Beams from Meher Baba on the Spiritual Panorama
About This Book
Beams from Meher Baba on the Spiritual Panorama is one of the most compact and concentrated of Meher Baba's written works — presenting luminous teachings on the full arc of spiritual reality, from the nature of the gross illusion through the planes of existence to the highest state of God-realisation, in a form that combines metaphysical precision with the warmth and directness that characterises all of Baba's communication. The 'beams' of the title reflects the intention: not a systematic treatise on the entirety of Baba's cosmological and spiritual teaching but selected shafts of illuminating understanding directed at specific aspects of the spiritual landscape that most need light.
The book addresses several of the most fundamental questions in the spiritual life: the nature of desire and how it both drives and impedes the soul's journey, the specific relationship between the avatar and the ordinary human being, the distinction between the various planes of consciousness and the states of realisation associated with them, and the role of the perfect master in guiding souls through the labyrinth of the inner worlds. Meher Baba's teaching is remarkable for combining a very precise metaphysical account of the spiritual universe (developed most fully in the extraordinary detail of God Speaks) with a personal warmth and simplicity that makes his work accessible even to readers who are encountering spiritual teaching for the first time.
What You'll Learn
• Understand Meher Baba's cosmological framework: the specific account of the structure of spiritual reality that informs all of his teaching — the seven planes of consciousness, the nature of the subtle and mental worlds, the distinction between the gross, subtle, and mental bodies, and how the soul progresses through these planes toward God-realisation
• Grasp the desire teaching: Baba's subtle understanding of the role of desire in the soul's journey — how desire drives the soul into experience (and is therefore the necessary engine of evolution) while simultaneously binding the soul to the wheel of birth and death (and is therefore ultimately an obstacle) — and how this paradox is resolved in the teaching on the natural evolution from desire to longing to surrender
• Recognise the avatar teaching: Baba's understanding of his own role and the role of the avatar in general — the specific function of the God-man in the cosmic scheme, what makes the avatar's presence and guidance different in kind from that of the saints and masters, and why Baba consistently insisted on this distinction
• Learn the inner planes framework: the specific qualities and characteristics of each of the seven planes as Baba describes them — what experiences, capacities, and perceptions arise at each stage of the inner journey, and what the dangers and opportunities specific to each plane are
• Appreciate the 'beams' quality: how the concentrated, jewel-like quality of this text reflects something of the quality of Baba's direct transmission — a compressed wisdom that, like light, carries more than it can articulate, and that opens in the reader's contemplation to reveal depths not immediately apparent in the initial reading
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