EASTERN TEACHINGS
EP
10 It is a most dangerous situation when uncontrolled hunger for psychical experience moves a seeker
to engage himself in strong exercises without first laying
the groundwork within the personality to cope with the
ensuing experience.
The damage is often irreparable when an
emotionally immature student opens certain etheric centres
(Sanskrit: chakras) and has neither the means nor the
strength to re-collect himself. We must be well grounded, rooted
in love and faith.
"If the roots be holy, so are the
branches" (Rom.ll:16).
Question: Do you take issue with
Westerners who are engaged in certain Eastern practices?
Answer: I have seen many, far too
many, come to me, who have been practicing Eastern breathing techniques, having
their nervous systems shattered by interfering with the energy centres in an
aggressive manner - disregarding the delicate and careful work of the
Archangels. We have to constantly remind ourselves that it is not a matter of
coincidence that we are born where we are born. In the East people are born to
learn specific lessons, as we have our lessons in the West. We each come into
this world with a psycho-noetical constitution that inclines us towards certain
practices and prohibits us from others. In the West, for example, we are raised
to believe that our personality is quite independent from others, while in the
East the sense of self is more communal and less atomized.
EP 11 Another thing which distinguishes our work
from that of the East is our handling of the "lower self", or as we
term it, the present-day personality. The thrust of many Eastern schools is to
stamp out the lower self and exist in a kind of void - of the "no
self". We, on the other hand, see the Soul latent in the present-day self. We
work towards raising up the lower expressions of
the self into a unified Individuated Selfhood. They seem to
desire to live in a state of emptiness, whereas we work towards a state
of fullness, embracing all. We will get nowhere if we do
not appreciate all aspects of the Selfhood.
EP 11 Our
psycho-noetical physiology, as it were, is not able to cope with many of the Eastern practices.
EP 18 Question: The practice of meditation
in the West seems to have been repressed, if not indeed suffocated
by certain forces?
Answer: This has been the course of
things, but let us not see it as regrettable. It is what happened.
What is lamentable is that so many continue to feel the need to
go to the East - to India or elsewhere - because they
believe they will find something that Christianity fails to
offer. They often return more disenchanted than before they
left. Christianity has everything and it belongs to us - it is
our tradition; it belongs to our bodies, our hearts and our
minds. So "drink waters out of thine own cistern,
and running waters out of thine own well" (Prov.5:15).
The church is the church,
reflecting the Love of the God-man to greater or lesser degrees, built of stone
and some old ideas. Christ doesn't care how much gold may gild a church
(Matt.23:16-19). His concern is for what goes on within a temple. The church is
a holy place as it demarcates a sacred area, a place of worship. But the real
church is the human form, with the three bodies. We "are the temple of
God" (1 Cor.3:16). Within us is the holy of holies, an inner sanctum, in
the heart of every man and woman. This temple can neither be soiled, nor
destroyed. Go there, supplicate, pray and work. Christ is there. He awaits you.
EP 47 We find that many
Eastern techniques of breathing can have detrimental effects on the minds and
bodies of Westerners, crippling their nervous systems by prematurely exciting
their etheric energy centres.