Training for calmness

Calmness is a state in which psychic energy in the three vehicles is in good circulation, continuously recharging, renewing, and purifying them. Thus calmness is not a state of inertia but an intense harmonious action.

Agitation in our body, emotions, and thoughts is caused when our psychic energy is trapped in them and is in a state of friction with our maya, glamors, and illusions.

As a training for calmness, we can try the following exercises:

1. Try not to be shocked or excited in unexpected circumstances.
2. Try not to be alarmed by health conditions, the economic situation, or in hearing or reading bad news about the world tension.
3. Try to be detached when people attack you by letter or by words.
4. Try to be calm when you lose a precious object.
5. Try to be calm and indifferent when a friend leaves you or when a dear one passes away.
6. Try not to be excited if people honor and glorify you or bring gifts to you.
7.Try to be detached during a great success or great achievement.
8. Try to be fast without falling into the fever of impatience or panic.

The disciples of the future will be more influential if they train themselves in the art of calmness, as in the future greater storms and greater labors are waiting on their path. Such a battle is carried on, not in hatred, not in irritation, not in panic or insanity but in the spirit of deep calmness.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Osho - Drugs destroy your capacity to meditate

Drugs can slowly slowly destroy your capacities to meditate

The drug experience is a forced, phony experience, but because we don't know the real, the phony seems to be right. If you have not seen the real, then even the phony is too much. If you compare your life with an ordinary man who has never taken anything like LSD, marijuana, then you feel very high -- if you compare it with an ordinary man. Because he has not known any moment, he has not even had a false glimpse; he lives such a mundane life.

You have lived the same mundane life -- then one day this drug creates a dream, gives you a euphoria, and you are tremendously happy. But once meditation can give you an experience, then you will see that this experience was just a dream experience. It is as if you have been thirsty and drinking in a dream from a pool of water, a pure pool of water... but in a dream. By the morning you are awake and thirsty again -- it has not helped. Of course it was so clear and so cool and it had looked, for that moment at least, as if you would never be thirsty again.

But if you go on meddling sometimes with meditation and sometimes with drugs -- the problem is that drugs can slowly slowly destroy your capacities to meditate. Otherwise there is nothing in it.... If it is to be an ordinary straight life, then drugs are perfectly okay. But if you are really interested in meditation, then drugs are dangerous. The drug is not dangerous for the people who think it is dangerous. The so-called common people think drugs are dangerous -- it is not dangerous for them at all because they have nothing to lose, they have nothing to be destroyed! But if you are really interested in search and you want to grow, then drugs are dangerous.

Drugs are not dangerous for politicians -- drugs are dangerous for the religious people because something delicate arises out of meditation. It is very delicate and it comes out of much effort. Just a small quantity of a drug and it is destroyed and you will have to start again from abc. The drug experience is so cheap and the meditation experience is so costly, because you have to go through such effort. Then by and by the mind starts choosing the cheaper one. Mm? It is the path of least resistance, so the mind says "Why bother?" The drug can give you something so easily, then why bother with Vipassana -- sitting and meditating and struggling hard? Why not the easier way?

The mind is always for the short-cut, and the short-cut is always false. As far as the spiritual growth is concerned there is no short-cut. You cannot cheat... there is no back door. Each has to follow the arduous way. In fact the real beauty of the peak depends on how hard your struggle has been. When you struggle hard and you lose the track many times -- many times even the peak disappears and you are again in the dark valley, again you struggle and again you fall and again you move -- this whole effort creates that situation where when the real experience happens, you are in a tremendous bliss.


-Osho
excerpted from This Is It! chapter 8

Three potentialities in man: animal, demon or God

Man implies three things - doing, knowing and being. When the body acts alone without regard to the mind and the Atma, that person is considered to be in the animal state. When the mind acts in association with the body without regard to the Atma, that condition is described as demonic. When man acts in consonance with the Atma, he achieves oneness with the Divine. Hence, man has in him these three potentialities, he can manifest himself as an animal, a demon or God.

-Sai Baba

Right meditation is not escapism

Right meditation is not escapism; it is not meant to provide hiding-places for temporary oblivion. Realistic meditation has the purpose of training the mind to face, to understand and to conquer this very world in which we live.

-Nyanaponika Thera, "Power of Mindfulness"

Holidays shouldn't be a time of licence

Holidays, periods of rest are necessary, but what do people generally want from their holidays? To improve themselves? To engage in a spiritual work which will bring them closer to the Lord? No, they want to give free rein to all the instinctive tendencies they have pent up in themselves throughout the rest of the year. During their holidays they have more time, and since they are in far-off places and among people they do not know, they allow themselves a great deal of licence. This is why, instead of returning from their holidays rested, rejuvenated and radiant, they come back drained, ill and embroiled in impossible situations.

Well, I say you are meant to use holidays to purify yourself and to devote yourself to the spiritual work you are not free to engage in during the rest of the year. This doesn't mean you engage in no spiritual activity during the remaining ten or eleven months; you do, but holidays should allow you to devote yourself to it fully and freely. This is the activity that gives you a real rest, that calms, fortifies, stimulates, beautifies and restores you.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

What is spirituality?

People talk about spirituality. What does it mean? Spirituality means discovering the unity in the multiplicity. Unity can be achieved through truth, nonviolence and love. Preoccupation with one's own destiny is not spirituality. That also is a form of selfishness.

The essence of spirituality is mental transformation. Without mental transformation, what is the use of all spiritual sadhanas? What is the use of prayers? Develop spirituality, love, unity, and forbearance. All these can be achieved through God's grace. People do not even need to undertake any rigorous spiritual practices. Japa, meditation, and yogic practices confer only temporary satisfaction. It is enough if you develop love in your heart. It is Love and Non-violence that sustain the world. So, the true spirituality consists in filling the heart with Love, dedicating all actions to the Divine and striving for the welfare of all.

-Sai Baba

The Future - Torkom Saraydarian

We have developed apparatuses through which we are able to see the great Cosmos and also the smallest things: atoms, protons, electrons, etc. There are other things that we did not see before, but we are just starting to see, such as human emotions, human radiations, and human thoughts. For example, if we could see the effect of a word going from someone’s mouth into Space, it would be more amazing than anything in the world. Some clairvoyants say that every word we utter creates a geometrical figure; then it changes into a color. When it goes from the etheric level to the astral plane, it becomes a mathematical symbol. In the mental plane it turns into words again; in higher planes it plays the colors of music. A great Sage, speaking about speech, says that devas do not hear but they see the colors of your emotions and your thoughts.

