Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

The impulse to believe the absurd when presented with the unknowable is called religion. Whether this is wise or unwise is the domain of doctrine. Once you understand someone's doctrine, you understand their rationale for believing the absurd. At that point, it may no longer seem absurd. You can get to both sides of this conondrum from here.

Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 2:53 am

TOWARD THE ONE
by "Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan," aka The Lama Foundation
First published 1971

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UNDER CONSTRUCTION


Table of Contents:

1. Dedication
2. Prologos
3. Forward
4. Beyond the Dream
5. Intuition of the Self
6. Buddha/Christ
7. Preparation
8. Theory
9. New Age Practices in Meditation
10. Light
11. Breath
12. Sound
13. The Causal Plane
14. Dhikr
15. The Chain of the Sufis
16. The Sufi Masters
17. A Message in Our Time
18. Coming Back Into Life
19. The Search for the Teacher
20. Initiation
21. Counselling
22. Meditation and Psychedelics
23. The Relationship of Love
24. The Meeting of the Ways
25. The Cosmic Mass
26. The Man of God
27. Prayers
28. Afterword
29. Glossary
30. Bibliography
31. Synopsis of Practices
32. Silsila
33. The Heart

[Librarian's Note: "33" ENTRIES TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS]

WE HAVE ALL BEEN EXPOSED AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER TO THE SHEER THRILL OF BEING LIT UP INTENSELY, BY THE ATOMIC FLASH.

***

THERE IS A POLLUTION PROBLEM WITH HUMAN BEINGS. IT HELPS TO KNOW JUST HOW TO CLEANSE ONESELF.

***

BAPTISM WITH FIRE, WITH THE IGNEOUS STATE, IS A MORE RADICAL FORM OF PURIFICATION. WE ARE IN A CONTINUAL STATE OF COMBUSTION, EVEN THE HEAT OF OUR BODIES IS A PRODUCT OF THIS BURNING PROCESS. IT IS A PERPETUAL HOLOCAUST IN THE TEMPLE, WHICH IS CALLED IN THE VEDAS THE ETERNAL SACRIFICE OF PURUSHA, THE SPIRIT, IN WHICH ALL CREATED BEINGS PARTICIPATE.

***

ENDURANCE IS TO OFFER ONESELF AS A TARGET FOR THE ARROWS OF PAIN.

***

FOR YEARS HIS SOUL STRUGGLED TO FREE ITSELF FROM THE NON-SELF BY THE DEATH-RAY OF NEGATION AND ANNIHILATION, SUFFERING NOTHING UNREAL AROUND HIM OR IN HIMSELF.

***

Let time stand still, and remain suspended in ever-widening frontiers of awareness: The mind will yield new potentialities, as if transferred by the effigy of the flower or the person you are communing with. Standing motionless across the gulf of time fleeting unceasingly by, the flower or the person will stand out in its or his transcendence, as a genus instead of a specimen, the person will loom unique and unchanged beyond the ever-changing pattern of all the idiosyncracies you have ascribed to him, all the personalities that he or she has shod and shed in an unbroken chain of existence as a prototype, rather than as an individual, a blend of qualities.

In order to promote the growth of the human person, involving both the plant and the seed, one incorporates the very principle of regeneration, which is consciousness. And this can only be done if the consciousness which one instills is freed from its earlier limitations and identifications. This is the secret of alchemy: to isolate mercury from the aggregate of the material which one is working with, the prima materia, then prevent it from volatilizing itself into thin air, fixing it by means of sulphur, in order to produce the philosopher's stone which is the catalyst of gold. Similarly, consciousness, symbolized by mercury, must be freed from its identifications when it identifies itself with its cosmic dimensions. There would be a loss of a sense of personality, in fact a disintegration not only of the plant but of the seed, unless consciousness were projected into the seed, or through the seed, and it is this new amalgamate which will act as a catalyst to transform the personality into the model of perfection, symbolized by gold.

***

Many people are of the opinion that all schools of spiritual aspiration lead to the one goal: Here is the unique teacher who has actually studied and practiced the methods of the different schools and can attest to their unity. A story is told of the young Inayat Khan when he was with his Murshid Abu Hashin Madani in Hyderabad. A fellow Mureed complained to the Murshid: "Inayat has been seen with the yogis, the idolators. He is constantly reading the Bhagavad Gita. He keeps a Bible by his bed. Only yesterday I saw him conversing with a Rabbi. He is well known among the Parsis, the worshippers of fire. Will you not make him renounce his heretical ways?" The Murshid replied: "Leave him alone. It is not for you to understand the mission he is being prepared for." His mission was to harmonize east and west with the music of his Sufi message. Tolerance and mutual enrichment have often been part of the spiritual atmosphere in India, where Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Parsis, Jews, and Christians have lived together peacefully except when, as recently, their differences have been exploited for political reasons. Perhaps the most beautiful expression of this spirit was the spiritual and aesthetic synthesis prevailing at the court of the Moghul Emperor Akbar. The spirit of Akbar's court was a precursor to the kind of Sufism given by Hazrat Inayat Khan to Europeans and Americans in the 1901s and twenties with its emphasis on "The Unity of Religious Ideals."

Pir Vilayat Khan has given concrete expression to the goals outlined by his father, adding to the eastern schools the austere and serene flavor of medieval Christian mysticism, as well as integrative insights derived from sources as seemingly diverse as modern physics and the Greek mystery cults. He shows how the incarnation of Christ is the cosmic counterpoint to the parinirvana of Buddha. He allows one to see the world religions not as mutually exclusive dogmas competing with one another for the claim of absolute truth, but rather as a divine symphony of different tones -- or as the same story told in varying ways to fit varying mentalities. This synthesis of esoteric schools may serve as a key to the coming evolutionary jump in consciousness towards which humanity seems to be moving, the New Age glimpsed by prophets ranging from William Blake to Arthur C. Clarke to Teilhard de Chardin.

The doctrine of evolution of consciousness, particularly stressed by Rumi, is an integral part of Sufi thought. Development of intuition, trust in the heart, the move towards group consciousness, thinking in global terms -- these are signs pointing in the direction of man's continuing evolution. These are also characteristics of the esoteric brotherhoods which have traditionally been at the center of the world religions. What were jealously guarded secrets of the few are now being made known to more and more people, and the seeds of the new consciousness are being gathered from the decaying flowers of the old. Thus it would probably be a mistake to see the new spirituality as a "religious" movement. In going to the heart of the old traditions one is seeking their universal core, and leaving behind the residue of dogma, mere belief, and social convention.

Reading this book is to experience at times that extraordinary transforming presence that Pir Vilayat emanates in person. He somehow defies the description of "person." His archaic fineness and nobility are qualities associated in my mind with the Persian Sufis and with the court of the late Nizam of Hyderabad where Hazrat Inayat Khan was a renowned singer. Parts of this book have the atmosphere of a certain night-blooming flower in the Persian Gardens of Shiraz, home of Hafiz and Sa'Adi., "City of Nightingales." Yet this refinement is combined with a sort of sternness and absolute devotion to his work. Such a being may be seen as a product of adamantly refusing to accept conditioning and of adhering uncompromisingly to an ideal. This is the essence of his teachings on everyday life. Yet the mystery, the special fragrance of the man somehow eludes description. The words used by one of Hazrat Inayat Khan's disciples describe exactly one's encounter with Pir Vilayat Khan: "I had heard about the soul before but never before actually experienced my soul."

-- Toward the One, by "Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan"


German occult groups did not appear out of nowhere. They had historical antecedents. The new Aryan hero owed his birth to the unholy marriage of early Hindu ideas of racial purity and Darwin's concept of evolution. The nineteenth century was remarkable for great change. In Germany the change was more drastic than in the rest of Europe. Its people had been more completely under the sway of the past; the Middle Ages had still been dominant in agriculture and industry. The industrial revolution happened more rapidly in Germany than anywhere else. From a backward, predominantly agricultural country, it grew almost overnight into a modern industrial state. Scientific discovery brought a sharp decline in religious faith, and there was a search for new values with which to identify. The state, assuming more and more control, seemed bent on crushing individuality.

The European romantics, wincing at the bitter fruits of modern "progress," delighted in the exoticisms of the East. What the Europeans caught a glimpse of was a kind of serenity which had disappeared from the West and which was very much desired. Napoleon's army, entering Egypt in 1798, found the Rosetta Stone, which scholars labored to decipher. When Champollion solved the riddle, the long-lost tongue of that ancient civilization was loosened and the way opened for the great achievements of the modern science of Egyptology. German archaeologists went along with the Prussian king's expedition in 1842 and further refined the study.

The Germans also made important contributions to understanding the real nature of Islamic literature and thought. Persian love poems, called ghazals, had the greatest effect on German poets. The most brilliant of the Persian poems were Sufi. In the Sufi tradition, the poems were interpreted as allegorical and mystical revelations of the divine. German poet-scholars made use of them to such an extent that Heinrich Heine admonished: "These poor poets eat too freely of the fruit they steal from the garden groves of Shiraz, and then they vomit ghazals." The Muslims had prejudiced the Europeans against the Hindus, whom they regarded as superstitious and degraded. But with the translation of ancient Sanskrit texts, India began to exert a fascination on the West.

The philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder read Indian philosophy with enthusiasm and managed to inspire the German romantics, who were markedly different from the romantics in Europe at large -- more given to morbid bitterness. Herder cautioned them not to be frightened by supernatural elements such as gods moving among men or nature personified. These, he said, were depictions of actual experiences, for on that paradisical river, the Ganges, the golden age still existed. The romantics could not have been more pleased, longing as they were for just such a golden age. "It is to the East," wrote Friedrich Schlegel in 1800, "that we must look for the supreme Romanticism."

The spiritual journey to the East, undertaken by many German scholars, philosophers, and men of letters, brought a new mythology to a politically, economically, and socially despairing country: a mystical view that all finitude is the result of a fall from the absolute and that the effects of the Fall have to be repaired by the course of history. These writers began to glorify the Middle Ages as a period of dialogue with God, when men, art, and religion had been unified. To restore the lost innocence became their aim....

Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorff, had been Grand Master of a small lodge which called itself the Thule Society, and he stated right at the outset: "Thule people are the ones to whom Hitler first came." Thule and the Germanen Orden joined forces right after the war. Sebottendorff was an authority on astrology, alchemy, divining rods, and rune symbolism. Sebottendorff was nostalgic for the Middle Ages, when the Jews in Germany had been openly persecuted.

Sebottendorff, born with the less glamorous name of Adam Rudolf Glauer, became first a merchant seaman. At twenty-six, he transplanted himself to Turkey, and became a Turkish citizen. In 1909, he had the good fortune to be adopted by an Austrian baron named Heinrich von Sebottendorff, in Istanbul. During his sojourn in Turkey, with his sinecure as engineer-cum-supervisor of a substantial estate, he had been able to spend time reading Oriental philosophy and Theosophical writings, as well as engaging in Sufi meditation. He acknowledged that he had been a Knight of the Masonic Order of Constantine. Turkish Freemasonry, it seemed, had kept the ancient Aryan wisdom intact. "It must be shown," said Sebottendorff, "that Oriental Freemasonry still retains faithfully even today the ancient teachings of wisdom forgotten by modern Freemasonry, whose Constitution of 1717 was a departure from the true way."

By 1918 he had formed his own lodge, the Thule Society, and elevated himself to the rank of Grand Master.

Sebottendorff did not need to invent anything. Inspired by Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine, he respun the age-old myth of Atlantis, calling it Thule. Like Atlantis, Thule was believed by occultists to have been the magic center of a vanished civilization. Madame Blavatsky speculated that it had been swept away in the first Deluge, 850,000 years ago. Compared with it, the much more recent Noah's Flood had been a puddle, and mythical, besides. One could get some idea of the appearance of the inhabitants of the island of Atlantis by studying the colossal statues at Easter Island. Here, Madame Blavatsky believed, were the relics of the giants of the Fourth Race; only this Atlantean being deserved to be called "MAN," for only he was completely human. After him, the Fall. Among other things, the Fall supposedly cost him his invaluable third eye, which gave him spiritual insight. What had caused the Fall? Tucked away in The Secret Doctrine is the answer: The Atlanteans had mated with semi-human beings.

Sebottendorff transposed Blavatsky's complicated cosmology, by which she had sought to confound the evolutionists. In place of her sub-races who had extinguished the "Flames" by "long generations of bestiality," ruining it for the Aryans, he taught members of Thule that the purity of their blood had been defiled by the Jews.

-- Gods and Beasts: The Nazis and the Occult, by Dusty Sklar


There was another substitute for religion. As the Protestant religion was given as a substitute for the Catholic faith to those religiously inclined, so Masonry became a substitute for those disinclined to show outwardly their belief, which they observed in secrecy. This kept them free from the blame of their people, friends and relations, for adhering to another faith, and they had their ritual without a priest imposed upon them from a spiritual hierarchy, having had their worshipful master elected from among themselves. They sought exaltation by the Masonic ritual supported by a long tradition and avoided any disputes on religious ideals by keeping their lips closed and by a vow of secrecy. The origin of this is not much different from the Protestant origin, the Protestant religion came from the orthodox Islam, Masonry from the secret order of Muslim mystics, to whom all meant the same, whether Christian, Muslim or Jew. Those seekers after truth who pursued these contemplative souls while in the battle, were admitted to be initiated by the possessors of this mystery, but were welcomed with unsheathed swords and doors were fast locked after their admission, and every manner of reception was expressive of a process through which the enemy was received into the circle of friends. So the secret of the life of the meditative dervishes, expressed symbolically in the form of ritual, was brought to the Western world as a key to the mystery of life.

Woman was not admitted until A.D. 1893, when Mrs. Annie Besant by the order of the Masons in France opened a new Order and brought into it women and men together in sharing this mystery, which was, however, kept apart and has not been recognized by the Scottish Lodge of Masons until now.

There has been so much spoken of the organization of the Catholic Church being so wonderful, but nothing can equal Masonic organization which today exists in the world, embracing the best intellects and most influential personalities of almost all nations. As Masonry has spread wide, so its social and political influence has become greater every day, and has performed wonders in the social and political world. Yet the main object with which the Masonic initiation was given, still remains to be fulfilled: a drill which is meant for battle. That battle is self-realization, which is the central theme of the Sufi Message.

An old institution which presents some Eastern thought to the West is the Theosophical Society, which was founded principally by Madame Blavatsky, who was from Russia, a visionary and mystically minded person who is said to have worked wonders. It is told that Masters from the Himalaya are the supporters at the back of the Society, and that the spiritual hierarchy of certain Masters whose names seem to be derived from Eastern languages, though they are hardly to be found in any sacred tradition of the world, are so to speak the guardians of the Society, which has an esoteric school of its own under the guidance of Mrs. Annie Besant, who is one of the four chief workers of this Movement. These, namely Colonel Olcott and Mr. Leadbeater and the two above-mentioned ladies established their headquarters first at Benares and now at Adyar and made the Movement worldwide. If it were not for the Theosophical Society there would not be the tolerance and response to Eastern thought of every kind which is given by people thus inclined in the West. The work of this Society has broken to a great extent the bias of the Christian faith, and the idea that the people in the East are heathens and their religion barbarous, which was prevalent in the West owing to the Christian missionary propaganda.

As the Theosophical Society was the first of its kind in the West, its founders had to withstand no end of opposition. The Movement has splendidly established itself throughout Europe in a comparatively short period of time. It has taken as its principal work to break prejudices of caste, creed or color by the understanding of Truth, and it has placed Truth on the altar as the principal religion. Every exponent of thought from the East who goes to the West, finds the doors of this Society open to welcome him. A warm welcome and a respectful regard is accorded to him on the platform of the Theosophical Society. A great deal of Buddhistic and Hindu literature has been translated into the Western languages by Theosophical writers. Most of the work has been done by Mrs. Annie Besant, who has shown the most wonderful talent as a speaker and as a writer, besides the great power and efficiency she has shown in holding this vast Movement firmly in hand in spite of all difficulties which stood in her way. I personally have not had occasion to converse with Mrs. Besant, although I have heard her speak. There is a book by Mme. Blavatsky, "The Secret Doctrine", which is held as a mystery by some of the followers of Theosophy, which contains mostly her dreams and visions. If it were not for the theory of karma and reincarnation which the Theosophical Society has brought forward as its special doctrine on which the whole Theosophical theory is based, it would have had great difficulty in touching the Western mind, which wants food for its reason first before accepting any faith. The ideal of reincarnation and karma made a great revolution in the West in the religious world. The backbone of religion in the West had already been broken, and this idea broke its legs, letting Eastern thought rise, introduced in the West in the form of Theosophy.

However, the idea of reincarnation and karma, which came from the race of Hindus, never has given the full satisfaction to that race itself. The influence of Islam, the ideas of the Sufis, made a great change in the Hindu outlook for many centuries, and great Hindu poets like Nanak and Kabir, Sundar and Dadu, Ram Das and Tukaram, and religious reformers of India like Swami Narayan and Babu Keshoba Chandra Sen, Dayananda Saraswathi, Devendranath Tagore, all these although they could not entirely erase this idea from the surface of the Indian mentality, upon which it had been engraved for ages, yet modified it to such an extent that hardly anyone speaks about these things. Especially the wise, the Sages, hold as their object in life mukti, liberation from the captivity caused by karma. It is a worn-out doctrine of the East which was revivified by the Theosophical Society in the West. In the first place it appealed to the people in the West because it answered immediately the question why one is well off in life and why another suffers.

