Mediation, the Secret of Peace

I'm going to attempt to share as much as possible at least this idea, this principle, and perhaps somewhat if you will receive it we can both pervade each other through it the whole rapture the love the real knowledge of what meditation is and therefore perhaps more important what it is not now first of all as you know there it is Tarot key number 17 the star this is what represents meditation meditation symbolically. As we know, the Qabalistic attributions, when we have all of them, interact together. They keep the mind in a state of association so that it will not go wandering off into that which is not part of the particular aspect of requirement. In other words, the idea of concentration is automatically a part of meditation and yet when we see and look into these Qabalistic attributions, we'll see that that even concentration isn't exactly what we think it is most of the time.

Of course, we know concentration has to do with the magician, Tarot key number one.

And we see that it's the ability to hold the awareness within a field of attention.

Attention, that is, the ability to keep the mind on one particular basic idea. But, you see, what we do not realize, and what's shown very clearly in the Qabalistic attributions, is that it's impossible to keep the mind concentrated on one thing unless something in us is interested enough.

Now interested enough means it has to care.

In order to care, it means there has to be feeling. And so on the Qabalistic tree of life which you see before you Saudi Tarot key 17 the star is the channel it is the force that connects the desire nature victory to foundation foundation being being, remember, amongst other things, the subconscious aspects of awareness. That part of consciousness that holds the patterns of the past, being the sphere of the activity of the moon. Foundation also, please bear in mind, are the reproductive organs of what what is called in Qabalah the Grand Man, that's with a capital G and a capital M.

This is very important.

In order to bring all of the attributions together, get an idea of meditation, and perhaps together rise on the wings of the real spirit of meditation. So that the very combination of forces in their activity on the tree give us some inkling and subconsciousness instantly would go to work on it now when we think of foundation I'd like you to notice that the symbolism on key 17 is showing this figure utilizing the waters as something with which to keep balanced or as something stable as well as the ground the knee is on the ground but it's the foot that's really steadying the entire body in its position and incidentally a foot is always symbol of Pisces from consciousness that comes up out of the pool evolutionarily and then finally from animal consciousness wild to tamed animal consciousness the dog it goes upward between the towers that man builds to the heights now the towers that that man builds.

Key 16, please take a look at that right behind me.

Now that's the tarot key that preceded key 17, therefore we have to see how it interacts.

In key 16, we have the two figures wearing clothes, that is self-consciousness and subconsciousness, wearing clothes, being knocked out of the Tower of Babel, that is the isolation of ignorance, the closed tight patterns that we lock ourselves into keeping ourselves prisoners.

And we see that the figures have been thrown out by the lightning of God or the lightning of the sun. And notice in Key 17, we have lots of suns. These are stars. Every star is a sun. From the main one to the other seven, which are symbolic of our seven inner holy planets, or the seven chakras, as called by our brethren. So that we see that meditation, which is the subject of our talk, you know, meditation, secret of peace, has to do very basically with the sun or stars.

It has to do with foundation and or subconsciousness, as we see on the tree of life, and preceding the ability for proper meditation or for getting proper results from meditation is key 16 that is the being freed by the lightning of God through this symbolism as we see which is is also Mars, and that means our action. And Mars, incidentally, is also the symbol for the reproductive energies. The reproductive energies are always a part of the meditative process as taught both by our Eastern brethren and the secret wisdom of Israel, this, the Qabalistic way of return.

So that we must always bear in mind that any kind of meditating not only must but automatically does include the reproductive energy whether we know it or not, whether we have an awareness of it or not. If we meditate, this is the energy that we utilize. It is the Mars energy. But I'd like to remind you that in the previous Tarot Key, number 16, the Mars energy, which is a state of consciousness that precedes the ability to truly meditate, to meditate from the deeper areas of our mind, our hearts, our souls, that the pair of opposites assigned to pay, Tarot Key 16, is called grace and sin. This is a very important thing to remember, or call it sin and grace if you wish to reverse it. It doesn't matter.

Sin being ignorance.

Sin being misuse of our, say, reproductive energies.

Sin being ignorant and selfish use of any of our powers. Sin being the ignorance of action that comes from a sense of isolation because remember this tower also is an isolation that is this idea that life is separate that one person is separate from another that there's anything we can do to another which does not have it's very inevitable repercussion whether that repercussion be something lovely or unlovely in other words grace and sin is not what people usually think it is and we have to understand it at least to to some degree, if we're going to understand meditation properly.

Because being freed from sin does not require a sort of, I accept somebody, whether you want to call that somebody, by any name under the sun. Grace is not a state of accepting something or someone as being our Savior because basically grace and sin are involved with the realization that in as much as all life is one all isolation that is all acts of selfishness, all acts of the misuse of our energies, our powers, all acts that are injurious to others, all acts that use others, any others, in the ways that are antagonistic towards union with God, love of God, humanity humanitarianism in general that these acts are what you might call acts of sin and no amount of accepting anything frees us from our acts of sin so to speak we can only free ourselves by going through the changes that are necessary that is by changing our actions the grace of God comes to those who are willing to change their thinking their feeling and not only willing but who go ahead and do it the grace of God is not something that comes as long as we are determined to hang on to any of our attitudes, any of our feelings, any of our actions, which are still part of the old, that is, of the old patterns of the foundation. Remember the connection between the star, foundation, and victory, the desire and foundation. Now, Kabbalistically, Secondly, tzadi is assigned to the object fishhook, and this is very important. Fishhook. Now you say, well, what can be inspiring about fishhook? Now what can be peaceful about fishhook? What's the matter with these Qabalists? I mean, what nonsense they expect me to think about?

Well I'll show you what nonsense we expect you to think about what Hebrew letter is assigned to the fish Tarot key number 13 death now noon is assigned to the fish noon so that meditation you cannot think of meditation without understanding the principles of key 13 and and indeed putting them into action.

Because noon, remember, assigned to key 13 and death, is not just what it looks like. First of all, it's assigned to Scorpio. Now, what does Scorpio rule in physiology? The reproductive energies.

The reproductive energies. We keep getting thrown back to that basic idea. Always, in all of occult training, We have to come to see this basic principle that all reproductive energy, as a matter of fact, is the expression of the creativity of the Most High in its various ways and areas.

So that we have here one attribution we have to think about very carefully. The intelligence given to noon is called the imaginative intelligence. Intelligence. This means the use of the mind. What does the mind image? What kind of creativity goes on in the imaging part of the mind, which is the way creation takes place through consciousness, consciousness, mind, image-making powers, the image-making powers of Tiphareth, the Qabalistic tree of life called beauty, of the divine atom, the begotten of God, the sphere of the sun. These, as you can see, the path of death, or key 13, connects between desire, which which is victory and beauty. So that we have to recognize the fact that fish, which is the object assigned to noon, involves more than one thought here. It involves all of the actions taking place in key 13 on all of the levels. Now, death basically, remember, means change. This whole tarot key and its symbolism are assigned to transformation, to change.

Fish then has to do with a very deep esoteric recognition of the fact, after all, where can a fish live? There's only one place a fish can survive, and that's in the waters, in the waters. And remember, the waters of consciousness. All things begin from the waters of consciousness. From the time we started the whole series, we've been pointing this out. Wherever we see the waters of consciousness, here in Tarot Key 17, we see the waters of consciousness in a very special function and motion. There is the pool.

There's also the utilization of the vases.

There are the five senses. You notice how the figure here is pouring water from the pool onto the ground, five streams, but it all returns to the pool. And in the pool you see the whirls taking place of one vasla lifting it up, returning it. In other words, showing in more ways than one that your body, your five senses, all things are part of that pool. If they came from it, they must return to it, and they're therefore never even separated from it. The separation itself is a delusion. It's in our minds. It isn't real. Now then, I'm going to give you a few very extraordinary examples of meditation that I've had in my life, because if we share a few of our own experiences, perhaps we get a better idea as to what it is. I'll try to cut out all the trimmings, because we haven't got time for the trimmings, otherwise we'd include them.

But the first time the first time I went in for a complete meditation I didn't know that I was consciously meditating I was five years old now you'll say so young well I think you have meditated at that age and all of us even younger but let's say whatever I did I always did a little harder harder, a little more completely, a little more intensely, both in the nonsense areas, which I'm not about to tell you about, and the other areas. But I was five years old. I've told some of you have heard me give the experience, but not in this particular framework. Word I was five years old and I had a problem now in other words remember what I said real meditation requires a problem there's something you have to care about or you have to care enough to want to know to really want to know in other words all the power pours into that but to really want to know so I was going over in my own mind when I was five years old all alone where I slept on the fire escape everybody going to bed I usually went to bed with the very last one or later and still stayed awake and I was meditating the idea I wonder why I'm not loved you know why am I not loved I was really meditating it because I was thinking of all the people I know who were loved wondering why I was not trying to analyze these basic the the basic conditions around me and the condition of how each person close to me really thought or felt about me in In other words, my mind was going round and round, hunting for, wanting, yearning to know the reason I was not loved.

And so as my mind was going, now that's a meditation. That's a meditation. I was angling. I was angling with my mind.

And this angling is meditation. Now, in this wondering why I was not loved, though I also was wondering whether in view of the fact that I was not loved whether I was glad I was born would it be better than not never to have been born you see so there was like a double idea within the one idea there were two facets to it I had a reason for you because I really you might say my question might be am I glad I'm born in as much as I'm not loved but why am I I not love well as I my mind went round and round on that seeking questing suddenly my angling I caught a fish in other words the fish hook of meditation caught a fish what was the fish because I was asking well what's wrong with me if I'm not loved is there anything wrong with me and the fish I caught was examined you know the idea who came absolutely enveloping me examining myself so for my consciousness started to examine my head wow I had two good eyes I could see my ears oh my god I had two good ears I could hear mind you I was asking what's wrong with me all part of meditation angling I could hear a voice my god I could speak hands I could do things and feel things and experience things and my consciousness continued traveling down my god two good legs I could walk and I could run I could do all these things what's wrong with me my god I'm perfect I I took myself a fish perfect and this idea of perfect it wasn't a thing that goes in the mind nothing intellectual about it though I used my intellect analyzing I got so overcome with rapture that poured and swam I mean a rapture of love I want you to know love here I'm wondering why am I not loved what's wrong with me suddenly in comes this this influx of realization always the mind going round I threw up the window and I rushed into the living room and I turned on the light and there was a full-length mirror and I looked at the mirror and the more I looked the more enraptured I became and I patted myself and felt myself every bit of me getting more and more involved in this extraordinary realization remember it means realization in this revelation remember I was having a revelation I was having a realization I just could hardly bear it it kept got on waves of rapture and glory I rushed back into the bed and I closed the window and I hugged myself in this ecstasy it was just utterly unbearable as I relaxed and I said oh yes I'm glad I'm born I'm glad I'm born I'm perfect I'm perfect I'm perfect I'm glad I'm born and that was the first time I got swept into this cosmic love in which I and cosmic consciousness that I had every night as a child now that was meditation an example of one kind of meditation but meditation secret of peace my darlings all you have to do is to stop meditating on your conflicts.

And you stop meditating on your conflicts by facing them, by being willing to recognize what's behind them.

In other words, by working up purification of the desire nature. That's a very important aspect of it.

And therefore there's a basic, even though you may not be full of joy or glory yet, that basic peace, at least that readiness for peace, has to be there. And you have to care enough for whatever the thing is that you're fishing for or meditating on. If it means a lot to you, you will get your answer. Since then, I've gotten every answer on everything that means enough to me. Now, there have been times I haven't gotten it right away. And when I haven't I have been very careful not to beat my chest because there are times when we're simply not ready to receive an answer immediately or there are times our desire for it has not become a white shining star just taking us over enough in other words we don't care enough it has to build so I could tell you about many things I meditated that perfect Aquarian the perfect Aquarian into my life this is Aquarius and these stars these are our inner shockers you know and meditation does stir them it awakens them and proper meditation awakens them and harmonizes them so we're able to experience higher and higher portions of ourselves the truth is the Lord of the universe means us to learn how to meditate consciously the Lord of the universe your higher soul means you intends for you to learn how to walk in serenity the Lord of the universe is preparing you preparing you and so instead of permitting yourself to hold sorrow you've got to hold joy what is it that I discovered about perfection well remember my from my first meditation I discovered I was perfection that had nothing to do with the physical plane at all that my perfection of body was the spiritual body as is all my perfection of body was my ability to keep my subtle vehicles responding to the star and so peace it comes we live in it the stars presented to us as a gift every moment the sun glows with peace through every day of our lives wherever we go the breeze embraces us with this peace this peace that passeth understanding when we finally learn to meditate every moment of our lives have a part of our consciousness angling all the time angling searching and angling for ways to discover god is here god is there this is what we angle for to see god wherever we're looking it is in that tree and it is in this pet that is so naughty and it is in that pet that is not so naughty at the moment and it is in this color it is there and it is we have to meditate to receive it and this is truth this is not kidding yourself because you experience the realization it reveals and reveals itself and this is what you have in store for you I only hope and pray that I've been able to pervade you with an inkling a little bit of a realization that cosmic love is that right here now the divine soul is right here now sharing its own unity and love which is yours because you are the child of divine meditation and can never be anything else