Page:The astral world, higher occult powers; (IA astralworldhighe00tiff).pdf/172

 in the body or out of it, is the Divine principle. It is to this spirit what the sun is to the natural universe. It is the light and the heat of the Divine sun shining within the individual, revealing him to himself; so that if we become familiar with this first proposition, so that we understand one another, our deductions will flow naturally, and we can understand perfectly whether we are on the side of truth or not. Understand, then, that it is not the fact that you possess a consciousness within you, which causes you to differ from me and every other being. We are all alike in that respect. But when that consciousness begins to shine out into your individuality, and look after your thoughts and affections which have arisen out of your individual development, and which have grown out of individual relations peculiar to yourself, then this conscious light and conscious heat, this conscious understanding and affection within you, begins to reveal to you your individual selfhood—that which constitutes you an individual being separate from all other individual beings. That which pertains to my character pertains to my character as an individual being.

This individual affection which distinguishes me from you belongs to my exterior or outer consciousness. So then, when I speak of character, I speak not of this inmost principle which has never changed, and never can change, but will live on unchanged, because self-existent and self-sufficient—not of the God within—the Divine breath living in the soul—but of that which is exterior of that which derives its life, understanding, and perception from the light which this absolute consciousness throws out. That which per