After completion of the courses we have just described only a few of the total number of students are able to move immediately on to the next — the highest — stage of spiritual ascent. Only those can go that fast who were already mastering these stages in their previous incarnations and now only reviewing what they studied before. The other people should stop for a while in order to establish in the states they have learned to attain.
But this does not mean they should do nothing, no. There should be a lot of reading, thinking, discussing, helping others and listening to how God assesses one's actions… It is necessary to seek increased harmony with nature, especially in the early mornings. It would also be good to learn to identify the voices of best singers among birds, know them by names and how to attune to their subtlety. Among them are — song-thrushes and blackbirds, starling, blackcaps, white-throats, robin redbreasts, skylarks, large curlews, woodcocks, black-grouses and snipes…
The acuity of the subtlest perception of nature that should be achieved can be illustrated by the following meditative etude, written down by Svetlana Zaitseva:
M I S T
What can be softer that mist?
Its touch is hardly felt,
It is not like a dancing of snowflakes,
that slide down the face,
Or cold kisses of a rain,
carried by the wind
No, the mist touches everything
gently
and quietly,
Extremely lightly
and… whispering.
It is just a soft shadow of the rain,
But its presence is real:
Hair is wet
and tiny specks of moisture
are slumbering on the eyelashes…
But its main charm is
That it blurs the shapes and distances
of the material plane…
Everything becomes slightly magic
because of this innuendo…
You move with a strange sensation, as if in a dream,
Receptivity is increased,
Openness and softness are like
the mist
that surrounds the soul…
The envelopes are off,
You become an ocean
of eternal Love,
Permeated with rays
of raising sun!…
Special indoors aesthetic lessons developed by my former colleague Galina Vaver can also be used [16]).
And development of the "power in subtlety" (or "crystallization of consciousness" in G.Gurdjieff's terminology [34] — by analogy with the growth of a crystal) can be best attained at this stage through meditations at special
"places of power", winter swimming and "meditative running". Other methods of "crystallization" includes special exercises of athletic gymnastics and Sufi
"spinning": both should be preformed while being in special meditations, but it does not make sense to write about this in a book.
It is important to emphasize that "crystallization" will be correct only if performed by consciousness concentrated in the spiritual heart. At the same time it can be successful only when the structures of all dantyans, including the lower one, are developed and working properly.
Correct "crystallization" is performed by consciousness that grows in the subtlest eons: in this way we cultivate Divinity in ourselves. But coarse
"crystallization" that is performed by people who eat dead bodies of animals, live in coarse emotions and devoid of correct spiritual aspiration, can form devils out of them. The same psychic training techniques will produce either the former or the latter effect, depending on the inner state of the one who practices them.
This is one of the reasons why it is so dangerous to reveal secret esoteric knowledge to those who are not ready to apply it correctly.
