SOUL 2

The soul is three-fold, a trinity-in-unity, having three essential aspects to its unitive life within the One Life. The soul is consciousness, will and substantial being. It is three-fold in view of the mind and in its functioning in the three bodies or three worlds. In itself the soul is one unity, where consciousness, will and being are one unitive reality. We can speak of the presence of soul-consciousness as the being of soul-life. Yet this presence is also a will within the One Will, a power-to-be within the One Universal Power.

This will, or power-to-be, is itself two-fold, having a two-fold purpose. One is to have conscious experience in the three bodies of person-hood, or in the three worlds of intelligence, emotional interactions and physical manifestation. This experience ranges between discovery and creativity, whereby the experiences can be of what-is or it can be creations of new experience. Thus, the first purpose of the soul-will is to experience life via the mental, emotional and physical bodies, to experience what-is and to experience what can be created by the intentional soul-will.

The other purpose is to expand soul-consciousness or the soul's body-of-light within the One Mind or Universal Presence. This is the magnus opus of spiritual alchemy. Essentially, the soul is returning to the One Source, the Almighty or Absolute, but this is a conscious expansion or widening consciousness of the Whole Unity, rather than a dissolution or death. The soul comes more consciously into the Universal Gnosis, of which it is already a partial fragment. And the soul grows in spiritual power, the power-of-being, as it stabilizes into further and further expansions. This the soul accomplishes through meditative expansion within the Group-Light, becoming an expanded Group-consciousness, Group-being and Group-will. This will need further explanation.

We speak of an expanded Group-consciousness, because each soul finds itself to be a consciousness field within a greater field, and each soul field is surrounded, so to speak, by other souls, all of whom are on the greater path to Complete and Absolute Unity. This path to Unity involves a merging with other souls, with the greater group-field of souls, since in Absolute Unity there are no boundaries and no plurality of souls. Thus, each soul is ascending on the way toward the Absolute Unity, or the One Universal Consciousness, so the mergence into the surrounding field of Group-consciousness is necessary along the way, at each level of expansion. Each soul, or stabilized presence of consciousness, is part of a wider consciousness or Group-soul, which could also be called the Over-soul. You might picture the soul-being as a planet with the sun as its soul-Guide and with the solar system as its Over-presence and the other planets as other souls which form the Group-being or Group-consciousness. We are each like planets and part of a Group-system. Then, the next quantum leap of expanded soul-consciousness, along the greater path to Absolute Unity, is full consciousness of the solar system or Group-consciousness. Thus, the planet soul becomes a solar system, and this new expansion finds itself within a galactic group of solar systems. Maybe you get the picture. Souls exist within greater souls, and these within still greater fields, and at each level the Over-soul is a Group-Unity. Also, the Over-soul is the true essence of the soul, at each level, just as the Absolute Being is our Ultimate Truth.

Thus, we have the two essential purposes of the soul-will. One is known as the descension or incarnation, and the other is known as the ascension or Return. What is often forgotten in spiritual teachings is that both these purposes compliment each other. The ascension is an expansion of consciousness, becoming more of the Absolute and Complete Unitive-Being. It can be thought of as a path to Greater Realization, which involves the realization that the soul is a unitive Group-consciousness. This does not mean that the soul is a consciousness of self-plurality, but that the soul-consciousness realizes itself as part of a greater Group or greater field of Being. This consciousness is truly unitive, that is, a consciousness of oneness, though open to a greater group-oneness. We say it is an expansion of consciousness or greater realization of being, but one should remember that the soul is also substantial, a spiritual substance or energy-form. It is far more substantial than a mere thought or sudden insight. It is a being of energy-light, a substantial field of intentional consciousness.

