Level of the astral body

Here it is the will that is under threat. Just as Jesus was tempted to abandon his ministry for the sake of earthly power, so the individual may be tempted to give in to ideas which encourage him to depart from his own ideals. This is the contest between the rational and the spiritual. Jesus response was that the lower must serve the higher. This is the end of the fight against the lower self and the commencement of teaching to the disciples to teach others how to approach successively higher levels of being.

The third level in progressing from the lower self to the higher self as described by F Aster Barnwell. Mastery of the first three levels (the lower self) as experienced in the three temptations faced by Christ in the wilderness, followed by the four levels of the higher self experienced by St John during his Revelation, are related to progression towards self realization through the levels of consciousness represented by the chakras.