114-119
[114] MEDITATION,
[115] MIND (MANAS),
[116] MONEY,
[117] THE MOON,
[118] MOTIVE,
[119] NATURE OF MAN
[114]
MEDITATION
(1) Early in experience, after the attainment of the highest the lower nature has to offer, man begins to meditate. Disorderly at first are his attempts, and sometimes several incarnations may go by in which the Higher Self only forces the man to think, and seriously to meditate at rare and separate intervals. More frequently come the occasions of withdrawing within, until there arises for the man several lives given to mystic meditation and aspiration, culminating usually in a life given entirely to it . . .
Behind each of you who are working definitely under one of the Masters, lie two lives of culmination: the life of worldly apotheosis, and the life of intensest meditation along the mystic or emotional-intuitional line . . .
Now comes to all of you the most important series of lives, to which the previous points of culmination, were but stepping stones. In the lives immediately ahead of those upon the Path, will come final achievement through the instrumentality of the ordered occult meditation, based on law. For some few may come attainment in this life or the next; for others, shortly in other lives. (2 - 12).
(2) The dangers that beset the student of meditation are dependent upon many factors, and it will not be possible to do more than briefly indicate certain menacing conditions, to warn against certain disastrous possibilities, and to caution the pupil against results that are to be reached by undue strain, by over-excess of zeal, and by a one-pointedness that may lead to an unbalanced development. One-pointedness is a virtue, but it should be the one-pointedness of purpose and of aim, and not that which develops one sole line of method, to the exclusion of all others.
The dangers of meditation are largely the dangers of our virtues, and therein lies much of the difficulty. They are largely the dangers of a fine mental concept, that runs ahead of the capacity of the lower vehicles, especially of the dense physical. Aspiration, concentration, and determination are necessary virtues, but if used without discrimination, and without a sense of time in evolution, they may lead to a shattering of the physical vehicle, that will delay all progress for some one particular life. Have I made my point clear? I seek but to bring out the absolute necessity for the [Page 266] occult student to have a virile common sense for one of his basic qualities, coupled with a happy sense of proportion, that leads to due caution, and an approximation of the necessary method to the immediate need. To the man, therefore, who undertakes wholeheartedly the process of occult meditation, I would say with all conciseness:
a. Know thyself.
b. Proceed slowly and with caution.
c. Study effects.
d. Cultivate the realisation that eternity is long, and that which is slowly built up endures forever.
e. Aim at regularity.
f. Realise always that the true spiritual effects are to be seen in the exoteric life of service.
g. Remember likewise, that psychic phenomena are no indication of a successful following of meditation. The world will see the effects, and be a better judge than the student himself. Above all, the Master will know, for the results on causal levels will be apparent to Him long before the man himself is conscious of any progress. (2 - 92/4).
(3) Almost all who undertake meditation, are conscious of an effect in the nervous system; sometimes it takes the form of sleeplessness, of excitability; of a strained energy and restlessness that permit of no relaxation; of an irritability that has been foreign perhaps to the disposition until meditation was pursued; of a nervous reaction - such as a twitching of the limbs, the fingers or the eyes - of depression, or a lowering of the vitality, and of many individual modes of showing tension and nervousness, differing according to nature and temperament. This display of nervousness may be either severe or slight, but I seek earnestly to point out it is quite needless, provided the student adheres to the rules of common-sense, that he studies wisely his own temperament, and that he does not blindly proceed with forms and methods, but insists on knowing the raison d'etre of instituted action. (2 - 104/5).
(4) The aim should be the development of the habit of meditation all the day long, and the living in the higher consciousness till that consciousness is so stable that the lower mind, desire, and the physical elementals, become so atrophied and starved through lack of nourishment, that the threefold lower nature becomes simply the means whereby the Ego contacts the world for purposes of helping the race. (2 - 145).
(5) For all these troubles, forms of meditation may be found, which - if followed in time - will eventually dissipate them. The fundamental fact [Page 267] to be grasped here, is that only when the pupil has an intelligent appreciation of the trouble or troubles affecting him, only when he has the ability to conscientiously follow the imparted formulas, and only when his object is unselfish, will he be trusted with these forms. When his object is to equip himself for service, when he aims only at the acquirement of healthy vehicles for the better carrying out of the plan of the Great Ones, and when he desires not to escape disease for his own personal benefit, only then will the formulas work in connection with the egoic consciousness. (2 - 161).
