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Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism274
property of the race, and is before each and every man and woman.
Instances of it have been known among all peoples—in all times. And all the
records agree in the main, although the interpretations vary widely.
The first indications of the coming of Spiritual Consciousness, is the
dawning perception of the reality of the Ego—the awareness of the real
existence of the Soul. When one begins to feel that he, himself, is his soul,
rather than that he possess a wonderful something called the “soul” of which
he really knows nothing—when, we say, he feels that he is a soul, rather than
that he has or will have a soul—then that one is nearing the first stages of
Spiritual Consciousness, if indeed he is not already within its outer borders.
There are two general stages of this blossoming of the flower, although
they generally blend into each other. The first is the full perception of the
“I Am” consciousness—the second the Cosmic Knowing. We will try at least
clumsily and crudely to give an idea of these two stages, although to those
who have experienced neither our words may appear meaningless.
The perception of the “I Am” consciousness may be likened to the bud
of the flower—the flower itself being the Cosmic Knowing. Many, who
have not as yet experienced this “I Am” consciousness, may think that it is
simply the intellectual conception of the self, or perhaps the faith or belief
in the reality of the soul which they may possess by reason of their religious
training. But it is a far different thing. It is more than a mere intellectual
conception, or a mere blind belief upon the word or authority of another—
more indeed than even the belief in the Divine promise of immortality. It is
a consciousness—a knowing—that one is a soul; an awareness that one is a
spiritual being—an immortal. Here, dear friends, we are compelled to pause
for lack of words adequate to describe the mental state. The race, having
had no such experiences, have coined no words for it. The Sanscrit contains
words which have been injected into the language by the ancient Yogis, and
which may be at least intellectually comprehended by the educated Hindu,
but our Western tongues contain no words whereby we may convey the
meaning. We can only try to give you the idea by crude illustration. No one