Lection seventeen from the Teacher delivered at the common Occult class on the 22nd of June 1922, Thursday
A secret prayer
The works for music have been written.
Now, if they ask you which world touches music or which world descends from music, what are you going to answer? – From the Mental world, i.e. only an intelligent man may sing. Therefore, music and human intelligence go together. Because the right thought, is music. Now I shall give you one little musical attempt. Of course those of you who don’t know how to sing have to make an effort. Firstly learn the scale, the seven tones and from them – learn the natural tone which the scale starts from. You may take the natural tone of the organ or the piano. Some pianos starts from higher or lower with a half tone. Learn the tones of the scale without rising or lowering, naturally, everybody here learns C, D, E…C, B – forward and backward.
When you have a good frame of mind, sing the tones. Afterwards, after your frame of mind changes, sing them again and notice what the difference is. For example, if you are angry, sing C, D…C, B and backwards and see what resistances you will meet. Observe psychically, make a difference in the singing: sometimes you have an inharmonious temper – see in which tones what disharmony comes; sometimes you may have some inner fear – sing the scale again forwards and backwards, note the tones you don’t sing properly. You will make psychical observations. Make these attempts and psychically you will differentiate how far you are far from perfect. For example, some musicians, I have heard, take higher D, cannot sing it correctly. Why? – Because they are extraordinarily active. At some point they don’t sing B correctly, somewhere they don’t sing C correctly. To sing means that you must always make the tones correctly. After you change it in whatever relation, you are not a musician any more, you do not keep the rules. Therefore, a musician is only this, the one who in all conditions keeps the natural relations – I see the sensible natural relations that exist between the tones.
For example now, when you quarrel, and the quarrel is music, somewhere the emphasis in some tone is higher. In speech there is rising and lowering, isn’t there? If we translate anger into a musical language then when somebody gets cross, he sings forte; when somebody wants to gloss himself, he sings very softly, sings pianissimo. But you will see that in all of you the tones are weakly included. In the past, you didn’t learn music and now you have to make a very big effort. And your failure in life is due to a lack of music. The criminality in people is due to the fact that there is no music. For example, people – killers do not have any music. Therefore, the music is one stimulus – after you start to sing, the blood starts to flow into the front part of the head, the brain attracts the blood to the front part, and so it develops correctly. And the first thing in the Black lodge is that it always says, “You are old, you do not need singing, God may do and without your singing, you are indisposed today, do not sing!” And you start to become coarse, to become coarse till you lose this feeling, and the blood goes down in the lower centre of the brain and everything in you begins to pine. Afterwards in some people there is a shame – they love music but don’t sing since the others will laugh at them. There is no shame in this because there are no singers. I have heard only one singer sing nicely, to control her voice so much – one Turkish woman, I listened to her twenty years before. I have heard two or three singers who sing nicely – where the soul takes part, not only to quaver the voice, but also to make an effort.
Music is one natural art. When you sit, you start to think how you will sing. No, you have to sing without thinking; if you start to think how you will sing, you will not sing. When a man starts to think how to pay his debts, he does not have money in his box, and when the case is full, he doesn’t think, but pays; and whoever comes along says, “How much do I have to pay you, here you are.” Why? – His box is full. All of us are people that think a lot – we think about religion a lot, about the virtues we think a lot. Why do we think? – Because the boxes are empty. Now the disciples of the Occult School do not know music. After the box is empty, you will think but you will know that without music you can’t be disciples of the School that you have to know. One condition: without music, you can’t be disciples of the School, so good disciples. And the first exam we will give is on music and there you may degenerate. The first exam in the School is music – they will give you one part to sing, one very easy song will be given to you to sing.
So, you understand already, music and thought go hand in hand. And after that we can use the music as an educational resource. Watch different people and see what kind of songs they like. When somebody is indisposed, sing him the song which he likes and he will have a good frame of mind. Every man has a favourite song. The religious people in the Orthodox Church and in the Evangelical Church also have a favourite song.
Now first, the observation, which you have to make, is in controlling the scale. Do this exercise for two weeks one by one – every day, morning and the evening before you lie down. In the morning sing the scale three times – make observations, not just singing. You want to study occult sciences, have great ideas to grasp the powers of Nature but if you can’t grasp the difference, the soft vibrations between two music tones, how will you grasp those great powers with higher tones? And now I don’t want to encourage you but when you study the occult music and you start singing, all the grit will start to group in one place and create stones – there are occult songs with which only when you sing to a stone, for ten minutes from above it will start to split; there is an occult music which if you sing you can stop the stream of a river; there is occult music that if you sing near by some dried up spring, the water will flow.
