Alice Bailey - From Intellect to Intuition - III

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From Intellect to Intuition - Chapter Three - The Nature of the Soul

The relation of the soul to the Oversoul is that of the part towards the Whole, and it is this relation and its consequent recognitions, which develop into that sense of oneness with all beings and with the supreme Reality to which the mystics have always testified. Its relation to the human being is that of the conscious entity towards its medium of expression; of the one who thinks, towards the instrument of thought; of the one who registers feeling, towards the field of sensuous experience, and of the actor, towards the physical body - the sole means of contact with that particular field of activity, the world of physical life. This soul expresses itself through two forms of energy, that which we call the vital principle or fluid, the life aspect, and the energy of pure reason. These energies are focused during life in the physical body. The life stream centers itself in the heart, utilizing the blood stream, the arteries and the veins, and animating every part of the [55] organism; the other stream, of intellectual energy, centers itself in the brain, and utilizes the nervous apparatus as its medium of expression. In the heart, therefore, is the seat of the life-principle; in the head is the seat of the reasoning mind and of the spiritual consciousness, which latter is attained through a right use of the mind. Dr. C. Lloyd Morgan says in connection with this word, "soul:"

"In any case what is currently understood by 'the soul-theory' has its roots in dualism. And what some people mean when they speak of 'a psychology without a soul' is a psychology other than dualistic... There is, however, a sense in which he may, under suitable definition, speak of the soul as distinctive of that level of mental development at which a concept of Spirit is within the field of reflective reference."
- Morgan, C. Lloyd, Life, Mind and Spirit, page 35.

Earlier in the same book he says that:

"Each of us is a life, a mind, and Spirit - an instance of life as one expression of world-plan, of mind as a different expression of that world-plan, of Spirit in so far as the Substance of that world-plan is revealed within us. The world-plan, through and through, from its lowest to its highest expression, is manifestation of God; in you and me - in each of us severally - God as Spirit is partially revealed."
- Morgan, C. Lloyd, Life, Mind and Spirit, page 32.

It is this revelation of Deity that is the goal of the mystical endeavor and the object of the dual activity of mind - God as life in Nature, God as love, subjectively, and as plan and as purpose, and it is this that the unification, which meditation brings about [56] reveals to man. Through its ordered technique, man discovers that unity which is himself. Through it, he later discovers his relation to the universe; he finds that his physical body and his vital energies are part and parcel of Nature itself, which is, in fact, the outer garment of Deity; he finds that his ability to love and to feel makes him aware of the love that pulses at the heart of all creation; and he discovers that his mind can give him the key which unlocks for him the door of understanding and that he can enter into the purposes and the plans which guide the Mind of God Himself. In fact, he arrives at God and discovers God as the central Fact. Knowing himself to be divine, he finds the whole is equally divine. Dr. F. Kirtley Mather of Harvard University has said in a most illuminating article:

"That there is an administration of the Universe cannot be denied. Something has determined and continues to determine the functioning of natural law, the orderly transformation of matter and of energy. It may be the 'curvature of the cosmos', or 'blind chance', or 'universal energy', or 'an absentee Jehovah', or an 'all-pervading Spirit', but it must be something. From one point of view, the question: Is there a God? is promptly answered in the affirmative."

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