(6) Meditation . . . is the means of bringing to the unit under development the capacity which will produce:
a. Abstraction, or liberation from form.
b. Creative power.
c. Direction of energy, through an act of the will.
d. Future constructive activity.
By means of meditation, a man finds freedom from the delusion of the senses, and their vibratory lure; he finds his own positive centre of energy and becomes consciously able to use it; he becomes, therefore, aware of his real Self, functioning freely and consciously beyond the planes of sense; he enters into the plans of the greater Entity within Whose radiatory capacity he has a place; he can then consciously proceed to carry out those plans as he can grasp them at varying stages of realisation; and he becomes aware of essential unity . . . Freedom to work on any Path must be gained by occult meditation; freedom to escape beyond the ring-pass-not is also thus attained. (3 - 746/7).
(7) The main function of meditation is to bring the lower instrument into such a condition of receptivity and vibratory response, that the Ego, or Solar Angel, can use it, and produce specific results. (3 - 998).
(8) The white magician, having, through meditation and conscious purpose, formed a focal point of energy upon the mental plane, increases the vibration through strenuous concentration; he begins then to visualise in detail the form he is seeking to build; he pictures it with all its component parts, and sees "before his mind's eye" the consummated product of the egoic meditation as he has succeeded in bringing it through . . . Hence, in all meditation that is
of occult value, the man has to do certain things in order to aid in bringing about results.
He tranquilises his bodies in order that there be no impediment to the egoic intent, and listens for the "Voice of the Silence". He responds then to that Voice consciously, and broods over the imparted plans.
He then sounds the Sacred Word, taking up the note of the Ego as he [Page 268] believes he hears it, and sending it forth to swell the egoic sound, and to set in motion matter on the mental plane. He (synchronously with this sounding) visualises the proposed thought-form which is to embody egoic purposes, and pictures it in detail. (3 - 1000/1).
(9) One of the objectives of the daily meditation, is to enable the brain and mind to vibrate in unison with the soul as it seeks "in meditation deep" to communicate with its reflection. (4 - 74).
(10) The tendency of most aspirants is to be occupied with their deficiencies in the work of meditation, and their inability to control their minds, whereas both those aspects of their endeavour would be aided, if they were to be occupied by the profoundly engrossing work of thought-form building. (4 - 159)
(11) Many forms, thus constructed by an aspirant in his meditation work are lost, and fail in their objective, because of the chaotic and whirling state of the aspirant's emotional body. Thus good intentions come to naught. (4 - 160).
(12) Meditation is dangerous and unprofitable to the man who enters upon it without the basis of a good character and of clean living . . . Meditation is dangerous where there is wrong motive, such as desire for personal growth and for spiritual powers, for it produces, under these conditions only a strengthening of the shadows in the vale of illusion and brings to full growth the serpent of pride, lurking in the valley of selfish desire. Meditation is dangerous when the desire to serve is lacking. (4 - 205).
(13) Man, when meditating, is aiming at two things:
a. At the formation of thoughts, at the bringing down to the concrete levels of the mental plane, of abstract ideas and intuitions. This is what might be termed meditation with seed.
b. At the aligning of the Ego, and at the creation of that vacuum betwixt the physical brain and the Ego, which results in the divine outpouring, and the consequent shattering of the forms, and subsequent liberation. This might be termed meditation without seed. (2 - 58).
(14) Only as the race develops the dynamic powers and attributes of thought - which powers are the product of meditation, rightly used - will the capacity to make use of the laws of vibration be objectively possible. Think not that only the religious devotee or mystic, or the man imbued with what we call higher teaching, is the exponent of the powers attained by meditation. All great capitalists, and the supreme heads of finance, or organised business, are the exponents of similar powers. They are the [Page 269] personifications of one-pointed adherence to one line of thought, and their evolution parallels that of the mystic and occultists. I seek most strongly to emphasise this fact. . . Supreme concentrated attention to the matter in hand, makes them what they are, and in many respects they attain greater results than many a student of meditation. All they need to do is to transmute the motive underlying their work, and their achievement will then outrun that of other students. (2 - 251).
