Letters on Occult Meditation
Page 3
You have the activity aspect driving a man on to perfection through the utilisation of all in the service of man; first by the utilisation of all for himself, then by the graded steps of the utilisation of all for the family, of all for those he personally loves, of all for his environing associates, and thus on and up till all is utilised in the service of humanity.
When the egoic ray is the attributive Ray of Harmony, the fourth ray, the method will be along the line of the inner realisation of beauty and harmony; it causes the shattering of the causal body by the knowledge of Sound and Colour and the shattering effect of Sound. It is the process that leads to the realisation of the notes and tones of the solar system, the note and tone of individuals, and the endeavor to harmonise the egoic note with that of others. When the egoic note is sounded in harmony with other egos, the result is the shattering of the causal body, dissociation from the lower and the attainment of perfection. Its exponents develop along the line of music, rhythm and painting. They withdraw within in order to comprehend the life side of the form. The outer manifestation of that life side in the world is through that which we call art. The great painters and the superlative musicians are in many cases reaching their goal that way.
When the fifth ray, the Ray of Concrete Science or Knowledge is a man's ray, the method is very interesting. It takes the form of the intense application of the concrete mind to some problem for the helping of the race; it is the bending of every mental quality and the [18] controlling of the lower nature so that one supreme endeavor is made to pierce through that which hinders the downflow of the higher knowledge. It involves also the will element (as might be expected) and results in the wresting of the desired information from the source of all knowledge.
As the process is continued, the piercing of the periphery of the causal body becomes so frequent that in the end disintegration is produced and a man is set free. It is mentality driving a man on to perfection and forcing him to utilise all knowledge in the loving service of his race.
The Ray of Devotion is pre-eminently the ray of sacrifice. When it is the egoic ray the method of approach through meditation takes the form of one-pointed application, through love of some individual or ideal. A man learns to include through love of person or ideal; he bends every faculty and every effort to the contemplation of what is required, and in sacrifice for that person or ideal lays even his causal body on the flames of the altar. It is the method of divine fanaticism that counts all lost apart from the vision, and that eventually sacrifices joyously the entire personality. The causal body is destroyed through fire, and the liberated life streams upward to the spirit in divine beatification.
When the egoic ray is the seventh or Ray of Ceremony Law or Magic, the method is that of the glorification and comprehension of form in approach. As said earlier, the goal of all the meditation practices is approach to the divine within each one, and, through that, approach to the Deity Himself.
The method, therefore, is the bringing under law, order and rule, of every act of the life in all the three bodies, and the building within the causal body of an [19] expanding form that results in the shattering of that body. It is the building of the Shrine under certain rules into a dwelling place for the Shekinah, and when the spiritual light flames forth, the Temple of Solomon rocks, reels and disintegrates. It is the study of the law and the consequent comprehension by the man of how that law is wielded and why; it is then the definite application of that law to the body of causes so as to render it needless and thus effect its shattering. Emancipation is the result, and the man frees himself from the three worlds. Many occultists are coming in on this ray at this time to continue the liberating process. It is the method that leads a man to liberation through the understanding and the intelligent application of the law to his own life, and to the ameliorating of conditions in the body of humanity, thus making the man a server of his race.
This suffices for today.
June 5, 1930.
2 - The Ray of the Personality
We have somewhat dealt with the first factor, the egoic ray, in determining the method of meditation. Today we might take up the function of the personality ray in determining this method. As you know, the personality ray is ever a sub-ray of the spiritual ray and varies with greater frequency than the egoic ray. With evolved egos such as may be contacted among the thinkers of the race and among the prominent workers in all departments of world work everywhere, the personality ray may vary from life to life, each life being based on a different note and demonstrating a different colour. In this way the causal body is more rapidly equipped. When the reincarnating unit has reached a point where he can consciously choose his mode of expression, he [20] will first review his past lives, and from the knowledge gained thereby, he will guide his choice for the next. Prior to incarnation he will sound his egoic note and will note the lack of fullness or the discord it may contain; he will then decide upon which note he will base his coming personality vibration.
The whole life, therefore, may be given over to the sounding of a particular note and to the stabilising of one particular vibration. This note must be sounded and this vibration stabilised in diversity of circumstances. Hence the necessity in the life of the aspirant or disciple for frequent change, and the explanation of the obvious condition of variety and apparent chaos in which these lives are spent.
When the discord has been corrected and when the vibration becomes steady and is not subject to change, then the needed work is done. The Ego can call in again his forces, prior to continuing the work of perfecting the causal body and carrying to perfect accuracy and clarity of tone the desired chord. See then the necessity of adapting the method of meditation to the need of the personality, and of synchronising it at the same time with the first factor, involving the ray of the Ego.
A practical illustration.
