October / November 1996
In 1995, the White Mountain Group launched an Internet site. In 1996, it was voted in the top 5% of all Internet sites, and received several award recognitions. On a monthly basis, 20,000 people worldwide are presently accessing the Ageless Wisdom on the Internet site. They are discovering and reading the Ageless Wisdom, the Great Invocation, and Meditation Monthly International, as well as discovering other similar groups.
In cooperation with like-minded groups, we are offering a series of meditation courses designed to expand the consciousness, cultivate creative thinking through the light of the intuition, and transform our life on all levels. If you are interested in participating in a meditation course, please write to us at P.O. Box 11975, Prescott, AZ, 86304, USA. Cassette tapes on various lectures of the Ageless Wisdom are offered; weekly classes, Sunday morning services, and full moon meditation meetings are held; publications, compilations, and books are available. A teaching program is also offered.
It is with respect and gratitude that we dedicate this issue of Meditation Monthly International to all the Great Teachers of the World. The path They blazed and the Teachings they gave are beacons for the Future.
Shanti,
Joleen DuBois
President
joleen@wmea-world.org
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This quotation, more than any other, epitomizes the life of Socrates, who was to become one of the most profound influences on Western philosophical thought. What we know of Socrates' teachings come to us from his students, principally Plato.
Socrates was born in the city-state of Athens around 470 B.C., the son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife. As a child, he received the standard Athenian education in literature, music, and gymnastics. He later studied the philosophy of the Sophists (who believed that material success, rather than truth, should be the purpose of life), and the Ionions (who believed in a materialistic basis of existence). Initially, Socrates pursued his father's craft, and one of his works stood at the entrance to the Acropolis until the 2nd Century A.D. As was expected of the citizens of Athens, Socrates served as an infantryman (when he was in his forties) in the various battles that constituted the Peloponnesian Wars. But most of his adult life was spent in the Athenian marketplace, and other public places, engrossed in dialogue or argument with anyone who would agree to participate.
Typically, in these dialogues he concerned himself with questions about virtues or values. Often there were no definite conclusions from his dialogues, but his aim remained the same: to arrive at answers about meaning through the medium of argument.
"Socrates... was convinced that there was an absolute set of moral laws and that most men in a confused way assumed this to be true. His general goal was to make men aware of their assumptions about what they thought they knew, not in order to make them skeptics, but so that they might begin the pursuit of knowledge in the proper way. He believed that knowledge begins with knowing what we do not know. So it was that the short, powerfully built, snub-nosed man, who looked very much like a wrestler, spent most of his days... asking questions of his fellow citizens. Seemingly never satisfied with the first answer, he pushed his questions to the point where his companion in the dialogue finally had to admit that he did not know what he believed he knew at the outset. He became known as the gadfly of Athens-after the little gnat that pesters its object to desperation."2
"Although a patriot and a man of deep religious conviction, Socrates was nonetheless regarded with suspicion by many of his contemporaries, who disliked his attitude toward the Athenian state and established religion. He was charged in 399 B.C. with neglecting the gods of the state and introducing new divinities, a reference to the daemonion, or mystical inner voice, to which Socrates often referred. He was also charged with corrupting the morals of the young, leading them away from the principles of democracy."3
Socrates was convicted of the charges, by a small margin, and was condemned to die. He carried out his own execution by drinking a cup of hemlock, as was the custom at the time. In reflecting about his impending death, Socrates held true to the principles of inquiry that had governed his life when he said, "To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know. No man knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessing for a human being; and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain that it is the greatest of evil."4
by Wayne Taylor
__________________________
1. & 4. Plato, Apology. 2. The Humanities - Cultural Roots and Continuities, Volume I, D.C. Heath and Company, 1989, p. 106. 3. "Socrates," Microsoft Encarta , 96 Encyclopedia.