Anthroposophy is another offshoot of Theosophy, which has sprung up in the West as a result of a conflict between two great workers of the Theosophical Movement: Mrs. Besant and Dr. Steiner. In order to distinguish this Movement as different from the Theosophical Society the founder had to build another building on the same foundation, leaving out all Eastern colors and designs which exist in Theosophy. Every effort has been made by its founder to impress his followers with the idea that Eastern wisdom is different from the Western, and the way of the West is different from the way of the East, and what is called in Buddhism "Nirvana", annihilation, is not the thought of Christ; Christ's teaching is the eternal and ever-progressing individuality, by which he means to say that it is not God alone Who lives for ever, but every individual entity as a distinct and separate entity is eternal and is gradually progressing to the fullness of its own individuality. In this way he divides one truth into two thoughts opposing each other, the oneness of the whole being on the part of the Eastern thought and individuality of every being as the Western thought. It is a pity if a thinker in order to distinguish one special doctrine which is his own conception goes as far as cutting into two parts the truth which in reality is one. No doubt, this idea answers the Western mentality for to many the idea of annihilation as expressed in Eastern terminology is awful, although it is a transitory state. The day is not far off when, if not through religion then by science, the people in the West will realize the oneness of the whole being, and that individuals are nothing more than bubbles in the sea.

-- Journal Review of Religions, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
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Re: Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 5:45 am

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ICI HABITAIT NOOR INAYAT KHAN
1914-1944
MADELEINE DANS LA RESISTANCE
FUSILEE A DACHAU
OPERATRICE-RADIO DES RESEAUX BUCKMASTER
CROIX DE GUERRE [CROSS OF WAR] 1939-1945 -- GEORGE-CROSS

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
WITH LOVE AND REVERENCE
TO MY SISTER

NOOR INAYAT KHAN

GEORGE CROSS
CROIX MILITAIRE
WHO GAVE HER LIFE FOR HER IDEAL
SHE IS HEREWITH PROCLAIMED
AS THE FIRST SUFI SAINT
IN THE SUFI ORDER IN THE WEST

Not Peace but a Sword -- There is, apparently, a flat contradiction between the words of Christ Jesus, "I came not to send peace, but a sword," and the words of the celestial song which heralded the birth of Jesus, "On earth Peace, Goodwill toward men." This contradiction, however, is apparent only. There is as great an apparent contradiction between a woman's words and her actions when she says, "I am going to clean house and tidy up," and then proceeds to take up carpets and pile chairs one upon another, producing general confusion in a previously orderly house. One observing only this aspect of the matter, would be justified in saying, "She is making matters worse instead of better," but when the purpose of her work is understood, the expediency of the temporary disorder is realized and in the end her house will be the better for the passing disturbance.

-- The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel


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S.A.M.
BELOVED SAMUEL LEWIS
MURSHID: SUFI AHMED MURAD: CHISTI
1896-1971
THE WORK WILL CONTINUE
OM SRI RAM JAI RAM JAI JAI RAM

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

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Samuel Lewis (October 18, 1896–January 15, 1971) was born to Jewish parents. Lewis' father Jacob Lewis was a vice president of the Levi Strauss jeans manufacturing company. His mother was Harriett Rosenthal, the daughter of Lenore Rothschild of the international banking family. In 1967 whilst recovering from a heart attack in a hospital Lewis claimed that he heard the voice of god say, "I make you spiritual leader of the hippies."

-- Samuel L. Lewis, by Wikipedia


TOWARD THE ONE

HARPER COLOPHON BOOKS
Harper & Row, Publishers
New York, Evanston, San Francisco, London

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-- Toward the One, by "Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan"

_______________________________________________

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The dignitary carries a half-moon [and star] upon his bishop's crook, the symbol of unbelief, one that at that time was well known, and much feared. It was not only the emblem of the Turks who had invaded Europe but also the symbol of that spiritual stream of Arabism against which Thomas Aquinas had already fought, under whose power however many clerics of that time had fallen.

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Note also the half-moon and star, below left, on the headcloth of one of the torturers, which is used here as a symbol of disbelief).

-- The Pictorial Language of Hieronymus Bosch, by Clement A. Wertheim Aymes


MAY THE MESSAGE OF GOD REACH FAR AND WIDE

FOUNDED 1910 BY HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN

TOWARD THE ONE
COPYRIGHT © 1974 BY THE SUFI ORDER U.S.A.

FIRST EDITION: HARPER COLOPHON BOOKS
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 73-7132
STANDARD BOOK NUMBER: 06-090352-X

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO USE MATERIAL ENCLOSED WITHIN
FOR THE PURPOSE OF SPREADING THE MESSAGE,
PLEASE WRITE
HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS, INC.
10 E. 53RD STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10022,
OR
THE SECRETARY, SUFI ORDER U.S.A.,
P.O. BOX # 1233, SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA, 94902.
PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN CANADA
BY FITZHENRY & WHITESIDE LIMITED, TORONTO.

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We have chosen a price of $3.33.

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass


MONEY YOGA

ANY PROFITS FROM THE SALE OF THIS BOOK WILL BE ALLOCATED IN THE FIRST PLACE TOWARD THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSEL, THE TEMPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS, ENVISIONED IN 1926 BY HAZRAT INAYAT KAHN, AT SURESNES, NEAR PARIS, PROVIDING AN APPROPRIATE PLOT OF LAND MAY BE FOUND; AS SECOND PRIORITY, BY THE SUFI ORDER IN ANY OF ITS REGISTERED CORPORATIONS UNDER THE PRESIDENCE OF PIR VILAYAT INAYAT-KHAN

$5.75 -- JOBBER (WHOLESALER) .29; RETAILER $2.59; PUBLISHER .71; AUTHOR .32; PRINTER-BINDER & PAPER MILL $1.84

THE MATERIAL IN THIS BOOK WAS COMPILED AND EDITED BY THE STAFF OF TOWARD THE ONE FROM LECTURES GIVEN BY PIR VILAYAT IN NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE DURING THE YEARS 1970-1973 I THE COURSE OF HIS TOURS AND AT THE CAMPS IN ARIZONA, CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK AND CHAMONIX, FRANCE. FURTHER MATERIAL WAS WRITTEN EXCLUSIVELY FOR TOWARD THE ONE IN ALL THE ABOVE PLACES AND ON RETREAT IN INDIA. IF YOU WOULD LIKE INFORMATION CONCERNING PIR VILAYAT, DATES FOR HIS LECTURES AND SEMINARS GIVEN IN PRINCIPLE CITIES IN NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE, AND PARTICULARS REGARDING ACTIVITIES IN ALL COUNTRIES OF THE SUFI ORDER FOUNDED BY PIR-O-MURSHID HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN,
PLEASE CONTACT:
THE SECRETARY, SUFI ORDER IN THE WEST
USA: P.O. BOX 1233, SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA 94902
EUROPE: FAZIL, MANZIL, 23 RUE DE LA TUILERIE, SURESNES, PARIS, FRANCE
WORK ON THIS BOOK WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH A LOAN FROM
THE LAMA FOUNDATION RESERVOIR FUND

SET IN CALEDONIA BY DHARMA PRESS, EMERYVILLE CALIFORNIA
PRINTED & BOUND BY BANTA-LEVISION, SPARKS, NEVADA

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AH



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TOWARD THE ONE
THE PERFECTION OF LOVE,
HARMONY, AND BEAUTY
THE ONLY BEING
UNITED WITH ALL THE ILLUMINATED
SOULS
WHO FORM THE EMBODIMENT OF THE
MASTER
THE SPIRIT OF GUIDANCE
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Re: Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 5:56 am

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PROLOGOS

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IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD

-- Be Here Now, by Ram Dass


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Across
the aeons of time
irresistably -- undauntedly
by some uncanny internal forward
thrust
the consciousness of the creature
in its advance thru evolution
strives
to touch
to soar
into further dimensions

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scrutinize the mystery
underlying all things
seek in higher dimensions
of understanding
a meaning
behind all our sufferings
unmask
what appears to be
the caprice of human destiny --
how we long to become that
which we hardly believe
we are!

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contemplate the archetype
of which you are the image
dis-cover your self
in an other
your self
in whom you are the object

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all rapt moments
how we long to join the company
of those
who have left the shores of life
behind
at the cost of the most incredible hardship
sailing close to death
in quest of the most precious of all
boons
the knowledge that spells omniscience

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we are told
there is a place one cannot reach by going
anywhere
that the farewell to outer circumstances
does not by the sheer act
confer
the bliss of inner freedom
of celestial insight
we know the real journey occurs
in the internal spaces of the soul

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where does one go from here?
what are our sailing orders?
by what azimuth do we set course?
what are the landmarks?
the perils? the methods? the clues?

fortunate the wayfarer who is briefed
by those rare pioneers who chart
the uncharted
who brave the depths & spaces of being
&
offer future generations
the topology of internal states
& further spheres

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one must pass
thru the portal of detachment
into new horizons
leaving something of the old self behind.
seen from this perspective
life looks like a never-ending pilgrimage
toward the ever-receding
horizons of awakening

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A Mystery or a Secret?

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are we not all on the move
in quest of the unknown
in
familiar & strange
places?

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up & down -- in & out
the trodden & untrodden ways of being
unrelenting -- indomitable
in our investigation
further on
the quest

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sometimes one's search leads one back
into the distant past
to rediscover our legacy
the testimony
of lives of visions of experiences
signatures
on the surface of the earth

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one may have to brave hardship
inside & outside
overcome fear,
exhausting escalades,
places protected by eerie forboding
on our pilgrimage to remote places
in our exploration of the reaches within
sometimes the quest ushers one into
places of learning
where men philosophize & contemplate
serenity
the meaning of life
indulge in lovely constructions of the mind
that lull us to sleep & complacency

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at times the unswerving quest leads
into the womb of earth
dark recesses in the night of the soul
where re-birth takes place protected
by darkness
from the notice of all created beings
protected by our own sense of unknowing
against the fallibility of our own judgment
led by some inner prompting
to rescue the light hidden in the bush
fire in the stone
the shadows of our soul that strayed

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one may find
oneself
in a great emptiness
overwhelmed by the enormity of the cosmos
shattered by one's own insignificance
feeling the glances of the crowd
one may seek
the cave of the hermit -- the cell of the recluse
there is a promise
every time that one rises into higher realms
of awareness
where dreamers build temples of dawn
out of visions of perfection

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the adept may reach
one of those rare moments that spell
illumination
aware of the light of the consciousness
that illumines our consciousness
as the sun dawns on the sleeping earth
& bathes it in effulgence
as we go into the world
transfigured
by a mysterious light

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Dedication
2. Prologos
3. Forward
4. Beyond the Dream
5. Intuition of the Self
6. Buddha/Christ
7. Preparation
8. Theory
9. New Age Practices in Meditation
10. Light
11. Breath
12. Sound
13. The Causal Plane
14. Dhikr
15. The Chain of the Sufis
16. The Sufi Masters
17. A Message in Our Time
18. Coming Back Into Life
19. The Search for the Teacher
20. Initiation
21. Counselling
22. Meditation and Psychedelics
23. The Relationship of Love
24. The Meeting of the Ways
25. The Cosmic Mass
26. The Man of God
27. Prayers
28. Afterword
29. Glossary
30. Bibliography
31. Synopsis of Practices
32. Silsila
33. The Heart
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Re: Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 5:58 am

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FOREWORD
BY JAMSHED TILLINGHAST

LISTENING TO THE SACRED MUSIC OF MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER, ONE EXPERIENCES THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BASER EMOTIONS, A SENSE OF LIFE TRANSFORMED INTO "THE PERFECTION OF LOVE, HARMONY, AND BEAUTY." THIS IS THE GIFT AND MESSAGE OF PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN. YOU ARE ABOUT TO BEGIN HIS BOOK, AN UNPRECEDENTEDLY SPECIFIC, FULL, AND REVEALING GUIDE TO THE INNER LIFE BY A MASTER OF MEDITATION. THE AMAZING THING, FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS BEEN TRYING TO CAPTURE FRAGMENTS OF THIS TEACHING IN NOTEBOOKS AND TAPE-RECORDERS, IS THAT NOW SO MUCH OF IT IS EASILY AVAILABLE IN ONE PLACE.

MANY PEOPLE ARE OF THE OPINION THAT ALL SCHOOLS OF SPIRITUAL ASPIRATION LEAD TO THE ONE GOAL; HERE IS THE UNIQUE TEACHER WHO HAS ACTUALLY STUDIED AND PRACTICED THE METHODS OF THE DIFFERENT SCHOOLS AND CAN ATTEST TO THEIR UNITY. A STORY IS TOLD OF THE YOUNG INAYAT KHAN WHEN HE WAS WITH HIS MURSHID ABU HASHIN MADANI IN HYDERABAD. A FELLOW MUREED COMPLAINED TO THE MURSHID: "INAYAT HAS BEEN SEEN WITH THE YOGIS, THE IDOLATORS. HE IS CONSTANTLY READING THE BHAGAVAD GITA. HE KEEPS A BIBLE BY HIS BED. ONLY YESTERDAY I SAW HIM CONVERSING WITH A RABBI. HE IS WELL

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KNOWN AMONG THE PARSIS, THE WORSHIPPERS OF FIRE. WILL YOU NOT MAKE HIM RENOUNCE HIS HERETICAL WAYS?" THE MURSHID REPLIED: "LEAVE HIM ALONE. IT IS NOT FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND THE MISSION HE IS BEING PREPARED FOR." HIS MISSION WAS TO HARMONIZE EAST AND WEST WITH THE MUSIC OF HIS SUFI MESSAGE. TOLERANCE AND MUTUAL ENRICHMENT HAVE OFTEN BEEN PART OF THE SPIRITUAL ATMOSPHERE IN INDIA, WHERE HINDUS, MUSLIMS, BUDDHISTS, PARSIS, JEWS, AND CHRISTIANS HAVE LIVED TOGETHER PEACEFULLY EXCEPT WHEN, AS RECENTLY, THEIR DIFFERENCES HAVE BEEN EXPLOITED FOR POLITICAL REASONS. PERHAPS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL EXPRESSION OF THIS SPIRIT WAS THE SPIRITUAL AND AESTHETIC SYNTHESIS PREVAILING AT THE COURT OF THE MOGHUL EMPEROR AKBAR. THE SPIRIT OF AKBAR'S COURT WAS A PRECURSOR TO THE KIND OF SUFISM GIVEN BY HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN TO EUROPEANS AND AMERICANS IN THE 1901'S AND TWENTIES WITH ITS EMPHASIS ON "THE UNITY OF RELIGIOUS IDEALS."

PIR VILAYAT KHAN HAS GIVEN CONCRETE EXPRESSION TO THE GOALS OUTLINED BY HIS FATHER, ADDING TO THE EASTERN SCHOOLS THE AUSTERE AND SERENE FLAVOR OF MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM, AS WELL AS INTEGRATIVE INSIGHTS DERIVED FROM SOURCES AS SEEMINGLY DIVERSE AS MODERN PHYSICS AND THE GREEK MYSTERY CULTS. HE SHOWS HOW THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST IS THE COSMIC COUNTERPOINT TO THE PARINIRVANA OF BUDDHA. HE ALLOWS ONE TO SEE THE WORLD RELIGIONS NOT AS MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE DOGMAS COMPETING WITH ONE ANOTHER FOR THE CLAIM OF ABSOLUTE TRUTH, BUT RATHER AS A DIVINE SYMPHONY OF DIFFERENT TONES -- OR AS THE SAME STORY TOLD IN VARYING WAYS TO FIT VARYING MENTALITIES. THIS SYNTHESIS OF ESOTERIC SCHOOLS MAY SERVE AS A KEY TO THE COMING EVOLUTIONARY JUMP IN CONSCIOUSNESS TOWARDS WHICH HUMANITY SEEMS TO BE MOVING, THE NEW AGE GLIMPSED BY PROPHETS RANGING FROM WILLIAM BLAKE TO ARTHUR C. CLARKE TO TEILHARD DE CHARDIN.

