Theos-Talk Archives (April 1995 Message tl00126)

It is not mentioned often, but HPB attempted to teach
a form of meditation to her INNER GROUP. There was a
little room with a door that had a little window
through which she was able to observe her students
while they were meditating (I believe they did not do
group meditation). Now the question is, what type of
meditation did they do and was it Western or Eastern?

All that seems to be left in order to judge this is
what is called _The Diagram of Meditation. I can't
remember if this diagram was put together from some-
one's notes, as I do not have the books with me that
hold the history of this. But if one examines the
material in this diagram, it looks rather generic at
best. That means neither East nor West. It seems to me,
that as Astrea pointed out, the basic human qualities
of consciousness are the same in all people. Perhaps
it is better to distinguish the difference between
minds as either Materialistic or Spiritualistic, rather
than Western or Eastern, as today there are material-
istic Easterners and spiritual Westerners. I believe
Jung made a distinction between the Introvert and the
Extrovert that could also be a better definition of the
differences among us. Although Jung, of course, had
his unique definition for those labels.

Often I have read, in many source books from different
authors, the admonition to students to refrain from
the practice of Hatha Yoga. It is my opinion that
this discouragement is outdated, as the exercises
in the average Hatha Yoga class, taught all over the
world today, are nowhere near the extreme postures
that HPB and HSO witnessed in India.

Sarah