Theo. – I would like to make a summary of all that you taught me last week, and thus make sure I have well understood what the different phases of that spiritual journey are.

So, during the first years of our spiritual journey, the raja yogis that we are will fight tooth and nail to conquer the heart region and the five elements it consists of. We gradually purify ourselves, so that each chakra, each point, lights up.

Meanwhile, we work on our personalities, on all our subtle bodies, to ensure our minds are well balanced and our egotistic tendencies are better controlled. Once most of our samskaras have been eradicated and our hearts have been re-conquered by Love, our spiritual Guide can then help our souls enter the so-called cosmic region and liberate them. Being no longer submitted to gravity, the soul is inexorably attracted by the central sun. Then the quest for being united with God can be auspiciously pursued, and this lifetime is the one when, at long last, it will be able to reach the Ultimate. Is that right?

– Quite right. But it is not the end yet. That is the very moment when real practicing begins. It is a non-practice, the Elder explains while gazing at the young man. All the elements are placed, and you have described it very well, but this is only a preparatory phase during which working hard is a must if you want to be admitted to the next grade. Now, be ready for a surprise: what is now expected of the individual is to stop working spiritually, to make no efforts at all and to surrender totally in order to let the Divine operate within his or her self.

– Are you going to discourage me again?

The Elder – Not at all. You are going to embark on an exciting journey and discover another aspect of the practice I call the ‘Advanced Practice’. To introduce you to it, I’ll have you meet a dear friend of mine. She will explain to you what it consists in and she will tell you about her personal experience.
I’ll see you next week, if you agree.

To be continued …

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