Today we are going to discuss the fundamental aspects of gnostic psychology in relation to the study of ourselves, because in the gnostic doctrine, we seek to understand who divinity is within our psychological interior. We seek to really grasp from experience what religions have taught symbolically. We do not look to divinity as some anthropomorphic figure, an old man in clouds. Instead, we refer to the very root cognizance of perceiving reality, from the physical level as well as a spiritual level, on a more subtle plane of experience. We are going to explain precisely what it means to have gnosis.
 
The word γνώση gnosis is Greek, meaning “knowledge.” But people think that term denotes intellectual scholasticism, something to be studied and debated. Instead, it pertains to the experience of divinity, the experience of reality. It was never meant to be limited to a book, to a theory, to a school of philosophical thought. Instead, it pertains to our direct knowledge, our direct experience of the divine inside of us, no matter what name attributed to that force, in accordance with religion.
 
Now specifically, in order to really know divinity, we need to know ourselves. There is a traditional statement given by the mystics of Islam, who taught that “He who knows himself, knows his Lord.” This is attributed to the Muslim Prophet Muhammed, who knew and taught gnosis, just as Moses, Buddha, Jesus embody the fullest expression of the divine truths within them.
 
Specifically, in order to understand divinity, we need to know who we are, and in this way, we study psychology. People normally attribute psychology to the study of mind, the intellect. But we are going to explain how psychology—really, etymologically—we break it down as psyche and logos. ψυχή Psyche means “soul” or “consciousness” and λόγος logos is the divine, or it literally translates from the Greek, “the Word.”
 
As the Bible teaches us, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). It is a force, a vibration, an energy, not merely limited to physical matter, but specifically permeates all of nature and governs all the laws of gravitation, cohesion, magnetism, electricity. But on a spiritual level, we find precisely how this energy that we call Christ, in gnostic terms, pertains to the root energy of perception itself.
 
So logos is precisely that force inside of us, that divine being within our heart, which we seek to access through many disciplines, such as meditation, such as prayer. We are not solely focused on the theory. We are going to explain theory today, but I invite you to really absorb and listen to what it means to experience these concepts. So we are going to talk about the structure of our psychology, as taught in Gnosticism, but also it is very well elaborated within the Judeo-Christian Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old and the New Testaments are, as we are going to elaborate, demonstrate for us symbols, spiritual and psychological archetypes, principles, that pertain to our development as a soul.

In this way we are going to talk very extensively about kabbalah, which is the mystical science of Judaism, in order to elaborate and explain very lofty concepts. You see in this image that we have a buddha, Buddha Gautama Shakyamuni. Of course, in gnosis we teach that all religions are one, whether we are Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc. This image of the Buddha has one hand up and one hand down, and this is pertaining to the need to study both the superior worlds, the superior aspects of divinity and nature, and our physical, psychological, terrestrial nature itself. The word “Buddha” means awakened one, to awaken. We are going to elaborate on what it means to awaken itself and the need to awaken spiritually.
 
The word budh, from the word Buddha, translates as “cognizance,” “to be aware.” Therefore, a real Buddhist is one who is aware of his or her genuine spiritual nature. We are going to talk about divinity, and we are going to talk about the Essence, which is our soul itself. We are also going to talk about the obstacles that prevent us from knowing our soul and our divinity. Also, we are going to talk about the personality, which keeps us imprisoned in a subjective form of thinking, of psychology.

​We have this image in the next slide, the Andromeda Galaxy and a couple of Hebrew quotes from the book of Genesis, of which we are going to elaborate in depth. You also see a quote from the modern gnostic tradition. His name is Samael Aun Weor. He teaches that:

​To elaborate on the nature of our soul, we are going to talk about where our soul comes from. What is it that we call consciousness? This is from the real heart of religion, so we are explaining it in the Hebrew way. You find this in Buddhism, Islam, Christianity. But we are going to explain it particularly in the Hebraic way, the kabbalistic way, the mystical science of Judaism, due to its relevance to our culture in America.
 
