Yellow in the human aura. The challenge to learn from our karma. It takes a refined person to learn fully from what someone else tells them. We attract to us everything we experience. The most advanced form of dissolving karma: tapas, tavam, intense meditation.

Unedited Transcript:

If you'll recall we were doing colors last time we did this. We read the red group. We're reading the yellow group this morning.

"Yellow represents the intellectual phase of mentality. That is to say, it stands for that part of the mental activities which are concerned with reasoning, analysis, judgment, logical processes, induction, deduction, synthesis, etc. In its various hues, tints and shades, it is manifested by the various forms of intellectual activity, high and low.

"In this group of astral colors seen in the human aura we find as many varieties as we do in the red group. Yellow, denoting intellect, has many degrees of shade and tint, and many degrees of clearness.

"An interesting shade in this group is that of orange, which represents different forms of 'pride of intellect,' intellectual ambition, love of mastery by will, etc. The greater the degree of red in the astral orange color, the greater the connection with the physical or animal nature. Pride and love of power over others have much red in its astral color, while love of intellectual mastery has much less red in its composition. Pure intellectual attainment, and the love of the same, is manifested by a beautiful clear golden yellow. Great teachers often have this so strongly in evidence that at times their students have glimpses of a golden 'halo' around the head of the teacher. Teachers of great spirituality have this 'nimbus' of golden yellow, with a border of beautiful blue tint, strongly in evidence.

"The rich golden shades of intellectual yellow are comparatively rare, a sickly lemon color being the only indication of intellectual power and found in the aura of the great run of persons. To the sight of the occultist, employing his power of astral vision, a crowd of persons will manifest here and there, at widely separated points, the bright golden yellow of the true intellect, appearing like scattered lighted candles among a multitude of faintly burning matches."

We have from yesterday's lesson: "How We Face Our Karma."

"How can we work out karma? There are thousands of things vibrating in the muladhara chakra, and from those memory patterns they are going to bounce up into view one after another, especially if we gain more prana by breathing and eating correctly. When meditation begins, more karma is released from the first chakra. Our individual karma is intensified as the ingrained memory patterns that were established long ago accumulate and are faced, one after another, after another, after another.

"In our first four or five years of striving on the path we face the karmic patterns that we would never have faced in this life had we not consciously sought enlightenment. Experiences come faster, closer together. (You may never have thought of that. For getting it over with more quickly.) So much happens in the short span of a few months or even a few days, catalyzed by the new energies released in meditation and by our efforts to purify mind and body, it might have taken us two or three lifetimes to face them all. They would not have come up before then, because nothing would have stimulated them.

"First, we must know fully that we ourselves are the cause of all that happens. As long as we externalize the source of our successes and failures, we perpetuate the cycles of karma, good or bad. As long as we blame others for our problems or curse the seeming injustices of life, we will not find within ourselves the understanding of karmic laws that will transmute our unresolved patterns. We must realize that every moment in our life, every joy and every sorrow, can be traced to some source within us. There is no one 'out there' making it all happen. We make it happen or not happen according to the actions we perform, the attitudes we hold and the thoughts we think. Therefore, by gaining conscious control of our thoughts and attitudes by right action, we can control the flow of karma. Karma, then, is our best spiritual teacher. We spiritually learn and grow as our actions return to us to be resolved and dissolved."

So that's easy to accept when we're sitting here. But when we're out in the midst of life, sometimes it's challenging. We get upset at the person who brings back our karma to us. It's the classic problem. We've created it but it generally comes back to us through another person and then we get upset with that person rather than thanking that person for bringing our karma back to us. We don't have to thank them out loud. May not be appropriate. But it is the challenge, definitely. And, of course, learning from it, part of the idea is what must we have done to create that to happen to us. That kind of thought. What in the world did we do in the past to attract this action to us in the present? To give it some thought.

And one of the reasons we create karma is similar to the, say, siblings. Imagine a three year old and a five year old. Five year old hits the three year old to get the toy. For one of the reasons the five year old hits the three year old; he doesn't realize what it feels like to be hit like that. He doesn't really grasp what he's doing to the other person. And, of course, the duty of the parent is to try and explain it. Make it clear. No, you can't do that and that's why; it hurts the other person. So sometimes we can learn from what others tell us but sometimes we have to go through it ourselves.

I remember Maryann Kusaka. She was very close to Gurudeva for some reason; who knows why? And was mentioning one day that she used to be a school teacher and tried to keep kids out of mischief. You know, gave good advice on, time and time again. And kids would go out and do it anyway. Children were not ready to learn from someone else's telling them. They had to go through the experience themselves which is not that unusual. Takes a refined person to learn fully from what someone else tells them. Lots of us have to just do it ourselves, face the consequences and work through it that way.

So, the basic point here, that is the challenge, to apply when we're out in the middle of life is that everything that we experience, we're attracting it to us. There's something in our mind which is causing it to be attracted to us. That's what Gurudeva's saying. There's a magnetism there. We're attracting this experience to us. So if we're attracting something that's pleasant or something that's unpleasant, it's the same process. There's something within us that which got put there by what we did in the past that's attracting it. And, if we can react kindly to what comes toward us and not get upset and retaliate then it goes away. We've resolved the karma.

"The second way to face karma is in deep sleep and meditation."

Sounds easier but it's hard to do. Somebody yells at me when I'm asleep, it sounds better than somebody yelling at me when I'm awake. But it's hard to get rid of it.

"Seeds of karma that have not even expressed themselves can be traced in deep meditation by one who has many years of experience in the within. Having pinpointed the unmanifested karmic seed, the jnani can either dissolve it in intense light or inwardly lives through the reaction of his past action. If his meditation is successful, he will be able to throw out the vibrating experiences or desires which are consuming the mind. In doing this, in traveling past the world of desire, he breaks the wheel of karma which binds him to the specific reaction which must follow every action. That experience will never have to happen on the physical plane, for its vibrating power has already been absorbed in his nerve system."

So that's the idea of tapas or tavam. The most advanced form of dissolving karma. And the analogy we always give is to the alfalfa seeds. Alfalfa seeds, if put in a moist condition, will sprout. But if we heat them to a high enough temperature they'll no longer sprout. So that's similar to our karma or karmic seeds. If, through the power of tapas or intense meditation we focus that intensity on a certain karma, it goes away.

Thank you very much.

[End of transcript.]