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5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
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SELF, SUPREME; AND LIVING, OR INDIVIDUAL SELF
Symbols of the Logos or God Manifest, and
the indwelling Spirit or incarnate God within the human soul. The
Two are One.
“This Self is the Lord of all, this the internal ruler, this the
source of all things; this is that out of which all things proceed,
and into which they shall pass back again.” – Māndükys Upanishad.
There are two, one knowing (isvara), the other not-knowing (giva),
both unborn, one strong, the other weak; there is she, the unborn,
through whom each man receives the recompense of his works; and
there is the Infinite Self under all forms, but himself inactive.
When a man finds out these three, that is Brahma." - Svetas.
Upanishad, I. 8, 9.
There are two modes of the Divine Life, one, the Higher Self, wise
and all-perceiving; the other, the lower Self, ignorant and
acquiring knowledge; both unmanifest exteriorly, one powerful in the
Divine scheme, the other oppressed by the lower conditions. There is
Wisdom, the buddhic principle, unmanifest out-wardly, through whose
functionings each ego receives the transmutations of his qualities
according to his efforts after goodness, love, and truth. And there
is the Absolute Being subsisting under all appearances, but Itself
unconditioned and latent. When the ego attains all Truth, and
identifies himself with the three modes of the Divine Life, he is
pure Spirit, that is God.
"He who seeth the Supreme Being existing alike imperishable in all
perishable things, sees indeed. Perceiving the same Lord present in
everything and everywhere, he does not by the lower self destroy his
own soul, but goeth to the supreme end. He who seeth that all his
actions are performed by nature only, and that the self within is
not the actor, sees indeed. And when he realises perfectly that all
things whatsoever in nature are comprehended in the One, he attains
to the Supreme Spirit." - Bhagavad-Gita, XIII. 27-30.
“Juliana's view of human personality is remarkable, as it reminds us
of the Neo-platonic doctrine that there is higher and a lower self,
of which the former is untainted by the sins of the latter. 'I saw
and understood full surely,' she says, that in every soul that shall
be saved there is a godly will that never assented to gin, nor
shall; which will is so good that it may never work evil, but
evermore continually it willeth good, and worketh good in the sight
of God. We all have this blessed will whole and safe in our Lord
Jesus Christ.' This godly will' or 'substance' corresponds to the
spark of the German mystics. I saw no difference,' she says,
'between God and our substance, but, as it were, all God.'" - W. R.
INGE, Christian Mysticism, p. 206.
"Behind all this play of mental causation there all the while stood
that Self, which was at once the condition of its occurrence, and
the First Cause of its action. . . As a matter of fact we know that
this Self is here, and that it can thus be proved to be a substance
standing under the whole of that more superficial display of mental
causation which it is able to look upon introspectively-and this
almost as impersonally as if it were regarding the display as
narrated by another mind." - ROMANES, Mind and Motion, p. 137.
"The deeper soul within you is one with the Soul of the universe,
and will not be denied its heritage. You may trifle with it, or try
to avoid arduous tasks and painful experiences, but you must go on
until your goal is attained, because you are being driven thereto by
the divine force of your own soul." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., Who
Compels ?
"This larger self (of a man) is in all probability a perfect and
eternal spiritual being integral to the being of God. His surface
self, his Philistine self, is the incarnation of some portion of
that true eternal self which is one with God. The dividing-line
between the surface self and the other self is not the definite
demarcation it appears to be. To the higher self it does not exist.
To us it must seem that to all intents and purposes the two selves
in a man are two separate beings; but that is not so: they are one,
although the lower, owing to its limitations, cannot realise the
fact. If my readers want to know whether I think that the higher
self is conscious of the lower, I can only answer, 'Yes, I do, but I
cannot prove it; probabilities point that way.' . . The true being
is consciousness; the universe visible and invisible is
consciousness. The higher self of the individual man enfolds more of
the consciousness of God than the lower, but lower and higher are
the same being. This may be a difficult thought to grasp, but the
time is rapidly approaching when it will be more generally accepted
than it is now." - R. J. CAMPBELL, The New Theology, p. 32.
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