There are many things waiting for us in the future. The future is a state of human awakening. Most of what we are doing here on earth is nothing else but sleeping under a big blanket, called the physical body. Very few people are awakened. Very few people can see. …

Buddha once said something very beautiful: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. All that we are is founded on our thoughts and formed by our thoughts.” Man pays very little attention to his thoughts, but it is his thoughts that are building his future existence. For example, whatever we are now is the result of what we thought in previous lives. If you don’t like this life and the way you are living, the way your body is, the way your emotions are, the way your mental equipment is built, do not blame anybody else because you built it in the past. Try to improve your present thoughts so that in the future you will have the best body, heart and mind.

It is very important that we control our future. In what way? By living in a way that will lead us to our future. For example, if you want to have a great mind in the future, you must work on your mind now. If you want to have a healthy mind, you must think healthy thoughts. If you want to have a beautiful physical body, you must perform only those actions, emotions and mental activities that are in harmony with each other, and this harmony will create a harmonious body in the future.

It is not a mystery now that our invisible electromagnetic sphere or etheric body is the conditioning factor of our physical body and that this energy system around us is controlled by our thoughts. For example, suppose you have a golden radiation, with beautiful hues in it. Then suddenly a thought of fear, hatred, or jealousy comes in and boom – it makes your sphere all black. Your whole electrical system is shortcircuited. All that we are and all that we are going to be is the result of our thoughts.

People are very careful about putting money in the bank. They say, “Twenty years later I will have 20,000 dollars.” But they do not think about what bank they are putting their thoughts into and what kind of thoughts they are putting into it. There is a more important bank than the bank where we are putting our dollars. In that bank you are putting all your capital; you are building the capital of your future and it will create earthly joys and heavenly joys. If you deposit material money and do not pay attention to your future becomingness, then you are losing whatever you build here. Your unfoldment of the future is like a garden in which you are going to bloom.

In esoteric literature, man is symbolized by a flower. Man radiates fiery flowers in his aura. For example, we are told that, when a person is unfolding spiritually, his head center looks like a lotus; another golden flower appears near his shoulder blades; another on his throat; and another between the eyebrows. These etheric centers are like flowers. When a person is really developed, which means flourishing and blooming, he is like a beautiful blooming tree.

When you have 200 blooming trees, then you have a garden. This is what M.M. means when He says that we should prepare our future garden by pure thoughts. Thoughts build the future. If your thoughts are really low-quality, you are going to be a low-quality person. If your thoughts are very high-quality, then you are going to be a great creative genius because that is what you worked for. Whatever you give to Nature, Nature gives back to you, as your bank does – and always with greater interest.

Christ once said that if you plant a fig tree, don’t expect cherries from that tree. If you plant a fig tree, you are going to harvest figs from it. If you plant a cherry tree, you will harvest cherries. If you plant creative, high-level, beautiful thoughts, you are going to reap a beautiful life and happiness.

When we talk about happiness and joy, we think that they are only feelings or emotions. They are not. Happiness means harmony; joy means greater harmony, symphonic harmony. Bliss means Divine harmony.

Harmony is created when your thoughts are pure, when your words are pure and when your emotions and actions are constructive and loving. When they are in conflict, you have chaos. Most of the time you create chaos in your own sphere. For example, you write a letter and say, “My dear friend, I really missed you. You are so beautiful; I really like you and want you to come back. We will go on trips,” etc. Then when you finish the letter you say to yourself, “My goodness, I really don’t like him, but one must write these things.” Suppose you have a friend with you and he asks, “To whom are you writing that letter?” You answer, “To a stupid person. He thinks he is something, but you know. …”

What did you do? With the letter you created a beautiful symphony; with your remarks you distorted that symphony and created chaos. Now there is chaos in your aura. This is why hypocrisy is not good – because it creates chaos. Lies also create chaos.

If you are living a double or triple life with your expressions, you are really creating chaos around yourself. When this chaos penetrates your subtle bodies – your mental, emotional, etheric and physical centers – you find yourself in a very unhealthy condition. You may blame everything else and everyone else except yourself, but you are the only one to be blamed because you created that chaos.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. From thought comes action. Try to guard your thoughts. Immediately when you start to think of something ugly, try to stop thinking that way. With your negative thoughts, you create a stagnant pool and then sit in it and drink from it. Always check your thoughts and see if they are pure. …

From Talks on Agni by Torkom Saraydarian

Projection

"Why is everyone here so happy except me?"

"Because they have learned to see goodness and beauty everywhere," said the Master.

"Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?"

"Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside."

-Anthony de Mello, SJ

Compassion starts with seeing our own suffering

Compassion must start with seeing our own suffering. If it does not, then seeing the suffering of others will be merely conceptual. It will merely be a matter of having learned about suffering from a book or philosophy. We may intellectually know about the different types of suffering and so forth, but without inward reflection, our understanding will always be a theoretical knowledge that is directed toward the outside. Starting from our own experience of suffering becomes most important for the practice of open and genuine compassion.

-Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

The cosmic Sun

In reality, the light we see is the materialization of primordial light. And this primordial light, the first emanation of God, is the Christ, the cosmic Sun. Yes, the spirit which manifests and speaks to us through the sun is the spirit of Christ, and if we learn to unite with it, we will receive all its blessings: light, warmth, life, beauty, purity and health.

But for this it is not enough to expose ourselves to the sun instinctively, without conscious participation, as many people do: the few rays they receive at such moments are of little benefit. To receive elements from the sun that are truly divine, our spirit must touch it, enter into relationship with it, penetrate it and dissolve in it. Yes, our spirit, not merely our skin!

To expose yourself physically to the sun is good in itself, but if your consciousness, your intelligence and your spirit participate in this encounter, the sun will give you a great deal more than health and vitality: it will give you understanding and enlightenment.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

The thought that distant worlds are populated is not a supernatural fantasy

Aum, 137. The inhabitance of heavenly bodies remains under doubt to this day. Even the best astronomers hesitate to express an opinion about this question. The reason lies chiefly in the conceit of man. He does not wish to admit incarnation in any conditions other than earthly. Fear before Infinity is also a hindrance. Surely, not many dare to reflect about such a remote giant as Antares, which, in the ocean of the Milky Way, presupposes beyond itself infinite Space. Meanwhile, people should think of distant worlds as being inhabited.

People cannot approach them in the earthly state, yet in the subtle body the best spirits have already approached such planets and brought back remembrances about their surface structure, coloration and inhabitants. Such experiences are rare, still they occur. They can reinforce the consciousness about infinite reality. In addition to the three invisible worlds it is necessary to recognize inhabited worlds. It is necessary to understand these oceans of thought which generate the music of the spheres. Thus let us diligently direct our thought to the distant friends and co-workers and Protectors. The thought that distant worlds are populated is not a supernatural fantasy. Man will firmly tread the earthly path when knowing about the surrounding magnitude.

