Alice Bailey - From Intellect to Intuition - III

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

The head and the heart become united in their endeavor. Mind and pure reason are blended with [60] love and devotion in an entire readjustment of the personality to a new realm of awareness. New states of consciousness are registered, a new phenomenal world is gradually perceived, and it begins to dawn upon the aspirant that his life-focus and his consciousness can be lifted entirely out of all past fields of endeavor. He finds that he can walk with God, dwell in Heaven, and be aware of a new world lying within the familiar outer forms. He begins to regard himself as a conscious denizen of another kingdom in nature, the spiritual, which is as real and as vital, as ordered and as phenomenal as any we now know. He steadily assumes the attitude of the soul towards his instrument, the human body. He regards himself no longer as a man, controlled by his emotions, impelled by energy, and directed by his mind, but knows himself to be the Self, thinking through the mind, feeling through the emotions, and acting consciously. As this consciousness stabilizes and becomes permanent, the work of evolution in his case is consummated, the great at-one-ment is made, and the union between the Self and its vehicle of expression is established. Thus a divine Son of God consciously incarnates.

Through the work of education in all its many branches, the coordination of the personality has been tremendously hastened. The mentality of the race is steadily mounting the ladder of achievement. Humanity, through its vast groups of educated and mentally focused people is ready for self-determination and soul-direction. Now the intensive [61] culture of the individual, as taught in the Eastern system, can be undertaken. The education and reorientation of the advanced human being must find its place in our mass education. This is the plea of this book and the object of its writing. How can a man find his soul, or ascertain the fact of its existence? How can he readjust himself to the conditions of soul life, and begin to function consciously and simultaneously as a soul and as a man? What must he do to bring about that union between the soul and its instrument which is essential if the driving urge of his nature is ever to be satisfied? How can he know, and not just believe and hope and aspire?

The experienced voice of the eastern wisdom comes to us with one word: - Meditation. The question naturally arises: "Is that all?" and the answer is: "Yes." If meditation is rightly followed, and if perseverance is the keynote of the life, then increasingly soul contact is established. The results of that contact work out in self-discipline, in purification, and in the life of aspiration and of service. Meditation in the eastern sense is, as we shall see, a strictly mental process, leading to soul knowledge and illumination. It is a fact in nature that "as a man thinketh so is he." [65]

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