108 Inspirational Lectures by Charles F. Lutes - Lectures 73 to 78
Spirituality and perfection of the mind.
“Integration” Blog at Institute of Spiritual Sciences “Regular Articles” Department
Charles F. Lutes; 108 Inspirational Lectures - Lectures 73 to 78
Editor note: This special web edition of “108 Inspirational Lectures by Charles F. Lutes” is presented in 18 sections of 6 lectures each, and has been specifically formatted and edited for the Institute of Spiritual Sciences (ISS). It is re-published here by permission of the author: Vincent J. Daczynski. Please see the Introductory Page for more details. -RJR
108 Inspirational Lectures
by Charles F. Lutes
Lectures 73 to 78
73. The Unfoldment of a Spiritual Life
74. Virtue
75. Perfection of the Mind
76. The New Mind
77. Soul Mates
78. Morality versus Spirituality
Lecture 73
The Unfoldment of a Spiritual Life
The progressive expansion of consciousness that
results from the practice of Transcendental Meditation
will ultimately embrace everything in the universe.
Spiritual evolution means that we are shifting the center of consciousness toward the divine center of our being and realizing our divinity more and more. Most of humanity identifies with the physical body, even when they intellectually know that it is only an instrument. So, the real problem of becoming spiritual is to shift the focus of consciousness from the personality to the individuality and to learn to live from that center. When we do this, we still work through the physical body, our mind and our emotions, but now we are conscious of the dualism between our real Self and the self we are on the physical plane.
Immortality and peace can never be found in the sphere of the personality and it is useless to try to seek them in this area. The spiritual consciousness that exists inside of us is our only true home. The important thing is that we shift our center of consciousness to the Divine and then begin to realize our divinity more and more. The spiritual unfoldment of the individuality is reflected in the personality to a limited degree because there are definite limitations in the lower physical vehicle that prevents a full expression.
The astounding thing is how many powers and faculties are latent in the human and in time must become functional. Transcendental Meditation is a technique that unfolds these higher qualities in the individual. This unfolds as divine consciousness and begins to work through the devoted meditator. The process is one of purification or raising the vibrations, and this is Transcendental Meditation in action. So, it matters very little for what reason one starts Transcendental Meditation. If one continues the practice regularly one will, in due time, become spiritual. The real process involved is the gradual and increasing unfoldment of a life of infinite possibilities. Also, the progressive expansion of consciousness that results from the practice of Transcendental Meditation will ultimately embrace everything in the universe.
It is the lack of the infusion of the Being that makes us unaware of all of our limitations and thus being unaware of our limitations we are dominated or controlled by them. The more our higher nature unfolds and takes control of us the less we are controlled or dominated by our lower self with all of our habits and emotions which claim our attention and waste our time and energy. The unfoldment of our higher nature becomes a process of character building, because it is the transformation of our lower nature which allows us to express our spiritual nature in an ever increasing way.
Religion may change our habits and beliefs, but it can never cause the infusion of the Being that automatically opens our light centers and aligns our higher bodies so that there is a near perfect conduction of the eternal life force into our very self.
We should never regard the phenomena of the higher life as something mysterious; rather we should understand it as something very natural and accept the invisible in a spirit of reverence. We should never forget that all realms are subject to natural laws just the same as the physical.
So, slowly as we progress, we awaken to all kinds of extraordinary faculties and capacities, and this, again, is the process of becoming natural. We should not expect an overnight transformation for as we move to higher and higher levels of awareness, we are subject to higher and more complex laws governing higher and higher planes of life. To complete the divine will we must become the master of all powers and faculties belonging to all planes of existence. However, we can be sure of one thing and that is, as we progress, we free ourselves from most of life's anxieties and miseries and this alone is worth any effort required.
It is hard for one to imagine oneself without physical attachments, without emotional disturbances and the worries and anxieties of a troubled and harassed mind; to be able to live a calm and serene life amidst the circumstances in which one lives, drawing upon inner strength and happiness which others seek in vain in the outer world with no resources to fall back on in times of trouble. Also, the great difference is that while others are struggling in vain a meditator is able, in his calm, self-controlled life, to rapidly and smoothly move toward enlightenment, the only goal of life.