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THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS, PARTICULARLY STRESSED BY RUMI, IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF SUFI THOUGHT. DEVELOPMENT OF INTUITION, TRUST IN THE HEART, THE MOVE TOWARDS GROUP CONSCIOUSNESS, THINKING IN GLOBAL TERMS -- THESE ARE SIGNS POINTING IN THE DIRECTION OF MAN'S CONTINUING EVOLUTION. THESE ARE ALSO CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ESOTERIC BROTHERHOODS WHICH HAVE TRADITIONALLY BEEN AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD RELIGIONS. WHAT WERE JEALOUSLY GUARDED SECRETS OF THE FEW ARE NOW BEING MADE KNOWN TO MORE AND MORE PEOPLE, AND THE SEEDS OF THE FEW CONSCIOUSNESS ARE BEING GATHERED FROM THE DECAYING FLOWERS OF THE OLD. THUS IT WOULD PROBABLY BE A MISTAKE TO SEE THE NEW SPIRITUALITY AS A "RELIGIOUS" MOVEMENT. IN GOING TO THE HEART OF THE OLD TRADITIONS ONE IS SEEKING THEIR UNIVERSAL CORE, AND LEAVING BEHIND THE RESIDUE OF DOGMA, MERE BELIEF, AND SOCIAL CONVENTION. IN RETURNING TO THE ORIGIN OF THE ESTABLISHED RELIGIONS -- LIVING EXPERIENCE OF THE SPIRIT -- WE MAY ALSO BE ENTERING A PERIOD WHERE RELIGION AS UNDERSTOOD IN THE PAST WILL BE SUPERCEDED. TOWARD THE ONE AIMS AT CARRYING CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND ITS ORDINARY LIMITATIONS IMPOSED BY "HUMAN NATURE," CONDITIONING, HABIT, DESPAIR, SO AS TO EXPERIENCE THE LIMITLESS DIMENSIONS OF REALITY. IN THE WORDS OF WILLIAM BLAKE:

IF THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION WERE CLEANSED EVERY THING WOULD APPEAR TO MAN AS IT IS, INFINITE.
FOR MAN HAS CLOSED HIMSELF UP, TILL HE SEES ALL THINGS THRU' NARROW CHINKS OF HIS CAVERN.

(THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL)

READING THIS BOOK IS TO EXPERIENCE AT TIMES THAT EXTRAORDINARY TRANSFORMING PRESENCE THAT PIR VILAYAT EMANATES IN PERSON. THESE PAGES, THESE SENTENCES THEMSELVES SERVE TO DISORIENT ONE, TO BLOW ONE'S ORDINARY HABITS OF

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THOUGHT -- "THE MIND-FORG'D MANACLES" TO QUOTE BLAKE ONCE AGAIN. IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU AS YOU READ THEN PERHAPS YOU GET GLIMPSES, OR HINTS OF GLIMPSES OF THE BEING BEHIND THE WORDS. FROM A MEDITATION RETREAT IN THE CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAINS OF ARIZONA COMES AN UNCANNILY VIVID PICTURE OF PIR VILAYAT MEDITATING IN A TENT: THE SHARP SMELL OF HEAT-STRUCK CANVAS, SURROUNDED BY THE BRILLIANT GLARE OF DESERT SUNLIGHT, HIS BODY SEEMINGLY TRANSLUCENT -- A CLEAR MOLECULAR FIELD OPEN TO THE LIGHT THAT WAS POURING THROUGH HIM. ANOTHER MEMORY IS OF HIM AT THE CAMP DES AIGLES IN THE FRENCH ALPS, LEADING A GROUP OF PEOPLE IN A FIERCELY SUBLIME RENDITION OF THE HALLELUJAH CHORUS WHILE AN AWE-INSPIRING MOUNTAIN THUNDERSTORM WAS ROARING AWAY OUTSIDE, THE BIG ARMY TENT TUGGING AT THE ROPES AND CAREENING LIKE A CLIPPER SHIP ON THE HIGH SEAS, JUST ON THE VERGE OF FLYING OFF THE MOUNTAIN.

HE SOMEHOW DEFIES THE DESCRIPTION OF "PERSON." HIS ARCHAIC FINENESS AND NOBILITY ARE QUALITIES ASSOCIATED IN MY MIND WITH THE PERSIAN SUFIS AND WITH THE COURT OF THE LATE NIZAM OF HYDERABAD WHERE HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN WAS A RENOWNED SINGER. PARTS OF THIS BOOK HAVE THE ATMOSPHERE OF A CERTAIN NIGHT-BLOOMING FLOWER IN THE PERSIAN GARDENS OF SHIRAZ, HOME OF HAFIZ AND SA'ADI, "CITY OF NIGHTINGALES." YET THIS REFINEMENT IS COMBINED WITH A SORT OF STERNNESS AND ABSOLUTE DEVOTION TO HIS WORK. SUCH A BEING MAY BE SEEN AS A PRODUCT OF ADAMANTLY REFUSING TO ACCEPT CONDITIONING AND OF ADHERING UNCOMPROMISINGLY TO AN IDEAL. THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF HIS TEACHINGS ON EVERYDAY LIFE. YET THE MYSTERY, THE SPECIAL FRAGRANCE OF THE MAN SOMEHOW -- HAPPILY -- ELUDES DESCRIPTION. THE WORDS USED BY ONE OF HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN'S DISCIPLES DESCRIBE EXACTLY ONE'S ENCOUNTER WITH PIR VILAYAT KHAN: "I HAD HEARD ABOUT THE SOUL BEFORE BUT NEVER BEFORE ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED MY SOUL."
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Re: Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:02 am

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Beyond the dream of the fleeting me
I watch
In the silence of all created things
The traces of my self
Voiding themselves in the roots of all existence.
Pure virtuality

Yet looking down from that timeless selfless place --
Outside space --
I watch the immutable archetype of me --
Sprouting into what I think is me --
Finally emerging out of its immersion
In the fabric of the planet
Speeding to the everlastingness in resurrection
Of a me beyond recognition

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On all common subjects, this dominion of passion and prejudice is restrained by the evidence of sense and perception; but, when the mind is led to the contemplation of things beyond its comprehension, all such restraints vanish: reason has then nothing to oppose to the phantoms of imagination, which acquire terrors from their obscurity, and dictate uncontrolled, because unknown. Such is the case in all religious subjects, which, being beyond the reach of sense or reason, are always embraced or rejected with violence and heat.

-- A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus: And Its Connection with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients, by Richard Payne Knight

***

The three dots (or three points) were formerly fashionable in Masonic writing instead of the usual periods after initials. The practice was apparently started in France by the non-recognized Grand Orient of France in 1774 and Masons were sometimes called 'Three Point Brothers'. The usage became popular in the US and is seen today in some Scottish Rite documents.

-- MasonicInfo.com

***

The three dots (.·.) were originally intended to represent "Masonic Honor Points". In Masonry, a freemason who has received the first three craft degrees of initiation may put these three dots after his name. Organizations made up of Craft initiated Masons traditionally place these same three dots after the letters of abbreviation of their organization names, e.g. Golden Dawn: G.·.D.·. instead of G.D.

-- Thelema Lodge Calendar, June, 1993


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Unto you shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, this is the sun of righteousness in whose wings healing shall be displayed.

-- Malachi 4:2

***

Cor. III. 17, which says "God is a spirit," should be interpreted: God is a winged entity in an entirely zoological sense. God has wings and flies (Ps. XVI.8; XVII.11; XXXV.8). In Ps. LXIII.6-7 we read: "I remember you under the esmerot, you are my 'ezer, in the shadow (sel) of your wings I rejoice."

-- Theozoology, or the Science of the Sodomite Apelings and the Divine Electron, by Dr. Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels

***

"If ... it is a soul which hath not hearkened unto the counterfeiting spirit in all its works, but hath become good and hath received the mysteries of the Light which are in the second space or even those which are in the third space which is within, when the time [of the coming-forth] of that soul out of the body is completed, then the counterfeiting spirit followeth that soul, it and the destiny; and it followeth it on the way on which it will go above. And before it removeth itself above, it uttereth the mystery of the undoing of the seals and all the bonds of the counterfeiting spirit with which the rulers have bound it to the soul; and when it is uttered, the bonds of the counterfeiting spirit undo themselves, and it ceaseth to come into that soul and releaseth the soul according to the commandments which the rulers of the great Fate have commanded it, saying: 'Release not this soul until it tell thee the mystery of the undoing of all the seals with which we have bound thee to the soul.' And in that moment that soul becometh a great light-stream, it becometh entirely wings of light, and penetrateth all the regions of the rulers and all the orders of the Light, until it reacheth the region of its kingdom up to which it hath received mysteries."

-- Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, translated by G.R.S. Mead

***

In the ancient theology of Greece, preserved in the Orphic Fragments, this Deity, the Ερως πρωτογονος, or first-begotten Love, is said to have been produced, together with Æther, by Time, or Eternity (Κρονος), and Necessity (Αναγχη), operating upon inert matter (Χαος). He is described as eternally begetting (αειγνητης); the Father of Night, called in later times, the lucid or splendid, (φανης), because he first appeared in splendour; of a double nature, (διφυης), as possessing the general power of creation and generation, both active and passive, both male and female. Light is his necessary and primary attribute, co-eternal with himself, and with him brought forth from inert matter by necessity. Hence the purity and sanctity always attributed to light by the Greeks. He is called the Father of Night, because by attracting the light to himself, and becoming the fountain which distributed it to the world, he produced night, which is called eternally-begotten, because it had eternally existed, although mixed and lost in the general mass. He is said to pervade the world with the motion of his wings, bringing pure light; and thence to be called the splendid, the ruling Priapus, and Self-illumined (αντανγης)....Wings are figuratively attributed to him as being the emblems of swiftness and incubation; by the first of which he pervaded matter, and by the second fructified the egg of Chaos.

-- A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus: And Its Connection with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients, by Richard Payne Knight
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Re: Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:13 am

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INTUITION OF THE SELF

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NOW LET CONSCIOUSNESS BE WHISKED BEYOND
THE POINT
WHERE THE SEEDS OF ALL LIVING THINGS LURK
ON THE HORIZON OF OUR KNOWING

IMAGINE THAT YOU HAVE EXTRACTED CONSCIOUSNESS
FROM ALL CREATED THINGS
UPROOTING THEIR CAUSES
TO THE POINT THAT YOU MERELY REMEMBER
HAVING BEEN A CREATURE

YOU HAVE NOW AWAKENED INTO YOUR REAL BEING
BEYOND THE EGO
YOU HAVE BEEN WITNESSING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF YOUR EGO
A LIBERATION FROM 'I'-NESS
YOU ARE CATAPULTED BEYOND EXISTENCE
INTO THE MYSTERY OF BEING -- CALLED THE SELF

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The words of recognition are: key, water, fire, level, black, white, red, rose, stone. As will be understood later, these words describe the entire work. Among the Oriental Masons the work is called the Science of the Key: llm el miftach and the Masons themselves often refer to themselves as Beni el Mim -- Sons of the Key.

The sheikh opens the session with the Fire-sign and the word alam, which the Beni el Mim actually use to mean: "Let's begin..." After the questions to the warden, the steward and the runner, as to whether everything is in order, the sheikh says: "My brothers, we are secure, we are provided for, and we are served. The Sun is shining, let us open heaven. Brother runner, hast thou the key?"

-- The Practice of the Ancient Turkish Freemasons: The Key to the Understanding of Alchemy, by Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorf


THE KEY TO ACHIEVE THIS:
LIBERATE THE MIND FROM THE SEEMING NECESSITY
OF OBJECTIVIZING EXPERIENCE

TRADEMARK: SECURITY

IT WILL BE REMEMBERED:
WHEN WE PASSED THE PREVIOUS THRESHOLD
WE TRANSCENDED TIME

WE ARE NOW SUSPENDED
IN A STATE OF "EGO LOSS"
BEYOND THE CAUSAL PLANE

BEYOND THE SEEDS OF MULTIPLICITY

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YOU NOW REALIZE THAT YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS
WAS FEEDING UPON APPEARANCE LIKE A FLAME UPON FUEL.
WITH THE CESSATION OF THE PROCESS OF COMBUSTION,
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS CEASE TO FUNCTION,
WITH THE RESULT THAT THE BASIC CONSCIOUSNESS OF BEING
EMERGES WITH GREATER CLEARNESS.

OUR MIND LURCHES WHEN ITS VERY FUNCTION, I.E.
CATEGORIZATION, IS PULLED OUT FROM UNDER IT. NO
SOONER IS IT PRESSED TO TRANSCEND ITS OWN LIMITS THAN
ONE AWAKENS WITH ALARMING LUCIDITY TO DISCOVER THE
GROUND OF ONE'S BEING TO BE THE VERY SAME GROUND AS
THAT OF ALL BEINGS. ALTHOUGH ONE MAY WELL IN THIS
CONDITION DISTINGUISH BEINGS FROM ONE ANOTHER AND
FROM ONESELF IN THEIR CREATED NATURES, ONE CLEARLY
ENVISIONS ONE'S SELF AS THE "THAT" WHICH ONE IS WHEN
STRIPPED OF ALL THAT IS NOT ONE ANYWAY.

THE HINDUS USE THE WORD "THAT"
AS IN TAT TWAM ASI: "THAT THOU ART"
THE SAME "THAT" AS THE ONLY "THAT" THERE IS
WHICH WE SOMETIMES CALL HIM OR HER
OR
THE ONE

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HOW IS THIS ACHIEVED?

IF HAVING DISMISSED THE SUPPORTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS --
PERCEPTION AND REPRESENTATION -- ONE IS ABLE TO MAIN-
TAIN A CONTINUITY OF FLOW BETWEEN THE LEVELS OF
CONSCIOUSNESS WITHOUT LOSING THE ARIADNIAN THREAD
THAT FOSTERS THE SENSE OF INDIVIDUALITY, YET PROJECT-
ING BEYOND IT WHERE IT FUSES WITH ALL THE ARIADNEAN
THREADS THAT CRISS-CROSS IN WEAVING THE MESHES OF THE
UNIVERSE, ONE REACHES A POINT WHERE CONSCIOUSNESS IS
NO LONGER THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL.

The "Ariadne's thread" which will guide us through the maze of Globes, Worlds, Revolutions and Periods will be found when it is remembered and kept steadily in mind that the virgin spirits which constitute the evolving life wave became entirely unconscious when they commenced their evolutionary pilgrimage through the five Worlds of substance denser than the World of Virgin Spirits. The purpose of evolution is to make them fully conscious and able to master the matter of all the Worlds, therefore the conditions embodied in Globes, Worlds, Revolutions and Periods are ordered with that end in view.

-- The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel


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BUDDHA'S 'CELESTIAL EYE' ZEROED IN UPON THE POINT:
IT IS EXPERIENCING

THE LIFE OF ONE'S LIFE

BY DISENGAGING THE CENTRAL PRINCIPLE OF ONE'S BEING
FROM THE CAUSE OF BECOMING, BY FOCUSING AT THE
CAUSAL LEVEL, ONE IS ABLE TO GRASP -- BEYOND THE LIMITS OF
ONE'S PRESENT EXISTENCE -- THE WHOLE CHAIN OF WHICH IT
IS A LINK, AS THE CONTINUATION OF A WHOLE GROUP OF
BEING, YET KNOWING THAT IT IS NEVER THE SAME PERSON
WHO IS REBORN.

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AT A SECOND STAGE
ONE'S CONSCIOUSNESS IS NO LONGER TIED TO A PARTICULAR BEING
CONSEQUENTLY ONE
EXTENDS
ONE'S CONSCIOUSNESS
FROM THE CAUSE OF ONE'S BEING
TO THAT OF

ALL BEINGS!

ONE WATCHES THE MOVING SCENE OF LIFE
THE APPEARANCE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF BEINGS
SEEN IN THEIR CAUSAL RELATIONSHIPS TO ONE ANOTHER

WORLDS IN BECOMING
AND WORLDS BEING DISSOLVED
ON A VAST SCALE

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AT A THIRD STAGE
HAVING HOISTED ONESELF FROM THE CAUSAL LEVEL
TO THE ONE WE ARE NOW DESCRIBING
ONE GRASPS WITH CRYSTALLINE CLARITY
THE LAWS GOVERNING ALL HAPPENING

SUCH IS THE VIEW OF THE ILLUMINATED MIND
THAT COMPREHENDS ALL THINGS THAT ENCOMPASSES ALL THINGS
IN A JNANA DARSHANA
("VISION OF KNOWLEDGE")
THE ABILITY TO SEE THE CAUSAL LAW
OF CONDITIONED GENESIS

THIS STATE IS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN AIMING AT ALL THE TIME

PANNA
TRANSCENDENTAL KNOWLEDGE

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UNDOUBTEDLY OUR GRASP OF THE PANORAMIC SWEEP OF
PHENOMENA IN THEIR INTERRELATIONSHIP, SCANNED AT A
BREATHTAKING SCALE, IS GENERALLY SO OVERCAST BY PER-
CEPTION AND REPRESENTATION OF THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY
THAT IT IS CONFINED TO WHAT PSYCHOLOGISTS CALL
TWILIGHT AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS WHOSE CONTENT ONLY
RARELY FLASHES THROUGH TO EVERYDAY CONSCIOUSNESS.
YET IF CONSCIOUSNESS IS CONDUCTED BEYOND THE POINT
WHERE IT OPERATES FROM AN INDIVIDUATED CENTER, PER-
CEPTION OF THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY FALLS OUT OF FOCUS
AND ONE DISCOVERS NOT ONLY THE LAWS GOVERNING THE
AUTONOMOUS FUNCTIONS OF ATOMS, CELLS, OR EVEN THE
REFLEX ACTION OF THE WHOLE ORGANISM OF THE CREA-
TURE, BUT THE ENLIGHTENED INTENTION OF AN OVERRIDING
YET COMPASSIONATE WILL, SOME PSYCHOLOGISTS
DISTINGUISH A SUPER-CONSCIOUS
FROM A SUB-CONSCIOUS.