Let me illustrate, if in any way I can elucidate the matter; accuracy of comprehension is desired.
We will assume that the egoic ray of A is that of the Love or Wisdom Ray, whilst the ray of his lower self is that of the fifth or the Ray of Concrete Knowledge. A in past lives has demonstrated love and has made real progress in the method of the synthetic ray, that of expansion. He loves much and expands with fair facility his consciousness to include a just part of his environing [21] circumstances. But, though of average intelligence, he lacks the stabilising vibration that attaches to the fifth ray. He has not that concentration that forces results, and he needs the basic foundation of facts before he can wisely and safely proceed much further. The wise teacher, in apprehending this necessity, uses the method of expansion inherent in the egoic ray and applies it to the expansion of the mental body. By a wisely adjudicated method, he will apply the faculty of expansion (hitherto used only to include others through love) to the one-pointed effort likewise to expand for the purpose of apprehending knowledge. When this is done, every effort of the personal life may apparently (in one particular incarnation) be given to the acquirement of scientific position and to the development of mind. Intellectual progress may seem of too paramount importance to the uninstructed onlooker; yet, after all, the work proceeds as desired by the inner guide, and only the life succeeding will demonstrate the wisdom of the egoic choice.
Intellectual expansion by the combination of second ray methods with fifth ray application will be achieved. Have I made this matter clear? I write for clarity for this question of meditation is of much vital importance to many.
It will, therefore, be clear to you on careful perusal, that as one knows more, one judges less. A person may be well-developed on the love side, yet in some particular incarnation that side may lie in abeyance, and the line of development most apparent may be the purely intellectual. Reservation of opinion is the best line for the wise onlooker to take, for he has not yet the inner vision that sees the colour, nor the occult hearing that recognises the note. [22]
June 7, 1920.
3 - The Karmic Condition of the Threefold Man
Now we take up more specifically the factor of time. Karma and time are more synonymous terms than is oft realised. Occult meditation and the definite commencement of the work of liberating the individual from the periphery of the causal body can only be begun when a certain point in evolution has been attained, and when (through its content) the causal body is of a certain specific gravity, and when the circumference of that body measures up to certain requirements. The whole process is one of law and not, as is so oft considered, one purely of aspiration and lofty desire. Consider wisely this sentence I have just written upon the karmic condition of the threefold man and his place on the ladder of evolution. What have I specified? Three factors for your consideration: [23]
a—The point in evolution.
b—The specific gravity of the causal body.
c—The size and circumference of the causal body.
Later I intend definitely taking up with you the question of the mental plane and its three higher subplanes, which are the planes of the Ego. We will deal with the position of the causal body on these planes and with the relationship of the causal body to other bodies on the same plane. In this letter I deal only with the three above-mentioned points. I deal, therefore, with the causal body itself, with the egoic consciousness and its relationship to the lower self. Later I will deal with the same consciousness on its own plane and its relationship to other egos and to the Hierarchy. Keep this clearly in mind:—the development of the egoic consciousness within the Personality is my main theme at this time. Do not confuse the two. We might word it otherwise:—I will deal with the relationship of the Higher Self to the threefold lower man, and the gradually increasing strength of that relationship through meditation. This increase is coincident with the three factors above named. Let us take them in order.
The Point in Evolution.
The life of the evolving personality might be divided into five divisions. Ours is, after all, a fivefold evolution, and the life of the man (as a human being and prior to taking the fifth Initiation) may be considered as a series of five gradual steps, each step being gauged by the condition of the indwelling Flame of Spirit. From the standpoint of our occult planetary Hierarchy, as before I have told you, we are measured by our light.
The first division of progress might be measured from the moment when animal-man became a thinking entity, [24] a human being, to that of the conscious functioning of the emotional body or to the point where the emotions are very largely paramount. It corresponds to the period covered by the Lemurian and early Atlantean days. During this period, the man is polarised in his physical body and is learning to be controlled by his desire body, the body of feeling or of emotion. He has no aspirations save such as pander to the pleasures of the body; he lives for his physical nature, and has no thought for aught that may be higher. This period parallels that of the child from one to seven years. At this time the watching Teachers of the race see the indwelling Flame as a tiny pin-point, and the permanent atom of the physical plane holds the polarisation. No attention is called for from the Teachers, for the instinctive force inherent in the Higher Self does the work, and the driving force of evolution carries all on to perfection.
The second period covers a point in development when the polarisation is largely in the emotional body and when lower mind desire is being developed. Later Atlantean days hold the analogy hid. The desires are not so purely physical, for mind is beginning to permeate, much as yeast causes a movement and a rising in a mass of dough. The man is conscious of vague pleasures not associated with his physical body; he is capable of a deep love for teachers and guides wiser than himself, of a wild unreasoning devotion for his environing associates, and of an equally wild and unreasoning hatred, for the equilibrium that mind achieves, and the balance that is the result of mental action, is wanting in his make-up. He suffers from extremes.