Lecture 74
Virtue
Many people think that you can polish up,
or dress up, a vice and make it respectable,
but a vice made respectable is not a virtue.
Our practice of Transcendental Meditation, which is by way of sound, is really a meditation on the soundless; it is hearing the voice of silence. To do this one must transcend all forms of physical sound. Then, when one returns from the soundless to the field of sound, one then expresses a greater sensitivity to all of the subtle nuances of sound.
It is in meditation that the mind is in communion with virtue, or pure awareness, and by this process we become more virtuous, degree by degree.
Many people think that you can polish up, or dress up, a vice and make it respectable, but a vice made respectable is not a virtue. You cannot think yourself into virtue. One must become virtuous by taking the mind to absolute pure consciousness.
The mind in samadhi, or communion, is beyond all vice and there one discovers the innocent presence of virtue.
Those of virtue always have great inner strength and those of vice have no inner strength. It is the strength worked by the presence of innocent virtue that is called character.
It is only the virtuous mind that can communicate effectively and it is only the virtuous mind that can enter into the right relationship with life.
In virtue one discovers in oneself a tremendous source of energy. The very presence of virtue, untouched by thought and the thinker, releases, in one, inexhaustible energy. One who is devoid of this energy is often likely to become corrupted by the forces that impinge upon him.
One must always confront life from a position of strength and not from a position of fright. A person of virtue is one who is never diffident, or over confident. He is one who can approach life, endowed with inner strength, and have no fear of what lies ahead.
Lecture 75
Perfection of the Mind
The human has to learn to go within himself
to find the real answers to his own evolution.
Perfection of the mind comes with purification of the body. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. As the mind purifies it lifts its consciousness to higher ideals and constructive activity. The great change comes when one begins to think in idealistic terms, and not in terms of profit and self-aggrandizement. When one begins to use one's mind for upliftment and not for destruction, then truly one is on the path of purification and perfection.
In the early ages of man, he acquired a dense body as an instrument of action. Later in time, he acquired his vital body in order to have the power of motion, which is necessary to action. In a still later age, he acquired the desire body which gave incentive to action. The mind, however, was not given to him until the Atlantean Epoch, in order for him to have purpose in action. Even then, he did not have a reasoning mind. He functioned on desire, passion, and emotion. He was, however, master of nature.
Man, sometime in his evolution, must again become the master of nature, but first he must master his own nature. This means that the mind must outgrow selfishness, cunning, and craftiness. For many ages these habits have become very deeply ingrained in the human psyche.
The human, in his early days, used brawn for all of his accomplishments. Slowly he learned that the mind is superior to brawn, and that brought on a great change.
The downfall of the Atlantean was due, for the most part, to a weak ego, a weak mind, and a strong desire. The weak mind had not yet developed a constructive thought and reasoning process. In the interim, to fulfill the strong desires cunning was developed by the weak mind.
In the present epoch, thought and reason are being developed and evolved in the mind in order to channel desire toward gaining spiritual attainment. This is the goal of evolution; the developing of a divine mind; the individual mind ultimately attaining the status of universal mind. As we move more and more toward divine mind, we slowly gain, once again, mastery over nature. Only this time, as masters over nature, it will be with divine love.
The human, at the present time, has mastery over the chemicals and minerals only, that is, the mineral kingdom, and not over the vegetable or animal kingdoms; that comes later in his development.
The deep secrets of nature are carefully guarded and not revealed to man until such time as he has grown to use his powers for the upliftment of humanity and not to plot and plan the control and destruction of the human race. We like to think of ourselves as being highly civilized, but the truth is that we are barely civilized. However, at this time, humanity is given a great opportunity to make strides forward if we only heed the “word” that is being given out. The human has to learn to go within himself to find the real answers to his own evolution.