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THE SECRET OF DISTINGUISHING THESE TWO STATES IS TO BE
FOUND BY APPLYING INTROSPECTIVELY THE METHOD OF
'DISCRIMINATION' (VIVEKA) TAUGHT IN THE SAMKHYA SCHOOL:

DISCRIMINATE
BETWEEN THAT IN WHICH ONE IS SUBJECT TO
CHANGE
AND DISSOLUTION
WHETHER PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL OR MENTAL:
PRAKRITI

1

AND THAT IN WHICH ONE REMAINS UNCHANGED
BEYOND SUBSTANCE, FORM OR QUALITY:
PURUSHA

YES, A MERGING THERE IS, BUT NOT THE UNDIFFERENTIATED
AND INDISCRIMINATE HODGE-PODGE OF ALL LIVING THINGS
COALESCED INTO INDISTINCTIVENESS, SUCH AS THE
UNIVERSE APPEARS TO A CONSCIOUSNESS THAT HAS SUNK
BELOW THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNCONSCIOUS,

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SHOULD ONE IDENTIFY ONE'S SELF WITH ALL CREATED THINGS,
THESE ENHANCED DIMENSIONS OF AWARENESS ONLY TRANSPIRE
THANKS TO A SHIFT
IN THE FOCUS OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

CONSCIOUSNESS RECEDES INTO SUBLIMINAL STATES
-- TRANCE CONDITIONS --
UNLESS ONE KNOWS HOW TO MAINTAIN
THE CONTINUITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
BY RELATING ONE'S FOCALISED CENTER OF CONSCIOUSNESS TO
THE OCEAN OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS
OF WHICH IT IS A WAVE.
ENABLING ONE TO IDENTIFY WITH THE SELF OF ALL SELVES
WHICH CAN ONLY BE PERCEIVED BY
CONSCIOUSNESS IN ITS UNINDIVIDUATED STATE.

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BUT HERE DAWNS BREATHTAKINGLY THE GROUND OF ONE'S BEING

AS THE SUN MIGHT DAWN
UPON AN ATOM

IF ONLY ONE COULD EXPERIENCE IT!

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IT IS DIFFICULT TO DISCERN THE INTERTWINING
VECTORS OF OUR BEING WHEN WE ARE OVERWHELMED
BY OUR SPRAWLING
DIMENSIONS
CONTRASTING WITH OUR ABJECT IGNORANCE OF
OURSELVES.

THE BLINDING EVIDENCE OF REALITY
APPEARS AS DARKNESS TO US

THE EVER RECEDING HORIZON OF UNDERSTANDING
AS WE ADVANCE INTO THE UNKNOWN
IN OUR HAZINESS
WE THINK WE HAVE REACHED THE GROUND
OF OUR BEING
OR EVEN OF 'BEING' -- CALLING IT THE 'SELF'

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THE FURTHER ONE ADVANCES
BEYOND THE TRODDEN PATHS OF COMMON EXPERIENCE
HEDGED WITH CONCEPTS AND LANDMARKED BY HYPOTHESES
THE THICKER THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING
FOR WE ARE PROTECTED BY OUR VERY IGNORANCE
AGAINST THE REALIZATION TO WHICH WE HAVE
NOT GROWN
NO SOONER WE THINK WE HAVE REACHED AN OUTPOST
EVEN AS WE WALL IT IN
BY TRYING TO MAKE SENSE
OF THE REALIZATION WE ARE AFRAID OF LOSING
RECASTING OUR ENTIRE 'IMAGO MUNDI',

HE SHATTERS OUR VANITY BY REVEALING
AN ENTIRELY NEW PERSPECTIVE
(HINTS THE BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD)
"BRAHMAN HAS ALREADY DEPARTED
BEFORE THOUGHT REACHES WHERE IT THOUGHT IT WAS"

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AS WE ADVANCE FROM BEYOND TO BEYOND IN AN EFFORT TO
ATTAIN THE 'THAT' WHICH WE INTUIT, WHOSE HORIZON RECEDES
DISCONCERTINGLY, MORE AND MORE IMPERSONAL LAYERS OF
AWARENESS SEEM TO TAKE OVER FROM ONE ANOTHER IN PRO-
GRESSIVE SUBSTITUTION. THE SELF THAT COGNIZES DREAM
IMAGES AND IMAGINARY REPRESENTATION SEEMS MORE COSMIC,
LESS INDIVIDUATED, THAN THE SELF THAT PERCEIVES PHYSICAL
PHENOMENA; AND THE SELF THAT GRASPS ARCHETYPES BEHIND
CONTINGENCIES SEEMS TO EXTEND BEYOND THE NOTION OF A PER-
SONAL SELF. IN THE ULTIMATE STATE, 'TURIYA', DESCRIBED IN
SHANKARACHARYA'S COMMENTARY ON THE MANDUKYA UPANISHAD,
THAT WHICH IS EXPERIENCED IS THE SELF, THE ONLY REALITY.
AND IT IS THE UNLIMITED CONSCIOUSNESS IN YOU, ATMAN, THAT
TAKES OVER FROM JIVA, INDIVIDUATED CONSCIOUSNESS
LIMITED BY THE APPEARANCE OF THINGS,
MAYA,
WHICH IS ALL THAT IS EVER ORIGINATED BY CAUSALITY.

YET OBVIOUSLY BUDDHA SAW A DANGER IN THAT THE VERY CON-
CEPTUALIZATION OF AN ULTIMATE REALITY MIGHT ACT AS A LIMIT
TO A VECTOR THAT IS INFINITE, AND THEREFORE SINGLED OUT
FURTHER HORIZONS IN THE NO-MAN'S LAND OF THE SOUL THAT
NEVER ENDS: BEYOND THE NON-MANIFEST, THAT WHICH LIES
BEYOND THE DICHOTOMY 'MANIFEST AND NON-MANIFEST', AND
STILL BEYOND THE UNLIMITED,
WHERE ALL DETERMINATION
OR ORIGINATION CEASES.

THAT WHICH THE CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD HAD COINED THE SELF,
TAKEN UP INEXHAUSTIVELY BY THE SUBSEQUENT UPANISHADS,
BUDDHA CALLED NON-EXISTENCE.

THE ACTUAL ABILITY TO ENVISION ONE'S SELF AS THAT REALITY
IS A STAGGERING DISCOVERY THAT REMAINS WITH ONE,
ONCE THE MIND HAS BEEN OPENED,
IRREVERSIBLY ABOUT-TURNING ONE'S ENTIRE LIFE

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DYING CONSCIOUSLY

AND SURVIVING
AS THE PRINCIPLE OF THE EXEMPLAR
ONE THOUGHT ONE WAS
AND ALWAYS REMEMBERING HAVING PASSED
THROUGH
THE PORTALS OF DEATH

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WHAT CONTINUITY IS THERE IN LIFE IF ONE FORGETS
WHAT ONE WAS?
IF SURVIVAL CONSISTS IN REMEMBERING PRE-NATAL
AND POST-MORTEM STATES
THE KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT ONE IS
AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE
CONFERS

IMMORTALITY

MAN'S DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR THE ABSOLUTE
MAY WELL BE HIS DESPERATE SCRAMBLE
FOR IMMORTALITY

IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW AWARENESS, THE EGO GAME -- BOTH OF THE
EVERYDAY SCENE AND OF THE PHANTASMAGORIA OF BOTH NIGHT-AND-
DAY-DREAMING -- NOW APPEARS, AS SHANKARACHARYA CALLS IT, A FALSE
APPREHENSION OF REALITY, EVEN THE ARCHETYPES OF EARTHLY FORMS,
LOOMING WITHIN THE FOCUS OF THE CAUSAL SETTING OF CONSCIOUSNESS,
AVER THEMSELVES AS NOT BEING REALITY, BUT MERELY ACCOUNT FOR THE
COSMIC HOAX WHEREBY THE ROPE LOOKS LIKE A SNAKE. THE DANCE OF SHIVA
AND THE TRAVESTY OF MAYA -- WITH WHAT GUILE DOES INDRA PROTECT US
FROM THE VISION OF REALITY THAT SHATTERS THE ONE UNPREPARED TO
FACE ITS STARK DEVASTATING ALL-REVEALING GLARE.

WHILE THE DISCOVERY OF THE CAUSAL SUPRA-INDIVIDUAL PRINCIPLE, OF
WHICH ONE'S INDIVIDUALITY IN THIS INCARNATION IS BUT ONE MANIFESTA-
TION, TRANSPORTED ONE INTO PRE-NATAL STATES, THE ATTAINMENT OF THE
AWARENESS OF BEING OPENS UP THE PERSPECTIVE OF A FATHOMLESS
BEYOND, THAT HAS ALWAYS INTRIGUED THE SOUL OF MAN IN QUEST OF
THE ABSOLUTE.

ABSOLUTE
EVEN BEYOND ETERNITY
BEYOND THE BEYOND

PARATPARAM

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THE VERTIGO OF THE BOTTOMLESS DEPTHS AND BOUNDLESS
HEIGHTS
NOT OF SPACE NOT OF TIME
NOT EVEN A PERFECTION OR QUALITY IDEALIZED IN THE
ARCHETYPE
BUT SOME OTHER IMPALPABLE DIMENSION

REALITY

THE ULTIMATE OBSESSION OF MAN

NO DOUBT WHAT OUR NON-MIND MEANS WHEN WE SAY
GOD
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Re: Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:15 am

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BUDDHA

The earthly body must be mortified so that the spiritual body can rise up. Here a note needs to be added. This mortification has been much misunderstood. It was believed that the body had to be killed by means of asceticism and withdrawal from the world. This is naturally only one possible path if the pilgrim has also completed a whole change in consciousness. Without this a false mortification ensues. Asceticism and withdrawal from the world leads, in most cases, to a dissolution in which the pilgrim becomes easy prey for every type of evil influence. More than a few black magicians have in this way become the victims of the Prince of the Shadow.

True mortification lies in sublimation, in unification, in the unio mystica, in becoming one with God. The unification begins with the change in consciousness wherein the mortification of the small ego is completed and the resurrection of the divine ego takes place. That is, however, the goal we wish to achieve -- which we must and can achieve.
Once we have arrived at the end of our exercise we will feel that our earthly bodies are becoming more and more strange, we are growing beyond it, we clearly feel it has become dust and ashes.

-- The Practice of the Ancient Turkish Freemasons: The Key to the Understanding of Alchemy, by Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorf


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AT THIS STAGE WE MIGHT BE CONFUSED
BY THE DICHOTOMY OF THE WAYS
EXPLORED AND ADVOCATED BY OUR GREAT
PATHFINDERS.

BUDDHA
IN THE WAKE OF HIS MIGHTY PREDECESSORS,
THE RISHIS,
POINTS THE WAY TO
DISINCARNATION
BY SYSTEMATICALLY UNRAVELLING THE KNOTS
THAT, BY INDIVIDUATING CONSCIOUSNESS, HAVE INVOLVED US
INTO THE LIMITING CIRCUMSTANCES
THAT SPELL SUFFERING.

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CHRIST
SETS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE FOR
INCARNATION
STRESSING THE WORKS OF THE FATHER
IN VOUCHSAFING THE KINGDOM OF THE HEAVENS
UPON THE EARTH.

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THE PATH ENJOINED UPON US BY THE INDIAN SAGES
SEEMS TO LEAD CONSCIOUSNESS BACK TO THE CONDITION BEYOND
BECOMING
IN THE CLEAR LIGHT OF ILLUMINATION
CUTTING TO THE VERY ROOTS OF REINCARNATION
DISMANTLING THE MECHANISM WHICH CONJOINS DESIRE TO THE
WHEREWITHAL OF ITS FULFILLMENT:
THE PHYSICAL.

AMONG THE SUFIS, JUNAID ADVOCATES
"RETURNING TO THE CONDITION IN WHICH ONE WAS BEFORE ONE
BECAME
WHEN ONE WAS A THOUGHT IN THE MIND OF GOD."
THIS IS THE EXPERIENCE WE ENCOUNTER OF THE CAUSAL ARCHE-
TYPE OF OUR HUMAN EXISTENCE.

CONVERSELY, RESURRECTION, ANNOUNCED BY CHRIST
POINTS TO THE END-PRODUCT OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE IN ITS UP-
WARD SWEEP:
TRANSFIGURATION.

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INDEED ZOROASTRIANISM, PROBABLY MAZDAISM, OR EVEN
ZURVANISM HAD
ANTICIPATED THIS ESCHATOLOGY IN 'FRASHKART':
THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS IN THEIR PRISTINE GLORY.

AN AVESTAN PRAYER SAYS:
"MAY I CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE
WORLD."

THE SUFIS OF THE SHEIKHI SCHOOL OF KIRMAN TAKE INTO
ACCOUNT
THE TRANSFER OF CONSCIOUSNESS
FROM THE PHYSICAL BODY TO THE ETHERIC OR ASTRAL
THEN UPWARDS THROUGH THE CELESTIAL BODY TO THE SUPRA-
CELESTIAL OR SOUL.
THE ETHERIC MAY FOR SOME TIME BE ALIENATED FROM THE SOUL
AFTER DEATH
UNDERGOING THE CONDITIONS OF HADES AND PARADISE
FINALLY TO INTERFUSE WITH THE SOUL AFTER COMPLETION OF
THIS CATHARSIS
AT A CRITICAL POINT IN TIME:
THE MOMENT OF RESURRECTION.

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WE LEARN IN OUR MEDITATION TO DISCERN THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN EXPERIENCING OUR CAUSAL NATURE
WHOSE ETERNITY STRETCHES OUT INTO THE PAST INDEFINITELY

AND EXPERIENCING THE ETERNALIZATION IN THE FUTURE
THROUGH TRANSMUTATION OF THAT WHICH ONE HAS ACQUIRED BY
INCARNATION;
THAT IS,
BY THE INTERFUSION OF ALL THE OUTCOME OF ONE'S PERSONAL
CAUSALITY
WITH THE OUTCOME OF THE CAUSALITY OF ALL THE BEINGS
OF WHOM ONE IS THE PRODUCT
IN THE COURSE OF THE UNFOLDMENT OF THE UNIVERSE.

WE ARE PULLED IN TWO OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS
WHICH COMPLETE ONE ANOTHER.

THE ONE WHO GRASPS THE LAW OF THE CONDITIONING OF EXISTENCE
KNOWS THAT ONE MAY FREE ONESELF
FROM THE NECESSITY OF PERPETUALLY RETURNING
INTO THE CYCLE OF REBIRTH ON EARTH
BY AVOIDING PERFORMING THOSE ACTIONS AND NURTURING THOSE
DESIRES
THAT BIND ONE
EITHER BY THE INCUMBENCE OF PAYING A DEBT
OR BY EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT.

SUCH A ONE WIELDS IN HIS HAND THE SWORD OF MOKSHA:
THE COVETED AIM OF THE RISHIS:
LIBERATION FROM EXISTENCE.

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ADMITTEDLY, WHEN ONE HAS EXPERIENCED THE BLISS AND THE
FREEDOM
THE GLORY AND THE SUPREME UNDERSTANDING
OF THE LEVEL BEYOND EXISTENCE WHEREIN THE SELF IS ROOTED
ONE DOES NOT WISH TO BE COERCED INTO RETURNING
INTO THE LIMITING CIRCUMSTANCES OF INCARNATE EXISTENCE
BY A WHOLE CHAIN OF CAUSALITY
WHOSE VERY FORCES ONE HAS UNWITTINGLY SET INTO MOTION
BY SHEER IGNORANCE OF THE MECHANICS OF LIFE.

ON THE OTHER HAND
IT IS OBVIOUS THAT SOMETHING MUST BE ACHIEVED
BY INCARNATION
IN THE UNIVERSE AS IN OURSELVES.

LIFE LEADS SO SURELY TOWARDS EVER GREATER UNFOLDMENT
THAT WE CAN HARDLY DOUBT
THAT THERE MUST BE SOME PROVISION WHEREBY THE VALUES
ACQUIRED
BY WHAT REV. PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN CALLED
"THE OMONIZATION OF THE TRANSCENDENT"
MIGHT BE RESORBED IN THE COSMOS AT EVERY LEVEL

STEP BY STEP.

ONE DOES NOT WISH TO BE COERCED
BY A WHOLE CHAIN OF CAUSALITY
WHOSE VERY FORCES ONE HAS UNWITTINGLY SET INTO MOTION
BY SHEER IGNORANCE OF THE MECHANICS OF LIFE
INTO RETURNING
TO THE LIMITING CIRCUMSTANCES OF INCARNATE EXISTENCE.
DO WE HAVE TO OPT BETWEEN
FREEING OURSELVES FROM THE CONDITIONS OF EXISTENCE
AND TRANSMUTING ALL THAT HAS BEEN ELABORATED IN THE
CAULDRON OF LIFE?

