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Chapter XII: Astral Self-Expression2231
majority of us have had similar experiences regarding our little tasks in life.
We find that something happens to us when we are asleep.
The secret of the above-mentioned phenomena is that, during the sleep
of the boy, his sub-conscious or instinctive mind rehearses the task until it has
accomplished much in the direction of mastering it, and the next day it puts
into practice that which it has learned during the night—but the conscious
mind is not aware of the process of learning. There are depths of the mind
which take up these tasks of ours, and which while we are asleep and our
objective conscious faculties are resting, straighten out the troublesome
kinks of performance, and practice the tasks to be performed the coming
day.
In the same way, the super-conscious (not the sub-conscious) faculties of
the mind of the soul practice and become proficient in the tasks of the next
earth-life, as indicated by the urge of desire and the pangs of achievement
seeking birth. But, with this difference, the soul is fully conscious of the
workings of the super-conscious faculties, and, in fact, experiences the
greatest joy in the work of development and achievement. The heavenworld
of those souls which are possessed of the desire to “do things”—to
create, to perform, to make—is indeed a realm of bliss. For there the soul
finds itself able to manifest the things which were beyond it during the
earth-life, and to express itself in a measure almost beyond the fondest
dreams and hopes of the soul on earth.
And this expression and manifestation is performed from the very
love of the performance—from the joy of work, the ecstasy of creative
achievement—rather than from the hope of reward. On the Astral Plane,
alone, can the soul find the conditions which are pictured in Kipling’s lines:
“And only the Master shall praise us,
And only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money,
And no one shall work for fame;