Why do all Teachings insist that faith should form the essence of a person’s, family’s, group’s or a nation’s foundation? Because a foundation of faith affirms one’s perception of the divine existence within man and within Nature. “Like a motive force, faith intensifies the energy, and through this increases the working capability of space.”1 With faith nourishing the energy of your service, with faith nourishing the unifying love energy in all your relationships, with faith as the substructure of all your thoughts, emotions and actions, the results of your creative labor will serve as an activator of the benevolent forces in life, in Nature and in Cosmos. Faith expands and nourishes life, where doubt contracts and deadens life.
It seems most fitting for those who are on a spiritual quest to always keep faith on the horizon. I was reading the other day about the subject of faith in the Agni Yoga Teachings. The sage M.M. said, “Man should not affirm that his faith has limits. Love has no limits, and likewise faith. No one will dare to say that faith can be manifested no further. Many will be indignant at the statement that their faith is insufficient, but at some time they will comprehend how much they could have increased their energy.”2
Helena Roerich instructs: “Faith makes a giant out of a man. By destroying doubt, such faith creates an invincible persistency which inevitably leads to the goal. ”3
This issue of Meditation Monthly International features three articles on faith. The first article “Faith as a Bridge to the Future” was voiced by Peggy Pace during her battle with a terminal illness. From the time she received the diagnosis, until the day she died two months later, Peggy demonstrated her belief in faith and shared her foundation of faith with myself and her many co-workers. In the middle of those challenging days I mentioned that it would be nice to share some of her ideas on faith in Meditation Monthly International and in so doing, to dedicate the issue to her memory with our love. The suggestion was met with a big smile and joy of agreement. The keynote article is an excerpt from a lecture given at the end of 1997, which the staff felt was most fitting to this month’s theme. The third article gives some of Torkom Saraydarian’s Teachings and insights about faith. We hope you will enjoy reading through this issue of M.M.I. and that in so doing your own faith will be expanded.
Joleen D. Du Bois,
President
joleen@wmea-world.org
____________________________
1. Hierarchy, verse 426 (NY: Agni Yoga Society, third edition,
1997).
2. Brotherhood, verse 540 (NY: Agni Yoga Society, 1962).
3. Letters of Helena Roerich, Vol. I (NY: Agni Yoga Society,
1954), p. 105.
(All of the above quotes are printed with permission of copyright holder.)
Faith as a Bridge to
the Future
(An experience of faith)
by Peggy Pace
(This article is a transcription from an audio-cassette tape
of Peggy’s spoken thoughts about Faith, voiced after she was diagnosed with
cancer in August of 1997.)
Faith is a subjective knowingness that gives assurance and calmness to our heart. Faith gives us endurance and stamina in times of crises. Faith keeps us going when we are caught in darkness, travelling through a tunnel of time and unable to see the light at the end. When a person may not be able to see where he or she will be coming out or passing to on the other side of the crisis, faith allows the spirit to circulate and move forward until a new rhythm of life is somehow established.
Is faith a necessity for living and expansion? Yes, it appears to be; for every aspect of life is based upon some degree or understanding of faith. Faith is found within the fundamental structure of the universe. Because of the natural laws controlling the flow of life upon this planet, because of the rhythm of life, faith becomes embedded within the nature of the human soul.
For instance, the sun rises and sets during every 24-hour period upon planet Earth. This rhythm puts constancy and changelessness into our system of living. Changelessness is at the Core of Faith. Any type of contact with points of changelessness creates stronger faith.
In terms of crises, a person maintains faith and calmness and is able to inwardly touch the subjective point of changelessness. It is that surety of energy, surety of love, surety of assurance, surety of a greater plan for one’s life, family or group that enables the point of crisis to graduate the person into a new level of consciousness.
Faith seems to grow and build upon itself as a person experiences various situations requiring calmness and faith. So, it seems that experience itself is necessary for building faith.
I can remember reading a story once in the Ageless Wisdom
Teachings about the first time a sailor experienced a storm when out to
sea and how frightened he became. But once the sailor made hundreds of
voyages he knew how to meet the waves and raging sea with an attitude of
calmness.
So it seems to be in one’s own life, whether the stormy
sea is a physical illness that is life threatening, or an emotional crisis
requiring new levels of detachment, or a mental crisis requiring a new
understanding, faith becomes a stabilizing factor in crisis.
