The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-05-03
The Two of Us

A mans deeper self'-what is meant by
that? Most of US seem to ourselves to be
but one self. What is this deeper one?
Well, what is it happening when master
in music sits down to the piano and impro-
| vises. Is it not that there is some music GO
ing on inside of him somewhere and he wants
to get it out so that the outer man of him
can hear it with his ears? He wants to get
both of himself occupied with the music.
Unless he gets the music to the outer mans
attention that outer man will be disturbing
him (the inner MANI by listening to other
| things. For each of these two men is sensi-
tive to what the other is doing and think
ing.
You and l are not music makers; that is
express his feelings to himself in that way.
| But we like music and we go to hear it, 60
to hear another mans inner music
played out aloud. The musician who sits
down to the piano and improvises goes as it
were to hear his own inner-man music.
Many men talk to themselves when alone.
This is the same thing. 1t means again
that we have two minds, an outer, of the
body and brain, connected with the senses,
with what can be seen and heard and smelled
and tasted and touched, which is thorough
ly occupied with all this and whose business
it is to keep in touch with it and think
about it-and an inner one with far higher
business. 1t often forgets that higher bust
ness, though, and even forgets that it is any
thing different from the outer one. When
the inner one wants to communicate
very clearly with the outer one it must do
more than merely think its thoughts. For
if it confines itself to that the outer one
may not get the thoughts fully, or even may
not get them at all. People who talk to
themselves find that the outer man, the
BRAIN mind man, can think more clearly
the thoughts they want him to think-can
picture them better-if he hears them; so
that they get at him round the corner as it
were as we'll as directly from the inside.
We do not catch our own thought very
we'll, sometimes, till we have hammered it
out clear into words, spoken or unspoken.
We like to see our thought, dressed in the
words that the brain-man puts on it.
The outer mind has two faces: it faces
out to the world by way of the senses, eyes,
ears, etc.; and it faces in to the deeper
mind and so is able to get some of those
thoughts direct.
The inner mind, or deeper self, also has
two faces. Outwardly, it is in touch with
the outer mind, the brain mind, the sense.
mind; inwardly, or at its upper pole, it
faces or touches the divine. 1t is the mans
real self. So we can always choose whether
we will descend into and lose ourselves in
the lower or outer mind, thoroughly share
the bodily appetites, and even forget every
thing else: or develop the upper end, con-
| meet up closer with the divine, cultivate
high thought and aspiration in the silence,
and so get into possession of our rightful
power to control the lower man at will.
So we need always to remember our three
natures: % The innermost or highest, the
purely Divine always in touch with the
larger Divine beyond us; (2) The lowest, or
bodily, in touch with the outer world; and
l0 The middle, the true man, who can
choose which of the other two, the one
| above him and the one below, he will cult
vate the acquaintance of. The three can
be called souls, if you will: the purely Di-
dies the human soul, which makes its i'm
mortality more and more conscious accord
ing as it gets closer to the Divine. If man
during life has cultivated that relation by