Theosophy - Ascending the Heights- Attuning Personality with Ego - by Geoffrey Farthing
ASCENDING THE HEIGHTS ATTUNING PERSONALITY WITH EGO
by GEOFFREY FARTHING
The Ego in the title is the spiritual, immortal
individuality composed of the three higher principles of man's constitution. Man's principles correspond exactly
to the planes of Nature or Cosmos, of which the three upper ones represent the Divine Trinity; the dual Monad
plus Manas, in action during a Manvantara. Their development is the
raison d'être of manvantaric evolution. Taken as the individuality of man they are those principles
which persist as a thread through innumerable personal incarnations.
Some of us, as students of Theosophy, regard this Ego as an over-shadowing spiritual Self, which can affect
our consciousness according to our degree of development as a person. The growth or the development of the personality
as a mundane representative of the Ego is well understood to mean the development of the four lower principles
of his personal self: the physical together with its life aspects (the Astral and Prana); his emotional vehicle
(Kama) and the mind (Manas ). Nearly all the experience of ordinary human life is food for the development of
these principles.
The exigencies of ordinary worldly existence, however, demand action, and every action has its effect. The theosophical
student knows that these effects are not only the immediate result of what occurs at the physical level but he
knows that they affect also the inner principles, i.e. the astral, the emotional and mental. These inner principles
are the creative and formative ones as far as the personal self is concerned. Experience modifies them and thereby
they are developed.
The teaching is that each of our seven principles is divided into seven sub-principles of which each reflects
exactly the corresponding main principle and in its turn a corresponding plane of Nature. The quality of our
earth-life experiences affects not only the four lower principles of the personality but their sub-principles.
The three higher sub-principles of each of the four principles comprising the personality not only correspond
to but are 'octaves' of or resonate with the Egoic main principle (Atma, Buddhi and upper Manas).
This means that, on a lower key as it were, the personality is or
can be attuned to spiritual Egoic impulses. By this means there is an interaction between the personality and
the Ego or individuality whereby the personality can evince to a secondary extent the spiritual qualities of
the Ego and vice versa. In the case of the ordinary man this traffic is limited: first by the limited development
of the man's general spiritual nature and secondly to the extent that the Antahkarana has been developed
as a bridge between the higher (upper sub-principles) and the lower (lower four sub-principles) aspects of
the main mental principle.
By this process the man becomes susceptible to stimuli from the Ego
whereby the personality can reflect something of the qualities of the true spiritual man. This spiritualising
process is of the utmost 'importance' because by its inversion the spiritual experience becomes available for
the further development of the Ego — and only
by that means. (The assimilation process takes place after death)
When a man dies, after certain other processes, the Egoic experience is separated from the purely mundane experience
of the personality. It is that spiritual experience which becomes inbuilt into the Ego proper. It is a cumulative
process throughout a long series of personal lives. The Ego is slowly transformed into a specific entity operating
at the higher mind level of the personality. The Ego is properly and permanently aligned, as we have said, to
the three higher cosmic planes whereon are the great spiritual entities that have been evolved from the human
stage in the course of the evolutionary process. They have transcended it and become members of the hierarchies
above the human kingdom.
The interests of the personality are mostly selfish, mundane, whereas
those of the Ego are unselfish, impersonal, and relate to the generalities of existence, the Law, and particularly
humanity as a whole. The teaching has it that, as long as the Antahkarana between the personal man and the
individual Ego remains as a barrier, the Egoic stimuli cannot directly affect the human physical brain. The
barrier has to become a bridge, built by the 'spiritualisation' of the personality. Communication gradually
becomes established between the personal man and the Ego, not only by the quickening of the higher sub-principles
but by the direct contact with his own inner Divinity.
Normally man operates from the point of view of his personality and regards his Ego, if at all, vaguely, as
some kind of overshadowing self, influencing him more or less as it can. Now we are taking the opposite point
of view, at least in imagination, and trying to see the personal man from the point of view of the Ego. A factor
of prime importance is that the personality and the Egoic self during the lifetime of the person are one whole
entity. Man is an immortal Egoic self with a mortal personality, which is his means of perception and action
for all mundane purposes during physical existence.
Another factor is that the Egoic self is impersonal, related to universals. Its interest is in humanity as a
whole rather than in its own temporary personality. Furthermore, the Ego is always orientated towards the Cosmic
Self, of which it is an inseverable 'spark'. This universal SELF (Atman) is itself the essential nature of the
universe. As far as the personality is concerned, this Self must manifest as altruism, i.e. it must operate in
terms other than its own private personal limited self.
