[vc_row][vc_column width= »1/1″][vc_column_text]The concept that all human beings possess two natures, a human nature and a divine nature is key to the teaching.

In the links at the bottom of this page, the Master gives a clear description and analysis of this lower and higher nature (Higher Self), or the personality and individuality as he calls them, and he uses terms from the Eastern spiritual tradition to refer to the different subtle bodies constituting both natures.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width= »1/2″][vc_column_text]The lower nature is composed of the physical and etheric body (the etheric body being the invisible double of the physical body – its medium of sensitivity and sensation). There is also the astral body, the seat of all our purely human feelings and desires such as personal, possessive love, anger, jealousy, vulnerability, fear, greed and so on. The third part of the lower nature, the mental body, represents all intellectual faculties concerned exclusively with our physical existence and the achievement of material success. It is, of course, necessary for our survival on earth but its understanding and competence is restricted to the physical plane and is therefore limited.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width= »1/2″][divider_line type= »divider_blank »][imageeffect image= »1851″ target= »_self »][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width= »1/2″][vc_column_text]The higher, divine nature consists of the Causal body (the higher mind) or divine wisdom. This is capable of instant knowledge and understanding because it is one with all manifestations of life, it represents true intelligence and intuition.

The Budhic body (the higher heart) is formed of all our purest, most noble feelings: love for God, the angelic hierarchy, all that is luminous and sublime; and also a universal, impersonal love for all creatures.

Thirdly, the Atmic body represents the higher will. When humans reach the level of the atmic body their personal will has become one with the divine will; they are therefore omnipotent and possess true freedom.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width= »1/2″][vc_column_text]

The Seven Bodies of Man in relation to the Three Divisions of Christian Theology

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The Master’s Teaching on the Subject

The Master gave many lectures covering this theme, they are extremely helpful for all those sincerely striving to transform themselves, both for the clarity of the explanations but also for the criteria he offers on how to recognise the subtle manifestations of the two natures. His penetrating and sometimes amusing analysis of all the tricks and machinations of the lower nature, all its subtle disguises, provides us with a mirror enabling us to recognise this aspect of ourselves and he offers lots of methods which can be used to free ourselves from its tyranny.

The most important of these methods is for humans to identify, not with their body and lower, animal nature, but with their divine nature, the part of them which is one with God:

‘You should understand that you are divinities. Yes, divinities, and you live on a higher plane free of limitations, shadows and darkness, sorrow and suffering, in the midst of abundance and joy. Do you know what prevents you from manifesting the splendour of those higher regions here below? The personality. Your personality is too unadaptable, too self-centred to capture the subtle messages from those regions… like a radio that cannot pick up all the stations. The waves and vibrations released by Cosmic Intelligence in the higher spheres are swift as lightning, and the matter of the personality is too dense, too hard of hearing to vibrate in tune with them, and so it cannot seize divine messages. They flash by without making an impression and we continue to live in ignorance, far from knowing or experiencing the wonderful joy of our higher Being.

There are ways of changing this situation. If you choose to lead a pure life and become once again a child of God, then your heart will open and become generous, your mind will clear and your will become indomitable. The personality will become the willing instrument with which to express the divine life of the individuality more and more fully and correctly… until the day comes when both the personality and the individuality become fused with each other, the personality ceases to exist and becomes one with the individuality.’

However, the Master was fully aware we must work long and hard, with great tenacity and perseverance in order to achieve this sublime ideal. Even if we succeed in taming the personality and replacing it with the individuality, it has not completely disappeared so long as the cells of our physical body still contain the same old memories for it’s these memories that push humans into repeating the same mistakes.

So it is crucial we maintain a constant connection with heaven through prayer and meditation, in that way we have God as a powerful ally. That is the only condition under which the personality can be defeated once and for all.

« Now when you pray, ‘Almighty God, I beg you with all my heart to take over the direction of my life in place of my personality’, you act not only on the material particles of your physical body, but on the memory of the cells, their ingrained habits… which are then replaced with new and better ones.

What I am telling you is very important. Even if you manage to control your personality, even if you force it to carry out your idealistic plans and projects and make it do as it is told, it will not be the same as if you had removed the old clichés and put new clichés into its head. It may bow to your will, but that doesn’t mean it has adopted your imprints, on the contrary, it still has its own, and is waiting for the moment to do what it wants. In beseeching God to take possession of you, you are robbing the personality of its old memory and habits and from then on it will no longer be the personality that guides your life but the individuality! The form is still the physical body, with a stomach, lungs, brain, etc… but with new contents. »

Prayer for the personality to be replaced by the individuality:

Lord, grant that I may disappear in your eternity and your immensity; take my place and dwell within me. Manifest yourself:
through my intelligence as wisdom,
through my heart as love
through my will as power,
So that the kingdom of God and his justice may be established on earth.

This theme is covered comprehensively in:

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