AMYDON-EXETER CENTRE 113

Asanas

( 1 )

The word “asanas” meant in proto-Sanskrit the achievement of flexibility in mind and body;1 the connotation of “posture” was applied to this word at a much later date, when the old oral teaching of Yoga had been subjected to many interpretations, and numerous groups had developed their own sectarian teachings. (In later times, asanas became the essence of the teaching known as Hatha Yoga, a yoga pertaining primarily to the physical being of man. This is the aspect of yogic teaching which is best known to western students in the twentieth century, and most frequently practised.)

1. There are three letters in this word, each of which had a distinct and symbolic meaning in the ancient language - some of which still adheres to the historical languages, such as Hebrew. The letter “s” stood for “all individual expressions of Mind”, e.g., a person's mind, how it is expressed, the form it takes, etc. The letter “n” stood for “all physical bodies or physical forms and their expression”. The letter “a”, which is repeated three times, and links the “s” and “n”, stood for the “beginning or commencement of all creativity, prana… that which is receptive”. See P. F. Case, The Tarot (New York: Macoy 1947).

In the ancient oral teaching, asanas2 is the starting-point of specific Yoga practices, whose aim is the achievement of both mental and physical flexibility. Two specific aims are incorporated in these practices; one is the ability to concentrate the mind, and direct its awareness to the parts of the body involved in certain exercises, and the other is the achievement of flexibility in the body-structure, resilience of the nervous systems, and health in all the internal organs. In this way, the person becomes more sensitive to the state and needs of his body from moment to moment. The detailed and specific exercises provide the means of ascertaining the condition of the body, and, in part, of altering and improving it.

2. “Asanas” - not “asana”. It can only be used in the original sense in the plural form, for it means flexibilities of both mind and body.

Increased sensitivity in a person to his own physical state makes it possible for him to pick up any imbalance, tension, or incipient illness, before it becomes set, and the exercises give him the simple means of redressing the imbalance himself, without recourse to specialist assistance. A man can be his own doctor. In fact, all the later directions for meditation and contemplation depend upon this stage of development, in which a man learns, first of all, to become responsible for his own physical being, as far as possible.

The ancient oral teaching of Yoga was first received by certain men, through inspiration, about the beginning of the fourth millennium B.C. (i.e., about 3,800 B.C.). It spread rapidly East and West and South, establishing centres of teaching in many places, which then preserved a continuity of oral teaching over thousands of years, passing on the body of knowledge, and the practices - with alterations, or additions, according to the time or needs of different people, but without distortion - from teacher to pupil. All this time, it remained an oral tradition, and was never recorded as a whole until the present,3 because there was no need for it, and the risk of distortion and misinterpretation was considerable, from the very fact of recording it, and also in consequence of exposing it to man's formatory mind and reasoning faculties. The risks have not abated, but the need has greatly increased for all men, who are capable of doing so, to learn from this teaching, because of the dangers threatening the very existence of the Earth.

3. Although some aspects of the teaching were incorporated into certain texts, and even an outline of it recorded - albeit imperfectly, by the original Patanjali (of which the extant writings under this name are, at best, a transcription).

Very soon in some places - much later in others (e.g., in England) - the oral teaching was superceded by sectarian beliefs and rituals, as a priesthood grew up, which adapted the oral teaching to accord with its own authority-structure.4 The aim of the original teaching was the development of the whole man, up to the point where he could take responsibility for his own being, but the aim of every priesthood's teaching was to make men dependent upon itself. The institution of priesthood, once created, contained built-in mechanisms for its own preservation.

4. The oral teaching continued to exist in hidden places, unchanged by outer events, and its continuity remained unbroken

When this new element, the priesthood, entered into human history, so the actual meanings of words were altered, and became set, in a much more narrow framework of interpretation. Thus, the word asanas was changed from its original meaning5 (which implied, and re-called to the student's mind, a series of activities, as well as an attitude of awareness in his physical life) to the specific and limited meaning of “posture”. This word “posture” - now written asana - came to mean, in the days of the early Hindu priesthood, a particular, seated position and place, in which a student could meditate for hours on end.6

5. Gradually, over a period of time. The meanings of all words were altered by usage, insofar as they did not fit into a new system or ideas, or a new authority structure.

6. See the traditional requirements stated in the Bhagavad-Gita for where to sit, i.e., the place on which the student sits, which is one meaning of this interpretation of the word asana. Another meaning, i.e., the manner in which the person sits, is also well defined in Hindu tradition. See The Aphorisms of Patanjali, II, 46, 47, 48.

Looked at in terms of social context, the two meanings of the word asanas imply two very different kinds of social structure and culture. The original meaning of the word implied a high degree of social flexibility, for the student of asanas could be engaged in any kind of life pursuit; he could be married or single, of either sex (at least in theory), and of any cultural origin. If this was possible for a student of the ancient teaching of Yoga, so it implied an unusually “open” society, within whose framework such a teaching could find acceptance.7 from the student's point of view, the aim of mental awareness and physical flexibility - the ultimate aim of achieving personal responsibility for his physical and mental state - was adaptable to any set of life conditions or circumstances. The more varied the activities of the person's life, the more agile could become his mind, and the more adaptable his body.

7. When society became “closed”, this teaching had to be practised in secret, but it never developed the exclusiveness which is usually characteristic of esoteric cults, and belongs to most closed groups or systems of thought.

The later connotation of “posture”, which was the Hindu priesthood's interpretation of the word asanas, implied a much narrower and more restricted set of social conditions, and a more “closed” society. It was based on a practice or ritual, which took people out of ordinary life, rather than on one to be performed in the midst of all or any circumstances; for it meant that people performing this exercise were capable of devoting long hours to meditation, while seated in one place, and in one position. By definition, then, it could be performed only by a specialized or professional group of people, who, for a time or in part, relinquished an ordinary existence; by people who kept themselves apart from the usual expressions of social life, in order to strive for their own spiritual growth; by people who pursued their aim of meditation - and its ritual observances - through a process of limiting their minds, as well as their bodies, rather than expanding them, and increasing their sensitivity and state of awareness. Finally, this meaning of the word asanas implied a strict and authoritarian teacher-pupil relationship and a ritualized framework of existence, upon which the discipline for such rigorous meditation, and other practices, depended.

It is useful to recognize two characteristics, which all priesthood institutions,* and all groups formed for the teaching of “hidden knowledge” and techniques for self-development, have in common. They are both exclusive and authoritarian in structure. Many claim to be the “true teaching”,8 and hold that the head of their particular School, Lamasery, or Church is the direct descendent or inheritor of the true Source from which the particular teaching sprang. The many esoteric groupings, which have flourished in the West† since the latter part of the nineteenth century, have also claimed to be the exclusive repositories of “true knowledge”, “their way” the only way, and their members the ones who alone can claim to be on the path to higher levels of consciousness.

* A Culbone Visitor's note: Many early Christians martyrs for the Faith were, in fact, condemned to death as ‘atheists’, and Father Giles Hibbert OP defined ‘Catholicism’ as ‘anti-religious, materialist atheism’, wishing, no doubt, to distance contemporary Catholic praxis, as far as possible, from such structural patternings as are here described.

8. Buddhist sects are not usually imbued with this kind of exclusive right-ness, but give their pupils a wider knowledge of other parallel teachings or traditions, as well as of the principles held in common by all branches of Buddhist doctrine.

† A Culbone Visitor's note:For a richer and more nuanced account, benefitting from the distinction in French between l'ésotericisme and l'ésoterisme, cf Pierre A. Riffard, L'Ésoterisme: Qu'est-ce que l'Ésoterisme? - Anthologie de l'Ésoterisme Occidental (Paris: Robert Laffont 1990).

The old Yoga teaching was, by its nature, inclusive rather than exclusive; its aim was non-authoritarian in every respect, for coerciveness of any kind, whether through the power of reason, or emotion, or tradition, would have been a contradiction in terms. The essence of this teaching was contained in the knowledge that G-d is in every man; because of this, a person has only to learn to listen within - to become aware of, and, finally, at-one with, his own “G-d” - in order to find all the direction he needs for his life on Earth. The teacher became the guide, and not an authority figure. The teaching was - and is - open to everyone, and everyone following that teaching knew that, in the course of time (sometimes vast periods of time), every man would recognize some forms of its truth as applicable to himself, and would begin the journey to his own at-one-ment with G-d.‡

‡ A Culbone Visitor's note: In her Talk on The Upanishads (10 March 1991) Dayamurti, therefore, said: “The purpose of life is to discover and merge with the Supreme Spirit, the Source of all being.” Cf. R. P. Beesley, Yoga of the Inward Path (Speldhurst: White Lodge 1974). “The purpose of life is for man to manifest the divine fire on Earth, through his physical body… The divine fire comes from G-d to illumine the soul… Through the mind man can receive and understand truth, but mind must always be guided by the divine Spirit in the heart, the Spirit of Christ… Divine Love in the heart flashes forth as a light to illumine the mind.” (White Eagle, The Living Word of St. John, p.14.)