The character of the personal self obviously determines the potential influence of the Ego on it. H. P. Blavatsky
says that, insofar as a person is a sensualist, he cannot be spiritual, in the sense that we are using the word
here. This gives us a clue as to the kind of spiritual development required of us. We have to train ourselves
to express more and more of our Egoic divine qualities. In one word that means purification, the elimination
of all self-interest.
It is difficult for us to understand the full meaning of purification while we are still operating at the personal
level. We are told that when we die there is separation of the mundane from the purely spiritual experience.
In the majority of cases ordinarily there is little spiritual residue left to quicken and enhance the life of
the overshadowing Ego, but it is said, there is always some, however small. As persons we are altogether too
interested in ourselves, and our affairs.
This is the condition life after life. Karma attracts effects that are determined exactly by their repetitive
causes. If our acts are selfishly motivated, i.e., our personality's requirements and desires, the Karmic effects
are on that plane. We build up a lifestyle and a habitual behaviour prompted by these personal motivations.
However, the Ego is not concerned with them. The would-be aspirant on the occult or spiritual path has therefore
to learn to realise this and to reorient his attention or consciousness from the personal to the impersonal.
This is a process that leads to an eventual crisis when the balance of interest is definitely tipped towards
the Ego rather than the personal self. Even after this crisis some residual personality traits and habitual actions
persist but they are slowly outweighed by the increasing influence of the Ego. We are becoming in reality, in
our thinking and living, more and more altruistic.
As altruism is developed we become more spiritualised in the Egoic sense and so the bridge of Antahkarana is
further established. This process is a truly significant part of our occult or theosophical journey. Right practices
have to be initiated and put into effect at the personal level during our earthly lifetime. The measure of these
will be in accord with our degree of development, achieved by the promptings of our Higher Self. However, any
gains have to be initiated and carried through at the personal level. If they are not they remain only dreams,
without results, and our personalities remain unrefined and correspondingly less useful to the Ego.
In the limit Egoic consciousness means the complete abandonment of the personal consciousness with its selfish
urges and interests. To some, even to those aspiring to the spiritual life, such a prospect may appear bleak
as it may seem to weaken human ties of affection, family duties and so on, but the books tell us quite otherwise.
The Egoic nature is wholly compassionate. At that level of consciousness there is no feeling of separation from
anything in the cosmic sense, including humanity as a whole and each individual human being.
In Occultism everything from the greatest to the lowest in the so-called, 'creation' is living. The One Life
pervades everything in countless millions of forms. It is this One Life that is the seat of consciousness in
all things including us, both at the Egoic and personal level. The same life pervades both aspects of our being.
Egoic compassion therefore embraces everything because the Ego knows its identity with all else. In fact there
is nothing else. This tremendous insight can be a realisation whilst we still live an earthly life, where we
are conditioned by magnitudes, distances, time spans. We are in awe of the vastness both in extent and duration
of the universe 'out there'. We marvel at the greatness of those high beings in the hierarchy who must order
it. Even our idea of the Masters is one of the great beings far removed from us on the evolutionary scale. In
the unity of the universe, however, differences of magnitude, depth, height, apply only to aspects of the physical
universe.
In the subjective realms of spirit they do not apply: timeless-ness
and dimensionless-ness are the normal states of consciousness of Egoic Being. Insofar as such consciousness
reflects into personal self-awareness it becomes the true mystical experience of union with the Divine and
a realisation that one's Self and the universe are really One. In her extensive writings H. P. Blavatsky has
given some examples of the influences of the Ego on the personality when conditions are right. One of these
is in her Diagram of Meditation. In the central column under Acquisitions is
the following
“Equilibrium and constant calm. Greater ease in practising
the 'virtues' [see Voice of the Silence, verses pp 47-48, Alice Cleather's 1927 ] which are really the
outcome of wisdom; for benevolence, sympathy, justice, etc., arise from the intuitive identification of the
individual with others, although unknown to the personality.”
Another example comes from a letter to her family describing incidents in her writing of Isis
Unveiled. She is
saying where she got her knowledge:
Because somebody who knows all dictates to me. ..and even He [the
Master] is not always required, for, during His absence on some other occupation, He awakens in me His substitute
in knowledge . .. At such times it is no more I who write, but my inner Ego, my 'luminous self’, who
thinks and writes for me.' [Sinnett's Incidents in the Life of Mme. Blavatsky, p157, 1913]