GROUP ACTIVITIES
During weekend and congress gatherings, volunteer participation is welcomed in various activities that enable the center to function, including preparation of meals, gardening and maintenance of the premises. While no tasks are obligatory, it befits each person to understand the usefulness and importance of participation in community life. It is their love for the brotherhood and the joy of serving that motivate the disciples. Group activities also provide members of the brotherhood the chance to become better acquainted, creating a friendly atmosphere suitable to the projects at hand. The Master often insisted that the brotherhood centers offer opportunities for participation in all kinds of activities, allowing members to broaden their fields of expertise and to awaken brain cells that have not yet been exercised. Before beginning any task, we are to link ourselves with the divine world. In the Master’s words: ‘Before undertaking any task whatsoever, you must learn to concentrate on harmony. In doing so, your accomplishments will continue to have lasting results for all eternity.’
CHORAL SINGING
In our collective life, music and choral singing in particular are an integral and essential part our daily meetings and meals. The sacred songs of our fraternity are a powerful means of linking us with the divine world. They were created to enable us to participate in universal harmony and at the same time to engage in spiritual work.
With this teaching, our consciousness awakens to a new life, and music becomes a creative energy, a force capable of shaping our mind and heart. Thanks to these songs and the music, we can continue to grow stronger and, whatever the circumstances, to advance on the path of evolution. As with the spoken word, music has no limits; its possibilities are infinite. It stimulates our higher impulses, our enthusiasm; it develops ever more subtle perceptions in us and awakens our sense of the sacred. In the future, it will undoubtedly be understood that music is one of the best methods for transforming, educating, enriching and regenerating humanity.
‘We can be useful to countless human beings we do not know! The etheric world is able to transmit the human voice across thousands of miles… We can sing alone, but by singing together we create powerful forces able to attract celestial helpers who come to take part in our collective work.’
MUSIC
‘Music is a gift to us from the divine world. It is the sublime language that has resounded throughout the universe from time immemorial, through which God eternally manifests his love and his beauty. For many people, music is an art and nothing more. They are generally unaware that it is also a science. By limiting it merely to the art of combining sounds and reproducing them in all kinds of ways, using any and all possible means, people will never discover all the secrets hidden in its structures. From an ordinary point of view, these secrets are unimaginable!
From an initiatic point of view, music reflects the order of all things, the science of the harmonic retios of the entire universe, from microcosm to macrocosm…. It is based on immutable principles, and in failing to honor them, man inevitably loses his way. Music is designed to act on our subtle bodies and to link human beings with their celestial homeland, but it can also lead them to hell, if they are so inclined.’
CONDUCT
Participants at Blagoslovénié must always keep in mind that the Universal White Brotherhood is an initiatic school. This means that they must conduct themselves in such a way that they create harmony in the life of the collectivity and enable the various activities to be carried out in the best possible manner. Together they can thus achieve the purpose for which this school exists, which is to say, the preparation of a new humanity and the establishment of the kingdom of God on Earth.
Out of respect for one another, the brothers and sisters demonstrate respect for the common areas, observing all normal rules of courtesy, notably:
Silence
Punctuality
Tolerance
Orderliness
Cleanliness
For a fuller understanding of comportment from an esoteric perspective, read Chapter 4: “Actions” in Volume 13 of the Complete Works, Editions Prosveta, p. 63-74.
The Greeting
We greet each other several times a day with a gesture of the hand. The hand is comparable to a transmitter-receiver, capable of sending and receiving thought waves.
‘Let’s talk about the hands now, which are supreme instruments of magic. Magi are those who have learned to use their hands to receive and project energy, to channel and direct it, to amplify or attenuate it. Several times a day we greet each other with a gesture of the hand. You have no idea how significant and effective this gesture can be, but only for those who are conscious of what they are doing. For others it is simply a social convention. You must greet each other consciously, putting a great deal of love into your gaze as well as your hand, and projecting that love for the benefit of the entire world. This gesture of greeting should be a true communion: potent, harmonious and vibrant with life. For me this is so important, because I often have such a great desire to share some of my love and happiness with you! The best exchanges are the most subtle ones!’