(15) This is the path to be trodden by one and all, and the method is meditation. The goal is perfect love and wisdom; the steps are the surmounting of subplane after subplane, on all three planes; the method is that of occult meditation; the reward is the continuous expansion of consciousness that puts a man eventually en rapport with his own Ego, with other selves, with the waiting eager Master to Whom he is assigned, with fellow disciples and more advanced Initiates whom he may contact in that Master's aura, till he finally contacts the One Initiator, is admitted into the Secret Place, and knows the mystery that underlies consciousness itself. (2 - 258/9).
(16) Meditation is a technique of the mind which eventually produces correct, unimpeded relationship; this is another name for alignment. It is therefore the establishment of a direct channel, not only between the one source, the monad, and its expression, the purified and controlled personality, but also between the seven centres in the human etheric vehicle. (17 - 620).
(17) The Science of Meditation. At present meditation is associated in the minds of men with religious matters. But that relates only to theme. The science can be applied to every possible life process. In reality, this science is a subsidiary branch, preparatory to the Science of the Antahkarana. It is really the true science of occult bridge building or bridging in consciousness. By its means, particularly in the early stages, the building process is facilitated. It is one of the major ways of spiritual functioning; it is one of the many ways to God; it relates the individual mind eventually to the higher mind, and later to the Universal Mind. It is one of the major building techniques and will eventually dominate the new educational methods in schools and colleges. It is intended primarily to:
a. Produce sensitivity to the higher impressions.
b. Build the first half of the antahkarana, that between the personality and the soul.
c. Produce an eventual continuity of consciousness. Meditation is essen- [Page 270] tially the science of light, because it works in the substance of light. (12 - 96).
(18) Meditation involves the living of a one-pointed life always and every day . . . This process of ordered meditation, when carried forward over a period of years, and supplemented by meditative living and one-pointed service, will successfully arouse the entire system, and bring the lower man under the influence and control of the spiritual man.
I cannot too strongly advise students against the following of intensive meditation processes for hours at a time . . . The average aspirant is so sensitive and finely organised that excessive meditation, a fanatical diet, the curtailing of the hours of sleep, or undue interest in and emphasis upon psychic experience, will upset the mental balance and often do irretrievable harm. (13 - 18/9).
(19) The technique of meditation is the outstanding creative agent on our planet. When you, as an individual, are endeavouring to "build the new man in Christ", which will be an expression of your true spiritual self, meditation is, as you well know, your best agent; but the meditation process must be accomplished by creative work, or else it is purely mystical, and though not futile, is nevertheless negative in creative results. (6 - 202).
See also: (6 - 303) and "Teachings on Meditation" (6 - 111/239).
[115]
MIND (MANAS)
(1) Manas has been defined as mind, or that faculty of logical deduction and reasoning, and of rational activity that distinguishes man from the animals. Yet it is something much more than that, for it underlies all manifestation, and the very shape of an amoeba, and the discriminative faculty of the lowest atom or cell, is actuated by mind of some kind or another . . . The fire of mind is fundamentally electricity, shown in its higher workings. (3 - 310).
(2) Love is the great unifier, the prime attractive impulse, cosmic and microcosmic, but the mind is the main creative factor and the utiliser of the energies of the cosmos. Love attracts, but the mind attracts, repels and coordinates, so that its potency is inconceivable . . . The race is progressing into an era wherein men will function as minds; when intelligence will be stronger than desire, and when thought powers will be used for appeal and for the guidance of the world, as now physical and emotional means are employed. (4 - 125).
[Page 271]
(3) The mind creates or formulates those thought-forms (or embodied energies) which express, upon the mental plane, the measure of the disciple's understanding of the Plan, and his ability to convey the embodied mental energy to the etheric body - unimpeded by the emotional nature or by any lower upsurging desire. (5 - 698/9).
(4) The developed man, with an integrated personality, gradually brings the etheric body under the control of mental energy, and his physical plane activity is not then so much implemented by instinct or desire, as by thought energy, dedicated to and expressing the nature of the man's plan. (5 - 699).
See also: "Thought-Forms".
[116]
MONEY
(1) "The love of money is the root of all evil". This throws us back on the fundamental weakness of humanity - the quality of desire. Of this money is the result and the symbol . . .