The soul also finds expansion in the three worlds of experience. In other words, the soul can expand in the personal mental, emotional and physical life. This is a different sort of expansion from that of which we have just spoken. Soul expansion within the Great Unity, known as the `ascending expansion', is an increase and widening of consciousness, will and being. The soul-body is becoming more substantial and universal. Yet this soul-being is limited in how far it can expand through and pervade the three bodies of a personal life. The conditions of those bodies limit this `descending expansion'. Rarely can the soul, in its fullness, expand completely through the bodies without being limited to some extent. For example, the mental body may be under-educated or lacking discipline or too confused. The emotional body may be overly turmoiled or too automatic in its reactive habits. The physical body may be under-trained or too out of balance or overly stressed.

Also, the connection needed for the soul to expand through the three bodies may be weak or blocked. When there is a more open and strengthened connection between the soul and the bodies, the conditions of the bodies improve, as health, peace, love, clarity and insight increase. The soul is like a healing energy to the three bodies, but it can be blocked or scattered away. The healing soul does effect this blockage and scattering, healing those problems to some degree, but a certain amount of time and effort is needed to heal those conditions which block that very effort of the soul. Limitations will always be found in the three bodies, but the soul accomplishes what it can to heal those limitations. Thus, the soul works to heal and improve the conditions of the three bodies, which is complimentary to its purpose of manifesting through these bodies. We will speak later on techniques of healing, to allow for greater soul-life circulating through and spiritually patterning the three bodies.

So, part of the soul-work is to expand through the bodies, to more fully incarnate, and to achieve its spiritual purposes through this personal life. As the soul achieves this descending expansion, its ascending expansion is furthered. The experience gained, including creative abilities gained, by the soul's conscious expansion in the three bodies of life, is as food for the ascending expansion and empowerment of the soul-body. Thus, `experience gained' is like an accumulation of energy-food for the soul's greater expansion. But it should be remembered that the soul does not grow from any or all experience. Any quality of experience will not suffice. Only experiences of truth, beauty and goodness are expansive to the soul. That is, only spiritual experience, via the three bodies, is expansive. Such are experiences of beauty and harmony in the physical realm, experiences of goodness and love in the emotional realm, and experiences of truth and spiritual insight in the mental realm. There are many potential spiritual qualities and realizations possible in the three worlds of incarnation, each being as food for the soul, but not all experiences are good food.

The other condition for soul-expansion from incarnation is that the experience must be conscious and not merely sensitive or automatic. Either, the experience must be intentionally `given up to the soul' (or `experienced for divine purpose'), or the experience must be a direct intention of the soul-will. These are essentially the same but from different perspectives. In other words, the experience must have a soul connection, whereby the energies of the sensitive experience are transmutable into soul-energy or the increase of spiritual consciousness. The soul, essentially, makes use of these experiences, and spiritual consciousness is increased. The soul-consciousness is intentionally experiencing itself in the mental, emotional or physical realm. Through the mind the soul reflects upon its truth. Through the emotions the soul feels its qualities of being. Through the physical body, interacting in the physical world, the soul experiences enjoyable sensations and creations of its manifesting power.

The soul, working through the three bodies of experience, enjoys its conscious realization of spiritual manifestations, its qualities and insights, discovered and created in the three realms. The soul also gains from these conscious experiences. These spiritual experiences, these spiritual insights, spiritual emotions and spiritual sensations all contribute to the soul expansion and feed the soul-body. The soul realizes itself in the physical world, in the emotions and mind. And through these experiences the soul acquires a more unitive understanding of the One Truth, a more unitive feeling of the One Being, and a greater creative ability to manifest its incarnating purpose in the physical world. Remember that the soul's incarnating purpose is to reflect upon and understand its spiritual truth through the mental body, to feel its qualities-of-being through the emotional body, and to manifest its creative spiritual power through the physical body and world. Partly, the soul incarnates to enjoy its being and consciousness and will in the three worlds, and partly, the soul incarnates to expand its being through the opportunities given by conscious life in this world of diverse persons, nature and events. These `opportune experiences' feed the expansion of soul, as the energies are transmuted by intentional consciousness.

