Esoteric psychology understands that the human being is a dual being in the sense that every human being has an outer appearance that he presents to the world, which is the personality, but he also has a soul, an inner or higher self, and in most people those two selves are not completely reconciled.
Robert: Welcome. Inner sight is simply seeing that which is always present but not yet fully recognized. You have within you the ability to see yourself and the world around you in a new way, with new eyes, so stay with us and together we’ll look at the world and ourselves with inner sight. Today’s theme is the ancient psychology of the Delphic Oracle: “Man, know thyself; then thou shalt know the universe.” We’re going to explore the self and the many layers of it, and I guess it could be endless. Should we recap a little bit from our discussion last time?
Sarah: All right. We talked last time about the basic meaning behind the term psychology, which is literally: the word or note of the soul, which touches on the idea that the soul gives off a vibration, makes its own sound, in a sense. This field of psychology, the science of psychology, is the understanding of that note that is the soul’s own tone, and it seeks to sound through every human being. The field of esoteric psychology, as opposed to the more traditional field of psychology, understands that the human being is a dual being in the sense that every human being has an outer appearance that he presents to the world, which is the personality, but he also has a soul, an inner or higher self, and in most people those two selves are not completely reconciled and in some cases not at all in touch with each other. In the case of very advanced spiritual beings, they’re completely in tune so that what you are on the level of the soul expresses completely and fully through your outer appearance. But that’s quite rare and the whole task of psychologists is to help human beings who are involved in their struggle to unify all the various aspects of their nature to understand what they’re heading toward, what aspect of being they need to incorporate their identity with. We talked last time about the fact that a lot of people identify with aspects of their lives that aren’t the real self. They think of themselves in terms of their job or their social status or their appearance or the small group they belong to, race or religion or nation, or they think of themselves as their possessions. None of that really defines the self. The real true self is hidden and inner and can only be found through a real steadfast, determined search to know oneself inwardly.
Dale: Yes, all of that that you just mentioned represents what is often referred to as the not-self. Everything that is not the self has to do with the physical body, the physical brain, the emotional nature, and even the lower mind. All the information that comes in through the five senses, the sense of touch, the sense of hearing, the sense of taste and smell and sight. All of that we tend to identify as being our self, but it’s really just information and it’s the way the self as a being—as a separate being—finds its way in the world, in the physical world.
Sarah: The soul is essentially, as we’ve said many times before, consciousness. And on the level of the soul, we are one with all our fellow human beings. Most people live in a very small zone of consciousness, as we said last time; their awareness or the parameters of their sense of identity, of themselves, don’t extend very far. This is why people tend to think of themselves as independent, distinct, unique, different from everybody else, separate from everybody else. But in fact, the soul is one with all souls. There is no “my soul” and “thy soul” on the level of the soul. Rather, we are one. And psychology, I think, is groping its way toward that recognition, wouldn’t you say?
Dale: Yes, I think that’s one thing that psychology—if it’s going to advance really to the next stage—has to recognize: that there is this intangible, spiritual self that lies within every human being which is something quite apart from all that we consider to be the personality life.
Sarah: You might think of the individual entity as made up of various threads. There’s the thread of the past that every soul brings over when he reincarnates, if you believe that life extends beyond just the present life of experience. We bring that thread of awareness from the past. There’s the thread of living and awareness and achievement that we build in this particular lifetime and it’s a creative thread. We are creating our lives each day as we go along. Just living, just drawing the next breath, getting up and getting out every day is a creative act of will. And then there is the thread of the future which we are trying to find by treading what we call the path. That is a thread that is leading us forward and for most of us it’s only dimly sensed, but we use instinct and intuition to chart our course. So, there are these various lines of consciousness that extend from the past and that pull us into the future. We’re much more than just our present experience and reality.
Dale: Absolutely, and there is a purpose behind all of this, too. It’s moving ahead, but it’s moving in a particular direction, and cognizance of the soul is the very key here to maintaining and finding that direction and maintaining it on course.
