Edgar Cayce and the Secret of the Golden Flower by John Van Auken

Author:John Van Auken
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A.R.E. Press
Published: 2020-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

5. Mistakes During the Circulation of the Light

Errors

The Old Master said: Your work will gradually become concentrated and mature, but before you reach the condition in which you sit like a withered tree before a cliff, there are still many possibilities of error which I would like to bring to your special attention. These conditions are recognized only when they have been personally experienced. I shall enumerate them here. My school differs from the Buddhist yoga school (Chan-tsung) [School of Meditation in medieval China] in that it has confirmatory signs for each step of the way. First I would like to speak of the mistakes and then of the confirmatory signs.

Cleary’s translation of this opening teaching is worth reading:

Even though your practice gradually matures, “there are many pitfalls in front of the cliff of withered trees.” This makes it necessary to elucidate the experiences involved in detail. Only when you have personally gotten this far do you know how I can talk of it now. Our school is not the same as Chan study in that we have step-by-step evidences of efficacy. Let us first talk about points of distinction, then about evidences of efficacy.

Now back to Wilhelm and Baynes’s edition:

When one begins to carry out one’s decision, care must be taken so that everything can proceed in a comfortable, relaxed manner. Too much must not be demanded of the heart. One must be careful that, quite automatically, heart and energy are co-ordinated. Only then can a state of quietness be attained. During this quiet state the right conditions and the right space must be provided. One must not sit down (to meditate) in the midst of frivolous affairs. That is to say, the mind must be free of vain preoccupations. All entanglements must be put aside; one must be detached and independent. Nor must the thoughts be concentrated upon the right procedure. This danger arises if too much trouble is taken. I do not mean that no trouble is to be taken, but the correct way lies in keeping equal distance between being and not being. If one can attain purposelessness through purpose, then the thing has been grasped. Now one can let oneself go, detached and without confusion, in an independent way.

Furthermore, one must not fall victim to the ensnaring world. The ensnaring world is where the five kinds of dark demons disport themselves.

There are many classifications of demons throughout human history, and most of them correlate to the deadly sins, and archetypes associated with these sins. I consider the “five kinds of dark demons” to be the tantalizing energies of the five senses of the human body combined with sensual fantasies in the lower mind (fame, power, gratification, sex, and materialism). These hold us in the heavy, fleshy dimensions of life, weighing us down and keeping us from ascending into the spiritual, ethereal dimensions. The fleshy dimensions are so substantial and present with us; but the spiritual dimensions are so airy and tenuous as to be shadowy and difficult to grasp.

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