Gods in Exile by J.J.Van Der Leeuw

Gods in Exile by J.J.Van Der Leeuw
FOREWORD

THE following pages are based on an awakening of Ego-consciousness which came to me some little time ago. It brought with it knowledge which, though it came in but a single moment, has taken many days to realize and many pages to describe.

I do not claim any credit for the teachings. I received them as we receive all things on the Path, and pass them on to others in the hope that they may help them as they have helped me.

J. .J. VAN DER LEEUW
** In this context the EGO is regarded as the spirit consciosness within.It is an early theosophical interpretation**(added by danny)

CHAPTER 1

THE DRAMA OF THE SOUL IN EXILE

THE Path of Occultism is often called the path of Woe.

There is no reason why we should call it a Path of Woe rather than a Path of Joy; the same achievement which means woe to our lower nature, spells joy to our higher Self, and it depends on the standpoint we take whether our experience will be joyful or sorrowful. The immediate goal on the Path of Occultism is to accomplish the union [Page 12] of these two, of what we commonly call our lower and our higher Self; and this union is achieved in the first of the great Initiations. Since the moment of individualization there is no greater event in the history of the human soul than Initiation. It is, as the word implies, a new beginning, the beginning of a new life, of conscious life in our own true Self or Ego.
THE AWAKENING OF THE SOUL

As long as man, in his pilgrimage through matter, identifies himself entirely with his bodies and follows entirely their dictates, in utter oblivion of his own true, divine nature, he does not suffer, but is contented in an animal way. It is only when the soul in her earthly prison begins to recall the divine [Page 13] Home from which she lives exiled, when through love, beauty or truth, consciousness of her own true nature awakens, that suffering begins. We are like Prometheus, chained to the rock of matter, but it is not until we become conscious of what we truly are, that we are at all aware of being prisoners, of being exiles. Thus might one live, who in the days of his youth had been banished from his native land and who, for many years had been among strangers, hardly remembering, in the privations and miseries of his exile, that once he knew different surroundings. But some day, perhaps, he hears a song which he knew in his youth, and in sudden agony remembers all he has lost, realizing in pain that he is an exile, far from all that was dear to him. In that [Page 14] memory the yearning for his native land is born again, and becomes stronger than it ever was. It is only then that suffering and struggle begin; suffering because of the knowledge of what he has lost, struggle in the attempt to regain that which once he possessed.

In a similar way, the awakening of the soul, when it comes in the course of human evolution, brings not only joy, but also suffering in its wake. As long as man lived the animal life of his bodies, he knew contentment of a sort; but with the remembrance of his true nature, with the vision of the world to which he belongs, there is born that age-long struggle in which he tries to free himself from the entanglement with the worlds of matter which he has brought [Page 15] about by identifying himself with his bodies. Where up to this moment he was not conscious of his bodies as a limitation, they now become to him as the burning garment of Nessus, clinging to him the more he tries to free himself from their contact. From now onwards, he is to know himself as two persons in one; he is to be conscious of a higher divine Self within, ever calling him back to his divine Home; and a lower animal nature, which is his consciousness bound to and dominated by the bodies.
MORAL STRUGGLE IN MAN

There is no greater problem, no greater difficulty in human life than this consciousness of being two persons in one. Thus [Page 16] St. Paul groaned under the strife of the law of his members against the law of the spirit and exclaimed in distress: "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Roman. 7, 19-24.) Nowhere perhaps is this struggle in man more profoundly described than in the Confessions of St. Augustine. [Page 17] He says: "I was ravished to thee by thine own Beauty; and I was torn from thee by my own weight, throwing myself with groanings upon these lower things, and this weight was the custom of my flesh." (7,17.) And again he says: "The joys of this my life which deserve to be lamented, are at strife with my sorrows which are to be rejoiced in, and which way the victory will incline, I yet know not." (10, 28.) It is the eternal experience of striving man, expressed by Goethe where he exclaims: "Two souls, alas, live in this breast of mine." It is the experience of every aspirant on the Path of Occultism, or even of any human being who tries to live nobly according to the dictates of his higher Self, and finds himself retarded and impeded by the desires of his lower self. [Page 18] There is not a human life free from this fundamental struggle; in countless forms, this many-headed Hydra confronts us, and the life of many a candidate for Occultism is a tragedy because of this inner strife, which not only causes acute suffering and self-contempt, but which exhausts the bodies and drains the vitality. Is there anything in human life harder to bear than to see the vision of the spirit and the next moment to deny that vision in the practice of our lives? We, then, feel the self-contempt of which P.B.Shelley speaks as “bitterer to drink than blood,” the despair of failing again and again to live as we would live.

Great as is this human tragedy, the most tragical part of it is that it is largely unnecessary and a result of our ignorance; ignorance [Page 19] with regard to the working of our own consciousness.
IGNORANCE THE CAUSE

The last thing man discovers is himself. It is a strange yet universal truth that man's thirst for knowledge should begin with that which is furthest and end with that which is nearest. Primitive man already has studied the heavens, but only modem man is beginning to explore the mysteries of his own soul.

Most men are a mystery to themselves; many are even unaware of the existence of the mystery. If we were to ask the average man what he, the living human being, really is; what happens when he feels, and thinks, [Page 20] and acts; what the cause is of the struggle between good and evil of which he is conscious in his own breast, he would not only be unable to answer, but the very questions would seem strange and novel to him. Yet, what could be stranger than that any human being should go through life and bear with all its vicissitudes, suffer the miseries common to all men, rejoice in the evanescent pleasures of life, bear its incessant burden and never ask why? If we were to see a man travelling under great discomfort and many hardships, and if, when we asked him whither he was going, he were to answer that the question had never occurred to him, we should certainly consider such a man crazy. Yet that is exactly the case of most people in ordinary life. They go on the journey from [Page 21] birth to death, they toil along the weary road of life, and never ask why, or if they do, they ask the question in a superficial way, not really caring whether they find the answer or not.

But the time comes for every soul in her long pilgrimage, when life becomes impossible to her unless she does know why; when, disillusioned by the world around in which lasting satisfaction can never be found, the soul ceases for a moment her frantic chase after illusions and in utter exhaustion, rests silent and alone. It is then that within the soul is born the consciousness of a new world; it is then that, having turned her face away from the glamour of the world around, she discovers the abiding reality of the world within, the world of the Self. Then, and [Page 22] then alone are questions of life answered, but, as Emerson has it, the soul answers never by words, but by the thing itself sought after.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR TRUE NATURE

During the period of struggle, questions as to the purpose of life and man's own being had formulated themselves, but when the answers come they do not answer the questions but rather obliterate them in the experience of the reality itself. Thus, with regard to the mystery of man's own being, the answer is not an intellectual exposition of the constitution of man, but rather an awareness of his own inner Self [Page 23] and as a result, the discovery of the world of that Self. When, in that world, we consider the problem of the duality which we all experience in daily life, of a higher Self on the one hand and a lower self on the other, we find a wonderful truth.

Man is essentially divine; as a son of God he partakes of the nature of his Father and shares His Godhead. Man's own and true home is therefore the world of the Divine; there we live and move and have our being "from eternity to eternity". In his own world the Ego of man has his own activities and lives a life of joy and splendour beyond all earthly conception. There is, however, one lesson or experience which he cannot learn in his own world, but for which he has to put forth his consciousness into the [Page 24] worlds of outer manifestation where there is manifoldness and the antithesis of "I" and "not-I". It is there alone that, through the medium of bodies composed of the matter of these outer worlds, the Ego can gain self-consciousness, that is to say, consciousness of himself as a separate individual. The divine world which is the true home of the Ego is a world in which there is not that distinction between Self and not-Self, but in which every part shares the universal consciousness of the whole. That is why in this world the particular self-realization which is necessary to the Ego cannot be gained. It is only in the three-fold universe of outer manifestation, the physical world, the emotional world and the mental world, that we find the duality of subject and object [Page 25] necessary for the gaining of self-consciousness. Thus it is truly for the gaining of knowledge that the Ego puts himself forth into these outer worlds and assumes bodies of the matter of these worlds. It is this going forth of the soul into the worlds of darkness which we find symbolically described in the story of Genesis. Primitive Paradise is not a state which can last, however great its beauty and harmony. The soul must eat of the tree of good and evil, the tree of knowledge, even though at the cost of Paradise. Having thus become conscious of the desire to know the worlds of matter, the soul is clothed in "coats of skin," the bodies of matter, and henceforth has to live under the conditions of material existence, "labouring and bringing forth in pain". [Page 26] The end of this long exile is the redemption or regeneration, which takes place when the soul regains knowledge of her own divinity, and Christ is born in the heart of man. Then Paradise is regained, but now in full self-consciousness, the Ego in his own divine world possessing the fruits yielded by the soul's descent into the worlds of matter.
THE DRAMA OF THE SOUL

We may thus look upon the repeated incarnations of the divine soul in the worlds of outer manifestation as an especial activity of the Ego, for the specific purpose of acquiring knowledge which can only be gained in this manner. With this putting forth of the divine consciousness into the three [Page 27] bodies, the physical body, the body of emotions and the body of thought, there takes place the tragedy, the true fall into matter, which is the cause of all subsequent suffering in the pilgrimage of the soul. For in the process of putting forth a part of her consciousness into the three bodies, that part identifies itself with the bodies into which it is extended, and in that identification, feels itself to be the bodies which are meant to be its servants. Feeling itself to be these bodies, the incarnate consciousness no longer shares the all-embracing consciousness of the divine Self to which it belongs, but shares the separateness of the bodies and becomes an entity, separate from and opposed to other beings - the personality. It is the ancient story of Narcissus, who, beholding [Page 28] his image mirrored on the surface of the pool, yearns to embrace that image and in so doing is engulfed in the waters which mirrored him. Thus the incarnate consciousness is engulfed in the sea of matter and, in its identification with the separate bodies, is shut off from the Self of which it is part and no longer knows itself as that which it truly is - a son of God.

Then begins the age-long tragedy of the soul in exile, oblivious of her own divine heritage and degraded in her unconscious submission to those bodies which should be her willing instruments. It is the old Gnostic myth of Sophia, the divine soul, living in exile amongst thieves and robbers who abuse and humiliate her until she is redeemed by the Christ and returns to her divine home. [Page 29]

Can there be a greater tragedy and a more profound degradation than that in which the divine soul, member of the highest Nobility, that of the Godhead itself, is subject to the humiliation and indignity of an existence in which, forgetful of her own high rank, she suffers herself to be enslaved by matter? Sometimes when we see humanity at its worst, ugly in its hatred, disharmonious in its estrangement from Nature, coarse and brutal or stupid and superficial, we feel this intense tragedy of the exile of the soul and are acutely conscious of the degradation suffered by the immortal Self within.
A CHANGE OF ATTITUDE NECESSARY

Thus then our consciousness of being dual, of being a higher Self within and a [Page 30] lower self without, is based on ignorance. We are not two, but one. We are the divine Self and nothing else. His world is our world, his life our life. What happens is that when we put forth our divine consciousness into the bodies through which we have to gain certain experiences, we identify ourselves with these bodies and become oblivious of what we truly are. Then the imprisoned consciousness, enslaved by the three bodies, follows their desires and we call it the lower self or personality. The voice from within, our own true voice, we feel as the call of the higher Self; and between these two, Ego and personality, our struggle and suffering, our veritable crucifixion, takes place. Yet most of that suffering is due to our ignorance and ceases when we realize [Page 31] our true nature. This, however, means an entire change of attitude. To begin with, our conception of the duality of our nature is wrong. We always speak of the soul, spirit, higher Self, Ego, or whatsoever else we call our higher nature, as of something or some one up above, while we ourselves, the lower nature, or personality, live down below. We then look upon our efforts to reach the higher as the attempt to gain something essentially foreign to ourselves and consequently hard to obtain. So, often we speak of the "tremendous effort" required to reach the higher Self; at other times again we speak of inspiration or knowledge, spiritual strength or love, as coming from that higher Self to us down below. In all these cases, we commit the fundamental [Page 32] error of identifying ourselves with that which we are not, and we approach the entire problem in that attitude. The first condition of spiritual achievement is the certainty beyond any doubt that we are the spirit or higher Self; and the second condition, as important and essential as the first, is the confidence in our own powers as the Ego and the courage to use them freely, Instead of looking upon our usual state of consciousness as natural and normal, and looking upwards towards the Ego as a lofty being to be reached by continuous and tremendous effort, we must begin to look upon our ordinary state of consciousness as abnormal and unnatural and upon the life of the spirit as our own true life, from which by continuous effort we keep ourselves estranged. [Page 33]
SEPARATENESS THE ABNORMAL STATE

It hardly ever occurs to us what persistent and formidable effort we all have to make in order to maintain the illusion of our separate personalities. All day long we have to assert ourselves, defend our beloved individuality from attacks by others, see that it is not ignored, slighted, offended or in any way denied that recognition which we feel is owing to it. Then, again, in all the things which we desire for ourselves we seek to strengthen our separate personalities by the acquisition of the desired objects.

It is by the identification of our true spiritual Self with the temporary bodies through which the Self is manifest, that the illusion [Page 34] of our separate self is born. It is as if the consciousness of the true Self or Ego were stretched downward into the bodies and there got entangled and twisted in such a manner that it forms a separate sphere of consciousness centered round the bodies to which it is thus attached. But it is not a normal state, it is distinctly and essentially abnormal and unnatural. As well might we call it normal and natural if a band of India-rubber were to be pulled down and stretched out in one particular spot and the extension thus formed be attached to some fixed object. The attachment is abnormal and the moment it is disentangled from that fixture it will resume its natural shape and the band of rubber will once again be one harmonious whole. In like manner we need [Page 35] only release our consciousness from the bodies to which we have attached it. We need only surrender the illusion of separateness which we so tenderly foster all day long, and the extension of consciousness, which forms the separate personality, will naturally and automatically flow back into the greater Self which we really are. We speak a great deal about the effort and strain needed to attain to spiritual consciousness, but how much attention do we ever give the appalling strain and effort needed to maintain the illusion of separateness? It is true, we are not conscious of maintaining it, it has become a second nature to us to assert ourselves at the cost of our surroundings, to get what we want and to keep what we have, and in consequence, the gigantic effort [Page 36] needed for this self-assertion and magnification of the personality is unnoticed by us. It is there nevertheless.

