To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

Western Occultism / 107
focus attention on the spiritual and higher mental and
moral faculties. When inner balance is achieved and normal
health measures are observed, the physical will in time
follow suit (unless, as may happen, stronger karmic impediments
must be worked through).
Much emphasis also is placed on finding one’s inner
center, and rightly so. This centering of oneself is a private
individual process of ‘‘self-naughting,’’ self-stripping, as the
mystics call it, emptying the nature of externals and becoming
one with our essential self. It may take a lifetime, or
several lifetimes, to achieve in fullness — no outer circumstances
will be as e¤ective as ‘‘losing the self that we may
find the self.’’
Since the 1960s groups have sprung up all over the world
sponsoring self-transcendence courses that o¤er various
methods of achieving alternative states of consciousness:
how to rouse the kuṇḍalinī or ‘‘serpent fire’’ seated near the
base of the spine; how to activate the chakras, how to meditate
by focusing on a triangle, candle flame, crystal, lighted
bulb, or by repetition of a mantra. These and other psychophysical
practices are carried out in the hope of attaining
nirvanic consciousness. I would not advocate any of these
methods, not because they are essentially faulty, but because
they can prove deleterious on account of our ingrained selfish
proclivities.
Today the hunger for new and better ways to live is very
strong. People long to find meaning in a seemingly meaningless
succession of crises and are experimenting with alternative
routes, anything that is di¤erent from what they grew
up with. This is part of the spiritual and psychic awakening