Theos-Talk Archives (July 2003 Message tt00286)

Sunday, July 27, 2003

Dear Friend:

In regard t "Meditation" Perhaps the following will be of help?

MEDITATION
______________________________________


"...[our] axioms of logic can be applied to the lower Manas only,
and it is from the perceptions of Kama Manas alone that [one]
argues. Occultism teaches only that which it derives from the
cognition of the Higher Ego [Higher Manas] or [Buddhi
Manas]...the first and only form of the prima materia our
brain-consciousness can cognize, is a circle.

Train your thought first of all to a thorough acquaintance with a
limited circle, and expand it gradually. You will soon come to a
point when without its ceasing to be a circle in thought it yet
becomes infinite and limitless even to the inner perceptions. It
is this circle which is called Brahma, the germ, atom, or anu; a
latent atom embracing infinitude and boundless Eternity during
Pralaya, an active one during the life-cycles; but one which has
neither circumference nor plane, only limitless expansion...a
Circle is the first geometrical figure in the subjective world,
and it becomes a Triangle in the objective..."	Transactions p.
126-7


"...for the clearer comprehension...of our occult doctrine ever
allow the serenity of your mind to be disturbed during your hours
of...nor before you set to work. It is upon the serene and
placid surface of the unruffled mind that the visions gathered
from the invisible find a representation in the visible world.
Otherwise you would vainly seek those visions, those flashes of
sudden light which have already helped to solve so many of the
minor problems and which alone can bring the truth before the eye
of the soul. It is with jealous care that we have to guard our
mind-plane from all the adverse influences which daily arise in
our passage through earth-life." M L 64



Introductory

The Theosophical approach to the consideration of meditation,
introspection, self-analysis can be contrasted with the methods
of investigation employed under Western Psychology, which have
been called the investigation into alternative or altered states
of consciousness.

The usual approach in the "West" follows the analytical and
observational process (from "particulars" to a search for
"universals"). Sensory deprivation is one of the methods
employed. This changes the environment of the thinking and
feeling human, with the object of examining his reactions in
terms of feeling and thought to a drastic change in physical
environment. It is the concept that the physical state affects
and greatly changes the mental. This is not inaccurate, but is
only a small portion of the entire study of man's psychology from
the Oriental point of view.

When physical sensation is artificially canceled to a large
extent, the reaction of the percipient consciousness is then
observed under a new series of stresses. In some cases, the
reaction to the use of mind-altering drugs is also observed, and
impressions are culled, usually from memory. The nature of the
perceiving being which lives in the physical body of a human is
not known, but this process is designed to discover some of its
extended powers of perception.

The record of such experiments is entirely interior to the
subject. Objective observations are always made later in terms
of memory. Memory is not always free of bias. Return to
"normalcy" does not imply entire accuracy in recollection. Every
human has his or her own set of mental or psycho-emotional
filters through which perception and sensation is recorded "as
if" similar to--by analogy and correspondence--to that which is
well-known in the subject's "normal condition."

Oriental psychology which has records of research extending back
into a great antiquity, and embraces the experiences and
observations of thousands of participants, commences with a
consideration of the basis of knowledge provided by "metaphysical
universals." These standards were established, and repeatedly
checked and verified over many thousands of years by many who
have voluntarily make these observations.

As a system it traces the psychological physiological, mental and
moral evolution of man-intelligence (as a perceiver), using the
various qualitative components of his nature. For the purpose of
such analysis the oriental psychologist considers in addition to
the normal states (waking, sleeping, dreaming, trance) certain
moral components which bear on man's nature. Seven distinct
qualities (or "principles") in man correspond to those perceived
analogetically in nature. These are seen to link the Perceiver
in each human to the physical vehicle (body and brain) in which
he lives and perceives.

The brain is looked on as a specialized link of refined substance
that enables the inner Thinker to work in and with his physical
body. It is important to note that the assemblage of bodily
components which give competency to any human to reflect not only
his inner nature (character, mentality, sensitivity, personal and
impersonal drives, emotional balance, etc.) but that these are
assembled almost entirely without his direct control from
conception to final dissolution and dispersal in the death of
that body. The marvelous symmetry and sensitivity of the
physical body remains largely a puzzle to the psychologist when
the links that exist between perception, conception, will,
intelligence and that form are searched for in the physical form.

In addition, in the Orient, the reason for personal existence is
considered to have a primacy in the realm of psychological
consideration and analysis.

