Included in the hard copy version were these flyers:
Dear Friends
This issue of Meditation Monthly International places a focus on the Path of Perfection.
Each of us can participate on this path, whether newcomer or advanced, asking, “What can I do to refine my threefold nature?” or “What is my next step of discipline on the Path?”
Healing is an important part of striving on the Path of Perfection. Anything that blocks the spiritual advancement of the human soul produces disorder. Health depends upon a harmonized and balanced distribution of psychic energy.
Each of us has the innate capacity to heal the karmic wounds recorded in our physical, emotional and mental permanent atoms. The greater one’s contact with the Self, the greater one’s capacity for healing and refinement within the boundaries of karmic law. Contact with the Self within the Heart is possible through meditation and prayer.
I’ve always believed a good first step toward healing, refinement, and perfection are activities that initiate vitality, harmony and balance. For example, physical exercise, such as walking daily for 15 to 20 minutes promotes vitality to the glands and organs. Emotional exercise can be accomplished through listening to music, music that activates the note of the emotional body. If you are not certain of which note that may be, I would suggest the musical note of F sharp. Certain notes cause a resonance in your physical, emotional and mental vehicles, which can energize, vitalize and harmonize the aura, encouraging good health. Sound currents—musical notes and musical compositions (combinations of notes)—can positively affect the atomic and cellular life of not only the emotional but also the physical/etheric and mental bodies. Discord blocks our healing; harmony promotes healing. When our system is blocked, it is unable to naturally remove its impurities. Without health, without vitality, it is extremely difficult to refine and perfect our nature.
Pythagoras, around 570 B.C.E., gave us the chromatic scale, as well as a profound insight into the metaphysical philosophy of numbers, believing that Number is “the principle, the source and the root of all things.” Esoteric students have long realized how not only members of the human kingdom but also the animal kingdom can remove impurities from their system through the invocation of certain sound currents. For example, vowel sounds: “When certain vowels are sounded, the glands will vibrate, which will give them the power to absorb the impurities that they have rebelled against. Let a person suffering from cancer sound a simple note of F sharp and give it the energy of a full breath. This will open the ducts within him and attune them to this note; for Nature’s notes are the ones that really do the work for us in healing ourselves and others.” 1 The correct vibration will magnetically attract and increase psychic energy. If we sing the scale for five minutes, we can initiate the process of healing, harmony and striving on the path of perfection.
For a simple and safe meditation exercise: (a) sit on a chair, making certain that your back and spine are straight, erect but not stiff, and not resting against the chair; (b) your chin should be parallel to the floor and your chest out; (c) your feet should be parallel and knees apart, approximately 3 inches; (d) hands should be placed on your knees, palms down. Now you are ready to begin the exercise. Close your eyes.
1. Sound three Oms. (The first OM enables purification of your mental body; the second OM enables purification of your astral body, filling it with peace and love; the third OM facilitates purification of your physical-etheric body.)
2. For 3 to 5 minutes, with concentrated attention, think of “Beauty.” You can ask yourself questions about Beauty. For example, “What is Beauty?” “How can I increase Beauty in my physical life, my emotional life, my mental life?” “How can I increase Beauty in my family?” “How can I increase Beauty in my spiritual group?” While you are concentrating on Beauty, breathe normally and naturally, remaining alert. Do not allow your mind to wander or become sleepy. The best time to do this exercise is at sunrise or sundown.
