We are near the end of this series of recaps on the Further Adventures of the Monad, as promised, we start today by looking at the concept of the Self. What exactly is a Self? There are several answers to this question, depending on your vantage point. Starting from the most important vantage point of all, the Monad, the self is an individual primordial atom. In this context, the ‘self’ refers to the consciousness aspect of the Trinity.
The Self can also refer to the series of envelopes that a monad has acquired self-conscious in. The salient point here is a sense of self-identity. You think this is you. We will return to this point as it has relevance to us as we progress through the 4th Kingdom of Nature.
If the Self is aware of itself, then the term ‘self’ can refer to an individual and is often used to designate the evolutionary status of that individual. So Laurency will often refer to the Master DK as a 45-Self. Here he is stating that this monad has acquired full subjective and objective self-consciousness and the ability of self-activity on that plane of matter, Plane-45.
The last way the term ‘Self’ can be used is to denote the sphere of activity of the monad within a triad. This leads to the terms 1st-Self, 2nd-Self and 3rd-Self. Again, we will return to what exactly these designations refer to. Let us consider the concept of the Self through the lens of self-identity. At present, we have five envelopes of incarnation, the Physical, the Etheric, the Emotional, the Mental and the Triadic envelope. Sitting in the midst of these envelopes, usually in the 48:1 permanent atom, is our monad. The term sitting is metaphorical, as the monad does not enter the Cosmic Physical Kingdom. It rather projects itself into a cluster of atoms and molecules that make up the triad structure. In this Russian Doll series of envelopes, reside secondary and tertiary atoms that perform specific functions. These monads are undergoing their own involutionary/evolutionary journeys. They need our quaternary monad to assist in the activation of their consciousness and we need them to allow us to experience the pairs of opposites and have envelopes at all. The poet Rumi expresses this beautifully when he says, “God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly.” This is referring specifically to secondary matter.
If you are self-aware, what are you self-aware of? The obvious answer is your physical body. You also associate yourself with your thoughts and emotions. We know by now that thoughts and emotions have spheres of influence that are discrete from your physical body, yet are connected through our chakras. In this manner our brain and our five senses pick up our experiences in these other envelopes and relay them into our consciousness. This is your ‘Self’ but this is not you. You are the monad. The monad may experience thoughts and emotions but these events are physical, on their own planes and are the result of the activities of other monads. This is the challenge every human monad faces. To evolve its consciousness, it has to surround itself with a series of envelopes. The risk is that it begins to think that these envelopes are what it actually is. Why is this a problem? Well, for starters, these envelopes are not permanent. They are constructed at the start of every incarnation and dissolved at the end of the incarnation. If you think this series of envelopes are you, then you are going to be seriously disappointed when you realise that who you thought you were, no longer exists. Sitting above the 1st-Self is the Causal-Self. Here we are using another designation for the term ‘self’. The one that refers to highest subjective and objective location of a monad. For our selves, the causal self is at best a subjective self and even then, only when we have reached the 4. Compassionate stage in our consciousness evolution. In the three levels of consciousness, 1. Young, 2. Community and 3. Cultured, we are unconscious in our causal envelope between incarnations. It is only in the 4. Compassionate phase that we become subjectively conscious in our Higher Causal Envelope. Finally, when we take the (i3) and become 5. Enlightened, we become objectively conscious on one of the two molecular causal planes, 47:3 and 47:2. It is now that the triadic self and the personal self align. This process of evolution turns into one of expansion, when the monad becomes a Second-Self. Now the monad is focused in the 46:1 permanent atom. It is subjectively and objectively conscious in one of the molecules on this plane. What is different here is that the monad is not cut off from its highest envelope in the 2nd Triad, which is the Higher Spiritual envelope, located on the 3rd Triad. The role this envelop plays, which is loaned to us by another deva, the Protogonos, functions in a a different way. As we are continually conscious once we are enlightened and do not go through a rest phase between incarnations, the Higher Spiritual envelope serves as a resting place for the monad when the whole globe goes into a pralaya. This is a rest phases in its own evolutionary cycle. Finally, the monad transitions into last leg of its journey through the Cosmic Physical Kingdom and becomes a 3rd-Self. The same rules apply as with the 2nd-Self, except when our globe goes into pralaya, the monad remains conscious. We have all this to look forward to.
So, there we have our ‘selves’. They are a group of envelops and they are us on a triadic level. They are also ‘us’ wherever we happen to be subjectively and objectively conscious. As already mentioned, to us as 1st-Selves, we have to come to realise we are not our envelopes. If we identify with them too closely, we will think the pain we are suffering is our pain. It is not, it is just our elemental essences over-acting. If we don’t like their performance, we have the possibility to send them packing. We can open up our envelopes to host elemental essences that better serve our purposes. This is not us being ungrateful towards the other elemental essences. It is just their requirements and our wishes no longer coincide. We are moving our game forward and evolving. We need younger, less involved elemental essences to operate in our emotional envelopes. We wish to experience love, harmony and contentment. To do this, we need to attract a different set of actors. The same is the case with our mental envelope. We need new tenants if we wish to progress through the five stages of Human development, Young, Community, Cultured, Compassionate and Enlightened. To achieve this goal, we need to identify less and less with our ‘self’ and more and more with our monad. This is easier said than done but there is no other game in town, unless you wish to stagnate as a 1st-Self for the whole Globe cycle. In case you are interested, that is 600 million years, in round figures.
We are now left with the last series of topic covered in the Further Adventures of the Monad. These are the cycles of incarnation. See you in the next presentation.