Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - IIE

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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Division E - Motion on the Plane of Mind

Separation. This separation is brought about through the initial activity of the Ego who produces the first of those forms which he intends to use during the cycle of incarnation, through the bringing together of these energies through self-engendered impulse. He, for purposes of development, identifies himself with that form, and thus temporarily separates himself off from his own real Self. Through the veil of mental matter he first knows separation, and undergoes his first experiences of the three worlds. This deals with separation from the highest aspect. Viewing it from the personality standpoint, separation is again to be seen, for the activity of the monadic sheath, its own internal volition produces the formation of a sphere of activity, distinct in its nature and governed by laws of its own, which - until a certain amount of alignment has been achieved during evolution - lives its own separate existence apart from the two lower sheaths, astral and physical. Thus it can be truly said that the "mind slays the Real" ¹⁶ and serves as the "great Deluder" of the Self in the one case, and as the "great Separator" in another; it comes between the centralized egoic life and the personality existences.

This life of separation becomes steadily stronger as the rotary-spiral action of the mental body becomes intensified during the cycles of manifestation, and the "individualized" [1103] Idea becomes daily more dominant. The "Ahamkara" principle, ¹⁷ as it is called in the Secret Doctrine, does its work, and man becomes strongly self-centered, and self-conscious in the lower connotation of the term. Later, as higher energies come into play and the effort is made to balance the three types of force manifestations in the three worlds through the three vehicles, the Ego becomes aware of delusion and eventually frees himself. When this is in process of consummation during the final stages of evolution, the mental body becomes a transmitter for force currents from the egoic mind, the antahkarana between the higher mind and the mental sheath is built, and the "transmitting mind body" blends itself with the "reflecting astral body." Thus separation is negated.

Students will note, therefore, that the goal for the mental body is simply that it should become a transmitter of the thoughts and wishes of the solar Angel, and should act as the agent for the Triad. The goal for the astral body is that it should be the reflector in a similar way of the buddhic impulses, which reach the emotional body via certain petals in the egoic lotus, and the astral permanent atom. The process of equilibrising the forces in the personality (thus producing stability, and alignment) is brought about through the scientific manifestation of the electrical reactions of the three sheaths.

The mental sheath is regarded in its totality of force as positive. The physical bodies are regarded as negative to the mental. The astral vehicle is the point of the at-one-ment of the energies; it is the battleground whereon the dualities are adjusted to each other, and equilibrium is attained. This is the underlying thought when the words "kama-manasic" body are used, because for two-thirds of the pilgrim's journey this body serves a dual purpose. It is only during the later stage that a [1104] man differentiates between will and desire, and between his mental body and his desire body.

^{16
"Mind the Slayer of the Real." - Voice of the Silence, pp. 14-15.}

17 Ahamkara. The "I" making principle necessary in order that self-consciousness may be evolved, but transcended when its work is over.

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