-Agni Yoga

Suspicion

To a traveler who asked how he could tell a true Master from a false one the Master said shortly, "If you are not yourself deceitful, you will not be deceived."

To his disciples the Master later said, "Why do seekers assume that they themselves are honest and all they need is a test to detect deceit in Masters?"

-Anthony de Mello, SJ

Stop a while and examine your habits and activities

Stop a while and examine your habits and activities; analyse them, evaluate them on the touchstone of morality, truth, love and fortitude. Give up all that drags you down into evil, strengthen all that lifts you and takes you nearer to God. Do not be disheartened that you have to suffer the consequences of what you have done. Be like the tortoise, which can live in water or land. That is to say, cultivate the inner calm that helps you to be with the thought of God, whether you are amidst people or alone.

-Sai Baba

Living Dead

"...although on the reality of the physical plane, some people at times seem alive, from the viewpoint of a Higher Reality they are quite dead." (excerpt-Supermundane I, Para. 101)

Commentary by T. Saraydarian

"People think they are alive; they are running around making business, gossiping, slandering, (bearing false witness), or even loving people. They seem alive but something is dead in them.

"But why should such determinations be limited by only physical manifestations? When Our apparatuses indicate death, this indication is more correct than earthly evidence." (Supermundane I, Para. 101)

Commentary by T. Saraydarian

"I found out that they have five kinds of apparatuses and these apparatuses indicate those people who are dead, not physically but emotionally and mentally and spiritually. Immediately when they are dead, They see in the apparatuses that someone is fading out from the life."

"We could mention several such "living corpses," each of whom is afflicted by some physical ailment." (Supermundane I, Para. 101)

Commentary by T. Saraydarian

"According to my investigations there are many kinds of deaths, but I will start from the beginning. Those people who are dead are those whose mental body or astral body has left them. There are many cases that children and adults leave their astral body and when they leave their astral body their physical body operates as usual with the urges and drives of the physical elemental, but they are missing a link which is the astral body. When the astral body leaves the person he loses his sensitivity, he loses his feelings, his ecstasy, his aspirations, and becomes insensitive to human pain and suffering. We have these kind of children now. They are growing. They do not have any emotional body and, because they have no emotional body, they are very cruel, very violent because they do not have any sensitivity about the pains and sufferings of other people.

"There is a more difficult situation when the mental body leaves the human being. When the mental body leaves the human being, that human being goes into inertia. He loses every interest in life. He never does any discipline and he hates discipline. He does not have that determination or willpower in any way, but his physical body lives because the body is a different being.

"The third thing is very interesting. It happens many, many times that the soul leaves the personality. People have their physical body, their emotional body, their mental body, but their soul leaves them. When the soul leaves them they are empty. ... You see these people in many asylums. When that soul has departed, there is no link with the Cosmic rhythm, with the Cosmic existence. Something has left them. They lives as automatons. They live as animals sometimes if the physical body is strong. Sometimes they are criminals because they respond to the criminal incentives of their astral body. Sometimes they are very crude because they follow their mental calculation that is totally earthly and selfish.

"They are dead from the inner side but from the worldly viewpoint they are alive. They walk, they go, they come, but there is something dead in them. The apparatuses do not register life in them. These people turn to crimes, to destruction of life because they feel that something has departed in them and they are empty of life. Because they are empty of life, they want to destroy the life and make it empty as well. ...

-Torkom Saraydarian

We must be willing to experience suffering

It is normal to want to avoid sadness, disappointment and suffering, but certain ways of going about it are ill-advised. Since it is not easy to resolve the problems that cause suffering, many people seek to anesthetize themselves with tobacco, alcohol, drugs and medications. But this is no solution. We must be willing to experience suffering, for if we know how to understand and work with it, it enables us to evolve.

I am not suggesting that in certain circumstances it isn't useful or even necessary to take medication, but those who systematically run from suffering dull their sensitivity. In doing so, they regress to the vegetable kingdom, or lower still to the mineral kingdom, and this is not what God expects of man. True evolution is not accomplished through a loss of sensitivity. On the contrary, we must develop greater and greater sensitivity until we are able to perceive the slightest vibrations emitted by objects, beings, entities, and entire worlds. And to do this, we must learn to surmount suffering using the methods of spiritual Science."

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

The new psychology

Question: what do you do when you are caught between two worlds? You are aware that God is watching you, but you do not have the momentum to stop yourself from doing things you do not want to do.

Answer: Continue thinking about Him. Do not be occupied with your shortcomings and failures and mistakes. Do not think about them.

The psychiatrists, psychologists, our teachers, our ministers, our confessors do something very obnoxious. They say, “Think of how many bad things you have done in the past. Realize them.” And you get more and more identified with your failures. You become more obnoxious.

Leave the failures alone. Let them go and think about the Highest. Suddenly, the Highest will come like an eagle and take you to the highest peak.

This is the new psychology. The old psychology is dead, but there are millions and millions of new psychological offices opening to say the same thing: “How stupid you are.” Well, we know it! I am sick of hearing that I am bad. Can’t you tell me something better? Can’t you tell me that I am good? “Yes, you are good.” Thank God! There is hope now. I can be somebody! By making people condemn themselves, you are killing the Divinity in them. Raise them up and tell them how beautiful they are in spite of failures, etc.

Some husbands belittle and criticize their wives from morning till night. You are dressed wrong, you are walking wrong, you are thinking wrong, you are doing wrong things. Wrong and wrong and wrong. The woman does not know what to do anymore. She is lost. But some women are also like that to their husbands. They pick, pick, pick at them for everything. “You didn’t shave, you didn’t pick up, you didn’t do this or that,” and the husband becomes so frustrated that he looks at another woman who praises him.

Why do people want to be praised? I was asking a psychologist this question. He said, “Because they are stupid.” I said, “No. In your heart you know that you are something worthy of worship. You want to be praised because you feel that you are divine in spite of all the trash around you.” This is the deeper psychology, and this is why every person wants to be respected, loved, praised, exalted, even worshiped.

Once, in a Buddhist temple, I saw the great Teachers come and bow to the students. They said, “We bow to the greatness in you.” Imagine what would happen if husbands and wives would do this to each other for two or three days. Either the neighbors would think they were insane, or they will create a new family for themselves.

