Intermediate zone
Letters on Yoga – III
“The Intermediate Zone”
“To open the centres is only a beginning, for then comes one of the most difficult periods for the disciple. The consciousness opens not only to the true Light and Power, but to all kinds of experiences and all sorts of influences from all the planes and from all sources and quarters. There is a period of intense and overpowering internal activity of formation, vision and movements of new consciousness and new power. If then the disciple is carried away during these experiences by the brilliance and splendour and delight of his experiences, he can easily wander far from the highest way. But the Forces and Beings that are behind them are sometimes adverse Forces, sometimes the lesser Gods of the mental and vital planes. In either case they try to occupy and use the instrument, but for their own purpose, for the play of the Ideas and Forces they represent, not the highest Truth. There are only three safeguards for the disciple. One is to call down first the eternal peace, calm and silence of the Divine into the mind and the vital and physical being. In that peace and silence there is a true possibility that the mental and vital formations will fall to rest and the supramental creation can have free space. The second safeguard is to remain entirely detached even from the most absorbing experiences and observe them without being carried away by their brilliance. The power of discernment and discrimination will slowly form from above and he will be able to distinguish between the higher truth and the lower truth as between truth and falsehood. The third safeguard is to follow implicitly the instructions of the spiritual guides who have already trod the path and to follow their guidance.”[1]
- “A tract he reached unbuilt and owned by none:
- There all could enter but none stay for long.
- It was a no man’s land of evil air,
- A crowded neighbourhood without one home,
- A borderland between the world and hell.
- There unreality was Nature’s lord:
- It was a space where nothing could be true,
- For nothing was what it had claimed to be:
- A high appearance wrapped a specious void.
- Yet nothing would confess its own pretence
- Even to itself in the ambiguous heart:
- A vast deception was the law of things;
- Only by that deception they could live.
- An unsubstantial Nihil guaranteed
- The falsehood of the forms this Nature took
- And made them seem awhile to be and live.
- A borrowed magic drew them from the Void;
- They took a shape and stuff that was not theirs
- And showed a colour that they could not keep,
- Mirrors to a phantasm of reality.
- Each rainbow brilliance was a splendid lie;
- A beauty unreal graced a glamour face.
- Nothing could be relied on to remain”[2]
- “Then in these cases what should one do?
What should one do? First, never have bad thoughts to begin with; and then, secondly, never be afraid, even if you see extremely ugly things — not only have no fear but no disgust and no repulsion, simply a perfect quietude — and try to be as pure and calm as possible. Then, whatever it may be, whether it be your own formation or it comes from others, whether it be an attack or a bad place — no matter what it is — everything will be all right. But above all, this: quiet, calm, naturally sheltered from every kind of possible fear, and without any disgust, without any recoiling, nothing; like that: a perfect indifference with a complete calm. Then nothing bad can happen, absolutely nothing. Even if it is truly an enemy who comes to attack you, he becomes powerless.
In all cases, without exception, whatever may happen, calm and quietude and serene peace and an absolute faith in the divine Grace — if you have all this, nothing can happen to you. And you must have all this if you want to have experiences; because experiences without this — it’s not good; but with this, it’s excellent.”[3]
- “Yet some uncaught, unslain, can warily pass
- Carrying Truth’s image in the sheltered heart,
- Pluck Knowledge out of error’s screening grip,
- Break paths through the blind walls of little self,
- Then travel on to reach a greater life.”[4]
- ↑ Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, p.393
- ↑ Savitri, p.206, “The Descent into Night”
- ↑ Questions and Answers 1955, p.82
- ↑ Savitri, p.493, “The Entry into the Inner Countries”
See also