We see that we must elaborate that the Bible is symbolic. Kabbalah is science of numbers, but is also associated with the science of symbols and to our psychology. We point out the nature of divinity particularly by showing the galaxy, which is interesting, particularly because the soul emanates from divinity, and divinity we call Christ. It is that energy that governs every cosmos, every universe, every galaxy. We say that divinity is what the gnostics call Christ or Chrestos. It is a fire, a force, which was particularized in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. But really any master, a genuine initiate such as Buddha or Moses, had incarnated that light, just in different names. This light or energy is what empowers any atom, any galaxy. It governs all of creation and really is a force that we need to learn how to internalize.
 
We say that light is consciousness, that the light (physical light) is a form of perception. We say that light, in an allegorical sense, relates to consciousness, the soul. What is interesting is that even in quantum mechanics, the study of subatomic particles, that light particles, even physical light particles, have intelligence, make choices and decisions.
 
There was an experiment in which a wall with two entrances were opened. On the left, or one side, there was a lead plate, and on the other, there was no plate. They would shoot particles at this wall towards these two holes in which light particles should pass through. When the particles hit the lead plate, they were blocked and stopped. But the fact that afterward all the light particles immediate chose to go around that plate, after having encountered that element, demonstrates that light has intelligence, and demonstrates teachings that were given in Buddhism 2,500 years ago: that to be awakened spiritually, to have the development of the soul, is to experience light as a divine principle. Also, physical light is the embodiment of Christ, which is why in many traditions we find, such as in Platonism (the doctrine of Plato) how the highest good is represented by the Sun.
 
Jesus of Nazareth, who embodied that divine Christic force itself, said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). The Christ taught through Jesus. Our soul really emanates from that, from that divine force, which in Hebrew we call יחודה Yehidah. This is a Hebrew term that means “unity.” We see that in the universe or any cosmos, from a galaxy or an infinite (which is a collection of billions of galaxies) we have a form of unity in space. The universe is not governed by chaos, but by divine forces and intelligences.
 
We see specifically that all the conglomerations of galaxies, stars within the infinite, is a form of unity, is a cosmos. κόσμος Cosmos means “unity.” So, in the macrocosmos (the greater universe) we see reflected what needs to be developed inside, spiritually, because just as divinity governs all the stars of any universe, we too need to be able to reflect that spiritually.
 
What is interesting is that, as the Sufis taught: “He who knows himself knows his Lord.” He knows that energy: Christ, Allah, the Buddha, which permeates all of space. We must really question and examine ourselves to really see what is it that we know about divinity, because if we sit to close our eyes when we practice in meditation, we observe, psychologically inward, we see that we in turn do not see divinity particularly with our spiritual sight. Usually, we see darkness in our mind. This reflects for us, if we really are honest and confront this within ourselves, whether we know divinity directly. The truth is that we come to understand that if we are seeking and studying spirituality, it is because we want to know divinity. It is because we do not know what that energy or force is.
 
The truth is that if we want to know what divinity is, we have to know what our soul is. Where does it come from? It is from experience. Light is consciousness. It is perception, which in us is in potential. It needs to be developed. For as Jesus taught, “With patience possess ye your souls” (Luke 21:19). He did not say that we have soul. He says that we need to develop soul. The Bible and the scriptures often teach the need to awaken that development and potential in us, which is demonstrated in the very first lines of the Hebraic Bible. We find here:

​The word for God is אלהים Elohim, divinity. The phrase “Let there be light,” the word “light” in Hebrew is אֹור Aur, which is a term that we are going to look at and examine in relation to the study of psychology.
 
What is this light inside that we want to develop? The words “Let there be” is יְהִי Yehi, coming from Hebrew word יחודה Yehidah, which means “unity.” So the fact that God says, “Let there be light,” the Bible indicates that this light that we need to develop is inside, psychologically. While it pertains to the birth of any universe—really, more importantly—the Bible pertains to how we develop our soul. How do we create that perception of God inside? So אלהים Elohim or God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.יְהִי אֹור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור Yehi Ha-Aur Va-Yehi-Aur. The word יְהִי Yehi means “Let there be,” “Let there become,” “Let there develop.”
 