3. If you wish, at the end of your meditation, you can record your thoughts on Beauty in your journal.
Shanti,
Joleen Dianne DuBois
President
**************************
1 The Dayspring of Youth by “M,” p. 240.
The process toward perfection can lead humanity to higher
worlds. For this, it is 
necessary
to affirm the understanding of non-transitoriness. When the focus of knowledge
will be widened into new angles and a way will be found to transform the nets
into spatial fires, then the world of new forms will be unlimited. Infinity
I 1930, para. 78
In rejecting responsibility, man deprives himself of a most wonderful feeling and of a personal, affirmed, creative force. Man, transmuting the fires of Space into forms, cannot cast aside his responsibility. Each form created in Cosmos will correspond to the form of the spirit. All generated forms will correspond to the forms created by the spirit in its ceaseless striving toward perfection. The feeling of responsibility must raise the cosmic creativeness. When the spirit develops in the direction of Infinity, then the feeling of responsibility acquires the power manifested by the Creators of Cosmos. Begin to realize personal responsibility and strive toward cosmic responsibility. There is the step of personal responsibility, the step of responsibility for human thought, the step of responsibility for human evolution, the step of responsibility for a better future. When thinking will be perfected, it will be possible to say that the time of construction of a better future is near.... The mutual interrelation of responsibility is limitless. Infinity I 1930, para. 73
The assumption of personal superiority is one of the most shameful manifestations of the imperfection of the spirit. It not only corrupts all the surroundings but it also remains as the greatest impediment to improvement. It is essential to counteract such an ailment with a powerful restorative. Thought about cooperation and Brotherhood will be salutary in guarding against such a dangerous ailment, and will call forth new strength. In the Brotherhood there can be no assumption of personal superiority, just as there can be no self-satisfaction. Brotherhood 1937, para. 604
Besides, cooperation must not be limited only to certain aspects of labor. Cooperation must be accepted as the foundation of Existence. Only through the broadest cooperation is it possible to find the true relationship between the state and national labor. Otherwise the ruinous indebtedness of the state will increase. The solution of such a problem by means of war will be a sign of barbarism. One must think not about the destruction of nations, but about the improvement of the planet! When psychic energy occupies its due position, when woman enters as the protectress of culture, when cooperation is made the basis of the structure—then all life will become transformed. Knowledge and creativeness will occupy their manifest position. I say manifest in this sense, that even amid remote ages may be found examples of understanding of the significance of science and art. Cooperation reveals easy paths toward perfection. AUM 1936, para. 424
We lend Our Ears to pure thoughts.
Thou wilt receive the knowledge and wilt
walk the pure path,
but beware of anger and of doubt.
If thou art conqueror,
thou wilt receive the light.
If thou falterest, the whirlwind
will obscure thy soul.
Perfect yourselves, my friends,
unwearyingly.
Deny not the Voice of the Spirit,
suppress only the earth-bound voices.
Be daring—I am with thee.1
This verse is an instruction from one of the first writings given by the Master M from the Agni Yoga Series: Leaves of Morya’s Garden – The Call.
Perfect yourselves, my friends, unwearyingly. This means we must, without complaint, strive unceasingly from test-to-test, experience-to-experience, life after life, and step by step to improve ourselves. We must strive to perfect our minds, as well as our physical and emotional nature.
The Agni Yoga Teachings indicate if we conquer our problems we will receive light. What is light? It is life, life from the Eternal Source.
One day a person asked me about our Sunday Services, “Why do we have an altar?” You will find this is not an uncommon question these days, because so many contemporary churches do not have altars. Yet in the home of most every disciple who meditates, you will find an altar. An altar is a symbol of the Abode of Light. Light is the Life-giving essence. Light is energy. Light reveals the darkness and then disperses it.
When
you receive light in prayer and meditation, something happens to you; you feel
different. As you strive to conquer your problems, at first it seems like your
darkest hour. However, because light is energy, you will discover that a spiritual
regeneration begins. As the light increases within yourself, you can see things
better—you will better recognize cause and effect in motion; you will understand
yourself and others with greater clarity.
When you come here on Sunday mornings and see the beauty of the altar—the flowers, the lighted candles, the cross, and the icon picture of the Christ painted by the master artist Nicholas Roerich—be aware these are symbols of the Abode of Light; thus the altar is sacred. We do not worship the symbols but the Source of Light, the Most High. It is so beautiful. “Beauty will save the world!”2 We invite people to bring flowers to place on the altar each Sunday. When they bring their beautiful flowers and place them on the altar, it is a gift they are giving to the Abode of Life—we are giving light and receiving light. It is a most beautiful opportunity for a person to bring flowers for the altar, especially if the person makes it a most special tribute.
Each person who is responsive to his inner potential, who is sensitive and responsive to his Soul, feels the urge to surpass himself at every stage of his life, during life-tests: tests of courage, of strength, of spirit; tests of his soul; tests of spirit over matter; tests of humility, endurance, and resourcefulness; tests of spiritual discrimination and tests of love; tests of staying on the Path. One who is not responsive to his inner potential, to the evolutionary needs of his soul, will fail when he meets these tests, sinking into the mud of the mundane life until he becomes so sickened with the conditions of his life that he cries out for help. His cry for help will be heard and help at once will be given.
The verse says, If thou falterest, the whirlwind will obscure thy soul. This means if we lose our faith, if we are not responsive to our divine Spark, our life is in danger of falling into chaos when we encounter the tests. The mundane life is defined as chaos. Chaos is discord and disunity; it is the antithesis of evolution. Chaos obscures us from the beauty and treasures of our soul. People often replace the light, love and the beauty of their soul with whining, worries, fears and doubts; with ego and vanity, stubbornness, bossiness, and a desire to control everyone and everything.
