111. EL, Koeln, 5-9-'12
We get
an increase in spiritual knowledge and forces through hard work at
esoteric exercises such as the ones described in How Does One
Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds? and in other books. But we
must heed certain practical hints that help us to get ahead.
A
healthy condition of tiredness doesn't have to prevent us from
carrying out concentration and mediation with great willpower. On the
contrary. Nature does one part of the work for us, since it dulls the
outer sense organs and lessens our ability to take in sense
impressions. For the goal is to see without physical eyes, to hear
without physical ears and to think without a physical brain.
It's precisely when we are tired that we can illumine and warm
our being with the luminous thoughts of meditation.
Abstention from alcohol is necessary, for this works on the ego that
lives and works in the blood. Meditation pulls the spirit up and
loosens its connection with the physical body; alcohol pulls it down
and consolidates it in the same. Eating meat makes the spirit heavy.
Eating plants makes greater demands on the physical body so that
it's busy and can't hinder the spirit's work. But
what else is brought about by abstention of fish and meat? The bad
about eating meat is the lasting effect of hurting and killing
animals. These martyred animals return in the form of creatures who
turn their forces against the bodies of the descendents of those who
once killed them. Bacteria are re-embodied tortured, killed and eaten
animals.
Exercises bring about changes in an esoteric that he must pay
attention to if he is to avoid injuries. Firstly, the intellect
changes; the guidance of thought becomes different and so does
judgment and memory. It becomes difficult for an esoteric to give
logical and readily understandable reasons for his actions to an
ordinary man. Such grounds aren't at all necessary, for at the
decisive moment a real esoteric knows the right thing to do. But if
he doesn't pull himself together and lazily avoids doing
thought-control exercises, his thoughts may get confused.
Some
immature people force their esoteric development and gain a certain
power over others; but at the decisive moment they're stopped
before they can do greater damage.
Secondly the way one speaks and makes gestures changes. A man must
have himself under control so that his nervous system doesn't
take over and he does all kinds of impermissible things.
Thirdly
the physical body must not become injured by a forced, greedy tempo
in esoteric development, otherwise an acute disease may set in, which
however is curable and that warns the one who get it.
In the
Hebrew mysteries, they spoke of two men who tried to go through the
temple's portal — but only one got to it. Only one
developed normally through particularly patient and consequent
methods and reached the goal. The others who forced their esoteric
development were harmed. This shows how necessary a rigorous
execution of the accessory exercises is for the harmonizing and
consolidating effect on man's whole being.
There
are many powerful meditation materials, especially in the Bible. For
instance, there's a description of creation's six days,
the words at the beginning of John's Gospel, the appearance of
Yahweh to Moses in the burning bush, the Gospel stories, “I am
the light of the world,” and a particularly effective
meditation is 1 Timothy 3:16 in the following translation: The
mystery of God's path can be known. He who revealed himself
through flesh, although in itself his being is spiritual, who is only
fully knowable by angels, but could nevertheless be preached to
heathens, who is alive in the faith of the world; he is raised to the
Wisdom Spirits' sphere.
What
bodhisattvas could give to men was inspired by Spirits of Movement.
The lowest things that radiated from the Christ came from the sphere
of the hierarchy of the Spirits of Movement. The Christ is above all
hierarchies — he belongs to the Trinity.
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