3.
To be sure, the
original Universal Theosophical teachings of H.P. Blavatsky rightly
insist that the Higher Self is an equiprimordial three-foldness of
Spirit, Sacred-Soul, Pure-Mind, (atma-buddhi-manas). But, unfortunately,
this too in the self-image-enclosed consciousness of the Separate-self-spiritual-seeker, is perceived as an object which is
“there”, “out there”, or “in here” as an object of and for perception, a
conceptual construct of a higher self projected upwards from the
fragmentary condition of the “I-think” subject, the Separate-self
non-entity.
If you see, perceive, and observe, say, the Christ figure coming out of
the clouds, or the Buddha, or God, or indeed the “higher self”, you have
to admit that you are still merely dealing with an optical perception,
an object of perception which, in fact, has no greater and possibly less
validity than the object of perception which is this meeting space here,
or the flower in the vase, which is being perceived in exactly the same
manner by awareness. We are still viewing it as an object, in the mirror
of consciousness, distorted by the separate, subjective self. This way
of experiencing the spiritual we may call the optical view of the
"spiritual-eye”.
So let us say that I go into the bathroom and look in the mirror, and
written on the mirror, to have me know who I am, it says, “This is the
image of Alexander”, so that I will be sure of my identity. The optical
view of the spiritual eye and Psychologism, then, is the equivalent of
that. There is an image of you in the mirror of consciousness, but the
image is broken up into many images, and all of them have words written
on them so that you know what the images mean.
Here, on the mirror, is your biography, your psycho-spiritual profile,
which, in turn, is broken up into many pieces, and all of them are
images of you. There is a super-consciousness; there is consciousness
and unconsciousness. There is a subconscious; there is a shadow; there
is a persona. And depending upon the psycho-spiritual paradigm that has
been writing on the mirror, there could be quite different words written
on the images.
Obviously, every imaginary paradigm is a systemic pattern of value
judgments. In the example cited here, the person is supposed to
integrate the various fragmented pieces of the divided self into one of
the pieces which is taken to be the model of a central self. In the case
of this example and all other psychologisms known to us, that central
self is the “I-think” subject, the Separate-self. In the late twentieth
century, all of the popular psychologisms contain a psycho-spiritual
component which is to be integrated into the separate, subjective self.
The search for the nature of true identity goes on in the fragmented
mirror with its images and labels of ostensible self-meaning.
The central idea in all of these psycho-spiritual paradigms is that the
self can only know itself when reflected back to itself in the mirror of
self-images, images of others or images of the world. This self-image,
the “I-think” subject, the separate self, calls itself “I”. But this
“I’, in practice, exists only so far as it perceives, in the moment,
with its inventories, associations and reactions.
If human consciousness is
capable of producing and holding the vast array of images which come and
go in the course of a lifetime, then human nature must contain a deeper,
more authentic state of being than any and all of these subjective
images. If you did not always know in advance who all of those images
and labels refer to you could never know it.
WHAT KIND OF SELF ARE
YOU?
One of the most widely recognized and practiced methods for the
enhancement of awareness and the development of spiritual sensitivity is
the practice of “being present”. So we say, “Well, we’ll do that, we’ll
be present. We’ll calm the body and calm our emotions and breathe deeply
and become present. We will try to watch the contents of the mind as
they arise without any reaction, but rather with calm detachment.”
We discover that actually all that we are performing is a kind of
“self-grasping” awareness - “I know I’m present. I’ve grasped myself” -
a schizoid self-watching [posing as self-presence…] as the illusion of
self-presence, the self-image, the saturated, separate self, non-entity
as the illusion of selfhood.
No matter how much of that kind of self-grasping presence you practice,
you are still dealing with an object which is perceiving itself as an
observer. So you practice being present until you’re blue in the face
and nothing much happens, except that there are minor benefits to it:
you will tend to drop the dishes less often when you are washing up, or
you will tend to bump into things less often, because you are watching
out. But, as a practice, it appears to have very little spiritual
significance, as such.
