Tag: AUM

ॐ, Dreams, Rāja yoga, Yoga

Dancing with Ganesh Dream 20-9-19

This dream was three weeks after I fell and broke the neck of my femur. I was sleeping downstairs in the hospital bed, using a zimmer frame to get about, taking medication for pain and hence constipation. I was on heparin for blood clots and my broke leg was a lovely shade of bruise all the way from hip to my toe. I had the titanium pin put in while fully conscious. They injected fentanyl into my spine and held up a curtain so that I could not see the surgeon with his Black and Decker. It felt like he was using a large guage masonry bit from the skeletal vibrations.

The dream was most welcome.

Still a bit shaky. I have just woken from my afternoon nap, which usually results from my midday codeine. Wow! That was the most intense dream I have ever had.

I arrive at the edge of a walled garden and am welcomed through a large gateway by an upright Ganesh. He has all the typical elephant features, but his gait is that of a human being. He is iridescent blue in colour and has a twinkle in his eyes. I am welcomed into his “humble abode”. He shows me around his palace gardens, gardens that are tropical and scented. There are flowers everywhere. The garden is filled with water features. He takes me to a partially covered courtyard which has red-brown gravel. The pieces of gravel are near perfect spheres. He sits me down and we take tea together brought by his servants. I understand that this courtyard is where he practises his dancing.

A group of Indian musicians file in and seat themselves on the ground. Ganesh signals to them and they start playing. He gets up and starts to dance. His movements are exquisite, and his hands alternate between mudras beautifully and each mudra is exact and precise. He beckons me and starts to teach me some steps of his dance. {In the dream my leg functions fine.} Slowly I get the steps and we are starting to whirl and circle. It is entrancing. He stops suddenly and takes a blue-metallic AUM symbol out of his tunic. He walks over to me and presses it on my Anja centre. Slowly it penetrates and dissolves into me. I am left with a tattoo like impression on my skin. Ganseh smiles radiantly and we continue to dance.

I look at my body and notice that it has somehow taken on the same hue as Ganesh, which pleases me greatly in the dream. He laughs, at my surprise.

I awake with a start and my first instinct is look at my arms. They are not blue. They are lightly tanned and freckled with a few bruises from all the needles. It takes a while to assemble the reality of the room. I get up and go outside to smoke.

ॐ, Meditations, Musings, personal

Partial Insomnia

Over the last few weeks or so I am back to the partial insomnia. I have no trouble getting off to sleep. I get up around midnight for a bowl of cereal and then go straight back to sleep. Then around 3AM {eternal} I am wide awake. I drift in and out till around 6.

KLF is gonna rock ya ’cause you have to
Move to the flow of the P.D. Blaster
Bass ballistics, I’m gonna kick this hard
And you can catch it
Down with the crew-crew, talking ’bout the Mu Mu
Justified Ancient Liberation Zulu
Got to teach and everything you learn
Will point to the fact that time is eternal

It’s 3 A.M., 3 A.M.
It’s 3 A.M. Eternal (eternal)

This morning I used the time to build the thought forms back from 2008 onwards. They are still fairly intact and easy to assimilate.

A couple of years back I quit smoking and as a consequence slept longer and better. It is not surprising really take away a stimulant-more sleep. The only thing I miss from smoking is the night sky. I used to go outside to smoke and I loved the night sky. In particular I had a long relationship with the plough constellation or the question mark as I refer to it.

My favourite time of day has always been in and around dawn.

As a Ph.D. student I worked in a night club that finished an 3:30 AM. We would tidy up and I would get the night bus home in my black and whites.  While mostly dark I would walk past a dairy and bid good morning to the milkmen getting ready to deliver. The creature of the night economy saying hello to those of the dawn. By 10 AM and having had a snooze and a shower I was back at the Royal Institution for coffee.

There were also a lot of house parties. I would crash and walk home at dawn across London.

I am wondering if the hiatus in medical appointments and the lessening of myeloma related tensions is making me revert to my natural timings. This last year has been a whirlwind…

When we first arrived here, I would sometimes get up and chant in the middle of the night. It is a big house. Back then I was working with AUM or A-U-M. In triangulation I built a 3-dimensional ॐ in the dining room that rotated in time to the chanting. It is still “there”.

The early hours of the morning are before space is cluttered by the emotions and the “thoughts” of local humanity. There is no distortion in the “airwaves”. The mental space is untroubled by those asleep.

I think of this as the time of the South-East. Where night is in that act of handing over to dawn.

I am not worried by the “insomnia”. I got to look out the back door at the clear sky. I even saw the question mark in the clear sky…this morning…

ॐ, buddhism, Cause & Effect, Decision Making, Esoteric, Esoteric Psychology, New Age, paradigm, Prophecy, Quotations, Vision

Human Thought and Consciousness in the Coming New Age.

There are certain fundamental truths which lie behind all revealed religions. They are essential to the spiritual growth and the progressive realizations of divinity by man. All else found under the term “doctrine” and allied phrases are but expansions of these fundamentals, explanatory in nature, expressive of human interpretations, and formulations of evolutionary recognitions. These are mainly additions and are in the nature of adornment, speculation and prediction; they are constantly subject to change, to rejection or development as man’s intellect and spiritual perception unfolds; they are not basic or unalterable. It is the unalterable truths which must be discovered and recognized as the new world religion takes form on Earth and conditions human thought and consciousness in the coming New Age.

—

The Basic Truths to Date

These basic truths never change because they are related to the nature of Deity Itself and have become apparent to mankind through revelation, as evolution has proceeded and man has developed the needed perceptive faculties and the required persistence of search, plus the unfolding of the inner light of the soul. These truths, inherent in the divine nature, reveal the soul of God. They are:

  1. The Law of Compassion. This is the truth of right relationship, of loving understanding, of actively expressed Love. It is the foundation of brotherhood and the expression of the inner unity.
  2. The Fact of God. This is the truth that Being is God Immanent and God Transcendent; it involves the recognition of the great Whole and the related part; it is the knowledge of divinity, ascertained through right relationship and identity of origin. It is the revelation of the life of God, pervading all that is (God Immanent), and of that same life, providing that still greater cosmic relation (God Transcendent) which is the final guarantee of all progress and of progressive revelation. ‘Having pervaded this whole universe with a fragment of Myself, I remain’ is the challenge of Deity and the eternal hope of humanity. This is the answer of Life Itself to the demands of humanity, to the enquiries of science and to the whole world problem. God is here, present among us and in all forms of expression; He includes, pervades and remains beyond. He is greater than all appearance. He reveals Himself progressively and cyclically as man gets ready for further knowledge.
  3. The Continuity of Revelation. Ever down the ages and at each human crisis, always in the hours of necessity, at the founding of a new race, or in the awakening of a prepared humanity to a new and wider vision, the Heart of God – impelled by the law of compassion – sends forth a Teacher, a World Savior, an Illuminator, an Avatar. He gives the message which will heal, which will indicate the next step to be taken by the race, which will illumine a dark world problem and give to man an expression of a hitherto unrealized aspect of divinity. Upon this fact of the continuity of revelation and upon the sequence of this progressive manifestation of the divine nature is based the doctrine of Avatars, of divine Messengers, divine Appearances, and inspired Prophets. To all these history unmistakably testifies.
  4. The Inevitable Response of Humanity. I have expressed in these simple words the instinctive spiritual reaction of man and of the undying human spirit to the three above foundational truths. This divine spirit in humanity must ever, and most surely does, respond to the divine Appearance. The witness to this is sure and proved. There is that in mankind which is akin to God and which recognizes its own when it appears. Such is the unshakable reality in the human heart, and recognition is the inevitable reward and result of revelation.
  5. Progress. The reaction of the individual man and of the masses of men to the continuity of revelation – historically proved – cannot be denied. It is the basic fact of religion. The types of that revelation may vary but each new revelation – given in response to human need and demand – has ever led humanity onward towards a steadily brightening goal and a greater glory. The revelation may come on varying levels of the human consciousness. It may be the revelation of new lands to conquer, terrestrial or mental. Some person pointed the way. It may be the recognition of new laws and facts in nature, scientifically grasped and used; it may be the response of intelligent man to increased knowledge, producing a new type of civilization. Some liberated spirit pointed the way. It may be the response of the human heart to the Heart of God, leading to the mystical beatitude, and to the recognition of spiritual Being. It may be the reaction of man to some new teaching, some further unfoldment, resulting in a new and enriched religious approach to the center of life. Some Messenger pointed the way. But always it has meant progress, a moving forward, a rejection of some existing limitation, a repudiating of the undesirable and the evil. Always it involves the recognition of the possible, the ideal and the divine.
  6. Transcendence. This means the innate capacity to pass beyond so-called natural law. This surmounting of limitation is ever taking place and this process of transcendence will call forth increasing recognition. It marks the next major phase in the manifestation of divinity in man; it signifies domination over physical law and humanity’s imminent triumph over the forces which have for so long held him to earth. Of this transcendence the present mastery over the air is the symbol. Man is rapidly mastering the four elements. He cultivates the earth; he rides the waters; he controls the electrical fires of the planet, and he flies triumphant through the air. The question now emerges: What, my brothers, next? Another transcendence lies ahead. It is one of the things which the coming Avatar will reveal.

With the lesser leaders, whom the human spirit evokes to its assistance, I shall not deal. I seek to unfold somewhat the Doctrine of Divine Messengers, of Avatars. From whence come They? What is Their nature? Who are They and what is Their relation to humanity, to the Hierarchy and to still greater groups of Lives? These are questions which normally arise and need clear answering.

An Avatar is a Being Who – having first developed His Own nature, human and divine, and then transcended it – is capable of reflecting some cosmic Principle or divine quality and energy which will produce the desired effect upon humanity, evoking a reaction, producing a needed stimulation and, as it is esoterically called, ‘leading to the rending of a veil and the permeation of light.’ This energy may be generated within the human family and focused in a responsive Messenger; it may be generated within the planet itself and produce a planetary Avatar; it may be the expression of the life impulse and energy of the solar system, or of sources outside the solar system and therefore cosmic. But always it is focused through a manifesting Entity, is called forth by a demand or massed appeal, and evokes response and consequent changes in the life activity, the culture and the civilization of mankind.

The response or reaction of humanity to the divine Messenger establishes in due time the recognition of something transcendent, something to be desired and striven for, something which indicates a vision which is first a possibility and later an achievement. This is the historically proven process and testifies eventually to a fact. This new fact, when added to the facts established by other and earlier Avatars, enriches the spiritual content of the human consciousness, enhances the spiritual life of the race, and stimulates man to move a step forward into the world of reality and out of the world of illusion. Each revelation brings him nearer to the world of causes.

At the present time the Avatars most easily recognized and known are the Buddha and the Christ, because Their messages are familiar to all and the fruits of Their lives and words have conditioned the thinking and the civilizations of both hemispheres; because They are divine-human Avatars and represent something which humanity can more easily understand; because They are of like nature to mankind, “flesh of our flesh and spirit of our spirit.” They therefore mean more to us than any other Divine Emergence. They are known, loved and followed by countless millions. I would ask you to ponder on the potency of the nucleus of force which They have set up. The establishing of a nucleus of energy, spiritually positive, is the constant task of an Avatar. He focuses or anchors a dynamic truth, a potent thought-form or a vortex of attractive energy in the three worlds of human living. Then, as the centuries pass, that truth and the effect of Their lives and words begin steadily to condition human thinking; the established thought-form acts increasingly as a transmitter of divine energy as it expresses a divine idea, and this in time produces a civilization, with its accompanying culture, religions, policies, governments and educational processes. Thus is history made. History is but the record of man’s cyclic reaction to some inflowing divine energy, to some Avatar or some inspired Leader.

—

Excerpted from “The Externalization of the Hierarchy – Section III – Forces behind the Evolutionary Process”

By Alice Bailey and Djwhal Kuhl

ॐ, Cause & Effect, Esoteric, Esoteric Psychology, Karma, Quotations

The Externalization of the Hierarchy

In Connection with the Council Chamber of Sanat Kumara, the Lord of the World

As this subject concerns one of the seven goals towards which the Masters aim after They have attained the fifth initiation, it will be obvious to you that there is little that I can say about it. One of the seven Paths for which the Way of the Higher Evolution prepares the senior initiates is the Path of Earth Service. This Path, as you know, keeps the Masters attached to service in the three worlds for a period much longer than the average. It involves tremendous sacrifice. Just as the disciple has to live a dual life, with one part of his reflective nature and awareness centered in the life of the Hierarchy and the other part of his mental responsiveness equally centered on life in the three worlds, and this simultaneously, so the Master, when He chooses this Path, forms a constituent part of the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World and at the same time works consciously in the three worlds, via the Hierarchy (of which He remains also a part), and with the human and subhuman kingdoms in nature. As evolution proceeds, He will work increasingly via humanity because humanity will be shouldering its responsibilities as the Macrocosm of the lesser microcosm. This dual activity entails much specialized training, and as the initiatory process becomes exoteric and men everywhere recognize it and participate in it, the training which Members of the Hierarchy also undergo will not be so secret and mysterious as it is today. But the time has not yet come to publicize it.

Only certain further generalizations are here possible, some of which are already known to you because they are so broad that their inclusions and implications are obvious. This, for instance, concerns the “center where the Will of God is known”. Here at Shamballa work Those Who have unified Their personality will and Their spiritual will with the universal will, and such a unification inevitably brings knowledge. It is, however, not knowledge as you understand it. It is a blend of wisdom based on knowledge, understanding based on intuitive perception, and identification based on alignment, esoterically comprehended. For this peculiar condition or awareness we have no word in any language, and only the utilization (the trained utilization) of the abstract mind can possibly convey to you even an embryonic factual conception. But that type of imaginative conception will become more common during the next two centuries, and my words here will therefore serve an ultimate purpose. Those Who form the Council Chamber of the Great Lord are under no misapprehension as to His will because They see it whole. Paul, the initiate, hints at this when writing one of the Epistles; he is in touch then with certain Members of the Hierarchy and is concerned with the theme of Love, which is the fundamental hierarchical theme and motive. He says to Them: “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now we know in part, but then shall we know even as we are known.” He there points towards the future progress of the Hierarchy – a progress which remains as yet only a vague promise, lacking form and shape. But he wrote for initiates to whom love was a growing, vital concern, and to whom love and its practice meant light and the basic motif of all living, divine activity. It is not possible to reveal the will of God and the motivating Purpose of His manifesting Self, except to Those Who have demonstrated perfected love and Who register no sense of disunion or the faintest reaction to separateness.