Let us, then, by a definite effort of the will shake off that mighty superstition which holds us enslaved to the worlds of matter and prevents us from seeing what we truly are; and let us recognize, assert and maintain our own divinity. There is never pride or separateness in that assertion, for the keynote of that world in which we thus enter, our own true world, is unity, and such a thing as self-conceit or pride in personal greatness cannot exist in that atmosphere. Pride is a plant which can only flower in the heavier regions of the worlds of matter; the moment we enter our true Home such things must necessarily cease to be. [Page 37] It is only by thus liberating our consciousness from the thralldom of the bodies, by realizing the powers which we, everyone of us, have as a divine Self or Ego, and finally, by refusing to become entangled again in the web of material existence, that we can attain that which we set out to reach; freedom from the exhausting and embittering struggle between higher and lower self which poisons the life of so many an earnest aspirant; withdrawal of lower into higher Self - Initiation.
DOING, NOT AGREEING

There is no use in reading a thing and recognizing that it is true, appreciating, as it were, its correctness from a distance. [Page 38] If we would benefit by it, it must become more than a teaching, it must become practice. And so in the following pages we shall try to make the experiment, not merely of recognizing that we in our true consciousness are the Ego, but of actually disentangling that consciousness from the limitations, in which it is imprisoned, and bringing it, thus released, into the world of divine joy and freedom where it belongs.

It has almost become a platitude to say that what we want in our times is action and not words, but yet it is profoundly true, and it should be carried out in a type of lectures and books, in which the author or speaker does not merely say things which may or may not be appreciated by his public, but in which he and his readers or [Page 39] hearers together go, as it were, on an expedition into the realms of the unknown, where one may lead and others may follow, but where all have to go for themselves. Thus our lectures should be action-lectures, our books action-books and those who read or listen should undergo in their own consciousness that which is spoken about. Let us then do so in our attempt to know ourselves as that which we truly are, not reading these pages in an objective way as if contemplating a spectacle outside ourselves, but trying to identify ourselves with what is said, and doing in our own consciousness that which we read about in these pages. [Page 40]
CHAPTER 2

THE WAY TO THE EGO

BEGIN then by thinking about yourselves and watch what comes into your mind when you do so think. You will find that you naturally think of yourself as you appear physically, as you look in the mirror with the face which is familiar to you and bearing the name which is at present yours. This is the first illusion you have to conquer, for as long as we think of ourselves as the physical body we continue to identify ourselves [Page 41] with that body and that is exactly what we should not do. By identifying ourselves with the physical body, or its subtler counterpart the etheric body, we make ourselves subservient to their desires and their conditions of existence; consequently our body responds to every change of circumstances to which it is subjected and it follows its own way instead of ours. The result is weakness and ill-health, and a certain heaviness or dullness in the body which makes it unable to respond to the Self within.
THE CHANGE IN THE PHYSICAL BODY

All that changes when we overcome the illusion of being the body and see it as just what it is, as our servant or instrument in [Page 42] the physical world. We must, as it were, change the polarity of the whole relation; instead of the physical world dominating us through the physical body with which we have identified ourselves, we must control the physical world through the physical body which we have made subservient to ourselves. The centre of gravity must be shifted from the physical body to the consciousness which is ours, we must as it were feel that we withdraw the centre of our consciousness and feel ourselves standing behind and working through the physical body, not one with it. The result produced by this change of attitude towards the physical body is profound; as small particles of iron filings group themselves round one common centre when a magnet is brought [Page 43] near, and become all arrayed along the lines of force in the magnetic field thus caused, even so the particles of the etheric and physical bodies, instead of being chaotic and aimless and subject to any chance influence from without, become subservient to the one controlling influence of the will within. We must feel them like that, feel the change brought about by our assertion that we are not the body but that the body is ours. We must feel that henceforth it is vitality from within which nourishes and energizes the etheric and physical bodies, more so than vitality from without. The entire change is one which must be experienced and felt rather than thought about and discussed. We must feel our physical body becoming vibrant and responsive to the [Page 44] consciousness within, subject to its laws and conditions rather than to those of the physical world around.

In all we do during our daily life that attitude must be maintained. We must feel all the time that we consciously work through the physical body and that it does not work of its own accord. Thus we must give it regularity of habits, of eating and sleeping and of exercise, so that it may be a perfect instrument. Unless the muscles of our physical body are trained daily by physical exercise we cannot expect our body to be resilient and responsive, and far more depends on physical health than is recognized in practice. In a similar way we must regulate our eating so that it becomes possible for the physical body to be alert and [Page 45] responsive. Instead of eating any food in any way, we must eat only those forms of food which will make the body a cleaner, stronger and finer instrument for us to use, and while we eat we must be conscious of what we are doing, building the nourishment into the body from within. This again is something we must do and experience rather than approach intellectually. We must have the feeling that we eat consciously and that while we take a mouthful of food, we spiritually build it into the texture of the body. Those amongst Christians who belong to a church which recognizes the value of the Sacraments know the meaning of Communion, know also the particular way in which the consecrated elements are consumed. In just the same way we should [Page 46] take all food, for all matter is consecrated by the presence of Christ, and His Life is in all things, even though in the consecrated Host and Wine that Presence is manifest in fullness.

In those and in many other ways we can assist the change in the etheric and physical bodies, which the Hermetic philosophers knew so well as the regeneration of the body, and make them perfect instruments for the Self within. It is a very real change and, when accomplished, for ever breaks the dominion of the physical body over our consciousness, making it a well-attuned instrument for us to use.
THE CHANGE IN THE ASTRAL BODY

Now withdraw the centre of consciousness from the physical body, a process which [Page 47] takes place naturally when we change our attitude with regard to the body. Of course we do not withdraw the consciousness entirely, for then we should fall asleep or go into a trance, but we no longer keep our consciousness in the body, we keep it at a higher level and work through the body, and that is a very different matter.

Having done so we must bring about the same change with regard to our emotional or astral body as we did with regard to our physical body. Again we find the same difficulty. As a rule we allow our emotional bodies to belong to the emotional world, we allow that world to determine them and allow desires and emotions to be formed in the emotion-body by influences from without. Of course we do not always know it; [Page 48] we have not yet learned the distinction between "I" and "not-I" with regard to what we call the "inner" worlds, the world of the emotions and the world of thought, and in consequence we feel emotions and thoughts "coming up within us", whereas in reality they come over us from without or at least are incited from without. The result, when looked at clairvoyantly, is that the astral body shows different patches of colour, distributed irregularly over it and changing readily under external influences. All that must be changed. We must see our emotion-body and realize it as our vehicle in the astral world. We must take it in the firm grip of the Ego and effect the same change in it which we made in the physical body; we must vitalize the emotional [Page 49] body from within and send through it the emotions which we determine to have.

Try to feel that change in yourself. Try to feel your astral body swept clean of all those petty desires and emotions which are so troublesome, and determine what emotions you, the divine Self, are going to allow in that emotion-body of yours. Feel these emotions and let them radiate out consciously. First of all feel love, not love which desires to possess, but love which goes out freely to all beings and all things. Then feel devotion - devotion to the Master, devotion to the great work, devotion to the highest you know - and flood your astral body with that devotion. Next feel sympathy for all who suffer; feel that your heart goes out in compassion to everyone who suffers in the [Page 50] wide world. Finally feel spiritual aspiration; feel yourself aspiring with intensity to higher things, and feel that true spirituality radiating out through your emotion-body. When in this way you, the Self, determine what feelings to have and consciously send out these higher emotions through your astral body, it becomes a very different thing indeed. Instead of showing drifting, cloudy emotions which change constantly, it becomes a radiant object, steadily sending forth the emotions which you determine to have and throbbing rhythmically under the impulse from within. Seen clairvoyantly also it becomes a very different object; instead of showing cloudy patches of colour it shows a few clearly defined emotions, concentrically arranged, [Page 51] radiating out steadily from the centre of the astral body. Thus again the same change is brought about in it, of which we spoke in connection with the physical body.

Here again we can compare the change to that in a mass of iron filings brought under the influence of a magnetic field. There is now in the astral body a central governing, dominating Will and consequently it is now vitalized and determined by that Will from within. It has now become our servant, and no excitements, emotions or temptations from without can awaken within it emotions or desires which we do not wish. The astral body is no longer just part and parcel of the astral world around it, but has been singled out [Page 52] from the remaining astral world and becomes co-ordinated with the Self within. The polarity has, as it were, been changed; it is now vitalized from within and radiates out steadily the higher emotions for the helping of the world around.

In bringing about this change in the astral body we have taken one more step towards overcoming that duality of higher and lower self which caused us so much trouble in the past and was due to our ignorance in allowing part of our consciousness to be dominated over by the bodies. In making the astral body subservient to the Self within, we again withdraw the centre of consciousness from it, disentangle the consciousness, as it were, from the body in which it had become entangled, and lead [Page 53] it one step nearer to the world where it belongs, holding it like that, vitalized from within, our servant.
THE CHANGE IN THE MENTAL BODY

Next we must consider the thought-body and change it round too. In some ways the change to be brought about in that mental body is the most essential of all, for in that thought-body our real danger lies, even though we may be ignorant of such danger.

We never act, we never speak unless we have first thought, first made an image of what we are going to do, first "imagined" it. We are not aware of this; the workings of the mind are so rapid and our consciousness is such unknown territory to us that we [Page 54] do not know the things that happen in it. But when we so much as lift our hand we first think the movement, we make an image of it and that image, being creative, is realized in action. Thought in us is the manifestation of the Holy Ghost, God the Creator, and it is that supreme creative Energy which is manifest in our power of thought, making it a double-edged sword, all the more dangerous to us when we do not know its power. When we think we make an image in the mental body, we create a thing and fill it with divine creative Energy, which must discharge itself in action. Sometimes a number of repeated thoughts are necessary before the total charge of creative energy is sufficient to bring about action, and, when often [Page 55] repeated, thoughts set up a habit or custom and many a time we become powerless to resist the thing we ourselves have created.

All that would not be harmful if we determined our thought-images from with-in, if we, the divine Self, made the image in full consciousness. The danger, the terrible danger to our entire life, lies in the fact that we allow the creation of thought-images to be incited from without, that we allow stimuli from the outside world to call up images in the mental body, to throw the creative mental matter into thought-forms, charged with energy, which will necessarily seek to discharge and thus realize themselves. In this ungoverned activity of the mental body lies the source of practically all our inner struggle and spiritual difficulties. [Page 56] It is ignorance which allows the undisciplined function of a body which should be ours to use and which should not use us. When we do so allow our mental bodies to be roused from without to the making of images we are lost and our struggle begins.
THE DANGER OF AN UNDISCIPLINED IMAGINATION

Consider the example of a man craving for drink. He knows the misery caused by his weakness, he knows how it wastes his wages and starves his family, and, in his sane moments, he determines to give it up. Now he passes a place in the street where he can get drink, sees people go in and out and perhaps even smells the drink. Up to [Page 57] that moment he is safe from temptation, safe from struggle; but what happens now? In that short fraction of a second he imagines himself drinking; he makes a thought-image and for a moment lives and acts in that thought-image of himself enjoying his drink. He feels how it satisfies his craving, but in reality it has only increased it and made the ensuing action almost unavoidable. Then, having created the image, he belatedly calls upon his will and says: "I do not want to do this thing." But then it is too late, then the struggle is practically futile. Once the thought-image has been created, realization in action generally follows. Sometimes of course the image is not quite strong enough and he succeeds in repressing it. But even [Page 58] then there is all the struggle and exhaustion of the bodies and the suffering which results. The better way is to prevent the creative thought-image from being formed, to intervene when intervention is still effective.

More suffering is caused by this undisciplined imagination than we think. All the countless occasions to be found in the lives of so many where they fail to control their lower passions, especially sex-desire, are the result of an undisciplined imagination, not of a weak will. A strong desire may be felt, but it is creative thought which brings about action. Most people ignore their imaginings, day-dreams or thoughts and think they are harmless because not tangible or visible to the ordinary eye. [Page 59] In reality they are the one and only danger. For the man with strong sex-desire there is no danger in seeing or thinking of the object of his desire unless in so thinking he begins to imagine the satisfaction of his craving. It is when he has made the image of himself as giving way to his desires, and when he has allowed his desires to strengthen the image which he has made, that his danger begins. A man might be surrounded by objects of desire and yet not experience any difficulty or struggle if he could only prevent his imagination, his creative thought-power, reacting on the objects he sees. We never realize sufficiently that there is no power whatsoever in objects of desire unless we allow ourselves to react upon them, unless we [Page 60] indulge in imaginations which are creative. But once having done that, struggle is certain to ensue. We then call upon what we think to be our will, and try to escape from the results of our own imagination by a frantic resistance. Few people have learnt as yet that anxious or frantic resistance inspired by fear is something very different from the will.
THE USE OF THE WILL

When M. Coué, in his epoch-making exposition of the power of the imagination or the creative power of thought, said I that when the will and the imagination are at war the imagination always wins, he was quite right as long as by will we understand only that frantic and anxious [Page 61] resistance which to most people is the substitute for will. Thus when we learn to ride a bicycle and, seeing a solitary tree in our way make straight for the one obstacle which is sure to bring us to grief, our mistake lies in an uncontrolled imagination; we allow ourselves to imagine that we are going to hit the tree, create a thought-image of ourselves doing that and then strengthen it by emotion, in this case fear. Then we begin to resist it, but we should not call this anxious and frantic resistance "will". That resistance certainly strengthens the imagination and even assists in bringing about the event from which we try to escape. But if we used the real will we would not allow the imagination to react on the tree at all, in fact, having [Page 62] noticed the tree and calmly registered its existence, we would not allow it to influence our consciousness, but on the contrary keep our imagination busy with the clear and open road, which we desire to take. The tree would then be practically none existent for us and all we would see would be the open road.

There is an old story of three archers who had a contest as to who could hit a bird in a far-off tree. The first one saw the tree but missed the bird; the second one saw the bird, but only touched it; the third aiming at the bird (it must have been a very placid bird) saw neither the tree nor the bird but only the eye at which he aimed, and he succeeded. That is the power of the real will, the power to see only the one object we [Page 63] desire to achieve and nothing else. If the drunkard used his real will he would only see the one purpose of going along the road to his real destination, and passing a public house would not cause him any struggle or temptation. It is by the power of the real will that we can keep the imagination concentrated on the one purpose we have determined to achieve; the especial function of the will is not to do things or to struggle against things, but to hold one purpose in the consciousness and exclude all else.
THE MENTAL BODY, THE VITAL SPOT

Thus it is in the mental body that the wedge must enter; we must refuse to allow any images to be formed in the mental body without our sanction, unless we, the [Page 64] Self within, determine it. Sweep the mental body clean of all thought-forms, all images, all trains of thought which are irrelevant. Then do the same to it as we did to the other bodies, change the polarity, make all its particles responsive and obedient to the consciousness within and no longer subservient to the world around. Here again the change is readily evident to clairvoyant sight and the whole mental body appears luminous with the light of the Self within, a radiating object, attuned to and in line with our own true consciousness.

