The General Occult Class. Methods of Work in the Classes

[Ani]

The General Occult Class

The General Class was also opened on the 24th of February 1922. It was open to all, and was attended by a wide circle of listeners. In his first lecture, the Master said: "The new culture needs intelligent people. If you think that with your present ideas and beliefs you can enter the new culture, you are quite wrong." In the General Class Dunov assigned papers to write, tasks to complete and exercises to perform. Each participant studied according to his own abilities and acquired his own experience but each could feel the intense attention of the Master. The Master-disciple connection was very strong and palpable. Problems were solved not only in the classroom; the disciples' life was a series of examinations, and in its course, they had abundant opportunity to learn the action of natural laws. "Do not think that once you are in the occult school, your situation will improve. No, at first it will deteriorate, and only then will it take a turn for the better. You enroll in this School to learn!" the Master admonished them. The Master delivered regularly his lectures to the General Class, every Wednesday for 22 years, to the end of his life.

 

Methods of Work in the Classes

The disciples had the best possible conditions in the School to develop their spiritual potential. The Master applied a variety of methods in his work with them but they were all aimed at the extension of awareness and at motivating them to seek self-perfection.

The Word

The most powerful of all methods. It was the first one to be applied by the Master, and he worked with it for more than forty years. Each of his words was like a seed. Once pronounced, it penetrated human consciousness and awakened the positive forces in it. It carried creative energy that built the qualities of the New Man, the man of the Age of the Aquarius.

Music

The Word's eternal companion. Every lecture was preceded by a song and ended with a song. Music was not a source of amusement but a method for conscious work. It helped make the Word more understandable.

Exercise

Movement results from the action of certain forces of nature. If one is familiar with these forces, he can use their energy. The Master taught a variety of physical exercises. Their practicing had a positive effect on the body and the mind alike. The exercises were an important method for the development of certain spiritual qualities in the disciples.

Duties

This was a special method applied by the Master during the summer camps and on festive gatherings. It was aimed at attracting spiritual energy and surrounding oneself with it. By saying certain formulae and prayers, the disciple let their vibrations into his consciousness and gained spiritual power.

Themes

At the beginning of every lecture at the School, the Master gave a theme to be elaborated over the following days. He prompted the disciples to use their minds, encouraged their desire to explain a certain fact or phenomenon or to give verbal shape to an original thought. Once set going, the human mind tends to expand its perimeter. The Master used the themes to help his disciples regain the true function of thought: to move, expand and shed light.

Discussions

Many truths came up in those spontaneous discussions with the Master. Many life problems found a solution. The disciples took every opportunity to initiate such a discussion. Talking with the Master was a profound need; it helped them solve many of their problems. What they learned in an apparently ordinary conversation was sometimes of immense significance, the thing that can only be revealed by Greatness. The Master, on the other hand, used the discussions to stimulate the disciples' thoughts. The discussions were an important method at the school.

Excursions

The time spent in the open was students' favourite. The excursions in the mountains took them away from the city noise and stress and closer to the magnificent world of nature. The excursions in the mountains were a method that the Master used to help students establish a contact with Intelligent Nature. Observing its beauty, they gradually learned its language. It was not the students, it was the souls that Dunov took to the mountains!

Communal Life

This method was an opportunity for spiritual growth. In communal life, new relations of mutual help, purity, and love were formed. The communal life of the brotherhood was an important idea in the New Teaching which the students applied with the Master's help.

Correspondence

From the earliest years of the Master's activity, the correspondence was an important method of communication with his disciples. In his letters, he offered them advice on their individual development and encouraged them to seek spiritual elevation.

Self-diminishing

The Master continually restricted himself in his relationship with the disciples so that he might reach their minds. Only the great may work by diminishing. The Master could thus get down to the disciples' level and encourage them to grow. The disciples were extremely happy to feel their Master so close to them.

Service

Even when the Master retired for a while, he never ceased to participate with his thought in everything his students were doing. This was like a religious rite, a Presence that elevated, protected and encouraged in the material world. His positive mental force, when aimed at a particular object, was capable of miracles. With this method, the Master taught his disciples the most important principle: being in service to the Whole instead of looking after one's personal interests.

Prayer

In order to comprehend the secrets of Being, a disciple ought to have a strong and real connection with the Primordial Principle, with God. This connection is provided by prayer. It is the most powerful method for achievement and spiritual growth. It is a path anyone can take to reach the world of the Sublime Spiritual Life. Prayer was the most sacral method in the Master' school. For him, it was a process of constant connectedness with the Spiritual World. He encouraged his disciples to share this attitude.