At Shamballa, the Great Lives Who function there not only see manifestation whole and apart from all the limitations of time, but They feel all the major evolutionary impulses which are bringing the developing world into line with the divine Will. They embody those impulses not in terms of progressive movement, but in terms of one great divine and spiritual reaction. This idea can perhaps be best understood by you in terms of the Eternal AUM which is the symbol of the Eternal NOW. You have been told, and it has been demonstrated, that the AUM is composed of one major Sound, three minor sounds, and seven subsidiary vibratory tones. So it is with the Will of God which is embodied and held in synthesis by the Members of the Council Chamber. To Them, as They “hold the Will of God in solution, it is one clear note; as They see that Will in motion, it is three abiding chords, carrying outwards into all the worlds the Purpose of the ONE Who for aeons will abide; as They impel that Will to demonstrate, it is seven vibratory tones, drawing out into the reflected worlds the structure of the Plan. And thus the note, the chords and tone produce the Plan, reveal the Purpose and indicate God’s Will.” This is a quotation from certain of the ancient Archives which constitute the study of the Masters; they relate to the nature of Shamballa, its work and emanating energies.

Shamballa, as it constitutes the synthesis of understanding where our Earth is concerned, is also the center where the highest Will of the Solar Logos is imposed upon the Will of our planetary Logos, Who is, as you know, only a center in His greater body of manifestation. With this item of information you can have no possible concern; the Masters Themselves are only learning the Will of the planetary Logos; the objective of effort in Shamballa is, however, the apprehension of solar Purpose, the Plan of which is working out on the highest levels of our planetary system, just as the Will, Purpose and Plan of Shamballa work out on the three lowest levels of our planetary system. Again, this item of information serves only to indicate hierarchical objectives, and those objectives extend away from time and space into the Mind of God Himself.

There are certain synonyms which here may serve to develop your synthetic thinking and so bring in a definite measure of enlightenment.

—

SHAMBALLAHIERARCHYHUMANITY
   
SynthesisUnitySeparation
WillPurposePlan
LifeSoulAppearance
SpiritConsciousnessSubstance
LivingnessOrganismOrganization
ApprehensionPolarizationFocus of Activity
PowerMomentumAction
EnergyDistributionForces
DirectionTransmissionReception
HeadHeartThroat

—

It will be apparent to you how little you can understand of the Shamballa intention when you realize that it is not easy for you to see any true distinction between unity and synthesis and, at the same time, how impossible it is for me to make the distinction clear. All I can say is that synthesis is, whilst unity is achieved and is the reward of action and effort. As you progress upon the Path of Initiation the meaning of unity clarifies. As you direct yourself towards the Way of the Higher Evolution synthesis emerges. More than that it would be useless for me to say.

This problem of the apparently impenetrable darkness of intention as grasped by Shamballa, of meaning, of inscrutability, of a spiritual imperviousness which holds, in spite of all fluctuations in the three worlds of human evolution and the remaining two of superhuman unfoldment, provides a situation to which the Hierarchy has to make adjustment through alignment. You are, in your small way, making your adjustment to the Hierarchy through a steady construction of the antahkarana, and in so doing are aiding in the construction of the antahkarana which unites Humanity and the Hierarchy – the first few strands of which were established through the sacrifices of certain of the Sons of God when the Hierarchy was founded on Earth. Today, the Hierarchy is working at the establishing of the linking strands between Itself and Shamballa, and good progress has already been made. It might be said here that for the past seven hundred years the chain of Hierarchy has been complete; by this I mean that the planetary rainbow bridge uniting the three major centers has existed. The task ahead of all these three major centers, working in alignment through adjustment, is to strengthen and beautify (if I may so express it), to electrify this bridge, thus producing full planetary inter-communication between the three centers and the four minor centers, so that “the weight of the Will of God, the momentum of the Purpose of Sanat Kumara and the Plan of His Representatives may progress unimpeded from point to point, from sphere to sphere and from glory to glory.”

—

It is this complete establishment of relationship between Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity which brought about the planetary crisis through which the world has just passed and, from some standpoints, is still passing. Shamballa, as I have told you, can now reach Humanity, the third major center, directly, and therefore has two points of planetary contact: the first, via the Hierarchy, as has been for long the case, and secondly, in a straight line, carrying energy direct to Humanity, without any transmission and consequent modifying of impact, as has also been the case hitherto. When this direct line of spiritual, dynamic, electrical energy made its first impact on earth (after the Great Council held in 1825), it first of all awakened men’s thinking in a new and comprehensive way, producing the great ideologies; it aroused their massed desire, and registered obstruction on the physical plane. It found its course impeded and discovered it was faced with barriers. This energy from Shamballa, being an aspect of the ray of the destroyer, proceeded to “burn up” in the fires of destruction, all such hindrances upon the planes in the three worlds. This was the deeply esoteric and unrecognized cause of the war – the beneficent bringing to an end of the impediments to the free flow of spiritual energy down into the third center; this was the factor which called “evil from its hidden place” and brought the opposing forces to the surface of existence, prior to their “sealing”. To the extent that this was so, mankind in the World War (1914-1945) was the unhappy victim of spiritual circumstance; however, from the angle of man’s historical past, humanity was the engineer of its own fate; but it took both the esoteric activity of Shamballa and the exoteric activity of humanity over a millenia of years to precipitate the conditions which made this new alignment possible and brought about the sealing (still being carried slowly forward), and plunged mankind into the vortex of war. This impelling downpouring energy from the highest center penetrated not only to the heart of humanity, but into the very depths of the mineral kingdom, implicating also the animal and the vegetable expressions of divine life.

———————————————————————————————————————-

Excerpted from:

The Externalization of the Hierarchy – Section IV – Stages in the Externalization

Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul

ॐ, Cause & Effect, Esoteric, Quotations, Rāja yoga, Yoga

“AUM,” said the Mighty One

Stanza II

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, and sounded forth the Word. The sevenfold waves of matter resolved themselves, and varied forms appeared. Each took its place, each in the sphere ordained. They waited for the sacred flood to enter and to fill.

The Builders responded to the sacred sound. In musical collaboration they attended to the work. They built in many spheres, beginning with the third. Upon this plane their work commenced. They built the sheath of atma and strung it to its Primary.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One. “Let now the work proceed. Let the Builders of the air continue with the plan. “

The Deva-Lord and Builders upon the plane of air worked with the forms within that sphere which is reckoned mainly theirs. They wrought for union, each in his group assigned. The moulds grew fast beneath their hands.

The sacred plane of juncture, the fourth great plane, became the sphere within the greater circle which marked the goal for man.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, He breathed forth to the fifth, the plane which is the burning-ground, the meeting place for fire. This time a cosmic note is heard beneath the sound systemic. The fire within, the fire without, meet with the fire ascending. The guardians of the cosmic fire, the devas of fohatic heat, watched o’er the forms that formless stood, waiting a point in time.