And if sometime you dry up and begin to look like dried up springs, it is because you don’t sing. You say, “God does not love me” – your spring dries up. Start to sing and your spring will start running immediately. You will say, “Now I am sad, when I get into a good frame of mind then I will sing.” There is no reason to sing then, you will sing now! Afterwards, if a boil breaks out in some of you, I shall give you one musical attempt to cure it: if somebody has a boil sing the scale three times in the morning, in the evening – again three times and if you sing correctly, this boil will pass. And why can't some illnesses be under treatment? You lose the music. A man who is afraid and who can’t sing dies. You have an inflammation, forty degrees temperature, sing some (some, any, 1) song and the temperature will fall immediately by (few, 3-4 degrees lower) several degrees. But the doctors will say, “He is ill, to keep silent, no singing, only to feel his breath.” You have a bad frame of mind, an unpleasant state – sing! Sing to this state one song, sing a second one, third, till you sing the proper song. The practical educational influence of music – it does interest us. We don’t have an interest in things that stand in our way, but what can produce the music in us, it interests us.
Now, in connection with the music, I shall define two ways of Life. The ascending, the correct way of Life is a way that contains in itself all the ascending powers: there is form, content, and sense in it - it is called the correct way. The descending way is a way that contains all the descending forms, content, and sense of the descending life; it is called the Left way. So, with Way you will understand all the possibilities which Life demands in a given moment – it is called Way. Now, music is one of the resources of the Correct way, of the ascending way, one of the great resources of the ascending correct way in Life. Therefore, every single life has to start with music.
Now when you sing you will not do it as pupils C, D, E, F, G…- it is not singing. You will stop yourself and when you say C, will forget that you are in the World – when you say C you will think that you start Life, and start to live. And when you say D you will think that this Life in which you live will start to form it, will start to collect materials for it. When you come to E you will understand that you distribute this material. F helps to understand for what the received inside combination could be used in Life. G, it is a construction – starting of the construction, A is plaster, and B is finishing of windows and doors. Then you will finish – you will do not only mechanical windows but will know that one window is one opening, a place that the Light may come from. The door is a place from which a man may come – a way for movement of the soul. When we talk about windows and doors we see that the window is a place where the Light may penetrate, and the door is a place through which the soul may come in. These are only a few occult signs in music; I shall speak about this another time.
Now sing C. You take Ci-i, is there music in this Ci-i-i? The soul still doesn’t take part in this singing. In these vibrations, not only do you have to take part, but you also have to control your respiratory system, because here you have one more of the important centres – the larynx. Through the brain you will develop the larynx. The correct speech in the world depends on music – if music is correctly developed, then speech will develop correctly. Therefore, you will concentrate all your energy in the lungs – between the sympathetic nervous system and the larynx; between these two centres, the wheel of the brain begins to turn. Of course, there is that shame in you – if I invite somebody to get up and sing now, all of you will start to laugh. For example, you will not watch how he sings but will giggle, and laugh because he doesn’t sing the tones correctly. And with that you kill his desire to sing.
Well, let’s all now take the first tone C. (Everybody sing: C, C, C). Let’s now come to D. C, D, D – louder! (Everybody sing). You don’t do it correctly, this D is not clear, something let you be far from perfect, this shows that the energies are not distributed correctly. But C is clear, it is good. (Everybody sang the whole scale.)
Sometimes I shall occupy you – we will take some occult exercise on music. Then we will make one difference: we will sing one usual song normally, and afterwards we will sing the same song with the rules of the occult music to see what effect it can produce.
Now the rest of the things you will read the next time. Do you have another theme? (- No)
“The use of the mountain tops” – what use does climbing up bring? Afterwards what other use do they have? – They retain the snow attract the dampness and the wind.
Now, you notice all these objects, do not think that they are given arbitrarily. All the themes you will write in one special notebook and will think them over. For the music in fact you will think from now further. As many themes as you have written, you will stop over them and will look at them again because in the future we will start to combine – for example, I shall want to combine the relations which exist between music and the mountain tops. Of course, these are complex exercises, we will pass onto them later. After one year, we will come to the complex exercises. You will be careful to put one strong base now, because if you don’t put this strong base you can’t build upon it. Because in the Occult school we have aimed first to develop the centres of Faith, Hope, Love, to develop the musical feelings, to develop the imagination, to develop the mathematical abilities, the judicious abilities, the creative mind, to develop amicability, to regulate human ambition, human pride, afterwards to put to work the executive possibilities of the man in work, to develop speech, to put it in a correct way, afterwards to create the correct forms for Life. These are tasks which have to be worked upon. And after these centres are developed, then we will connect them. Every single centre is connected with some trend and then it can manipulate. So it is imminent to do exercises, exercises.
