The Hidden Dangers of Meditation

There are many systems of meditation. All offering Truth in exchange for a method. There are many different systems of meditation, Zen method, Tibetan method, Rosicrucian method, Arhatic Method, Theosophical method and many more. But, are all these methods safe? We know meditation and concentration are two different things, although, meditation might include a concentration aspect to it. Before we dive into one of these innumerable methods of meditation, we must first know what is meditation? We never ask this simple question. 

These days, since a method can be easily bought from the spiritual market, we do not question before practicing a method. We simply learn the technique and directly practice the method. The method offers a goal, an end. We being gullible seek that end, although we do not even have the vaguest idea about the inner mechanism of that particular method. 

A teacher gives us a method and we blindly practice it.  We want a result out of that meditation and when a teacher promises a result, we immediately without a second thought practice it. 

If we want to meditate first we must understand what is meditation? Why are we doing it? What is our motive? Meditation does not always bring a positive effect in our life. It can also have devastating effect, if a dangerous method of meditation is practiced for long. Meditation is often dangerous when our motive is wrong, when we seek a reward or something related to our personal self out of the meditation practice:

“Meditation is dangerous and unprofitable to the man who enters upon it without the basis of a good character and of clean living…Meditation is dangerous where there is wrong motive, such as the desire for personal growth and for spiritual powers, for it produces, under these conditions only a strengthening of the shadows in the vale of illusion and a one-pointedness that may lead to an unbalanced development. One-pointedness is a virtue, but it should be one-pointedness of purpose and aim, and not that which develops one sole line of method, to the exclusion of all others.”

– Master DK through Alice Bailey

Meditation is also dangerous when occult meditation is practiced before one has studied Occult science for many years. Just like it is irresponsible to let a kindergarten child handle an university level chemistry experiment, likewise it is more irresponsible to instruct students who have not studied occultism in awakening of chakras, kundalini etc. First we must study Esoteric books and get a very sane idea of esoteric science. That will enable us to practice advanced meditation in future. Instead, driven by impatience we dive directly into the unchartered territory of kundalini, clairvoyance, chakra activation etc etc. Such approach is highly dangerous and can hinder our spiritual development for the rest of the incarnation.

”No one should go into occultism or even touch it before he is perfectly acquainted with his own powers, and that he knows how to commensurate it with his actions. And this he can do only by deeply studying the philosophy of Occultism before entering upon the practical training. Otherwise, as sure as fate—HE WILL FALL INTO BLACK MAGIC.”

– Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X 

There are many dangerous forms of meditations. They are mainly related to the awakening of kundalini fire, breathing exercises, meditating upon chakras etc. These methods are highly dangerous if one hasn’t prepared oneself for decades with a clean life, spiritual study and understanding of human esoteric anatomy. In other words one must first learn what is kundalini fire? How does it awaken? What pathway does it follow? Do we need to create a certain inner temperament before awakening it safely and all similar questions must be asked, studied and understood. Premature awakening of Kundalini, breathing exercises can permanently damage one’s system.

“Meditation expands your consciousness. Expansion of consciousness creates a vacuum. The vacuum sucks the fire up because already through purification and meditation you have refined and purified your body to such a degree that the rising of the fire does not injure you. That is why it is very dangerous to do Kundalini yoga, Hatha Yoga, different kinds of breathing exercises, or different methods to raise the fire. No forcing must be done to open and unfold the centers and move these fires onward. Then what is the process we are going to do? The process is purification. You are going to make yourself more pure physically, emotionally, and mentally.”
 
– Torkom Saraydarian 
 
There are students who out of their blind devotion towards their teacher proclaim the teacher has instructed them in such methods so its safe. Or the higher beings are protecting them. They must understand, meditation is a science and not a vague mystical practice. And, while it is true great beings are there to protect also, they cannot however do anything if a method is fundamentally wrong. Like when a child is beginning to write, a teacher can guide that child if there’s something wrong in his writing. But if the child drops ink all over the page or tears off the page from the notebook, the teacher can’t do anything about it. So the higher beings also have limitations. If the student does not do their study and practices a wrong method or if the student does not have any prerequisite training to undergo advanced meditation practice, adverse effects will instantaneously follow. 
 
The wise solution to all this is, a dedicated study of esoteric literature related to meditation, a clean life and application of esoteric teachings in one’s life. Simple meditation practice can also be done during this time and there is enough esoteric literature that can train students in more safer practice of meditation.

The books every student must study to understand meditation are as follows:

  • A Treatise on White Magic by Alice Bailey 
  • Letters on Occult Meditation by Alice Bailey 
  • The Science of Meditation by Torkom Saraydarian 
  • Talks by Jiddu Krishnamurti on Meditation 

The most hazardous practices of meditation are those that instruct students in awakening of kundalini fire and awakening of chakras. Students who hastily practice these methods before at least a decade (10 years) of esoteric training have sufficiently been warned. 

Moreover there is another factor that makes the practise of meditation dangerous that is when one is in conflict with oneself:

“Meditation is dangerous if a person is in conflict with himself, with the goal he aspire to or he believes in, or with what he tells others to do. Such a double standard creates complicated tension within a person’s consciousness and within the electrical system of his etheric, emotional, and mental bodies. It also creates dangerous cleavages in his being. If a person continues to meditate under such circumstances, he widens the cleavages and increases the conflict, which culminates in the total exhaustion or destruction of the person. Inner conflict weakens a person to such a degree that he begins to hate the Teaching, meditation, and spiritual discipline. Things lose their value when they do not affect and change our lives or when they do not become part of our real being.”

-Torkom Saraydarian
Meditation vol.1, p.162 

So self knowledge is of far greater importance than the practice of meditation. Because if we have never observed ourselves, read the book of life within ourselves, if we have never seen ourselves as we are, we can be rest assured, we can never know what is meditation. We might practice a method or a mechanical technique or we might even manage to control our thinking, but we will not know what is meditation. Because meditation happens spontaneously for someone who knows himself. One who is aware of himself. When there is self knowledge, there is an effortless form of meditation which is of rare value. Which can not be cultivated or practiced using a particular method. But, since as human beings we are mechanical, we seek mechanical methods that will lead us to awakening.