Man is considered to be a self-moving "atom," or "unit" of
consciousness, distinct from all others, yet united to every
other through the consubstantiality of substance, objective, and
coexistence. A distinction is made between the evanescent
personality of the present life (body, emotion, rationality,
instinct, feeling), and the eternal Individuality consisting of
the Spiritual base, the moral base, and the volitional thinking
base, that form the essential and reincarnating human.

At the end of this paper which plunges immediately into the
consideration of mediation from the point of view of oriental
psychology, is attached an essay on the seven links between
Perceiver, and the tool of perception (the body). The mind,
intelligence, consciousness, sensation, feeling, emotion, are
assigned in this system precise origins, inter-relations and
dimensions of operation. Intuition, intelligence, instinct,
reason, intellect, meditation, dream consciousness of various
kinds and levels, etc., are all considered. The terminology
employed in Theosophy is largely derived from that used in the
very ancient Eastern development of this science. A familiarity
with that nomenclature and its system of metaphysics ought to be
acquired so that there is greater ease in following the
statements made in many of these quotations. Wherever possible,
in square brackets, modern equivalents of the oriental technical
terms have been given. On the other hand, students of Eastern
Psychology do make the effort to understand terms evolved in
Western investigation of the psyche and mental powers, so that
they may offer such links as will serve both systems in
understanding each other. In the orient, to recapitulate, the
student starts with the universal theory of intelligence, and is
shown how the particularization of this into component "units"
occurs. He is encouraged to verify this in himself through
"meditation" (as outlined in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, for
instance). In the west, starting with many observations of
mental and psychological effects, their cause is sought.
Generalizations are framed as the result of experimental
observation.

In the description of oriental psychology the personal variations
in mental action and perception are not limited to the "brain" or
the "nervous system," which in that system are considered to be
the most sensitive material tools--the last link between the
immaterial Perceiver, and the physical material form in which it
lives, observes, thinks and feels at present.

In the oriental system the Thinker is held to be a permanent
entity consisting of the most tenuous (yet most resilient in its
inherent permanency) aspect of physical substance. And, this is
resident as the Ego-base (the Perceiver--called Atma) in every
human form. It is held to survive the death of the body.

The process of reincarnation and multiple rebirths is held to be
valid in the philosophy of the universe. It considers all
experience (including the human stage) to be similar to the
operation and experience to be had in a vast school, where all
beings and pupils are of the same immortal and eternal essence.
Each of these participants is held to retain, as its own
permanent base in capacity and character, in mind and moral
nature, in feeling and intuition, a record of the vast past of
all experiences the Perceiver has been through. This record is
said to be the moral-base (called Buddhi-wisdom of experience).
The observing, learning, thinking base in called Manas, the
Thinker, the Chooser, the conscious, sensitive, feeling
individual intelligence of every human.

The "sensory deprivation" used in the West to focus attention on
the emotional and mental response of subject humans, has long
been mentally induced in the orient through "meditation, fasting
and other ascetic disciplines," which are essentially a mental
control of the perceptual environment. This is made operative
through the will, or volition of the Perceiver within, which in
effect isolates itself for a time from its bodily perceptions.
The successful operator of the Oriental method can at any time
suitable enter into the meditative condition and there seek the
wisdom available to handle any situation question or crisis. In
order to explain this to others, his process of self-education
has to be made plain.

For each system to understand the other, an exchange of concepts
is essential. The gap of language and of concepts has to be
bridged. It may also be recognized that all the observations
made by Western or Oriental psychology are a continuation of the
verifying of earlier similar observations made in the framing of
the concepts of either system. Both systems are thus seen to be
united as they employ the human psyche as a basis for
experimentation and understanding, but the starting points of the
respective systems are at this time almost polar opposites.

To put this in historical perspective, during the time of the
"dark ages" ( 4th to 13th Centuries) the West was systematically
deprived by fanatics of those links of knowledge and wisdom which
would have united its progress in discovery with the rest of the
scholarly world in the Orient.

Isolated from that source, it has developed since the Renaissance
its own base for scientific analysis and independent study.
Science freed, broke the chains of theocracy and Aristotelian
thought and methods being adopted, replaced dogmas and creedalism
as the Western mind was gradually unchained. This produced an
imbalance as materialism developed, and the physical world was
deemed the only reality. The causative basis for phenomena was
lost sight of. And while phenomena was recognized, the source
for those was not to be found in physical structures.

In the last two hundred years a knowledge of the rich mines of
example and experience available from ancient oriental texts has
become increasingly available to the psychological sciences. The
contrast between the two systems is clear. In the West the
starting point is the "particular" and the physical. In the East
it is the "universal," and the Mental, and, in addition, a moral
component is added: the consideration of the aims and objectives
of the "whole of manifestation" of which mankind is only a
component.

