Agni- Bruce Lyon

2) The soul-as-triad When I speak of the ‘soul’ in Agni Yoga I am not referring to the causal body, or at least not only the causal body. The focus upon ‘soul-as-causal-body’ has been a necessary materialisation that has now outlived its usefulness in esoteric instruction. In the same way that we are taught that the body is not a principle in order to offset the tendency to focus identity there, we must also begin to realise that the causal body is not the soul but merely a house, a body for soul expression. In ordinary society we do not confuse a person with their body but recognise them as a complex blend of thoughts, desires and feelings working through a physical form. In soul community therefore we must also recognise each other as essentially atma-buddhi working out through manas.

In earlier Theosophical presentations the soul-personality duality was largely confined to the three worlds. Here when we speak of soul-personality we are addressing a duality which expresses through five planes. The personality refers to that half of the duality incarnated in the lower three planes, while the soul refers to that half which is focused on the three triadal planes.

The mental plane is a plane of overlap and is shared by both soul and personality, with the fourth subplane being the point of identity transition from one to the other and therefore the gateway to initiation.

The three manasic initiations shift the identity sequentially onto the higher three subplanes of the mental plane, and at the Fourth Initiation the identity is released from the mental plane altogether into its essential atmabuddhi nature.

Thus the higher personality referred to in these teachings only begins to function at the First Initiation—it is that part 13