We have pointed out the path to the realization of the reality of the true "I", and what will be achieved on this path depends only on who will follow it. But there is still a great deal to be said about awakening and becoming aware of the Self. So far, we have only talked about how to distinguish the material shell of the “I" from the "I" itself. Now let us show that your true "I" has nothing to do with what you meant by that word. But there is still a further step in introspection – a much more difficult step, even when a person has already awakened to the consciousness of his independence from the body and material shells, he mixes his "I" with the lower principle of the mind. This is a big misconception. The mind, in all its phases and on all its planes of manifestation, is only an instrument of the true Self. We will try to explain this idea, avoiding the metaphysical side of the question as much as possible, and confining ourselves to the psychology of the sages. We will not touch upon theory, trying to explain the reason, nature, and purpose of the mind as a tool for the manifestation of the "I", but will try to indicate the ways or ways in which a person can analyze his mind and decide for himself what is “I” and what is “not-I”. To understand this question, there is no need to clutter the mind with theories and metaphysical reasoning. An idea can be proved much more easily if a person approaches it from the right side. Using your mind, you will be able to dissect it and force it to give you the correct answer to the question you are interested in.

Man contains three mental principles, or three subdivisions of the mind, which are below the plane of the spirit. “I” is spirit, and the mental principle, which we use for our manifestation in the physical world, belongs to the lower order. Let us briefly describe the meaning of the three principles in the human mind. The lowest part of the mind is what we call the instinctive mind. Man shares this part of the mind with the animal world. This is the first beginning of the mind and is the first on the path of evolution. In its lower phases, consciousness is barely noticeable, and it seems that it consists of simple sensations. At its higher levels, it almost reaches the plane of reason or intellect. The instinctive mind sometimes abruptly, sometimes imperceptibly passes into the intellect, as if merging with it. The instinctive mind does a very valuable job of guiding and supporting the animal life of our body and has a duty to support the outer sides of our existence. He is in charge of the constant work of repairing and altering our bodies, metabolism, digestion, assimilation, and so on, i.e. all that happens below the plane of consciousness.

But this is just a small part of the work of the instinctive mind, where the mind seems to be a warehouse of all our life experiences, but not only ours, but all our ancestors on the path of evolution. Everything that remained in the mind from the primitive forms of animal life, to the habits inherited by us from our parents - everything accumulated in the instinctive mind. All aspects of animal instincts (which at one time were necessary to maintain life) have left traces on our instinctive mind and these traces sometimes declare their existence under the pressure of some extraordinary circumstances, even when it seems to us that we have long outgrown some whatever the possibility of their manifestation. The instinctive mind retains traces of the old fighting instincts of the animal, all desires, passions, hatred, envy, jealousy, and so on, in a word, everything that we inherited from the past. The instinctive mind – the mind of habits, in which everything is formed from small to large, and in general has a strange property - it has so many different things: many things seem completely unnecessary, but in fact very useful, and there are things that seem necessary, which in fact should have been discarded long ago.

The instinctive mind is also the center from which all lust, passions, desires, instincts, feelings, sensations and emotions originate. In primitive man and animals, the instinctive mind has no control over itself, but in the developing man of our time, the instinctive mind is already largely subordinated to the higher principles of the mind. A person who has reached a certain degree of development manifests higher desires - aspirations that come from the higher parts of the mind.

The instinctive mind is characterized by blind feelings, body desires, physical possessions and passions.

We do not at all condemn the activity of the instinctive mind, and we do not want to say that its influence is in any way harmful. Everything that is contained in it has its place, much was necessary in the past, and much is still needed to maintain physical life. Everything is correct in its place: feelings and emotions that are completely natural in a creature at a certain stage of development, but they are completely wrong when they possess a creature that has already outgrown them.

Unfortunately, it very often happens that a person cannot get rid of the attributes that he or she has not needed for a long time. At the moment, we do not want to talk about the moral side of the issue at all, and we mention this only so that readers clearly see the differences in the properties of the mind, understand their meaning and in no case be confused with the human "I".

Next in order above the instinctive mind is what we call the intellect, that is the part of the mind that reasons, analyzes, thinks, etc. You use this ability, but it is not you. In the same way, your “I” is different from your instinctive mind, which we have just briefly considered. You will very easily detach yourself from your mind if you think about it. A detailed description of the activity of the mind can be found in any elementary course of psychology. We have only mentioned this human faculty in order to make it as clear as possible that the intellect is only an instrument of the true “I”, and not the “I” itself, as many people think.

The third and highest mental principle is what is called the spiritual mind. This part of the mind is almost completely unknown to very many representatives of modern humanity, but the interest in the subject under consideration is increasing. Those who are attracted by topics and discussions on the question of the spirit can no longer be alien to the development of the spirit in itself. This area of the mind is the source of what we call “genius”, “inspiration”, "spirituality" and all that we consider the highest in our psyche. All great thoughts and ideas enter our consciousness from this part of the mind. All the development of humanity comes from here, all the high abstract ideas that have come to man on the path of evolutionary development, everything that tends to ennoble, to true religious feeling, to justice, to unselfish love, to charity, to sympathy – comes from the slowly unfolding spiritual mind. The idea of the brotherhood of humanity came the same way. All knowledge of the great occult truths could only reach the human mind in this way.

But even this great and wonderful part of the mind is only an instrument, extraordinarily subtle and complex, but still an instrument of the true “I” or the true being of a person.

To be continued…