The reason the power over nature which man had was taken away from him was to enable him to continue to evolve, so that no matter how cunning and selfish he became, he would no longer have the power to destroy himself and nature as well. However, now that he has learned the secret of splitting the atom, he stands in jeopardy of destroying most of mankind if he is not careful.
The human in his period of involution lost his spiritual sight and awareness of the inner and subtle worlds, and seeing with physical sight, only saw into the physical world. Thus, with limited sight and limited mind, he sat upon a course of destruction. As a result, he has moved from tribal wars to world wars, from individual destruction to the possibility of total world destruction. He now stands on the brink of final decision; world peace or total obliteration. Man has free will, for God has made him so. He must learn to live by the law of love and by learning this all will be added unto him.
In the evolution and involution of man, he was initially molded from without, unconsciously. Then he was ruled and guided by divine right, by divine messengers and kings; these he knew consciously. Then he was taught to revere the laws of a God he was unable to see. Finally, he must learn to govern himself and live in harmony with nature and conquer his own free will; to move from destruction to construction.
Also, man learned to worship God through fear. Then he learned to worship by prayer and to attempt to live the Laws and then go to heaven as his just reward for living the good life. Lastly, he learns that the true worship of God is to do right, because it is right to do right and it is right to do without the thought of reward or self-gain; then man will be thinking with the heart and loving with the mind and he will have gained the goal. He then has an open and loving heart and a divine mind.
Lecture 76
The New Mind
To know the secret of time one must first
fathom the mystery of the timeless moment,
and this is accomplished through
Transcendental Meditation.
The mind has been so conditioned to the outer aspect of life that it knows nothing of the inner value of silence. So, the conditioned mind must be born to a new way of life and when the old mind of ceaseless noise and activity dies in silence the new mind is then born. However, for the mind to begin to experience itself the mind must have some means of turning 180 degrees in order to go within and fathom its own source. And the means of turning the mind 180 degrees to its source, we know from experience, is the Transcendental Meditation technique. Thereby the mind, going to the subtlest aspect of thought, transcends thought and slips into the field of the transcendental which is beyond thought. The mind at first may only remain in the field of the transcendental for a few seconds; then when the mind has become fully conditioned it may remain in the transcendent for forty-five minutes or so. In Transcendental Meditation all movement of psychological time vanishes and only chronological time exists.
Before one begins the practice of Transcendental Meditation one's mind experiences silence between two sounds, but this is all on the surface, whereas in meditation deep silence is experienced. In the growth of the new mind, through meditation, the mind becomes much more sensitive; the mind becomes more and more aware of the quiet.
In activity the mind has a state of many-pointedness which in meditation resolves into the one-pointedness of silence. With this comes deep rest and increased energy. And, with deep silence comes the cessation of all distractions. This could be called a period of extended silence, extended in range and duration.
The new mind to be fully effective must have breadth and depth. In increased sensitivity of the mind there comes a greater depth of the mind as well as greater breadth. It is only when the mind has developed greatly that silence is discovered in the midst of noise, and this is depth of the mind; enormous depth heretofore unknown to it.
The new mind now gains something from the Transcendental Meditation experience that it did not have before, and that is calmness in the midst of activity. The mind is now sensitive to silence and now reflects this. The mind now gains a state of balance; silence and activity.
Thinking that comes from the source of thought has great power and thinking that comes from the surface has very little impact or power. When the new mind unfolds as an expression of the Being, a new person also comes into existence. It is not a mere change of degree, but rather a change in the kind of thinking. The mind is not only changed, but so is the body. The senses, their quality, tendencies, and behavior patterns also undergo radical changes. So, all things are changed at both the structural and functional levels. A whole complete change takes place. The new mind creates a new person who is ever scaling the heights of a higher and higher spiritual expression, experience, and communication.
In as much as the entire manifestation of creation rests on the unmanifest, it is the unmanifest that permeates all of that which is manifested. There is no part of manifestation or relativity that is not reached by the unmanifest. This must be so in order for the manifest to exist.
