Theo. – After all you have explained concerning the advanced practice, I feel rather at a loss. I may be spiritually gifted, but I’m only a beginner. Did not you say I wouldn’t cross the heart region before several years? So I’m just entering a period when I have to work hard on the five elements of the heart and change my character, amn’t I?

The Elder – You have to understand we can approach it at various levels.

The first level is Heartfulness, which is mostly based on well-being and deals with balance, and with all the wonderful qualities of the heart, with communication and with empathy.

The second level is more ‘trans-personal’. The seeker’s progress will show in the five elements and the quality of the inner vacuum attained in Sahaj Marg or in the Ho’oponopono advanced practice formerly exposed.

The third level is a transcendent one. It is a divine and direct level, the vertical approach Babuji talked about. There are still many other stages, but it’s only for information purposes that I am mentioning these three dimensions. There could be ten or more of them, or even only one, the Ultimate level.

Theo. – As far as I had understood, it is a spiral progression, made in circles that are more or less close according to the aspirant’s growing capacity and willingness.

The Elder – I also mentioned the way of love as an advanced practice. It goes through surrender, or even through the soul’s total submission to the Divine. How do you accept this last sentence?

Theo. – Something within me has withdrawn from the idea of ‘my being ordered and of having to submit to an external authority’, but simultaneously something is telling me that such a guidance is all love and kindness and is probably a marvelous thing to be experienced on a daily basis.

The Elder – You have just made your own assessment. See how differently your soul and your personality receive the same suggestion! Practice, which aims at harmonizing the body, will gradually align them. It unifies the being.

Theo. – What characterizes the ego and how to identify it?

The Elder – It wants to control all the aspects of ‘its’ life, including the spiritual one.

Theo. – And what characterizes the soul, apart from love of course?

The Elder – Excellence and perfection.

Theo. – Which also looks like some of the ego’s ambitions.

The Elder – It is one of the incarnated soul’s aspirations.

Theo. – What is the difference?

The Elder – What do you think?

Theophile goes within himself. He knows the Elder will let him access intuitive knowledge, as he has already done before.

– Perfection comes from God alone, says the Elder. It is the reason why we’d better leave Him control our beings and all their envelopes, in the likeness of Lord Krishna being the charioteer. Through the Divine, your own imperfection can lead you to perfection.

Theo. – What does it mean?

The Elder – It means that though your human condition does not allow you to reach perfection, you can realise Divine Perfection.

Theo. – Here is another oxymoron: perfection in imperfection!

The Elder – All these conditions are beyond human understanding. They are Mysteries we can apprehend only through experience.

Theo. – Hence a mystical approach;  it is direct, by the grace of God, and the help of a competent spiritual guide will make it much easier.

The Elder – It also depends on the road you have travelled all along your past lives.

Theo. – Do you mean I could skip a class or a region?

The Elder – If I’ve been able to initiate you and take you quite near to realisation, it is because you had almost completed it in your previous lifetime.

Theo. – So?

The Elder smiles maliciously:
– Seven years should be enough.

Theo.’s enthusiasm suddenly falls apart
– Seven years … Oh my dear!

The Elder – I did not say you could not approach your spiritual evolution simultaneously at all those levels.  Just try and see which of them takes over.  Then you will know where you stand.

No one can predict how the Divine is going to work, how grace is going to operate. If you are brave enough, if you have the will for it, choose the vertical approach. It is not an easy way, but it is also the most beautiful one. It is a blessed way, and in this kind of approach, you will never be left by yourself.

– I don’t really know what to think now, Theo says, disappointed.

The Elder – Don’t think, then. Leave your intuition guide you. Above all, never let yourself be controlled by a theory, or by anyone. If I set a limit for you and if you believe in it, you will inevitably be limited.

– And if I believe in boundlessness … I will be … in God!, the young man concludes, joyfully.

The Elder – Yes indeed. Congratulations!

Theo. – So, every one can choose that ‘Advanced Practice’.

The Elder – Yes, of course! It is permanently open, but few persons feel like choosing it.

Theo. – I am very enthusiastic about it, and etymologically, enthusiasm means ‘in-God’.

– Then, ride the breath of the Infinite … the Elder finally says, feeling very proud with his protégé.

To be continued…

Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
Theophile the Younger’s initiation