… This union, this most desirable marriage must take place one day… but when? For each one it will be different. In the meanwhile, it is the task of the disciple to learn to submit the personality to the individuality during all the trials and tribulations of his life, to acquiesce to the divine Will above him and become a willing, docile instrument in the hands of God.

That is the goal, the one aim of all the exercises and methods we learn and practise in an initiatic school. We come from God, we begin in God, everything, including our lower nature, begins with God. Suppose for the moment that you are a gold seeker. Once the ore is obtained, the metal must be extracted before you can see the gold. They appear to be different, the gold and the ore and the matrix, but actually they all have the same origin, because all matter has the same origin. ‘But,’ you say, ‘how did God whose Nature, whose substance is quite other than matter, how did God create anything so dense… so dark and heavy?’ The answer is simple.

Snails are instructive: A snail has a soft body, whereas its shell is quite hard; at first there seems to be no connection between the snail and its shell, and yet it was the snail that secreted the shell. Little by little, by penetrating the microscopic openings in its etheric body, it spreads the particles apart and stretches the shell. The snail remains separate from its shell, but secretes the substance the shell is made of and keeps adding to it to make it bigger. So you see, the body is not the man, it is only his car, his horse, an instrument, a dwelling place. The real man is the Spirit, all-powerful, unlimited, omniscient Spirit. When man changes and identifies himself with his Spirit, he will become powerful, illumined, immortal, divine.

For make no mistake, you are all divinities. Yes, divinities. You belong to a high place in which no limitations, no darkness, no suffering or sorrow, no discouragement exist, where you are sur- rounded by plenitude. Here on earth you are not surrounded by plenitude because you have not been able to live and manifest life on earth as it is above : the personality prevents you! Obtuse as it is, ill-adapted as it is, ill-tuned as a radio that cannot pick up the essential broadcasting stations, the personality still can keep you from receiving the waves and currents from the higher regions. The divine currents sent out by Cosmic Intelligence are so short and rapid and the matter of the personality so dense and heavy that you cannot possibly vibrate intensely enough or rapidly enough to hear them, they slip by without leaving a trace of what you actually experience in the higher regions of your being. There is a way to improve the situation: by deciding to obey Nature and lead a pure life.
To be continued….

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov,
Izvor Book 213, Man’s Two Natures, Human and Divine
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