But even that is not enough; thus we can prevent the mental body from harming us and becoming an obstacle in our way, but no more. We must make the creative power of thought a definite power for good, not [Page 65] merely preventing it from harming us but using it to help us. This means that we must create and strengthen with our emotion those thought-images which we desire to see realized in our daily life. The goal of our evolution is perfection, not for the selfish purpose that we may be perfect, but rather that through us the burden of the world may be lifted a little. Instead of imagining ourselves, as we often unconsciously and unwittingly do, as being the things and doing the things which in reality we neither want to be nor to do, we must imagine ourselves as the perfect man we desire to be and shall be one day. Think with all the creative thought-power you have of yourself as divine in love, divine in will, divine in thought and word and action, [Page 66] and fill your whole mental body with that image, strengthening it with emotions of joy and love, of consecration and aspiration. This image too will realize itself, the same law holds good for it as for the undesirable imaginations which caused us so much trouble. Now we have wielded that power of the imagination consciously we are no longer its slaves, no longer used by it, but we ourselves use it; the same power which was our enemy has now become our friend.

There is no limit to the different ways in which the creative power of the imagination can be used constructively instead of destructively. Not only in our behaviour and daily actions, but in the work we do and in the way in which we recreate ourselves we can use this unlimited power when we [Page 67] make our mental body our servant and willing instrument.

Now withdraw the centre of consciousness from the mental body also and hold it responsive to the Self within, as you are holding the physical and astral bodies. We now hold the three bodies as our servants in the three worlds of illusion; they are the three horses which draw our chariot in the lower worlds, but the Self is the divine charioteer, no longer allowing the horses to run their own way, but making them run his way. He has withdrawn the consciousness from its entanglements with the three bodies. He has brought it back to the world where it truly belongs, and from there he can henceforth use these bodies as his willing servants. [Page 68]
CHAPTER 3

THE WORLD OF THE EGO

WHEN the consciousness is liberated from the three bodies in which it was imprisoned, it will naturally be reunited to the Self which it truly is.

Try to bring back the consciousness into the ego, more than that, try to realize - to know beyond a shadow of a doubt - that you are that Ego, a divine soul which was in exile. Bring it back to that world where it belongs, enter the world which is truly your world and in that self-same moment you will know yourself as the divine Self [Page 69] within, one with the divine in all things. Henceforth there cannot be any doubt as to what we are, the higher or the lower self, no longer can there be the exhausting struggle between the two opposite poles of our nature; they are no longer two; the imprisoned and exiled consciousness has been brought back into the parent-consciousness from which it strayed, and once again man is one, the divine Self within, consciously using the three bodies as his instruments, but no longer bound to them.

Do not bring the consciousness back into the Ego merely in thought, do not agree merely intellectually that you are the Ego, but do it in reality, be the Ego and live in your own world. If you have succeeded in disentangling the consciousness from the [Page 70] bodies, there can be no difficulty in bringing it back into the Ego, for it is the consciousness of the Ego and the world of the Ego is our own true home.

When we thus re-enter the world from which we have been exiled for so long, our first experience is an overwhelming sense of freedom and joy. Like a man who has been imprisoned for many years in a place where the rays of the sun do not penetrate and who, released from his prison, is almost blinded by the light without; so are we, entering our own world after our long exile in the prison-house of matter, overwhelmed by the light surrounding us and the freedom from the limitations which held us. Here in this world all is truly light and joy; the Ego in his own world lives a life [Page 71] of such incomparable bliss and beauty that, even though we were to see it but once, we can never again fall a victim to the world of illusion. We now know who we are. We have seen ourselves in our own divine beauty in the world which is our home, and no power on earth can ever again entice us into believing that we are the bodies. The spell is broken which held us, and now for the first time we know peace and absence of struggle.

It is wonderful how simple everything suddenly becomes when we reach that world of the Ego; how natural it now is to do the right thing. Our former life seems full of complications, almost incomprehensible in its problems; once we have dared to recognize ourselves for what we truly [Page 72] are all struggle and effort vanish and life becomes simple and natural, flowing harmoniously along.
THE LIFE OF THE EGO

One of the things which surprises us most when we realize ourselves as Egos is that in our own world we have a life of our own beyond and above what we call life down here. Even those who recognize that our earthly self is but a temporary manifestation of the divine Self within, often make the mistake of looking upon that temporary manifestation as of supreme importance and of absorbing interest for the divine Self. The reality is very different, the Self which we truly are has a life of his own, in which [Page 73] the subsidiary activity which we call life on earth has not by any means the importance we would fain attach to it. As we are conscious of ourselves as Egos we are simultaneously aware of the activities in which we as Egos are engaged. It is naturally very hard, if not impossible, to give any idea of these activities. We in our waking consciousness only know things of this physical world, and unless we can describe a thing in the terms and realities of this world down below, it has no meaning for us.

In his own world the Ego is ever active in the great work of creation; in company with the angelic hosts and other great beings he assists in the work of world-creation, by which this universe is sustained. God's work is creation; and the Ego, being divine, [Page 74] is engaged in that same divine creative activity. Only art can speak of this true work of the divine man, and it is to the poets and musicians that we must go if we would understand something of our work as Egos. Thus in Prometheus Unbound something of the work of our true Self is felt, where the "Chorus of Spirits and Hours" sings:

"Then weave the web of the mystic measure;
From the depths of the sky and the ends of the earth,
Come, swift Spirits of might and of pleasure,
Fill the dance and the music of mirth,
As the waves of a thousand streams rush by [Page 75]
To an ocean of splendor and harmony!"

and somewhat further where the "Chorus of Spirits " sings:

"And our singing shall build
In the void's loose field
A world for the Spirit of Wisdom to wield."

Singing, music, sound, are words which best convey an idea of the work of the Ego in his own world, and yet of course in that world there is nothing like what we know down here as sound. Yet the whole work impresses one like a great symphony, the notes and chords of which are living beings, singing the Song which is their own nature and creating by its power. Again we might picture it as the weaving of a web of light in which the beings are like radiant points connected by lines of light. But nothing [Page 76] can give an image of the pure Joy, the utter Bliss which permeates the world of the Ego and the sensation of being bathed in light and "beauty unbeheld". There is a phrase in the Old Testament which says that when the world was created " the, Sons of God shouted for joy," and in this expression there is something which reminds us of the Ego, truly a son of God, in his own world, full of joy.

The whole work is like a mighty ritual, a ceremonial Hymn of creation by which the worlds are maintained, and what we know as Ritual here on earth is as a shadow of that true and greater ritual which we all know so well in our own true world. That is why in the rituals of the great World-Religions and of Freemasonry, there is that [Page 77] which reminds us of the land to which we belong; in them we hear faint echoes and fragmentary melodies of the song which we are always singing in the world of the Ego.
OUR LIFE ON EARTH

When in this state of Ego-consciousness we think of our life on earth, the life which, in our ordinary waking consciousness down here, seems so all-important to us, it appears to us unreal, almost like a dream and certainly not of the importance which we generally attach to it. As Egos we look upon it in the light of a task which must be done, a lesson which has to be learned and which perhaps can be best expressed as "self-realization". It is only in these [Page 78] denser worlds that there is sufficient resistance and separateness to develop the sense of individuality and of "I" consciousness, which then has to be brought back into the greater unity.

Seeing thus our life from the world of the Ego we gain a greater equanimity in the existence we have to live on earth, for it is profoundly true that nothing in it matters much and most things do not matter at all. When once we know ourselves in our full glory as Egos, life down here seems but a subsidiary activity, to which we give a little of our consciousness, a little of our attention, in the same way as a statesman with mighty work to do might give a little of his attention to some small personal activity in which he is interested. [Page 79]
THE BEAUTY OF THE EGO

In the world of the Ego there is not form and colour such as we know here, but there is that which we can translate into terms of colour and shape. Thus we can speak of the appearance of the Ego, even though he does not appear to us as objects in the world of phenomena do. So it must not be misunderstood when we say that the Ego appears to us in a glorified human form, and that in this form we then see ourselves as we truly are. The human form in which we there see ourselves is at the same time representative of our real type or genius, of our mission in the great Work. Thus one Ego I know appeared as a radiant youth, like a Greek Apollo carved out of glistening [Page 80] marble and yet immaterial, with inspiration as his keynote. Another Ego was in appearance somewhat like the sculpture of Demeter in the British Museum, a dignified, serene and peaceful figure, brooding, as it were, over the world which it helped to foster and protect. Thus every Ego has his own radiantly beautiful appearance expressing his mission or genius.

When we have brought back our consciousness into the world of the Ego and know ourselves as such, we must try to see what we are like in that world and henceforth think of ourselves only in that way. Having seen what we really look like we must never again allow ourselves to think of ourselves as the image we see when we look into a mirror. Once we have realized that we [Page 81] are the divine Self within, we must never, not even for a moment, suffer ourselves to slip back into the old illusion that we are the physical body and have a divine Self somewhere up above. Henceforth the position is reversed and, when speaking of ourselves, we speak of the radiant Being we truly are, not of the bodies through which a part of our consciousness is temporarily manifest.
MAINTAINING THE EGO-CONSCIOUSNESS

Since we have behind us ages of evolution in which we were content to suffer exile in the darkness of the outer world, there is, even when we realize ourselves for a short [Page 82] while as the Ego, always the tendency to slip back into the old accustomed ways of identification with the bodies.

That is often our mistake. When we have experienced a moment of great spiritual upliftment during meditation or during some ceremony, we sit down and say to ourselves: "Well, that was very fine; I am sorry it is over." Do not make this mistake; when you experience something great, when you know yourself as the divine Self, say: "This is very fine, and it is going to remain with me." That is the great difference. Our weakness is so often that we experience these higher things, and then are resigned to see them pass away again. Never be resigned in that way, be rebellious and say to yourself: "I am not going to let this go; [Page 83] I will keep this divine realization; I, the divine Self, will to keep it." It is possible. It has been done; it must be done. We must all some day realize our divine powers, and learn to keep as an abiding reality that consciousness which usually we have but for a few moments; so why not do it now?

Knowing yourself then as the Ego, sharing that life of divine joy, of bliss unutterable, decide to remain there. Do not go back again into the darkness of exile. Why go back to that cramped existence in a dark dungeon which is the life of the personality, when you can live in the sunlight of divine Life? Why not remain there, work from there, live there? [Page 84]
CHAPTER 4

THE POWERS OF THE EGO

HAVING established ourselves in the realization that we are the Ego we must realize powers which, as Egos, we can wield.

There is first of all the love of the Ego, the power of unity, the aspect of the Ego which, in Theosophical terminology, we call Buddhi.

Part of the tragedy which takes place when the consciousness of the Ego is put forth into the three bodies, and is seized upon by their elemental consciousness, is that it begins to feel itself as a separate [Page 85] being, moving about, separate from all the world around it. The moment we return to the Ego, this illusion of separateness vanishes and we realize what unity is. The wonder then takes place that we still know ourselves as individual beings, but at the same time we are in the life of every one of our fellow beings, of every creature. We are the life of growing trees, the life in the waters of the sea, we are the life in the clouds and in the sunshine, the life in all things. Such is the love-power of the Ego - our realization of unity at that level - and it is the only motive power on the Path of perfection. It is not will or thought which moves us along on the Path towards divine Union, It is only love. Love is realization of unity, and the more we realize unity, the more we [Page 86] feel we can love all our fellow men, love the very trees and rocks, the more we are drawn into union with the divine Life - magnetically drawn towards union. Try to feel that power of the Ego to be at one with all things; try to feel your consciousness dissolve into the greater Consciousness until it becomes that greater Consciousness.

First try to feel your own consciousness as part of that of the Master, losing yourself entirely in Him. Do not contemplate that unity with the Master, but feel it, let it be an actual thing with you so that you feel yourself to be merely a part of Him. Doing that you can easily feel how it is that love is the only motive power on the path; it is the intensity of our love and adoration for the Master, the measure in which we can [Page 87] feel one with Him, which makes it possible for Him to take us as His pupils.

In the same way, but in a far greater measure, does our consciousness expand when we try to feel our unity with the great Brotherhood itself, and try to feel something of the amazing unity of that Consciousness, having only one Will, the Will of the King Himself and yet consisting, as it does, of many great Beings. Here again, when we can realize the unity of that Consciousness, this realization will draw us into it and make us one with it; it will lead us to the first of the great Initiations. Love is like a magnet; it draws us into and makes us one with what we love, and when we succeed in realizing the love of the Ego and feel how it goes out towards everything, [Page 88] towards every creature in this wide world, it cannot fail to bring us to the goal of evolution - union with the Divine.

When we feel this we can understand what is meant by the occult maxim "grow as the flower grows”. When the flower feels the warmth of the sunlight, it expands and in its yearning for the sunlight grows towards it. It is the love of the flower for the sunlight which makes it grow, and in the same way it is the love of the soul for the divine Sunlight which causes the soul to grow. There is no effort in this growing, it is not a pushing or straining forwards, it is a natural at-one-ment with what we love. That is why our love must be all-embracing, nothing excluding why it must flow out freely to all things, for in all things is the [Page 89] divine Life which we seek. If we exclude it in one thing or being, which we separate from ourselves, we exclude the divine Life itself and make our conscious union with it harder. Think of the Christ as the Heart of this Unity of all things, feel His Love as the love which binds all things, and in loving Him you will come to love all things. We shall then begin to see how profoundly true is His own saying that whatsoever we do unto the least of our brethren, we do unto Him.

Once again, in realizing this particular power of the Ego, there must be no mere contemplation or intellectual conception of love; we must feel that love of the Ego, become it, and then, on its wings we can ascend to higher things. It is a power which we must learn to use consciously. [Page 90]
THE WILL OF THE EGO

The next power of the Ego which we must learn to realize as our own is the power of the will, what we call in Theosophy, the Atma. We must not confuse this truly divine power with the feeble thing which we call "will" in daily life. There is hardly any word which is so misunderstood and abused. We use it when we really ought to say "wish" or "desire"; we speak of a person as " having a weak will" when there is no such thing as a weak will, we speak of the "clash of wills" when we merely mean the clash of selfish desires. As already mentioned above, Coué and Baudouin use the word where they really mean anxious and frantic resistance, and [Page 91] so, even in one of the most important works of modern psychology the issue is confused.

