some forceful teacher who takes the place of the Absolute in your mind.
But raise your head and assert your Divine Parentage, and your Heritage
from the Absolute, and step out boldly on the Path, asserting the "I."

(We must refer the Candidate back to our "Advanced Course," for our
teachings regarding the Absolute and the Relative. The last three lessons
of that course will throw light upon what we have just said To repeat the
teaching at this point would be to use space which is needed for the
lesson before us.)

And yet, while the "I" is _not_ God, the Absolute, it is infinitely
greater than we have imagined it to be before the light dawned upon us.
It extends itself far beyond what we had conceived to be its limits. It
touches the Universe at all its points, and is in the closest union with
all of Life. It is in the closest touch with all that has emanated from
the Absolute--all the world of Relativity. And while it faces the
Relative Universe, it has its roots in the Absolute, and draws
nourishment therefrom, just as does the babe in the womb obtain
nourishment from the mother. It is verily a manifestation of God, and
God's very essence is in it. Surely this is almost as "high" a statement
as the "I Am God" of the teachers just mentioned,--and yet how different.
Let us consider the teaching in detail in this lesson, and in portions of
others to follow.

Let us begin with a consideration of the instruments of the Ego, and the
material with which and through which the Ego works. Let us realize that
the physical body of man is identical in substance with all other forms
of matter, and that its atoms are continually changing and being
replaced, the material being drawn from the great storehouse of matter,
and that there is a Oneness of matter underlying all apparent differences