Lesson One
( 1 )
Contents:
Introduction + Lesson #One + Lesson #Two + Lesson #Three + Lesson #Four + Lesson #Five + Lesson #Six
Lesson #Seven + Lesson #Eight + Lesson #Nine + Lesson #Ten + Lesson #Eleven + Lesson #Twelve + Lesson #Thirteen
Nearly 6000 years ago, when the first “schools of learning” were formed in ancient Sumeria to instruct people in the path of individual spiritual growth, a structure of more general teaching evolved which made it possible for everyone in that society to receive some form of instruction, according to their needs and abilities. Those who thirsted for more knowledge could receive individual teaching in the “schools”; but other people were taught, periodically and in groups, the basic principles from which all knowledge about man's spiritual evolution derives. The occasions for group instruction occurred regularly at each New Moon, and in various places throughout Sumeria. For a short time this pattern of group teaching existed in other areas outside the “middle East”, wherever there was a Sumerian influence.
These ‘teach-ins’ - as they might be called today - had certain similarities with later Eastern religious ceremonies, but were not in any sense ritualistic. There was no music or chanting,* but a structure of outward silence punctuated the lessons and exercises. At each session brief oral instruction was centred on one of the corner stones of the spiritual teaching which was relevant to the particular month or time of year. This was followed by mental and spiritual exercises which were conducted by a teacher,† so that the people present could make personal contact with, or have experience of, the meaning implicit in the particular lesson. All thirteen “corner stones” were worked through every year.
These thirteen corner stones state certain essential truths about the nature of man, his life on Earth, and the invisible world which he inhabits. They are the irreducible truths upon which all the more complex “school” teaching was based in earliest times. These “truths” exist as essential elements in the spiritual reality of the universe. They were put into word form and taught by men who had evolved to higher levels of being. These same men, or teachers, organised different ways in which this knowledge of a spiritual kind should be taught, so that each person in the society could receive what he needed and was ready to understand. The ultimate aim was to encourage in each person a vision of his own potential growth and the desire to grow spiritually.
______________________
A Culbone Visitor's note to the electronic edition: For complementary background information cfr. Stephen Langdon, Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms (Paris: 1909); Canon F. W. Galpin, The Music of the Sumerians and their Immediate Successors (Cambridge University Press 1937); Henry Geoge Farmer, “The Music of Ancient Mesopotamia” - Chapter V of The New Oxford History of Music, Volume 1: Ancient and Oriental Music, edited by Egon Wellesz (London, OUP 1957); Henrik Hartman, Die Musik der Sumerisches Kultur: Teil III: Die Musik in Sumerischen Kult (Doctoral dissertation with extensive bibliography: Frankurt-am-Main 1960); Samuel Noel Kramer, The Sumerians - Their History, Culture and Character (University of Chicago Press 1963)
Unless an appropriate teacher otherwise suggests, several, if not all, of the exercises provided by Joan Cooper in the following pages, are best postponed until the student - either during his or her once only physical life on Earth or at the appropriate moment in some future etheric “lifetime” - attains to Dhyana and the 6th etheric level of individual evolutionary.development. Cfr. Joan's earlier related observations: yoga.htm.
( 1 )
You are all at different stages - and even at different levels of being: some are higher, some are lower. Some people are distorted in their beings. You can never be equal to one another in any sense. The very idea of EQUALITY keeps you from understanding who you are and where you are in your life. It prevents you accepting yourself and the conditions of your life which belong to you alone - and which are the material from which you can learn. The idea of equality also prevents you seeing other people as they are. Much violence exists in human relationships because you expect people to be the same: to have the same minds, the same judgments, the same feelings… and so on. But the thought, the response, the emotion, the act, the relationship derives from the uniqueness of a person, and every person has his own uniqueness.
Your being has attracted your life and its conditions. The invisible YOU existed before this life. You came into this physical life as a complete spiritual person, with a mind and a will structured and developed by many personal experiences which preceded your life on Earth. This invisible YOU brought you onto the physical Earth at this precise time in history; it brought you to this country, and to our own particular parents and their set of circumstances. You needed these parents and these circumstances in order to express in physical terms what is within you to express. Unless - and until - you express your own strengths and weaknesses in your physical life, you cannot see yourself as you are. Your own growth of being depends upon these special experiences which you have attracted and which you could not have had at any other time, or from anyone else's parents, or under any other conditions. Do not wish you had had other parents or other conditions, but use these as signs to tell you something about the meaning of your life.
There are times when you will be tempted by the desire to change your environment or your job, or move to a new country, in order to change yourself. But you would most likely discover that you attracted the same kind of circumstances and relationships again because you had taken yourself with you; nothing would have changed internally. When you start to read the signposts of your life and become aware of the shape of your invisible being (its emotions, the structure of your attitudes, etc.), inner changes take place which will begin to attract to you another quality of experience and relationship - and possibly another physical environment as well.
Recall an instance in your own life of wishful thinking: if only I had had other parents… or been born in another place… if only I had learned something else… or not left school so early… if only I had another kind of job… and so on. Bring back clearly the taste of this dissatisfaction or wishful thinking. Observe the structure of the dissatisfaction. Now, take a step outside yourself… and quietly, uncritically, turn a light onto this state of dissatisfaction… As you hold the light on this state you will catch a glimpse of why you needed the particular parent… or circumstance… or job.
