Theos-Talk Archives (April 2011 Message tt00136)

Geoffrey Hodson, is one of the a well known theosophist has travelled,
lectured and written on many theosophical topics for decades. I ran into a
presentation he made on Spiritual Awareness to a convention. Here is a
summary, which some may find it interesting and useful.

MKR


We are to consider together the truly theosophical idea that a continually
deepening realisation of unity concerns not only the servants and would-be
servants of the Race, but the whole of mankind. This is especially apparent
at this present time of the tragic and dangerous dividedness of humanity.

At a gathering of NATO heads early in March, 1965, Henry Cabot Lodge said:
'There is today no organized grouping, on a world wide scale, of the free
peoples. The great tragedy of our age is the inability of free men to create
one well-rounded and essentially spiritual view of life by harnessing toward
common goals their talents. Sometime, somehow, somewhere, power and
responsibility must meet'. This, I conceive, is the  fundamental human
problem, 'to create talents'. How may it be solved? How may we know with
Blake that' A skylark wounded on the wing, a cherubim doth cease to sing'
and with Kabbalism that in the chain of being everything is magically
contained in everything else? 'Where you stand, there stand all the worlds.
What is below is above, and what is inside is outside, and also acts upon
everything else' so that man may be regarded as a symbolic transparency
through which the secret of the Cosmos can be discerned.

Ruysbroeck, the Flemish Mystic, expressed this truth like this:

'Beyond contemplation, mode of the mind; beyond ecstasy, mode of the
enraptured feelings; beyond even intuition's power to pierce to Reality
there is the Supreme Life where-into the Spirit is led - a boundless
''unwalled world," "the hill of the Lord ... His holy place".'

'This fruition of God is a still and glorious and essential Oneness beyond
the differentiation of the Persons, where there "is neither an outpouring
nor an indrawing of God", but the Persons are still and one in fruitful
love, in calm and glorious unity. There is God our fruition and His own, in
an eternal and fathomless bliss'.

'As a sponge is in the ocean and the ocean is in a sponge, so we are in God
and He is in us', or 'In Him we live and move and have our being'.

There is a parable concerning two little fishes who met a frog beneath a
rock. 'Don't you know you're in great danger, little fishes?' croaked the
frog. 'No!' cried the fishes, much frightened. 'Don't you know fishes can't
live without water?' teased the cruel frog. 'You'd better find some water
quickly, or you'll die'. The little fishes swam to their mother in great
distress. 'Oh Mother, Mother! The frog says if we don't fmd some water
quickly we'll die! Mother, what's water?' 'I don't know', confessed the
mother fish who was an agnostic. 'I never heard anything about water. Let's
go and ask the otter'. 'Water, my dears?' laughed the otter. 'Why, you live
in water! That's what you breathe!'

So human beings also live in God and God is what we  breathe. How may we
first know and then become dissolved in God? 'Like water in water, light in
light, space in space' (From the Upanishads).

One answer given is to be straightforward, simple and natural, and this
answer has been rather well put concerning sainthood.

What makes a saint? Why were the saints saints? Because they were cheerful
when it was difficult to be cheerful; patient when it was difficult to be
patient; and because they pushed on when they wanted to stand still; and
kept silent when they wanted to talk; and were agreeable when they wanted to
be disagreeable. THAT WAS ALL. It was quite simple, and always will be.

Since some of us do not find self-illumination to be so simple as that, let
us look further.

Before 1 speak of contemplation, let us look at certain practical
necessities. The study and thought of Theosophy, especially concerning the
true nature and destiny of man, are necessary to ensure a stable mental
attitude towards life based upon true understanding.

The purification, and so sensitization, of body must be carried out through
abstinence from meat, alcohol, and narcotics and the adoption and practice
of the ideal of harmlessness.

Selflessness in motive and deed and regular meditation or contemplation of
the Divine are essential. Whilst we should not expect any wonders during our
meditations, we may experience happiness giving realization of unity without
phenomena, and this is the goal.

Mental stillness eventually falls upon one and this leads to entry into that
state of consciousness in which the principle of unity, oneness, is realized
as the 'All Truth'. Thus, not dazzling enlightenment or active, Nirvanic
experience, but rather a gradual, deepening knowledge and realization that
the oneness of things is the natural state of affairs, may be attained. This
discovery and realization is far beyond all other Siddhis in vital,
evolutionary importance. These latter follow, but even they are dependent
upon the interior knowledge that all life is one. One must, therefore,
acquire the knack of active, perceptive mental stillness, if only that the
personal nature and consciousness may participate more and more fully in the
wondrous life of the normally hidden Inner Self, the 'YOU' in every one of
us.

In conclusion, let me describe some helpful procedures in successful
meditation which is found to have its own rules. Amongst them are the
following:

Day by day regularity so that steady progress may be made.

Privacy to ensure freedom from interruption and possible shock if intruded
upon whilst deeply abstracted in thought.

Relaxation of body, every nerve and muscle of which needs to be at rest.

Reduced rate of breathing, avoiding advanced pranayama until an accredited
teacher is found: straight spine, preferably erect: closed eyes so that
external sights may not obscure inward vision, and affirmation of
self-dissociation from body, emotion and mind.

These preliminaries achieved, the whole thought needs to be for The
Attainment of Spiritual Awareness focussed upon the divine Self which one
is, with due pauses using perhaps such affirmations as: '1 am the Spiritual
Self immortal imperishable - etemal- radiant with spiritual light - I am
that eternal
Self of Light, that Self am l' .

Eventually such thought processes cease, the mind becoming stilled as if it
were dissolved in its Source. This mental stillness should not be disturbed,
for from within it a Self-declaration and realization of
divinity and unity occur.

Such is at least one way in which the Oneness of all Life may be known.

*****

MKR


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