-Torkom Saraydarian
One Hundred Names of God

Non-existence is the refuge

To experience the day of Resurrection,
first you must die.
This is why everyone has taken the wrong direction,
for they fear non-existence
while, in reality, it is the refuge.

- Rumi

Why must we get rid of our ego?

1. Ego makes it impossible for us to be our true, real Self. It makes the labor of self-improvement and inner unfoldment impossible.

2. Ego prevents the possibility of right human relations, unity, and global peace.

3. When you create your ego, you travel with your mask throughout millenniums, and you cannot cast it away unless someone destroys it for you, with your help.

4. Ego is the cause for many psychological illnesses.

5. Ego is like building a shell around you and burying your real Self in it.

6. False values and standards do not allow you to enjoy higher states of consciousness and come in contact with Higher Worlds.

7. Ego is a psychological tumor. It may manifest as a real tumor in your physical body or as a criminal, secret organization in society to your environment.

8. No great structures can be built upon a ego. All that you build upon an ego is destined to perish.

9. Ego is the cause of suffering and pain for others, and it is a source of self-torture.

10. Ego prevents clear communication with people and distorts reality and facts.

-Torkom Saraydarian

"In this house of disappointment"

We don't have to follow
the pressure-flow of wanting.
We can be led by the guide.

Wishes may or may not come true
in this house of disappointment.

Let's push the door open
together and leave.

- Rumi

What is real success

Success is a topic that interests all people in the world. People want to be successful. Every one of us wants to be successful on his own level, in his own understanding, in the condition that he is living. All of us in some way try to be successful.

The idea of success is usually interpreted incorrectly. People think that they can be successful at the expense of others. This is a widespread idea that has jumped from individuals to groups and from groups to nations. Every individual, group, and nation wants to be successful, but the bottom line is that they want to be successful at the expense of others.

This kind of success, seen from the viewpoint of Infinity or from the viewpoint of the future, is a great failure, because you are creating future obstacles which will cause you to fail. Each of you has various kinds of intentions to be successful. For example, you want to be successful physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Trying to be successful in these four ways, you either fail or succeed.

To become successful, some people try to collect possessions. Other people try to collect positions. Other people search for knowledge. Others try to increase their beingness, their virtues, their true reality. These four kinds of success can work against each other, or they can combine and coordinate with each other and make you really successful.

In the Teaching, to be successful physically is considered very good. You must be healthy, happy, have money and various objects. But if this success becomes a hindrance to your emotional, mental, and spiritual success, you are actually failing. When you accumulate lots of materials, they become a wall on the path of your perfection. To destroy that wall will take another hundred lives, if you do not create further Karma and obstacles.

It is the same way with emotional success. Emotionally you can be successful, but also you can defeat yourself. For example, emotionally you want to be very happy and you wish to drink. You are successful in finding a bottle of whisky, drink it and become happy - but then you drive and have a bad accident. You acted against your own future success, your future happiness. Or in a moment of emotional excitement you do something that in the future becomes a legal case against you.

With mental success you collect lots of ideas, knowledge and formulas to ensure emotional, mental, and physical success, but eventually it becomes clear that you use that knowledge for your personal advantage, for your group's advantage, or for your national advantage at the expense of other individuals, groups or nations. Your success then becomes a failure in your life, and it creates tremendous obstacles for your future growth.

What is the success we are looking for, and how can we be successful physically, emotionally and mentally? It is good to have money, success, and possessions in the world, to have nice cars and nice houses - but all these successes must not stand against emotional success, against mental success, against spiritual success.

I know many people who are successful financially, but their homes are hells. They hate each other, their children are scattered everywhere. They have physical success but no emotional success. In your life you are going to prepare yourself in such a way that you are really successful in four levels.

What is spiritual success? Spiritual success is the ability to use your physical, emotional and mental successes in order to achieve the purpose of your life. Why were you created? Why did you become a human being? For millions of years you have striven to be a human being, and eventually you were initiated into a human being. But what is your goal? Are you going to stay where you are, or are you going to graduate?

Real success is to grow into spiritual beingness in such a way that you become a giver instead of a receiver. That is your success. That level can only be achieved if you succeed in making other people successful. In physical success you may gather lots of possessions, money, jewellery, lands, and so on. The Teaching is not opposed to the idea of people having physical success. Two thousand years ago they misinterpreted this. They thought that a person without possessions was spiritually successful. In this century we must have all that helps us to be better servers! We need cars to travel in; we need clothes, money in our pockets, houses, money for colleges and universities, and so on. To have nothing is a false idea.

How can you really be successful? Wherever you are working - at your business, office, or anywhere - think that whatever you are doing is to help others to be successful. If you keep such a direction in your mind, you will become more successful because "Those who give will be given." What are you giving? You are making other people successful. That is why you are having more success: to make other people more successful.

The Spring of Prosperity by Torkom Saraydarian

Message from Wayne Dyer

One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of optimism and a willingness to be nonjudgmental of others will counterbalance the negativity of 90,000 individuals who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.

One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of pure love and reverence for all of life will counterbalance the negativity of 750,000 individuals who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.

One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of illumination, bliss, and infinite peace will counterbalance the negativity of 10 million people who calibrate at the lower weakening levels (approximately 22 such sages are alive today).

One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of grace, pure spirit beyond the body, in a world of nonduality or complete oneness, will counterbalance the negativity of 70 million people who calibrate at the lower weakening levels (approximately 10 such sages are alive today).

-Wayne Dyer

Torkom Saraydarian on choosing partners

In the book "Sex, Family and the Woman in Society" Torkom Saraydarian says that one needs to be careful in choosing their partner. If one picks a partner who has been with many people, one must realize that one has had relations with every person that one's partner has and vice versa.

Lovemaking

Nocturnal downpour
Wakes the lovers,
Floods the valley.


Making love is natural. Why be ashamed of it?
That seems simple, but it is actually a great challenge in these complex times. Too many other layers of meaning have been imposed upon sex. Religions straitjacket it, ascetics deny it, romantics glorify it, intellectuals theorize about it, obsessives pervert it. These actions have nothing to do with lovemaking. They come from fanaticism and compulsive behavior. Can we actually master the challenge of having lovemaking be open and healthy?

Sex should not be used as leverage, manipulation, selfishness, or abuse. It should not be a ground for our personal compulsions and delusions.

Sexuality is an honest reflection of our innermost personalities, and we should ensure that its expression is healthy. Making love is something mysterious, sacred, and often the most profound interaction between people. Whether what is created is a relationship or pregnancy, the legacy of both partners will be inherent in their creation. What we put into love determines what we get out of it.

-Deng Ming-Dao

It is about time we became responsible for this world

Please don't hurt others... Please try to work with people and be helpful to them. A fantastically large number of people need help. Please try to help them, for goodness sake, for heaven and earth. Don't just collect Oriental wisdoms one after the other. Don't just sit on an empty zafu, an empty meditation cushion. But go out and try to help others, if you can. That is the main point... Your help doesn't have to be a big deal. To begin with, just work with your friends and work with yourself at the same time. It is about time we became responsible for this world.

Chogyam Trungpa, from "Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala"

What is the Aura? An explanation by Torkom Saraydarian

The Aura

The aura is the radiation of the physical, emotional and mental bodies, and, if a person is advanced, the aura also has strong radiations of the Soul and Intuitional, Atmic, Monadic, and Divine energies. All these forces and energies form a field around the physical body. The aura has many colors, continuous fluctuations, and an egg-shaped form. Any thought, emotion, or action changes the colors and waves of the aura.

The aura also should not be confused with the halo seen around the heads of Great Ones. That halo is composed of the radiations of the head center. It expands beyond the head and forms a multicolored sphere. Sometimes the halo is the twelve-petaled Lotus on the higher mental plane; sometimes it is the vehicle of a great Spirit overshadowing the person.

- New Dimensions in Healing, p. 48

The Etheric Body
The etheric body is an electromagnetic field in and around our physical body. This etheric body is the blueprint of our physical body. It is exactly the shape of our physical body except that all its organs and all its structures are etheric. It penetrates the physical body and extends beyond it for one to two inches. Upon this etheric blueprint is built our physical body.

The etheric vehicle is formed by one etheric thread woven into the same shape as the physical body. This thread serves as a tube through which the solar life-giving energy, or prana, circulates. Prana is a fiery energy which permeates the etheric network. Prana is seen as a golden light, and when seen clairvoyantly, the whole etheric body shines out in flame-colored light.

- New Dimensions in Healing, p. 41

The Health Aura
We sometimes hear the term "health aura." The health aura is prana which circulates through a person's etheric body and radiates out. This surface radiation is called the health aura. It is a golden hue, and if it is clear and even over all parts of the body, the health of the body is perfect. But if it loses its radiance and fades away, or in certain parts totally disappears or mixes with grey colors, that location is not healthy and needs immediate attention.

The Pranic Triangle

There are three centers for the assimilation of prana. The first center of prana is located between the shoulder blades. The second one is located immediately above the diaphragm, close to the center of the body. The third center is the etheric spleen, located below the diaphragm and close to the stomach. These three centers form a triangle...

The center between the shoulder blades is affected mostly by our thought currents. The center above the diaphragm is affected by our emotions. The spleen is affected by the quality of the air, by the etheric emanations of other human beings, by the food we eat, by the water we drink, and by the general condition of the body. These centers, being responsible for the reception, assimilation, and transmission of prana, must be in very high order - clean and healthy - so that the incoming prana does not lose its life-giving, energizing, and integrating qualities but regenerates the body as a whole.

Thus, in order to absorb the prana, we must be careful with our thought currents and thought life, keeping our thoughts in a very high order and charged with inclusiveness. Our thoughts must be the vehicles of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. As we strive toward such standards, the center between the shoulder blades demonstrates more activity and keeps the flow of solar prana circulating rhythmically.

- New Dimensions in Healing, pp. 69- 70

-Torkom Saraydarian

'Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect'

Humility is a virtue which is misunderstood. To be humble does not mean to endlessly belittle ourselves, but to turn our sights toward the heights, toward those who have surpassed us. When we look at these beings, we instinctively compare ourselves to them, and naturally we see ourselves as very small. This is true, but we must not be content simply to contemplate these magnificent beings and do nothing. We must progress, for true humility leads us toward perfection.

In our desire to imitate those who have surpassed us, we advance. In our desire to become perfect like the Lord, we become truly humble. There are those who claim that in fact this is arrogance, but they are wrong. Did Jesus, who put so much emphasis on humility, intend to encourage arrogance in human beings when he said: 'Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect'? Reflect on this and you will understand how, by taking the attainment of the Lord's perfection as your ideal, you will advance in true humility.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Torkom Saraydarian on UFOs

Someone asked Torkom Saraydarian, at a lecture, whether there are UFOs or not. He said, "What if there are? Our focus is to purify our vehicle and eliminate our glamours and illusions. Once this is done then we can look "out there" and concern ourselves with who or what might be out there and what their connection might be to Humanity."

Enjoy solitude - Yogananda

Be alone within. Don't lead the aimless life that so many persons follow. Meditate and read good books more... Once in a while it is all right to go to the movies and have a little social life, but mostly remain apart and live within yourself... Enjoy solitude; but when you want to mix with others, do so with all your love and friendship, so that those persons cannot forget you, but remember always that they met someone who inspired them and turned their minds toward God.

-Paramahansa Yogananda
"Man's Eternal Quest"

The future of Music

In the future, thinkers will found out how music can create certain illnesses and diseases in certain parts of the body. They will be able to trace the source of illness to the music the person listened to for years, or throughout his life.

Our body is built on the principle of sound expressed as notes, as vibration, as frequency. Flowers, bushes, and trees are built on the same principle. The sound waves create either harmony or disturbances in them. For example, because you were hearing certain kinds of music, you developed liver problems or kidney problems or heart problems or skin problems. Or because of the music you heard, you have the best health possible.

People worry only about nuclear radiation, but they never thing that music is a form of radiation. Sound bombards the body, the brain and the glands and creates certain effects.

The notes in music are chemical elements of sound. A good musician us a good chemist who knows when to use what element and in what proportion. These chemical compounds can change the elements in your body by increasing, decreasing, or totally eliminating them. These chemical changes in your body create changes in your psychology, behavior, relationship, thinking, feeling, talking and so on.

When you are listening to music, you must know that you are absorbing chemical elements into your system. We do not yet have the apparatus to convince the "blind" about these facts, but steady observation and experiences with music will not leave any doubt in people's mind about chemical changes.

Sound controls the function of cells and neurons, and the chemical reactions and secretions of the glands. Eventually scientists will prove that both the mentally impaired and the genius are the products of age long bombardment by certain music.

It is recommended that you do not play music while you sleep. It may stimulate your brain and create associative disturbances. It may also keep you on lower planes and not let you engage in your higher responsibilities.

In the future, a kind of music will be composed that can be used to assist your withdrawal from the body and to raise yourself into higher spheres. Such music will be composed by those who are knowledgeable about astral, mental and spatial music.

The location where you listen to music is very important. It must fit the music and also your goal in listening to the music. The location must be restful, comfortable, beautiful, and quiet. You can also light candles. You can listen to music near the sound of waterfalls, rivers, oceans or wind in the trees. Play the music softly.

-Torkom Saraydarian

excerpts from the book "The Creative Sound: Sacred Music, Dance and Song".

Don't joke all the time - Yogananda

Don't joke all the time with each other. Be happy and cheerful inside. Why dissipate in useless talk the perceptions you have gained? Words are like bullets: when you spend their force in idle conversation, your supply of inner ammunition is wasted. Your consciousness is like a milk pail: when you fill it with the peace of meditation you ought to keep it that way. Joking is often false fun that drives holes in the sides of your bucket and allows all the milk of your peace to run out.

-Paramahansa Yogananda, In a talk to disciples

Vast difference between imagination and Self-realization

There is a vast difference between imagination and Self-realization. Through your imagination you may have subconscious dreams and visions of Christ every day. But such experiences do not mean that you are truly in touch with him. The real visitation of Jesus is the communion with Christ Consciousness. If you are in tune with that Christ, your whole life will change.

-Paramahansa Yogananda

No loss of effort

In the spiritual path, there is no loss of effort. Every single effort that you put forth in that direction, even if it is minimal, will be a credit balance in your spiritual bank account. Even one penny, if you put it in the bank, it is a credit for you, though it is only a penny. And many pennies will make pounds. So, go slowly, little by little. Many drops make the ocean; effort is necessary.

- Swami Krishnananda

Thinking, danger, and the sense of responsibility

As man develops and begins to think and use his mind, he becomes more and more dangerous. It is also true that as he begins to think, his sense of responsibility increases. You cannot feel the depth of responsibility until you see how dangerous you can be. Thus thinking, danger, and the sense of responsibility must go together if a person wants to evolve and serve humanity.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The importance of the balance of heart and mind

"When the mind thinks, plans, or creates, the heart asks, 'Is it good for everyone's survival?'

"The mind says, 'Who cares about everyone else? The important thing is me, my interests.'

"The heart says, 'If something is not good for everyone, it is not good for you.'

"The mind answers, 'Who cares about everyone else? Let me accumulate things and enjoy life.'

"The heart says, 'One cannot enjoy life unless he shares the things he has. Only in sharing can one enjoy life.'

"Thus, the heart balances the mind." .

"When the mind makes new discoveries, the heart asks, 'Is this invention going to hinder or help the future progress and well-being of humanity and the planet?'

"And the mind answers 'Who cares about the future? Let us enjoy the present moment. Let us eat, drink, and have a good time and not worry about the future.'

"The heart then says, 'If you do not care about the future, you do not have a future. Not to have a future means to die or to prepare a life of suffering and pain." .

"The mind without the heart is separative, selfish, and earthbound, but the heart is inclusive, selfless , and space-bound."

-Torkom Saraydarian

Miracles are natural phenomena

What do people usually mean when they speak of miracles? Phenomena which defy or negate the laws of nature? Well, no such phenomena exist; everything obeys the laws of nature. And if people speak of miracles, it is because they do not know the laws that would explain them.

There are certain phenomena that are exceptional because the people capable of producing them are very rare, but miracles, as most believers imagine them, simply do not exist. Even things that are truly extraordinary are natural; nothing is 'supernatural'. But it is important to understand that the gradations in nature are infinite, from the most material to the most subtle. The laws of the psychic and spiritual worlds which explain 'miracles' are therefore also the laws of nature. We must simply know on what plane they operate."

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

"The so-called devil is active and tireless, whereas good people are weak and tire quickly"

Faced with the misfortunes humanity is suffering, people everywhere are complaining that the world is in a terrible state. They talk, they criticise, they protest and become angry; and while they are preoccupied with their arguments, complaints, and fits of rage, evil continues its course of action. In their opinion, God is responsible, since he does nothing to stop it.

I have often told you that the so-called devil has one quality, and only one, but it is an extraordinary quality: he is active, energetic, and tireless, whereas good people are weak and tire quickly. They think it is enough to be kind and inoffensive; when they have done a few good deeds, they are satisfied with themselves and then must rest. Who knows when they will ever get back to work! Good does not stimulate them in the same way that evil stimulates criminals. But whose fault is that? It is not God who prevents them from cultivating a fraternal attitude and working for the good of society.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Happiness

"I am in desperate need of help -- or I'll go crazy. We're living in a single room -- my wife, my children and my in-laws. So our nerves are on edge, we yell and scream at one another. The room is a hell."

"Do you promise to do whatever I tell you?" said the Master gravely.

"I swear I shall do anything."

"Very well. How many animals do you have?"

"A cow, a goat and six chickens."

"Take them all into the room with you. Then come back after a week."

The disciple was appalled. But he had promised to obey! So he took the animals in. A week later he came back, a pitiable figure, moaning, "I'm a nervous wreck. The dirt! The stench! The noise! We're all on the verge of madness!"

"Go back," said the Master, "and put the animals out."

The man ran all the way home. And came back the following day, his eyes sparkling with joy. "How sweet life is! The animals are out. The home is a Paradise, so quiet and clean and roomy!"

-Anthony de Mello, SJ

Meditation is NOT daydreaming

Some of us sit down to meditate and then simply daydream. This is fine if you want to spend some quiet time in reverie-----but you are practicing daydreaming, not meditation. Meditation practice requires vigilance, attention, and commitment to gently but firmly release a thought the way you would release a fish, by tossing it back into the stream. Once you have meditated enough to see the discursive mind as it is, as a parade of illusion, you can then go about your day -- and your life-- with your eyes open, your attention free. You have tamed your mind by making peace with your thoughts and need fear it no more.

From Everyday Enlightenment
By Dan Millman

True love is never frustrated

All suffering is born of desire. True love is never frustrated. How can the sense of unity be frustrated? What can be frustrated is the desire for expression. Such desire is of the mind. As with all things mental, frustration is inevitable.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Buddha - Nonduality

What is meant by nonduality, Mahatmi?

It means that light and shade, long and short, black and white, can only be experienced in relation to each other; light is not independent of shade, nor black of white. There are no opposites, only relationships. In the same way, nirvana and the ordinary world of suffering are not two things but related to each other. There is no nirvana except where the world of suffering is; there is no world of suffering apart from nirvana. For existence is not mutually exclusive.

- Lankavatara Sutra

Senseless arguments

N.R. and H.R. suggest: "do not engage in senseless argument."

From the writings of Helena Roerich:

1. Pay no attention to the arguments of the ignorant. Only one thing is important: to consider World Cooperation as an absolute necessity of evolution. (New Era Community para 240)

2. Moreover, avoid arguments about that which is undeniable. (Heart, para 21)

3. Each one who is argumentative deprives himself of the great communion with the Above. Do not let us confuse reason and conditioned reasonings. Reason leads to wisdom, in other words, to the heart. But a worm argues, even though he crawls with difficulty across the path of men. Therefore, let us persist in the achievement of the heart. Because in it is the coffer of ecstasy, which cannot be acquired with gold. (HEART 1932 Paragraph 336)

I appreciate exchanges of differences, of different viewpoints - but not that which is "senseless."

The dangers of petty habits

370. Urusvati knows that self-betterment must begin with the eradication of small, but harmful, habits. We particularly stress the importance of daily habits. People believe they must over­come the main obstacles at once, only to find that such drastic measures are beyond their capacity. One may also often observe instances when people imagine that they have rid them­selves of their major sins, yet remain burdened with little ugly habits. A tree bent by the weight of ugly fruit, developed over ages, is a sad sight indeed.

Bear in mind that it is not easy to rid oneself of petty habits. Among them there are always some of which one is not even aware, and which only a keen-eyed observer can discern. Yet, the uncovering of such hidden habits often leads to complete transformation. Remember the ancient saying, "If you seize the lesser devil by the tail, he will lead you to his superior."

The wisdom of folklore should always be remembered; it will lead to a practical application of the Teaching, rather than a superficial reading. Many people read all the books, but remain without knowledge. Sometimes such unreceptive readers even regress, and prove to be worse off than if they had been illiter­ate. People should try to understand exactly what has been assimilated from their reading, and what can be useful in its application to their lives. Let them ask themselves what negative habits they have success­fully overcome, and write down those paragraphs from the books that have influenced their minds in a beneficial way. How can one expect harmony amidst the uproar of disharmony if the small­est habits remain untouched and unchanged? Thus, do not forget to warn friends against the dangers of petty habits.

The Thinker was careful about His habits, and knew how to relinquish any of them. His motto was, "Do not carry unneeded stones in your pockets."

-Agni Yoga

True love should improve everything in the being that you love

People generally miss the point when it comes to the issue of chastity, of continence. How? In that in reality the act of love is not in itself good or bad. It is simply what men and women will make it. If they have not worked on themselves to purify, ennoble and enlighten themselves, they will, in this act, pass on to their partner illnesses, vices and harmful influences. True love should improve everything in the being that you love, it should elevate them, strengthen them and enlighten them. Whether they then express themselves physically is secondary. You can love someone without ever touching them and still poison them with this love.

There is only one criterion by which to measure the quality of your love and that is if the person you love is blossoming thanks to your love. If they are blossoming, you can be happy and thank Heaven for having been able to help them and protect them.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Οpening the heart to that which is lovely

This itself is the whole of the journey, opening your heart to that which is lovely. Because of their feeling for the lovely, beings who are afraid of birth and death, aging and decaying, are freed from their fear. This is the way you must train yourself: I will become your friend and an intimate of the lovely. To do this I must closely observe and embrace all states of mind that are good.

- Samyutta Nikaya

It is the satisfaction of desires that breeds misery

Nature is neither pleasant nor painful. It is all intelligence and beauty. Pain and pleasure are in the mind. Change your scale of values and all will change.

Pleasure and pain are mere disturbances of the senses; treat them equally and there will be only bliss. And the world is what you make it; by all means, make it happy. Only contentment can make you happy, desires fulfilled breed more desires. Keeping away from all desires and contentment in what comes by itself is a very fruitful state, a precondition to the state of fullness. Don't distrust its apparent sterility and emptiness. Believe me, it is the satisfaction of desires that breeds misery. Freedom from desires is bliss.

-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Complaining

Do not complain, neither about your life nor about your friends or business. Complaining is the killer of magnetism. Whenever you complain, you lose your power of attraction.

Noble people do not even speak about their troubles to their close ones in order not to burden their minds and lives. Noble people are considerate people. The ancients used to say, "Carry you own burdens, and if you can, even carry the burdens of your friends, but as much as possible do not load your burdens on them".

- Torkom Saraydarian

Till philosophers become kings in this world

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

-Plato

A life of anarchy

"Those who do not place heaven at the centre of their life live a life of anarchy. You will say, 'But I'm not an anarchist, in fact I'm against anarchy, and besides I'm not bothered about heaven, I don't believe in it.' This is perhaps intellectually true, but deep down you live in anarchy, for what really matters to you? Perhaps you will say it's the good of the community, the brotherhood of humankind, for nowadays everyone claims to think altruistically about the whole world. But let's see how you go about it. Have you really mobilized your thoughts, feelings and energies in this direction?

If you are honest, you will be forced to admit you are driven in all directions; you go wherever you think you can find pleasure, satisfy your ambition or get more money or honours. Well, that is true anarchy: inner anarchy. It's the state most people live in until they have learnt to mobilize and coordinate all their energies and place them at the service of a divine ideal."

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Great spirits have always found violent opposition

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrity. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

-Albert Einstein

Do you really want a cure, or just relief?

To a distressed person who came to him for help the Master said, "Do you really want a cure"

"If I did not, would I bother to come to you?"

"Oh yes, most people do."

"What for?"

"Not for a cure. That's painful. For relief."

To his disciples the Master said, "People who want a cure, provided they can have it without pain, are like those who favor progress, provided they can have it without change."

-Anthony de Mello, S.J.

Hygiene of the heart

Heart, 467. Hygiene of the heart is predicated upon good deeds, but in the broadest sense. Thus, good deeds do not include the encouragement of treason and malice, and the countenancing of false prophets, imposters, cowards, and all servants of darkness. Good deeds do not include heinous negligence and deliberate concealment. Good deeds aim at the well-being of humanity. Thus, the heart acquires solemnity which is like the harmony of the spheres. Verily, good deeds can actually be distinguished as beneficent achievements, not by obduracy, but by goal-fitness. Often good deeds are understood as the grimace of irresponsibility; it is easier not to think and permit an easy deviation.

-Agni Yoga

Vows of a Bodhisattva

Sentient beings are numberless,
I vow to save them.
Deluding passions are endless,
I vow to destroy them.
Dharma gates are manifold
I vow to enter them.
The Buddha Way is supreme,
I vow to master it.

— The Vows of a Bodhisattva

"May all beings be awake. May all beings be happy.
May all beings know peace."
"Truth is One, Paths are Many"
"Happiness comes when the individual merges in God."

