite without zest. The feeling of dullness in the personality may, in fact, be due to the reaching upwards of the ego, and his consequent neglect to send energy down to the personality.

Meditation and the study of spiritual subjects in this earthly life undoubtedly make a very great difference in the life of the ego: for meditation, conscientiously (Page 199) done, opens the channel between the personality and the ego, and keeps it open. It should, however, be borne in mind that the physical meditation is not directly for the ego, but for the training of the various vehicles to be a channel for the ego. In fact, during physical meditation, the ego regards the personality much as at any other time - he is usually slightly contemptuous. Nevertheless the force which comes down is always that of the ego, but as it is only a small part, it tends to give a one-sided conception of things.

The ordinary person, who has not taken up spiritual matters seriously, has a thread of connection between the personality and ego: in fact this channel is often so narrow that sometimes it appears to be almost choked up. On some special occasion - as, for example, that of "conversion"—the force may break through again. For more developed persons, there is a constant flow, in some measure, between ego and personality.

These considerations should bring home to us that it is by no means always accurate to judge the ego by his manifestation in the personality. Thus, for example, an ego of an intensely attractive type may make more show, on the physical plane, than another of far higher development, whose energy happens, to be concentrated almost exclusively upon the causal or buddhic levels. Hence people who judge merely by physical plane appearances are frequently entirely wrong, in their estimation of the relative development of others.

Each of the successive descents of the ego into the lower planes is a limitation so indescribable that the man, whom we meet down here on the physical plane, is at best a fragment of a fragment, and as an expression of the real man is so inadequate as to furnish us with nothing even remotely resembling,a conception of what that man will be at the end of his evolution..
[12/27/2014 7:07:16 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_208.jpg
[12/27/2014 7:08:05 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_209.jpg
[12/27/2014 7:10:54 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_210.jpg
[12/27/2014 7:13:13 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_211.jpg
[12/27/2014 7:15:53 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_212.jpg
[12/27/2014 7:18:32 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_213.jpg
[12/27/2014 7:51:29 PM] Thuan Thi Do: http://thongthienhoc.net/sach/GLBT-NTH/GiaoLyBiTruyen-NTH_Page_214.jpg
[12/27/2014 9:40:21 PM] *** Call ended, duration 3:38:09 ***