PROGRESS IN IMAGINATION

 
The lower six planes of consciousness are also separated from each other by a kind of a valley or distance. But though the difference between them is great, it is not infinite, because all are equally subject to the bi-polarity of limited experience, consisting in the alternation between the opposites.

The difference between the first plane and the second, the second and the third, and so on up to the sixth plane, is great but not infinite. It follows that, strictly speaking, none of the six planes of duality can be said to be really nearer to the seventh plane than any others.

The difference between any of the six planes and the seventh plane is infinite, just as the difference between the sixth and the seventh planes is infinite. The progress through the six planes is a progress in imagination, but the realisation of the seventh plane is the cessation of imagination and, therefore, the awakening of the individual into Truth-consciousness.

The illusory progress through the six planes cannot, however, be altogether avoided. Imagination has to be completely exhausted before a person can realise the Truth. When a disciple has a Master, he has to traverse all the six planes. The Master may take his disciple through the planes, either with open eyes or under a veil.

If the disciple is taken under cover and is not conscious of the planes which he is crossing, desires persist until the seventh plane; but if he is taken with open eyes and is conscious of the planes which he is crossing, no desires are left on and after the fifth plane.

If the Master comes for work, he often chooses to take his disciples under cover, for they are likely to be more actively useful for the Master's work if taken blind-folded, than taken with open eyes.