The builders of a lesser grade, devas who work with matter, wrought at the forms. They stood in fourfold order. Upon the threefold levels in empty silence stood the forms. They vibrated, they responded to the key, yet useless stood and uninhabited.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, “let the waters too bring forth.” The builders of the watery sphere, the denizens of moisture, produced the forms that move within the kingdom of Varuna. They grew and multiplied. In constant flux they swayed. Each ebb of cosmic motion increased the endless flow. The ripple of the forms was seen.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, “let the Builders deal with matter.” The molten solidified. The solid forms were built. The crust cooled. The rocks congealed. The builders wrought in tumult to produce the forms of maya. When the rocky strata were completed the work stood in completion. The builders of the lowest grade announced the work was finished.

Forth from the rocky strata emerged the covering next. The builders of the second agreed the work was done. The first and second on the upward way stood forth in fourfold form. The inner five was somewhat seen by those whose sight was keen.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, and gathered in His Breath. The spark within the peopling third impelled to further growth. The builders of the lowest forms, manipulating densest maya, merged their production with the forms built by the watery ones. Matter and water merged produced the third in time. Ascension thus progressed. The builders worked in union. They called the guardians of the fiery zone. Matter and water mixed with fire, the inner spark within the form were blended all together.

The Mighty One looked down. The forms met His approval. Forth came the cry for further light. Again He gathered in the sound. He drew to higher levels the feeble spark of light. Another tone was heard, the sound of cosmic fire, hid in the Sons of Manas. They called to their Primaries. The lower four, the higher three, and the cosmic fifth met at the great inbreathing. Another sheath was formed.

Excerpted from “A Treatise on Cosmic Fire – Stanzas of Dzyan”

———————————-

STANZA IV

(From Archive 63)

PATH VII. The Path of Absolute Sonship.

That which hath no beginning and no end; That which is seen and yet remains unknown; That which we touch and yet find unattained, That is the One Who passeth on His WAY.

That which we call the Father and the Son; That which we deem too high for words to grasp; That which the Mother deems her Lord and God, That is the One Who mounts the cosmic stair.

That which is seen when each point of heavenly light sends out its beam upon the midnight blue; That which we hear in every cosmic note and sense beneath the sound of every form, That is the One Who chants the heavenly lay and lends His light to swell the cosmic fire.

That which is known by every Son of God, who masters step by step the Path of Gold; That which is heard by every deva lord who hears the Word go forth as the aeons pass away; That which sounds forth the triple cyclic AUM, reserving yet another sound for higher cosmic planes, That is the One unknown, the Unrevealed, the One Who chants a note within a cosmic chord.

That which in every aeon cometh forth and passeth through His cycle upon a cosmic Path; That which in greater kalpas will play a godlike game; That which in all the cosmic spheres is called “the One above the Son of violet hue,” That is the One Who shineth in the galaxy of stars.

Such is the One to Whom the sons of glory give everlasting homage as He passes on His WAY. To Him be glory as the Mother, Father, Son, as the One Who hath existed in the past, the now and That which is to come.

Excerpted from “Treatise on Cosmic Fire – Section Three – Division C – Seven Esoteric Stanzas”

————————————

THE GIVING OF THE WORD

The Solar Words

The basis of all manifested phenomena is the enunciated sound, or the Word spoken with power, that is, with the full purpose of the will behind it. Herein, as is known, lies the value of meditation, for meditation produces eventually that inner dynamic purpose and recollection, or that internal ideation which must invariably precede the uttering of any creative sound. When it is said that the Logos produced the worlds through meditation it means that within his own center of consciousness there was a period wherein he brooded over and meditated upon the purposes and plans he had in view; wherein he visualized to himself the entire world process as a perfected whole, seeing the end from the beginning and being aware of the detail of the consummated sphere. Then, when his meditation was concluded, and the whole completed as a picture before his inner vision, he brought into use a certain Word of Power which had been committed to him by the One about whom naught may be said, the Logos of the cosmic scheme of which our system is but a part. With cosmic and Logoic initiations we are not concerned, except in so far as the human initiations reflect their stupendous prototypes, but it is of interest to the student to realize that just as at each initiation some Word of Power is committed to the initiate, so similarly to the Logos was committed the great Word of Power which produced our solar system, that Word which is called the “Sacred Word,” or AUM. It must be here remembered that this sound AUM is man’s endeavor to reproduce on an infinitesimally small scale the cosmic triple sound whereby creation was made possible. The Words of Power of all degrees have a triple sequence.

First. They are sounded by some fully self-conscious entity, and this invariably takes place after a period of deliberation or meditation wherein the purpose in toto is visualized.

Second. They affect the deva kingdom and produce the creation of forms. This effect is dual in character:

  1. The devas on the evolutionary path, the great builders of the solar system, and those under them who have passed the human stage respond to the sound of the Word, and with conscious realization collaborate with the one who has breathed it forth, and thus the work is carried out.
  2. The devas on the involutionary arc, the lesser builders, who have not passed through the human stage, also respond to the sound, but unconsciously, or perforce, and through the power of the initiated vibrations build the required forms out of their own substance.

Third. They act as a stabilizing factor, and as long as the force of the sound persists, the forms cohere. When the Logos, for instance, finishes the sounding of the sacred AUM, and the vibration ceases, then disintegration of the forms will ensue. So with the Planetary Logos, and thus on down the scale.

The Words of Power, or the permutations of the AUM, exist in every possible tone, subtone, and quarter-tone, and upon these shades of sound the work of creation and its sustentation is built up. A multiplicity of sounds exists within each greater sound and affects different groups. It must be remembered also that, generally and broadly speaking, the sounds within the solar system fall into two groups:

  1. The initiatory sounds, or those which produce manifestation or phenomena of any kind on all planes.
  2. Eventuating sounds, or those which are produced from within the forms themselves during the evolutionary process, and which are the aggregate of the tones of every form in any particular kingdom of nature. Every form likewise has a tone which is produced by the minute sounds produced by the atoms composing that form. These sounds grow out of the other group and affect inferior groups or kingdoms, if the word “inferior” may be used in connection with any department of divine manifestation. For instance, the human kingdom (the fourth creative Hierarchy) was produced by a triple AUM sounded in a particular key by the three persons of the Trinity in unison, – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, or Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma. This sound is still going forth; the interplay and interblending of the many tiny notes of each human being produces a great united sound which can be heard in the high places and which, in its turn, is having a definite effect upon the animal kingdom. It is one of the factors which produces animal forms, both for human and animal occupation, for it must ever be remembered that man links the animal and the divine.

It is neither possible nor desirable to enumerate the Words of Power, but certain general indications may be given which will help the student to realize somewhat the magnitude of the subject and its intricacy.

1. The Great Word, as sounded by the Logos of the solar system, and communicated to him by his superior.

2. Three Words committed by the Solar Logos to each of the three Logoi as follows:

  1. The sacred sound A to Shiva, he who embodies the spirit or will aspect. It is the Word through which God the Father works.
  2. The sound U to Vishnu, God the Son. He is the form-builder and provides the body which the spirit must occupy, thereby making divine incarnation possible. A is the life sound, U is the form sound.
  3. The sound M to Brahma, who, in his work of Energy-provider, links in active intelligence, spirit and form, or the self and not-self.

It might here be pointed out that much information anent the three departments of the Hierarchy of our planet will come to the student who wisely ponders these functions.

