Agni - Book Review by Barbara Mare

AGNI: WAY OF FIRE, Bruce Lyon, White Stone Publishing, New Zealand (whitestone@highden.org), 2004, 265 pages, 30+ colour diagrams and charts - available in hardback ($55.00US) or paperback ($22.00US).

The other day I accompanied a group of young people to Gravity Canyon just south of Taihape in New Zealand’s North Island. This is prime bungy jumping territory. Watch out for the adrenalin rush. They secure your ankles to a thick elastic rope and you leap into thin air from an iron bridge over the Rangitikei River and fall some 80 metres. Depending on body weight and miscellaneous other factors, you either bounce about madly or glide gracefully until equilibrium is reached and you are lowered onto a waiting raft. I’m happy to say I’ve made the jump! During my visit this time I noted with amusement that for the comfort of jumpers and non-jumpers alike they have built a nice little café on the edge.

The Café on the Edge is a transition point between understanding our life purpose and expressing it. …We stand on the edge and wonder whether perhaps it might not be our time to jump. We sit down for a minute just to catch our breath and summon our courage. Maybe we should have a cup of tea and consider things for a little before actually jumping...after all we are going to jump eventually. Then we might need to build a little shelter—just for the night of course, because in the morning... A week goes by and we have added a few temporary modifications to our shelter so that when the next jumper comes along we are in the position to offer him a cup of tea and even—should he require it—a warm safe place to stay the night before we both jump in the morning. Pretty soon we are running a great little Café on the Edge. (Agni, pp.226-7)

I missed my chance. I should have snuck in a copy of Bruce Lyon’s Agni: Way of Fire and left it like a sort of Gideon’s Bible for potential jumpers. Only thing is, Agni is really not a ‘coffee table’ book. Actually you might say it’s a practical manual for all those who are really ready to take a leap.

Agni is the Lord of Fire. Agni Yoga is the yoga of synthesis. The basic premise of Agni Yoga is this: There are no external circumstances which can defeat the human spirit. Funnily enough, the average bungy jumper might understand this better than the average esotericist.

“Knowing something and being willing to put it to the test are two different things. …It is right here that the chasm between the average esotericist and the true Agni yogi opens. Learning esoteric information is acquisition. Putting it into practice requires a stripping away.” (p.191)

Agni is targeted nevertheless towards those who have some familiarity with the trans-Himalayan teachings. But the key lies in their practical application. This is the way we fuel the fire. The book has three sections: Meditation, Study and Service. The first section describes the progression of meditative work starting with that spark of inspiration when we first make soul contact. From there we learn to cooperate with the higher Will, and progress to becoming an instrument of divine causation in the world as we define and carry out our ‘masterpiece’ – that piece of the Master’s Will that is our joy and responsibility to bring into expression. Eventually as consciousness expands we move into full identification as soul through which the Will of the monad can pour into the world:

The Third Degree initiates…focus the eye [of the ashram] through their manifested work in the three worlds. When they teach, write and express the energy of Hierarchy they create a double channel for the flowing in of Hierarchical power and simultaneously a ‘window’ through which the Masters can perceive. (p.52)

The Meditation section ends with a whole chapter of specific meditative exercises, alignments, mantrams, prayers and formulas to be used in the everyday practice of Agni Yoga.

Actually my favourite page of Agni is in the Study section in the middle: page 134. It’s a detailed picture of Agni. A two-dimensional representation that we are to imagine in multiple dimensions. It is an inspired description of the cosmic planes and subplanes utilising coloured spheres to show the intricate interrelationships of the rays that create the energetic fabric of our solar system. The centre of each sphere is the point of synthesis of each entity, from a human being right up to a Solar Logos. A theory of astrological rulerships is also incorporated. Like any good symbol the unraveling of the multiple layers of this one picture draws us closer to the mysteries of the universe. If you are curious about the mysteries of colour and number, the question of good and evil, the purpose of the sacrifice of the solar angels or the mysteries of the Creative Hierarchies, this chapter is well worth a read.

The leap of the Agni yogi is first a leap in consciousness. Agni Yoga is the yoga of the soul. But the fire of divine Will must be brought through Love into action. The Service section outlines the four stages for bringing Will into expression right now in our everyday lives. The first is alignment with Purpose. The second stage is commeasurement and commitment:

“This commeasurement can be likened to the tuning of a piano wire. Too much tension and the wire will snap, too little and it will not ‘sound’ its true note. The soul ‘stretches’ itself between the monad and the personality creating a living antahkarana down which the fire of spirit may flow.” (p.202)

Then what is required is leveraged action. The soul working through the personality must make leveraged decisions on the best use of resources at its disposal. The final stage is surrender: Surrender to Life through the abstraction of identification so that the higher Will can flow directly through the instrument of the personality.

Ultimately the fire which is Agni, the fire which is ourselves, burns up the causal body which is the anchoring point of the soul in the world of human endeavour. We can take all the time in the world drinking lattes at the Café on the Edge but one day we will liberate ourselves. To jump now, a willingness is all it takes.

You are the One you have been waiting for.
Let me break you open from the inside
And water your desert
With the flame of the ONE LIFE. (p.251)

Barbara Maré