Recall a particular handicap or disability or weakness with which you were born. (It may be a mental or physical handicap)… Now look back over your life from this present moment in time and try to see all that you have learned - and all the benefits which have come to you - because of this handicap, and which you would not otherwise have learned or had.
Recall an experience which has recurred at least three times in your life - maybe at different periods and in slightly different forms… Bring these experiences together… Now, step outside yourself and observe yourself and observe them as if you were another person. Observe, uncritically, what it is in you that attracted them.
You are all evolving spiritually in your own time; everyone is evolving spiritually. You evolve through many different stages and experiences. In fact, there is no end to evolution; there is no “finish line”, no absolute perfection towards which you are striving. All the Great Beings you have heard of are still evolving spiritually - even God is evolving.
Spiritual evolution is an individual matter; only individual men and women evolve, at their own rates and in their own individual ways - never groups of people. Spiritual evolution is always towards the Light: towards increased awareness of yourself and the world around you, an increased sense of responsibility in relation to your understanding, and a growth in the uniqueness of your being and in the will to express your own uniqueness.
Spiritual evolution is not automatic - you are not on any kind of spiritual conveyor belt; it requires effort on your part. The kinds of effort you have to make physically - the courage, patience, endurance you learn in relation to your daily life - are important when it comes to making spiritual effort. But the efforts you make in order to live your daily life are not enough; extra effort is needed if you are going to evolve spiritually beyond your present state. Knowledge about the kind of effort needed to evolve spiritually can only be given personally by someone whose experience denotes a higher level of being than your own.
Visualise your “idealised person”. It may be an abstraction… or an actual person you wish you could have been… or someone you have intensely admired… or with whose “perfection” you compare yourself. Now use your creative imagination and enter into your “ideal person”… become the “ideal” or “perfect”. Experience the perfection you have longed for or admired… experience what it is like to be “ideal” or “perfect”. Experience “perfection” in your personality and relationships… in your home… in your job… in your life and its conditions… in everything. Now imagine this state of “perfection” going on for the rest of your life… and, after this life, into the next life… and so on, forever… the same “perfection”.
You are given a brief but exciting vision of a series of mountain ranges. Now you find yourself on the lower slopes, climbing through dense undergrowth… there is no path… and you can't see much… but you are aware of animals, snakes, insects, birds around you… You are alone.
Suddenly there is a path… everything changes… you are going somewhere… you have the sensation of climbing. You reach a hillock or knoll and you can look down on dense forest and all you struggled through… There are groups of trees now… with space and clearings… and there are also people - sometimes unexpected and frightening, sometimes you have people going along with you… You climb higher and come to a clearing where there is a settled community of people. You stop… and have a rest… and then you feel moved to do something in this community, for someone… Eventually, you bcome restless again and resume your journey.
Light increases as you climb… and there are many new perspectives of where you have been… and vision of where you are going. There are always other people somewhere… but not necessarily with you. Your body becomes lighter… your mind continues to expan and take in more experiences until suddenly you feel you are the mountain. You pause… and sit down. All the mountain is in you… all experiences are part of you. Other people are climbing up you and your experiences… And there is more… and more mountains you don't know about… and more you haven't yet explored, which is still hidden…
Every one on the physical Earth (and in the invisible spiritual spheres) is at a specific stage in his or her own pattern of evolution. Some people are lower than you are on this vast spiritual ladder; some are distorted in their beings or express evil intentions. Other people are more highly evolved than you are - a few may be much more highly evolved. It is very important to understand this fact, not in theory but in relation to actual people. You need to be aware of where people are on the ladder of spiritual evolution. This means not only people in your immediate circle of relationships but also people in positions of authority who could have some influence over your life and thought. It is essential to have a sense of scale and to develop a more objective basis for discrimination, so that you are not so easily deceived by superficialities.
MOTIVATION: Visualise a public figure… anyone who has a public rôle to play. What does he (or she) say he is doing… and why? Now listen carefully to the tone of voice… observe the eyes… get a “taste” of the person's being. What do you pick up as the real motivation? What does he really want for himself?
Try again with another kind of public figure… for example, someone connected with local government, the church, or other authority. What do you discover?
SENSITIVITY: Visualise two kinds of people whom you know personally. One appears “strong”, has a dominant personality, and seems to be rarely upset by things which happen in life or in crises. The other person may appear “weak” or timid or “nervous”, but is sensitive to people and situations and is obviously vulnerable. Now recall something you have been excited about… a new idea… an inner truth… a personal discovery you have made… a vision you have had. Imagine telling both people about this. How do they react? What are the differences?
INTELLIGENCE: Think back to a complex personal problem you have had in the past… of a psychological or emotional nature (depressed, indecisive, problems with mother, father, child, spouse, a bereavement, etc.). Again visualise two people whom you know. The first person has a predominantly intellectual and logical type of mind and may have strong attitudes or a theory about things. Imagine telling your problem to him (or her). What does he say? How does he respond? The other person is someone who is not intellectual and who does not have strong views or theories on any subject… but uses the intuitive mind… and can listen. Imagine explaining your problem to this person. Observe clearly the difference between these two people.
