“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” What is seen in His Temple as it is opened to you? The Ark of His Testament. The Ark of the Testament has reference to what we may call the mysteries that are to be unfolded. In the Temple, at the time the Master was crucified, the veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was rent in twain. In Solomon's Temple, and in the Tabernacle which preceded it, we have some of the most marvelous symbolism, the most marvelous revelation of truth and the principles of reality, and of the laws relating to the individual, to be found anywhere. If we were to take time to consider all of it, I think our whole session would be devoted to the Tabernacle and the Temple—the meaning of its various services and vessels in relationship to us, individually and collectively. We will not do that, but let us review a little for those who have not heard me speak upon this subject before.
During the wandering in the wilderness there were thirteen tribes of the Children of Israel. The Bible always lists only twelve at the time, but you will notice always one is omitted. There were thirteen, and the thirteenth was the tribe of the Levites. They encamped round about the Tabernacle in the center. There were four camps of three tribes each—four sections, each meeting at the central point. That makes twelve, but still the Levites were encamped in the center. We have the same thing with reference to Jesus and His twelve disciples, with Himself making the thirteenth. The Priesthood is supposed to represent the Divine in the earth, just as Jesus did represent the Divine in the earth. The four encampments relate to the firm foundation and all that that implies, which we do not have time to consider fully tonight. The Children of Israel were encamped round about the Tabernacle, and directly surrounding it was the Outer Court, into which people could move more or less at will. How many basic organic minerals are there in your body? There were twelve tribes—there are twelve basic organic minerals in the physical body. Then that Encampment represents your physical body. The Outer Court represents the human mind. The Holy Place represents the spiritual expression, and the Holy of Holies represents heaven within. The High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies once a year, indicating that that is the place of abode for the God Being. As to the expression “once a year,” that is as near as they could make it in symbolically expressing the fulness thereof.
In the Holy of Holies we find the Ark of His Covenant, or the Ark of His Testament, as it is called here. Who can describe the Ark as it was in the Tabernacle? It was carried on two rods; it was foursquare; it had the Mercy Seat over which the Cherubim faced each other; and then the Ark—you might today call it a chest of peculiar construction. Below the Mercy Seat there was a measure of Manna. The Manna, under normal circumstances, became putrid overnight. We have Aaron's Rod and the Tablets of Stone, or that which represented the Laws of God written upon the tablets of your heart. Aaron's Rod which budded symbolizes the individual contact with the Divine expression of Eternal Life through the endocrine system, or the Seven Seals. The Rod itself represents the spinal column and its connection with the nervous system and the Seven Seals or the seven glands; and Aaron's Rod which budded indicates that as the individual responds in attunement to the Lord and lets the Temple of God be opened in Heaven within, the manifestation of Eternal Life comes forth through that which, to outer appearances, is either dead or subject to death. The measure of Manna represents the Bread of Life, or the fruit of the Tree of Life. Why was the Law, commonly thought of as the Ten Commandments, written upon Tablets of Stone? Because man in the fallen state has a rather stony heart. The Tablets of Stone represent the stony nature of the heart of fallen man, rebelling against the way and the will of God, and as Moses broke the stones the first time, so does man constantly break the Laws of God, to his own detriment and self-destruction.
Upon the Ark of the Testament we have the Cherubim facing each other, indicating the positive and negative factors involved in the expression and manifestation of the God Being. And the Cherubim faced each other above the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat represents the Fourth Plane of vibration. The three outer planes to which we are naturally, in the outer sense, attuned—body, mind and spiritual expression—provide that which enables us to lead up to the Fourth Plane. And here, in the 1st chapter and the 12th and 13th verses of Revelation, we read: “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.”
“In the midst of the seven”—the four is the connecting point, that point which provides the possibility of man's complete attunement in and with the Divine. It is the Mercy Seat, the connecting point between Heaven and earth. Therefore the Mercy Seat represents the Fourth Plane, and above it were the Cherubim, but below it was Aaron's Rod that budded, the Manna, and the Tablets of the Law. Now if these things had been kept above the Mercy Seat we could have properly felt that they were beyond our attainment, something impossible to us in our daily lives; but because they were under the Mercy Seat—and it is under the Mercy Seat that we are living, from an outer standpoint—so it is that as we let ourselves partake of that which comes through the Mercy Seat, from the Cherubim into the Ark of the Covenant, we begin to experience the release of Life from Aaron's Rod as it begins to bud forth, from the Manna (the Fruit of the Tree of Life or the Bread of Life from Heaven) and the true expression of the Law—the Law which becomes the controlling factor in the heart, symbolizing the emotional expression of the individual's activity.
It is in the emotional field that most people most frequently break the Law, because, getting bound up with various emotions, good, bad and indifferent, the individual ceases to recognize or to see the Law. Therefore the first point in which we must individually let the Law be effective in our lives is in the realm of our emotions, establishing tranquility of spirit, serenity of attitude, letting perfect love cast out all fear, and beginning to abide under the Mercy Seat so that we are no longer breaking the Law. Then, having begun to harmonize with the Law, not only from the standpoint of the emotions but from the standpoint of the function which naturally follows in body, mind and spirit, we begin to partake of the Bread of Life from Heaven, the Fruit of the Tree of Life, and then forthwith the manifestation of Divine Life from Heaven above begins to manifest through this physical form by means of the Seven Seals.
There are many details in connection with the Ark that our time will not permit us to go into tonight, but to the degree that we begin to realize what naturally follows from what has been said, we begin to find ourselves polarized as connecting links between Heaven and earth. And that is what? The Ark of the Testament. What is a testament? It is something that declares something, reveals something, provides a means by which someone else may know of something. Is that not so? Previously it was called the Ark of the Covenant. It is a Divine record, something that Divinely manifests as a sign, or evidence, of a promise. All right, the Ark of the Testament—it tells, doesn't it, what we as human beings are supposed to be. We have portrayed here the fact that when we begin to live in the Holy of Holies, that is, from the standpoint of proper attunement with God, we become, individually, the Ark of the Covenant and of the Testament.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet.
Psalm 8 Verses 3-6
This is speaking of man, not of cultic man but of true man. Indication is offered in these verses that man has some significance, certainly more than has been known by human beings in their cultic state. And this significance is related to what is beyond the earth itself—the heavens, high heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars. We have some awareness of relatedness in this regard, that we're part of a whole cosmic circumstance. So the questions that are asked here are comprehensible to us because we begin to know from our own experience what man is. The scope of his operations is vast. The encompassment of his vision is immense, rightly. It is so when man is on hand.
This of course does not mean that individually speaking we have a complete rundown on everything. If that was the case there would be no need for anybody else, would there? It needs all of us to encompass what needs to be encompassed. We begin to find our areas of responsibility, so that we cease trespassing upon the areas of others. Mind you, some of these overlap, but we each have unique responsibility in our own part. We have a certain comprehension of the parts of others as those are close to our own, but we also may be aware that there are many who have other fields of responsibility of which, directly at least, we know little. We know they are there; we know they are a part of the whole of which our field is a part. And there may be times when we are introduced to such fields—on a conducted tour, shall we say?—but we don't trespass: “Forgive us our trespasses.” And I'm sure you all recognize that in the cultic state we have the inclination to trespass, to try to mind other people's business.
If we occupy positions of focus, as we do, we are aware of what is contained in our area of focus and we are aware of those who are present there, but we refrain from trespassing in that sense also. We give everybody space to handle their own spiritual affairs. Those spiritual affairs may be a part of our encompassment but we don't try to do everything ourselves. And as been noted several times, we may find that other people handle these things a lot better than we could personally. They are there to look after the details; we are not there for that purpose.
We may have in the past functioned on the basis of substitute patterns of function, but as soon as someone comes along who can handle those we are happy to give them to such a person, even if that person is going to have to learn to handle them effectively. Perhaps to start with he doesn't handle them as effectively as we were, because we had experience in the matter and this is something fresh for someone else. But pretty soon we find out that they become capable of doing it a lot better than we could. And we are quite happy to admit that; we don't try to uphold our so-called positions by putting other people down. We find ourselves actually exalted when we appreciate what others are doing.
And so in these verses of this Psalm the statement is made, “For thou hast made him”—man, that is—“a little lower than the angels.” Well, we understand this. There is man, the material aspect of the whole, and there is the angel, the spiritual aspect of the whole. And when these two are unified, are one in experience, then it may be said that there is a living soul present. A soul—that is a facility for the action of life, for the achievement of whatever it may be. As we see, we all have our individual parts to play in a whole body. “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels”—the heaven is higher than the earth, but heaven and earth are one. Heaven is is a higher vibrational state than the earth vibrational state. To put it another way, the earth state is a coarser vibrational state and the heaven is a finer vibrational state. And the heaven interpenetrates the earth. So the heaven is present with the earth, and the greatest consequent experience, the greatest range of experience then, is available. In the human state now, the cultic state, the endeavor has been to function just from the standpoint of the earth, where there was rather limited range, and whatever range there is available with the earth when it is one with heaven is not known. In other words it's restricted to the very coarsest levels, if the experience is that of the earth with scarcely any heaven at all. And this is the cultic state.
So the earth opens up considerably once there is the experience of a living soul. We do not restrict ourselves anymore to the very coarsest levels of material existence. You know this to be so in your own experience. Something opens up, and you may observe in other people that it just simply isn't there for them. They're fiddling around in some coarse level, without any consciousness whatsoever that there might be something more. And I would suggest that in our consciousness there is something more, that is restricted as yet too—there is far greater experience to come.
So the human experience is a little lower than the angel's, but it becomes the angelic experience when there is unification. And in the state of the living soul, Thou “hast crowned him with glory and honour.” Well here is the glory of life of course. Glory is a word, as we know, that provides understanding of the characteristics of life—“…and honour”—I wanted to look at this matter of honor a little. We may say that, functioning from the spiritual standpoint, we are always honorable. This may mean different things to different people, but we have a sensing, I'm sure, of the nature of what it means to be honorable.
We have noted these two aspects: spiritual and material. Now, with the material separate from the spiritual—which is cultic human experience—there are many things which seem to be dishonorable. We are accustomed—as Adam and Eve initiated the cycle—of eating of the forbidden fruit, of judging some things to be bad and some things to be good. If we recognize that man was made by God in His own image and likeness, then he is totally perfect from that viewpoint. It hasn't seemed so to him because he lives in an unreal state of mistranslation. He has mistranslated his own experience, so that it seems that his own experience is often dishonorable, or at least he has honorable phases of it, but some aspects are not so good. Now we may think of this just from the standpoint of the operation of the physical form itself. As you are aware, Paul was inclined to get things rather mixed up, or at least those who interpreted Paul have got them mixed up—mistranslation upon mistranslation. But he said something about this in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, and he put it this way—now of course what he is saying here relates to one's own individual body, but it also may be seen in the light of the body of which we are all parts, that larger composite body—but for the moment I'm thinking of it more from the standpoint of the individual body, that we may have a base for right translation here:
But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body,
as it hath pleased him.
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
But now are they many members, yet but one body.
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee:
nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much more those members of the body,
which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable,
upon these we bestow more abundant honour;
and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
Corinthians 12: 18-23
Well this is the way Paul put it, or at least the way his words were translated. But we are interested in right translation, right translation of spirit as it has taken form in our own individual bodies and as it is in the process of being revealed in the collective body of which we are a part. We, individually, in the flesh sense, are composed of many parts. Now we need to be able to see that because the body is a whole and is designed to make possible the right translation of spirit, every part of it is essential. We can't say, “Well I'm going to make right translation of spirit, therefore all I need is my brain, perhaps my spinal cord too.” We wouldn't be much if that was all there was to us. We need the whole business, don't we? Every part. Now of course it may be that some of us have lost parts at times along the way. I don't think that's going to prevent us from achieving what we need to achieve now, as long as we are capable of operating in conjunction with spirit. The ingenuity of the Lord is great, we have noted. And sometimes He achieves marvelous things by reason of the presence of physical forms that are extremely handicapped. Oh this is the way they describe it these days. Well we are not all that handicapped. We have sufficient to get on with the job or we wouldn't all be sitting here.
So we have our physical forms, which are a translation of spirit; they wouldn't exist if this was not so. From the standpoint of our own experience there has been considerable mistranslation. In other words we have had experiences, physically speaking, which could not be classified as true translations of spirit. We might take the matter of pain, for instance. Obviously if there is pain in the world—and there certainly is—suffered by human beings, ourselves included at times, this must be a false translation, a mistranslation somehow of spirit, because spirit is not the author of pain. It becomes that way when there is a mistranslation of spirit, so any sickness, disease, physical trouble that may put in an appearance, gives evidence of some sort of a mistranslation.
Now we see this, I'm sure, clearly enough individually speaking but we also recognize that we are not merely individuals. We are not isolated individuals, even though most human beings, ourselves included, particularly in times past, have made that mistranslation, saying, “Oh I'm just me. I have a right to live my own life”—one of the attitudes that springs out of this—“because I'm an isolated person; what I do is nobody else's business.” Well it is other people's business in the sense that what we do will have effect on other people. It may be that other people may interfere in our business, which they have no business doing, but we at the same time must recognize that we can't lift a finger without affecting other people. And I just lifted my finger—did you see me? I affected you! So being very conscious of this we are aware that our function must be right, and the only way it can be right is by making a true translation of spirit. We can't figure it all out with our minds and be right. We must be on hand to make a true translation of spirit.
Now man is made in the image and likeness of God, and in his true state therefore is a true translation of spirit. That's what that means, isn't it? To be made in the image and likeness of God is to be made in the image and likeness of spirit. And the only way that could happen is as there is a true translation made of it. Well of course there have been people on earth, cultic people on earth, for millennia, who have been making mistranslations, and we have all this backlog of human nature heredity, as we call it, present with us, but that not only includes such physical idiosyncrasies as we may have—the cast of our features for instance, the color of our hair, etc, the color of our eyes and all this, and sometimes tendencies toward difficulties of various sorts—all this coming out of the past of mistranslation upon mistranslation. Well we are not trying to retranslate that. Of course many people are: “I was a ninety-pound weakling; now look at me!” Well that is a retranslation of a mistranslation, but whether the retranslation is better than the mistranslation is another question. In any case it's a mistranslation also.
So we have the equipment we have and we understand why we have the equipment we have, and this is not going to be a barrier to our function based in right translation of spirit in this moment. The translation which has appeared physically speaking is likely to be much the same as it was when we begin to allow a right translation to be made in the initial stages, because our translation relates to consciousness, relates to attitudes, to feelings—the way we look at things, the way we feel. Of course this will have an effect; it will have an effect on what we call our health, or perhaps our ill health. We find when we begin to allowing a true translation to be made in our living, regardless of whatever mistranslations may have been present in our bodies, our health is affected and we become more healthy, I suppose you could say, properly speaking, by reason of the translations we are now making.
We need to see our bodies, as individuals, and our body collectively, as being essential to the creative work that we are here to do. Clearly enough we understand this in a general way, because we wouldn't be here at all to do it if we didn't have a physical body. But we need to see that it relates to every part of the body, every cell in the body, if there is to be a right translation, which allows the resurrection of the body. The resurrection we think ofas the collective body, but includes the individual body. When there is a resurrection occurring for the collective body it's also occurring for the individual body. But you can't pick yourself out and say, “Now I'm going to experience resurrection. That'll be a wonderful example for everybody else.” You would thereby be separating yourself from everybody else. But the way it is, we are all in the same boat—and we can allow some changes of attitude, some changes of outlook, some changes of understanding, with respect to everything. But now we are thinking of it with respect to the individual body, our own individual bodies, because there certainly has been a judgmental attitude with respect to the body.
Shame is an evil spirit, we say, because it's actually the central evil spirit which put in an appearance when the spirit of God no longer was being rightly translated. The first mistranslation of the spirit of God, we might say, produced shame—the sense of shame. And the sense of shame has been present in people in numberless ways, but very particularly, obviously, with respect to the physical flesh body. There are those who have a sort of a sensing of this and they think they are going to dissipate it somehow by establishing nudist colonies. Well conceivably action at this level, at this physical level, this earthly level, may loose something on earth which looses something in heaven.
The point is to loose something in heaven, and one necessarily does something on earth to let that happen: “Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” If you don't loose it on earth it won't be loosed in heaven. When it is loosed in heaven then there is something available for expression on earth, but we have to loose it on earth first. This is why I am bringing into your consciousness now the physical flesh body. It certainly is bound on earth, it's bound by earthly heredity. But it is bound also—and this is the important aspect of it—by our view of the flesh body, by our sense of shame, by our judgment, that this aspect of the body's function, for instance, is good and this aspect is bad. Well we know, theoretically at least, that every aspect of the body when it is in health is necessary—all aspects of it are necessary.
Now I'm thinking particularly at the moment of the excretive aspects of the flesh body, which we would all no doubt admit are absolutely essential to good health. And yet there is a very peculiar attitude toward these, which, I suppose, if we were using Paul's language, we would say that these processes are uncomely. But the fact of the matter is that they are part of the creative process, not just that we might have good health. It's not a self-centered thing, rightly. Because it is taken as a self-centered thing, constipation is one of the major problems in the world, of human experience, and all kinds of other troubles.
Now of course we need to recognize that there are various facilities available for excretion, some of which we don't think so badly of. We don't mind perhaps going out on the tennis court, or jogging on the road, and perspiring heavily. It's a healthy practice, and we don't swathe ourselves in a blanket in order to hide the fact that we are perspiring—we really would be then, wouldn't we? I'm not saying that all these necessary functions of what may be thought of as dispelling waste are for public display. No, there is what is fitting. But I'm not speaking of that so much as one's own personal view of the situation. And for most it's a very restricted view, a very distorted view, based in a firm mistranslation. We need to see this process as relating to creation.
Some of you may have read The Triune Ray of long ago, Uranda's work, in which something was said about the creation which was initiated at the highest and finest levels, and what was incapable of right function at that highest level automatically got pushed down into the next level. Now that's excretion, part of the creative process. And what couldn't operate at that level was pushed down to the next lower level, and so on down the line until finally there was the earth, which was the ash of everything that was left. Then provision was made by which this ash could be transformed and transmuted in the resurrecting cycle. There are two aspects of the cycle—we're aware of that. There is what is coming down from God out of heaven, that could be correlated with the excretory cycle.
Now most of us in the human state would be horrified at the thought that this was so. Why? Because we have a horrible attitude toward our own experience and we have not had any consciousness at all, virtually, of the creative nature of this part of the creative cycle that is operating in our own individual flesh bodies. It's just as important in the creative way as any other aspect of it.
Now of course there is the air we breathe out. There is a good deal of concern about bad breath, and various substances you are supposed to be able to rinse your mouth out with—it's probably worse than the bad breath by the time you've done it. But here is something being offered out from the body because it no longer belongs in the body. We breathe out a blessing. Now that’s easy, isn’t it? We can see that, quite obvious. After the Master’s resurrection, when He was with His disciples, He breathed upon them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” It was a blessing, obviously, a blessing offered from another level. The blessings are offered from the higher level.
Now in all the excretory functions of the human body, whether through breathing out, whether through the pores at the surface of the body, or through the eliminative tract where there is the solid waste or liquid waste—it is all part of the same thing. It is all part of allowing what is not properly capable of operating at the level where we are living to move in blessing to another level. All this has been blotted out of the consciousness of human beings, as evidenced by their problems in the world now of what is called pollution. There is no clear awareness of the possibilities, the creative possibilities, of waste. Well there is a little on the farm, for instance, where there is, as we have here, a compost heap. But think of all those eyesores where the carcasses of automobiles are stacked. Now of course they're beginning to squeeze them together and use the metal over again. But there is far more being excreted from human civilization than can be taken care of because much of the excretion in this sense is so unnatural. All kinds of substances have now been made which are not included in nature; they're not biodegradable, as they say. But no thought apparently was given, in making these substances, as to what would happen when they needed to disintegrate; no provision was made for it.
Well from the standpoint of the true translation of things, provision is made all the way. It is made during the creation—which continues, by the way—where there is that which is descending from level to level, that which is being excreted from level to level, and that which is being lifted up again. The cycle works from the standpoint of God, but obviously human beings have thrown a monkey wrench into the works.
We need to begin to allow a true awareness to be experienced in a very personal sense. It is not just a matter of having a large view and being able to expound on the principles of the thing, but of knowing the reality of it in one's own experience. And in various ways we excrete every day. “Well let’s not talk about that; let’s not even think about it,” is the inclination of the human attitude. That's saying let’s exclude a primary aspect of the creative process from our consideration. This is an honorable function. It is somewhat seen now, that what is thought of as sexual function is honorable. This is a field that, in the consciousness of vast numbers of people, particularly in the past, has been very dishonorable, something that might be described as animalistic, or beastly—in the view of many, many people.
Now, from our standpoint at least—we need to consider what our experience is—we have an awareness that it is certainly an essential part of the creative process, with which we are concerned—you can't exclude it and live. So this begins to be seen. We are more delighted about this perhaps, first of all because it seems to open up some possibilities to human nature. But it is not for opening up possibilities to human nature. It is for right use in the creative process. Well it is interesting to note that, insofar as the flesh body is concerned, that the primary creative organs are closely associated with particular aspects of the excretory experience. We may recognize at this level—we sometimes refer to this general area by using the words the first seal—that the first seal is the crossover point where the change occurs. It is the point through which what is descending moves on out and the point through which what is ascending returns. There is a very close association here. We know that physically speaking. We can’t do anything about that—there it is. Well, it is designed that way. There is nothing wrong with this, once we have a conscious awareness of the real nature of the creative process which we ourselves as living souls focalize—it comes to point in what we are as living souls. There is life and there is the soul. They are one. And the soul includes all the equipment necessary to permit participation in the real creative process.
Now we don't have physical bodies made the way they are by mistake. I don't think anyone who has any appreciation of beauty would take the attitude that the physical form of male and female is not beautiful. It seems that some, of course, have taken that attitude, but if one has an appreciation of beauty it is beautiful. We have many examples, of course, from the standpoint of art. The human body has been used as a form of beauty in art, very much so, because there is a consciousness of the fact that while this is not the whole picture, nevertheless the flesh body of human beings is rightly made in the image and likeness of God when the correct translation is there. Well the correct translation from our standpoint now is not to try to do something to the physical body—we wouldn’t know what to do—but to allow our attitude to be clear in relationship to its operation, so that we have a consciousness of blessing from the standpoint of what it is that is being offered from us in this creative cycle into our world. It is nourishment.
The carbon dioxide that we breathe out is nourishment to the plants—we know that. And in actual fact, except for the blindness of human beings in their ridiculous ways of handling things, all the other excretions that emerge from the human body have a right use. We might say, “Well you can't follow that out very far because it goes down the sewer into the aerating pond down below there and is broken down.” I think we can follow it out a little further here than you can in the city, for instance; they have treatment plants there. You can't see perhaps the end result of the blessing the way things are set up, but that does not in any way change what rightly should be our attitude in the matter, because the spirit of blessing needs to be present if there is to be a blessing—spirit and form are one. That is a living soul insofar as man is concerned. And if one has no awareness of what one is really doing in these various fields, there is no participation in any real sense with the creative cycle. And that is exactly what we're here on earth to do.
We may see this most obviously as we are gathered here in this Assembly: something needs to happen in the creative sense, a right translation, for all that is beyond us. We at the moment provide an apex point of focus, and something needs to be released because of us. Now you may not have thought of that release as excretion, but it is, once we experience an awareness, spiritually speaking, of what it is that is happening. And we can correlate our function in all its various aspects with what is actually happening, so that we don't have our bodies over here—“Well it is going to take care of things there, but I'm a spiritual being here and I'm going to radiate something out into the world.” How is it going to get there? It requires the flesh body to get there, and the actual function—not the imaginary function—of the flesh body is the way it goes.
There has been so much imagination, a living in a fanciful world, that somehow we are going to let some marvelous emanation go forth; it's going to uplift everybody—but factually what is happening? Maybe we are struggling with our digestive system, or we are not breathing properly, or we never undertake exercise to let us sweat a bit. What are we doing to see that the kidneys work as they should? They are a marvelous mechanism, if you stop to think about it. Well there are so many peculiar attitudes toward such things, that stand in the way here. And in a general sense, most people find great difficulty groping their way through these things in order to find the beautiful reality that is the other side. It has always been there. There has just been this thick veil of human ignorance in between.
Every aspect of the function of the human body is beautiful—beautiful—even the most seemingly uncomely ones. And we need to be so clear within ourselves that we know this to be so in our own experience. It must be in our own experience, not just thinking about it but sharing the actual operation of the creative cycle, so that we are keenly aware of the opportunity to allow a blessing to be released because something is in fact occurring. To put it in a very specific nut shell for at least one area with which you are all familiar, it is not a matter of going to the bathroom and saying, “After I've been to the bathroom then I will be in position to release a blessing.” No, right there! Is there any area so uncomely to you that it would be impossible to release a blessing through?
Here we begin to see a whole free area. I'm not suggesting that there isn't something that is properly comely with respect to all these operations—there is what is fitting. I'm talking about the way we see the thing, our own attitude, and our own actual experience here. And if you have had some troubles with your eliminative processes, maybe you may recognize a key to clearing the situation—not that you are taking this attitude in order to clear the situation, but it automatically follows through. Human beings have been thoroughly self-centered in these things and inherited all kinds of ridiculous attitudes which didn't exist at all in the true state, when the true translation was being made—everything was beautiful. There is nothing that is uncomely. All is a part of the means for the expression of righteousness, after which we hunger and thirst. So I appreciate the opportunity of speaking of these things in an open manner to the extent that you have allowed me to do so.
We are together with one accord this evening to the extent that we know one spirit. The symbol of spirit is air. There is air all around us. We all breathe in the same air—the nature of it is the same, but that which we breathe out is not all the same. According to that which we are individually, so is this air which we all breathe conditioned, so that it is individual in nature, partaking of whatever we are when it is breathed out.
We can't breathe in without breathing out. We cannot receive the spirit of God without expressing the spirit of God according to our own individual beings. No one would stay alive without breathing air; no one would stay alive without receiving the spirit of God. If we cause that which is received to be turned into something which is unclean when breathed out, obviously the spirit of God as it really is remains unknown to us. For the spirit of God to become known it must not only be received but must remain true to its nature as it passes through us, so that as it is allowed release and expression it may carry that which is true to its own nature and yet at the same time be individual to us.
God breathes in this sense. There is a pulsation, a movement, of the air of the spirit. The air of the spirit is in motion; it isn't stagnant. In order to experience the spirit of God it is necessary that we should move with it. The Divine breathing is at a level of which we have no awareness until we move with it. We could hold our breath and while doing so have no awareness of the air around us. It is only when we begin to breathe that we have the experience of the fact that it is present. So likewise with the spirit of God. It is necessary that we move with it before we have an awareness of it. There are those who have been inclined to sit passively, so to speak, waiting for the awareness to come. The individual may say, “I anticipate being moved by the spirit of God one day,” as though there was no movement of the spirit of God now and that it was the responsibility of the spirit of God to get connected up with the individual.
The spirit of God is moving, the pulsation is there, but until there is the movement of the individual in harmony with that, the fact that the spirit is moving remains unknown, and a person could wait forever to experience the movement of the spirit of God. We have to begin to move with it, and as we do so, we begin to become aware of its movement. Our coordination with the Divine pulsation is unlikely to be perfect immediately. Sometimes I'm sure that there has been a keen awareness of moving freely with something so that the expression of life, for the moment, became easy. When we begin to move in harmony with the the pulsation of the spirit of God, immediately we begin to experience an easiness in life. We speak of disease, which is dis-ease. This is experienced by reason of a failure to coordinate with the pulsations of the spirit.
Disease is usually related to some physical manifestation, but it is far more inclusive than that. Our coordination with the pulsation of the spirit, while it is experienced physically, is established and maintained through the yielded mind and heart. It requires the development of sensitivity. We need to develop the capacity, the ability, to perceive what is necessary on the basis of our own initiative. Unless we begin to function on the basis of such perception as we have, our perception will certainly not increase and we will not gain ability to move with the pulsations of the spirit as individuals. When we move with the pulsations of the spirit as individuals, we find that we are moving with other individuals who are doing likewise—there is a pattern of coordination in consequence. But if we are under the necessity of being told all the time what is necessary, obviously this establishes some very definite limitations. We must develop the ability to move easily without being told, because we have the essential perception to observe the pulsations of the spirit.
We develop that perception because we move with the pulsations of the spirit. We must make a move. We can't sit hopefully, with ear cocked so to speak, waiting to hear something, so that, then, “Ah, now we've got it! We're going to move.” This is what happens usually in a group assembly. There is a waiting to hear what is going to be said, and then we'll do it. But it isn't a matter, rightly, of waiting for me to say what you should do. It is a matter of moving together with the pulsation of the spirit which is given specific focus through the words which are spoken. In other words we are all moving in oneness. You are moving before the word is spoken: “Before ye call, I will answer.” There is a coordination pattern which is established because we are moving together with the pulsations of the spirit which are given specific form through the spoken word.
In order to let this transpire it is important that we should recognize the freedom of the spirit. Human beings have very little developed ability to move with the pulsations of the spirit. They tend to restrict the movement. There is a certain rigidity in the human pattern of things. Human beings have been trained and educated into certain attitudes of mind and, through experience, into certain patterns of feeling and forms of function, so that there is a tendency for this rigidity to be present. The spirit of God is free as the air. You can't get the air to be rigid. I suppose it would become rigid if it were frozen. The air of the spirit doesn't freeze, because it is always warmed by love. We have a fluidity in the air of the spirit. There is movement there; there is pulsation there; there is a freedom to it. This is not to say that there isn't a design, but the arbitrary restrictions which human beings place upon the movement of spirit are what cause the spirit of God in its movement through the individual to become something which is untrue to its real nature, and that which is humanly expressed then is not really the spirit of God anymore. It becomes disordered and distorted. So we need to recognize clearly the freedom, the fluidity, of the spirit. It is a controlled pulsation, but it is not accustomed to the restrictions which human beings try to place upon it.
Relaxation is a factor. If you are trying to give expression to the spirit of God you are not giving expression to the spirit of God. It isn't a matter of trying; it's a matter of yielding. It is a matter of relaxing into something, and you can't relax into something if you are afraid, because if there is fear you are all tensed up, and if you are tensed up you are squeezing out the movement of the spirit through you. You certainly can have no coordinated experience on that basis. Obviously fear is a primary element in preventing this natural movement with the pulsations of the spirit of God. A person who is fearful will be rigid. Sometimes it is said that he “froze.” He was so afraid, terrified, that he couldn't move. That is taking it to an extreme perhaps. Someone else will be terrified and will run away, and there will be very violent movement in such case, but it will be quite uncontrolled—no awareness, consequently, of the true pulsations of the spirit of God. We have an extreme of paralysis on the one hand, an extreme of uncontrolled movement on the other. In the central way, we find coordination with the pulsation of the spirit of God—an easy movement. It is as we experience this coordination with the pulsation that we begin to know assurance, we begin to find ourselves, we begin to be aligned with the reality of Being. We can't be aligned with the reality of Being on a passive basis. We can't allow ourselves to come into alignment with real Being while remaining motionless, because the spirit of God is moving on the basis of a pulsation. We must move, and it is only by moving that we become aware of the movement of the spirit of God.
These things of which I am speaking are of such a nature that it might be said words are inadequate to convey what needs to be known; and yet if there is actually now, in this moment, movement with the pulsation of the spirit of God which is given focus through these words, then you know what it is. You don't know what it is because you have been listening so intently to the words; you've got it all set up in your mind: this is the way it is. No. The words themselves have meaning to your mind, or they should, to the extent that you are actually sharing the pulsation of the spirit that is moving through the words. You begin to know something on that basis. There comes a rhythmic breathing of the spirit of God.
We begin to breathe with God. We become a part of the chain of Divine action. That which God breathes out we breathe in. That which we breathe out, the creation for which we are responsible here on earth breathes in. I am not just speaking of air; I'm speaking of the pulsing movement of the spirit of God. There is something that comes to us from above which we breathe in because it is coming to us. It is coming to us because it has been breathed out from above, and we breathe it in and we hand it on. But when we hand it on let us be very sure that it is of the same nature as it was when we breathed it in. It will have a peculiar quality which is consequent upon our own individuality, but it won't change its nature.
We all experience a sense of belonging, a sense of oneness because of this one spirit. According to our awareness of it, by reason of our coordination with it, we begin to have this experience. It's something wonderful. You all know it, up to a point, but we have so much more to experience. So much more awareness is needed, spiritual perception with respect to this pulsation which is the source of our breath of life. It is our breathing in this breath of life that enables us to breathe out the breath of life in blessing to the world. The breath of life from God cannot get into the world except through the breathing of human beings, the breathing of the crowning creation. There is a breathing of air, and this certainly has a direct relatedness to the breathing of the spirit of God. We have seen something of the coordination of the breathing of air with the receiving of the negative life essence.
The negative life essence has a direct relatedness to the positive life essence. The extent of our receiving of the negative life essence will be the extent of our receiving of the positive life essence. They balance each other. We know, from the standpoint of the working of the Law, that according to your response so is it established unto you. According to the response which you receive from someone else, so can you give. No response, no giving into that particular receptacle. So the movement as it relates to the negative life essence also relates to the movement of the positive life essence. There is a coordination here. The level of experience with respect to the positive life essence is determined by the level of experience with respect to the negative life essence. There is no limit insofar as the positive life essence is concerned, except the limit imposed by the provision within the individual of the negative life essence.
The breathing as related to the spirit of God is related also to the breathing of air. They are not separate things. It is not just a segregated symbol. It is all one thing. The vibrational levels carry all the way through. There is no barrier actually. There is no veil, there is no block, between the level where we are and the level which is above. It only seems so because we only have facilities to perceive up to a certain vibratory level. We can't perceive beyond that level, but let us not assume, therefore, that it doesn't go beyond that level. It does. There is no break. All these things are coordinated, and we need to see them as being so.
We were considering this matter of breathing as it relates to the eliminative processes. We exhale and we eliminate something from the body which should be a blessing to the lower levels of creation here on earth. If we just look at it from the standpoint of carbon dioxide we know that that is required by plant life. So we extend a blessing through this process of elimination. We have also seen that there are various other processes of elimination going on in the body. These other processes of elimination also have a relatedness to our breathing. They have a relatedness to our breathing, they have a relatedness to the working of the spirit of God through us—and let us remind ourselves that the eliminative processes are part of the Divine Design. They are perfect, pure, holy and sacred. Let us not imagine that any aspect of the eliminative processes is “dirty” in some fashion. It isn't true, and if we take such an attitude we are certainly treating something which is sacred in a manner that is not at all fitting.
It is true that human beings, because they have not been breathing properly, either the air or the spirit, have descended to a level where their bodies are full of all kinds of corruption—corruption because it is in the physical body. It doesn't belong there. As we begin to function correctly, so that we are moving with the pulsations of the spirit, we find that the eliminative processes remove this corruption. The body becomes pure. The body becomes in one sense transparent, so that the Divine breathing through the body of man may extend a pure blessing in all respects to that for which man in his Divine State is responsible. There is a process of breathing which offers nothing but blessing. The way it is now, human beings do not always offer a blessing when they breathe air. We have a good deal of consideration given to ways of combating what they call “bad breath.” This is just the usual human approach, isn't it? “We want to go on living the way we've been living, we want to go on doing the things we've been doing, but we don't want to have the results of it. So, we'd better take this pill or that purifying mouth wash in order to get rid of this nastiness.” All it does is just to suppress it. It is still there. And there is so much corruption in human bodies that the eliminative processes have seemed to be rather nasty—of course this is not the only reason that human beings have this attitude—but it isn't true; it is part of the Divine function. We wouldn't live very long without these eliminative processes.
So we have this right attitude toward that which is released through the physical form, whether it is physical substance of some kind, or whether it is the expression of a word, or whether it is the release of the spirit through whatever the form may be. All this is going forth rightly as a blessing when we are functioning in a coordinated state with the pulsations of the spirit of God. We can't get ourselves connected up properly, we can't experience this coordination adequately, as long as our bodies and minds and hearts are filled with corruption that does not belong there. Any little experience we may have of attunement with the pulsations of the spirit of God is a more or less haphazard thing; but as we begin to allow the eliminative processes to become what they should be because we have the right attitude towards them, we are extending a blessing. We begin to find that we are connected up more and more with this pulsation which is moving, we are more and more coordinated with it, and according to the extent of this oneness, we experience our true identity in real Being. And it is because we are giving something on the right basis.
All these things of which we have been speaking relate to the processes of giving and receiving. This has been very prominent in the minds of many people. They recognize that there must be a proper pattern of giving and receiving in balance. But the implications have usually not been seen, or not adequately seen at least, as it relates to all fields, and as it particularly relates to this which we are considering now: the giving freely of blessing. Unless we exhale we cannot inhale. Now I suppose that is obvious enough, but a person may say, “Well I can't exhale unless I've inhaled.” Which came first? We have something already, don't we? We are alive, up to this point; therefore we have something to give. We don't have to get something. We have something to give, because it is here. We know it is here. We are alive. Therefore it is the giving that comes first, and yet most people say, “Well when I am able to get something, I'll give you something.”
I have letters of response every day which say, “I'm so very sorry that I can't send you anything in the way of a monetary gift, but after I have done this, that and the other thing, after I've earned this, then I will give you something.” I have known people who have said that for years. It never comes. They don't recognize that they already have something to give, and almost invariably they have something to give of a monetary nature. It is very, very seldom that a person doesn't have a cent or two. A person must give first; not, “I'm going to earn a big sum of money one day and then I'll give.” All those who have said that, even though perhaps along the way they did earn a big sum of money, it wasn't given, because the process of giving hadn't been initiated. The individual didn't know how to give. He had never done it.
Of course this doesn't only relate to money, as such. There are many things a person can give. Even just a smile sometimes is worth something. But the giving comes first. The exhaling comes first. The exhaling is the important thing, and the more we exhale, the more room there is for the air to come in. If we just exhale a little, we inhale only a little, and there is a residue of fetid atmosphere inside and we just poison our bodies all over again. Get it out! There is the gift to be given. Give it. It takes a little push, effort, in this sense. You have to contract some muscles to do it. Too much trouble?
It takes a little effort to give in any level of giving, but it is in this giving process—and a very wide range is possible here—that we begin to coordinate with the pulsation of the spirit, we begin to find ourselves in harmony with God, and because we are giving all we have, that which fills the vacuum, because we have given, will be pure. It will be exactly what is needful. We don't have to get it. It is all around us. So may we begin to share ever more fully in this movement with the natural pulsations of the spirit of God. You know how rigid a person is when he is not giving. The freedom of the spirit is not known at all.
When we begin to coordinate with the freedom of the spirit it is possible we may make a mistake or two. We are supposed to learn by our mistakes. Would we learn if we didn't make them? If we wouldn't learn if we didn't make them, are they mistakes? We sometimes need to take a new look at things. Someone makes a mistake and then he starts blaming himself or trying to accuse himself of something, because he thinks it is a mistake, whereas if he would just learn from it, it wouldn't be a mistake. We make mistakes. They aren't mistakes until we make them into mistakes. If we are willing we can let them be the means by which we learn and expand and grow, and then they are not mistakes. Of course if a person does something over and over and over again, then there is something really wrong there, isn't there? That is a mistake, because he is obviously not learning anything—never learned anything, never saw anything, never let any change come, never allowed any blessing to appear. But we don't need to make mistakes. No one needs to make mistakes. There can be varied experiences which help us to learn to live, but let's not make them into mistakes.
Then we can move easily and begin to experience the real nature of the pulsations of the spirit of God, and we find ourselves all moving together. We have some of this experience. We know something about it already. Tonight I wish to bring it to a level of conscious awareness, so that we may share in alertness to what is necessary if we are to increase this coordination with the spirit. We do it by giving—giving ourselves away. You are not supposed to do that, are you? give yourself away. People are doing it, of course, all the time, one way or another, sometimes not realizing what they are doing. But if we are functioning in the current of the spirit of God we don't hesitate to give ourselves away. What is wrong with that?—because it is a blessing to everybody, at least to those who will receive it. Keep on giving the blessing. And as we do, we know the spirit of God, we know its movement, we know its wonder, and it is this that blends us together. We come into agreement in the spirit of the living Christ. The trick is to stay in agreement. We have a wonderful opportunity of practice while we are all together, in the experience of something very vivid and very real, and we can let it stay that way if we ourselves individually, no matter where we are or where we go, continue to be coordinated with the pulsations of the spirit of God.
This is the outpouring of the spirit. This is what enables us to be with one accord in one place, always. I thank God for that measure of oneness which we know now in this moment. It is a most glorious and wonderful thing, something which should bring a sense of deep thankfulness to God, that we in this hour, of all the peoples of the earth, know this.
Prana
Uranda Steps To Mastership 1936
Let us now consider the Breath of Life. Air is free, but few people use it freely. In the Book of Books we read, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the Breath of Life; and man became a living Soul." To appreciate the value of air, we must study deeper than the usually recognized physical fact that it is a gaseous substance, mainly composed of approximately one part of oxygen to four parts of nitrogen, which must be breathed by all species of the animal kingdom, including man, to perpetuate life.
Modern science has proven that a force called electricity can be generated out of the air. The fact that automobiles equipped with generators can absorb electricity out of the atmosphere at all times and in all places proves that this force is everywhere present in the air.The Adepts of all ages have known that this force existed, and they have used it in ways that are far more valuable than the mechanical uses to which it is put. These wise men have for thousands of years consciously used this energy to promote perfection within their own bodies, and to help in healing of others. This force, in its free state as found in the atmosphere, is called Prana in the Sanskrit language. It is this Prana that is absorbed by the generator and transformed into what we call electricity. From a material standpoint it is impossible to determine what electricity is, because it has a spiritual source. Without this spiritual substance the fleshly body would be as inert as a clod, for it is really the Prana in the air we breathe that gives us life. It is the lack of Prana, and not the lack of oxygen, which kills so quickly when a person or animal is choked or strangled.
Prana is the vibration of the everywhere-present Spirit of God to which physical life is attuned. There are, of course, other vibrations of the Spirit of God, but Prana is the primary vibration of the Spirit which the fleshly body can absorb and use. Prana is the Spirit of God which man can use, if he will only do it. This force is absolutely unlimited. It will work through you with unlimited power if you will only let it. Through the use of it any and all adverse conditions can be overcome. When you learn to use it fully and freely you will find that the so-called miracles of healing, and other accomplishments, are really the natural results of natural law applied in a natural way.
Just to realize that Pranic Power is present in unlimited amounts is not enough. You are like a giant electric motor, with tremendous potential power; but unless you know how to "throw the switch" and connect yourself with the unlimited Prana, you will soon deteriorate and die from lack of use. The body is so constructed that it would never wear out if it were properly used. People do not wear out from use; they rust out from lack of use. You have a finer and better motor than man has ever made. And what kind of care do you give it? How much do you know about running it properly?
When we realize that this great power is at hand and that we have the right to use it freely, the next step is to learn how to contact it fully, for the greatest possible benefit. The human motor is self-repairing, and the switch is automatic, so that when something goes wrong in the human motor the current is slowed down until the damage can be repaired. If man willfully, or ignorantly, produces a short-circuit within himself by disobeying Nature's Laws, the power is taken from him according to the degree of his wrong use of it. If man persists in his wrong use of this power, his motor is badly damaged and in time is completely disconnected from the Source. And then he is pronounced dead.
It is easier to begin to use the Prana if we first prove to ourselves that it really exists by seeing it. Anyone with fairly normal vision can learn to see the Prana under certain conditions, and as one develops and becomes proficient in the use of it, the Prana can be seen at will at any time. The person who has received Enlightenment can see the Prana in all objects, whether it be stone, wood, flower, grass, trees, human beings, or any other physical manifestation of life. Many people have learned to see it and use it, and you can also. There is nothing more beautiful in this physical world than to see the life forces vibrating in all things about you. It opens up a new world to you. Everything will be more beautiful, and you will find a sweet peace and joy which begins within yourself and radiates to everyone and everything around you. Even people who know nothing about these things will notice a something about your presence which soothes and uplifts. Sick people will say that it makes them feel better for you to enter the room where they are. Can you imagine anything more delightful than to be of such service to those about you? It is as possible for you as for anyone else. To those who have never given any thought to these things it all seems quite impossible.
The easiest way to see Prana is to go out-of-doors just before sundown and sit in an easy chair, or recline on the ground, in the shade. Face any direction except toward the sun. Relax as thoroughly as possible, taking several long, deep breaths of air. Next, close your eyes and keep them closed for a minute or two. Then open your eyes slowly and direct the gaze up into the sky without looking at anything. If you focus your eyes on some object, you will look through the Prana and not see it. The only reason we do not see it all the time is because we look through it, just as we look through a perfectly clean, pure glass without seeing it. After a few trials you will see that the air is filled with millions of silvery dots, some larger than others and all moving continuously. After practice you should be able to see the Prana as far as thirty or forty feet away. These silver-like dots are not to be confused with such optical illusions as specks or lacelike appearances which are sometimes seen in front of the eyes and which float or dance with the movement of the eyes. The silver dots of Prana will be seen moving in every direction, both far and near, and at first these dots will seem to be in great confusion. However, as you watch and study them, you will find that they are moving in orderly fashion and in symmetrical formation. Once you see the Prana you will learn to let your eyes "rest easy" many times during the day so that you can see it. As you fully realize the constant presence of Prana, you will find yourself working with a force that is as tangible to you as wood or stone is to most people. This eliminates blind faith, because you know.
The brain is the Positive Pole of the human generator, and the gonad glands form the Negative Pole of the generative system. You do not think with your brain, contrary statements notwithstanding, for your brain is a mass of millions of tiny generators which absorb the Prana out of the atmosphere. Each tiny generator changes the Prana into that vibration of Life Essence which is needed in the part of the body for which it is responsible. One vibration is needed in the bones, another vibration is required in the tissues, another in the glands, and so on through the whole body. All parts of the body require the Life Essence, but each cell in each part requires a different vibration of that Life Essence. Each brain-cell generator is set to a specific vibration that is required in a certain part of the body, and that set vibration cannot be changed. Though this is a vast study in itself, this will give you an idea of how the One Life Essence produces all the different parts of the body.
In order for the body to function rightly the positive and negative forces must be in balance. The brain cannot do it all. The gonad glands, connected with the Solar Center, must supply the negative force in amounts large enough to keep the body forces in balance. When a lack of this balance is present it is called nervousness. This shows you why it is so important not to waste the negative body forces through anger, hate, fear, jealousy, or any like emotion. And also, it shows why excess in any body appetite, such as overeating, eating the wrong foods, laziness, drunkenness, and excessive sex expression, are all so very damaging to the body machine. These things all tend to clog up the body functions and cause cross-currents, or short-circuits, which detract from the ability of the individual to enjoy life.
The first step, then, in gaining control of the Life Essence within the body, that thereby the Prana outside the body may be controlled, is to bring all the body emotions and appetites under control. The Law is: No one can attain control over the mighty power of Prana who has not first proven that he will use it wisely by gaining control over his own emotions and appetites. The accomplishment of this will take time and persevering practice. With each step forward in self-control you will find added power granted unto you.
There are three primary nerve channels, or Nadis, to which we must give attention. In Sanskrit they are called Ida, Pingala, and Sushunna. The left sympathetic nerve, which begins in the left nostril and extends back through the head and down to the Sacral Plexus, which is located in the Sacral region or wide vertebrae at the base of the spine, comprises the Ida Nadis, or channel. The right sympathetic nerve, which begins in the right nostril and extends back through the head down to the Sacral Plexus, comprises the Pingala Nadis. The spinal cord, which extends from the head down the spine to the Sacral Plexus, comprises the Sushunna Nadis. The currents of the Life Essence which flow through these Nadis are called Kundalini. This explains as much as will be required in this elementary study of the subject.
The air which is inhaled through the left nostril supplies the Prana which is taken up by the Ida Nadis and carried to the brain, where the Prana is transformed, or generated, into the Negative Life Essence, which is the energy required by the negative pole of the generative system. Thus we see that properly increased breathing through the left nostril will gradually increase the Negative Life Essence, which is the force that gives life to the Physical Body.
The air which is inhaled through the right nostril supplies the Prana which is taken up by the Pingala Nadis and carried to the brain, where the Prana is transformed into the Positive Life Essence, which is the energy required by the positive pole of the generative system. Thus we see that properly increased breathing through the right nostril will gradually increase the Positive Life Essence, which is the force that gives life and activity to the Mental Body.
When these two forces are properly combined in the Sacral Plexus, the Kundalini, which is inactive or "asleep" in the Sacral Plexus, is caused to rise in the Sushunna Nadis. The blending and transformation of the positive and negative Life Essence which takes place in the Sacral Plexus produces the specific form of Kundalini that is required for spiritual growth and development. Thus we see that properly increased breathing through both nostrils will gradually increase the release of Kundalini, which is the force that gives life and activity to the Spiritual Expression Body.
This will give you some idea of the great value that can be derived from correct breathing. All types of nervousness can be overcome by bringing the body forces into normal balance through the development of self-control and proper breathing. Normally a person breathes through one nostril for about an hour, and then through the other for about an hour. Few people have noticed this fact, but you can check yourself at different hours of the day, and if you are normal you will find that when you close one nostril and then the other, one will seem to be somewhat closed, while the air passes through the other one freely. If you find that one of your nostrils is closed constantly, so that all of your breathing is done through only one nostril, you should take steps to correct the condition.
In cases where disturbance is the result of excessive appetite in food, drink, or sex, it is usually best to increase the breathing through the left nostril. When disturbance results from excessive emotion, such as fear, anger, hate, and so on, it is usually best to increase the breathing through the right nostril. In either case the excess must be brought under control if the breathing process is to have worthwhile results.
Spiritual powers, such as have been placed within your reach by the teachings herein given, must be dedicated to good uses if you would attain that "Joy unspeakable, and full of glory" and the "Peace which passeth all understanding." Also, remember that the mere reading of these words will do you no good unless you use the principles outlined. The results depend entirely upon yourself. "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."