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Out of six schools of classical Hindu philosophy that
emerged following the cultural golden age of Indian civilization 
(184
B.C.- 647 A.D.) the one that would become Hinduism's most influential philosophic
system was called Vedanta. Vedanta takes its inspiration from the most
sacred texts in Hinduism, the Upanishads-the principal texts of which are
the early Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. It is written that the greatest
Vedanta teacher and philosopher was Shankara, a priest, or Brahman, who
lived between the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. It is written of him
that in his brief, 32-year span of life, Shankara, "a simple, gentle and
joyous man...",1 became "one
of the most revered individuals in Indian history, a saintly teacher second
only to Buddha."2
Of Shankara (whose name is also written as Samkara, Sankara, and Sankaracarya) it was said that by the age of two he knew how to read, "by age three he studied the Puranas (traditional collections of Hindu writings that embody ethical principles) and understood many portions of them by intuition,"3 and "by the age of ten, he was already an academic prodigy. Not only had he read and memorized all the scriptures, but he had written commentaries on many of them, and had held discussions with famous scholars who came to him from every part of the country." 4
It was during this medieval period in India that religion became highly ritualistic and knowledge attained through study was replaced by narrow adherence to doctrines. As a child, Shankara became "disgusted by the emptiness of book knowledge. He saw that his teachers did not practice the lofty truths they preached...."5 "Temples were in the hands of a coterie of corrupted priests dabbling in hideous forms of worship and animal sacrifice."6 Shankara reformed these practices "by infusing into them the noble principles of Vedic worship and transformed them into a means to Self-realisation."7 He also "resolved to make his own life an example which would lead men back to the paths of truth."8
When Shankara made the decision to leave his home and follow the path of the ascetic, it is said that his mother was none too pleased by his decision, that she wanted him to marry and produce a son before he embraced the contemplative life. "It is told that a miracle was needed to defeat her yearning, and that it was forthcoming, for as [Shankara] bathed, a crocodile caught his foot, and when her son and the bystanders assured her that the crocodile would not let go until she herself released him, she consented though with bitter grief."9
"Those cords that bind us, because of our ignorance, our lustful desires and the fruits of our karma-how could anybody but ourselves untie them, even in the course of innumerable ages?"10 "Of the steps to liberation, the first is declared to be complete detachment from all things which are non-eternal. Then comes the practice of tranquility, self-control, and forbearance. And then the entire giving-up of all actions which are done from personal, selfish desire."11 - Shankara
"[Shankara] went from place to place debating, doing deeds of power, spreading the great Vedantic knowledge, composing treatise after treatise to make clear the revelations of the Upanishads."12 He taught "that there is only one reality called Brahman or Atman; that all distinctions, all plurality is due to ignorance, or maya; and that liberation consists in eliminating ignorance and attaining pure consciousness, which is Brahman or the Self."13
"Many
stories are told of his great teaching, including one about a rather 'slow'
student who could not comprehend the meaning of Tat tvam asi (That art
thou) and its Brahman-Atman equation... until one morning, in a flash of
recognition, he saw it. Jumping up in excitement the student ran outside,
shouting, 'Yes, I am one with the trees and the air and the sky, I am one
with the road and the birds.' A huge elephant was fast approaching, and
the driver shouted down, 'Get out of the way, fool!' 'I am one with the
elephant,' shouted the wisdom-intoxicated boy, and the elephant wrapped
his trunk around his waist, raised him high, and hurled him painfully on
the side of the dusty road. Poor fellow could barely drag his bruised body
back to his guru's hut. 'My God, what happened?' Sadly, he told the story,
concluding 'I'm afraid I don't understand Tat tvam asi!' 'You almost do,"
Shankara explained. 'It is true that you are one with the trees and the
road and the elephant, but you are also one with his driver, and when he
told you to get out of the way, you should have done so.'"14
Shankara was a prolific writer. In addition to his commentaries on the Vedanta Sutras and the Upanishads, Shankara produced numerous poems, hymns, prayers and two major philosophical works, the Upadeshasahasri and the Viveka Chudamani-The Crest-Jewel of Discrimination.
As Shankara traveled throughout India he estab lished four principle monasteries and "organised the great body of wandering monks in the country into ten well-knit orders."15 Called a philosopher, teacher, saint, Shankara not only accomplished the task of reforming Hindu philosophy but his words continue today to spiritually inspire millions of people worldwide.
"He who tries to find the Atman by feeding the cravings of the body is trying to cross a river by grasping a crocodile mistaking it for a log.... If you really desire liberation, hold the objects of sense enjoyment at a distance, like poison; and keep drinking in with delights such virtues as contentment, compassion, forgiveness, straightforwardness, tranquility, and self-control, as if they were nectar." 16 - Shankara
by Kathryn Agrell
___________________________________
1. Shankara's Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, Preface to the
Introduction to Shankara's Philosophy, Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher
Isherwood (New American Library, 1970).
2. Stanley Wolpert, A New History of India (Oxford University
Press, 1982) p. 98.
3., 9., & 12. L. Adams Beck, The Story of Oriental Philosphy
(The
New Home Library, 1928) p. 66, p.67, p. 72, respectively.
4. & 5. Shankara's Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, Introduction
to Shankara's Philosophy, Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood
(New American Library, 1970) p. 7.