You have your own unique identity which is different from everyone else. You were born with your spiritual uniqueness; in fact, its origin goes back an immeasurable extent of “time” and has not been altered by our entrance into a physical body and a physical life. Your parents have had nothing to do with its creation. This unique spiritual essence, which is your innermost identity, grows and evolves through many stages as you grow and evolve; but whatever the stage or form of its expression it is still uniquely your own. In fact, this spiritual essence will achieve greater individuality as it evolves, not less. This aim or purpose - the growth and evolution of individuality and its uniqueness of expression - is inherent in the spiritual essence of every person; indeed, it underlies the expression of all life.
In order to feel your own unique identity, to know who you are at any stage or moment in time, you will have to be aware of everyone who seeks to impose their own forms of labelling on you. Well-meaning family see you in a certain way or want to mould you into a particular kind of person. Labels will be applied to you by acquaintances; you will be referrred to as a certain “type” of person by your employer.* There are also attitudes, opinions, subtle “authorities” in every society which are taken for granted and which found their way into your mind from early childhood and now structure your attitude towards yourself. These, and other, forms of external authority determine the way in which you feel yourself, your sense of identity - and what you allow to become part of your consciousness of yourself. The weight of this outside authority, attitude, and opinion within you - and around you - is very heavy, and you will need to make considerable effort to become aware of it if you are going to discover the truth about yourself. The truth about your own identity includes not only what other people would call “positive virtues”, but also undeveloped, negative, weak, and even harmful aspects of your nature. Growth and evolution cannot take place unless you see and accept diverse aspects of your own unique individuality.
An important aspect of the development of your own sense of identity lies in learning to listen to your innermost being or conscience at every stage, and in every situation, and to express from yourself. The ability to express your own opinions and to make your own decisions depends to a large extent on being aware of and identifying the opinions and attitudes which other people have imposed on you, often at an age when you were too young to be conscious of what was happening - or to be able to resist. It is essential to observe how these attitudes and the invisible “authorities” in your particular society have overlaid your own conscience and your ability to make decisions and express opinions from your own inner being.
If you are going to evolve in your spiritual uniqueness and individuality of expression, it is essential to become aware of the sharp difference between people (and influences) who nourish and encourage it, and those who seek to limit or even destroy it. It is necessary to discern clearly between good and evil as it affects your own identity. Evil is anything which makes you feel guilty about having a self, that seeks to suppress your individuality, or imposes the belief that the meaning of your individuality consists in giving it up to another person or deity or abstract image, such as “the people” or “society”. Anything or anyone that denies, explicitly or by implication, the meaning of every person's uniqueness and spiritual potential is evil. On the contrary, everything and everyone that encourages it, reveals it, helps it to grow and evolve towards the Light of greater understanding and awareness and caring is good.
Visualise a large house… with a number of different kinds of rooms. This is the House of Yourself… this is your being.
You are in a room in this House… You are five years old… your parents or guardian are in the room with you… and things in the room remind you of your childhood. You are very aware of what your parents expect of you… of their attitudes to you… of who they think you are… of what they say to you, especially about your failures or weaknesses. Remain in this room at least two minutes. Walk out of this room… down a hall… and open another door. Here you find yourself in a small, very quiet and rather airless room. There is nothing much in it except an altar. You are nine or ten years of age… and you are alone in this room with a parson/ minister/priest. Experience how he makes you feel by his attitude to you and your life…
Leave this room… walk across the hall… and enter a third room which is a large and noisy room. You are your own age now… The room is full of all the requirements which you have learned to impose on yourself… Dishes… ironing… stacks of letters… Tools… things to sort out… Vegetables or fruit to do something with. Children are squabbling in a corner… other people are coming and going… a kettle is boiling over… food is cooking. Look around the room… feel the pressure of trying to cope with all that it contains. Now ask yourself the question: Where am I in all this?… Who am I?
Move away from this room… out into the hall… where you will find a very small door you hadn't noticed before. Open it… enter… and close the door behind you. You will find a space, rather than a room… maybe a patio, with sunlight… and growing things, flowers, smells… or a fountain or pond with water… or just indoor space… Sit down… and let the question find its answer in you.
Do not allow anyone to turn your actions - which should be spontaneous and variable from moment to moment, and from situation to situation - into a “behaviour pattern”. “Behaviour patterns” are not individual actions at all but generalisations applicable to abstract “types”, not to people, and based on deductions from externally observed phenomena. This is another aspect of putting people into categories of which you need to beware. “Social engineers”, as they are called, seek to organise everyone in society into orderly and manageable categories, based upon external measurements, judgments, and evaluations. Tests are devised for this purpose. And then one group of people or another will seek to develop or educate certain specific types of personality, attitude, behaviour pattern for social or political or religious reasons. Resist any generalisation about your personality, mind, behaviour, status, ability, and so on, so you do not fall under the influence of this superficial kind of thinking or, worse, under the deadening power which such abstractions always give off and have over people.
