First, I would state that no work such as an effort to awaken the centers should ever be undertaken whilst the aspirant is aware of definite impurities in his life, or when the physical body is in poor condition or is diseased. Neither should it be undertaken when the pressure of external circumstances is such that there is no place or opportunity for quiet and uninterrupted work. It is essential that for the immediate and focused work on the centers there should be the possibility of hours of seclusion and of freedom from interruption. This I cannot too strongly emphasize, and I do so in order to demonstrate to the eager student that at this period of our history there are few whose lives permit of this seclusion. This is however a most beneficent circumstance and not one to be deplored. Only one in a thousand aspirants is at the stage where he should begin to work with the energy in his centers and perhaps even this estimate is too optimistic. Better far that the aspirant serves and loves and works and disciplines himself, leaving his centers to develop and unfold more slowly and therefore more safely. Unfold they inevitably will and the slower and safer method is (in the vast majority of cases) the more rapid. Premature unfoldment involves much loss of time, and carries with it often the seeds of prolonged trouble.

Over-stimulation of the brain cells is necessarily one of the results of the merging, by an act of will, of the fires which circulate in the human body. Such stimulation can produce insanity and the breaking down of the cellular structure of the brain, and through the over-activity of the cell life can also induce that internal friction between them which will eventuate in brain tumors and abscesses. This cannot be too strongly reiterated.

The underlying objective in all laya yoga work (or [591] work with the centers) is based upon the fact that the energy of the cells which compose the body or the matter aspect (called in The Secret Doctrine, and in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, "fire by friction") must be blended with the fire of consciousness. This latter is the energy, present in matter yet different from the fire of matter itself, which underlies the entire nervous system and because it so underlies it produces sensitivity and awareness. It is the cause of response to contact and confers the ability to register and record impression, as you well know. This fire is technically called "solar fire", and when it blends with the fire of matter and with the "electric fire" of the highest divine aspect, then man's being comes into its fullest manifestation and the great work is completed. But it is a most dangerous undertaking, when induced before the mechanism is ready to deal with it.