July 4, 1963 Dear Gail:
“How does one die daily and yet live?” This is the seventh spiritual question which one must confront once he steps out on the pathway to the Absolute. The answer is simple if you know Shabda Yoga— that is, you must learn to leave the body at will and dwell on other planes, and return to the body when possible, and at your own command!
In his letters St. Paul used this phrase, “I die daily.” This meant that he had control of himself, that he could leave the body at will and come back to it. Therefore he was dying daily and yet he lived! This is the crux and the truth of the whole of life! How then can one bring himself to this point?
He brings himself to this point by first finding the Master as I’ve pointed out in previous letters concerning the spiritual problems. Then he is initiated and learns how to meet the Master outside the body, and travel the universes of the other worlds. His body is left intact, breathing and with all apparent looks of a live flesh and blood body, but it is only the shell because the spirit has left it and has gone elsewhere! You ask how can the body stay alive when the essentials of its own being has left it; that it has died and yet it will return. Suspend-ed animation is one name of the body when it has suspendSuspend-ed all life and can stay in this position until the spirit returns.
Stories are told in India about criminals in the old days who hid themselves in graves while the law searched the countryside in hopes of finding them. They went into suspended animation and left their bodies buried within the graves where nobody would suspect they were hiding. I heard a large number of these stories while in India, though never saw one. I know an Egyptian who does a professional
job of getting buried alive and staying underground for at least five days. He has learned the trick of the trance state in which the yogis are adepts at doing, and using it for money-making devices or to sail up to God.
When one wants to go into suspended animation (the trance state) he puts his concentration on the Tisra Til or what is called the Third Eye, and waits for the Master’s appearance. If he doesn’t have a master, then wait anyway for one will put in his appearance. If you are not certain whether this is a master or not, there are certain code words you may use to determine if you wish to leave your body and go with this entity. These code words are: “In the name of HURAY, I order you to give your true identity?” If it is a master, he doesn’t worry about such a challenge and will give his true identity. But if it is not a master, the entity will generally fade away into oblivion.
The Master takes you out of the body. It is left as though a suit of clothes and you are shown the wonders of the universe. There are other ways of getting out of the body but this way is the soundest, and the one in which you are certain of no harm. The way of the sacred mushroom in Mexico, used by certain cults, is under the guidance of a priest. But there is peyote, and mescaline, and a number of other drugs which can take one out of his body. The latter are usually done at the expense of the individual and you can never tell what is going to happen if you are not trained in leaving the body, and allowing it to stay intact until the return of the spirit. If the body should pass away, or be buried by mistake, then the spirit may not be able to find another one or adjust outside of it for considerable time and thus he becomes a wandering entity which might bring harm to those in the physical body.
Many are able to leave their body, but do so unknowingly.
Some do it during sleep, and yet it is recorded and
remembered during their awakening hours. Peter spoke of his Self as the glorious body, and throughout the Bible there were references of the Self as being used by those who know how. There is the reference of Jesus when about to be seized by those in a mob, and he disappeared from their sight. There is another reference of him on the mount, and there appeared to him a couple of prophets and he became transfigured.
There is the story of his rising from the tomb and appearing to the apostles in the upper chamber. Now Christianity makes something great out of the ability which Jesus used his other body, and seem to think that nobody other than he could do this. However, his apostles had the same ability, and many in ancient times in the land of Judea could make their appearances in two places at the same time. Yet he told an audience, according to St. John’s scripture, that any man could do what he could and better!
One of the first things a master teaches his disciples is the ability to get out of his body at will. This was the first thing I showed you— but this isn’t a subtle reference that I’m a master. My knowledge of those things which a master teaches his disciple are great, that is because I have always wanted to learn and took time and effort to do so. Since anyone who has knowledge cannot store it no more than a man can take money out of circulation, he must impart this knowledge openly to someone else or a wide group. I therefore must give you what knowledge that I know and to others through my writings. To give knowledge without discrimination is, in the words of Jesus, “to cast the pearls before the swine.” In other words one must be careful to whom he gives his knowledge and what he gives them, otherwise two things can happen to him: First, the very knowledge of life which he gives out to a person can be used on him, by the receiver, and secondly, the receiver of the
knowledge can take it lightly and throw it away. Thereby the giver has wasted his time and his effort upon someone who was not of mental, moral and spiritual strength to receive the message. So you must be careful of what you tell anyone about the occult teachings.
One of the earliest groups who used the out-of-body-experiences, were the Magi. The Magi were a group of magicians who studied the spiritual problems of their day sometime along about 500 B.C. to maybe 500 A.D., and there are some remnants of this cult still existing today. They were descendants of Zoroastrianism, and of a very high order. It was said that the three wise men who visited Christ at the time of his birth, were Magi members sent by their master in Persia to greet the savior as he came into the world.
They knew by signs and prophecies that a world teacher was coming, and where he would exactly be born, and the conditions of his life. He was found by a Magi, out of his body, and reported to the Magi master, who sent the three Magi to greet Christ with their gifts. The other part of the legend goes like this— they went in their spiritual bodies, manifesting at the gates of the city riding camels, so that their physical bodies could be seen by those incapable of having second sight and their visit recorded.
I have pointed out that this out-of-the-body-experience is most important, and that the 7th spiritual problem is leaving the body daily, and seeing that it dies and is renewed when spirit returns. St. Paul’s letters have constant references to this: “the man who was caught up in heaven three days, etc.”
The Acts of the Apostles also makes many references. This is the keystone of the spiritual life. Learn it!
More later.
Paul
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