3. Seven Great Words, again based on the sacred three sounds A U M. These produced creation, or the manifestation of the seven planes of our solar system. They are committed not to human entities, but to the seven great Devas or Raja-Lords who are the ensouling lives of a plane; hence in the various initiations their collaboration is necessary, before these key words can be committed to the initiate.

4. Forty-nine Words related to the forty-nine subplanes or Fires. These again are committed to the forty-nine Builders of the Sacred Fires.

The above two groups of words are in the jurisdiction of the third aspect, and are given out by Brahma.

5. There are again five Great Words with signs which come under the department of Vishnu, or God the Son, and are breathed out by him. By their means the five kingdoms of nature on the evolutionary arc came into being:

  1. The mineral kingdom.
  2. The vegetable kingdom.
  3. The animal kingdom.
  4. The human kingdom.
  5. The spiritual kingdom.

These five are permutations of, or are built up upon the sound U, as the ones earlier enumerated are built up upon the sound M.

In connection with the first three kingdoms it may be of interest to note that they are based upon two sounds, the U sounded on the basic key tone of the M. In the fourth kingdom the M tone is dying down and the two notes sounded forth are the U and the A. In the fifth kingdom the M has subsided into a distant undertone, the U is blended with it so as to be indistinguishable, and the A, or Shiva note, is pealing forth in power, and is practically the only note heard. By the sounding of this note, – that of Shiva the Destroyer, – the not-self is negated, and all that is not of spirit passes into dissolution. It is the coming in of the A sound which affects the severance or liberation of the initiate from the three worlds.

6. There are certain Words also committed to each of the Planetary Logoi, and they are the basis of planetary manifestation. As is well known, the sound of the Brahma aspect, or the third aspect of our particular Planetary Logos, is FA, and herein lies much of illumination as to his point in evolution, for it is immediately apparent that the A sound is reaching even the dense physical.

7. Within our own Hierarchy there are numbers of Words built up upon the Great Word of our Planetary Logos, and these are committed to the Departmental Heads, who in turn pass them on in permutated order to the graded initiates. It will be wise here for the student to differentiate carefully in his mind between words and sounds, for the word veils the thought or intended idea or purpose, and the sound makes it possible to manifest in matter of some kind, on one or other of the seven planes.

We cannot here trace the expansion of the basic words, from their enunciation by cosmic entities down to the infinitesimal differentiations produced in the speech of man, the vocal expression of the animals, and the song of birds. Each is a manifestation of consciousness in some degree, and each produces an effect. What the initiate is learning to do is to make sounds consciously, and thus produce a studied and desired result; to utter words, and be fully aware of the consequence on all planes; and to create forms and direct energy through sacred sounds, and thus further the ends of evolution.

It has been necessary to digress thus before taking up the committal of words to the initiate, in order to emphasize the radical importance of the matter, and thus account for the carefully guarding of this aspect of divine work.

Excerpted from “Initiation, Human and Solar – Chapter XV – The Giving of the Word”

ॐ, Cause & Effect, Rāja yoga, Synthesis, Yoga

A-U-M or Om

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

Om (IAST: Auṃ or Oṃ or ॐ) is a sacred sound and a spiritual symbol in Indian religions. In Hinduism, it signifies the essence of the ultimate reality, consciousness or Atman. More broadly, it is a syllable that is chanted either independently or before a spiritual recitation in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The meaning and connotations of Om vary between the diverse schools within and across the various traditions. It is part of the iconography found in ancient and medieval era manuscripts, temples, monasteries and spiritual retreats in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

In Hinduism, Om is one of the most important spiritual symbols. It refers to Atman (soul, self within) and Brahman (ultimate reality, entirety of the universe, truth, divine, supreme spirit, cosmic principles, knowledge). The syllable is often found at the beginning and the end of chapters in the Vedas, the Upanishads, and other Hindu texts. It is a sacred spiritual incantation made before and during the recitation of spiritual texts, during puja and private prayers, in ceremonies of rites of passages (sanskara) such as weddings, and sometimes during meditative and spiritual activities such as Yoga.

The syllable Om is also referred to as onkara (ओङ्कार, oṅkāra), omkara (ओंकार, oṃkāra) and pranava (प्रणव, praṇava).

Origin and meaning

The syllable Om (Devanagari: ॐ, Kannada: ಓಂ, Tamil: ௐ, Malayalam: ഓം, Telugu: ఓం, Bengali: ওঁ, Odia : ଓଁ or ଓ‍ଁ) is referred to as praṇava. Other used terms are akṣara (literally, letter of the alphabet, imperishable, immutable) or ekākṣara (one letter of the alphabet) and omkāra (meaning literally “Om syllable”, and connoting: a beginning and female divine energy). Udgitha, a word found in Sama Veda and bhasya (commentaries) based on it, is also used as a name of the syllable. The word has three phonemes: “a-u-m“, though it is often described as trisyllabic despite this being either archaic or the result of translation.

The syllable Om is first mentioned in the Upanishads, the mystical texts associated with the Vedanta philosophy. It has variously been associated with concepts of “cosmic sound” or “mystical syllable” or “affirmation to something divine”, or as symbolism for abstract spiritual concepts in the Upanishads. In the Aranyaka and the Brahmana layers of Vedic texts, the syllable is so widespread and linked to knowledge, that it stands for the “whole of Veda”. The etymological foundations of Om are repeatedly discussed in the oldest layers of the Vedantic texts (the early Upanishads). The Aitareya Brahmana of Rig Veda, for example suggests that the three phonetic components of Om (pronounced AUM) correspond to the three stages of cosmic creation, and when it is read or said, it celebrates the creative powers of the universe. The Brahmana layer of Vedic texts equate Om with Bhur-bhuvah-Svah, the latter symbolizing “the whole Veda”. They offer various shades of meaning to Om, such as it being “the universe beyond the sun”, or that which is “mysterious and inexhaustible”, or “the infinite language, the infinite knowledge”, or “essence of breath, life, everything that exists”, or that “with which one is liberated”. The Sama Veda, the poetical Veda, orthographically maps Om to the audible, the musical truths in its numerous variations (Oum, Aum, Ovā Ovā Ovā Um, etc.) and then attempts to extract musical meters from it.

The syllable Om evolves to mean many abstract ideas in the earliest Upanishads. Max Müller and other scholars state that these philosophical texts recommend Om as a “tool for meditation”, explain various meanings that the syllable may be in the mind of one meditating, ranging from “artificial and senseless” to “highest concepts such as the cause of the Universe, essence of life, Brahman, Atman, and Self-knowledge”.

ॐ, Esoteric, Esoteric Psychology, Quotations, Rāja yoga, Yoga

A-U-M

A Treatise on Cosmic Fire – Stanzas of Dzyan by Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul

Stanza II

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, and sounded forth the Word. The sevenfold waves of matter resolved themselves, and varied forms appeared. Each took its place, each in the sphere ordained. They waited for the sacred flood to enter and to fill.

The Builders responded to the sacred sound. In musical collaboration they attended to the work. They built in many spheres, beginning with the third. Upon this plane their work commenced. They built the sheath of atma and strung it to its Primary.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One. “Let now the work proceed. Let the Builders of the air continue with the plan. “

The Deva-Lord and Builders upon the plane of air worked with the forms within that sphere which is reckoned mainly theirs. They wrought for union, each in his group assigned. The moulds grew fast beneath their hands.

