Theos-Talk Archives (August 2005 Message tt00011)

Aug 3 2005
 
 
Dear Friends:
 
  
            RE: The real seership  MEDITATION
 
 
This may be of some help?
 
As to Meditation:  
 
Some thoughts and ideas on trying to learn how to meditate
 
            ------------------------------
 
WHY IS LITTLE KNOWN ABOUT MEDITATION ?
 
 
As in most things, concerning which there seems to be little
general knowledge, we ought to seek for the definitions that are
around us.  Theosophy has a specific definition, as the
meditation technique is one that a student uses to learn about
himself and nature.
 
 
   MEDITATION IS A DAILY AND LIFE-LONG EFFORT.
 
 
The first consideration to employ is to consider the indwelling 
Monad [Buddhi-Manas] is an immortal SPIRITUAL entity 
living at present in a vesture of material flesh, blood and skin.  
The vesture is continually changing, but the interior 
SPIRIT/SOUL is permanent and immovable. It is the 
PERCEIVER.
 
 
 Second It [the Monad] is an integral part of the eternal Universe. 
 Its "birth" and its "death" coincides with the birth and death of
 the Universe.  As such, it never "dies."
 
 
Third   Every capacity and power inherent in the UNIVERSE 
resides in potency within each Monad.  But it needs to be 
educed and brought forward for use by individual self-effort 
and assiduous practice.  The Mind embodied in man's form 
is the active agent for this transformation. 
 
 
Four     These potencies and power that are universal, are 
invariably cooperative and interactive as VIRTUES.  
[Virtues may be designated as: charity, compassion, generosity, 
and a refusal to subjugate anyone for any reason, 
unrevengefulness, sincerity, honesty, desirelessness, and a total 
lack of lust, anger, desire for fame, or to acquire others' 
possessions.]
 
 
Five     these virtues are to be understood and made the basis 
of our incarnated life. This includes our thoughts and desires.
 
 
Six       Vice and evil are distortions of the TRUE and the 
SPIRITUAL.  An exaggerated virtue becomes a vice.  The 
secret lies in tolerance, self discipline and moderation.  The 
ideal is to be able to act for others' sake, not selfishly in any way.
 
 
Seven  the practical Theosophist is a "magician" who has grasped 
every aspect of the operation of the Universe and understood the 
relation between each Monad and all the rest, as well as of the 
WHOLE.  This can be accurately expressed as UNIVERSAL 
BROTHERHOOD. 
  
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.  This has no physical 
locus in the body.  So postures, breathing and a knowledge of the 
psychic and physiological "chakras" may be quite unnecessary.
   
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.
   
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.]
   
"Fearlessness, sincerity, assiduity in devotion, generosity, 
self-restraint, piety, and alms-givings, study, mortification, and 
rectitude; harmlessness, veracity, and freedom from anger, 
resignation, equanimity, and not speaking of the faults of others, 
universal compassion, modesty, and mildness; patience, power, 
fortitude, and purity, discretion, dignity, unrevengefulness, and 
freedom from conceit— these are the marks of him whose virtues 
are of a godlike character, O son of Bharata." 


Thus spoke Sri Krishna to his disciple Arjuna on the "field of battle," 
which is the field of duty and of responsibility that lies within and 
around us all.   [BHAGAVAD GITA, Ch 16 ]
 
 
There are two main objectives to Meditation. One concerns the 
transitory Personality [Kama-Manas] of this life. The other is 
aimed at bringing out into light and life the divine Spiritual SELF 
within each atom as well as every human being: the ATMA. 

To achieve this the Kama-Manas has to be transmuted by steadily 
applied virtue into BUDDHI-MANAS - the true Man - the 
"Eternal Pilgrim," then the divine Man within is revealed and made 
active.
  
One, [Hatha Yoga] 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 [Raja Yoga] is that which is aimed at discovering and 
understanding the Inner ATMA-BUDDHI by the Buddhi-Manas,
 or, the HIGHER SELF [ATMA] 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.
   
 
"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 USED AND 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 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.
 
 
     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 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.
 
 
 
Offered in the hope that this might help.
 
