Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00323)

June 13 2005

RE Brain damage in meditation -- 


Dear Odin and Carson, and Friends:


How can our Lower Mind and instrumentation register Higher Mind activities,
altruism, etc...?  

There must be a totally different level and set of instruments made active
on the higher planes -- and it is up to our Lower Mind to so purify itself
that it can sense these ? Right ?

What do they mean by "meditation" anyway ? 

How can a "group" be controlled ?  

How can any individual mind in a "group" be controlled ? How does anyone
become aware of another's thoughts? Is it mental, psychic, spiritual What ?


What does Patanjali say? 

This who area is undisciplined and messy as presently being approached.

Thee can be no success without individual altruistic motive and
purification. 

Then only when motives are aligned for the impersonal and universal
assistance to all -- as Karma needs and directs -- and as we are able to
ascertain this, will there be any success. 

But approaching it from the "personal" and "selfish" standpoint as "science"
would like to do, won't ever work. How can it ? 

Very indistinct.

What do you think?  

Can an article discuss this for THEOSOPHY mag, the AQUARIAN THEOSOPHIST --
or for the THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT mag? 
"On the Lookout" or "In the light of THEOSOPHY " paras ?

2

I was also looking, in this context, at your:

Primary Perception research             
(These are excerpts from a talk that researcher Cleve Backster gave at
a Silva convention in 1995. For more information, you can read the
book, The Secret Life of Your Cells by Robert B. Stone, about
Backster's research and its relationship to Jose Silva's mind training
systems. This talk is copyright 1995 by Cleve Backster and used with
his permission.)

http://www.ultramind.ws/primary_perception.htm

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

I was reviewing The ECHOES FROM THE ORIENT -- Judge

I think it has something to say on this:



P. 58	Atma -- spirit -- including the whole, being its basis and support,
we find the …theory of sheaths or covers of the soul or inner man. These
sheaths are necessary the moment evolution begins and visible objects
appear, so that the aim of the soul may be attained in conjunction with
nature. 

P. 58	The six vehicles…used by the spirit and by means of which the Ego
gains experience are: 
 
Body, as a gross vehicle.
Vitality, or Prana.
Astral Body, or Linga Sarira.
Astral Soul, or Kama Rupa.
Human Soul, or Manas.
Spiritual Soul, or Buddhi. 
 
P. 58	The Linga Sarira is needed as a more subtle body than the corporeal
frame, because the latter is…only stupid, inert matter. 

P. 58-9	Kama Rupa is the…collection of desires and passions; 

P. 59	Manas may be … called the mind
 
P. 59	Buddhi is the highest intellection beyond brain or mind. It is that
which discriminates. 
 

P. 59	… it is the aim of the true Theosophist to turn [Buddha’s] great and
brilliant "Wheel of the Law" for the healing of the nations. 
 


ASTRAL LIGHT
 
P. 60	Among the Hindus it is known as Akasa, which can also be translated
as æther.

== Through a knowledge of its properties…all the wonderful phenomena…are
accomplished. 

== …clairvoyance, clairaudience, mediumship, and seership as known to the
Western world are possible only through its means. 

== It is the register of our deeds and thoughts, the great picture gallery
of the earth, where the seer can…gaze upon any event that has ever happened,
as well as those to come. 

 
P. 60-1	But the term "astral light," [is] not new…

Porphyry referred to the “celestial or soul-body,” -- immortal, luminous,
and "star-like"; 

Paracelsus called it the "sidereal light"; later it grew to be known as
astral.  

It…[is] the anima mundi or soul of the world. Modern scientific
investigators approach it when they speak of "luminiferous ether" and
"radiant matter." 

P. 61	Camille Flammarion, speaks of the astral light in his novel Uranie
and says: "The light emanating from all these suns that people immensity,
the light reflected through space by all these worlds lighted by these suns,
photographs throughout the boundless heaven the centuries, the days, the
moments as they pass... From this it results that the histories of all the
worlds are travelling through space without dispersing altogether, and that
all the events of the past are present and live evermore in the bosom of the
infinite." 
 
P. 61	the astral light is difficult to define…It is not the light as we
know it, and neither is it darkness. Perhaps it was said to be a light
because when clairvoyants saw by means of it, the distant objects seemed to
be illuminated…distant sounds can be heard in it, heavy bodies levitated by
it, odors carried thousands of miles through it, thoughts read in it, and
all the various phenomena by mediums brought about under its action,…[the]
use of the term "light" is erroneous. 
 
P. 61	A definition to be accurate must include all the functions and
powers of this light, but as those are not fully known…we must be content
with a partial analysis. 

P. 61	It is a substance easily imagined as imponderable ether, which,
emanating from the stars, envelopes the earth and permeates every atom of
the globe and each molecule upon it. 

P. 61	Obeying the laws of attraction and repulsion, it vibrates to and
fro, making itself now positive and now negative. This gives it a circular
motion which is symbolized by the serpent. 

P. 61	It is the great final agent, or prime mover, cosmically speaking,
which not only makes the plant grow but also keeps up the diastole and
systole of the human heart. 

P. 61	…like the action of the sensitive photographic plate…It takes, the
pictures of every moment and holds them in its grasp…the Egyptians knew it
as the Recorder; it is the Recording Angel…and …Yama, the [Hindu] judgeof
the dead… for it is by the pictures we impress therein that we are judgedby
Karma.

P. 62	As an enormous screen or reflector, the astral light hangs over the
earth and becomes a powerful universal hypnotizer of human beings. The
pictures of all acts good and bad done by our ancestors as by ourselves,
being ever present to our inner selves, we constantly are impressed by them
by way of suggestion and go then and do likewise. 

P. 62	…the great French priest-mystic, Eliphas Levi, says: "we are often
astonished…at being assailed by evil thoughts and suggestions that we would
not have imagined possible, and we are not aware that we owe them solely to
the presence of some morbid neighbor; this fact is of great importance,
since it relates to the manifestation of conscience — one of the most
terrible and incontestable secrets of the magic art...So diseased souls have
a bad breath, and vitiate the moral atmosphere; that is to say, they mingle
impure reflections with the astral light which penetrates them, and thus
establish deleterious currents."
 
P. 62-3 There is also a useful function of this light. As it preserves
the pictures of all past events and things, and as there is nothing new
under the sun, the appliances, the ideas, the philosophy, the arts and
sciences of long buried civilizations are continually being projected in
pictures out of the astral into the brains of living men…It is well to admit
that thought may be transferred without speech directly from one brain to
another…[through] the astral light. The moment the thought takes shape in
the brain it is pictured in this light, and from there is taken out again by
any other brain sensitive enough to receive it. 
 

P. 64	The astral light is a powerful factor…in the phenomenon of
hypnotism. Its action will explain …especially that class in which two or
more distinct personalities seem to be assumed by the subject, who can
remember in each only those things and peculiarities of expression which
belong to that particular stratum of their experience. These strange things
are due to the currents in the astral light. In each current will be found a
definite series of reflections, and they are taken up by the inner man, who
reports them through speech and action on this plane as if they were his
own. 
 
P. 64	This light can therefore be impressed with evil or good pictures,
and these are reflected into the subconscious mind of every human being. If
you fill the astral light with bad pictures, just such as the present
century is adept at creating, it will be our devil and destroyer, 

P. 64	…IF BY THE EXAMPLE OF EVEN A FEW GOOD MEN AND WOMEN A NEW AND PURER
SORT OF EVENTS ARE LIMNED UPON THIS ETERNAL CANVAS, IT WILL BECOME OUR
DIVINE UPLIFTER. 

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

Best wishes,

Dallas
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Odin [mailto:otownley@gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2005 8:57 AM
To: study@
Subject: Re: Brain damage on meditation -- Meditation as a PRACTICAL TOOL
--

Dallas, 

Thanks for the very useful comments and compilation of quotes. Science
is apparently interested in the subject today, but related to how the
brain works primarily. Interesting to note from the below news item
about Tibetan Monks, that "compassion meditation" didn't register much
in the brain as "focus meditation". Probably because as Theosophy
teaches, compassion ("The Law of Laws"), is not about brain function -
(except perhaps certain spiritual parts of the brain, i.e. pineal,
which may not be of interest yet to Science). Also another
confirmation of the "dual mind" - one working primarily through the
brain, the other unconcerned with mundane matters.
Odin

Tibetan monks yield clues to brain's regulation of attention 

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

June 07, 2005

http://www.physorg.com/news4418.html

University of Queensland researchers have teamed up with Tibetan
Buddhist monks to uncover clues to how meditation can affect
perception.

Olivia Carter and Professor Jack Pettigrew from UQ's Vision, Touch and
Hearing Research Centre, as well as colleagues from the University of
California Berkeley, found evidence that skills developed by the monks
during meditation can strongly influence attention and consciousness.

