Meditation is dangerous when...

Meditation is dangerous and unprofitable to the man who enters upon it without the basis of a good character and of clean living. Meditation then becomes only a medium for the bringing in of energies which but serve to stimulate the undesirable aspects of his life, just as the fertilizing of a garden full of weeds will produce a stupendous crop of them, and so crush out the weak and tiny flowers.

Meditation is dangerous where there is wrong motive, such a desire for personal growth and for spiritual powers, for it produces, under these conditions only a strengthening of the shadows in the vale of illusion and brings to full growth the serpent of pride, lurking in the valley of selfish desire. Meditation is dangerous when the desire to serve is lacking.

-Djwhal Khul

(Alice Bailey, a Treatise on White Magic)

Every limb of the body must be put to proper use and sanctified

The human body is a sacred instrument given by God and it has to be sanctified by contemplating on God at least one or two times a day.

What kind of activities are to be undertaken so that man may derive happiness and joy? The most appropriate answer to this question would be that He should be engaged in constant contemplation of God. The eyes must always see good things. The ears must be engaged in hearing good things. The tongue must be made to speak always sweet and noble words. It should chant the divine name. Thus, every limb of the body must be put to proper use and sanctified.

- Sai Baba

Do not attack the object of worship of others

Those who dishonor an image of worship, an image of joy and adoration, or an object of devotion and high respect are criminals, no matter in what field that object is found: political, educational, philosophical, artistic, scientific, religious, or financial.

Let people worship anything they want, but try to draw their attention to the innermost meanings of their object or religion and you will have an opportunity to make the object of their worship an object of transformation.

Thus, do not attack the object of worship of others, but try to find something beneficial in it and draw their attention to that point of beauty. Every object of worship can be turned into a source of energy that can transform the nature of its worshippers.

......

The ancients used to say:

"Do not belittle a father in front of his son, or a husband in front of his wife."

"Do not attack images of worship."

Such attacks destroy the people's vision and faith, and those from whom a great image is taken become criminals.

Of course in any field one can find failures. Instead of telling the story of their failures, instead of broadcasting into the public consciousness the failure images of our leaders, let the authorities deal with them.

People think that all truth must be the public's property. Many people use this argument to make their lies, fabrications, and falsehoods public property.

People especially must not tolerate attacks on the images of their religious worship because such images are commingled with their heart and life, and without such images they cannot create energy or sustain their integrity.

A great political example of this was Russia. During the 1917 revolution, there was widespread destruction of churches, mosques, and temples. Widespread murder was committed against religious leaders. They were publicly disgraced. And now we have seen how the people have slowly disintegrated and fallen into corruption, bribery, hatred, cleavages, and so on.

Seventy years of Communism was not able to create friendship, brotherhood, respect, or cooperation between various races and nations, and at the first opportunity for freedom the dirt came out.

Respect the images of worship of people, and you will be able to create the harmony of cooperation among those whose images of worship are highly respected and recognized.

Every hero, every public image, can be used as an opportunity to create public festivities and to produce energy. The purpose is to create a unified field of energy.

It is important that people feel excitement, love, devotion, and gratitude because these feelings create energy. If a group is full of such feelings, that group is in a field of energy which purifies, heals, and changes every member in the group.

Many people in the group feel that something changes in them when they are in special meetings. They feel physically rested and harmonious. Many of their physical complaints even disappear; they feel healed. Eventually they feel harmony and joy. They feel mutually inspired and uplifted, their horizon expands spiritually, and their whole being is charged with a new ecstasy. These are the results of the energy created by the unification and harmony of group feelings. That is why in certain phases of our life - such as birthdays, baptism, marriage, graduation, and various happy events - we feel totally uplifted. The accumulated feelings of joy, gratitude, appreciation, love, and respect are doing their work.

Group festivals or festivities of inaugurations and other public celebrations create massive energy which may transform a nation and clear many ugly accumulations from the aura of that nation.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The Mystery of Self-Image

Each mistake is an open door...

