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Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II - The Ray of Personality - The Appropriation of the Bodies
b. Development and Alignment of the Bodies After these preliminary remarks, we can come now to a study of the previous tabulation in connection with the method whereby the soul appropriates the various bodies, how they are developed and interrelated, and finally how coordination and alignment is brought about. The last part of the tabulation was outlined in such a manner the many of the problems facing the psychologist at this time can be dealt with from an esoteric angle, and perhaps some light on these problems may then be forthcoming. In the current occult literature, the careful student will come to the conclusion that the emphasis has been laid upon the process whereby the ego or soul draws to itself the form, utilizing for that purpose a mental unit and two permanent atoms, thus anchoring itself in three worlds of human experience. The matter, or rather the substance aspect has been the subject of immediate importance. Hence this subject was covered in my earlier books which are intended to aid in the bridging process between the older "techniques of understanding" and the esotericism which the new age will sponsor. We should, however, bear in mind two things: That such terms as "mental unit", "permanent atom", etc., [314] are simply symbolic ways of expressing a difficult truth. The truth is that the soul is active on all the three lower planes, and that it is a type of energy, functioning in a field of force, thus producing an activity of some kind. That the permanent atoms are not really atoms at all, but simply focal points of energy, which are of sufficient power to attract and hold coherently together the substance required by the soul with which to create a form of expression. The soul itself is a major center of experience in the life of the monad; the lower bodies are centers of expression in the life of the soul. As the consciousness of the man shifts continuously into the higher bodies through which expression can become possible, the soul gradually becomes the paramount center of experience in consciousness and the lesser centers of experience (the lower bodies) assume less and less importance. The soul experiences less through them, but uses them increasingly in service. This same thought must be carried into our concept of the soul as a center of consciousness. The soul uses the bodies in the earlier stages of evolution as centers of conscious experience, and upon them and upon the experience is the emphasis laid. But as time progresses, the man becomes more soul-conscious and the consciousness which he experiences (as a soul in the three bodies) is of decreasing importance, until finally the bodies become simply instruments of contact through which the soul comes into understanding relationship with the world of the physical plane, of the feeling, sentient levels, and with the world of thought. In considering, therefore, the section with which we are now concerned, it is essential for right understanding and eventual psychological usefulness, that we remember [315] constantly that we shall be talking always in terms of consciousness and of soul energy, and are only dealing with sentient substance from the point of view of its usefulness in terms of time and space, or of manifestation. In thinking of the focal points of soul energy upon the mental, astral and physical planes, we will not think of the permanent atoms as material centers, or as germs of form, which is the prevailing idea. We will think of them simply as an expression - attractive or magnetic in quality as the case may be - of soul energy, playing upon energies which have in them the quality of responsiveness to the positive aspects of energy with which they are brought in contact. In elucidating this most difficult problem it might be said that the problems of psychology fall into two major groups: A group of difficulties wherein the psychologist has to deal with those people whose vehicles of expression, as centers for the gaining of experience, are not adequately responsive to their environment for the creative, indwelling soul. When this is the case, the centers in the etheric body are diversely but only partially awakened, and the glandular system, therefore, is correspondingly mediocre and irregular. Another group of difficulties concerns those human beings whose vehicles of expression, as centers of experience, are over-developed and over-stimulated without adequate conscious control by the soul. This development is, at this time, primarily focused in the astral body, leading to over-sensitivity of the solar plexus center or of the throat center, and occasioning consequent difficulty. Much of the thyroid instability of the present time is based upon this. There is a third class of difficulties which concern those who [316] are on the Path of Discipleship, but these we will not consider here. In these latter cases there is an abnormal over-sensitivity in the vehicles, the rush of force through from the soul, via the centers, presents real difficulty, and responsiveness to the environment is over-developed in many cases.
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