Deny not the Voice of the Spirit, suppress only the earth-bound voices. Every day we can receive the guidance of our Soul, but the advice is oftentimes not heard because of the “earth-bound” voices. Earthbound voices are voices of darkness, doubt and depression; voices of fear, self-pity, desire, vanity, jealousy, and fanaticism. This is why we are encouraged to meditate each day. Meditation increases our light, creating a better contact with the Voice of Spirit. In daily meditation, in service, in study, in striving on the Path of Perfection, our hidden potentials, our hidden treasures will unfold.
The verse concludes with: Be daring—I am with thee. Many children have a sense of the light, love and beauty within themselves; it is this wisdom that gives them the knowledge of right and wrong; love and respect for their parents, siblings, and friends; a desire to help others, and inner direction to live a life of purpose—these signs will be demonstrated early on in the life of such children. If you sense the Master in your Heart, you will be a person of principle, virtue and honesty.
We must strive on the path of perfection step by step; we must strive to conquer our immediate problems, challenges, and obstacles; we must strive to destroy our present limitations, and then, without leaving any gaps behinds us, move to the next step. If we leave one problem behind, it will turn into an even larger problem on the path ahead of us. This is how we can strive in harmony with the Law of Perfection.
We must improve ourselves step by step. Those who push themselves beyond what they are able to do, beyond their karma, will have more problems in their evolution than those who do not consciously choose to evolve. The Great One advises “Make haste slowly.”
Many students on the Path have achieved, yet many have temporarily failed because of the difficulty of the battle. Those who have endured, who have persisted in their lives, eventually became the most beautiful shining lights of their families, groups and humanity despite the many failures they passed through.
Oftentimes people will come to me for advice, asking how they can improve themselves, but in the end will say, “Please tell me what I want to hear—not what I need to know.” They say this in various ways. For example, one student came to me during a time of emotional depression. He said, “I know I should be doing this and that to improve myself, but I can’t right now. Things are too difficult for me.” Or, “I know I am not supposed to smoke for I often tell others how damaging smoking is to their health, but during times like this, I sometimes I find I need to have a cigarette to get through my problems.” Others will say, “I know it is not good for me to drink liquor if I am meditating daily, but with the way my life is now, I find it helps me to relax if I drink.” And, “I know what is good for me. I just can’t stop myself from doing these things that get me into trouble. Do you forgive me?” I will say, “Just do what you can do.”
You see, if I would say to them, “Don’t meditate if you are drinking or doing drugs,” “Don’t smoke and then expect to have healthy lungs and a healthy brain,” “Don’t ask for enlightenment then return to your old ways,” they will push themselves beyond what they are capable of doing. This will cause further problems for them later on, for in the beginning they pretended to be something they were not, and in that pretense they fooled themselves.
You must decide to transform yourself, not because someone else is preaching to you, intimidating you with fears, with religious dogma and so on, but because you have a strong impulse to do so. Striving to improve must come from an inner urge, a personal experience, a moment of bliss. If someone forcefully instructs you that you must do this and that, you will eventually hate that person, or that group, church or country. You will become so filled with guilt, your guilt will lead to hatred, and through hatred you will slander the group, criticize the group, church or country and turn people away from their search for the Path. This brings a terrible karma upon you. Before you can save others you must save yourself. As you try to save yourself, as you strive step by step on the path of perfection, your striving will ignite the fire in others.
When a student comes to me and says, “I am having problems in my life that are pushing me off course. Can you help me?” Then, I will help. I will give him one little thing to do. If he does it, I will give him another little exercise to do, and so forth. But if later he comes to me and says, “Please don’t be mad at me because I did not take your advice. Will you forgive me?” I will tell him that he must forgive himself and try again. I will tell him not to feel guilty, for the Teaching is not about guilt. I will also tell him to stop whining if he is courageous enough to listen. If not, I will remain silent, for I know that someday he will hear the voice of his Solar Angel. A disciple is on an accelerated path; not all can stand the pressure of such speed.
How beautiful is life for the one who has left behind his miseries, who is heading toward transformation and resurrection, who has left behind his pains, ignorance, fears, jealousies and limitations by lifting himself up into the light of the Higher Self!
There are times that a Teacher can give a student a mantram to help him face and conquer his limitations, his problems and life tests. Mantrams may bring energy to the person, which will help him to overcome his problems. But this can only be done after the Teacher watches your aura and, seeing the stage of your evolution, knows the situation of your karma.