Abstractions of this kind, and intellectual systems of a sociological or psychological nature, are always invented by people who have not yet reached the stage in their own evolution where they know about spiritual growth; they may even have some form of spiritual deformity. They can do considerable damage in human societies by encouraging people to think in this false way about themselves and other people.
Imagine you are sitting in a sort of schoolroom with about 30 other people… You are all sitting at desks… and you have a long questionnaire in front of you. The answers you give will be evaluated by a group of administrators sitting on a platform in front of you… and you will be told by them what you are capable of doing… what you think… what you believe… how you will act in the future… what your appropriate rôle in society is… and who you are.
Experience as fully as you can the impact of these questions on your mind… the effect of the words themselves on the emotional part of your being… the influence of the derpersonalised people who have invented this test… and those who are administering it… Experience the atmosphere of the room… and the many people around you.
Experience clearly what it is like to be trapped by the questions, the words… and your answers… and by the subsequent type or category into which you will be put.
Listen carefully to how your own innermost being responds to what you are allowing to be done to it… and give it space…
Your so-called “talents”, whatever they may be - in fact, everything you are able to do well, are not gifts from G-d but belong to you by virtue of your own efforts.* These efforts were made at some point in your life-history, maybe over a considerable period of time before you entered upon a physical life on Earth. The efforts were always made before your physical life, and now you express the results.
Be aware that certain people will try to hold you to your talents, encouraging their expression to the exclusion of everything else and defining you in relation to them.
There is no reason why you should not allow your talents or proficiencies some expression during your physical lifetime, but they should never dominate your life nor be your only means of expression. Real learning and spiritual growth take place through your weak or under-developed sides, where no “talents” exist. Where you feel helpless, incapable, or a failure is the point from which you can grow.
It is easy to repeat work you have done before; it is easy to express talents, for you have already made the effort to develop your talents. It is harder to make new effort - especially where you feel weak or stupid or uncertain of yourself; but these efforts are of the utmost value and will lead you to new experiences and will call forth new knowledge and understanding.
Visualise something you can do reasonably well… where you feel safe. It may be something simple like baking a cake… or more complex like working in a garden… painting a picture… or administering a company. Now imagine that from the moment you get up tomorrow morning you do only this one thing… all day long. Continue for the rest of the week doing only this one thing which you can do well… What have you learned?
Now visualise something that you do badly… or can't do at all. Imagine yourself spending the whole day tomorrow at this particular task, whatever it may be. Visualise what is invoved and make the necessary efforts to do it… What have you learned?
Try to visualise a situation where you feel or would feel helpless and unable to cope… where you would be afraid or upset in some way… or depressed or angry or resentlful. Imagine you are faced with this situation now… Enter into it… and draw on the knowledge or inner strength you have and make the effort to deal with it positively.
There can be no growth of any kind unless you make space for the NEW to happen. Otherwise, every activity of mind and body goes on repeating itself, from the old, from the past, from what has already been. Every experience is pre-determined by what has already happened in your life or by your attitudes, and every thought is part of the already-existing structure in your mind. You move automatically in a time-continuum, from past to future, in your activity and in your thinking unless you make a conscious effort to STOP and allow a space to intervene, in which new experience is possible.
You need to make a space in your everyday life from time to time by stopping the continuous flow of activity. Space means being in a state of passivity where no activity or process is going on, where you do not look for any result. This kind of space needs to become an accepted part of your daily life, not merely an occasional occurrence or exception. When you are able to make a physical space in your life, then you will realise the necessity for making another kind of space as well. You will become more aware of the mental activity which is always going on in your mind. This is a result of living mostly in the active part of your mind. Everyone has a passive or receptive side to their mind as well.
You need to learn about the existence of this passive or receptive mind; you need to learn how to enter into and use this mind and let it receive new impressions from life, new thoughts, new understanding.
Sometimes you should have times of stillness which are open-ended, without imposing a time limit; they also need to happen to you, unplanned. It is these moments which can carry you, momentarily at least, beyond the limitations of your life and your mentality.
Take a natural object and look at it with your active mind. Examine it… analyse it… do whatever this mind habitually does. Now shift the point of your awareness to the passive mind. Let the object become active… and allow your passive mind to receive the object's vibrations… Listen to it.
Visualise a road along which you often travel… to work… or to shop… or to visit someone. Another road leads off this first road… but you have never taken it. You have never had time. Imagine now you turn off the familiar road and travel down the one you have never been down before. What do you experience?
Imagine that you go turn on the TV one evening and find it isn't working. What do you do with the unexpected time? Do you have a new and positive experience?
Observe the pattern of your habitual household activities… the order in which you do various chores in the day. Now, start with today and imagine replacing every habitual activity with something else - something you especially like doing - from the moment you got up this morning until now.
Visualise a simple flower like the daisy. Obseve clearly the five petals which are formed around the centre of the flower. Observe the almost imperceptible movement of the petals… contrasted with the stillness of the centre. Now imagine you are the daisy. Be aware of your arms and legs and your head as corresponding to the petals of the flower. Be aware of the physical movement in your limbs: the circulation of the blood… the movement of the muscles… the tension of the nerves. Be aware of the activities that go on in your mind: the thoughts, the plans, the agitation. Now, slowly withdraw you feeling of yourself from these centres of activity… from your limbs, from your head… from the petals… and let yourself drift into the centre, into the stillness at the centre of your being.
