Rene Guenon
"The Higher Self is a transcendent and permanent principle, whose manifested being, a human being, for example, is only a transient and limited modification. The Higher Self as such never is and cannot be individualized, for what is proper must always be considered in the aspect of eternity and immutability."
"The Higher Self, considered in relation to a creature, is properly the person. This person is an immediate definiteness, primordial and not divided into particulars, of the principle that in Sanskrit is called Atman (Atma) or Paramatman (Paramatma) and which we can designate as the 'Universal Spirit'."
"Immobile by its very nature, it only unfolds the limitless possibilities that it contains within itself, by means of a relative transition from potentiality to actuality, through an infinite number of degrees; and this without any impact on its essential immutability, precisely because this development is such, in truth, only to the extent that it is considered from the side of manifestation, beyond which there can be no question of any sequence - there can only be talk of perfect simultaneity; so that even what is virtual from a certain point of view, nevertheless, turns out to be realized in the eternal present.
With regard to manifestation, it can be said that the Higher Self unfolds its possibilities in all the modalities of self-realization, taken in their infinite multiplicity, modalities that for the integral Being are the same multitude of different states, only one of which, subject to very special and defining conditions, constitutes part or, rather, a particular definition of the being that is human individuality. Thus, the Higher Self is the principle through which beings exist; each in its own field, all states; and this should extend not only to the states of manifestation, which we have just spoken of, individual, like the human state, or super-individual, but also - although the word "exist" becomes inappropriate - and non-manifested states, including all possibilities that are not amenable to any manifestation in their original modality rooted in the principle.
But the Higher Self itself does not exist otherwise than in itself, since it does not have and cannot have, in the integral and indivisible unity of its inner nature, any principle that would be external to it.
The Higher Self, considered in relation to a being as we have just done, is properly the person; although it would have been possible to limit the use of this term to understanding the Higher Self as the principle of manifested states by analogy with how the "Divine personality", Ishvara, is the principle of universal manifestation. But it can also be extended by analogy with the Higher Self as the principle of all the states of a being, both manifested and non-manifested.
This person is an immediate definiteness, primordial and not divided into particulars, of the principle that in Sanskrit is called Atman (Atma) or Paramatman (Paramatma) and which we can, for lack of a better term, designate as the "Universal Spirit", but, of course, on the condition that we do not see in such a use of the word "spirit" anything that could resemble Western philosophical concepts and, in particular, that we do not correlate it with matter, as is always inherent in modern people who in this respect are subject, even unconsciously, to the influence of Cartesian dualism.
True metaphysics, let us repeat in this connection once again, lies far beyond all oppositions, among which the opposition of "spiritualism" and "materialism" can be considered the most typical; it (metaphysics. - Note. transl.) should not at all deal with more or less special and often completely artificial questions arising from such oppositions. Atman (or Atma - Atma) permeates all phenomena, which are, as it were, its accidental modifications and which, according to Ramanuja's expression, "in a way form his body" (these words should be understood here only in the sense of pure analogy), whether they are supersensory or sensory in nature, i.e., according to Western concepts, whether they are "spiritual" or "material", for this, expressing only the variety of conditions of manifestation, does not make any difference from the point of view of the unconditional and unmanifested principle. In reality, the latter is the "Higher Self" (such is the literal translation of the word Paramatman) of everything that exists, in whatever mode, and it always remains "one and the same" throughout the infinite multiplicity of Existence, understood in the universal sense, as well as beyond Existence, i.e., in the original non-manifestation. In essence, the "Higher Self" of any being is identical to Atman, since it is beyond all distinctions and all particulars; that is why in Sanskrit the word Atman itself, except in the nominative case, replaces the reflexive pronoun "himself, herself, itself".
The "Higher Self", therefore, is actually no different from Atman, unless it is considered in a particular and "distinctive" way in relation to a certain state of this level, such as the human state, and only to the extent that it is considered from this special and limited point of view. However, this does not mean that the "Higher Self" (Soi) really becomes in any way different from Atman, for it, as we said above, cannot be "anything other than itself", and, obviously, it cannot be affected by the point of view from which it is considered, nor by any other circumstances. But what should be said is that to the extent that this distinction is made, to the same extent one moves away from a direct consideration of the "Higher Self" - in fact, to consider its reflection in human individuality or any other state of being, for it goes without saying that in relation to the "Higher Self" all states of manifestation are strictly equivalent and can be considered in a similar way.
However, at the moment we are specifically concerned with human individuality. The reflection we are talking about defines what can be called the center of this individuality; but if it is isolated from its first principle, from the very "Higher Self", then only an illusory existence remains, since it is from the principle that it receives all its reality and can effectively possess this reality only to the extent that it participates in the nature of the "Higher Self", i.e., to the extent that it is identified with it ("Higher Self") through universalization.
The person, let us emphasize once again, essentially belongs to the sphere of principles, in the strictest sense of the word, i.e., the sphere of the universal; consequently, it can only be considered from the point of view of pure metaphysics, the area of which is precisely the Universal. The "pseudo-metaphysics" of the West tend to confuse with the Universal things that in reality belong to the order of the individual; or, rather, since they in no way grasp the Universal, what they unlawfully apply this name to is usually the general, which is only a simple extension of the individual. Some go even further in this confusion: "empirical" philosophers, who do not even have access to the general, identify it with the collective, which in fact belongs to the sphere of the particular.
And through the steps of such degradation, all phenomena are reduced to the level of sensory knowledge, which many indeed consider the only possible one, because their mental horizon does not extend beyond this area and they would like to impose on everyone those limitations that are the result of their own inability - innate or acquired as a result of special education." [Man and his formation according to Vedanta, by Rene Guenon]
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