Lower mind and desire

Use in the book

In the introduction, bondage to desire obstructs perception of the good and true. The candidate is asked to change the question guiding inquiry, then to discipline the appetites. The soul's attraction toward embodied experience in the Degrees gives desire a broader cosmic role: longing for knowledge also draws spirit into earthly probation.

Places to read

1. Original Introduction · Block 23“"So long as the lower mind is held in bondage by desire, man can not seek or discern the Good or the True. He inquires, 'What is good for me?' Freed” …
2. Original Introduction · Block 26… “freeing the Ego from the dominion of the appetites, passions, and the whole lower nature. The idea is not to despise the body, but to purify or transmute it. Not to” …
3. Degrees of the Mystic Oriental Rite · Block 16“" Earths that have attained to the capacity to support organic life, necessarily attract it. Earths demand it, Heaven supplies it. From whence? As the earths groan for the lordship of” …

In this edition

Lower is a ranking within the author's spiritual account. It does not name a distinct anatomical part of the mind.

Reading the argument

These uses complicate a simple equation of all desire with evil. The text opposes selfish bondage while also describing aspiration and yearning as forces in development. The task is to distinguish a motivating longing from domination by it.

lower mind

“lower mind” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: I.23.

desire

“desire” — 7 occurrences in 6 text blocks: I.5–6, 12, 23; M.78; S.138.

desires

“desires” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: I.12.

appetites

“appetites” — 2 occurrences in 1 text block: I.26.