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We distinguish between the simple fact of self-consciousness, the simple
feeling that "I am I,"and the complex thought that "I am
Mr. Smith" or "Mrs. Brown." Believing as we do in a series
of births for the same Ego, or reincarnation, this distinction is the
fundamental pivot of the whole idea. . . . "Mr. Smith" really
means a long series of daily experiences strung together by the thread
of memory, and forming what Mr. Smith calls "himself." But none
of these "experiences" are really the "I" or the Ego,
nor do they give "Mr. Smith" the feeling that he is himself,
for he forgets the greater part of his daily experiences, and they produce
the feeling of Egoity in him only while they last. We Theosophists,
therefore, distinguish between this bundle of "experiences,"
which we call the false (because so finite and evanescent) personality,
and that element in man to which the feeling of "I am I" is
due. It is this "I am I" which we call the true individuality;
and we say that this "Ego" or individuality plays, like an actor,
many parts on the stage of life.
Is it this Ego then which is our God? Not at all: "A God" is
not the universal deity, but only a spark from the one ocean of Divine
Fire. Our God within us, or "our Father in Secret"
is what we call the "HIGHER SELF," Atma. Our incarnating
Ego was a God in its origin, as were all the primeval emanations of the
One Unknown Principle. But since its "fall into Matter," having
to incarnate throughout the cycle, in succession, from first to last,
it is no longer a free and happy god, but a poor pilgrim on his way to
regain that which he has lost. I can answer you more fully by repeating
what is said of the INNER MAN in Isis Unveiled (Vol. 11.593):-
From the remotest antiquity mankind as a whole have always
been convinced of the existence of a personal spiritual entity within
the personal physical man. This inner entity was more or less divine,
according to its proximity to the crown. The closer the union
the more serene man's destiny, the less dangerous the external conditions.
This belief is neither bigotry nor superstition, only an ever-present,
instinctive feeling of the proximity of another spiritual and invisible
world, which, though it be subjective to the senses of the outward man,
is perfectly objective to the inner ego. Furthermore, they believed
that there are external and internal conditions which affect the
determination of our will upon our actions. They rejected fatalism,
for fatalism implies a blind course of some still blinder power. But
they believed in destiny or Karma, which from birth to death
every man is weaving thread by thread around himself, as a spider does
his cobweb; and this destiny is guided by that presence termed by some
the guardian angel, or our more intimate astral inner man, who is but
too often the evil genius of the man of flesh or the personality. Both
these lead on MAN, but one of them must prevail; and from the very beginning
of the visible affray the stern and implacable law of compensation
and retribution steps in and takes its course, following faithfully
the fluctuating of the conflict. When the last strand is woven, and
man is seemingly enwrapped in the net-work of his own doing, then he
finds himself completely under the empire of this self-made destiny. It then either fixes him like the inert shell against the immovable
rock, or like a feather carries him away in a whirlwind raised by his
own actions.
Such is the destiny of the MAN—the true Ego, not the Automaton,
the shell that goes by that name. Now some of our The-osophists have got
into the habit of using the words "Self" and "Ego"
as synonymous, . . . whereas this term ["Self"] ought never
to be applied except to the One universal Self. This "Higher
Self" (ATMA) . . . can never be "objective" under any circumstances,
even to the highest spiritual perception. For Atman or the "Higher
Self" is really Brahma, the ABSOLUTE, and indistinguishable from
it.... For even Buddhi, the "Spiritual Soul," is not the SELF,
but the vehicle only of SELF. All the other "Selves"—such
as the "Individual" self and "personal" self—ought
never to be spoken or written of without their qualifying and characteristic
adjectives. To avoid henceforth such misapprehensions, —
- THE HIGHER SELF is
- Atma,
the inseparable ray of the Universal and ONE SELF. It is the God above,
more than within, us. Happy the man who succeeds in saturating his
inner Ego with it!
- THE SPIRITUAL divine EGO, is
- the
Spiritual soul or Buddhi, in close union with Manas, the mind-principle,
without which it is no ego at all, but only the Atmic Vehicle.
- THE INNER, or HIGHER "Ego" is
- Manas,
the "Fifth" Principle, so called, independently of Buddhi.
The Mind-Principle is only the Spiritual Ego when merged into one
with Buddhi, —no materialist being supposed to have in him such
an Ego, however great his intellectual capacities. It is the permanent
Individuality or the "Reincarnating Ego."
- THE LOWER, or PERSONAL "Ego" is
- the
physical man in conjunction with his lower Self, i.e*, animal instincts,
passions, desires, etc. It is called the "false personality,"
and consists of the lower Manas combined with Kama-rupa, and operating
through the Physical body and its phantom or "double."
The remaining "Principle" "Pranâ" or
"Life," is, strictly speaking, the radiating force or Energy
of Atma—as the Universal Life and the ONE SELF,—ITS lower
or rather (in its effects) more physical, because manifesting, aspect.
Prana or Life permeates the whole being of the objective Universe; and
is called a "principle" only because it is an indispensable
factor and the deus ex machinâ of the living man.
It is this Ego which—having originally incarnated in the senseless
human form animated by, but unconscious (since it had no consciousness)
of, the presence in itself of the dual monad—made of that human-like
form a real man. It is that Ego, that "Causal Body,"
which overshadows every personality Karma forces it to incarnate into;
and this Ego which is held responsible for all the sins committed through,
and in, every new body or personality— the evanescent masks which
hide the true Individual through the long series of rebirths.
Why should this Ego receive punishment as the result of deeds which it
has forgotten? It has not forgotten them; it knows and remembers its misdeeds
as well as you remember what you have done yesterday. Is it because the
memory of that bundle of physical compounds called "body" does
not recollect what its predecessor (the personality that was)
did, that [we] imagine that the real Ego has forgotten them? As well say
it is unjust that the new boots on the feet of a boy, who is flogged for
stealing apples, should be punished for that which they know nothing of.
Reincarnation means that this Ego will be furnished with a new body, a new brain, and a new memory. Therefore it would
be as absurd to expect this memory to remember that which it
has never recorded as it would be idle to examine under a microscope a
shirt never worn by a murderer, and seek on it for the stains of blood
which are to be found only on the clothes he wore.
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Past Lives 