It is the past, the present, and the future that resides in the unmanifest all at once, or as one expression. So, the unmanifest is timeless and the timeless can only be experienced in the amount of communion. In communion there is the awareness of the moment of discontinuity which is the timeless moment. However, in the field of manifestation we see differences in the realm of manifestation, or field of expression. That which co-exists as oneness in the unmanifest is seen in the realm of manifestation as existing separately. That is to say, that which co-exists in the timeless state is broken up in time-succession in the manifest.
The frustration of humanity is in attempting to find the meaning of time in the time sequence itself, trying to break up the manifest expecting to see the divine plan of life. Not finding the divine scheme, one projects a design and a self-created purpose and calls it divine, and this is the great delusion of life. One cannot dissect time and discover the timeless moment. One cannot analyze the manifest and then gain an understanding of, or a glimpse of, the unmanifest. It is only when one transcends the manifest that the unmanifest appears in all of its glory.
As the manifest drops away during Transcendental Meditation the cessation of the thinker and the thought occurs. In this utter silence of pure consciousness the timeless moment conveys the secret of time. For it is in this timeless moment that the real meaning of the time sequence is known.
It is only by communing with eternal life that one gains an understanding of temporal life.
It is the past and the future that signify the flow of time. So, the moment of the present, or the now, does not belong to the stream of time; the present, or the now, is the timeless moment. The timeless in time is indeed the moment of the now. The timeless moment is the infinite rest just as the flow of time is infinite motion. So, motion can only really have a meaning in the context of rest.
So, for one to know the secret of time, one must first fathom the mystery of the timeless moment, and this is accomplished through Transcendental Meditation. Thereby one goes from a movement of the mind to a movement in the mind, or the infusion of the Being into the mind. Now the mind becomes a channel for the expression, or communication, of the absolute in the relative. When the absolute has completely overshadowed the relative, we then become cosmic; and that is our new mind.
Lecture 77
Soul Mates
Where there is willingness between a couple to
work out their problems and balance their differences,
marriages will work and not wind up a failure.
Where a true love exists two souls are drawn together by love and not by passion, as it is love that endures and passion that fades. Also there is a soul longing that sex will not satisfy or sustain. True love is a spiritual experience and not an exercise in eroticism. Where there is true love sex becomes an extension of love, or a complete fulfillment of that love above the level of sheer passion. When there is a complete surrender to love the heart thrills and one then sees oneself mirrored in the beloved. Love is a need for the fulfillment of the very purpose of creation itself. One always carries in their heart and mind the image of the loved one they long for. Often such is an ancient memory and sometimes, out of desperation, one settles for a poor substitute and they do not find the happiness they had hoped for. Also, in some cases one marries because of karma that has to be worked out in this life.
The so-called search for a soul mate is the search for a loved one who was known in a past life and who is nowhere to be found in this life. The perfect relationship hardly exists because this is a lesson world and we are here to learn from each other for our mutual growth.
If a couple falls madly in love with each other and, because of circumstances beyond their control, they are separated and marry someone else, the image of each other always remains in their hearts and never dies. They carry this all of their lives and when they think of each other a great sadness comes over them. However, as nothing can separate one from a true love forever, often in the next life they meet each other in their youth and nothing will ever separate them as long as they live, and they live usually for each other.
Love is the motivating force of creation and those who live with love in their heart will live in happiness and peace. Love means not to use others. It means that we should treat everyone as we in turn would like to be treated. This is what the world is turning to in the New Age.
Where there is love things go along smoothly and not in jerks, stops and starts; life goes along ever so smoothly. When there is a constant effort exerted by a couple trying to live together this is usually a karmic arrangement and certain things must be worked out. Then generally, when the karma has been worked out the two part as friends and not where one or the other suffers as a result of the separation. Otherwise, the karma is not concluded and must be picked up again in a later life, or a series of lives until it is finally worked out.
Couples who truly love each other desire to have children. However, couples in a karmic marriage, usually do not care to have children and if they do, it generally becomes an extension of their karma to be worked out.
