From Inner to Outer Transformation - Lectures on "The Voice of the Silence"

Quotes from the first chapter of this book:

Rooted in one ultimate reality, the universe and all within it proceed by a process of emanation into being. When we say "one ultimate reality" we should not really say "One," because One implies two. So, rooted in a non-dual ultimate reality, the process was radiation through which emanation occurred and within that inherent lawfulness of the system gave rise to an evolutionary cycle of becoming, which in the human stage is self-directed and self-consciously chosen. The pivotal doctrine of the esoteric philosophy is that there are no special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego [reincarnating self] throughout a long series of reincarnation and metempsychosis. This is important because it is not simply by living a certain number of lives, reïncarnation, that we come to transformation.

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Consciousness is primary.

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Only in the human stage does consciousness become reflective upon itself and therefore self-conscious decision and effort become not only possible but constitute the priveleged choice and the responsible act of every human being. We must choose: responsibility is there.

Joy Mills has been a member of the Theosophical Society since 1940 and has served as General Secretary of the American Section and the Australian Section, and she was International Vice-President of the T.S.. She was director of the Krotona Institute School of Theosophy in Ojai, California. Her lecture tours have taken her to more than 50 countries.