eal Self?" let us first stop
to examine what man usually means when he says "I."

The lower animals do not possess this "I" sense. They are conscious of
the outer world; of their own desires and animal cravings and feelings.
But their consciousness has not reached the Self-conscious stage. They
are not able to think of themselves as separate entities, and to reflect
upon their thoughts. They are not possessed of a consciousness of the
Divine Spark--the Ego--the Real Self. The Divine Spark is hidden in the
lower forms of life--even in the lower forms of human life--by many
sheaths that shut out its light. But, nevertheless, it is there, always.
It sleeps within the mind of the savage--then, as he unfolds, it begins
to throw out its light. In you, the Candidate, it is fighting hard to
have its beams pierce through the material coverings When the Real Self
begins to arouse itself from its sleep, its dreams vanish from it, and it
begins to see the world as it is, and to recognize itself in Reality and
not as the distorted thing of its dreams.

The savage and barbarian are scarcely conscious of the "I." They are but
a little above the animal in point of consciousness, and their "I" is
almost entirely a matter of the consciousness of the wants of the body;
the satisfaction of the appetites; the gratification of the passions; the
securing of personal comfort; the expression of lust, savage power, etc.
In the savage the lower part of the Instinctive Mind is the seat of the
"I." (See "Fourteen Lessons" for explanation of the several mental planes
of man.) If the savage could analyze his thoughts he would say that the
"I" was the physical body, the said body having certain "feelings,"
"wants" and "desires." The "I" of such a man is a physical "I," the body
representing its form and substance. Not only is this true of the savage,
but even among so-called "civilized" men of to-day we find many in this
stage. They have developed powers of thinking and reasoning, but they do
not "live in their minds" as do some of their brothers. They use their
thinking powers for the gratification of their bodily desires and
cravings, and really live on the plane of the Instinctive Mind. Such a
person may speak of "my mind," or "my soul," not from a high position
where he looks upon these things from the standpoint of a Master who
realizes his Real Self, but from below, from the point-of-view of the man
who lives on the plane of the Instinctive Mind