Excerpt:

  The focus of attention in this lesson will be upon sharp differentiation, or discrimination, respecting the four levels in what we call the somatic divisions of a given individual, and we generalize that by saying 'man'.

 

 The reason why we focus attention on sharp differentiation respecting these levels is so that our thinking will be more precise. Sloppy thinking leads to sloppy conduct.  The closer one grows to the understanding of the Truth respecting what we call reality, the more definite, orderly, precise, etc., should be his thinking, his conversation, his use of words in general.  In fact, our aim is a sharpness in daily living, the representation of our thinking, feeling, and talking.  We are aiming at a sharpness in the way we appear to ourselves and, also, in the way we appear in the estimation of others. Without preciseness of thinking, none of the other derivatives is possible.

 

 There is another reason for focusing our attention on sharp differentiation of levels.  For years I have had a great deal of wonderful information or, if you will, insight in the background of my consciousness that I have been waiting to share with a few students who could grow into it.  But, it is manifestly impossible to share these insights in the presence of chaos within the student.  The student must develop some sort of order in his own members in order to respect the esoteric instruction.  There is a danger to student and teacher alike in giving such instruction where it might be confused, or perverted, or distorted.

 

 It takes great discipline to be accounted worthy, and no one is going to discipline another.  Each one must initiate and sustain his own discipline.  Any other approach would be detrimental in the long run, in our opinion.

 

 There is a third reason for a lesson such as this.  It is my belief that progress in what we call development is much swifter where clarity of understanding on the mental level is developed.  With all of our disparagement of the mental functions, we do try to put them in their proper place, and we value them.  It is through the mental functions and forces that we grasp the factors respecting the whole ensemble, or organism-as-a-whole.  The sharper, more exact and precise our mental faculties, the easier it will be to tread the path to full awareness.

 

 I am of the opinion that we should begin with the foundation and background of these four somatic divisions and start discriminating between levels at the base.  We will describe these divisions as levels of frequencies, in terms of wavelengths and the number of waves per unit of time.  But, we must also describe these divisions in terms of qualities, or gunas, characterizing the consciousness of each successive level.