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just things connected with material existence, such as lusts of
the flesh and all that sort of thing which seem to have been
specifically designed to keep poor suffering Man, and even more
suffering Woman, on this quite miserable Earth.
We should get rid of Nidanas as fast as we can. There are
such things in Nidanas such as pride, covetousness, lust, anger,
gluttony, envy, and sloth. These things are not desirable things,
we do not have to put up with them, and with a little effort
we can get rid of the whole bunch, and when we come to make
that effort we find it is not so hard as we thought, and then
we know we are well on the way to leaving this Earth-round
for good and it certainly is good.
NIDIDHYASANA : This is a practice of profound meditation,
the real form of meditation, the type which enables one to
achieve results. There are three stages necessary; those stages
are :
First one reads or hears. One may read a religious or meta-
physical text, or possibly someone reads the text to us. That
puts information at our disposal, information ready for the
second stage.
Second, we have the information and now it has to be
thought about. What information is at our disposal? We think
generally on that information, we think of it and we think
around it, and when we have thought so that we have a grasp
of the whole basic subject we come to the third stage.
The third stage is, of course, Nididhyasana in which we take
one facet, or one aspect of the information which was given
to us in stage one, and was generally thought of in stage two
and then we meditate upon that which has merited our more
specialized attention.
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NIDRAS: These are ideas which one obtains during sleep.
They may be ideas which came to us during our visit to the
world of the astral. If we brought them back to the physical
just as we received them, then they would be of invaluable bene-
fit to us. Many composers of music are able to bring back to the
physical world a memory of music which they heard in the
astral world, and so they  compose a wonderful masterpiece
which goes down in history as a classic.
Unfortunately, many people are not able to accept astral
travelling and are not able to accept the ideas put to one during
an astral visit. One's particular form of religion may not have
mentioned astral travelling, and so the adherent of that religion
may think there is something wrong in it. Thus ideas become
rationalized into  dreams. The human mind, which is the big-
gest drawback of humanity, makes a rationalized picture which
completely distorts what the astral body is trying to tell the
physical body.
If one would keep a notebook and pencil by the bedside, and
immediately write down ideas that come to one in the night,
they would remember them in the morning. People say,  Oh,
it's so clear I'm sure to remember it, and then they turn over
and go to sleep again, and in the morning they have forgotten
all about it. It is a pity because many wonderful things are told
us during our  sleep.
NIRVANA : This is liberation from the body, liberation from
the lusts and gluttonies of the flesh. It does not mean the ces-
sation of all experience; it does not mean the cessation of all
knowledge, nor the cessation of all life.
It is incorrect to say that Nirvana means existing in a state of
nothingness. That is an absolute error which has been per-
petrated through people talking about things which they did not
correctly understand.
Nirvana is freedom from lust, freedom from the various hun-
gers of the flesh. Nirvana is not even a blissful contemplation.
It is, instead, a fulfillment of spiritual knowledge, and liberation
from all bodily desires.
The state of Nirvana is being in a pure state, pure so far as
lack of lusts of physical things are concerned. But even when
one has attained to Nirvana freedom from flesh desires one
still goes on to learn spiritual things and to advance in other
planes of existence.
NIYANA: This comes from Raja Yoga, and it refers to the
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second of the Eight Limbs of that branch of Yoga. It refers to
the attainment of virtues of purity, physical and mental, and to
contentment.
It indicates that one must have a certain degree of austerity
before one can realize the profound devotion which is necessary
to give to one's God. If one has not the necessary degree of
austerity, then one is so busy thinking of one's own desires
that there is no time to think of God.
NON-ATTACHMENT: This means just what it says non-
attachment to any material thing. The miser becomes earth-
bound because he is attached to his money; the drunkard is
earth-bound because he is attached to drink. If one has a strong
lust or desire, then when one leaves this Earth one is drawn
irresistibly back like a fish being reeled in by a fisherman, one
is brought back to visit those haunts which have most of what
one wants money, drink, or what? One hangs around, a
disembodied ghost, caught inexorably by the magnet of that
desire which was not mastered during the physical existence.
Non-attachment means self-mastery, detachment from the lures
and lusts of living on Earth.
Non-attachment means release from the desires which afflict
mankind. A person who has reached this stage, who has secured
non-attachment, helps mankind and does not ignore their need
for assistance.
NUMEROLOGY : Words are vibrations. Letters, sounds, are
vibrations, and a vibration is a pulsation, or a wave, with peaks
and valleys following in a certain order. Such vibrations can
be given numerical values so that they can be identified.
Some sounds are pleasant, just as some smells are pleasant.
Some sounds are bad in the same way that there are bad smells.
If we give sound numerical values we can have a table which
can be consulted to see which sounds are good or bad for us.
So it is that people of the East have a Science of Numerology
under which letters each individual letter has a number, and
if we have a name we can add up the numbers forming the
name to see whether the name is good for us or bad for us.
Certain people have found by experience that if they change
their name slightly they come on to a harmonic vibration in-
stead of having to suffer from a bad one. So people who know
how can use their full name, or their initials and their surname,
whichever proves to be most beneficial.
Numerology, however, lends itself to quackery, and one
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should only go to a numerologist who has an established repu-
tation because some of the back-street practitioners merely want
your money, they do not want to help you as well.
O
OBSERVANCES: All religions have certain things which
adherents to chat religion must do or follow. They are the
Disciplines, for without discipline it is not possible to have a
controlled, sensible being.
Some call these Observances  Stations, as witness  Stations
of the Cross in the Christian belief. As witness, also, various
forms of procedure in different societies. In occult matters there
are five basic observances, or, if you prefer, one can say that
there are five basic disciplines which one must follow.
One must have a clean body and a clean mind. One must [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]