Crisis can evoke new levels of faith. For instance, when a crisis is understood as a valuable experience for the soul, the person can learn a deeper meaning about what really matters in life: To learn how important friends and love are, to learn that there are many aspects of our nature that have not yet been developed, to learn the importance of caring about others, to learn to serve a just and noble cause without thought of self, to learn to serve a noble cause no matter what is going on around and about you—to learn to focus on the beauty of life when caught in the stormy seas.
There are types of learning, gained through experience that build a person’s faith. Faith believes in something before it happens. That in and of itself is a subjective experience. But isn’t this needed in so many areas of life today?
For instance, when you meet someone and have faith that that relationship can grow and be nurtured into a true and lasting friendship. Or a scientist has faith that a cure can be discovered for cancer and labors year after year to come up with the proper formulas and treatment principles. Or a musician has faith that he can compose a new symphony. Each of these actions is underpinned with a foundation of faith.
Faith begins developing in childhood as the youngster cultivates a faith that his Dad and Mom, and his grandparents or godparents, are going to provide for his physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. It is through the parents’, grandparents’ and godparents’ faith and the ability of the child to progress and advance that the child learns to have faith in himself and his potential. As admiration, appreciation and gratitude occurs, faith begins taking form. Initially faith takes a form of self-worth and self-confidence, eventually maturing into trust and admiration of others.
Faith matures as the consciousness expands, but no matter what, it is always built through the heart. Whether it is a linking of the hearts between a child and parent, grandparent or godparent, or the linking of two friends’ hearts, or between student and teacher, it is the linking of the hearts that allows the transfer of love energy to increase one’s faith.
Faith in God, faith in the love of friends, faith in the guidance of a Teacher, faith in the purpose of one’s life, faith in the presence of one’s Guardian Angel—faith always comes through the heart and bridges the soul into the Future.
Faith and the Search
for Truth
Excerpts from a lecture by Joleen D. DuBois
“The attitude of faithfulness is a search for truth and fact, no matter where they are found. To be able to pursue such a search, one must really believe that his faith is based upon a real foundation.”1
Faith keeps a person on the ever-revealing road of Truth. His search for Truth is a search for the Jewel of Divinity, the search for his Divine inheritance. A foundation of faith guides a person from life to life, lighting the way to his inheritance. When the Jewel is found, the Soul is liberated, and the person becomes known as the Jewel in the Lotus. The Jewel in the Lotus is the highest source of energy in a person. When man becomes united with the Jewel he will become a living Soul. I remember as a youngster that to think about the Soul was to think about a great mystery. I believed that it was a mystery everyone had to try to solve and if he could solve the mystery, he would become like a Buddha or a Christ. I learned that even though it was inspiring, it didn’t really matter how many stories one heard or read about other people’s experiences of the Soul, one must experience the Soul him or herself to be a source of faith and Truth.
At some moment, in some lifetime, this experience will take place. There will be a perfect opportunity in which an alignment will take place between the Soul in one’s nature and Cosmos, and if the person is “ready” when that moment comes, a communication will occur, an awakening will take place. It is an experience that becomes part of the conscious memory of the human soul in which the soul remembers that it has a destination. This destination may be known in theory, but once a person has the experience, it becomes a remembered fact. It is a knowingness that never goes away and which gives one a sense of who he is, of his destination, and a sense of his Purpose lifetime after lifetime.
Once
a person has the awakening experience, the first part of each subsequent lifetime
seems to be a recapitulation. There may or may not be a conscious memory of
the previous lifetime, but like the experience of recall, a person will feel
as if “he’s been there before,” or “he’s known that person before.” During the
recapitulation experience there is a strong urge, a need, to live a most essential
life. Each lifetime the search encompasses less and less wasted time. For example,
you had an awakening when you were thirty-five years old. Up until that age,
you enjoyed life, but you knew you had not yet found your life purpose. You
were searching , but you were not certain what you were searching for. But an
aligned moment brought Faith and the human soul together, igniting your consciousness
with a sense of your Purpose. After the awakening experience, everything took
on a different hue. You had a different understanding about yourself. You developed
a different level of responsibility for your thoughts and feelings, for commitments
in your relationships, to your family, your group, and to your duties at work.
This is the first sign that a contact has been made between your human soul
and the Jewel. You received a moment of inspiration and now your life is changed.
You are moving from darkness into the light.