In the event of the destruction of our planet

You remember how the Teaching says that the very destiny of the planet is in the hands of man, and also that man makes the earthquakes. Take these statements literally. For precisely, the low thoughts and cravings of humanity (not only on the Earth, but also in the lower spheres of the Subtle World) create this fearful suffocating atmosphere around the Earth which promotes the fusion of the fire of space with the subterranean fire. Only pure, fiery souls are able to discharge this atmosphere, acting somewhat like lightning conductors. This is the reason why the epoch of Fire is so dangerous: it brings purification as well as dreadful disasters, namely the destruction of whole polluted communities and the increase of epidemics - all caused by the subterranean fire.

Only those whose auras are sufficiently purified and who are able to assimilate the fire of space will be able to withstand. That is the reason why it is so urgently necessary to apply the foundations of the Living Ethics into life and, by purity of thought and deed, to transmute our energies.

The waves of the fire of space will be particularly strong in the forties of our century. But the immediate coming years will also bring many explosions. The great testing of our planet is near. Threatening is this future! Let us hope that through great disasters humanity will learn its lesson and will accept spiritual leadership, and thus will alter its destiny.

Certainly, the Lords of Light are taking all measures for the saving of the planet from this dreadful destiny. And if humanity chooses destruction, its better part (and are there many such?) will be transferred to the higher planets. The average mass will go to another planet similar to our own, which will approach Earth in case the explosion occurs. (At the moment this new planet is still not visible.) As for the rest of humanity, they will follow the Prince of the World and be banished with him to Saturn. But alas! no one realizes what retardation in the evolution of the majority of our earthly humanity there will be in the event of the destruction of our planet. What aeons will have to pass before the new "Earth" will be able to provide suitable bodies!

Letters of Helena Roerich Vol I

Healing of the future

...In the future, the healing of people will be carried on along these three lines:

-to increase light
-to increase love and joy
-to increase beauty

These are three most important substances which heal almost all kinds of diseases when we learn to accumulate them and use them in our daily life and relationships. It is a strange idea to think that light, love and beauty are substantial, but they are actually electrical and radioactive substances. Light works and is found mostly in the physical, emotional, and mental planes. The substance of love is found in the Intuitional Plane. The substance of beauty is found in higher plains. It is through the utilization of these substances that we dispel inertia, glamor, illusion, and ego. These four contribute highly to the disorders and illnesses of the body.

You can do a daily exercise to bring these substances into usage. For example, visualize for 15 minutes daily that your physical body, emotional body and mental body are turning into vehicles of light, shining out the light of your Core. Think about objects and living forms as if they were condensed, objectified, materialized light.

Visualize for 15 minutes daily the energy of love and joy radiating from your heart center and spreading all over the world, purifying your whole aura from any negativity and dispelling all hatred and separatism in the world.

Or visualize yourself for 15 minutes daily as a beautiful human being, with beauty radiating out through your aura, thoughts, words, emotions, and actions. Try to visualize conditions and events in which your beauty manifests in its highest glory. Very soon you will notice increasing health, happiness, creativity, and magnetism in your life. You will eventually become a source of abundance.


-Torkom Saraydarian
Challenge for Discipleship

It is the "I am the body" idea that is so calamitous

It is enough if you do not imagine yourself to be the body. It is the "I am the body" idea that is so calamitous. It blinds you completely to your real nature. Even for a moment do not think that you are the body. Give yourself no name, no shape. In the darkness and the silence reality is found.

-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

How can a person be his own friend?

How can a person be his own friend? People do not ask this question too often, or they don't even ask it at all; but it is so important to be your own friend.

The idea of the possibility of friendship with yourself dawn in your mind when you suddenly realize that you have a physical body that you can care for, be totally careless toward, or even be the enemy of.

People do not realize this too often. You must be fairly advanced to suddenly see that the body is not you, but is a living entity. How can you hurt or hate such a complicated mechanism given to you? But you do this so often. For example, if you dope your body, pour a few bottles of alcohol down its throat, or with an immoral life force upon it syphilis and gonorrhea, how can you call yourself the friend of your body?

On the other hand, when you nourish your body with the right food, give it proper rest, use its energy goal-fittingly, and protect it from various dangers and diseases, how can you call yourself an enemy of your body?

Thus it is possible to be a friend or an enemy of your own body.

But the story does not end here. When man advances, he will realize that he is not his emotions, but that he has an emotional body or an emotional nature. Also, he will realize that he can be the friend or the enemy of his emotional body. If he uses his emotional body to express hatred, fear, anger, and revenge, then we say that such a person is misusing his emotional body and damaging not only his emotional body but also his physical body.

Every negative emotion causes great damage to the astral centers and forces them to close their petals and be inactive. Also, negative emotions produce disturbances in the nervous system of the body and create certain poisons in the nerve channels, which spread into the glands and cause glandular malfunctions.

How can one be friend of his emotional nature if he does not care for the welfare of his astral apparatus? If a person is travelling with a boat, he takes care of the boat so that he safely reaches his destination. But if on the open sea he takes a hammer and begins to make holes in the bottom of his boat, we call such a person the enemy of his boat - the enemy of his body - or we call him insane.

People must be very advanced to be able to see that they are not even their thoughts or their mind. Once a person realizes that the mental body is a mechanism through which he formulates his ideas, visions, and feelings and in which he accumulates knowledge, he can use his mental body constructively or destructively and become either an enemy or a friend to his mental body. Can a person be the friend of his mind or mental body if he wants his mind to be occupied with separatism, to cultivate vanities, and to produce illusions?

Those who are friends of their mental body cultivate it with knowledge and train it with concentration and meditation. They make it inclusive, clear, tolerant, and especially diligent and watchful.

-Torkom Saraydarian
(Challenge for Discipleship)

If you wish to maintain harmony in relationships

"Human relationships are very complicated things, whether they are with members of your family, friends, colleagues from work and so on, or even with people you don't know. If you wish to maintain harmony and mutual understanding, you must forget yourself a little; try not to always put forward your own points of view and tastes, but demonstrate understanding, tolerance and patience. It is a sacrifice, but sacrifice is a force; yes, this is the great idea you must bow to. Of course, there's something in you that resists: sacrifice implies limitation and loss. But you must understand it's your lower nature that retaliates, whereas your higher nature rejoices.

Stop bringing everything back to yourself, to your opinions, your feelings and desires. Concentrate on a noble, luminous ideal, for this will swallow up the thousand difficulties you encounter every day in your relationships with others. You will no longer even see these difficulties, and even if you do they will no longer affect you."

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov