Reincarnation and Growth - Part II

by Erwin Bomas

The outer body. The ego that has the least reach of consciousness – so little that you cannot even call it an ego – is the outer body. It has the most limited reach of consciousness. The building blocks it uses are atoms. Further inner is the astral model-body. This term is used because it is the model for the physical body. It is within this sphere that feelings have their existence. Feelings perceive more than the physical, but their reach is also very limited. You can ask yourself how real and lasting the world is when only viewing the world through your feelings (for someone driven by fear the world is a threatening place, while someone else who is optimistic sees the world as a place full of possibilities).

The animal ego. In the animal ego, with the abilities for vitality and desire, the urges and longings have their existence. Desire is a neutral force, not good or bad per se. If you think for yourself, you can decide how far the notion of the animal ego reaches. Think for a moment about the term blind ambition. Even though desire is a neutral force, it can be colored by the motive involved. If focused on the worldly, it can definitely be limiting. Someone who becomes his desires, according to us, does not have a broad perspective on the world.

The human ego and Higher Human Ego. Now we arrive at the human ego, the starting human being. This is what we can call our daily consciousness. It employs thoughts focused on the outer world. Here we find the ability of thought, however only the beginning ability of thought. Spiritual thoughts – the unselfish – are found in what we call the Higher Human Ego: the ego where thought is much more evolved. Here we mean ideals such as universal brotherhood, cooperation, the willingness to sacrifice.

The Difference Between the Human Ego and the Higher Human Ego. The reach of consciousness of the Higher Human Ego is much further than that of the human ego. Someone whose consciousness continually rests in the human ego constantly thinks of himself, his own personal me. He thinks of himself as no more than his own personality, no more than Mrs. of Mr. Smith. Of course this will almost always lead to selfishness, the idea that you have nothing to do with others. So much broader is the reach of consciousness of the Higher Human Ego! It includes large groups of people, even other realms of nature.

The Spiritual and the Divine Ego. Broader still is the reach of consciousness of the Spiritual Ego with the higher ability to understand. The building blocks employed by this ego are insights and visions. Someone who says ‘me’ to this ego, sees the connections between various things, experiences that it’s the same Life that flows through himself and others. He lives in realization of the brotherhood of all living beings.

Last but not least, you will find the relative top of this stream of consciousness: the Divine Ego. If you identify with this ego, you experience the unity of all of the apparently separate beings. Then you will see that all beings are rays from the same sun. In our heart we are all the same.

Dichotomy. The information in this brief description can be summarized in two parts. On one side there are three lower egos: transitory, temporary and illusionary. On the other side you have the three higher egos, the more lasting egos, that offer us a much broader view of reality.

Birth and death: folding and unfolding of consciousness. According to the diagram we are able to explain what takes place during birth and death. It is a cyclic folding and unfolding of consciousness. At death consciousness retreats, retracts, withdraws. In the East they refer to this as breathing in. At birth we see the opposite process: consciousness unfolds, develops; this can be referred to as breathing out.

Death: leaving building blocks behind. When consciousness withdraws during the dying process, we leave behind the building blocks that belong to another sphere.  We no longer require these building blocks. This is evident when taking a look at the outer body. When we die, our body falls apart. All the building blocks that formed the outer body, all the molecules and cells, fall apart. All the atoms follow their own path. The same applies for emotions, the wants and needs, and thoughts focused on the worldly.  If consciousness disconnects from these spheres, it leaves these building blocks behind. You can experience this in your daily life. If you focus your consciousness for a time on the Higher Human Ego, then the other egos will play little or no role. You won’t notice being hungry, your emotions play no role, there is no ambition – no, you think about your ideal and the rest do not seem to exist. Probably, after some time, the other egos manifest, and for example, you may suddenly notice that you are thirsty. The consciousness then returns to the sphere of the outer body.

Birth: recollecting building blocks. At birth consciousness redescends. It is the opposite process of death.

At each sphere the consciousness recollects the building blocks that belong to that respective sphere: the same building blocks that were left behind at death.