Let’s say that you have one hard task: you are a pupil or a student and you failed the exam, and you haven’t the resources to learn in the next year – your benefactor doesn’t support you any more. Three thoughts may pass through your mind: to kill yourself, to interrupt your life. What should this student do? – He will sing, he will start to sing the scale from below upward and from above downward, he will say, “Life is one ascending scale.” Start from lower C and go to the other, to upper C. – “They have failed me.” – you will go down in the scale, i.e. the failing will think as a coming back on the way back. When they fail somebody, they will say, “Sing the scale backward C, B, A...” Who doesn’t understand music will say, “I have failed.” But whoever understands the music will say, “I sing the scale on the way back.” – And then he will rise again to upper C. And when he acquires the tones, he safely passes the exam. But when they fail him too, he will sing the scale correctly backward – it is the same thing. For example, now you cannot convince yourself that if they fail you on the exam it is better than to pass. Many times miserable pupils don’t learn throughout the year, but it happens that he is examined on the easiest object, he has five and passes, but it is so much better to fail him, and let him repeat learning the material thoroughly – then for the next class he will be ready.
Now in the Occult school you can’t pass just like that. The material is connected in a way that you can’t pass by skipping material. The disciple has to learn everything and to do it nicely. No matter what kind of tricks you will use, there is no way you can pass, it is one necessity. So, all the things you have to learn well. And the sufferings in life are nothing but failing - constantly failing us. Sometimes you think that you are virtuous but suffering fails you on the Virtue. You say, “I was good until yesterday.” But you still haven’t learn the art of being good – it is an art to know how to be good. In occultism, we understand “good man” as one who knows how to use some Divine powers correctly in the forms that are predetermined to them. This means a good man: to every Divine power to give the respective form, which is definite for it. Because if in different states, in different tempers, and in different ages, you know what the form is that corresponds to this power and you may give in to it with no mistake, then you will be a good man. It’s like that. Therefore, you will learn with which power, in which case which form corresponds. Because in the Occult meaning, only in this way will you obtain Light. Now you discourage yourselves, every day you become good and bad and hard work is imminent to you – mainly to those of you who want to learn.
Afterwards, you will keep another rule: the great occult science always put itself in a way that a man has to start to work with the weaker powers in the world, they are the most productive. You will start with the most weak power that you have. And even in the practical relation you see the same: when a man starts with big steps immediately after he leaves his home, he can’t finish any kind of job – as he goes further he reduces, reduces, and in the middle of the way he tires and stops; but if some man goes out and if he suspects and if he starts very slowly, very slowly and gradually increases, this man will finish the work. And now in religious relation the science consists of the same: the one who goes out in the street and says, “I shall do this and that,” he will do nothing. No stop yourself and say, “This that the teacher gave me, I shall learn it; for the other way I don’t know, but today this little step, I’ll do it.” He doesn’t think about the future. Somebody, when he comes into the school, does think about how he will end the second, the third class etc., what diploma he will take, how they will meet him with flowers, adornments – all this fills his mind, but this pupil is going to do nothing. Now some of you, as occult disciples think in this way, “Now when we finish here, we will do this and we will do that.” No, whatever you are going to do, don’t think about it as only coming to an end, don’t waste your powers. When you have free time, you may dream on different objects but in the School – no other objects for sure. Out of the Schools there is dreaming. The Occult brothers, when they want to dream, from the Invisible world, they go down to hell to see all the dreams – because hell is full of great dreams. If somebody wants to see the greatest dreams, the greatest plans, he has to go down to hell – what dreams, plans, and projects there are there! The most learned philosophers write to the priests, to prophets, to teachers, to mothers, to fathers – all the plans are collected there. And when some man wants to become very great, God sends him down to see the great plans.
And because of that in the Occult school firstly they learn the little works and after that step up to learn the great works. There you will start with the little powers that you have in you, with the smallest impulses – do not start with the strongest impulse of the soul. Some preach to begin with the strongest energy but in the occultism we start with the smallest, with the weakest inner convictions. If you can give life to the smallest inner conviction, you will have power to do great works. With money if you may do something, it’s good – but if your father leaves you a hundred thousand leva; but if your father leaves one penny and if with this penny you do something, you are a man, but if you do something with one stotinka… Mind is required, it’s required heart, and required will! Because of that with the weaker powers you have, you will start with them. And the world starts with the weaker things.
A secret prayer
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