How do dark entities set about harming humans? They urge them to make mistakes, for each mistake is an open door giving the entities the right to go in and torment them. If people resist, if they don't make mistakes, the entities are powerless. This is why the devil - we'll say 'the devil' for simplicity's sake - only has the powers you give him. If you don't want to deal with him, don't let him in. He will not force you, he just makes suggestions - this is why he's called the 'tempter' - and you are the one who says 'yes'.

Most people imagine their disquiet, their distress and their anxieties have come suddenly, just like that, all at once. No, they prepared for them, they opened the door to them, they invited them in. How? By means of their desires, thoughts and lower feelings, by means of certain weaknesses and certain transgressions. At that very moment, the devil found the door open, came in and began his campaign of destruction.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

As you increase your response to the greater light, you become more of a "troublemaker"

Q: What do we have to do to help bring changes in the planet and nations? Is there a formula for what changes will be possible in response to the light?

A: Of course. As you increase your response to the greater light, you become more of a "troublemaker." That is why most of the great leaders were revolutionaries. The emancipation of slaves that Lincoln introduced was revolutionary, for instance. Why? Because that man responded to the light of freedom in a greater degree than you and I. He brought upheaval and conflicts when the light, peace, and understanding - strong things - changed him. Now we are saying, "Peace, peace." If we stand on it, we will have it. But if we say, "Peace," and take LSD, we will not have it. So when you stand in the light you pay the price for standing in the light. That is difficult. ...

Can you pay this price for standing in the light? It is not easy. When you have a greater response to the light, you are a greater troublemaker. And when you are a greater troublemaker, you have more resistance and must be ready for greater suffering. If you are ready, you are one of the followers of Christ or followers of a great Master or of a Plan that you can follow.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Avatars, Revelations of God, p.177,178

Cleansing during sleep

From the moment we slip into sleep, our soul moves away from our physical body and goes to join the universal soul. During the body's rest, an entire work of cleansing and purification takes place. On its return, the soul finds the house cleaned and washed, and it can take up its work again. If the soul did not leave the body in this way, we would die from poisoning and asphyxiation, because the work of cleansing could not be done.

You will say, 'But why do we have these toxins and poisons?' Because life is a combustion. All the physical, emotional and mental activities we know as 'life' produce a release of forces, but they also leave behind rubbish which takes a while to be eliminated. So it is necessary for the soul to withdraw from the body so the cleansing can take place. This is how nature has resolved the problem of life.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Taking the responsibility of our mistakes

Those who lack the sense of responsibility argue with you if you point out their mistakes. They feel angry and hurt and eventually deny their failure and mistakes. No one can help such people.

A responsible person will beg you to show him his mistakes because he knows that it is only through correcting his mistakes that he will be able to exercise his sense of responsibility more efficiently.

Irresponsible people insist that their mistakes originate from you or from others, if they can even see the mistakes at all. They cannot correct themselves and therefore always remain mediocre and resentful.

If you do not accept your failures or mistakes with humility and joy, and if you reject those who point out your mistakes to you, something very serious happens to your mind. Every time you make a mistake, your mind will accept it as if it was not an important mistake. Eventually your mind will develop a system of rationalization and the making of excuses and tell you, "It is okay; there is no problem." When your mind programs itself in this way, it eventually leads you to disaster. Because your mistakes are not corrected, they increase and cause you failure.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The sense of responsibility in society, p.17

If you feel abandoned, it means you, yourself, no longer love

When you love someone, it is God that loves them through you. So, by loving them, you experience the love of God. That is why the act of loving can be just as fulfilling as that of being loved, in fact, even more so.

You have certainly already felt this love. It visited you, but then it went away. and that is how it will always be until love finds a permanent dwelling place and nourishment within you. For it eats a great deal! So, next time it comes to visit, try to reflect on the circumstances of its coming, so you are able to summon it again, for it is you, consciously or not, who provide the favourable conditions it needs.

