Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Glamor - A World Problem - III - The Use of the
Science of the Breath
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Glamor - A World Problem - The Ending of Glamor
b. The Use of the Science of the BreathThere
has been a great deal of nonsense talked and taught about the science of the breath. Many
groups give a great deal of dangerous instruction anent breathing - dangerous because it
is based on book knowledge and its exponents have never practiced it extensively
themselves, and dangerous because many groups simply exploit the unready, [254] usually
for commercial gain. Fortunately for the mass of aspirants, the information and the
instruction given are both feeble, inaccurate and frequently innocuous, though there are
many cases of significantly bad reaction; fortunately, also, the purpose of the average
aspirant is so weak that he is incapable of persistent, daily, unchanging compliance with
the requirements and fails to render that application which would be the guarantee of a
dubious success; hence, in these cases, no danger exists. Many occult groups exploit the
subject in order to build up mystery and to hold out inducements to the unwary, or give
their adherents something to do and thus gain kudos for themselves as learned and well
trained occultists. Anyone can teach breathing exercises. It is largely a matter of
periodic inbreathing and exhalation, timed and spaced according to the wish of the
teacher. Where there is persistence in effort, results will be achieved and these will
usually be undesirable because the average teacher emphasizes the technique of the breath
and not the ideas which - upon the energy which that breath engenders - should take form
in the life of the disciple.
The entire
science of the breath is built around the use of the Sacred Word, the OM. The use of the
Word is intended to be confined to those aspirants who are earnestly pledged to tread the
Way, but it has been passed on and its use enjoined by many unscrupulous teachers,
particularly those swamis who come from India, pose as Holy Men and get the silly women of
the occident into their clutches. The Word is then used with no spiritual intent but
simply as a sound which, carried on the breath, produces psychic results which indicate to
the gullible their deep spirituality. The trouble is that breathing is inevitably related
to the OM, but the effects are dependent upon motive and inner fixed intention. The
oriental, unless he has attained the fourth or fifth initiation, has no true understanding
of the [255] occidental or of his mechanism and equipment which, as the result of a
civilization and a mode of living, differs widely from that of the oriental. In the East,
the problem of the teacher or Guru is to take negatively polarized people and make them
positive. In the West, the races are as a whole positive in attitude and need no such
training as is rightly given to the oriental. What exactly do I mean when I make this
statement? I mean that in the East, the will factor (the quality of the first aspect) is
absent. The oriental, particularly the inhabitant of India, lacks will, dynamic incentive
and the ability to exert that inner pressure upon himself which will produce definite
results. That is why that particular civilization is so unadaptable to modern
civilization, and that is why the people of India make so little progress along the lines
of regulated municipal and national life, and why they are so behind the times as far as
modern civilized living is concerned. Generalizing, the occidental is positive and needs
the directive force of the soul and can produce it with very little teaching. In the Aryan
race, a fusion is today taking place between the will aspect, the mind and the brain. This
is not so in the Orient. It will be so later.
The only
factor which makes the breath effective is the thought, the intent and the purpose which
lie behind it. In this statement, you have the clue to dynamic useful breathing exercises.
Unless there is a dear appreciation of purpose, unless the disciple knows just what he is
doing as he practices esoteric breathing, and unless the significance of the words
"energy follows thought" is understood, breathing exercises are sheer waste of
time and can be dangerous. From this it can be gathered that only when there is an
alliance between breathing and thinking will results be possible.
Behind this lies a third and even more important factor - the WILL. Therefore, the only
person who can safely [256] and usefully practice breathing exercises is the man whose
will is active - his spiritual will and, therefore, the will of the Spiritual Triad. Any
disciple who is in process of building the antahkarana can begin to use, with care,
directed breathing exercises. But, in the last analysis, it is only the initiates of the
third degree and who are coming under monadic influence who can properly and successfully
employ this form of life direction and reach effective results. This is fundamentally
true. However, a beginning has to be made and to this effort all true disciples are
invited.
If all the
implications in the above paragraph are considered, it will be apparent that the disciple
has to establish - as a preliminary step - a direct relation between his brain, his mind
and the will aspect of the Spiritual Triad; in other words, the negative receptor of
thought (the brain), the agent of the will (the mind), and the Triad itself, have to be
brought into contact with each other, via the antahkarana. When such a relation exists or
is beginning to be established, then breathing exercises can safely and profitably be
attempted. You see, my brother, only the directed will, using the organized rhythmic
breath as its agent, can control the centers and produce an ordered purpose in life.
Therefore, it is the dominating idea or line of mental activity with which the disciple
must be concerned as he performs a breathing exercise. This idea must embody some purpose,
some planned activity and some recognized goal before the breath which will engineer or
implement it is generated, assembled, sent forth and thus becomes the carrier of power.
This has to be done upon the wings of conscious intention, if I may here speak
symbolically. I would urge you to read these last sentences with frequency because they
concern the Science of the Breath and hold the due to needed work. This science is
primarily and fundamentally concerned with ideas as formulated into clear thought-forms
[257] and thus condition the life of the disciple upon etheric levels. From there, they
eventually condition his physical plane life.
I have no
intention here of giving any breathing exercises which disciples or aspirants could use -
or, more probably, misuse. Their first responsibility is to become aware of the impulses
within themselves which could galvanize the centers into activity and so produce
conditions and events upon the physical plane. When these are clear and firmly established
in the mind consciousness of the disciple, nothing can then stop their emergence in due
time into the light of day. But they must follow an ordered process of gestation and of
timed appearance.
When there is true idealism, right thought, plus an understanding of the vehicle of
expression and the world of forces into which the idea has to be launched, then the
student can safely follow certain scheduled breathing exercises and the second phase or
the result of sound rhythmic breathing will appear. This is Inspiration.
Breathing exercises, my brother, have a purely physiological effect when not impelled
or motivated by directed thought and when they are not the result of the aspirant
attaining and adhering to a point of tension. Steadily, whilst the process of inhalation
and exhalation is being carried forward, a clear line of active thinking must be preserved
so that the breath (as it is sent out) is qualified and conditioned by some idea. It is
here that the average aspirant fails so often. He is usually so intensely preoccupied
with the process of directing breathing and so expectant of some phenomenal results, that
the living purpose of the breath is forgotten; this is to energize and add quality to the
life of the centers through the medium of some projected and presented thought, expressing
some sensed and determined idea. Where this background of idealistic thought is lacking,
then the results of the breath will be practically nil or - where [258] there are results
of any kind under these circumstances - they will be in no way concerned with thought but
will be psychic in nature. They can then produce lasting psychic trouble, for the
emanating source of the activity is astral and the projected energy goes to centers below
the diaphragm, thus feeding the lower nature, enriching and strengthening its astral
content and thereby enhancing and deepening glamor. The results can also be
physiological, producing the stimulation of the etheric body leading to the strengthening
of the physical nature; this often leads to serious results, for the breath is carried to
centers which should be in "process of elevation" as it is esoterically called;
this increases their physical potency, feeds the physical appetites and makes the task of
the aspirant much harder as he seeks to sublimate the lower nature and anchor or focus the
life of the centers above the diaphragm or in the head.
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