Desire demands the satisfaction of sensed need, the desire for goods and possessions, the desire for material comfort, for the acquisition and accumulation of things, the desire for power and the supremacy which money alone can give. This desire controls and dominates human thinking; it is the keynote of our modern civilisation; it is also the octopus which is slowly strangling human life, enterprise, and decency; it is the millstone around the neck of mankind . . .
There are, however, large numbers of people whose lives are not dominated by the love of money, and who can normally think in terms of the higher values. They are the hope of the future but are individually imprisoned in the system which, spiritually, must end. Though they do not love money, they need it, and must have it; the tentacles of the business world surround them; they too must work and earn the wherewithal to live; the work they seek to do to aid humanity, cannot be done without the required funds. (7 - 79/80).
(2) The aspirant has an appreciation of the occult value of money in service. He seeks nothing for himself, save that which may equip him for the work to be done, and he looks upon money and that which money can purchase as something which is to be used for others, and as a means to bring about the fruition of the Master's plans as he senses those plans . . . Only he who desires naught for himself can be a recipient of financial bounty, and a dispenser of the riches of the universe. In other cases where [Page 272] riches increase they bring with them naught but sorrow and distress, discontent, and misuse. (1 - 79), (3 - 866).
(3) In the new age which is upon us, prior to the return of the Christ, the demand for financial support must be for the bringing about of right human relations and goodwill, and not for the growth of any particular organisation. The organisations so demanding, must work with the minimum of overhead and central plant, and the workers for the minimum, yet reasonable, salary. (8 - 179), (13 - 630).
(4) Remember that money is the consolidation of the loving, living energy of divinity, and that the greater the realisation and expression of love, the freer will be the inflow of that which is needed to carry forward the work. You are working with the energy of love and not with the energy of desire, the reflection or distortion of love. (13 - 335).
(5) Just as money has been in the past the instrument of men's selfishness, now it must be the instrument of their goodwill. (5 - 166).
See also: (5 - 271/3), (6 - 221, 225) and "Reflective Meditation on Attracting Money for Hierarchical Purposes." (6 - 228/31).
[117]
THE MOON
(1) The internal fires of the moon are practically burnt out, and, therefore, she does not shine save through reflection, having no inner fire to blend and merge with light external. (3 - 60).
(2) What causes the apparent deadness of the moon? . . . Here we touch upon a hidden mystery, of which the solution lies revealed for those who seek, in the fact that human beings and certain groups of devas are no longer found on the moon. Man has not ceased to exist upon the moon because it is dead, and cannot therefore support his life, but the moon is dead because man and these deva groups have been removed from off its surface and from its sphere of influence. Man and the devas act on every planet as intermediaries, or as transmitting agencies. Where they are not found, thencertain great activities become impossible, and disintegration sets in. (3 - 93)
(3) The decay of a moon has as great an evil effect upon all that contacts it as a decaying body on earth has upon its surroundings. It is occultly "offensive" . . . The greatest effect of moon conditions is to be seen working out predominantly in the terror, and present distress in the animal kingdom. (3 - 795).
[Page 273]
(4) Just as the moon is a deterrent or malefic force where the Earth is concerned, and productive of evil "influences", so all such disintegrating bodies are equally destructive. (3 - 837).
(5) I would have you bear definitely in mind, that today the moon is nothing more than a dead form. It has no emanation and no radiation of any kind and, therefore, has no effect of any kind. The moon, from the angle of the esoteric knower, is simply an obstruction in space - an undesirable form which must some day disappear. In esoteric astrology, the effect of the moon is noted as a thought effect, and as the result of a powerful and most ancient thought-form; nevertheless, the moon has no quality of her own, and can transmit nothing to the Earth. (16 - 13).
(6) The moon, as you know, is a shell, an ancient form through which the planetary Logos at one time sought expression. It is slowly disintegrating physically, but not astrally as yet, and is therefore still closely linked with the astral body of the planetary Logos, and therefore with the astral body of all people. Its influence is consequently more potent at the time of the full moon upon all who are unbalanced. (17 - 341).
(7) (The FULL MOON - Meditation and Effects - see (6 - 25/7, -54)).