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WE CAN BEST GIVE EXPRESSION
TO THE DIVINE PERFECTION
WE ARE PLEDGED TO
MANIFEST

IF WE FREELY INCARNATE
IF EVERY INVOLVEMENT IN LIFE IS A
FREE DETERMINATION
RATHER THAN THE RESULT OF FORCES
ALREADY SET INTO MOTION
TO WHICH WE ARE IMPLACABLY
SUBJECTED

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RESURRECTION IS THE MEASURE
OF OUR FREEDOM
THE ETERNALIZATION OF WHAT HAS BEEN
ACHIEVED THROUGH INCARNATION

IT ALONE TRANSMUTES THE INCARNATE INTO THE
TRANSCENDENTAL
BY RIDING THE WAVE OF ALL THAT IS SUBJECT TO DISSOLUTION
ALL THE DESIRES AND MANIAS AND EMOTIONS
THAT LURE THE SOUL INTO EXISTENCE.

IF THE PLANNING OF THE UNIVERSE
HAS TO RECKON WITH THE INTERVENTIONS OF THE (RELATIVELY)
FREE WILLS
CONFERRED BY THE ONE AND ONLY KNOWER
UPON EACH PARTICLE OF HIMSELF
THAT THEY MAY PROGRESS TOWARD THAT OMNISCIENCE AND
PERFECTION,

HAPPENINGS WITHIN CERTAIN GIVEN LIMITS
CANNOT ALWAYS CONFORM TO GOD'S OWN WILL IN SINGULAR
ONENESS.
BUT IN RESURRECTING
WE FREE GOD FROM THE CRUCIFIXION OF COSMIC SUFFERING:

THE PRICE OF YOUR FREE WILL.

THEREFORE WE FIRST HAVE TO FIND
THE WAY OF
FREEDOM FROM INVOLVEMENT
BEFORE WE CAN INTRODUCE
FREEDOM IN INVOLVEMENT.

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SUDDENLY THERE IS A BREAKTHROUGH OF JOY:
ONE IS FREE!
ONE IS LIFTED HIGHER AND HIGHER
BY A MIGHTY OUTBREAK
OF ALL THE FORCES OF GLORIFICATION OF THE COSMOS
THE ETERNAL HIGH MASS
CELEBRATED ON THE ALTAR OF THE STARS

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PLAYING ONE'S PART IN THE SYMPHONY OF THE SPHERES
INTONING IN ONE'S SOUL ONE'S PARTICULAR NOTE IN ONE
COSMIC HALLELUJAH:

THE CRY OF GLORY OF ALL CREATED BEINGS
ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN.

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THE QUEST FOR THE SELF AND THE SEARCH FOR GOD

HOW CAN WE RECONCILE OUR EXPERIENCE OF IDENTIFICATION
WITH THE GROUND OF OUR BEING
MERGING INTO THAT OF ALL BEINGS
WITH THE SHATTERING EXPERIENCE OF THE ENCOUNTER WITH
THE INEFFABLE PRESENCE?

WHEN THE INDIVIDUATED CENTER OF CONSCIOUSNESS IS
EXPLODED
WE DISCOVER OURSELVES AS "THAT",
BUT WHEN WE SE4EK THE MYSTERY OF "THAT" THROUGH THE
INDIVIDUATED LENS OF THE I,
IT APPEARS AS THE ONE.

INTUITION WARNS US TO REPUDIATE THE SENSE OF OTHERNESS
OF A TOO FACILE ANTHROPOMORPHIC PROJECTION OF OUR
CONCEPT OF PERCEPTION
AS A BEING
YET WE ARE ABASHED AND OVERWHELMED
WHEN FACED WITH THE GLORY OF THE DIVINE VISITOR.
FOR THAT WHICH THE FAITHFUL OF ALL FAITHS REVERENTLY
INVOKE
IS NOT JUST THE WHOLE OF WHICH WE ARE A PART
NOR THE ARCHETYPE WHOSE IMAGE WE DISCOVER OURSELVES TO
BE
NOR THE INTELLIGENCE THAT GAZES THROUGH OUR EYES
-- THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS --
BUT THE PRESENCE BORN IN OUR MIDST MORE REAL THAN
OURSELVES
AS THE SOLIDARITY BEHIND OUR DIVERSITY
CONSOLIDATED BY THE CONVERGENCE OF ALL OUR VANTAGE
POINTS
AND ANIMATED BY THE BREATH OF OUR LOVE.
FOR THAT ONE
IS THE ONE WHO IS LOVED IN EVERY LOVED ONE.

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ONCE HAVING DISCOVERED ONESELF
ALWAYS TO HAVE BEEN
THE LOVED ONE
BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD
AS THE SON WAS LOVED BY THE FATHER
IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
THE PURUSHA
THE SELF OF ALL SELVES.

AS REVEALED IN THE HADITH
"HE CREATED YOU AS A MEANS OF KNOWING THE LATENCIES
WITHIN HIMSELF:

THE SUFI DARVISH ABD EL JABBAR NIFFARI RESPONDED
"IT WAS OUT OF HIS LOVE FOR YOU THAT HE DEPARTED
FROM THE SOLITUDE OF HIS UNITY."

TO REACH OUT BEYOND ALL, REACH INTO TRANSCENDENCE
WE HAVE TO SURRENDER THE INDIVIDUATED FOCUS OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
FOR WHO CAN THING "THAT" IF NOT "THAT"?

THIS IS A UNIQUE FORM OF KNOWLEDGE CALLED PRAJNA
REFERRED TO IN THE BRIHADARANKAYA UPANISHAD:
"WHERE ALL HAS BECOME ONE, WHO CAN KNOW THE KNOWER?"
EXCEPT BY LOSING HIMSELF

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AS WE TURN ABOUT IN MEDITATION,
AS OUR GLANCE IS AGAIN DIRECTED TOWARDS CREATED THINGS,
IF WE AVOID LIMITING OUR CONSCIOUSNESS TO THE INDIVIDUATED
FOCUS
THE 'THAT' WILL BECOME MORE PRESENT
AS "THE UNSEEN SEER AND THE UNHEARD HEARER."
MEISTER ECKHART SAW THIS WHEN HE SAID
"THESE EYES THROUGH WHICH I HOPED TO SEE GOD
ARE THE EYES
THROUGH WHICH GOD SEES ME."
YET THIS PRESENCE IS EXPERIENCED STILL MORE INTIMATELY
WHEN ONE REALIZES THAT IT IS NOT ONLY THAT WHICH SEES
BUT ALSO THAT WHICH IS SEEN.
THAT IS WHY IBN L'ARABI SAYS
"THESE ARE THE EYES THROUGH WHICH GOD SEEMS HIMSELF."
FOR IT IS HIS PRESENCE THAT BECOMES IN US
"THE CREATED CREATOR AND THE CREATING CREATURE."

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THERE IS A STORY OF THIS SANYASIN OR FAQIR. YOU KNOW THAT IN
THE EAST A LOT OF THESE SANYASINS, MEN WHO HAVE LEFT THE
WORLD, WILL JUST SIT BY THE ROADSIDE MEDITATING AND
EVERYTHING, AND THEIR POLICY IS: IT DOESN'T MATTER. SO IT
DOESN'T MATTER IF PEOPLE WALK ON THEM OR THROW MUD AT
THEM, IT DOESN'T MATTER, IF THEY'RE TOO HOT IN THE SUN OR
TOO COLD, IT DOESN'T MATTER, THERE THEY SIT. SO HE WAS SIT-
TING THERE AND THEY SAID THAT THE KING WAS COMING BY, AND
FIRST OF ALL THE POLICE CAME AND SAID, GET OUT FROM HERE,
HIS MAJESTY IS PASSING. AND THE SANYASIN SAID, THAT IS WHY,
AND KEPT ON SITTING THERE WITH HIS LEGS OUTSTRETCHED, YOU
SEE, AND THEN AN OFFICER CAME AND SAID, WE HAVE A RULE
THAT WHEN HIS MAJESTY THE KING PASSES, ONE IS SUPPOSED TO
STAND UP AS A SIGN OF RESPECT, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SIT
LIKE THIS WITH YOUR LEGS OUTSTRETCHED. AND SO HE SAID, THAT
IS WHY. AND THEN CAME THE PROCESSION AND THE EMPEROR ON
HIS ELEPHANT, AND THE MINISTER CAME FIRST ON HIS ELEPHANT
AND HE THOUGHT, HMMM, WHO'S THAT SITTING THERE?, SO HE
WENT DOWN TO HIM AND SAID, OUT OF COURTESY FOR THE KING
MAYBE IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU JUST PUT YOUR LEGS BACK.
AND THEN HE SAID, THAT IS WHY.
THEN CAME THE KING, HE LOOKED AT HIM AND CAME DOWN FROM
HIS ELEPHANT AND SAID, SINCE WHEN HAVE YOU BEEN
STRETCHING YOUR LEGS LIKE THAT? AND HE SAID, SINCE I HAVE
FOLDED MY ARMS, WHICH MEANS, SINCE I DO NOT REQUEST
ANYTHING FROM LIFE I DO NOT HAVE TO SHOW RESPECT FOR
OUTER AUTHORITY, LIKE DIOGENES, YOU KNOW.
AND THEN HE SAID: THAT IS WHY.
IT'S BECAUSE THE POLICEMAN THOUGHT THE WAY HE DID THAT
HE WAS A POLICEMAN; IT'S BECAUSE THE OFFICER THOUGHT THE
WAY HE DID THAT HE THOUGHT OF LAWS, IT WAS A RULE, YOU
SEE, THAT'S WHY HE WAS AN OFFICER; IT'S BECAUSE THE MINIS-
TER THOUGHT THE WAY HE DID THAT HE THOUGHT OF COURTESY,
SOMETHING MORE THAN RULES, THAT HE SAID WHAT HE DID, AND
IT'S BECAUSE THE KING THOUGHT THE WAY HE DID, TRYING TO
UNDERSTAND THE WAY OF THINKING OF THAT MAN, THAT HE WAS
A KING. THAT'S WHY HE SAID, THAT IS WHY.
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Re: Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:39 am

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PREPARATION

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IT IS IMPORTANT TO SET ASIDE DEFINITE TIMES FOR MEDITATION
EVERY DAY, SAY ONE SESSION IN THE MORNING AND ONE IN THE
EVENING, WITH A SHORT BREAK MIDDAY, AND KEEP TO THOSE
TIMES, ADJUSTING ONE'S LIFE ACCORDINGLY. ONE SHOULD ALSO
LAY DOWN A DEFINITE SCHEDULE OF PRACTICES FOR EACH SES-
SION, NOTE IT DOWN CAREFULLY, AND ABIDE BY IT. IF, HOWEVER,
YOU ARE LED INTO A STATE OF ECSTASY, THEN FOLLOW YOUR
INNER GUIDANCE WHICH MANIFESTS IN THE FORM OF INTUITION,
AND LET YOURSELF BE CARRIED WHEREVER IT LEADS YOU UNTIL
THE ENERGY IS EXHAUSTED, THEN REVERT BACK TO YOUR
SCHEDULE, TIME PERMITTING. GIVE YOURSELF AN AUTOSUGGES-
TION AS TO THE TIME YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO TERMINATE YOUR
MEDITATION; IT WILL WORK LIKE CLOCKWORK, ONCE YOU HAVE
TRAINED YOURSELF TO DO IT. ALWAYS PRECEDE A SESSION WITH
PHYSICAL RELAXATION EXERCISES OR YOGA ASANAS AND BANDAS.
IF YOU FIND IT DIFFICULT TO SIT CROSS-LEGGED, YOU MAY HELP
YOURSELF BY RESTING YOUR SEAT ON A PILLOW OR A MEDITATION
CUSHION WHICH WILL RAISE YOUR SEAT FROM TWO TO THREE
INCHES OFF THE FLOOR. ONCE A BALANCED POSITION HAS BEEN
FOUND, AVOID ALL MOVEMENT OF THE BODY, AS IT WILL DRAW
CONSCIOUSNESS BACK INTO BODY CONSCIOUSNESS.
THE IMMOBILITY OF THE BODY, CONTRASTING WITH THE MOTION
OUTSIDE, WILL IMPRINT IMMOBILITY ON THE MIND,
PROMOTING CONCENTRATION.

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THE INITIAL STEP IN MEDITATION CONSISTS IN WITHDRAWING
ONE'S ATTENTION FROM THE AMBIENT WORLD, IN ORDER TO FREE
CONSCIOUSNESS FROM OUTSIDE IMPRESSIONS. SO FIRST OF ALL YOU
WITHDRAW YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS FROM THE IMPRESSIONS OF YOUR
SENSES BY AN ATTITUDE OF DETACHMENT AND INDIFFERENCE.
IF SOMEBODY IS HAMMERING, FOR EXAMPLE, YOU DON'T ALLOW
YOURSELF TO BE DRAWN INTO IT; YOU WITHDRAW FROM IT, AND
THE SOUND SEEMS TO COME FROM FURTHER AND FURTHER AWAY,
UNTIL IT SEEMS UNREAL, THE PHYSICAL WORLD AROUND YOU SEEMS
TO BE UNREAL ... AND THAT IS WHEN YOU DISCOVER
THAT IT IS MAYA, IT IS AN ILLUSION.

THIS IS NOT PHILOSOPHY, IT [IS] SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS,
THAT YOU EXPERIENCE.

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THE WAY OF DETACHING YOURSELF FROM PHYSICAL REALITY IS BY
TONING DOWN YOUR EMOTIONS.
THE LINK THAT HOLDS ONE IN SUBJECTION TO THE IMPRESSIONS
OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD
IS OUR EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO EXPERIENCE:
WE WANT EXCITEMENT
STIMULATION
A LOT OF THINGS HAPPENING AND GOING ON AND SO FORTH.
SO LONG AS WE ARE CRAVING OR EXPERIENCING THESE THINGS WE
CANNOT EXPERIENCE ANY HIGHER REALITY.

EXPERIENCE THE WAY THAT WHATEVER YOU HEAR AND
WHATEVER YOU SEE DRAWS YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS DOWN INTO THE
PHYSICAL BODY, DRAWS CONSCIOUSNESS INTO THE CENTER,
WHICH GIVES THE SENSE OF EGO IDENTITY. LISTEN FOR SOUND
AND WATCH THE WAY YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS BROUGHT DOWN
INTO YOUR EARS AND RIGHT OVER INTO THE SOURCE OF THE
SOUND, THE WAY CONSCIOUSNESS IS PULLED DOWN BY
PERCEPTION.

NOW SENSE THE EFFECT OF BUOYANCY UPON YOUR CONSCIOUS-
NESS AS IT REFUSES TO GIVE IN TO THE GRAVITY PULL OF PERCEP-
TION, DECENTERING ITSELF FROM ITS FOCAL CENTER, WHEREIN
LIES THE SENSE OF PHYSICAL I-NESS.

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THE KEY ENABLING ONE TO WITHDRAW FROM PHYSICAL PERCEP-
TION AND THE MENTAL REGURGITATION OF PERCEPTION LIES IN
THE REALM OF EMOTIONS: THE HOLD OF PHYSICAL IMPRESSIONS
ON CONSCIOUSNESS IS DUE TO OUR EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO
OR INVOLVEMENT WITH PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE, WITH A RESULT
THAT WE ARE DELIVERED UNTO THE CONDITIONING
OF THE AMBIENT WORLD.
WITHDRAW YOURSELF WITH THIS THOUGHT:

I DON'T WANT TO BE CALLED UPON
HERE AND THERE
BY ALL THESE IMPRESSIONS
I WANT TO BE FREE

I WANT TO BE FREE

REFUSE TO BE CONDITIONED: OUR DESIRE TO FREE OURSELVES
FROM ALL CONDITIONING WILL HAVE THE IMMEDIATE EFFECT OF
COOLING DOWN OUR EMOTIONAL CONDITIONING, PASSING FROM
JOY TO PEACE.
BUDDHIST MONKS SPEAK OF
ENSHROUDING ONESELF WITH A ZONE OF SILENCE
AND PLACING A SENTINEL AT THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION.

DETACHMENT

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YOU REACH A STATE OF TIMELESSNESS.
THE SOUND OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD SEEMS TO
BELONG TO THE REALM OF TIME
-- SOMETHING THAT IS GOING ON --

YOU ARE CONSCIOUS OF YOUR STILLNESS, WHICH IS TIMELESS,
SO THAT THAT WHICH IS GOING ON DOESN'T SEEM IMPORTANT,
BECAUSE YOU ARE LIVING IN YOUR TIMELESSNESS. THE PHYSICAL
WORLD SEEMS TO BE MOVING FURTHER AND FURTHER AWAY, SO
THAT YOU DON'T FEEL ANY MORE THAT YOU ARE THERE, THAT IS,
YOU OVERCOME THE IDEA OF BEING IN A PARTICULAR PLACE
IN SPACE.
WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE PHYSICAL PLANE
IS IN A DIFFERENT PLACE THAN THE SPACE WHERE YOU ARE

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IN CLOSING THE DOOR OF ONE'S ROOM, ONE BIDS FAREWELL TO
BODY CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS, THAT IS, NOT
ONLY DOES ONE ABANDON THE BODY TO THE CARE OF THE
AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM THAT TAKES CARE OF ITS
PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS, BUT ONE ABANDONS THE MIND, THAT
WONDERFUL COMPUTER, TO ITS INFALLIBLE AUTOMATION.