So the stream of consciousness descends from the Divine Ego. At the Spiritual Ego, consciousness collects its building blocks, its insights and visions. At the Higher Human Ego, consciousness collects the thoughts focused on the spiritual. After that, descending from sphere to sphere, consciousness collects the wordly thoughts, then its desires, emotions and lastly the atoms that form the physical body.

Growth. This cycle of life and death is paired with growth, a broadening of consciousness. A cycle is like a winding staircase; you ascend in spirals. During each life on earth the human ego has new experiences from which it learns and more and more of the limitless abilities develop. What happens to these lessons learned at death? In fact, only the more spiritual experiences – meaning the spiritual conclusions drawn – join the ascension to the more inner spheres.

In light of the total man, it is this spiritual growth – meaning in light of this stream of consciousness – which is important. When dealing with upbringing, this should not be forgotten. The most important responsibility relating to upbringing is to harmoniously activate these spiritual qualities. This is the process of education. There is another sort of growth which is more focused on the outer world. Man personally lives in this world and he has to play by the existing rules. He needs to know that when a traffic light is red you have to stop and that you cannot shout in a museum, etcetera. These are things that need to be made clear during upbringing. This we call instruction. These things are much less important than those that belong to the higher aspects of man. They are less important, because they are not lasting. To know that you have to stop for a red traffic light has limited value. In another life other traffic rules may apply. Of course we need some basic knowledge in order to gain experience in this world, but as soon as we disappear from this world after death, we have no use of this knowledge.

Inner growth:  After death, we only take the spiritual life experiences with us. These abilities are truly part of our character. Ideals, philosophical ideas, artistic appreciation, everything which raises you above the human ego, stays intact after the death of the human ego. When we die, it is also the spiritual experiences that join the higher aspects of ourself. The spiritual experiences then assimilate and are weaved into our consciousness. It is these experiences that form our true character.

Character, conscience and spiritual will. Our character is not static. It changes continually. At each new birth man is different, more wise than in his last reincarnation. The highest level of wisdom he has developed up until now, we call the conscience. The conscience is the apex of spiritual experiences from all previous lives. It is the link that allows the higher influences from the stream of consciousness to flow to the personal ego.

Man’s conscience also grows, because no man is all-wise. No man has yet experienced the highest level of spirituality. The conscience is the highest level of wisdom that has been developed to this point and therefore it is most important that this is activated during upbringing. Before one can grow in wisdom, the spiritual will is required. Note: we are talking about the spiritual will. There are people who have a strong will, people who will do anything to fulfill their ambitions. They focus their will on worldly things. On the contrary, the spiritual will flows out of our spiritual characteristics.

Who is the leader within us? Our spiritual will can allow our actual character, the lasting part of us, including the conscience, to rule, so we can control our worldly thoughts, our desires, urges and feelings. We can be master of ourselves. The spiritual and unselfish aspects within us are steering the ship of consciousness that we are, while our desires and feelings are the well-listening sailors. They are not the captain!

The Râja method of upbringing. The goal of the Râja method of upbringing is to help us become the master of ourselves. Râja means ‘royal’. You rule as a king. What is it you rule? Over all worldly thougths, desires, feelings; you rule over what you can call – in general – your lower self. How can you be the ruler? Or how do you learn to be? It is possible to be the master of yourself, to rule over your lower self. How can we state this with such assurance? Because from our experience, all the higher characteristics - sources of inspiration – which we can call our Higher Self, are innate. These characteristics are much wiser, more powerful than the lower  elements within us. So if we can activate these higher characteristics, they too can take control. The Râja method of upbringing awakens and brings out the higher qualities in the child. The method teaches you to become what lies within you. Children – and adults as well – can sense the enormous reservoir of innate spiritual powers, and can experience the actual development of these powers.

Learning = remembering. In fact learning is remembering. The consciousness is remembering the innate qualities, it digs up its inner treasures. It is a beautiful process, and those guiding this process will learn as much as the children growing up.

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