Chapter 3The Subconscient, the Inner Being and the · The Subconscient and the Physical Being

The subconscient difficulty is the difficulty now1 — because the 1 This letter was written in April 1935. — Ed.

whole struggle in the general sadhana is now there. It is in the subconscient, no longer in the vital or conscious physical that the resistance is all massed together.

* There is a close connection between the subconscient and the physical and lower vital parts; so long as the subconscient is not cleared, the seed you speak of remains.

* The material [consciousness] is for the most part subconscient — it depends upon the subtler parts for its waking consciousness.

* The subconscient material plane is a field that still opposes the entrance of the Divine Light.

* Until they [the material and subconscient parts of the being] aspire or at least assent fully to the aspiration and will of the higher being, there can be no lasting change in them.

* It [the reason the physical can help to remove inertia] is because, the subconscient being just below the physical, the enlightened physical can act on it directly and completely in a way in which mind and vital cannot and by this direct action can help to liberate the mind and vital also.

* Yes, what you write is correct. When the physical consciousness has to be changed, it is of course essential to work on the sub-conscient, as it has a great influence on the physical which is very dependent on it.

The loss of consciousness comes naturally at first when the it does not become habitual. If you react with a will for the change of this tendency (no struggle is needed) it will pass in time.

* It is not a fact that formless things [such as vague subconscient impressions] can have no power — all that is necessary is that they should have a force in them. The subconscient influences conscient and all in itself still is only half conscious and much of its action can be called subconscious. It is therefore much more easily influenced by the subconscious than by the conscious mind and conscious will or even the vital mind and vital will except in those things in which a conscious mental or vital control has been established and the subconscious itself has accepted it. If it were not so, man’s control of his actions and physical states would be complete, there would be no illness or, if there were, it could be immediately cured by mental action. But it is not so. For that reason the higher consciousness has to be brought down, to obey its control.

* It is good. Emptiness and silence of the consciousness prepare the being to live within, with the outer consciousness only as a means of communication and action on the physical world instead of living in the external only.

As there is a superconscient (something above our present consciousness) above the head from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body, so there is also a subconscient (something below our consciousness) below the feet. Matter is under the control of this power, because it is that out of which it has been created — that is why matter seems to us to be quite unconscious. The material body is very much under the influence of this power for the same reason; it is why we are not conscious of what is going on in the body, for the most part. The outer consciousness goes down into this subconscient when we are asleep, and so it becomes unaware of what is going on in us when we are asleep except for a few dreams. Many of these dreams rise up from the subconscient and are made up of old memories, impressions etc. put together in an incoherent way. For the subconscient receives impressions of all we do or experience in our lives and keeps these impressions in it, sending up often fragments of them in sleep. It is a very important part of the being, but we can do nothing much with it by the conscious will. It is the higher Force working in us that in its natural course will open the subconscient to itself and bring down into it its control and light.

* It is in the Yogic consciousness that one feels the seat of the sub-conscient below the feet, but the influence of the subconscious is not confined there — it is spread in the body. In the waking state it is overpowered by the conscious thinking mind and vital and conscious physical mind, but in the sleep state it comes on the surface.