We can mention here that the soul-body is a substantial energy-form, independent of the three bodies. This means that its present intensity and expansion is unaffected by problems and limitations in the three bodies. The soul is, as it were, free in itself and free in the world of souls. Limitations arise in relation to expansion in the three bodies and in relation to expansion in the world of souls. In other words, the soul is limited in how much of itself can be expressed and reflected in the bodies. Partly this limitation is reflective of the soul's limited ability or power-to-express, for every soul is growing or developing creative power. But more so, this limitation is due to blockages and under-development of the bodies. For example, great leadership or great intelligence would find an infant's body quite limiting. A mental body needs an adequate degree of ordinary development, mostly accomplished by teachers and books, before the soul can express higher levels of insight through the mental body. Another possible limitation is disease or neurosis in the bodies. This will often need healing from sources and methods outside of the soul-healer, before the soul itself can actually help heal the limiting conditions. For example, one can rightly say that the soul is a healer, but the soul may have no opportunity to effect a healing if the mental body is over-neurotic, since this person has virtually lost all touch with the soul, or in other words, the neurotic condition does not allow for any soul-connection and thus, no soul healing is possible.

So, Adequate development, or preparation, is needed as ground-work for soul-work, and much of this ground-work is often done before any conscious connection with the soul is established. Thus, good education and development of mastery in the three bodies is needed as preparation for soul-expression. This can be accomplished in conjunction with soul-expression, but it is often accomplished by the `personal ego' and by social influences. We will explain more on the ego later, since this explanation would divert the present theme. For now, consider the personal ego as the strongest and most manipulating desire in the personal life. Also consider that this desire could be for the future good of soul-expression or it could be detrimental to potential spiritual unfoldment. Thus, the ego could be called good or bad, depending on what it is doing or to what ends it is directing and manipulating the three bodies.

The teachings say that at some point of initiation the ego sacrifices itself and allows the spiritual soul to direct one's life, but only after the ego has been developed and has accomplished its preparatory functional work of bringing all the many scattered energies and personal desires into one concentrated desire and directed focus. Hopefully, this is complimentary to soul's purpose.

Repeating again, the soul in-itself is independent of body problems and blockages, but those conditions of the bodies are limiting to the soul-expression, since the soul uses these bodies for its reflection and expression. There is another limitation as well, which is that the soul can only remain as it is, at its present level of intensity and expansion, until its expansion is furthered by life and experience in the three bodies. This esoteric law is often forgotten in spiritual teachings. The grows, as it were, by life in the three worlds. It is here that experience and insight furthers the soul expansion within the world of souls. From life in the three bodies, or experience in the three worlds, the soul acquires needed energies for its greater expansion and has the opportunity for leaping into higher levels of soul frequency. Without this incarnation into the three-fold world of experience, and without the energies consciously gained from this personal life, the soul remains as it is, independent and free in itself, but also incapable of further expansion toward the Absolute Unity. On the one hand, the soul needs the personal mind to realist more of its own mystery. And on the other hand, the soul-consciousness increases and becomes more inclusive by way of energies transmuted from the mind. Essentially, the soul feeds on energies and experiences of the three bodies.

Thus, this science is practically important. Mental energies, emotional energies and vital energies are all needed for the soul to expand and strengthen its permanent substance. Vital energies from the earth itself are needed. Thus, incarnation is essential for the soul's further expansion, for the soul's `path of return'. An analogy would be the tree, as the soul must dip down its roots into the earth life for nourishment in order to grow high up into the sky. For its growth, the soul needs this earth life, as well as help from the Over-soul above.

The law of expansion is complimentary. As the soul expands in this three-fold life, in the three bodies, it actually expands in its own dimension, and this is due to energies being transmuted and accumulated by the soul from the three bodies. As soul expands through the mental body, realizations and insights increase the soul-consciousness. As soul expands through the emotional body, unitive feelings of love and inclusiveness give a certain energy-substance to the soul-being. As soul expands through the physical body and is creative in the world, certain creative abilities are developed by the soul which increase its power of creative will.

