ities, and you will
never be able to set aside the real "I" for consideration. You may think
you can, but a little reflection will show you that you are merely
setting aside some of your mental qualities or faculties. And in this
process what is the "I" doing? Simply setting aside and considering
things. Can you not see that the "I" cannot be both the _considerer_ and
the thing considered--the _examiner_ and the thing examined? Can the sun
shine upon itself by its own light? You may consider the "I" of some
other person, but it is _your_ "I" that is considering. But you cannot,
as an "I," stand aside and see yourself as an "I." Then what evidence
have we that there is an "I" to us? This: that you are always conscious
of being the considerer and examiner, instead of the considered and
examined thing--and then, you have the evidence of your consciousness.
And what report does this consciousness give us? Simply this, and nothing
more: "I AM." That is all that the "I" is conscious of, regarding its
true self: "I AM," but that consciousness is worth all the rest, for the
rest is but "not I" tools that the "I" may reach out and use.

And so at the final analysis, you will find that there is something that
refuses to be set aside and examined by the "I." And that something is
the "I" itself--that "I" eternal, unchangeable--that drop of the Great
Spirit Ocean--that spark from the Sacred Flame.

Just as you find it impossible to imagine the "I" as dead, so will you
find it impossible to set aside the "I" for consideration--all that comes
to you is the testimony: "I AM."

If you were able to set aside the "I" for consideration, who would be the
one to consider it? Who could consider except the "I" itself, and if it
be _here_, how could it be _there?_ The "I" cannot be the "not I" even in
the wildest flights of the imagination--the imagination with all its
boasted freedom and power, confesses itself vanquished when asked to do
this thing.

Oh, students, may you be brought to a realization of what you are. May
you soon awaken to the fact that you are sleeping gods--that you have
within you the power of the Universe, awaiting your word to manifest
in action. Long ages have you toiled to get this far, and long must you
travel before you reach even the first Great Temple, but you are now
entering into the conscious stage of Spiritual Evolution. No longer will
your eyes be closed as you walk the Path. From now on you will begin to