First of all we must abandon the widespread idea that the will does things; that we carry through something by an effort of the will. To do and to carry out is not the function of the will, but of a quite different aspect of the Ego, the creative activity. The will is the Ruler, the King who says "this shall be done", but who does not go to do things Himself. Speaking psychologically the will is the power to hold the consciousness focussed on one thing and exclude everything else. We thus see what an exceedingly serene, quiet, unmoving power the will is; it is just the power to hold one thing and exclude all else. But [Page 92] that is a tremendous power, the more so because it is so little understood.
NOT A WEAK WILL, BUT AN UNCONTROLLED IMAGINATION

We can understand this best by analysing some instances where, as we put it in ordinary language, our will is not strong enough. Imagine that we determine to get up at six o'clock in the morning. When the hour comes and we wake up we naturally feel sleepy and tired. If now we used the will in the right way there would be no difficulty in getting up, we would just hold the one thought of getting up and exclude everything else and there would be no struggle. But what we do in reality is [Page 93] to allow our creative imagination to play about with the problem of getting up, and we begin to imagine on the one hand how unpleasant and cold it will be to get out of our warm bed, how uncomfortable to dress in the dark, and on the other hand we imagine how very pleasant it would be to lie in bed a little longer or to go to sleep again. Thus we have created images which naturally tend to realize themselves and make us stay in bed. When then we begin to resist, that resistance is but a feeble thing, and even if it should win we have made for ourselves a quite unnecessary struggle which uses up vitality and could easily have been avoided had we but understood the true function of the will. In not getting up we have shown signs not [Page 94] of a weak will, but of an uncontrolled imagination. The right use of the will would have been to keep the creative thought or imagination centred and focussed on one idea only: that of getting up, and in excluding every other thought. In that way we would not have allowed the imagination to toy with such thoughts as the unpleasantness of getting up and the comfort of remaining in bed, and we would have experienced no difficulty whatever in getting up at once. Truly Hamlet uttered a deep psychological truth when he said that "the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought". It is the power of the will within to keep the consciousness focussed on the one thing in hand and exclude every idea, feeling, person [Page 95] or influence that would interfere with that or tempt us aside.

To give one more example: practically everyone has experienced the unpleasant sensation which comes over us when we are about to jump or dive into the water from a greater height. We have determined to do it, but when we actually find ourselves about to jump we shrink back and possibly it takes us quite a long time before we can, as we call it, screw up enough courage to do the thing. What really has happened is that we have allowed the imagination to create for us a terrifying image of the plunge we are about to make, and of the advisability of not doing it. Having made that creative image we naturally find ourselves impeded by it and the jump into the water [Page 96] begins to hold terror for us, whereas before it seemed attractive. The way out is again to keep the will focussed on the one thing only: the jump to be made, and to exclude every thought, feeling or influence that might interfere with this. Then we find that there is no difficulty, in just doing the thing.
THE USE OF THE WILL IN OCCULTISM

When we apply all this to the use of the will in reaching the perfection which is our goal, we can readily see how it is that we fail so often. We determine to reach the goal, to achieve that which is our spiritual destiny. In doing so we lay down a line of [Page 97] action and certain principles of conduct which we see as essential. Now if we can only keep the will focussed on that one purpose and exclude anything that would interfere with it, we shall experience no difficulties, no struggle. What we do in reality is something on the following lines. When occasion offers to carry out the line of action upon which we have decided, we begin to imagine the advantages and disadvantages, the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the particular action and having created images, or thought-forms as we call them, we strengthen them by feeling or desire, and they become obstacles in our way when we try to carry out our original intention. Then the struggle begins with all its attendant evils, suffering to ourselves, [Page 98] exhaustion to the bodies and the danger of failing in the task we have set ourselves. All that is not only wrong but is superfluous. When we use the will as it should be used, to hold one purpose and nothing else, there can be no difficulty. But the moment we allow an interfering thought or influence to enter our consciousness and claim its attention we are lost. We must certainly consider circumstances, always using common sense and deliberate judgment, but we must not allow extraneous influences to divert us from our line of action.

Try then to realize this will within you, see it filling your consciousness as a blinding white light, feel that it is irresistible and has power to hold any purpose until achieved. [Page 99] Having once felt and realized this true power of the will we can never again speak of the will being weak! It is a truly divine Power, and unless we understand its functions and meaning in our life we cannot achieve our destiny.

Use this power of the will then to hold in your consciousness one purpose and one purpose only: perfection for the sake of the world. That must be your one absorbing and dominating passion and nothing must be allowed to interfere with it. Do not think it is a selfish desire; as long as you think that, you have not yet entered the world of the Ego and do not yet realize what unity means. It is only when we understand, when we know that all creation is one, utterly and indestructibly one, [Page 100] that we realize the impossibility of such a thing as individual salvation. Salvation or perfection means union with the divine Life which is in all things, and therefore it can never be individual, can never be for a few elect. The achievement of any one is the achievement of all; when one human being attains to Adeptship, in him the whole of humanity, the whole of creation is triumphant, and another cord has been formed to bind humanity back to God, another power has been born to lift the burden of the world's suffering. When, in Dante's Divina Comedia a soul gains release from Purgatory and enters Paradise the whole of Mount Purgatory trembles for joy. And this is literally true. The achievement of any human being is a joy to all creation [Page 101] and is never an individual achievement only. The desire for perfection is the desire to give up the illusion of the separate self for the reality of universal life and thus selfishness and perfection are mutually exclusive.

Try then to use this truly divine power, which everyone of us has, for the greatest purpose of all and keep the consciousness focussed on the idea of perfection. Let that dominate all we do. In the beginning this may be a strain and we may find it difficult to do our ordinary work while keeping our consciousness focussed on the greater things, but very soon it will become a habit and the will to perfection will become the permanent background on which the pattern of our daily life is embroidered. [Page 102]
WE ARE THE PATH

There is a sense in which we are already perfect and divine at this very moment. The real you, the real being, is not the transient and ever-changing glimpse which we call present, but it is your entire past and your entire future; it is the complete being with his whole cycle of evolution contained within him. Thus we are primitive man as well as perfect man and that which we strive for is in reality ours already; the secret of evolution is to become what we are. Only then can we understand the meaning of another much used occult maxim, namely that "we ourselves must become the Path". It is so utterly true and yet we know it only when, in our consciousness as Egos, we have [Page 103] seen the goal, the purpose of perfection, the attainment of Adeptship not as a far away, extraneous thing to be approached from without, but as our own inner divinity, our own inmost Self. When we thus know what it means to become the Path ourselves we also know that nothing on earth can ever again come between us and our goal; we have seen it and we have become one with it; it is as if we had seen our own divinity and as if the goal were in the centre of our own being. The Path of perfection then becomes but the unfolding of our own divinity.
THE POWER OF CREATIVE THOUGHT

Having realized the Ego's powers of love and of will, we must now discover its third [Page 104] great power, that of creative thought or, as we call it in Theosophy, Manas. Thought in us is the manifestation of God the Holy Ghost, just as will is the manifestation of the Father and love of the Son. God the Holy Ghost is God in creative activity, God the Creator, and when we realize that power in us we feel ourselves inspired, possessed by boundless creative ability, by the power to do things. It is only thought in us which does, only thought which creates and carries out the decrees of the will. If the will is the King, thought is the Prime Minister and the activity of our creative thought should ever be directed by the will. Its power to create seems unlimited; when once we realize it we know that as Egos we can "do all things," we [Page 105] feel a boundless creative energy within us to carry out whatsoever the will may decree. It is only when this third power, the creative thought or imagination, does its work that realization in action follows. That is why its power is so dangerous to man until he understands that he must consciously direct it, for if he fails to do so it will be directed by his lower nature and he will become its slave.
THE USE OF THE THREE POWERS

These then are the three powers of the Ego, or rather its threefold power, for the three aspects are one, truly a trinity. Having realized the three powers and felt their use [Page 106] in the great work, let us now try to use them simultaneously as they should be used, being a unity. Use the will to hold the one purpose of perfection for the sake of the world; use love to make you one with it and draw you into it; and use thought to create it and carry it out. It is only when these three are used together that result follows, but then there is nothing which we cannot achieve, for the power of the Ego is divine and therefore boundless.

It is not a thing which we should do only at odd moments. It should become a habitual activity, continuing, whatsoever else we are doing. That more than anything else is the secret of spiritual achievement: that having realized ourselves as Egos and become conscious of our powers as such, we [Page 107] should not again subside into the ruts of the ordinary body-consciousness, but should maintain the level which we have reached even though it may seem at first a superhuman effort to do so. The chart of our spiritual life shows too often but a continual series of ups and downs; we attain to some lofty spiritual height only to fall back again the next moment to the old level. If we would attain, we must not suffer that to happen; when the rare moment of spiritual exaltation and realization comes to us, in meditation or otherwise, we must cling to it with uttermost tenacity, maintaining the level we have reached regardless of anything and everything. It may be an agonizing strain for the first few days, but it soon becomes habitual and we learn to do our [Page 108] ordinary work from our new-found level. After all it is but our own true home in which we live now, not a foreign state upon which we seek to enter, but our own divine Home of which we were oblivious for a while. [Page 109]
CHAPTER 5

THE RETURN OF THE EXILE

REALIZING ourselves as Egos, we can look down upon the three bodies and determine that they shall be our three servants in the three worlds of illusion, and nothing more. We do not again descend into them; we do not again become entangled in those worlds of illusion; we do not again identify ourselves with the three bodies nor allow the elemental consciousness to seize upon the Ego-consciousness and dominate it. We must remain in our mountain top, seeing before us the unlimited view of life, and [Page 110] from there we must act and think and feel. It is possible, and we must do it.

From that mountain top think of your three bodies. See your mental body, swept clean of the futility of ordinary thought-images, and from within, create in it that powerful thought-form of perfection for the sake of the world. Hold that always with some part of your will, never let it dissolve, for that is the thought-form which henceforth is to govern your daily life. Hold the mind-body like that, and give it the order that henceforth, whatever the temptation from without, no thought-images, no thought-forms, shall be made without your consent.

Then look down on your desire-body again. Decide to hold it as you have seen it, [Page 111] vivified from within by the emotions of the Self. Flood it with love for all beings, with devotion, with sympathy, with spiritual aspiration; see these feelings radiating out from the centre of that body, see it throbbing with this new pulse of life, and determine that never again will you allow your astral body to be swayed from without.

Then look back on your etheric, and physical bodies, and decide that henceforth, they too are to be vehicles of the will. See how that will express itself through the body; see the divine Energy from the Self flowing down into the physical body, and feel that body being regenerated from within. That is the truth of the regeneration of the physical body; when we realize it as the vehicle of the Atma it is renewed, [Page 112] it becomes healthy and strong, free from disease, free from all the troubles which it has when it is merely part of the physical world. Lift it out of that bondage. It must be in the world, but not of that world. Its closest link should be with the Self, and not with the world. All your bodies should be subject to the Self, and the powers of the Self should radiate through them. Make them perfect channels for the three great powers of the Ego, but at all times do not become entangled, all the time remain upon your mountain top, and see the lower worlds from there.

In that way your life will become divinely happy; in that way all your difficulties will be swept away; for how can there be discord when you realize yourself as divine? [Page 113] Henceforth, when the same things occur which before caused you so much trouble and suffering, because you allowed yourself to be identified with the bodies, you will realize yourself as the Ego and there will not be any conflict. You have now made the one thought of perfection which dominates your mind-body, and nothing can trouble you, for it is a law that no two thought-images can dominate the mental body at the same time. While we hold this mental image of perfection we can do our usual work, but that thought-form will always dominate, and nothing else can seize upon the mind-body and shape it into a form which we do not want.

So remember henceforth to live from within; never again allow your bodies, [Page 114] to seize upon your consciousness and to obscure knowledge of Self. Determine that you, the soul, having returned to your divine home, are going to remain there. Do not again make the mistake of permitting yourselves to return to a level to which you do not belong. Have no fear to call yourselves divine. There is no conceit in it, there can never be pride in it, because pride is separateness and once we realize ourselves as Egos, we feel dissolved in a Sea of consciousness, we know ourselves to be one with a Consciousness so vast, so all-embracing, that the very thought of separateness becomes ridiculous. We are safe from that illusion, for we know that whatever we do is done through us, that when we feel and think and act it is the life of the Self which [Page 115] through us as a channel flows out upon the world.

In that consciousness, too, we know ourselves as one with the Master, we share the bliss of His Presence, and in His Presence all things become easy. In His Presence there can be no desire except the desire to draw closer to Him. In His Presence it is impossible to do the petty, ugly things which in the past we have done. We can only try to be great as He is, great in our sweep of feeling and thought, divine as He is divine.

Thus the way of the Ego is the way of Initiation. Initiation means a permanent reunion of the consciousness which was incarnate in and identified with the bodies, to the parent-consciousness of which it was [Page 116]
oblivious; it is the beginning of a new life; conscious life as the Ego while functioning through the three bodies.

The qualifications for Initiation are given in different ways, but when we succeed in gaining Ego-consciousness as a permanent thing we shall of necessity have acquired the other qualifications too. Ego-consciousness brings Discrimination, since we see life from the world of the Ego in true perspective. Ego-consciousness brings Desirelessness, for when the incarnate consciousness has become disentangled from the bodies which dominated it, the bodies no longer follow their own desires, but the will of the Ego. Ego-consciousness means Good Conduct, since our conduct is no longer the conduct of consciousness enslaved by the bodies, but [Page 117] the conduct of the Ego himself, and that of necessity is good conduct. Ego-consciousness means Love in its widest sense since the world of the Ego is the world of Unity and we cannot touch Ego-consciousness without feeling at one with all that is.

But, apart from the fact that the practice of the presence of the Ego leads us to the immediate goal of our evolution which is Initiation, it carries its own reward with it in that it bestows a deep and abiding joy and power and peace on him who attains it, in that it is the beginning of a new life.

We can all come to this realization; we can all claim what we are. It is not something strange, something outside ourselves which we have to conquer; we have only to [Page 118] enter the world to which we belong, only to claim that which we truly are.

Let us then take joy in our own divinity, claim the divine birthright which is ours, and decide to return to that native land, whence we have been exiled for so many thousands of years in these worlds of darkness and suffering. And may the blessing of the Masters Whom we serve be with us, may Their love protect and shield us, until we too stand where They stand, until we too have become the Perfect Man. [Pate 119]
AFTERWORD

THE exploration of the world of our consciousness, so little known to most of us, is a necessity for him who would realize himself as he truly is, the Ego living in his own world, using the three bodies as vehicles for his consciousness, but not being used by them. In fact, the mystical journey described in the preceding pages is an exercise to be practised by all aspirants until they are so proficient in it that they can maintain Egoic consciousness all the time. The ideal is, that having attained the level of the Ego, we should stay there and refuse to be drawn into the old ruts of slavery to the bodies again. [Page 120] Some may succeed in doing that the first time, others may find themselves taken unawares by some excitement or trouble and slip back into the old attitude before they have had time to put themselves on their guard. In both cases the regular practice of the consciousness of the Ego is a necessity, in the first case in order to maintain what has been achieved; in the second case to retrieve what is in danger of being lost.

Since in the preceding chapters a good deal of explanation had to be given at different points, the actual spiritual exercise is perhaps not so easily followed by those who would try it in practice. It may therefore be well to repeat the main points of the exercise as a tentative route for those [Page 121] in quest of Egoic consciousness. It should be understood that there are many ways to attain the same end, but the one described in this booklet has been found useful in many cases and suitable for people of very different temperaments. I should rather call it an exercise than a meditation, though every meditation should be an exercise. If done by a group of persons together it may be found useful for one of the number to indicate sotto voce the stages of the exercise so that the efforts may be made simultaneously. As in all meditation the comfort of the physical body is more important than the striking of some unusual oriental posture, but it is well to find a place where disturbance is unlikely and where quiet can be found. [Page 122]
THE EGO MEDITATION

If the exercise is done in a group, begin by thinking of the unity of the group and try to feel that unity.

Then think of some high ideal, preferably of one of the Masters of the Wisdom and try to feel love and devotion for Him.

Now think of the physical body and see it as your servant in the physical world, feel it as healthy and strong and vitalized from within.

Withdraw the centre of consciousness from the physical body and etheric body, and look at the astral body; sweep it clear of all passing emotions and desires and pour out through it the higher emotions; feel love for all creatures, devotion to the [Page 123] Highest, sympathy for all who suffer, and spiritual aspirations; let these emotions radiate out from the astral body, steadily.

Withdraw the centre of consciousness from the astral body and look at the mental; sweep it clear of all thought-forms and images and pour out through it the light of the higher mind; let it radiate out through the mental body.

Create in the mental body the image of yourself as the perfect man; perfect in love, will and thought and fill the mental body with that image.

Withdraw the centre of consciousness from the mental body too, and feel the three bodies as perfectly controlled instruments in the power of the Ego. [Page 124]

Now realize yourself as the Ego, bring your consciousness back into it, and know that you are that Ego, living in your own world of joy and beauty; feel the joy and freedom and see the splendour of your own world and know that it is your own true home.

Now realize the powers of the Ego. First its love-power of unity with all things.

Feel unity with the Master, try to feel that you are part of His consciousness.

Next try to feel the unity of the Brotherhood; feel that mighty Consciousness pervading the entire world and know that all in It are one, utterly one.

Then feel unity with all that lives, with all Nature, with all mankind; feel love for all beings and feel your consciousness dissolving in the universal consciousness. [Page 125]

Feel the bliss of that unity and feel how, carried along by this love, you reach the heart of things, the love of Christ; feel yourself as part of His life and His love.

Now realize the will of the Ego, the Atma; feel it filling your consciousness like a searching light and feel that its power is irresistible.

Use the will to see only the one purpose which is “perfection for the sake of the world," and exclude all other things, filling the whole consciousness with that one purpose, until you become it.

Now realize the creative energy of the Ego, the Manas; feel that boundless creative energy and use it to create the idea of perfection, filling it with creative power so that it must be realized. [Page 126]

Now use the three powers together; the will to see the one purpose (perfection for the sake of the world), love to draw us into it and make us one with it; and thought to create it and carry it out. Keep on doing this all day long.

Now realize yourself once again as the Ego, try to see the beauty of your own world, your own beauty in that world, and determine to maintain that state of Ego-consciousness whatever may happen to you during the day.

Now look back upon the three bodies, but do not go down into them again.

First the mental body, pour out through it the light of the higher mind and once again create in it the image of yourself as the perfect man. [Page 127]

Next look down on the emotion body and pour out through it the emotions of the Ego, love for all beings, devotion to the highest, sympathy for all who suffer, and spiritual aspiration, and let these radiate out steadily all the time.

Finally look back on the etheric and physical bodies, see them as the expression of the will, the Atma, and will them to be healthy and strong, radiating out vitality from within - regenerate.

Keep the three bodies like that, perfect channels for the powers of the Ego, and let the powers of the Ego radiate out through them.

But always and under all circumstances know yourself as the Ego and maintain without interruption the state of Ego-consciousness.[Page 128]

Finally send out a spiritual blessing upon the world around, thus pouring out the powers you have realized.

In finishing the exercise do not at once go back to the ordinary body consciousness, but try to maintain the Ego-consciousness all through the day, keeping part of your attention concentrated on it while doing the ordinary things of daily life.

Vernon Interview

Interviewer: Vernon, what is this thing all about that you teach?
Vernon: You might say the basic principle is to become the commander of our own lives, each individual to be in charge of himself, instead of being dictated to and tyrannized by exterior events, including people and circumstances. In other words, to be able to meet all of life — every minute — from yourself, from your true nature (True Self, if you want to use that phrase), so that there is no contradiction and no battle and no disappointment, no hurt when “who you are” meets the exterior event. And that, of course, is a long story in itself, but that’s the basic idea.

Interviewer: In all of your writings I have found the idea of practicing and starting with the idea of True Self. I was wondering if you could give our listeners a definition so that we have a place to start here.
Vernon: Yes, fine. We have to approach it not by trying to find our True Self at the start. Otherwise, we’ll go into imagination based on our past experiences — which would simply be memory describing us, So rather than trying to find out who we are at the start, we want to find out “who we are not” — and that can be a very interesting process.
For example, we might have an idealized image that we are courageous, or that we are in charge of ourselves. Then some unexpected event — a broken-up marriage or a discharge from work — reveals to us that we’re really not in charge of ourselves at all!
Now, the part that is not in charge is definitely not our real nature. It’s certainly not of Truth, of God, of Cosmic Consciousness, but it’s something unnatural to us.
Now, if we can begin very earnestly to study this unnaturalness, to see how it’s tearing us apart, disturbing us every time we step out the door in the morning — from morning until night — we can understand that we are operating from something that is not really us, although we are quite sure it is! But we have so many — hundreds — of wrong ideas about “who we are”!
Again, very briefly: A very honest observation of how our invented personality meets events and gets rebuffed knocked down, hurt, made tearful. If we can begin to see that the way we’re presently operating is “not doing it” for us, then we can go to the next step of dissolving it through higher knowledge. And when this invented self is out of the way — when “the cupboard is bare” — we can put new products into it.

Interviewer: Excellent! I really think these ideas are special gifts.
Vernon: Well, the Truth, of course, comes down from something much higher than we are. And with our receptivity, by making just a little tiny empty space there at the start, then Truth has the opportunity at least to begin to tell us something different from what we’ve had in the past. Our part — to repeat my previous point —is to get the “junk” out of the way, and to admit that it’s there, which is not as easy as it sounds because we resist anyone trying to tear down our structures of all these years.
When Truth starts to penetrate — even just a little bit — it gives a very distinct, unique kind of feeling that is unlike anything we have ever felt before … and we know we’re on the path at last.

Interviewer: Yes … it’s a great feeling. And it’s nice to know that there are other people in the world who are reaching for these ideas and who are willing to go the route in order to live them. And there are people — people all over — who are on this path.
Vernon: Yes, yes. Quite right … quite right.

Interviewer: When this Truth begins to glimmer, and we are beginning to see the “junk” — then there’s a point where you know you’ve got to do something else. Would you give our listeners an example of finding that “junk” and then moving into the Light?
Vernon: Ah … yes, yes! There is a very, very DEFINITE point along the upward path (the path up the mountain) where what we’ve been doing begins to get through our heads — our thick heads! (Chuckle) We see the ideas that we’re clinging to, the concepts, the stubbornness, our whole “life style”. And then it begins to dawn on us, that instead of giving us something, it is simply punishing us!
Where we get to the point where we’re able to recognize unconscious self-punishment as self-punishment, it begins to fade away of itself. No conscious man, no man or woman who is even beginning to wake up ever wants to cling to something that is actually hurting him. But it takes a long, long time because our pride, our vanity, always says, “Don’t you tell me what to do! I know …” A man who is destroying himself will insist that he’s doing something for himself!
And it’s indeed very, very frightening at first to let go of our prison cells because we’re used to them; they’re comfortable. We’re taken care of by our own neurosis, so to speak, never seeing that it confines us to one little part of our own inner world. So, to break out we have to have a little bit of courage to start — and anyone can start. That’s the encouraging thing!

Interviewer: So to start, we say “Help!”
Vernon: Fine! Yes!

Interviewer: I think that’s a very good beginning prayer — “Help!” And then that glimmer starts.
Vernon: Right! And then we must have the courage not to look at our own confusion and neurosis for help, but rather — to repeat the previous point again — to let it GO! We begin to give up everything we’ve depended upon before for the answers because it hasn’t given us the answers. It’s only gotten us deeper into the marsh — for example, our stubbornness that we have the answers. See?
We begin to have the honesty to see that my answers have given me nothing but grief and misery and heartache. Then we have just a little bit of courage to say, “I’m going to drop it just to see what happens if I drop my stubbornness.” That leaves the opening so that something higher than my stubbornness can come in and begin to operate.

Interviewer: Excellent! I think that we can all identify with stubbornness, just a little bit! (Laughter) I can hear the ideas spinning in heads, and they say, “That sounds really good! How do I do it?”
Vernon: You start exactly where you are! Don’t have any ideas of where you’re going — you don’t need any! What we do need to know is exactly where we are — that is, we are lost! (Vernon and the interviewer both laugh)
It may not sound like fun, and it isn’t at the time, but we have to go beyond the shock. I have to go beyond the shock of seeing quite clearly that I am lost and that I have been deceiving myself all my life! And beyond that shock is what I have been yearning for all my life! What’s the matter with seeing that we’ve been wrong all our life? Nothing the matter with that! Isn’t that better than suffering from it forevermore?

Interviewer: It sure is … it sure is.
Vernon: This is a major operation. The sooner we submit to it — to this Great Surgeon — the better off we are!

Interviewer: Yes! Would you give us a definition of that Great Surgeon?
Vernon: Yes. It is something that is not a part of my past, something that is not a part of my conditioned beliefs about “who I am”, what life is all about, about where I want to go in life. The “lower level surgeon” is all my past. When I am willing to give that up I make room — and something else comes in.
Interviewer: One of the things that people ask me, I think more than anything else, is “How do I release? How do I release that past? I have all this hurt and fear — what’ll I do?”
Vernon: Here it is: We’re very peculiar people. Do you agree with that?

Vernon HowardInterviewer: (Laughing) Oh, yes!
Vernon: We’re very peculiar — in that we love our misery! If we take a very good honest look at ourselves, we see that we love our misery; we love our complaints! What would we do with ourselves if we couldn’t complain all day long, find someone to accuse, someone to blame!
So, if we can see that we’re treasuring that, and then see the punishment in treasuring false ideas about myself, that in itself will cause the release. The consciousness itself — of the false — will release the true.

Interviewer: I think that’s good to know. People keep thinking they have to do — do it themselves. And we can’t do anything for ourselves!
Vernon: We’ve been trying all our lives to do it ourselves — and look at the mess we’ve made out of it! But we’re very confused because we don’t know — at this point — any other self but the confused, awkward self that keeps getting us into one trouble right after the other, one day after another.
When we see that we’ve been all wrong — and drop that — something else happens.

Interviewer: And what a relief it is.
Vernon: Yes. One clue as to what we have to release is to observe tense and angry self-defense in ourselves. And then just simply look and say, “What on earth am I defending?”
And we’ll find out that we’re simply defending every idea and emotion that has got us and kept us in this state. We’re loving our jailers! Now, isn’t that strange!

Interviewer: We do it all the time!
Vernon: Yes!

Interviewer: I have the great pleasure of visiting with Vernon Howard. I highly recommend the classic bestseller, The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power. He has beautiful ideas and it’s a very refreshing viewpoint because he has a knack of telling it like it is. And that’s a real gift. You don’t find many teachers around that are willing to just lay it on the line — it is not only refreshing, but it’s a very freeing action.
Vernon, I think you should talk about the jailers that you spoke of a little bit. This is something that our listeners are very interested in because many of them are ready to let go of these jailers.
Vernon: Yes, fine! To comment on the jailers. If anyone wants a very simple and short statement that will make this clear, it would simply be: — Our jailers are our unconscious negativities.
Any time we’re unconsciously negative, that means we don’t really see it. We may feel it, and we may be punished by it. For example — anger. When I am angry, I am punished by that anger. If we very honestly look at ourselves we can see how we burn when we’re angry, how it’s an escape from facing something we don’t want to face within ourselves, for example. So this is one jailer.
Now, if we can just stick with that and study it for just a minute. Why do I get angry at anything at all? Why do I prefer this jailer? It’s because my anger has a certain fiery feeling to it — I feel as if I am doing something! If you hurt my feelings and I flare up at you I get a certain feeling of identity, of being someone — and a certain wrong idea that I am doing something intelligent about the disturbance that I assume you caused me. Of course, I caused it myself by my wrong reaction, did I not? But not knowing that my reaction is a jailer, simply not seeing how I’m submitting to “his” treatment of me, I love this jailer rather than the man with the key who could get me out! I have unconsciously preferred this jailer because I know of no other way to react — and this is the way I have been 40-50-80 years! If I go out ... I won’t have this false feeling of life I get from blowing up!
Again, if I can see that blowing up punishes me, keeps me miserable, then makes me feel guilty later, of course — I can then recognize the jailer as someone who’s keeping me away from the Good Life, from True Life. And when I see that, I want nothing more to do with him!
This does not happen overnight; it doesn’t happen in a week. It happens definitely though as I continue to gather all the knowledge about these things that I can, and then put it into practice down at the supermarket, at home or wherever I am — and regardless of whether anyone else wants to work on themselves or not. I must want Truth more than I want anything else. And when I have that attitude Truth hears it, understands it ... and races to the rescue.

Interviewer: One of the things that has meant a great deal to me is the statement you made that everything depends upon the way that we take the Truth. And the way is the living of it, is it not?
Vernon: Quite right — the living of it, yes. And one way we can do that, to add another point to that, is to look at our lives, even the physical body — the physical body, the emotions, the thoughts. If we will look we can see how we’re racing, always racing, always running around trying to do something, build something. And here’s a two-word sentence some may wish to write down. It’s very simple, but far more profound than it sounds, and is simply this: — “S-l-o-w D-o-w-n!” (Laughter) “Slow down!”

Interviewer: Yes, I think we all need that written right across our foreheads in red letters!
Vernon: Right! If I’m running at top speed through the woods I won’t be able to recognize anything around me, not the pit, not the tree — and I’ll fall down, won’t I? Or bump into the tree!
If I slow down, then my eyesight becomes much better, and then I can see the pit and avoid it. I can avoid the wolf out in the woods there. I can run away from him — because I’ve slowed down to see him in the first place. If I’m running madly because I’m scared, how can I see?
Slow down! Slow down and see!

Interviewer: Oh, yes! There’s a beautiful scroll called “Slow Me Down, Lord” that you may have seen...
Vernon: (Laughing lightly) No, but if...

Interviewer: A lot of us have it on office walls around — and it’s really one of the major things that we have to do. People say, “You know, I don’t have the time to meditate.” That’s really a shame because that’s where it all comes from.
Vernon: Yes. Real meditation can go on 24 hours of the day — simply watching what is happening inside of us, and NOT being afraid of it. Or, if we are afraid of it, don’t be afraid of the fear.

Interviewer: Ah-h-h ... Excellent point! “Don’t be afraid of the fear.”
Vernon: Correct. Let it be there! Why fight it? That will only continue it!

Interviewer: We energize it, don’t we?
Vernon: We have a little saying in our class, which is, “If you’re shaking, Stand and Shake! Stand and shake!”

Interviewer: Let it happen and get it over!
Vernon: That will break the power of it, yes!

Interviewer: I wonder why all of us are afraid to be people, and to hurt and to shake.
Vernon: I’m afraid it’s because we sense we’re pretty artificial down underneath. And we’re not only afraid that other people will see through us, but we’re afraid that we will see through ourselves! And that’s kind of embarrassing, isn’t it?

Interviewer: (Laughing) Yes, it is!
Vernon: But it’s healthy — if we take that shock. It’s a very healthy shock to see through ourselves.

Interviewer: I loved the statement that you made last night about taking your own tears and using them creatively, and work through those hurts. That is so important. We must be willing to take those energies and use them creatively instead of letting them destroy us.
Vernon: Correct. Look at all the energy — again, in anger. Look at the tremendous amount of energy that has simply been turned toward the wrong thing! If we could have taken that and turned it toward self-awakening, the anger would — all by itself — have to weaken because we’re not feeding it any more!

Interviewer: We must realize that energy is just energy.
Vernon: Right! It is pure energy at its source.

Interviewer: And we use it however we want to. We’re really shortchanging ourselves when we are using it destructively.
Vernon: We don’t know what we’ve missed as long as we are not actively trying to find ourselves. We’re living in dreamland, thinking that it’s moonlight and roses — and we wake up with tears!

Interviewer: Sounds like a sad trip we’re on, but it’s really not ...
Vernon: Ah-h-h! This is the most positive path we could ever be on! It’s going to get rid of the tears finally — providing we cease to love our tears!

Interviewer: Right! We must take a good look at what we love. And we are loving whatever it is we are hanging onto. But you know, we hear people say, “I can’t get over my fear — and it’s overwhelming me!” And to tell someone like that that they’re loving their fear is almost cruel.
Vernon: Yes, and besides people say, “Well, if you take away my fears, what will take their place?” Well...(pause, followed by laughter)...we have good news! What will take its place is something that is not fearful! But we’re afraid of the unknown, of the “not tears”. This is all we’ve known, and you take away my tears, “who” will I be? See?

Interviewer: Uh-huh...
Vernon: And so — we have to have the courage to find out what is beyond the false identity of being tearful, of being hurt. And beyond that is True Life ... the Good Life.

Interviewer: Yes ... The Good Life ... and it’s called Happy.
Vernon: Right!

Interviewer: I’m visiting with Vernon Howard this afternoon. He has some very important answers for us all. We’ll probably have time to pick up about two more calls before the end of our show, so bear with us. We have an important answer waiting on anxiety.
Vernon: Yes ... all right. Follow this please.
Anxiety always ... always ... always exists on the level of the intellect, on the level of the mind. I’m speaking of what you call your ordinary mind, even the mind that buys groceries and builds buildings, and which includes memory, imagination, and connects with feelings, emotions.
When you see that you cannot do a single thing on the intellectual level about your anxiety, except to continue it, except to find false answers to it — when you SEE this, you’ll see it with a shock! You’ll see it with a shock because you’re getting an identity that you can do something about your anxiety. But the “you” who’s going to dissolve it is on the same level as the anxiety itself! Two men sinking in the marsh can’t save each other. Something outside of the two men, something outside of the marsh, has to do it for them. And the last thing our vanity — our sickness — wants to see is this simple fact!
Now — when I cease, when I completely give up trying to put an end to my anxiety — it ends! Because I, in my ignorance and vanity, wanted to be my own savior — and it just can’t be done!
When I dissolve the idea that I can save myself, I also dissolve false personality. When THAT dissolves, the problem dissolves — and something higher than “me” is there!

Interviewer: I think that would help the caller a great deal. Thank you.
Hello ... you’re on the air with The Good Life.
Caller: Yes. I’m going to ask something pertaining to many single people. Uh ... I just wondered — it’s a twofold question, really — but ... uh ... if you follow the precepts of your wonderful books, do you become so complete within yourself that you really don’t need other relationships, or do you still feel that this is necessary for a total life?
Vernon: You can be in the world, be related to it rightly, and still be a quite free human being! Didn’t Christ walk among the publicans and the sinners? Didn’t he live right in the middle of everything?
You see, we have so many false ideas as to what it means to be spiritual. And we have so many imaginations that it means we’re going to be so spiritual that we’re going to walk three feet above the ground — or something like that! Do you know the way to become really spiritual? I’ll tell you how. Would you like to know? (Laughter) Better find out!

Caller: Yes, very much!
Vernon: You go right out into that mad, raging, sick world — not foolishly ... don’t do anything dumb! (Well, we already do that anyway, don’t we!) (Laughter) You go right out in the middle of that raging world — and dare it to do its worst to you! When you do THAT you’ll so scare it, it will tremble and run away from you! Then you’ll be truly spiritual. To hide from the world, you’ll simply have an idea that you’re now above it, and quote books and stuff like that.
But listen! Here’s the difference —You go out and begin to understand what it means to take every event and every meeting with another human being CONSCIOUSLY — instead of mechanically, instead of in a state of sleep. Take it consciously — and if you don’t understand what that means, start out anyway! It doesn’t make any difference!
Go out and observe whatever happens to you — what you call “good” or “bad”. Observe it and see that it can’t hurt who you really are — or — it can’t even reward who you really are! We want the rewards without the punishment, don’t we? They can’t be separated. If I want your applause and seek it, tomorrow I’ll be afraid you won’t applaud me again, won’t I?

Caller: That’s right!
Vernon: You understand so far?

Caller: Yes. Yes, I do.
Vernon: So go right out into the middle of the world! Don’t be afraid of it! OR ... if you are afraid of it, GO ANYWAY!

Caller: I wonder if you’ve answered the second part of my question...
Vernon: Ah-h!

Caller: And that was going to be that if you meet someone who has no interest in metaphysics as I do (because I have a tremendous aspiration in this direction)—in fact, they even repudiate it, and yet they represent very nice qualities...
Vernon: I understand ... yes ...

Caller: Would you suggest that it would be possible to have a satisfactory close relationship with such a person? And would you...
Vernon: Yes, I understand. Well, first, let me tell you that someone that is not interested in metaphysics may be far more spiritual than you are!

Caller: Oh, that’s very nice! That’s very reassuring, in fact. So that’s...
Vernon: Now ... now look!

Caller: Yes?
Vernon: You’re going to meet a man, are you? You want to meet a man, do you?

Caller: (Laughing) Of course!
Vernon: You’re giggling. I think you do! (Laughter)

Caller: Yes, it sounds like a pleasant idea...
Vernon: Alright! Now you listen to me! You look ... very, very carefully at that man. You watch his behavior! And when you see that he’s very, very polite to you for the first date — you watch how it may gradually fade out. I don’t want you to be deceived by him because you want him to be as you want him to be. See him as he IS! And don’t be afraid if he goes away when you see him as he is!
(Interviewer laughs) You’re far better off!

Caller: That’s true!
Vernon: And then you’ll be ... listen! Would you like to be in charge of every man you ever meet from now on?

Caller: Yes!
Vernon: In the RIGHT WAY?

Caller: Yes! I’d love to hear it!
Vernon: All right! Continued this Saturday! (Laughter)

Caller: You’ve got thousands of women that are ... ah...
Interviewer: (Laughing) Yes, they’re going to throw themselves at your feet! (Vernon laughs) Thanks for calling.

Caller: Thank you so much. Bye-bye.
Interviewer: Bye-bye.
I’m sorry, those of you that wanted to speak to Vernon Howard today. Our time is up. It has just been a SUPER hour, Vernon. Thanks a million!
Vernon: Thank you.

Divine Encounters -- The Bliss

Divine Encounters - Hinduism - The Bliss

The Bliss

In Hinduism, encountering God often involves deep feelings of rapture and bliss. The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad tells us that "he whose world is Brahman becomes an ocean, the one seer, free from duality.... This is his highest bliss."21 In other Upanishads we find that this "supreme bliss" is held very dear by Yogins.22 Brahman is "the all-illuminating, the bliss greater than the great, the form of eternal bliss... the supreme nectary essence." He is also "the great one of the nature of bliss, that which illuminates all illuminaries."23 The Yogin who comes to realize Brahman "becomes immersed in an ocean of bliss." That "brightness which is indescribable" is also "the nature of unrivalled bliss."24

Whoever reaches this "all-pervading" and "ever resplendent" source of all light also enjoys "supreme bliss by his attaining the state of Brahma."25 The "wise who perceive Him" come to realize that "'this is it'." Thus "they recognize the highest, indescribable happiness."26 The "blissful Immortal that gleams forth" can be seen by the wise.27 Once one is capable of "seeing the real bliss-form through Yoga," then "even in the burial ground, life is in the garden of bliss."28

Hindu scriptures other than the Upanishads agree on this point. The Vedanta Sutra states quite plainly that "God is All-Bliss."29 The Yoga Sutras claim that this highest realization is "the acquisition of extreme happiness."30 According to the Bhagavad-Gita, knowledge of the Divine leads the devotee to "supreme peace."31 The Hindu sage Ramanuja, commenting on the Upanishads, agrees that Brahman possesses "infinite bliss."32

The Upanishads go on to claim that light and bliss are essential components of the human soul. This "soul (Atman) is obtainable by truth.... Within the body, consisting of Light, true is He...."33 Similarly, "the light of man is the soul."34 Atma (or Atman) is "the nature of the jyotis (light)... illuminating all."35 This Atma is "golden or effulgent Light into which all the universe is absorbed."36 The "Self-Light alone" is "immaculate,"37 and Atman "shines by Its own light...."38 Knowledge of the Self (which is Atman) leads to moksha (liberation), which is "the entire removal of all kinds of pain and the attainment of Supreme Bliss."39 For the true seeker of Divine knowledge, "the self alone becomes his light."40 The Atma is "the nature of happiness, which is Supreme Bliss."41 The same point is made poetically in the Kundika Upanishad:

Stirred by the wind of Illusion
the waves of the whole universe
Repeatedly rise and fall
within me, the ocean of bliss.42

The Upanishads say that God and the human soul both have characteristics of light and bliss because Brahman and Atman are essentially the same. In a famous commentary on the nature of truth, the Chandogya Upanishad relates the following:

That which is the finest essence --
this whole world has that as its soul.
That is Atman. That art thou, Svetaketu.43

This point is made even more explicitly in the Maitreya Upanishad:

I am free from space and time.
Mine is the joy of the unclad...
My form consists of total light;
The light of pure consciousness am I.44

The same Upanishad goes on to say that "the light which shines higher than this heaven... is the same as this light which is here within a person."45 The Taittiriya Upanishad spells out that "the knower of the unity of the human person with the Universal Being attains unhampered desire."46 The latter Upanishad goes on to make the same point in verse:

Oh Wonderful! Oh Wonderful! Oh Wonderful!
... I am the first-born of the world order;
Earlier than the gods,
in the navel of immortality!

Who gives me away,
he indeed has aided me!
I, who am food,
eat the eater of food!
I have overcome the whole world!47

Other Upanishads tell us that "this shining immortal person who exists as a human being -- he is just this Soul, this Immortal, this Brahma, this All."48 That which "disappears in Indra becomes Indra only... that which disappears in bliss becomes bliss only."49 Another inquires, "May I behold that light which is thy loveliest form! He who is that Purusha, he I am!"50 The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad makes the same point quite explicitly:

This self is like honey to all creatures.
All creatures are like honey to this self.
And that Person in this self,
who consists of light,
who consists of immortality,
that indeed is he who is that self.
This is the immortal.
This is Brahman.
This is the All.51

Similarly, the Maitreya Upanishad makes very clear identification of the soul with God, in several verses:

I am Siva...
I am the Seer of all...
I am the emancipated One...
I am the Light...

There is no doubt that he who has realized himself
thus, is Myself.
Whoever hears (this) once becomes himself Brahman,
yea, he becomes himself Brahman.
Thus is the Upanishad.52

The Supreme Being, who is eternal,
pure, enlightened, free, true,
subtle, all-pervading, unique,
and an ocean of bliss,
-- I am He, the inner essence.
Of this I have no doubt.53



Among the most compelling statements to this effect are found in the Bhagavad-Gita:

Also this is said to be

the light of lights
That is beyond darkness;
It is knowledge,
the object of knowledge
and that which is to be
attained through knowledge.

It is seated in the hearts of all...
For I am the foundation of Brahman,
Of the Immortal and the Imperishable,
And of everlasting virtue,
And of absolute bliss

Buddha in the City

Immersion and Transcendence

Q: Why do you insist that mastery of the everyday world is essential to Enlightenment?

A: Because that's just the way it is.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to trivialize the question. Far from it. The most difficult questions are those that seem easy.

"Why is 1+1 = 2?" the child asks innocently, and her mother stammers, "Because-It just is."


There are so many answers to your question about enlightenment, all different ways of looking at the truth. Here is one of many answers to your question.


Examine the state of enlightenment. Bliss. Brahman. Atman. Satori. Nirvikalpa. Words are inadequate to describe enlightenment and Authenticity. It is an experiential state that is beyond description. It is a core "raw" experience, a "qualia", as some of my overly erudite acquaintances might say.


There are a few "external" signs of the truly enlightened. We will examine these "externals" later, but suffice it to say that the Buddha is always Blissful, be it in the forest or in the jazz lounge.

The Buddhas who are comfortable only in the forest, but not in the City, are deluded. I call them deluded, because they can get so comfortable in the forest, that they mistake it for Authentic Bliss. I call them deluded because they are hiding from life and not embracing it.

Embracing life does not mean hedonism. It does not mean sex or drugs or music, although none of these are incompatible with the Authentic life.
Embracing life means that you are a master of life. You can choose what you want and when you want it, but your choices are guided by authentic desires. (More about authentic desires in a future post)

So do not lose yourself in the forest forever.

Come to the city once in a while.
It is important, in your search for answers, that you do not drift away to a far off island

Master the world you live in.

See clearly and completely, its intricate structure and the nature of your involvement with it. The world is like a tantalizing and treacherous lover. Understand your relationship with her, as an observer and an observed, as a follower and a leader, as performer and spectator, as one and as many.

One day you will look around at the world with your eyes, and simultaneously, you will look at the world with everyone else's eyes.

