Thus far we have been occupied with generalizations as to the educational processes later to be applied, with the mental apparatus which comes under definite and planned training, and which is subjectively and [30] superconsciously influenced during the process. I am presuming that you already grasp the necessity for the building of the antahkarana and for this bridging work. It is wise also to accept the fact that we are in a position to begin the definite process of constructing the link or bridge between the various aspects of man's nature, so that instead of differentiation there will be unity, and instead of a fluid, moving attention, directed here and there into the field of material living and emotional relationships, we shall learn to control the mind and to bridge the divisions, and so can direct at will the lower attention in any desired manner. Thus all aspects of man, spiritual and natural, can be focused where needed.

This bridging work has in part already been done. Humanity has as a whole already bridged the gap between the emotional astral nature and the physical man. As I said elsewhere:

We might generalize in the following manner as to the stages of growth and consequent ability to become the agent of ever increasing powers, tapping the resources of dynamic energy in the three worlds:

Lower types of humanity use the sutratma as it passes through the etheric body.

Average men utilize almost entirely that part of the sutratma which passes through the astral plane. Their reactions are largely based on desire, and are emotional.

Intellectual men utilize the sutratma as it passes through the lower levels of the mental plane, down through the astral to the physical in its two sections. Their activities are energized by mind and not by desire, as in the earlier cases.

Aspirants on the physical plane use the sutratma as it passes through the two lower subplanes of the [31] abstract levels of the mental plane, and are beginning gradually to build the antahkarana, or the bridge between the Triad and the Personality. The power of the Ego can begin to make itself felt.

Applicants for initiation and initiates up to the third initiation use both the sutratma and the antahkarana, employing them as a unit. The power of the Triad begins to pour through, thus energizing all human activities upon the physical plane, and vitalizing in ever increasing degree the man's thought forms. The key to the formation of the Mayavirupa is found in the right comprehension of the process.

A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, pp. 959-960.

It should be noted here that the bridging has to be done in the consciousness aspect, and concerns the continuity of man's awareness of life in all his various aspects. The energy which is used in connecting, in consciousness, the physical man and the astral body is focused in the solar plexus. Speaking in symbolical terms, many today are carrying that bridge forward and linking the mind with the two aspects already linked. This thread of energy emanates from, or is anchored in, the head. A few people are steadily linking the soul and the mind, which in its turn is linked with the other two aspects. The soul energy, when linked with the other threads, has its anchor in the heart. A very few people (the initiates of the world) having effected all the lower syntheses, are now occupied with bringing about a still higher union with that triple Reality which uses the soul as its medium of expression, just as the soul in its turn is endeavoring to use its shadow, the threefold lower man.

These distinctions and unifications are matters of form, [32] symbols in speech, and are used to express events and happenings in the world of energies and forces in connection with which man is definitely implicated. It is to these unifications that we refer when the subject of initiation is under consideration.