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From Intellect to Intuition - Chapter Eight - The Universality of Meditation
The results of this realized union (realized when in the contemplative state) is illumination of the mind and of the brain, provided that they have both been held positively steady and in a waiting condition. The illumination, when it has become frequent and, finally, when it can be drawn upon at will, produces eventually the life of inspiration. If these stages are grasped and mastered and if the intelligent man or woman can be found willing to submit to the outlined technique, we shall have many coming forth as demonstrators of this divine science. The words that I used in my book, The Soul and Its Mechanism, will be found true that "there will emerge a new race, with new capacities, new ideals, new concepts about God and matter, about life and Spirit. Through that race and through the humanity of the future there will be seen not only a mechanism and a structure, but a soul, an entity, who, using the mechanism, will manifest its own nature, which is love, wisdom and intelligence." - Bailey, Alice, The Soul and Its Mechanism, page 130. It is interesting here to note the uniformity of the teaching of all religions and races as to the technique of entrance into the kingdom of the soul. At a [184] certain point on the path of evolution, it would appear as if all ways converge and all pilgrims arrive at the same identical position on the Way. From this point of junction, they travel the same way, and employ the same methods, and use a curiously similar phraseology. That the time has come when this should be definitely realized becomes apparent when we note the wide study of comparative religion, and the interplay between the races. These two factors are steadily breaking down the old barriers, and demonstrating the oneness of the human soul. Speaking generally, this Way is almost universally divided into three main divisions, which are to be seen, for instance, in the three great religions, the Christian, the Buddhist and the Hindu faiths. In the Christian church, we speak of the Path of Probation, the Path of Holiness, and the Path of Illumination. Dr. Evans-Wentz of Oxford, in his introduction to Tibet's Great Yogi, Milarepa, quotes a Hindu teacher in the following terms: "The three chief Tibetan schools, to my mind, mark three stages on the Path of Illumination or spiritual progress. In the first, the devotee is subject to injunctions and prohibitions... i.e., 'bound by the ordinances'. In the second, he adheres to traditional ways... wherein the ordinary restrictions are to a certain extent relaxed, although the devotee is not yet altogether free. In the third, the Adi-Yoga, when through yoga practices the Light is seen, there are no longer any restrictions; for the state of Buddha... has been attained. These three stages correspond, roughly speaking, with what the Tantras mean by [185] the... State of the Animal-Man... State of the Hero, and State of the Divine or Enlightened." - Evans-Wentz, W. Y., Tibet's Great Yogi, Milarepa, page 5.
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