Table of Contents

HRANI YOGA

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Hrani Yoga

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

HRANI YOGA

The Alchemical
and Magical Meaning of Nutrition

Complete Works – Volume 16

Translated from the French
Original title: HRANI YOGA
le sens alchimique et magique de la nutrition

ISBN e book: 978-2-8184-0212-2

Original edition:

© 1977, Éditions Prosveta S.A. (France), ISBN 2-85566-079-3

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Readers are asked to note that Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’s teaching was exclusively oral. This volume includes passages from several different lectures all dealing with the same theme.

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Hrani Yoga

Today, I will say a few words about nutrition.

You don’t think this interesting, important or useful, since you have been eating ever since you were born. I don’t doubt that you’ve been eating since your arrival in this world, but I will present nutrition to you in a way that is as yet unknown to you and that will perhaps surprise you.

In the morning, at midday and in the evening, everyone is busy eating in order to stay healthy. But at mealtimes you are in the habit of talking, gesticulating and even arguing with others, and so, in the end, you make yourself ill. Everyone knows the importance of food, they also know that eating is necessary for their survival, and they start wars and revolutions because of it. But, at the same time, they don’t know how to eat; so what are we to make of human beings? Only initiates, who have reflected for a long time on the highly important question of nutrition, know the right way to look at it, and, today, I will try to familiarize you with their point of view.

Supposing, due to particular circumstances, you have been deprived of food for several days and are so weak you can no longer walk or even move: you have fallen into a stupor and are fading away so quickly that you are close to death. Even if you are extremely well educated, a scholar, even if you possess magical powers, neither your knowledge nor your powers are of any value when compared with a piece of bread or fruit that someone brings to revive you. Isn’t that wonderful? Don’t you see that this bread is an amazing magical element? Just one mouthful has set so many factories and forces going that a whole lifetime would not be enough to list them all.

But you haven’t stopped to reflect on the elements contained in this food, nor on the fact that it was even stronger than your thoughts, your feelings or your will when it came to getting you back on your feet. You enjoy making a good meal, you prepare it with care, and then, as soon as you sit at the table, your attention is elsewhere; you don’t think about what you are eating. And yet, it is this food and this food alone, to which you attach only instinctive importance, not conscious, intellectual importance, which can give you back your strength and health. Thanks to it you can again act, speak, feel and think. You eat foods which don’t know how to speak, or express themselves, or write, and yet, thanks to them, look what’s happening in you! You utter words, you give orders, you write books (good or bad), you compose symphonies, you obtain everything – power, wealth, glory – and all this thanks to food...

Initiates gave a place to nutritional research in their work. They found that food prepared in the divine laboratories with incredible wisdom contains magical elements capable of preserving or restoring physical and psychic health and giving us the greatest revelations. But we must know in what conditions and by what means we can extract these elements and that the most effective method is thought.

No words can express the din, the cacophony and the frightful noise that people make nowadays when they eat together. It’s overwhelming being at these meals. Only prehistoric animals can feel well at them, because they’re in their element, but all those who seek peace and harmony are completely exhausted. After such a meal, we have to go and rest or even sleep, for we feel sleepy and heavy, and those who have to work do it without any desire or enthusiasm. Whereas those who knew how to eat correctly are clear-headed and in a good mood.

If we eat mechanically, unconsciously, with quick, jerky movements, swallowing rather than chewing, harbouring chaotic thoughts and feelings in our minds and hearts, perhaps even arguing with someone, the entire functioning of our organism is disturbed: not one system will function properly anymore: not respiration, circulation and digestion, nor the secretions or the elimination of toxins. Thousands of people make themselves ill in this way without knowing that their ills stem from the way they feed themselves. Look what happens in families. Before a meal no one has anything to say to anyone else, each person is in their corner reading, listening to the radio, or sewing, etc. But as soon as they sit down to eat, everyone has their tales to tell or even accounts to settle, and they talk and argue and squabble. Such an attitude is extremely dangerous to health and, if you are intelligent, you must avoid cultivating it.

Now let’s take a piece of fruit. Without dwelling on its taste, fragrance, colour or etheric substance (which is still another subject), let us consider this fruit, which is filled with the sun’s rays; it is a letter written by the Creator that we must decipher. Everything depends on how we read this letter. If we do not know how to read it, we will derive no benefit from it.

You will say, ‘But then, how should we eat?...’

When they sit down for a meal, having first washed their hands, initiates set about putting themselves in the best conditions to receive the elements prepared in nature’s laboratories. They go within, link themselves to the Creator, say a short or long prayer, and in silence and peace they begin this process of the highest white magic: nutrition. They take the first mouthful, which they try to chew for as long as possible until it disappears in their mouth without their even having to swallow it. The frame of mind with which we take the first mouthful is extremely important. So you must prepare yourself to do it in the best possible state, because this first mouthful releases all the inner processes. If you begin eating in a harmonious state, all the rest will follow harmoniously.

It is also very important to chew well. Not only because this helps digestion, of course, but also for another very important reason: the mouth, which is the first to receive the food, is the main laboratory, because it is the most spiritual. The mouth plays the role of a real stomach on another level; it absorbs the food’s etheric particles, which are the finest and most powerful energies, and the grosser materials are then sent to the stomach. The mouth contains highly perfected apparatus, glands situated both on and under the tongue which are charged with the special work of capturing the etheric particles of the food. You’ve already experienced this many, many times! There you were, almost dying of hunger, lifeless, and you began to eat… From the first mouthfuls, even before the food had been digested, you already felt restored, had already perked up. How could this happen so quickly? Thanks to the mouth, your organism had already absorbed extraordinary energies. It had absorbed the etheric elements, which immediately fed the nervous system. Before the stomach receives the food, the nervous system is already nourished. We must divest the food of its divine energies, and only the mouth does this.

Initiates eat their meals in such a way that they draw from the food the nutritious elements that will make up the building materials not only for their physical organism but for their spiritual organism. Given that humans possess not only a physical body but other more subtle bodies (the etheric, astral, mental, causal, buddhic, and atmic bodies), they must know how to nourish these subtle bodies, which are often undernourished due to ignorance.1 They know more or less what food they must give to their physical body (I say more or less, for the majority of humans eat meat, which is harmful for their physical and psychic health), but they do not know how to feed the other bodies: the etheric body (or vital body), the astral body (seat of the emotions), the mental body (seat of thought), etc.

I have told you that we must chew food well, but chewing is for the physical body. For the etheric body we must add respiration. You know that air kindles flames: you breathe on fire to bring it to life. Similarly, when you breathe while eating, this intensifies the combustion. Digestion is just combustion, just as breathing and thinking are. Only, the degree of heat supplied and the purity of the matter differ from one process to another. So, when you eat, you must stop from time to time and breathe deeply so that this combustion allows the etheric body to draw subtler particles from the food.

When I talk about the subtler particles we must try to draw out of the food, you mustn’t be surprised. For example, a piece of fruit is made of solid, liquid, gaseous and etheric matter. Everyone knows all about its solid and liquid matter. Far fewer care about its fragrance, which is already subtler and found in the realm of air. As for the etheric side, linked to the colours of the fruit and to its life, which again cannot be quantified but emanates from the fruit and spreads into the atmosphere, this is totally unknown and neglected. This etheric side is however of the greatest importance in nutrition; and in silence, through our breath, we can make contact with it.2

Nowadays, due to social conventions, which are often born of human ignorance, when people invite one another to their house, they start talking and gesticulating, and they don’t breathe deeply and rhythmically during meals, so it’s hardly surprising that so many medicines have had to be manufactured for the treatment of digestive problems. The Orientals are wiser: they put all the dishes on the table, and they leave their guests to eat calmly in silence. They do not talk, they do not plague them with questions on the pretext of politeness, kindness and benevolence, as we do in the West, and so, yes, they can nourish themselves properly. As for myself, if I happen to talk during a meal, even if it is a very friendly conversation, when I get up from the table, I feel an emptiness, a dissatisfaction, a sort of nervous tension… Something is missing, I have not eaten as I should. I have noticed this so many times!

When you have eaten in silence and peace, you then retain this state throughout the day. Even if you have to rush here and there, you only have to stop for just a second to feel that you are still at peace – because you have eaten correctly. Otherwise, whatever you do, whether you are resting or talking quietly, you are agitated, troubled and shaky.

So, I repeat, in order to feed the etheric body, you must breathe deeply. As the etheric body carries vitality, memory and sensitivity, you benefit when it develops properly.

But it’s not enough to have fed the physical and etheric bodies; we must also feed the astral body. Given that the astral body is nourished with feelings and emotions, which are made of finer and subtler matter than the etheric particles, we can nourish it by loving the food, by thinking that it has been prepared in the Lord’s workshops and that it is a gift, a blessing. As they pause a few moments to send love to the food, initiates prepare their astral body to extract particles from the food even more precious than the etheric particles. When the astral body has absorbed these elements, it can arouse feelings of an extremely high order: love for the whole world, feelings of happiness and peace, of living in harmony with nature.

When the astral body has been nourished during the meal, you have an indescribable sensation of wellbeing; you feel generous, kind and indulgent. If you have urgent questions to resolve, you are broad-minded, patient, and you know how to compromise. Conversely, if the astral body has not been nourished, if you have eaten while grumbling, criticizing others or becoming angry, you then display bitterness, agitation and prejudice, and, if you have difficult problems to resolve, the negative or unjust side always tips the balance. You then try to justify yourself by saying, ‘What do you expect, my friend, there’s nothing I can do about it, I’m stressed!’ Then, to calm yourself down, you take medicines, but you will continue to feel stressed as long as no one has taught you how to eat and you are ignorant of the fact that you can improve the state of your nervous system during mealtimes.

That is why, when we are sitting in front of food, we must put everything else to one side, even the most important business matters, knowing that the most important thing is to nourish ourselves well according to divine rules, because everything depends on that. If we have eaten correctly, everything else will then rapidly be resolved. So, eating correctly allows us to save a lot of time and energy. We should not imagine that we can resolve problems more easily or more quickly by being in a state of feverishness and tension; on the contrary, we drop things, we make tactless remarks, we bump into people, and we create a lot of damage we then have to spend days repairing. Disciples, knowing they must take time and satisfy divine laws, can resolve in a few minutes what would have taken twenty-four hours or more to resolve, because in clarity and light problems can be resolved clearly and correctly.

In order to nourish their mental body, initiates concentrate on the food and even close their eyes so as to concentrate better. For them food represents a manifestation of the Divinity, and they try to study it in all its aspects: where it comes from, what it contains, which qualities correspond to it, which entities have taken care of it, for there are invisible beings working on each vegetable, each plant, each fruit. While their mind is absorbed in these reflections, initiates meditate deeply and receive revelations. In this way they feed their mental body, and they extract from the food elements superior to the ones of the astral plane. As a result of this, clarity and a deep understanding of life and of the world are born. After eating a meal in such conditions, they get up from the table with such clear understanding that they are able to undertake the greatest mental work. The majority of people, even intellectuals, imagine that, to be intellectually competent, they have only to read, study and reflect. Of course, this is necessary, but it is also important to feed the mental body to make it resistant and capable of prolonged effort.

We must understand that the astral and mental bodies are supports, the one of feelings, the other of thought, and that these two bodies must receive the appropriate food that will allow us to fulfill our task in the emotional and intellectual domains. Beyond the etheric, astral and mental bodies, human beings have other subtler bodies: the causal, buddhic and atmic bodies, which must also be nourished. So, after breathing deeply, eating the food with love and meditating on it, allow yourself to feel a sense of gratitude towards the Creator, for in this way you will reach true communion with him. If you know how to feed your three higher bodies, you will be in rapture and ecstasy. For these subtle particles that you capture are distributed everywhere – in the brain, in the solar plexus, in all your organs – and you begin to realize you have other needs, other desires, other joys and also other possibilities which open up before you. Before, you were like stone, you were asleep, whereas now you become vibrant, sensitive and awake.

When you have finished your meal, you must not get up straight away to start work and begin discussions. But neither is it good to go and sit for one or two hours in an armchair or on the sofa. When you have finished eating, remain calm for a moment, and take a few deep breaths to allow the prana to better distribute the energies throughout the organism. You will then feel extremely well disposed to undertake all sorts of work. Whereas if you lie down to take a so-called rest, in fact you do not rest, you become limp and your body becomes heavy.

You may never have considered nutrition from this perspective. In the new race that is to come, humans will be taught that nutrition is not the simple, ordinary process they tend to dismiss it as, but that behind this daily act of eating, God has hidden the possibility for each one of us to do psychic work of the highest importance, because nutrition involves the entire human being.

Let’s suppose you don’t have the time to pray, because you are far too busy. You hide behind this excuse so that you have no spiritual life. In fact, at least three times a day you have the best conditions in which to link with heaven, with the Lord, because three times a day you are obliged to eat. Everyone is obliged to eat every day. We always take the time to eat. We have no time to pray, no time to read or meditate, of course, but we always have time to eat. We cannot go without eating, the whole world understands that. Even the cruellest people, those in prison or anywhere else, will give you something to eat. They will humiliate you, they will make martyrs out of you, they will deprive you of everything, but they will give you a few crusts of bread and a glass of water. The whole world understands that food is indispensable. So why not benefit from the moments when you are taking in food to add a prayer to it, a thought of gratitude and love? No one can say they have no time: don’t we eat three times a day? It is in these moments that heaven gives you the best conditions for doing some spiritual work. Try it. I have tried it consciously since I was young, and each day I make the effort to try it again, because I am conscious that these are riches, gold, that I’m depositing in heaven’s banks.

I know that what I have just told you is not for everyone. Each person may do what he or she likes, but the disciples of the Universal White Brotherhood, who have a high ideal, must make the effort to conform to these magnificent rules, and they will be amazed as they discover all the possibilities open to them for calming and strengthening themselves, and for improving their physical and spiritual health. In knowing how to nourish themselves on all levels, they have no need of others to remedy certain physical and psychic troubles.

From now on nutrition will be considered one of the best yogas there is, although it has never been mentioned anywhere. All the other yogas – Raja, Karma, Laya, Jnana, Kriya, Agni yoga – are magnificent, but it takes years to obtain the least result, whereas with Hrani yoga* (*from the Bulgarian hrana ‘food’.) (this is what I call it) the results are very quick. This is the easiest and most accessible yoga; it is practised by all creatures without exception, although unconsciously for the moment. All alchemy and magic are contained in this yoga, which until now has been the most underrated and the most misunderstood. It is unbelievable that even intelligent people have never realized the secrets hidden in nutrition.

Try, if only for a week, to eat according to the rules I am giving you. Obviously, you will notice that it is difficult to keep quiet during meals and concentrate only on the food… Or else, if you succeed in being quiet externally, you are making a noise inside… Or again, if you manage to be quiet inside, your thoughts wander elsewhere. This is why I am telling you that nutrition is a yoga, for knowing how to eat requires concentration, attention, mastery, but also intelligence, love and willpower.

By knowing how to eat in silence and with reverence, you create an atmosphere of peace and light, in which all divine realizations are possible. You receive revelations, inspiration: poets are inspired to write their best poems; musicians hear the most beautiful symphonies in their soul; painters see the most beautiful pictures appear before them. Seekers find the solution to the problems they face. Those who need the right conditions for rediscovering peace and health find these conditions, and newcomers are struck by this wonderful, purifying atmosphere. These benefits are due simply to a reasonable and spiritual way of eating. In fact, nutrition must be understood as a work of spirit on matter.

People generally think we must eat a lot to be in good health and have a lot of energy. Not at all, in fact, the opposite is true; when we eat a lot, the organism becomes tired, all the digestive processes are blocked, leading to overload and useless deposits, which are impossible to eliminate. That is how all sorts of illnesses erupt, because of this mistaken belief that we need to eat a lot to be in good health. You shorten your life if you eat too much. Hunger prolongs life. Never leave the table having eaten your fill, otherwise you are going to become heavy, overweight and materialized, and you will no longer have any impulse to improve yourself. Whereas if you leave the table feeling slightly hungry, having refused the few mouthfuls you would have liked, the etheric body receives an impulse to go in search of elements in the higher regions which will fill the emptiness left inside. The etheric body finds these subtle elements and adds them to itself, and it does this so well that, a few minutes later, not only are you no longer hungry but you feel lighter, more alive, more capable of working, because these elements are actually of a superior quality. Whereas if you eat your fill and even more than you need, for the pleasure of eating, as so many people do, you will in fact never be satisfied, and you will cause an imbalance within yourself.

If you eat excessively, there is an overload, and your etheric body, being overworked, can no longer carry out its functions; then, undesirables of the astral plane, seeing this abundance of food, hurry to take part in this feast you are unconsciously giving, and a short while later you again feel an emptiness, you feel the desire to begin eating again so as to fill it… And then the undesirables come back too. This is how you become magnificent bait, attracting and feeding thieves and the famished on the astral plane, who have a feast at your expense.3

It is astonishing to see that humans, who seek to probe the mysteries of creation and are in quest of its greatest secrets, despise and disregard the process of nutrition, in which God has placed all his wisdom. If we study the laws of nutrition, we note that these same laws are to be found throughout the universe (they regulate the exchanges between the sun and the planets), and they are valid in all domains, in particular that of love and, indeed, in the process of conception and gestation, too… What do you know about nutrition? Observe yourself when you eat, and you will see how evolved you are. If you have no respect for the food that God himself has given you, who will you have it for? When you respect food, you will understand the mysteries of communion and Jesus’ words: ‘Eat, this is my body… Drink, this is my blood…’ and ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.’

Food is already blessed and consecrated by the Creator. The greatest proof that food is blessed is that it gives us life. God is in the food in the form of life… If you believe that humans have to bless the food first for it to give them life, you are still far from the truth! Before humans bless food, it is already blessed by heaven. ‘So,’ you will say, ‘the blessing serves no purpose?’ Yes, the blessing is a kind of ceremony, a magical rite, if you like. The words, the gestures, the thoughts of the priest who blesses the food envelop it in emanations and fluids which prepare it so that it will harmonize with those who are about to eat it. In this way, a contact is created in their subtle bodies; an adaptation occurs, allowing them to better receive the riches hidden in the food.

Food is not ready, just as it is, to be absorbed, assimilated and distributed throughout the body. It must be tamed and befriended; otherwise it remains foreign matter and does not vibrate in unison with our organism. If I am constantly repeating that we must get into the habit of eating our meals in silence, with reverence, love and gratitude, it is because this way of eating can change the food so profoundly that it no longer contains any foreign particle. Each particle that does not vibrate in tune with the organism upsets it. If so many people are ill, it is because they do not know how to eat: they have accumulated too many substances within which have not been adequately tamed, and these become waste matter inside them. Only love can transform the matter we absorb. As long as we do not eat with love, a whole part of our food is left unable to be transformed by our organism, because it does not vibrate in harmony with it, and this accumulated matter hinders bodily functions. It is extremely important to know how to eat, for then the astral and the mental bodies work on the food so it can be easily absorbed, so that the energies can be distributed harmoniously throughout the body.

Sometimes it takes a long time before certain particles are accepted and digested by the body, quite simply because we haven’t known how to tame them, and they cause illnesses, tumours, cancers… Yes, we didn’t know how to eat correctly! Of course, there are other external reasons: for example, the fact that nowadays the majority of food is poisoned by all sorts of products; we can no longer find anything pure or fresh; fruit and vegetables are cultivated with toxic fertilizers, and fish are caught in polluted rivers and seas… Soon we will no longer be able to live on the earth. As long as they can do business and earn money, most people couldn’t care less that there are others who might die of poisoning!

However, a great deal depends on us as to whether or not the food is accepted by our organism, and prayers and blessings before meals serve in fact to influence the food favorably and to prepare it to be absorbed. These formulas, these prayers cannot add one iota of life to it, for God has already placed life in the food. Before being blessed, it already contains all the elements useful for our subsistence. If it were possible to introduce divine life into an object by a simple human blessing, why would we not bless pieces of wood, stone or metal so we could eat them? By blessing a stone, a piece of wood or metal, we introduce into them some sort of life, of course, but this life cannot feed human beings; it can be used in another way, but it cannot be used to feed them.

If each day you learn to consciously absorb divine life wherever it is found – in food, in water, in the air, in the sun’s rays, in infinite space – you will have eternal life, you will know the Lord, you will bless him every day, and you will become completely new beings.

The Bonfin, 25 September 1954

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

‘Eat, this is my body… Drink, this is my blood…’ – Matt. 26:26-27

‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life’ – John 6:5

1 See ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, part III, chap. 1: ‘Le système des six corps’

2 See Harmony and Health, Izvor 225, chap. 5: ‘Respiration and Nutrition’

3 See The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Izvor 210, chap. 7: ‘Undesirable guests’

Chapter One1

In the morning, at mid-day and in the evening, everyone is busy eating in order to stay healthy. Everyone knows the importance of food, they also know that eating is necessary for their survival, and they start wars and revolutions because of it. But, at the same time, they don’t know how to eat; so, what are we to make of human beings?

The whole world gives priority to the question of food: everyone tries to deal with it before anything else, they work for food and even fight for it; many wars have begun for no other reason. But this attitude as regards food is still only an instinct, a tendency which has not entered the realm of enlightened consciousness. Animals are always busy searching for their food; for them it is their main preoccupation. Humans too work only to ensure their survival, and all think, ‘Of course we have understood the importance of nutrition! What are you talking about?’ But in reality they have understood nothing, for their understanding has remained at the level of instinct; they have not yet understood the spiritual importance of the act of eating, and nor have you. When you do understand it, nutrition will become for you a source of blessings and wonder, because greater significance will be attached to it and greater knowledge; there will be other work to do, other goals to attain. Superficially, you will eat like everybody else and the whole world will eat like you, but in fact there will be a difference as great as that between earth and heaven.

It is not enough to know that nutrition offers extraordinary possibilities. If you do nothing to use these materials, as great as your knowledge may be, it will be of no use. Many of you are satisfied with wonderful theories without putting anything into practice. You say, ‘I know, I know’ and stop there. Why do you not use your knowledge to release your willpower and work wonders?

I was speaking to you this morning about a new heaven and a new earth… 2 Well, in the new earth, meaning in the new behaviour that humans must adopt, the attitude towards food will be improved. All will appreciate the gifts of the Creator, they will know how to receive them in harmony with the laws of love, light and peace. These psychological factors are elements which really transform food, and this transformed, sublimated, enlightened food contributes to the building of a new body.

So, forget everything, leave everything else to one side; even if you have difficulties, worries and anxieties, leave them at the door for the few minutes you eat, and concentrate fully on this magical process. After the meal, if you are so concerned about them, pick up your burdens again. But while you are eating, leave them somewhere else, otherwise these negative states will introduce foreign, dark, harmful elements into you, preventing your work of transformation from being carried out correctly, and you will not succeed in drawing highly spiritual elements from the food to send to the brain and have energy throughout the day for the best activities.

The Bonfin, 18 August 1971

1 This and the following chapters will each contain a passage from the first lecture in this book, followed by texts that will complete the passage and extend its significance.

2 See The Book of Revelations: A Commentary, Izvor 230, chapter 16: ‘A New Heaven and a New Earth’

Chapter Two

When they sit down for a meal, having first washed their hands, initiates set about putting themselves in the best conditions to receive the elements prepared in nature’s laboratories. They go within, link themselves to the Creator, say a short or long prayer, and in silence and peace they begin this process of the highest white magic: nutrition.

1

I have always wanted to prolong the meditations we do before meals, for this will produce extremely favourable results. I know that you are not in the habit of doing this. You won’t see people anywhere in the world who remain in silence as much as we do before eating (although it is in fact only a few pitiful minutes that we spend in this way!); they do not even say a prayer; they attack the food at once and eat like animals. That is why they draw no great benefits from it, because they absorb only the grossest elements from the food, while everything subtle, etheric, remains foreign and unknown to them.

You must not consider silence at mealtimes as a convent habit. We know that in convents they observe silence during meals, but silence does not belong just to convents, it belongs to all sages, to all initiates, to all sensible people. In the silence we are preparing favourable conditions for the manifestation of divine entities, because these entities love silence; they are always waiting for these conditions that humans give them only very rarely. Of course, those who are here for the first time find it disconcerting; they are wondering what this strange silence is, which they are unused to and even afraid of… No, you must not be afraid of silence, but give yourself to it like a child in its mother’s arms… I, personally, would remain for hours on end in this silence, for it is in silence that we can sense the breath of eternity. The more evolved one is, the more one needs silence. In fairgrounds, in school playgrounds, noise is the sign of life, but not the higher degree of life. Where there’s intense life, more often than not it is as if there was nothing, no sound, no movement. The intense life is absolute silence, and from now on I would like you to learn to love this silence, for it is in silence that the ideal conditions are prepared for the coming of very powerful beings.1

The Bonfin, 21 September 1969

2

Before meals we sing so as to harmonize ourselves, and the food, which receives magnetic currents in this way, gives us strength, health, and light. So try to understand that what we do here is very important. For the moment, you sing automatically. Of course, the songs are magnificent, I can see you enjoy singing, that you do it with all your heart, but you must prepare yourselves to eat as if it were a sacred act, a magical ceremony, and you are not yet conscious of the influence the songs can have on the food.

You see, you do many things, and magnificent things! But your consciousness is not yet enlightened enough for you to know the precise importance of what you are doing, and so I am here to take you further, so that your consciousness may expand and become more enlightened. When we sing, we are already imbuing the food, and even this room, with heavenly particles, and for several days this food will influence you to think and act in a magnificent way.

You see, the whole world knows nothing about all this; they eat without this light, or else they say a couple of words: ‘Lord, bless this food…’ and even before they’ve finished the prayer they are already swallowing. How can thought rise to the sublime regions in these conditions?... Or else people sit down to eat in a state of anxiety and anger: ‘Aha, next time I see them, you see what I’ll do!’ And that is how you poison the food. But then the food takes its revenge: when it enters their organism, it is already polluted by their negative thoughts. Well then, how can it do them any good?

Sèvres, 4 April 1971

3

In the Brotherhood we are in the habit of singing together, eating together and praying and meditating together. Why? Because our teaching brings new methods so that humans can learn to live more fraternally. Humanity’s natural tendency is to be separate, isolated, even hostile to each other, which creates many anomalies. More and more, even in families, we notice the tendency people have to distance themselves from one another: they don’t understand each other anymore, they no longer know how to enter into the situations of others…

However, there are three times when humans are more agreeable to being together: when they sing, when they eat and when they pray. But other than these moments, they are separate, isolated, and even hostile…

By singing together, we are already doing much to vibrate in unison, to attune ourselves, to harmonize…2 The vibrations and the auras of all the brothers and sisters unite, merge… People are always afraid of losing their freedom and their independence when they are with others. They do not know that the opposite is true: they can become even freer by doing so! What is lacking most in spiritual teachings is precisely this habit of singing together. With them, it’s the intellect that’s predominant, the search for knowledge and powers of which they are so proud, and they are always separate, isolated; you feel no love from them, they are cold and icy. Well, here, we make efforts to create a little warmth, to get closer to each other. When everyone succeeds in singing together with their heart and soul, we will increasingly feel the harmony that brings peace, joy and health. Very few know that these songs (as long as they are not sung mechanically, automatically, of course, and the soul and spirit are allowed to participate in the act of singing) attract luminous entities from the invisible world, angels who bring their blessings. That is why it is so important to sing together as we do here before meals, so that the spirits from on high may be present at the moment when we must communicate, by means of our food, with the flesh and blood of Christ.

And when we are together in the morning at the sunrise, or in the lecture hall to meditate and pray, there too a fusion, a union, takes place. Many will say they don’t want unity, they want to be different from others, separate from others… Let them do as they wish, but they should know that they are walking to their deaths. The reality is that we are built according to a unique model: we need to understand, we need to love, we need to create. It is unaware human beings who have invented the pernicious philosophy that says we must all be different… that is to say, all mad, all unbalanced! No, my dear brothers and sisters. Cosmic Intelligence has created us all to have the same powers, the same light, the same beauty, the same truths, the same joys. And for this we must always come closer to each other, but not closer here, no, but on high where we come from. So, the closer we come to this unity, the more we vibrate in unison, the happier and more luminous we are.

After each song, we remain for a few minutes in silence to do a work of creation through thought and imagination by sending waves of light to all humanity. For, here, we learn not to let a moment pass without doing something that will benefit ourselves and the whole world. There are now thousands of people who share our ideas, because they are spreading; they are beginning to present these ideas in newspapers, on the radio, on the television. A few years ago none of that existed, and they even made fun of these ideas. But the Brotherhood sends its waves throughout the world, and those minds that are prepared pick them up. It is an enormous work that we are doing for the good of humanity.

It is not like a university here, where you study for four, five or six years and then you leave. Here, we don’t come to be instructed, but to work with the Brotherhood for the good of all humanity. You must participate in our work, as it is of the utmost importance. There is nothing more glorious than working for the kingdom of God and his justice on earth, for the Golden Age among humans.3

The Bonfin, 5 August 1975

4

Today I will speak to you about the formula we usually say before and after meals: Bojiata lioubov nossi peulnia jivot, (In a lecture given on 10 July 1979, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov gave a new formula to say before and after meals: Bojiata lioubov razréchava vsitchkité problémi, ‘Divine love resolves all problems.’) ‘The love of God brings fullness of life.’ The Master Peter Deunov gave us this formula, as well as many others, but it is this one in particular that I would like to talk about now.

Everyone needs love, everyone needs to love and be loved. There are different forms of this, different expressions of it, but no creature is exempt. We write about love, we speak about it and sing about it. The whole of life revolves around this word ‘love’: tragedies, comedies, and tragicomedies… Because of love we create, we build, we kill each other, we wage war… But let’s leave others concern themselves with human love, and let’s just focus on the love of God.

This love that men and women seek exclusively from one another extends in fact throughout nature: in food, water, air, sun, the stars… And this is the love of God. It is diffused everywhere, but in such an etheric, subtle, luminous form that humans don’t see it, don’t feel it. However, what man seeks in woman, and woman in man, is really only this intangible element. When they embrace, what have they received? They’ve not taken anything from each other to eat or drink. And because they have not understood that what they have each been looking for hasn’t been a body, something to hold, to touch, to possess, but a subtle element, they are always disappointed. In reality, it is this same subtle element that men and women are able to give each other – but know so little about giving – that is spread throughout nature. And the love of God is just this. This love that we can absorb, breathe, is the only kind that leaves no impurity, no dissatisfaction, no unhappiness. This is why the initiates, who have sacrificed everything to obtain this love, are so happy, fulfilled and living in plenitude: because they drink from this source of love, divine love.

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, the love of God brings fullness of life. It is diffused throughout the whole universe and even in its creatures, but you must know in what state you should be to capture it, what attitude to have in order to benefit from it as much as possible. It demands a complete change of mentality so that we become more and more sensitive to the subtle side of things, not just to the material, tangible side. The love of God is everywhere, and we must know how to nourish ourselves with this love, because the changes it produces in human beings are extraordinary. They are no longer as weak, nor the slaves of circumstances; they are nourished with this love and they feel rich, independent. Whether they are loved or not, they fly above it all, they are rich, fulfilled, they possess this love in themselves. You will say this is difficult to understand. Yes, it is difficult, because humans do not seek the subtle, living, deep, invisible side of things, which alone can give them what they need. So, then, obviously, they are vulnerable.

‘Bojiata lioubov nossi peulnia jivot.’ For years you’ve been reciting this formula without realising that it contains an entire teaching. The love of God is everywhere, but to capture it requires a totally different attitude. It is the attitude of the compass needle, which always returns to the pole star. For human beings this means they must turn their face to the Lord, not their back, as the whole world does now. They no longer know how to cultivate a sacred attitude.4 No one respects anything, they make fun of everything and in this way close all doors to true love and true life. Furthermore, they don’t even believe that having the right attitude towards nature, towards life, towards the Lord can be so important. They imagine that by cultivating any old attitude, they can understand everything, obtain everything. My God, how ignorant people are! And yet they know chemistry, they know that to get a particular reaction they have to take such and such an element in such and such a quantity and heat it to a certain temperature… If these conditions are not met, nothing happens, everyone knows that, but when it’s a question of fulfilling the necessary conditions for obtaining results in the inner life, they no longer know anything or understand anything.

The love of God brings fullness of life. But to access this love, people must at least need it and have an understanding of the immensity of its wealth. As long as they have not understood, they will seek a limited, immature love, which always leaves waste and suffering in its wake, or else ‘the great love’, which is often worse, for this love is a fire which burns everything, leaving nothing where it passes. Of course, human love gives you a few crumbs to eat nonetheless, only you pay a lot for them, a huge amount, whereas with divine love you are fulfilled.

I don’t mean to say you should reject human love, no; you must love your family, your wife or husband, your children, but at the same time move closer to the other love, divine love, because, whatever you do, you cannot make others happy without this love. You can give them human love, but they will never be completely satisfied. Humans don’t know themselves what they are searching for. They think they are looking for human love, but deep down they are seeking divine love, which is what they really need: immensity, the infinite, all the beauty of nature and beings… But before arriving at this point, how many shops they will have visited! ‘Give me love… Give me fulfilment…’ But there’s no shop that stocks them. Only the Lord himself possesses them, and we must go looking for them close to him.5

Look what happens with all those beings who have stopped at a shop. ‘Shop’ obviously means a pretty woman… or a handsome man! After some time, everything is sold out, and they go to another shop, which has opened more recently: the merchandise is fresher, the advertising better, the shop window is better displayed, there is more light, more colour… But even there, after a while, everything disintegrates, everything collapses, because it was not divine. Divine is only what is inexhaustible and eternal, and this is where humans must turn their attention: to the love of God.

Bojiata lioubov nossi peulnia jivot, ‘the love of God brings fullness of life’. You see, this formula that we repeat before and after meals is tremendously powerful. One day humans will see that only the love of God can bring them fulfilment. So, instead of saying this formula mechanically, you must now try to think about it, and say to yourself, ‘How can I get closer to this divine love, how can I understand it and feel it?’

Lyon, 20 March 1966

1 See The Path of Silence, Izvor 229, chap. 12: ‘The voice of silence is the voice of God’ and chap. 14: ‘A silent room’

2 See Creation Artistic and Spiritual, Izvor 223, chap. 6: ‘Choral singing’

3 See A Philosophy of Universality, Izvor 206, chap. 8: ‘Brotherhood, a higher state of consciousness’ and chap. 9: ‘The annual conventions at the Bonfin’

4 See Love and Sexuality, Part 2, Complete Works, Vol. 15, chap. 1: ‘A question of attitude’

5 See ‘You are Gods’, part III, chap. 5: ‘You will love the Lord, your God…’

Chapter Three

The frame of mind with which we take the first mouthful is extremely important. So you must prepare yourself to do it in the best possible state, because this first mouthful releases all the inner processes. If you begin eating in a harmonious state, all the rest will follow harmoniously.

The most important moment of any action is the beginning, for that is what releases forces, and these forces do not stop halfway but continue to the end.

You kiss a girl; at first it’s nothing, an insignificant act, but at the same time you are releasing so many other more powerful forces, and as these forces work their way through, you get carried away and can no longer stop yourself. Or, you are on a mountain, above you there is an enormous rock ready to tumble down the slope at the slightest jolt; it is up to you whether you leave it where it is or give it a push. If you start it rolling, you can’t stop it: it will crush not only you but many others with you. If you open lock gates, try stopping the water!... At the beginning you are the master, but not afterwards. When agitators start riots, even they can no longer control them. That it is why it is said, ‘He who sows the wind harvests the storm’. Before we say a word, give a look, write a letter or give the signal for war, we are all-powerful, but then it’s over, and we are no more than a spectator and often even the victim.

It is written in the Bible: ‘In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth…’, ‘In the beginning was the Word…’1 The initiates know the importance of beginnings. If at the beginning you release harmonious, positive and luminous forces, this will then produce magnificent results, and you won’t be able to prevent them. 0nce again you will be the spectator and the victim of forces that you have released, but what a victim! You’ll receive lots of love, light, gentleness and beauty.

By meditating and singing for a few minutes before each meal, we are creating a good beginning so that this act of eating may be a divine one. During these few minutes of meditation, you must be aware of the importance of the gestures you are about to make, so you can be in control of them throughout the meal. In this way, you will also be able to control your thoughts and feelings. In these few moments of silence, those who realize the importance of nutrition and of the right attitude to have while eating will be masters of the situation; they will give their gestures an extraordinary suppleness, harmony, gentleness and love which will reflect on them and bring them closer to the Lord.

Never forget the importance of beginnings. Even before going to sleep, you must be vigilant so you begin the passage from wakefulness to sleep in the right way. An action begun badly is always likely to end badly. If you begin by making jerky movements, all your gestures after that will be jerky and disharmonious. In certain cases you can stop what you are doing in order to begin again consciously in a better way, but it is always better to start well from the beginning.

Really, everything is important. At the end of the meal, again, we meditate, so that we also end in the best possible way: to thank the Lord and create a good start for the different jobs that await us. So never forget that each activity has its beginning and that this beginning is the vital moment.

The Bonfin, 12 September 1966

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

‘In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth’ – Gen. 1:1

‘In the beginning was the Word’ – John 1:1

1 See ‘Cherchez le Royaume de Dieu et sa Justice’, part II, chap. 1: ‘Au commencement Dieu créa le ciel et la terre’ and chap. 2: ‘Au commencement était le Verbe’.

Chapter Four

Human beings know more or less what food they must give to their physical body. I say ‘more or less’, for the majority of people eat meat, which is harmful for their physical and psychic health.

1

You can be a philosopher and want to spend all day and night with your books, or you can be madly in love with someone, but the moment always comes when you are obliged to leave your books, or the person you love, and think about eating. But although people eat three or four times a day, and even more, they have never understood the meaning of ‘food’ in all realms.

Food is a huge question, for it is not limited only to the foods and drinks that we are in the habit of taking in. Food is also sound, scents, colours. The beings of the invisible world in particular nourish themselves on smells.1 The habit of burning incense in churches, for example, comes from this very ancient knowledge that luminous spirits are attracted by pure smells, like that of incense, whereas infernal spirits are attracted by nauseous smells. Sounds and colours are also food for the invisible spirits and so can serve to attract them. That is why angels are most often shown playing a musical instrument and clothed in robes of sparkling colours.

It is said: ‘You are the temple of the living God’. So we must not soil these temples with impure foods. If humans knew in what spiritual and heavenly factories they had been created, they would be much more attentive to the food that goes into the construction of their temple, for this is where God must come to dwell. Unfortunately, because they eat meat, the majority of them are more like cemeteries full of corpses than temples.

Each creature, animal or human, is influenced in its choice of food, and this choice is always very significant. If you want to know the results of eating meat, go and visit a zoo, and you will find out immediately. In fact, you don’t even have to go to the zoo to see this. In life we find human specimens of all the animal species, even of those you don’t see in the zoo, like mammoths, dinosaurs and other prehistoric monsters. But let’s be charitable and stay with the zoo. There, we will notice that the great carnivores are ferocious animals that send out an awful odour wherever they go, whereas the herbivores are much more peaceful. The food they absorb does not make them violent or aggressive, whereas meat makes the carnivores irritable. And in the same way, humans who eat meat are always drawn to destructive activities.

You should also know that when animals are taken to the slaughterhouse, they sense the danger, they feel what awaits them, and they are afraid. This fear causes a disturbance in the functioning of their glands, which then secrete a poison. Nothing can eliminate the poison that accumulates in the organism of meat eaters, and its presence is obviously not good for their health or for long life.

The difference between meat and vegetarian food lies in the amount of solar rays they contain. Fruit and vegetables are so impregnated with solar light that they can be said to be a condensation of light. When we eat a piece of fruit or a vegetable we therefore absorb sunlight, which leaves no waste in us, whereas meat is rather poor in sunlight, which is why it putrefies quickly; moreover, everything that putrefies quickly is harmful to health. What’s more, you should know that everything we absorb as food becomes an antenna inside us, which captures specific waves. In this way meat links us to the astral world. The astral world is swarming with beings that devour each other just as wild animals do, and so, by eating meat, we are in daily contact with the fear, cruelty and sensuality of animals. Those who eat meat maintain an invisible link in their body with the world of the animals, and they would be appalled if they saw the colour of their own aura.

By killing animals to eat them, we take away their right to live and to evolve. Each human being is thus accompanied by all the souls of the animals whose flesh he or she has eaten. Although the souls of animals are not similar to those of humans, animals do have a soul; those who have eaten the flesh of an animal are obliged to carry its presence within them, and this presence manifests through states pertaining to the animal world. This is why many of the ways humans express themselves belong in fact not to the human realm but to the animal realm. The true human being has not yet manifested.

The food we eat goes into our blood, and from there it attracts specific entities. It is said in the Gospels: ‘Where the carcasses are, there too will be the vultures’. This is true for the three worlds: the physical, astral and mental. So, if you want to be healthy in the three realms, do not use carrion to attract vultures. Heaven does not manifest itself through people who let themselves be invaded by physical, astral and mental impurities.

So meat corresponds to a specific element in our thoughts, feelings and actions. If you dream that you are eating meat, you must be careful, vigilant, for this indicates that you will be exposed to certain specific temptations – the temptation to carry out acts of violence, to allow yourself to be carried away by sensual desires or to have egotistical and unfair thoughts – for meat represents all this: violence in the physical realm, sensuality in the astral realm and egotism in the mental realm.

On the face of it, war is caused by economic or political matters, but in fact, it is the result of all this massacring of animals. The law of justice is implacable, and it obliges humanity to pay by shedding as much blood as humans have made animals shed. How many millions of litres of blood there are spread over the earth, crying to heaven for revenge! As this blood evaporates, it attracts not only microbes but billions of larvae and inferior entities from the invisible world.

We kill animals, but nature is an organism, and in killing animals it is as if we are affecting certain glands in this organism; at that moment, their functioning changes, and after a while war breaks out between people. Yes, because we have massacred millions of animals in order to eat them, without knowing that they were linked to people and that these people must therefore die with them. In the killing of animals, people are killed. Everyone says it’s time that peace reigned in the world, that there should be no more war… But war will last as long as we continue to kill animals, because in killing them we are destroying something inside ourselves.

Sèvres, 14 November 1945

2

Very few people have noticed that the laws which work in the physical realm are the same as those which work in our inner world. If, for example, you eat, drink or breathe in a harmful, toxic product, your whole organism feels out of sorts, sometimes even to the point of death. The organs of our body are tuned to working together for unity, for the good of the whole person. So, the moment a foreign, anarchic element is introduced, which does not obey this law, it causes trouble. Well, why can’t you see that this is what happens in the psychic realm too, and that our thoughts, feelings and desires can also introduce harmful, discordant elements, contrary to the harmony of our entire inner being, resulting in disorder, weaknesses and suffering?

Day and night, humans nourish foreign, harmful elements, which is why they feel troubled and tormented: they have allowed impurities into themselves. So much has been said about purity and impurity – especially by the religious – but everything that has been said has served more often than not only to confuse the matter. Impurities are quite simply materials that are foreign to the human organism and, therefore, undesirable. These materials are not perhaps themselves impure, but they are considered to be impure because they are not part of how a human being is built, that is, not part of our physical and psychic being. So they are harmful and we must get rid of them. This is not difficult to understand, everyone can understand it, even children. Look, when they’ve been playing in the mud or they are daubed in cream or chocolate, they know that the adults won’t be happy to see them in this state and they don’t dare show themselves. Whereas when they are wearing a beautiful dress or their best trousers, they do everything to be noticed.

This is not difficult to understand; what is difficult is knowing how to remedy the situation, knowing the nature of the elements that one absorbs and watching oneself so as not to allow anything in that’s harmful. Without realising it, humans ingest awful elements into their hearts and minds, and a few years later they are so dirty inside, everything in them is so damp and fermented that no one can stand them anymore. Even their families and friends begin to distance themselves; they hold their noses, they no longer love them. Because we always love purity. Take a young girl or boy who is pure, they attract the whole world. And a crystal, a diamond, precious stones, or even flowers and fruits – when they are fresh, everyone loves them, everyone is impressed.

But I have already talked to you a lot about purity in relation to the sephira Yesod2. Purity is a whole science, for it is the basis of all other acquisitions: health, beauty, strength, intelligence… Yes, even intelligence, does that surprise you? In the past, when there was no electricity, they used oil lamps, and everyday the housekeeper had to clean the glass; otherwise, even if the lamp was lit, it didn’t give any light, for the smoke deposit obstructed the flame. Well, this is exactly what happens with the brain, when it no longer sees clearly because it is saturated with impurities.

Purity – that is the foundation of the teaching of the Universal White Brotherhood. And all human philosophies which contradict this divine philosophy will one day be swept away, because they are based on lies and ignorance, which will no longer be tolerated. So, I repeat, purity is the foundation of the teaching of the Universal White Brotherhood, and this explains why we must eat certain foods, surround ourselves with particular objects, have certain kinds of conversation, feed such and such a thought and feeling. As long as people are unconscious and attract all sorts of impurities by eating, reading and talking indiscriminately, they will be sick and unhappy. So, meditate on this.

The Bonfin, 7 July 1972

3

Question: ‘We often hear it said that the number 13 brings misfortune, and in particular that we must never be 13 seated at a table. Would you tell us what we should think about this?’

The number 13 does not like impurities, and it fights them. As it is also very active, very dynamic, it can upset creatures who do not possess the feminine qualities of goodness, love and gentleness to counteract its influence. You must be very pure and full of love to feel all right with the number 13.

According to the Cabbalah, when the letters of the Hebrew word ahava ‘love’ are added together they come to 13, and the letters of the word ehad ‘one’ also come to 13. This is not by chance. The number 13 is very significant: Jesus and his 12 disciples, the sun and the 12 constellations…

On the physical plane, the number 13 is linked to the cross (1 + 3 = 4), in other words to suffering, prison. The cross is the development of the cube in two-dimensional space, and the cube schematically represents limitations, a prison. So for those who are not pure, 13 brings suffering, limitations, imprisonment.

However, if the number 13 acts in a negative way on creatures, it is not at fault; what is at fault is the particular way each person is influenced by it and the influences of what’s around it. This is also true for water, air, light and even food. Every creature receives them in a particular way; this depends on their health, structure, degree of development and elevation. Some are stimulated, others become ill, and again others begin to reflect. If you have problems with your eyes, light disturbs you, and you say, ‘Close the curtains, the light’s hurting me!’ whereas someone else will cry, ‘Open them, the light does me good’. If you’ve got a cold and you feel a draught, you’ll say, ‘Close the windows, I’ll catch cold!’ and your neighbour, who doesn’t have a cold, will say, ‘Open the windows, I’m suffocating.’

In themselves, numbers, like many things in life, are neutral, but they act differently according to the individuals who have dealings with them. In general, for the saints, prophets and initiates, the number 13 is very favourable, whereas it upsets, troubles and punishes other people; it can even provoke very serious events. As it is a number that cleans and purifies, those who cannot resist the cleansing process are rejected or eliminated. That is why most people have decided to avoid it. The initiates have never been afraid of it, for they can consciously remedy its harmful influence or even call an entity of the invisible world with their thoughts to make 14. But it is better to avoid being 13 at a table. What is strange is that often the misfortunes or accidents which happen when there are 13 fall on the youngest, who can even die from them. Yes, I myself have observed such events, and I have seen that they are not superstition.

I have seen so many things of this kind! With regard to soap, for example: yes, we must never hand soap to someone… It was in Bulgaria, in Rila, and I was very young. In the Brotherhood we had a very old sister whom I loved very much because she was very mystical; she often told me of her experiences, and I loved listening to her very much. There was an extraordinary harmony between us, never any arguments, never any misunderstandings… But then one morning, in the mountains, she gave me a piece of soap that I took to wash myself with, and then all we did was argue all day. I didn’t understand what had happened; I asked myself and looked for the answer, and finally I remembered that I had read in a book that you must never hand soap to anyone. So it wasn’t suggestion. Was it by chance?... I am telling you what happened to me.

Obviously, if we had to study all the traditions and prescriptions of this kind, we could fill several volumes, for every country has its own, and especially primitive peoples with all their customs relating to marriage, birth, and the rites to observe at the time of puberty. It is possible that in many areas they were right, thanks to their clairvoyance, their mediumship and the communications they had with beings of the invisible world. But I don’t think we can pay attention to all these details, otherwise we would be so limited and tied up with small things that we could never undertake great things. Take the case of astrology. Astrologers advise you to undertake particular work at this or that time of the day or night, because that is the precise moment that you can communicate with this planet, that spirit or the other planetary genie. I believe in astrology, it comes from the distant past, it was known by the Chaldeans, the Hindus, the Egyptians and the Atlanteans, and many very intelligent, very deep beings have worked with it. But in their current life, their everyday life, initiates cannot be limited to such a degree in their work: if someone is sick or in need, they won’t wait for a favourable hour, month or year before helping them!

For those who are only at the beginning of initiatic Science, it is preferable that they submit to and work precisely according to certain rules, certain calculations, otherwise they will not succeed in their affairs. But it is real slavery, and initiates go beyond all these prescriptions; for them all moments of the day and night are propitious for doing good, even during a waning moon, even in winter. It is different for apprentices, for they must learn to respect the laws. Only, they must know that some books contain improbable prescriptions: ‘Take the tooth of a wolf!’… and be careful, a wolf, not a rabbit! ‘Find a swallow which…’ and not any old swallow, obviously... ‘and from this swallow take such and such a part.’ Or again: ‘Look for such and such a fish…’ that you will discover God knows where, but never in the sea… and always things that are impossible to find, described with incomprehensible words. Did these authors wish to make fun of people or get them out of breath, so they could prevent them from continuing their researches? In any case, I do not advise you to concern yourselves with such things.

When it comes to the light, to the good, to divine work, the moment is always favourable. I’m saying it again so that you understand properly. Only, for most people the chances of success or failure are determined in advance. Suppose you have to apply for something, for example: if you don’t know the king, minister or director personally, you have to go from office to office, and still your application may not be sorted out. Whereas if you know the director, if he is your friend, you go to see him in person to make your request, and it is granted immediately. For you, there are no more rules, and you do not spend hours waiting in corridors.

The same thing applies to esoteric science. It all depends on who you are. The number 13 brings success to some and misfortune to others. Does the fault lie with the number 13? No, it depends on who you are and whether you know how to use it. When there are clouds, because the sun does not reach you, you have to make arrangements to have heating and lighting. But suppose that you are above the clouds, the sun is there, you have nothing to be anxious about. Above the clouds conditions are different, you are in a region where other forces come into play. The same applies to work: as long as you are too ensconced in matter, there are always conditions to fulfil, rules to respect. But if you go higher, it is no longer necessary.

But to get back to numbers... A whole science exists regarding the combination of numbers, and those who know it sometimes use it to destroy or harm others. When not combined, the basic numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are neither good nor bad of themselves. It is when we combine them that we can form numbers which can be destructive and harmful, or others which can be favourable and beneficial. Simply write a number on someone’s door or give them a number to wear, and everything will begin to turn out well for them or be harmful for them. I myself believe that; I believe it because I know that numbers are forces.

On high, at the source, numbers are principles, entities, and then they materialize on the physical plane. Only at the level of principles are mathematics abstract, non-material, absolute, ideal, but then they descend to become flesh and bone. All of nature, mountains, rivers, trees, crystals, metals, all beings and even humans are none other than materialized numbers. If we go deeper into this subject, we will discover that nothing exists outside numbers. Everything is number. Nature and the whole universe are built on numbers, forming a geometric, abstract, indestructible framework, which can be compared, for example, to the human skeleton. Of all the sciences, only mathematics is absolutely detached from matter. When we work with mathematics, we are working with pure principles, pure forces, but as we do not know how to decipher them, we don’t understand very much.

One day, when humans can interpret numbers, they will understand the whole universe. For the moment mathematicians work without knowing what the results of their calculations correspond to in reality. In the future, they will discover that all physical, psychic, spiritual, cosmic processes can be explained in terms of numbers, in the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, etc. The moment has not yet arrived, but when we know how to interpret numbers, it will be the height of human knowledge. Yes, the acme of knowledge will be the understanding of numbers and how to work with them, because they represent the purest world. Each number represents a reality, an amazing power. If we have faith and knowledge, we can change the destiny of someone just with a number. All the initiates, magi, cabbalists have said as much. I also wished to verify it, and I know it is the pure truth.

You will say, ‘But why, then, in daily life do numbers not influence us more?’ Because we are too far away from them. Of all the realities we know, numbers are the most abstract, and while we react immediately to perceived realities, like heat, cold, the flavour of foods, the scent of flowers, sounds, etc., numbers are such subtle, such distant realities that they seem inaccessible to us. That is why they don’t affect us. But if we get closer to them spiritually, we will immediately feel their influence. It is the same with smells or sounds: when you are too far away, they do not reach you, but get closer and you are either terrified or transported to paradise.

In their principle, in their essence, numbers are very far away from us. And yet rivers, trees, mountains are numbers, but so well disguised that we cannot hear them, feel them or understand them. We must get closer to them, penetrate them, and we will see that they speak, that they sing, that they emanate perfumes. Doubtless this is still difficult for you to accept, but for me this is how it is. I know because I have touched and tasted.

So you must not be afraid of the number 13, but, as I have told you, it is a number which does not like impurities, and it is better to avoid being 13 at a table… because one never knows. It could be just one person, or several, who suffer the consequences. The apostles and Jesus were 13, and look what happened there! Why? Because it was enough for just one to spoil everything. If Judas had been pure, no misfortune would have occurred. Impurity always spoils everything. We say in Bulgaria, ‘Green wood burns alongside dry wood.’ That means that, along with unjust people, even the just will burn. What evil had Jesus done for him to be crucified? And the other disciples?… And yet, they all perished, massacred, except St. John.

Study this question well, and realize that everything depends on us. In nature everything is done well, all is magnificent, perfect, but it is we who must cleanse, wash, purify ourselves. I have already explained many things on this subject.

I have often told you that to be able to do good work you must know what is on high and what is below, good and evil. If you do not want to know evil, and you want only to work with good, good alone will not be able to save you completely. You must know them both. Many occultists and spiritual people have not studied this question properly, and I must explain a few things.

Imagine, for example, that you beg the sun all day to come and give you light; if you forget to open your curtains, in spite of all its power it will not be able to reach you. In the same way, if you don’t take away certain curtains inside you, the good, the light, will never be able to come and save you. We imagine that because we are invoking the good, it will come. No, this is not possible. As long as we have not got rid of certain impure and harmful elements, the good hovers around us but cannot enter. That is why true masters, true magi, who have studied both sides of nature, good and evil, have understood that before consecrating or sanctifying an object or a being, they must first reject, remove and get rid of all the impure particles and fluidic layers that have been deposited on them.3 Obviously, it is good to communicate with heaven, with the forces of good, but we must know that, on the level of matter, the first thing to be done is to exorcise, to liberate, objects of all their impurities in order then to be able to fill them with what is good. We must proceed in this way if we wish to impregnate talismans and magical objects with formidable power, or bring the perfection of heaven into ourselves.

As for those who dare not say the words ‘May evil disappear!... May all negative, harmful, dark, diabolic elements disappear!’, they will not succeed in their work; the good is there, but the impurities, like a wall, like dark layers, prevent it from penetrating. Initiates know that for good to come and install itself, the ground must first be prepared. That is why they have left certain prayers and formulas destined to repel evil. These formulas may shock some of you, but when one is ignorant, one is often shocked. Instead of being shocked, you must study.

I will give you an image – I fill a glass with water, I cut out a paper fish, I place two small pieces of camphor one at either end of the fish, and I put it on the water; then it begins to move. But if at that point I pour a drop of oil into the water, the fish stops moving. So an infinitesimal amount of oil is sufficient to stop the movement. That is a law of chemistry. Interpret it in the spiritual world, and you will find that you can put as much camphor as you like into yourself, meaning prayers or good thoughts, and this will produce no effect as long as the fine layer of oil, meaning the impurities, remains. And as I have just told you, even though the sun makes all the planets move and feeds them, it cannot enter your room if you do not draw the curtains. But open them, and immediately it floods in. That is why those who have not studied this important question don’t get results.

Suppose again that you have to give orders to an army. If you do not give precise instructions about the exact place they must go to fight, they will go elsewhere. In spiritual work too, you have to be precise about everything, even about what is negative, in order to give the beneficial forces a target. Otherwise they will attack somewhere else, and you will remain in the presence of all the malevolent forces. That is why we must use negative terms in formulas and prayers in order to distance evil, and then add positive terms to attract good. We must work with both forces. With good alone we are not all-powerful. We live in a polarized world, so we must work with both forces, good and evil.4

Today, I am giving you a key. But without this key, what errors and anomalies there are! So first of all start by getting rid of everything that has heaped up and accumulated over millennia to obstruct you inside. Humans are plunged in the cosmic ocean, where they can find everything they need. But instead of drinking, they cry, ‘We are thirsty, we are thirsty!’ Why can they not drink? Because everything in them is blocked. As soon as they get rid of their impurities, cosmic water will immediately flow within them.

All religious ceremonies begin with purification rituals: ablutions, fumigations, magic formulas… These rituals presuppose the knowledge of good, but also knowledge of the properties and power of evil. We know that good is paralysed as long as hostile presences exist, so people wash themselves, purify themselves, and when they are pure, the virtues of the Holy Spirit come in at once. The Holy Spirit is all-powerful, but when everything is pure.

Good is powerful… Obviously, you don’t need to tell me that! If there is anyone who believes in the power of good, it’s me. But then why doesn’t it come and save humans, heal them and make them intelligent? Because they do not open their heart and soul to it, and good can only circle around them, unable to enter. Good goes only to those who are completely open, to those who accept it. The good, the good… yes, that’s fine, but what about evil? We don’t think of chasing it away, and good will not do it in our place. There you have it, my dear brothers and sisters, this is what we have learned from all the great beings who were instructed in esoteric science. I am revealing nothing to you which is not true, which does not come from the source. What I am giving you is absolutely in accordance with the great tradition which comes from those exceptional beings. They have entrusted me with their teaching, and I am their heir.

Never forget that: good and evil are powerful only if you allow them to take hold, if you allow them to enter. I told you one day that humans are as powerful as God but only when it comes to saying ‘no’. When they don’t want something, no one can force them, neither heaven nor hell. But if they succumb, if they agree to link with evil, then it is all over, even heaven cannot help them anymore. Since they have opened the doors, the evil in them becomes very powerful. But as long as the door is closed, evil may well threaten them, but it is as if they are surrounded by a magic circle protecting them. When magicians are about to perform a ceremony, they surround themselves with a circle that no one can violate. This circle is the symbol of their all-powerfulness. All the devils threatening them remain outside, unable to do anything. But if the circle is badly made, or if the magician is not careful and goes a little way outside the circle, it’s all over for them, they are pulverized. All human beings also have a circle around them, and they must allow nothing impure to enter it. When they are in this spiritual circle, their aura, which is made up of all their virtues and qualities, and they remain there, unshakeable, they are all-powerful. Human beings must learn where their power lies and that good and evil can enter them only to the extent that they agree to it.

One day, you remember, I told you, ‘May I introduce myself… You have before you…’ And all the brothers and sisters were expecting me to say something wonderful: an angel, an archangel, a divinity… But I said, ‘You have before you the number one traitor.’ They were astonished! Yes, indeed, I am a traitor. But so as not to frighten you, I’ll explain. The earth is like a dark fortress surrounded by huge ramparts; the forces of good, the army of angels, are there outside, but they cannot penetrate. So a traitor is needed, someone in the fortress, to open a door or a window so that the whole army can come inside. Well, that traitor is me! The heavenly army will enter, turn everything upside down and re-establish another order on earth: the divine order. I advise you too to become traitors, for good will be unable to come in if humans do not betray this human fortress, which even opposes heaven. Study history and you will see this is the way they often went about seizing a fortress: it was not taken from the outside, for that was impossible, but from the inside. So, create an opening, and you will see: all of heaven will enter, and the kingdom of God will be established on earth.

Vidélinata (Switzerland), 24 February 1969

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

‘Where the carcasses are, there too will be the vultures’ – Job 39:30

‘You are the temple of the living God’ – II Cor. 6:16

1 See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor 226, chap. 9: ‘Flowers and perfumes’

2 See The Mysteries of Yesod, Complete Works, Vol. 7

3 See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor 226, chap. 17: ‘ The Exorcism and Consecration of Objects’ and chap. 18: ‘Protect your dwelling place’

4 See Life Force, Complete Works, Vol. 5, chap. 3: ‘Good and Evil’ and chap. 4: ‘Pitting oneself against the Dragon’

Chapter Five

Let’s take a piece of fruit. Without dwelling on its taste, fragrance, colour or etheric substance, let us consider this fruit, which is filled with the sun’s rays; it is a letter written by the Creator that we must decipher. Everything depends on how we read this letter. If we do not know how to read it, we will derive no benefit from it.

When a girl or boy receives a letter from their loved one, look how they read it, re-read it and look after it so carefully! Yet a letter from the Creator is thrown in the rubbish bin, it does not deserve to be read! Humans are the last to stop and decipher this letter; animals are more attentive than they are. Yes, look at cattle and cows; when they have read the letter thoroughly, they then re-read it. You will say, ‘But what are you talking about? They re-read the letter? What you are saying is not at all scientific!’ Yes, they re-read the letter that they had not read properly the first time… Give it the scientific term ‘chewing the cud’, if you will, but I am saying that they read the letter again…

Food is a love letter sent by the Creator that has to be deciphered. In my opinion, it is the most powerful, most eloquent love letter, as it says to us, ‘We love you… Here, we are giving you life, strength…’ More often than not, humans swallow everything without deciphering any of this letter, in which the Lord also writes: ‘My child, I want you to become perfect, to become full of flavour, like this fruit. At the moment you are bitter, acidic and tough; you are not yet ready to be savoured, so you must be educated. Look at this fruit; it has reached maturity because it has been exposed to the sun. You, too, must expose yourself more to the spiritual sun, which will see to it that everything acidic and indigestible in you is transformed and will also paint you with the most beautiful colours.’1 That is what the Lord is telling us in food. You haven’t yet heard him, but I hear him.

It is very important to learn to eat in silence, concentrating on the food, because food speaks to us during meals. Food is condensed light and condensed sounds. If your thoughts are always busy elsewhere, you will not be able to decipher this condensed sunlight. Light is not separate from sound; light is music, my dear brothers and sisters. We must strive to hear the music of light. It talks, it sings, it is the divine Word.2 In the noise of the modern world, we can hear nothing, and that is such a pity, whereas silence prepares the conditions that allow us to hear the voice of food.

The Bonfin, 30 July 1965

1 See Sunrise Meditations, Brochure 323

2 See Verbe divin et parole humaine, Brochure 320

Chapter Six

Let’s suppose you don’t have the time to pray, because you are far too busy. You hide behind this excuse so that you have no spiritual life. In fact, at least three times a day you have the best conditions in which to link with heaven, with the Lord, because three times a day you are obliged to eat.

Of course, we must eat, clothe ourselves and have somewhere to live, so as not to be a burden on anyone, but we must also find a few minutes to nourish our soul and spirit.1 We have come to earth to do great works. Many have forgotten their promise and think only of their social success, and they consider themselves examples. But what kind of examples are they? There is no light coming from them; they have given not one minute to their soul or spirit to make them shine and radiate like suns… not one minute to working for the accomplishment of the kingdom of God and his justice… From now on we must not forget why we came down to earth, and we must work to reach a more elevated goal. You have so many possibilities! Heaven never lets you stride forth without holding out its hand, without showing you all the work there is to do on earth. And instead of doing this work, you stay where you are, putting down roots. But your time on earth is very short, and you will not take your cars and houses with you to the other side. All that will remain here, and you will depart completely naked with only what you have acquired inwardly in the way of virtues, qualities, convictions and knowledge. They alone will not leave you. That is what you have not yet fully understood. That is why you work all your life without rest, but why? In order to leave everything behind you and depart, in the end, naked, poor and miserable.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, at least during meals do all that you can in the way of spiritual work. Even if this cannot be seen, even if no one appreciates these things, do them anyway. Gather riches, and you will see that you will return later with these qualities and virtues. In future incarnations you will no longer live in the same deplorable conditions. Heaven will give you the best conditions in which to blossom, to grow and become divinities, simply because you have begun the work today.

If you notice that you have not yet succeeded in acquiring a quality, conquering a weakness or triumphing over a bad habit, tell yourself bluntly, ‘This is because, in the past, I didn’t do my work as I should have done, and now everything is difficult.’ That is what you must tell yourself, and set to work as of today. Yes, even if you only have a year left to live, just one year, you must begin. You will see all the changes that will ensue. If we have persisted in perfecting ourselves, we take with us all the spiritual acquisitions we have gained.

The Bonfin, 4 August 1971

1 See ‘Know Thyself’, Jnani Yoga, Part 1, Complete Works, Vol. 17, chap. 6: ‘Food for the soul and the spirit’

Chapter Seven

If you have eaten while grumbling, criticizing others or becoming angry, you then display bitterness, agitation and prejudice. You then try to justify yourself by saying, ‘What do you expect, my friend, there’s nothing I can do about it, I’m stressed!’ Then, to calm yourself down, you take medicines, but you will continue to feel stressed as long as no one has taught you how to eat and you are ignorant of the fact that you can improve the state of your nervous system during mealtimes.

There are days when you are irritable, so why not treat mealtimes as a magnificent opportunity to learn to become calm? You pay attention to your gestures, you chew the food slowly, and in a few minutes you feel your tension disappear. When people are irritated, they do not know how to stop and calm themselves; when they begin to talk or work in an agitated state, it continues throughout the day, and all their forces and energies disappear, because they have forgotten to ‘turn off the taps’. However, the remedy is very simple: you must stop for a moment; don’t walk, don’t speak, don’t make any gesture, but start another rhythm, go in another direction.1

At mealtimes we must begin to learn control and mastery. So, practise eating without making any noise. I know that what I am asking you seems almost unbelievable and unachievable, but you will succeed, and all those who come here will be astonished. They’ll say, ‘But it’s not possible, I can’t believe my eyes!’ And I will reply, ‘Well, at least believe your ears!’

If you are seeking a remedy for tension, then begin by controlling your gestures during meals. You think, ‘But is this all you have to tell us? We have come to hear significant truths about the universe and the heavenly hierarchies, and you are talking to us about tiny things: about not making a noise when we are eating, about controlling our gestures…’ Well, if that is what you think, it means that you have understood nothing. You must not ask me to reveal great things to you; one day great things will be achieved instantaneously thanks to the small achievements. And as the small things have always been neglected, the great things do not happen. It is when we begin to take care of the small things that the great things come rapidly.

The Bonfin, August 1961

1 See The Path of Silence, Izvor 229, chap. 4: ‘Make your meals an exercise in silence’ and chap. 5: ‘Silence, a reservoir of energies’

Chapter Eight

Try to eat according to the rules I am giving you. Obviously, you will notice that it is difficult to keep quiet during meals and concentrate only on the food… Or else, if you succeed in being quiet externally, you are making a noise inside. Or again, if you manage to be quiet inside, your thoughts wander elsewhere. This is why I am telling you that nutrition is a yoga, for knowing how to eat requires attention and mastery, but also intelligence, love, and willpower.

1

It is difficult to leave all one’s preoccupations to one side during meals so as to concentrate only on the food. If we are not already in the habit of observing and mastering ourselves, how will we extricate ourselves from all these inner storms and upheavals we have unleashed and concentrate? We must prepare ourselves a long time in advance, which means already being attentive in everyday life and not allowing the invasion of negative thoughts and feelings. Then, the ground is prepared, and it is easy. You will say, ‘But then, must we prepare ourselves all our lives just to eat correctly?’ Yes and no… We cannot resolve all our problems just by knowing how to eat correctly. Knowing how to eat is an exercise, but it’s not everything. We must become accustomed to paying attention all day, watching our words, gestures and attitudes, so that we have nothing for which to reproach ourselves, nothing to repair. Then, of course, even during meals, things will be better; and not only during meals, but in all other activities in life!

We take meals as a starting point, but this does not mean that they are the most important thing and that during the rest of the day we can let ourselves go. You must not misunderstand me and tell yourselves that here only meals are important. No, we must be attentive and vigilant throughout the day for, if we let ourselves go the rest of the time, when we come to the meals the disorder and agitation will continue.

A meal is a magical ceremony thanks to which food must be transformed into health, peace, strength, love and light. Observe yourself: when you have eaten in a state of anger, rebellion or hate, you will be unable to calm yourself for the rest of the day, for you have influenced the food negatively: your thoughts and feelings have been reflected in it, you’ve eaten in disarray, you have not been a good alchemist, and you must suffer the consequences of that.1

We are held responsible for the way we eat, for everything in life is sacred, everything is intelligent, everything has meaning, and if we introduce harmful vibrations into the food, which has been prepared by all the entities and intelligences in nature for the purpose of giving us life, we are behaving negligently and disrespectfully. The simple fact that we have eaten badly is recorded somewhere as proof that we have not been intelligent, and the results are not very good. We must not then complain if our health suffers. You see, we must begin at the beginning and educate humanity. Of course, the majority do not agree, for they are not at all convinced that there are entities that preside over all nature’s activities, that everything is sacred, that there is meaning in each thing. And that is how, throughout their lives, they will turn everything upside down and destroy this intelligent order.

The Bonfin, 13 August 1971

2

See with what care a loving mother lifts her child up or puts him down when he is asleep; everyone understands this. So why not understand that your gestures too are your children and that they must be made correctly? Why do you allow your children to fall?... And you have seen too how a woman touches her beloved… If by chance a speck of dust falls on his face, how carefully, how gently she removes it! When we love someone or something, we become tender, delicate. So why not behave in the same way with food: as if your beloved was before you and you wanted to do everything not to perturb or knock him or her…

You like it when people are attentive towards you, don’t you? You think that’s normal; so why don’t you pay attention to each being, to each thing? Even a flower – when you have to plant it or water it, give it some attention. You will say that it feels nothing, that it doesn’t understand anything. But you must do this not so much for it but for yourself, for you gain a virtue, a quality. You make a careful, respectful gesture, and this gesture is reflected in you.2

Unfortunately, we can talk forever about attentiveness, and people will never understand how important it is to be attentive. They will throw themselves into all the university courses to study everything but never learn how to be attentive! However, most successes are achieved thanks to attentiveness, because people pay attention to what they do.

This is a story I heard when I was in India: a man was condemned to death for a fault he had committed. As he begged for his life, he was told: ‘Here, we are going to fill this cup with liquid, and if you manage to go around the town without spilling one drop of this liquid, your life will be spared, otherwise your head will be cut off.’ The man left with a full cup and went around the town…When he came back, not one drop had been spilled. He was asked, ‘So, what did you see in the town, what did you hear?’ ‘Nothing!’ He had seen nothing, he had heard nothing, all his attention had been concentrated on the cup. That is what attentiveness is. We pay attention when it is a question of life or death, but otherwise we don’t. Why pay attention then where eating is concerned?

The secret of success is in our ability to see. When you leave a room or a shop, you must be able to say how many people and objects there were, what they were like, where they were… Ah yes, you must practise. People see nothing, and some even have a loved one they have embraced for years, and if you ask them the colour of his or her eyes, they don’t know, they have never noticed. Ah yes, there are strange people like that. And here, there are not many things on the table, we can see them all, but despite that we knock them because we have seen nothing… Do people only look when they are crossing the road? No, not even then. Yet, the first thing we need to know is how to look. Whether it concerns people, objects or a situation, we must look. People do not see, and everything goes wrong… If you ask them why, they will accuse their parents, neighbours, the Lord, the government… They never discover that they themselves are at fault!

You must apply yourself for years to all these little things, even if you do not understand where I am leading you. Years later, you will feel the benefits of them. Do not look elsewhere or far off for what is right there, close by you. You will never find the solution to your problems other than in your everyday activities, and if you ignore them, the invisible world will send you back to earth to educate you until you understand this truth.

August 1961

3

People do not see that the least action, the slightest gestures of daily life have great significance. All the more reason why no one will ever believe that by eating as we do here we can develop our intelligence, heart and willpower. Everyone thinks intelligence is developed through study (or through harsh difficulties and trials: when you are in a mess, a faculty finally awakens, pushing you to reflect and find a way out of it)… And they think the heart is developed by having a wife or husband and children they have to protect and help. But here? At mealtimes? The heart? You must be joking!... And they think willpower is developed by making some physical effort, doing a sport, etc. Ah no, people who reason like this have still understood nothing.

At mealtimes we must begin to be concerned with what is essential – developing our hearts, intelligence and willpower. Yes, not everyone can go to libraries or to university, or have a wife or husband and children (there are many single people on earth!) or have much opportunity to strengthen their willpower with all sorts of exercises. But eating, yes, everyone is obliged to eat. Nature reflected deeply and, looking at humanity, she said to herself, ‘What can I do to hold onto these rascals?... I will create a need in them, there, in their stomachs, and arrange it so that they are always hungry, for this will oblige them to become intelligent and good.’ And Nature created appetite!

Then, again: do you want to develop your intelligence? Well, you will have the chance to, each time you want to use the objects on the table: try to take them or put them down without knocking them, without jostling anything next to them. This is an opportunity to prove that you are attentive, skilful, focused and alert to what might happen. It is amazing what intelligence can be gained simply during meals! When I see how people knock their plates or let them fall, I already know the flaws in their intelligence. They may well have degrees from several universities, but I find that they still have great intellectual weaknesses. Yes, indeed, what use are diplomas if we do not know how to see, to calculate or to judge distances? Let’s suppose we want to move a glass, but we have not measured the distance between it and another object in front or behind it; oops! we hit it. This is a tiny detail, but it reveals a flaw that will manifest itself in a much larger way in life. These little mistakes at mealtimes indicate that, in everyday life, some people will create a lot of damage. They indicate that a certain inner attention is lacking, and we can already see in a small way what these people will do in important life events: we see how they speak, how thoughtlessly they act, pushing others, knocking into them, and they will take years to repair their mistakes and suffer as they do so. You can tell in advance. You have only to watch someone eating, the way they touch objects, grabbing them roughly or not holding them firmly enough, and you can draw conclusions about their future.

Look, when I take this bottle that has just come out of the refrigerator, before using it I must think that it is wet and that, if I do not dry it, it can slip from my hands and break this glass or the plate. So I must wipe it if I want to hold it properly and be sure that it won’t slip from me. This applies to each thing, at the table or in life… If an object is outside your vision, your consciousness, you are no longer its master and it does not obey you. In order to have control over this object, you must first of all control it by thought; if it gets away from you, you will never be the master.

And even before sitting down to eat, try to see that nothing is missing, so you don’t have to get up several times in order to get a knife, a plate, the salt… How many times have I seen that when I have been invited somewhere! The lady of the house has got up twenty times because she has forgotten this, she has forgotten that… Many are like that. Yet we know very well what we need each day, because we do it over and over again. But no, we do not even realize it, and this continues throughout life; we forget all the time, and meals must be interrupted to go and find what has been forgotten. Something is always missing, and it is the sign that, in other realms of life too, we are inattentive and negligent. How, then, can we believe we will succeed?

You must pay a great deal of attention to your gestures. And moreover, by avoiding making any noise and upsetting other brothers and sisters who are concentrating and meditating, you show that you love them. Then, you take the food and you eat it, all the while thinking about it too with much love. Then, the food opens up… You have only to look at flowers, vegetation, all of nature: when the sun warms the flowers, they open; when it disappears, they close up. And food? If you do not love it, it will give you almost nothing, it will close up; but love it, eat it with love, give it warmth, and it opens, exhales its perfume, gives you all its etheric particles. Humans eat without love, automatically, simply to fill a void. But for just one week eat with love, and you will see that you will feel marvellous. I know very well that it is useless to talk of love to most people. They do not even know what love is: how to greet with love, to walk with love, to talk with love, to look with love, to breathe with love and even how to sleep with love. They don’t know how! They believe they know about love, because they have been to bed with someone, but is that really love? If they truly loved as they should, all of heaven would be with them.

So, when you are eating, you can develop your intelligence and your love but also your willpower, for you are obliged to control your gestures, taking objects without holding them too tightly or too loosely, otherwise they slip out of your hand, or else you break them with your hands. Measuring, controlling and mastering gestures is an exercise of the will, for the will is expressed by gestures.3 And if you think about the gestures you make, especially if you take care to make them measured and harmonious, your will is going to develop. Make just one movement with your hand, and you are already using your will. For in order just to move a finger, a whole number of forces must come into play. We are unconscious, we do not realize, and we say, ‘This is nothing at all, I have moved a leg, an arm or eyes’, but we are ignorant of all the forces which have been released simply to execute this tiny movement. We begin to doubt ourselves only when we have a little pain somewhere, an ache or a spot: we then see that the whole organism is linked to this small place and suffers with it. Yes, the tiniest cell is linked to the whole body.

The Bonfin, 20 July 1971

1 See The Philosopher’s Stone, Izvor 241, chap. II: ‘It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person.’

2 See Love Greater than Faith, Izvor 239, chap. 5: ‘Let it be done for you according to your appreciation!’

3 See ‘Know Thyself’, Jnani Yoga, Part 2, Complete Works, vol. 18, chap. 9: ‘The Will’ and chap. 11: ‘Physical Gestures’

Chapter Nine

People generally think we must eat a lot to be in good health and have a lot of energy. Not at all, in fact, the opposite is true; when we eat a lot, the organism becomes tired, all the digestive processes are hindered or blocked, leading to overload and useless deposits, which are impossible to eliminate. That is how all sorts of illnesses erupt, because of this mistaken belief that we need to eat a lot to be in good health.

1

The way you eat is what is essential. Eat whatever you like, but eat it properly. If you know how to eat, even when you are eating very little food you will notice that your body takes it upon itself to find the materials it lacks, to capture and extract undreamt of energies. You’ll have eaten three times less than usual, but you will have strength and energy for the whole day.

I have often noticed that if we eat a little more than we need, not only do we overburden our organism, but all the blood from the brain flows to the stomach in order to deal with the extra work of digestion, and that is why we feel sleepy. But, when we have eaten too much, what is most astonishing is that, a short while later, we are hungry once again. If you eat too much, certain lower entities of the astral plane, attracted by this feast, come to enjoy themselves and thus take some of your own energies. That is why, shortly afterwards, you are still hungry. Whereas if you stop eating just a few mouthfuls before you are full, the organism still needs a few crumbs; but as you have not given them to it, it manages to find them itself by means of the etheric body, which takes the elements it lacks from the surrounding atmosphere, and a few minutes later you feel satisfied.

Try it and you will see. Never eat to excess, because this shortens your life. Of course, I am not advising you to go hungry. I am simply saying that we should regulate how much we eat during a meal. How many times have I experienced eating just a little less than I wanted! You will say to me, ‘But we get tempted, we want to continue!’ Ah, I know very well that you are tempted! But what are you doing with your reason and your willpower? It’s time to practise using them! Even at the greatest feasts, festivals and receptions, you must know when to refuse. I refuse quite often; wherever I am invited, I am presented with all sorts of dishes, and yet I warn them in advance, ‘Don’t make anything out of the ordinary, give me a little salad, a few vegetables and fruits.’ Of course, they don’t believe me, and they prepare a wonderful dish all the same. When they see that I take only very little of it, they are disappointed. Many of you who have invited me know that what I am saying is true: nothing can be done to make me eat when I am no longer hungry, even if I am presented with the rarest dishes and the most delicious cakes. I understood a very long time ago how bad it is to allow ourselves to eat more than we have an appetite for, since we pay for it with the loss of a subtle element which is much more precious than the taste of the best dishes.

So, put into practice what I am telling you. We are giving you a science, but if you leave it lying in a cupboard, if you do not put your willpower to work and apply it, of what use is this science to you? You will always be the victim of your weakness, which will cause you problems and make you ill. Many things depend on how you eat. The quality of your food and the nature of what you have chosen to eat are secondary. I know there are those concerned with so-called health foods who advise that we should eat certain foods and not others. On some points, they may be right, of course, but in particular you must watch over the way you eat. Eat whatever you like, but eat it correctly and you will be healthy. I have seen many people who followed macrobiotic diets and I don’t know what else, but very often these regimes did not heal them. I have nothing against macrobiotics, I recognize that it contains something true. But where I don’t agree is when we put food in first place without taking into consideration the lifestyle, that is to say the thoughts, feelings and all the psychic states in which humans are immersed. ‘They say that doesn’t count; what matters for health is eating!’ Ah no, food is only a means. What matters most is the psychic life, the spiritual life; the food comes later.1

The Bonfin, 18 August 1971

2

The nature and quantity of foods are fixed for all creatures. You cannot ask an elephant to feed itself like a bee. In zoos I have seen the food that they give to the animals, the lions, elephants, snakes… I have observed what these animals look like when they are hungry: their slow or rapid movements, their anxious or calm expressions, and I have drawn certain conclusions. But let’s leave that for the moment. What is important to know is that, like animals, humans need only a certain amount of particular food. When they eat more than they need, this produces an overload, which creates complications: first of all disorders in the digestive system, and then in all the other systems to which it is linked (circulatory, eliminatory, respiratory, nervous). So we must keep an eye on ourselves, observe ourselves, in order to know how much food we should eat daily. The majority of human beings do not observe themselves, they eat excessively, which then awakens other desires within them that they have to satisfy, and in this way they live an unbalanced life, a life more sensual than intelligent.

By eating more than is necessary we are taking what was meant for others, and if many people do the same thing, some having too much and others too little, an imbalance ensues in the world. Misunderstandings, revolutions and wars originate in covetousness, greed and a lack of moderation, because consciousness has not awakened sufficiently for people to understand and to consider the future consequences, the upheavals that these tendencies can provoke.

It is precisely this need to absorb more than is necessary which influences people to use others and even to kill them at the slightest resistance or opposition. Though tiny, this desire is the starting point of great catastrophes. That is why, from the beginning we must master it, measure it and regulate it. If this instinct is not kept in check, it can take such large proportions in all realms of existence that it becomes the source of every misfortune.

Disciples must therefore learn not to go over the limit with food. They must know how to stop before being full. When we do not know how to stop, we feed unnatural desires in ourselves. We become like rich people who have the sick need to monopolize everything. They are already rich, but their ambitions and their desires are so huge that they want to devour the whole world.

Jesus said it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.2 That is because the rich person’s desire or astral body is so swollen and dilated due to all their desires that they become like an immense tumour. This prevents them from passing through the gate of the kingdom of God. Whereas the camel’s astral body is very small, because it is sober; it is satisfied with very little. That is why it can go across deserts; where all succumb, the camel continues. Those who do not think about this question and who eat disproportionately are preparing tumours in their astral body, which will prevent them from passing through the gates of initiation. And at the same time, they are getting into debt, for they are taking something which belongs to others. This is contrary to the laws of the spiritual world, which is organized so that things are allocated fairly and harmoniously. So, as disciples, you must not increase your desire to accumulate external possessions.

If the beings on high see that you have an egotistic and gross mentality, they say, ‘Ah no! Heaven is not for you, remain down there in the jungle, where beasts eat each other. That is your place’, and you will complain that they steal from you, gnaw you and sting you. As long as you do not reason according to the philosophy of the Universal White Brotherhood, you will suffer, and the gates of heaven will be closed to you. For this question of food does not concern only physical food. The same laws apply to feelings and thoughts. Lovers who eat until they are sated, because they do not understand moderation, end up having tumours in their astral body too, and the gate of heaven is closed to them. The proof is that then they become completely sickened, disgusted, and uninspired.

So we must abandon the idea that we need to eat a lot in order to be healthy. There are mothers who stuff their children so that they will be healthy. These mothers are foolish! Instead of stuffing children on the pretext that we love them, we must teach them how to eat and show them moderation, for it is essential to know one’s limit. In taking more than we need, we deprive others in one way or another, whether on the physical level or the astral and mental levels… Besides, we should think of others. How many of you think of sharing your riches when you have plenty? I am talking here of feelings and thoughts… There are wonderful days when you feel rich and happy… At that moment, do you give any thought to distributing your happiness to all those who are suffering and desolate? No, you keep it all for yourself. You must know how to give a little of this abundance, of this happiness that you can’t even contain, and say, ‘Dear brothers and sisters of the whole world, what I possess is so magnificent that I want to share it with you. Take this happiness, take this light!’ If your consciousness is sufficiently developed to do this, you are inscribed in the registers on high as an intelligent being full of love. And even what you have distributed in this way goes into your account in the heavenly banks, and you can draw on it later if you need to. And your joy remains in you, no one can take it from you, because you have put it into the reservoirs on high.

Whereas if you keep your joy to yourself without wishing to share it, there are harmful entities in the invisible world that lie in wait for you and, through someone in your environment, they send you something which makes you lose this joy. Even when you are at your happiest, something unforeseen happens to take your joy away. It is inevitable, because you have not thought of sharing it, giving it to the Lord or to the divine Mother, saying, ‘I do not know how to distribute it, I am so foolish! This joy is yours, Lord, and yours, divine Mother; I am giving it to you for you to distribute it.’ And the Lord and the divine Mother distribute your joy, while part of it is deposited in heaven’s reservoirs. I am telling you this so that you may benefit from it for your own good and for the good of the whole world.

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, you must develop your consciousness so that you become engaged in wonderful activities of which the majority of humans have no idea. They are asleep… whereas the initiates are conscious, they are awake.

I told you that you must not feed the astral body excessively, otherwise you overload it so much that you can no longer progress. As the path is long and you must climb to the summit, how will you be able to reach it with all these burdens? You’ll get out of breath, and you will have to stop. With a little bread, a little water and some fruit, the others walk on and make progress, whereas you will remain where you are, puffing and panting. And night comes, the wild beasts come out, and they eat you. In order to advance you must be nimble.

On the mental level too you must know how to keep what is essential and take only what is necessary to sustain, help, enlighten and heal yourself. Why overload and saddle yourself with useless philosophies and implausible knowledge? When we are kitted out lightly, we walk, we advance, we make progress, and each step forward brings acquisitions, qualities, virtues, new forces, and life becomes beautiful and divine.

So, I repeat, large amounts of food will not be better for you. On the contrary, they are often very harmful. It is the quality that is important and beneficial. If you eat less but better, with more consciousness and love, you will see that your health will improve. That is why, here, we eat in silence, concentrating on the food. And you must even know how to refuse, often, what you are offered. If you don’t refuse, you will be incapable of doing vital work. You will be full up, asleep somewhere, while there is spiritual work waiting to be done. You must not go to sleep, for you have work to do!

Even if you reduce the amount of food by a half or a quarter, you will feel better, provided you eat this food with love and consciousness, for it is at that moment that you will truly draw energies from it. The energy that can be released from just one mouthful could send a train right around the earth. Yes, just one mouthful!

I will talk to you again and again about this subject, because I know that this question is never resolved. People eat too quickly without thinking about the food. If you only knew what each mouthful can give you in the way of joy when you eat consciously! But no, we swallow, we gulp it down, and we have felt nothing delightful, no happiness; we have eaten automatically. These are the experiences that you must begin to have here. Chew for a long time and, several times, breathe very deeply. You will notice that this pacifies the nervous system as no other remedy can.

Above all, today, keep in mind that you must control yourself where physical food is concerned, so that you can control yourself with regard to astral and mental foods. You must be moderate in all things.

The Bonfin, 18 August 1971

3

When we eat, our organism absorbs the useful elements and gets rid of harmful or foreign elements. However, the organism is not always in a state to be able to do this cleansing, either because we have overloaded it or because the food it has absorbed has left too much waste. That is why it is advisable to fast.

Obviously, we must fast in suitable conditions and not, for example, while doing hard work. We must organize it so that we can fast during vacations, so that we are free and able simply to read, meditate, pray and listen to music… And moreover, given that air replaces food when we fast, it is also preferable to be able to breathe pure air.

Several of you will notice that during a fast you have back pain or suffer from palpitations or headaches… As this is one of nature’s special languages that we don’t understand, we tell ourselves, ‘I’ll never, ever do another fast.’ This is faulty reasoning. These discomforts are nature’s warnings, alerting you to the fact that one day or another you will suffer in the same organs where you are now feeling pain. So, if you want to know what your weak points are, fast for several days, and in the spot where you feel discomfort, that’s where you can become ill. Fasting itself is not dangerous and can never do you any harm. The proof is that any discomfort arises especially during the first two days, and then it disappears. If the discomfort came from fasting, it would increase, but, on the contrary, you are permeated by peace and tranquillity. And even if you had decided to take revenge on someone, after a few days fasting you abandon the idea, because you discover that it is not worth leaving this peace behind.

This question of fasting goes much further than you imagine, my dear brothers and sisters. The misfortunes we attract are the waste matter from our past lives. Each sin, each fault has left something deposited within us as waste matter. Our misfortunes are the result of all these deposits which have accumulated and which have not been rejected. When we fast, we get rid of all these harmful elements, we free ourselves, light comes in and we are happy. That is why fasting is always advised in all religions and spiritual teachings.

Fasting does not mean giving things up or depriving oneself. On the contrary; fasting serves above all to nourish us. When we deprive the physical body of food, we begin to nourish the other subtle bodies – the etheric, astral and mental bodies. For within us there is a principle which defends itself and does not wish to die. As the physical body is deprived of food, an alert is sounded. There are entities in the organism that watch over humans’ safety. At that moment, these entities arrive from a higher region to give the body what it is lacking, and it begins to absorb elements from the atmosphere.3 That is why breathing improves, and after some time we feel as if we have absorbed a food which doesn’t come from the physical level. Even if we pause to breathe for a few moments, we are nourished by other higher entities on the astral and mental levels.

The first man and woman were nourished by light. Then, when they descended into matter, during the course of involution, they needed heavier and heavier food until they were obliged to nourish themselves as they do today. That is why initiates, knowing that the present way of nourishing themselves is a result of involution, try to return to humanity’s first state by learning to nourish themselves with subtler and subtler elements. It is as if we rejected the stomach, then the lungs… In this way we become lighter and lighter. The mind is set free. But this is quite a long and difficult training, and very few yogis in India achieve control over their breathing. Those who do achieve it can then swim in the akasha and possess total knowledge, for they have obtained freedom of the spirit.

Human beings came down from the heavenly regions by a process we call involution. During the course of this descent into matter, as they distanced themselves from the primordial fire to enter into the cold regions on the periphery, they took on bodies which were thicker and denser… until they reached the physical body; just as, in winter, when we have to face the cold, we must put on all sorts of clothes, from vest and shirt to overcoat.

Now, in order to regain the upward path, humans have to undress, symbolically speaking; that means they must get rid of all that burdens them. And fasting is one way of doing precisely that. But fasting is not just abstinence from physical food. Fasting means renouncing certain feelings and thoughts that weigh us down. We must learn to renounce, to free ourselves from things, instead of always accumulating. Accumulation favours descent. Each thought, feeling or desire that is not absolutely spiritual comes and sticks to us like frost on the branches of trees in winter. The spring sunshine must arrive for the frost to melt and for us to become ourselves again. When we have got rid of all the useless things we have accumulated, we will feel the divine breath passing through us. But if we want to keep hold of everything in our heads or hearts, there is no space left for visitors, either for the Lord or the angels.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that we should get rid of our lungs or our stomach, etc., for we will not understand the truth by destroying our body. You must remain with your body, with your heart and your head, but without conflict, without agitation. That is the true meaning of fasting.4

Sèvres, 15 April 1947

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

Parable of the camel – Luke 18:25

1 See La Science de la Vie, Brochure 315

2 See ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, Part VIII, chap. 1: ‘Entrez par la porte étroite’

3 See Respiration, Spiritual Dimensions and Practical Applications, Brochure 303

4 See The Mysteries of Yesod – Foundations of the spiritual life, Complete Works, Vol. 7, part IV, chap. 2: ‘Fasting’

Chapter Ten

As they pause for a few moments to send love to the food, initiates prepare their astral body to extract particles from the food even more precious than the etheric particles. When the astral body has absorbed these elements, it can arouse feelings of an extremely high order: love for the whole world, feelings of happiness and peace, of living in harmony with nature.

Great treasures are hidden in food, but not everyone has access to them. If you believe that everyone has a stomach, lungs or brain that can capture what is divine, you are mistaken. Great preparation is needed for this. But the day we are ready, we are plunged in light, and we feel at peace, protected, cradled in the arms of Mother Nature. At that moment she recognizes us as her child, and she cherishes us, shares her joy with us. We do not even know where this joy springs from, and we feel happy, as if heaven and earth belonged to us. This cannot be explained. Only those who have succeeded in feeling that wherever they are something supports and protects them can understand me; they feel light and confident, like children asleep close to their mother, unafraid of coming to any harm. It is the same feeling.

Unfortunately, human beings are beginning to lose this sensation more and more; they no longer feel this protection, this solicitude, this love, this kinship with objects, nature, trees, mountains, stars. They are more and more anxious, troubled, worried, even when they are at home, protected. And even during sleep, they always feel threatened from all sides, because they no longer feel the protection of Mother Nature. It is a subjective impression, for in reality they are not much under threat, but inwardly something is disintegrating, and they no longer feel protected.1

Thanks to this teaching, disciples of the Universal White Brotherhood can recover this feeling of confidence. So, if you listen to me, if you learn to eat food with love, new horizons open up before you.

The Bonfin, 25 July 1971

1 See ‘Cherchez le Royaume de Dieu et sa Justice’, part VII, chap. 4, section V: ‘Au royaume de la nature vivante’

Chapter Eleven

In order to nourish their mental body, initiates concentrate on the food and even close their eyes so as to concentrate better. For them food represents a manifestation of the Divinity, and they try to study it in all its aspects: where it comes from, what it contains, which qualities correspond to it, which entities have taken care of it, for there are invisible beings working on each vegetable, each plant, each fruit. While their mind is absorbed in these reflections, initiates meditate deeply and receive revelations.

1

By eating consciously, you can rediscover all the marvels of creation, for food tells you its life story: it speaks to you of the sun, the stars, the angels and of God himself. Nutrition is a type of divination. Every being and object emits a particular radiation, and a diviner is someone who knows how to capture this radiation and interpret it. Moreover, food has received radiation from the whole cosmos; the sun, the stars, the atmosphere and the four elements have left upon it invisible, but real, imprints; they have impregnated it with all sorts of particles, forces and energies. If humans were conscious, if they knew the riches and value contained in food, if they thought to give thanks to heaven and to demonstrate all their love and gratitude, they could discover, capture, receive and decipher all these messages from heaven.

Nature is well aware that most humans are asleep and uninformed, but she is so generous that she says, ‘Oh, well. Whether they are intelligent, conscious, awake or not, I will see to it that food gives them the energies to keep them alive.’ Like animals, all unaware people can survive thanks to food, that is obvious, but it does not make them grow spiritually; they feel well only physically. When it comes to receiving the most divine particles from food, if we are not conscious, awake and full of love, we will receive nothing.

Disciples of initiatic Science must not be like animals or ordinary humans who live mechanically; on the contrary, they must eat with an enlightened consciousness, marvelling at the food, and thinking how the whole universe has worked to produce all these fruits and vegetables, which overflow with riches. Humans should be ashamed of thinking so little about something that is so essential to them. They should not then come and tell me they are so intelligent, cultivated and evolved. Just the way they eat is already enough to show me that they are still very far from true intelligence, true culture. For me that’s the test.

You still don’t realize; for years I have been talking to you about nutrition, and what I have said has still not been understood: you eat while thinking about something else, about all sorts of other things... Of course, you eat in silence, nicely, without making any noise, but you are always distracted, somewhere else. Try to concentrate for a few minutes on the food you are eating. Imagine that you are communing with the whole universe, and you will understand that there exists no more powerful and magical exercise than this, because, straightaway, you feel rejuvenated and strengthened, ready to do all your work.

I know my words will strike a strange note to the ears of scholars of official science. They limit themselves to a realm where they will never see the truth. They limit themselves to the peelings, the dross. They do not see the life circulating in each thing, because they do not study life. They study corpses, sickness and death, but they never study life, nor purity, light or the rays of the sun.1 They study darkness, they want to know darkness, hell, the sewers… Well, they will know them. They have not yet discovered the path that leads to the heights.

The Bonfin, 26 September 1973

2

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, all these fruit and vegetables have been ripened by the sun and imbued with influences from the stars, the air, water, animals and humans. If you know how to eat them consciously, they will leave within you all the particles and energies they have captured and accumulated, and they will tell you everything they know. Of course, these words will astonish some people. Who thinks that food can reveal things to us? No one doubts that it gives us energy, and everyone has heard about calories, vitamins and hormones… But they haven’t gone any further to see what food gives us in the subtle realms. If we know how to concentrate, and to prepare ourselves and become receptive, we will even hear the melodies played and sung by food. As the whole universe has influenced it, food is full of cosmic particles. Food is something indescribably complex and rich. The majority of people eat too mechanically, too quickly, and sometimes even without chewing, so they receive from the food only its coarsest particles and never the etheric energies we learn to capture here while eating.

If you know how to eat consciously, food will reveal an amazing world to you; it will tell you how all its particles have crossed the universe and come together in such a way as to give you life. What magical ceremonies, what talismans can give you energies like these? For me, the most perfect white magic, and one I practise every day, is to know how to eat.

Food is impregnated with all the cosmic energies. It has even recorded the imprints left on it by the people who have walked, or worked, in the fields nearby. It can therefore tell you its history. It can tell you what beings have worked to make it grow, which entities have constantly taken care of it, day and night, to infuse it with such and such a property so it can be useful to humanity, to the children of God.

Food is full of forces and particles which come not only from the earth but from the entire cosmos, and it is these cosmic elements which have materialized on the earth in the form of flowers, vegetables and fruits. In fact, fruit materializes on the earth in just the same way as children materialize in their mother’s womb. In the beginning, plants and fruits were spirits, but so that they could act effectively here on earth they had to conform to the laws of the physical realm. We cannot work in the physical realm if we do not have a physical body; in the same way, we cannot work in the spiritual realm if we are not liberated from the shackles of the physical body. Those who cannot release themselves from their physical bodies cannot access the heavenly regions. To be active in the divine realm, you must be pure spirit. But in order to act on matter, you must know how to materialize. That is why humans, who are spirits, incarnate and take on a physical body, so that they can work on matter.

So fruits are beings, highly spiritual energies incarnated on the earth. The fruit tree, which plays the same role as a mother, clothes the fruit in matter – in flesh which we then eat and thanks to which we receive these elements originating from far away. Food is much more meaningful than we think. Great mysteries are hidden in it. Before its season, the tree bears no fruit, but a few months later, the fruit appears on it; it materializes. How does this happen? What was there in the plant, what blueprint was hidden in the seed before it grew and became visible and tangible?

Every living thing in the world is there to reveal the greatest mysteries of the universe, but we do not perceive them. We eat, we drink, automatically, and we see nothing, we understand nothing. Suppose you have very elevated thoughts and feelings… If they give no tangible result, it is quite simply that you don’t know how to materialize them. Trees know how to, and mothers know how to, even though with them it may be unconscious. We must learn to make our own thoughts a reality. If there is one thing we must admire about materialists, it is their achievements, whereas spiritual people who do not know how to work on matter, because they do not understand it, reject it and so achieve nothing... True initiates are both spiritualists and materialists, but also something more, because they know how to spiritualize matter, how to refine it more and more until it reaches its own original subtle state in the divine world. At the same time they know how to make the realities of the spiritual world descend to the point where they become tangible. That is what a great initiate, a great master, can do.

Don’t mention spiritualists or mystics to me; they have nothing clear in their heads. They imagine that spirituality consists in being the enemy of matter. Ah, no, we must use it. We must neither be tempted by its seductions nor become its slave but know how to work with it so as to achieve great spiritual realization2. This is the disciple’s ideal: to be able to work with matter as well as with the spirit, not to reject either one or the other. Materialists abandon the spiritual side, spiritual people reject matter, and both have an incomplete vision of things. The initiatic philosophy, the one true philosophy is plenitude, for it embraces both spirit and matter.

You have days and days to reflect on this question and to understand what I have said today. Spirit and matter; this is work for your entire life. From now on, when you eat, think of introducing the spirit into matter so that you shape it, model it, give it form, an orientation, an impulse… That is true work. You will then feel extraordinarily fulfilled. Have you noticed that some days after eating you feel relaxed, well disposed, lucid, and at other times, on the contrary, the meal has only filled an emptiness inside you, without giving you anything else? These different states are a language. You must reach a state of wellbeing, but spiritual wellbeing, and you will reach it by learning to eat with love.

The Bonfin, 18 August 1971

1 See Light is a Living Spirit, Izvor 212, chap. 11: ‘The sun’s rays: their nature and activity’

2 See ‘Know Thyself’, Jnana Yoga, Part 1, Complete Works, Vol. 17, chap. 3: ‘Spirit and matter’

Chapter Twelve

Beyond the etheric, astral and mental bodies, human beings have other subtler bodies: the causal, buddhic and atmic bodies, which must also be nourished. So, after breathing deeply, eating the food with love and meditating on it, allow yourself to feel a sense of gratitude towards the Creator, for in this way you will reach true communion with him. If you know how to feed your three higher bodies, you will be in rapture and ecstasy.

1

Humans are so negligent and unaware that they eat without even giving thanks, yes, without realizing what they owe to the food. They don’t care one jot, they don’t wish to know how it has been prepared or by whom. But justice exists on earth: if you don’t take anything seriously you will gain almost nothing, but if you act consciously you will be fulfilled.

So, be grateful for the blessing of food, thanks to which you will obtain everything: life, health, understanding and joy. It is worthwhile doing, as the consequences are so extraordinary! How can a simple meal of vegetables and fruit, inanimate matter, give us such riches and make us able to walk, talk, read, sing, think and create? It’s amazing! If we do not eat, we can do nothing, so why not pay the greatest attention to food? If their understanding is so limited, humans do not deserve to receive blessings from heaven. How do you expect heaven to open up to creatures who have neither respect nor gratitude? Heaven does not distribute its riches to just anyone. By eating with gratitude, we can open the gates of heaven and allow its extraordinary blessings to come to us.

If you want to evolve, consider meals as a sacred act, a magic ceremony, into which you must put all your heart, mind and soul. In some rural families, food, especially bread, is considered something sacred. Look how country people regard bread and how much thanks they give for it, whereas most people now have no respect for bread. Heaven does not like that, and to make people reflect it may well deprive them of bread.

When you have sacred feelings towards everything that God has created, even towards trees, stars, rivers, mountains and stones, then everything opens up, everything before you reveals itself, and you see, you feel, you are alive!1

The Bonfin, 17 September 1968

2

Reading from the thought for the day:

‘While you are eating, let your heart burst with gratitude for the Creator! With this attitude you release forces which enable you to do an amazing inner and outer work on yourself.’

I have already spoken several times about gratitude. Psychology has not yet discovered the importance of this force!2 Humans take advantage of everything without feeling the slightest gratitude, and when they eat, in particular, they think of other things, or else, even if they have a really delicious meal, they never feel the need to give thanks to the Lord for the food that’s given to them. If only they knew the power of this feeling! In fact, gratitude can transform raw matter into light and joy, and we must learn to use it.

So, try to eat with gratitude. You will say that even when we eat without gratitude we receive energy, we feel good, we can work. Yes, that’s true in the physical realm, but you haven’t studied the question thoroughly. Each region of the universe is made up of different types of materials. Take, for example, the region of thought (consciousness), or that of feelings and emotions: the matter of which they are made is much subtler than that of the physical realm. We cannot touch thoughts or cut them into pieces, and yet they are real, they are active, and everything that happens in life is produced by thoughts. The nature of the materials in these realms is another subject which isn’t studied, and that is a pity.

The universe is composed of numerous regions, each one finer and subtler than the previous one. We have already noted this gradation in the physical realm with the four states of matter: solid, liquid, gaseous and igneous. These elements, which are of a specific nature, also produce different effects: earth, water, air and fire each have particular properties and, when we eat, all these elements are at work in the stomach. As in an alchemical laboratory, all kinds of transformations and combinations take place. Now we must study the transformations this matter will undergo in the stomach and during the digestive process when we add gratitude, luminous thoughts and even sacred feelings for all the riches hidden in food. As soon as disciples try to eat intelligently and harmoniously, concentrating on elevated subjects, the food is transformed… or rather, they awaken other systems within the digestive system which begin to function and capture the subtle particles in the food. These spiritual elements set to work and produce phenomena of a different kind. And thanks to this disciples can meditate, receive revelations, experience ecstasies and produce luminous emanations, which they project out to the whole world, becoming in this way benefactors of humanity.

Many people have already understood how their thoughts and feelings influence their bodily functions, but more often than not they have noticed it only in the case of negative thoughts and feelings: hate, anger, fear, anxiety or the emotions caused by bad news. The endocrine glands malfunction, their secretions are disturbed, the organism becomes unsettled, and we feel as if we’ve been poisoned. Everyone knows that negative emotions harm health, but how many do something to prevent them, to control themselves and improve their psychic state? Yet it is easy to understand that, just as we are poisoned by negative thoughts and feelings, so we will be liberated, strengthened, vivified and resuscitated when we work with positive states of consciousness.

Because of their deplorable lifestyle, many people are criminals, the enemies of humanity. Obviously they don’t realize it, and they say, ‘But I’m only harming myself’ and that they are innocent and irreproachable. In fact, they don’t know that when they walk around and come into contact with those around them, they are always causing trouble and upsets… Yes, for both good and evil, there is no boundary between the self and others. When you harm yourself, you are harming all humanity, for the harm spreads. And when you do good, you are doing good to all humanity and the entire universe, for good also spreads.3

This is a school here, where we learn how to do things in a better way: how to eat better, love better, work better, etc., and if you don’t want to learn, I am telling you that you will find it difficult. There will be accidents and misfortune, for you will have refused to know the truth. Ignorance never brings happiness.

From now on you must know how to develop yourselves by eating consciously with love and gratitude. Other faculties will be awakened, and you will really benefit profoundly from all this wealth around you. So pay more and more attention to the way you eat, even when you are at home. Of course, when you are here in the Brotherhood, you do your best to respect the rules that I have given you: eating in silence, not making any noise with the cutlery and thinking about the food, but once you are back home, you start eating any old way, amidst noise and discussions. When you come back to the Brotherhood, it’s immediately obvious that you have not practised for a long time. So, I am telling you to train yourselves all the time, so that one day you will truly be able to understand the quintessence, the magical meaning of nutrition.

The Bonfin, 18 August 1971

3

My dear brothers and sisters, you will certainly have noticed that in most circumstances in life you have choices to make. When you go to the market, you don’t buy everything, you are content to take only what you need. And whatever work you need to do, you must have specific materials, so you take only those materials and leave the rest. You will see how important this phenomenon is and what conclusion we can draw from it.

We always come across the same principles: spirit and matter. The spirit, intelligence, has its plans and views, and it seeks and chooses its materials, the matter on which it will work. Spirit moves towards matter and takes from it what it needs. Matter, itself, does not move, it waits… it waits for the spirit. The matter dispersed throughout the universe takes an extreme variety of forms, colours and densities, and in order to utilize all the elements we must be intelligent, active, dynamic beings.

During the silence we observe here at mealtimes, we must create the most elevated thoughts, for this silence then becomes so powerful and magical that it possesses all the necessary elements for the formation of all our subtle bodies, right up to the body of glory.4 Humans who are conscious, who possess the spirit within them, must choose thoughts and feelings of the finest matter for their spiritual work, that is to say, luminous, pure and perfect thoughts and feelings. Yes, silence is not a vacuum, there are no vacuums in nature. Everything is filled with subtler and subtler forces, materials and elements, and this powerful and magical silence is a mine of riches. That is why, during meals, through our thoughts and feelings, we can prepare the best conditions for finding the materials that will build our body of glory.

The body of glory is a seed, a minuscule seed, an electron that we all receive as our inheritance, waiting to be formed, nourished and developed. It is exactly like the seed given by the father that the mother carries for months in her womb, during which time she adds the necessary materials that will form a living being capable of shaking up the whole world. We possess this seed of the body of glory, and we must form it. But no one thinks about it, no one cares about it, and it sits there, neglected, almost buried. Fortunately, it cannot die, and it waits for the moment when disciples become conscious and work to develop it, to make it powerful and luminous. Then, they will become omniscient, they will be able to work throughout space, to heal sick people and to prophesy.

The body of glory is the body of Christ, the body of light, of eternity. Yes, it is the body of eternity, for it does not die.

We can take care of the body of glory only in silence, that is to say, only in peace, harmony, intelligence and light, where the most divine materials are found. In this silence we can do a huge work on our own body.

Only initiatic knowledge will give humanity the means to rebuild themselves and to have an extraordinary future of light, happiness and splendour.

The Bonfin, 20 August 1971

4

The four elements, which correspond to the four states of matter, are contained in the food we eat each day. So while we are eating we can establish a relationship with the angels of the four elements: the angel of earth, the angel of water, the angel of air and the angel of fire, and ask them to help us build our physical body, to render it so pure and subtle that it can become the dwelling place of the Christ, of the living God.5

Each angel represents specific qualities and virtues: the angel of earth, stability; the angel of water, purity; the angel of air, intelligence and the angel of fire, divine love. In learning to receive these elements from the four angels, humans receive subtler particles, thanks to which they can construct their other bodies, all the way to the body of light. When they have succeeded in building this body of light, also called the body of glory, humans become immortal. The physical body cannot survive very long, because it is obliged to return all the elements of which it is made to mother earth, from where it came. But in their body of light humans can live forever, since light is immortal. This body of light is made up of the purest elements of the greatest intensity, which defy the process of sickness and death: disturbance, fermentation and disintegration. The intense vibrations of light maintain and feed life. That is why, when light triumphs in humans, they become immortal through their body of glory, the body of Christ.

Disciples of the new teaching understand the importance of light; they understand that they need to eat and drink this light every day, all the time, with unstinting patience and the absolute conviction that what they are doing is bringing new life, power, health and the splendour of heaven. When disciples study this science in depth, they will understand how, through nutrition, the angels of fire, air, water and earth can become their friends, can collaborate with them and even speak with them.

In order to be able to live the new life, we must purify and cleanse ourselves and get rid of all the layers that have accumulated inside us due to our defective lifestyle. We are so encumbered and overloaded that we don’t notice we are dragging around a dense, repulsive atmosphere, which is preparing the conditions for collapse and sickness. That is why we must purify ourselves by linking to the angels of the four elements.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, when you eat, forget your worries, your bitterness, your negative thoughts, which poison the food and make you ill; link to the angels of the four elements. Say, ‘Angel of earth, angel of water, angel of air, angel of fire, give me your qualities of stability, purity, intelligence and divine love’, and in this way you will evolve, you will become more enlightened, you will become nobler.

The Bonfin, 18 August 1960

1 See ‘Cherchez le Royaume de Dieu et sa Justice’, part VII, chap. 4, section II: ‘Notre dette envers le Créateur, la creation et les créatures’

2 See Love and Sexuality, Part 2, Complete Works, Vol. 15, chap. 26: ‘Live lovingly’, section I

3 See On the Art of Teaching, Complete Works, Vol. 29, chap. 11: ‘On responsibility’

4 See ‘You are Gods’, part IX, chap. 4: ‘The body of glory’ and ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, part IV, chap. 4: ‘L’édification du corps glorieux’

5 See ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, part XI, chap. 2: ‘Les racines de la matière: les quatre Animaux saints’

Chapter Thirteen

Initiates gave a place to nutritional research in their work. They found that food prepared in the divine laboratories with incredible wisdom contains magical elements capable of preserving or restoring physical and psychic health and giving us the greatest revelations. But we must know in what conditions and by what means we can extract these elements and that the most effective method is thought.

1

Solar energy is condensed in the fruit and vegetables we eat. So we must know how to extract this energy and distribute it to specific centres in our being. But we can do this only by thought. Only conscious thought concentrated on the food can open it up and liberate the energy imprisoned within it.

Sèvres, 9 April 1951

The nutrition process would be nothing without the essential element of thought. In order for the quintessence contained in the food to be extracted, thought must be actively present. In the spiritual world, thinking is equivalent to breathing; thought is the breath of the soul. Those who do not think and do not meditate do not breathe spiritually. When you activate thought, just as the blacksmith fans the flame with the bellows, you can achieve all you desire in your heart of hearts – you can melt, solder and shape.1

Sèvres, 24 March 1968

Nutrition is a struggle between the human organism and food, which must become absorbable matter. What cannot be absorbed is rejected. To be properly absorbed, therefore, food must be torn up and broken down. The organism must break it down so as to be able to recompose it. This is done automatically and unconsciously. But we can also influence the food with our thoughts in order to give it life and get it to vibrate in unison not only with our body but also with our soul. When it does so, it helps us enormously in our spiritual work.

Sèvres, 23 December 1973

2

Thought attracts particles of a subtler nature, which go into the construction of the physical body, gradually transforming people. They are no longer the same. Human beings form their bodies with the food they absorb, and we must not think that if we swallow just any old thing we will always remain intelligent, beautiful and expressive. We must realize that there is a link between the foods we eat and the states we live later. If the materials we absorb are not pure, they will accumulate in the organism; it will no longer be able to eliminate them, and then illnesses will arise. We must always be careful with what we allow into our body.

Of course, some will cite the passage of the Gospels where Jesus says, ‘It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles…’ We must know how to interpret these words of Jesus.2 Is it logical to think that if you put refuse somewhere, pure things will come out? Of course, if you are an initiate, because of your purity, whatever you eat will be sublimated and transformed into light. Yes, but you have to be an initiate, a great master. For the others, if they swallow filth, filth will come out, and that is a fact. Look at all the filth that comes out of the mouths or eyes of people who do not know how to transform and sublimate food! They have swallowed rubbish and rubbish comes out. How could they transform anything when they have neither intelligence nor light, no purity, no love and no kindness? Initiates can even absorb poisons, for they have undertaken such spiritual work putting their inner instruments in order that nothing can resist them: everything is purified, everything is transformed thanks to their love, will, power and light.

Human beings who are very pure can permit themselves many things, because they do not sully others; whereas ordinary people, whatever they do, even with the best intentions, will sully everything, because they have not learned the art of sublimation. You see how clear it is! And that is how we must understand Jesus’ words. Jesus cannot have advised that we eat and drink just anything, and no initiate will advise this either. It is only when you have undertaken a great spiritual work to neutralize poisons and transform impurities into light that you are free to do what you want.

We can go even further and say that, as long as you have not decided to do any spiritual work, even the purest, best quality foods will not transform you. It is the power of the inner life, of your thoughts and feelings, that is most important. Some people, such as those on a macrobiotic diet, place great store by the power of food. You know, food will not make human beings into initiates. It provides many things, of course, but on condition that the spirit is there taking care of it. If the spirit is absent, you can eat all you want but nothing will change. If you improve only the quality of the food without the spirit, soul, thoughts and feelings adding something of their clarity, their limpidity and their disinterestedness, well, I can tell you, eat all you want but the filth will remain, the sickness will remain, the ignorance will remain, because though God has put many riches into food, the powers of this food will be limited.

The best food has never prevented certain people from being evil and vicious or from wanting to destroy the whole world. Even vegetarianism is not all-powerful. Hitler was a vegetarian! Whereas others who even ate meat or had a very poor diet have become saints and prophets. They had studied nothing, they ate anything, they lived anywhere, but they gave priority to the spirit, and with the few truths that they knew, with their great love for these truths and their unflinching willpower to manifest them, they succeeded in creating marvels.

Human beings cannot be transformed unless they acquire new particles of a different quality. Everyone can be transformed, but on condition that they seek out heavenly food. This heavenly food leaves traces, seals and imprints which convey its origin. Each luminous particle possesses different vibrations, and the traces it leaves on human beings succeed little by little in completely transforming them.

The Bonfin, 3 September 1971

3

Reading of the thought for the day:

‘The stomach does not digest for its own sake, the heart does not beat for itself, nor do the lungs, legs, eyes, ears or brain work for themselves but for the whole, for the wellbeing of the whole person. If human beings are to be healthy, strong, beautiful and powerful, their cells are obliged to work according to the laws of love and sacrifice. We must build our lives on these wonderful laws. That is why, instead of poisoning yourself with all sorts of medicines, you too must adopt this principle of love. Then, you will get better, without taking anything at all. Of course, doctors never give these prescriptions to the sick; they prescribe a particular injection or pill, this or that gargle or suppository, but not the law of love. And yet, understanding that we must base our lives on this law is true medicine, for then all the cells begin to work in harmony, and you become healthy, strong, joyful, happy and calm. Otherwise, you can swallow an entire pharmacy, but you will become sicker and sicker, because you have not incorporated any living, divine elements. You have counted too much on external remedies which have no life.’

For centuries and millennia, humanity has been used to counting on external things. This does not mean that we must absolutely reject all external methods, no, but you must not put them first. You will never get what you want, because what is external is not up to you. That is why I am telling you that, even if you swallow an entire pharmacy, you will not get better. For remedies are dead matter containing a few chemical elements which stimulate, excite or pacify but do not give life. If you have no life in you, these stimulants will have no effect. Even if you give all the medicine there is to a corpse, it will not get up, it will not speak: it is not alive. So, life is what counts, and that is why we must concern ourselves with life: we must purify it, intensify it and enrich it, and then we will not even need medicines. Medicines are useful, of course, but only if you have life in you. If you are already completely shrivelled and numb, medicines cannot help you. On the contrary, they will serve only to block up your body. Instead of taking medicines, it is better to fast, purge oneself, etc., so as to get rid of all these impurities, and then, afterwards, to take a remedy that can really stimulate the body. Look at coffee; it is a stimulant, but it does not give you life. When you drink coffee, you feel stimulated, and you talk and you write, but this does not mean that coffee has given you life. No, it has stimulated the brain, but it has not given you life.

Some people never take medicines and they are in excellent health, whereas others swallow pills day and night, and they are no better, they are headed for the grave. There are incredible advertisements promoting medicines, but they are designed only to make money. And not only are many of these medicines useless, they are harmful; doctors themselves say so. I have never denied the effectiveness of certain medicines. Plants, for example, have healing properties that the initiates tried to understand through their clairvoyance. And animals, which have a talent for this, know instinctively which plant will heal them. The Rosicrucians of old recommended twelve plants, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, as well as twelve minerals. But I have not verified that. I do not have the time to verify it.

I, personally, especially like to go and seek medicines in the etheric, subtle regions. I have already told you in other lectures that the matter of our universe has passed successively through four states: igneous, gaseous, liquid and solid. Therefore, all the elements which are now found in a solid state in the earth element are also found in the increasingly subtle states of water, air and ether. By respiration we can capture certain particles which are in an extremely diluted state in the air. The highest homoeopathic dilutions are found in the atmosphere, not in water. And if we are able to go searching higher still, to capture the elements in their etheric state, we will find all the medicines we need. You concentrate, you meditate, and using your thoughts you are able to capture an infinitesimal amount of healing substances. But this infinitesimal amount acts powerfully, firstly on the mental body and then successively on the astral body, the etheric body, and finally on the physical body.

Unfortunately, no one thinks of seeking medicines in the subtle realm.3 They always look for them in the physical realm, in their condensed state. But what is condensed is not as powerful, because it is not pure. Everything that’s condensed is made up of a mixture of things. If you get into the habit of going to look for medicines very high, in the etheric realm, you will get extraordinary results. Obviously, not immediately. You will have to practise for a long time, but when you succeed the results will be permanent.

The best way to heal people is to place them in conditions which strengthen the body’s defence systems, which strengthen their life force. For life alone is all-powerful. Look what it does to heal wounds, to burst an abscess, to make nails, hair, or new skin grow again. But this all-powerful life force is what is most neglected. People live in such a disordered and chaotic way that they throw away their life force, and they impoverish it to the point where it is no longer able to remedy anything at all. Then, in order to be healed, they take something dead, a tablet or a pill… And if we say to them, ‘But you are wasting your life in a stupid way!’ they are astonished: ‘But how? Life is made to be spent!’ Fair enough, but if it is really made for that, why are they ill?

How can human beings be made to understand that everything is linked? They are busy destroying their own life, dissipating it in crass, foolish activities, in passions and volcanic eruptions. They don’t see that they are busy losing it. They imagine that their life will always be there, eternal and inexhaustible, that they can do anything and it will always be there at their disposal, that they will lose nothing. And then, they are astonished when they find themselves at the end of their tether. They have done everything to get into that state, and they are astonished and complain about it. At least they shouldn’t complain; they should say, ‘What do you expect, I have gone through certain experiences, and now I see the truth.’ That is why, my dear brothers and sisters, you must take care of your life, preserve it, as it says in the song: ‘Sine moï, pazi jivota: Preserve your life, my son… the spark buried deep within, that precious gift.’4

Only true masters know how to preserve their life and even how to enhance it so that they can give it to others. If we need a science, the only true one is knowing how to preserve life as long as possible and spend it in service to the whole world, instead of wasting it only for oneself in foolishness and stupidities.

Only life can heal you. So you must think about life and free it from certain elements which paralyse and poison it. And then, thanks to this life, you can participate in useful, grandiose and heavenly projects, and you will feel satisfied and filled with an inexpressible joy.

Think about working for the good of the whole world. Thanks to this idea you can draw particles of vitality from the abundant, inexhaustible source on high, so that you can give this abundant life to others, and everyone close to you will feel enlivened. Whereas others, who have wasted their life, become like vampires who need to draw it from others.

There are even disciples who, instead of doing a spiritual work, instead of strengthening their willpower, seek a master so as to draw on his forces, in the hope that, through this contact, they will improve themselves. Instead of making efforts and purifying themselves, they concentrate on their master, on his photograph, without realizing that in this way they become vampires and exhaust their master. I have given you methods for advancing in the spiritual life, and I cannot do any more than that. A master is not all-powerful. For example, he can’t force you to eat, you must eat for yourself. He will give you food, but it is you who must eat. And if you say, ‘No, no, he is the one who must eat’… well, he will receive energy, whereas you will be in a state of collapse. Disciples always believe that the master must do their work. No, the master will give you all the necessary materials to build your palace. He will even give you the cement, the wood, the planks and the nails, but it is you who must set to work. He will not build the palace. If the master does the work, he is the one who benefits, who becomes stronger, and you gain nothing, you become weaker. Understand once and for all that a master cannot do everything.5 The sun is not all-powerful either; if you leave your curtains drawn, it can never enter your room.

We always count too much on others, just as we count too much on medicines. Instead of concentrating, of visualizing the improvement we desire, or pronouncing a few words to release beneficial energies within us, ah no, we do nothing. We look for a drug… It is so much easier to open one’s mouth and swallow something! We avoid any effort. We want the easy way out. That is why we are forever in the same states of weakness. The drug has brought a little relief, but the next day it begins again, and we have to increase the dosage. When it concerns spiritual efforts, people are so lazy! Physically, in order to obtain something, yes, they will look for it, they will shift themselves, they will go that extra mile. Where that’s concerned, they are not lazy. When it comes to going to the bistro, even if they have to drag themselves there, they will get to the bistro, and they will make the effort to drink. But it’s not these efforts you should be making!

I am not saying that we should never take any medicine. Since you are so used to them, take them, but first of all take the other heavenly medicine, and then take your pill. It will be ten times better.

Now, before finishing, I will add something you have never thought about. Human beings are pharmaceutical laboratories, in that they contain all the medicines but also all the noxious chemicals. When we see an ill-tempered woman coming our way, bringing her poisons with her, we say, ‘Oh, here comes the plague!’ Whereas with others, we have barely seen them and we are healed. Your beloved, for example, is a pharmacy containing the most curative medicines. As soon as he or she appears, even if you are exhausted or sick, you get up with eyes shining, and you are healed. Ah yes, for human emanations can contain either curative or poisonous elements.6 Medicine has never addressed this question, and yet it is a reality. There are some doctors, for example, who just by their presence have such a beneficial effect on their patients that scarcely have they entered the room than the sick person feels almost restored. These people are truly born to emanate etheric curative particles.

So, you see, my dear brothers and sisters, how many things there are yet to study, and especially how many exercises there are to do to develop oneself and become an example, a model of the new life.

The Bonfin, 16 August 1976

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

‘It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person’ – Matt. 15:11

1 See The Mysteries of Fire and Water, Izvor 232, chap. 6: ‘A blacksmith works with fire’

2 See The Philosopher’s Stone, Izvor 241, chap. 2: ‘It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person…’

3 See The Splendour of Tiphareth – The Yoga of the Sun, Complete Works, Vol. 10, chap. 1: ‘Surya yoga – the sun, centre of our universe’ and chap. 2: ‘Obtaining etheric elements from the sun’

4 See Life force, Complete Works, Vol. 5, chap. 1: ‘Life’

5 See What is a spiritual master? Izvor 207, chap. 7: ‘A master is there only to give light’

6 See The Seeds of Happiness, Izvor 231, chap. 19: ‘The garden of souls and spirits’

Chapter Fourteen

In the new race that is to come, humans will be taught that nutrition is not the simple, ordinary process they tend to dismiss it as, but that behind this daily act of eating, God has hidden the possibility for each one of us to do psychic work of the highest importance, because nutrition involves the entire human being.

1

On the bottom rung of the ladder of creatures we find unicellular micro-organisms, infusorians and amoeba… and what do they do? They feed themselves. That’s all, they do nothing else… They feed themselves through their whole body, they don’t even have a mouth, still less a stomach and intestines. The nutritional elements pass through their membranes and penetrate into the cytoplasm. Like these micro-organisms, human beings possess a membrane, the skin, through which they receive the elements they need. But if this skin is impermeable, they will not receive much in the way of forces, energy and essential food from the universe.

So, the question to be considered is how we learn to feed ourselves fully, not only by eating but by capturing all these energies and emanations of cosmic origin through our skin.1 That is why we must keep the skin in a very pure state, not only physically but spiritually. Many men and women wash themselves every day, even several times a day, and they are clean, of course, but they are not pure. Purity is something else… But I won’t return to this subject today.

The skin is riddled with a multitude of little holes and pores, like the little mouths called stomata that we find on the upper side of the leaves of trees. For the tree does not feed through its roots only but also through its leaves… When the skin allows all the etheric elements from the cosmos to penetrate it, humans are fully nourished.

If you study the different forms of nutrition in the universe, extraordinary horizons will open up before you. I have always been passionate about this subject, for I understood that in one form or another everyone must eat. No one is exempt. Even the Lord nourishes himself. He, also, eats…

I invite you, therefore, to think more and more about this process, which is very important, firstly for physical life but also for psychic, spiritual life. Devote a little more time to observing and analysing which foods are best for you, which give you not only physical energy but psychic energy, and observe also which foods do not suit you, and try to take one kind and reject the other.

The Bonfin, 30 July 1965

2

After a good meal, you find life beautiful, whereas if you have nothing to chew on, you find it has no meaning. Yes, for nutrition is the foundation of life. Life is made up only of exchanges, and these exchanges are called nutrition, respiration, or love; if we do not have exchanges, we die.

Nature has created these two poles – masculine and feminine, men and women – so they can become closer and make exchanges through speech, thoughts and looks.2 These exchanges are as indispensable as nutrition or breathing but in the psychic realm. If we knew how to make these exchanges we could live the true life, but we don’t know how, and instead we poison ourselves. And if we stop making them, we will die both psychically and spiritually. We must have exchanges, but just like the ones we have with the sun. The sun is far away, high in the sky, and our exchanges with it take place in the subtle realm by way of its heat and light. If you went to embrace the sun (assuming it was possible) you would be burned. You must, therefore, embrace it only with a look, a thought. When it comes to loving men and women, we must also be content to embrace them from afar, for in this way we will live lives that are luminous and subtle. The other ways of loving create complications and place humans in situations they can no longer escape from. We must not give up on love, for that would mean death. We must simply make it subtler.

Exchanges are the basis of life: exchanges with food, water, air and other human beings, but also with all creatures in the universe, with the angels and with God. Exchanges do not mean just feeding ourselves, eating and drinking. Or rather, they do mean eating and drinking, but in all the realms, not only on the physical level. So, when I say that nutrition must be put in first place, I am talking about nutrition on all levels, about the exchanges we must make with the different regions of the universe so as to feed everything within us, from our physical body to our subtlest bodies. That is why we must purify ourselves physically and psychically, so that we re-establish communications that allow currents and energies to circulate between the universe and us.

I repeat, nutrition must be understood on all levels. Prayer and ecstasies are also forms of nutrition, the best and the most sublime, for we then taste ambrosia, the heavenly food. All religions speak of a drink of immortality that the alchemists called the elixir of everlasting life. And it is true that we can find this elixir even in the physical realm, but in its most elevated and purest regions. When we go to the sunrise, it is in fact to drink the ambrosia that is distributed everywhere by the sun and from which rocks, plants, animals, humans and all creation gather particles. Moreover, plants are more intelligent than humans. Every day, they link with the sun in order to yield fruit, whereas humans will sleep until midday, or else they will go to watch the sunset. Instead of looking at what rises, grows and blossoms, they prefer to look at what sets, what diminishes and fades. And so inwardly they too begin to set, for there is a law that says we end up resembling what we look at and what we love. And in autumn, when the leaves fall, they go for a walk in the forest, and they come back melancholic and tired… for they have stirred up all their sadness and their betrayals: how they left their beloved, how they were abandoned… Autumn is the time that evokes these kinds of memories. And then they write poems about failed love affairs…

On the physical level, everyone knows how to eat, but on the other levels they are always absorbing heavy, gross foods, which produce waste and poison them. We must nourish ourselves with light, for only light is absolutely pure. Everything else leaves waste material, which must be disposed of. After you burn coal in a stove, you have to clear out the clinker and ash, otherwise you cannot light the stove again. This is what happens in the body, too: food and drink produce waste, and if you do not eliminate it you will die. The majority of illnesses are due to foreign materials we have been unable to evacuate, whereas health is the result of exchanges so rapid and subtle that the body is cleared of all impurities. I do not know how medicine defines health, and I do not want to know. But I am informed by cosmic Intelligence, which shows me things as they are. On earth, the highest manifestation of this Intelligence is the sun, and we must learn from it.

The meaning of life is hidden in nutrition; that is why you must be careful on all levels to absorb only pure, luminous particles and heavenly, eternal quintessences. And you will find these particles in the sun. Each morning, concentrate on the sun, and try to breathe in and absorb the quintessences it distributes. You will see how your health will improve, your intelligence will become clearer, your heart will rejoice and your willpower will become stronger. You will say you’ve been going to the sunrise for years and still not felt anything… That is because you do not know how to look at it. It is the way you do things and the intensity of your love and your thoughts which give results, not the time you put in. If today you feel so enlivened and fulfilled, it is quite simply because you have taken a few mouthfuls from that inexhaustible spring, the sun. Is this so difficult to understand? We give you proof after proof, but it’s no use. That is why I am often sad: you do not want to see this blinding truth that illuminates the world.

Everyone is looking for something other than life, the sun, the divinity, purity, love… This stubbornness is extraordinary! How can humans be helped? They have no criteria, they see no relationship between the way they eat and the state they are in. The same applies to pregnancy: they see no relationship between the thoughts and feelings the mother has and the child that is to be born. None. So, who is it that forms this child? Is it the mother or someone else? You see how ignorant everyone is!3

But you, try to understand me, and your life will be completely transformed.

Sèvres, 2 April 1970

3

Reading from the thought for the day:

‘Only if you know how to eat can you gain eternal life, for God has put eternal life into food.’

This thought will astound many of you, for we are not used to hearing it said that we must know how to eat in order to obtain eternal life.

But we must go further and understand what food is from the initiatic point of view, in the divine realm, because there’s food and there’s food… God has put eternal life into food, but not into any old food. The particles of eternity are deposited in the food of love, light, wisdom and goodness. Eternal life is not in physical food, although it contains elements that can help us to understand the other heavenly food. If we talk about an elixir of everlasting life, it’s fine that this elixir is a food. But which food? When I say that we gain eternal life only by knowing how to eat, you must understand that if we do not give food to our soul, spirit, and heart, they will die. The spirit, soul and heart must eat ideas, thoughts and feelings. So, if we nourish the soul and spirit with the best thoughts and the best feelings, and if we also nourish the physical body with the purest foods, we will gain eternal life.

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, in order to have eternal life we must eat on all planes. That is the meaning of the passage I have just read to you. Knowing how to eat is an extraordinary art, and not only knowing how to eat physically. What’s more, even physically, people do not know how to eat, so all the more reason to learn how to eat in the other realms.

How many times have I told you that humans are, in fact, like cats! Cats swallow mice with the skin and intestines intact, and humans do the same. In the realm of thoughts and feelings, they swallow mice including the skin and intestines, because they do not know what they are eating. We must learn to eat on all levels, because we can find nourishment on all levels. For example, in the air there is prana… What is this prana, which Hindus say is spread throughout the atmosphere and which they teach people to absorb through breathing exercises? Prana is a food that increases vitality, lucidity, balance and health… Obviously, eternal life is not found in prana. Eternal life must be sought higher, much higher, and that is an entire science.4

Respiration is nothing more than a second kind of nutrition.5 In fact, we nourish ourselves more by breathing than by eating, because if we did not breathe, even if we ate, we would die. Through respiration, we take in much more energy than during meals. Feelings and thoughts are yet another form of nutrition. So if you knew how to eat it would mean being perfect like God himself.

Of course, we have to feed ourselves on the physical level, we have to give something to the stomach, but we mustn’t stop there, we must also nourish our soul and our spirit by meditation, contemplation and ecstasy, and this is heavenly food, this is ambrosia, the drink of immortality. If human beings are so unhappy, it is because they do not nourish themselves. Look, even physical food gives people a sense of wellbeing and more positive feelings. Invite someone for a meal, and they’ll be very amiable. They’ll give you everything you wish. But go and ask a favour from someone who has nothing in their stomach, and see what you’ll get: a rocket! So, if physical food improves people, how much more spiritual food! Those who know how to nourish themselves through meditation and contemplation are better disposed to love. How many times have I verified this! And when I am prevented from eating my meal – my meditation – it’s awful! If I am deprived of my heavenly food, I become terrible, because I am starving. So, why not others? They are perhaps unconscious of it, but their state of being stems from not knowing how to nourish themselves with heavenly food. That is why I recommend that you don’t allow a single day to go by without feeding yourself something marvellous, and then you will notice that you feel in a much better state: more robust, more patient and more lucid…

But when I talk about the discoveries you will make, I also mean that you must live what you have discovered and try to practise it. It is not enough to read some thoughts and leave them to one side, telling yourself that you have understood. No, you have understood nothing, you must live them, and only then will you understand forever, and when you return to the earth, in another incarnation, you will bring back this knowledge intact, for it will be knowledge you have lived. Everything you have read and learned that has not become your flesh and blood, you will lose. You will come back to earth stripped of all the purely intellectual knowledge that you accumulated in your previous lives, and you will have to learn all over again. Reflect well on this.

The Bonfin, 8 July 1971

1 See In Spirit and in Truth, Izvor 235, chap. 9: ‘The skin’ and Notre peau spirituelle, l’aura, Brochure 309

2 See Love and Sexuality, Part 1, Complete Works, Vol. 14, chap. 1: ‘The Masculine and Feminine Principles’ and chap. 14: ‘Exchanges and Relationships’

3 See Hope for the World, Spiritual Galvanoplasty, Izvor 214, chap. 10: ‘The original experiment and the new one’

4 See Boire l’élixir de la vie immortelle, Pamphlet 5

5 See Respiration, Spiritual Dimensions and Practical Applications, Brochure 303

Chapter Fifteen

Food is already blessed and consecrated by the Creator. The greatest proof that this food is blessed is that it gives us life. God is in the food in the form of life… It is therefore already blessed by heaven before human beings bless it… The blessing is a kind of ceremony, a magical rite, if you like. The words, the gestures, the thoughts of the priest who blesses the food envelop it in emanations and fluids which prepare it so that it will harmonize with those who are about to eat it. In this way, a contact is created between the food and their subtle bodies; an adaptation occurs, allowing them to better receive the riches hidden in the food.

1

This question of the blessing of food is not well understood, and even priests do not know why they have to bless the wine and the hosts. Those who established these practices in the past knew why they did it, but now we have forgotten the significance, and we do it automatically. In reality, it is not the blessing that gives the food life. Someone has already been blessing it for a long time: the Lord has been blessing it through the intermediary of his servants – the sun, the wind, the stars, the earth and water… The proof it is blessed is that it gives life, whereas the human blessing cannot give it any life. Otherwise, we should be able to bless lumps of brick or wood and distribute them as food to humanity.

The priests’ blessing cannot give life, as its function is different: it tames the food. Food possesses its own life, and its vibrations are not always attuned to those of the individuals who eat it. That is why we must magnetize it and give it a few particles of our life in order to alter the movement of its particles and make friends with it, so that it will open up and pour all its riches into us. This is why, if we eat with love and gratitude, the food begins to vibrate in unison with our aura, with our whole being, and it attunes its vibrations to ours, giving us all its treasures. However, we will become ill if we eat when we are angry, rebellious, nervous, or in the middle of an argument, even if we are eating the best food. Besides, when we are so ignorant and negligent, we deserve to suffer.

We must bless the food, just so the body can receive it more easily. For those who do not work with these tremendous forces of love, attentiveness and gratitude, the kingdom of God will remain forever beyond their reach. Don’t believe that the whole universe will bow down before pygmies who do not want to learn the great laws of nature and work in harmony with them! No, quite simply, they will suffer and end up disappearing. Cosmic Intelligence is implacable. We cannot enter the kingdom of God without making an effort. Don’t believe that the Lord will come and place you at his right hand, if you haven’t worked for thousands of years to acquire qualities and virtues, or if you haven’t made any efforts and been tried and tested. You think that because you have been with this teaching for a few months heaven must open up, and the angels will come to take you in their arms… No, for that you must work for centuries, millennia. Heaven is very slow in giving rewards, but when it does, it is for all eternity. Once you have edged your way into paradise, you can no longer be chased out. Those who are in a hurry may go and verify the truth of my words, and they will see that they are in accordance with all the laws of the universe.

The Bonfin, 20 September 1971

2

When two people meet, their vibrations are so different that it is difficult for them to harmonize with each other and to understand each other. But time passes, and they make exchanges with each other, there is a levelling out, and they begin to vibrate in unison. It is the same with food. If you eat it without preparing it, the effect will not be the same as when you send it lots of love. For example, when you are about to eat a piece of fruit, hold it for a few moments in your hand, give it your magnetism, and then the fruit will be much better disposed towards you. Otherwise, it does not know you, there is no friendship between it and you. In order to receive the subtle etheric particles of a piece of fruit, you must open it, and in order to open it you must warm it, and this means giving it your love.

If you hold very cold fruit in your hand for a moment, your warmth will penetrate it and warm it up. So why wouldn’t your love also warm it up and transform it? When you hold a piece of fruit, its temperature rises, but also its aura receives the warmth of your heart. In this way, you harmonize the fruit to your inner temperature, and it becomes well disposed towards you.

You have noticed that before eating fruit I hold it for a moment in my hands. In this way I am transforming the etheric body of the fruit by asking it to open up to me. We must smile at food just as we would at an animal we wish to tame. Animals, plants and people need to feel love if they are to be tamed. The same holds true for food, and even medicines. For a medicine to be truly accepted by your body and to act effectively on it, you must work with its etheric matter. Even a stone in your hand may or may not vibrate in a friendly way towards you. If you know how to make it well disposed towards you, it can protect you and heal you.1

Sèvres, 4 April 1951

3

Reading from the thought for the day:

‘The foods that we eat are not quite ready to be absorbed, digested, transformed and sent into the body. Humans must try to tame the food, make friends with it, otherwise it always remains foreign matter. Yes, even food is foreign matter, as it does not vibrate in unison with us. That is why we must eat in silence with attentiveness, love and gratitude. These states of consciousness can transform the food in such a way that there are no foreign particles left in it.’

In some churches it is a tradition for priests to bless food. I have told you that this blessing adds neither nutritional qualities nor eternal life. Blessings serve only to make the food ‘friendly’ to the body, so that it may be well accepted by it. The formulas and prayers that we recite before or after meals influence the food only in that they harmonize it with our own existence and our own vibrations.

This law can be found in all areas of life. You may have to meet with a person who is not really prepared to vibrate in unison with you. Perhaps he or she even intends to criticize you or reproach you… Then you do all you can to tame them, and to change their vibrations so that they become your friend. Everyone tries to placate creatures with a look, words or gestures. And look also at what happens between lovers. First of all they are foreign to one another. At first the girl sits there on her chair, upright, honest and full of integrity. It’s wonderful. But the boy offers her a drink and puts on some sentimental music, and she is tamed, she accepts, she becomes ‘friendly’. Men and women know instinctively that they must tame each other. When you wear shoes for the first time, they feel tight and uncomfortable, you find them stiff and hard; then, gradually, they become suppler, they get used to you, so to speak. And when you move to a new room or a new house, at first you feel homesick, the place is foreign to you. But after a while you feel at home, and you are happy that you’re there, because this place vibrates in harmony with the life you are leading. And what do you think a magus does? By means of formulas and magic ceremonies, he seeks nothing other than to tame objects.

It is strange that, when it comes to food, no one thinks that there is anything to do. And yet, before arriving on your table, it has been left in all manner of places and been handled and carried about, so it is not your friend. It is foreign to you. But if you take a piece of fruit and hold it with respect and gentleness, it becomes your friend. It vibrates differently. It is like a flower that opens and emanates its fragrance for you. The secret of making food open to you is to warm it, and warmth is love. That is why, if you do not like a particular food, don’t eat it, for if you do it becomes an enemy in your body. Never eat what you do not like! We must love objects and beings, for then they open up and give us their fragrance. Fragrance is an invisible, impalpable emanation that we can neither weigh nor measure, an etheric quintessence but one which exists, which is real and which can dilate your heart.

So, it’s a universal law. If you do not warm the food with your love, it remains closed, and when it is closed it does not give you its fragrance, that is, its particles, energies and subtle forces. It will give you only its body, its flesh, its most material and coarsest part. If you eat fruit that was picked a long time ago, you are eating its flesh and its dead body. Its soul and its life force are no longer there. If there were machines to measure its energetic value, you would see that all its nutritious qualities had gone. What remains is just material that is difficult to digest, to assimilate and to distribute throughout the whole body. That is how people make themselves ill: by not knowing how to choose life, to eat life. For them the substance of food is more important than life, because they do not see the life.

Look at children: they are attracted by colours and shapes. Some are attracted a little by scents, but very rarely. When you give children a choice of fruit, they immediately take the most colourful, and out of all the colours it is the colour red that attracts them the most. Children do not search deeply for the life of the fruit, and nor do adults. In this domain they are like children: they look at its size and colour… and its price! They are not concerned with the life hidden in the fruit. Initiates think only of the life. It is not the flesh of fruit which is important but the life it contains. The fresher it is, the more it has been exposed to the sun’s rays and the more it has ripened in favourable conditions, the more powerful and intense its life force, and they nourish themselves with this life. But the majority of people do not know how to look for life. The proof of this is that sunrise is the time when life is most widely distributed in the atmosphere, but that is not where people go to look for life. They prefer to go and seize a few crumbs in nightclubs. That is how intelligent humans are!...

Obviously, when I speak of the sun, it is not only of the star shining in the sky. It is also the intelligence that comes with the light… it is love, an impetus for what is positive and constructive… and it is also life, spiritual life, pure life.

So, the sun implies an entire science, and it is this science which is the universal panacea. That is why it is not enough to go and expose oneself to the light of the physical sun: what is important is to understand the three higher principles of warmth, light and life.2 The universal panacea the sages seek is an immense science, which consists in understanding and loving only what is divine and never taking in anything impure. For, in reality, humans do not eat solely on the physical level but also in other realms, in the astral and the mental. That is why our rules of nutrition cover the three levels of nourishing ourselves: with pure foods, and also with pure feelings and pure thoughts…3 The rules of nutrition involve the whole human being.

The Bonfin, 8 September 1975

4

Today I would like to talk to you again about nutrition. Some will say that they have had enough of always hearing me talk about the same subject. But I will reply by saying that, in fact, if they are not advancing, if they are not evolving, it is because they are not repeating certain truths that must be repeated twenty times, thirty times a day. The moment you allow yourself to carry out deeds that are neither fair nor noble, you must tell yourself that this has happened because you have forgotten the truths and laws which would have enabled you to overcome your weaknesses. You must understand the usefulness of repetition. Besides, there are so many things that you find it normal to repeat! Each day you eat several times, you always go to bed and sleep, you breathe, or you are foolish… always the same!... But if you listen to someone repeating truths that can transform you, you squeal. Is that intelligent?

Before eating we have much work to do on the food, we must make it our friend so that it does not harm us by leaving too much waste in our body. That is why we must learn to eat with love. The vibrations of love are extremely powerful and can even transform stones. When you hold a stone in your hand and you communicate your love to it, it begins to vibrate differently. This is initiatic Science’s explanation for the power of talismans: magicians try to win over an object that is foreign to them, that does not vibrate in unison with them and so cannot do them any good. They change the vibrations of the object by enveloping it in certain fluidic layers, in sending it lots of love and light, so that the object acts favourably on their health, their intelligence and their sensitivity.

Now, try to do this exercise: before eating a piece of fruit, take it in your hand, talk to it nicely, at least in your head, and then something in the fruit will change, it will become your friend, and, when you eat it, it will work for you. But humans are so far from understanding these laws, in all realms! Often a man throws himself on a woman to embrace her or sleep with her, even if she doesn’t agree and doesn’t vibrate in harmony with him. How stupid that is!

My dear brothers and sisters, try hard to re-awaken the powers that have become dormant in you through centuries of inertia and stagnation. With this inertia you will go nowhere, you won’t shake up anything, you won’t open any door within you, you won’t release any forces. You must conquer inertia by using willpower. Concentrate, meditate, pray and do the exercises! You have the best conditions here to conquer any inertia in your mind and in your heart, which have been blocked, sometimes for years and years. Always hold the desire to add something more to your existence, something purer, subtler. We must communicate extraordinary vibrations to inanimate objects that will have a beneficial effect for years to come.

All magic, white magic and black magic alike, is based on the science of vibrations and of the different qualities of vibration. Black magic teaches how to impregnate an object or a being with chaotic, disturbing and harmful vibrations, and then accidents and illnesses follow. White magic, on the other hand, introduces harmonious, luminous vibrations into a being, and they are healed or rediscover their balance and their joy. Those who learn to introduce only beneficial influences everywhere become magi, whereas previously they were sorcerers without realizing it. Yes, when we emit bad vibrations, even unconsciously and through ignorance, sowing disorder, creating dissonance and quarrels that separate beings and destroy them, then we are sorcerers. Nine-tenths of humanity are sorcerers without knowing it. When we talk to them of sorcery, they are the first to be disgusted and revolted, or refuse even to believe that sorcery exists, but they do not know that they themselves are dabbling in sorcery.4

Magi are beings who first and foremost introduce harmony into themselves, such that all their cells vibrate in harmony and in unison. Their harmonious vibrations accompany them wherever they go; they introduce into everything they touch a fluidic layer of the same vibrations as themselves, and these vibrations restore order and harmony everywhere. So, by always wishing to do good, to restore harmony everywhere, to advise, console, pacify, heal, enlighten and give life to humans, disciples are preparing themselves to become magi, sons and daughters of God. Unfortunately, humans are taught nothing of all this, and without realizing it they are continually demolishing, destroying and being harmful and spiteful. To be a white magician also means knowing how to eat with love and gratitude. You do not yet know how far-reaching this subject is. I will even tell you that if you know how to eat, you will know how to love. The same processes, the same laws, exist in the realm of love as in that of nutrition.5 We feel the same hunger, the same thirst, and make endless, copious meals, and what are we swallowing!

It is worth putting everything to one side, even urgent business, in order to study this question and eat in peace and love, for we then discover such a state of lucidity and intense life that, instead of wasting hours finding solutions or organizing things, we can do it in a few minutes. Because they are overworked, so they say, most people eat quickly and in any old way. It is foolish to think that by gaining a few minutes at mealtimes, everything will go well. On the contrary, for then we are sleepy, or else we only make mistakes, which we then have to spend entire days repairing. Believe me, my dear brothers and sisters, the question of food is of the utmost importance.

The Bonfin, 8 September 1975

1 See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor 226, chap. 5: ‘Talismans’

2 See The Splendour of Tiphareth, Complete Works, Vol. 10, chap. 15: ‘The sun is in the image and likeness of God’

3 See The Mysteries of Yesod, Complete Works, Vol. 7, part I, chap. 4: ‘Purity in the three worlds’

4 See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor 226, chap. 10: ‘We all work magic’

5 See Love and Sexuality, Part 1, Complete Works, Vol. 14, chap. 11: ‘Nourishment and Love’

Chapter Sixteen

By knowing how to eat in silence and with reverence, you create an atmosphere of peace and light, in which all divine realizations are possible… In fact, nutrition must be understood as a work of the spirit on matter.

1

At mealtimes you must try to clear your mind so that you can pay attention to the food and fill it with rays of love. The moment you do this, matter and energy separate: matter disintegrates, while energy enters into you so you can then use it.

Of course, however you eat, the body always extracts something, but only the most material particles. There is no comparison between these and the fantastic forces which benefit those who really know how to eat. Humanity has not yet discovered, nor does it even suspect, these possibilities. In the Universal White Brotherhood we learn how to eat, how to breathe, how to love… Yes, everything we have never been taught to do correctly, all those actions we carry out unconsciously and haphazardly and which do not give us the great benefits they should. Here we learn to do them consciously.

We must eat in silence, therefore, because silence permits us to concentrate and to achieve inner peace.1 While we are eating, we must think of nothing else. For half an hour at least, we put everything to one side and concentrate on the food. We project rays of love towards it so it then releases its energies. The same processes take place in a thermonuclear centre. If we really knew how to eat, just a few mouthfuls would be enough… We would extract enough energy to stir up the whole universe.

Moreover, this process of fission is produced not only in the stomach, but also in the lungs and the brain. You will say, ‘In the brain?’ Yes. But these are realities you do not know about. During their meditations and their ecstasies, initiates are constantly sending waves, currents and flames through space. Where do they draw their energies from? From their brains. And yet if we weigh the brain, its mass remains identical. In the brain a few particles of matter disintegrate, and the psychic energy resulting from this disintegration sets to work throughout the whole world.

Modern science has discovered atomic fission, but these are realities that initiates have known about for centuries. In their works we read that matter is the receptacle for the spirit, that spirit and matter are wedded together, and they knew that spiritual energy is capable of disintegrating matter by bombarding it, producing phenomena of extraordinary power. Official science has made these discoveries only recently, and again to use them to make weapons of destruction. Initiates have known about all this since time immemorial, but they did not wish to reveal it for they foresaw the danger. They knew that as long as humans were not masters of their instincts, they would use these discoveries to destroy everything, and this is what is happening now.

But let’s return to nutrition. If, one day, humans learn how to eat, they will notice that even when they eat very little, they can extract more energy from the food and work for much longer without tiring. Moreover, in the future, when humans discover the great mysteries of nature, they will know how to draw energy from the ocean, the air, minerals, trees, etc., and they will be able to accomplish great things.

For the time being, understand at least that you must concentrate on the food with lots of love, as if your entire health, your entire future and all your happiness depended on this food, as if all treasures were concealed in each ingredient. By thinking in this way, you are preparing your organism to do its work much better, and you accumulate unknown forces and elements that greatly facilitate the physical, and even intellectual, processes, and in this way you develop yourself to perfection.

All this heavy food (we absorb several kilos a day!) is transformed inside us into energy and gives comparatively little waste. It has become thoughts, feelings and actions. Specialists have not stopped to think about the question of nutrition from an initiatic point of view, which would show them its hidden, subtle and divine aspect. But if humans now decide to look at everything that happens in the universe from the spiritual point of view, they will discover wonders they have never previously suspected.

Obviously, we do not become perfect just because we know how to eat. We must also know how to breathe, then how to think, for these are the same laws on different levels. We need to be fed on all levels, which is why it is very important to know how to eat on all three levels.

The Bonfin, 12 July 1970

2

During meals we must work so that the spirit is present, so that it infuses the food and penetrates our own matter. Food is not yet spirit; it contains subtle elements, of course, etheric materials, a life, but the spirit is something else. So we must pray for the spirit to participate in this act of eating, because it is thanks to thought that everything improves. The spirit penetrates all particles of the food, all cells of the body, and then food becomes an extraordinarily beneficial factor for our organism.

If matter already possessed the spirit, it would not be necessary to say that spirit must encounter matter; it would already be contained in it. In fact, there is a force contained in matter that physicists have succeeded in releasing in the form of nuclear energy, but this is still not the spirit. In this way, our body bears the mark of our spirit, but they are not mixed up; although together, they remain distinct.

When you concentrate on the food, it may only be your mind that is concentrated and not yet your spirit. But if your spirit participates in this act of nutrition, it adds an element so new that everything inside you is transformed. For example, when we want to heal a sick person by means of thought, our thought must penetrate the body or the organ to dispel all the impure elements and replace them with elements of the greatest purity. Let’s suppose then that you are trying to do this: it will give results only if your spirit enters the sick body. If it is the mind or a feeling, love for example, which enters the body, healing can take place but much more slowly. But the spirit heals instantaneously. It was through the force of the spirit that Jesus healed the sick.2 Not everything obeys thought or feeling, but everything obeys the spirit, because it is all-powerful.

So, at mealtimes, the spirit must participate in the act of nutrition… because, one day, when spirit and matter meet each other, it will be the triumph of creation!

The Bonfin, 19 July 1971

3

Humans have the task of working on matter in order to transform it, and, in fact, when they eat, they do an entire work of transformation on the food. People do not yet know the meaning of nutrition. They eat, all creatures eat, but why? If you ask someone, he will tell you that we eat so as to have energy… Yes, but isn’t there another reason? Everything we do has more than one reason, more than one goal, and if we eat, it is not just to keep ourselves alive.

Take worms, for example: they swallow earth and then reject it, and as they pass it through their body in this way, they work on it so that it becomes more fertile. Humans do the same with food. Given that they are beings endowed with life, feelings and thoughts, they belong to a degree of evolution greatly superior to that of the matter they absorb. So, as the matter passes through them, it is transformed, animated, refined and spiritualized. All beings feed themselves: plants, animals, men and women… and in so doing, they enable the matter to evolve by giving it elements that it did not possess before. It’s as if each realm of nature had a duty to feed on lower realms to get them to evolve. Above us, certain more advanced beings are also busy digesting us in order to transform us. Yes, in another form, this is exactly what happens. All life is an uninterrupted exchange between the inorganic world and the organic world, between the material world and the spiritual world.

These exchanges can be found everywhere in the world. Why do intelligent people want to look after ignorant people in order to educate them? Why do those who are good, generous, virtuous, deal with delinquents and criminals? And the strong help the weak…, the rich help the poor… For evolution to take place, exchanges must be made between two opposite poles.3 And this is also the reason we eat. Cosmic Intelligence would, doubtless, have been able to find other means, but this is the one it has chosen. It decided that, in order to evolve, each creature would absorb the matter of the realm beneath it. I have given you the example of worms: when they reject the earth that they have absorbed, it is already more elaborated, it is impregnated with an extra element that the worms have communicated to it. And if worms have been given the task of getting all the earth to pass through them so as to improve it, why not humans? So, you see, humans and worms are collaborators! They have the same task, although they don’t know it. They signed a contract on high, before coming down, the worms in one form and humans in another, engaging to work on matter so as to give it life.

Moreover, when the matter that humans possess – the particles of their body – leave after death to rejoin the four elements – the earth, water, air and fire – at that moment, they are no longer the same: they are more intelligent, more alive, more expressive, and they will be used for other forms, other creations, of a superior quality. But if these particles are vile, because of the animalistic or criminal life the person has led, the particles will be used only for coarse creatures. So look how far-reaching humanity’s responsibility is. Humans are even responsible for what they leave behind after their departure, for all the particles of their body that they have impregnated with light, love, goodness and purity, or, on the contrary, with criminal vibrations. They continue to be responsible for this, even after their death. Obviously, on earth it is different; even if they have committed crimes or left debts, when they die they can no longer be pursued, for where do you find them to punish them? On earth, death settles many things, but on the other side death settles nothing, and we continue to be pursued for all the negativity we have left behind – our thoughts, feelings and actions… We are considered responsible for them. These are truths that humans don’t know. They don’t know how far their responsibility reaches and that being aware of our responsibility is the highest consciousness there is.

So, when we eat, our task is to give life to matter, to refine it and sublimate it. Moreover, the same thing applies to all the people we meet: they represent a matter that we must absorb and digest, so as to vivify and improve it. That is why not only must we support people and accept them but we must also give them something good. Yes, we have the task of working on humans as if we were working on matter that we had to improve.

If we go further, we can say that the same work must be done with the sexual force. The sexual force is a raw, crude matter that we must spiritualize and sublimate, so that it becomes a beneficial influence when it gets expressed in the physical or etheric realms.4 Disciples must understand that they have been given the grandiose task of transforming and sublimating all of creation. All that they see, all that they touch, all that they eat must be transformed, improved and made more beautiful. Our task is to swallow all of creation and to make it come out divine! As long as we do not understand this, everything we do will be stupid and meaningless. Even our life will have no meaning. Our task is to place the seal of the spirit on matter, to spiritualize everything, to make everything divine; and if we succeed in doing it, we will be recognized and appreciated by luminous spirits, who will choose to come close to us because we have understood the meaning of creation.

We eat, we drink, we breathe, we work, we transform matter in order to try to give it what we possess, that is to say, more life, more love, more intelligence. Plants feed on minerals, animals feed on plants, humans on animals. And who feeds on humans? That is a question that we have not asked ourselves… There are two types of creatures that feed on humans. Look: among humans there are those who eat the flesh of animals and those who eat only their products: eggs, milk, etc… In the same way, entities in the invisible world do not come to eat human flesh but to eat their emanations, thoughts and feelings. According to whether they are good or bad thoughts, good or bad sentiments, humans provide food for inferior spirits or for the angels. Obviously, we must understand in what way this is done… And angels, themselves, serve as food for the archangels, the archangels for the principalities… and so on, right up to the seraphim, who serve as food for the Lord. The seraphim’s love nourishes the Lord.

From time immemorial, initiates, who were endowed with a science that they could not teach to the masses, used images that we have to know how to interpret. It is said in the Bible that the Lord takes delight in the smell of burnt offerings. Do you think that the Lord’s nostrils can really take pleasure in breathing in the greasy smells of roasted animals?!... It was an image to illustrate that the spiritual emanations of beings (burnt offerings were made to God in sacrifice) can serve as food for other, superior creatures, all the way up to the Lord… for God also feeds himself. Since we are created in his image and we eat, so must God eat too, but obviously this doesn’t happen in the same way as it does in us, with a mouth, teeth, stomach and intestines. We cannot even have any idea how the Lord is nourished, as everything in him is so pure and sublime, but he is nourished. Why have such stupid things been written in the Bible – such as, that God fed himself on the smell of victims – if there was not any deeper truth behind these words?

When we make efforts to surpass ourselves, to go beyond ourselves, in order to create something more than ourselves, by virtue of this effort we imprint the seal of the spirit onto matter. In this way we fulfil our task as sons and daughters of God. Take a mother: she receives matter that she shapes and gives life to in such a wonderful way that a well-proportioned, beautiful, intelligent child is born. The task of initiates and disciples is identical to that of the mother. They must create children all the time – symbolically – by thinking always of improving, spiritualizing and sublimating their creations. By working in this direction, one day we will succeed in transforming the whole earth. Yes, even the earth will vibrate, sing and become crystalline, and everyone will be forever in awe, powerful, radiant, beautiful and enthusiastic. It is this impulse that must now be given to humans, who are so dark, stagnant, mummified and unhappy because of having neglected the spirit. Everything we do, we must do with enthusiasm, love and conviction, and everything must shine and radiate! And, even if we are exhausted, by the all-powerfulness of the spirit we must get back up, drag ourselves along and make one more gesture before falling: so that the spirit can be victorious once again and leave one last trace on matter. Whereas now, with their old philosophy, humans at 40 or 50 years of age are already old and fusty.

I am very happy to have shown you today that the task for humanity is to pass matter through their bodies so as to animate it. And that is why they eat. Have you calculated how much people eat during their lifetime?... And as all humanity does the same thing, changes take place everywhere, and the earth is no longer the same. Oh, obviously there are some very generous, very charitable people who fulfil their task with so much ardour that they make lavish meals five or six times a day so as to contribute to the transformation of matter. These people should be supported and rewarded! Because, look, they do magnificent work: how many pigs, turkeys, chickens and rabbits have departed thanks to them! It is because they want to improve creation, we must never forget that! Whereas these little vegetarians who eat a few salads, they don’t deserve a pedestal, because they do not transform as much matter as all these others who eat like horses!...

In reality, it’s not a question of making matter pass just through one’s stomach, but also through the lungs, heart, and brain… The life we receive does not stay in us, it goes away, and we receive new life constantly, always new, always fresh. So, it is not only by eating that we can improve matter but by means of all our actions: by looking, walking and working… You see how far-reaching a disciple’s task is!

So if, from now on, your ideal is to make everything more alive, more luminous, more beautiful, you yourself will be transformed, for everything within you will be activated, and collaborators from the invisible world will come to help you.

The Bonfin, 18 September 1973

4

Reading from the thought for the day:

‘The physical body must become capable of expressing the qualities of the spirit. By eating consciously with love and gratitude, we draw the best elements from the food for building our body. When it is given a suitable instrument, a physical body in a fit state to do its work, the spirit is all-powerful.’

The spirit uses the body like a tool. That is a very important idea, my dear brothers and sisters. If the physical body is developed harmoniously, the spirit can use it in a marvellous way. Very few know of this truth. Many ascetics, for example, thought that if they abandoned their body to filth, privations or bad treatment, their spirit would be sufficient to balance and compensate for everything and would be even more able to show itself. But most of the time, it failed. Take the example of a virtuoso. They can be the greatest pianist in the world, but if they are given a broken-down piano, despite their talent they will not be able to play, because the instrument is not as it should be. The human brain is like a piano. The spirit incarnated in the body is perhaps a virtuoso, a genius, and a divinity, but it will not be able to manifest itself if the body is assailed by illnesses, defects or malformations.

Again, let’s take the case of mad people, lunatics: it is not that the spirit living in them is abnormal but that an anomaly exists in their brain and nervous system, a physical obstacle which prevents the spirit from manifesting itself. Such a person passes for being mad or an idiot, but do we actually know who they are, in other words, who their spirit is? The spirit is one thing and the physical body is another. And yet these two, the spirit and the body, are often confused. The body is our vehicle, an instrument, a tool, but ‘we’ are something else. The proof is that after death, only the vehicle remains; it cannot think, speak or walk. So something else has departed… We must not confuse the instrument with the artist himself.

When the spirit leaves the body of someone who is insane or mentally ill, it, the spirit, which is not ill but intelligent, travels and communes with the whole universe. When it has to return into a sick body, it finds itself hindered, tied and paralysed, because the nervous centres are weak or function in an anarchic way, preventing it from manifesting all its powers. But if humans consciously give it the possibility, the spirit is able to transform everything, for it is all-powerful, but only in certain conditions. In the physical realm it is not, but in its own region, where it is at home, it possesses the omnipotence of God himself: for on high, in the spiritual realms, what count are the quintessence, qualities and virtues. That is why what we need to do is reunite favourable material conditions (a healthy, strong body) on the one hand with the most spiritual thoughts and feelings on the other.

We must not neglect the physical body but get rid of all the impurities accumulated in it, which prevent the spirit from animating it and manifesting itself. In fact, that is why the teaching of the Universal White Brotherhood gives methods which involve the physical body: how we should eat, breathe, wash, walk, work, give birth to children… It is a whole science, which most humans don’t know about, and because of this many complications, anomalies and imbalances ensue… Disciples know there are methods which permit the physical body to become divine. The spirit can impregnate the body so perfectly with its quintessence that the body begins to manifest the qualities of the spirit, and conversely, the spirit, which is so subtle, succeeds in materializing itself and becoming tangible, visible and real. In this marriage of body and spirit perfection is found.5

In the past, many religious people, mystics, who had not received this instruction believed that spirituality consisted in eating and drinking anything, not washing themselves (this is what is called the odour of saintliness!) and living in deplorable and unhealthy conditions. Of course, they learned in this way not to satisfy only the body and not to lose themselves in sensual pleasures, for when that happens, it’s true, the spirit no longer has any power. But it was overdone, and in depriving themselves of everything many fell ill, which did not encourage the spirit to manifest!... You must be reasonable, intelligent, enlightened and balanced and do everything necessary to keep your physical body in good health, so that when the spirit wants to give you inspirations, raptures, ecstasy and revelations, the physical body will not prevent it through discomfort or illness. But conversely, if we are too busy with the body, we have no more contact with the spiritual world, and we remain plunged in matter. This is what is happening nowadays. Humans are in the process of sinking deeper and deeper into matter.

On the other hand, fortunately, thanks to the work of the luminous spirits, the world is waking up, and many beings are now seeking the path leading to knowledge of this subtle world. So, if some are swallowed up in materialism, there are many who wish to escape it. If they are not well guided, however, they risk falling into the other extreme, which is also harmful. We must have criteria, a science… These criteria and this science are given in the teaching of the Universal White Brotherhood, which is there to help humans, to enlighten them and to orient them.

You can find happiness, you can find joy, peace, expansion, splendour, fulfilment, strength and eternal life, but you will not find them without this science. Throughout the world humans are being led astray by misleading promises: ‘Take such and such a product, buy such and such a machine and you will be saved’. And no one is ever saved. Quite the opposite is true, for these are purely external methods… And the last thing they are worried about is what state they are in inwardly, or how to improve the way they reason and feel. ‘Take this, swallow that…’ They never offer solutions relating to the psyche, solutions which fulfil the needs of the soul. That is why I say to you that they are wrong. Obviously, we know full well that all those who offer these products do so not to make people happy but to get rich, and they do not care about the consequences. They don’t care whether humans become stronger or completely drained!

I am not against technical progress; I always admire mechanical, electronic, chemical and pharmaceutical inventions. They can help humanity enormously, but they never give a permanent solution, a permanent cure. The only permanent solution to all problems is an inner change in human beings: be it a change in the direction of their lives, their way of judging, of reasoning, of understanding, or of feeling and behaving… But how many people care about that?

Now you understand the meaning of the passage I read you just now: ‘By eating consciously with love and gratitude, we draw the best elements from the food for building our body. When it is given a suitable instrument, a physical body in a fit state to do its work, the spirit is all-powerful.’ When we eat in good conditions and with lots of love, the whole organism is ready to receive the food in such a perfect way that the food in its turn feels touched and pours out its hidden riches. Everything that the stars, the sun and the forces of nature have put into it, it will give to the body, because the body knows how best to receive it. If you know how to welcome someone with a lot of love, they open up to you, they give you everything. If you receive them badly, they close up and give you nothing. Expose a flower to light and warmth, and it will open and exhale its perfume. Put it in cold and darkness, and it will close up. Food too opens and closes according to our attitude. And when it opens, then it gives us its most subtle, most divine energy. Those who eat without appreciation, without gratitude, will not receive much from it – just the grossest particles, enough for them to be able to chop wood, hit their neighbour over the head, or argue or fight with people. But when they want to pray, meditate or contemplate, they will fall asleep, for they will be deprived of these very subtle energies that are acquired by knowing how to eat correctly. If you eat as I advise you, you are, perhaps, less likely to go and settle your old scores with one another, but you will have the desire to work miracles, to manifest the splendours of the spirit.

The importance of nutrition is underestimated, but show me a more important activity… Everything depends on it, everything is linked to it. If you don’t eat, what will you be capable of? Who can go and study without eating? Have you seen a scientist go into his laboratory on an empty stomach? So, why not change your point of view about the importance of nutrition?

Sèvres, 12 February 1972

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

God takes delight in burnt offerings – Gen. 8:20-21

1 See The Path of Silence, Izvor 229, chap. 9: ‘The quest for silence is the quest for the centre’

2 See Love Greater than Faith, Izvor 239, chap. 4: ‘Your faith has made you well’

3 See ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, part IX, chap. 2: ‘La parabole de l’ivraie et du froment’

4 See ‘True Alchemy or the Quest for Perfection’, Izvor 221, chap. 12: ‘The sublimation of sexual energy’

5 See Langage Symbolique, Langage de la Nature, Complete Works, Vol. 8, chap. 8: ‘Le vrai mariage’

Chapter Seventeen

It is astonishing to see that humans, who seek to probe the mysteries of creation and are in quest of its greatest secrets, despise and disregard the process of nutrition, in which God has placed all his wisdom. If we study the laws of nutrition, we note that these same laws are to be found throughout the universe (they regulate the exchanges between the sun and the planets), and they are valid in all domains, in particular that of love and, indeed, in the processes of conception and gestation too…

1

When I see animals eating, my heart aches. I pity them, for they are not like us, able to select, wash and prepare food. On the other hand, nature has given them much stronger stomachs. Human stomachs are so much more fragile than animals’! That is why we all know that when we eat fish, fruit, vegetables or even cheese, there is always something that has to be removed: a bone, or some skin or rind… or that, before eating, we need at least to give the food a wipe or a wash. It is such a habit that no one stops to think about it, but I will show you how nature has inscribed all its wisdom, all its rules and prescriptions in the smallest acts of everyday life.

So, before eating, we must take precautions not to injure our palate, break our teeth or upset our stomach. Why do we not do the same in life? Before entering into a relationship and accepting someone into our heart and soul, why do we imagine that they are ready to be absorbed and digested? You will say, ‘But that’s love!’ Yes, I understand, that’s love, but that love is blind, it is not true love. True love is enlightened; it is not in conflict with wisdom.

People connect, embrace and exchange with each other without being prepared; they do not wash or get rid of the dirt they have picked up in their hearts and souls on their way through the chimneys of life. Whereas, when initiates see someone before them, they first think of them as a succulent fruit, but a fruit that must be washed before being eaten.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, the difference between disciples and ordinary people who have no light, wisdom or knowledge lies in the way they make exchanges or form partnerships. Ordinary people are like cats, which swallow mice whole, with their skin and intestines. And then they complain, they cry out, ‘Oh, how unhappy I am with my wife!’ or else, ‘Oh, what a husband I have landed myself with!’ But why have the mentality of a cat? Why have you eaten these people; that is, why have you kept company and exchanged with them, accepted their feelings, their thoughts, their breath and their aura? Why haven’t you taken the precaution of washing them, of cleaning and preparing them by testing them a little?

When we test people, we see how faithful and true they are, how much love they have. Until we have put them through any tests, we cannot know their worth. That is why initiates use trials to test their disciples; they do not accept them immediately into their heart, soul or spirit before having ascertained whether they are patient, stable, tenacious and faithful… When a master sees that his disciples try hard, that they are faithful and can be counted on, then yes, he gives them his love, his esteem, his treasures, all that he possesses, but not before then.

So now, let each one of you analyse yourself and revise your life… You will notice that up to now you have paid attention only to external details, without reflecting more deeply on the nature of the desires, feelings and thoughts of the beings with whom you wished to be associated. Initiates, in contrast, are very particular, and they are right to be; they have understood what nature shows us each day through the way we eat, which is also the way we should function in our psychic lives. We must peel, clean and eliminate, but in the psychic realm we have not understood the lesson that nature is teaching us. Look how even if a mother adores her child, when it comes to kiss her after playing in the mud she first sends it to get washed before kissing it. Why does she not kiss it immediately, since she loves it? Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, the great book of living nature is wide open before you, but it is open to the wise and closed to the rest…

You eat three times a day, you select your food before you eat it, but you accept any old philosophy, and you link your life to the first person who comes along, without knowing them, at the risk of being poisoned for the rest of your life. The Lord is the only one you should love without knowing him first. Whereas, with humans, you must know them before loving them, that is, before ‘eating’ them and inviting them into your sanctuary. If we do not love God first of all, we will never know him. And the same law applies to the great masters; you will never know them, and they will remain a closed book to you, if you do not love them. Obviously, the question now is, do we know how to love them? Most people love a master the way they would love a lake in which they bathe, leaving behind all their dirt. They do not think that others will come to drink in this lake… and then, what will they be drinking? Most of those who come for a meeting with a master pour out to him all the dirt they have accumulated during their lives, and the master must then wash himself to get rid of this dirt or else transform it, which is a lot of work for him! So, if even a master has to cleanse himself, how much more must ordinary people! But they never cleanse themselves; they have hung out with every devil, but they never notice that they are dirty and ought to go and wash themselves.1

A master, however, is vigilant; every day he keeps an eye on purity, every day he cleanses himself in order to remain pure and to purify others. And even if someone sullies him, the next day none of it remains, because the divine spring is flowing in his consciousness. The difference between an ordinary person and an initiate resides entirely in their thoughts, their consciousness and their attitude. Initiates remember every day to purify themselves with regard to what they eat, drink and breathe in, for they know full well that every contact introduces a few impure particles into their being, into their aura… Merely by shaking someone’s hand, they are already receiving impurities and losing strength. We do not realize the importance of the exchanges that take place in a handshake; sometimes one handshake is enough to demagnetize you!

God has placed a spark in each being; wherever you are, you must try to make contact with it. You can even find this spark in animals, plants and stones, if you go beyond what is just external. All creatures possess this spark buried within, and you can address it and commune with it, even in criminals.

Initiates do not want to relate to the personality in humans, to their astral body, or to their fantasies. They know that in the cellars of houses there are rats and mould, and that it is better to rise to the upper floors. That is why, when they find themselves face to face with someone, they seek the spark that is buried within them so as to connect it to the heavenly Father, to the divine Mother… They work on this being so that one day the light may come to visit them. That is how initiates work on their disciples. They take care of the divine spark which is beginning to awaken in them, and that is why disciples love their master – because a master addresses what is best in them.2

When you succeed in finding the divine spark buried in each creature, you can even go into the jungle amongst lions, tigers and snakes, for they will sense that you love them because you love God in them, and they will not bite you. That is why, in India, there are yogis who live peacefully amid the wild beasts.

When you meet other human beings, try to discover that hidden spark within them, their higher Self, and help them to connect to the Lord. This is the task of the initiate, and it gives fantastic results. These results are due to their conscious activity. That is the most evolved and the highest kind of loving: knowing how to connect solely to the divine spark in each creature so as to feed it and strengthen it. When you can do this, there is no need for caution, no need to waste time studying it before you love it, for this spark is pure… When you are dealing with the personality, try to get to know it before accepting it, but the spark in any being, and especially in a master, you can accept at once.

Allow your love to manifest, and think only of improving it, of removing from it the harmful elements of greed, possessiveness and violence, which are too personal and hinder your evolution. In all of us there are a few seeds, a few elements that make our love selfish; we must therefore purify it, make it nobler by adding to it elements of impersonality, of generosity and abnegation. Why do you wish your beloved to belong to you exclusively? Any man or woman who imagines they have the power to subjugate the heart and soul of another is mistaken! Even if you are a god or a goddess, your wife or your husband will always have space in his or her heart to love others. If you do not accept this, you are doomed to failure. You have been warned. Inscribe what I am telling you in your soul and in your spirit, otherwise you will suffer.

You see how important it is to understand the significance of being selective, as you always have to be when eating, so you keep only what is good. Why not do the same in the inner realm? Why swallow just anything, like a cat?

Before I finish, I will tell you one more thing that is also related to nutrition. When you are going through great trials, when everything is falling apart, when everything is being shaken up inside you, it means that heaven has decided to eat you, that is, to accept you, to receive you on high, among the elect: it is cleansing you, taking out all that is indigestible and keeping only what is good for its feast. Even the apostles, before being accepted and eaten by the Lord, that is, before being served up for his delight, were crushed and broken into pieces. That is what great trials mean, and if these trials have not yet happened, it means the heavens do not think you are ripe enough for them and worthy of being eaten.

You will say, ‘But they are such cannibals up there!’ No, it is a manner of speaking. Look how plants eat minerals, animals eat plants, human beings eat animals… So, humans too must be eaten. But just as there are humans who eat only animal produce – eggs, milk, and so on – there are beings in the invisible world who eat human produce, that is, human thoughts, feelings and emanations. If these thoughts or feelings are dark, they are absorbed by lower entities, whereas the luminous thoughts or feelings are absorbed by angels. The angels in turn are eaten by the archangels, and the archangels by the principalities, and so on right up to the seraphim, who are eaten by the Lord. The Lord takes the fruits the seraphim offer him, and the fruits of the seraphim are purest love. If some are horrified by my words, let them remain horrified… I am telling you the truth, and if it is not accepted, then, I’m sorry, but I don’t care.

Open the doors and windows of your being to receive these divine friends, who are so good, so generous, so luminous and who wish to enlighten you and help you understand what you have never understood before. If you have been chosen by heaven to be a member of the Universal White Brotherhood, you must fulfil your mission right to the end.

The Bonfin, 22 August 1960

2

If we know how to understand nutrition, we can solve all problems, even the matter of sex. Yes, all those who have decided not to take that kind of nourishment anymore, who run away from men or women on the pretext of being chaste and pure, die spiritually and sometimes even physically. So it’s not a matter of not eating, but of knowing what to eat, and how.

I have explained to you that we must feed ourselves in homeopathic doses, by looking, listening and breathing. We must not stop feeding ourselves on the pretext of becoming saints and knowing the Lord, for we will end up not knowing the Lord or anything else, and even life will elude us; we will be without élan, inspiration or joy. Saintliness is nourishment, my dear brothers and sisters, but instead of absorbing heavy, weighty and impure food, we eat all that is divine. In the sexual realm, humans always go to extremes: either they allow themselves to die of hunger, or they throw themselves desperately on food, like cats which swallow mice whole with their skin and intestines.3

You will find a solution when you begin to study nutrition and the different ways of feeding yourself on each level. You will understand that we cannot live without eating, that even the angels have to eat, and even the Lord. The Lord feeds on the subtlest quintessences of the trees he has planted, his creatures. The Lord is fed, yes, and he is well, that I assure you! He is well, because he knows how to eat correctly, he does not absorb anything impure; he lets others eat all that is impure so that they transform it before bringing it to him.

If we want to be like the Lord, we must do as he does. Obviously, on the physical level we cannot find food that is absolutely pure: we cannot even be too sure what we will find. But in the domain of thoughts and feelings, we can be very vigilant and choose to nourish ourselves with only the best thoughts and feelings while rejecting the rest. Otherwise, our spiritual stomach will be sick. We must be selective, and just as we remove skin, peel, bones and so on when we eat, in the realm of thoughts and feelings, too, we must remove those elements that are indigestible and harmful.

Those who do not wish to study this matter of nutrition in the psychic realm are setting themselves up for every misfortune. For thoughts and feelings are materials with which we form the different subtle bodies, and if we build a hovel we will receive a visit not from a prince or a great priest but from tramps. We build our own etheric, astral and mental bodies, and according to the quality of these bodies our destiny is wholly marked out: we will be visited by luminous entities or dark ones, we will receive joy or suffering, we will gain true glory or else live an unremarkable life.

So human beings must look for the best food not only in the physical but in the spiritual realm, for it is with these particles that they build their etheric, astral and mental bodies, and then, obviously, their emanations will be different; they will become sons and daughters of God, luminous, beautiful and expressive, and everyone will admire them, for they have understood that the secret of life is to work on oneself day and night. Your future depends on how you nourish yourself. If you nourish yourself badly in the physical realm, you look unwell and everyone asks you what the matter is. Since the quality of your food can change how your face looks, its shape and so on, the quality of your thoughts and feelings can do the same thing. Some thoughts and feelings can make us more beautiful, and others, unfortunately, make us ugly. So, why not pay more attention?

When you have eaten according to the rules, you are able to work wonders with the words you speak and with your attitude. And, on the contrary, if you have not eaten correctly, you lose everything you have going for you… If you then go to see your beloved, he or she will find that your kisses are not as sweet and will decide not to kiss you again. You see how stupid we can be! We do not see the long-term consequences of our actions.

If we understand the laws of physical nutrition, not only do we understand the laws of spiritual nutrition, we also find out how the heart digests feelings, how the brain digests ideas, how the lungs digest air, how the spirit digests light.

Now let’s draw an analogy: human beings can be compared to fruit, flowers or vegetables… When you relate to them, when you look at them, speak to them or listen to them, it is as if you were tasting them. But what do you do most of the time? You look at their clothes, their jewellery, their face, legs or chest; you look no further to see the life, the spirit or the soul that is hidden there. Yet, that is what should interest you. But no, people focus on appearance and say, ‘Oh, if only I could sleep with this girl!’ and they take photos… But what have they seen? While wishing to satisfy and enjoy themselves, they have seen only the outward appearance.

Whereas, when initiates find themselves faced with that same ‘food’, they seek the divine life. They too want to be nourished, but not with filth. And when they find fruit or flowers, that is to say human beings who have this life in them, they stop before them and say, ‘These are aspects of the heavenly Father, the divine Mother… Thank you, Lord, thank you, divine Mother; these fruits and flowers allow me to become closer to you today, to behold you; this splendour allows me to breathe your fragrance and taste your delights.’ And they leave content, for these fruits and flowers have allowed them to come closer to heaven. You must not linger around a young girl in order to eat her, or tell her that you are in love with her and want to kiss her. No, you must not stay around her. If you linger, you are lost. Since this young girl is a reflection of the divine Mother, why stay with the reflection? Why not go directly to the divine Mother…? You see, where most people let themselves fall into the precipice, initiates walk on; they enrich and strengthen themselves, they become still more luminous and pure.

You are wondering how to tell whether someone feeds themselves well or not… And how do you tell whether a man is a tramp, looking for food in dustbins, or a prince, whose table offers the most succulent dishes every day?... The same applies to the spiritual plane. Initiates appear different from ordinary people, for they have been well fed, whereas the others will eat anything. For me, there is a criterion, my dear brothers and sisters: when I see someone who is spiritually underfed, whose face has no glow, I know what inner restaurant he frequents. You will say, ‘Yes, but he goes to church, he gives money to the poor, he lowers his gaze when he meets a woman…’ That may be, but I can see that inwardly he is eating tainted food. Whereas, if I meet a being who is radiant, whatever others might have to say, I think, ‘That person has a secret, and I want to learn what it is, for he is like an effervescent spring!’ Someone might say, ‘But I saw him looking at girls on the beach!’ That’s not what is important; what is important is what he himself is looking for and what he sees. If, by looking at these girls, he ascends to the Divinity, why do you want to prevent him from doing so? ‘But a pure man, a saint, never does that, he must follow the old rules!’ I see, but then, how is it that you, for all your saintliness and purity, are weak, dull and without enthusiasm? How is it that your saintliness has brought you nothing? And how is it that this so-called loose living and debauchery of his has given him heaven and light? So, that’s something to look at, too.

The Bonfin, 30 July 1965

3

You have heard me compare love with nutrition on several occasions… Today I will illustrate this comparison in another way. I have often given you this image. There is an old method of lighting a fire, consisting of rubbing two bits of wood together. First of all this rubbing produces heat and then, a bit later, light bursts forth. I have also shown you that, when it comes to love, humans are incapable of going as far as the light, of making the fire leap into life; they stop at movement and heat, that is to say, friction and pleasure. As for light… there is none! They have learned nothing more about the grandeur and immensity of God’s love, as they do not reach that far.

With regard to nutrition, humans are still at the stage of movement and heat: they put food into their mouths and chew it, which produces a certain sense of pleasure, but they stop there, at the pleasant taste of the different flavours; they do not reach the stage of light, they do not even realize there is any effort to be made in that direction. It is good to gain strength and vitality; to taste the different flavours and enjoy them is good, too. But why is their whole life not filled with light as a result? That is a new realm to delve into, my dear brothers and sisters. It’s time to go further and, instead of only getting as far as the sensation, continue on to the light. This is a lifelong task!4

Sèvres, 16 February 1972

4

If, before meals, you do not say some prayer to ask the Lord to come and eat with you, if you do not consecrate the food, certain creatures from the astral level which are hungry and thirsty will come and have a feast at your expense. Yes, indeed, because you haven’t closed the door to them. As people are ignorant, they think they are alone and that there are no other creatures that can edge their way in and take advantage of them… And what is true for meals is also true for love. When man and woman are together and have no knowledge, light or wisdom, they know only about enjoying themselves… They put up no barrier against the evil spirits which take advantage of all those escaping energies to feast on them. And this is what hell is: beings which always come and draw strength from unaware human beings. Others who are pure and have consecrated themselves cannot be used as fodder. But humans who are plunged night and day in debauchery feed all those spirits from hell, which then come to wreak havoc.

We can love each other, provided that it is expressed in heavenly conditions; that is, in conditions of light, of knowledge, of power, of wisdom and of purity. Then we are protected, and heaven reaps the benefits of all that we do; for these energies, instead of being directed, oriented and sent in the direction of evil spirits to strengthen them, are sent to the heavenly realms to heal and enlighten humanity, to bring about the kingdom of God and his justice on earth. Why not think of dedicating your love to doing good?

Humans are always giving free rein to their sensuality. They say, ‘But it’s normal, it’s natural, it’s allowed…’ Yes, it is permitted, and that is why hell has such a good time. But there are other methods. When two people are aware, they can give each other much joy, much love, as they visualize their energies rising to the heavenly realms and filling the angels with wonder. You will say, ‘But it is a shameful act, we should be hiding!’ Not at all. Love comes from heaven, and the angels and archangels do not look unfavourably on these exchanges of love when they are made in all purity. There is, nevertheless, an instinct in human beings, an intuition that tells them what they are doing is neither beautiful nor heavenly… They are driven to do it by their need, but they sense that it is not so divine, which is why they do not want heaven to see all that. They must shut themselves away, turn off the lights and hide, for they feel it is shameful. If it were divine, heaven would find nothing wrong with their love, since heaven is love and filled with love.

All the laws of conception are found in nutrition. As soon as you take in food, your organism begins to work towards bringing a child, or even several children, into the world: vitality, joy, willpower…

We can go still further in our understanding of this question and say that, just as the father and mother must be vigilant when conceiving a child – selecting the day, the time, and above all watching their psychic state – in the same way they must be vigilant when taking in food.5 For nutrition can be compared to conception; with each mouthful you take, conception takes place. So, what state are you in when you bring about this conception? Food is the living seed which must produce a child, that is, thoughts, feelings or actions. What forces will result from this union? Will the children be malformed, puny and weak due to the father and mother’s ignorance? You are the father, since it is you who gives the food; and the mother is your physical body. So, if the father and mother are not mindful, intelligent and reasonable, the results will be catastrophic, and instead of building they will destroy.

If you try to eat according to the advice I am giving you, you will get such results that you will no longer be able to stop applying it, just as I now can no longer eat without awareness, without gratitude or love. There is an absolute connection between how we eat and our subsequent state. Someone who feels ill can say, ‘Oh, I’ll take care of that’ and take a pill. But when we have acted foolishly, no pill can take care of anything. Start to be intelligent, that is, eat with awareness, and you will no longer need pills.

The Bonfin, 25 April 1976

1 See The Mysteries of Yesod, Complete Works, Vol. 7, part I, chap. 2: ‘Sorting and selecting’

2 See Love Greater than Faith, Izvor 239, chap. 10: ‘Base your trust on vigilance’

3 See Love and Sexuality, Part 2, Complete Works, Vol. 15, chap. 8: ‘Materialism, idealism and sexuality’

4 See Cosmic Moral Law, Complete Works, Vol. 12, chap 2: ‘The importance of choice – work not pleasure’ and chap. 9: ‘Don’t stop half-way’

5 See Hope for the World: Spiritual Galvanoplasty, Izvor 214, chap. 8: ‘The solar nature of sexual energy’ and chap. 9: ‘Mankind transformed’

Chapter Eighteen

If you have no respect for the food that God himself has given you, for whom will you have it? When you respect food, you will understand the mysteries of communion and Jesus’ words: ‘Eat, this is my body… Drink, this is my blood…’ and ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.’

1

One of the essential practices of the Christian religion is communion. Jesus did not institute it; it has existed for centuries, since the Bible relates that Melchizedek, ‘priest of God Most High’, went to meet Abraham bringing him bread and wine…1

So we must commune with the Lord every day. But there is no need to wait for a wafer blessed by a priest; you can commune with food. Yes, each one of you can be a high priest, for this is your inner vocation before the Eternal; we must be present every day to officiate for our cells and give them food and drink. To your cells, you are a high priest. If you are conscious of this role, your cells will receive an element of the sacred, and you will sense the joy they will feel at having worked well. All human beings are predestined one day to become priests and priestesses.

We can understand the mystery of the Last Supper only when we take food as a point of departure. Breathing, meditation, contemplation and identification are also forms of communion, but, in order to understand communion correctly, we must begin with nutrition. Not everyone has the right conditions, or is even gifted, for meditation or contemplation, but everyone eats, and every day. So we must begin by understanding communion on the physical plane. If you want to begin with meditation or contemplation, this means you have understood nothing. To commune means to exchange: you give one thing and you receive another. You say that when you eat, all you are doing is taking in food. This is a mistake; you are also giving something to it. Between a disciple and a master an exchange also takes place – a communion. The master gives his light, his support, his knowledge and his virtues to his disciples, and the disciples give him their love, their devotion, their gratitude and their respect. Suppose the master gives a great deal and the disciples give nothing; there is no true communion between them. True communion is a divine exchange. The host gives you its blessings, but if you take it without giving it the necessary love or respect, it is not communion but a dishonest act. In communing, we must receive and give, otherwise it is theft, and nature does not like theft. If you take, you must give. Of course, I am not speaking of giving on a material level. You are not asked to give money or gifts to the host, but your respect, your love and your faith, and it gives you the divine elements it possesses. This is why those who take the host without respect have never been able to change.

It is not the objects themselves that act upon you but the trust and love that you give them. A remedy does not heal you if you don’t trust in its efficacy. Even if it possesses healing virtues, that is not enough for it to be truly effective. In the spiritual realm, things depend more on what you put into them yourself than on what they are.

So, to commune with the Lord, we must also give him something; not that the Lord needs what we give him – he is so rich that he can do without, but in trying to give him something of ourselves it is we who awaken certain spiritual centres within us, so that all the divine virtues flow abundantly inside us. We must give love, gratitude and faithfulness to the Lord. If he asks them of us, it is for ourselves; he does not need them. He is neither furious nor upset if we do not worship him. God is never troubled by our foolishness, he is wholly protected.

When we know how to truly commune with God, all of heaven will be in our spirit, our soul and our heart.

Sèvres, 3 April 1951

2

Reading from the thought for the day:

‘Food is a symbol for Christ, for the Word. Through food, we receive the twenty-two elements of the Word, and if we learn to eat consciously in silence and harmony, we will begin to hear and decipher what is being recounted in space by these elements with their extraordinary properties, telling us of the history of creation and the glory of God.’

Of course, this passage will not be understood by those who have never heard of the twenty-two elements and do not actually know what the Word is. Why does it say in this passage that food is a symbol for the Word? Because the sun produces it and ripens the wheat, the grapes and all the fruits of the earth. When, during the Last Supper, Jesus said, as he blessed the bread and wine, ‘Eat, this is my flesh… Drink, this is my blood…’, he meant that food, bread and wine, wheat and grapes, are the flesh and blood of Christ. And not only wheat and grapes but all fruits, all vegetables, everything that feeds us and quenches our thirst, has been produced by the Christ. For it is the love, the light and the life of the sun, of the Christ, that condenses, to manifest on the earth as vegetation.

All vegetation is nothing other than a condensation of the light of the sun. It is the sun that shapes and ripens vegetables and fruits, that condenses its life, light, warmth and love. That is why it is said that we eat the body of Christ, the twenty-two elements of the Christ found in the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which Cabbalah uses to teach how God created the world. These letters are a representation of the Word, since it is thanks to them that we can express ourselves, that we can speak. When St. John wrote: ‘In the beginning was the Word… All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being’, it means that the moment God uttered the Word creation appeared, and the Christ, who is nothing other than the Word, is our food.2

Obviously, this explanation has been a little too quick for you to be able to grasp all the correspondences at once. But it doesn’t matter; take these few words to reflect on, and you will see how everything holds together, everything is linked. You will say that in other languages the alphabet does not have twenty-two letters but twenty-four, twenty-six or more. Yes, but here we are talking about the initiatic, cabbalistic language which comprises twenty-two letters, that is, the twenty-two symbolic powers God used to create the world.

Food possesses the twenty-two elements of the Word. That is why Jesus said, ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.’ Understanding these words can take us a long way. If, through meditation, contemplation or higher revelations, you succeed in penetrating the meaning of these twenty-two elements (aleph, beth, gimel… all the way to tav), you will understand that they are cosmic forces working in space of which our food also possesses a few quintessences. Thus it can help us to understand the whole of creation. When Jesus said, ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life’, he was not talking so much about bread and wine, about their concrete, material aspect, but about their significance on high in the world of symbols.3 He meant: if you do not eat the fire which comes out of me and which is love, if you do not drink the light that is wisdom, you will not have eternal life. And do you see – fire and light; again we come back to the sun: eat fire and drink light.

As human beings always need to be given concrete representations of the great truths, because they are unable to go any further in their understanding of the mysteries of the universe, they have taken ideas from their own abstract world to make icons, churches, statues and hosts. Moreover Jesus’ words have still not been properly deciphered by Christianity. Christians commune with hosts, but do they become better people?... Whereas if you commune every day with the sun – the great host that rises right in front of you – and drink the light that flows and bursts from it, you will have eternal life. So we must rise to greater heights to discover the meaning of Jesus’ words. We are always looking for meaning on too low a level. All these representations, all these symbols are fine, I have not come to destroy them, they must remain for some time yet, but one day people will understand that this is not enough, since they remain just as weak, ignorant, resentful, cowardly, slanderous and jealous. Go now, eat the warmth of the sun and drink its light, and you will feel an extraordinary vitality coursing through you.

When he said, ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life’, Jesus was expressing the same truths as when he said to Nicodemus, ‘No one can enter the kingdom of God, without being born of water and Spirit (that is, fire).’ Flesh and blood, water and fire, are symbols for the two principles, the masculine and feminine, as taught by Melchizedek to Abraham, when Melchizedek is said to have given him bread and wine as a reward for his victory over the seven evil kings of Edom, representing the seven capital sins. Bread and wine are not much in themselves, but, in fact, the priest of God Most High was giving Abraham prodigious initiatic knowledge about the two principles, the masculine and feminine. But I have already spoken to you on this subject.

Most human beings think the only use for food is to give them a bit of life, enough to potter around. A stonebreaker was asked one day, ‘So, Antonio, why do you break stones? – To earn money. – And why earn money? – To buy macaroni. – And why buy macaroni ? – To eat. – And why eat? – To have energy. – Energy for what? – Well, to break stones!’ So, it’s a vicious circle. In fact, we must now understand that food should not serve only to give us energy to break stones: it is there to take us much further, to reveal to us the mysteries of the universe. Because it comes from a long way away, it tells us its story… it’s just that you don’t wish to hear it. You eat mechanically while thinking of other things, which is why you do not yet know what knowledge food can bring you.

I told you once that food is a letter sent to us from the Lord. Every day you receive a wonderful message from the Eternal, but you tear it up without reading it… So, leave all other preoccupations to one side, and learn to eat with love, think about the food, connect to its quintessence, that is, to the flesh and blood of Christ. Thus food will reveal to you all its secrets – because it is alive.

The Bonfin, 27 July 1971

3

So, my dear brothers and sisters, the most important thing is to know that there is work to do. And what is this work?... Imagine that you received an invitation from a prince; you do not go and casually present yourself to him, do you? Or else, supposing you yourself have guests; you have to prepare a meal for them and rooms where they can rest. Well, getting ready in response to an invitation or preparing one’s house to receive guests can be translated in terms of the spiritual realm.

All life’s daily activities can be transposed to the spiritual plane. For example, you need to take a bath: it should not be just a physical bath, which washes off a few bits of dirt, but a bath that washes you in all realms, that purifies you. For that purpose, before getting into the water, speak to it and to its inhabitants, and say to them, ‘Creatures who live in this water, I am happy to make contact with you today, because I know that God has given you the power to remove impurities and harmful elements. And so I address myself to you so that you may work on me.’ And you touch the water, you bless it, and you invoke the power of God, the light of God and the purity of God into the water. By talking to the water in this way, as to a very precious element originating in God and harbouring creatures of the greatest purity, already you are contacting it on other levels, and when you begin to wash you are able to reach your etheric, astral and mental bodies, and you feel free of all the psychic impurities you have accumulated, so that you are then able to do better work.4

And when you prepare food, think when you are handling it that you are putting all your love into it. Speak to it and say, ‘You who bear the life of God, who are love letters sent by heaven, I value you, I love you, I know the riches hidden inside you. I have a whole family to feed, millions and billions of beings living inside me, so, be good to them, feed them, try to satisfy them.’ Talk to the food in this way, and everything you eat will transform into strength and light, for you have known how to commune with the whole of nature, and you are beginning to understand that Jesus’ words, ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life’, have a much broader meaning than is usually given by the Church.

To eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood are acts of the highest white magic. The host and the wine represent the body and blood of Christ. But before the priest blessed the bread and the wine, they already contained the elements that God himself had placed in them. By conferring divine forces upon the food, the priest prepares it to be even more fully accepted by those who commune, and so he does a great work from the point of view of magic. But life has already been put into the food from the beginning by God; the blessing of the priests does not add life to it but merely adds the possibility for believers, for the faithful, to enter into conscious contact with it at least once from time to time; for humans generally speaking drink and eat without awareness, unconsciously, which is why they do not receive much.

A true priest is a being who has a higher level of consciousness than others, greater light, greater purity, and so has more power over things. So, why not be your own priest for the food you eat? If you bless the food before you, thinking of it as the flesh and blood of Christ, you will enter into direct contact with the forces of Christ himself, and eternal life will begin to course through you. As long as you see this food which has been prepared in the Lord’s laboratories as dead and believe that it needs the priests’ blessing to bring it alive, eternal life will pass you by, and you will receive nothing from it. Besides, does it make sense to think that it is only now and then, when we take communion, that we can actually expect to receive something living? What’s more, this living something has never succeeded in transforming human beings, for we can swallow cartloads of hosts and still remain the same – the same idler, the same thief, the same libertine. Everything depends on our consciousness.

If you are aware that God has put his life into the food, if you are like the priest who blesses the bread and wine, thinking of it as the flesh and blood of Christ, every day, three times a day, you will enter into communication with the life of Christ; eternal life will enter you with this thought. Communion is truly a sacrament, and that is what has made the Church all-powerful, for communion is an act of white magic. But we must now go further in our understanding of communion. I am the first to understand and respect sacred things – that is why I invite you to practise them every day. But a day will come when we will each be our own priest.

A priest is someone who understands God’s creation, who loves and respects it. Whether or not they are an ordained priest, they are a priest, for God himself has consecrated them. God is above everything. He is not at anyone’s disposal. He cannot be taken by force and kept in a host and given out at will. Why do violence to the Lord, when from the beginning he entered food of his own free will? He does not like this violence, and often, when we want him to be there, he isn’t.

Look upon food as if it were truly the flesh and blood of Christ, and you will experience great changes within you. Since food gives you life, with which you can undertake anything, it means that God has placed life in the food. So, how can you close your eyes and not see that? By emphasizing the host to such an extent, the matter of food has been completely neglected, and we have forgotten that it too can link us to God. So, there you are, I am now opening your eyes and telling you that food is as sacred as the host, even more sacred, because the whole of nature prepared it, God himself prepared it with his own quintessence – and then the priest devotes just a few minutes to allowing others to come into contact with it. The Church has made human beings so warped that there is no way now to make them understand the marvels God has created – what they themselves have created, yes, but they are not interested in what God has created, they are above that! Of course, if you ask the priests about it, they will tell you that they do not consider themselves superior to God, but in practice it is exactly as if they put themselves above him. They could say, ‘Respect life, my children, for everything is sacred, God has put talismans everywhere,’ but no, the only thing that matters to them is selling their wares: their hosts, their rosaries, their medals; the rest does not count.

But enough of that for today, let’s return to nutrition. You are about to sit down and eat your meal, so why not fill yourself with the idea that it is an extremely important moment, a sacred moment, since you are about to feed the cells of your body and be like the priest invoking heaven to imbue the host with the highest spiritual entities? You eat, with the thought that what you have in front of you is a treasure, and the food is transformed into light, into faith, into ecstasy: you understand that you are truly communing with the Christ, you are eating his flesh, you are drinking his blood, and you feel eternal life beginning to course through you.

We do not eat fruits and vegetables as we find them in nature. Some must be cooked, others peeled, sweetened or salted and so on, so the stomach can digest them. We cannot absorb all that nature gives us in its raw state, and it is up to us to add or remove something. The role of humanity in nature is extremely important. God would not have created humans if everything had already been accomplished, finished. God created humans so as to add something extra to nature, to improve it, embellish it and spiritualize it, for human beings have a great potential that nature does not; they have a divine potential, and it is because of this potential that the thoughts and words of the priest are so necessary. Food already possesses life, but this life must be exalted, set free, by means of prayer and thought. Life is already there; we cannot give it, since it is there, but it must be awakened, it must be warmed if it is to be accepted by humans. And this is what the priest does.

So, if you eat food as it is, without adding anything to it to enliven it, to exalt the substances it contains, of course it will give you strength, but it will feed only the physical cells. The food will not be awakened, vivified and exalted. It will be like eating something cold that should be eaten hot, it will be tasteless. For example, what a difference there is between hot coffee and luke-warm coffee! For matter to open up and give out its contents, it needs to be exalted; it is raw, and our thoughts, our faith and our love must warm it so that it can awaken and exhale delightful fragrances. Then, we can meditate, experience raptures and ecstasies. When we learn to unlock our food so as to reach the sap, the juice, we do not receive just the rind and peel, we reach to its heart and drink eternal life. And it is not just a matter of a few cells from the physical plane being nourished but of all the cells of the nervous system, the etheric body and the aura.

I do not belittle the part played by priests, I do not belittle the importance of communion; I am opening up new horizons to show you that communion is not only something important but something indispensable and that we must receive communion every day. By receiving communion two or three times a year, what do you think you will be able to change inside? Nothing, your cells will remain the same, and you will remain forever the same. In order to change the physical body, which is so stubborn, we must work every day on this transformation by means of thought, faith and love, so that one day, at last, this carcass of ours will begin to respond!

All the rites the Church has instituted should not obscure true religion. Often we take the restricted vision of a particular religion, philosophy or chapel, and all the rest is obscured. Of what use is it to belong to a religion if that religion hides the splendour of what God has created and the possibility of returning to him?

So, please understand that the food in front of you contains divine seeds, magical, alchemical elements. Once you are able to eat according to the rules that I give you, you will be amazed, you will enter another order of vibration, you will feel connected to the whole universe and in a state of peace, happiness and extraordinary plenitude. Until you experience this state, you cannot understand anything about nutrition. But if you are able to experience it even once, you are able to then relive it each day. The way you know you have eaten correctly is when you have a feeling of well-being in the solar plexus – not only in the stomach, but in the solar plexus – a feeling of strength and plenitude, for you have nourished the solar plexus and it is charged with forces it has drawn from this magical food.

To eat correctly does not mean just eating in silence. Eating in silence is a condition that allows us to do the work. If you do not have these conditions, you cannot do any work on the food; these conditions are therefore essential, but they are not everything. We must use this silence, this peace, this harmony, this freedom, in order to work on the food, to clothe our thoughts and feelings with this substance so that they become manifest, visible and tangible.5 Food can be compared to the substance, the ectoplasm, produced by a medium to manifest invisible spirits, while you are the spirit using this matter. When this happens, your thoughts and feelings have already become a reality on the astral and mental planes and are amazingly powerful. You must always eat consciously, accompanying each mouthful with a thought and a feeling, for in doing so you gain certain powers over matter, you can change your life and become a formidable factor in the creation of something magnificent. Powers do not just fall out of heaven. It is understanding that gives power.

My dear brothers and sisters, I am against no one; I am just for broadening, enlightening and setting free. You are all gardeners… Many of you will say you don’t have a garden… You do, and a huge one. The whole of space is a garden, all the etheric matter of space, and you are the ones responsible for the thoughts and feelings you sow in this garden.

Sèvres, 15 May 1960

BIBLICAL REFERENCES

‘In the beginning was the Word’ – John 1:1

Melchizedek brings Abraham bread and wine – Gen. 14:18-20

‘No one can enter the kingdom of God, without being born of water and Spirit’ – John 3:5

‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life’ – John 6:5

1 See Sons and Daughters of God, Izvor 240, chap. 6: ‘Jesus: High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedek’

2 See ‘Cherchez le Royaume de Dieu et sa Justice’, part II, chap. 2: ‘Au commencement était le Verbe’

3 See The Second Birth. Love, Wisdom, Truth, Complete Works, Vol. 1, chap. 5: ‘Love is hidden in the mouth’ and ‘Cherchez le Royaume de Dieu et sa Justice’, part VI, chap. 2, section III: ‘Celui qui mange ma chair et qui boit mon sang a la vie éternelle’

4 See ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, part XI, chap. 4, section I, ‘Les pouvoirs de l’eau’

5 See Harmony, Complete Works, Vol. 6, chap. 6: ‘How thought is materialized on the physical plane’