The polarisation lies now in the emotional permanent atom but, (when this point of development is reached) a light plays between the two atoms that have [25] known polarisation—the emotional and the physical. What I am seeking to bring out at this stage is that the mental unit has not known the force of polarisation, the emotional is holding it, and the result is an integral difference within the periphery of the atom itself. The electronic combinations that compose the atom which has suffered polarisation are grouped in a different geometrical form to those which have not yet experienced the process. It is the effect of the life of the Ego, playing on the matter of the atom and causing various approximations and differentiations unseen in a non-polarised atom. The matter is abstruse and complex.
This period is an analogous one to that in the life of a child from seven to fourteen years, or that period when adolescence is traversed and the child is maturing. This maturity is the product of emotional and physical polarisation in alignment. Alignment is now easily achieved between the physical and emotional bodies. The problem is to bring both under alignment with the mental and later with the egoic bodies.
To the watching Guides of the race, the indwelling Flame or Light can be seen slightly more enlarged, but still so small as to be inappreciable. But, if I can in any way make clear without misleading by the use of words—whereas in the first period the physical atom could be seen illuminated, now in the second period the emotional atom is similarly lit up, a signal to the Teachers that the work progresses. All this covers a vast period of time, for progress at this period is inexpressibly slow. My allusion to the Atlantean and Lemurian races was but to trace analogy in object, and not analogy in time.
Now, on entering the third period, comes the most vital point in the development of the man, that in which [26] mind is developing and the polarising life shifts to the mental unit. Speaking in terms of the solar system and viewing humanity as a unit, all of whose permanent atoms form the molecules in a corresponding cosmic atom, the work has progressed from physical to emotional polarisation and remains there. Not till the seventh cycle of the greater cycle, not till the calling of the system into obscuration and out of manifestation will the cosmic mental atom in the body of the Logos achieve polarisation. Here and there individuals are, as units, accomplishing the work and demonstrating therefore the hope for all.
This period corresponds to that between the ages fourteen and twenty-eight. The period here is longer for there is much to be done. Two atoms have felt polarisation, and one is receiving the shifting. It is the middle point. At this time the light plays between the three atoms (outlining the personality triangle). But the focal point is gradually shifting more and more into the mental unit, and the egoic body is becoming gradually more rounded out, and assuming its proportions.
The man has control of the physical body and each life he builds a better; he has a desire body of more refined requirements (note the occult significance of that word); he realizes the joys of intellect and strives ever for a mental body of greater adequacy; his desires turn upward instead of downward, and become transmuted into aspiration,—at first aspiration towards the things of mind, and later towards that which is more abstract and synthetic. The indwelling egoic Flame or Light now radiates from an inner centre to the periphery, lighting the causal body and giving indication of burning. To the on-looking Hierarchy it is apparent that the divine fire is
permeating and warming and radiating throughout [27] the causal body., and that the Ego is becoming ever more conscious on his own plane, and ever more interested—via the permanent atoms,—in the life of the Personality. The physical brain of the Personality is not yet aware of the difference between inherent mental capacity and the directed impress of the indwelling Ego, but the time is becoming ripe for a change of some kind, and evolution is moving with rapidity. The fourth period approaches. I would here sound a warning. All this proceeds not in ordered sections, if so I may term it. It proceeds as proceeds the greater system, with constant overlapping. and with parallelism, due to the inherent ray of the spirit or Monad, to cyclic changes, to diversity of forces playing astrologically and oft from unknown cosmic centres upon the palpitating life within the atoms....
The fourth period is that within which co-ordination of the Personality is completed, and that wherein the man comes to himself (as did the prodigal in the far country) and says: “I will arise and go to my Father.” This is the result of the first meditation. The three permanent atoms are functioning and the man is an active, feeling, thinking entity. He reaches the consummation of the personality life and he begins to shift consciously his polarisation from the personality life to the egoic. He stands upon the Path of Discipleship or Probation, or is close to it. He commences the work of transmutation; he laboriously, painfully and carefully, forces his consciousness higher and to expand at will; at any cost he determines to dominate and function in full liberation on the three lower planes; he realises that the Ego must have perfect expression,—physical, emotional and mental,—and he makes, therefore, at infinite cost, the necessary channel. He attracts the attention of the Teachers. [28] In what way does he do this? The causal body begins to radiate the indwelling Light. It has been constructed to a point where it is fine enough to act as a transparency and, where the contact of the Ego is made with the Triad, a point of Flame appears....The light is no longer under the bushel, but suddenly flames forth, and catches the eager eye of the Master.