About Love
To approach God we, first of all, have to possess the developed ability to love “from the heart”. What can unite one consciousness with another? — Only love.
It is love that unites man with man and man with God. Therefore, it is most essential to develop the ability to love.
In order to come to God one has to learn to love the elements of His Creation first: people, all living beings, and all other components of the manifested world.
“Learn first to love Me in My “manifested” (in the material Creation) form”, God teaches us in the Bhagavad Gita.
Start mastering Love through loving people — all of them, as they are — and only after that you will be able to love God — emphasizes Jesus Christ.
It is impossible to start loving God at once. First, we have to develop in ourselves the ability of cordial love.
Moreover, we must be capable of loving passionately. We have to be able to fall in love — so that at some time in the future we could find ourselves capable of falling in love with God.
Being in love with God is the essence of Sufism, the highest bhakti yoga, that which composes the core of all sound religions.
Yes, we have to be capable of being passionate. We develop this ability here, on the Earth — in a dramatic and long way. We love each other, love our cars, our academic papers, earthly titles and degrees, idols, etc. Objectively, this is not bad (as a temporary phenomenon, as a stage of development), though quite painful, because the fruit of earthly passions is suffering.
Earthly passions are rajas. But it is impossible to enter the sattva guna, bypassing rajas. Only that sattvic state is firm and steadfast, which is based on personal power developed in the rajas guna.
Let me draw your attention to the fact that Krishna regarded as righteous, people of four categories: those striving to break away from suffering, those seeking knowledge, those seeking personal achievements, and the wise. That is, people of the first three categories are not wise yet, but unlike people of demonic nature, they are also on the path to Perfection.
So we have to become passionate in our love so that when we mature, we can redirect this passion towards God. “To mature” means to reach that stage, when buddhi yoga becomes actual for us. Buddhi yoga techniques will allow us to face God in reality. And it is passionate love to Him that will enable us to become firm in this state and to advance further.
Various religious books deal with dispassionateness. Much attention is given to it in the Bhagavad Gita. But in Sanskrit this word bears a somewhat different meaning as compared to the Russian language, for example. In the Bhagavad Gita, dispassionateness implies, first, elimination of negative emotions, such as various kinds of anger, grief, etc; second, abandonment of lust, i.e. sexual passion that enslaves man; third, refraining from fervent expressions of positive emotions (for example, exultation); what is true — is the maintaining of an even, positive, and loving emotional state. This is one of the goals on the path of transforming oneself, which is quite difficult for a beginner to achieve.
The question may arise: what is this needed for? It is required for directing one’s love-passion, all power of one’s emotions, without wasting them for other things, — to the only Object of one’s love, to the Creator.
There are a lot of esoteric methods for preparing oneself to ascent to the highest stages of religious practice. They are asanas, pranayamas, work with images (visualization), special kinds of dancing, meditative running, yantras etc. Ignorant people combine all this under the term yoga. But this is incorrect. Even the one who diligently practices asanas of hatha yoga is not necessarily a yogi; for occultists or even black magicians can practice them.
So who can be called a true yogi? What are the criteria?
The criteria are two. The first one is religiousness. Yoga is the Path to God, to Mergence with Him. The second criterion is Love, an aspiration to cultivate, to develop it in oneself.
Those practicing asanas, pranayamas, and so on for the sake of spiritual self-perfection, with the aim of approaching God, — those people are yogis, though their task for now is rather minor — to improve their physical health. But those who do the same exercises, but do not meet the criteria mentioned above, — those can be called occultists, magicians, sportsmen, but not yogis. Yoga cannot be atheistic or without love.
Mystical non-spiritual pseudo yoga can result is a gravest spiritual degradation. Such pseudo-yogis can be easily recognized. Their characteristic feature is coarse, harsh bioenergy radiated by them and, as a rule, cultivation of ethical vices. These are demonic people in the literal meaning of these words, because they are preparing themselves for hell, for the role of demons.
Let us remember: only if that which we do in our everyday life or when following special esoteric systems of training is inspired by Love and aspiration to God — only then this is true, only then this is yoga.
Development of the spiritual heart located at the beginning in the anahata chakra (in the middle dantyan) is of the primary importance on the path of mastering Love. First, this “organ” of the emotional love must be cleansed and developed within the body, then — as crystallization of the consciousness proceeds — one should learn to expand oneself as a spiritual heart over the surrounding space both around the body and in other — higher — spatial dimensions. God called the latter “Correct Meditation of Eternal Peace and Dissolution”. It is only by means of this meditation that having entered the higher spatial dimensions one can perceive not empty space but Divine Consciousness abiding in them and later — master the Mergence with It.
In this way we can cognize God in our heart: in the heart expanded in the universe in the Abode of the Holy Spirit and then the Abode of the Creator as well.
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We have already mentioned that the self-development of a person is conducted along three major lines: ethical, intellectual, and psychoenergetic. At that, the ethical one is the most important. As Juan Matus put it, God provides according to our impeccability. In other words, He allows us to approach Him, to experience increasing joy, happiness from the contact with Him, and bliss of spiritual life — as we proceed in terms of our ethical self-perfection.
Per Juan Matus, the impeccability means ethical perfection, i.e. correctness (objective correctness from the God’s point of view) of our actions, words, and thoughts.
It is also essential to understand that advancement along any of the three mentioned lines of development contributes to mastering the other two. So, the perfect Power must be loving and manifest in a wise way, while Love must be wise and strong, and wisdom can become true Wisdom, only if it is based on the firm foundation of Love, as well as on knowledge and experience, obtained, in particular, in the course of psychoenergetic practice.
Understanding and observance of ethical principles serves as the foundation of all practice. Ethics is the core of the spiritual self-development. It is around this core that everything else that makes up the essence of the spiritual seeker: knowledge, skills, psychoenergetic abilities, and other qualities, — forms and grows, “building up” on that core. The height and durability of this core is what the success of one’s spiritual efforts depends on. It is with this ethical core that we grow towards God. And God allows us to approach Him according to the degree of our ethical perfection.
The basis of ethics is Love: Love primarily in the aspects of compassion, ability to forgive, tolerance, tenderness, self-sacrifice, etc. Love has many aspects: we must remember that and make sure we cultivate all aspects of Love.
We can develop “cordial” love in two ways:
The first of them can be call exoteric, i.e. natural. For example, through motherhood, raising children, sexual relationships, love to nature, etc. In order to succeed, a person has to learn to do everything not out of his self-interest, but for the sake of others, i.e. not in egoistic manner, but in altruistic one. If one’s love is directed in this manner, one has a chance, instead of getting deeper into the mire of sufferings caused by a growing burden of unsatisfied desires, to advance towards increasing happiness, which is a natural consequence of spiritual growth. In this case the exoteric options of development create opportunities for natural growth of the “organ” of emotional love — the spiritual heart.
When there is an organ — there is its function. The system “organ — its function” can develop thorough regular functioning of the organ, or it can be developed by means of direct training of the organ. The most illustrative example is our muscles. One can make one’s body strong by performing physical work. In this case one develops organs (one’s muscles) through letting them function — as a result, the entire system becomes more efficient. But one do another thing — go to gym and work out in order to “pump up” one’s muscles by lifting weights — this may seem to be a rather dumb activity, which brings no evident economic benefit. But one’s muscles become stronger as a result. And after that they can be used in order to perform useful work for the other people’s benefit. This is an example that explains the meaning and the essence of esoteric, i.e. in this context — “artificial”, “unnatural” approach to development of the “organ — its function” system.
This is the approach used by esoteric Schools in their activity aimed at spiritual development of a person that consists in the usage of “artificial” methods of development of psychic “organs”.
In esoteric spiritual practice, among such organs the primary importance must be given to the “organ” of emotional love — the anahata chakra. Exercises for development of the spiritual heart and its function are the fundamental ones on the religious Path, on the Path to God, to one’s own happiness.
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Passing from rajas on to sattva, man enters the world of tenderness, bliss, and peace. But peace is not laziness and idleness. Peace has to do with intensive spiritual doing in the state of inner quietness — hesychia.
The word hesychasm originates from the Greek hesychia — inner quietness. No spiritual work on advanced stages is possible unless one has acquired mastery of hesychia. Only after we have stopped boiling inside from various anxieties and emotions, when we have eliminated internal dialogues and monologues, when we have learned to refrain from “shooting out” with the “tentacles” of our senses — indriyas — at objects of the material plane, when we have learned to live without a TV or radio set being permanently turned on, without ceaseless chatting with other people “about anything” — just for the sake of the chatting, — it is only then that the real religious practice can become possible for us to perform. In order to direct actually one’s look — the look of consciousness — in the direction of God, in order to strive towards the Mergence with Him, we have to acquire the inner peace first.
There are various techniques for attainment of the inner peace. One can start with doing hatha yoga exercises, Chinese dynamic gymnastics Tai Chi Chuan, or practicing similar systems. But radical solution of this problem can come only through shifting the concentration of consciousness from the head to anahata, followed by expanding the spiritual heart beyond the body in the subtle spatial dimensions.
We know from history that Greco-Slavic mystics (Hesychasts) were doing something like this. I am talking about the technique, known as The Jesus Prayer.
Let us look: who was Jesus for the early Christians? He was their Savior. In what sense — Savior, how should we understand this word? It is not only because the name Jesus is translated as Savior. Jews had many Jesuses, but only One of them was known as the Savior. Jesus Christ was the Savior, because He gave His saving Teaching to people. He gave them ethical Teaching, by following which people could be saved from suffering both now and after the death of the body, get closer to Perfection, to the happiness of cognizing God-the-Father, to the Mergence with Him. Jesus brought a Teaching, which was principally new for that region of Earth — the Teaching about saving power of Love, that declared that it is Love that saves us from suffering and degradation in spiritual darkness.
But various myths sprang up immediately that Jesus “descended” not only into earthly hell (i.e. to the crowds of sinners here, on Earth), but also in the hell of the nether world, and that He took all its inhabitants out of it, that He delivered all Christians from all their sins in advance — with His Death of the Cross, etc. Everyone interprets the same event in their own way, according to the level of their intellectual and ethical development. If one is intellectually mature, one is capable of adequate understanding of a teaching and applying it in one’s life in order to become better. But other people make an idol out of any spiritual leader right away and start praying “to him”, asking and demanding material welfare for themselves… Instead of practicing his teaching.
But, be that as it may, historical facts say the following. When persecutions of Christians began in the Roman Empire and authorities began to massively crucify Christians along the roads — Christians started to give themselves up to be crucified so as to become similar to their Teacher at least in this!..
The name of Jesus Christ is sacred — as it has been and it will be. For all developed people it is a synonym of Love. Jesus not only preached Love and did the deeds of Love, be it caressing a child or working wonders, but He also was deliberately going towards His Death on the Cross for three years, knowing that it is this kind of destiny was made ready for Him if He would be fulfilling His Mission on Earth. He sacrificed Himself for those whom He loved — for people, for us.
The image and the name of Jesus invoked a sincere gratitude, compassion, and admiration in His true followers. His image and name were associated with the concept of Love itself.
So, the technique emerged that consisted in pronouncing the name of Jesus in one’s anahata, using it as a mantra.
In Orthodoxy there is an acathistus called “To Jesus, the Sweetest”. “The Sweetest” — in the old Slavic meaning of this word, as “the most beloved one”. Let us address Jesus:
“Jesus — the Sweetest! Jesus — the most Beloved! Come to me! I love You! Help, me, oh Lord, to know You, to know your Love! Help me, oh Lord! Help me to become better! Help me to learn to love like You love!”
Hesychasts would repeat this appeal to Jesus, first in their mind — for a very long time, dedicating their entire time to this. (In Hindu tradition this technique is called japa. It prevents one’s attention from getting distracted to one’s own “earthly” problems and contributes to stopping the wandering of indriyas, in particular). If this method was practiced with due emotional mood, with time (sometimes, after years) this prayer, as Hesychasts were saying, would “descend into the heart”: when the emotion of love to Jesus was reaching its peak, the concentration of consciousness of the seeker would shift to anahata.
From this moment on, the whole world was different for that person. It was as if the person started seeing everything through the “rose-colored glasses”: it was not any longer a hostile and frightening world, against which one had to fight and which one had to fear, but the world full of harmony and love. This person would become a true torch of Love, producing the corresponding emotional-bioenergetic field around himself. The attitude of other being towards him dramatically changes: they respond to love with love. These are facts, which we have observed numerous times: relationships in families, at the workplace, in a communal flat change; children are attracted to such people, while adults seek their company just because it feels good to be around them… Such a person becomes a source of auspicious bioenergetic field — and the attitude towards him changes whether people understand anything in bioenergetics or in religion or not. To love almost all people (except a certain category of them) respond also with love.
University students, who attended the groups that I was conducting, were asking me how they could use this at the exams. I recommended that they looked at the examiner from anahata during the exam. Later, after the exam, they were recalling, laughing, how the examiner had been answering for them himself and gave them the highest mark. Why did it happen? One has to understand the examiner as well! It is not easy for him to conduct examination when every next student who comes to him adds the next portion of his anxiety, exhaustion, and other negative emotions! The examiner grows exhausted in this stressful atmosphere — and suddenly a person comes to him, with whom he… feels good! How can he offend such a person by giving him anything less than the highest mark?..
There are different methods of working with anahata. In the early 80’s, when we were just beginning our activity during dominance of man-hating ideology of Communist Party, when no one was allowed to talk about God — we taught people how to work with anahata, and the effect was wonderful: people would transform, they started to search for religious books, accepted Christian baptism by the whole groups…
Even anahatas of stubborn atheists would “open up”, but in their case, the effect could not be lasting, of course. For example, I knew a psychologist who considered himself a “fighter” with other people’s vices. He would “crush” their vices in a fierce and violent manner; when he was leaving the place, people would hope they would never see him again. But he believed that it was the task of a true psychologist… I tried to tech him to work with anahata. He obtained the effect — and was staggered by the fact that he suddenly experienced love to people, whom he had hated and despised before. His surprise was so immense, that he even woke me up in the middle of the night, came over to my place, told me how it had happened. This had astounded him!
But what happened next? He played with this wonderful method for some time as a psychological game — and then reverted to his previous state: his outlook and aspirations remained the same, he even became a member of the Communist Party — right before it collapsed. The following intellectual resolution must form first: “I want to become better, I know that in order to do it I have to learn to love”. Only in this case will the methods of esoteric psychology be of help. Only then these exercises become an integral step of big ladder of the spiritual ascent.
Translation will be continued.