Do not seek physical healing automatically before you understand the nature of your illness, disability, or weakness, for it will only recur in another form. If you first of all seek the interior cause, which may lie in your mind or in some weakness in your spiritual nature - or even in the way you are living your life, physical healing will commence naturally, at the right time. Your first responsibility lies in learning the lesson which your physical body and its defects have revealed to you.
Illness or disability, or even “accident”, always indicates another kind of weakness or imbalance; it can reveal a lesson which you may not have been able to learn in any other way. Even the attitude of seeking to understand is sufficient in itself to make new self-knowledge possible, for it is a reversal of the usual order of things which limits perception to physical causality. If you seek mental and spiritual causes, you may receive new insight; the growth of your being proceeds gradually, from insight to insight.
There are many possible invisible causes of illness, disability, or accident. You may have some sort of disequilibrium caused by an unequal development of different parts of your being. The influences from outside yourself may be too strong and prevent your own natural expression or impose conditions, requirements, standards, values on your life - and, in relation to these, feelings of guilt - which have become intolerable. A form of primitive emotion - such as fear, anger, hatred, jealous, etc. - may have built up a pressure within you unconsciously, which seeks release or recognition in some form. You also bring with you into your physical life past experiences and relationships which can exert an influence on your body and its expression.
It is the attitude of mind to illness or disability which is most important, so that you are able to be receptive to learning and self-knowledge. The attitude is wrong which petitions supernatural help for physical illness, as if G-d or the Great Beings were autocrats who could withhold their grace or pleasure unless it were petitioned in this way. Once you become aware of interior causes, miracles may be accomplished through a chain of Help which continuously links you with the Most High. After this, it doesn't greatly matter what kind of external remedy you apply to the physical illness.
Recall an experience of illness - maybe serious illness - which you have had in the past. Looking back on it now, can you observe anything you learned from this experience?
Think of a disability or weakness, of a physical or mental nature, with which you were born. Hold the experience of it in your mind… recalling various times of its expression… in childhood… adolescence… adulthood. How has your life been different because ot it?
Imagine yourself on a higher, invisible plane. There is someone with you who is about to enter a physical life on Earth. How would you expect this person's mental state (of anger, resentment, wilfulness, or other) to manifest in physical form? What kind of physical disability or weakness would you expect it to express through?
It is only through awareness of yourself that you can change your being. This means being aware in detail of what is in your being - aware of your mind and its attitudes and how it expresses from moment to moment. You have to hold the awareness briefly and then let it go, not seeking to change what you have observed. For any effort to change something you don't like does violence to your being, and it will prevent real change taking place at the right time. For example, if you try to change some attitude that you observe, it will hide or alter in appearance; and you can imagine the attitude has disappeared while, in fact, it continues in its new disguise.
If you really want your being to change and grow spiritually - if you really seek for a stge beyond your present state, then you must have the courage to pursue your desire for truth about yourself and observe more clearly what is presented to you. You must not allow yourself to be deterred by any reactions in yourself or feelings of guilt in relation to what you observe.
Becoming aware of yourself is like directing a light to different parts of your being. This light, in itself, brings about a change, because many thoughts or attitudes or activities can only exist in darkness. Once light is turned on them they dwindle and may fade away altogether - if your awareness (or light) doesn't falter. But this happens gradually, so do not become discouraged or give up.
Awareness, in order to be truly effective, must be followed by acceptance. You need to accept what you see in yourself - not condone it, but accept that it is part of your being at the moment. Acceptance helps you to be more gentle with yourself; acceptance makes a space in which change of being gradually takes place in the right way, at the right time for you.
Sit in a relaxed position… and let your mind relax. If this is difficult, focus on your breathing… until your breath-rhythm is slower and more relaxed. Now imagine that a large book is placed in your lap… it is a photograph album, containing pictures of you… your family… your life up to the present. Open the album near the beginning… and you will find a photograph of yourself at about age 9… with your family. Look at it closely. Observe the family traits… the strengths and weaknesses… Now imagine you are turning over several pages of the album and you come to a picture of yourself at about age 13… with your school class. What can you observe about yourself here?… Now turn the pages… and you will come to a picture of yourself at age 21. Now you are an adult… what do you observe in this photograph of yourself?… Now close the book and let the whole experience slowly fade.
Again, sit in a relaxed position… and let your mind relax. Recall an experience of being very angry. Observe the situation clearly… and relive the experience of anger. Observe how your mind justifies it to yourself. Now imagine that Someone is shining a light on this experience or anger… allow it… and yourself… to be surrounded by light. Let the experience of anger fade. (Repeat this meditation, using resentment instead of anger.)