Robert: You were saying that what we are is apparent even at a very young age. How does this relate to a spiritual approach to psychology?
Sarah: Well, we were talking about that last time—and even modern psychology, I think, verifies it—that our basic character and temperament are established by the time we’re three. Esoteric psychology would say that we are a work in progress that has been developing for lifetimes. Every child that comes into the world isn’t just a tabula rasa. They’re a product of past experience and achievement and suffering and joy, and all of that is residing latent in the infant and comes awake with the earliest experiences of life. What we are is already in process of development, and I wonder sometimes if parents understand that children are not born to be molded and formed into some ideal that the parent has in mind. They’re already on their track, becoming who they are. And I would think that it would be the parents’ and other adults’ responsibility to help the child become more of what he already is, but just better. What I’m getting at is something that’s given to us in the books of Alice Bailey, the psychology of the seven rays, which we’ve talked about before. There are seven expressions of divinity that are known as the seven rays: the Ray of Will, of Love, of Active Intelligence, of Harmony, of Knowledge, of Devotion, and of Order. These are seven attributes of divine being, and every human being is conditioned by these rays in greater or lesser proportions. And what’s fascinating is that the rays have a higher expression and a lower, but when we can understand what rays are working through ourselves, we can see what we are becoming.
Dale: As it’s hoped, as it’s believed, this will be the new science of psychology—a study of these rays. I think we mentioned before, it’s a “psychology of the well.” One can use the seven rays and study the qualities and characteristics of the seven rays to better understand who and what you are in this life. It’s not for the abnormal or the insane or for the unbalanced person. It’s for the ordinary, everyday person who goes about their life but wants to understand a little more deeply about why they have these reactions and characteristics.
Sarah: Yes, what we are, essentially, is what we need to be. But we can refine and fine-tune it. In other words, if we have a basic tendency to be obsessed with details, that’s, in a sense, to my understanding, what we have to be. But we can take that concern with details and transmute it into something fine and good and useful, and not just a neurotic obsession with minutiae. If we are the kind of person that has a very strong will and a hot temper, essentially that’s who we have to be, but we have to learn to direct that will toward real achievement and accomplishment rather than using it to simply dominate others. Every attribute of the seven rays is energy, and the Ageless Wisdom says that energy is impersonal, and it simply responds according to the equipment that receives it, but the ray energies are not necessarily bad or good. The energy of will can be used for negative purposes or it can be used for very positive purposes, and the same with all of these energies. So, rather than saying to a child who tends to take charge and line everybody up and get them to follow his orders that he shouldn’t be that way, rather, we should help that child learn what real leadership is and how to guide and assist others and form patterns and help people carry them out. Some people are natural administrators. Others are natural peacemakers.
Dale: And usually when these strong characteristics appear, even in early childhood, that means, probably, that that particular soul has spent many lifetimes along that particular ray influence. Let’s say, in the case of leadership, a child that really wants to take charge and organize things and be the leader of their little playgroup, then maybe they have spent many lifetimes under that influence and exercising that quality and it’s built up little by little over lifetime after lifetime until it becomes a very strong characteristic. So, that little child may grow up to be a real citizen or a politician or a statesman who is active in government. That comes from a long experience, not just in one life, but many lifetimes; it’s a thing that builds up. It doesn’t show up this way with everybody, but quite often these characteristics show up very early. It’s the same thing with prodigies; musicians that have spent many lifetimes playing a particular instrument like a piano or a violin.
Sarah: The seven rays, as given in the books of Alice Bailey, gives both the higher and the lower expression of these rays and certain qualities or characteristics that can help all of us to identify these rays as they express through people.
Dale: They’re called the virtues or the vices of the rays, and also the virtues to be acquired if you don’t have them. Those are the ones to be acquired.
Sarah: (laughing) Things on the to-do list.
Dale: (also laughing) So it’s guidelines for your life, for living. Think of it that way.
Sarah: You become more patient.
Dale: Right.
Robert: Is a psychological problem always a sign of mental illness?
Sarah: Well, that’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? Because it seems that modern psychology tends to take problems and approach them as if something has gone awry in the life, as if something’s gone off track if you have problems. The very declaration of the United States is the pursuit of happiness. We all believe we should be pursuing happiness, and yet I think the original wording was the pursuit of property, which is much more American. But the pursuit of happiness is the ideal that seems to be held up, and if you’re not happy, something must be wrong. But in fact, the Ageless Wisdom’s view of psychology is that problems, impasses, crises can be extremely productive because that’s an indication that the consciousness of the individual has come up against a barrier and consciousness is by its very nature expansive. If we think of the image of a little baby chicken pecking its way through its shell in order to be born into the world, that’s what happens with the experience of crises and problems. We’re butting our head against a shell that has to be broken. It’s good. It may not be fun. We wouldn’t want it to happen all of the time.
Dale: Crises are opportunities. These signs of apparent illness may be really a soul that is trying to break out of that shell or the limitations of that life.
Sarah: Even in traditional medicine of the physical body, pain is seen as a means of alerting the patient that he has a problem. And mental and emotional pain is a means of getting our attention, that we have something we need to work on. It doesn’t mean failure, but it means we might be ready for a new step, for something different.
Robert: So, could something like depression be a blessing in some strange way?
Sarah: It can be because it can indicate that what has worked in the past no longer serves. So, it’s time for a change. Depression can be the indication that there’s a change that has to be made in the life. Often the key with these psychological problems is to extend the consciousness outward toward others. We can’t go into denial when we have problems and pretend that they’re not real. But I would think that the means of healing—if we are basically psychologically sound—is to direct our attention as much as possible to the needs of others. Love is the great healer. Love makes us well. The more we can love, the more we get out of our own little ring-pass-not.
Dale: Yes, I think what you said, get out of our own ring-pass-not: get out of the limitations of ourselves, because we tend to box ourselves in with all the baggage that we carry around. And here it gets back to the self again. If you can take the time to realize what that self is and what it is not, then you have somewhere to go, something to aim for, something to use, because that self is in this particular life to work through into a new refined state. And that’s often why there is this discontent that rises.
Sarah: And coming back to this realization that all souls are one on the plane of the soul. There is no my soul and thy soul. That’s why in turning one’s attention to others and in learning to love and serve others, we find our own healing. Because in integrating with others, incorporating their needs, their consciousness with ours, and learning to build better relationships with them, comes psychological healing. The power of the soul can take over because the soul on its own level and left to its own devices, so to speak, would seek union with everyone else. But the personality of our modern world is so bent on affirming the barriers of our separated self, of defining how we are distinct and unique and how special and how irreplaceable we are. Well, yes, but it becomes a kind of an illness because it locks us into a separation from others that can be deadly. And I think a lot of depression that people suffer comes from having so affirmed their independence as beings that they have truly isolated themselves. In this modern age, with our developed minds and our materialism, we’ve become masters at isolating ourselves. Just look at our society. We all live by ourselves, travel in our cars alone and try to work out our careers and our destinies for our own best interests. It’s causing pain because it’s going against the law of the soul.
Dale: That’s the basic law that we should be trying to follow: trying to find that soul, because that is who we are, and if we can identify with that energy, that will guide us through this life to do what we’re supposed to be doing.
Robert: You’ve been listening to Inner Sight. Now we would like to close with a world prayer called the Great Invocation. It’s a call for light and love and goodwill to flow into the world and into our hearts. Let’s listen for a moment to these powerful words.
Sarah: Closes the program by reciting the adapted version of the Great Invocation.
(This is an edited transcript of a recorded radio program called “Inner Sight.” This conversation was recorded between the host, Robert Anderson, and the then President and Vice-President of Lucis Trust, Sarah and Dale McKechnie.)
(Transcribed and edited by Carla McLeod)
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