Certain physical exercises were given to pupils in the ancient oral teaching of Yoga for the purpose of self-knowledge. By performing the exercises, a person gained knowledge about his own body structure, and its systems, and was able to observe his condition or state of health from day to day. The exercises also involved a directed use of the mind, as well as the body, for all physical results come about only in relation to a person's use of his mind. If the exercises are performed mechanically, while the mind of the person is pre-occupied, they might as well not be done at all. If they are practised with the sole aim of achieving a physical result, some benefits may accrue - but they will not be permanent, and will depend upon the continued practice of the exercises. The ultimate physical benefit possible for the person would soon be reached. Change of mind alone can bring about permanent physical benefits from the practice of the physical exercises - a change of mind from “sleep”, torpor, inactivity, to a state of mental alertness, directed attention, and awareness of the fluctuating conditions of the body.*

* A Culbone Visitor's note: “Waken up!” is closer than “Stay awake!” to the sense of the related word in the original account of the Gethsemane scene, and Heinz W. Cassirer's translation of Mk 14: 37-38 accords well with Joan's teaching: Jesus “went back to the others and found them asleep. And this is what he said to Peter: ‘Simon, are you asleep? Did you lack the strength to remain wakeful for one hour? Do remain wakeful, while uttering a prayer to be spared from having to undergo the final test. The spirit is indeed eager enough; it is the flesh that makes us weak.’ ”

The physical exercises given to the earliest pupils of Yoga were few in number, but some of them were quite complex. No mental exercises were associated with the physical ones, other than the general aim of developing altertness of mind, and directing the attention in each exercise to the condition of the muscles, ligaments, nerve tone, and the general responsiveness of the body. Specific instructions were given to pupils for the way in which the exercises were to be performed.

The exercises are always performed very slowly, the pupil striving for the nearest approximation to each particular posture possible for him at any one time. He then holds each posture in turn, and seeks to relax in it. One posture follows another with the feeling of a continuous movement.

Two kinds of rhythm are implicit in the performance of these exercises. The first is concerned with an alternation of tension and relaxation (as in the simple act of stretching. In fact, stretching the body may be thought of as a model or prototype for all the physical exercises connected with asanas). For every posture implies, first of all, concentration of effort, contraction of muscles, and nerve stimulation. This is followed by the relaxation of body and mind within the particular form of posture achieved. The second kind of rhythm, inherent in the performance of these exercises, has to do with the flow of internal movement, by which each posture is achieved. Pupils were originally taught to aim for a sensation of continuous movement, as in the performance of a dance sequence, which they could enter into with a sensation of pleasure.

Four kinds of exercises were given to pupils in this oral teaching of Yoga, having to do with the skeletal structure, the nervous system, the internal organs, and the physical mind, respectively.

1. The majority of exercises have to do with the skeletal structure and the muscular systems of the body. There are fifteen in number. These were designed by the earliest teachers of Yoga for the purpose of utilizing the principle sets of muscles relating to the spine and the skeletal structure generally, ascertaining the flexibility of the spine, and developing an initial awareness of the centres - or chakras - in a person.9 These are the original fifteen exercises:

9 In the spinal column of the invisible physical body, which are reflected onto each person's physical structure.

(a) Sukhasana. This is called the “easy pose”, for it is a simple cross-legged position. No “Lotus Positions” or other forms of seated posture were taught originally. The sukhasana alone was taught as the easiest and most natural of positions in which to sit for the performing of certain exercises, or while listening to lectures. More complex postures were unnecessary in relation to the aims of the ancient oral teaching. (They reflect another way of thinking, and another tradition of religious practices.)

(b) Neck exercises. These exercises consist in a form of “head roll”, and in certain eye-focussing and eye-moving exercises, for the purpose of enabling the person to become aware of tensions in the nerve centre at the top of his spine, and in the contraction of muscles, or nerve-tension in his eyes. The pupil was taught the importance of consciously relaxing, during the practice of these exercises.

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These exercises are concerned with different forms of back-stretching, and enable the pupil to observe, and rectify, tensions or rigidity in the spinal structure.

(e) Yoga Mudra. This exercise is one of the most important exercises given to pupils in the ancient form of Yoga, for, during its performance, the pupil can learn to observe many aspects of the state of his physical being. Also, during its slow execution, and long-held “posture”, body and mind are brought into a state of harmony - and repose.

(o) Halanasana (the Plough). This last group of four exercises also stretches the spine, as do the earlier exercises, but in more complex ways, and enables a person's mind to form a more comprehensive picture of the stage of his spinal structure.

2. Two exercises were given to pupils in the earliest form of Yoga which concentrated primarily on his nervous systems. These are inverted postures. Their primary purpose, as with the first group of exercises, is for observation of the state of the nervous system. Their secondary function is stimulation of the nerve structure in a person's body.

(a) Sarvangasana. This exercise includes three different kinds of Shoulder Stand: the half Shoulder Stand, the full Shoulder Stand, and the balancing Shoulder Stand.

(b) Sirshasana. The Head Stand is supposed to be practised only by certain people who have special need of it, and not by others. As a general rule, it is practised only by students new to the study of Yoga. Although these two kinds of exercise were designed specifically for man's nervous system, all the exercises given to the students of Yoga by the ancient teachings were concerned with the structure of nerves in his body, and, in the performance of each exercise, the mental task lay in perceiving the manifestation - and extent - of nerve tensions. In time, the pupil should learn to read in depth, from the performance of each exercise, not only the current state of his body, but the history of its tensions, and weaknesses. In this way, tensions would gradually lessen, and the whole body become stronger; for the perfecting of the physical body depends, ultimately, upon growth in the person's etheric being, and its prior expression - through a change of mind (metanoia).

(3a) Ardha Matsyendrasana

(3b) Uddiyana.

(2b) Sirshasana

. 3. A third group of exercises was given to students with an emphasis on the internal organs of the body. These exercises were less for the purpose of observation, than with the aim of keeping the internal organs in working order. These exercises fall into two groups: (a) Ardha Matsyendrasana (or different forms of the Twist), and (b) Uddiyana (Abdominal Contractions) and Uddiyana Bhanda (Abdominal Uplift).

4. A fourth group of exercises formed part of the ancient teaching of asanas. This consisted of only one mental exercise, which is a preparation for later stages - in particular the fifth stage or Pratyahara, or the development of the internal senses. The exercise may be called either Trãtaka (clearing the vision) or Shambhavi Mudra (which is an exercise leading to the direct perception of things as they are, independent of the kind of body or physical mind a person has, and through which he perceives life).

The exercise commences with the person sitting in the Simple Pose, relaxing his body, and focussing his attention through one of the physical senses on an actual external object (not a mental object). If the person is using his eyes, then, in looking at this object before him, the person gives attention “without blinking,”10 i.e., without breaking the thread of communication between himself and the object, and without letting his physical mind superimpose its own limitations, or definitions, on the object being observed. What ultimately happens can best be described as an experience (the word “perception” would suggest a barrier between observer and observed), in which the object becomes part of the being of the person - in some subtle way (whether the person enters into the object, or the object into the person is not relevant), so that he under-stands, from within himself, the nature of that object. This cannot be accomplished, however, if verbalizing accompanies the experience, i.e., if the brain of the person is simultaneously attempting to describe or define the experience in words. This is an experience which occurs beyond words - or before words; direct perception is an a priori experience, which words can only hope to trace, but never completely define or explain.

10. Ernest Wood, Yoga (Penguin: 1962, p.129). A Culbone Visitor's note: Properly speaking, a purely reflex, physical act of blinking is not always incompatible with the sort of consciously unwavering, open-eyed seeing here mentioned. According to circumstances, students of yoga may find one or other of the following books also helpful: T. Bernard, Hatha Yoga (London: Rider & Co. 1968); B. Bromage, Tibetan Yoga (Aquarian Press 1959); Thomas Cleary, translator, Buddhist Yoga - A Comprehensive Course (Boston & London: Shambhala 1995); John Davis, Yoga for you (Mirror Books 1980); Desmond Dunne, Yoga made easy (Mayflower 1974); M. I. Gharote & Maureen Lockhart, The Art of Survival - A Guide to Yoga Therapy (Unwin 1987); Shyam Sundar Goswami, Laya Yoga - An Advanced Method of Concentration (Routledge & Kegan Paul 1980); B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga (Allen & Unwin 1966); H. Kent, My Fun with Yoga (London: Hamlyn 1975); J. Marques Rivière, Tantrik Yoga (Aquarian Press 1973); J. Mumford, Psychosomatic Yoga (Thorsons 1962) and Ecstasy through Tantra (Llewellyn Publications 1988); Aiyar Narayanaswami, The Thirty-Two Vidya-S (Adyar 1962); Nancy Phelan & Michael Volin, Yoga for Women (Arrow Books 1986); Hari Prasad Shastri, Yoga (Foyles) 1976; P. Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (Los Angeles: Self-Realisation Fellowship 1979).

