“Each human being enters into life equipped with a physical and etheric body of certain constituents, those constituents being the product of a previous incarnation; they are virtually the body, reproduced exactly, that the man finally left behind him when death severed him from physical plane existence. The task ahead of everybody is to take that body, realize its defects and requirements, and then deliberately set in and build a new body that may prove more adequate to the need of the inner spirit. This is a task of large dimensions and involves time, stern discipline, self-denial and judgment.

The man who undertakes the practice of occult meditation literally “plays with fire.” I wish you to emphasize this statement for it embodies a truth little realized. “Playing with fire” is an old truth that has lost its significance through flippant repetition, yet it is absolutely and entirely correct, and is not a symbolic teaching but a plain statement of fact. Fire forms the basis of all – the Self is fire, the intellect is a phase of fire, and latent in the microcosmic physical vehicles lies hid a veritable fire that can either be a destructive force, burning the tissue of the body and stimulating centers of an undesirable character, or be a vivifying factor, acting as a stimulating and awakening agent. When directed along certain prepared channels, this fire may act as a purifier and the great connector between the lower and the Higher Self.

In meditation the student seeks to contact the divine flame that is his Higher Self, and to put himself likewise en rapport with the fire of the mental plane. When meditation is forced, or is pursued too violently, before the alignment between the higher and lower bodies via the emotional is completed, this fire may act on the fire latent at the base of the spine (that fire called kundalini) and may cause it to circulate too early. This will produce disruption and destruction instead of vivification and stimulation of the higher centers. There is a proper geometrical spiraling which this fire should follow, dependent upon the ray of the student and the key of the vibration of his higher centers. This fire should only be permitted to circulate under the direct instruction of the Master and consciously distributed by the student himself, following the specific oral instructions of the teacher. Sometimes the fire may be aroused and spiral with correctness without the student knowing what is occurring on the physical plane; but on the inner planes he knows and has but failed to bring the knowledge through to the physical plane consciousness.” ~ Letters on Occult Meditation

“Steady care and control of the emotional body. This is the most difficult of the vehicles to tend, as is well known. No excessive emotion is permitted, though strong currents of love for all that breathe are allowed to sweep through. Love, being the law of the system, is constructive and stabilizing, and carries all on in line with the law. No fear or worry or care shake the emotional body of the aspiring servant of all. He cultivates serenity, stability, and a sense of secure dependence on God’s law. A joyous confidence characterizes his habitual attitude. He harbors no jealousy, no cloudy grey depression, and no greed or self-pity, but – realizing that all men are brothers and that all that is exists for all – he proceeds calmly on his way.

Then ensues the development of his mental vehicle. In the control of the emotional body the server takes the attitude of elimination. His aim is so to train the emotional body that it becomes devoid of color, has a still vibration, and is clear and white, limpid as a pool on a still summer’s day. In fitting the mental body for service the worker strives at the opposite of elimination; he seeks to build in information, to supply knowledge and facts, to train it intellectually and scientifically so that it may prove as time goes on a stable foundation for the divine wisdom. Wisdom supersedes knowledge, yet requires knowledge as a preliminary step. You must remember that the server passes through the Hall of Learning prior to entering the Hall of Wisdom. In training the mind body he seeks therefore orderly acquisition of knowledge, a supply of that which may be lacking, a sequential grasp of the innate mental faculty accumulated in previous lives, and lastly, a steadying of the lower mind so that the higher may dominate and the creative faculty of thought may be projected through the stillness. From the Silence of the Absolute was projected the universe. From darkness issued light, from the subjective emanated the objective. The negative stillness of the emotional body makes it receptive to impression from above. The positive stillness of the mental body leads to the higher inspiration.” ~ Letters on Occult Meditation