Home
Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
A to Z
Related Information
|
HIGHER AND LOWER SELVES
Symbols of the Spirit potential above, and
the Spirit actual below. The two are aspects of the one Divine Life,
but the second is in the process of manifesting itself, while the
first is unmanifest. The first is to be thought of as seated regnant
upon the higher planes, and the second as struggling upward through
the lower planes. The first is never revealed to the consciousness
in its fullness, for the unmanifest cannot be apprehended in its
true nature. The second, in manifesting, is always short of itself,
but as it develops its qualities, it gradually approaches
completion, and when complete and perfect it unites with its
counterpart on the upper planes.
"And what is all human life but this; man having in his freedom, to
choose, to choose under all kinds of circumstances, all kinds of
feelings, under the stress and force of all kinds of motives-having
to choose and choosing,-the right thing or the wrong-going straight
onward or turning aside : giving proof of what is in him, of the
inmost bias and inclination of his character, of the use he would
make of his freedom, of the strength and mastery over himself, by
which he can make his higher self govern his lower self, by which he
can make his weaker and poorer and baser wishes yield to his nobler
will." - R. W. CHURCH, Cathedral Sermons, p. 100.
"Howbeit that was not first which is Spiritual, but that which is
Natural: and afterward that which is Spiritual.' (1 Cor. xv. 46).
St. Paul surveys the universe and finds the same truth every. where.
Everywhere the higher comes to make the lower perfect. Everywhere
the lower is provided first, to be the basis and opportunity of the
higher coming by and by. Everywhere the lips must be before the
speech; the canvas must be before the picture; the candle must be
before the flame; the brain must be before the thought. It is the
teaching which natural science is giving us profusely. . . . But our
deeper observation teaches us a deeper truth. The material has
within itself the power of spiritual life. Its total story has not
been told until a waiting impulse has been felt within it dimly
conscious of incompleteness, until it has answered to the spiritual
call and roused itself to Life." – PHILLIPS BROOKS, Mystery of
Iniquity, p. 242.
"The conception of the solidarity of man's spiritual part with the
eternal substance is the root principle of all our Christian faith
in immortality to-day . . . The mysterious entity which we are
obliged to call the self is a vastly greater thing than its physical
expression.
. . . You, the mortal earthly you, began a few short years ago, and
a few years hence at the most this frail, unstable, constantly
changing you will have come to an end; but the you behind all these
shifting shadows, the you that derives immediately from God, the you
whose angel doth ever behold the face of the Father, lives not by
days and years; it simply is.... I am only insisting on the eternity
of the spiritual substance out of which your soul arises, and which
is truly you, a greater you than as yet you have knowledge of, or
your present consciousness can more than feebly and fitfully
express." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., Our Eternal Substance.
|
See Also
|