Teachings
On Meditation
Part
I
In
continuing the instructions on the Science of Meditation,
I would remind you that we are building upon the same fundamental
truths which have been earlier laid down (in Discipleship
in the New Age, Vol. I), and that our goals and objectives
likewise remain the same. Our immediate concern is the bringing
about a group unity rooted in love, and this requires the
awakening of the heart center into greater potency. In this
connection, let me repeat what I earlier said, for it makes
a fitting preface to what I shall ask you to do:
Only
from the heart center can stream, in reality, those lines
of energy which link and bind together. For this reason, I
shall give you for your group meditation a form which will
stimulate the heart into action, linking the heart center
(between the shoulder blades) to the head center through the
medium of the heart center which is found within the head
center (the thousand-petalled lotus). This heart center, when
adequately radiatory and magnetic will relate you afresh to
each other and to all the world. This again - when connected
by an act of the spiritual will to the solar plexus center
- will help to produce that telepathic interplay which is
so much to be desired and which is so constructively useful
to the spiritual Hierarchy - provided it is established within
a group of pledged disciples, dedicated to the service of
humanity. They can then be trusted.
The
activity of the heart center never demonstrates in connection
with individuals. This is a basic fact. What devastates most
disciples is the solar plexus ability (when purified and consecrated)
to identify itself with individuals. The heart center cannot
react, except under group impetus, group happiness or unhappiness,
and other group relations.
There
are two points of vital light within the solar plexus center,
which makes this center of dominant importance and a clearing
house for the centers below the diaphragm to those above it.
One of these points of light is connected with the lower psychic
and astral life, and the other is brought into livingness
by the inflow from the head center. I would here remind you
that the centers above the diaphragm have only one vital point
of energy, whilst the centers below the solar plexus also
have only one, but that the solar plexus itself has two points
of dynamic energy - one most ancient and awakened, being expressive
of the life of the astral or lower psychic body, and the other
waiting to be brought into conscious activity by the soul.
When this has happened, the awakening to the higher issues
of life makes the disciple sensitive to the higher "psychic
gift waves" (as the Tibetan occultists call them) of
the spiritual world.
All
this is a somewhat new concept for the average esotericist
and theosophist, and is one of the new items of information
which disciples (in preparation for initiation) are told.
This truth lies behind the method of meditation which I shall
seek to give you, and which is divided into two parts - one
aspect or technique will cover approximately the first six
months, and the other the second six months. This dual meditation
is a group meditation and will have primarily a group effect.
This fact must be most carefully recognized by each disciple.
I
would have you ponder most earnestly upon this imparted information.
The meditation which I wish to assign will be divided into
two parts:
Stage
I. A stage wherein there is a lifting of the energy of the
heart center to the head by means of directed, controlled
aspiration - deliberately stimulated, mentally appreciated,
and emotionally propelled. I am here choosing my words with
care for their symbolic import.
Stage II: Next, the deliberate dispatch of spiritual energy
to the solar plexus, through an act of the will; this will
result in the awakening of the hitherto quiescent point of
force which lies behind (or rather within) the active and
awakened center.
It will be apparent to you that the first stage is occupied
with what is regarded esoterically as the "withdrawal
to the center of inspiration" and it is to this withdrawal
that I call you all today, prior to the definite and detailed
group work - later to be outlined. Under cyclic law there
are periods of outgoing and of withdrawing, of progressing
in service towards the periphery of activity and also of a
conscious abstraction of the consciousness from the outer
circle and its centering again at the very heart of life.
It is to this retreating within that I summon you - a retreat
which must be continued and consciously held until the next
Full Moon of May. You might regard it as the individual phase
of alignment and of preparation to which each of you is called,
and called prior to participation in the group meditation
with which you will be occupied for the remainder of the year,
after May. Stage II and its successful issue will be largely
dependent upon the success achieved during Stage I.
Stage
I itself is divided into two parts, and to these I now call
your attention. The first part of Stage I is a short dynamic
meditation, carried out every morning with the greatest regularity.
The second part is a reflective process or cultivated recognition
which will serve to condition your day's activity. This conditioning
attitude should be one of a constant recollection of purpose
and objective, and a process of what has been called "intentional
living." It connotes the effort to live consciously at
the center and then to work outward from there in radiatory,
magnetic activity. I am not here speaking symbolically but
literally for it is all a question of the focus of consciousness.
If this attitude can be constantly held until the Full Moon
of May, the individual seeds within the group periphery (could
we symbolically call it the seed pod or sheath?) will become
living and potent units of energy (spiritual energy) and the
succeeding period of group interrelation and group activity
will be correspondingly potent. In the furtherance of this
process, leading to radiatory and magnetic living, the method
suggested is as follows:
(Continue
to part 2 of Teachings On Meditation...)
Authors
Details:
Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul
From The Book 'Discipleship in the New Age - Volume II' |
(More
Meditation articles can be found in the Meditation section) |
