Every human being, consciously or unconsciously, willing or not, sooner or later discovers in its essence, the truth that it is part of something transcendent, that it is, apparently, the only creature with the superior ability to reflect on itself, its origin, of attaching itself to some belief that may somehow alleviate its dramas and dilemmas of existence, and eventually discovers its spiritual side, which is an integral part of its astral memory. But the greatest problem of human life is not, properly speaking, conscious contact with the spiritual world. The problem is how to keep the spiritual consciousness alive in the midst of the materialities of the everyday world.
After establishing conscious contact with his divine Self, man must return to his normal life, in all fields, working in any honest sector of life - unless his particular mission is otherwise.
This return, however, is merely external, functional; internally, experientially, man continues to live in the “kingdom of heaven”, in his Christlike consciousness, reflected in the famous phrase of Jesus' wisdom: “I and the Father are one.”
When invited to isolate himself in a cave to maintain his spirituality, Mahatma Gandhi replied that he carried this sacred cave internally. Every man must have this portable heaven, even in the midst of the profane world. His soul must be a Vestal Virgin feeding the sacred fire on the altar of Divinity.
For the return to the world of profane things to be accomplished without detriment to the inner sacredness, man must be firmly consolidated in the experience of his divine centre, which is the experiential comprehension of the truth about himself, the unwavering consciousness that man's last and deepest Reality is God, the Infinite, the Eternal, from where migrated to earthly experiences and must return if he wants to fulfil his mission in the universal evolutionary process or disintegrate in the ether.
“You are Gods” - these words of Jesus reveal the truth about human nature. When his enemies accused him of claiming to be God, he did not deny that he was God, but he claimed that they were also Gods. “God” means an individual manifestation of the Universal Divinity. Every human creature is an individual finite manifestation of the Infinite Universal Divinity. No creature is the Divinity, but every creature is God, an emanation of the Divinity. Man is a conscious God, an individual reflection of the Omni-conscious Divinity.
Unfortunately, the theological tradition of the churches has destroyed in man the awareness that “I and the Father are one”. In the clerics' theology, it was taught that man is evil, a sinner, an offspring of the devil, etc. It is that the vast majority of the so-called “spiritual masters” continue to be “blind guides guiding the blind”, as they identify the man with his negative ego, and not with his positive Self; they learned in Genesis that man is "dust" - but they did not read in the Gospel, that man is “light”, “spirit”, “God”. These spiritual masters are excellent disciples of Moses' primary school, but they never enrolled at the University of Christ. “By Moses, the law was given; through Christ came the truth, came grace”. Law is slavery - truth and grace is freedom. Law is ego - truth and grace is the Self.
While man knows only the enslaving law of his tyrannical ego, he cannot live free among slaves, pure among the impure, and will do well to try to live away from the impure, free, away from slaves, sacred, away from the profane. But if one day he discovers the liberating truth about himself, if he discovers his divine Self, he will overcome all the laws of slavery and enter the zone of liberating truth. And so, fully liberated, he can live among the slaves without losing his freedom. He will bring with him his spiritual beatitude – the plenitude of the extinction of his individuality - in the midst of all material illusions. Whether or not he can achieve this depends on the level of his consciousness, on the degree of intensity with which he experienced the liberating truth about himself.
The day-by-day language reveals the state of consciousness of humanity. When a man says, “I am sick”, or “I am intelligent”, or “I have been offended”, he identifies with his ego, forgetting his Self that he cannot be sick, cannot be offended and is always wise.
For thousands of years, humanity has lived in the illusion of identifying with its peripheral ego. Because of this, it is difficult for a man to break the traditional shackles and get used to the liberating truth that he really is his Self, his soul, the spirit of God that dwells in him and not his ego.
Man must be freed from this collective hypnosis, from this illusion of identifying with his peripheral ego, which Jesus calls “the ruler of this world, which is the power of darkness, and has power over you.”
In order to conquer this “hidden treasure” and to realize the “only the thing needed”, it is indispensable for a man to practice the “dissociation” of his ego and to hear the voice of the Self, in deep silence.
The ego lives in the noise.
The Self dwells in silence.
Man must reserve for this silence, a portion of the 24 hours of each day. The so-called civilized world usually dictates to man 8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep and 8 for rest and amusements. It is evident that with such a schedule, he will mark a lifelong step and never leave the traditional vicious circle.
Little is the time for a man to acquire an early spiritual experience to penetrate his “inner cave”, but it is indispensable that he performs this interiorization exercise in a place where he is not disturbed. The sounds of nature - of the sea, the winds, the birds, etc., a piece of soft and concentrative music do not disturb the silence, but any human voice causes disturbing interference. And at a more advanced stage, it is sufficient to hear only the Universe’s cosmic music.
Much has been said and written about breathing and body posture. Anyone who flips through the pages of books on such subjects may come out utterly discouraged.
Breath control and its rhythm helps to establish purity and harmony of vital and mental vibrations. However, this exercise of controlling the vibration or energy that activates and sustains life in the body - of disconnecting the mind from bodily functions and sensory perceptions - must precede and not accompany this moment of interiorization. During deep concentration, the breath becomes unconscious, gradually diminishing in the direct ratio of concentration. In the zenith of deep meditation or contemplation, when a man enters the “third heaven”, or divine ecstasy, breath is so imperceptible that he does not seem to exist anymore.
As for body posture, there are great aberrations and arbitrariness. The Oriental is accustomed, since childhood, to sit cross-legged (lotus position), a posture that is natural and painless for them. But the adult Western rarely achieves this naturalness of position that makes it forget the presence of its body. And as long as the posture causes any discomfort, it should not be adopted, for it is necessary that during interiorization, a man completely ignores the reality of his physical ego to allow himself to be totally absorbed by the spiritual Self.
Only those who have reached the peak of deep spiritual meditation and have become accustomed to living in it as in their natural environment can safely return to the world of slavery without succumbing to the previous ones. Once it has known the truth about itself, it is so liberated from all the untruths of the ego that it can live pure, in the midst of the impure, free, in the midst of slaves, because the consciousness of being the “light of the world” gave it definitive immunity. Light is the only non-contaminable reality; it can penetrate all impurities without becoming impure.
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