A Textbook of TheosophyLeadbeater, C. W. (Charles Webster)
Religion
A Textbook of Theosophy
Leadbeater, C. W. (Charles Webster)
Theosophy
For this final outpouring is not like the others, a mighty outrush
affecting thousands or millions simultaneously; it comes to each one
individually as that one is ready to receive it. This outpouring has
already descended as far as the intuitional world; but it comes no farther
than that until this upward leap is made by the soul of the animal from
below; but when that happens this Third Outpouring leaps down to meet it,
and in the higher mental world is formed an ego, a permanent
individuality--permanent, that is, until, far later in his evolution, the
man transcends it and reaches back to the divine unity from which he came.
To make this ego, the fragment of the group-soul (which has hitherto played
the part always of ensouling force) becomes in its turn a vehicle, and is
itself ensouled by that divine Spark which has fallen into it from on high.
That Spark may be said to have been hovering in the monadic world over the
group-soul through the whole of its previous evolution, unable to effect a
junction with it until its corresponding fragment in the group-soul had
developed sufficiently to permit it. It is this breaking away from the rest
of the group-soul and developing a separate ego which marks the distinction
between the highest animal and the lowest man.
Chapter V
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN
Man is therefore in essence a Spark of the divine Fire, belonging to the
monadic world.[1] To that Spark, dwelling all the time in that world, we
give the name "Monad". For the purposes of human evolution the Monad
manifests itself in lower worlds. When it descends one stage and enters the
spiritual world, it shows itself there as the triple Spirit having itself
three aspects (just as in worlds infinitely higher the Deity has His three
Aspects). Of those three one remains always in that world, and we call that
the Spirit in man. The second aspect manifests itself in the intuitional
world, and we speak of it as the Intuition in man. The third shows itself
in the higher mental world, and we call it the Intelligence in man. These
three aspects taken together constitute the ego which ensouls the fragment
from the group-soul. Thus man as we know him, though in reality a Monad
residing in the monadic world, shows himself as an ego in the higher mental
world, manifesting these three aspects of himself (Spirit, Intuition and
Intelligence) through that vehicle of higher mental matter which we name
the causal body.
Footnote 1: The President has now decided upon a set of names for the
planes, so for the future these will be used instead of those previously
employed. A table of them is given below for reference.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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