Letters To Gail
July 8, 1963
Dear Gail:
This is the tenth problem, “How Does priori Knowledge Exist As Spiritual Knowledge?”
Priori knowledge means religious knowledge, as that of houses of certain religious orders as the Dominicans or the Augustinian, etc. The religious knowledge which exists in those orders are not the same as the layman gets from the outside ministering. All religious groups, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and others have houses of religious orders that have been advanced quite spiritually. However, those houses of religious orders are generally not connected with any outside activity at all. Take, for example, the Trappist monks who live in silence and have so very little contact with the outside world, if any!
The knowledge which these groups have, I speak now of the Trappists, is or must certainly be much greater than the ones which have an outer contact. Take for example the writings of Thomas Merton, a Trappist, who has been very productive for the past few years, since his first book, The Seven Story Mountain. These show the result of a contact with the very high planes – these writings are extremely lofty! St. Augustine wrote a very lofty book when he did The City of God! There are other books, but you will notice that most of the knowledge is not quite at the top level where we would think in terms of Spiritual knowledge – most of it is still in the mental realm chewing over various points in diatribes on Spiritual matters. I have a book in my collection called the Sar Bachan written by Shiv Dayal Singh which is the teachings of the Sound Current and acts as practically my Bible!
This book is a volume of priori knowledge because as all books do, including all the sacred scriptures, must approach the spiritual with and through the psychic senses. This is the exact definition of the priori knowledge – that which approaches the Absolute through the inner senses or the inner doors! This is exactly what many of those inner religious orders do – i.e., the Sufi order, and other mystical groups, and are always doing. The inner senses, or those ten inner doors, will always lead the seeker to priori knowledge – they are the gateways for the knowledge to enter into the area of the jivatma, or for the jivatma to leave the shell or what may be called the body to reach the knowledge regions. It is a concern that one realize these gateways so that he might recognize at times what or where comes that knowledge of life!
There is little knowledge in the negative world unless it is a knowledge which is for the benefit of the body. It is that work of Kal (negative) which traps the jivatma and keeps it intact in the physical regions. You see the Kal power, or the Kal Niranjan, the ruler of the region and his sub chiefs are to take the jivatma in hand, at birth in this universe, as though it were the teacher – and many times it will substitute itself as the Guru, and so many times you may think that Kal Niranjan is the Guru and follow him. He leads you along a narrow path filled with pleasures of the negative sort, and from this path the jivatma may be pushed into the depths of hell. But then one can recognize the pathway of the beautiful side of life, the real knowledge which is there, and the true Guru who is always waiting patiently for the neophyte to turn to him and lead him into the far realms of Heaven. This comes through the realization that the Audible Life Current is always trying to speak to the individual.
Anyone who can quote scriptures, or the words of Shakespeare, or great men of this earth, is called great and is praised. But such praise is not substantial. It is just like the braying of an ass which starts in very loud but gradually gets weaker. Knowledge of this nature is never enduring. Only that knowledge is real which is uniform from the beginning to the end, or it may grow stronger with time. This is the way of that knowledge which is gained from the time spent in listening to the Audible Life Current. The yoga called Shabda yoga is one of the pathways in which one can travel to gain this esoteric knowledge.
This esoteric knowledge , which is another name for priori knowledge, is that one which one must gain before becoming proficient in the art of spirituality. Esoteric means that which is designed for, and understood by, the specially initiated alone, or that which belongs to the circle initiated in such teachings. Private knowledge of the higher realms . This private knowledge is concerned with the five melodies which man hears and which corresponds with the five great melodies of the universe. Remember my letter in which I spoke the Hindi names for the melodies.
The Upanishads in the Hindi sacred scriptures mean that the knowledge of which I am speaking is stored together within these writings. There is another place in which such wisdom is also stored in writings, and that is in the proverbs of the old bible. Buddha gives the esoteric knowledge in what is called “The Three Baskets” and the same is in the Zen Buddhist precepts, the Sar Bachan, kabir’s poetry and the writings of Rumi, the Persian poet. These are a few who have given the esoteric knowledge in words , and a very difficult task also. I forgot one of the greatest of writings comes from the pen of Hazrat Inayat Khan who was one of the great vina players of modern times. He died in the latter part of the 1920’s. Most of the Sufis (Khan was one) have something important to say on the esoteric knowledge.
The knowledge of the divine goes like this: 1. Esoteric, the highest; 2. Priori, the middle knowledge, and 3. The worldly or outside knowledge, like what we gain in school, or from life’s experience. The esoteric knowledge comes from practicing meditation in which you listen to the Audible Life Current. The priori knowledge can come from the same way, only on the lower planes, and the worldly knowledge comes from that which we get in books, and experience in this life outside. Once you catch the division of the three, it won’t be hard to find one’s self going in to contemplate so you can make use of any of the three. It isn’t easy, but there is little need of worrying about any of the methods for there isn’t any problem at hand by which the jivatma will have too much difficulty in solving to reach them once it has taken up the goal to reach the Absolute.
Then the paradox comes about like this: the esoteric knowledge and the priori knowledge can become one provided that the ends are similar in their approach. I am saying this, that if the group in a religious order, or two or more are seeking the answer to something, they may get it through priori knowledge – from books, meditation or out of body experience. Except for books, the same knowledge may be gained as esoteric but it’s when that knowledge comes down from the higher planes instead of the jivatma going up to receive. Often it does this and on the lower planes mixes with the priori knowledge and becomes that, and thereby gives you the answer to this question – because “ It, priori knowledge, exists as spiritual knowledge under such a circumstance.”
More Later, Paul
From the book, Letters to Gail Vol. 2 © 1990 Eckankar – Sri Paul Twitchell