6., 7., & 15.Thus Spake Sri Sankara (Sri Murugan Offset
Press, 1986)p. xv, p. xvi, p. xvi, respectively. 8. Shankara's Crest-Jewel
of Discrimination, Introduction to Shankara's Philosophy, Swami Prabhavananda
and Christopher Isherwood (New American Library, 1970) pp. 7-8.
10., 11., & 16. Shankara's Crest-Jewel of Discrimination
(New American Library, 1970), p. 42., p. 44, pp.45-46, respectively.
13. Grolier's New American Encyclopedia.
14. Stanley Wolpert, India (University of California Press,
1991) p. 96.
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"I cannot remember the time when I was not thinking and puzzling and asking questions and rebelling and hoping. Yet I was thirty-five years old before I really discovered that I had a mind and that it was something I could use." -Alice A. Bailey
Alice Bailey's life story is the story of a woman who was destined to play a part in the spiritual history of the world. Best known for her work as an amanuensis for the Tibetan Master Djwhal Kuhl in the writing of a series of books on the Ageless Wisdom, Alice Bailey was also a teacher, writer, and lecturer, and the founder of the Arcane School, an esoteric school established for the training of world disciples.
Born into high society on June 16, 1880 in Manchester, England, Alice Bailey began life as a pampered child of privilege and luxury. But it was to be a short stay, for by the time she was nine, Alice Bailey had lost both of her parents and was shuttled between relatives for the remainder of her childhood. Disillusionment and loneliness marked these years that were punctuated by periods of suicidal depression. She says of her recurring misery, "I did not like the feel of life. I did not appreciate what the world seemed to be or had to offer. I was convinced that better things lay elsewhere.... Thus I began consciously the age-old search for the world of meaning...." For the young Alice Bailey, solace and purpose were to be found in evangelical Christianity.
Taught that "the world was divided into those who were Christians and worked hard to save souls and those who were heathen and bowed down to images of stone and worshipped them," at twenty-two, Alice Bailey began working as an evangelist in connection with the British army, and continued her fervent work in India where she became a social worker in a soldier's home. Not surprisingly, it was in this strange, new land filled with Hindu and Moslems and Sikhs, that she began to question her own limited religious views.
One day in India she was approached by an Indian servant who said to her, "Missy Baba, listen, millions of people here. Millions, all the time long before you English came. Same God loves me as loves you."... "Again I was faced with... the problem of the love of God," said Bailey, "What had God done about the millions of people down the ages, throughout the entire world, before Christ came?... You can see, therfore, how little by little these interior questions were thundering in my spiritual ears."
Upon her return to England from India, Alice Bailey met and subsequently married a man who became an Episcopal minister and moved her to America. It was a marriage marked by physical abuse and poverty. By age thirty-five, Alice Bailey had given birth to three children, suffered the abandonment of her husband, and was supporting her children by working in a sardine factory. It was during these difficult years that she was introduced to theosophy and the writings of H.P. Blavatsky. The words she studied were revelatory:
"I discovered, first of all," writes Bailey, "that there is a great and divine Plan... that there are Those Who are responsible for the working out of that Plan and Who, step by step and stage by stage, have led mankind on down the centuries.... " and that there is a "dual belief in the law of rebirth and the law of cause and effect, called Karma and Reincarnation...."
"I learnt that when I, in my orthodox days, talked about Christ and His Church I was really speaking of Christ and the Planetary Hierarchy. I found that the esoteric presentation of truth in no way belittled Christ. He was, indeed, the Son of God, the First Born in a great family of brothers, as St. Paul has told us, and a guarantee to us of our own divinity...."
"It dawned on me, too, that there was really no reason because a priest or teacher six hundred years ago interpreted the Bible in one way (probably suitable for his time and age) that it should be acceptable now in a different time and age, under a different civilisation and with widely different problems. If God's truth is truth then it will be expansive and inclusive, and not reactionary and exclusive. If God is God, then His divinity will adapt itself to the emerging divinity of the sons of God, and a son of God may be a very different expression of divinity from a son of God five thousand years ago."
Many years later when giving reasons for the writing of her autobiography, Alice Bailey said, "People might learn much by discovering how a theologically minded Bible student could come to the firm conviction that the teachings of the East and of the West must be fused and blended before the true universal religion-for which the world waits-could appear on earth...."
Night and day Alice Bailey studied, took care of her children, and became actively involved with the Theosophical Society. Then in 1919, two events occurred that would radically alter her life-she met her future husband and lifelong co-worker Foster Bailey, and she was contacted by the Tibetan Djwhal Kuhl to begin the vital work that had been alluded to many years before by the Master Koot Humi. In cooperation with the Tibetan, Alice Bailey labored over the next 25 years to produce a series of books of the Ageless Wisdom Teaching. The first volume, Initiation Human and Solar, was intended to bring the fact of the Hierarchy to public attention. Letters on Occult Meditation followed next, succeeded by A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Eighteen books in all were dictated and published. Alice Bailey's work with the Tibetan and her worldwide endeavors with the Arcane School continued until 1949 when she made her transition.