[118]
MOTIVE
(1) The development of right motive is a progressive effort, and constantly one shifts the focus of one's incentive when one discovers himself, as the Light shines ever more steadily upon one's way, and constantly a newer and higher motive emerges. Again let me illustrate: An aspirant in the early stages is practically always a devotee. To measure up to the standard set by a beloved friend and teacher, he struggles and strives and gains ground. Later, this object of his devotion and ardent effort is superseded by devotion to one of the Great Ones, the Elder Brothers of the race. He bends all his powers and the forces of his nature to Their service. This incentive is, in its turn, surely and steadily superseded by a vital love for humanity, and love of one individual (be he ever so perfect) is lost sight of in love for the whole brotherhood of men. Unceasingly, as the soul takes more and more control of its instrument, and the soul nature steadily manifests, this too is superseded by love of the ideal, of the Plan, and of the purposes underlying the universe itself. The man comes to know himself as naught but a channel through which spiritual agencies can work, and [Page 274] realises himself as a corporate part of the One Life. Then he sees even humanity as relative and fractional, and becomes immersed in the great Will. (4 - 203/4).
(2) Students would be amazed if they could see their motives as we see them who guide on the subjective side of experience. Mixed motive is universal. Pure motive is rare, and where it exists there is ever success and achievement. Such pure motive can be entirely selfish and personal, or unselfish and spiritual, and in between, where aspirants are concerned, mixed in varying degree. According, however, to the purity of intent and the singleness of purpose, so will be the potency. (4 - 558).
(3) The study and understanding of motives is of . . . value and importance, for such a study determines intellectually (if properly investigated) what factor or factors inspires the daily life. This is a statement worth careful consideration. I would ask you: What is your major actuating motive? For, whatever it may be, it conditions and determines your predominant life tendency.
Many people, particularly the unintelligent masses, are solely inspired by desire - material, physical and temporary. Animal desire for the satisfaction of the animal appetites, material desire for possession and for the luxuries of existence, the longing for "things", for comforts and for security - economic, social and religious - control the majority . . . Others are motivated by some form of aspiration or ambition - aspiration towards some material heaven (and most religions portray heaven in this manner), ambitions for power, desire for the satisfaction of the emotional or aesthetic appetites, and for the possession of the more subtle realities, and the longing for emotional comfort, for mental stability, and assurance that the higher desires will meet with gratification. (10 - 149).
(4) The time has come when men everywhere must realise that entry into a Master's Ashram is dependent upon Intelligence, plus right motive and service. (13 - 666).
[119]
NATURE OF MAN
(1) When the public mind has apprehended, even cursorily, the following briefly stated facts, the trend of popular education, the object of political science, and the goal of economic and social endeavour will take a new and better direction. These facts might be summed up in the following postulates:
[Page 275]
1. Man is in essence divine. This has ever been enunciated throughout the ages, but remains as yet a beautiful theory or belief, and not a proven scientific fact, nor is it universally held.
2. Man is in fact a fragment of the Universal Mind, or world soul, and as a fragment is thus partaker of the instincts and quality of that soul, as it manifests through the human family . . . It must lead to the education of the public as to the nature of man, and the development of the powers latent within him - powers which will set him free from his present limitations, and which will produce in the human family a collective repudiation of the present conditions. When men everywhere recognise themselves and each other, as divine self-conscious units, functioning primarily in the causal body but utilising the three lower vehicles only as a means of contact with the three lower planes, we will have government, politics, economics and the social order readjusted upon sound, sane and divine lines.
3. Man in his lower nature, and in his three vehicles, is an aggregate of lesser lives, dependent on him for their group nature, for their type of activity, and collective response, and who through the energy of activity of the solar Lord - will themselves later be raised, and developed to the human stage.
When these facts are understood, then and only then will we have a right and just comprehension of the nature of man. (3 - 809/11).
(2) That inner man has ever been known to be there, and the "kingdom within" has ever been proclaimed until H.P.B. came and gave out the same truths from a new angle, giving an occult turn to mystic thought. Now comes the opportunity for man to realise the laws of his own being, and in that realisation those who stand on the verge of intuitional apprehension of knowledge and those of scientific bent who are willing to accept these truths as a working hypothesis to be utilised as a basis for experiment until proven false, will have the chance to solve the world problems from within. Thus will the Christ principle be manifested on earth, and thus will the Christ nature be demonstrated to be a fact in nature itself. (3 - 814/5).
(3) Spirit uses the Soul, or the Ego, as a vehicle of enlightenment, and the Ego uses the lower Quartenary as its medium of expression. (3 - 819).
See also: "The Constitution of Man".