To this end, he cultivated physical force, sufficient to overcome his environment; and as he developed a little of that consciousness which we term mental (using the term merely as a part of the physical organism called the brain), he realized that co-operation would greatly enhance his chances for self-preservation, and therefore, this mental consciousness impelled him to annex to his forces other physical organisms so that their united strength might preserve each other.

This side of the story of man’s evolution in consciousness is not however a part of our present work, and we will therefore leave it, for a brief consideration of the successive steps in attainment of consciousness, leading through devious paths, and through millions of relative time called years, into the present state of man’s consciousness which in so many instances presages the oncoming of that state, called liberation, or illumination—­mukti.

Through mental self-consciousness the way has been long and arduous.  There are many, many degrees of this phase of consciousness, and to this phase we owe what is called our present civilization.

The true occultist, whether viewing manifestation from the standpoint of Oriental or of Occidental ideals, realizes that everything is right which makes for human betterment, and that dharma (right-action) consists in acting in accordance with the highest motive of which one’s consciousness is capable.

That our present civilization is most uncivilized in many respects, will be admitted by all whose range of consciousness has touched in any degree, the infinite areas of wisdom expressed in altruistic action.

But, though the path be long, and thorny, the cycle is closing, and many have reached the goal through its zigzag course.

But, underlying, as it were, and upholding and uplifting the expression of sense consciousness in which so many persons seem lost to-day, there are evidences of a consciousness which observes the effects, of this tremendous mental activity, and knows itself as something apart from, and superior to this manifestation.

This, we define as soul—­individualized expression of the spiritual consciousness—­the central light, which as we previously quoted, “lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

Many there are who merely perceive this.  To them there is a vague and indefinable something which seems to realize that the operations of the mind are something phenomenal and apart from the real Self.  Psychology, even so empirical a psychology as is possible of demonstration in western schools and colleges, evidences the fact that there is a far greater field of mental operation than is covered by the outer, or mental consciousness.

The outer, or objective action of the mind, considers but one subject, one question, one problem at a time.  Many varied phases of this problem may present themselves, but the mental forces are focalized upon one subject at a time.  And yet to state that but one idea, thought-concept, or desire, can enter the mind at a time, is not a safe assumption.