Your mind is like a house… with a number of rooms on different levels or floors. You tend to live in a limited area of yourself. There are many rooms which you seldom occupy… or haven't for a long time… or don't even know about. On the “ground floor” are rooms containing practical skills which you have brought into this life with you… or developed during your lifetime. The next level contains knowledge… some of it knowledge gained from experiences you had long before this life… some of it latent knowledge of different kinds awaiting your discovery. There are also higher levels… and a basement where you can be enclosed within a state of confusion or darkness. Try to experience this house of yourself… with its known and unknown rooms. Start on the ground level… and open the door of a room which you haven't occupied for a long time. In it you find a skill you know you have… but haven't used before… or haven't expressed since you were a child… Now go upstairs… seeking knowledge of some kind… seeking to learn more about yourself… or about the universe. You are in a room where you find the knowledge you are seeking… it may be what you always half-suspected… or knew to be true…
Now recall any vision you have had… or an experience of Light… or of being a different person to your usual self… or an experience of joy. Recall it clearly. You are now in an upper room in your house… which looks upward and outwards to the sky and Light. You feel you could remain in this room forever… if only…
But now you go down in a kind of “lift” to the basement of yourself… where you experience an emotion characteristic of yourself: of anger or resentment or a kind of obstinacy… or you feel depressed… or in a state of confusion. Experience the quality of this level of yourself… as if it were a small airless room. What can you remember now about this house of yourself… and its other rooms? What can you recall that will enable you to get out of this basement room and move to a higher floor… and another part of yourself?
The principal aim of your life on Earth is to establish contact with your own inner being. This “inner being” is the seat of your unique and indivisible will, which is your innermost growing point. Your inner being contains the knowledge and understanding you have gained from all your past experiences and lives; it contains also the light of your own consciousness. Your inner being can cast light on every present moment in your physical life; it can inspire your learning and guide your footsteps in the direction from which you can profit most in your life on Earth.
The knowledge and understanding contained in your inner being are your greatest treasures. They belong to you alone; no one can take them from you, and they will remain with you for all time. These experiences of truth and understanding are your certainties. You need to make a conscious effort to recall your certainties from time to time, to think from them and to act from them. They will be for you a kind of Ark on which you can ride over the floodwaters of any circumstance or situation or disaster. It is only from your certainties that you can give to other people; you can only pass on what you have personally experienced or learned.
When you desire instruction beyond your present level of understanding - beyond the knowledge contained in your own inner being, you will begin to contact your inner teacher. Everyone has an inner teacher (called by some the “guardian angel”) who accompanies him throughout his entire physical life. This is a person who exists on the spiritual plane, whose structure of being is similar in many respects to your own, yet whose knowledge and understanding are greater. He is therefore able to guide and instruct you.
When you want to learn, your teacher is waiting to teach you. It will not be in the form of a command which you are expected to obey but instruction which involves your whole being, including your reasoning mind. Your teacher is not god - nor are you his servant or medium. Never accept blindly or let yourself carry out instructions which you do not understand. It is your discernment which must grow. Open yourself to learning but challenge your teacher; test, prove for yourself, then new knowledge will be added to your other inner certainties.
Think back to childhood… and recall something which you knew about… or knew to be true… or some knowledge or certainty you possessed part from those around you - maybe even in contradiction to those around you. Recall as clearly as you can.
Imagine you are going on a dangerous journey tomorrow and you can only take with you what you really understand… what you know to be true from your own personal experience? Make a list mentally of your own certainties.
Recall an experience of being given foreknowledge of what was going to happen (e.g., of meeting a fast-travelling car around the next corner) and of being able to act on it… Or an experience of being directed from within at a cross-roads in your life… Or of being taken through circumstances which you would not have been able to cope with on your own… Or of any kind of enlightenment… or instruction… or vision which has come to you unexpectedly at any time.
It is possible to live a physical life without making effort; some people's lives seem to move quite effortlessly. But if you want to achieve anything at all in your life you have to make effort of some kind. Professional achievement requires the effort of study; artistic expression requires the effort of learning and practising a skill; in order to become a sportsman, physical effort and training are necessary. Some lives call for the making of immense physical effort in order to secure basic food, shelter, clothing. Some people have to make an effort mentally in order to maintain a state of equilibrium in the society in which they live. Every one of these efforts results in an obvious achievement, related to the nature of the effort; but, beyond that, something else is achieved of a spiritual nature which is of more lasting value. You need to be grateful for any efforts which your physical life requires you to make and for every opportunity to develop patience, endurance, courage.
Every real effort you make requires some form of choice. You choose to study one subject, to learn one skill, to make time for one occupation rather than any other. Daily efforts as well as long-term efforts involve choice.
In order to make effort at all you also have to overcome some form of resistance in yourself which may be physical or mental or spiritual. This resistance comes from many things: from natural inertia, resentment, an attitude of impatience, fear, a feeling of being owed… and so on. Your ability to overcome the resistance within you and make the effort required for what you want to achieve depends upon the strength of your desire or will. From time to time you have to renew your desire and your aim if you are to continue making effort; otherwise, the effort will naturally dwindle or fade away altogether.
Every effort you make, or have made, of a physical kind is useful when it comes to making spiritual effort. In fact, it is impossible to make spiritual effort unless you have first of all learned about the nature of effort in a simple way, from your day to day physical life.
