THE THIRD LESSON.

THE EXPANSION OF THE SELF.


In the first two lessons of this course we have endeavored to bring to
the candidate a realization in consciousness of the reality of the "I,"
and to enable him to distinguish between the Self and its sheaths,
physical and mental. In the present lesson we will call his attention to
the relationship of the "I" to the Universal "I," and will endeavor to
give him an idea of a greater, grander Self, transcending personality
and the little self that we are so apt to regard as the "I."

The keynote of this lesson will be "The Oneness of All," and all of its
teachings will be directed to awakening a realization in consciousness of
that great truth. But we wish to impress upon the mind of the Candidate
that we are _not_ teaching him that he is the Absolute. We are not
teaching the "I Am God" belief, which we consider to be erroneous and
misleading, and a perversion of the original Yogi teachings. This false
teaching has taken possession of many of the Hindu teachers and people,
and with its accompanying teaching of "Maya" or the complete illusion or
non-existence of the Universe, has reduced millions of people to a
passive, negative mental condition which undoubtedly is retarding their
progress. Not only in India is this true, but the same facts may be
observed among the pupils of the Western teachers who have embraced this
negative side of the Oriental Philosophy. Such people confound the
"Absolute" and "Relative" aspects of the One, and, being unable to
reconcile the facts of Life and the Universe with their theories of "I Am
God," they are driven to the desperate expedient of boldly denying the