A. Three preliminary steps [for which the practice of alignment should have prepared the student of the higher mysteries. These steps must precede all effort to develop the intuition, and this may take several months (or even years) of careful preparation. Fire is the symbol of the mind and these are the first three stages of the Agni Yoga discipline or of the yoga of fire for which Raja Yoga has prepared the student].Rule One
"The Solar Angel collects himself, scatters not his force but, in meditation deep, communicates with his reflection."
1. PROFOUND ATTENTIVENESS, the evocation of the stage of spiritual "tension." It is a tension brought about by complete control of the personal self so that it is "fitted for contact with the real," like the tension of a taut string attuned to a musical note ready to resonate at a certain frequency.
"The majority of disciples are not even 60 per cent effective because their points of tension are scattered all over the personality and are not focused where the point of individual tension should be. Each has to discover that point of spiritual tension for himself. The reason that disciples are not sensitive to the Master, to the life of the Ashram and to each other is that they are extended and not tense; they are working and living on the periphery of consciousness and not at the centre." -DINA I, 735
2. ADAPTABILITY of the Soul-infused Personality. The Personality becomes pliably receptive to the life of the Soul, achieving a state of fusion with the Soul or Angel, as it eliminates the "points of frictions."
Disease, both physical and psychological, has its roots in the good, the beautiful and the true. It is but a distorted refection of divine possibilities. The thwarted soul, seeking full expression of some divine characteristic or inner spiritual reality, produces within the substance of its sheaths a point of friction. Upon this point the eyes of the personality are focussed, and this leads to disease. The art of the healer is concerned with the lifting of the downward focussed eyes unto the soul, the Healer within the form. The spiritual or third eye then directs the healing force, and all is well. -Esoteric Healing, Law IV
3. SERENE EXPECTANCY. The holding of the mind steady in the light of the soul, which remains the attitude of the lower self for the entire remaining period of work, held at the point of tension by the soul and not by an effort of the personality. The soul undertakes this holding when the personal self has done its utmost to achieve the desired tension.
Community, 22. One may reach Us only in harmonious agreement. We need not deification but a certain quality of spirit, as a lamp of concordant tension. A flickering lamp is unbearable for prolonged work. The same laws apply in everything, and according to the law of justice a flickering lamp injures itself. I counsel My lamps not to blink. The dynamo is not damaged because of the quality of the lamps, but uncoordinated voltage often results in a grievous—zing! And the basic metal must be provided anew. The laws are identical in everything.
***
Rule Two
"When the shadow hath responded, in meditation deep the work proceedeth. The lower light is thrown upward; the greater light illuminates the three, and the work of the four proceedeth."
***
B. Next stages in the Technique [these must be thoroughly understood and form the basis of prolonged brooding and intelligent reflection, carried on whilst the daily avocations and duties are being performed and not carried out at certain set times. The trained intuitive or disciple lives ever the dual life of mundane activity and of intense and simultaneous spiritual reflection... This is a suggestive formula for a more advanced meditation attitude, not form].4. The (Monadic) Presence. Definite and sustained effort to sense the (Monadic) Presence throughout the Universe in all forms and in all presentations of truth. This could be expressed in the words: "the effort to isolate the germ or seed of divinity which has brought all forms into being"... the effort primarily to see in the light which the Angel radiates the point of light behind all phenomenal appearances.
.1. God IS. The Lord for aye stands firm. Being exists alone. Naught else is.
.2. Time IS. Being descends to manifest. Creation is. Time then and form agree. Being and time do not agree.
.3. Unity IS. The One between comes forth and knows both time and God. But time destroys that middle One and only Being IS.
.4. Space IS. Time and space reverberate and veil the One who stands behind. Pure Being IS—unknown and unafraid, untouched, for aye unchanged.
.5. God IS. Time, space, the middle One (with form and process) go, and yet for aye remain. Pure reason then suffices.
.6. Being cries forth and says: [...] Death crumbles all. Existence disappears, yet all for aye remains—untouched, immutably the same. God IS.
--DINA II, Teachings on Initiation, Formula 3
5. Intuiting the Purpose. Having sensed the (Monadic) Presence - not theoretically but in vibrating response to its Existence - next comes the stage of the ascertaining of the Purpose, the effort to achieve an understanding of that which through the medium of form is seeking to embody the high purpose at any particular point in the evolutionary cycle.6. The triple light of the intuition. To carry some world problem, some design which has evolved in the mind or the heart of the disciple for the helping of humanity, into what is esoterically called "the triple light of the intuition." This light is formed by the blending of the light of the personal self, focused in the mind, the light of the soul, focused in the Angel, and the universal light which the Presence emits.
***
Rule Three
"The Energy circulates. The point of light, the product of the labors of the four, waxeth and growth. The myriads gather round its glowing warmth until its light recedes. Its fire grows dim. Then shall the second sound go forth."
7. The interludes. After relinquishing of the Higher (Monadic) Way and returning to the Angel (refocusing in the soul),
i. A pause or interlude for constructive thinking, under the influence of the Angel.
ii. The turning of the mind to the formulation of those forms of thought which must embody the revelation.
iii. Then again a pause which is called "the pause preceding presentation."***
Rule Four
"Sound, light, vibration, and the form blend and merge, and thus the work is one. It proceedeth under the law, and naught can hinder now the work from going forward. The man breathes deeply. He concentrates his forces, and drives the thought-form from him."
8. Fiery ordeal. The presentation of the revelation of the imparted truth and its precipitation as a formulation of the lower concrete mind... It is a GROUP revelation. The group is needed to protect the individuals from "some of the fire within that which is revealed" as it "wings its way back to the source from whence it came; some of it serves to destroy the revealer, and some to burn those who recognize the revelation." This phase of Agni Yoga may only be INDIVIDUALLY practiced by those group-conscious Initiates who can penetrate beyond the Angel into the place "where fire dwelleth," and where God, the Presence, functions as a consuming fire and waits for the hour of total revelation.
Rules Five & Six
"Three things engage the Solar Angel before the sheath created passes downward; the condition of the waters, the safety of the one who thus creates, and steady contemplation. Thus are the heart, the throat, and eye, allied for triple service."
The eye opens...
"The devas of the lower four feel the force when the eye opens; they are driven forth and lose their master."
