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The Subtle Energy Body : the Complete Guide / Maureen Lockhart

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The Subtle Energy Body : the Complete Guide / Maureen Lockhart ?30 >@-?70 090=2D -:/D This page intentionally left blank. ?30 >@-?70 090=2D -:/D K_\:fdgc\k\>l`[\ DXli\\eCfZb_Xik#G_%;% Inner Traditions Rochester, Vermont r Toronto, Canada Inner Traditions One Park Street Rochester, Vermont 05767 www.InnerTraditions.com Copyright © 2010 by Maureen Lockhart All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lockhart, Maureen. The subtle energy body : the complete guide / Maureen Lockhart. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ebook ISBN 978-1-59477-654-0 print ISBN 978-1-59477-339-6 (pbk.) 1. Spirituality—Miscellanea. 2. Energy medicine. I. Title. BL624.L64 2010 128'.6—dc22 2010032075 Printed and bound in the United States by P. A. Hutchison 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Text design and layout by Priscilla Baker This book was typeset in Garamond Premier Pro with Elegans Script and Agenda used as display typefaces Color plates 4, 11, 32, 33, and 35 and images on pages 21, 29, 43 (right-hand image), 48 (left- hand image), 77, 90, 93, 94, 107, 127, 166, 171, 195, 200, 201, 202, 208, 209, 215, 243, 273, 274, 290, 307, and 333 copyright ¢ by Eric Franklin To send correspondence to the author of this book, mail a first-class letter to the author c/o *OOFS5SBEJUJPOTr#FBS$PNQBOZ 0OF1BSL4USFFU 3PDIFTUFS 75 BOEXFXJMM forward the communication. Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface xi Introduction 1 P A R T O N E Eastern Perspectives ONE The Spiritual Enterprise 5 TWO The Cosmic Person 14 THREE The Ladder of Being 26 FOUR The Organs of the Soul 41 FIVE The Yoga of the Subtle Body 50 SIX The Subtle Body in Sufi Cosmology 61 SEVEN The Bodies of Buddha 75 EIGHT The Taoist Body of Inner Alchemy 84 NINE East Meets West 97 PART T W O Western Perspectives TEN Symbolism and the Subtle Body in the Ancient World 106 ELEVEN The Forgotten Philosophy 115 TWELVE The Alchemical Body 134 THIRTEEN Theosophy, Anthroposophy, and the Subtle Bodies 153 FOURTEEN Energy Healing and the New Age Body 163 FIFTEEN Science, Philosophy, and the Subtle Body 173 SIXTEEN Consciousness and the Subtle Body 295 SEVENTEEN The Integral Body 313 EIGHTEEN The Subtle Body and the Transformed Being in Society 321 ( Notes 337 Bibliography 347 Index 358 ;\[`ZXk`fe In memory of my late husband Peter Sandhu, who would have been delighted to see this book materialize out of my “mystical meanderings.” This page intentionally left blank. Acknowledgments I am indebted to many people who, knowingly or especially Dr. James E. Robinson, who first gave me unknowingly, have been involved in the production of the opportunity to write about the Subtle Body and to this book. I would like to thank all students and clients, teach it in a university master’s degree program. A spe- past and present, who have been my greatest teachers; my cial thank you goes to Gyorgyi Byworth for bringing yoga tutor, Latvian poet Velta Snikere Wilson, for keep- the resulting study module to the attention of Dr. Ervin ing the connection, and whose patience and forbearance Laszlo, whom I’d like to thank for enthusiastically rec- through the trials and tribulations of exile have been ommending it to Inner Traditions Acquisitions Editor an inspiration for over three decades; the many healers Jon Graham, and to Jon for his foresight in seeing its who shared their knowledge with me at just the right potential as a book; to my editor Laura Schlivek and the moments, including Dr. Ramakant Kenny, Dr. Vasant rest of the team at Inner Traditions for overseeing its Lad, and Shrimati Shamala Chandran; the many friends “rebirth.” who encouraged me to write a book that addresses their I would like to express my grateful thanks to interests at an intelligent professional and academic Professor Olga Louchakova, Dr. Arielle Warner, David level, for their patience in awaiting its arrival and their Osborn, and the other authors who generously permit- support through difficult times, among them Christine ted me to “borrow” from their books and articles; to Jon Meek, Carol Deans Shinwell, and Lady Ann Clyde; my Moult for the picture of his yoga class; to Bob Clyatt spiritual brothers and sisters in the Yogic, Buddhist, and for his kindness in permitting me to use the picture Tantric communities, particularly Dr. M. L. Gharote, of his beautiful sculpture of Gandhi; and last, but cer- Dharmacharyi Lokamitra, and my dear friend Swami tainly not least, to Eric Franklin for his huge contribu- Sivadhara Saraswati, with whom wide-ranging conversa- tion, hundreds of hours of dedicated work in producing tions and shared experiences, both spiritual and mate- the illustrations, the chapter “Science, Philosophy, and rial, have been a “gift.” the Subtle Body,” and his unflagging help and support I would also like to thank my academic colleagues, throughout. ix This page intentionally left blank. Preface When I was six I had my first mystical experience. On ing their conversation. They were talking about yoga, my sixth birthday, my mother got me up at dawn to take about which I had only the vaguest notion, but it a photograph in the garden. It was a typical summer seemed to have something to do with breathing. Just as morning in the highlands of Scotland, one of those days they were going to join their friends in the next game, that starts with swirling grey mist and later gives way I found the courage to ask them if yoga could help me to balmy sunshine. As my mother was fiddling with the with my breathing problem. They said they were very camera, which seemed to have jammed, I became aware sure that it could. However, as they were being called of how patient and calm I felt. This was unlike me. I was by their friends to start the next game, I didn’t have a hyperactive child who did everything at high speed, so time to ask how I could learn it. sitting still was usually torture for me. Then the mist Attempts to find a teacher or a class proved fruitless, began to clear, and suddenly from within the shrouds of so I searched the local library and, fortunately, found a grey, the Japanese cherry blossom tree in the center of do-it-yourself book written by Ernest Wood, also known the garden appeared like a vision out of a dream; I had by his Indian name, Shri Sattwikagraganya. Professor an extraordinary sense of well-being, of connectedness, Wood was a Sanskrit scholar, a translator, and prolific of being merged with the tree in its “beingness” and author of works on yoga, with an interest in Buddhism with the whole world that surrounded us. and theosophy, who became the first “guru” of many an I never forgot the feeling of that experience, although isolated yoga student like myself half a century ago. I it only lasted minutes, perhaps even seconds. It became say “fortunately” because he introduced me to the path the archetypal sacred “place” to which I constantly of rāja yoga, which, as John Collins points out in his returned whenever I needed peace, solace, guidance, or book on mysticism, is the path of the “spiritual warrior,” knowledge. In the spiritual life, however, I discovered requiring discipline and determination.1 And discipline that there are many ways of knowing. and determination were exactly what I required over the The next significant experience came ten years next year as I struggled with the roles of teacher and later when I discovered yoga. When I was fourteen a student. Still, thanks to Professor Wood’s clear instruc- TB patch had been found on one of my lungs, which tions, I succeeded in no small measure: when I went for explained the long and frequent bouts of bronchitis my next x-ray, the patch on the lung had disappeared, that had occurred throughout my childhood and had and the breathing exercises I’d learned became an indis- left me with breathing problems. I was still suffering pensable part of the “spiritual toolkit” that helped to from shortness of breath nearly two years later when I keep me in reasonable health thereafter. went to a badminton club with a friend and had to sit When I was twenty, I met my first husband at the out some of the sets because I was so easily exhausted. newspaper where we both worked. Fortunately for me, At one point two women sat down next to me. The he was a “spiritual warrior” with experience and knowl- chairs were quite close together so I couldn’t help hear- edge of yoga, and much else, which exceeded my own. xi xii Preface Not only did he introduce me to meditation, but to commute long distances from my rural mountain home many areas of spirituality, religion, philosophy, psychol- to the intense heat and overcrowding of a major metrop- ogy, and, while he was writing his first novel, literature olis to work, I was so glad to be able to use my healing and creative writing. All of this not only opened a com- knowledge in difficult conditions in a way that didn’t pletely new world to me but stood me in good stead later cost me valuable energy and end in “burnout.” when I worked in publishing as an editor, then eventu- At the age of twenty-four I had my first experi- ally freelanced as a specialist in yoga, psychology, heal- ence of kundalinī.
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