Man's existence is to be carefully considered at each point as
integrated with nature and his environment. This "environment"
has reason for existence in itself, and every component is to be
regarded as essential to living as a whole. This underscores the
concept of Universal Brotherhood as an essential component of all
Life. Mankind represents perhaps the most intelligent of beings
in our world, but it is entirely dependent on the cooperation and
sacrifice of a vast multitude of other "units of lie," which
sustain its form with their lives. Man's intelligence as a class
in located at the point of transition between the
non-self-conscious and the universally self-conscious. In this
is seen an enormous moral responsibility as each human becomes in
effect the conservator, the trustee for the rest of the World.
-- DTB

==========


Theosophy has a specific definition, as the meditation technique
is one that a student uses to learn about himself and nature.

Theosophy considers every human being is a Soul (mind), and is an
"Eternal Pilgrim." The mind principle (called Manas ) is that
which stores the thoughts of all our lives. The total quantity
of life-thoughts makes the stream of our life's meditation -- or
that upon which our heart is set. We do not often have this as a
precise concept, but it can be discovered. It is not outside of
us, but an interior attitude. Our mind links our embodied
consciousness (mind) to the inner Spiritual Root of our nature.
In turn, this places us in a position that we can choose to
activate with the Spiritual Principle of the Universe a portion
of which ( a "ray," or, "spark") is in us and forms the root-base
of our existence and gives us a sense of permanence and of
purpose in our existence.

With each one of us is associated a measure of Karma -- the fruit
of our choices and motives for decisions made in earlier lives.
This manifests in our life as character and tendency, as interest
and talent or their lack. We also ought to include in this our
interest in "meditation." Why do we seek to understand and use
it? We tend to place all these things together and call it "our
nature." But, we can also see that "our nature" reaches out to
other "natures" and we meet with such friends or enemies in this
life that we may have established in earlier ones. One cannot
understand or practice meditation without this as a consideration
that interlinks us all.

Let us consider what Mme. Blavatsky says in THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY
(p. 10):

Meditation ..."is silent and unuttered prayer, or, as Plato
expressed it, "the ardent turning of the soul towards the
divine..." This divine is the Higher Self (Atma/Buddhi) or the
divine Spirit Wisdom within each of us.

There are two possible main objectives to Meditation.

One, is directed at enhancing the Personality in its selfish
acquisition of "powers." it is selfish, and it isolates. It
concentrates one's effort on personal results -- if persisted in,
it will produce some limited results and, at death, it leaves
nothing for Devachanic meditation. Anything that "isolates"
is selfish and harmful to the permanent Self, which is the true
immortal aspirant and devotee.

The other is that which is aimed at understanding the Inner
HIGHER SELF and the potential that it can make available for
practical, universal and righteous action. This kind of
meditation leads to compassion and a real effective care for
others. It views us as one among many. It also considers that
as an "immortal" Mind/Soul we have innately to ourselves a
mission that needs the joint cooperative assistance of others to
achieve. We can only reach "Perfection," or the "Goal"
envisaged, by joint work. The whole of humanity, and all Nature
is engaged in this.

In considering the development of the meditative faculty we need
first to learn and then seek those applications which can be made
compassionate generously and practically. Our perception grows
deeper and more universal as we are able to widen our
effectiveness in helping others to grow themselves. "For others'
sake ... " is a good phrase always to keep always in mind. We
grow best when we give away. But we have to give away with
discrimination and that takes sound preliminary learning. There
is the accumulation of facts, then their arrangement in logical
relationships, and, finally, the construction in our own minds of
the structure of a universal verity to which we will always be
able to refer as a basis for understanding what appears to be
"new" concepts.

As to the meaning and practice of meditation: It should never be
conspicuous, or spoken about. And that is because it is the
normal extension of one's study of universal principles.
Everyone knows about study. Everyone has devoted a long time to
actual study and meditation in school life. To study, we place
"facts" (or data) in our minds -- as "memory." To meditate one
selects from among our memories a group or an area of study. The
memories are evoked and then compared with such basic facts as we
are already sure of. Therefore, every time that one studied a
subject, or wrote an article, or an important letter, or
prepared for a talk the meditative aspect of study was invoked.

