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THE PROCESS OF SOUL CONTROL
In the early stages of manifestation, it is the nature of the form or of the vehicle which dominates and is the outstanding characteristic. The nature of quality, of the underlying Soul, is not apparent. Then the form or vehicle is sentient in two directions: outwards towards the environment, which leads (as evolution proceeds) to the perfecting of the vehicle, and inwards towards the higher progressive impulse, which leads to the definite expansion of consciousness. These higher impulses are progressive in their appearance. It might, in this connection be stated that:
The fusion of the sentient, Astral body and the physical body then becomes complete.
This produces an integration of the three energies which constitute the threefold lower man.
A few students may get the symbolic significance of the process, if they grasp the fact that, in the earlier stages upon the evolutionary path, the Monad is the source of the exhalation or of the expiration which brought the Soul into being upon the Physical plane: upon the Path of Return, with which we are concerned in the latter stage, the Monad is the source of inhalation or of the inspiration.
In the process of exhalation or of the breathing-out, a certain type of divine energy focused itself as a center of experience in that type of sentient substance which we call higher mental matter. This eventually formed that aspect of man which we call the Soul. In its turn, the Soul continued in this process of exhalation or breathing out, initiated by the Monad, or the One Life. The energy thus sent forth forms centers of experience in the three worlds through the process of "attractive appropriation" of qualified material or substance. Through these centers, the needed experience is gained, the life process is intensified, the range of experience through contact with an ever-widening environment becomes possible, leading to successive expansions of consciousness which are called initiations in the later stages, when consciously undergone and definitely self-initiated. Thus the field of Soul influence is steadily enlarged. Whilst this Soul activity is proceeding, a paralleling activity in the material substance is going on, which steadily brings the negative aspect of matter or substance up to the positive requirements of the Soul. The vehicles of expression, the mechanism of manifestation and the centers for experience improve as the consciousness widens and deepens.
Man's origin and his goal remain largely unconsidered, and he is studied from the angle of this one short life, and from the point of view of his present equipment. Until he is integrated into time as well as into his environment and until the Law of Rebirth is admitted as the most likely hypothesis, there will be no real understanding of the process of evolution, of the relationships of individuals, and the nature of the unfoldment of the equipment. There will be no true wisdom. Knowledge comes, as the individual integrates into his environment. Wisdom comes as he becomes coordinated into the processes of time. The mechanism is related to the environment, and is the apparatus of contact and the means through which the experiencing Soul arrives at a full awareness of the field of knowledge. This Soul is the identity—which is time—conscious in the true sense of the word, and which views the period of manifestation as a whole, gaining thus a sense of proportion, an understanding of values and an inner sense of synthesis.
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