Mastery for me implies the ability to remain grounded, centered, balanced, and calm in the face of the blandishments of the lower vehicles – the ego, mind, body, and senses.
Everyday consciousness has the ability to identify itself with anything it can perceive. It can identify itself with a feeling, a thought, a sensation, a memory, etc.
It locates itself at the dimension on which it’s conscious. For some that might be the Third; for others the Fourth, Fifth, etc. On that dimension, it can identify with whatever comes to its attention, depending on the capabilities available to it on that dimension.
People conscious on the Fifth Dimension can be conscious of people on the Third, but not vice versa.
Most people on the Third Dimension are not conscious of what their soul says – what we commonly call “heart-consciousness.” But they are conscious of what their ego, mind, body and senses say.
Mastery cannot involve suppression per se because that invites muscular tension and muscular tension invites the lowering of awareness. Such constriction tends to send the consciousness downward dimensionally. It wouldn’t be mastery in my books if my consciousness were sent on a downward spiral.
So it must involve the ability to remain in awareness of the blandishments of the lower vehicles without reacting and without losing one’s center, balance, etc.
The first step in that is realizing and acknowledging that one is not one’s ego, mind, body, etc. Without making a clear distinction between what one is and is not, there’s no way to know which voice one wishes to follow.
The second step is generating the willingness to listen to what the lower vehicles say but without reacting to them. One cannot control one’s thoughts and feelings but one can observe them without reacting.
So mastery therefore seems to imply the ability to watch and listen to the reactions of the lower vehicles without identifying with them and responding along the lines they lay out. That is the second distinction I make, extending the beachhead of understanding.