LESSONS OF THE GOLDEN DAWN

        INTRODUCTORY LESSON VII

During the course of our independent quests, I am sure that at sometime, you have come in contact with other forms and other ideas of individuals, or perhaps other races of people, in which the physical body was, more or less, disregarded in their quest for God, and that the individual sought only through the mind for expression.

No true student of the Holy Order of Mans may fully discharge his responsibilities and obligations to God, or man, by permitting his body to become emaciated or degenerated.

One must eat well, sleep well, and work well!  Then you will have a New Age God-loving being.

Perhaps you noticed that I said God-loving, not God-fearing.  We do not need to fear God because we know already, what the judgment is, which comes through the Law, and we are seeking to know God truly, the self.

A true New Age being should be healthy, strong, radiant, and ever ready for action, the same as our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.  He not only was a well-developed man, but He had a well-developed brain and a magnificently divine, emanating, strong, spiritual power, for he was one with the Father.

These are obligations, as lay brothers of the Holy Order of Mans, or as ministers, teachers or whatever the case may be.  There can be no half-way measures.

We were created in the likeness of God; created with perfect bodies and, therefore, must maintain them in the reverence and respect of our teacher. 

In fact, in the reverence and respect of ourselves, because this body was not attained for use through sporadic acceptance or a gift, but was developed over many lifetimes of use.

Do not listen to any teacher who disregards the physical body and its use and beauty. All are essential in attaining God-realization.

Lead a balanced life, as a starting pattern.  When you have found the self, you will then be perfectly capable of working and directing your own path and ways.

CONTROL

We are going to learn the art of concentration.  Concentration is an art which gives us control of mind.  The mind which is the Lamb of God spoken of in the Bible, which we learn to hold, in alliance, in order to listen to the self.

True concentration, which is a tool of man, is the means of communication with the cosmic mind.  I could go on with all kinds of descriptions, but will simply say this.  Concentration is to learn control of your mind, and its thinking, in a direct channel of one single thought, idea or purpose, without the intervention of any other thought coming into your mind.

Concentration is not complicated.  It can be learned by anyone who really desires to find illumination and the God-self.  Concentration is a method, a tool, by which you will bring the physical body peace.  Because through it, you will then be able to reach meditation and a great deal of harmony and peace will exist within and around you.

Also, you will get rid of many of the interrupting and disturbing things in your life.

When you concentrate, concentrate on one subject, one object, preferably an apple, orange, or candle, -- something which has life and energy apparent in it.

Your first procedure is to decide on what you are going to concentrate -- say an orange.  You set the orange on a table or desk, put yourself in a comfortable position and start to think about the orange only.

You think about the skin, its color; the white layer of fiber underneath the skin, what it looks like; the meat of the orange, the color and texture of the juice; how it came from the sun.

You think about the segments of the orange; how they are build with the skin around each segment, the seed in each segment; the very core of the orange which is where the stem of the orange was fastened; how it grew out of a bud and became the germ of the fruit which was fed from the branch out of the tree, that drew part of its energy from the sun, the Life Force; how some of the substances came up through the branch from the trunk of the tree, out of the roots from the earth; how roots are supplied from the rain and minerals of the earth.

When you can follow this object’s life development back through, its creative life span to the source of creation of its supply, without any other thought creeping into your mind, accepting just what you are concentrating on, you have learned the first real concentration.

When you have repeated this exercise for a span of seven days successfully, at night and in the morning, then remove the orange, eat the orange, and see the orange in front of your eyes in the same place it was before.

Follow the same procedure as previously when you had the orange in front of you.  When this is accomplished for seven days, then you have learned to start to concentrate.  Another material will be supplied.

This procedure may be followed with any object or any subject.  Do not try to violate the Law of Creation.  Concentration is not a method in which to acquire things, but a method of conditioning our minds so that we have control of ourselves and the mind.

Later, you will learn to heal and to work through the Law of Prayer for things that you need for changes in your life.