Zoroastrian Meditation #1

Title

En Zoroastrian Meditation #1

Date

En 1976-Apr-07

Decade

En 1970s & Earlier

City, State

En New Lebanon, NY

Location

En Abode

Description

En Explains Zoroastrianism, its vision of the world, prophets (Magi), archangels, and practices. The universe is a crystallization of light. The obverse is also true, which explains resurrection. We are in communion with all at the soul level. We can transmute physical matter into forms at the mental and higher levels (cites Theilhard de Chardin’s noosphere). Zoroastrian practice leads to experiencing oneself as a being of light, as pure luminous consciousness, as a knight with the power of truth.

Topic(s)

En Meditation Practice

Religions

Subtopic(s)

En Light; Zoroastrianism; Being of light; Resurrection; Spiritualization of matter; Luminous intelligence

Type of event

En Family Talk/Class

Type of publication

En Recording

Media

En Audio

Transcript

Extent

En 0:31:35

Identifier

En L7615

File Format

En mp3

PDF

Language

En English

Digitizing Team

En Abad

TajAli Keith

Author(s)

En Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Full Text

En It is the day of the week here which is ordinarily consecrated towards Zoroastrianism, meditations on Zoroastrianism, or thoughts about Zoroastrianism. Each day of the week we like to attribute towards one particular religion.

Very little is known of it. But whatever is known of it, I could say, turns one on, and cheers one's heart, because it is the way of light. Because it arises out of a vision of the universe which is not leveled off or flattened out, like the one that we entertain in our modern Weltanschauung, as the Germans say--our modern way of looking at the world. It is something that we're beginning to realize in the New Age. And that is ... I think the magical word is ecology. That is, the living nature of all those things that we used to reduce just to the physical aspect, like for example, the Earth, or the water, or the air, and so on. It's experiencing all things as being living, like, what we think is the Earth is the body of the Archangel of the Earth. And what we think is water is the body of the Archangel of Water. And the planets are the bodies of the archangels of those different planets. And there's a whole hierarchical order so that the Earth derives its life from the sun, there's no doubt about that. And of course, it derives its light--its life and its light--from the sun. And the sun derives... I'm not speaking physically. I mean, the consciousness of the planet Earth, the consciousness that fructifies in humanity, is the expression of the very consciousness of the Archangel of the Sun, who is called Huraksh, and which may materialize in the form of the light of the sun, and beyond that, which is pure consciousness. And we are, let us say, like cells in the being of the Archangel of the Earth; like our bodies are part of the cells of his body, but our souls are also part of his soul. And sometimes we are conscious of our little cells. And then we say I and we mean that little particle. And sometimes when we identify with the consciousness that is coming through us, when we say "I" we don't mean me personally, but somehow, something transpires in us of the consciousness that the Archangel of the Earth has; in his consciousness transpires the consciousness that the sun has, or the Archangel of the sun, and so on. So, that every being derives his light from the being who is hierarchically above him.

And so, this is the first Zoroastrian practice: after having invoked all the beings of nature in their soul rather than in their body--like as I say, the Archangel of the Earth, or Water, and Air--one really communes with them, so that one experiences how something of their light kindles one's light, in a real communion of light. And one recharges, if I could say the "light battery" of one's being by communication with the beings of light. It is a communion of light. And so, that is the teaching of the Magi, of which Zoroaster is one of the greatest prophets, but there are many Magi who represent this tradition of the Mazdeans, long before Zoroaster. And after Zoroaster, too.

That means that one is really conscious that part of one's being literally is a part of the Sun, is a fraction of the sun. That's your solar being; they call it Ardvanakh [sp?], your solar soul. Your solar soul is part of the sun, and they don't mean the physical sun. There's also in Zoroastrianism a sense of the transfiguration of fire into light. As you know, it's a country in which geysers spring up from the earth. That's the oil or the petrol that springs up in the desert, and then they build a temple there. And somehow, there's a consciousness of the very nature of fire, which is also an archangel, and which gives rise, when it is transfigured, to light. And the human being, too, there's fire in his being, in the temperature of his body, in the whole entropy of the body. There's fire and energy arising out of the disintegration of matter, on one hand, and then this process of transmutation ends up by pure consciousness--matter having become spirit. And on the other hand, the opposite is true. And that is spirit is becoming matter all the time because consciousness is also materializing as objects, like for example an emotion of your soul will materialize in a structure in your face. Spirit has become matter, or at least imparts its hallmark upon matter. You could also see the whole of the physical universe as the crystallization of a symphony of light. And this is not just a view of a poet. But in Zoroastrianism, one is supposed to remember one's sojourn on the plane of light. That's to really remember having been a being of light, and of course, one continues to be that being of light while a body has been added to what one was before. And even of having been KINDLED, as a light can be kindled, in the beginnings of time. And so, all that which has its reality in the plane of light also materializes on the physical plane in the form of what we call physical objects. And so, if one could switch on one's consciousness by maintaining the awareness of being a being of light, one would literally discover a world of light behind the physical plane. It's a question of switching on a switch. It's like being high by your own ... something that you do within yourself; you offset your consciousness from the physical objects, and if you're conscious of your consciousness being a light, that light will call the light behind the objects into manifestation. It's light upon the light; one light calls another light into existence. And that what the Zoroastrians do, or did, because now it's a very formal observance of the old religion. But let's say that's what the Magi did. It's being continually conscious of being a being of light. And therefore you can't fail then to see light wherever it is. If you are not conscious of being a being of light then naturally you see the physical objects, and that's where most people are at.

It's also true that, at least we know that in human beings, if we have a lot of light in us, we light THEM up because somehow it makes them conscious of their light and immediately they're transformed. They start radiating or shining, glistening by contact with us, and that in turn makes us radiate more and so it becomes a very beautiful experience.

But that is even true of animals. I tried it on an eagle once and the eagle started to smile. And you can do it with flowers, too. The flowers will begin to respond. Do you know that studies have been made on the secret life of plants lately, and how very much they do react to human magnetism. But they react also to the human aura, and when you're conscious of light, your aura burns much brighter. And so, it is true to say that while plants need their fertilizers and water and air and whatever it is, sunshine, and even the magnetic field of the Earth plays a part in their unfoldment. So, your magnetic field also plays a part in their unfoldment, and if that is true your aura plays a still greater part. Zoroastrianism is completely concerned with the interaction of beings at the angelic level.

It is in Zoroastrianism that one has the origin of what is called eschatology, not only the hope in the coming of the Messiah, but also the hope in resurrection. And that's not just pictured, as it has been some times, as a kind of very unlikely miracle whereby the body would be suddenly transformed into an etheric or a light body. No. The Zoroastrian point of view is very, very explicit. It says that you're continually transforming the universe, in your soul, by elaborating a picture of it. Like we all entertain a picture of life. We all have our representations of the world through the impressions that we've received. We build out of the impressions that we receive, we build a kind of image in ourselves, which psychologists called call imago mundi, a picture of the world, which is very different, according to each person, because it depends on how much they're able to take in of what they're experiencing. Some people who have just been brought up in a village can't have a picture of the wide world. A person who's traveling a lot will have a wider image, but of course, it could never in any way approximate to the total universe. One's image is a very inadequate representation of the universe, but that's as much as one is able to encompass in one's consciousness. And when one dies, that image continues to survive one's death. And so that's what the universe has become in one. That image continues to be elaborated in the course of one's unfoldment. I haven't any evidence of reincarnation, the theory of reincarnation, in Zoroastrianism, but at least ... impressions are still coming to one even from the physical plane after having dropped one's body.

One is continually, then, transmuting the impressions into an image. And the higher planes are made up of the mental stuff, rather than the physical stuff, the fabric of the planet. This is what Teilhard de Chardin calls the psychosphere or the noosphere. So it is like everything starts as a symphony of light that becomes crystallized as matter. But on the other hand, it is also true to say that matter is gradually transfigured by us. We're like the bees that make the pollen into honey. So somehow we transform the physical substance of the universe into a mental substance, or a substance in the nature of the world of imagination, the substance of which dreams are made and which have a reality on their own. And this is resurrection. We are resurrecting the physical plane, not only at the mental level, but it is transposed then at a higher level, which is a level of light, and then the level of archetypes, and gradually we draw the quintessence of the essence of the essence of the essence of what we have been experiencing. And that is why one of the most wonderful gathas of the Zend-Avesta says, "May I become an instrument of the resurrection of the world." [long pause]

So what we can do now in our meditation [is] to be conscious of operating resurrection by one's own ability to draw the essence from the contingent. And that doesn't only apply to the physical objects that we see. In fact, there's no such a thing as a physical object; everything is a living being. But it is also ... like for example, if we start experiencing what seems like a physical object, like a stone or a piece of wood that has been carved, that has been made into a shelf, for example, or whatever. It seems like an object; one doesn't think of it as a living being. Now, it's not the mental picture that I have of that board that is going to transfigure that board into resurrection. I have to enter into the soul of the atoms of that board. And then only can I say that I am participating in the resurrection of that board.

It's like, if I hear a symphony of Beethoven or a piece of Bach on the physical plane, my memory of the notes that I heard is not a transmutation of the piece of music. But if I can remember the deep impression that it made on my soul, if I can get into the meaningfulness of it, then I have contributed in making that symphony into a quintessence, in eternity, beyond the amount of times it's played on the earth plane. So that even if it's never played at all on the earth plane anymore, it still continues to exist in the heavens.

And the same thing is true of a person. If I remember the physical body of that person, how he looks, or she looks, or his voice or whatever, I'm not transfiguring that person, or helping in any way in his resurrection. But if I'm able to enter into the soul of that person, and that person continues to live in me, some aspect of that person continues to live in me, that person can die a thousand deaths but that person continues to live in me. And I will be contributing towards resurrecting that person, beyond the death of the body. It's a matter of communion. And Zoroastrianism is communion, not just at the level of light, but communion at soul level, as one might say.

In the same way, one can also say that while the consciousness of a person seems to be like a light that has descended, it is also the product of the transmutation or the resurrection of a person. So that if I remember myself as a being of light, maybe I remember beings whose bodies were just light, auras, as we say. And Zoroastrianism pictures this in a very beautiful way--because what is true is always beautiful. It speaks about the body of glory that is derived from the glorious body that is the total body of the universe. You could picture the universe as being a network of light. And the stars, then, are the materialization of this network into matter. And that's the body of glory, and our auras are part of this network of light. But the crown of that body, of that king, is our consciousness. And so, while consciousness, of course, does seem to be derived from the consciousness of the total being through the whole hierarchy of archangels, it also ... at the other end of the scale, it arises out of the transfiguration of the body of light of the aura. Exactly, well, that's part of resurrection. And it is true that our consciousness, although it descends, it also arises out of the experience. It's born out of the contact between the pure consciousness in its origin, which is intelligence, luminous intelligence, and that crystallization of intelligence, which we call matter.

And so the next step in the Zoroastrian meditation is to experience yourself as pure luminous consciousness, not as the body of glory, but as the light of the light of the universe, which the Zoroastrians called khvarenah, which means, the crown of light, from which all light derives, or the source of light, kether.

The source of light, or the crown, which is the highest point of transfiguration, where everything is pure luminous consciousness, beyond all forms and beyond all matter.

Now, when you are conscious of being a luminous consciousness, the light of your consciousness is increased tremendously, and becomes like an x-ray, that is able to see into the souls of beings.

When you're not just only conscious of being a consciousness of light, but you're also conscious of being a BEING of light, that means an aura of light--that means a further descent. Then, you become not only an x-ray who is able to see into the hearts of beings, but you become like a lance of light. The x- ray, you could say, radiates from your third eye. Whereas the lance issues out of your heart center. It''s the lance of Parsival. And if you could only see, and I'm sure that some of you have seen, the battle of light against darkness in the universe, you would be overwhelmed by the sight of it. Everything isn't hunky dory in the in the heavens. There's a tremendous battle, desperate battle, for the forces of victory of light over darkness. And what is happening on the Earth is a very poor reflection of what is happening. It's a real CHIVALRY of light, and Zoroastrians are the first knights. They instituted the first chivalry in the history of the world. Espabad they call it, espabad: the chivalry of light.

Beings of Light are not allowed to use any form of pressure, particularly using physical weapons--that means matter--but only light, nothing else but light as a weapon. But light can be a very dangerous weapon as you know, not only by lighting up the situation of people who are handling [?] in the dark. Like coming up front, exposing everything into the light. That's one way. But the other way which is more intense is like the laser beam, that burns the impurities by its power. So it's not just defensive, it is really very active and very strong.

It's the power of truth.

And that's why every morning the Zoroastrians invoke Asha, the Archangel of Truth, which is also the Archangel of Fire, because fire will destroy all impurities radically; there is no compromise with fire. They invoke Asha every morning and promise that they will never lie. And that is why they have been the most successful businessmen in India, because they're the one people whom you can rely upon completely. They promise never to lie.