CYCLE SIXTY-SIX

1. Christ is reputed to have said: 'Be thy self', and, to be sure, there is only one self that one can be, viz. the spiritual self. One cannot be, for instance, the emotional self or the intellectual self or the physical self. One can only do/feel the emotional self, take/know the intellectual self, and give/touch the physical self. The only self one can be, strictly speaking, is the spiritual self, and therefore to be one's self is to be one with the spiritual self in its reliance on and identification with the air it breathes. Such is the essence of salvation (from the other selves), and it is what makes one truly divine.

2. A person who was truly Christian, and hence given to being his self, would not be emotional, intellectual, or sexual, but solely spiritual, and thus one who cultivates Being at the expense of Doing, Taking, and Giving, or, equally, breathing at the expense of feeling, knowing, and willing.

3. To be the Holy Spirit of Heaven rather than to do the Holy Soul of Hell, to take the Holy Mind of Purgatory, or to give the Holy Will of the World. Which is to say, to breathe the Holy Spirit of Heaven rather than to feel the Holy Soul of Hell, to know the Holy Mind of Purgatory, or to touch the Holy Will of the World.

4. Before one can be the Holy Spirit of Heaven one must first of all breathe it, e.g. meditate before one contemplates. Before one can do the Holy Soul of Hell one must first of all feel it, e.g. agitate before one demonstrates. Before one can take the Holy Mind of Purgatory one must first of all know it, e.g. cogitate before one imitates. Before one can give the Holy Will of the World one must first of all touch it, e.g. stimulate before one copulates. Hence there is a difference of degree between breathing and being, feeling and doing, knowing and taking, and touching and giving. The one is a precondition of the other.

5. Being is not in meditation but in the contemplation of the joy which results from the lightness of air. Meditation is the technique which 'unlocks the door' into the 'Kingdom Within', wherein one is contemplatively conscious of the freedom which comes from being at one with the essence of air, and is accordingly lifted-up on its lightness in a joyous release from mundane bondage. Hence breathing is the means to the joyful end of Being.

6. Breathe deeply to calm your self; calm your self into the lightness of Being. Experience the spirit as it soars above the body on the wings of its breathing and is saved to Being, which is oneness with the universal spirit whose essence is lightness.

7. Let us not talk, with fools, of the unbearable lightness of Being. Let us rather embrace it as our long-lost home and true refuge!

8. Being is the goal of divine striving (through meditation) and the end to all suffering. Even to flap one's spiritual wings (through breathing) is a sort of suffering in relation to Being, which glides effortlessly upon the waves of gentle air.