Publishers Preface
THIS new revised edition of “The Yoga of the Christ” differs from the original edition as some words have been corrected to actual spellings and by the inclusion of additional material such as photographs and maps. Footnotes have been included to give further information to words and personages named in the text.
Where the author uses actual place-names for villages, monasteries etc., only those sighted on current topographical maps of Tibet appear on the maps designed for this edition.
FOREWORD
THE Christ Yoga is Christ Consciousness and is beyond all other Yoga. The Christ Yoga is Freedom, and without freedom there is no Christ Consciousness—there is merely the self which is burdened with system, with knowledge, with technique.
It will be seen, as we progress, that desire and search have their opposites, their resistance. All desires and searching are but an extension of the self, which is not the Real. The Christ Yoga is to understand all that is hiding the Real—the Christ. Therefore it is entirely different from all other types of Yoga, which are merely systems which demand a searching in which there is no finding. Thus “becoming” is an illusion. Reality is NOW.
Now it is important to bear in mind that there is difficulty in understanding that which is new—ever-renewing. We can understand what the mind is made up of, but it is what the mind is made up of that causes all the resistance to the new, to the Real.
So in reading this book it is essential to read it aloud and listen as if you were listening to someone else without resistance, without prejudice, and only in this way can the mind know itself with all its opposites, its beliefs, and fabrications.
What I am going to say now is very important for you who are embarking on the road to Freedom—the Christ Yoga.
Most people listen casually; they only hear what they want to hear—they shut themselves off from what is penetrating or disturbing their conditioning, their beliefs, their opinions. They listen only to the things that are pleasurable, satisfying their own conditioning.
But there can be no real understanding if we listen only to those things that soothe us, that gratify or confirm our beliefs, our ideas. It is an art to listen to everything without prejudice, without building up defences to protect our ignorance, our confirmed beliefs, our original knowledge, our particular idiosyncrasies and our own points of view, and listen to find out the truth of the matter. For it is only the truth that fundamentally frees us—not conclusions or speculations, but the perception of what is not true. What the mind is made up of is not Truth; the Truth is beyond mind, so the mind must cease to formulate before Truth is revealed.
The truth of the matter can never be revealed to a mind that is narrow, bigoted, conditioned with beliefs and knowledge that is binding and blinding.
The Christ Yoga is impossible to anyone who approaches it with a mind that is cluttered with private conclusions, prejudices and experiences. The Christ Yoga is the Love, the Wisdom of God—the Christ free and active, not merely an idea of It, which is a hindrance to Its Creativeness. An idea is but the projection of the self with all its conditioning surrounding it.
So, when listening, do not merely listen to the word but to the inward content of it, and thus you will discover the truth of the matter for yourself. When the mind is freed. from its own formulations, only then is Truth uncovered.
When you are caught up in your daily struggles, in your fears, in your business worries, family quarrels, social enmities and frustrations, these may be too much for you. So you pursue the so-called Truth as a means of relief, but this form of escape can never solve any problem; it only dulls the mind while the confusion remains. As long as the mind is trying to escape through stimulation and so-called inspiration, through prayer or repeating mantrims, it is incapable of understanding its own process which is essential to freedom.
Self-knowledge is the only way. All forms of escape take you away from the fundamental principle underlying the Christ Yoga.
So, in listening, it is not the accumulation of ideas that will set you free, nor mere conclusions, theories or speculations, for these are a hindrance to Creativeness of the Truth. Only by understanding the self with all its fabrications can it be realised that this self-knowledge is the doorway to Truth, the gateway to the Christ Yoga.
(Back cover to Paperback edition)
THE YOGA OF THE CHRIST
The sequel to ‘Beyond the Himalayas’. This book covers the later part of the author’s travels and experiences in Tibet (1936-7). He writes of his instruction in the spiritual, mystical and healing arts under the tutelage of his teacher Geshi Rimpoche and various other Tibetan Masters.
Out of print for over 40 years, this new revised paperback edition contains additional material such as maps and footnotes.
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