[Updated] “This path, Ostad Elahi would say, is not a path for words but one for deeds; only through action can progress be achieved.” But how are we going to take action? Where to begin? With what mindset should we set to work? The foundations of natural spirituality have been laid—a spirituality that Ostad Elahi described as “the new medicine of the soul”. They called for a practical complement, something like a student’s workbook. This need has now been fulfilled with the publication of this Practical Guide, which the author, Bahram Elahi, tells us will be followed by a forthcoming series of four additional volumes. Together, these five volumes will constitute the Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection. The Practical Guide indisputably constitutes its core. Punctuated by inserts and diagrams, it has been designed as a handbook, and it is as such that we can make the most of it: the Practical Guide is the reference work for those who wish to study and practice the new medicine of the soul.

The principles of a correct education of thought are not matters of intellectual speculation: it is through practice that they bear fruit. But what does putting them into practice actually mean? Bahram Elahi answers this question by pointing out the dangers of overly abstract approaches to practice and self-transformation. It is not enough to consider the principles in theory, or even to self-suggest them daily with the best willpower in the world: in order to “concretely feel” them, we must pitch them against reality.

Nested in the cocoon of our ego like silkworms, we are unaware of what we really are. Bahram Elahi develops the metaphysical as well as ethical implications of this striking image. The reality of the self consists in a plurality of functions and levels of consciousness in dynamic interaction, as illustrated—in figures—by the polarity between “surface conscious self” and “deep conscious self” (“inner guide”). Some key-ideas to help us break the cocoon…

Once we have discovered the divine ethical principles adapted to our time it is our duty to put them into practice, for only then will they nourish us and gradually become assimilated within us.
As we previously mentioned, a diet must fulfill certain criteria to be considered sound. Our physical organism, for example, requires a varied and balanced diet. Likewise, the practice of a divine ethical principle must fulfill certain conditions in order to have a positive effect on our psychospiritual organism:

(a) A divine ethical principle must be performed on a repeated basis. Only by repeatedly and persistently practicing an ethical principle will it gradually become integrated within our spiritual substance and eventually become part of our second nature. It is not by forcing ourselves to be generous on a few occasions, for example, that we can acquire the virtue of generosity; rather, we must repeatedly push ourselves to perform generous acts until the essence of generosity permeates our spiritual substance.

Natural spirituality gives a central role to reason, but it also recognises the full value of positive emotions in the process of perfection.
In this question and answer session concluding a lecture he gave at the Sorbonne (Paris) in November 2011, Professor Elahi discusses this subjective or lived dimension of self-knowledge. He touches upon the specific emotion that derives from our relationship to Truth and the divine, as well as the incomparable joy—at once powerful, light and profound— that comes with the understanding of real divine truths.

As far as spirituality goes, a purely theoretical approach to principles, detached from actual practice, will not do. Not only is it inefficient, it constitutes a genuine impediment to spiritual progress: that of smugness or spiritual “superioritism”. Professor Bahram Elahi spells this out in the following excerpt from a lecture given at the Sorbonne (Paris) […]

Ostad Elahi used to define his teachings as a new medicine of the soul: one that is adapted to the true nature of human beings and adheres to the law of causality governing both their spiritual and material lives. The spirituality he practiced was natural spirituality, and he viewed the process of spiritual perfection as a curriculum.

The excerpts presented here are drawn from a lecture given at the Sorbonne in March 2011, in which Professor Bahram Elahi revisits various aspects of Ostad Elahi’s philosophy. Rephrasing them in a simple and direct manner, he relates these points to fundamental questions and examines them from a rational standpoint.

Ostad Elahi used to define his teachings as a new medicine of the soul: one that is adapted to the true nature of human beings and adheres to the law of causality governing both their spiritual and material lives. The spirituality he practiced was natural spirituality, and he considered the process of spiritual perfection to resemble an academic curriculum.

The excerpts presented here are drawn from a lecture given at the Sorbonne in March 2011, in which Professor Bahram Elahi revisits various aspects of Ostad Elahi’s philosophy. Rephrasing them in a simple and direct manner, he relates these points to fundamental questions and examines them from a rational standpoint.

Ostad Elahi used to define his teachings as a new medicine of the soul: one that is adapted to the true nature of human beings and adheres to the law of causality governing both their spiritual and material lives. The spirituality he practiced was natural spirituality, and he considered the process of spiritual perfection to resemble an academic curriculum.

The excerpts presented here are drawn from a lecture given at the Sorbonne in March 2011, in which Professor Bahram Elahi revisits various aspects of Ostad Elahi’s philosophy. Rephrasing them in a simple and direct manner, he relates these points to fundamental questions and identifies how they are justified from a rational standpoint.

Ostad Elahi used to define his teachings as a new medicine of the soul: one that is adapted to the true nature of human beings and adheres to the law of causality governing both their spiritual and material lives. The spirituality he practiced was natural spirituality, and he considered the process of spiritual perfection to […]