That which is the Real Self of Man is the Divine Spark sent forth from the Sacred Flame.  It is the Child of the Divine Parent.  It is Immortal—­Eternal—­Indestructible—­Invincible.  It possesses within itself Power, Wisdom, and Reality.  But like the infant that contains within itself the sometime Man, the mind of Man is unaware of its latent and potential qualities, and does not know itself.  As it awakens and unfolds into the knowledge of its real nature, it manifests its qualities, and realizes what the Absolute has given it.  When the Real Self begins to awaken, it sets aside from itself those things which are but appendages to it, but which it, in its half-waking state, had regarded as its Self.  Setting aside first this, and then that, it finally discards all of the “Not I,” leaving the Real Self free and delivered from its bondage to its appendages.  Then it returns to the discarded appendages, and makes use of them.

In considering the question:  “What is the Real Self?” let us first stop to examine what man usually means when he says “I.”

The lower animals do not possess this “I” sense.  They are conscious of the outer world; of their own desires and animal cravings and feelings.  But their consciousness has not reached the Self-conscious stage.  They are not able to think of themselves as separate entities, and to reflect upon their thoughts.  They are not possessed of a consciousness of the Divine Spark—­the Ego—­the Real Self.  The Divine Spark is hidden in the lower forms of life—­even in the lower forms of human life—­by many sheaths that shut out its light.  But, nevertheless, it is there, always.  It sleeps within the mind of the savage—­then, as he unfolds, it begins to throw out its light.  In you, the Candidate, it is fighting hard to have its beams pierce through the material coverings When the Real Self begins to arouse itself from its sleep, its dreams vanish from it, and it begins to see the world as it is, and to recognize itself in Reality and not as the distorted thing of its dreams.

The savage and barbarian are scarcely conscious of the “I.”  They are but a little above the animal in point of consciousness, and their “I” is almost entirely a matter of the consciousness of the wants of the body; the satisfaction of the appetites; the gratification of the passions; the securing of personal comfort; the expression of lust, savage power, etc.  In the savage the lower part of the Instinctive Mind is the seat of the “I.” (See “Fourteen Lessons” for explanation of the several mental planes of man.) If the savage could analyze his thoughts he would say that the “I” was the physical body, the said body having certain “feelings,” “wants” and “desires.”  The “I” of such a man is a physical “I,” the body representing its form and substance.  Not only is this true of the savage, but even among so-called “civilized” men of to-day we find many in this stage.  They have developed powers of thinking and reasoning, but they do not