AGNI - Way Of Fire

SECTION ONE - MEDITATION

 Chapter One - The Purpose of Meditation

This sense of synthesis is one of the things which the new esoteric schools will develop in their students and neophytes, for it will be the people trained interiorly in these schools who will be the builders of the new world and the trainers of future public opinion…They will seek to relate the One, the Monad, to the personality, and to evoke in their students a true sense of synthesis.

 Rays & Initiations page 121

Let us begin with a few key concepts that define agni yoga and help to differentiate it from previous yogas.

 Some key concepts for Agni Yoga

1)      It is a yoga undertaken by the soul and not the personality . This requires the preliminary shifting of identity from the personality to the soul

2)      The soul is viewed as the triad with the causal body being merely the lowest and most concrete expression of the soul

3)      Its purpose is to bring about the transfiguration of the personality through fusion with the triad. This requires the conscious participation of the monad

4)      The higher synthesis achieved is the realisation of the monad/soul/personality as the triple expression of one synthesised ‘life’.

 

1) A yoga of the soul.

Previous yogas have been primarily yogas designed to develop one of the personality vehicles and purify it with soul contact.. The consciousness is identified with the personal vehicle which is endeavouring to fuse or unite with the soul. In Hatha yoga the focus is on the physical body, in Bhakti yoage it is on the astral body, in Raja yoga on the mind and so on.

 Agni yoga really only begins once the soul is realised as the core of the self undertaking the yoga. Once this is realised then the preliminary stages consist of liberating the soul from false identification as quickly as possible. Thus, self realization is a prerequisite for the yoga.
The entity undertaking the yoga IS already the soul.  The personality is not separate from the soul, it is in fact a subset of the soul and owes it’s entire conscious life including its desire to unite with the soul to the fact that it originates from the soul. Self consciousness and therefore free will is a gift from the soul to animal man. Indeed the soul is the very substance of consciousness and so any thought or action taken by a self conscious entity IS already the soul thinking or taking action. It is a part of the soul however that is caught within the illusion of the three worlds and therefore considers that it has independent existence from the soul. When this illusion dissolves the personality self is realised as a subset of the soul. The boundary between the two becomes permeable and gradually the identity becomes more focused within the larger ring pass not of the soul expressing itself through the personality.

 In order to follow this thread of soul personality interaction it is necessary to define what I mean by those terms. When I speak of Personality ( capital P ) I am not speaking of the illusory separated self bent upon ensuring it’s own survival and polarised in the emotional or lower mental nature. That is the unenlightened personality that needs to build the lower part of the antahkarana and connect with the causal self. In this exposition on Agni yoga, when I speak of the Personality I am speaking of the soul inspired or ‘solarised’ Personality which might be defined as ‘the incarnating soul’ or that portion of the soul which has undertaken incarnation in the three worlds to carry out a piece of work on behalf of the ashram. This necessarily requires the completion of the higher antahkarana from the mental unit to the mental permanent atom and therefore the Triad. Consciousness as it expresses through the fourth or human kingdom, has a ninefold manifestation.

 

This ninefold manifestation has a triple manifestation on the seven planes and therefore man manifests as a triplicity of spirit, soul and matter. The atmic and mental planes are those of overlap and also of transition. On the mental plane at the third initiation a human being stands upon the mountain of the synthesised personality life and realises himself as a Soul. On the atmic plane at the fifth initiation man stands as a conscious Soul on the mountain of hierarchical life and realises himself as a monad. The first aspect of the lesser entity is also the third aspect of a greater one. The realisation of this fact is part of what constitutes initiation.

 2) The soul-as- triad. When I speak of the ‘soul’ in Agni Yoga, I am not referring to the causal body or at least not only the causal body. The focus upon ‘soul-as causal body’ has been a necessary materialisation that has now outlived its usefulness in esoteric instruction. In the same way that we are taught that the body is not a principle in order to offset the tendency to focus identity there, we must also begin to realise that the causal body is not the soul but merely a house, a body for soul expression. In ordinary society we do not confuse a person with their body but recognise them as a complex blend of thoughts, desires and feelings working through a physical form. In soul community therefore we must also realise each other as essentially atma-buddhi working out through manas.

 In earlier theosophical presentations, the soul/personality duality was largely confined to the three worlds. Here when we speak of soul/personality we are addressing a duality which expresses through five planes. The Personality refers to that half of the duality incarnated in the lower three planes while the soul refers to that half which is focused on the three triadal planes.

 The mental plane is a plane of overlap and shared by both soul and Personality with the fourth subplane being the point of identity transition from one to the other and therefore the gateway to inititiation. The three manasic initiations shift the identity sequentially onto the higher three subplanes of the mental plane and at the fourth initiation the identity is released from the mental plane altogether into its essential atma-buddhi nature.

Thus the ‘Personality’ referred to in these teachings only begins to function at the first initiation – it is that part of the identity which is causally conscious. It reaches its peak expression at the third initiation and then is released from any separative functioning whatsoever.

