Course XV - Teaching 12: The Temple of Gold

An ordinary man tries to solve his anxieties as soon perceives that distraction and entertainment are forgotten, and perhaps he does not notice that these means move away just temporarily from the mental surface the hammering of his troubles, while in his own soul, the latter remain unsolved. Forces accumulated around him seek exits and many times find them, not by natural transmutation, but through conflicts that do not imply spiritual good health of course, and that leave sediments of future, continuous discomforts. This trait is really of our times in which society seemingly has organized as never before different media of distraction and entertainment. It is as if he perceived this evil of the time which is precisely a lack of inner life and would try to solve it collectively, but with no success.
For a lonely meditator not only there are problems of any ordinary man but also other problems of transcendental kind, which cannot be deviated or disconnected from the soul by external media. So for the Son disinclined to a mystical realization, there is a constant sorrow for the lack of plenitude as to efforts and results.
We can say properly, a mystic is lovesick because his soul is always faithful to his Divine Bride. Just as a worldly lover never gratifies his desire for sincere love because even the possession of his beloved being cannot gratify his desire for a total union with her, so the faithful lover of the Divine Mother never gratifies his desire for a full love until the moment when the two disappear from the world of individuation to become One. Until that moment, the soul undergoes the sweet sorrow that keeps perennially kindled the flame of love. But the divine can alternately stay on the surface of the beloved just if this soul is calm, passive and closely exposed to the divine influence. For instance, no sorrow can co-exist with bliss because otherwise disturbs or decreases the effects of the latter. Needless to say at that moment even ordinary problems of man must not intervene. So, on this level of the process regulated by meditation, the practitioner needs a means to smoothen the uneven soul because of incisive sorrows and troubles. In other words, the soul needs a fountain to remain in it for a moment and to go out like a limpid silver mirror to reflect the divinity.
This fountain is the Temple of Gold, and the wonderful water is the divine consolation.
Unlike any contradictory opinion, the practitioner must meditate on the Temple of Gold not only when his soul is disturbed or lovesick. That is, he must make use of this meditation not only for recovery purposes but also of the comforting meditation after his session of purgative meditation before he may go to a fully blissful state.
Invocation becomes extraordinarily important in this exercise. As we said above, invocation in general forms the so-called state of meditation. Here, besides the formation of this state, it must create a proper disposition of the soul for consolation. Consolation cannot be felt without sorrow and tribulation. The practitioner must express to the Divine Mother, step by step, his motives to seek consolation, by becoming a suitable receiver of the effect that he is seeking. Otherwise, to seek the divine balsam is to fail beforehand.
Also the choice of imaginative pictures is important in this meditation. Pictures are abundant in purgative meditation, and personal experiences are ceaseless and provide quite sufficient elements to the imagination. Meditation on the Temple of Gold is more technical and that is why it influences one determined aspect, that of consolation, and demands especial pictures to stimulate sufficiently and properly the soul.
On the other hand, usually the meditator neither seeks nor gets this divine therapy. Therefore he needs previous training through merely soothing pictures, in such a way that he may get peace, tranquility and even lack of care from his first meditations. Usually pictures of nature in rest or relaxation provide soothing effects: a uniform, constant rain, a soft sunset, a spring dawn without any stimulus or enthusiasm, and even the sea or the mountain at dusk.
The meditator must not stop there, on pain of being deprived of the divine consolation forever.
After these pictures, according to his nature, which may be more rational or more emotional, he must form pictures to understand the presence of the divine through laws and harmonies of the universe, or imaginative pictures of emotional kind, such as to see the heart of the Mother, the eyes of the Master, his blessing and other pictures like that.
Sensation is also characteristic in this meditation. The comforting result of the imaginative picture has to be consolation and nothing more, that is, stimulating effects of wellbeing or mystical rapture are out of the question; you must get only consolation, and this sensation is unique for its softness and evenness. This sensation should not arouse enthusiasm in the soul, but tenderly smooth it, without any depression or exaltation; therefore, sensation must be slowly described, never going beyond consolation to become spiritual bliss; this step must end without any prolongation, when the soul feels that sorrow and grief disappear, are deleted, or subsided.
Purposes should lead the soul to use frequently the divine consolation in order to seek usually in the temple of Gold the tranquility that the soul needs, and the internalization by seeking restoration reserves that the divine stores up within. As usual, the consequences not only shall lead to get consolation but also to understand the supreme good of this meditation for his life in general and for his spiritual process in particular.