There were three wise men who were aware of the signs in the heavens, and they began a search to find the Great One. If we have prepared ourselves life after life to meet the Great One—the Jewel within ourselves, the Soul that is a part of the Heavenly Man—then we begin the search. The search always takes us to the Ageless Wisdom Teaching. Up to that point, a person may search through various religions, but at the moment when the contact is made, we no longer search for a religion; we search for Truth. In the search for Truth, we are searching for Love. In finding the Truth, in finding the Love, we will find a commonality with all people. That commonality is a recognition of the Jewel, our Divine inheritance. When that recognition takes place, we are one in the Spirit. When a person discovers the Oneness of the Spirit, he then begins to search for that Oneness in everything—in every person, in every religion, and in every country—in everything and everyone he contacts.
We all have a hero
within us—something inside of ourselves that inspires us to be better,
that encourages us to to realize that we want to become somebody, and it
is all given birth to in the soul, that Jewel within:
“One of the kings of the East, knowing the need of his
nation, knowing the mysteries of human nature, and knowing that he was
not going to live forever, sent his three-year-old son to a far-off city,
under the protection of a nurse trained for this service. The king believed
that the future ruler of his country should be a man who knew about the
life of his people. He thought that a king should know about their misery
and suffering, as well as their aspirations. A man who was artificially
prepared for rulership in the nursery of the palace, cut off from the daily
labours of the people, could not have real understanding of the people
over whom he would reign. So his son grew up in the far-off city. He went
to school and, when old enough, worked very hard to earn money for his
tuition, books, and other expenses. He experienced both failure and success.
He saw the suffering of the people. When he was about nineteen or twenty,
he made some new friends with whom he visited night clubs and experienced
the exciting life there. He gambled, he drank.... and, finally, gave himself
entirely over to pleasure. The nurse was watching him carefully through
all these years and had kept the father informed of all his behavior, adding
her increasing worry about the boy’s health.
“One night the young man returned very late. He had been
drinking heavily. Exhausted, he sat down in the cold outside the door,
not daring to awaken his nurse. The nurse, however, was watching him from
the window. She noticed that he was playing with a knife. Several times
he placed it near his heart, and then began toying with it again. She feared
that he was psychologically preparing himself to take his own life. Opening
the door, she said gently, ‘You are late again.’ ‘I know I am,’ he replied,
rising. ‘I didn’t want to bother you.’ The nurse sensed the utter frustration,
the hopelessness in the young man standing before her.
“There was a long pause before he spoke again. ‘Good
nurse,’ he cried, ‘I am tired of living. Life has no meaning. There is
no drive within me. I have no goal, nothing to live for. I do not want
to live!’ The faithful nurse, placing her hands upon his shoulders and
looking directly into his eyes, said gently, ‘If you only knew who you
are, you would never again be this person you have become.’ ‘Who am I?’
he asked. She burst into tears as she said, ‘You are the future king of
our country!’ A spark of fire illuminated his eyes, now brimming with tears.
He embraced her and said, ‘What are you talking about?’ There was a long,
tearful silence. Then the nurse said, ‘You are the son of the king. I have
watched over you these seventeen years, and my heart has ached for you.
You are the future king of our country.... Your father is getting old.’
“At that moment, with this affirmation, the ‘King’ within the boy awakened. He bathed himself and went alone into the forest. For a week he did not speak, but remained in solitude deep in the woods. At the end of this time, he returned to the nurse and said, ‘I am going to my father and thank him for his wisdom in providing this great lesson for me.’ It was a sunny day when the son and the father embraced on the steps of the great palace amidst music and celebration. Years later he became king, a king who cared for the common man, a king who worked to uplift the standard of living of his people in all levels of human aspirations. This is the human magic. If you will just remember your origin and turn your eyes to your Future, you will not be the same person any more, and you will release your greatness, the hidden glory within yourself.”2
This story is a metaphor
that each person has a life purpose. Faith is the Sun, the promise of our
Future, a reminder that life can be meaningful and purposeful and filled
with joy and significance. We have pain, we have suffering, we have loss,
and in these experiences we begin our search. Yet even in the deepest sorrow,
the deepest sense of loss, don’t we still have a glimmer of hope, the energy
of faith? That glimmer of hope, the nourishment of faith is what pushes
us ahead, one step at a time. That glimmer of hope comes from the Soul,
the Solar Angel, until one day we listen and find our way. And doesn’t
it seem as if it is only through a moment of despair, an experience
of fear or hopelessness, that we finally hear, finally listen? In the story,
the nurse is the symbol of the Solar Angel, and just as in the story, once
we truly hear, our life changes.
