There are countless teachings these days about Higher Self, yet I have a feeling that very few people really understand what it is. While it is certainly true that this so-called higher self is with us all the time, it's generally treated as something 'out there' or 'up there'. How can we know it and learn to live more and more in its light? It's easy to say that the purpose of incarnation is for learning lessons, developing consciousness, and healing and balancing the self - and if we go deep enough, we can discover exactly what lessons need to be learned, which aspects of consciousness ought to be developed, and how we can heal and balance. We can even say that the entire process of soul-evolution is the work of returning to Higher Self. But what is this greater part of ourselves, or rather, this essential spark at the core of our being?

The path of self-understanding demands that we come to understand who we are, which can only be discovered beyond the conflicts and confusions of our obvious self, also known as the personality. According to the teachings of ageless wisdom, the personality is defined as the union of 3 forces: physical, astral and mental - in which the physical is made up of both dense and subtle bodies (the bio-chemical and etheric), the astral relates to our emotional life, and the mental is divided into both lower and higher (concrete/analytical and abstract or intuitive). These three modes of normal human experience are transmuted through spiritual work.

The higher Self or Oversoul, (a.k.a. Atman or Monad), is considered the source of personality and its primary guide through the long eons of its incarnation in all dimensions of time and space. You can think of the oversoul as the light at the end of the tunnel, the castle of our homecoming that welcomes the returning Prodigal Son - which is, of course, an analogy for the manifest self, or as RA says: "the body/mind/spirit complex".

But what exactly is this Atman? Of course, it's impossible to describe it fully unless one is fully enlightened; and even then, words fail. Yet, some choice words can help us build a conceptual framework. According to my handy Glossary of Sanskrit Terms, this Atman is: "the divine aspect in the sevenfold constitution of man; his highest principle".

Going a bit further, The Law of One series gives us some more to chew on. In their view, the first thing we need to understand is that the Higher Self is a 6th density entity in its own right - not some sort of nebulous non-individuated force. This means that each Monad can be considered a soul who has achieved enlightenment through its own efforts along its own path of evolution (generally in an earlier portion of the Creation, or another solar system). This is the metaphysical basis for the statement that, in essence, all souls are from elsewhere, and not only Wanderers...

To me, this notion is already quite radical, and reminds me of the old Tibetan Buddhist teaching that considers some high Lamas to be emanations of particular Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (who, in the Vedanta/Theosophical system, would be 6th, 7th, and 8th density souls). You could certainly say that we, as an expression of body/mind/spirit, are also emanations of particular oversouls, which have passed through their own soul-evolution. So the Higher Self is your own private Master!

Additionally, RA notes that this Self has "full understanding of the accumulation of each entity's experiences" through all lifetimes - and therefore it is aware of exactly where we stand on the path. Furthermore, it is aware of all the needed lessons to be learned to achieve full Self-realization, and is like "a map in which the destination and roads are all well known". Atman knows the entire path of evolution back to itself, and knows exactly how to get there (or rather, how to get here!).

With this in mind, we can consider Higher Self a tremendous resource for personal growth; in fact, it is both the source and the central re-source of our entire evolutionary path. It (or rather, our central inner being) knows our full past-life history and our present point of development, the complete path to unity-consciousness and every iota of healing and balancing we need to achieve 6th density enlightenment. However, the degree to which we use this resource is totally our choice. Like all good Starseed souls and Confederation ET groups, the Higher Self strictly follows the Law of Free Will. It therefore never tells us what to do and never issues commands: it waits for the calling. And so RA explains that: "the Higher Self can program only for lessons and certain predisposing limitations if it wishes... the remainder is completely the free choice of each entity, a perfect balance between the known and the unknown..."

To contact this inner being, we have to open "the proper pathways through the roots of mind". In other words, we must activate what RA calls the spirit-complex or gateway-field between the higher mind and Monad, between the realms of personality and the transpersonal. Interestingly, the reason that meditation is the key to such bridging is because it is the primary method for awakening the 6th chakra or third-eye at the forehead - which activates our shuttle to cosmic mind and cosmic power.

What actually happens is that the energy fields of the 6th and 7th centers come to interpenetrate one another in the subtle, etheric energy channels of the head, and "the gateway" is opened. Like a stream of light inrushing and downpouring, the pure 1st ray or Will energy of Higher Self streams into the body/mind/spirit system, and in time, the personality is wholly transformed.

Yet, meditation is not enough, and each of us has significant areas of body/mind/spirit imbalance which require some degree of healing - fulfilled in the primary field of learning: daily life. To address these issues, Higher Self programs each incarnation (before we take birth) for particular lessons and certain predisposing limitations. These programs for 3D experience are the specific forms of catalyst in the face of which, as the Higher Self intends, we are most likely to seek greater wholeness and self-integration in the various regions of the total body/mind/spirit system that need healing, balance, and activation. All catalyst is planned for specific growth, and there don't really seem to be accidents.

Therefore, if we want to contact the Oversoul and progress towards unity with all (which is also called non-dual consciousness), then we have to understand and deal with the specific lessons that we intended to learn by programming our lives as we have. These are the specific learnings for which we entered the present life, both on Earth and in the higher realms. Once again, this learning generally involves unblocking, clearing, healing, rebalancing, and activating our latent 7-ray chakra energies....

To take this a step further, we need to look closely at the particular difficulties that life seems to be handing us, which of course, are really just forms of catalyst (often reflected by the world around us) to help inspire our growth. These spurs to growth take many forms, including intimate and social relationships, worldly job and career, the arena of public service, and all creative pursuits. When we find conflicts within each of these arenas there always lie hidden particular lessons - and hidden within each lesson is the face of Higher Self. If you sit in contemplation, self-reflection, or meditation long enough, you'll hear the voice of the oversoul answering every question, giving precise information as to "Why has, and why is this happening to me?" Every riddle does have an answer...

-- Selections from --

Universal Vision: Soul-Evolution and the Cosmic Plan
by Scott Mandelker, 1998
2130 Fillmore St. #201; SF, CA 94115
Tel. 415-567-2190 / Fax 415-567-2976
(Bluewater Press, release date 1999)