The soul gains, or expands, from three `things', from three essential `foods'. One is reflective conscious experience, as the soul mentally reflects upon its spiritual nature or truth, emotionally experiences its spiritual qualities, such as love and peace, and sensually experiences its physical incarnation and spiritual beauties of the earth life. Second, the soul gains from energies assimilated from the three bodies. Mental, emotional and vital energies are assimilated by the soul, via conscious breath, from these bodies and from the planet. Third, the soul gains creative power, or ability, to purposefully work through the three bodies and in this world of manifestation. Related to this is the ability to transform and transmute energies, to use energies and assimilate energies, and to gain understanding and skill in working cooperatively with other souls and other forces of the planet. Thus, the soul is here to gain experience or understanding, to gain energies needed for conscious expansion, and to gain further ability or power to both manifest spiritual qualities and make use of this incarnating opportunity for its greater spiritual realization and conscious expansion.

We can also note that the soul is here to enjoy its creative power, to enjoy experience, and to enjoy this manifested world with other lives. Thus, the soul finds joy, as one of its potential spiritual qualities, in this life and this world, and although it is true to say that the soul has work to be done, this work can be done with joy and love.

We can also note that the soul is not here simply for its own expansion, for that would be quite a selfish perspective. For although these teachings have been emphasizing what the soul can gain in this world from experiences and energies, the soul's incarnating purpose is very much to do with service and creative work in this world, as the soul is part of the universal spiritual purpose to manifest greater truth, love and beauty, to help nurture the unfoldment of spiritual potential in others and throughout the whole planet, and to help heal unnecessary problems and suffering in the world.

This purpose of service has three main lines of work, or three major paths to follow: the creator, the protector/nurturer and the healer. Each of these lines of service are equal in their spiritual value. Some souls will more emphasis one of the paths, but all of the paths are important and could be worked at. Also, such service need not be on a grand scale. There is always something of value to do, at least locally or in smaller groups.

One path is being the creator of spiritual qualities on this planet. You could also think of this as being a medium for spiritual unfoldment through humanity and the planet. This path brings greater truth, vision, goodness, love, and beauty into the world. It includes being the visionary, the artist, the inventor, the teacher, the scientist, or anyone bringing something new and good into the world, whether material, emotionally or mentally. Path two is being the protector of the existing ecology, the lives, and the diverse beauty of the planet, that is, being the protector of the spiritual goodness already existing in the kingdoms of nature, including the human. This path could also be called the nurturer, as it includes nurturing the unfolding health, goodness, and beauty of things, as would a mother or gardener. The third path is being the healer of unnecessary problems and suffering, which is working to heal the mental confusions, the emotional turmoils and the physical illnesses of people (to mention just a few of the existing problems), and to help reconnect people with their soul consciousness and spiritual intelligence. This path is the healer or spiritual redeemer, or could be called the restorer, and the work may be focused on physical, emotional, mental, or soul conditions.

This healing work recognizes that various problems have developed in the divine unfoldment, that some things have gone astray in the natural harmony and spiritual unfoldment of this planet and with many lives, and thus there is a healing work to be done, not only with people but with the ecology and other natural creatures. These teachings disagree with those apologists who say that "all is according to plan" or "all events are by divine will" or "all things are the necessary working out of karma or justice." Instead, we say there is healing work to be done, and although some apparent problems may be part of "the plan" or "divine will", and some problems may be unavoidable effects of past causes, this is not true of all problems and events of life. We say there is ignorance and that mistakes are often made and disharmonies created, and although it is true that these are `causes' or `karmas', it is not true that these are "necessary" or "needed" or "part of the divine plan." These teachings also disagree with "the belief in predestination," as well as the possibility of predicting events in the infinite future. Predictions of future events is only possible because of high degrees of probability, and the further in time is the prediction the lower is the probability of correct prediction. Freedom and hazard are unpredictable elements in the universe, found in varying degrees about different lives and particles, and thus is the unavoidable law of uncertainty. And because of varying degrees of freedom, and `unsustainable planning', there is no ultimate predestination. There is no god which set this world into a predictable mechanical process or which fixed a perfect running program for creation, and there is no god which constantly manipulates all events in the world. There is no god which is eternally reviewing his own directed movie. That would be a bored god. And we are not mere puppets or programed characters in such a movie. These beliefs are rejected.

