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in dream visions and intuitive messages. These are sublime.

      3. Superconscious satya—in which the truths presented to the seeker come in visions and “paranormal” experiences. These are commonly referred to as “mystical experiences,” and though erroneously labeled as “paranormal,” they are of the most natural manifestations of spiritual awakening.

      The ideal intention of satya is to live purity in word and action. To speak one’s “truth” under the guise of cruelty, malice, or malevolence is not satya but a type of ego-induced blindness. One must be truthful while being compassionate, honoring the initial teaching of ahimsa. If you cannot speak your truth and be compassionate, wait to speak until you can. You cannot honor satya and simultaneously defy ahimsa. It does not matter that the “truth” is accurate—if it is conveyed in a malevolent and hurtful manner, it is antithetical to both ahimsa and satya. We all have a responsibility to speak the truth in a compassionate manner if we are to honor the spirit of satya and the yamas as a whole. If we can stay faithful to this, the power of our words can manifest great things.

      So few in this world discriminate properly between their want and their need.

       Hazrat Inayat Khan

       III. Asteya

      The thief comes only in order that he may steal and may kill and may destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance . . .

      Jesus; John 10:10

      In its most covetous and avaricious display, greed leads to stealing, dishonesty, cheating, self-surfeit at the expense of the well-being of others. If man allows himself to be conquered by greed, his life and spirit will be ruined and shattered by suffering.

      Paramahansa Yogananda⁷

      Asteya is the yogic version of the biblical commandment “Thou shalt not steal.” It means not to want to steal from another, as much as refraining from the act itself.

      It is thought in the yogic traditions that adherence to asteya eventually brings remembrance of one’s past lives. It seems that a large part of past lives being blocked from our conscious mind is the result of our greedy nature—not only materialism, but clinging to the present life.

       IV. Brahmacharya

      [F]or I have betrothed you to one Husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But [now] I am fearful lest that even as the serpent beguiled Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted and seduced from wholehearted . . . and pure devotion to Christ [Consciousness].

      Paul of Tarsus; 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 [author’s brackets]

      Man is man so long as he is struggling to rise above nature—and this nature is both internal and external . . . it is good and very grand to conquer external nature, but grander still to conquer our internal nature. It is grand and good to know the laws that govern the stars and planets; it is infinitely grander and better to know the laws that govern the passions, the feelings, and the will, of mankind.

      Swami Vivekananda⁸

      The word Brahmacharya translates as “knower of Brahma,” or one who knows Eternal Spirit, and the concept means practicing sexual moderation as a key principle to raising sacred, spiritual energies from the lower spinal centers to the higher ones.

      Not everyone is called to celibacy, and for some, the readings’ source counseled, celibacy would be disastrous. It is more an issue of how to transform energy than repress it. Brahmacharya is the process of transforming sexual energies into spiritual magnetism, most notably in the spine. This magnetism eventually rises into the brain for higher states of spiritual realization.

      Chastity in thought, word and deed always and in all conditions, is called brahmacharya.

       Swami Vivekananda

      Both the readings’ source and the great Eastern masters recommend moderation of sexual activity and, ultimately, transformation of it. The Cayce readings counseled people to “subdue the influences [forces] of materiality” (1056–2), noting that “from the desires of the heart do the activities of the brain, of the physical being, shape that [which you would create]” (276–3). [author’s brackets]

      Sexual energy is a powerful, creative force, perhaps humans’ most powerful physical energy. If this energy is sublimated and raised to the higher spiritual centers, the deeper and more sublime states of God consciousness can be realized.

      Both the masters and the readings’ source call on all spiritual aspirants to take inventory of their desires:

      [T]hat which is carnal and that which is mental and that which is spiritual may be found—in desire. For [desire] builds—and is that which is the basis of evolution, and of life [procreation], and of truth . . . It also takes hold on hell and paves the way for many that find themselves oft therein.

      262-60

      The masters also counsel couples in the art of spiritualized living, teaching that mutual respect and honor are destroyed by reckless and self-indulgent sexual activities:

      Husbands and wives who think that the “holy bonds of matrimony” permit them to indulge in oversexuality, greed, anger, or displays of “temperament” are ignorant of the true laws of life. The [growing numbers] of inharmonious families and the rising number of divorces found everywhere today are glaring warnings that marriage does not mean license to indulge the desires, lusts, moods, and emotions of the senses.

      Paramahansa Yogananda⁹

      Sexual desire is addressed in the yama of brahmacharya, but truthfully, all the yamas and niyamas address desire in one form or another—the desire to retaliate with violence (ahimsa), the desire to steal (asteya), and so on. The key point for those wanting to incorporate these principles into their lives is not to aspire to perfect desirelessness, to stagger around in an apathetic, comatose state, but to spiritualize desires, so that they become fuel for the purest desire of Christ Consciousness and universal love. As opposed to suppressing desires, spiritualizing desires is the recommended method in the readings.

      The great Bengali saint Sri Ramakrishna is often quoted as saying that “women and gold,” or lust and greed, are the major obstacles to God consciousness. Cayce said, “Nothing may separate the soul of man from its Maker but desires and lusts.” (1293–1) In our current era, in which some are misguided into supposed tantric practices, deluded into thinking there is something spiritual about amusing themselves with sexual theatrics, it is wise to recall the teachings of the masters and the readings’ source. The astute person remains unconvinced by a heroin addict’s argument that narcotic-filled needles are not at all dangerous, despite the junkie’s elaborate sales pitch and professionally produced DVD “The Ecstatic Joys of Heroin.”

      An entire chapter, Lesson IV, is dedicated to desire in A Search for God, Book II. Here Cayce and his close associates who helped develop the book’s materials address desire on many levels.

      From what may anyone be saved? Only from themselves! That is, their individual hell; they dig it with their own desires!

      262-40

      Desire is presented as an act of will, and all that we attract to ourselves is relative to the desires that we hold. The carnal, or lower three, chakra energies of “self-preservation, propagation of the species, and hunger” are presented in the readings as “primary urges,” which are often used for “self-aggrandizement,” or expansion of the ego. It is clearly stated that “physical desires which are not spiritualized hinder the development of the consciousness of oneness with God.”

      This

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