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Fourteen lessons in Yogi philosophy and Oriental occultism
Fourteen lessons in Yogi philosophy and Oriental occultism Author:William Walker Atkinson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE THIRD LESSON. The Spiritual Principles. In our Second Lesson we gave you a brief outlint of the Fourth and Fifth Principles of Man, i.e., (4) Instincti... more »ve Mind, and (5) Intellect. As we have told you before, man has passed through the Fourth Principle stage to its extreme, and has now passed on to a consciousness of the Fifth Principle, Intellect. Some of us have developed the Intellectual stage to a considerable extent (although we have practically conquered but a few square miles of the new territory of the mind, and there is still a great task before us), while other men seem to have a con- sciousness almost altogether within the borders of the Instinctive Mind, and have only a glimmering of Intellect. Not only is this true of the savage races, but many, very many of so-called " civilized " people have not learned to do their own thinking, and seem willing to allow others to do their thinking for them, they following certain leaders with the stupid habit of the sheep. But still the race is progressing, slowly but surely, and many are thinking now who never thought before—a greater number are refusingto take their thinking second-hand, and are insisting upon knowing for themselves. When we consider that there are many men in whom the Fifth Principle, the Intellect, has scarcely unfolded, and that the race in general has taken but a few steps into the land of the Intellect, we begin to realize how difficult it is for any of us except the man or woman of exceptional spiritual unfoldment to comprehend even faintly the still higher Principles. It is something like a man born blind trying to comprehend light; or one born deaf endeavoring to form a mental concept of sound. One can only form an idea of something akin to his experiences. A man who has never tasted anything s...« less