"Between you and me," wrote Bailey, "people's profound interest in themselves and in their souls and all the intricacies of related experiences almost staggers me. I want to shake them and say, 'Come outside and find your soul in other people and so discover your own.' "
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The Teacher
A compilation from the Agni Yoga Teachings
"The basis of the communitylies in freedom of thinking and in reverence for the Teacher. To accept the Teacher means to fall in line with the workers fighting the fire. If everyone rushes to the fire from the wellspring without any order, the wellspring will be trampled without benefit. It were better to understand carefulness within one's consciousness; this will safeguard the concept of the Teacher. Definitely the Teacher, definitely knowledge, definitely evolution of the world-these will serve as paths to the far-off worlds!" New Era Community, Verse 98
"Study the earthly lives of the Great Teachers and note
their special kind of goalfitness. I have in mind particularly 
their
earthly lives, when they were unaware of Their former lives. They fulfilled
exceedingly difficult tasks over many centuries. Each had his private life,
with the customs of its time and place, and Their inner wisdom often rebelled
against various absurdities of the age. But in order to fulfill Their task
They had to apply the greatest goalfitness." Supermundane Book Two, Verse
278
"Every Teacher in his past lives had to decide whether he wished to depart to the far-off worlds or remain with long suffering Earth. No little co-measurement was required for this decision, and each chose to remain with those who suffer.... Each one should rejoice that during his lifetime here on Earth the Teacher does exist, and that the path to Him is not forbidden. Each one must find inspiration in knowing that he can be in communication with the Teacher. " Supermundane, Book One, Verse 47
"The Teacher values the desire to wash the dust from the great Images. The Teacher values the desire to affirm the simple expression of great words. The Teacher values the desire to affirm the simple expression of great words. The Teacher values the desire to eliminate verbosity. In order to isolate the essence, it is necessary to approach from the fundamental." New Era Community, Verse 31
"The Teacher must often ponder what the student can assimilate without harm. It is better to leave things unsaid than to say too much and create circumstances that lead to betrayal.... Thus we may observe that at times the Teacher hastens, and at other times holds back, watching over many processions of pilgrims simultaneously and regulating their pace.... The Teacher sets the milestones far into the distance. He points out various signs that from the ordinary point of view may have no significance, but in fact are great symbols." - Supermundane, Book One, Verse 211
"Numerous possibilities, already close, fail because of human complaints, induced by self-pity. When people begin to weigh how much they have sacrificed and how little they have received from the Teacher, the meaning of the Teaching is lost. People count what they receive like the wage of a day laborer, not co-measuring it with eternity, for which they exist." Heart, Verse 72
"When
We call forthe deepening of thoughts, We offer a valuable means for the
balancing of Chaos. The Teacher does not conceal knowledge within himself;
at the first opportunity he arms one against Chaos." Heart, Verse 337
"Only through the lever of faith can one adhere to the Infinite. The great lever of faith will aid the spirit in finding its path. Faith indicates the striving toward the Teacher. Let us take for example the child who conceived in its spirit the love for the Teacher. Faith transformed the child into a warrior of spirit, and the path of solitude was transformed into one radiant with joy. Hope abides, and the wondrous power of Cosmos reveals itself when the spirit manifests faith." Infinity II, Verse 46
"The pathway to Brotherhood is a high path. As a mountain is seen from afar, so, too, is Brotherhood. The Teacher cannot be insistent where the eyes are near-sighted." Brotherhood, Verse 25
"A disciple addressed his Teacher, quoting the long list of qualities required for advancement. Sadly he said, 'Teacher, I can never possess these qualities.' The Teacher asked, 'Did you say all?' The disciple continued, 'It seems to me that I have not assimilated a single one of these.' The Teacher then encouraged him, saying, 'There is no great harm in feeling that all the needed qualities have not been acquired by you . It would be far worse if you thought that you possessed them all.' " AUM, Verse 582
"Only the unwise think that the Teacher hovers above everything and feels nothing. On the contrary, the Teacher feels not only his own burdens, but also the burdens of those who are connected with Him. Such near and dear ones can be either in their physical or in their subtle bodies. They may be close physically, or physically separated, yet close in spirit." Supermundane, Book Two, Verse 268
"The Teacher has strength to hold the shield until the point of happiness is reached. The Teacher understands when a helping hand is asked. The Teacher is ready to assist. The Teacher can send new ones. The Teacher can send forth the Teaching. The Teacher considers daring an achievement. The Teacher reveals strength to the faithful." Leaves of Morya's Garden, Book One, Verse 349
"When We speak about Our inner life We primarily want to impress upon you the diversity of conditions that surround you and Us. It is an annoying fact that people fail to understand that we are all surrounded by the same currents of energy. Only when you realize this will you come close to Us. This closeness will evoke reverence, or in other words, acceptance of the Teacher. Alas, it is seldom that the Teacher is accepted. At times people may feel sparks of devotion, but such flickering will only irritate the atmosphere. We do not speak about Our authority, but about the principle on which harmonious communion can be built.