In Theosophy, the spiritual practice of meditation and “being present”
pre-supposes a knowledge of the nature and composition of the seven-fold
human awareness organism, so that we come to “check, test and verify”
the teachings given by and through H.P.B. in her writings and
conversations, so that we would know that there is a distinction to be
made between what Theosophy calls the “lower self” and what is called
“personality”.
There appears to be a subject and object, the private, subjective,
self-enclosed world of the “in here” contrasted with the open, objective
“out there”. The Separate-self non-entity defines and is this
inner-outer split in the field of perception. The appearance of both the
inner and outer of this field of perception is what H.P.B. calls
“personality”. This is the split mirror that reflects the lower self and
its world as a distorted self-image and false identity.
The “lower self” concept in Theosophy is obviously many millennia older
than the separate, subjective self of post-Cartesian, secular culture.
The lower self, in fact, embraces everything that could be summed up by
such descriptions as the whole world of the five senses and the personal
mind engaged in this world, the desiring emotional mind nature which
seeks to repeat pleasure and avoid pain; hence, the scene of personal
karma. So the lower self is not confined to the “I” as understood in
Eurocentric terms, but is the natural result of incarnation in any and
every culture, and so has universal significance as an aspect of human
self-apprehending awareness.
Indeed, it is only by apprehending the lower self nature, freed from the
distortions of the “I-think” subject as psychological non-entity, that
the Antahkarana (awareness bridge) can open to the original Higher Self, the Aware-awake,
Silent, Individual Self.
A distinction between the real "lower self", the real "higher self" and the
separate self non-entity, with its projection of a higher self,
naturally occurs in the mind of the serious student of Theosophy.
The
Cartesian “I-think” subject, the Separate-self, is a special case, a
Eurocentric development within the horizon of the "lower self". The
separate, subjective self non-entity must be overcome before the
Individual can apprehend the true nature of the "lower
self". The lower self is not a mere cultural production, a non-entity,
but rather an authentic aspect of the seven-fold nature of the human
awareness organism.
When freed from the self-enclosed and self-image saturated personality
sickness of the separate self non-entity, the lower self is apprehended
as the being-awareness-space within which man appears to and as the
world. It is within this being-awareness-space, when healed of
personality sickness and made strong through Spiritual Reality,
that the authentic Higher Self lights up as existing all along and is
Self-realization. And thus, the Antahkarana becomes a reality to the
Disciple of Theosophy.
Silent Individual Awake-awareness contains both subject and object and
transcends them into freedom from the opposites. Silent Individual
Awareness does not experience the inner-outer split, which is
non-operative, within the unbroken field of Silent Individual
Awake-awareness.
Full Self-realization is always the realization of “We-Awareness” within
the Mystery of One and Many. The rendering non-operative, for even a
“moment”, of the separate self non-entity, within the whole non-dualized
awareness space of the Silent Individual, is also the ending of
self-enclosed isolation, so that even glimpse-enlightenment is not
”vertical”, but rather occurs as the instantaneous apprehension of the
entire Individual Awake-awareness space. Isolation ends in the re-membering
of the self back within the awareness state of at-one-ment with all that
is present.
This “We-awareness” state is not a private, self-enclosed experience.
There are no objects of perception, images, at the disposal of a
separate self-observer. The immanent living reality of “What Is” has
replaced every imaginary representation in the now non-operative split
mirror of distorted self-images.
Thus, and moreover, every separate self-image projection of a Higher
Self has come to an end. There is no need to climb up the endless ladder
of psycho-metaphysics with its convolutions of psycho-spiritual stages
to a delusional Higher Self grounded in the error of the “I-think”
subject, the separate self.
So-called “Neotheosophists”, “Anthroposophists” and “Transpersonalists”
of all stripes have invariably failed to make these distinctions. They
encourage the illusion that the self-image, the saturated, higher
self-projection of the separate self, is the real Higher Self, or an
essential evolutionary stage within the “spectrum or evolution of
consciousness”. In this way, the unwary spiritual student is led astray
by pretenders and deceivers.
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