What is interesting is that this is the very opening of the Jewish religion but also the foundation of Christianity. It says that this darkness is our mind and that we need to develop the soul, the light inside. It is one of many scriptures that emphasizes that we need develop that light, to give us that peace and serenity that we typically long for in our religion, education and families, but which can only really come from God itself and herself: that force within us.
 
We find the following teaching by Jesus again. יהשוה Yeshua (in Hebrew, which relates to יחודה Yehidah, the unity of the light that expressed through Jesus) said:

So again, this is talking about how the nature of light is spiritual perception, to see divinity, to know divinity as a form or presence, as a form of experience inside of us. If we are egotistical, meaning that if we are attached to anger or negative emotions like fear, those elements obscure the light inside of us and prevent us from experiencing that purity inside. He who develops that spiritual sight, as Jesus taught, knows happiness, peace, and harmony in the genuine experience of divinity.
 
Light is consciousness, as we demonstrated through the example of quantum mechanics. We also find another quote that is very telling and interesting. On the right we see a reference to the 14th verse of Genesis, which says:

​People literally interpret it as the creation of stars in heaven being the physical heavens, but we need to create these lights inside as a type of spiritual experience, a type of understanding of what divinity is, inside. The word for “lights” is מארת me’orot, which has the word אֹור Aur in it, which means “light.” If this seems complicated, challenging, or difficult, then we are going to explain how it relates to our practical experience and is very scientific or simple.
 
We use these languages to really get at the heart of the meaning of these teachings, particularly because they are very profound. English is not the perfect medium for expressing these concepts or scriptures.
 
Our soul emanates from that energy called Christ, which is that energy that governs all of creation. Christ emanates from Himself. The soul emanates particularly from the galaxy or the forces that govern on a spiritual level this entire unity, this cosmos in itself. Samael Aun Weor explains further:

​I am going to elaborate on the law of seven, known as the musical scale. We find in music that there are seven notes in nature. Likewise, in the constitution of any universe, we find seven forms of cosmoses, types of units that correlate with the organizational patterns of the number seven.

We have the infinite as a form of cosmos containing billions of galaxies, which is governed by that energy Christ. Christ governs that cosmos. Likewise, we have the individual galaxy relating to the note La. We find that the musical note “Si,” as “Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si” in music, is the infinite, billions of galaxies. The galaxy itself is governed by the note La.
 
Sol, even in Spanish, means “Sun.” It pertains to the solar system, and likewise, the note Fa pertains to our planet itself. Mi is our physical body, a form of a cosmos. So, we find different structures or levels of creation which divinity manages and from which our soul finally emanates. We have the note Do, which is the source of that light יחודה Yehidah. It is called Christ, which creates and governs any infinite. There are billions of galaxies under its domain. Christ governs any infinite. Likewise, we find a galaxy, with the note La. 

​The note Mi relates to our body, so we even when we say, “me,” we typically refer to ourselves, which we mistakenly believe is our body. But we have to understand the soul is something that animates the body. It gives it life. This is something we want to know directly and intimately.

​We see in the next graphic an image of a child, which is a beautiful depiction of the soul or the Essence.
 
When a child is born, usually between the ages of 1 and 7, that child exudes great beauty, great presence. When one holds or looks at a child, one feels innocence, longing, or happiness, because that child emanates a force which is very pure. The soul or Essence is manifest within a child between the ages between 0 and 7. Sometimes it is even younger now, such as around 4, since some children mature faster. We are going to explain the significance of that.
 
We see that this child is like a cherub, is innocent. As the Christian Gospels teach us, we must become as innocent as children to enter the kingdom of heaven, as Jesus taught. What does it mean to be innocent? It does not mean to be ignorant, or to not be able to spell, or to lack knowledge of an intellectual. It means to have a type of being that is very pure: kindness, love, and compassion that are manifest in a child very early.
 
We must learn to develop this soul. Really our Essence is a child. It is in an embryonic state. It needs to be developed. Between the ages 0 and 7 that soul is manifest, and later as the child begins to mature and acculturate to the physical world, it loses that innocence and purity, and begins to manifest defects, errors, vices like anger, pride, vanity, which we are going to explain in depth.
 