With the support of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, 76 monks participated
in the study, which was carried out at or near their mountain retreats
in the Himalaya, Zanskar and Ladakhi Ranges of India.

Ms Carter said the study was aimed at gaining an insight into how
visual perception is regulated within the brain.

She said the research investigated the extent that certain types of
trained meditative practice can influence the conscious experience of
visual perceptual rivalry, which is what happens when someone has two
different images shown to each eye, or is shown an ambiguous image
such as a picture that can look like two faces or a vase.

"Typically this results in a switching between the two images, but in
the case of one type of meditation, the monks reported a perceptual
dominance of one of the images," Ms Carter said.

The researchers tested the experience of visual rivalry by monks
during practice of two types of meditation: a "compassion"-oriented
meditation, described as a contemplation of suffering within the world
combined with an emanation of loving kindness, and "one-point"
meditation, described as the maintained focus of attention on a single
object or thought that leads to a stability and clarity of mind.

While no observable change in the rate of "visual switching" during
rivalry was seen in monks practicing compassion meditation, major
increases in the durations of perceptual dominance were experienced by
monks practicing one-point meditation.

"Our findings suggest that processes particularly associated with
one-point meditation, perhaps involving intense attentional focus and
the ability to stabilize the mind, contribute to this ability of the
monks," Ms Carter said.

She said the study showed individuals trained in meditation can
considerably alter their perception.

The findings from the study were published in the latest issue of the
scientific journal Current Biology.