In a true marriage there must be an affinity in the physical, mental, and spiritual, otherwise the marriage suffers. If the physical affinity is missing there is frustration and dryness in life. If the mental is missing there is a lack of communication and interpretation. If the spiritual is missing there is a lack of harmony, inner peace and happiness because each is going a different direction and not moving through life side by side as they should.
Love must be at the very heart of any marriage. Infatuations are usually where one is attracted to another by one or more facets of their personality, generally because one sees a resemblance to the one they are really seeking. And when they find that there is something missing that they need, they fall away from that person and go on seeking, and sometimes they never find them; hence the old maid and old bachelor.
Also, there are certain astrological signs that we are compatible with and some that we are not so compatible with. Generally, this is important, but on the spiritual level, for an initiate, it is not so important since an initiate is guided by the soul and no longer by the stars.
In the days when convention dictated that there should be a two year engagement period, this had very much merit, because in those two years each would get to know if they were really meant for each other. We have an affinity for some people and little or none for others and this is the nature of life. So we seek out people we are comfortable with and leave others alone as much as it is possible, only contacting them when there is some karma to be worked out.
Love is the highest vibration one is capable of. However, there are different qualities of love, from total selfishness to pure unselfishness. At all levels love is very fragile and it can be destroyed if it is abused. Yet, if one handles it with care, it will sustain one all through life.
Marriage is a state of life where two are meant to go through life somewhat as co-equals and not as dictator and a slave, or as a mental giant and a mental midget. In marriage both step into the same boat (usually thought of as the same bed) and both should pull their own oar, or the boat named marriage will go around in circles and finally sink. Love is always the common denominator and when this is kept in mind all goes well and if this is forgotten chaos ensues.
A true soul mate, however, is really one's higher Self. And we are that higher Self; we are that immortal soul that was never born and that will never die. We yearn to be rejoined with the higher Self; one's real soul mate.
Lecture 78
Morality versus Spirituality
One must gain a state of spirituality, or infusion of the
Being, where the Being overshadows all else, and not
spend his time cultivating a moral virtue that has an
underlying motive behind it, because in time
of testing the morality stands to be lost.
There is a very clear difference between morality and spirituality. Certainly the moral and the spiritual are not the same. The spiritual is not an extension of the moral aspect of life. An extension of the moral does not bring one closer to the spiritual. There is a qualitative difference between the two. Morality is concerned with the modes of behavior, with the continuity of daily life and the modifications of life styles, while spirituality is concerned with a breaking off of the pattern of continuity.
It is in spirituality that one comes face to face with the mysterious aspect of complete change. Morality always seeks right adjustment with the environment, but in spirituality one is not concerned with adjustment because conformity is not its thrust in life. The spiritual person is neither a conformist nor a non-conformist. When one is spiritual, one does not function from a fixed center. One lives from moment to moment, where each moment is complete and does not need the second moment for its fulfillment.
For one to act from a fixed center is to translate the requirement of the center into one's daily life. This is the basis of moral behavior. Here one makes an effort to translate the ideal into what is the actual. However, in the spiritual, living is effortless in that there is no gap between the ideal and the actual, because action occurs without the intervention of thought. That is to say, the spiritual person has a higher and deeper nature of morality because it is natural and spontaneous. It is not the morality where one has to weigh the pending action in a decision of right or wrong. It is a morality which is in the nature of the spontaneous action of spiritual rightness.
Most activity in life is based on a moral or immoral consideration of motives, while in spiritual activity all motives have been eliminated. The person who is most confused is the one who tries to compartmentalize good and bad in the mental arena, because violence and non-violence cannot remain in two compartments of the mind. Also, love and hate cannot remain side by side in one's consciousness. In the one where love is the dominating factor hate vanishes, both outwardly and inwardly. Also, hate vanishes in a person's consciousness while in the presence of someone who is established in bliss or spirituality who has no hate in their consciousness. One must gain a state of spirituality, or infusion of the Being, where the Being overshadows all else, and not spend his time cultivating a moral virtue that has an underlying motive behind it, because in time of testing the morality stands to be lost.