The sacred plane of juncture, the fourth great plane, became the sphere within the greater circle which marked the goal for man.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, He breathed forth to the fifth, the plane which is the burning-ground, the meeting place for fire. This time a cosmic note is heard beneath the sound systemic. The fire within, the fire without, meet with the fire ascending. The guardians of the cosmic fire, the devas of fohatic heat, watched o’er the forms that formless stood, waiting a point in time.

The builders of a lesser grade, devas who work with matter, wrought at the forms. They stood in fourfold order. Upon the threefold levels in empty silence stood the forms. They vibrated, they responded to the key, yet useless stood and uninhabited.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, “let the waters too bring forth.” The builders of the watery sphere, the denizens of moisture, produced the forms that move within the kingdom of Varuna. They grew and multiplied. In constant flux they swayed. Each ebb of cosmic motion increased the endless flow. The ripple of the forms was seen.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, “let the Builders deal with matter.” The molten solidified. The solid forms were built. The crust cooled. The rocks congealed. The builders wrought in tumult to produce the forms of maya. When the rocky strata were completed the work stood in completion. The builders of the lowest grade announced the work was finished.

Forth from the rocky strata emerged the covering next. The builders of the second agreed the work was done. The first and second on the upward way stood forth in fourfold form. The inner five was somewhat seen by those whose sight was keen.

***

“AUM,” said the Mighty One, and gathered in His Breath. The spark within the peopling third impelled to further growth. The builders of the lowest forms, manipulating densest maya, merged their production with the forms built by the watery ones. Matter and water merged produced the third in time. Ascension thus progressed. The builders worked in union. They called the guardians of the fiery zone.  Matter and water mixed with fire, the inner spark within the form were blended all together.

The Mighty One looked down. The forms met His approval. Forth came the cry for further light. Again He gathered in the sound. He drew to higher levels the feeble spark of light. Another tone was heard, the sound of cosmic fire, hid in the Sons of Manas. They called to their Primaries. The lower four, the higher three, and the cosmic fifth met at the great inbreathing. Another sheath was formed.

——————————————————

My Note: This is a from of creation “myth” esoterically expressed.

A Treatise on Cosmic Fire – Section Three – Division C – Seven Esoteric Stanzas

STANZA IV

(From Archive 63)

PATH VII. The Path of Absolute Sonship.

That which hath no beginning and no end; That which is seen and yet remains unknown; That which we touch and yet find unattained, That is the One Who passeth on His WAY.

That which we call the Father and the Son; That which we deem too high for words to grasp; That which the Mother deems her Lord and God, That is the One Who mounts the cosmic stair.

That which is seen when each point of heavenly light sends out its beam upon the midnight blue; That which we hear in every cosmic note and sense beneath the sound of every form, That is the One Who chants the heavenly lay and lends His light to swell the cosmic fire.

That which is known by every Son of God, who masters step by step the Path of Gold; That which is heard by every deva lord who hears the Word go forth as the aeons pass away; That which sounds forth the triple cyclic AUM, reserving yet another sound for higher cosmic planes, That is the One unknown, the Unrevealed, the One Who chants a note within a cosmic chord.

That which in every aeon cometh forth and passeth through His cycle upon a cosmic Path; That which in greater kalpas will play a godlike game; That which in all the cosmic spheres is called “the One above the Son of violet hue,” That is the One Who shineth in the galaxy of stars.

Such is the One to Whom the sons of glory give everlasting homage as He passes on His WAY. To Him be glory as the Mother, Father, Son, as the One Who hath existed in the past, the now and That which is to come.

ॐ, Esoteric, Esoteric Psychology, Quotations, Rāja yoga, Yoga

Om, AUM and Amen

We come now to the consideration of a subject which always proves exceedingly difficult to students: The nature of the Word, the AUM, and its later developments, the OM and the Sound. Much confusion exists as to its significance or the necessity for its use. The phase of its recognition through which we are now passing is a purely exoteric one of accustoming the general public to the fact of its existence. This has been brought about in three ways:

  1. Through the constant use in all the Christian Churches of the word “Amen,” which is a western corruption of the AUM. The AUM is here the lowest aspect of the originating Sound.
  2. Through the emphasis laid in Masonry upon the Lost Word, thus subtly drawing the attention of humanity to the OM; the Sound of the second aspect, the Soul.
  3. Through the growing emphasis laid by the many occult groups throughout the world upon the use of the OM, its frequent use by these groups in public, and by those intent upon meditation.

The soundest approach is that of the Masonic tradition, because it deals primarily with the world of meaning and with a phase of the esoteric teaching. The use of the Amen in the ritual of the Christian Church will eventually be discouraged, because it is basically a materialistic affirmation, being usually regarded by the average churchgoer as setting the seal of divine approval upon his demand to the Almighty for protection, or for the supply of his physical necessities; all this is, therefore, related to the life of desire, of aspiration, of dualism and of request. It involves the attitude of giver and recipient.

The AUM and the Amen are both of them an expression in sound of the principle of active intelligent substance in the divine manifestation, the third aspect, and have served human need in that phase of material and form development. I refer here also to the development of mind or of the mental form. The personality as a whole, when perfected and brought under control of the soul, is the “Word made flesh.”

The mass of aspirants and of disciples are today learning the meaning of the OM, which is not the Word made flesh, but the Word released from form, and expressing itself as soul-spirit and not as body-soul-spirit. It might, therefore, be said that:

  1. The AUM (note that I separate each aspect of this triple sound) brings the soul-spirit aspect down on to the physical plane and anchors it there by the force of its outgoing vibration. Using a symbol to make my meaning clear, it is like “a strong wind that pins a man against a wall and makes free effort difficult.” It vivifies form; it intensifies the hold of matter upon the soul; it builds around the soul a confining prison – a prison of the senses. It is the “sound of enchantment,” the sound that is the source of glamor and of maya; it is the great beguiling and deceptive energy, the note of the involutionary arc. In it are hid the secret of evil or matter, the uses of form, first as a prison, then as a training ground and as a field of experience, and finally as the expression for the manifestation of a Son of God.
  2. The OM rightly sounded, releases the soul from the realm of glamor and of enchantment. It is the sound of liberation, the great note of resurrection and of the raising of humanity to the Secret Place of the Most High when all other Words and sounds have failed. It is not a triple sound as is the AUM, but a dual sound, significant of the relation of spirit and soul, and of life and consciousness. This lost Word, symbolic of the loss in the three worlds (typified by the degrees of the Blue Lodges in Masonry) must be recovered and is in process of discovery today. The mystics have sought after it; the Masons have preserved the tradition of its existence; the disciples and initiates of the world must demonstrate its possession.
  3. The Sound is the sole expression of the Ineffable Name, the secret appellation of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being, and Who is known to the Great White Lodge through this name. Remember always that name and form are synonymous terms in the occult teaching, and these two words hold the secret of manifestation. The goal of the initiate is identification with all forms of the divine life, so that he can know himself to be an integral part of that Whole and can tune in on all states of divine awareness, knowing for himself (and not just theoretically) that they are also his own states of awareness. He can then penetrate into the divine arcana of knowledge, share in the divine omnipresence and – at will – express the divine omniscience and prepare himself to manifest in full consciousness the divine omnipotence.

I am using words which are futile to convey the underlying meaning of the Word. Understanding can only be arrived at when a man lives the Word, hearing its soundless Sound and breathing it forth in a vital life-giving breath to others.

The masses are hearing the sound of the AUM and, in their higher brackets, are finding that AUM the expression of something from which they seek release. The aspirants and disciples of the World are hearing the OM and in their personal lives the AUM and the OM are in conflict. This may represent a new idea to you, but it conveys an idea of an eternal fact. It may help you to gain an understanding of this phase if I point out for you that for this first group the OM can be portrayed in the following symbol as expressing the material M nature whereas the second group can be portrayed by the symbol m expressive of the soul enveloped in matter. You will see, therefore, how the teaching leads man progressively onward and how the occult science brings man in touch with great mental reversals and divine paradoxes. For aeons the Word of the soul and the Sound of spiritual reality are lost. Today, the Word of the soul is being found again, and with that finding the little self is lost in the glory and the radiance of the divine Self.

This discovery is consummated at the time of the third initiation. The initiate and the Master, along with those of higher rank who are approaching identification with Shamballa, are steadily and ever more clearly hearing the Sound emanating from the Central Spiritual Sun and penetrating all forms of divine life upon our planet – via our Planetary Logos Who hears it with clarity and with understanding – the Sound of the lowest syllable of the Ineffable Name of the One in Whom all the Planetary Logoi live and move and have Their Being, for They are centers in the Life which is expressing itself through the medium of a solar system.

You can see how little use there is in my enlarging further upon this. Its sole usefulness is to give an expanding impulse to the consciousness of the disciple and to stir his imagination (the seed of the intuition), so that even whilst occupied in expressing the M and then the m, he will be reaching out after the Sound.

Earlier I pointed out that the sound of the AUM, the sound of the OM and the Sound itself are all related to vibration and to its differing and varied effects. The secret of the Law of Vibration is progressively revealed as people learn to sound forth the Word in its three aspects. Students would also do well to ponder on the distinction between the breath and the Sound, between the process of breathing and of creating directed vibratory activity. The one is related to Time and the other to Space and they are distinct from each other; and (as the Old Commentary puts it) “the Sound, the final and yet initiating Sound, concerns that which is neither Time nor Space; it lies outside the manifested All, the Source of all that is and yet is naught.” (No thing. A.A.B.)

There are, therefore, great points of tension from which the Sacred Word, in its major aspects, goes forth. Let me list them for you:

1)The creative point of tension – a tension achieved by a planetary Logos when He responds to the Sound of the Ineffable Name and breathes it forth in His turn in three great Sounds which make one Sound on His Own plane of expression, thus creating the manifested world, the impulse towards the unfoldment of consciousness, and the influence of life itself. This is the Sound.

2)Seven points of tension on the downward or involutionary arc; these produce the seven planets, the seven states of consciousness, and the expression of the seven ray impulses. This constitutes the sevenfold AUM of which the Ageless Wisdom takes note. It is related to the effect of spirit or life upon substance, thus originating form and creating the prison of the divine life.

3)The AUM itself or the Word made flesh; this creates finally a point of tension in the fourth kingdom in nature, at which point the evolutionary cycle becomes possible and the first dim note of the OM can be faintly heard. In the individual man this point is reached when the personality is an integrated and functioning whole and the soul is beginning to control it. It is an accumulative tension arrived at through many lives. This process is expressed in the Masters’ Archives as follows:

You must remember that these symbols are an attempt on my part to translate ancient signatures in modern occidental type. The only one which is the same in all languages is, esoterically, the AUM.

4)Then comes a point of tension from which the man eventually achieves liberation from the three worlds and stands as a free soul; he is then a point within the circle – the point indicating the point of tension from which he now works, and the circle the sphere of his self-initiated activity.

I need not carry the story further; from tension to tension the initiate passes just as do all human beings, aspirants, disciples and the lower grades of initiates; from one expansion of consciousness to another they go until the third initiation is undergone and points of tension (qualified by intention and purpose) supersede all previous efforts and the will aspect begins to control.

Here, briefly, is a fresh slant upon the familiar theme of the Word – a theme preserved in some form by all the world religions but a theme which, like all else, has been so materialized that it is the task of the Hierarchy to restore the knowledge of its meaning, of its threefold application and its involutionary and evolutionary significances. Students would do well to remember that its sounding forth vocally upon the physical plane means little. The important factors are to sound it silently, inaudibly and within the head; then, having done so, to hear it reverberate there and to recognize that this self-initiated Sound – breathed forth from a point of tension – is a part of the original Sound as it takes form as a Word. When a man perfectly expresses the AUM, he can then sound the OM with effectiveness from progressive points of tension, until the third initiation. Then the effect of the OM is such that the personality as a separate identity disappears, the soul emerges in all its glory, and the first faint sound of the originating Sound breaks upon the ear of the transfigured initiate. This is the Voice referred to in the Biblical account of the Transfiguration. This Voice says, “This is my beloved Son.” The initiate registers the fact that he has been accepted by Shamballa and has made his first contact with the Planetary Logos, the Hierophant, the Initiator at the third initiation, just as the Christ, the Master of all the Masters, is the Initiator and the Hierophant at the first two initiations.

——————–

Excerpted from:

The Rays and the Initiations – Part One – Fourteen Rules For Group Initiation

By Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul

ॐ, buddhism, Esoteric, Esoteric Psychology, Quotations, Rāja yoga, Yoga

The Science of Breath – Prāṇāyāma

From Wikipedia

Prāṇāyāma (Devanagari: प्राणायाम prāṇāyāma) is a Sanskrit compound

Pranayama is the yogic practice of focusing on breath. In Sanskrit, prana means “vital life force”, and yama means to gain control. In yoga, breath is associated with the prana, thus, pranayama is a means to elevate the prana shakti, or life energies. Pranayama is described in Hindu texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Later in Hatha yoga texts, it meant the complete suspension of breathing.

Monier-Williams defines the compound prāṇāyāma as “of the three ‘breath-exercises’ performed during Saṃdhyā (See pūrak, rechak (English: retch or throw out), kumbhak”.This technical definition refers to a particular system of breath control with three processes as explained by Bhattacharyya: pūrak (to take the breath inside), kumbhak (to retain it), and rechak (to discharge it).

——–

Rule Four

    “Sound, light, vibration, and the form blend and merge, and thus the work is one. It proceedeth under the law, and naught can hinder now the work from going forward. The man breathes deeply. He concentrates his forces, and drives the thought-form from him.”

The Science of the Breath

Now we come to the significant words in Rule IV. “The man breathes deeply.” This is a phrase covering many aspects of rhythmic living. It is the magical formula for the science of pranayama. It covers the art of the creative life. It sweeps a man into tune with the pulsating life of God Himself, and this through detachment and reorientation.

It is notably interesting as a demonstration of the succinctness and inclusiveness of occult phrases as in Rule IV. The art of breathing is dealt with in three phases, and these I commend to each of you for the most careful consideration.

There is first the aspect of Inhalation. “The man breathes deeply.” From the very depths of his being he draws the breath. In the process of phenomenal living, he draws the very breath of life from the soul. This is the first stage. In the process of detaching himself from phenomenal living, he draws from the depths of his being and experiences the life, that it may be rendered again back to the source from whence it came. In the occult life of the disciple, as he develops a new and subtler use of his response apparatus, he practices the science of the breath, and discovers that through deep breathing (including the three stages of the deep, middle, and top breath) he can bring into activity, in the world of esoteric experiences, his vital body with its force centers. Thus the three aspects of “deep breathing” cover the entire soul experience, and the relationship to the three types of breath, touched upon above, can be worked out by the interested aspirant.