All spiritual growth requires effort, not the kind of effort which your physical life may require of you (like the effort needed to carry on with responsibilities in spite of fatigue or even illness), but extra effort. This spiritual effort is not necessary to the functioning of your physical life, but if you once begin to make spiritual effort your physical life will change, expand, receive new life and impetus (for the spiritual life is not separate from the physical life).
The starting point of all spiritual effort is awareness and the regular practice of mental exercises which cast light on yourself and the world around you and which break up your habitual states of sleep. These execises create spaces in which you may have new thoughts and from which new experiences can grow.
You must use a variety of different exercises and techniques if you want to expand your awareness beyond the point at which every form of effort naturally goes into reverse.
Be flexible. Make different kinds of spiritual effort, at different times, and do not be cast down when you fail to achieve results from one kind of effort; give your attention instead to something else, or make a space in your mind where you can BE in a state of effortlessness. Never expect any state of mind or being to be continuous.
Do not set goals for your spritual growth, as if it were measurable in terms of any definable ends. Spiritual growth means learning, expressing more freely beyond your present limitations, expanding your consciousness; the “results” are not commensurate with the effort, nor can they be weighed and measured. Rejoice in the experience of growing and take pleasure in the efforts you make spiritually, for they are an integral part of this experience of growing.
What have you really wanted to do in your life? Observe yourself at different stages: childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, now. What goals have you aimed for at these different stages?… What efforts did you make to achieve these goals? What did you have to overcome?… What kind of resistance?
Can you recall making any spiritual efforts in your life?… For example, going against yourself… or an attitude… or habitual states? Have you ever tried to overcome some weaknesses? What happened?
How have you learned patience… endurance… courage? What experiences have you had in your life which have taught you any of these qualities?
Can you recall an experience in which you over-rode your instinctive fears in order to do something you wanted to do?
Can you recall an experience in which you did something for someone whom you instinctively disliked? What motivated you?
Truth, goodness, love, and all other qualities, are relative to your state of being; there is no such thing as absolute Truth. “Truth” for each one of you consists in the different orders of fact which you are able, by your nature, to perceive at any one time. Other people will have another perceiption and another “truth”.
There is no ultimate Essence which contains all qualities and which is unchanging, unmoving; there is no Oneness of Spirit or God into which everything eventually merges. These are all abstractions or concepts which have no basis in reality.
Do not become blocked by the false dualism which the idea of absolute Truth implies, for all truth is relative to the different perspectives and degrees of comprehension which you experience at different stages and levels. You cannot ever comprehend all truths because you will not know all experiences, but only those experiences which you have chosen and which belong to your own life. You will always remain ignorant of many experiences which belong to other people and their lives. No one can comprehend “all Truth”, for this is also ab abstraction.
The same principle applies to every abstraction, such as goodness, love, beauty, and so on. Your being comprehends different qualities of goodness, love, beauty according to your own nature and experience. At each stage it is important to allow many different aspects of yourself to express and to expose yourself to different kinds of experience. In this way the widest possible understanding may be distilled from your experience in this life on Earth, and your comprehension of truth, goodness, love, beauty will have growth.
Recall different ways in which you saw the world outside your own home - at different ages.
At age 5: how did the outside world look to you?… either through someone from outside coming into your home… or through going out into the world.
At age 10: how did the “outside world” look to you?
At age 16:…?
At age 25:…?
Think of a hill or knoll near where you live now… or where you have lived in the past. Go to this hill in your imagination. Stand at the bottom of it and look around you. See as much as you can… and observe the angle of perspective… and what is possible for you to see. Now begin to climb the hill… Stop… and again look around you and back at the panorama from which you started. Observe the difference in perspective. Now climb further up the hill… until you nearly reach the top. stop… and once more look back at the area from which you started to climb. Be aware of the perspective you now have… and how it differs from the previous one. Be aware that there is an even more comprehensive one beyond you… than the one from which you now observe.
You are not only a unique creation but you become increasingly individual as you evolve spiritually. This is the essence of spiritual evolution, that you become more distinct and clarified as a person and separated out from any collective influence. Your mind grows in its unique way through the in-gathering of your own knowledge and understanding, gleaned from your personal experiences. Your will, which is your own unique and indivisible essence, becomes increasingly stronger and able to act from this knowledge in every aspect of your life. It is your will which, as it grows, enables you to stand upright - and alone, if necessary - in relation to other opinions and the multiplicity of collective pressures.
The purpose or aim of spiritual growth is never any kind of identification. The “end” of human evolution can never be the dissolution of individuality, in whatever form. How could it be otherwise, if to evolve spiritually means to grow as an individual?
Many people - mystics, priests, “teachers”, protagonists of one religious or secular theory or another - will suggest that your aim must be the ultimate giving up of individuality in some mystical union or collective. They will seek to persuade you that your uniqueness and expressions are an illusion or, worse, an offence to the abstract One whom they call God, Krishna, or Society. Your “good”, They will tell you, the only Good, lies in the ending of your separateness as an individual through your ultimate at-onement with this Abstraction.