“Through faith, you know the existence of things
which you can’t see. Hope reflects the image of the Self, Whom you are
not aware of. Love is the revelation of the hidden Self or the actualization
of the Self, Who made His existence known to you in your faith, Who made
you strive in your hope, and Who made Him manifest in your love.”3
___________________________________
1. Torkom Saraydarian, The Ageless Wisdom (West Hills, CA: T.S.G.
Publishing Foundation, Inc., 1990), p. 47.
2. Torkom Saraydarian, Cosmos in Man (Sedona, AZ: Aquarian Educational
Group, 1973), pp. 17-19.
3. Torkom Saraydarian, Challenge for Discipleship (Sedona, AZ:
Aquarian Educational Group, 1986), p. 496.
Faith, Doubt and Psychic Energy
“Faith and doubt are two opposite elements. Faith nourishes
psychic energy; doubt decomposes it. Most traitors start with doubt and
end with a final depression and then death.
“Nothing can be accomplished without faith. Psychic energy
gives faith, and faith in its turn puts psychic energy into operation.”
1
“...Faith keeps the flow of psychic energy as a current.
Doubt intercepts it.
“The more faith you have, the stronger is the impact
of your psychic energy. But this energy must not be used for compulsion,
but to create freedom, release—victory instead of slavery.” 2
Faith
and Depression
“The third state of consciousness is absolute depression. The person has no faith at all. He thinks that it is the end and all is over. He demonstrates extreme fear.
“To be able to live a life of joy and enthusiasm, a creative and helpful life, a life that is a blessing for all who are related to him in some way, and to pass away in joy and peace, one must have in his heart the Image of the Lord and his own image, which gradually must fuse with the Image of the Lord.” 3
The Disciple and Faith
“The... duty of a disciple-to-be is to develop faith in himself. Many people do not have faith in themselves because they lost it. People are born with faith, but they lost it because of circumstances. For example, when you are a child your mother, father, sisters, brothers, relatives, teachers, priests ... one of them or many of them impress in your Mind that you are a naughty child, a bad boy, a bad girl. This impression leads you to many failures, which make you believe that they are right.
“These failures multiply during your adolescent years, and eventually you come to the conclusion that you “can’t”; you are weak; you are a failure. And you totally lose your faith in yourself. Immediately when you lose this faith, you become a dependent person, and all that you do depends on the ideas, feelings, actions, and words of other people. Eventually you become an automaton. This condition is very common these days. There are many people in the world who are afraid to be successful, great, or important because they think they are not worthy of success. Their self-image is broken and destroyed. Immediately when success comes their way, they act in such a way that they repel success, or they escape from it. The image of failure is so strongly impressed on their minds that any success alarms them because it is something so unnatural for them. This is because in their minds it was the “representatives” of the success who knocked them down—their teacher, minister, parents, or other smart boys and girls. A disciple must build his own faith in himself. He must have faith in himself to be able to do noble work on the Earth.
“As you meditate and contemplate on the Plan, your faith in yourself naturally increases. Meditation, contemplation, and steady concentration on the Plan raise your focus of consciousness from the astral and lower mental planes to the higher, abstract levels of the mind where you are exposed to the light of your Inner Guide and where you are now above all those images of failure which live only on the astral and lower mental planes.
“All posthypnotic suggestions, commands of weakness, and failure-images are accumulated in the lower mind, or in the lower mind and the astral plane. When your consciousness is functioning on these planes, you are mechanically controlled by these suggestions, commands, and failure images. But when through meditation, contemplation and concentration on the Plan, you raise yourself into the higher mental plane and the negative elements on the lower plane can no longer affect you, and being closer to your Inner Guide, you develop self-confidence and faith in yourself. To the degree that you pull yourself out from these lower planes, in that degree you come closer to your real Self.
“When people have lost faith in themselves, present them
with a vision; make them visualize for one or two hours scenes of great
success and try to feel and live [the vision] for a while. When they begin
to be impressed by the images of success, they will be ready to walk away
from their miseries.
“Here it is very important to note that a person is as
dangerous as the degree that he loses his faith in himself.”
4
_______________________________________
1. Torkom Saraydarian, A Commentary On Psychic Energy
(West Hills, CA: T.S.G. Enterprises, 1989), p. 159.
2. Ibid., p. 181.
3. Torkom Saraydarian, The Mystery of Self-Image
(Cave Creek, AZ: T.S.G. Publishing Foundation, 1993), p. 76.
4. Torkom Saraydarian, Challenge for Discipleship
(Sedona, AZ: Aquarian Educational Group, 1986), p. 104-105.
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