First Lessons in Spirituality

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First, it is a great pleasure and privilege to be working with you as a new student. Again, please let me remind you that, in deciding to study the Way seriously, you have just made the most important decision, and the best, the most joyful, of this life! We will make sure that it is also the most fun!:)

You do not have to feel any pressure to respond quickly to these emails. Here is the best way to work together: No demands, no expectations. If we both follow this laid-back approach, it will prevent misunderstandings.:)

Re your past lives, I do not feel that it is best for me to outline them for you. It is much better, stronger, clearer, and more certain if they come from deep within your own mind. So, the best way to retrieve these memories is not for me to recall them in vision, but for you to do so, in a process called "pastlife regression." This is like a game that we will play together. In this, you will very deeply relax, and I will make suggestions, and you will respond. This is also called "guided visualization." We can set up a time for a come-together to do this when it is convenient for you. We will need only about an hour together.

Then, we will explore together your "imaginemory"-- the name for the body of data that will be retrieved. For it is never absolutely certain what is memory, and what imagination, but even imagination must come from the deep Unconscious, and so, is not merely "random."

Your eating-disorder is, to some extent, a quest for freedom in this life. That is its psychological cause. But it also has pastlife components, for our entire tribe, including you and me, died from starvation in that life. So, at times, even merely eating can make you feel guilty, since food became so scarce. We have come to earth again to learn that food is the gift of the Goddess through nature. Each particle of food is to be eaten with awareness that it is a gift from the universal Mind, and with awareness and gratitude.

"Transcendental meditation" is a very ancient technique of meditation, and has helped many. But most of those who practice it today are locked into a cult-- destroying their freedom-- and so, the method that is recommended is "pervasive meditation."

In this form, you choose a four-syllable mantra. The one that you have chosen for yourself is fine; please use that one. Then, all during the day and night, when your mind is not engaged actively in driving, reading, adding figures, or doing another activity-- all the "free" seconds and minutes that you have during the day-- you return to the repetition of your mantra. You might practice only ten seconds, here, two minutes there, but it will add up. So, with this method, you might spend two hours, or more, in meditation every day!! Please begin this practice at once.

What does this do? It gradually, and gently, "erases" the lower, egomind, and "makes an empty space" in your mind that can be filled by the great Mind or Spirit, the perfect Lovemind that is in your Unconscious. For now, let's go with the mantra, "Love and be loved." Please stay with this mantra for at least a year-- until January of twenty-oh-seven; and if you want to change it then, you can work that out in your mind.

The random images that you see in meditation are not really "brain garbage." Everything-- every image-- in the mind is valuable, and potentially educational, even if it is different from what you might want to "see." So, the Mind does not really contain any "garbage" in terms of its images. All that, in the mind, which could accurately be described as anything like disposable material is the substance of fear. Our goal is to become, in time, fearless beings.

Your Love for animals has been a carry-over from our former shared life, and we will expand on that. Do you also love spiders and snakes? This is a very important part of cosmic (universal) Love, and we will work on it together.

What you call "worldly worries" is indeed a "block" to meditation, but the practice of pervasive meditation should, in time, drain energy from those types of thoughts; and then, that newly freed energy can be invested in spiritual (Love-) thoughts. For you can use Mindenergy only once; and once you have used it for "worldly" thoughts-- those of the lower nature, including materialism-- that energy is gone, used up, and cannot be used for higher thoughts or ideas. You are also correct in identifying a cause of this mental meandering as "lack of practice," and practice, starting right now, should begin to solve, and dissolve, the problem.

It's great that you are planning to "block out" a period of time each day to read Journey. As a taurus, once you have decided to read it, little can stop you! That is the best use of taurus energy! In your note, you asked about several items. They will be addressed here, one at a time:

When you are doing spiritual or deep reading, you do not want to "speed read." Just the opposite: You want to be relaxed, and in no hurry at all. Savor the words, bask in the ideas. Read slowly, and enjoy the ideas as if each were a delicious cookie. You cannot enjoy them if you "wolf them down" in a hurry. Feel the idea, as you would a delicious flavor; let "delicious" ideas settle gently and quietly on the "taste-buds" of your mind. Never speed-read any spiritual material.

Secondly, you asked about crystals. These do indeed have a psychoreactive but very subtle energic effect on the mind. Collecting crystals would be a good idea. Surrounding yourself with crystals helps to settle and to clarify the mind. You might also get a small crystal to wear on a necklace or bracelet, or to carry in a pocket. Crystals also add beauty to your life, reminding us of the beautiful bounty of Mother Earth and Mother Nature. We have a nice crystal-collection here in the Pneumarium. Have you ever seen it? There are also many crystals here in the office, and in the livingroom. Be careful not to spend too much money on crystals, but, yes, the use of crystals can have a mild but real effect on your spiritual growth, as can the use of colors and music.

Your next inquiry was about "healing hands." This is a form of Love designed to help a living creature tap into its interior Mind, or its supply of bio-energy. It is called "hands-on" healing, and has been with us since very ancient times. As a mother naturally holds her baby when it is hurt, so we can convey or transfer Lovenergy with intent by physical contact. This was the method preferred by Jesus and many other great healers. It can be expanded as shiatzu , acupressure, or massage, but this still remains its basic method-- the hand-transfer of Lovenergy.

Reiki is not recommended, for it is a kind of cult, and the so-called "Reiki masters" (not "masters" at all) charge a lot of money for their "certified" training. This is largely a fraud, although it is based on the sound principle that Love can be transferred through touch. This whole system needs to be avoided by a person getting acquainted with the spiritual path; but you need not at all avoid the Love-transfer by "hands
on" healing.

Next, you ask about meditation. This is the most important spiritual exercise, for beginners as well as for those who have been on the path for years. It is absolutely vital to still and clear the mind, to seek "stillmind" or "crystalmind," which will tie you into Lovemind from time to time. There are essentially two kinds: structured meditation and pervasive meditation. "Structured" is when you take fifteen or thirty minutes, set it aside, and go to a special place, adopt a certain posture, or light incense, play music, etc. None of these is necessary with pervasive meditation.

This is closely related to your next question, re intuition. To use intuition, you must know that intuition is never thought; it is always a feeling. To learn to use it as a guidance-system, you must become sensitized to its presence. You must sense it, and then, you can follow it as a guiding force in your life. Love guides us through feelings, but this does not mean that the mystic acts without thinking; that can be perilous in itself. Instead, the mystic seeks good harmony and balance between thought and feeling, and uses both. As intuition, however, feeling is often much stronger, and over-rides the mere intellect.

Finally, your last question was the most important: We all are born to "become Love." God is Love, and we are to follow the lead of the interior Master in the heart to become the "incarnation"of God, which is the incarnation of Love. This is the most important aspect of your spiritual Journey: Express Love whenever and however possible. This does not mean sexually, of course, which leads only to excess, obsession, and confusion. It means the higher Love of the heartmind. The mystic is more cautious than average when it comes to sex; for that is a very special form of Love that should be shared with only your chosen Love-partner. The mystic, out of true Love, is never promiscuous, and is very cautious against sexual betrayal, which is antiagapic (against Love). This faithfulness to her sexual partner keeps her mind clear and her heart pure.

But Love, in its thousands of other forms and expressions, is the "job" of the mystic. She is a career-lover, a "Love-specialist," when it comes to Love for all living creatures, all people. She will never allow an opportunity for goodness, kindness, aid, or help to pass her by. She will do anything possible to aid another person, or another living creature. So, starting right now, love at every opportunity; love wisely and widely, every chance you get! For, in the final analysis, Love is the only healing energy in the universe!
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