This shows a great Aim in life, which is to build a lighted house and therein dwell. Yet what does this mean? Its meaning is two-fold, because this house can refer to our personality-bodies or to our soul-body.
In the first meaning, the house refers to our personality, where indwells the soul. This house has three levels, the mental, emotional, and physical. And as these are all filled with the light, they consequently sparkle effervescently with health, vitality, peace and harmony. Here is a practice: 'I breathe in light for all three levels of myself. I fill my mind with light, and I receive light for the purification and vitalization of my emotional and etheric bodies.' Also, our three-level house can receive and be built by the essential substances of Love, Knowingness, and Good-Will, which were especially strong in the three previous full moon periods, and we can also build our house with other spiritual substances, such as various spiritual Qualities or Virtues. Our house can be cluttered with negative and useless stuff, or conversely with positives - such as good thoughts, good feelings, and good food.
The second meaning of house refers to our soul, which is itself light and made of light. As such, the soul is a lighted house. Our soul is already real within us. It is our lighted home, in which we (as a person) can always return and be inspired. Yet, even though we each already have a soul, a 'house of light', our soul is in a continuous process of further building and awakening.
Our soul is already latent within us – it is a mystery awaiting discovery. As well, our soul is a cosmic traveler, on a path towards realizing God and also manifesting on Earth. But each soul is also developing, bettering, and increasing in the Light. Each is expanding in the universal Consciousness, while also learning how to express in the manifest world, through mind, feelings, and activity. These two great aims of soul-building are achieved with the substance of light. For to expand in universal Consciousness, greater light is necessary; and to express in the world, the soul needs its vehicles filled with light, for to therein dwell.
With meditative receptivity, our mind, emotions, and etheric body can be illuminated by the Light of Consciousness and Greater Intelligence, coming from the Buddhic-Intuitional plane (wherein is Hierarchical Soul-Consciousness). So too, our own soul, symbolized as a chalice, can also receive this Higher Light, which then further-builds our soul, our 'house of light', 'temple of light', or 'light body'. This house is made of light and built from light. Yet there is no point in which the building-process is all done, because the house can always be further strengthened, refined, and advanced by higher frequencies of light, which brings greater degrees of realization and expansiveness of consciousness. Also, by receiving and assimilating greater-higher light, there is a gradual increase in our continuity of consciousness, our realization of immortality, and our awareness of the Hierarchy and Christ.
Another important teaching in this seed-thought is that this 'activity of building' demands decision and also responsibility. For, 'I' must build this lighted house. It is not something just given or already done. Each must build their own house, their own knowing, their own soul consciousness. And this is built with Light. As well, each of us is responsible for building and improving our own personal-house, our own 'vehicles' or 'bodies', which are necessary in the world of manifestation, communication, and expression.
So perhaps the very most important aspect of this seed-thought, or this instruction, is in the 'doing' of it – to intentionally and decisively build a lighted house. For the lighted house of our soul can only be built consciously and intentionally. It is not simply built by environmental forces, nor by society, nor by the people around us. Neither is it built automatically by astrological energies. And as well, we cannot simply rely on others to bring light into the three-story house of our personality. Yes, others can help bring light, and we can receive nourishing light from nature and from beautiful art and music; but we cannot rely on this to happen automatically. So in other words, each has to do their own personal work, to consciously bring in and assimilate the highest and finest light, to build a lighted house and therein dwell.
Allow Light into the physical body... purifying and clearing
Allow Light into the emotional body... purifying and clearing
Allow Light into the mental body... purifying and clearing
Allow Light into the soul
– Be the Light
– I am a lighted house
In some teachings this is all known as building our permanent 'body of light', which will then continuously expand in its soul journey. We build our light body with consciousness, with pure consciousness, by bringing more clear and pure consciousness into life. Meditatively, we build our body of light by increasing our consciousness, which is to increase our light. Thus, the answer is quite simple. We build further our soul of light by increasing our light of consciousness. We increase the light of our soul by increasing the light of our consciousness.
Another key in soul-building is meditation – in just-being, consciously. This is the practice of conscious being. Our soul is built with Light, which means that our soul is built with the energy essence of consciousness, but not a consciousness filled with everyday thoughts, desires, daydreams, or emotional reactions. Rather, our soul is built with pure and clear consciousness. This is also related with our heart, because our heart needs to be pure and clear as well. The innermost essence of our heart is light. Look for this light. For in this light of our heart is our soul. But in order to experience this light in our heart, which is our soul, we need to surrender everything in our heart (surrender all that occupies our heart) so that nothing obscures the light of soul emerging from our heart. Consciously surrender all clouds covering the heart, so that the sun may shine, the sun that is the real you.
One special secret in realizing and developing the soul is breath. Conscious breath helps to focus our mind and will help keep consciousness stable, rather than flutter too easily into ordinary thought and emotion. The process of building light cannot get very far at all, if our mind continually flutters into ordinary (habitual and routine) patterns of thought or emotion. In fact, this is the overall problem that prevents the pure light of consciousness from stabilizing for a sufficient amount of extended time that is necessary in order for the light to coalesce into a permanence.
So conscious breath helps one stabilize the mind and bring awareness to our emotional energies, so that mental thoughts nor emotional dramas do not simply preoccupy consciousness. For so often in ordinary-regular life our great gift of consciousness is absorbed into mechanical subconscious patterns; in other words, our patterns of thoughts and emotions occupy our whole stream of experience and there is no room for other possibility. But a continuity of conscious breath defeats the usual dominance of subconscious patterns.
Breath is also significant in what it brings to the alchemy of energy transformation. Conscious breath will bring life energy into this work, life energy from the energies of nature, which will vitalize and strengthen our consciousness. Esoterically and alchemically, the life energies of nature can be used for the building and expansion of consciousness, as this life energy is transformed into light. Breath can bring into our being the life energies of prana, which then transforms into light energy for the soul, but this demands conscious breath. Through conscious breath we can bring into us the life energy of earth and transform this into light for our soul. We can also bring into our being the light of Divine Presence, which is everpresent, breathing in light to feed our soul within our heart. For our soul is like a divine seed within, which needs love and light in order to develop and become strong.
Also, with conscious breath we have more freedom of intention, or freedom of choice, rather than always just flowing downstream asleep in the raft. Be conscious in the breath. Breathe consciously. Then you will understand. With conscious breath we can choose our quality of being. We can really choose how we shall be in this very moment. We can choose to be a higher quality of being. With conscious breath we can feel and sense the Divine Presence and also tune into higher impressions from higher dimensions. Also with conscious breath we can tune into any of the Divine Qualities – the Qualities of God which are always present in the space of every moment. With conscious in-breath we can receive any energy in the world or universe, and with conscious out-breath we can send out any quality of energy to any place or person.