"The Thinker insisted upon respect for the Teacher. He said, 'In the dark of the night one should look for the Guiding Hand. The Voice of the Guide is a joy. But this devotion should continue not only in the darkness, but also in the sunlight.' " Supermundane, Book Two, Verse 358
"Many people talk a great deal about love and devotion, but do not manifest them in life. They often speak about the Teacher, yet make no effort to forge a strong bond. We do not mean that people should depend completely upon the Teacher. On the contrary, We advise independent activity, but within the heart there must gleam the lamp of love. Only then will the responding flame be kindled. Explain it as you will, even as an electric current, but the current of true love is a strong bond, and true confidence grows only from love." Supermundane, Book Two, Verse 446
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Lao-Tzu & The Tao Te Ching
The Teacher of harmony through virtue
That the lives of great spiritual teachers seem mysteriously obscure and are endlessly debated is no less the case with Lao-Tzu. One point, with which both Chinese tradition and scholars agree, is that Lao-Tzu is not a birth name, but a honorific title meaning, among varying interpretations, "the Old Master." Another point of general agreement, is that which is attributed to the "Old Master," a teaching now known as the Tao Te Ching.
The earliest general history of China was written at the
beginning of the First Century B.C. It was titled the Shih Chi (translation: 
records
of the historian). The author, Ssu-Ma Ch'ien, included a biography of Lao-Tzu.
This account of his life has been given the most valid status to date.
Admittedly, nearly all of this biography has been based on gathering traditions
current to the author's times. Few facts remain that have been substantiated
to any reliable degree.
Tradition tells us that Lao-Tzu was born Li Erh Tan in the year 604 B.C. His birthplace was the village of Chu Jen in the state of Ch'u in China. He eventually became the court archivist of the state of Chou. There he worked and lived for many years, perhaps into his nineties. During this time, Lao-Tzu became known for his virtue and wisdom, and many people consulted him on questions pertaining to religion and politics. Even Confucius, China's most reknowned philosopher, is believed to have sought Lao-Tzu's advice during this period.
Finally despairing of the declining Chinese states surrounding him, Lao-Tzu began a solitary journey westward, seeking a reclusive life beyond the boundaries of his civilization-the Great Wall of his period. Upon reaching a pass in the mountains, the warden of the gate Yin Hsi is said to have recognized him from a past dream as a great sage. Having persuaded a reluctant Lao-Tzu to record the principles of his philosophy, the result was what has become known as the Tao Te Ching. Lao-Tzu was said to have then passed through the gate. The remainder of his life is shrouded in mystery.
The Tao Te Ching was originally titled Lao-Tzu following the traditional pattern of naming books after the Master who penned it. It was centuries later, during the Han Dynasty, that the Lao-Tzu was retitled, apparently to stress its growing importance by differentiating it from other venerated works of the time.
The word Ching simply means "a classic." The terms Tao and Te reflect the traditional division of the text into two sections; hence "The Classic of Tao and Te." Open to varying interpretations, Tao is often interpreted as "The Way," from which one learns to find harmony with all existence. It also may represent that which pervades all existence, yet is formless, symbolizing that unity that is inconceivable yet conceives all things. Te, which compliments Tao, is most easily understood as "virtue," the cultivation of which is crucial in order to integrate oneself with the Tao.
As
one of the world's treasured spiritual scriptures, the Tao Te Ching is
roughly 5,000 words contained in eighty-one short chapters. For 2,500 years,
the wisdom contained in its poetic verse has been a major influence in
Chinese thought and culture. One underlying theme in Lao-Tzu's philosophy
seems inherently similar to other religious scriptures-that one should
seek to serve others, while relinquishing selfish motives:
"Achieve results, but never glory in them.Achieve results, but never boast. Achieve results, but never be proud. Achieve results, because this is the natural way. Achieve results, but not through violence." - Tao Te Ching
by Richard Woodard
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