are the drop of water taken from the
ocean to be the ocean, when he asserts that the drop and the ocean are the
same in essence or substance? If a comparison is needed, we may say, "The
ego is related to God as the drop of water is to the ocean." Man is able
to find a divine element within himself, because his original essence is
derived directly from the Divine. Thus man, through the third principle of
his soul, attains an inner knowledge of himself, just as through his
astral body he gains knowledge of the outer world. For this reason occult
science calls the third soul-principle _the consciousness-soul_, and it
holds that the soul-part of man consists of three principles, the
_sentient-_, _intellectual-_, and _consciousness-souls_, just as the
bodily part has three principles, the _physical_, _etheric_, and _astral
bodies_.

The real nature of the ego is first revealed in the consciousness-soul.
Through feeling and reason the soul loses itself in other things; but as
the consciousness-soul it lays hold of its own essence. Therefore this ego
can only be perceived through the consciousness-soul by a certain inner
activity. The images of external objects are formed as those objects come
and go, and the images go on working in the intellect by virtue of their
own force. But if the ego is to perceive itself, it cannot merely
_surrender_ itself; it must first, by inner activity, draw up its own
being out of its depths, in order to become conscious of it. A new
activity of the ego begins with this self cognition,--with
self-recollection. Owing to this activity, the perception of the ego in
the consciousness-soul possesses an entirely different meaning for man
from that conveyed by the observation of all that reaches him through the
three bodily principles and the two other soul-principles. The power which
reveals the ego in the consciousness-soul is in fact the same power which
manifests everywhere else in the world; only in the body and the lower
soul-principles it does not come forth directly, but is manifested little
by little in its effects. The lowest manifestation is through the physical
body, thence a gradual ascent is made to that which fills the intellectual
soul. Indeed, we may say that with each ascending step one of the veils
falls away in which the hidden centre is wrapped. In that which fills the
consciousness-soul, this hidden centre emerges unveiled into the temple of
the soul. Yet it shows itself just here t