Hi Andrea. Can you let me know if I should now be practising the Candle and Inner Temple Exercises rather than just studying the theory? I am a little confused in regard to what is meant by the need to be a member of the outer court of BOEL before I do this. From the forums it seems that some students are doing so.
In the Light
Jen
Hello Jen,
you can practice the Candle Exercise any time, of course! Everybody, course participant or not, is invited to do so!
Regarding the Inner Temple Meditation, everyone is welcome to do it, too, However we recommend that people mind the description (compare website) very well. If you do the meditation regularly and in doing so, get used to wrong inner images, e.g. if the magical well is not in the inner garden, but in the library, then the meditation and its symbols will not work properly anymore, and for some people it will be difficult to unlearn the wrong images.
Therefore we recommend regular Inner Temple meditations only for members, because they get comments on their meditations from experienced mentors. Therefore they are not so likely to get used to incongruous inner images.
"From the forums it seems that some students are doing so."
You mean the course forums? Then it is quite likely they are BOEL members. In the description of the introduction forum of the course you will find details on how to tell who is a member and who is not.
If you would like to do the Inner Temple meditation, you can use the Meditation and the Inner Temple forum in case you have any questions on your meditation realisations.
Hope this helps :-)
In Light
Andrea
Thank you Andrea. That clears up the confusion.
Jen
Hello Andrea, and Jen,
I had a very similar doubt, because as a beginner I was reading the inner temple meditation and was very keen on trying it, but found it hard to remember the whole sequence of the meditation in an orderly manner, so I decided is best to leave it for later. Today I woke up with an idea with regards to this, and I wanted to ask if its a good solution in your opinion.
My idea is to read the inner temple meditation for myself and record my voice.. with the aim to be guided by the actual description, and ensuring I follow the right steps, with right imagery. In this way I could try to have an accurate first experience.
Hello Eolus,
yes, of course you can make a recording for yourself for your own private use, no problem. Remember to make some breaks in phases when you visualise things, talk with your holy guardian angel etc.
We also offer a recording on CD of this meditation, with breaks in all the right places, for 15 € plus postage. (There are further recordings available, but so far in German language only.)
However you can make your own recording for private use nevertheless, of course. In this case, please mind the following, and I know you are probably already aware of this, but maybe not everyone who reads this:
Of course no-one is allowed to sell or publish their recording of the meditation, because Salomo Baal-Shem owns the rights of the Inner Temple meditations.
An alternative to a recording is to split the meditation in parts, e.g. at first only enter your Inner Garden, and then return, to get familiar with that part, and after a few meditations enter the Inner Library and get accustomed to it in a few further meditations, and then finally also enter the Inner Sanctum.
Both ways are fine. You are welcome to do either and drop us a note in the meditation forum about your experiences, if you like!
In Light
Andrea
Thank you for this. I had the same idea to record my own audio version. I have been following daily guided meditations for a while now.
Palmer