There are not many mantrams that can help people without the strict supervision of a knowledgeable Teacher, but there are a few. Two of these mantrams the White Mountain Group choir has sung for you: One is the Gayatri and the other is Avira Virma Yeti. The choir sang Avira Virma Yeti for the Christmas Service. Did your heart feel a response to that mantram? If so, then learn how to sing it; it will help you through your problems. You can order the Christmas service tape and listen to the music and words of the song until you memorize it; meanwhile, you can sing along with the choir on the tape. You can sing this mantram for 30 minutes over the course of a week. The Gayatri is on our CD. Have you heard it? You can sing this mantram for 15 minutes over a period of one week. Both of these mantrams will help give you energy to solve your problems, helping you as you strive on the path of perfection. These two songs will release the potential in you to surpass yourself.
There are moments of great joy that result in an urge toward perfection, with a surge of energy as when the wind picks up the embers of a fire and a flame seems to suddenly explode into action. These moments of joy often occur when the one striving toward perfection meets another disciple in the One Work, or when you find the Teachings, your Teacher, or have contact with your Soul. Another moment is when the disciple has conscious contact with his Master, or has a dream in which he finds himself in the classrooms of the Ashram; these are moments of joy, which result in a surge of energy on the path of striving.
The Law of Perfection is the Law of Striving. Perfection is our potential. Potential is a seed for the manifestation of beautiful visions, labor and service; potentials are our hidden treasures. Each one of us has the potential for perfection, but perfection can only be attained by conscious labor, by striving daily to surpass one’s present level of beingness.
Master Morya says: “They will ask wherein is the striving for perfection. The Reply: In Love, in Beauty, in Action. These three paths suffice.” 3
Our striving toward perfection will receive Their notice and Their help. The Master says: “We manifest revelations unto a sensitive ear. And thy wish may bring to thee Our Voice. Our Ray, as a beacon, is searching the darkness, and with the aid of its light the ship reaches port.” 4
Many people these days appear to be fearful of change—not by word but by deed—for they do not have a sense of the Abode of Light, the Hierarchy. They are fearful to surpass themselves for it requires diligence, commitment, transformation and the shedding of their imperfections. But if the disciple is fearless, with diligence he will welcome the path of perfection for he knows “Even beneath a tree he will feel himself sheltered. Even beneath a rock he will feel himself firm. He knows that in his striving toward perfection, as he meets the difficulties of his karma, he will be protected in the Ray of the Master.” 5 A ray of His Ray will be lent to us and we will shine. M. M. says “Our Ray radiates, and in the silence of the ocean thou shalt seek Us.” 6
Members of groups who are striving on the Path of Perfection must protect the labor of their coworkers. In ancient times disciples knew the importance of shielding one another and of the importance to guarding the dignity and integrity of the Community. Today’s more modernistic disciple is frequently seen putting him or herself ahead of his brothers and sisters, placing himself in positions of importance while at the same time placing his coworkers in subservience to his position. Subservience is not service to Hierarchy. Christ said, “He who is greatest among you, let him be your servant.” 7 He also said “For whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” 8
This coming new year we must strive for perfection and develop our potentials; let this be your New Years’ resolution.
In the book Transformation, by Torkom Saryadarian, it says: “We are advancing on the path of perfection toward God. Either we are going to advance on that path and say, ‘In this life I am going to be a Master,’ or we are going to resign for it and say, ‘In this life I will be a pig.’ You are going to choose because you are now in the middle. The backward path is pain, suffering, failure, and defeat. Do you still want that?” 9 Torkom never minces words; he calls things in staccato form—short and succinct with a strong punch. Words such as these make us squirm. Is our life one of pain, suffering, failure and defeat? Then we must begin to advance on the path of perfection toward God.
We cannot go anywhere on the spiritual path if our conflicts continue. “We pray for light to descend upon us. Then the next moment we lie and gossip and say things [that hurt people,] divide people and cause trouble.” 10
Can we renounce the things that keep us busy playing like monkeys and truly, sincerely, step onto the path of perfection, cultivating our potential, as a New Year’s resolution? Can we enter this new millennium with new and higher goals, new and higher values and become a new person? An enlightened person?
You may say, “Yes, this sounds good. I can probably do this, but not right now.” Then a crisis comes. “A crisis is the moment when the light starts shining within us.”11 When the light shines its rays as a laser beam in his life, the disciple knows he cannot put things off; he knows if he wants to keep in time with his evolution, he has no choice. It is when “all points meet at the center” and the Solar Angel says, “This is it!” that you can no longer fool around. It is time to step onto the path.
