THE SELF
“Know Thyself” – according to legend this has been inscribed in stone over the entrance to Apollo’s temple at Delphi in Ancient Greece.
The philosophers and sages of many ancient cultures considered it the most important aspiration and goal of all:
To know one’s Self.
For me – and i am no philosopher nor am i a sage – this has definitely been the consistent theme throughout my life. And obviously the contemplation and discovery and understanding and integration is ongoing.
There is never an end to The Self.
Not that i can find one.
I guess the Western common view of “myself” is pretty limited to what can be seen and measured in some way.
Name, nationality, age, gender, heritage, education, status etc. are all a pretty straightforward description of characteristics that describe the appearance of the person Cris.
Then there are the more psychologic personal traits that can be somehow determined: qualities of character,personal values, believes, behavioral patterns, shadow aspects and so on.
But what about if i want to ask deeper, when i continue to ask:
WHO AM I?
What has been my Self at the moment of birth, when most of the above mentioned characteristics have not been established yet?
What will i be at the moment of my departure from my body, when all of my personal identifications have already disappeared?
For me, those are the really fascinating and important questions that have been leading my quest for the deepest truth about life and myself.
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It has only been by the study of ancient spiritual wisdom traditions and the ongoing practice of Insight Meditation and Intuitive Knowing that The Whole Panorama of The Self unfolded.
I am talking mainly about some of the Vedic scriptures, the Upanishads, Plato, Socrates, Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga, Ramana Maharshi, some teachings of Kabbalah and Gnostics, Theosophy and Anthroposophy that helped me to glimpse a broad, wide-angle perspective. And this view widened and deepened over the span of my adult life.
Obviously i have never been satisfied with a mere mental or scholarly knowledge of “Who Am I”.
It definitely helps (the brain/mind complex) to have some kind of a map of the territory, some broad conceptual understanding of “The Unknowable”, aka The Self ; )
And so i am very very grateful for all this wisdom that is there in those essential books and texts for all of us who care to search for answers.
But of course … the map is not the territory!
This is where my own contemplation comes in, creative thinking and mostly the deep meditation that refines the consciousness and opens up the realms of The Self that are beyond the personal levels, the psychological levels … beyond everything we usually can grasp with our brain/mind, thoughts and feelings.
It appears that in silence, in inner stillness, in meditation, our awareness expands, we are able to perceive finer, higher levels of consciousness.
We may grasp a wider and more expanded vision of reality as we usually are accustomed with.
What we “bring back” can be called intuitive knowing. Or direct, immediate knowing.
Honestly I can not explain better how it is possible to know and understand things beyond our ways of thinking and feeling and knowledge – intuitively and yet with certainty.
But sure as hell ; ) i know that it is possible!!!
And this has been the way for me to integrate the map and the territory, so to say.
Because The Self – i consciously do not say “My Self” – is nothing foreign, nothing esoteric or strange.
It is me, me is it, i am a part of the Oneness of The Self.
Well, it is hard – if not impossible – to describe The Self in our limited language, words that have been born and developed here in our 3. Dimension of objects and time.
But more of that later : )
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THE MAP
I have been always quite familiar and intimate with my Soul, my Higher Self or whatever we may call it.
But honestly … always more than a little confused with the word Spirit and the expression “The Divine”.
I often used Soul and Spirit in an interchangeable way or outright avoided to define them more precisely.
And how Soul relates to the Divine – the God Realm – has been more a matter of vague feelings for me rather than clear thinking.
I think it was sometime in the 1980s when i came across this “map”, this diagram of The Self, laying out “the whole thing” from top to bottom, so to say : )
In a book by Alice Bailey i found it and it really captured my attention.
I confess that i did not understand most of it and even many of the words were new to me.
But i remember how it deeply fascinated me and that i carried a photocopy of this map with me for a long time.
Nowadays – after many years of learning, contemplating about and meditating The Self – i am a little bit more “en-lightened” about the whole thing.