Love enters where there is purity, the purity symbolized by the transparency of a crystal, and if it finds impurity it leaves again. So you see, this is a very serious question; think about it instead of complaining of being alone and abandoned. You can never lose the love that lives within you. If you feel abandoned, it means you, yourself, no longer love.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Sincerity

People think that talking openly about their bad intentions, feelings, or actions is an act of sincerity. But sincerity is a virtue. How can you be a thief and in the meantime be an honest person? Sincerity is related to the expression of your inner beauty, not to hiding your responses or reactions to other people's thoughts, feelings, and actions. A sincere person is one who shines his light without hindering it or hiding it.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Aura, Shield of Protection & Glory

Identifying with an illness

Someone says: 'As you can see, I'm sick; there are no two ways about it.' But what he doesn't know is that by affirming his illness in this way he reinforces it. Although the illness affects only one part of his body, he identifies with it and in his mind allows it to take over the entire terrain.

So what should you do instead? When you are sick, even if you are dying, you must say: 'It is true that my body is sick, but I myself - a child of God, a divine spark - cannot be sick.' And this conviction puts you above your illness: you do not identify with your body but with your spirit, which lives in light and eternity.

When you decide to put this law of the supremacy of the spirit to work in your life, you first effect changes in the realm of thought. These changes then influence the realm of feelings and sensations, finally crystallizing on the physical plane where things become organized and clear.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Effects of thought

Thought energy not only affects the minds and thoughts of other people, but it also affects the atmosphere, the elements found in the atmosphere, and the energy currents active there. This means that the composition of the elements of the air changes due to human thoughts.

Thought affects the cloud formation and the ionization of the air. It affects magnetic polarization, lightning, thunder, and rain. It causes earthquakes or creates stabilization. It causes epidemics and natural calamities if it is massive and negative.

...

Our thoughts can carry great currents of beauty, lofty images of heroism and nobility, and strong waves of healing energy into space. These thoughts are drawn in by creative people, by people of pure heart and goodwill, and used by them to change themselves and their environment and bring in a better life on this planet. Every human being can add his share to this accumulation of good thoughts and serve the Common Good.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Thought and the Glory of Thinking, p.61

God is always ready to give you all that you want

God gives you whatever you pray for, so take care. Ask for the right things. Not knowing what we should ask, we are asking Him for something when we really want something else. In this process, we are getting ourselves into difficulties.

God is always ready to give you all that you want, but you do not seem to know what is good for you and what you really want. Since you do not know what you should want and under what circumstances, it is better and easier to surrender yourself completely to God and simply ask for His grace.

-Sai Baba

The walking dead

Brotherhood, 561. It will be asked, Can so-called living corpses wander about on Earth for a long time? For long periods, depending upon their animal attraction to the physical world. Psychic energy will leave them, their radiations will become negligible, and a small apparatus will reveal the signs of death.

These walking corpses easily fall under the influence of strangers. They repeat empty words of their bygone days, convincing no one. Physicians may vainly examine their aorta, pointing to a valvular disease of the heart.

These corpses are sometimes sensed by certain animals. Often these corpses remain as heads of big enterprises, nevertheless their dead husks permeate everything therein. The walking dead are strongly attached to life, for they do not understand the change of condition. They fear death.

-Agni Yoga

No energy from Space can put us into the right direction

People think that cycles, new configurations of zodiacal signs and stars bring benevolent changes to humanity. This is a great mistake. No energy from Space can put us into the right direction. On the contrary, it stimulates our beingness at whatever level we may be. And because we are focused mostly in our subconscious mind, we live the same tragic life over and over again as centuries come and go.

New cycles, new configurations of stars, new education, and new Teachings can change us only when we respond to them with our conscious mind. Unless we are focused in our conscious mind, we will not benefit from new energies. On the contrary, even with all our sophisticated civilization, we will sink more and more into savagery.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The Subconscious Mind and the Chalice, p.30

Astral magnetism

The force of kundalini flows as a river through men and women. Sexual intercourse gives that river an outlet, creates a channel, a psychic-astral tube between their muladhara chakras. After the first intercourse, awareness is turned outward into the external world and the man or woman is more vulnerable to the forces of desire. The ramification of the intellect can now be experienced more than ever before. If the force is contained within the marriage covenant, with blessings from the Devaloka and Sivaloka, rays similar to the astral tube established between the couple are established between each of them through the higher chakras with the Mahadevas and their devas. A holy state of matrimony has been entered into.

