BUDDHI YOGA
IN DHARMAKSHETRA

1981


  The great and peaceful ones live regenerating the world like the coming of the spring; having crossed the ocean of embodied existence themselves, they freely aid all others who seek to cross it. The very essence and inherent will of Mahatmas is to remove the suffering of others, just as the ambrosia-rayed moon of itself cools the earth heated by the intense rays of the sun.

  Shankaracharya

  The Spiritual Will alone is constantly able to alchemize, renovate and refine the life-atoms of the vestures, increasing their lightness and porosity to Divine Light. When the vestures are suffused by that Light, it becomes possible to think, feel, act, breathe, smell, taste, touch, see and hear benevolently. One is enabled to employ Divine Wisdom as a science governing every relationship to the atoms that one touches and blesses.

Hermes, November 1980 "Self-Emancipation"

True devotion is neither involuntary emotion nor gratuitous feeling, but an innate and indestructible soul-power.

Hermes, February 1978 "The Joy of Devotion"

  The Theosophical Movement in its broadest sense has suffused and quickened the noetic upsurge of human evolution for well over eighteen million years. The sacred impulsion consecrated by Tsong-Kha-Pa rose like a mighty wave across seven centuries to reach its climacteric under the fiery Wisdom-Eye and Hand of Compassion of the Magus-Teacher. While the irreversible consequences of divine magic are inscrutable, the recent course of recorded history has been altered and the majestic evolution of self-conscious monads is advanced everywhere. The more immediate goals are (1) the permanent establishment of the Mystery-Fires in the West as in the East, and (2) the parapolitical pioneering of a minor Golden Age for all humanity at this point of time in Kali Yuga. The breath of all Work for the Movement – in the Lodge, the Institute, in Hermes and the communal households - must be for humanity and the civilization of the future. Only Buddhi Yoga, the meditative withdrawal of the mind from the illusion of time and the delusion of uniqueness, and its spontaneous blending with pure consciousness will unveil the immense sanctity and awesome seriousness of our Work as well as the inestimable privilege of participation in the birth of a new world - Novus Ordo Seclorum. The noetic mode of this spiritual unfoldment - theurgy in the world - invites the inclusion of all who are willing and able to serve the timetables of the Mahatmas under their Purna Avatar.

  From this breathtaking standpoint, all work in every sphere of the invisible Movement follows the paradigm of the Lodge and the Sangha: every sacrificial offering of Jnana Yajna made precisely, promptly and cheerfully, must be without anxiety or nervous tension. As all creative work moves in an ever-expanding circle that ramifies into fresh arenas of noetic endeavour, specific tasks are assigned as sacred responsibilities to those who seek to serve. Visible patterns and viable assignments can become as the vital hidden spiritual force of human evolution. Frozen structures and hardened roles obscure the music of Vach and prevent the rendering of AUM in action. Since one's service is for the sake of the progressive awakening of the Spirit in Man and not for the totemistic concern with concrete tokens of skill, the Spirit is more important than the form or the product of work. The product is sterile and the form is lifeless if not suffused with a spontaneous, joyous and self-negating Love of our spiritually underprivileged brothers and sisters on this globe. "To live to benefit mankind is the first step."

  Since tasks have to be differentiated and integrated, all fortune's favoured soldiers have to assume a variety of roles in many contexts. Roles can be rotated from time to time when consonant with individual skills, versatility, and the common needs of the hour. So vast is the resonance of the holy enterprise that the flute of the cowherd beckons each part to fit into the Wheel of the Law. Each servant of mankind does his or her part with true devotion to Ishwara, fidelity to Dharma and loyalty to the Gurukula. This is doubtless a distant ideal, but it is possible for anyone to incarnate it in a variety of ways without agonizing about "the meaning of it all" or rationalizing the failure to try. Whenever the unspoken motive is selfless service, visible self-correction can be readily forthcoming. Such a holy motive is best exemplified when one learns to achieve role flexibility, role precision and role transcendence.

Role flexibility is most natural for anyone who does not identify with the world of appearances. When one strives to define oneself in terms of the visible roles, such as those of father, mother, husband, wife, etc., one is terrified to lose the role one embraces as such abnegation seems equivalent to losing oneself altogether and to exclusion from the school of human evolution. It is most helpful to void all roles as well as name and form when rising in the morning and upon retiring at night. In calm contemplation, one can say, "I am not this body. I am not this name. I am not this set of psychic propensities, this job, this thought or tendency, this self-serving, status-seeking shadow." One may move towards realizing the truth that each and every person is forever included in the immemorial pilgrimage of all humanity.

  Role precision means simply the learning of responsibility. If the immortal soul can manifest only through increasing degrees of self-assumed responsibility, learning a task well, non-interference with others, and fearlessly holding oneself accountable enhances the Work and the Karma of all. Shunning the persona's servile tendencies to indulge in imperiousness, martyrdom and misanthropy, role precision offers an opportunity for authentic spiritual growth and moral maturity in the Family of Man.

  Role transcendence requires learning the limits and possibilities of roles. If every aspect of the work is equally sacred to Krishna, the parameters of a role are the thresholds of the sanctuary within which a set of sacred rules operate. To learn those rules - the appropriate attitude and behaviour - with a role is to learn to serve the god within the fane whilst the outer court in which one plays a part mirrors the inmost sanctuary of the secret heart, wherein is enacted the betrothal of Truth to Love upon the altar of Compassion.

  The differentiation of external tasks in essentially spiritual work is not the product of the dismantling of an inefficient machine. It is rather the setting out of steps in the divine dance that revels with calm dignity and true joy around Nataraja. Invoking Hermes and the Almanac, one can share in the Spirit of the Work as well as the ananda of service with effortless self-forgetfulness and vigilance if one honours the solemn goals, the motionless point and the panoramic modes of the movement. The pattern of one's daily life will become more rhythmical and one's moral and mental health will benefit. One would have found a truly creative channel for the cosmic energies loaned to one through the sacred vestures of all souls. Furthermore, one will exult in the supreme joy of knowing one has inserted oneself into a larger whole whose labours echo the sacred music of the Logos in the cosmos and the God in every man, woman and child upon the good earth, regenerated like the coming of spring after the winter of discontent.

And our singing shall build
In the void's loose field
A world for the Spirit of Wisdom to wield;
We will take our plan
From the new world of man,
And our work shall be called the Promethean.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

  May 1981 smile upon each and every soul that shows the courage to come out of the multitudes of fatalists into the sacred circle of the twice-born (Dwija), the joyous workers in Myalba for the triumph of Truth over the legions of the living dead. SATYAM EVA JAYATE (SATYA verily will win).

Vigilant among the heedless, awake among the sleepy, the wise one forges ahead.

BUDDHA

December 30, 1980 - Concord House

Notes From the Hinterland

  The degree of success or failure are the landmarks the Masters have to follow, as they will constitute the barriers placed with your own hands between yourselves and those whom you have asked to be your teachers. The nearer you approach to the goal contemplated - the shorter the distance between the student and the Master.

  Mahatma K. H.