Even when one is not studying, but only doing one's work, and
happen to think about some subject that is kept "in the back of
the mind," it is evidence of meditation being pursuing as an
ongoing process. If one reflects on this then the process was:
selection, gathering information, adjusting data so that a
cohesive picture grew, identifying areas that were uncertain, and
finally looking for analogous or similar conditions. Anything
new has to be adjusted so that it is seen to agree with basic
information already proved to ones' self. If in the course of
meditation one is confronted with some fact that is not congruent
with already proven verities, this necessitates a most careful
review of all our earlier built conclusions. If we should
arbitrarily accept anything without this checking and verifying
process we might be increasing an area of error in our thinking.

Theosophy shows how the whole Universe is integrated and has a
profound cohesive and logical meaning. Everything fits together,
and invites our scrutiny and testing. There are no secrets as
such, nor any dogmas or beliefs that we should adopt without
understanding. Nothing will ever be expected of us which we
cannot understand and would do willingly once we are sure of the
intention, methods and results.

So our lives are part of the Universal Life, and as we seek to
know it better, we delve deeper into our own being, trying to
find out what we are and what are the powers of our mind and our
own Spiritual Self, that we can use in the "here and now.".

We should discover that this leads to friendliness, brotherhood,
compassion and altruism. And, those should be practiced with
discrimination and care for others all the time. The interior
"WE" is really the HIGHER SELF. It is the Lower self, the Lower
mind and the Personality (which have recognized the existence of
the HIGHER SELF), that are now disciplining themselves so that
the HIGHER SELF may "come through" with greater ease.
CONSCIOUSNESS is ONE. It as the one attribute of the Higher
Self. It, alone is able to pierce up and down the 7 planes of
being and retains a clear memory of experiences on each plane.
Our memories on this plane are fragmentary, until by effort we
learn to unify them. The practice of "attention" does this, but,
it has to be attentive to grasping the operations of the One Law
and impersonal in our application of that to our personal selves.

It is the process of digesting, assimilation and thinking about
the matter. By this method, one is inviting the discriminating
and Wise principle -- Buddhi -- to work actively as the
"intuition," and for insights to appear to help -- they come from
within, they are the "points of light" that come from the Higher
Self working through the lower Self (which has to make itself
"porous" to them) and then our lives become illumined by the
TRUE, and become friendly to all others, become just and
universal.

MEDITATION is serious and concentrated thought. It is not a
ritual, or a discipline that involves anything of the physical or
the psychic. It should not be advertised or made obvious to
others, nor should it make life more difficult. It is
essentially a search for TRUTH. It is a quiet and unobtrusive
mind exercise. It is something that requires that we be fully
awake and totally concentrated in the waking state -- no
"blanking of the mind", and it is to be entirely self-controlled
and self-generated. It is not an exercise that can be practised
with others, even when there are silent moments for the reason
that it is not passivity, but a time of most active mental
effort.

We ought to draw no attention to our practice and if we should be
interrupted, accept it as a kind of test of our equanimity and
let there be no apparent reaction. We are immortal beings and
have all the time we need for our future advance -- so long as we
are able to include everyone else in our progress. That is the
real key to advance - the sharing of ourselves. We should always
make time to assist.

It does not involve trying to get at the meaning of special words
and especially without a truly correct undemanding of what they
mean and are (potentially) able to do -- whether they be
pronounced correctly or not. That is all physical, external and
fruitless. The real power resides in the application of the
motive as a carefully controlled and always beneficent creative
power -- in those who aspire to assist Nature this is never
personal, and is always used (only if necessary) in a harmless,
wise and compassionate way with a Mind that is
determined to be a servant and assistant to all Nature and to the
least of beings which approaches it (us) under Karma. We should
consider all those as being, themselves, divine MONADS, and give
them the respect and attention (as our brothers) that they claim
or, we become aware that they need.

Real meditation is a mental determination to live a totally moral
and ethical life, all the time to the extent that one is able to
do that. It is nothing extraordinary except for this one
orientation that has to come from WITHIN. We have to assure
ourselves first of all that our learning is not self-directed at
all, but that our motive is "to better help and teach others."

It is most important to remember that we are the HIGHER SELF in
our inner-most core (and everyone else is so also). Every being
exists because of the essential and ETERNAL MONAD that it is.
That Monad is SPIRIT and MATTER Conjoined, or ATMA/BUDDHI -- and
that is interior to all without any exception. It is the ETERNAL
PILGRIM and it is the "Real You."

Every human being (and every other type of being is also at root
a Monad ) and in the past our MONAD once occupied a position
that is comparable to that which it now seems to occupy. We only
appear to be separated at present, because we have, each, our own
individual path. In the end (at the end of the Manvantara) all
those 'Paths' converge. So, from that point of view, it is not
useful to seek "guidance," or any "leader" who will prescribe
some ritual or formula. Books will not be able to tell anyone
what to do, but they can offer advice. It is too easy to be
misled.