The mastery of the everyday world is critical to the transcendence of it.

danny said...

but really,Anand..isn't everybody around trying to get mastery over the material field?...and isn't usually everybody around dying before they achieve either mastery over the material field,or enlightenment? I think unless one puts his desires in order,one will achieve none of those.
But then,that's only my opinion,I could be wrong.And yes,I agree with you that a buddha would function efortlessly in a city.But I'm not sure that a city can create a buddha.You know any buddha like that?


Anand said...

People try to master the "material" field propelled by the fear of existential emptiness. If this attempt at mastery causes anxiety, and you retreat from the world - either physicially or intellectually, then there is a real danger of deluding oneself into believing that one is enlightened.

WIll elaborate in the next post

Do I know any buddha like that?

Many people are on the threshold, far more, in my opinion, than ever before. But that final step may be the hardest one of the journey,,

The image of you (from Anthony de Mello)

Nobody ever rejects you; they're only rejecting what they think you are. But that cuts both ways. Nobody ever accepts you either. Until people come awake, they are simply accepting or rejecting their image of you. They've fashioned an image of you, and they're rejecting or accepting that. See how devastating it is to go deeply into that. It's a big too liberating. (Anthony de Mello)

The secret of meditation

Existence Takes Care

I will tell you the secret of sitting meditation, standing meditation, walking meditation, sleeping meditation, dreaming meditation, and active meditation in the battle field as a soldier. Let me speak from my own experience, as I never speak from what I have heard or read. It is better first to experience and then to speak.

In 1953 I was loading a ship in Mangalore at a time when I was dealing in manganese ore. I stayed there the whole day for the loading, and once the hatches were closed I got a bank draft from the captain to certify that the ship had been loaded with 10,000 tons of manganese ore for Rotterdam. I wanted to cash the draft immediately at the bank in Bangalore, which was about 500 miles away. It was already about 9 p.m., and I had to reach the bank by morning. I was exhausted as I had been working offshore for the whole day from early in the morning until late in the night. I was not near the wharf where I could easily get out of the ship and it was very hot. I decided that I should rest before beginning my journey and then start early in the morning. But then I realized that the banks would be closed, and it would be better to cross the mountain pass and have a coffee and a nap on the other side, and then go to Bangalore. The road over the hill climbed from the town at sea level up to five thousand feet making eleven hairpin bends.

I don't know what happened. I could not stop on the mountain road because there were wild elephants which had lifted cars up in the air and thrown them in the valley, one mile below. It was better to keep going and then to rest.

When I arrived on the other side of the hill my head was resting on the steering wheel. I woke up from a deep sleep feeling very fresh, no longer even needing a cup of coffee. I continued the journey to Bangalore having had a complete sound, deep sleep. My head was resting on the steering wheel. I was feeling so fresh that I no longer needed a rest or a coffee, as though I had slept for eight hours. Who drove the car? This is a problem I have never been able to solve. Even in the waking state drivers have accidents but I was fast asleep. The road was narrow, no more than fifteen feet. On one side was a high mountain, on the other side was a very steep valley, and I cut eleven hairpin bends. Who drove the car? I have never been able to find the answer to this.

The other incident I want to describe to you happened in Lucknow. I was walking to the GPO from Kaiserbagh, in front of what is now Janpath market. I always kept a very safe distance, walking on the left side of the road, because sometimes I could never get out of meditation at all! I was neither troubling anyone else nor was I troubled by anyone. An old model Ford car came down the street, a 1934 or ‘36 model with footrests hanging on the side. These days cars no longer have footrests. The car hit me so hard that the footrest fell off onto the ground. People gathered around me saying they had noted down the number. The car had sped away leaving only the footrest. They wanted to know if I was hurt and to go to the police. My pants were torn and when I pulled them up, the car had struck me from behind. There was a little bloodstain on the back of the knee but nothing more. I told them I was perfectly alright.

When you are in meditation you do not need to look after yourself. A power will rise which is moving the earth, which is causing the sun to shine, which is giving the moon its brilliance, and which is allowing all these jivas to function as they want to. If you are attuned to that power you will have nothing to do, everything will be beautiful. That power will look after you in a way which you cannot manage. A man operating from his senses gets into many accidents. But I did not fall into the valley, I slept. Who took care of me? This is the greatest mistake, to fall asleep at the steering wheel. One is advised to be well rested before driving. Who cared for me?

That power is there but you are not looking at it. It is so compassionate that it will look after you. You have been denying it and depending on your own ego. Even this ego is getting its power from somewhere else, to become ego, to become mind, to think, to become the senses and to allow you to function. When you turn your face towards it, it will arise to help you; otherwise you cannot save yourself. How long can you be aware and careful?

Meditation means, no meditator and no object of meditation. Then you can do whatever you like. When the meditator is there it is ego. This is not something to be decided intellectually; it has to be directly experienced. There is no end to argument and logic. That has nothing to do with it. This is your own mother, your own supreme power, which is here and now.

If you close your eyes you will see who is responsible. You do not have to travel even a yard out of your own self - you do not have to take one step. You do not need to think or even to meditate. You do not have to do anything, just keep quiet as you are and you have got it. If you try to search you have lost it. There is nothing to search for - it is that through which the search is taking place. It is that which is found after searching has ceased.

If you know this it is enough. If you don't you will never find rest in millions of years. You have already passed through 8.4 million species. If you are fatigued then you will see this. If you want to hitchhike some more the goal will not be attained; you can continue as you like and it will never end. If you want to end everything is ended now. If you want to continue it will continue. As you think so you become - this is a formula. You think, "I am in trouble" and you are in trouble. You think, "I am free," and you are free. If you are attached to any object you are in trouble, you are in suffering, there is manifestation. If you want to end this it is seized immediately in the recognition, "I am free." That is all there is to it. What time do you need?

The Lost Mode of Prayer

The Lost Mode of Prayer
Excerpt from Awakening the Power of a Modern God
Hay House/Nightingale-Conant, 2005

"If prayer is so powerful, then why does it seem like the more we pray for peace, for example, the worse things seem to become?" Without bias or judgment, is it possible that what we see as an unsettled world of chaos is simply the Field, the Divine Matrix, mirroring our belief that peace is missing—our "please, let there be peace" echoed back to us as the chaos of life? If so, then the really good news is that our newfound understanding of how the mirror works encourages us to change what we say to the Field!

This is why the lost mode of prayer can make such a powerful contribution to our lives. Whether we’re talking about a lasting relationship, the perfect job, or the healing of disease, the principle is the same. We’re simply reminded that the "stuff" that underlies all of creation is a malleable essence that reflects what we feel! So what we choose to create, we must first feel as a reality. If we can feel it in our hearts—not just think it, but also really feel it—then it’s possible in our lives!

In the example of peace, for instance, we know that it always exists and is present somewhere! The same is true for health and happiness; they always exist somewhere, or have existed, in some form in our lives. The key is to hone in on these positive qualities of our experience, viewing the world as it already is, with appreciation and gratitude. By doing so, we open the door to a greater possibility. We have already seen what happens when millions of people pray for peace to come to our world. What would happen if millions of people felt the feelings of gratitude and appreciation for the peace that’s already here? Certainly it’s worth a try!

In 1972, 24 cities in the United States with populations over 10,000 experienced meaningful changes in their communities when as few as 1 percent (100 people) participated. These and similar studies led to a landmark study, the International Peace Project in the Middle East, which was published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution in 1988.1

During the Israeli-Lebanese war of the early 1980s, researchers trained a group of people to "feel" peace in their bodies rather than simply to think about peace in their minds or pray "for" peace to occur.

On specific days of the month, at specific times of each day, these people were positioned throughout the war-torn areas of the Middle East. During the window of time that they were feeling peace, terrorist activities stopped, crimes against people declined, emergency room visits declined, and traffic accidents dropped.

When the people stopped their feelings, the statistics reversed. These studies confirmed the earlier findings; when a small percentage of the population achieved peace within themselves, that peace was reflected in the world around them.

The findings took into account the days of the week, holidays, and even lunar cycles, and data were so consistent that the researchers were able to identify how many people are needed to share the experience of peace before peace is mirrored in their world. The number is the square root of 1 percent of the population. This formula produces numbers that are smaller than we might expect. For example, in a city of 1 million people, the number is about 100. In a world of 6 billion people, the number is only about 8,000! This number represents only the minimum needed to begin the process. The more the people, the faster an effect is created.

While these and similar studies obviously deserve more exploration, they show that there’s an effect here that’s beyond chance. The quality of our innermost beliefs clearly influences the quality of our outer world. This is where the workshop really begins!

There are beautiful and wild forces within us. - St Francis of Asisi

Behind the existence of all matter is a conscious and intelligent mind - this mind is the matrix of all matter. - Max Planck, "father" of quantum

There is something "out there." Just beyond our perceptions of the everyday world there’s a presence, or force, that’s at once both mysterious and comforting.

We talk about it. We feel it. We believe in it and pray to it, perhaps without even understanding precisely what it is! A series of groundbreaking experiments in the last decade of the Twentieth Century unveil dramatic and undeniable evidence of a previously unrecognized form of energy, a Divine Matrix, that appears to link each member of our global family, creation, and the events of our lives in unexpected and empowering ways. From the success and failure of our careers and relationships, to family health and the peace of our world, these studies add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that we may actively participate in the outcome of the personal, as well as global, events of our lives. Reported by leading research institutions of our day, the experiments shake the foundation of traditional science, documenting that:

* All of creation is bathed and connected through a field of subtle energy.
* We "speak" directly to this field through emotion, beliefs, and prayer.
* Through this field we are part of the healing in our bodies, and the peace in our families, communities and nations.

Calling it by names that vary from the Web of Creation to the Spirit of God, ancient traditions knew this presence exists. They also knew how to apply it in their lives.

In the words of their time, they left detailed instructions to the people of their future describing how we may use this invisible force to heal our bodies and relationships, and bring peace to our world; they are all part of the same force. Today we know the language connects all three as a "lost" mode of prayer.

Unlike the traditional prayers that we may have used in the past, however, this technique of prayer has no words. It is based in the silent language of human emotion. It invites us to feel gratitude and appreciation, as if our prayers have already been answered. Through this quality of feeling, the ancients believed that we are given direct access to the power of creation: the Spirit of God.

In the 20th century, modern science may have rediscovered the spirit of God as a field of energy that is different from any other form of energy. It appears to be everywhere, always, and to have existed since the beginning of time. Just as the ancients suggested, the Field responds to human emotion!

Regardless of what we call it or how science and religion define it, it is clear that there is something out there—a force, a field, a presence—that is the "great magnet" constantly pulling us toward one another and connecting us to a higher power. Knowing that this force exists, it makes tremendous sense that we would be able to communicate with it in a way that is meaningful and useful in our lives. Ultimately, we may discover that the same power that heals our deepest hurts and creates peace between nations holds the key to our survival as a species.


The Lost Mode of Prayer
Summary

Modern prayer researchers currently identify four modes of prayer used in the west today. Does an additional mode exist? Is there a fifth mode of prayer that allows us to participate in the outcome of the events within our bodies as well as the world around us? Recent findings in remote temple sites where these traditions remain today, combined with new research into some of the most sacred and esoteric traditions of our past, lead me to believe that the answer is "Yes!"
Much of our conditioning in western traditions for the last one and one half millennia has invited us to "ask" that specific circumstances in our world change through divine intervention; that our prayers be answered. In our well-intentioned asking, however, we may unknowingly empower the very conditions that we are praying to change. For example, when we ask, "Dear God, please let there be peace in the world," in effect we are stating that peace does not exist in the present. Ancient traditions remind us that prayers of asking are one form of prayer, among other forms, that empower us to find peace in our world through the quality of thought, feeling and emotion that we create in our body. Once we allow the qualities of peace in our mind and fuel our prayer through feelings of peace in our body, the fifth mode of prayer states that the outcome has already happened.
Quantum science now takes this idea one step further, stating that it is precisely such conditions of feeling that creation responds to, by matching the feeling (prayer) of our inner world with like conditions in our outer world. Though the outcome of our prayer may not yet be apparent in our outer world, we are invited to acknowledge our communion with creation and live as if our prayer has already been answered.
Through the words of another time, the ancients invited us to embrace our lost mode of prayer as a consciousness that we become, rather than a prescribed form of action that we perform upon occasion. In words that are as simple as they are elegant, we are reminded to be "surrounded" by the answer to our prayers and "enveloped" by the conditions that we choose to experience. In the modern idiom, this description suggests to us that to effect change in our world, we are invited to first have the feelings of the change having happened.
As modern science continues to validate a relationship between our thoughts, feelings and dreams with the world that surrounds us, it becomes more likely that a forgotten bridge links our prayers with that of our experience. The beauty of such an inner technology is that it is based upon human qualities that we already possess. From the prophets who saw us in their dreams, we are reminded that in honoring all life, we accomplish nothing less than the survival of our species and the future of the only home we know.

Comparing Modes of Prayer Through the Example of Global Peace

Logic-based prayer: asking for intervention

1. We Focus upon present conditions where we believe that peace does not exist.

2. We may feel helpless, powerless or angry at the events and conditions that we are witness to.

3. We employ our prayer of asking by inviting divine intervention from a higher power to bring peace to bear upon individuals, conditions and places where we believe that peace is absent.

4. Through our asking, we may unknowingly affirm the very conditions that we least desire. When we say ìPlease let there be peace,î for example, we are declaring that peace is not present in a particular situation. In doing so, we may actually fuel the condition that we have chosen to change.

5. We continue to ask for intervention until we see the change actually come to pass in our world.

Feeling-based prayer: knowing that our
prayer is already answered

1. We witness all events, those of peace and those that we see as the absence of peace, as possibilities without judgement of right, wrong, bad or good.

2. We release our judgement of the situation by Blessing those conditions that have caused us pain. The Blessing does not condone or consent to the event or condition. Rather, it acknowledges that the event is part of the single source of all that is. (Please see the book, Walking Between the Worlds: The Science of Compassion, for details.)

3. By feeling the feelings of our prayer already answered, we demonstrate the ancient quantum principle stating that the conditions of peace within our bodies are mirrored in the world beyond our bodies.

4. We acknowledge the power of our prayer and know (feel) that the focus of our prayer has already come to pass.

5. Our prayer now consists of

a. acknowledging the peace already is present in our world by living from the knowledge that such changes have occurred.
b. empowering our prayer by giving thanks for the opportunity to choose peace over suffering.



