We ended the last presentation with a question. So, how do we better establish communication between the personality and the soul? You should know the answer to that question by now. Meditation is a way of directing the attention of the soul. It should be kept in mind, however, that in the practice of meditation, instead of trying to bring the soul down to the personality, we should strive to reach up to the soul in its higher activity. Meditation definitely invites higher influence and is always effective, even though things may seem dull and lacking in enthusiasm on the physical plane. The feeling of dullness in the personality may, in fact, be due to the soul reaching upwards and consequently neglecting to send energy down to the personality.
The practice of meditation and the study of spiritual subjects have a significant impact on the soul’s life. Through conscientious meditation, a channel opens between the personality and the soul and remains open. It’s important to note that physical meditation directly trains the various vehicles to be a channel for the soul rather than directly benefitting the soul. During physical meditation, the soul usually views the personality with slight contempt, although the force that comes down is always from the soul, giving a one-sided understanding of things.
People who have not seriously pursued spiritual matters often have a narrow connection between the personality and soul, which may occasionally break through, especially during special occasions such as conversion. More developed individuals experience a more constant flow between the soul and personality.
It’s essential to understand that judging the soul solely by its manifestation in the personality is not always accurate. For example, a soul that appears intensely attractive on the physical plane may not necessarily be more developed than another soul whose energy is concentrated on higher levels. Therefore, judging the relative development of others based solely on physical appearance is often inaccurate.
Each of the successive descents of the soul into the lower planes is a limitation so indescribable that the person whom we meet down here on the physical plane is, at best, a fragment of a fragment and as an expression of the real person is so inadequate as to furnish us with nothing even remotely resembling a conception of what that person will be at the end of their evolution.
Until one can see the soul, one has no conception of how great it really is, how infinitely wiser and stronger than the incarnate entity. In reality, everyone is much better than they ever seem to be. The greatest saint can never fully express their soul; on that higher plane, they are more remarkable than they can ever be down here. But, magnificent as the soul is, it is still vague in its magnificence.
There are three ways in which the soul may be developed and may influence a person’s life.
1. Both scientists and philosophers develop not only the lower mind but also the higher mind, allowing abstract and comprehensive thoughts to enter their consciousness. For such individuals, the development of buddhic (46) consciousness will come later.
2. Another method involves using higher emotions such as affection, devotion, or sympathy to awaken the Unity principle (46) to a great extent without specifically developing the intermediate causal envelope. However, the causal envelope will be affected as all buddhic/Unity development strongly influences it. These individuals may not necessarily be developing a permanent buddhic vehicle, but using higher emotions undoubtedly evokes vibrations in buddhic matter. This creates a stir in the as-yet unformed buddhic vehicle, causing many of its vibrations to influence the emotional envelope. Consequently, the individual may receive a substantial amount of influence from the Unity plane before the vehicle is fully developed.
3. The third, more obscure method involves the activation of the will, with the physical envelope in some way reacting to atmic (45) matter. Little is known about how this process operates.
The approach of most students involves devotion and strong empathy with their fellow human beings.
A more advanced soul may be rather indifferent to their envelope because whatever is incorporated into the personality means a lot is taken away from the soul. Consequently, the soul may hesitate to expend such energy. A soul may also be somewhat impatient and distance itself from the personality. However, in such cases, there would always be a connection between the soul and personality, which is not possible with the average person. In the average person, a part of the soul is somewhat detached and left to fend for itself, although it’s not entirely isolated. At the more advanced stage mentioned, there is ongoing communication between the two through a channel. Therefore, the soul can withdraw whenever it chooses and leave a very poor representation of the real person behind. So, we can see that the relationship between the lower and higher self varies greatly among different people and at different stages of development.
A soul, preoccupied with its own concerns and activities on its own plane, may neglect to pay proper attention to its personality for a time, just as even a good and thoughtful person may occasionally, under some unique pressure of business, forget his horse or his dog. Sometimes, when that happens, the personality reminds the soul of its existence by making some foolish mistake, which causes significant distress.
It can be observed that after completing a specific piece of work that has required considerable cooperation from the soul – such as lecturing to a large audience, the soul depletes its energy and leaves the personality feeling somewhat disheartened. Initially, the soul acknowledges the importance of the work and invests more of itself, but afterwards, it leaves the unfortunate personality feeling rather low.
We must always remember that the soul only invests a very small part of itself in the personality. As this part often becomes entangled in interests that differ from the general activities of the soul, the soul does not pay particular attention to the lower life of the personality unless something extraordinary happens to it.
In the physical life of the ordinary person of the world, there is little interest to the soul, and it is only occasionally that something of real importance occurs, which may momentarily attract the soul’s attention so that it can derive whatever is worth taking from it.
The average person lives in cycles; more than half the time, they are not fully awake to the real and higher life. If someone complains that their soul pays little attention to them, they should ask themselves how much attention they have paid to their soul. For example, how often in a day do they even think about the soul?
If they want to get the soul’s attention, they must make their personality useful to it. As soon as they start to focus most of their thoughts on higher things – in other words, as soon as they truly begin to live – the soul is more likely to take notice of them. What is being said here needs to be caveated. We talk about the soul and the personality as though the soul is conscious. Effectively, it is not. What is conscious is the augoeides, and it is this solar deva whose attention the personality wishes to attract. The nature of the elemental matter in the causal envelope means that elementals are not formed due to the abstract nature of this arupa body.
The soul is well aware that certain necessary parts of its development can only be achieved through its personality, in its mental, emotional, and physical aspects. Therefore, it knows that it must, at some point, pay attention to it, take control of it, and bring it under its guidance. But how is this done? The solar devas can not make the personality do anything against its will. That is against the law. But if the person is developed enough and there are useful elements stored in the causal envelope that could be useful to the personality in its endeavours in the 1st triad, then it is not inconceivable that the guardian angel can drop hints here and there through the mechanism of intuition. If the persona makes an effort to meditate and contemplate, then this channel of communication can be greatly expanded. The process of building out the Antahkarana can really begin.
It is understandable that the task of engaging with a particular personality may often seem uninviting and that a given personality may appear anything but attractive or hopeful. Many of the personalities around us are filled with drugs and poisons, consumed by greed and sensuality, and solely focused on making money and engaging in base activities. It is unsurprising that a soul, observing them from a higher perspective, might decide to delay serious effort to another incarnation, hoping that the next set of vehicles might be more responsive to influence than the current ones. One can imagine the soul saying to itself: “I can do nothing with that; I will take my chances of getting something better next time; it can hardly be worse. In the meantime, I have much more important business to attend to up here.” When such an attitude is struck, you know it is your solar deva that is deciding not to engage.
Clearly, the engagement between the soul and its incarnate personality is of vital importance. How does this relationship work while the personality is still a child? Find out in the next presentation.