“Though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream,
and that will eventually startle us back
to the Truth of who we are.”
~ Jalal al-Din Rumi
There is a subtle call from the depth of our being that often goes unanswered. This is the call of the soul that grows stronger, more persistent and more urgent with every passing day.
We are told in the Ageless Wisdom teachings that the soul is in constant meditation and continuously sounds its note of identity into the ethers. It is always transmitting – waiting for us to create an integrated circuitry of soul and personality that can register and respond to the guiding signals. Each lifetime – as its agent on Earth – the personality vehicle is tested and further refined to help us grow a greater capacity to eventually express the full splendor of the soul.
Sometimes it is difficult to clearly hear the song of the soul because it is being drowned out by the incessant chatter of the monkey-mind and the distracting din of a materialistically-fueled society. There are various other contributing factors that cause static and hinder communion with the soul. The Agni Yoga teaching (introduced 100 years ago by Helena Roerich – spiritual partner of the painter Nicholas Roerich) provides us with a comprehensive list of patterns and behaviors that may be controlling our lives and having a debilitating effect on our ability to connect. Let us name a few by way of example.
Fear is a powerful force that freezes and disables the creativity of the human spirit and dampens our ability to respond to the higher Self.
Doubt undermines and severs the connecting thread of inner sovereignty. Doubt disconnects us from the stream of the One Life that courses through the cosmos.
Criticism poisons the atmosphere and also poisons the one who criticizes. Criticism is not a soul quality and therefore it cannot create a suitable psychic field that allows for direct communion with our essential nature.
Self-pity causes us to be self-centered and is antithetical to the need to be expansive and inclusive which is a key requirement for bringing us into resonant relationship with the higher Self.
Irritation causes inflammation of the nervous system and pulls us off center. Over time, irritation reaches a point of precipitation and certain deposits enter and negatively affect our state of health. The Agni Yoga teaching gives a stark warning regarding this condition by stating, “Imperil attracts danger and is the poison resulting from irritability. This quite substantial poison is deposited against the walls of the nerve channels and then spreads through the entire organism.”
It is sobering to remind ourselves that every thought and feeling creates a corresponding chemical deposit. Remember the occult maxim: “Energy follows thought”. Therefore, a life full of joy, compassion and forgiveness releases a whole host of beneficial substances into the bloodstream while a life lived with negativity is not ‘attractive’ to the soul, keeps us earth-bound and inevitably results in disease.
Given these numerous adverse conditions and personality patterns that prevail on Earth at present, how do we pierce through this self-generated sound barrier that blocks the message of the soul from reaching us?
When flying on long-distance international flights my ‘noise-cancellation’ headphones are a wonderful aid to sitting in silence. They expertly filter out the sonorous emissions of my surroundings. So, what may we ask is the spiritual equivalent of this noise cancellation technology?
The simple secret to reducing the deafening levels of disturbance and picking up these inner navigational signals is to still the mind and enter the silence of the heart. In Agni Yoga we are advised to, “listen with the ears of the heart” as the heart is an organ that already is a highly refined instrument tuned to the frequencies of the subtle worlds.
The mind may reason and rationalize but it is the activated heart that intuits and senses impressions from the subtle realms of the One Life. It is in the pure silence of the heart that the signature tune of the soul is most clearly heard. In the same way that all the colors of the spectrum are present in White Light, so all sounds are contained in the Silence. Silence is the synthesis of all sound. Silence is the virgin space out of which the inner realms emerge and show up in the world of substance.
Some practices that create conducive conditions needed for entering into resonant relationship with the soul include mindfulness, compassion, silent witnessing and meditation. We go on-line with our computers and smart phones to check messages and utilize search engines to gather information. What if we could connect with a greater source of information and knowledge than Google or Wikipedia by accessing a universal network of communication far clearer and far more extensive than any network plan offered by our internet service provider. The good news is that this new technology is available now for free and it is called Meditation.
Meditation is the ancient science of spiritual approach – it is ‘smart spiritual technology’ at its most refined. Meditation connects with and activates our power of intuition to access the wisdom of the soul. The daily practice of meditation helps build a resonant bridge of connectivity with our Higher Self so that its guiding influence can inform and direct our daily lives.
Next month, in Part Two of this essay, we will explore three levels out of which the call of the soul issues forth: namely, that of the individual Self, the collective field of humanity and the overall planetary Life.
The darkness of ignorance, separation and hatred can only be dispelled by the clear and loving light of the Soul. The future of the world depends on our ability to respond to the compelling call of the One Soul and to harness its innate heart-lighted power as a constructive force for good.
Michael Lindfield Board President Meditation Mount
You can also listen to more on this subject on this podcast below and View From The Mount broadcast recording about The Call of the Soul.