Edgar Cayce and the Yoga Sutras - Istvan Fazekas

Скачать книгу

the moral of ahimsa is the cause for creating negative karma and adding to the collective pool of world suffering.

      If, for example, in the course of a building project, you inadvertently knock down an inhabited bird’s nest, this is not considered some grievous offense, especially if you take appropriate actions to restore it or move it to a safer location. Making mistakes should not be interpreted as an unpardonable wrongdoing—not learning from them or being apathetic toward them is the real problem. It is having the intention of nonharming that is most essential to living ahimsa. This would include consistently living with the awareness of reconciliation and forgiveness.

      The readings’ source implied on a few occasions or stated outright that the cause of physical ailments of numerous people seeking Mr. Cayce’s counsel was their ridiculing or belittling others in past lives. This unmindful cruelty creates a vikarma (negative karma) that may take multiple lifetimes to eradicate. It also can create a vikarma that attracts ridicule and belittlement to one’s self, now or later.

      Besides creating harmonious relationships, adding to world peace, and insulating us from negative physical karma, an added benefit that faithfully adhering to ahimsa offers is a peaceful security that precedes us wherever we go. It is said that not even the wildest of beasts will harm a spiritual aspirant who faithfully lives ahimsa.

      Ahimsa was the foundation for Gandhi’s monumental social transformation in India. Martin Luther King Jr. was so taken with the idea, through Gandhi’s example, that he and his associates visited India to learn more of ahimsa from Gandhi’s protégées. Even the current Dalai Lama is a wonderful representative of the power of ahimsa when he refers to the Communist Chinese military, which forced him into exile and systematically decimated the Tibetans’ country and culture, as “my greatest teachers.” There is no call for revenge or a mandate for war, but instead he insists on education, peaceful activism, and patient noncompliance with his “teachers.”

      Jesus said he could have had “more than twelve legions of angels” to assist him in defeating his enemies (Matthew 26:53), yet he chose forgiveness and sacrifice. He, too, lived ahimsa.

      [L]ongsuffering . . . does not mean suffering of self and not grumbling about it. Rather, though you [are] persecuted, unkindly spoken of, taken advantage of by others, you do not attempt to fight back or to do spiteful things; [non-violence means] that you be patient—first with self, then with others.

      3121-1

      There are some who adhere to a vegan diet, thinking that that alone is the supreme embodiment of ahimsa. From the standpoint of many of the masters, it is not what goes into one’s mouth that counts as much as what comes out of it (words and deeds). One may be vegan and still be plagued with neuroses of jealousy, envy, pridefulness, and materialism. The following quote is but one example of a recurring teaching:

      The test of ahimsa is absence of jealousy. Any man may do a good deed, or make a good gift on the spur of the moment or under the pressure of some superstition of priestcraft; but the real lover of mankind is he who is jealous of none. The so-called “great men of the world” are seen to become jealous of each other for a small name, for a little fame, and for a few bits of gold. So long as this jealousy exists in a heart, it is far away from the perfection of ahimsa . . . Any fool may abstain from eating this or that; surely that gives him no more distinction than the herbivorous animals. The man who will mercilessly cheat widows and orphans, and do the vilest things for money, is worse than any brute, even if he lives entirely on grass. The man whose heart never cherishes even the thought of injury to another, who rejoices at the prosperity of even his greatest enemy—that man is a bhakta (a devotee of God’s love), he is a [true] yogi, [and] he is the guru of all, even though he lives every day of his life on the flesh of swine.

      Swami Vivekananda5

      The ahimsa concept recurs consistently in the teachings of the masters. Perhaps, one day enough people will be thoroughly convinced and motivated to actualize it. Then we will see the dawn of a new planet. What is most important is for us to implement it in all we do. Ahimsa is the foundation upon which all the yamas and niyamas are built.

       II. Satya

      If you abide in My Word [logos, Christ Consciousness] . . . you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

      Jesus; John 8:31-32 [KJV; author’s brackets]

      Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

      Jesus; Matthew 5:8 [KJV]

      Those who are in that way or attitude of “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of the heart be acceptable in Thy sight,” are in the way of truth.

      262-77

      In breaking through from those things that hinder in the material, such as would defile the body, numb the senses or make for impurities in the body, from such abstain. In those that make for love, purity of purpose, of aim, these bring the light of the glory of the Father, who so loved us as to give His Son. In this manner, then, may the will, the call, the understanding, come to thine own self . . .

      294-139

      [Satya] is the foundation stone of the universe . . . Men and civilizations stand or fall according to their attitude toward truth.

      Paramahansa Yogananda6

      One does not spiritually succeed as long as they have these three: shame, hatred, and fear.

       Sri Ramakrishna

      Satya means to be truthful with your words and actions. It does not allow any room for deception, duplicity, or psychological manipulation bolstered by guile or falsehood. This is a high ideal, but the readings’ source stipulates in numerous ways that man’s ways and God’s ways are seldom the same. We need high ideals in order to awaken spiritually. A deep understanding of this breeds satya.

      It is a firm verbal and ideological commitment to truthfulness that gives one’s words the power to manifest a new reality, to create what is needed. It is not merely visualizing that manifests something, it is the quality of consciousness of the seeker. If our internal “dial” is tuned to God consciousness, we are better able to manifest what we need, as our needs naturally become simplified and in accord with the Divine plan; we then have the intuitive discrimination to know what is acceptable and unacceptable in the big picture and the will to realize it.

      An ideal . . . cannot, should not, will not, be that that is man-made, but must be of the spiritual nature—that has its foundation in Truth, in God . . .

      262-11

      Mahatma Gandhi made the bedrock of his philosophy the first two yamas—ahimsa and satya—which he termed satyagraha. Look at what he accomplished by giving 100 percent to only two of the ten transformational precepts! As he committed to making them foremost in his personal philosophy, countless others were, and still are, affected by that commitment. This is why the sages declare that the yamas and niyamas have powerful personal and global transformative potential, but only to the degree that we faithfully live them. It can be difficult, but we must not give up on ourselves or one another. What is exponentially more difficult is a life ungoverned by spiritual precepts.

      Ultimately, satya means to live in line with “eternal truth.” There are three basic levels to satya:

      1. Conscious satya—in which the logical mind finds truthful corroborations in philosophy and other manmade schemes. These relate to many ethical and moral principles to “be honest,” “tell the truth,” and the like. These are

Скачать книгу