The “Me”, from top to bottom, so to say.
And i am also quite a bit more light-hearted about it all ; )
I will do (my best) now to lay out in a rather linear way what this “me” – The Self – entails in my perspective.
Never to forget that this is ALL ONE, not just a collection of parts,
The Self is a Mystery, the awe inspiring wonder that my mind is only capable to grasp in glimpses.
But those glimpses are very very precious to me, they give me sense and meaning and ultimate purpose in this little life of mine.
Since i am most familiar with the terminology and Sanskrit words used in Vedic and Theosophic teachings, i will also use the Sanskrit terms here, when appropriate. Often it is difficult to find equivalent and precise words in the English language when talking about such “esoteric” matters..
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I guess that most people are using the words body, soul and spirit in a more or less vague way to express the Self. And just as it has been in my case, soul and spirit are often considered one and the same thing.
Now, this “map” shows a much more differentiated and complex view of The Self.
From the “highest” top – that we could call The Source, Alpha and Omega, The Ultimate, The Tao, All&Everything, God and so on – down to the manifested human form – you and me ; ) – flesh and bones.
One Continuous Spectrum of Consciousness.
It maps out The Self as consisting of Two Sets of Principles (rather than parts) that can be divided in the Higher 3-some (Triad) and the Lower Triad.
Those Principles of our Self are:
– the Divine
– the Spiritual
– the Soul/Mental
– the Astral
– the Vital
– the Physical
The higher 3-some principles of The Self last forever while the lower 3-some lasts just for one lifetime and will be a new 3-some in each incarnation we will have.
THE HIGER 3-SOME (Spiritual Triad )
– The Divine Principle – ATMA
Atma or Atman is the higher-most, supreme aspect of our beingness. It is pure eternal Spirit, literally one and the same in essence and identity as the Supreme/God/Alpha&Omega/however we may call it.
As it is stated in the Vedas: The Atman IS Brahman.
Atman is not a individual thing. There is no “my Atman”, “my Spirit”. The Eternal Spirit is neither mine nor is it yours. It is ONE Universal Spirit Self of All.
In the end (the Omega : ) this is our true ultimate Identity. To realize that is to understand non-duality, oneness and would be the key to world peace.
Since Atman is literally Divinity Itself, it never incarnates or reincarnates, not is it ever affected by our Karma or anything.
It simply IS.
– The Spiritual Principle – BUDDHI
Buddhi is sometimes called the Spiritual Soul, the vehicle thru which Atma works and radiates its light to our Individual Soul.
The Monad – is a term that is used in Vedic Scriptures to describe the conjunction/collaboration (i made this up ; ) of those two highest principles of The Self, Atman and Buddhi.
– The Soul/Mental Principle – MANAS
Manas is the soul principle in us, the semi-permanent individuality that incarnates and re-incarnates in order to ultimately re-integrate into the original Oneness of Atma again.
It is also considered to be the mental principle, the mind principle.
The word “mind” in English is a bit misleading because it is usually meant as a function of the brain.
I would rather say that the brain is our most amazingly advanced physical organ, our receiver/computer that serves as the physical vehicle for the mind/soul – who is the true thinker – to manifest thru while in physical incarnation.
In some esoteric teachings the Manas Principle, the Soul/Mind is also called the “Ego”. Of course it does not mean the distorted ego (that we usually use in ego-tistic ; )
It means literally the true “I” of the being, the Individual Human Soul.
It is the individual human soul which sets in motion “the Wheel of Karma” by setting the causes – thru every thought, word and action – which necessarily have their corresponding Karmic effects in this or in other lifetimes.
It is the maker and the experiencer of Karma.
And hopefully also learns and grows from those experiences ; ).
It is said to have a dual, two-fold nature, the Higher and Lower Manas.
When our mind and consciousness are lifted thru spiritual practice or ethical life, raised and elevated towards understanding, abstract principles, things of goodness, beauty, truth, purity, compassion and love, it is functioning as Higher Manas. And so the soul is rising ever closer towards the divine light of Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul.