Source: University of Queensland 


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



On 6/11/05, W.Dallas TenBroeck <dalval14@earthlink.net> wrote:
> June 10 2005
> 
> Dear C and friends:
> 
> Let me say I find there is vagueness in regard to some aspects of
> "meditation." Can this be resolved? I am of the opinion that THEOSOPHY
> offers valid considerations and practical steps. Here area few I have
looked
> at:
> 
> As in most things, concerning which there seems to be uncertain general
> knowledge, it seems to me we ought to seek for the definitions that are
> around us.
> 
> Theosophy has a specific definition, as the meditation technique is one
that
> any student uses to learn about himself and nature. Some call it
> introspection, some call it reflection, some call it "deep thought without
> distraction," etc....
> 
> Theosophy considers every human being is a Soul (a Mind), and is an
"Eternal
> Pilgrim." The mind principle (called Manas in THEOSOPHY ) is that which
> stores the thoughts of all our lives. The sense of being on an eternal
> pilgrimage emerges from this -- we, the Eternal "Monad" are such pilgrims.
> 
> The total quantity of life's thoughts is said to make the stream of our
> life's "meditation" -- or that element of desire upon which our heart is
> set. We do not often have this in view as a precise concept, but it can
be
> discovered. It is not outside of us, but an interior attitude.
> 
> Our Mind serves as a bridge or a link between our embodied consciousness (
> the every-day, "lower" mind) and the inner, the ("higher" Mind) or, the
> Spiritual Root of our Nature. In turn, this places us (when we assume
such
> a position) where we can choose to actively relate to the Spiritual
> Principle that is one of the poles of the Universe. The Universe is
> considered by THEOSOPHY to be in every part a combination of Spirit,
Matter
> and Mind. Or: purity, limitations, and dynamic thinking and desiring.
> 
> It may seem strange to hear that THEOSOPHY, as a philosophy, advocates
> unselfishness, universality and impersonality as practical ideals that
> anyone can learn, master and use.
> 
> It advances the concept that: indwelling in each human (as also in every
> other being in the world and Universe) there is a portion of Divinity, of
> purity, of idealism, which (as a "ray," or a "spark" of Universal Spirit)
is
> in us, and forms the root-base of our individual existence. It is this
> sense of being enveloped in a divine SPACE that gives us a sense of our
> permanence and of purpose in existence. It is this that establishes the
> entitative existence of any being from the "atom" to the "Galaxy." The
> Universal Brotherhood that is spoken of in THEOSOPHY is founded on this
> pre-existing and invulnerable Unity.
> 
> With each one of us is associated a measure of our environment, together
> with its advantages and disadvantages. This association we may look on as
> consisting of other "immortal Monads," This, as a "burden" for good or
bad,
> has been called "Karma" -- the fruit of our choices and motives for
> decisions made in earlier times during this life and in previous 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> "Occultism requires "physical, mental, moral and spiritual" development to
> run on parallel lines...the prime factor in the guidance of thought is the
> Will...The first requisite for it is thorough purity of heart...A
> cultivation of the feeling of
> unselfish philanthropy is the path that has to be traversed for that
> purpose. For it is that alone which will lead to Universal Love, the
> realization of which constitutes the progress towards deliverance from the
> chains forged by Maya around the Ego...An Adept is intensely active and
thus
> able to control the elemental forces, " wrote Damodar K. Mavlankar in an
> article titled: CONTEMPLATION ["THEOSOPHIST Magazine," Vol. 5, p.
112...,
> Feb. 1884.]
> 
> There are two possible 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 lower Self, and distances it /
us
> from that permanent Higher Self, which is the true immortal aspirant and
> immortal devotee in each one of us.
> 
> The other is that which is aimed at understanding the Inner HIGHER SELF
and
> the spiritual, divine 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 a "brother," as one
> among many.
> 
> It also considers that we, as an embodied "immortal" Mind/Soul, have
> innately to ourselves a mission that needs the joint cooperative
assistance
> of others to achieve. We can only reach "Perfection," or the "ultimate
> Goal" envisaged, by joint work. The whole of humanity, and all Nature is
> engaged in this.
> 
> "A chela's meditation should constitute the reasoning from the known to
the
> unknown...Occultism does not depend upon one method, but employs both the
> deductive and the inductive. The student must first learn the general
> axioms...'To
> believe without knowing is weakness; to believe because one knows, is
> power.' " D. K. Mavlankar [idem.].
> 
> 
> HOW CAN MEDITATION BE DEVELOPED ?
> 
> 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
> 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.
> 
> Who does this? It is the Real Self, the Higher Mind when it works in and
> through the Lower (embodied) Mind that does this with care and
deliberation.
> 
> 
> PRACTICE AND MEANING OF MEDITATION.
> 
> 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 already devoted a long time to 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 automatically invoked.
> 
> Even when one is not studying, but only doing one's work, and happens 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.
> 
> 
> THE UNIVERSE IS COHESIVE AND COOPERATIVE.
> 
> 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.".
> 
> 
> VIRTUES: BROTHERHOOD, COMPASSION, ALTRUISM.
> 
> 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 has to recognized the existence of
> the HIGHER SELF), that is the way in which we can invoke it, so
> the HIGHER SELF may "come through" with greater ease.
> 
> CONSCIOUSNESS is ONE. It is the one attribute of the Higher
> Self. It, alone is able to pierce up and down the 7 planes of
> being, and it retains a clear memory of experiences on each plane.
> Our memories on this plane of our daily lives 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.
> 
> 
> MEDITATION and THE MONAD (Atma-Buddhi-Manas)
> 
> 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 personal life more difficult.
> 
> It is in essence a search for TRUTH. It is a quiet, 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 understanding 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. Among 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 an assistant to all Nature and to the least of beings
> which approaches us under Karma. We should consider all
> those as being, themselves, divine MONADS, and give each of
> them the respect and attention (as our brothers) that they claim
> or, that we come aware that they need.
> 
> Real meditation is a mental determination to live a totally moral
> and ethical life, all the time; and 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."
> 
> 
> THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE -- INTUITION.
> 
> The VOICE OF THE SILENCE and its statements ought to be
> considered as one of the primary practical sources of inspiration
> for true Meditation. We ought, by reading a little every day, to
> become familiar with it and the explanations contained in the
> footnotes there.
> 
> As said before, 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). In the past, our MONAD once occupied a position
> that is comparable to that which another Monad which is apparently
> in a lower position, now seems to occupy. We only appear to be
> separated at present, because we have, each of us, 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 TRUE Teacher is the Higher Self within.
> 
> We must remember that 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
> ISIS UNVEILED AND THE VISHISTADWAITA, HPB Articles,
> Vol. III, p. 265, ULT Edition, "Theosophist," Jan. 1886.)
> 
> 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 -- A BASIS FOR MEDITATION.
> 
> PATANJALI's YOGA SUTRAS translated by W. Q. Judge, is most
> valuable in a study of the nature and procedures of meditation --
> especially the first 3 books. It gives a clue as to what true
> meditation is. It is the attempt of the embodied mind (the Lower
> Manas) to reach up to and understand the work of the Higher Manas
> within. And from there to participate in the work of the HIGHER
> SELF. It deals with the concept that we live in a moral Universe
> where every feeling, thought or deed carries a Karmic consequence.
> 
> As a beginning, one might at first study, frame questions, then
> begin to assemble all that one has learned or has available on a
> selected subject. This assembling is a primary need, gives a needed
> 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 ? -- An answer 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.
> 
> 
>