YOU CAN SEE THAT ALL THOSE THINGS THAT WERE TAKING PLACE
ON THE PHYSICAL PLANE HAVE LEFT THEIR MARK ON THE MIND
AND YOU RE-EXPERIENCE IT ALL AGAIN IN THE MIND, AND SO HERE
AGAIN YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS DRAWN INTO THE MIASMA OF
IMAGES, AND YOU WANT TO BE FREE OF THOSE IMAGES.

AND THEREFORE YOU ADOPT THE SAME ATTITUDE OF
DETACHMENT TOWARDS THE MIND THAT YOU DID
TOWARDS THE PHYSICAL WORLD.

BE AWARE OF THE GRAVITY PULL OF THOUGHTS UPON YOUR
CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE EMOTIONS THAT BIND YOUR CON-
SCIOUSNESS TO THESE IMPRESSIONS. YOU HAVE TO BECOME
EMOTIONALLY DETACHED BY ENJOYING THAT WONDERFUL
FEELING OF FREEDOM, DETACHMENT, INDIFFERENCE BEYOND THE
BEYOND, BEYOND ALL CREATED THINGS.

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DO NOT TRY TO ARREST THE FLOW OF THOUGHT
WHICH IS A FORCE OF LIFE ENDOWED WITH ITS OWN PURPOSE AND
FULFILLMENT
BUT LET THE UNCONSCIOUS TAKE CARE OF THE THOUGHTS
GLEANED BY EGO CONSCIOUSNESS,
OUT OF FOCUS OF YOUR PRESENT FIELD OF AWARENESS.
YOU ARE VAGUELY AWARE
OF THE CONTINUOUS IMPINGING OF THOUGHTS AND IMAGES
FROM THE UNKNOWN DEPTHS
INTO THE TWILIGHT AREA OF YOUR PRESENT FOCUS.

EVEN AS YOU ARE REMOTELY AWARE OF
THE QUAKINGS OF THE PHYSICAL SCENE,

TO SHIFT YOUR FOCUS
WHICH MUST BE FIXED
BY THE FULL THRUST
OF YOUR ASPIRATION,
ENTHUSIASM

AND
NOSTALGIA.

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ALLOW YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS TO BE DRAWN HIGHER
AND HIGHER
FEEL THE BUOYANCY OF THE HIGHER SPHERES
LIFTING
YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS AWAY FROM THE GRAVITY OF THE EARTH
THAT HOLDS DOWN THE BODY
THE GRAVITY OF EGO IDENTITY THAT COERCES THOUGHTS
AND EMOTIONS

SURRENDER TO THE LONGING OF YOUR SOUL
THE YEARNING FOR THE PERFECTION IN ECSTASY
IN RAPTURE
FEEL YOURSELF FLOATING AWAY ON YOUR BREATH
YOU MAY FEEL AS THOUGH YOU WERE A KITE
AND YOUR BREATH IS THE WIND THAT IS BLOWING AGAINST THE
SAILS
BEARING UP YOUR WINGS
YOU BECOME VERY LIGHT AND FREE AND BREAK AWAY FROM THE
MOORINGS

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The being of Man having now made some development, a certain solidity or INNER FOUNDATION is established during the next stage. Emblem 9 (I am freed) shows the heart being freed by the hand of the spirit from entanglement in the earthly realm.

-- The Rosicrucian Emblems of Daniel Cramer


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EXPERIENCE YOURSELF IN YOUR REALITY
EXPERIENCE YOURSELF BEING CREATED
EXPERIENCE YOURSELF BEING FORMED
EXPERIENCE REALITY BECOMING YOURSELF
AND THEN LOSE YOURSELF BECOMING REALITY
BECOME CRYSTAL CLEAR
A MOUNTAIN STREAM OF CRYSTAL CLEAR WATER
FLOWING OUT OF ITS SOURCE
GLISTENING IN THE SUN
DOWNRUSH OF DIVINE POTENTIALITY
FLOWING THROUGH YOU
IN YOU
INTO YOU
OUT OF YOU
THOUGHTS EMOTIONS WORDS DEEDS
LOOK AT ALL BEINGS FROM THAT VANTAGE POINT.
THEY ALL SEEM LIKE STREAMS
FLOWING FROM THE SOURCE OF THE WATER OF LIFE,
THE LUMINOUS REALITY OF WHICH THE PHYSICAL WORLD IS BUT A DIM REFLECTION.

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THE SECRET OF MAINTAINING YOURSELF IN EQUIPOISE, IN SUSPEN-
SION ABOVE BECOMING, IS AN EMOTION THAT HAS BECOME AB-
SOLUTELY SUBLIME, IMPERSONAL, COSMIC. IMAGINE THE EMO-
TION THAT SETS THE STARS IN MOTION, THAT MOLDS THE MATTER
OF THE CHAINS OF LIGHT INTO TEMPLES OF LIGHT, THAT GATHERS
THE CLOUDS INTO PATTERNS OF SHEER SPLENDOR AT SUNRISE ...
A COSMIC EMOTION YOU PICK UP FROM OUTER SPACE,
YOU VIBRATE IN RESONANCE WITH IT.
CONSCIOUSNESS BECOMES VASTER AND VASTER
ENCOMPASSING WIDER AND WIDER FIELDS.
YOU ARE PART OF THE BLUE SKY AND THE SAP RISING IN THE TREES
AND THE MOTION OF THE PLANETS AROUND THE SUN, THE ELEC-
TRONS AROUND THE NUCLEI OF THE ATOMS OF THE MOLECULES.
THE TIDAL WAVES OF THE EMOTION OF THE PLEORAMA PLAY UPON
THE AEOLIAN HARP OF YOUR BEING ... ALL BEING ...

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YOU ARE THE COSMOS
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Re: Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:48 am

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THEORY

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OUR OBJECTIVE IN MEDITATION IS UNFOLDMENT
INCORPORATING EVER FURTHER RICHNESS OF THE UNIVERSE
INTO OUR BEINGS.
TO INCORPORATE THIS RICHNESS WE HAVE TO EXPERIENCE IT, AND
WE CANNOT EXPERIENCE IT SO LONG AS WE ARE SNOWED UNDER
BY THE INVASION OF INDISCRIMINATE PERCEPTIONS FROM ALL
SIDES, SUBJECTED TO THE FANCIFUL CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE
UNCONTROLLED MIND, OUR HEARTS CHURNED BY THE EMOTIONS
THEY AROUSE IF NOT PROTECTED BY DETACHMENT.
WE ORDINARILY INTUIT THESE HIGHER DIMENSIONS OF REALITY
WE AIM AT EXPERIENCING, AND THEN DISMISS THEM, AS OUR
MINDS ARE NOT, UNLESS TRAINED,
GEARED TO ACCOMMODATE THEM.
TO EXPERIENCE THEM FULLY WE MUST WORK WITH CONSCIOUS-
NESS, SHIFTING ITS FOCUS, ITS CENTER, EVEN DECENTERING IT,
AND MUST HAVE THE COURAGE TO QUESTION THE VERY CONCEPTS
AND NOTIONS WE MOST TAKE FOR GRANTED:
'I AM MY CONSCIOUSNESS' ' SEEING IS BELIEVING'
'THE OBJECT IS THERE'

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1953 JULY 19

AT FIRST WE PROTECT CONSCIOUSNESS IN ITS GRASP OF TWILIGHT
AREAS OF AWARENESS FROM THE FULL GLARE OF PHYSICAL
REALITY, ONLY TO INCORPORATE THE LATTER INTO A WIDER PIC-
TURE OF THE WORLD, ONCE THE EXPERIENCE OF THE VALUES
THAT LIE BEYOND PHYSICAL REALITY HAVE BEEN SUFFICIENTLY
SECURED TO SUBSIST IN OUR CONSCIOUSNESS ALONGSIDE THE
PHYSICAL STRATUM THAT NOW SEEMS LIKE ITS PROJECTION.

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THE PHYSICAL SCENE NOW LOOKS SOMEWHAT LIKE THE GROUND
SCENE OBSERVED FROM AN AIRPLANE
THROUGH THE LATTICE-WORK OF THE CLOUDS:
SUPER-IMPOSED IMAGES OF THE SAME THING
LIKE ICE, WATER, STEAM
CAPTURED AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DENSITY ...
A SYMPHONY OF LIGHT PETRIFIED INTO A CRYSTAL
WHERE ONE SEES SIMULTANEOUSLY THE DYNAMIC AND STATIC
STATE OF THE SAME THING.

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WHAT WE GENERALLY EXPERIENCE IS THE WAY REALITY APPEARS
TO CONSCIOUSNESS INDIVIDUATED, FOCUSED BY
THE NOTION OF THE 'SELF.'
A ROPE IN A CERTAIN FOCUS LOOKS LIKE A SNAKE.

SHOULD WE TAKE OURSELVES TO BE A CONSCIOUSNESS, WE
BELIEVE THAT WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR IS REALITY.
IF WE ARE ABLE TO SENSE THAT WHAT WE TAKE TO BE
OUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS BUT A
TEMPORARY AND CHANGING EDDY IN THE SEA OF CONSCIOUSNESS,
WE WILL NO LONGER BE TAKEN IN BY THE WAY THINGS APPEAR,
WITH THE RESULT THAT WE SHALL INDEED SEE THE ROPE, YET WE
WILL STILL SEE HOW IT COULD AND INDEED DID
AND WHAT IS MORE STILL DOES LOOK
LIKE A SNAKE.
WE CAN NOW SEE BOTH THE ROPE AND THE SNAKE
IN THE SAME TAKE;
WE WITHDRAW CONSCIOUSNESS FROM PHYSICAL REALITY
ONTO TO REINTEGRATE IT LATER.

EVEN ATOMS AND ELECTRONS AND CELLS BEHAVE AS THOUGH
ENDOWED WITH SOME ELEMENTARY CONSCIOUSNESS. WHEN
THE CELLS OF THE BODY ARE ORGANIZED INTO AN INTERRELATED
ORGANISM BY THE CENTRALIZING ACTION OF THAT COMPLEX
NETWORK OF COMMUNICATIONS, THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, CONS-
SCIOUSNESS FUNCTIONS AS BODY CONSCIOUSNESS; WHEN THE FOR-
WARD PROCESSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS BREAKS THROUGH TO THE
MENTAL LEVEL, THERE IS MIND CONSCIOUSNESS; AND THE SAME
FORWARD MARCH PROCEEDS FURTHER FROM LEVEL TO LEVEL.

WHAT WE ASSUME TO BE OUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS A COORDINATION
OF ALL LEVELS WITH EMPHASIS OF FOCUS ON ONE IN PARTICULAR
TOGETHER WITH A CERTAIN OVERLAP.

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THUS, EVEN AS CELL CONSCIOUSNESS IS OVERRIDDEN BY BODY
CONSCIOUSNESS, BODY CONSCIOUSNESS IS THROWN OUT OF FOCUS
WHEN ONE CONCENTRATES INTENSELY ON MENTAL ACTIVITY.
SIMILARLY, MENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS PETERS OUT WHEN ONE
FOCUSES ONE'S ATTENTION UPON INFINITY OR PERFECTION,
TRANSCENDENTAL VALUES. A CONTINUITY CAN BE MAINTAINED
ALTHOUGH GRADUALLY, EACH LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS
PASSES OUT OF FOCUS TO GIVE WAY TO THE NEXT,
EACH IS LINKED TO EVERY OTHER BY
THE ARIADNEAN THREAD OF MEMORY

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IN MEDITATION YOU REMEMBER HAVING THOUGHT OF YOURSELF
AS THE PERSONALITY
YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE
NOW TO DISCOVER
THE FRONTIERS OF YOUR BEING SEEM TO MERGE
MORE AND MORE
INTO THE TOTALITY

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MEDITATION CONSISTS IN CONDUCTING CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND
THE POINT WHERE IT IS THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF A FINITE BODY OR
A FINITE MIND, TRANSFERRING THE FOCUS FROM LEVEL TO LEVEL
WITHOUT LOSING ITS CONTINUITY OR FORM.
SINCE IT IS THAT WHICH IS EXPERIENCED THAT HOLDS OVERALL
CONSCIOUSNESS TO A FOCAL CENTER, AS A SOUND DRAWS CON-
SCIOUSNESS TO THE EAR DRUMS, SHOULD ONE DEPRIVE
CONSCIOUSNESS OF ITS OBJECT OF EXPERIENCE
BY WITHDRAWING IT,
THE EGO CENTER WOULD DISSOLVE.
CONSEQUENTLY, WHATEVER IS EXPERIENCED BY CONSCIOUSNESS
LIFTED TO LOFTY LEVELS COULD NOT BE RECOLLECTED BY EGO
CONSCIOUSNESS -- IN THE EVENT THAT THE LATTER SHOULD BE
RECALLED INTO FOCUS BY THE IMPINGING OF A FRESH OBJECTIVE
EXPERIENCE -- UNLESS ONE MAINTAINED THE LINES OF
COMMUNICATION OPEN BY AVOIDING LOSING SIGHT
OF THE EGO CENTER ALTOGETHER.

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ONE HAS TO SUBSTITUTE SUCCESSIVELY EVER SUBTLER OBJECTS TO
THE PREVIOUS ONES
WHILE CONSCIOUSNESS ASSUMES EVER MORE
COSMIC DIMENSIONS
THUS MAINTAINING A CONTINUITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS PASSING
FROM LEVEL TO LEVEL INTO THE ABSOLUTE.

CONSEQUENTLY, THE METHODS USED IN MEDITATION WILL CON-
SIST IN REPLACING CONCENTRATION ON A PHYSICAL OBJECT BY
CONCENTRATION ON AN IMAGE PROJECTED CREATIVELY
THROUGH ONE, AS IT WERE, FROM THE INTUITION OF COSMIC
ARCHETYPES, THEN REPLACING THE CONTEMPLATION OF AN AT-
TRIBUTE OR QUALITY BY THAT OF ITS ARCHETYPE, THEN REPLACING
ONE'S MEDITATION ON EXISTENCE BY THAT OF BEING, AND SO ON.
THE CONSEQUENCE WILL BE THAT AT EACH STAGE A HIGHER
STRATUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS TAKES OVER.

AT THIS STAGE IT IS OPPORTUNE TO CONSOLIDATE THE INTERNAL
SHIFT BY LOCKING THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM INTO ITS
ANABOLIC SETTING, IN CONTRAST TO THE CATABOLIC SETTING
THAT PROMOTES ACTION AND CONCRETE THOUGHT GOVERNED BY
THE OPTICS OF THE SUBJECT-OBJECT DICHOTOMY.

BUDDHA LIKENS CONSCIOUSNESS TO A FLAME
PASSING FROM ONE LOG TO ANOTHER
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Re: Toward the One, by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Postby admin » Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:48 am

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NEW AGE PRACTICES IN MEDITATION

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WHATEVER THE NEW AGE MEANS,
IT CERTAINLY CARRIES IN ITS INEVITABLE FORWARD MARCH
A BREEZE OF HOPEFULNESS.

THE CONQUEST OF OUTER SPACE
IS A SYMPTOM OF SOMETHING THAT IS HAPPENING
TO OUR CONSCIOUSNESS.

THE PRESSING ADVANCE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF MANKIND,
THAT COMPOSITE BEING WE ALL ARE, HAVING EMERGED FROM ITS
GEOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WELLSPRINGS, SEEMS TO HAVE
BROKEN THROUGH A FURTHER THRESHOLD OF MATURITY
INTO NEW DIMENSIONS OF THE MIND.

FROM THE MOMENT WE SET FOOT UPON THE MOON, A NEW VAN-
TAGE POINT FROM WHICH TO SEE THE EARTH, WE WERE UNWIT-
TINGLY FACED WITH A NEW WAY OF THINKING OF THE PLANET
AND CONSEQUENTLY OF OURSELVES: THAT IS, WITH
THE PERSPECTIVE OF OBJECTIVITY.

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WHENEVER, AT RAPT MOMENTS, OUR NOSTALGIA FOR WIDE
HORIZONS REDEEMS OUR THINKING FROM THE NARROWNESS OF
OUR IMMEDIATE SURROUNDINGS, OUR HEART LEAPS AS WE EN-
VISION OURSELVES, NOT ONLY AS A CELL IN THAT COMPOSITE BODY
THAT IS THE PLANET, BUT AS INDISSOLUBLY ENMESHED IN THE
GALAXIES. MORE SO: A STAGE, AND FURTHER, A CONTRIBUTING
FACTOR IN THE GROWTH, NOT ONLY OF PLANET EARTH,
BUT OF THE UNIVERSE.
STAGGERING THOUGHTS ROCK OUR MINDS'
UNDERSTANDING!

