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A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga by Yogi [pseud.] Ramacharaka
page 8 of 237 (03%)
begins to see the world as it is, and to recognize itself in Reality and
not as the distorted thing of its dreams.

The savage and barbarian are scarcely conscious of the "I." They are but
a little above the animal in point of consciousness, and their "I" is
almost entirely a matter of the consciousness of the wants of the body;
the satisfaction of the appetites; the gratification of the passions; the
securing of personal comfort; the expression of lust, savage power, etc.
In the savage the lower part of the Instinctive Mind is the seat of the
"I." (See "Fourteen Lessons" for explanation of the several mental planes
of man.) If the savage could analyze his thoughts he would say that the
"I" was the physical body, the said body having certain "feelings,"
"wants" and "desires." The "I" of such a man is a physical "I," the body
representing its form and substance. Not only is this true of the savage,
but even among so-called "civilized" men of to-day we find many in this
stage. They have developed powers of thinking and reasoning, but they do
not "live in their minds" as do some of their brothers. They use their
thinking powers for the gratification of their bodily desires and
cravings, and really live on the plane of the Instinctive Mind. Such a
person may speak of "my mind," or "my soul," not from a high position
where he looks upon these things from the standpoint of a Master who
realizes his Real Self, but from below, from the point-of-view of the man
who lives on the plane of the Instinctive Mind and who sees above
_himself_ the higher attributes. To such people the body is the "I."
Their "I" is bound up with the senses, and that which comes to them
through the senses. Of course, as Man advances in "culture" and
"civilization," his senses become educated, and are satisfied only with
more refined things, while the less cultivated man is perfectly satisfied
with the more material and gross sense gratifications. Much that we call
"cultivation" and "culture" is naught but a cultivation of a more refined
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