SPIRITUAL MEETINGS AND THE MASTER’S TALK
The many recorded talks transmit the teaching in its entirety and give us a sense of the exceptional atmosphere the Master created. When he appeared in the great hall, he was presented with a short passage from one of his previous talks on a given theme. He first read this text aloud and then developed the subject, speaking entirely from spontaneous inspiration. The Master seemed to be personally addressing the brothers and sisters present, offering answers to their inner preoccupations. In the course of his talks, he used all subjects to illustrate the principles of initiatic science, passing from analysis to synthesis with remarkable ease, logic and subtlety. And even when he made his audience smile with an unexpected anecdote, or lingered on a detail, his approach was unfailingly methodical and his message marvelously clear. He responds still today to his listeners’ questions, and the talks recorded between1960 and 1985 remain forever relevant.
Listening to the Master’s talks
This activity is not an end in itself, but rather a means, a point of departure, a launching pad for the real work. To listen and learn is clearly useless if this knowledge isn’t applied and lived. To come passively to the talks, merely recording them in one’s memory without putting them to practical use, is a waste of time and energy. ‘Knowledge that empowers is the only true knowledge.’ True power lies in the transformation of oneself, and by improving ourselves, all of humanity improves, advancing toward perfection.
A typical day during a congress
Weekly meetings and regularly scheduled congresses are held so that we may deepen our understanding of the Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’s teaching and experience collective life. The following describes a typical day during the summer congress:
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- Sunrise
- Breathing and gymnastic exercises
- Breakfast
- Dance of the Paneurhythmy
- Group projects and individual activities
- A recorded talk by the Master and midday meal
- Group projects and individual activities
- Evening meal
- Choir Practice
- Conduct
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THE SUNRISE
The teaching of the Universal White Brotherhood recommends attending the sunrise every morning, weather permitting, from March 21 to September 29 (or from spring to the Feast of St. Michael). Congress participants gather at a location specifically designated for this purpose one half hour before sunrise in order to be present for the first rays. Even in summer, mornings in the hills are often cool and damp, so warm clothes as well as a blanket and chair are advisable. ‘It is also extremely important to bring sunglasses to protect the eyes.’
In order to benefit from all aspects of the meditation at sunrise, it is important to prepare the night before, freeing our thoughts of all preoccupations. It is advisable to eat lightly, to avoid troubling discussions and to retire early, arranging everything so as to be free the next morning, with a clear mind and a heart at peace.
An exercise you can try on your way to the sunrise
As you make your way to the sunrise, think of the little invisible beings, the spirits of nature who work to create the beauty around you….Walk slowly, be mindful and reverent. Think respectfully of this place as well, which must be consecrated as a Temple. Remember to thank the great spirits who come to visit it.
The Sun’s Role in the Spiritual Life
In 1937, the Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov stated that the sun would play an ever greater role in the life of humanity. This has already come to pass in the fields of art, science, technology and even leisure. Only one domain has yet to be affected by this evolution: that of the spiritual life, although it is precisely here, on the spiritual plane, that the sun manifests in its true dimension.
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‘The sun isn’t simply a star that shines in the physical world. By way of its light, it is intelligence. It is also love, an impetus toward all that is positive, constructive. And it is also life, spiritual life, life in all its purity…. The sun is a symbol of these three higher principles: light, warmth and life.
The Creator has deposited seeds in our soul, spirit, heart, mind and physical body, and in order for them to grow, we must draw close to the Sun. Once human beings decide to approach the spiritual sun, all the seeds deposited in them will begin to germinate, grow and bear fruit.’
[/span6][/row_fluid]BREATHING EXERCISES AT THE SUNRISE
Breathing is a form of nutrition. When we breathe, we must retain the air for a long moment, until the lungs have completely assimilated the nutritive substances. By means of deep breathing, the nervous syst