Adapted and edited by Shinsei (Roger Sheldon)

from The Meditator's Manual.  By Simon Court.  Butler and Tanner.  1984

Humanity exists on a continuum between the tiniest sub-nuclear particles and the vast galactic processes far beyond our tiny planet.  At both ends of the continuum, we have found sources of almost inconceivable power.  In the tiniest portion of matter is locked a vast storehouse of energy which can be unleashed in order to serve or destroy humankind.  Our own galaxy is itself a huge maelstrom in which the stars themselves are whirling in an ongoing cycle of creation, change, and destruction.  The Hubble telescope has revealed that our galaxy is just one of hundreds of thousands of such star families contained within our known Universe in which colossal forces far beyond our understanding and grasp are at work.        

These vast forces operate without thought, as we know and understand it.  They have no values, no conceptions of right or wrong, good or evil.  They operate in a totally impersonal fashion, taking no account of the scale of life within which we normally live.  Unlike them, we mortals have the power to make decisions and to choose the way we wish to go forwards.  

Our skills in controlling and manipulating nuclear and cosmic forces increase almost daily.  We have identified and mapped every gene that shapes the human being and are on the threshold of the search to create the super human.  It has been said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Yet, the human race is gaining access to forces and powers of ever-greater intensity and potential.  What are we to make of such power without corresponding ethics?  How are we to control the powers that exist around us if we cannot properly channel those that flow within our own personalities?  Where greater Power is available it must be balanced by an access to greater Wisdom and, more importantly, greater Love, for love is that which stands behind all.        

We can work with energy, at all levels of application, in a number of ways.  We can transfer one type of energy to another.  An electric heater converts electrical energy into heat energy.  We can bind energy into a solid form as in the production of isotopes.  Alternatively, we can release the energy contained within a form by breaking down that form, as in the simple and age-old process of lighting a fire.  

These, however, all amount to the same thing, for matter is 'locked-up' energy and energy is 'released' matter.  In dealing with these forces, we influence some energy or matter that is of its own nature amoral, and we direct it to our own ends.  In this sense, matter is essentially 'innocent'.  This is quite the opposite idea to that held by those who commit the Manichean heresy claiming that matter is ‘evil' and 'fallen'.  On the contrary, matter in its own nature is still pure and unsullied, and remains so but for the use to which it is put by the human race.  It is we, who have lost our innocence and are busy trying to bring down all the rest of creation thereby.  However, we can rescue that fallen creation by utilising the force of unconditional love.        

Let us then never bind energy into a solid form except we do it with love.  Energy transformations exist on many levels beside the apparently physical.  One method for example, of binding energy into a solid form is to bring together people to work upon a common project.  Energy so contained and directed in upon itself gives rise to manifestation.  Let us always do this with love as the motive, whether working together in the 'way place' or pursuing our everyday lives.        

Let us also never release energy lest it is done in love, for to release energy is to destroy the form in which it manifested.  The birth of energy implies death of the form that it previously held.  Whilst many of us are hidebound in our prejudices and would dearly desire to be set free of such bondage, we would not welcome the destruction of our cherished and outmoded forms unless it were done with love for us.        

Though we are flanked by awesome powers within the infinitely large and the infinitely small, we yet do have a power that can all but destroy the whole of creation.  We have the power to choose.  We have, in fact, the power to do exactly as we wish, within whatever bonds constrain us from time to time.  We are able to use or not use every single faculty we possess at any time unless we are forcibly restrained or compelled with respect to that faculty.  To exercise our choice in the face of dire circumstances may certainly lead to death or injury.  Yet, the fact remains that the choice is always there for us and we should choose with the motive of love.  

There is more to love than the everyday kind that exists between two people, as we usually perceive it, although this is one of its manifestations.  Love means a vital concern for all other people, all other life.  It is the recognition that each person is, like us, an aspect of his or her ideal self, a living acknowledgement that deep within us, all share the same divinity.  This love crosses the boundaries between people, between species, and between different realms of being.  It transcends difference, seeking only a similar caring self.        

By practising the kinetic meditation within a form such as Shinzen, we are led to a more integrated and whole self.  This results in the destruction or conversion of many behaviour processes that normally cramp our ability to live fully.  With this release, there comes an increase in personal power and energy.  It is therefore of paramount importance that those who seek to increase and apply their knowledge of the self should make those powers subservient to love.  

We can fool ourselves with this, of course.  We can use the war cry 'for your own good'.  On analysis, this often turns out to be more aptly described as 'for my own comfort'.  One of the more blatant examples of this is that of the interrogator who hammered a wooden wedge into the mouth of a burning martyr lest he jeopardised his soul by uttering heresies.  Under such a travesty of transpersonal love, we may perpetrate all manner of atrocities.  Love binds as much as it severs or banishes. 

No debate as to whether means justify ends or vice versa will guide us through the fog within which the wielding of power enfolds us.  Quite simply such discussion misses the point.  Both means and ends are irrelevant to any investigation of 'should'.  Love and faulty technique is far superior to loveless precision.  This applies equally to all energy matters, from cooking a meal to bringing up children.        

In unfolding our powers, and especially the power of choice in ourselves, there is a spiritual ethic which becomes ever more important.  This ethic applies equally to all forms of life - including yourself. 

Quite simply it states: 'Love all, harm none, do what you will.'