 The Personality is an ‘incarnated soul’, becoming conscious of and then fully expressing the purpose or atma nature of the soul.

The early understanding of the ‘soul-as causal body’ is equivalent to ‘personality as physical body’. The soul as atma-buddhi is equivalent to personality as kama-manas.

 3) Transfiguration requires the action of the Monad

 Just as the fourth subplane of the mental plane is the gateway to the first three initiations of the threshhold, so the fourth subplane of the atmic plane is the gateway to the higher initiations – the fifth, sixth and seventh with the buddhic plane being the key to the crucifixion/ressurrection of the human soul.

 Just as the causal body forms a sheath for the soul on the higher three subplanes of the mental plane, so there is a monadic ‘sheath’ or body on the higher three subplanes of the atmic plane. When the identity of the intitiate is focused within this ‘atmic body’ then the soul could be referred to as ‘incarnated monad’ prior to liberation from the five worlds altogether.

At the first three initiations there is a flow of energy from the three levels of the triad into the personality. At the first, the manasic aspect of the soul works on the mental body, at the second the buddhic aspect of the soul conditions the emotions and at the third, the atmic aspect of the soul works directly upon the etheric with the resulting raising of kundalini and the beginning of the liberation process.

 

 

The purification process works from the bottom up starting with the physical body and the appetities, proceeding to mastery of the emotions and then the conquering of the great illusion on mental levels. This is from the perspective of the personality. From the perspective of the soul, the mind is enlightened first, followed by the heart and then the etheric/physical body.

The fusion of the soul and the personality requires the active participation of the monad – that dual expression of essential energy which lies outside of the five worlds altogether and yet uses the atmic plane as its field of expression in the same way that the soul uses the mental plane. A direct alignment is created linking a series of triangles.

Etheric body – crown, ajna , alta major – synthetic point – third eye

Personality – knowledge, love sacrifice petals – synthetic point – the jewel ( atma buddhi )

Soul – will, love, intelligence – synthetic point – the monad –

These three ‘eyes’ are located on the physical, mental and atmic planes respectively 

 

 

The resultant inflow of energy is what causes the kundalini, as the synthesised energy latent within matter itself to rise up the threefold channel of the ida, pingala and sushumna. The Sushumna is itself a threefold channel comprised of the sushumna itself as the outside channel containing within it the Vajra which in turn contains the Chitrini. The process of revelation is ongoing and, as with all triplicities the first aspect of one triplicity becomes the third aspect of a higher one, just as the third initiation of the personality is really the first for the soul and the mental plane is the third aspect of the soul and the first of the personality.

 ( more info on sushmna from Kundalini in the Physical World – Mary Scott  arkana 1989)

4)  The Monad, the Soul and the Personality form the synthesised expression of a greater life which is in the process of being revealed. This life is revealed at the fifth initiation in the same way that the monad is revealed to the soul infused personality at the third. This life expresses a fourth quality of deity as the following quote from Rule thirteen of Rays and Initiations makes clear.

 

“…the consecrated personality – under control of the Monad, via the antahkarana, and in cooperation with the one known God – walks the ways of Earth as a channel for the three divine qualities ( love, will and intelligence), bit also as a channel for that which these three qualities will enable him later to sense, know and reveal.”

          Page 258 R & I

Figure 4 The Fourth Quality

 

On a planetary scale this fourth quality is related to the ‘saving force’ which is generated when the three centres of Shamballa, Hierarchy and Humanity are consciously circulating their energies in both directions.

To glimpse this process we must once again be flexible in our thinking about what constitutes the soul and the personality.

In the past we have considered the personality as kama manas and humanity as the masses of men polarised primarily in their astral vehicles. ( humanity as the solar plexus centre )

In this current teaching I am referring to the Personality as the incarnated Soul, conscious upon the higher mental plane and therefore ‘Humanity’ would refer to the New Group of World Servers. ( humanity as the ajna centre )

In the distant future the ‘PERSONALITY’ will refer to the fifth degree initiate polarised on the higher atmic plane. The Masters of the Wisdom are the representatives of this ‘HUMANITY’ being the Masters of the lower five planes and therefore the creative throat centre of Deity.

Table 1

To sum up, the Agni yogi in his approach to meditative work must keep the following points in mind:

His work must be undertaken as the soul and hence his first step is to stably overcome the great illusion. As a soul he must learn to work with all three levels of triadal energy and not just confine himself to the higher mental plane. He must strive to free himself from the mental plane altogether. In order to fuse the triadal energies with the integrated personality he must consciously call upon the energies of the monad. Contact with the monad should serve a dual purpose – the liberation on to higher planes of his identity and the penetration into the lower planes of his triadal will, love and intelligence. Finally he must seek to balance the energies of monad, soul and personality and strive for a conceptual realisation of and eventual contact with that which lies behind these three and seeks to express through them.

 CHAPTER TWO - MEDITATIVE APPROACH