The past few years we talked about preparing for Wesak 2000 and the New Millennium. That time is upon us. The future is upon us. It is time to put our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual lives in order and step onto the evolutionary path of perfection.
Do you want to become somebody?You can do it.
You can tell yourself you are the most beautiful person in the world. The catch is that you must then begin to act like the most beautiful person in the world would act. Once you say this, then you must believe it, and act as if you are the most beautiful person in the world. You see, this is not a delusion; it must be real. You cannot say you want to be the most beautiful person and then not change yourself.
Who is your hero? Do you have one? For many spiritual women Helena Roerich is a hero; she was the most beautiful, noble, courageous, compassionate, wise and intelligent woman who gave the world a very beautiful example of the spiritual life. For men in the Teachings Torkom Saraydarian may be their hero, or Nicholas Roerich. Can you say that you are as beautiful as these heroes? As beautiful as Nicholas Roerich? Or perhaps as beautiful as Rabindranath Tagore, or Gandhi or Martin Luther King? Can you be like one of those Great people? You can try this!
Once you are on the Path you cannot turn your back. But you can stand in a place where you cannot turn back or go forward. When this happens, it puts you in a very precarious position.
You know, we cannot teach these things to people who have a dead heart or have not matured the qualities of their hearts. When the flame is burning brightly in the temple of your heart, you will love striving; you will love traveling the path of perfection and engaging in daily striving and service. When people wrong you, you will find ways to forgive them. People whose hearts are aflame can be abused, hit, and poked, but they will still love you. They will say, “I understand what made you do those things.” They will say, “I forgive you because I love you.”
This is so interesting to me. I look at our pets—pets can be abused, neglected and hit, yet in return will love you unconditionally. The middle of the spectrum of love will be the child who is abused, or the wife who has been battered but out of fear will stay quiet or cling to the one who is abusing her. The other end of the spectrum is the one whose heart is aflame, the one who is fed by his Higher Nature, fed with the energy of the seven principles of Beauty, Goodness, Righteousness, Joy, Freedom, Service and Sacrifice. This is the person I am talking about. Such people have the wisdom to understand the behaviors of their attacker, and in that wisdom, love their attacker. Such a person cannot plan revenge against the other because the fires of the heart will immediately burn the ugliness. When the fire of the heart is dead, such a person will curse and take revenge upon others.
You must have ignited the flame of your heart to understand this Teaching. If you don’t, you won’t; and you will find your life filled with many sufferings because of narrow-mindedness and lack of forgiveness.
It takes a long time to understand these things.
Some teachers will try to shame you, condemn you for what you have done; they will tell you what wrongs they believe you have committed and tell you that you are a “lost soul.” You must run from such people, or if you are strong enough, stay and learn about the nature of such enemies of evolution, but don’t be fooled by their speeches. They will make you weak; they will make you feel guilty about your actions, whether right or wrong, and then invite you to join them with the promise that they can save you if you follow them. Be vigilant to those who hide under the mask of light, trying to encapsulate your beauty, your joy, your purity.
What these types of spiritual teachers don’t know is that whatever you did in the past, it was right at that time, and that is why you did it. You may wish now that you didn’t do it, but it was right, at the time. Later you will learn from these difficulties, from these things. When your consciousness expands, and you move to the next stage of a higher consciousness, you will be able to find out the causes of how those actions occurred and the results. Then you will decide how not to do it again in the future. You see, the flame of your heart, the level of your consciousness, the result of your striving helped you learn your lesson.
One day Omar Khayyam went to a mosque. After his prayers, he noticed a nice little prayer rug there which he liked. After the congregation left, he pretended to still be praying and meditating. Then, at the moment when no one could notice, he hid the rug inside his clothes and took it home. When he got there, he admired the beauty of the carpet and started talking with God. “God,” he said “don’t count this as a sin, because you made me in such a way that I did just what you built me to do!”
Wowee! How easily we can fool ourselves. But we cannot fool ourselves when we listen to the Voice of Spirit and are daring.
Footnotes:
1. Leaves of Morya’s Garden, Book One (1924), para. 25. ©1953 Agni Yoga Society.
2. First stated by writer Feodor Dostoevsky.
3. & 4. Ibid., para 318.
5. Paraphrased from para. 318.
6. Leaves Of Morya’s Garden, Book One (1924), para. 318. ©1953 Agni Yoga Society
7. Matthew 23:11.
8. Ibid., verse 12. 9. & 10. Transformation, Torkom Saraydarian, p. 40. ©2000
The Creative Trust. 11. Ibid., p. 41.
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