The last series of presentations had the theme of the Soul and the Personality. These next two presentations will deal with the Soul in the Personality. There are several ways to observe how the soul operates within the personality’s consciousness. First, it’s important to note that anything evil or selfish cannot affect the soul, as it is only influenced by unselfish thoughts and feelings. Lower thoughts and feelings impact the permanent atoms, not the soul. The soul is only concerned with unselfish thoughts and feelings.
Many people experience moments of splendid inspiration, devotion, and joy when the soul impresses itself upon the lower consciousness. However, this feeling is always present, even when not consciously felt by the personality. It’s essential for aspirants to realise that this feeling is always there, even when the link is imperfect.
When the mind is occupied with the lower planes, it may not receive the messages transmitted by the soul from its higher planes. Emotional impulses from the emotional plane can sometimes be mistaken for spiritual aspiration, as they are reflected in the emotional envelope. Religious revivalist meetings are a common example, where emotional upheavals can sometimes be harmful, disrupting mental balance.
Two simple but excellent rules can help to differentiate between a true intuition and a mere impulse.
First, if the matter is set aside for a while and “slept on,” an impulse will probably die away, whereas a genuine intuition will remain as strong as ever.
Second, true intuition is always connected with something unselfish. If there is any touch of selfishness, it may be concluded that it is only an emotional impulse and not a true intuition, which usually originates from the 47:3 subplane. Laurency tells us when messages start to flow from the 47:2 subplane, we are talking about inspiration. Theosophists claim messages can flow from the Unity plane (46). I suspect communication from this plane would be registered as a feeling of bliss and would resonate in the emotional envelope.
The influence of the soul is often felt when one seems to know by inner conviction that something is true without being able to reason it out. The soul knows and has good reasons for its knowledge, but sometimes it cannot impress its reasons on the physical brain, though the bare fact that it knows manages to come through. Hence, when a new truth is presented to us, we know at once whether we can accept it or not. A question worth pondering is if we were to be presented with something completely new, what would we have to reference it against to even begin to make sense of the information?
Powell tells us that this is not superstition but an intense inner conviction. Superficially, it may appear to be abandoning reason in favour of intuition, but it must be remembered that “buddhi,” which we translate as “intuition,” is known in India as “pure reason.” It is the reason for the soul, which is of a higher type than that found on the lower planes. If this is the case, then we have to realise that when the term ‘buddhi” is used in conjunction with communications from the soul, we are talking about higher mental intuition and not unity consciousness, which is a completely different ball game.
However, Theosophical doctrine tells us more specifically that we may say that “manas” gives inspiration, “buddhi” provides intuition as to right and wrong, and “Atma” is the directing conscience, commanding that the person should follow what they know to be best, often when the mind is trying to invent some excuse to do otherwise. I personally feel that what is being described here are the attributes of what is known as the higher triad, Atma, Buddhi, Manas, but knowledge flowing into lower manas is coming from the three petals on each whorl of the causal lotus and not from the two higher planes of existence.
Genius is the momentary grasping of the brain by the large consciousness of the soul, forcing it into insight, strength of grip, and a wide outlook that results in noble reach. This large consciousness is the real Self, the true essence of a person. Many things that we observe or experience are hints of this larger consciousness, whisperings with the promise of the future, coming from the world to which we truly belong. It is the voice of the living spirit—unborn, undying, ancient, perpetual, and constant. It is the voice of the inner God, speaking within us.
Life teaches us in two ways: through the education we receive from the world and through the intuition of our inner self. As individuals mature, their intuition grows, and they rely less on external instruction. This means that those who tap into their inner powers can learn much more from a little experience than others can from a great deal. Developed individuals can see the great significance of even small things, unlike undeveloped minds, which are filled with curiosity and seek novelty because they quickly exhaust the obvious significance of common things. These minds often yearn for religious miracles as they are blind to the countless miracles that surround them all the time. A quick digression here. If something out of the ordinary happens, it is not a miracle; it is just a less frequently observed event. If something happens, it means it can happen. Miracles are not an impossible event, just a novel one.
What we call the dictates of conscience usually represent the knowledge of the soul on the subject, but caution is necessary. The soul is only partially developed, and its knowledge on any given subject may be limited or inaccurate as it can only reason from the available information it has gleaned from past experiences.
Therefore, a person’s conscience may often mislead them, as a young and not very knowledgeable soul may impose its will upon the personality. However, in general, an undeveloped soul also lacks the ability to strongly influence its lower vehicles, and perhaps this is for the best.
Sometimes, however, a soul who lacks tolerance and wide knowledge may still have a strong enough will to give orders to their physical brain that shows it is a very young soul and does not understand.
So, when conscience seems to dictate something that clearly goes against the great laws of mercy, truth, and justice (as was possibly the case with some inquisitors during the Middle Ages), a person should carefully consider whether the universal rule is more important than the particular application that seems to conflict with it. The intellect should always be used as a tool of the soul, not as an obstacle to a person’s development.
An interesting example of how a soul may manifest to the personality is described in the series on The Mental Envelope. A certain orator, while speaking one sentence of a lecture, habitually sees the next sentence actually materialise in the air before her in three different forms, from which she consciously selects the best one. This is clearly the work of the soul, although it’s puzzling to Arthur Powell to see why the soul chooses this method of communication instead of just selecting the best form and impressing it alone on the personal consciousness. My answer to this is that it is not the “soul” of the person communicating but the augoeides, and therefore, there always has to be free will involved in the choices made by the persona.
What mystics know as the “Voice of the Silence” differs for people at different stages. The voice of the silence for any individual is that which comes from the part of them that is higher than their consciousness can reach, and naturally, that changes as their evolution progresses. This is what we have termed in the past as super consciousness.
The voice of the soul is the voice of the silence for those who are currently working with the personality. However, when the personality is completely mastered and unified with the soul, allowing the soul to work flawlessly through it, then it becomes the voice of Atma – the triple spirit on the nirvanic plane, otherwise known as the 2nd Triad. Even when this stage is reached, there will still be a voice of silence, which belongs to the Monad. As the individual identifies with the soul and the Monad and achieves Adeptship (45), they will continue to receive the voice of the silence from above, which may be the voice of one of the Ministers of the Lord of the Planet or one of the Planetary Logoi. Perhaps for the latter, it will be the voice of the Solar Logos Himself. Therefore, the “Voice of the Silence”, regardless of its origin, is always fundamentally divine.
We have the capacity to tune into a number of channels. As an analogy, some are radio channels, and we only need a mast to receive them. Some are TV channels, and we need an antenna, and others are from a satellite, and we need a receiving dish. The important thing to remember is that we have to make the time and spend the energy to tune in. How is this done? Find out in the following presentation.