Instead, the universe of consciousness, will and being, is continually unfolding and revealing its mystery. The future continually holds mystery, surprise, and discovery, and new creative powers are continually being developed. Each of us, as souls, are part of this unfolding mystery and divine revelation. It should be noted that `relativity' pervades all ideas of consciousness, creative power, being, predestiny, prediction, knowledge, revelation and unfoldment. What is meant by this is that there are `varying degrees' of such. One consciousness is large and insightful, in relation to another consciousness. But this same consciousness is small and quite ignorant, in relation to the greater fields or beings of consciousness. In like manner, a certain unfoldment or revelation is large or small, depending on the universal view.

It can be accepted that some degree of "predestination" is apparent, in the sense that there are parts of ourselves, parts of this world and events of this world, which cannot really be changed, just as there is never `absolute freedom' in ourselves or in this world. But absolute predestination is just a fantasy and very often just an excuse or apology for events and actions. Also, some degree of future prediction is possible, though absolute certainty is not. Planning is possible and so is planned success, but success can never be absolutely guaranteed Thus, predestination, prediction, and creative planning or "the divine plan", are all relative facts, having varying degrees of truth, relative to the ever-present freedom and uncertainties of people, nature, space and time, and ultimately relative to the unfoldment of spiritual consciousness, an unfoldment which has the highest degree of uncertainty and unpredictability.

Thus are the three major paths of service, as planetary service is one of the purposes of the soul incarnation. Another soul purpose is enjoyment of experience. Through the mental body the soul enjoys learning, new discoveries, and solving things by reason or practical intelligence. Through the emotions the soul enjoys the many feelings regarding spiritual life, beauty, love, and being together with others in unity and harmony. Through the physical body the soul enjoys the many sensations, the senses, the moving activities, the coordination, and the manifesting power of the physical body. Thus, service and enjoyment are both purposes of the soul in incarnation.

These can be complimentary, of course, as service can be so enjoyed, and the various ways of enjoying experience can promote and benefit service work. If begged to answer which of these is greater on a spiritual scale, it would be difficult, and we should simply say these are equal. One is tempted to say service is more spiritual than enjoyment, but what is the attempted result of service if not enjoyment? It would seem that service is towards enjoyment - creating, nurturing, and restoring health, beauty and enjoyment in others and around the planet. So how could one who knows not enjoyment serve the end goal of enjoyment? Imbalanced teachings have arisen, as the strong moralists deny enjoyment as a spiritual quality, while the hedonists deny unselfish service as one of the primary enjoyments. Anyways, the soul-connected heart cannot deny the inner feelings and urgings to both serve and enjoy life.

So, service in the world, as well as enjoyment in the three bodies and of the three aspects of life, are equal purposes of the soul. These can both be called `expressive purposes' of the soul, and these are reasons for the soul to expand and express through the three personal bodies.

It should be noted here that `expression', which includes both service and enjoyment, is not just about oneself but inevitably and purposefully involves the three spheres of planetary life. We could not really speak of soul-expression through the bodies without also implying soul-expression through the world, since every body is related to its surrounding, collective world, and since every expression is effective to some degree in the surrounding three spheres or dimensions of planetary life. The three spheres are, of course, same as the three bodies but on a larger, collective scale. And thus we can tune into, add to, nurture or heal the planetary health and harmony, the world pool of reactive emotions and higher emotions of love, and the mental sphere of world thoughts, beliefs, and ideas.

Remember that your three bodies all live within these planetary spheres, and it is not just the physical body which finds either nurturance or suffering from this planet. Our physical bodies must breathe the surrounding air of the physical planet, which can be either invigorating or polluting to the body. A similar truth can be said of the emotional and mental bodies, as these must develop from what is presently supplied, and these must live and share within the same sphere as other such bodies. One could say that "no man is an island", and neither is any one mind or emotional heart, just as no physical body could survive in complete separation from some surrounding ecology. So much of everything is interconnected and effecting other things.

We each live within a greater body, or field, or ecology, which may be very harmonious and nurturing, or which may be disharmonious and un-nurturing. We do what we can or do what we will within this greater field of being. We get what we can or get what we will out of this larger space. We give what we can or give what we will to this larger collective. We are very often affected by our surrounding physical and non-physical environment, and we very often affect it. This is sometimes good or helpful, and sometimes not, and most often this effectiveness is out of our control or choice, and is usually quite automatic and unconscious. It is only when we intentionally begin to be conscious or aware of how our thoughts, emotions and health are all influenced by the collective spheres, that we begin to create our own personal destiny and become consciously helpful to the greater good. Thus, becoming more conscious is the medium for our soul's purpose.

Make note that we can begin to create our own destiny, but we are not always creating our own destiny. Neither are we necessarily following some pre-planned spiritual destiny. Truthfully speaking, the average person is either simply following patterns of social conditioning or is simply lost in a fog of confusion. In these cases, there is no self or soul created destiny, and neither is there any spiritual guidance. Such guidance or such self-directed destiny must be earned by a certain amount of struggle and intentional self-study. There can be no denying that social and physical factors, outside of our own will and outside of the soul's control, greatly determine the person we have become, physically, emotionally and mentally.

Teachings which do not acknowledge the social and physical influences upon the person are simply native teachings, like those false teachings which suggest that all conditions of the three bodies and all events of the personal life are soul-created, soul-planned, or pre-destined. Some teachings are based on two false beliefs, each of which even contradict the other, that all of the personal life and events are soul-created and that these are karma created as well. They do not even bother to wonder how the soul could freely create all future circumstances while also being karma-bound. These are just fancy beliefs and idle talk. To suggest that the soul willfully creates circumstances for its own karmic justice, is like saying the soul plans to be a murderer as well as plans his own capture and hanging. Again, such nonsense is merely apologetic for all circumstances and actions.

The truth is that the soul is conscious [free] will with purpose, and is actually free of any "self-karma from past lives". Karma, as people think of it, only applies to the three bodies and three planetary spheres, and this `karma' is as much to do with social and planetary influences as it is to do with previous individual desires and actions. The three bodies of a person are made of various influences from the social and planetary spheres, as well as from past-life influences. Whatever patterns and abilities develop in any of the three bodies will be influential in later bodies, as these patterns and abilities are carried on for some time through their respective planetary spheres. Each body of a person is basically a composite of previous patterns, and each develops by assimilating patterns from the planetary collective spheres. Each of the bodies are influenced mostly by these planetary influences. For example, the mental body is greatly conditioned by beliefs and ideas from part of the mental sphere or social mind, especially from parents and teachers. The emotional body is greatly influenced by reactive patterns from part of the emotional sphere, especially from parents and friends and one's racial culture. And the physical body is, of course, greatly influenced by parental genes. Picture each body developing and being influenced within its respective sphere or environment, while the spiritual soul is like a dim and weak light, or a weak magnetic pattern, pervading each of the bodies, being somewhat effective but usually only dimly effective and guiding this life of the person.

Each body is developed, or patterned, from social and physical influences, as well as being patterned by the person's reactions and adaptations to these outside influences. Basically, spiritual teachings should accept the fundamental tenets of modern psychology, rather than hold on to native beliefs about the soul being the absolute determinate of personality develop and personal events. It is true that a soul pervades the personal life, the three bodies, to some degree, as much as possible depending on the conditions and maturity of these bodies, and so this soul `guides' the personal development and its actions to some degree, but usually the soul's influence is quite weak compared to other outside influences, such as social and physical, and weak compared to the influential inertia of patterns that have grown already strong in these three bodies. Thus, the soul achieves what it can through the personal life, through the personality, but very often this personality, or patterns repeating within the three bodies, becomes an obstacle to soul-expression, and the soul must gradually work to heal or dissolve those obstacles. Likewise, the outside influences can become as obstacles.

Although great benefit can be gained from good and healthy influences, especially in the early years of personal development, the three-fold person gradually develops an `ego' to regulate and somewhat control these social and physical influences, and this ego becomes responsible for integrating the three bodies and leading the personal life along a more individual and unique path, rather than remain as `part of the herd' or remain simply passive to outside influences. Thus, by way of the ego the person develops a self-influence on its own development and achievements, and the person is more able to discriminate what outside influences shall be allowed and what ones should be rejected, discriminating what is good or bad for oneself. This ego development is important, but it should be remembered that the ego can only view good and bad from the perspective of physical needs, emotional wishes and mental beliefs, and to a great extent it is already conditioned by the social influences of which it tries to regulate and conquer. The ego gains the potential power to oppose the soul, that is, the strong ego has the potential to create patterns that oppose soul purpose. The ego can work in line with the soul-will but there is no guarantee of this.

What is very useful to the soul is how the ego gradually brings into integrated focus the often scattered energies of the three bodies, for this integrating work is a prerequisite for greater soul-connection and soul-expression. More will need to be said about the ego and its relation to soul. The ego development and function within the personality is actually very reflective of the soul. The ego is actually a creation of the soul, and so are the three bodies, but the soul only brings forth the essential seed, or essential structure of the ego and the bodies, while their development in this world cannot be fully controlled or guided by the soul. Again, we must acknowledge the fundamental fact of other influences, from outside the person and from the person's own power disconnected from soul-consciousness. The soul does what is possible to fix its consciousness and purposes through the ego and the bodies, but these bodies very often develop and maintain a life-of-their-own, so to speak.

The soul, pure in itself, must make use of and heal the bodies of its expression. All that the soul `must do', as it were, is fulfill its purposes which are universally predestined, and this purposeful expression is unavoidably limited by the soul's own power and by the bodies `given' for its expression. The soul must `work with' the bodies at-hand which are first conditioned by social and planetary influences. Although the bodies have the essential seed from the soul-life, the soul cannot usually `compete' equally with the greater influences of the world. The less mature the bodies, the less is the soul influence, and it is usually only later on in the more mature person that the soul can possible express itself to any substantial extent.

The understanding of this subject and these laws will require a developed intuition and studied experience, and more shall be said later on. The key to understanding is in recognizing that the soul has its own divine purposes, though limited by its present state of consciousness and creative power, and that the bodies and spheres of its expression are limited and conditioned by influences and karmas, some of which are personally created and many of which are collectively created. All is interconnected, the soul being inter-related with other souls within the One Spirit, and each body being interconnected with others in its respective sphere.

There is spiritual work to be done in freeing the three bodies from unspiritual influences and errant patterns, and in developing attunement between these bodies and the soul purposes, which is all complimentary with the soul increasing and expanding its own consciousness, being-substance and manifesting power. The soul gradually gains influence and effectiveness in the three bodies and in the three spheres of planetary life, which coincides with the One Great Spirit gradually unfolding and expressing Itself in this world of experience. All the bodies are as yet incomplete and unperfected, just as is the world, and it is the soul's purpose to better reflect, in the person and in the world, the spiritual qualities and true being.