In the case of religion, while one is under pressure and no longer in the presence of a guiding influence, one usually falls back to his old ways. When the evangelist leaves town his uplifting force goes with him. This is due to the fact that the desire for a higher moral life was based on fear and a promise of a heavenly life in the future. So, the motive was there but the spiritual infusion was missing. So there was nothing to sustain the newly won convert.
In morality it is the motive that makes the virtue a means to achieve a given end. In spirituality, in acquiring virtue, no thought of reward exists. One is a cultivated effort and the other is a natural state. The cultivated effort is fraught with failure, whereas the natural state knows no failure, because nothing material, or of matter, can ever overshadow that which is absolute. Where spirituality exists, no hostility, no resentment and no anger can ever exist. These all belong in the field of morality and no longer exist in the field of spirituality.
In the state of spirituality one perceives what is and in the field of morality one sees what one has projected. Also, most projections are on the platform of falsehood because they rise out of an incomplete past. And any action that arises out of a false projection can give no relevance with that which is actual. Piling up incomplete experiences causes more and more ongoing distractions. However, one who is established in the spiritual way of life has no distractions and therefore acts completely from moment to moment. He does not seek reward outside of the action; his action is its own reward. One is then free from the bondage of time.
Any person who acts in order to reap a reward for his actions is certain to be violent, for he will demand the fruit which another has gained. It is said of stealing, that it is the result of one feeling incomplete within oneself. Everyone in this world would like to have what the other person has probably spent years earning, or even lifetimes earning. So some people, feeling very incomplete, take to stealing. The feeling of incompleteness usually arises out of a process of comparison and out of this comparison comes a desire to have what the other has. So, not having earned what the other has, they take to stealing.
In contrast, the one who has a spiritual integration feels he owns the whole world and lacks nothing. In him there is no feeling of incompleteness because the Being is totally complete, therefore nothing can be lacking. So you might say one is satisfied in self by the Self.
It is also true that ‘satisfied' is not a condition of being self-satisfied. Self-satisfied is an external feeling one has who clings to his possessions, possessing something worth clinging to in the external world in his evolution. However, along with this, there is always present the worry that one might lose his possessions. While one who is spiritual feels that he possesses the whole world's wealth and thereby knows no fear of loss, because this is a feeling of acquisition without possession. It is the feeling of bliss that comes with spiritual attainment.
Also, in the final analysis of spiritual attainment, one comes into awareness of a condition called brahmacharya, which is usually understood as celibacy. However, this understanding is not wholly correct. Brahmacharya is really to no longer wantonly waste one's vital energies, and one's energies are usually frittered away through resistance and indulgence. One who is caught up in materiality or worldly desires wants the experience of continuous indulgence, or you might say, he lives and is motivated by the pleasure principle. Then, when he exhibits resistance, it is to avoid pain. So, such a life is structured solely around the factor of pleasure. This also applies in the early period of structuring a spiritual life. However, in due time, one comes to appreciate what brahmacharya really means and then he moves into a state of inner bliss, and when inner bliss comes pleasure seeking ends.
In the world or state of morality one is forever wrestling with pain and pleasure. In pleasure seeking, one is in constant conflict with pain, for pleasure and pain cannot be separated and as a result indulgence causes resistance. That is to say, one resists the arrival of pain and indulges in the experience of pleasure. It is really the individual who has turned joy into pleasure and thereby has brought pain and sorrow into his life. This is the way of the preponderance of humanity. When pleasure seeking ends, the pain also ends.
This does not imply the beginning of a dull, drab life. It is not the running away from the experience of love and beauty; rather it is the beginning of the real and true expression of love and beauty. Also, it is not the end to the delights and real joy of life. It is only when the enjoyer is removed from the experience of pleasure that he experiences the ecstasy of pure joy, or pure bliss, which has no opposite, and this is spirituality.
All text Copyright © 2012 by Vincent J. Daczynski
All Rights Reserved
May the light and love of God prevail. Please let us know how we can help.Tags: