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Esoteric Healing - Chapter VII - The Processes of Integration
CHAPTER VII The Processes of Integration In considering this intelligently utilized event as it is employed by the soul, functioning consciously in the three worlds, we shall find it helpful to consider it under two main headings: First: The processes whereby the cycle of incarnation is brought to an end through the complete integration of soul and personality. This we will approach from three points of view: The significance of integration. The state of mind of the soul. The elimination of the thought-form of the personality. Second: The results of this: Within the Ashram of the Master, as far as the disciple is concerned. In the mode whereby the liberated disciple can now create a body for physical plane contact and for service in the three worlds - this time not under the Law of Necessity but under the Law of Service, as understood by the initiate. You will by now have realized that we have discussed the fact of death as it has affected the physical body (a most [506] familiar happening) and also the astral or mental sheaths - those aggregations of conditioned energy with which we are not so objectively familiar but which even psychology admits exist and which we believe must disintegrate or disappear with the death of the physical body. Has it, however, occurred to you that the major aspect of death with which a human being is ultimately concerned is the death of the personality? I am not here speaking in abstract terms, as do all esotericists when they work at the negation of quality or of the qualities which characterize the personal self. They speak of "killing out" this or that quality, of completely suppressing the "lower self," and similar phrases. Here I am speaking of the literal destruction, dissolution, dissipation or final dispersal of that beloved and well-known personal self. It must be borne in mind that the life of a personality falls into the following stages: Its slow and gradual construction over a long period of time. For many cycles of incarnations, a man is not a personality. He is just a member of the mass. The conscious identification of the soul with the personality during this stage is practically non-existent. The aspect of the soul which is concealed within the sheaths is for a long, long period dominated by the life of those sheaths, only making its presence felt through what is called "the voice of conscience." However, as time goes on, the active intelligent life of the person is gradually enhanced and coordinated by the energy which streams from the knowledge petals of the egoic lotus, or from the intelligent perceptive nature of the soul on its own plane. This produces eventually the integration of the three lower sheaths into one functioning whole. The man is then a personality. [507] The personality life of the now coordinated individual persists for a large number of lives, and also falls into three phases: The phase of a dominant aggressive personality life, basically conditioned by its ray type, selfish in nature and very individualistic. A transitional phase wherein a conflict rages between personality and soul. The soul begins to seek liberation from form life and yet - in the last analysis - the personality is dependent upon the life principle, conferred by the soul. Wording it otherwise, the conflict between the soul ray and the personality ray starts and the war is on between two focused aspects of energy. This conflict terminates at the third initiation. The control by the soul is the final phase, leading to the death and destruction of the personality. This death begins when the personality, the Dweller on the Threshold, stands before the Angel of the Presence. The light of the solar Angel then obliterates the light of matter. The "control" phase is conditioned by the complete identification of the personality with the soul; this is a reversal of the previous identification of the soul with the personality. This also is what we mean when speaking of the integration of these two; the two are now one. It was of this phase that St. Paul was speaking when he referred (in the Epistle to the Ephesians) to Christ making "out of two, one new man." It is primarily the phase of the final stages of the Probationary Path (where the work consciously begins) and its carrying forward to completion upon the Path of Discipleship. It is the stage of the practical and successful server; it is that wherein the entire focus [508] and output of the life of the man is dedicated to the fulfilment of hierarchical intent. The man begins to work on and from levels not included in the three worlds of ordinary evolution, but which nevertheless have their effects and their planned objectives within those three worlds.
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