Higher degrees of sensitivity and awareness - or states of consciousness - depend upon the development, and use, of the physical body of man, as well as upon the growth of his mind. The body has to be kept healthy and balanced, the spinal column has to be straight and flexible, and the mind has to be aware of the physical state and fluctuating conditions of the body, before it can further develop its own powers. No change or growth can take place, with the mind either asleep or semi-conscious in relation to the body, for which it has primary responsibility.

The chakras are energy-centres and focal points, which exist within the spinal column of man's invisible physical body,11 and are reflected onto the spinal column in his physical body; they also function through his endocrine glands. The Sanskrit word chakra means “wheel”, and the image of a wheel depicts symbolically, better than words could do, the nature of these centres, in each of which a different vibration of energy is created, and radiated out. Each chakra communicates through man's nervous systems, with every part of his body, in the manner symbolized by a wheel.*

11. See below.

* A Culbone Visitor's note: As chakra also means “gate” in Sanskrit, Joan's wheel may also be viewed as a turnstile or revolving door; both the right-hand and left-hand swastikas symbolize one or other of the chakras, the study of which can, when patiently and sensitively conducted, be immensely beneficial. Many excellent books have been dedicated to this work, but they need to be read with discernment and discrimination: Harish Johari, Chakras (Vermont: Destiny Books 1987); C. W. Leadbeater, The Chakras (Wheaton: Theosphical Publishing House 1985); David V. Tansley, Ray Paths and Chakra Gateways and Chakras - Rays and Radionics (Saffron Walden: C. W. Daniel Co. Ltd. 1985 and 1988); Klansbernd Vollmar, Journey Through the Chakras - Exercises for Healing & Internal Balancing (Bath: Gateway Books 1987). Especially valuable is Peter Rendel's Understanding the Chakras (Aquarian Press 1990), which epitomises excellently the related oral teachings of Kevin & Venika Kingsland. Nevertheless. None of these publications, however, approach as closely as do Joan D'Arcy Cooper''s pages to the originary and primordial understanding of either the chakras or the enneagram (see below).

The three lowest centres on the spine form a triad, which governs the physical body of man; the three centres at the top of his spine are those though which his etheric body affects - or can affect - his physical being; the seventh centre lies between the triads, and is the centre which links these two aspects of man's nature. The first triad consists of the Centres of Digestion (or intake of foods), Elimination, and Sex.

The Centre of Digestion is a focal and energy point, which governs the in-take of all that is necessary for the maintenance of the physical being of a person; it is connected with, and in part works through, the Pancreas and other glands. As man is dependent upon stimuli from his environment for even a most primitive form of existence - far more, for the growth of every part of his being, so this chakra is the reception centre for all sense impressions. (Although a person tends to imagine that sense-impressions are received in his brain, they are, in fact, received first of all by this sensitive nerve-centre or chakra, which then radiates them out to the physical brain.) This centre receives the three “foods” of man: the foods of his physical diet, the air he breathes, and all the sense impressions to which he is exposed, taking in all it receives without selectivity. (It is the mind in each person which afterwards selects and discards in accordance with its own built-up structure of attitudes and inclinations.)12

12. The mind of a person intercepts, selects, or interferes with the transmission of impressions from the chakra to the brain.

The Centre of Elimination is a highly “intelligent” centre, that rejects - or seeks to reject - all that is not useful for the well-being of the physical man. It is concerned primarily with selecting what nourishes or maintains a man's physical being from the food and air he takes into his body. This centre also attempts to reject anything which could affect a man's body adversely, or to which he is hypersensitive. This may include various kinds of sense impressions. If he is not sensitive to something in his environment, however violent or distorted it might be, this centre is unaffected. In its physical manifestation, the operation of this centre is connected with the Adrenals.13

13. Only the Cortex of this gland is connected with the Elimination Centre; the Medulla - from which adrenalin is secreted - is not related to it.

The Sex Centre provides the motive power for the other two centres, and supplies the meaning or purpose for the physical existence of man. It functions on the physical plane through the Gonads (or sex glands).

Everyone's physical identity, his sense of “I”-ness, his ego-sense, his feeling of being a distinct and separate individual - as well as the desire to preserve, and enhance, his different-ness, stem from the Sex Centre.

The word “sex” has to be understood in its widest connotation. Sex, as in “sexual urges”, is only one manifestation of the activity of this centre in man, although it is its most primitive and aboriginal aspect - as can be seen from its manifestation in animal life. In contemporary man, many other expressions, which give the impression of being unrelated to it, overlay that more primtive sexuality. At the focal point of this centre is the self will, or the physical will, of a man, which creates, expresses, and even fights for his feeling of identity; it is the driving force of the Sex Centre, and from it radiate, as spokes from a wheel, expressions of ambition, power, vanity, lust, greed, etc. - as well as the more primitive forms of sexuality.

The will14 of the Sex Centre - which is the core of man's self will - wills, first of all, to maintain its own separate identity, and, secondly, to have its own way in relation to others (that is, to have power over others, in one form or another). The entire life of most human beings flows from this centre and, in particular, from the desire for power.

14. Each centre has its own will. The will of man, through the act of being born into a physical body, is separated into seven wills. In order to make one will again, there must be conscious effort, first of all on the part of the self will, to bring all seven into harmony: Thus the meaning of the word yoga, “to yoke”.

These three centres, which govern the physical life of man on Earth, work partly through a “centre”, which may be called the physical, or formatory mind. This centre is etheric in nature; it has no specific physical manifestation as such, but acts through certain parts of the physical brain of man. In this respect, it has certain similarities with the chakras.15 The formatory mind consists of tracks, laid down on the basic mental potential16 of a person, by all the impressions received by him over his lifetime,17 some of which remain conscious, while others drop down into various levels of subconsciousness, impressions which also, in one way or another, influence selectively any subsequent reception of impressions - and govern the behaviour resulting from them.18

15. It cannot be defined as a chakra in essential respects, because it does not have a will of its own.

16. This basic mental potential is determined by: (a) the reflected experience of the etheric mind of the person from his previous existence, by experiences on etheric planes, and by the general level of his etheric - or true - nature; (b) the inherited physical characteristics from the physical family into which he has been born - which were attracted in part by his own etheric nature; and (c) accidents or illnesses that befall him, and affect his brain at birth, or in the early and particularly formative years - or are caused by his mother.

17. The impressions received in the earlier part of the life tend to form the mind, whereas the later ones fall on an already-formed structure.

18. This is not a homogeneous centre, and the selection of impressions, as well as the resultant behaviour, is not consistent, but often contradictory.

The formatory mind of man is connected with all activity in which he is engaged throughout his physical life on Earth. It is an experience-gathering instrument, and the repository of every experience which a man has; it is also the substance out of which the very life of the man is shaped. The formatory mind operates through those aspects of the brain which control, order, regulate, or stimulate all physical activity in a man, namely, the different parts of his mid-brain and hind brain.

All the impressions, that form a person's social-cultural and natural-sensual environments, are laid down in his physical mind. This includes a wide variety of what would appear to be very different factors, until they are all seen as environments, that impinge on the physical man. Physical noises, sights, smells; voices and words; cultural attitudes, values, behaviour patterns; religious mores: expectations and prohibitions - these, and many more, constitute the impressions, that impinge on, and help to form the physical mind of a person. So, also, do the stimuli from the person's own physical being: his appetites, drives, urges, desires, and the various manifestations of his self will will agree, or conflict, or co-exist with the impressions deriving from his external environment.

As conflicting impressions cannot co-exist for long on the same plane of consciousness, so one or the other must drop down onto a level of lesser or sub-consciousness. Also, where impressions conflict - e.g., where an inner desire conflicts with an outer impression - either one or both of them become distorted in relation to the original impressions.

The physical mind is not a repository of accurate information; it does not record impressions, either from within or without, in strict truth, or as a machine would accurately register the data being fed into it (or receive them without selectivity, as does the Digestive Centre). Impressions are taken into the physical mind in accordance with its underlying tendencies or direction, as it has been formed already, or in relation to a current (even a passing) strong desire of the self will.

A person's behaviour and thoughts are also recorded in the physical mind - but not accurately. They are distorted, or altered, by the self will, and by many tendencies that already exist in the physical mind. The true motive behind a person's behaviour cannot be recorded accurately in the physical mind.

All impressions fall, in the first place, on the first chakra in a man, before they are directed to the front lobal parts of the brain, for sorting out, evaluation, etc. These frontal parts of the brain are the physical site of the Creative Imagination in man. But the Creative Imagination in man, as he usually is (or, as most men are), is controlled and directed by its lower centres and their wills - in particular, by the Sex Centre and the self will. This very powerful instrument, the Creative Imagination, is, therefore, used to select and “create” the impressions which enter into, and build up the physical mind. The imagination, in the hands of the self will, can create many of the impressions and facts, which constitute the physical mind; it can create the person's behaviour, thoughts, and motives, which are recorded there. So long as the imagination is directed by this self will in a man, from his lower centres, so long will his physical mind contain an inaccurate record of his life - both the impressions, which feed his life, and the structure of thought and action, through which it is expressed, because it has all been altered, or distorted, by the conscious or unconscious selectivity of the “self” and other wills.

True memory does, however, exist, and all the facts of a person's life are recorded, accurately, on “rolls” in another part of his mind, irrespective of the distortion in the more immediately accessible memory of his physical mind. This true record of the person's life is also accessible to him - or becomes so, when, and if, he truly desires to learn the truth.

Thus, the mind of man can be seen as a triangle or triad of different functions, reflecting different aspects of his etheric being. The “mind” most accessible to man is his physical mind, which, in a very immediate sense, constitutes the reality of his physical life. The second mind is the creative mind, most of whose potential lies completely hidden from the understanding of man, and whose existence and use are, often, only obliquely observable. The third mind is the receptive mind, which accurately reflects the facts of a man's past and present existence; it contains the true record of his long existence on etheric planes, and from it each man can be guided and inspired throughout the whole of his life on Earth - if he so desires. This triangle or triad of “minds” constitutes the whole mind of man, which is the epitome of each person's own real being.

The fourth centre or chakra in a man is the Solar Plexus. It stands alone, intermediary between the three lower centres and the three higher centres, or between the two expressions of man's life on Earth. It manifest in part through the Thymus Gland.

The Solar chakra or Plexus has a special rôle to play. Physiologically, the Solar Plexus is the seat of the sympathetic nervous system - or rather the autonomic nervous systems19, which control the functioning of all the internal organs in a person, and the composition of the blood, and its supply to every part of the body.

19. “Auto” means “self” or “by itself”, and “nomos” means “law” in Greek. “Autonomic” refers to a system which functions as a “law unto itself”, and under the control of its own will, i.e., the will of this centre. A man is not usually conscious of the functioning of his own internal organs.

The Solar Plexus is also the centre of the instinctive emotions in a person: fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, maternal love, grief. These are very different, in nature and origin, from the self expressions, such as desires, hunger for experience, ambitions, etc., that derive from the Sex Centre,20 and are sometimes, wrongly, thought of as self emotions. The instinctive emotions are an integral part of the experience of human life on Earth21 - the natural life, which human beings were meant to have; they are in no sense distortions of this life, or creations of the self will of man.

20. Or the drives, such as the drive for the preservation of the form (self-preservation, as it is expressed in man; but it also exists throughout all three kingdoms of creation, including the plant); bodily hungers; hunger for personal relationships with the world around the individual man - or animal (for this belongs to the entire animal kingdom, and is one of the principal distinctions between it and the plant world) - which creates the receptivity to impressions; the drive to seek shelter or protection. All of these belong to the Centre of Digestion.

21. Some of them derive from the earliest forms of man's etheric existence, and carry on after his physical life on Earth.

A person is usually, throughout the whole of his or her life, at the mercy of the instinctive emotions: one emotion abates only to be succeeded by another - and then another, in unending waves of longer or shorter duration. The self wills are internally divisive, and, together with the formatory mind, can have no real effect upon these emotions of the Solar Plexus; the will of no other single centre is, on its own, strong enough to control them. If one or more of the wills is strong or masculine in training, and the emotions are denied a natural expression, they do not cease to exist, but express internally instead, through the nervous systems, usually causing greater or lesser damage to the internal organs.

Although the self wills in a person are unable to regulate or control his instinctive emotions, the Solar Plexus was formed in such a way as to be able to regulate these emotions itself - not completely stop their natural expression, because they are an integral part of man's earth life, but set them limits, help them to diminish, and prevent them from disrupting, or destroying the physiological and mental balance in the life of the individual. It can do this, first of all, by acting as a protection around the person.

One of the ways in which the Solar Plexus exercises its protection around a person, is by indicating what would be spiritually poisonous to him. It can do this with ideas, books, pictures, experiences which the person cannot digest, or which would over-excite him, or be harmful to him in some way, by making the person feel physically ill. Nausea in the Solar Plexus is often a warning for the man to avoid what might harm him.

The protective potential of the Solar Plexus exists, because it is a solar centre, and receives and radiates vibrations from the physical Sun. Among these vibrations is one as yet unknown and unquantified by man; it is the vibration of peace. Peace is a specific solar substance,22 whose vibration the Solar Plexus is capable of receiving, and which can nullify the effects of exaggerated emotion, or of any distortion in the person's life, and place an atmosphere of protection around him.

22. This substance does not originate from the physical Sun, but was created by spiritual beings, who, having evolved beyond the etheric spheres, inhabit the “solar” plane of existence.

If a person is in sunlight for only a short time, some protection, and a certain stilling of the emotions, may be experienced; but the results are slight, and not lasting, for they depend entirely upon being in the presence of physical sunlight. For there to be any lasting effect, a conscious effort has to be made. The person must be aware of his need; then he has to know about the existence of the peace substance, and the possibility of drawing it into his own Solar Plexus. He has, finally, to perform the conscious act of drawing it into his Solar Plexus, not once, or only on those occasions when he is under emotional stress, but frequently and even regularly, over a period of time. He has to learn to draw peace into his Solar Plexus with the same certainty that he draws air into his lungs, aware of the protection it gives him, and the atmosphere of calmness it creates around him, within which his emotions can express naturally, but without destructiveness.23

23. The peace meditation is performed simply, by sitting in a quiet place, alone, relaxing the body, and drawing the substance of peace into the Solar Plexus on the in-take of breath, in relation to the rhythm of breathing. The mind visualizes these vibrations being drawn into the Solar Plexus from every direction, as on the spokes of a wheel to its hub at the centre. On the out-breath, the vibrations are sent out, to form what the mind visualizes as a cricle of protection around the body. This pattern is repeated, slowly, for a period of five minutes.

The Solar Plexus is also one of the focal points which exist in every person, and through which vibrations of the etheric or spirit world can reach him.

Man is an etheric being now. He is not a purely physical being now, and an etheric being “then”, when he has completed his physical life. If this were so, how could what is solely physical become transformed into what is not physical but etheric? In order to have an etheric existence later, as he had an etheric existence prior to his entrance into a physical body, man must have a continuous etheric reality, and so partake simultaneously, while in his physical life, of both realities: the visible physical, and the invisible etheric.

Those who inhabit the etheric spheres exist in relationship to that quality of life which corresponds to their own level of being. They are not separated from the form of etheric life which is manifesting in a physical form, nor from the people who are experiencing life in physical bodies, but dwell in proximity to it, and are able to make contact with people, through any kind of personal connection or similarity of vibration.24 Those who inhabit this world of spirit, and are no longer in physical bodies, may seek to contact the person in a physical body for one of two reasons. Either they wish that person well, and seek to help him, or else they wish him “ill” - directly or indirectly, through seeking to express on him, or through him, for their own satisfaction. The place in the person's physical body, through which he receives these vibrations or communications from the etheric, depends upon their quality, in other words, the level on which the etheric or spirit being is functioning. If the vibration is of a finer nature, of someone trying to help or guide the person on Earth in the direction of his own evolution, it will be received, physically, by a section of the brain (it is possible for him to experience the physical sensation of this in his head). If the vibration is of a lower or coarser nature, indicating that the spirit being exists on one of the lower etheric levels, and is at a lower stage in his own evolution, it will be received and felt in the Solar Plexus.

24. The law of communication between people in the spirit world and those inhabiting physical bodies depends upon a personal connection in the form of: (a) a past relationship whole both were in physical bodies, (b) an etheric relationship between the two, or (c) a similarity of vibration which makes them both, even temporarily, on the “same wave-length”. In this last instance, it may be a positive vibration or a passing negative one which brings two people “together” - or rather, attracts the one to the other. There may be nothing further to the relationship than this

This fact - or these facts - will only be considered upsetting or strange, if a person fails to accept the reality of his own spiritual existence now. A man accepts the tensions of human relationship, and the conflicting vibrations by which he is daily bombarded, as “natural” ingredients in his life on Earth. But equally natural are the vibrations that reach him from the spirit world, whose invisible world he inhabits, and who can indicate their presence to him in no other way. By accepting their reality, a man can learn to listen to the guidance of the one, and seek protection against the intrusions of the other.

The Solar Plexus is a centre where the two “worlds” meet. It is a vital physiological centre, from which the internal functioning of the body is principally controlled; it is the focal point for man's instinctive emotional nature, which is also sensitive to certain vibrations from the spirit world; and, finally, it can become the focus for receiving the special solar vibration of peace, which can protect a man from the effects of these other vibrations, and build a spiritual protection around the whole of his physical being.

The act of being born into a physical body from an etheric existence causes each person's will to become divided into seven “wills”, every will being connected to a particular centre or chakra. As long as people are living wholly on etheric planes, their wills are single, and slowly evolve through different etheric experiences, and through many different stages. But, in physical life, this will fissiparates, and each of the separated “wills” expresses a different aspect of the person's being. The “will” in each centre epistomises that centre, and creates the energy-substance used by that centre.

This experience of the divided seven-fold will, which is central to each person's earth-existence, was designed to bring about a special growth of will - a leap forward not possible in any other way, or by any other means, except over very long periods of time on etheric planes. The very word yoga means “union”, and the essence of the union, which it is the purpose of Yoga to bring about, is a union of all seven “wills”, so that they work together in harmony for the growth of the whole spiritual man.

The other three centres or chakras may be considered together, for they constitute the upper triad in a man's being. These centres are focal points through which his etheric body functions, and they are comparable to the three lower centres through which the functioning of the physical body is controlled by the invisible physical body of a man.

This body is the invisible (to man) counterpart of any material or physical body, whether human, or animal, or plant. It is identical to the physical organism, except that its vibrations are of a different quality, partly denoted by their more rapid oscillation. It is also prior in time, having been created by the creative forces in the etheric body25 of the person as an intermediate body and invisible pattern, through which the physical body is formed in physical time. This intermediate body remains connected with the physical body, which alone is visible to most people, so long as it has temporal existence.

25. In the etheric body of the person, not from outside the person. This does not mean that the etheric being of the person actually creates the physical vehicle which he is going to inhabit; but the person willing his own incarnation calls into operation the creative forces that reside in him, and they begin the work of creation, which manifests ultimately in a physical body.

Some people (clairvoyants) are able to see parts of the invisible physical body of a person (or animal), because its vibrations manifest in colours, which define the physical state of that person. A few spiritual healers are capable of reading in these vibrations the history of the person's physical illnesses, as well as being able to observe, reflected in the invisible physical body, every detail of that person's organic mal-functioning.26

26. If the spiritual healer does not himself possess this gift of vision, it is not important, because his hands are only the instruments of skilled spirit doctors, who work directly on the illness or disability, reflected on, or existing in the invisible physical body, healing it first, so that, through it, the physical body can be healed.

The invisible physical body does not become a lifeless shadow of the physical body, after the latter's creation, but remains a vibrant, ever-moving, real entity, responsive and responding, both to the physical and denser counterpart of itself, and to the creative forces which created them and now sustain them - throughout their existence. The invisible physical body is essential for both the creation and the maintenance of the physical body, for, without it, the physical form could have no existence. The creative forces cannot directly create the physical form or organism, without first creating the intermediate body, as a stepping down of vibrations from the etheric plane, and as a pattern through which to create the denser matter of the physical body. The invisible physical body is also the intermediary through which the physical body can be maintained and healed during its lifetime. Neither its creation nor its maintenance is possible directly, without the intermediary of the invisible physical body. The invisible physical body of a person also reflects all the vibrations of that person's etheric body - the nature or quality of mind, and its spiritual level of being, as well as every passing state of the physical body. On and through this body all vibrations inter-act, and affect the whole person, leading to healing and growth of being, or to illness, suffering, and degeneration.

The creative forces (which create both the invisible and the visible physical bodies of man) are etheric in nature, and active in all organic life on Earth, seeking within each organism to multiply or reproduce it - whether it is plant, animal, or human being. They are active yeast-like “substances”, which are inherent in all cellular life - but not in inorganic matter (which was created by another kind of creative power). These creative forces, which create and maintain all organic life on Earth, are characteristic of the physical Earth plane, but of no other planes of existence.

The creative forces are etheric - or spiritual - in nature, but are not to be confused with any “evolutionary” etheric force in the Darwinian sense (which has to do with the growth and mutation of form), nor are they in any way connected with the etheric or spiritual growth of a man - which is “evolutionary” in another sense altogether. This spiritual evolution of man, which is the journey every individual person eventually undertakes when he begins to assume responsibility for his own life, is unique to man: it is not a journey undertaken by any other species. There is no such thing as an automatic and, therefore, unconscious spiritual evolution for animals, plants, or inorganic matter;27 no change in the etheric nature of the species is either possible or necessary: they were not created in order to evolve.28 Spiritual evolution is uniquely individual - that is, pertaining only to individual persons, and not to species or any kind of “group”. It is an evolution of consciousness, and belongs only to mankind.

27. Certain philosophers and teachers have taught that all “life”, including inorganic matter, is evolving towards ever higher forms of life and consciousness.

28. Each species was created perfect in itself, but individual members may be weak, or deficient, or even degraded in their physical expressions. This is not due to their own “faults”, but to genetic and other weaknesses, all of which are traceable to mankind. Although the species as such do not evolve, the individual members are helped to return to a state of perfection in their etheric beings, when their physical lives are ended.

The creative forces belong to the etheric being of the Earth, and are responsible for the actual creation of all life on the etheric and physical planes connected with the Earth. They do not, however, initiate creation - that is the function of Will - nor determine its direction. They are not “a mechanical force that is trying to keep man unconscious, and bound to the Earth,”29 but a spiritual force which expresses all that is highest and most noble in form. A man's spiritual evolution can never commence from a denial of these forces, nor from any idea of going against them30 - for they are not inimical to his evolution; on the contrary, they work for the wholeness and perfection of every form of life, including the spiritual wholeness towards which men are evolving.

29. There is an esoteric tradition and “school” for which this is a central principle: that the Creation which created organic life on Earth, of which man is a part, is interested only in the maintenance of this “film of life” and its rôle in sustaining the extension of a Ray of Creation - in which organic life plays an important part. As far as man is concerned - so the theory goes - it operates to keep him where he is, for if all men were to evolve spiritually, this film of “organic life” would no longer be able to fulfil its rôle on the cosmic scale of creation. For this reason, only a fedw men can “escape” their imprisonment in mechanical life - “for they would not be noticed.” See P. D.Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous (Routledge & Kegan Paul 1951).

30. Man's spiritual evolution can never begin with denial, or working against the forces of creation, as the above-mentioned tradition suggests. It can only commence with acceptance, when a man begins to accept himself as he is, and the forces which are at work in the whole of life around him. Then can come the desire to become responsible for his own life, and to take on the willing and direction of these forces for himself. A Culbone Visitor's note: See Gilbert Keith Chesterton, The Man who was Thursday (New York: Lorevan Publishing 1986 - or, with an Introduction by Kingsley Amis: Penguin Books 1986). The invisible physical body of a person is created gradually, commencing with the moment of conception, each stage preceding the formation of the corresponding stage in the physical embryo. The same process continues after the birth of a child, until maturity is reached. This invisible physical body is susceptible, in its “embryonic” stage, to influences from the emotional, mental, or physical states of the mother; in its later development, it reflects, likewise, the experiences of the baby, child, and youth, and these act upon the person's visible physical body.

The facts regarding physical death correspond to those of physical birth, insofar as the death of the physical body precedes that of the invisible physical body, which disintegrates31 within approximately three days. This invisible physical body of man does not linger on more than three days after the death of his physical body under any circumstances. No magic can sustain its existence longer. Nor does the spiritual condition or state of the person who has passed on, in any way influence the disintegration of his invisible physical body. All the experiences in the life of this person: his thoughts, his actions, his motives - in other words, the total substance of his life - which were recorded in accurate detail on that person's etheric body (separately from the distorted picture formed by his physical mind), do not “die”, but remain in the etheric body of the person. At the point of physical death, the etheric body already contains the true substance of his life; it remains only for it to absorb from the invisible physical body the pattern of all the person believed his life to be. Nothing is lost from a person's physical life experience; understanding he has gained, as well as unresolved weaknesses, go on with him into his new state of existence.32

31. That is, its constituents are absorbed back into the etheric body of the person.

32. A man has always had his existence in and through an etheric body from the moment of his own creation in the etheric sphere. This body has not always had the same form and structure, but has altered over the long time of the person's existence, in accordance with the many kinds of experience he has undergone. That is, the form of the etheric body alters through experience, but the structure or nature of that body alters only as the person evolves spiritually from one state or plane of life to another. The absorption of a man's physical life experience into his etheric body alters the form of this body, but only his subsequent “work” upon this experience, and a new leap in understanding, can bring about a change in the nature of his etheric body - a change in the very ground upon which the person has hitherto stood.

The three chakras that constitute the upper triad are also situated on the spinal column of the invisible physical body as focal or energy points, and manifest through their respective glands on the physiological level. The fifth centre is the Heart Centre, the sixth is the Throat Centre, and the seventh is the Head Centre. These three chakras constitute the principal way in which a man's etheric body manifests in his physical body.

The etheric body of a person is an actual body, composed of etheric matter. In fact, the entire world which man inhabits is composed of etheric matter, in one form or another, the physical manifestation of it being only its “densification”. The etheric body of a man is formed at the beginning of his creation, and does not alter its essential structure, although it alters in form, and also in capacity (which constitutes a certain kind of change in structure and nature), as a result of the experiences man undergoes throughout æons of “time” in the etheric spheres. The qualitative changes in this etheric body are a result of the discrete steps a person takes in the course of his own spiritual evolution upwards - and, frequently, downwards. By the time he approaches the point where an experience of incarnation in a physical body is possible, the man's etheric body will have developed a structure and form which approximate to that of the physical body he will take on.

During the physical lifetime of a person, the etheric body remains a sort of “shadow” beside his physical body. It is not contained within the dimensions of the physical body, nor is it attached to this body by any specific means of a physical or etheric nature, as is the invisible physical body.33 The etheric body of a person accompanies his physical body wherever it goes, at the same physical degree of closeness to it at all times. The etheric body is held in this close proximity through the attraction of the will (or wills), which it not longer possesses in itself, but gave to the physical body at the moment when its structure was completed in embryonic form.34

33. The invisible physical body is attached to the visible physical body by means of energy-vibrations which flow from the invisible to the visible body, and are sometimes visible as a kind of vibrant “cord”.

34. This moment, when the will is given to the embryonic being, and divided into seven wills, is from four to six months after conception, depending upon the stage of the person's evolution. This point marks the true commencement of the person's physical life on Earth.

The will of the person during his physical lifetime resides in his physical body, and from will alone comes volition. The etheric body, therefore, has no volition of its own, to engage in autonomous movement, but is always drawn with the physical body in the latter's movement in space.35 But even if there is no real physical distance between the etheric and physical bodies of a person, and no alteration in their degree of physical closeness, there is a continually changing etheric or spiritual “distance” between them. This distance depends upon the state of the person's will - or wills - and the extent to which this will is immersed in his physical existence from moment to moment. A will which is completely immersed in “self” and physical existence may entirely forget the etheric body, and is not receptive to its influences; the distance which then separates the two is very great indeed. At moments of crisis in the physical life of a person, however, even the most self oriented will is temporarily shocked away from its immersion in physical experience, and turns involuntarily to an attunement with its own etheric body. At such moments they are essentially closer, and the will - or wills - of the physical man can be impressed with a shadowy recollection of some other kind of experience, for which it may have a temporary longing.

35. It may lack volition with regard to movement, but it does not lack the ability to influence the physical body and will of the person. Because the etheric body has no will, so this “influence” cannot compel or coerce, but depends solely upon the “wills” - or will - of the person to desire that influence, to listen, to become receptive. It is the “wills” of the person which have to change.

The etheric body of a person contains the spiritual faculties or talents which he expresses, or has latent in him, in his physical life. They are the result of previous experiences on the etheric plane. They are not gifts, deo ex gratia - as many believe, but spiritually worked-for faculties (in some cases reflections of a one-sided or distorted development of being), which are - or can be - expressed in the physical life. They have to be used, if the growth of the man's being is to proceed, as it is so tersely expressed in the parable of the talents.36 This parable, whatever its true origin may be, seeks to explain something about the nature of spiritual growth, and the importance to a man of using the full range of his faculties, if they are not to atrophy.37

36. Mt 25:14-30.

37. They cannot be lost altogether, as the Parable wrongly suggests; but this was not wholly understood by the writer of Matthew's Gospel.

The etheric body of man may also be thought of as his spiritual growing point. It contains substances which are at a certain stage in their evolution, and which can only proceed in this evolution through what the person learns during his physical life's experience. All that a man gains from his physical life, by way of personal understanding and knowledge, goes into his etheric body, and is the material for its growth. This is the “real treasure” he acquires, and it is indestructible.

The etheric body is the body of sensitivity and receptivity. The outer senses of man belong to the invisible physical body, their receptors being transferred to the physical body. Hearing alone, of man's outer senses, has a direct connection with his etheric body. Through the faculty of hearing a person can learn to listen, and the ability to listen to what is outside himself can enable him to become receptive to the knowledge and guidance his own etheric body can provide.

From the etheric body also comes the faculty of communicating, which enables all the other faculties to be put to use. The outer senses reside in, and are part of the physical body, but the powers of communication which use this sensory equipment belong to the etheric body of man. During a man's physical lifetime these powers are transferred to the Throat Centre in his invisible physical body, and function primarily through his organs of speech.

The three chakras which represent the functioning of the etheric body within the invisible physical body are, like the other chakras, focal or energy points which are reflected onto the physical spinal column, and control the body through the specific endocrine glands connected with them. These are the Heart Centre, the Throat Centre, and the Head Centre.

The Heart Centre is situated behind the heart on the spinal column of the invisible physical body, is reflected onto the same position in a man's physical body, and manifests physically through a gland of internal secretion that is, as yet, unknown to medical research.

Will resides in each of the centres of a man, as a different manifestation of his whole will. The will of the Heart Centre is to create; it is the focus of the creative forces in a man, and all that the man creates is created through this centre.38 The aim of these forces of creation is to create life - to create the best in all forms of life, and they seek to work on and in other people, as well as in all other forms of life.39 The Heart Centre faces “outward”, for its aim is to create life.40

38. In every work of art or manifestation of man's creative impulse is inherent the will to create new forms of life, or new life. Every aspect of man's creativity derives from this will to create, although it may not become articulate for him as such. Art forms can also reflect and radiate a “travesty” of creation.

39. The forces of creation also work to maintain the life and structure of each person. These forces reside in everyone, and are, in fact, the same forces as those that work through the Heart Centre with another purpose. But the individual's body-structure is maintained through the will of the Centre of Elimination.

40. The aim is not to create for someone else. Creation is not the same as communication, and the will to create is very different from the will to communicate, which resides in another centre.

The Heart Centre is, therefore, the centre of empathy, understanding, being a bi-product of the person's will to create. It is through this active going-out in order to create, that a person is able to under-stand, or get inside the person or other form of life, and experience his reality or its nature. This is very different to thinking about someone or something. Through this centre a person is able to actually experience or “stand under” the person - or animal, or plant form - and know what it is like to be he.41 But it is never merely a question of “experiencing” the other person, for the empathy of the Heart Centre always flows from its primary function, which is its will to create life, and the experience always prcoeeds from that specific vibration of empathy which this centre gives out.42 There is no empathy or understanding without giving. The Heart Centre is, therefore, not so much about the life of the individual person in himself, or in relation to himself, but is about his responsibility towards all forms of life which exist around him; it is through this centre alone that a man's sense of responsibility for others - for life in general - can commence and grow.

41. The degree to which a person is able to do this, without the distorting influence of his other centres, depends, of course, upon the level of his own being.

42. Another quality of enjoyment of sensual objects comes through the Heart Centre, after it has begun to evolve, which goes to the inside of things. New experiences of texture, colour-harmony, form in sculpture, or architecture, or pottery, musical structure, and the blending of vibrations of sound - as well as living forms, such as flowers, or animals - come through the Centre of the Heart. These experiences occur without conscious willing, but they depend upon a higher degree of sensitivity or awareness than is necessary to the functioning of the lower centres, through which enjoyment comes - but not of the same quality.

Only at a certain stage in his growth of being is real empathy possible for a person. The Heart Centre is ultimately capable of knowing the whole of things, and of being a vehicle for the real creation of life. But, until that stage is reached, it can be used to create hideousness, distortion, and fantasy-life.

The chakra situated on the spinal column of the invisible physical body between the Heart and Head Centres, and reflected onto the same position in the physical body of a man, is known as the Throat Centre. It manifest physiologically through the Thyroid and Parathyroid glands that lie in front of the neck. The “will” of the Throat Centre is to relate to, or communicate with the entire context of life within which a man has his existence.43 All forms of expression through which a person relates to the world around him derive from the Throat Centre.

43. It is important to distinguish clearly between the will to relate or communicate, which belongs to the Throat Centre, and the will to create life, which belongs to the Heart Centre. The first has to do with all forms of individual expression, expressions of different aspects of “self”, and exists, to some degree, in everyone; the second involves another purpose and aim altogether.

The Throat Centre, like the other centres, exists and functions in every human being, who has entered upon a physical life on Earth, in accordance with his own nature. Its form of expression and relationship reflect each individual person's nature, whatever that may be. The etheric body contains the sum of the person's experience, up to the moment of his incarnation on the physical Earth, and the talents and faculties which he has acquired during previous experiences are expressed through the Throat Centre.

The Throat Centre is the focal point for every form of communication between a man and the world around him. It is the centre through which all forms of ex-perience occur, experience being the material of which man's etheric body is composed, and developed. The will to relate and communicate44 exists and expresses in and through the Throat Centre in every person, whatever the level of his being. Sometimes its actual expression is difficult, because of other wills in that person. Sometimes this will can atrophy through lack of use, for one reason or another, or its expression may be crippled during the lifetime of the person - or even before he comes into a physical life, because of distorted relationships in his previous etheric existence.

44. A more rudimentary or primitive form of the will to relate exists in the Digestive Centre, and belongs to all animate life, being the basis upon which the taking in of impressions is founded.

The Throat Centre is the centre through which a man gathers all his experience during his physical lifetime. It is through this centre that he gradually experiences his relatedness to all forms of life, and, through this, acquires in time a new sense of identity.

It is the physical being of a person which, through his self will and formatory mind, expresses the idea of separatedness, that a man is inherently isolated or alone. It is from the self will in a person that the idea originates that spiritual growth takes place in a condition of aloneness.45 This idea that a man can grow spiritually in isolation from others has been an integral part of all organised religious teaching for thousands of years. It belongs to the physical being of man: it is a constituent of his self will;46 but it is encouraged by the ones dwelling in spheres of distortion and darkness.

45. On the etheric plane, it is in the “lower” regions, where men's lives have become distorted, in one form or another, that there is this feeling of intense separation between individuals, and between man and all other forms of life. In fact, this sense of separatedness is one of the principal characteristics of spiritual distortion in the etheric sphere.

46. The ones who shut themselves off completely from other people, in the belief that they are furthering their own spiritual evolution - hermits, some yogis, etc. - allow that part of their etheric being to atrophy through which they relate to the world around them, and they are then at the mercy of their Creative Imagination, as it is used by the self will to create fantasy worlds.

The Head Centre is situated nearly three inches above the atlas vertebra, on a direct line with the spinal column, and manifests physiologically through the Pineal Gland, about which little is known at present. This chakra is the receiving centre for instructions and guidance coming from a man's etheric body, from the accumulated knowledge and understanding which is his own personal “treasure”, acquired through many and varied kinds of experience in the etheric spheres. All inspiration from within or without,47 that leads in the direction of expanding truth and awareness for man , is received by this centre, and transmitted by it to his physical mind.

47. By inspiration from “without” is meant that which comes from the spirit world connected with the individual person - and each person is related to his own world of spirit (in particular, to his own Guardian Angel) - and which seeks to help or guide him along the lines which are right for him.

The Head chakra receives only what is truth - truth, that is, for a particular person at a particular moment in time. Guidance through the Head Centre, whether originating within the person's own etheric body, out of his own store of knowledge and experience, or from the spirit world, is right for that person, and uncontaminated by influences from his other “wills”, or from the environment in which he lives. For the “will” of the Head Centre is to receive and impart all that can guide a man on his spiritual journey. Its highest function lies in its potential for the reception of objective knowledge from every plane of human existence and all levels of etheric reality. Man is capable, through his Head Centre, of knowing, not only what is true for him, but, ultimately, the true and objective nature of etheric reality. Objective knowledge can be obtained in no other way, except through each individual's Head Centre, so long as he is in a physical body. The possibility of receiving objective knowledge is innate in every person; its actualization depends upon the individual, the level of his being, and the consequent strength of his will to receive knowledge. The source of objective knowledge is spiritual in the highest sense, and the spiritual laws, which enable the transmission of such knowledge, preclude the passing down of any mis-information.48

48. Much mis-information and mis-interpretation of objective knowledge is given in spiritualistic circles, and in other ways, through mediums or clairvoyants - some of it unintentionally, some of it because of personal weakness or vanity. All mis-information and distorted truth is received, not by the Head Centre, but by the formatory physical mind of the person, which is dominated by the self will. This mind can only be used by the self will of others, including those in spirit.

A so called “intuitive person” may be someone who is able to hear or receive knowledge and instructions from his own Head Centre, for himself and, sometimes, for other people. But everyone possesses this faculty - if only in latent form, not merely a few people, and everyone can develop it to a certain extent during his own lifetime on Earth. Usually, however, even with so called intuitive people, the knowledge becomes distorted or adulterated with other levels of data and impressions, when it is transferred for practical application to the physical mind. Confusion exists, because most people are not aware of the very different sources from which their mental data derive. And the physical mind, because it is filled with many kinds of fact, half-truth, and fantasy - and is under the domination of the self will, cannot receive purely the knowledge coming from the Head Centre. This is the state of most people.

For the Head Centre to function correctly (and also the Throat and Heart Centres), there must be consciousness; these centres can only function in a rudimentary way, until the individual man or woman has reached a certain level of awareness in himself. The centres which are more immediately concerned with the functioning of a person's physical body - the Centres of Digestion, Elimination, and Sex - can work without his being aware of their working; their wills are active apart from the person's consciousness, and even his self will and physical mind function in varying degrees of half-light and shadow. But, if a person is going to receive knowledge from within his own etheric being, which can guide his physical life, he has to become more conscious of his own being, and also conscious of the possible levels of knowledge, so as to be able to assess and value correctly what he receives through his own Head Centre.

The Head Centre, like the Throat and Heart Centres, develops as a centre only through usage. It is in a state of evolution, and it evolves as the person's etheric being evolves, through many stages of experience. But the knowledge it transmits can never go beyond that person's level of being, or the knowledge already acquired by him through experience.49 Its further development depends upon the man himself, and whether or not he becomes more aware of the Head Centre's existence, gives it more attention by listening to it, and, through the experience of knowledge and guidance which it transmits, actively seeks its development as a sensitive instrument of instruction.

49. That is, the Head Centre cannot transmit from within beyond the person's own level of being; but it does transmit new knowledge from without, from a person's own Guardian Angel - and from the Angelic Sphere generally. It is in this way that a person's being has new growth.

The three centres that form the upper triad in a man may be compared in certain respects with the three lower centres. The correspondences are not of an essential nature, nor are they exact in detail, but have to do with the way in which the centres function in their respective triads.

The Head Centre, for example, has a certain correspondence with the Centre of Digestion, both of which occupy the uppermost position structurally in their respective triads, and have to do with the receiving and giving out of “food” for man. The Centre of Digestion is responsible for the intake of food substance, air, and sense impressions, upon whose nourishment the physical body of man depends, and without any of which it would die. The Head Centre is responsible for man's spiritual nourishment - for instructions, knowledge, and inspiration, which he needs in order to live spiritually and evolve. But the Head Centre can only function at a level of consciousness not possible - or necessary - for the Centre of Digestion.

The correspondences between the Throat Centre and the Centre of Elimination are less readily discernible. Structurally, they occupy the middle position in their respective triads. The Centre of Elimination is responsible for the maintenance of the structure and health of a man's physical body; it is the centre through which his physical body is healed. The Throat Centre is responsible for maintaining a man's relationship to the entire etheric world, in which he lives and has his being, and for the expression of all his individual relationships with this world. If the Throat Centre, for one reason or another, cannot maintain the etheric body's relationship with the surrounding forms of life, the man's health can be seriously impaired, and his spiritual life become distorted.

The Heart and Sex Centres are the two possible focal points for a man's feeling of himself. The Sex Centre is the pivot around which a person's sense of identity revolves throughout his long period of experience and growth through the etheric planes. It is only when he has reached the highest stages in his spiritual evolution, namely, when he has entered upon the fifth etheric level, that the Sex Centre can cease to be the sole centre of his identity; at an even later stage, his self becomes grounded in an entirely new quality of being, in the Heart Centre.