We put this image of a child as a cherub precisely in relation to the previous graphic, which we showed the galaxy and stars. Typically in religious paintings, we see the cherubim, the angels, those masters who are purified and manifest that light of God called Christ, that energy. Truly, we must learn to be innocent in mind, heart, pure—to not have anger, violence, hatred, or resentment in our core, but really to change those elements. This is precisely how we develop our soul itself. 

​To give a deeper understanding of divinity in relation to the soul or the nature of  יחודה Yehidah, that unity of God, I can refer you to the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. If you are familiar with hearing the Ninth Symphony, the choral movement, classical music has many profound teachings for us. We find that beautiful theme resonating throughout that piece, in the fourth movement, where the German says:

​If you are familiar with that piece, you see that theme running throughout the rest of the fourth movement and is a choral piece, so there are many voices that are in that one harmony. This is a representation of Christ that Beethoven was demonstrating his music. Specifically, because if you think about it analytically, the chorus is one harmony. It is one unity, but composed of many voices, many singers. Each singer is an angel, a being that has perfected him or herself and is united with that light. That great theme, that unity within the cosmos— from which all the voices are one beauty and harmony—is called Christ.
 
There is a famous line in that symphony which ties into this graphic. Specifically, they say, “And the cherub stands before God.” If you are not familiar with the piece of music, I would have to play parts of it for you, but there is a very famous line, “And the cherub stands before God.” It is a very titanic moment in which the chorus emphasizes the word “Gott” in German.
 
What is that cherub? It is the soul that has been purified and is now uniting with that unity, that march, that voice, which is one but many, many voices but one deity. We could compare it to the light of the Sun. Each being in the universe is a ray of light that unites with the Sun, and any Sun is an expression of Christ, as we demonstrated. So we must learn become like little children, like a cherub. As we saw in this very famous Gnostic text, the Gospel of Thomas, in which Yeshua (Jesus, or יחודה Yehidah, the unity of the light of Christ) says: 

​So what does this mean? Scriptures are symbolic. We find that a person who is old in days does not mean physical age, but refers to the state of ignorance, to not have experienced the youth and beauty of divinity inside. But also, we find a child at seven days old, going back to the nature of the seven scales of any cosmos, seven notes. The soul in its journey, to gradually returns inward and upward to divinity, goes through the musical scale of different levels of dimensionality, which we call kabbalah, the Tree of Life. So the seven notes have to be lived inside of us. An old person must ask a child who is seven days old about the place of life, and the person will spiritually live. It means to live spiritually.
 
What is a child? It is really a being that fully emanates that light of divinity inside. And again, this is not physical light, but spiritual light, perception, the ability to see through any difficult problem and to really navigate the existence that we live in with integrity. We emphasize as Beethoven taught, “And the cherub stands before God.” We find that if we wish to be before divinity, then we need to change psychologically, to become innocent and purified, which requires a type of discipline on our part.
 
We see here on the bottom right that we put a reference to the Hebrew word תִפאֶרֶת Tiphereth. Tiphereth means “beauty.” תִפאֶרֶת Tiphereth is the Hebrew name for the soul. Notice that the word תִפאֶרֶת Tiphereth in Hebrew contains within it the word אֹור Aur, Tiph-Aur-Eth. Tiphereth can mean “splendor, beauty, radiance,” and the Hebrew word for “light” is אֹור Aur. So as God said:

​It is referring to the soul that is created seemingly out of the darkness of our current existence, of our daily problems, of our suffering. So that light inside we need to develop, within our consciousness, within ourselves. Really, as I mentioned to you, it is between the ages of 0 and 7, when a child exudes that light. Or if you look at a flower and really examine its beauty, such as if you go to a botanic garden or any world-class garden, you see really the flowers in their Edenic state exuberate that purity of the light of divinity, that purity that the soul can be developed inside of us. But we need to confront and examine ourselves: what is preventing us from accessing that direct perception of God, divinity?
 
We are going to talk about what we call the “ego, the self,” and really discuss this in detail. So again, as I mentioned, if we examine ourselves and really observe from our experience that we genuinely do not know what this divinity is, and instead when we typically see our perhaps our struggles and emotional conflicts, pain of an emotional type, of a psychological type, fear, anger, different sentiments, then usually we have to understand that really by examining ourselves we will come to understand the obstacles that prevent us from knowing the light of divinity.

​We talk about the ego. Ego in Latin means “I,” “myself,” and so we ask ourselves this question: “Who am I in this moment?” This is an interesting question because usually we say that we know ourselves.
 
When someone asks us, “Who are we?” we say, “I am... this is my name, this is my race, my gender, my culture; this is my education; this is where I grew up; this is who I am as a person; this is the type of sentiments or experiences that I have on a daily basis.” But speaking from a religious standpoint, the real self and true human being inside is not our name. It is not our language. It is not our culture. As I said, it is that energy that emanates within all the cosmos. The divine force that is a type of happiness is really beyond expression. Instead, if we find, if we learn to observe ourselves and see what is occurring in our psychological states on a given moment, we find typically we are stressed with work or problems, challenges, ordeals. If someone insults us, we feel perhaps resentment, followed by a sense of indignation. If we are criticized, we criticize back. If we are accused, we defend ourselves.
 
We find that in life we are constantly going through a series of reactions and states that are fluctuating. In one moment, we could be happy and in another we can be sad. Usually, if we are honest, we see that usually that the on the smallest basis, a single moment can destroy a person and change a person’s life entirely. We want to really be honest and examine the fact that we are in a very fragile state. We have to understand why. If someone asks us, if we knock on the door and says, “Who is there?” We say, “It is me.” We have to really understand who this me is that we are talking about. Who is this “myself?” because if we do not know ourselves we will not know divinity. This religious maxim teaches us if we do not know divinity, it means that we have not fully comprehended ourselves in our totality.
 
This is why study the nature of ego, the “self.” 

We show this graphic. This is from a medieval painter by the name of Hieronymus Bosch. He depicted a very disturbing landscape with fires, chaos, and a town with a small shrine, and the figure Saint Anthony who was a holy person, a saint, trying to purify his mind.
 
You see that his mind is represented in this graphic. We see all these strange figures who are deformed or animalistic, of an inhuman type. The skill it took to really depict this type of subjective hidden psychology is really remarkable. We say that Hieronymus Bosch knew this teaching very well. He depicted in art a psychological reality that is typical for most of us. So this landscape is precisely our psychological landscape. In order to really know divinity, we have to first know what in us prevents us from seeing divinity. It is logical that if we do not know divinity that there must be some obstacle.
 
There must be something that we must do in order to really know the light of God (יחודה Yehidah), which we find in this image in the shrine. We see the image of Christ crucified in a very small temple. What is interesting about this is that this painter is describing how in the very deep recesses of our Being, of our consciousness, we have Christ inside, our own divinity, which is what we seek and pray to and try to cultivate and know. But outside of this we have our states of anger, desire, affliction, suffering, pain, confusion, which are represented as a multiplicity.
 
Usually, we think in a very common manner in this society and world that we are one self. We attribute all our experiences to oneself, one individual. But in gnostic psychology and the study of the mind, as in Buddhism and in different religions, these traditions teach us that the mind is really multiple. This of course is a very disturbing factor to confront in oneself, particularly because of this idea that we are somehow “one,” that we are individual. But if we examine and simply observe ourselves, we can see our common contradictions that we experience on a daily basis.
 
In one moment, we have the desire to exercise, and then in one moment we want to eat something. In the next, we want to read a book, followed by the impulse to watch television or say something funny to a friend. Or if someone criticizes us, we may turn to anger. These are all multiple states that are constantly changing within our psychological experience. What is important to understand is that these states do not originate from one integral self. But logically each state in itself, which is completely different from the next, is a different type of self.
 
There is a multiplicity. Therefore, we call each self an ego, a defect, a wrong way of thinking, a wrong way of feeling, a wrong way of acting, that religions teach us that we created. When religions talk about the devil, we think of a man in a red suit with horns and pitchfork, somehow manipulating this humanity and causing people to suffer. But we say that, really, anger is an ego, satanic, a defect, destructive. Any psychological state which impels us to speak harm of another person or to be sarcastic or to be violent with words, to be resentful, we denominate in Gnostic terms as satanic, demonic, destructive. So the devil is inside, but God is also inside, and this image beautifully represents that.