Five hundred years before the birth of Christ, a mysterious group of scholars formed communities to honor an ancient teaching that began before history as we know it. Collectively known as the Essenes, Roman and Jewish historians referred to the members of this spiritual tradition as "a race by themselves, more remarkable than any other in the world." The underlying wisdom of many Essene traditions pre-dates the dominant traditions of their day and is traced through ancient writings to at least 4,000 years BC. Key elements of nearly every major belief system existing in the world today, including those of China, Tibet, Egypt, India, Palestine, Greece, even those of the American Desert Southwest, appear to have common roots in this ancient lineage of wisdom. Additionally, many of the great spiritual traditions of the western world, as different as they appear from one another today, appear to have originated from this lineage of wisdom, including the Free Masons, Gnostics, Christians, and the Kabalists. Also known as the "Elect" and the "Chosen Ones", the Essenes were the first people to openly condemn slavery, the use of servants, and the killing of animals for food. Viewing physical labor as a healing communion with the Earth, they were agriculturists, living close to the land that gave them life. The Essenes viewed prayer as the language through which to honor nature and the creative intelligence of the cosmos--they made no distinction between the two.

Their prayers were practiced on a regular basis. The first prayer of the day was offered upon arising in the pre-dawn darkness to work in the fields. These were followed by prayers before and after each meal, and again upon retiring at the end of the day. The Essenes viewed their practice of prayer as an opportunity to participate in the creative process of their lives, rather than a structured ritual required of them throughout the day.
During their time, the Essenes proved themselves to be meticulous scholars, recording and documenting their traditions for the generations of a future that they could only imagine. Perhaps the best example of their work may be seen in the hidden libraries that they left throughout the world. Like methodically-placed time capsules, their manuscripts provide snapshots into the thinking of an ancient people and a forgotten wisdom. What is their message to us today?

In the words of their time, Essene scholars appealed to those who would find their texts to remember that "the Earth is in us", that "we are in her", and that the two of us are intimately enmeshed in all that we experience. New translations of Essene documents from the Dead Sea caves illustrate even greater, and sometimes unexpected depths, of their author's understanding.

The motivation for the ceremonies, rituals, and lifestyle of early Essene communities was their deep conviction honoring the living thread that binds all life, throughout all worlds. Essene masters viewed our bodies as a convergence point through which the forces of creation merge to express the will of God. They considered our time together in this world as an opportunity to heal the memories of anger, rage, jealousy and hatred--the very experiences that we sometimes shun and judge in our lives. It is through such experiences, that we hone the qualities of love, compassion, and forgiveness that elevate us to the greatest expressions of our humanness. For this reason, they regarded our bodies as a sacred place, a soft and vulnerable temple for our soul.

Interestingly, the Qumran scholars focused upon a particular place within the body, rather than the body itself as the landscape of divine expression. Echoed through the words of the Essene Gospel of Peace, we are reminded that through our bodies we have "inherited a Holy Land...this land is not a field to be plowed, but a place within us where we may build our holy temple."

Within the innermost recesses of ancient temples are found the most sacred portions of the sanctuary. Often small in comparison to the rest of the structure, timeworn scriptures refer to the single room embedded within winding corridors and preparatory shrines as the beth elohim, the holy of holies. It is in the holy of holies that the invisible world of spirit touches the physical matter of our world.

Carrying this metaphor from the hard temples of stone to the soft temples of life, our body must have a holy of holies as well. Perhaps in a manner that modern science is just beginning to understand, the innermost portion of our living temples represents a sacred place where the body of matter is touched by the breath of spirit. Does such a place exist within us? In a remarkable report published from the 3rd Annual Conference of The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and EnergyMedicine, scientists documented the non-physical force of emotion actually changing the physical molecule of DNA.

Based in rigorous testing of individuals capable of emotional self-management, as well as control subjects without any specialized training, the study reported that, "Individuals trained in generating focused feelings of deep love...were able to intentionally cause a change in the conformation (shape) of the DNA (italics and parenthesis are author's)". Specific qualities of emotion, produced at will, determined to what degree and how tightly the two strands of the molecule of life were coiled! Confirming the long-held suspicion that emotion greatly affects our health and quality of life, these reports now demonstrate, perhaps for the first time, that emotion is a missing link, a direct line of communication to the very core of life itself. Could the Dead Sea Scroll references to a "holy land..the place within us where we may build our temple," be a description of the actual cells of our bodies? If this is the case, then each cell within the temple of our bodies is, by definition, a holy of holies. Each cell must be considered sacred!

The understandings gleaned from something as unlikely as twenty-three hundred year old texts, now validated by twentieth-century science, may be considered as a kind of biological unified theory. Beyond science, religion, and mystic traditions, we have no name for our revised world view as yet. Echoing the traditions of ages past, such perspectives are reminiscent of the words held for so long by so many; "We are all connected." "We are all expressions of one life." "We are all the same one."

Realization.org: The Quintesscence of Nisargadatta Maharaj

Realization.org: The Quintesscence of My Teaching by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

V: We always think when we have a mental grasp of someone's teaching that ipso facto we have realized that teaching. But we have not at all, we are essentially the same person, suffering in the same way.

The Quintessence of My Teaching | 1, 2, 3, 4


M: How did that original creation take place of the body as infant? And even prior to its birth: How did the conception happen? How did the infant come into being, without it asking for it? Understand that. Understand thoroughly that drop of stuff which eventually has developed into a body, and then you will understand the whole mystery that you are not that. This body that is now occupying a certain space, how much space did it occupy upon its conception? And what was it then? If you understand that, you will understand the mystery of the Self.

You base yourself on the body that you are now, and don't understand its root. That is why we think we are this body. And for that, you must do meditation. What is meditation? Meditation is not this body-mind meditating as an individual, but it is this knowledge "I am," this consciousness, meditating on itself. Then the consciousness will unfold its own beginning.

Identification is with what? With this body that is now. But does it understand its origin? If you understand the temporal aspect, then you won't take so much pride in the body that is now existing.

[Maharaj is now talking about himself] The body is thoroughly old, my mission is fulfilled. Now you people come, which is all right, but my mission is done. My soul is about to leave this body. I am happy. I clap! [clapping his hands] I am in a clapping mood that I am about to pass on. I am no longer in love with, or held by, anybody, anything, any attachment.

Forgetfulness — that noble, most elevated forgetfulness —will not arrive until all doubts have been dispelled. Unless the doubts are eradicated, that peace will not prevail.

So long as I remain identified with the body, I want to be occupied with actions, because I am not able to sustain that pure "I" without them. I cannot endure it, because I identify with the body-mind, with all kinds of activities. I call it jiva-atman, which means "conditioned by the body-mind," and is the self that is occupied with all the activities. And the "I" which is unconditioned by, and not identified with, the body-mind — that therefore has no form, design, or name — is Paramatman. The jiva-atman is being witnessed by Paramatman, which is your real Self only.

V: What is it doing? Is it partaking in the working of the world?

M: Paramatman need not participate in the activities of the world, but without that principle no activities could take place at all. Just as is the case with akash (space): without it, no activities are possible.

Activities are going on naturally, spontaneously, in the same way that there is no author or doer of your dream world. Nevertheless, you fully put to use your dream world. You will not be able to comprehend this so long as you try to understand things as an individual. But once you are the universal manifest consciousness and abide in that Paramatman spirit — "I am" without form and distinction — then you will realize how things are.

V: It can be doubted whether Krishna was the incarnation of God into a human being. If it is indeed so, however, then we must attach importance to what he told us.

M: Whatever Krishna stated is perfectly correct. For that moment, that particular time in history, it was most appropriate. But that moment, that time, has gone. He also has gone. The spiritual elevation happened in him; that is why he is great.

You are seeing and understanding things through the concepts which you have absorbed. But, as a matter of fact, the actual state of affairs is quite different. You are holding on to it as the truth, but whatever you have heard will not remain as authority or as permanent; it will disappear. Then after the disappearance of everything, whatever remains, that you are: neti-neti.

You have been continuously changing; you are in a state of flux. No identity of yours has remained as a permanent feature. And in due course you will also become very old. So is there any constancy in all this?

V: The truth is that the body is perishable, but Atma is imperishable, eternal.

Second visitor: Do you know that or have you read it?

V: I am experiencing and also have read it. I am getting old and have seen people perish.

M: Yet there must be some author authorizing all these activities. You take the grosser four elements, which are engaged in activity. These four elements are presided over by space. In what activity is that engaged? If you are going to investigate the world of your observation, you will never reach your destination. Unless you give up whatever you have heard and abide in yourSelf, you will not understand all this. You may take it upon yourself to investigate this entire manifest world and whatever you have heard, but you will be caught more and more in a quagmire.

When incarnation takes place, what is its cause? And in what form does it occur? The stories you have heard…

V: Why doesn't everybody become Krishna?

M: What is that childhood? What is that child-principle? Investigate that. The touch of that quality, the child quality: understand and realize it. When did you encounter yourself? Since when and how? After collecting all the messages and concepts in the world, you cannot investigate yourself. When Krishna was born, he had that touch of "I-am-ness." The same goes for yourself. Understand that! What is that touch of "I-am-ness," that touch of child in you? Since when did you know that you are? And with what did you know that you are? If you try to employ whatever you have heard, you will never be able to understand this. You know that you were not, but now you know that you are. How did this happen, this confluence? You were not and suddenly you are. This is what we want to discover.

V: I think I will give up on all this.

M: You just find out and enquire about your own self. Since when did you come to know your self? And how? Did anybody tell you that you are? Or did you come to know yourself spontaneously?

V: I was told and also it kept occurring to me when I read Ramana Maharshi's questions, "Who is it that dreams, who is it that sleeps?"

M: Give up your body identity. Since when did you start knowing yourself? Concentrate on that only.

V: Who is the one who slept?

M: Give up that question, because it is not relevant. There is no value in your question. At the moment I do not want you to ask any questions. I am driving you to the source and would be satisfied with your knowing what you are. I want to find out from you with what it is you know you are. Confine yourself to this area. Focus only on your knowing that "you are." How do you know you are? Just be there. You have been shadow-boxing with the many concepts you have collected from the world — you are fighting with all that. What is the use of it?

You know you are. How do you know it? And with what did you know it? This is the sum total of my teaching needed to put you on the right track, its very quintessence.

When all your questions are answered, my talks are very easy to understand. And when you understand, all your questions have gone. It is a vicious circle: So long as you have questions, you cannot follow what is being said.

V: What happens is that certain questions keep cropping up.

M: I am going for the basic questions only: What are you? Since when are you? How did you happen to be? And due to what are you? I don't want to deal with a lot of sundry questions; they are of no value to me. If you like my teachings, you may sit here; otherwise, by all means quit this place.

In any true spiritual search, whatever you have heard, whatever you have done, is of no use at all to arrive at the real truth. The knowledge "you are" has happened. Due to what?

First of all, you witness that you are. Stay put there only, with this "you are." Just be there. Then with the help of this "you are," you are witnessing the world. If you are not witnessing "you are," you will not be witnessing the world either.

When you do not know you are, people also will not know that you are and they will cremate you. So long as you know you are, people will respect you, as you are something. When you do not know you are, people will dispose of you. Stay put there. You must be present there only, at this point — the "you are" point, bereft of all concepts, all hearsay. When you recognize and realize the knowledge that you are, you will also know what Krishna is. Any number of incarnations have come and gone. But when you understand yourself, you will realize all the incarnations.

Because you know you are, you know the world is. You also know that God is. If you don't know you are, where is the world and where is the God?

There have been so many incarnations, and now you know you are. That "you are" is the divine principle because of which all the incarnations were. Many people have come here, but rarely has anybody after listening to me, come closer to himself, rarely anyone will understand what I am driving at. But that rare person, in the process of understanding me, will come closer to himself, the one who listens. Those who really understand will abide in themselves.

You did not know your parents before your birth, nor did the parents know you. In spite of this, how did the knowledge "you are" sprout in that particular situation? What is this amazing thing? I am again putting the same question. The parents did not know the child, and the child also did not know his parents before his birth. Now the child says, Here I am. How is that?

This itself is the greatest miracle, that I got the news "I am." Have you any doubts that you are?

Cover Story

Cover Story
Jesus Represented the Height of Love - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Jesus and love are synonymous. If you say love, then you need not say Jesus—if you say Jesus, that means love. Jesus said, "If you call God in my name, if you ask God in my name, whatever that you shall ask will be given, for God is love". Such an expression of love you can find in Jesus.

Whatever little glimpse you may get here and there indicates the fullness: The ultimate expression of the inexpressible. That life is striving to express throughout the time. Love goes with courage and look at the courage of Jesus. He completely overthrows the common concept that the strong will inherit the earth: The meek shall inherit the heaven for love makes you weak. However strong you are, when you are in love you are the weakest. Even a macho man will cry when he is in love. Love makes you weak but brings you to the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus says, "Love each other as much as I love you." It was impossible for someone not to recognize the love that Jesus was, since love makes you weak. It is also seary. Among thousands, few followed him. Many heard but just a few came. So he says that very few shall pass through the narrow path. Many will come and hear but a few will understand.

Even after showing all those miracles a handful of people, 12 or 13 really could recognize and follow Jesus. They were not high intellectuals but were simple and innocent people.

When Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is within you, they would not understand. They said, "which side of God will we be sitting, right or left?" Once you go inside, there is no right or left, there is no front or back. He had to tell parables in many ways and had to repeat it and make them understand a little more. That much of patience and compassion can come out of love. "I have come to put man against man, father against son, daughter against mother."

He said these words—very few have really understand what it means. Who you think is your friend is really not your friend. They make your faith in the matter strong and spiritless. "I have come to put one against another—I have come to put fire and not to make peace." If he had to say this, he has seen the depth of slumber. Do you know, when you talk something nice, peaceful, everybody will go to sleep. If there is something sensational, people wake up and hear. Newspapers are filled with such stories. This is the human mind, and Jesus had made all efforts for one to cross the mind and get into the soul, the spirit, the source of life, the Self.

You break through the limited relations. You identify yourself with something or somebody or identities and recognize the divinity within you — that you are much more than just a human, you are a part of the divine and you inherit the kingdom and that is right here, right within you. Somewhere he has said "Better for Judas if he was not born at all." Those words are not coming out of anger or frustration. Many times you also say when you don’t like somebody, "It’s better they were never there, they were never born." Because he could feel the pain that Judas was undergoing. Judas played the role he was ordained to play. He had no choice and Jesus could feel that pain, that suffering that Judas was undergoing and his compassion was so great, his love for him was so great. This is the height of love. This is the best way to bring out the teaching. This is the best way to share the love. With the Lord, you have respect, but with a friend you share your most intimate feelings, thoughts, ideas, secrets. Jesus said, "I am your friend." Where there is authority, there cannot be love. Where there is love, there is no authority. Jesus, opening his arms, said, "Come, you are my friend. Don’t put me on the altar. Give me a seat in your heart. See me in everyone you see around. Love everyone as much as I love you, or as much as you love me. Share that with everyone around."