On the other hand, whenever our mind and consciousness is allowed to be influenced and identifying towards the more selfish, separative and sensual things and activities of life, it becomes Lower Manas, attaching itself to the Principle of Kama, the “Earth-bound” Soul.
Manas, the individualized Soul can not go in both directions at once. It either goes “up” or “down”.
Up towards spirituality or downwards towards sensuality.
Manas, the human soul/mind principle stands right in the middle between the two and must make a choice between them.
Thats called “our daily life”, i guess ; )
THE LOWER 3-SOME (Personality Triad)
– The Astral Principle – KAMA
Kama means Desire/Passion in Sanskrit and it indicates the desire principle of the human being in physical incarnation.
I think we know this one all too well, right?
It is the source of our desires, subconscious instinctive drives, passions, lust and sensual nature.
Kama became notoriously famous (and a bit misunderstood) in the context of the sexual aspects of the Kama-sutra text.
After our lifetime comes to an end – and we “kick the bucket” ; ) – the Kama tendencies that we indulged in during this lifetime do not go away automatically. They form what is called the Kama Rupa, the “desire thought-forms”.
One of the stages after death is that the desire nature objectifies itself into a sort of disembodied form which remains in Kama Loka (the psychic atmosphere and attraction of our Earth, also called the Astral Realm) until it finally gradually fades out and disintegrates.
It will remain active until the force of those desires and passions has drained away and how long this takes will naturally be determined by how sensually oriented we have been during this lifetime.
More about that in “Reincarnation, Karma and where do we go when we die“.
– The Vital Principle – PRANA
Prana is, the Life Force, Vital Energy, also called Elan Vital and “the breath of life”.
It keeps my physical body alive and my being in incarnation.
Life Force flows in our Etheric Body – that closely resembles but extends our physical body – thru a system of Nadis, subtle energy channels that correspond to our physical nervous system. This flow of Prana/Life Energy nurtures and sustains our physical body and subtle bodies and keeps us functioning.
As soon as the flow of Prana is disconnected or ceases for any reason, the physical body has no other option than to die.
More about that in the Article “The Soul and her Vehicles / Auras, Chakras, Glands and the rest“.
The Physical Principle – BODY (of flesh and bones ; )
Our wonderful, awesome, precious body is strictly speaking not a Principle in itself but is simply the vehicle of all the other Principles during physical incarnation.
The Scriptures speak of the body as “Our Temple”, “The Place where God dwells”.
Believing the truth of that, I guess it is a good idea to take good care for our body, treat it well and wisely and never forget this truth:
A temple is just a house of stone and wood, what is important is who dwells in it ; )
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As i have said before, a map is not the territory!
But since i love maps (they give me a rough idea about the territory that i am interested in to explore ….. here is another map, and a colorful on at that! ; )
click to enlarge
Surely this map has been drawn up by people far more advanced and knowledgeable than me.
And i don’t pretend to understand (yet ; ) what all those connections and interrelations mean exactly.
But man! Am i curious to discover it all in detail!!!
And so i hope that with my writing i might be able to inspire you to do the same.
Go explore, go discover!
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During the recent year i have attempted to write about most of the things that are essentially important to myself – and probably to many of you who take life seriously : )
Life, Awareness, Consciousness, Mind, Soul, Spirit, God, Esoteric Anatomy, Meditation and such.
I am conscious about the fact that such things can not really be easily expressed in language. But still it has been fun to try to put my view, my light onto it from different directions and perspectives.
I hope you – the reader – can forgive inconsistencies and even some seeming contradictions.
In my opinion, such complex and rather “internal, esoteric” subjects are best approached with a “soft focus”, looked at “in a soft light”
Looked at gently, with an open, inquisitive mind from all kind of different sides, so to say.
Here are some of the articles i wrote that i find most relevant if somebody is interested to go deeper into those matters:
