to the finer body, and
thirdly to the causal body. Finally it stands forth radiant, luminous,
joyous, as the Self.

When the Self attributes itself to the physical body, there arise the
states of bodily consciousness, built up about the physical self.

When the Self, breaking through this first illusion, begins to see and
feel itself in the finer body, to find selfhood there, then the states of
consciousness of the finer body come into being; or, to speak exactly,
the finer body and its states of consciousness arise and grow together.

But the Self must not dwell permanently there. It must learn to find
itself in the causal body, to build up the wide and luminous fields of
consciousness that belong to that.

Nor must it dwell forever there, for there remains the fourth state, the
divine, with its own splendour and everlastingness.

It is all a question of the states of consciousness; all a question of
raising the sense of selfhood, until it dwells forever in the Eternal.

5. In the different fields of manifestation, the Consciousness, though
one, is the elective cause of many states of consciousness.

Here is the splendid teaching of oneness that lies at the heart of the
Eastern wisdom. Consciousness is ultimately One, everywhere and
forever. The Eternal, the Father, is the One Self of All Beings. And so,
in each individual who is but a facet of that Self, Consciousness is
One. Whether it breaks through as the dull fire of physical life, or the
murky flame of the psychic and passional, or the radiance of the
spiritual man, or the full glory of the Divine, it is ever the Light,
naught but the Light. The one Consciousness is the effective cause of
all states of consciousness, on every plane.

6. Among states of consciousness, that which is born of
Contemplation is free from the seed of future sorrow.

Where the consciousness breaks forth in the physical body, and the
full play of bodily life begins, its progression carries with it inevitable
limitations. Birth involves death. Meetings have their partings. Hunger
alternates with satiety. Age follows on the heels of youth. So do the
states of consciousness run along the circle of birth and death.

With the psychic, the alternation between prize and penalty is swifter.
Hope has its shadow of fear, or it is no hope. Exclusive love is
tortured by jealousy. Pleasure passes through deadness into pain.
Pain's surcease brings pleasure back again. So here, too, the stat