THE ELDER ONES

Have This To Say

On The Subject Of...

• FOREKNOWLEDGE
• SUBMERGING MEDITATION
• THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BREATH
• MEDITATION
• THE GARDEN OF EDEN
• READING TEXTS
• SPACE & REALITY
• WISHING
• A MEDITATIVE POEM

FOREKNOWLEDGE

Life is impassioned, it does not run anything like the public service or the clerk's budget!
We are furthered by change and empowered to direct our course when met with such change; and no day is ever really predictable. That they may become synonymous with the calendar year before is due to lack of observation, rather than detail.

Foreknowledge actually inhibits possibility. Some wonderful decisions have been negotiated by those commanders who had not the prior knowledge of their logistical difficulties and overcame them with a projection that they themselves gave out into the future providence - they stipulated the outcome and the future with a foresight peculiar to their own vision alone.

If we are given foreknowledge we are immediately altered in relation to it, we begin to oblige and fulfill its determination. And so the overall question must be (within): Is the foreknowledge presenting to us, desirable, good and worthy of us becoming a part of?

It becomes possible too, that a man carries a multitude of prospects unordered in time; and in relation to one another, conflicting in time also. For he may project much of his future belonging in the countryside, whilst also in proximity to his relatives. Further on he perceives the possibility of paradise. All the while he is ill-content unless he can satisfy all three, which perhaps he may or perhaps he may not achieve, concurrently.

There is a school of thought which suggests that we limit our expectations to such a degree that we may become peaceable within ourselves, and thus satisfied. If we appeal to our spirituality for recommendation in this, we find that there are those that have not chosen to limit thier Expectations, and they are content to be ill-satisfied until the new order of the new day is realized completely.

Therefore, in the tradition of spirituality may we all be idealists and satisfied with no less - never to suffer the limitations of self, spawned by deflating, spurious, debilitating condemnations.

If a man has doom overshadowing him as his reality, then we may meditate upon his release and redemption from this tyrant of future. And should he attempt to mask our efforts with equal morbidity, know that he experiences his own forecasts not yours, of which he offers opinion.

We are ever reminded to fix our attention wisely. Our days are comprised of incremented forecasting - i.e. all thoughts entertained may invoke a certain future. We invite all manner of involvements to us in work, in frivolity, in moments lost, by progress known, in that we seek to combine with. In all we enter into we make the future, and there are many, many, possibilities afforded us for the times ahead.

How often one should like to ask "Why not?" when attempting an innovative initiative. Those who oppose new suggestions argue that initiative is dangerous, simply because it ventures into the unknown: the realm of new possibility! However this is as so for every living minute - certainty is illusive in reality, for forecasting. Orthodoxy must withstand the change that renewal implies, or let go and die.

The seasons perpetuate as this is the law, however the rotund of cyclic initiation, as one inspires the next, is not given to dictate the exact quality of each and every day.
Every summer is quite different from the last, just as from differing points of the globe, the nature of the day is different - magnetic influx or the romance of a sun-drenched day?
If I am in a valley or if I perch upon a cliff, my senses tell me of very differing characteristics the day brings.
When I move about I may experience this: the variations.

A sudden drop in temperature, a rapid rise in humidity, the freshness of a wind that has turned, and the sweetness of a mild, warm flow; the early morning 'feeling' to that of the oncoming evening, the descending mantle of night, half-lit by a new moon lamp; or that of the broadway, illumined and sparkling.
Every point stood upon, encompassed, lends itself to a differing comprehension.
The overall feeling inspired by the conditions within the ordinance of the revolving season is quite individual and pertinent to position and man.

The spirits of the air respond and gather in active congregations.
The spirit-ones belonging to mist and to dew, will amass in special convening, responding to the men of the area.
When we are excited for no apparent reason other than we have sensed the vibrant activity within the wind and are exhilarated by its issue, we are sensitive also to the movement in the ether, transpiring, drawing the plant up and from the earth, summoning growth as the airy souls move in amongst them.

So what we are saying is that the laws provide us with a measure of dependability within which, there are scores of variable experience; dependent upon self and positioning of self.

When the air has mingled with the sea and it comes to us from far away, we can experience the orchestrated passion of the percussion of waves, wind and volatile sparring.

When the heat calls the scent forth to migrate out from its native bloom, it urges the extraction and the parting in the distillation of a summer's perfume, until it can give no more.

When the rainwater glances the soil, and trickles find their way rootward, we can feel the gentle perfection of a need being answered deep in the ground.

The variables are as considerable as the numbers of leaves upon the trees and veins upon the leaves and shaft upon the vein.

The more men may advance the more astute they shall become to detail. Although it may be difficult to comprehend at present, it will become very possible in the consciousness to be developed that a man will perceive those intricacies which comprise ongoing reality. And above all, shall not be overwhelmed by this perception, which also will enable him to 'narrow down' into particulars at will.

That overall, the understanding of the trees, leaves, veins, shafts, shall be encompassed within the comprehension. Whilst also, he will be able within the power of mind alone, to go to any given leaf and examine it to the exclusion of the tree. That all of the overall characteristics will be factored in and decipherable at will, for individual scrutiny and investigation.

This perception may be initially brought into evelopment by those multi-considerations which provide for understandings which seek to lead into complexities rather than shy away from them.

To focus is to hold the ability to 'narrow down' on specifics and to adjust the lenses in order to incorporate the bigger picture. It is a continual widening of perspective and concentrating of intent and will, fixing a particular.

Therefore we seek to always learn more, incorporate more and enhance our skills of perception and comprehension, that we are not satisfied with simple judgments. Immediate impressions are wonderfully useful and they serve to indicate the essential character of those conditions before us, however, we are empowered to move further into those areas which are not immediately apparent and enlighten them further, before passing judgment.

SUBMERGING MEDITATION

When submerged in water we must retain our breath lest we inhale the very water itself. We take from the World that which we are used to, draw in that formula of atmospheric mix, causing no great change upon our resources within. We cannot readily adapt the water in relation to our lungs, nor our cavities in relation to the water. We cannot extract or metabolize - we would be caused to death should we try to dispose our systems with such expectation.

The 'atmosphere' to which we enter our selves within during contemplative or mindful meditation is as foreign to our sensibilities as fluid is to the lungs. In a different condition, in a corporeal body better suited, we may have consciously stepped worlds, without the transition or brevity as is required today.

In place of breath, when we submerge, it is our thought that we must hold. The thought bears with it those elements of contemplation - intention, inquiry, fantasy (fantastic projection and interpretation - i.e. requiring the imagination to propel the consciousness into further realms than the immediate physical observances), and those sensory recollections also - sight being that in particular.

The question was: What do we see when we are meditating or entering the deeper realms?
The answer may be given as this - picture if you will, a man who is held within a cave, a watery cave, for which the only way out is to submerge himself and travel the passage through to that place where the water flows freely out and into the upper regions where he may then surface into clearer air and pure sunlight.

If we understand the cave to be our worldly consciousness, the hardened rock being the skull itself which enwrapts and protects the moving and contained consciousness, we understand that a man is firstly required to submerge within himself when in prayer, traveling down into the heart, making the passage without any new breath of activity of thought or sense received; but with that which he has taken at that time of deeply diving. He must make his way to the heart that he may pass through it and up into the spiritual worlds for which he hearkens, into the spirit's place, to be revivified, insteeped therein by an atmosphere much clearer and brighter than that he knows.

And as we travel out from comparative darkness into the light we are momentarily so overcome unless given time to adapt or adjust. Our spiritual sight is over-filled, yet not with vision with all of its contrast and pictures defined, but rather with light or the brilliance alone of that light.

Our original thoughts begin to expire, just as breath itself will tire. We have to return to our consciousness. With practice the excursions out may become longer. Indeed, we may meditate eventually with inexhaustible agility.
However, until such a time when the constitution of the organised consciousness can adapt to the differing atmospheres we shall be locked into retaining but a parcel of thought at a time and be committed to pick it up on the way through re-entering the 'cave' of thinking once again.

If a man could frequent his heart and his God or spirit knowingly, with an active consultation, he would accentuate his consciousness, removing it from the mundane, traveling deeply within and then up and out into the expanses of the Holy Sanities - and we know this by the restorative effect our meditation answers us with in that peace upon returning, with that knowledge that the knowledge is there, that the consciousness searches to make translation for.

Before diving into these waters we leave our shoes behind (our earthliness) so as not to inhibit our paddle, and so too our costume that we be naked before our spirtual self without the pretense and embellishment of personality and personality's effrontery; and, as one last final breath, our parcel of thought is held tight and will take us into that place of repose, whereupon and wherefrom one day we shall not return, should we choose rather to stay indefinitely in death.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BREATH

The properties of the breath and of breathing hold mysteries beyond any chemical transaction or ingestion of time. When we exhale our breath has become personalised, and to put it most simply one can imagine that there are as many influences of beings in the breath we inhale in the world as there are beings, whilst we, with our uptake, work to assimilate, transform or repel each and every one of them.

Like an infant, the breath of an advanced man will be sweet, and the breath which he exudes will cleanse the world! Likewise beware the breath of the animal, the conjurer and the hypnotist, for all of these impart persuasions also.

The personalised breath that lovers may share in akiss is the most signatory influence that can physically and subtly be imparted - it is also symbolic of both their tolerance and resonance peculiar to their coupling.

Breath, as similar to fluid in soul force has yet also combined with our ego-nature, as with our consciousness now anchored within this world. For us it means that we incarnate and excarnate repeatedly; driving down into our systems and circulating with each force of pulse. There is a personal determination which we impart upon our breathing outwardly.

If we take in ten parts Ahriman in contrast to the usual two, then we must and do meet it with ten parts humanity as it is worked over and made thus transformed. If the man of today is met with a variant of influences in greater part, then it is answered and equalled, firstly by the higher powers, and then working its way through the man; and is not in itself a dissuader from the process of reticulated breathing.

The system that seeks personification maintains its incarnation with this repetitive re-affirmation of self and arterial self-hood. It is considerate therefore to examine the intake of breath in regard to this, understanding that it is no small matter for a man to overwork the influences and re-establish his incarnating breath-to-breath. In learning to lessen the intake when issue and subsequent intake become laboured, implies that the driving compulsion is also lessened, although not weakened, for it is then a question of force and of impact as well as of volume.

It is a little like lessening the impact of a skydiving fall, only far more effective. For as the being courses the circulatory route within his systems he can glide his way into existence, or he can collide through each portal of conjunction, and his health most certainly wears these effects depending. Chemical inhalants which cause ‘crash and burn’ blood pressure accelerants inhibit the proper transformative processes, meaning that the qualities, say for example of your Ahrimanic influence, will be released without having been given the personalised overhaul. What this will mean is that we have encountered a quality and allowed it to pass through us without realising it to be objectionable in its present form. If we do not soundly establish this then we in a future time will go on to incorporate certain qualities, rather than know to annihilate or transform them in our thinking and so forth.

It has been established that the process of our beings making physical discernments in relation to substance and its related spheres of influence differs depending upon the form of ingestion so taken. That which is accepted into the blood stream and not given orally through to the gut, has more opportunistic presence within a man to be accepted in substance for what it would be. There is little or no fiery interaction as there is with the digestive assimilation.

Equally so, when we come to consider an assimilation into the lungs we come to the most sensitive organ for spiritual transforming. Our hearts introduce our soul life into this existence, whilst our lungs introduce our egos. And so from this one can see that the contaminants which might be introduced into the lungs may directly be brought into question as to the entire influence upon our arterial selves and its discrimination and determinings.

The weakness manifest in those who are susceptible to airbound allergens for example, displays the physical concerns for what may also befall in spiritual influence. Once again, the body is unfit to recognise that which it would ordinarily reject and rework - and has lost its ability to cast off or dispel adequately those contaminating forces. In the case of an allergic response the system has then exaggerated the process without effectively dealing with the substance or its remnants. Now, if this is to happen in the wider sense of influential contaminants we can see the risk of men ingesting a propensity to a whole way of thinking or of being and so forth.

The very problems of Asthma go so much further than the life and death upset that it initially causes. The entire incarnating process is interrupted and the egoic assimilative discernments can be compromised with both symptoms and treatments thereafter. Whilst a treatment of any kind has to be preferable to death itself, it is the foremost arterial example of weakness and illhealth which can be triumphantly overcome with magnificent result. Think also, that because the lungs imbue the world and the self with self-hood, how very relevant it is to take a conscious direction in the management of such! The very cure does lie within! The answer being yet the great part to this riddle!

Here also is yet another clue as to the power and potency some drugs of addiction which are inhaled shall hold force over the ego with in property, that as ingested through the stomach would only hold to be for a poison (and yet the system would still battle and reject the force one is host to). If brought into the blood the same would contaminate the soul forces with direct influence, but when introduced through the egoic path of the lungs we have a direct influence upon the ego of the man itself, weakened and susceptible and all remitting.

Essentially all influences which abound about us can be tolerably beneficial to us, or happily far more than that, they may enhance us and the world most wonderfully. The question therefore, both with people and with substance brings us to wonder as to whether or not in our deciding something is poison or some thing is good. If we forfeit our deciding it becomes worse than a poison - the reflux is but a counter effect which means that the recourse will be almost unanswerable.

Arterialness requires a constant deciding: an active participation, an involvement and a responsibility that says to the world that you are adamant about your existence and will work to maintain it as best you can. This is a necessary respect we give to the higher powers, who we do put before all personages and privileges of both the spirit and of the world. If we hold Him to be important firstly to ourselves, and give time to them then all else will become clear as to our deciding. Deciding itself has consequence, and to this end it shall more or less look after itself. We are all tutored profitably, providing we can remain conscious and intact, with a constant referral to higher powers that be.

MEDITATION

It is paramount to all concerned with parachutes and impending falls, planned or spontaneous, that they check their connections - all vital cords - afore leaping.

We may form a 'mental' parachute, one which may shelter ourselves and take rise upon the free-falling terrain. That our journey through this sky may be delayed in time enough, to capture some of the scenery; rather than rush to meet with an otherwise friendly bed of earth below. One's parachute does fit snugly away, it is quite a contrast of area to mass, once opened. And we are not confined to white, either. What would the design be? You might ponder this through until comfortable with a personal hue or applique. And remembering also of its radiance as so lit, between you and the Sun.

In a Hans Christian Anderson story, there was a little boy who would hold a magic umbrella to sleeping folk. . . and they would dream; dreaming dreams of pictures and visions, as were best coming to them: Ole-Luk-Oie. And this child would visit bringing his small dome of imaginings to their bedside, and they would be sweet, untroubled and picturesque.

As smoke which curls and spirals and wafts and wavers and drifts and dissipates until dissolved, one may look to the sections of their overhanging parachute and see whereupon, such visions unfold in this and that section; in colour, in format, in imaginings played out. For this be our special parachute, the one which affords us the time to envision the skies, intimately.

Here is an old favorite:-

There is a world we see,
and then a piece of ground: a mountain.
On the mountain there is a forest, in the forest we go to a tree.
Atop a tree a tangled nest.
In the nest an egg, upon does rest.
And in the egg a bird springs forth, and opens mouth.
His voice rings out and out and out.
It flies from the egg, from the nest, from the tree,
it calls from the forest and the mountain, to the sea.
it goes twice around the planet, and comes back to me.

Within this presentation we find the action of the focusing pupil within the eye - which, by the by, shall be physically strengthened by such inner contemplation. For we may actually direct our thoughts in ways of exercise which give to our systems a rhythm or a re-establishment of a kindred inclination. We are powerful in our imaginings, and hold sway over all related functions.

The parachute imagery may help one to begin, begin into the sky-dome meditative state, until it becomes easier to unfold one's parachute or, conversely, fold it back up and pack it away again.

What of meditation? Meditation is a conscious step out of time whereby the individual who looks inward has forgone the world and its limitations, and allowed time to be afforded for this rest, repose and concentration, out of time.

It is not that we are to be at all times 'carefree', nor that this is the main feature of any practised meditation. However, one can say that if an individual lends himself to such practice, he shall benefit from the 'slack' - from the conditions of such great rest which do accompany his meditative endeavours. And this is a result which is not to be bypassed as purely relaxation, but moreover, a relaxation of inner tension (inner, inner tension), in alignment with all other tensions, the whole way through.

The first happy result comes from the fact that one has given time to it at all. For, this is special time, the veritable 'quality time' permitted to self, by self. And furthermore, it is not as an escape from the world insomuch as a mutual bonding with those aspects of the world unnoticed by the 'fast fall, nose-dive'.

One need not become as the extreme yogi who almost disincarnates with shallow breath and sublime extraction; with merely a fine thread remaining earthbound so attached. This meditation which takes us to those moments afore waking or before slumber, will produce a slowing of the pulse, and of the breathing quite naturally; but does not need in any way to be severe to effect enormous change.

Folk may be daunted by suppressed pictures, resurrected memories or challenging, nagging thoughts, all which present and impinge upon the quiet times. Even the quietest of conditions may be interrupted and made noisy. It is important that one remains in good humour throughout, without the stressful attempts to make an aggravated peace with such presentations. For in patience, they too will quieten; and yet having said this, such reflection and examination, real examination is very good of itself. That one may be awake enough to project into that which is before the mind's eye and meet with it and commit it to an orderly place once and for all.

Too often one may try impatiently and proclaim "Well let's get to the good bit" (meaning the deeper aspects of a meditation), and then feel most abashed when sleep calls and no immediate results, result. If we are to observe something about development it is this: any results which occur instantaneously in a LARGE manner are good for a short time only, or are more trouble than they are worth.

If development ensues over time, with steady preparation, and results in its own time which are conducive to the rhythms and the constellations and one's personal aspects, then it is to be regarded as substantial progress. Therefore, one shall not find immediate results in meditation, but a gradual strengthening and wellbeing shall follow slowly behind.

To give time to oneself for renewal and for discipline, for exercise and general improvement of all of the constitution, is an attitude of 'caring' for oneself. The vitalities respond far more deftly with precision, with tenacity, because of this consideration. The 'time out' is never forfeited, for it is actually extended and furthered (in terms of years) to each and every person. The fact that some may live very long indeed, may give you an idea of that which is invoked by this 'living out of time'- an actual extension of worldly time, physical worldly time, afforded by this practice (made perfect!).

It is because one's constitution has a limited capacity for assimilation. Life is ceaseless assimilation: worldly life requires that we incorporate worldly substance within our being's being. And to an extent this is a sufferance. Of course one does not mean to say in grim terms, that the privilege which is life is of suffering. However, there are tensions within a man that do protest the cohabitation of certain demanding conditions, which may be viewed at times within the world particularly to conflict, or be in argument, rather than conducive to all aspects which comprise a man.

Now as regards assimilation, we are only 'good for' a limited capacity of worldly material before there calls the needs for assimilation in higher requirements. And as we know, the body does tire within the world, and ages from this calling of the higher man. However, in the case of meditation, we are actually submitting to an assimilation which does please our higher being and nourishes it, relaxes the tensions which are from level three down (explanation later); and have lost nothing in the practice at all.

For it is the assimilation of oxygen, the ability to do so and combust, that makes for incarnation. And this time-out will afford us ability to take in yet more time, as one does work with the other.

Conversely we may examine the deathly impact of a relaxation of the lower aspects and the tension thereof as regards alcoholic beverages and the like. Here the aspirant (good word, 'aspire'; also as in breathing) becomes as a perspirant (from the Latin persparare: to blow, from per- through + sparare to breathe). Whereby the regulation of such assimilation of time is as with meditation, but not as is with meditation. For in the one case the aspirant may actually enhance his ability to incorporate the world within himself upon return from meditation, and in the other, the perspirant does not of himself so 'give over' to this timely consideration, but rather has forced himself from his shell and cannot assimilate time well at all. And the illusion of timelessness is because of inability - a no-man's-land, which in the long run detracts from such abilities in later life to work the constitution thoroughly, adeptly, and with precision.

One may be sufficiently 'relaxed' in death, but this does not mean to say that total relaxation is desirable. This is why meditation and meditation's accompanying contemplations, are referred to as exercises; for in truth the individual who makes effort to manage himself in these realms of behaviour, shall be qualified in subsequent tension also. That one becomes strong from the ability to venture in and out of these conditions at will.

One could be with such strength from these exercises that any conditions as set by the world, would inflict little pain, if any. And though we might weep for those who are imprisoned: be it jail or in withering limbs, one may readily see the benefit derived from the abilities to enter into meditative contemplation, and withdraw and re-enter, accordingly.

If after twenty years of such practise one could say, "I now really feel the benefits!", then how wonderful it is - especially when one considers, that in twenty years hence the benefits may be well needed!

Enough humour!

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

For those who are "Garden-Proud," and know of the pleasure and the pride in helping to establish a good ground, such people also delight in those places where tree and plant overgrows wildly, following no set pattern or design manmade. There is much beauty in both schemes. One may take in the scene for what it is, and does not compare one to another in single preference; at least not to the point of denying the merit, the composition and gentle goodness, within all gardens.

"I shall go to the garden to speak with my Father." Here is the Holy place, where best to confide those inner yearnings. Here too, we may commit all that is unworthy of Heaven, and sheer away such troubles that do taunt us. Here in the garden we may collect our thoughts, inspired through scent and virtue, in sweet solitary but full communion. What need be a better chapel of worship, than that of a dear garden?

Fortified and ever restored, by the holy water (for all water is holy) that does quench leaf and creeper and flowery face, seeping down into root and runner; expiring through vein and fruit. With no walls or roof the vaultlike domed sky speckled with mist-puffs, affords that the forces of the Sun streaming down, purify and vivify that trusting life which clings to the earth.

A community may make sacred a building temporarily or permanently, to house a communal meetplace, where those may gather who wish to make statement of the outer world touched by the Divine. Grand inspiration and cordial society; and many a cup of tea. It is good to work creatively at setting a special place other than one's home, for the general community to enjoy in this way.

And whilst halls and fixed spaces can be converted extraordinarily and with much merit to those who do decorate so lovingly, think also for prayer, that there is a garden one may find and go to, in quiet times.

Even simple furniture may chatter on inaudibly and interrupt one's humble communion. There are times for gathering, and strength therein, and times for solitude and inner communications. To make good a church, is to forge a home for a community for: celebrations and study, song, praise, and orchestrated prayer. Where one wishes to breathe in a golden silence and withdraw to the meditative higher spirals; then take the stony path down to the grass, go and be quiet, and feel the presence of the Lord or the higher powers that be.

We all know the excitement and expectation to be had in discovering a botanical wonderland. How pitiful for those house-bound or those confined to hospital, that they may not know such sweet delight. That the depressed city-dweller in concrete enclosure, may only hold a flowerpot or cactus, as reminder of the countryside at the city limits. And where there is a public part, so too, much interference, noisy inhabitants, and odorous emissions; denying the otherwise peace infilled glory.

Sanitariums of the past were one part building to twenty, thirty, or one hundred parts ground. Once men sought the salt-air and the charge from the sea. They did move on to higher altitude, they did not contrast the seasons with sporting activities. They did not sleep through the sunrise. They would not decorate a tomb with an artificial flower. Maybe a statue, but not an artificial flower.

Eden is still here, if we would but visit. The modern world acknowledges everything but this.
Gethsemane awaits.

PART II