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Chapter Eight:
The Grove of the Lebanese Cedars

One day, the convoy with the prisoners stopped in the grove of the Lebanese cedars.

It was an oasis, delightful in its beauty!

No one could ever dream of such a place for rest during those long days of exhausting travel in the stony and dusty desert under scorching beams of the midday sun.

… These cedars had seen the world many centuries ago. The air among them was clear and saturated with the special aroma of heated resin and pine needles.

Hamilcar and Pythagoras were able to settle down very well under the shadow of the huge cedar that was standing slightly apart from all other trees. This tree was taller and mightier than the others. Probably, this cedar was the parent for many trees growing around it.

Hamilcar remembered his childhood…

… The same cedar was in the garden at the temple, where he was sent by his stepfather to get education after the death of his mother.

Hamilcar had been deprived of parental love at that time. He felt himself so alone in the world!

That giant cedar had become his best friend back then. Hamilcar had loved only this tree! And the cedar responded to him with its marvellous love.

Sometimes Hamilcar spent hours sitting under this tree and silently talking about his troubles to it, like with a best friend. The calmness of the cedar had filled him, and his childhood troubles had not seemed so unbearable anymore. The strength, the majesty and the inner purity of the tree had become as if an essence of himself at those moments.

Later on, when Hamilcar got older and had learned various techniques of work with consciousness, which he had been trained in by the priests, he began to see the huge soft glow emanating from the cedar far away. Connecting oneself-soul to this light helped him to clear the negative emotions and come into a state of deep calm. It was as if Hamilcar was becoming a giant tree, growing for many centuries in this material world… And the non-material Strength was arising from the depth along the trunk to every needle… The peace and the love were healing…

Now, from the perspective of the new knowledge gained from Pythagoras, Hamilcar was happy to find that the power of that miracle tree was not just an imagination of his childhood fantasies.

… The giant cedar, beside whose trunk they were sitting, possessed similar traits. By directing one’s sincere love toward it, it was possible with its help to fill oneself with the refined light. Or it was possible to fill out with oneself-love the whole space filled with the energy of the cedar around the crown, around the roots, and far beyond…

… Hamilcar told Pythagoras about his childhood experience. Pythagoras, as usual, could feel and see with his inner eye all the fullness of Hamilcar’s childhood feelings and what such a communication of oneself-soul with the trees, possessing the refined strength, could give to future disciples.

“Perfect, Hamilcar! Today you added one more treasure to the treasury box of our knowledge!”

… Hamilcar was amazed at how easily Pythagoras, being his teacher, was ready to learn from his disciple.

He was thinking about how Pythagoras’ wisdom was combined with his marvellous modesty! His greatness never suppressed those around him!

Pythagoras pronounced:

“The energetic shells surround the human bodies. They can be seen by the eyes of the soul if one is tuned to such a perception. All living beings, incarnated into bodies, have similar kinds of shells. They can be named ‘cocoons’.

“Such a ‘cocoon’ of light also exists around this cedar. It can help to work with the energies inside and around our bodies.

“I recently explained to you the cleansing movements of the energies along the trajectory which involves the major energetic canals of our bodies. These circulations of the energies through the spinal canals and the front side of the body greatly facilitate such a purification.

“So here, next to this tree, it is very convenient to make such movements, particularly in expanded space around the body.

“These exercises are very simple and they purify the body very efficiently.

“When all energies inside the body and inside the ‘cocoon’ are pure, then the soul can easily start learning how to exit from the body, and both grow and expand in the universal space — in the subtle and the subtlest eons.

“It is possible to make a smooth transition from the work inside the energy structures of the body to such a growth of the soul, so it can become incomparably greater than the size of the human body.”

… Feeling his power of consciousness with pleasure, Hamilcar made a few circulations of luminous energies around his body in a space over a long distance. It was quite pleasant!

Pythagoras continued:

“Now you performed this technique as a certain exercise for purification. And it was not bad at all! Many diseases can be treated or prevented in this way by purifying the energies in the body and in the 'cocoon'.

“But now try again to feel this cedar, but as a real friend, exactly the same way you did in childhood. And the secrets of the Universe will open wide in front of you!”

… Hamilcar felt ashamed of his attitude which had suddenly arisen towards the cedar, viewing it just as an opportunity to master the next exercise…

He noticed for himself the fact that the perception of one’s own successes provokes growing arrogance and a feeling of oneself as being more important than everything around…

He connected the consciousness with the cedar again. But this time, the mergence, filled with the emotion of love, occurred on a more subtle level, giving rise to a state of bliss.

Hamilcar involuntarily plunged deeper — in the Light of the Divine Consciousness…

After a while, Pythagoras continued:

“The perception of the connectedness of everything that exists is very important!

“One Whole Divine Organism grows and develops in the universe, including our planet.

“If this understanding becomes inherent to people, then the knowledge about the connectedness and the value of every living thing, including every big or small creature, will help to create a foundation for the moral perception of the world and one’s own moral lifestyle.

“I think we should have such trees at our future school! They will help many souls to grow in size as consciousnesses and to learn the purification and the calm!

“Please memorize such techniques of the spiritual work for your future disciples!”

… Hamilcar was amazed again and again at the comprehensiveness which was inherent to Pythagoras’ perception of everything that happened to them, to everything new that had opened!

He also noticed that Pythagoras always lined up all the new methods into a harmonious sequence, thus forming the project activities of the future School.

Sometimes it seemed to Hamilcar that this School of Pythagoras already existed, so brightly and enthusiastically Pythagoras was talking about his intention!