as incidents of the physical life—­good in their place—­but useful to the advanced man only when he has mastered them to the extent that he no longer regards them as close to the “I.”  And yet, to some people, these sensations are so closely identified with their conception of the “I” that when they think of themselves they think merely of a bundle of these sensations.  They are not able to set them aside and consider them as things apart, to be used when necessary and proper, but as things not fastened to the “I.”  The more advanced a man becomes the farther off seem these sensations.  Not that he does not feel hungry, for instance.  Not at all, for he recognizes hunger, and satisfies it within reason, knowing that his physical body is making demands for attention, and that these demands should be heeded.  But—­mark the difference—­instead of feeling that the “I” is hungry the man feels that “my body” is hungry, just as he might become conscious that his horse or dog was crying for food insistently.  Do you see what we mean?  It is that the man no longer identifies himself—­the “I”—­with the body, consequently the thoughts which are most closely allied to the physical life seem comparatively “separate” from his “I” conception.  Such a man thinks “my stomach, this,” or “my leg, that,” or “my body, thus,” instead of “‘I,’ this,” or “‘I’ that.”  He is able, almost automatically, to think of the body and its sensations as things of him, and belonging to him, which require attention and care, rather than as real parts of the “I.”  He is able to form a conception of the “I” as existing without any of these things—­without the body and its sensations—­and so he has taken the first step in the realization of the “I.”

Before going on, we ask the students to stop a few moments, and mentally run over these sensations of the body.  Form a mental image of them, and realize that they are merely incidents to the present stage of growth and experience of the “I,” and that they form no real part of it.  They may, and will be, left behind in the Ego’s higher planes of advancement.  You may have attained this mental conception perfectly, long since, but we ask that to give yourself the mental drill at this time, in order to fasten upon your mind this first step.

In realizing that you are able to set aside, mentally, these sensations—­that you are able to hold them out at arm’s length and “consider” them as an “outside” thing, you mentally determine that they are “not I” things, and you set them down in the “not I” collection—­the first to be placed there.  Let us try to make this still plainer, even at the risk of wearying you by repetitions (for you must get this idea firmly fixed in your mind).  To be able to say that a thing is “not I,” you must realize that there are two things in question (1) the “not I” thing, and (2) the “I” who is regarding the “not I” thing just as the “I” regards a lump of sugar, or a mountain.  Do you see what we mean?  Keep at it until you do.