Next we read “he concentrates his forces.” Here we have the stage indicated which can be called retention of the breath. It is a holding of all the forces of the life steadily in the place {palace my suggestion} of silence, and when this can be done with ease and with forgetfulness of process through familiarity and experience, then the man can see and hear and know in a realm other than the phenomenal world. In the higher sense this is the stage of contemplation, that “lull between two activities” as it has been so aptly called. The soul, the breath, the life has withdrawn out of the three worlds, and in the “secret place of the most high” is at rest and at peace, contemplating the beatific vision. In the life of the active disciple it produces those interludes which every disciple knows, when (through detachment and the capacity to withdraw) he is held by nothing in the world of form. As he is but wrestling toward perfection and has not yet attained, these interludes of silence, withdrawingness, and of detachment are frequently difficult and dark. All is silence and he stands appalled by the unknown, and by the apparently empty stillness in which he finds himself. This is called, in advanced cases, “the dark night of the soul ” – the moment before the dawn, the hour before the light streams forth.

In the science of Pranayama it is the moment following upon inhalation wherein all the forces of the body have (through the medium of the breath) been carried upward to the head and concentrated there, prior to the stage of breathing forth. This moment of retention, when properly carried forward, produces an interlude of intense concentration and it is in this moment that the aspirant must seize opportunity. Herein lies a hint.

Then comes the process of exhalation. We read in Rule IV “he drives the thought-form from him.” This is ever the result of the final stage of the science of the breath. The form, vitalized by the one who breathes in correct rhythm, is sent forth to do its work and fulfil its mission. Study this idea with care, for it holds the secret of creative work.

In the experience of the soul, the form for manifestation in the three worlds is created through intense meditation, which is ever the paralleling activity of breathing. Then by an act of the will, resulting in a “breathing forth”, and engendered or arrived at dynamically in the interlude of contemplation or retention of the breath, the created form is sent forth into the phenomenal world, to serve as a channel of experience, a medium of expression and a response apparatus in the three worlds of human living.

{This is the act of incarnation, my comment}

In the life of the disciple, through meditation and discipline he learns to reach high moments of interlude whenever he concentrates his forces on the plane of soul life, and then again by an act of his will, he breathes forth his spiritual purposes, plans and life into the world of experience. The thought form that he has constructed as to the part he has to play, and the concentration of energy which he has succeeded in bringing about become effective. The energy needed for the next step is breathed forth by the soul and passes down into the vital body, thus galvanizing the physical instrument with the needed constructive activity. That aspect of the plan which he has appreciated in contemplation, and that part of the general purpose of the Hierarchy in which his soul feels called upon to cooperate is breathed forth simultaneously, via the mind into the brain, and thus “he drives the thought forms from him.”

Finally, in the science of Pranayama, this stage covers that exhaling breath which, when carried forward with thought and conscious purpose behind it, serves to vitalize the centers and fill each of them with dynamic life. More need not be said here.

Thus, in this science of “breathing deeply” we have the whole process of creative work and of the evolutionary unfoldment of God in nature covered. It is the process whereby the Life, the One Existence, has brought the phenomenal world into being, and Rule IV is a digest of the Creation. It is equally the formula under which the individual soul works as it centers its forces for manifestation in the three worlds of human experience.

The right use of the Life-Breath is the whole art at which the aspirant, the disciple, and the initiate work, bearing in mind however that the science of the physical breath is the least important aspect and follows sequentially upon the right use of energy, which is the word we apply to the divine breath or life.

Finally, in the mental life of the disciple, and in the great work of learning to be a conscious creator in mental matter and so produce results in the phenomenal world, this fourth Rule holds the instructions upon which the work is based. It embodies the science of the entire magical work.

Therefore, this Rule warrants the closest consideration and study. Rightly understood and rightly studied it would lead each aspirant out of the phenomenal world into the kingdom of the soul. Its instructions, if carried out, would lead the soul back again into the phenomenal world as the creating force in soul magic and as the manipulator and dominating factor of, and through, the medium of the form.

In the training of the occidental student, blind unquestioning obedience is never asked. Suggestions are made as to method and as to a technique which has proved effective for thousands of years and with many disciples. Some rules as to breathing, as to helpful process and as to practical living on the physical plane will be imparted, but in the training of the new type of disciple during the coming age, it is the will of the watching Gurus and Rishis that they be left freer than has heretofore been the case. This may mean a slightly slower development at the beginning but will result, it is hoped, in a more rapid unfoldment during the later stages upon the Path of Initiation.

Therefore, students are urged to go forward during their period of training with courage and with joy, knowing that they are members of a band of disciples, knowing that they are not alone but that the strength of the band is theirs, the knowledge of the band is theirs too as they develop the capacity to apprehend it, – and knowing also that the love and wisdom and understanding of the watching Elder Brothers are back of every aspiring Son of God, e’en though apparently (and wisely) he is left to wrestle through to the light in the strength of his own omnipotent soul.

——————-

Excerpted from “A Treatise on White Magic – Rule Four – The Science of the Breath”

By Alice Bailey and Djwhal Kuhl

—-

My Hint: Contemplate on the above in the light of AUM or A-U-M. The pauses have a significance.

ॐ, Dreams, Karma

Dancing with Ganesh 20-9-19

This happened whilst I was unable to walk after having fractured the neck of my femur at the very end of August. Then it was me who was hospitalised at home!!

Still a bit shaky. I have just woken from my afternoon nap, which usually results from my midday codeine. Wow! That was the most intense dream I have ever had.

I arrive at the edge of a walled garden and am welcomed through a large gateway by an upright Ganesh. He has all the typical elephant features, but his gait is that of a human being. He is iridescent blue in colour and has a twinkle in his eyes. I am welcomed into his “humble abode”. He shows me around his palace gardens, gardens that are tropical and scented. There are flowers everywhere. The garden is filled with water features. He takes me to a partially covered courtyard which has red-brown gravel. The pieces of gravel are near perfect spheres. He sits me down and we take tea together brought by his servants. I understand that this courtyard is where he practises his dancing.

A group of Indian musicians file in and seat themselves on the ground. Ganesh signals to them and they start playing. He gets up and starts to dance. His movements are exquisite, and his hands alternate between mudras beautifully and each mudra is exact and precise. He beckons me and starts to teach me some steps of his dance. {In the dream my leg functions fine.} Slowly I get the steps and we are starting to whirl and circle. It is entrancing. He stops suddenly and takes a blue-metallic AUM symbol out of his tunic. He walks over to me and presses it on my Anja centre. Slowly it penetrates and dissolves into me. I am left with a tattoo like impression on my skin. Ganseh smiles radiantly and we continue to dance.

I look at my body and notice that it has somehow taken on the same hue as Ganesh, which pleases me greatly in the dream. He laughs, at my surprise.

I awake with a start and my first instinct is look at my arms. They are not blue. They are lightly tanned and freckled with a few bruises from all the needles. It takes a while to assemble the reality of the room. I get up and go outside to smoke.