Tempo:
INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION Vv
becomes interfused in creation. The One becomes myriad in all material life, in the stupendous maze of individualities cir- cumscribed by ignorance and knowledge, good and evil, hopes and fears, and all the other pairs of opposites, in vast cycles of creation and dissolution. In the cosmic exercise of divine emanation and return, each fragment of individual conscious- ness senses its divine origin in the essential self that animates the ego and the material experience. The ancient rishis taught that the cosmic self is veiled in the individual man by five sheaths and three bodies (physical, subtle, and causal). The interrelationships of these sheaths and bodies with the faculties of individual man are a complex affair, but for general pur- poses the sukshma sharira or subtle body corresponds roughly with the Western concept of astral (or etheric) body, The major difference between Eastern and Western views is that for the modern Westerner, his own limited sense data and ego are prime reference points for philosophy, whereas for the East- erner these things are precisely what impede metaphysical per- ception. Where the Westerner constructs an intellectual phi- losophy upon unscrutinised assumptions, the Eastern mystic transcends the limitations of individual body, emotions, mind, and ego in an extension of consciousness. Where Western phi- losophy is a mental construct, the Eastern metaphysic is an unveiling of a larger reality.
For this reason, the modern concept of astral projection as a fascinating occult exercise of individuality often ends in mere egoistic sensationalism, finally imprisoning the under- standing as much as liberating a soul from a physical body. Yet at least the reinstatement of the concept of a soul as dis- tinct from a body is a major gain in modern times, and if we can view astral projection as a phenomenon with religious im- plications, we may recover an awareness that has faded away
becomes interfused in creation. The One becomes myriad in all material life, in the stupendous maze of individualities cir- cumscribed by ignorance and knowledge, good and evil, hopes and fears, and all the other pairs of opposites, in vast cycles of creation and dissolution. In the cosmic exercise of divine emanation and return, each fragment of individual conscious- ness senses its divine origin in the essential self that animates the ego and the material experience. The ancient rishis taught that the cosmic self is veiled in the individual man by five sheaths and three bodies (physical, subtle, and causal). The interrelationships of these sheaths and bodies with the faculties of individual man are a complex affair, but for general pur- poses the sukshma sharira or subtle body corresponds roughly with the Western concept of astral (or etheric) body, The major difference between Eastern and Western views is that for the modern Westerner, his own limited sense data and ego are prime reference points for philosophy, whereas for the East- erner these things are precisely what impede metaphysical per- ception. Where the Westerner constructs an intellectual phi- losophy upon unscrutinised assumptions, the Eastern mystic transcends the limitations of individual body, emotions, mind, and ego in an extension of consciousness. Where Western phi- losophy is a mental construct, the Eastern metaphysic is an unveiling of a larger reality.
For this reason, the modern concept of astral projection as a fascinating occult exercise of individuality often ends in mere egoistic sensationalism, finally imprisoning the under- standing as much as liberating a soul from a physical body. Yet at least the reinstatement of the concept of a soul as dis- tinct from a body is a major gain in modern times, and if we can view astral projection as a phenomenon with religious im- plications, we may recover an awareness that has faded away
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