 
Best wishes,
 
 
Dallas
 
 =====================================
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Jerome 
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 11:55 AM
To: 
 
Subject: Re: The real seership
  
Our new people out here are clamoring for "how to" books on meditation, so
the A. T. has had several articles on the subject and has one coming up ---
its an article about the recent NPR program on meditation.
 
 
jerome
 
 ==================================================== 
 
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 13:47:02 -0400 Odin  writes:
  
 
 This seems a subject generally ignored in conservative Theosophical
 circles. As indicated below in her article "SPIRITUAL PROGRESS," 
 
HPB  [HPB Articles  II  112 - 114] declares a practical value inherent in
such study and applications  that she recommends. Shouldn't such be
occasionally reinforced among  students who desire to add practical work to
their metaphysics?
 
 
" The Theosophical Society does indeed desire to promote the spiritual
 growth of every individual who comes within its influence, but its
 methods are those of the ancient Rishis, its tenets those of the
 oldest Esotericism; it is no dispenser of patent nostrums composed 
 of  violent remedies which no honest healer would dare to use.
 
 In this connection we would warn all our members, and others who are
 seeking spiritual knowledge, to beware of persons offering to teach
 them easy methods of acquiring psychic gifts; such gifts (laukika) 
 are  indeed comparatively easy of acquirement by artificial means, but 
 fade  out as soon as the nerve-stimulus exhausts itself.
 
The real seership and adeptship which is accompanied by true psychic
 development (lokothra), once reached, is never lost.
 
 It appears that various societies have sprung into existence since  the
 foundation of the Theosophical Society, profiting by the interest  the
 latter has awakened in matters of psychic research, and endeavouring
 to gain members by promising them easy acquirement of psychic 
 powers.
  
 In India we have long been familiar with the existence of hosts of
 sham ascetics of all descriptions, and we fear that there is fresh
 danger in this direction, here, as well as in Europe and America. We
 only hope that none of our members, dazzled by brilliant promises,
 will allow themselves to be taken in by self-deluded dreamers, or, 
 it  may be, wilful deceivers.
 
 It is perfectly true that some Theosophists have been (through
 nobody's fault but their own) greatly disappointed because we have
 offered them no short cut to Yoga Vidya, and there are others who 
 wish  for practical work. And, significantly enough, those who have done
 least for the Society are loudest in fault-finding. Now, why do not
 these persons and all our members who are able to do so, take up the
 serious study of mesmerism?
 
 Mesmerism has been called the Key to the Occult Sciences, and it has
 this advantage that it offers peculiar opportunities for doing good  to
 mankind. If in each of our branches we were able to establish a
 homeopathic dispensary with the addition of mesmeric healing, such 
 as  has already been done with great success in Bombay, we might
 contribute towards putting the science of medicine in this country 
 on  a sounder basis, and be the means of incalculable benefit to the
 people at large.
 
 There are others of our branches, besides the one at Bombay, that 
 have  done good work in this direction, but there is room for infinitely
 more to be done than has yet been attempted. And the same is the 
 case  in the various other departments of the Society's work. It wouldbe 
 a  good thing if the members of each branch would put their heads
 together and seriously consult as to what tangible steps they can 
 take  to further the declared objects of the Society. In too many cases 
 the  members of the Theosophical Society content themselves with a 
 somewhat  superficial study of its books, without making any real 
contribution  to its active work.
 
 If the Society is to be a power for good in this and other lands, it
 can only bring about this result by the active co-operation of every
 one of its members, and we would earnestly appeal to each of them to
 consider carefully what possibilities of work are within his power,
 and then to earnestly set about carrying them into effect.
 
 Right thought is a good thing, but thought alone does not count for
 much unless it is translated into action. There is not a single 
 member  in the Society who is not able to do something to aid the cause of
 truth and universal brotherhood; it only depends on his own will, to
 make that something an accomplished fact.
 
 Above all we would reiterate the fact, that the Society is no  nursery
 for incipient adepts; teachers cannot be provided to go round and 
 give  instruction to various branches on the different subjects which come
 within the Society's work of investigation; the branches must study
 for themselves; books are to be had, and the knowledge there put 
 forth  must be practically applied by the various members thus will be
 developed self-reliance, and reasoning powers.
 
 We urge this strongly; for appeals have reached us that any lecturer
 sent to branches must be practically versed in experimental 
 psychology  and clairvoyance (i.e., looking into magic mirrors and 
 reading the  future, etc., etc.). Now we consider that such experiments
 should  originate amongst members themselves to be of any value in the
 development of the individual or to enable him to make progress in 
 his  "uphill" path, and therefore earnestly recommend our members to try
 for themselves."         "SPIRITUAL PROGRESS,"  -- HPB  
 
[HPB Articles  II  112 - 114]
 
 ----------
 
Best wishes
 
 
 
Dallas
 
 
 
 
Dallas