THAT UNDERSTANDING THAT WE HAD ALWAYS TAKEN TO BE SO
SELF-EVIDENT NOW SHOWS ITSELF TO VARY ACCORDING TO THE
VANTAGE POINT, SETTING AND ORIENTATION OF
THAT INTANGIBLE: CONSCIOUSNESS.

SOME DIFFERENCE, INDEED, BETWEEN THE WORM'S EYE VIEW
AND THE EAGLE'S!
BUT WHAT MUST THE DIFFERENCE BE BETWEEN
THE ATOM'S PURVIEW AND THE SUN'S MIGHTY OPTICAL TAKE
OF THE SIDEREAL DRAMA.

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THAT VERY SAME CONSCIOUSNESS, WHICH SHINES THROUGH THESE
EYES UPON ALL CREATURES WITHIN THEIR REACH, HAS BEEN
HANDED DOWN FROM ONE CREATURE TO ANOTHER LIKE A FLAME
FROM LOG TO LOG SINCE THE EARLY STIRRINGS OF THE ATOMS
INSIDE THE ROCKS RIGHT BACK IN THE PRE-CAMBRIAN AGE, LONG
BEFORE THE PLANET SPROUTED ITS SHEATH OF GREEN VEGETA-
TION, THAT VERY SAME CONSCIOUSNESS IS IN OUR AGE THREADED
THROUGH THE GIANT TELESCOPE AND THE HIGHLY SENSITIZED
SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT. IT IS CATAPULTED ON DEXTROUS HUMAN
ANTENNAE -- LUNAR, PLANETARY, AND SOLAR PROBES -- INTO THE
LONG BODY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, WHICH IS OUR
SPIRAL MOVEMENT
THROUGH THE WHIRLING ECSTASY OF THE UNIVERSE.

THE STARS WILL SEEM TO THE UNTRAINED BUT A SPRINKLING OF
SPOTS OF LIGHT SCATTERED OVER WIDE STRETCHES OF SPACE,
EXCEPT WHEN THAT INTERNAL INSTRUMENT, THE USUALLY COARSELY
CONDITIONED MIND, IS SUBJECTED TO ELABORATE TRAINING IN
VIEW OF ADAPTING IT TO THE WIDER HORIZONS OF AWARENESS.

CONSIDER WHAT SKILLFUL DISCIPLINE OF THOUGHT HAS LED THE
WORLD'S MOST BRILLIANT MINDS TO GLEAN THE HARMONIC LAWS
GOVERNING THE ORBITING, VELOCITY, DENSITY, COMPOSITION
AND RADIATION OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES! NOW GAUGE WHAT
ALL-ENCOMPASSING AND ALL-INTEGRATING VISION, WHAT IN-
CISIVE PENETRATION, WHAT AESTHETIC SENSITIVITY, WHAT
GENIAL INTELLIGENCE IT WOULD TAKE FOR A SUPERHUMAN
CONSCIOUSNESS TO COMPUTE THESE MILLIONFOLD HARMONIC
DATA IN THE LIGHT OF PYTHAGORAS' COSMIC MATHEMATICAL
GUIDELINES INTO AN INNER EXPERIENCE OF
THE SYMPHONY OF THE SPHERES!

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QUANTUM LEAP

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THAT VERY SELF-SAME CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH HAS WOUND ITS
WAY INTO OUTER SPACE HAS EQUALLY GAINED ACCESS, THROUGH
THE MICROSCOPE AND THE OSCILLOSCOPE, INTO THE HARMONIC
GYRATIONS OF THE ELECTRONS AND PROTONS WITHIN THE ATOM
AND THE SEETHING PROLIFERATIONS OF THE LIVING CELLS
GROWING WITHIN THE BODY, ALL OBEYING THE SAME LAW AND
DISPLAYING THE SAME HARMONY AS THE CHOREOGRAPHY
AT THE MACROSCOPIC SCALE!
THE OUTCOME OF THIS INEXORABLE ADVANCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
IS SHATTERING OUR INFANTILE EVERYDAY CONCEPTS OF WHAT WE
MEAN BY ME AND YOU, FORCING OUR MINDS TO AWAKEN TO
THE MESSAGE OF UNITY.

HOW CAN SOMETHING SO AWE-INSPIRINGLY COSMIC, SO
INALIENABLE FROM ITS MILIEU AS THIS BODY, LET ALONE THIS
MIND, A PHASE IN A GROWTH PROCESS, BE LABELLED ME? IMAGINE:
THE CONCEPT OF I-NESS, THE AXIS OF ALL OUR SYLLOGISTIC LOGIC
OF THE AGES, UPON WHICH WE HAVE UNQUESTIONABLY RELIED
FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL AND WHICH HAS SERVED US IN SUCH
GOOD STEAD, PROVES ITSELF, AS CONSCIOUSNESS WIDENS,
TO BE VALID ONLY WITHIN A VERY NARROW SCALE.

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NEW DIMENSIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

THE HORIZON OF I-NESS INVARIABLY RECEDES BEFORE THE
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSION OF AWARENESS:

AS HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS PASSES THE THRESHOLD OF REFLEC-
TION, IT TURNS UPON ITSELF, LOOKING UPON THE BODY, THE MIND,
AND ITS OWN INDIVIDUATION NO LONGER AS THE SUBJECT, BUT AS
THE OBJECT. AS CONSCIOUSNESS AWAKENS INTO THOSE WIDER
HORIZONS OF AWARENESS TOWARDS WHICH IT IS IRRETRIEVABLY
ADVANCING, ONE LOOKS UPON ALL THAT ONE NATURALLY ASSUMED
TO BE THE SELF WITH THE OBJECTIVITY OF ONE WHO HAS SHAKEN
OFF A NARROW SCALE OF VALUES AND ENVISIONS
WHAT ONE THOUGHT TO BE THAT ENTITY.
ONE EXPERIENCES ONESELF BEING
AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE UNFOLDMENT OF THE PLANET
AND THE INTER-GALACTIC REALITY.
THE ATTRIBUTION OF I-NESS MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER.

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WHAT IS HERE IS ELSEWHERE

WHAT IS NOT HERE IS NOWHERE

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IN FACT, CONSCIOUSNESS, OR RATHER THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE
PLANET THROUGH ITS POINT OMEGA, THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF
MANKIND AS A TOTALITY, IS BEGINNING TO TAKE STOCK OF ITSELF
AS THE BREAKTHROUGH OF SOME IMPONDERABLE SENSITIVITY,
BREAKING INTO EDDIES OF INDIVIDUATED AWARENESS, DIMLY
DETECTED IN THE MINERAL, IN THE ALIGNMENT OF MOLECULES
INTO STRUCTURES, OBEYING COSMIC LAWS AS IN THE CRYSTAL;
AWAKENING IN THE PLANT, OBSERVABLE IN THE UNCANNY SENSI-
TIVITY OF THE RUDIMENTARY ELECTRO-CHEMICAL NERVOUS SYS-
TEMS OF PLANTS; FINALLY TO EMERGE IN BEINGS EQUIPPED WITH
ELABORATELY CELEBRATED NERVOUS SYSTEMS; AND ARISING
HIGH AND BRIGHT AND PARAMOUNT
IN THE ADAMANTINE PERSPICACITY OF THAT MUCH COVETED STATE,
RARELY ATTAINED BY HUMAN BEINGS, CALLED
ENLIGHTENMENT.

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WHAT DO WE KNOW OF ELUSIVE, INTANGIBLE CONSCIOUSNESS?
WE HAVE DISPLACED ITS CENTER IN SPACE, WE HAVE APPLIED TO
IT A TELESCOPIC AND A MICROSCOPIC LENS. WE SHALL NOW EQUIP
IT WITH A PARABOLIC AND A PANORAMIC LENS ENABLING IT TO
SEE 360º OR EVEN PULVERIZE ITS CENTER INTO
A LEGION OF VANTAGE POINTS.

CONSCIOUSNESS OPERATES PERCEPTION IN THE HUMAN BEING BY
CENTERING ITSELF IN A HIGHLY CONVERGENT FOCAL POINT, BUT
FROM THIS SETTING CAN ONLY PERCEIVE THE SURFACE APPEAR-
ANCE. WHEN PITTING OUR POWER OF CONCENTRATION AGAINST
REALITY, WE ARE BAFFLED TO DISCOVER HOW LITTLE OF THE
MULTI-DIMENSIONAL RICHNESS OF REALITY IS ACTUALLY
REGISTERED BY OUR ORDINARY EXPERIENCE.

IN OUR USUAL WAY
WE ONLY GLOSS A THIN VENEER OF THESE THINGS
OR RATHER BEINGS
-- THERE ARE ONLY BEINGS --
WE CONTINUALLY CROSS LIKE SHIPS IN THE NIGHT

CONSCIOUSNESS IS

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EQUIPPED WITH A SCREEN
PROTECTING ONE FROM A PLETHORA OF IMPRESSIONS
WE COULD NOT ASSIMILATE BY FILTERING
THROUGH THE MORE OBVIOUS FILTERS.

YET TECHNIQUES ARE AVAILABLE WHICH ENABLE ONE TO
INCREASE ONE'S POWER OF CONCENTRATION TO THE EXTENT OF
BEING ABLE TO DISCOVER GREATER RICHNESS IN REALITY IN
THOSE AREAS ONE PRE-SELECTS, WHILE CUTTING OUT UNWANTED
PERCEPTION. WHAT A DIFFERENCE EXISTS BETWEEN JUST
LOOKING AT A FLOWER AND THE EXPERIENCE OF SCANNING
EVERY MINUTE DETAIL OF STRUCTURE IN THE FLOWER,
INCLUDING INNER STRUCTURES WITHIN OUTLINE STRUCTURES
AND SO ON INTO INFINITESIMAL DETAILS!

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CONVERSELY, CONSCIOUSNESS CAN DECENTRALIZE ITSELF,
SCATTERING ITS CENTER IN THE COSMOS.
THE SENSE OF LOCALIZATION CAN BECOME SO TRANSFORMED
ONE FEELS AS THOUGH ONE'S CENTER WERE EVERYWHERE
ONE'S CIRCUMFERENCE NOWHERE

IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO WALK UPON
THE STARRY COSMOS
TO ARRIVE AT SEVERAL MULTI-DIMENSIONAL VANTAGE POINTS
SIMULTANEOUSLY PROGRAMMED BY THE MIND.

THE "OTHERNESS" OF THE UNIVERSE IS DUE TO OUR TENDENCY
TO OBJECTIVIZE AND CONTRAST THE OBJECT
WITH OUR PRECONCEIVED IDEA OF OUR PERSON AS A SUBJECT.
BUT WHEN THE INTERCHANGE BETWEEN OUR PERSON
AND THE UNIVERSE
BECOMES TRANSFORMED
INTO AN INFLOW OF THE UNIVERSE IN US
AND A PROJECTION OF OURSELVES INTO THE UNIVERSE

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THEN THE ABYSS BETWEEN SUBJECT AND OBJECT
BEGINS TO BE BRIDGED OVER:
EXPERIENCE IS TRANSFORMED INTO COMMUNION.
WHAT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN THE OBJECT OF OUR COGNIZANCE IS
TRANSFIGURED
FORMS ALLOW THEIR INSIDE LINKING TO
TRANSPIRE
SITUATIONS ALLOW A HIDDEN MEANING TO
TRANSPIRE THROUGH THEM.
SUCH IS THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE OBJECT BY THE LIGHT
FLOWING FROM THE SUBJECT, DISCOVERING THE DEPTH RATHER
THAN STOPPING AT THE APPEARANCE.

ON THE OTHER HAND, WHAT SEEMED TO BE THE SUBJECT ALSO
UNDERGOES TRANSFORMATION, SO THAT THAT WHICH AT FIRST
WE IDENTIFIED AS OURSELVES
ALLOWS THE GREATER SELF TO COME THROUGH.

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IT IS A MATTER OF MODULATING THE SETTING OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
WHEN WE NO MORE LIMIT OUR NOTION OF OURSELVES
WITHIN THE REACHES OF AN INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS,
THEN THE EXPERIENCE OF I-IT IS TRANSFORMED INTO THE
COMMUNION OF AN I-THOU RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DIVINE
PRESENCE. BY MERGING ONE'S EGO INTO THE EGO OF OTHER BE-
INGS, THEIR RICHNESS ACCRUES TO ONE'S PERSONALITY, SO THAT
ONE DISCOVERS ONESELF IN THEM AND THEM IN ONESELF
IN AN EXCITING INTERPLAY OF CREATURES WHEREBY
GOD MEETS HIMSELF IN THE ENCOUNTER
OF EACH PART OF HIMSELF WITH EACH OTHER PART.

THE EXPERIENCE IN WHICH CONSCIOUSNESS IDENTIFIES ITSELF
WITH THE MIND IS CONCEPTION. IF ONE CAN EXTEND ONE'S
AWARENESS TO THE EXTENT OF IDENTIFYING ONESELF WITH A
GREATER REALITY OF WHICH THE MIND IS A PART, ONE CEASES TO
LIMIT ONESELF TO THE CONCEPTUAL THINKING OF THE INDI-
VIDUATED PART OF THE MIND AND ALLOWS THE HIGHER STRATA
OF THE MIND, WHOSE DIMENSIONS ARE COSMIC, TO TAKE OVER.
THUS ONE IS ABLE TO BRING INTO ACTION HIGHER MENTAL FUNC-
TIONS WHICH ARE GENERALLY INHIBITED BECAUSE ONE IS USED
TO THINKING OF ONESELF IN TERMS OF
A LIMITED INDIVIDUAL BEING.

IT WAS TEILHARD DE CHARDIN WHO POINTED OUT THAT THAT
WHICH TRIGGERED THE LEAP BETWEEN THE ANIMAL STAGE IN
THE PROCESS OF EVOLUTION TO THE HUMAN STAGE WAS THAT,
WHILE THE ANIMAL IS SIMPLY AWARE OF BEING, MAN IS ABLE TO
EXTEND HIS AWARENESS TO THE POINT OF COGNIZING HIMSELF AS
A BEING WHO IS PART OF A GREATER BEING.

A CELL OF THE BODY MAY BE AWARE OF ITSELF AS A CELL YET NOT
BE AWARE OF THE KINESTHETICS OF THE BODY. SUPPOSE THAT A
BODY CELL SHOULD INTUIT WITHIN ITSELF THE GENERAL
FEELING OF THE BODY. IT WOULD THEN PASS
FROM THE DIMENSION OF CELL CONSCIOUSNESS
TO THE DIMENSION OF BODY CONSCIOUSNESS.

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IT IS THIS INTUITION WHICH IS SPIRITUAL. IT WAS
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE WHICH DREW THE ANIMAL UPWARDS INTO
THE RANKS OF THE HUMAN. IT IS THIS EXPERIENCE WHICH MAY
LINK MAN AT HIS PRESENT STAGE OF EVOLUTION
TO NEW AGE CONSCIOUSNESS.

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THE KEY TO GROWTH IS THE INTRODUCTION OF
HIGHER DIMENSIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
INTO OUR AWARENESS.

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THIS SUDDEN ONRUSH
OF LUMINOUS CONSCIOUSNESS
BREAKS THROUGH THE MIST
WHICH HEMS OUR MINDS INTO PRECONCEIVED
PRISONS AND OPENS UP
AN INTENSE OSMOSIS
BETWEEN WHAT WE THOUGHT WAS OURSELVES
AND WHAT WE THOUGHT WAS THE UNIVERSE
SUDDENLY ENRICHING OUR PERSONALITY, WHICH IDENTIFIES
ITSELF WITH THE COSMOS AND INTEGRATES MORE AND MORE
OF THE COSMOS INTO ITSELF.

IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO INTRODUCE SUCH A RAREFIED FORM OF
CONSCIOUSNESS INTO THE COMPLEX OF OUR PERSONALITY, WE
MUST FIRST BE ABLE TO ISOLATE CONSCIOUSNESS FROM ITS
VARIOUS IDENTIFICATIONS WHICH WEIGH IT DOWN. THIS CAN ONLY
BE DONE BY BRINGING INTO ACTION THE FORCES OF DETACH-
MENT, WHICH ENABLE ONE TO APPREHEND REALITY OBJECTIVELY,
INSTEAD OF LOSING ONESELF TO THE POINT OF
NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES.