Dancing with Siva, Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism states: "When a young virgin man and woman marry and share physical intimacy with each other, their union is very strong and their marriage stable. This is due to the subtle, psychic forces of the human nerve system. Their psychic forces, or nadis, grow together, and they form a one body and a one mind. This is the truest marriage and the strongest, seldom ending in separation or divorce. Conversely, if the man or woman has had intercourse before the marriage, the emotional/psychic closeness of the marriage will suffer, and this in proportion to the extent of promiscuity."

The higher rays and lower astral-psychic tubes that are created between husband and wife can contain the forces of desire within them. They also control the instinctive curiosities of the intellect, allowing its full power to manifest and create a productive and abundant life for the family which has continuity and consistency. A life of dharma can be lived.

The release of the sacred seed into the woman during sexual intercourse establishes, through the first chakra, a connecting psychic astral tube which can be clearly seen on the astral plane. It is through this psychic tube that desires, feelings and even telepathic messages can be passed from one to another. This connecting tube is generally about six inches in diameter.

Nowadays, because of promiscuity, masses of people are connected one to another in this way. A great bed of astral matter envelops them as they go from one partner to another. This causes the forces of intense fear to persist. From an inner perspective, their soul bodies are obscured by this astral matter, and it is most difficult for those living in the Devaloka to contact anyone on the Earth plane who is thus involved. Such individuals must fend for themselves, with little or no protection from the Devaloka or the Sivaloka, as do the animals, who do not have benefit of the intellect to guide their actions.

Any two people touching in other ways--kissing, embracing--also establishes a temporary connecting link of astral matter which penetrates their auras and completely covers their forms. This is sometimes called the great magnetism, for it appears in the Second World as a psychic mass connecting the two of them as wide as the length of their bodies. This astral matter is created from the diverse expulsion of emotional energies, blending their auras together. The psychic connection is magnetic enough to repeatedly pull them back together or cause emotional pain if they are separated. But unless the encounter is repeated, the astral matter will wear away in three or four days, a month at the most. In this way, touching or caressing someone causes an abundant release of magnetic force to occur.

-Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/study/mc/daily_lesson_html/lesson_66.shtml

Before practising meditation, you should first put your psychic being in order

It is possible to enter the spiritual world by several routes. Meditation is one of them, but it requires preparation. Those who start meditating without having acquired a certain inner discipline, that is, control over their thoughts, feelings and desires, begin by wandering in the lower regions of the astral plane, and on their way they stir up all kinds of dark layers inhabited by entities often hostile to humans. What they experience then is known as delirium or phantasmagoria, but not meditation.

So before practising meditation, you should first put your psychic being in order; otherwise, even this most useful and profitable of exercises can become very dangerous.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

The reason for the present beastly and demonic tendencies in our minds is the food we consume

Food is God - Do not waste food.

Firstly, consider the food we consume. Eat only what you need to eat. Do not be greedy. Do not take more than you can eat and waste the rest, because wasting food is a great sin. The surplus food can feed another stomach. Do not waste food, because food is God, life is God, and man is born from food.

Food is the main source of man's life, body, mind and character. The gross part of the food, which is the major portion of the food consumed by the body, is thrown out as waste matter. A minute amount of the food, which is the subtle part, is assimilated by the body and flows as blood. And a minuscule amount, which is the subtlest part of the food, makes up the mind. Therefore, the mind is the reflection of the food consumed. The reason for the present beastly and demonic tendencies in our minds is the food we consume.

A large part of the water we drink is expelled as urine. A minute part of the water consumed becomes the life force (prana). Therefore, the nature of the food and water that we take in decides our character. Only by controlling the quality of our food and water can we attain Divinity. This is why food is said to be God. Hence, to waste food is to waste God. Do not waste food. Eat only what you need, and be sure that what you eat is Sathwic. Give any surplus food to those in need.

-Sai Baba

The highest utility of human existence

In every mind, utility is conditioned by its own peculiar wants. To men, therefore, who never rise higher than eating, drinking, begetting progeny, and dying, the only gain is in sense-enjoyments; and they must wait and go through many more births and reincarnations to learn to feel even the faintest necessity for anything higher.

But those to whom the eternal interests of the soul are of much higher value than the fleeting interests of this mundane life, to whom the gratification of the senses is but like thoughtless play of the baby, to them, God and the love of God form the highest and the only utility of human existence.

-Swami Vivekananda

Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda

The Teaching is not a supermarket

People approach the Teaching as if it were a supermarket from which they can buy all that they need for their stomachs and bodies. But the Teaching is given to cause radioactivity and decentralization of self-interest and to make people learn the science of sacrificial service.

As long as one approaches the Teaching as if it were a supermarket, he will not profit spiritually from it, although he can use whatever he collects from the supermarket to entertain himself and others and thus waste the treasury of the Teaching. Wasting the Teaching can produce sad consequences due to the following reasons:

a. You lose your magnetism.

b. You turn into a hypocrite.

c. You exploit people for your own pleasure.

d. You blind your inner eye and inner ear.

e. You accumulate heavy karma.

f. You fall into isolation.

g. You are born into unfortunate circumstances in your next incarnation.

Just as people like to collect items of interest for their home, they also tend to collect ideas and information from the Teaching to be added to their mental collections, whereas the Teaching is only to be used for the actualization of their higher potentials and to cause transformation in their life.

The Teaching must be approached also with the intent to learn the following:

• How to love
• How to lose self-interest
• How to serve
• How to increase joy and freedom
• How to liberate people

........

The Teaching is not a supermarket but a center for transfiguration and mastery. As yet, most of the places of worship are not centers where people can learn how to renounce their glamors, illusions, maya, ego, and vanity, or learn how to step on the not-self. They are not yet centers where people enter the path of discipleship. Places of worship are usually places of emotional entertainment and abodes of personal "security". Some of them are mainly occupied with easing the path of glamor for others or occupied with taking advantage of others through psychic glamors and manipulative techniques. Many still refuse those people who point out their wounds and mistakes; they are still absorbed in the material world for most of their life.

It seems very strange that most people use the Teaching like some sort of personal medication. They "take" the Teaching because, after they hear uplifting lectures and read a spiritual book or two or have a good meditation, they experience the following:

• They feel very good.
• They enjoy life more.
• Their house is in better shape.
• They can make more money.
• Their family loves them more.

These results are good, but the goals of the Teaching extend beyond a person's personal pleasures and comforts, beyond his business and his home. We seldom hear people telling us that they love the Teaching because of any of the following reasons:

1. Their field of service to others improves.

2. Their viewpoints change.

3. Larger fields of labor open to them, and they have become extremely busy serving in them.

4. They experience self-forgetfulness and have begun to understand the meaning of self sacrifice.

5. They see greater light in people and see the efforts that others are making to make this world a better place.

6. They are taking many risks to be of service to the Teaching.

7. They are realizing their weaknesses and glamors and see how these prevent them from becoming a better servant to humanity.

These seven points signal a sincere approach to the Teaching, indicating that a person is beginning to understand the Teaching. It is important to serve the Teaching instead of making the Teaching serve us.

...............

The Teaching is the Law - the Dharma. It embodies the living fire given to humanity for regeneration and transformation. Every act which distorts the Teaching and causes harm to the Teacher is an unforgivable slander against the Source of Light.

Christ once said, "...but whosoever speaks against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come." The Holy Spirit is the Source of the pure Teaching, the Source of Light given to humanity for regeneration and transformation.

The Teaching is the Ageless Wisdom given throughout the ages by this Source through Great Ones in different words and experiences and according to the level of those to whom it is given. Those who are touched by this spark of light will see the pure Teaching passing like a beam of light through all wisdoms and religions given to humanity. It is this beam of light that must be discovered. It is found only through tolerance, inclusiveness, love, compassion, and through a life lived for the good of all.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The Ageless Wisdom

Light is the matter of creation

It is light that informs us of fire's presence. Yes, for light is the vestment of fire. And, insofar as all forms of clothing are material, we can say that light is actually matter. Above, in the sublime regions, light represents matter and fire represents spirit. This is why it is said that God, who is the primordial fire, created light first and then used light to create the world. Before light there was fire, and light is therefore the matter of creation.

You may be wondering whether it's possible for fire to exist without light. Yes, the original fire, the non-manifest fire is not luminous. In order for fire to be accompanied by light, it has to manifest.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov