For most people thinking of the future means wondering what their life will be like in ten, or fifty years time. Well, that is all pretty poor. These concerns are far too short-sighted and of no great interest. The true future for humankind, and the only one worth concerning ourselves with, is that one day we will shine like the sun, the universe will be fragrant with our presence, the air will be filled with the fragrance of our soul.
Each day, try to devote at least a few minutes to an activity that connects you to the realms of light. Choose an occupation that requires you to attract and hold the most beautiful images, the highest states of consciousness. Consider it as the most important moment of your day; tell yourself that your future and your salvation depend on this moment.
In the beginning, you may not see the benefits resulting from this activity. But carry on, and one day they will be apparent to you: little by little, you will feel yourself inhabited by something very great and very pure, and whatever happens to you this presence within will give you strength, peace and joy.
We will probably never attain the Creator’s perspective on the universe, but we must do everything we can to come closer to it. The only way to do so is to wrest ourselves from the heaviness and limitation of the earth, to distance ourselves from whatwe see in the everyday world and rise to the summit by meditation and contemplation. From here we can see the entire edifice and discover the laws that presided at creation.
In a certain sense, this is what astronauts experience when they travel in space: their perspective on the earth and the universe is completely changed. And each of you has within you the equivalent of the spaceships that carry astronauts into space: your subtle centers and bodies. If you work to develop them, they allow you to make contact with the realities of the spiritual world, just as your five senses allow you to make contact with material realities.
At times you may feel pursued by images that are oppressive and disquieting. Do not allow them to take you over; send them away, and replace them with images that bring back joy, courage and hope.
To understand the importance of images, it must be quite clear in your mind that they have a life and power of their own, and that while some attract lightning others shower you with all the blessings of heaven.
Each one of you must seek to form images within that rescue you from earth’s darkness and heaviness. And when you are unable to do this, help yourself by contemplating pictures, painted images. The holy images in temples and churches have no other function than to help believers create an inner state that will allow them to receive but also to transmit divine energies.
It is not enough simply to have good thoughts. All the clear, just and noble thoughts we may have must descend into the heart and will where they manifest as feelings and then as corresponding actions.
Many people have excellent ideas and good judgement, but what good are these ideas and this judgement unless they translate into actions of the same quality? Because of the contrast between what people have in their heads and the reality of their everyday lives, they are so often unhappy and disappointed and cannot understand why.
There must be a link, a communication between what is above and what is below: the circuits must be connected. Thought cannot touch and transform matter directly; it can only do so through the intermediary of feeling. Only by way of feeling, therefore, do ideas take on flesh and bone and become embodied in matter.
Why have we come to incarnate on earth? In order to know ourselves. For human beings do not know themselves as spirit, as a spark that flew from the bosom of the Creator. They know themselves in the divine world, above, but they also have to know themselves below, through matter, and they only succeed in this after many trials and tribulations.
Have you seen a cat play with its tail? Not knowing this is what it is, it bites it and is surprised at what it feels. And, like the cat, one day you too come to discover the existence of the extremity of your being, there on the physical plane; you don’t know what it is, so you bite, and of course you cry out, because you realize the tail that’s trailing along is a part of you.
Human beings are not limited to what you see of them; they are entities that inhabit all realms of space, and they have to learn who they are. At present, they have to get to know themselves through matter, through their physical body, and that is what makes their life so difficult but also so worth living.
Our sense organs – our skin, eyes, ears, nose, and so on – connect us with the physical world. Those who neglect to make use of them are extremely limited in what they are able to do.
What is true for the physical plane is also true for the spiritual plane: anyone who has not developed the organs that are meant to bring them into contact with the spiritual world has no means of knowing that world or of doing their work. Unfortunately, this is the case for the majority of humans: they have not yet developed these organs, and since they have not seen or felt anything of the spiritual world they believe they are entitled to say it does not exist.
Scientific equipment has shown for a long time now that there are countless sound and light vibrations beyond our perception, and that is something nobody dares deny. Why then deny the reality of the spiritual world without having sought to study it?
Human beings are limited in their perceptions but how much more so in their reasoning! It is time they decided to go beyond their limits, as denying the existence of what they cannot see with their eyes or hear with their physical ears can only hold back their evolution.
It is characteristic of philosophers, artists and even some scientists to live in their inner world more than in the outer world. But since they cannot always control the inner world, many get swept along onto dangerous paths and into dead ends, where they lose themselves, because they do not have a true philosophy to show them the way. They always say, ‘In my opinion, this… In my opinion, that.
.. I think that…’ And some, who think of themselves as great creators and innovators, are merely anarchists, since they rebel against nature’s immutable laws.
There exists an eternal philosophy, which has been passed down by initiates through the ages. And our work, here, is to come ever closer to this philosophy. It does not mean that we must no longer express ourselves in our own way. We can express ourselves, be original, unique even, but at the same time as we study and apply the philosophy of the initiates.
The wisdom of Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