THIS IS MEDITATION

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CALL A HALT AND TAKE STOCK
PROCEED TO FREE CONSCIOUSNESS FROM ITS TRAPPINGS:
FREE CONSCIOUSNESS FROM IDENTIFICATION WITH THE BODY,
IDENTIFICATION WITH THE MIND,
IDENTIFICATION WITH THE EMOTIONS.
WHEN CONSCIOUSNESS IS EMPTIED OF OBJECTIVE CONTENT, IT BUTTS UP AGAINST
THE ROOT OF CONCEPT, WHICH IS THE EGO. THIS IS A CEILING WHICH MUST BE
TRANSFORMED INTO A THRESHOLD IF ONE IS TO AVOID BEING TRAPPED IN THE
IMPASSE OF TAUTOLOGY.
ONE CAN ONLY ASCEND FROM ONE LEVEL OF AWARENESS TO THE
NEXT BY ABANDONING THE VANTAGE POINT
OF THE PREVIOUS LEVEL.
WHEN CONSCIOUSNESS COGNIZES ITSELF AS THE OBJECT OF ITS
KNOWLEDGE, THE FORM OF CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH IS FUNC-
TIONING IDENTIFIES ITSELF WITH THE UNITY OF ONE'S ACT OF
EXISTENCE BEYOND THE VARIETY OF THE ATTRIBUTES OF ONE'S
PERSONALITY. THIS UNITY MAY OFTEN BE TAKEN TO BE THE UL-
TIMATE UNITY BEHIND THE DIVERSITY OF PERSONALITIES, WHICH
IT IS NOT. THEREFORE ONE CAN ONLY RISE ABOVE THE LIMITING
LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH IS OUR USUAL ONE, BY ALLOW-
ING THE CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH IS AWARE OF ITSELF AS BEING
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF ALL BEINGS TO TAKE OVER. THIS CAN
ONLY BE ACHIEVED BY CONSIDERING THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF
ONE'S INDIVIDUALITY TO BE A PART OF THE TOTAL CONSCIOUS-
NESS. IT FOLLOWS THAT ASCENSION TO HIGHER DIMENSIONS OF
THOUGHT REQUIRES OUR INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS TO FOREGO
ITS IDENTIFICATION WITH THE CONCEPT OF INDIVIDUALITY AND
ALLOW THIS WIDER CONSCIOUSNESS TO FUNCTION THROUGH IT.
CONSCIOUSNESS IN ITS FULL COSMIC BREADTH FUNCTIONS DIF-
FERENTLY FROM CONSCIOUSNESS LIMITED BY THE CONCEPT OF THE
INDIVIDUAL IN THAT IT DOES NOT APPREHEND PHYSICAL REALITY
AS SUCH BUT RATHER AS A MODE THROUGH WHICH THE GREATER
REALITY APPEARS:
AND IT APPREHENDS THIS GREATER REALITY DIRECTLY.

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EXTEND CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND THE HERE AND NOW TO EN-
VISION THE FLOWER IN ITS GENESIS FROM ITS BUD TO ITS FADING
IN ONE SWEEP -- AND SO ALL CREATURES IN THE ENTIRE PROCESSION
OF THEIR GROWTH -- INSTEAD OF CIRCUMSCRIBING OUR VISION
TO THE PRESENT APPEARANCE. ONE GATHERS TOGETHER THE
PAST AND THE FUTURE OF THE FLOWER IN ONE ALL-EMBRACING
VISION, INCLUDING TRANSFORMATION IN THE UNREELING OF TIME.

LIFE IS SEEN AS A KALEIDOSCOPE
CONTINUALLY CHANGING FORMATIONS AND DISINTEGRATIONS
A CURRENT IN WHICH, AS BUDDHA SAID,
THE ONLY CONTINUITY IS THAT OF YEARNING

A CHAIN IN WHICH
THERE IS NO SUCH THING
AS AN ENTITY
OR INDIVIDUALITY

THERE ARE MOMENTS WHEN ONE LIFTS CONSCIOUSNESS ABOVE ITS
EVERYDAY SETTING. IT SEEMS AS THOUGH CONSCIOUSNESS WERE
POISED ABOVE OR BEYOND THE BODY. ONE IS AWARE OF THE
GRAVITY OF BODINESS, YET A FLICK OF CONSCIOUSNESS RESISTING
IDENTIFICATION WITH THE SOLID STATE WILL MAKE ONE AWARE
OF THE BUOYANCY OF THE SUBTLER STRATA OF ONE'S BEING, AND A
MERE SWITCH OF ONE'S EMOTIONAL TONUS, FROM EGOISTIC
INTEREST IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD INTO SUBLIME INDIFFERENCE
TO SENSE DATA, WILL DISPLACE THE CENTER OF CONSCIOUSNESS
FROM THE BODY TO A SETTING WHERE CONSCIOUSNESS OPERATES
FROM ONE'S NON-SPATIAL COMPONENTS. IT SEEMS AS THOUGH
ONE HAD AWAKENED FROM A DREAM. ONE SEES THE COURSE
OF ONE'S LIFE AS A PART OF THE GREAT MOVING SCENE
OF THE UNIVERSE, MARCHING INEXORABLY TOWARDS SOME
MONUMENTAL APOTHEOSIS AT THE END OF TIME,
BEMISTED BEYOND THE HORIZON OF ONE'S UNDERSTANDING.

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ALL THINGS SEEM TO BE INFUSED WITH RADIANT LIFE FORCE.
WHAT USED TO SEEM LIKE OBJECTS NOW APPEAR LIKE THE
CRYSTALLIZATION OF THAT RADIANCE WHICH ONE MIGHT
HAVE THOUGHT EMANATED FROM THEM.

TIME RELATIONS HAVE SUDDENLY CHANGED. IT BECOMES EX-
CEEDINGLY CLEAR THAT IN OUR ORDINARY PERCEPTION WE ONLY
SAW A CROSS-SECTION IN TIME OF THE REALITY OF THOSE THINGS
WE NOW VIEW DYNAMICALLY, INSTEAD OF STATICALLY, AS A
PROCESS OR A STREAM, INSTEAD OF AS AN ENTITY OR AN OBJECT.

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REALITY UNFURLING UNRAVELING FROM THE SEED
NOT CALCIFIED INTO ONE STAGE OF ITS PROGRESS
LIKE A FROZEN WATERFALL

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AT THIS STAGE ONE MAY HAVE GRANDIOSE VISIONS OF THE
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF THE PLANET EARTH AS IT
UNFOLDS ACROSS THE AEONS OF TIME, OR EXTEND THIS VISION
TO THE MIGHTY EMPYREAN OF THE CELESTIAL SPHERES:

WORLDS IN BECOMING
WORLDS BLASTED INTO UTTER
DESTRUCTION
BEINGS RISING AND BEINGS FALLING
ALL PARTS OF THE COSMIC DREAM

THERE ARE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOODS OF THE SOUL THAT STIR ONE
INTO CAPTURING THAT STAGE OF TIMELESSNESS WHICH MOST OF
US HAVE EXPERIENCED AT RAPT MOMENTS.
A DISCERNING MIND WILL EARMARK TWO STATES:
1. SARVITARKA SAMADHI
BEING AWARE OF ONE'S UNFOLDMENT THROUGHOUT THE COURSE
OF EVOLUTION, REDISCOVERED AND RELIVED RETROSPECTIVELY
THROUGH ONE'S ANCESTRY RIGHT BACK INTO THE
MINERAL STAGE.
2. NIRVITARKA SAMADHI
IDENTIFYING ONESELF WITH THE ETERNITY OF ONE'S BEING
UNCHANGED, THUS HAVING BECOME WHAT ONE ALWAYS WAS,
AND LINKING THE TWO LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS;
THE ABILITY TO GRASP CONTINUITY IN CHANGE.
3. SARVIKARA SAMADHI
BEYOND THE CAUSAL PLANE, AT WHICH POINT
ONE DISCOVERS THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND ONE IS
PURE CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND TIME.
4. NIRVIKARA SAMADHI
CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE PLANE OF THE ETERNAL ARCHETYPES
OF ALL SOUL STRUCTURES BEFORE THEY FASHION
MATTER OR FLESH
TO CONFORM TO THEIR INNER PATTERN.

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WE ARE SO ENGROSSED IN OUR PERSONAL LIVES THAT WE ALLOW
OURSELVES TO BE PROGRAMMED BY OUR CONDITIONED MINDS
AND LET OURSELVES IN FOR THE GAME OF THOSE WHO ARE
LIKEWISE LOST IN THE EGO PLAY, UNTIL WE AWAKEN WITH A
TRAUMATIC START AND MAKE TIME FOR OUR TIMELESS VALUES BY
RESISTING THE AGITATION IN OUR MINDS THAT SPURS US ON
TO ACTIVITY AND DIVERSION.

WE MISTAKE ACTIVITY FOR ACTION.
ACTION IS ALWAYS GIVING EXPRESSION TO THE
TIMELESS STATE BY MANIFESTING IT IN THE CYCLE
OF BECOMING. IT IS OPENING THE DOOR BETWEEN
TWO WORLDS. IT IS INITIATING A CHAIN OF
CAUSALITY DRAWN FROM THE CAUSAL PLANE, AS
OPPOSED TO REACTING TO THE EFFECTS OF
THE CAUSAL CHAIN.

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PART OF WHAT WE MEAN BY OURSELVES UNFOLDS IN TIME: IT IS
THE PLANT. PART OF US REMAINS UNCHANGED: THAT IS THE SEED.
THEY ARE NOT ACTUALLY PARTS BUT RATHER POLES OF
OURSELVES. WE USE THE SAME PRONOUN FOR BOTH.

WE MAY CONSIDER OUR PERSONALITY AS A PLANT
WHICH UNFOLDS IN TIME AND MAY EVEN HAVE TO DISINTEGRATE
SO AS TO REGENERATE. AS IT UNFOLDS, IT GIVES EXPRESSION
TO SOMETHING WHICH WAS ALREADY IN THE SEED BUT WHICH
MAY NOT NECESSARILY HAVE MANIFESTED TO VIEW. WHEN USING
INTROSPECTION WE ARE WORKING WITH THE PLANT, TRYING TO
PRUNE THE UNDESIRABLE GROWTHS AND FOSTER THE DESIRABLE
ONES. IN INTROSPECTION THERE IS IDENTIFICATION OF ONESELF
WITH THE PERSONALITY WHICH ONE IS TRYING TO CORRECT. IN
MEDITATION, HOWEVER, ONE IS WORKING WITH THE SEED AND
THEREFORE ONE IDENTIFIES WITH THE SEED, WITH THE POTEN-
TIAL OF ONE'S BEING, RATHER THAN WHAT HAS DEVELOPED FROM
THIS SEED. IT IS DYNAMIC RATHER THAN STATIC. WHEREAS THE
PLANT IS SUBJECT TO RAPID CHANGE AND RAPID DECAY, THE
TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE SEED ARE MUCH SLOWER BUT AFFECT
ALL THE PLANTS ISSUING FROM IT AND ARE THEREFORE
MUCH MORE FUNDAMENTAL.

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IT IS A MATTER OF INTRODUCING FACTORS INTO
THE SEED WHICH WILL CREATE MUTATION.
THESE FACTORS ARE NEW PERSPECTIVES OF AWARENESS WHICH
HAVE THEIR IMMEDIATE REPERCUSSION ON
THE INNER STRUCTURE OF THE SEED.



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THERE IS A STAGE IN MEDITATION
WHERE OUR AWARENESS EXTENDS
TO THE POINT OF COGNIZING THE REALITY OF OUR BEING,
WHICH IS THE SEED, INSTEAD OF THE IDIOSYNCRACIES OF OUR
PERSONALITY, WHICH IS THE PLANT. SINCE THE TIME FACTOR IS
DIFFERENT IN THE SEED THAN IN THE PLANT, WE ARE UNDER THE
IMPRESSION THAT WE ARE EXPERIENCING OUR ETERNAL BEING.
"I WAS ALWAYS IN THE FAR UNKNOWN AND I HAVE BECOME
ALL THAT I EVER WAS," SAID MEISTER ECKHART.

ACTUALLY, THE ETERNITY OF THE SEED OF OUR BEING IS
RELATIVE.
IT ALSO UNDERGOES TRANSFORMATION
PASSING FROM PRE-ETERNITY TO POST-ETERNITY
ENRICHED BY OSMOSIS WITH OTHER BEINGS.
THAT WHICH COGNIZES THIS DEEPER ROOT OF OUR BEING IS THE
COSMIC DIMENSIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH FUNCTIONS AS SOON
AS ONE FREES ONESELF FROM IDENTIFICATION WITH
ONE'S INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS.

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CONSEQUENTLY, THE RECESSIVE MEMORY IN THE DEEPER STRATA
THAT I MIGHT TRY TO UNEARTH RETROSPECTIVELY
-- IN ORDER TO REDISCOVER AND RECOVER MY PRIMAL STATE
BEFORE I WAS INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING --
IS THE SAME STATE IN WHICH I STILL AM IN MY ETERNAL BEING,
AND WHICH I CAN REACH, NOT BY DISPLACING MY CONSCIOUSNESS
ALONG THE VECTOR OF TIME FOLLOWING THE ARIADNEAN THREAD
OF CONTINUITY IN CHANGE, BUT BY DISPLACING MY
CONSCIOUSNESS
ALONG THE VECTOR OF TRANSCENDENCE,
LINKING THE CYCLE OF TIME WITH THE TIMELESS,
THE TEMPORAL WITH THE ETERNAL.

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ONE MAY DISCERN FURTHER DIMENSIONS
OF CONSCIOUSNESS
STRUNG AS IT WERE
BETWEEN THE EXTREMES OF CONCRETENESS
AND ABSTRACTNESS.
GAUGE THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN THE GRASP OF A MIND
THAT MERELY REGISTERS FACTORS
AND ONE WHICH SENSES MEANING
IN THEIR RELATIONSHIPS.

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LET TIME STAND STILL

AND REMAIN SUSPENDED
IN EVER-WIDENING FRONTIERS OF AWARENESS:
THE MIND WILL YIELD NEW POTENTIALITIES,
AS IF TRANSFERRED
BY THE EFFIGY OF THE FLOWER
OR THE PERSON
YOU ARE COMMUNING WITH
STANDING MOTIONLESS ACROSS THE GULF OF TIME FLEETING UNCEASINGLY
BY, THE FLOWER OR THE PERSON WILL STAND OUT IN ITS OR HIS TRANSCENDENCE,
AS A GENUS INSTEAD OF A SPECIMEN, THE PERSON WILL LOOM UNIQUE
AND UNCHANGED BEYOND THE EVER-CHANGING PATTERN OF ALL THE
IDIOSYNCRACIES YOU HAVE ASCRIBED TO HIM, ALL THE PERSONALITIES THAT
HE OR SHE HAS SHOD AND SHED IN AN UNBROKEN CHAIN OF EXISTENCE AS A
PROTOTYPE, RATHER THAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL, A BLEND OF QUALITIES.


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IN ORDER TO PROMOTE THE GROWTH OF THE HUMAN PERSON,
INVOLVING BOTH THE PLANT AND THE SEED,
ONE INCORPORATES THE VERY PRINCIPLE OF REGENERATION,
WHICH IS CONSCIOUSNESS.
AND THIS CAN ONLY BE DONE
IF THE CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH ONE INSTILLS
IS FREED FROM ITS EARLIER LIMITATIONS
AND IDENTIFICATIONS.
THIS IS THE SECRET OF ALCHEMY:
TO ISOLATE MERCURY FROM THE AGGREGATE OF THE MATERIAL WHICH ONE
IS WORKING WITH, THE PRIMA MATERIA, THEN PREVENT IT FROM VOLATILIZING
ITSELF INTO THIN AIR, FIXING IT BY MEANS OF SULPHUR, IN ORDER TO
PRODUCE THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE WHICH IS THE CATALYST OF GOLD.
SIMILARLY, CONSCIOUSNESS, SYMBOLIZED BY MERCURY, MUST BE FREED FROM
ITS IDENTIFICATIONS WHEN IT IDENTIFIES ITSELF WITH ITS COSMIC DIMENSIONS.
THERE WOULD BE A LOSS OF A SENSE OF PERSONALITY, IN FACT A
DISINTEGRATION NOT ONLY OF THE PLANT BUT OF THE SEED, UNLESS CONSCIOUSNESS
WERE PROJECTED INTO THE SEED, OR THROUGH THE SEED, AND IT
IS THIS NEW AMALGAMATE WHICH WILL ACT AS A CATALYST TO TRANSFORM
THE PERSONALITY INTO THE MODEL OF PERFECTION,
SYMBOLIZED BY GOLD.

The black state of the matter on which the process of the [alchemical] art is engaged is the body of this death, from which the adepts have asked to be detached. It is more especially our natural life.

-- The Hermetic and Rosicrucian Mystery, by Arthur Edward Waite


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IN FACT, THE EXPERIENCE OF LIFE
CONSISTS OF THE EXPERIENCE
WHICH THE SPIRIT HAS OF ITSELF
IN MATTER AND AS MATTER,
IN MIND AND AS MIND,
IN EMOTION AND AS EMOTION, ETC.

THIS IS HOW CONSCIOUSNESS, WHICH HAS IDENTIFIED ITSELF
WITH MATTER, IS ABLE TO EXPERIENCE SPIRIT IN MATTER IN A WAY
IN WHICH IT COULD NOT EXPERIENCE SPIRIT WITHOUT MATTER.

THE PERSONALITY BECOMES GREATLY ENRICHED
WHEN ONE IS AWARE OF THE SPIRIT IN ONE
WHICH IS EXPERIENCING ONESELF IN ONE'S PERSONALITY
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