These are the seven chakras of man, which form the structure of his functioning as an etheric being on the physical plane of existence. There is an eighth centre - which is not a true chakra, because it does not of itself possess a “will” - situated at the vertex of the skull, where the parietal bone articulates with the frontal bone. It exists in fact etherically, in the etheric form of a man, and is reflected onto his physical body.50 This “centre” is like a door which opens inwards onto the etheric being of a person, and outwards as well, permitting the entrance of vibrations from beings on another level altogether, beyond the etheric sphere. Although little is known about this “door”, it appears to stand at the outermost frontier of man's spiritual evolution through the etheric sphere, and represents new, and still obscure, possibilities for him. It is thought that the door is opened only through the performance of a special act of initiation, but nothing is known for certain. It represents a stage far beyond those stages of human evolution which the specific teachings and practice of Yoga are about.

50. Everything spiritual or etheric - every possibility for spiritual expression or growth in a man - is reflected in some way onto his denser, physical bodies.

This ancient Diagram of Man's Bodies was constructed for the earliest students of Yoga at the beginning of the fourth millennium B.C. to illustrate the relationship between the three bodies of man during his physical life on Earth. In the course of time, the oral teaching abandoned its use of this diagram, when it no longer suited its purpose, and the diagram found its way into other systems, and was given new interpretations to accord with those systems. The principal area to which this diagram was carried, and where it was retained, and used for several millennia, was the area known generally as Turkistan - in particular, certain centres of religious teaching in the Hindu Kush. These forms of religious teaching did not stem from the ancient oral teaching of Yoga, although they adopted the Diagram of Man's Bodies (which they called the “Enneagram”) and incorporated various Yoga ideas into their systems. In the late nineteenth century A.D., a Russian mystic, G. I. Gurdjieff, came across some of these old hidden centres of religious teaching in his travels, and picked up some of their ideas, which he later built into a system of his own. Among the ideas was the Diagram of Man's Bodies, with the drawing slightly altered, and the knowledge forgotten that it was originally designed to convey.

The three bodies of man are represented on the diagram by three separate symbols. The triangle stands for man's etheric or inner body, the pattern of double triangles represents his invisible physical body, and the circle, on which both are inscribed, represents the physical body through which a man functions during his physical life on Earth. On the circumference of the circle are inscribed the “points” at which man's invisible bodies act upon, and interpenetrate his physical body. As the Diagram was originally conceived, each of the three symbols represent a different plane of expression, and each of the bodies, for which these symbols stand, has a continuous and different kind of movement.

Man's etheric body is represented in this drawing by a triangle which is drawn with broken lines, because the etheric body rarely expresses directly through the physical being of a man, but only indirectly through various centres. The three points on the triangle represent the principal constituents of his etheric being, the creative force, the mind, and the creative substance or material, out of which every man's etheric body is built up.

The material or substance of which the etheric body of man is constituted, represented by Point 6 on the triangle, is his total learned experience at any given time. This substance is connected with a man's Throat Centre and his formatory mind, for the Throat Centre is the experience-gathering instrument of a man during his physical life on Earth, and the formatory mind is his learning point - the mind through which experience can be worked upon or learning can take place. If the formatory mind works correctly in a person, it can feed back into his etheric being at Point 6 all that he learns through his physical life experience.

Point 3 on the triangle represents the etheric mind of man, which is connected with and usually functions through the Head Centre during his physical lifetime. It is the etheric mind of man, that can instruct, inspire, and guide him.

There is another way in which the etheric mind of a man can impart knowledge, and there are other qualities of knowledge which are transmitted in a different way, rather than through the Head Centre. On rare occasions, knowledge may be diffused through the whole body of a person, so that he has a total experience of knowing directly. Some so called “mystical” experiences occur in this way, where the person has a sudden illuminating experience of etheric reality, of things as they are, or of the inner nature of things. This is the action of the etheric mind, working on the whole physical being of a man, and impressing on it a true perception of reality.51 A similar experience is possible at Point 6, from the substance of which a man's real etheric nature is composed. But here the experience is one of memory or re-cognition, where the curtain of physical life appears to be lifted, and the person re-experiences the etheric past. “I have been here before…” or “I have met you before…” are experiences in which the physical being of a person is penetrated by the etheric reality with which he was once familiar, but had forgotten. Although this order of experience, in its fullest sense, is rare in the life of an individual, many people have had some form of illumination, in which their etheric past breaks in upon their physical present, so that they have intimations - not only of “immortality”, but of a plane of reality to which their true nature belongs.52

51. It is not that a man's physical being is activated to perceive reality as it is, but rather that his physical being is passive, and receives the imprint of this reality through the activity of the etheric mind. However, this experience rarely occurs.

52. The only people who are open to this order of experience are ones who are already aware of their own evolving beings, and who have experienced, before their incarnation in physical bodies, the unity, harmony, and beauty of the etheric creation. People who had not had this experience of etheric reality previously would have had no memory of it to draw on. “Revelation” for them might recall primitive states of “un-order” - or even distortion and nightmares.

Point 9 represents the etheric forces of creation, which exist in each individual person, and whose activity is primarily “reflected” in the working of the Creative Imagination during man's physical lifetime. In very rare instances, the direct experience of actually creating life is possible, being comparable to the direct experience mentioned above; but the experience of creating life is a totally dynamic one, not merely receptive. And, although some form of “creation” occurs in all human beings, through use of the Creative Imagination, at every stage in their evolution, the actual creation of life occurs rarely, and is possible only for very few people.53

53. This total experience of creating, in which the whole being of a man is involved, is only possible for a person who has already reached the fifth level of etheric reality in his own evolution. There are other experiences of “creation” possible for man, but they do not involve his whole being. There can be an actual creation of an etheric object, but it does not take place in this way. People on the lower levels can create distortions - even monsters - that have objective reality, but the creation takes place through the Creative Imagination directed by the self will. The experience of creating through Point 9 is not one of coercion, or of willing, or even of conscious direction by the person himself. For the person's own being is not so much the focal point of creation as the instrument of that force of Caring or Love which inspires the creation. Then the animal is made whole, a person's being is completely renewed, the dry bones come together in a completely new creation.

The triangle as a whole represents, during man's physical life on Earth, not only his etheric body, but also what he calls his mind. Each point on the triangle stands for a different aspect of mind, and manifests in four different ways. (1) It functions physically through that section of man's brain specially evolved for the purpose. (2) Each point on the triangle uses a particular energy centre or focal point - or chakra - in the invisible physical body, and (3), through this, the respective gland “organ” in man's physical body. (4) Finally, it can have a direct and diffuse influence upon, and function directly through, the whole of a man's body. Thus, the etheric being of every man, in its three separate aspects, can work directly through his brain, directly and indirectly through his invisible physical body, and, on rare occasions, through the whole being at once.

The invisible physical body of man is represented by the symbol of the two connected double triangles, which are formed through the movement of substances from one point to another along a certain path - or according to a certain pattern. These “points” stand for the chakras or focal points of different kinds of energy-substance. Points 1, 2, and 4 represent the Digestive, Elimination, and Sex Centres respectively; Points 5, 7, and 8 stand for the Centres of Heart, Throad, and Head.54 The seventh centre - Point 10 - or Solar Plexus stands at the centre of the circle, the point of intersection between the two double triangles, for it is the link between the two aspects of man's being, the physical and the etheric. The impulses given out from each centre move only in the direction indicated by the overall pattern of movement, that is, from 1 to 4 to 2 to 8 to 5 to 7 and back to 1.55

54. One of the ways in which the original drawing of the Diagram of Man's Bodies was accidentally distorted by other teachings was to separate point 4 and 5, making all the points around the circumference of the circle equidistant from one another, and moving Point 10 from the centre of the cricle. Points 4 and 5 must be drawn contiguous - but not overlapping - if they are to express the true function and relationship of the Sex and Heart Centres within man's structure of being. For these two centres form a twin focus for every man's feeling of himself, which is in polarity with his Head Centre - a source of guidance, knowledge, and inspiration.

55. The substance which creates the pattern 1-4-2-8-5-7 is a substance which exists only in the invisible physical body of man, and keeps it alive. It is comparable to the substance of blood in man's physical body. It was “created” by the Creative Forces in each individual, and drawn from that person's own etheric body. This substance circulates continuously, always at the same speed, and carries in it the emanations from each point or centre. Within three days of the death of the physical body of a person, this substance is drawn back into the etheric body.

The circle upon which the double triangles and the single triangle are inscribed - and which represents man's physical body - expresses itself through two kinds of movement. The circle as a whole rotates continuously anti-clockwise around the axis of the Solar Plexus (which axis represents the direct penetration of the physical by the etheric world). It also contains a movement of “electrical” impulses, chemical substances, and energy-matter, all of which travel around its circumference, from one point or centre to the next, regularly but not continuously, and also in an anti-clockwise direction.

This diagram depicts the way in which ever man's being functions, while he is living in a physical body, regardless of his spiritual state or level of being.

- Shalom & Welcome! -

© The Neith Network Library 2002
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