Know that this is the illusion. The material/physical world which you inhabit on Earth is a natural replica and reflection of your interior world and you will still inhabit this world when your physical body has been laid aside. Your own interior world - your mind - will still contain the variety of expressions, strengths, and weakness which you now observe. No identification with a Person, or so-called mystical union with an Abstraction, will later the structure of your own being, here on Earth or elsewhere. You cannot escape from the spiritual reality - and potential - of yourself. You can only postpone your own awakening by entering into an imaginary state of union.
You are always surrounded by individual spirits who have passed out of physical life. The ones who have evolved spiritually, and who belong to your life, will encourage your spiritual growth as an individual, but they will never interfere with the integrity of your will. Other spirit beings, with lesser understanding, may seek to place their own thoughts in your mind - or seek to influence your will for their own ends, or even to possess you. Wherever there is willingness to relinquish personal control, wherever people strive to “make their minds blank”, these spirits are ready to enter in and express themselves. Therefore, use your own reason, as well as your intuitive perception, to be aware of all that is being presented to your mind and make each decision of thought or action for yourself.
This is how you can know the quality of the influence to which you are being subjected, whether the source of that influence lies in a person, or persons, in the invisible “authorities” of your society, or in the spirit world. All who are misguided or evil will seek to diminish you as a person, calling on you to relinquish your own will in the name of a Person or Power and causing you to fear and distrust your own knowledge and to feel guilty about acting from yourself. Or they may induce in you beautiful experiences or visions which go nowhere and lull you into a soporific state of not caring. The higher Beings, and all that is good in the universe, respect you as a person and never seek to persuade or overpower you. On the contrary, they teach you to develop your own individual qualities through experience and to trust the understanding you gain from that experience. They point the way upwards to ever-increasing Light and that kind of freedom of individuality which makes it possible for you to become a caring and responsible person.
|
Second Impression 1985
INTRODUCTION
A definition of “guided meditation”, and the ways in which it is related to an experience of “The Kingdom of Heaven”.
The possibility of growth depends on a recognition of an initial spiritual poverty, together with a trust in the power that can make growth possible - meditation on the individual personality experienced as rooms in a house - the gradual fading away of the old self - meditation on the effects of Jesus' teaching on personal relationships - the need for a time of stillness each day - meditation on the Lord's Prayer - the four great needs expressed in that prayer.
The spiritual journey into light and truth expressed through the image of a sea voyage - the need for a trusted guide or pilot - meditation on the experience of casting outworn values into the ocean - why there is no rejection or shame if this proves impossible at the moment - the possibility of serving both God and mammon - the need for gentleness with ourselves as well as with other people - the journey dependent on our trust in Christ, who can guide us to our higher selves without usurping our will - as the trust grows the anxieties of the old self fade away - meditation centred on a garden and based on Christ's invitation to ask, seek and knock - the visible and invisible results of our seeking - our burdens are the parts of ourselves which do not wish to grow - meditation experience to increase our non-judgemental understanding of other people - the danger of secret judgements - the way lightened by the finding of many small treasures each day leading to the “Pearl of Great Price” - meditation on discoveries to be made in a garden - the lesson of trust to be learnt from Christ's waling on the water - meditation based on this and on the experience of making a journey as a young child.
Meditation on the parable of the sower - the different grounds of each individual - the experience of the growing process of a plant - meditation on the various factors that inhibit plant growth - the plant's need for a gardener - the difficulty of asking help from anyone on the physical plane - the shift from head centring to heart centring - giving and caring for other people in a sensitive response to their needs - meditation on the experience of an orchard giving its fruits - the figt of ourselves - reflections on the wages of giving and the parable of the workers in the vineyard - the growth that comes from giving.
Reflections on the raising of Jairus' daughter - the spiritual power of meditation - meditation on the experience of leaving a prison cell or any place of bondage - the keys that open the door to the Kingdom of Heaven - Christ's power of caring and healing - the vibrations we all give out - the image of the caring, spiritual family, and the restrictions of biological family units - meditation on the growth of individuality, and the different aspects of ourselves - Christ as the gardener - meditation on different parts of a garden - the need to let some parts of ourselves die in order to transform stumbling blocks into assets - meditation on the experience of shedding burdens as we make our spiritual journey - the importance of relationships.
Reflections on the feeding of the five thousand - the “miracle” of spiritual food feeding the physical body - the nature of giving from the heart - Christ's act of giving - everyone's power of giving - the distinction between “miracle” and magic - our dependence on “the living water” and on spiritual “meat and drink”.
Electronic WorldWideWeb Internet Edition
Copyright © 1999
Joan Cooper died at the height of her work and all her books are obtainable from the Culbone Community Trust, Culbone, Porlock Weir, Somerset, established to continue her work. One of her five books, "Guided Meditations and the
Teaching of Jesus" is currently published and distributed by Element Books and is stocked by all good booksellers.
- Shalom & Welcome! - 
Home Page © The Neith Network Library 2002
Webmaster: H.B. ExtraReverendDoctorColinJames Hamer, The Rainbow Programme
Creativity House, 9 Oxford Street, St. Thomas, EXETER, Devon EX2 9AG, U.K.
Updated 00:01 1/8/2002.