My Library

Of what did make him Man. Never shall yearnings torture him, nor sins Stain him, nor ache of earthly joys and woes Invade his safe eternal peace; nor deaths And lives recur. He goes Unto Nirvana. He is one with Life, Yet lives not. He is blest, ceasing to be. Om, mani padme, Om! the dewdrop slips Into the shining Seal25 Such are the stages through which the ego passes in his age long evolutionary progress. Such, though briefly and very imperfectly described, is the nature of that “Inner Ruler Immortal” who is the true self of man. (1) Mental Consciousness The first change which is noticed as the consciousness descends from the egoic to the mental plane— from the universal to the particular—is knowledge of the existence of separation, the loss of the universality by which unity is expressed at the level above. At the mental level, unity is limited to that which lies within the periphery of the mental body itself. The “skin”, or edge, is transparent and crystalline in its translucence and brilliance. It enables objects to be seen and contacted, but introduces the clearly defined conception of subject and object. The experience of the change from the egoic to the mental consciousness may be likened to that of going down into water in a glass diving-bell. Hardness and clarity of outline show themselves as typical of the phenomena of the mental world. The confinement in such relatively small limits of that which was free and unconfined, and the concentration of the consciousness within the limits of a single form, give the feeling of great strength and power of resistance, and of complete mastery of the personal field of action. The experience of perfect happiness, characteristic of the higher level, persists, though it resembles more the happiness of a dream than of reality. Nevertheless, nothing is lacking here,