The Monad is an immortal. It cannot be "erased" as Individuality
at the end of a Manvantara, for the economy of Nature demands
that all those INDIVIDUALITIES (experienced MONADS) be employed
again, in continuation of their present "advance" at an
appropriate place in a new Manvantara which will be the Karmic
child of the present one. (see HPB Articles III p. 265, ULT
Edition)

Everyone has been at this business of self-improvement for
aeons -- and it does not begin for the first time in this life.
In this life we are all renewing that age-old study that was ours
in the past. If we could recover the "memory of past lives" the
whole process of advancing would be much easier. If we are now
considering the study of Theosophy, it is that which, if and when
applied, will make our embodied minds (the Lower Self) clearer
and porous, so that the Higher Memories may be accessed.

PATANJALI's YOGA SUTRAS translated by W. Q. Judge, is most
valuable in a study of the nature and procedures of meditation.
As a beginning, one might at first study, frame questions, then
begin to assemble all that one has learned or has available on a
certain subject that is selected. This assembly gives a review
of those subjects and ideas -- then one ought to put them all
together and see if one can secure a glimpse of the inner reason
and meaning for their being there [ to do this one ought to ask
the all-important question: WHY ? -- that takes the
practitioner to basic principles and enables a clear perception
of their inter-relation with others and thus to the CAUSES ] --
and that is MEDITATION.

Glossary & Notes


Meditation ..."is silent and unuttered prayer, or, as Plato
expressed it, "the ardent turning of the soul towards the
divine;" not to ask any particular good (as in the common
meaning of prayer), but for good itself--for the "universal
Supreme Good" of which we are a part on earth, and out of the
essence of which we have all emerged...adds Plato, "remain silent
in the presence of the divine ones, till they remove the clouds
from thy eyes and enable thee to see by the light which issues
from themselves, not what appears as good to thee, but what is
intrinsically good."	Key, pp 10-11

Mediation has 4 divisions:
1.	Sanyama ... [ restraint, control, concentration ]
2.	"Fixing the mind on a plane, or subject is attention (Dharana)
3.	The continuance of this attention is contemplation (Dhyana)
4.	This contemplation, when it is practiced only in respect to a
material subject or object of sense, is meditation (Samadhi)

When this fixedness of attention, contemplation, and meditation
are practiced with respect to one object, they together
constitute what is called Sanyama. (Perfect concentration) ... an
accurate discerning power is developed ( a distinct faculty,
which this practice alone develops)."	Patanjali, p. 37-8

Sanyama "is to be used in proceeding step by step to overcome all
"modifications of the mind," (see Pat. pp. 1, 3 ) from the more
apparent to those most subtle...(after he has overcome the
afflictions and obstructions described in earlier books, there
are modifications of a recondite character suffered by the mind,
which are to be got rid of by Sanyama. When he has reached that
stage the difficulties will reveal themselves to him.)"	Pat. p.
38-9


Concentration ... "or Yoga is the hindering of the "modifications
of the thinking principle." (...lack of concentration is due to
the mind--"thinking principle"--being diffused over a
multiplicity of subjects.) So concentration is equivalent to the
correction of a tendency to diffuseness--to obtaining
"one-pointedness," or the power to apply the mind, at any moment
to the consideration of a single point of thought, to the
exclusion of all else...the mind is not the supreme or highest
power; it is only a function, and instrument, with which the
soul (the higher mind) works, feels sublunary things, and
experiences...the lower mind has a plane of its own, distinct
from the soul and the brain, and what is to be learned is to use
the will, which is also a distinct power from the mind and brain
in such a way...as a servant at any time, for as long a period as
we wish, to the consideration of whatever we have decided upon.)"
Pat. p. 1,2,3.


"Real concentration is in fact Union with the Divine. We are to
understand that we are each the Divine. There is no
separateness, but the one Spirit is in each, reflected in each
person. "Thou art that Spirit !" is well understood and felt
before concentration can become possible...study Patanjali [ the
philosophy of concentration] The true source for concentration
is selflessness, for as long as we feel the shackles of the
personal self, so long is concentration hindered in various
ways."	WQJ - Pract. Occ. p. 275

-------------------------------------------------------

Best wishes,

Dallas

========================================


-----Original Message-----
From: G Ed
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2003 6:20 AM
To:
Subject: Re: Meditation/Guru

you said:

It has been said that correct sistematic and consistent
meditation is the key. But which technique? There seem to be so
many, and some do not appear true and sincere. How does one find
a true teacher, or does he or she just appear when one is ready?

------------