body and absorbed it into the subjective nature.
Those who have died, who have entered paradise between births, are in a state that resembles meditation without an external object. But in the fullness of time the seeds of desire will appear in them and they will be born again into this world.
20. For the others, there is spiritual consciousness, led by faith, courage, mindfulness, insight, perception.
It is good to keep in mind these steps on the path to enlightenment: faith, velour, proper mindfulness, insight, perception. None can be dispensed with; all must be won. First faith; and then from faith, velour; from valor, right mindfulness; from right mindfulness, a single pursuit of the soul; from this, perception; and finally, full vision as the soul.
21. The spiritual consciousness is that of a sharp, intense will the next.
The image used is the rapid impulse of the current; the kingdom must be taken by force. Firm will come only through effort; effort is inspired by faith. The great secret is this: it is not enough to have intuitions; we must act upon them; we must live them.
22. The will can be weak, or of middle strength, or intense.
Therefore, there is a spiritual consciousness higher than this. For those with weak will there is this advice: to be faithful in obedience, to live life and thus strengthen the will to perfect obedience. The Will is not ours, but God's, and we come in only through obedience. When we enter into the spirit of God, we may share the power of God.
Higher than the three stages of the path is the goal, the end of the path.
23. Or spiritual consciousness may be gained by ardent service of the master.
If we regard our life as tasks that the master of life has set us, if we regard all duties as parts of the work of this master entrusted to us and forming our life's work; if we then obey immediately, loyally and sincerely, we will gradually enter into the life of the master and share the power of the master.
Thus we are initiated into the spiritual will.
24. The Master is the spiritual man who is free from obstacles, bondage to works, and the fruit and seed of works.
The soul of the master, the Lord, is of the same nature as the soul within us; but we still bear the burden of many evils, we are in bondage through our former works, we are under the dominion of sorrow. The soul of the master is free from sin and bondage and sorrow.
25. The master is the perfect seed of omniscience is.
The soul of the master is essentially one with the Oversoul and therefore partaker of the omniscience and omnipotence of the Oversoul. All spiritual attainments rest upon it and are possible because the soul and the Oversoul are one.
26. He is the teacher of all who have gone before, because he is limited by time.
From the beginning, the Oversoul has been the teacher of all souls who have inherited the kingdom of light through their entry into the Oversoul, recognizing their oneness with the Oversoul. For the Oversoul is before the time, and the time, the father of all others, is one of his children.
27. His word is OM.
OM: the symbol of the Three in One, the three worlds in the soul; the three times, past, present, future, in eternity; the three Divine powers, creation, preservation, Transformation, in the one being; the three essences, immortality, omniscience, joy, in a spirit. This is the word, the Symbol of the master and Lord, the perfect spiritual man.
28. Let there be a soundless repetition of OM and meditation on it.
This has many meanings in ascending degrees. First, there is the potency of the word itself, as with all words. Then there is the diverse meaning of the symbol, as suggested above. Finally, there is the spiritual realization of the high essences thus symbolized. Thus we rise step by step to the Eternal.
29. Then the awakening of the inner consciousness and the elimination of barriers comes.
Here too faith must be supplemented by works, life must be led and studied before the full meaning can be understood. The awakening of spiritual consciousness can only be understood in moderation when it is entered. It can only be entered where the conditions are present: purity of heart, and strong aspiration, and the resolute conquest of each sin.
However, this can be easily understood: that the recognition of the three worlds as rest in the soul leads us to realize ourselves and everything
life as of the soul; that if we do not dwell in the past, present or future, but in the eternal, we become more one with the eternal; that if we regard all organization, preservation, mutation as the work of the Divine, we will come more in harmony with the one and thus remove the barriers on our path to the light.
In the second part of the first book, The problem of the origin of the spiritual man is further discussed. We are led to consider the obstacles to its emergence, to overcome the barriers and certain steps and stages of ascent from the ordinary consciousness of practical life to the finer, deeper, radiant consciousness of the spiritual man.
30. The barriers to interior consciousness, which drive the psychic nature this way and, these are: to achieve disease, inertia, doubt, light-heartedness, laziness, restlessness, false notions, inability to a stage of meditation, or to hold it when reached.
We must remember that we regard the spiritual man as entangled and entangled by psychic nature, emotional and mental forces.and as unable to come to clear consciousness, unable to stand and see clearly, because of the psychic veils of personality.
Nine of them are listed, and they go quite thoroughly into the raw hardness of psychic nature.
Illness is more likely to be included for its effect on the emotions and mind, since physical infirmity, such as blindness or deafness, is not an insurmountable barrier to mental life, and can sometimes be a help as distractions cut off. It will be good for us to think about each of these nine activities and to see each as a mental state that is a barrier to the inner consciousness of the spiritual person.
31. grief, despair, physical restlessness, the taking in and taking out of the breath of life also contribute to driving the psychic nature back and forth.
The first two moods are easy to understand. We can well see that a soaked mental state, blatantly opposed to the pure and positive joy of spiritual life, would be a barrier. The next, bodily restlessness, is in a special way the fault of our time and generation. When it is conquered, the mental restlessness is also half conquered.
The next two terms, which concern the breath of life, offer some difficulties. The superficial meaning is hard and irregular breathing; the deeper meaning is a life with hard and irregular impulses.
32. The steady application to a principle is the way to put this to a halt.
The Will, which in its pristine state was full of power, was constantly corrupted by forbearance, the search for moods and sensations for the sake of sensation. Hence come all sickly and sickly moods of the spirit. The remedy is a return to the original state of the Will, through vigorous, positive effort; or, as we are told here, through constant application to a principle. The principle to which we should apply so steadily should be one that arises from the reality of spiritual life; brave work for the soul, in others as in ourselves.
33. through sympathy with the happy, compassion for the sad, joy in the
