Họp Thông Thiên Học qua Skype ngày 2 tháng 8 năm 2014

Xin bấm vào đây để download âm thanh

 

[6:05:22 PM] *** Group call, duration 02:59 ***
[6:08:34 PM] *** Group call ***
[6:10:43 PM] Thuan Thi Do: The method of passing from the lower mental to the causal consciousness, by means of an orderly process of concentration, meditation, and contemplation, is described in detail in The Mental Body, and so need not be repeated, here.

On the higher levels of the mental plane, thoughts act with much greater force, than on the lower levels: one reason for this is, that, as comparatively few are as yet able to think on these higher levels any thoughts, which are generated there, have the field practically to themselves: i.e., there are not many other thoughts in that realm, with which they have to contend.

Most thoughts of the ordinary man begin in the mental body, on the lower mental levels, and clothe themselves, as they descend, with the appropriate astral elemental essence. But, when a man is active on the causal levels, his thought commences there, and clothes itself first in the elemental essenceof the lower levels of the mental plane, and is consequently infinitely finer, more penetrating, and in every way more effective.

If the thought be directed exclusively to higher objects, its vibrations may be of too fine a character to find expression on the astral plane at all. But if they do affect such lower matter, they will do so with much more far-reaching effect than those which are generated so much nearer to the level of that lower matter.

Following this principle a stage further, it is clear that the thought of the Initiate, taking its rise upon the Buddhic Plane, above the mental world altogether, will clothe itself with the elemental essence of the causal sub-planes. Similarly, the thought of the Adept will pour down from the plane of Atma, wielding the tremendous and wholly incalculable powers of regions beyond the ken of the ordinary humanity.

Hence the truth of the saying that the work of one day, on levels such as these, may well surpass in efficiency the toil of a thousand years on the physical, plane.

Students who are not accustomed to causal thought, to thinking in principles should be careful that they do not, by their efforts to think abstractly, at first cause headaches, which mean, of course, in this instance, that the mechanism of the brain is being strained. Meditation, practised regularly for a number, of years, should establish a certain tendency of the causal consciousness to be affected by the consciousness in the mental body. When that has been established, abstract thought at the causal levels should be possible without the risk of straining the thinking mechanism.

When the effort to form an abstract conception, say of a triangle, has been successful, the student may at first feel a little dazed in the attempt to grasp the abstract idea : later the consciousness will suddenly change, and become clear. That means that the centre of consciousness has been transferred from the mental to the causal body, and the student becomes conscious, in his causal body, of a distinct existence outside himself.

That is the "intuition" of the causal body, which recognises the – outer -. The "intuition" of Buddhi, as we shall see in a later chapter, recognises the inner, enabling one to see things from the inside. With the intellectual intuition, one realises a thing which is outside oneself.

Again the student may be reminded that, in spite of external differences of functioning between the higher and lower mind, yet Manas, the Thinker, is one, the Self in the causal body. It is the source of innumerable energies of vibrations of innumerable kinds. These it sends out, raying outwards from itself. The subtlest and finest of these are expressed in the matter of the causal body, which alone is fine enough to respond to them. They form what is sometimes called the Pure Reason, whose thoughts are abstract, whose method of gaining knowledge is intuition. Its very "nature is knowledge", and it recognises truth at sight as congruous with itself.

The less subtle vibrations pass outward from the one Thinker, attracting the matter of the lower mental world, and becoming the activities of the lower mind, as has already been described.

It is, perhaps, somewhat unfortunate that Buddhi is also sometimes spoken of as Pure Reason, and its faculty is described as that of intuition. As psychology progresses, no doubt appropriate terms will be selected, and applied, specifically and solely, to the distinct functions of the causal consciousness, and to the Buddhic faculties.

It was said above, of Manas, that its very " nature is Knowledge". That is so, because Manas is the reflection, in the atomic matter of the mental, plane, of the cognitional aspect of the Self ----of the Self as Knower. It is therefore possible to unfold a power of knowing truth at sight. This shows itself only when the lower mind, with its slow process of reasoning, is transcended. For whenever the "I "---the expression of the Self whose "nature is knowledge"----comes into contact with a truth, he finds its vibrations regular and therefore capable of producing a coherent image in himself : whereas the false causes a distorted image, out of proportion, by its very reflection announcing its nature.

As the lower mind assumes a more and more subordinate position, these powers of the ego assert their own predominance, and intuition - which is analogous to the direct vision of the physical plane - takes the place of reasoning, which may aptly be compared with the physical plane sense of touch.

Thus intuition develops out of reasoning in the same unbroken manner, and without change of essential nature, as the eye develops out of touch. The change of "manner" should not blind us to the orderly and sequential evolution of the faculty.

The student will, of course be careful to distinguish genuine intuition from that pseudo-intuition of the unintelligent, which is merely impulse, born of desire, and is not higher, but lower than reasoning.

The act of thinking develops the spirillae in the physical atoms : hence those who are definitely and carefully thinking day by day are not only improving their own powers of thought, but also improving for others the amount of available material of a higher kind, thus facilitating high thinking.

In the etheric body of man, the brow chakram, or force centre, which utilises the dark blue prana,is associated with the principle of higher manas.
[7:19:01 PM] Thuan Thi Do: CHAPTER XV (sách The Mental Body)

CONCENTRATION

From what we have already seen regarding the mechanism and the power of thought, it is abundantly clear that the control of the mind is of far greater importance than is ordinarily supposed, both for a man's own sake and also for its influence on the work he is able to do for others.

Thought-control, in fact, is an essential pre-requisite for the development of the powers of the soul. In The Voice of The Silence it is stated: "The mind is the slayer of the real; let the disciple slay the slayer"" This does not, of course, mean that the mind must be destroyed, for one cannot get along without it, but that it must be dominated and mastered; it is not the man himself, but an instrument for him to train and use.

Obviously the student must exercise the greatest care as to the thoughts and emotions he permits himself to entertain. The ordinary man rarely thinks of attempting to check an emotion –except, perhaps, in its external manifestation; when he feels it surging within him, he yields himself to it, and considers it natural to do so. The occult student, however, must adopt quite a different attitude: instead of allowing his emotions to run away with him, he must take them absolutely under control; and this must be done by developing and controlling his mental body. One of the first steps towards this is the realisation that the mind is not himself, but an instrument which he must learn to use.

The student must thus set himself the task of mastering both his emotions and his mind; he must know exactly what he is thinking about, and why, so that he can use his mind, and turn it, or hold it still just as a practised swordsman turns his weapon where he will, in this direction or that, and is able to hold it as firmly as he wishes. In other words, he must acquire the power of concentration, which is a necessary preliminary to all mental work.

He must learn to think steadily and consecutively, not allowing the mind to run suddenly from one thing to another, nor to fritter away its energies over a large number of insignificant thoughts.

Most men find that all sorts of stray thoughts rush into their consciousness unbidden, and since they are quite unused to controlling the mind they are powerless to stem the torrent. Such people do not know what real concentrated thought is; and it is this utter lack of concentration, this feebleness of mind and will, that makes the early stages of occult development so difficult to the average man. Furthermore, since in the present state of the world there are likely to be more evil thoughts than good ones floating about, this weakness lays a man open to all sorts of temptations which a little care and effort might have avoided altogether.

On the form-side, to concentrate is to keep the mental body shaped in one steady image; on the life-side it is to direct the attention steadily to this form so as to reproduce it within oneself. It is the force of the will which compels the mind to remain in one form, shaped to one image, completely disregarding all other impressions thrown upon it.

More briefly, concentration consists in focussing the mind on one idea and holding it there.

Still more simply, concentration is paying attention. If a man pays attention to what he is doing, then his mind is concentrated.

The throat centre, or chakram, while associated with the higher forms of hearing, is also closely associated with the power of paying attention, to which great importance is always attached in all occult systems. Hence, in the school of Pythagoras, for example, the pupils were kept for several years in the order called Akoustikoi or Hearers, and were strictly forbidden to launch out upon the perilous waters of originality until they were thoroughly grounded in the established principles of philosophy. For similar reasons, in the mysteries of Mithra the lowest order was that of the Ravens, signifying that they were allowed to repeat only that which they had heard, precisely as a raven or parrot does. The Freemason will recognise the correspondence of these orders with the degree of E.A. in his system.

The s … of the E.A., which incidentally calls to the assistance of the man who uses it a particular class of non-human intelligences of the subtle world, needs to be made correctly and at the proper place; if made carelessly and without thinking what is being done, a man may open himself to influences of which he is unaware, and for which he is unprepared. In using all such forms of "magic", a man should be on is guard lest he carelessly open himself to unpleasant influences which might otherwise have passed him by.

The student will also do well to remember that the natural effect of concentrating the mind is to produce tension in the muscles of the body as, for example, in the knitting of the brows. Such tension not only tires the body but also acts as an obstacle to the inflow of spiritual forces. The student should, therefore, periodically in his meditation, and also in his daily life, turn his attention to his body and deliberately "relax".Experience will demonstrate the immense relief to the whole system which follows even a moment of complete relaxation.

People of strong and intense natures should pay special attention to relaxation, and may find it necessary to practise definite exercises with this end in view. Many books on the subject exist; Power Through Repose, by Annie Payson Call, can be confidently recommended as one of the best.

Concentration is not a matter of physical effort; the moment the mind turns to a thought it is concentrated on it. Concentration is less a matter of holding -–page 128]—the mind by force on a certain thought than of letting the mind continue to rest on that thought in perfect stillness and quietude. The student must bear in mind that the seat of thought is not in the brain but in the mental body; hence concentration concerns the mental body more than the physical brain.

Concentration is thus obviously not a state of passivity, but, on the contrary, one of intense and regulated activity. It resembles, in the mental world, the gathering up of the muscles for a spring in the physical world, or their stiffening to meet a prolonged strain.

The man who is beginning real concentration of thought should not at first exceed five or ten minutes at a stretch, otherwise he is apt to overtax the brain. Very gradually the time may be lengthened to fifteen, twenty or thirty minutes.

The student should never practise concentration or meditation to the point of making a feeling of dullness and heaviness in the brain, for dullness and pain are danger signals, indicating that the effort is being made to change the matter of the bodies more rapidly than is consistent with health.

Most people appear to find it more difficult to bridle thought than emotion, probably because they have been brought up to consider it unseemly to allow emotion to disport itself unchecked, whereas they have usually allowed their thoughts to roam as fancy dictated.

When a man begins to attempt to control his mind, he thus finds himself in conflict with the past habits of his mental body. Just as the collective consciousness of his astral body forms what is termed the Desire-Elemental [see Astral Body, p. 77], so is there a Mental Elemental in his mental body. This Mental Elemental has thus become accustomed to have things all his own way, and to drift from subject to subject at his own sweet will.

The struggle with the mental Elemental is in some ways different from that which has been waged against the Desire-Elemental. The mental Elemental, being a whole stage earlier in evolution than the desire-Elemental, is less used to material confinement; consequently he is more active than the Desire-Elemental –more restless, but less powerful and determined.

In the nature of things, he is thus easier to..
[8:10:51 PM] Van Atman: Elohîm (Heb.). Also Alhim, the word being variously spelled. Godfrey Higgins, who has written much upon its meaning, always spells it Aleim. The Hebrew letters are aleph, lamed, hé, yod, mem, and are numerically 1, 30, 5, 10, 40=86. It seems to he the plural of the feminine noun Eloah, ALH, formed by adding the common plural form IM, a masculine ending; and hence the whole seems to imply the emitted active and passive essences. As a title it is referred to “Binah” the Supernal Mother, as is also the fuller title IHVH ALHIM, Jehovah Elohim. As Binah leads on to seven succeedent Emanations, so "Elohim " has been said to represent a sevenfold power of godhead. [w. w. w.]
[8:25:39 PM] Thuan Thi Do: Học tiếp GLBT bà NTH trang 134 PDF
[10:13:15 PM] *** Call ended, duration 4:04:41 ***