Mind-consciousness begins in the basest substances of the creation - rocks, metals, etc. Instinct is simply mind’s desire to live in whichever form it occupies. It appears in the beginning as the law of attraction and repulsion and as the electrical cohesion of the atom. Mind-consciousness progresses through the elements to the plant kingdom where the desire to live manifests itself as a ‘live’ force. Here, also, is the first suggestion of 'intelligence’ - the organism grows towards the sun, its roots turn away from harmful substances.
Mind-consciousness experiences the animal kingdom - bacteria, insects, fish, fowl, mammals etc. - during which the desire to live expresses itself in mobility and development of the senses to protect the more complex organisms. Instinct, here, reaches its optimum and begins to account for the entire operation which is quite mechanical. It is during this stage that there appears to be individuality of consciousness, say in the dog. But this is not so. It is all done by the universal mind functioning as instinct. That appearance of individuality is simply individual knowledge memory - imposed on instinct..
At the point of man - lowest man - individual consciousness does occur but remains latent for tens of thousands of recurrences while instinctive mind develops fully as conscious mind - that is, mind capable of knowing the entire universe but not itself.
Individual consciousness - the next stage - begins to assert itself by mind turning inward and seeking self-knowledge. Mind consists of memory plus desire which is endless activity. The inward turning gradually eliminates useless thought and finally purifies the mind into a state of stilled alertness. It is then illuminated from behind by the blazing energy of its own fully developed consciousness, and it realises it itself is nothing and never was. That God, beauty and everything else worthwhile was always within itself; that they are itself; that it is immortal and that to the degree it does not exist as trying and wanting, it is God the creator and sustainer of the whole creation, and that there is nothing outside of it, never will be and never was. But most beautiful of all to me, is that it sees the secret of love.
