ed thoughts, and assert your Dominion
over them. Enter into your Kingdom, thou manifestation of the Spirit!

While this lesson is intended primarily to bring clearly into your
consciousness the fact that the "I" is a reality, separate and distinct
from its Mental Tools, and while the control of the mental faculties by
the Will forms a part of some of the future lessons, still, we think that
this is a good place to point out to you the advantages arising from a
realization of the true nature of the "I" and the relative aspect of the
Mind.

Many of us have supposed that our minds were the masters of ourselves,
and we have allowed ourselves to be tormented and worried by thoughts
"running away" with us, and presenting themselves at inopportune moments.
The Initiate is relieved from this annoyance, for he learns to assert his
mastery over the different parts of the mind, and controls and regulates
his mental processes, just as one would a fine piece of machinery. He is
able to control his conscious thinking faculties, and direct their work
to the best advantage, and he also learns how to pass on orders to the
subconscious mental region and bid it work for him while he sleeps, or
even when he is using his conscious mind in other matters. These subjects
will be considered by us in due time, during the course of lessons.

In this connection it may be interesting to read what Edward Carpenter
says of the power of the individual to control his thought processes. In
his book "_From Adam's Peak to Eleplumta_," in describing his experience
while visiting a Hindu Gnani Yogi, he says:

"And if we are unwilling to believe in this internal mastery over the
body, we are perhaps almost equally unaccustomed to the idea of mastery
over our own inner thoughts and feelings. That a man should be a prey to
any thought that chances to take possession of his mind, is commonly
among us assumed as unavoidable. It may be a matter of regret that he
should be kept awake all night from anxiety as to the issue of a lawsuit
on the morrow, but that he should have the power of determining whether
he be kept awake or not seems an extravagant demand. The image of an
impending calamity is no doubt odious, but its very odiousness (we say)
makes it haunt the mind all the more pertinaciously and it is useless to
try to expel it.

"Yet this is an absurd position--for man, the heir of all the ages:
hag-ridden by the flimsy creatures of his own brain. If a peb