You see Saint Anthony praying here, who realized in himself that he has all these afflicting desires inside of himself, which he is trying to destroy and remove. Therefore, he wore sackcloth and was doing these penances which symbolize the need to change psychologically.
 
It does not mean that we discover this fact in ourselves that we put on sackcloth or perform austerities of that type. It is a symbol of how we need to understand how we created this landscape that we live in. When we look at life and our problems, we have to understand that these originate from the mind, for as Buddhism teaches us, “Mind proceeds phenomenon. We become what we think.”
 
Therefore, in a given moment, we feel anger and react with anger. In a moment we feel a sense of joy, to a degree, as result of certain causes and conditions outside. We find that if we are observant of ourselves, we see that life is constantly entering our mind with impressions. We are reacting all the time.
 
But in order to know this we have to observe this fact. We talk about in these studies self-observation, the need to observe who we are in a given instant, who we are in a given moment.
 
We find that the ego, as a symbolic term, can mean all our habits, defects, vices, things that occur in a psychological level that are usually very submerged and we do not see unless we learn to observe with the light of consciousness. We have to learn how to see inside of ourselves, who we are in a given moment. This is self-observation. This is how we strengthen our soul, by learning how to look inside psychologically, and to develop this sense that we are not necessarily our thoughts that are constantly churning. We are not necessarily the negative emotional states from time to time. Neither are we the sensations in the body. These things are constantly changing. They are always fluctuating. So where is the permanence in that? Why be attached to this sense of identity that is contingent upon external factors?

God is not dependent on other things, but is the source of all life, as represented in this image. The symbol of Christ represents that energy. That force inside is at the very heart of our universe, but we have forgotten that. Instead, what we have are egos and defects. Really, an ego is just a mistransformation of forces in our psyche. In a given moment, we identify with a certain circumstance. We create certain habits or conditions that trap that light inside. The book of Genesis says how light comes from darkness, “And God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light’” (Genesis 1:3). We find that darkness is really our egotistical mind. Likewise, every ego is in symbolic terms like a bottle that traps light. Each ego in itself conditions our perception. It is like a shell.

If you are familiar with the story of Genie of Aladdin’s lamp, that lamp is an ego, a shell that traps our awareness of divinity. We find that if we break the shell, then you free the light. This is the meaning of “Let there be light! And there was light.” That darkness is precisely that landscape. Samael Aun Weor speaks of this psychological landscape in his book The Great Rebellion, how we need to really observe, to be aware of ourselves in this moment and see what states in us are egotistical, perhaps what those insights or hunches are that we may get, that longing in heart that inspires us to study religion or spirituality. That in itself, in our heart, is that figure of Christ in the heart temple, to which this aspirant of religion is praying to.
 
If you are familiar with the Tarot Cards, which are a form of Egyptian mysticism, it teaches a following maxim which is very profound in relation to this image, “You shall establish an altar within thy heart, but do not make an altar of thy heart.” It means that within us we need to worship divinity. We have to learn to observe ourselves and be aware of what divinity is in us from experience. This is what we in observe ourselves, to exercise that new type of perception about who we are and not to identify with anger or a moment of feeling superior to another person or ambitious, but to see these things in a new light.
 
Each ego, again, is a defect that traps light. It traps perception inside of us. We find that we need to free the light from inside. We say in Gnostic studies that unfortunately 97% of our consciousness is subconscious. It is trapped in ego. The ego itself is subconsciousness, which is a very famous teaching given by Freud in modern psychology. He even knew, and many psychologists know now and accept the fact that we have a subconsciousness. But the extent to how much we are subconscious is something that we really examine profoundly within modern psychology. 3% of our soul is not conditioned yet. We need to learn how to activate that consciousness that is free, but asleep.
 
The Bible teaches us the need to awaken to our genuine divine nature inside, which can give us the happiness that we seek. Instead, we need to learn to be like Jesus, which we are going to see in the next image. I just want to emphasize a quote to you about the nature of the ego from Samael Aun Weor who states in his book Revolutionary Psychology:

​What perhaps do we wish to change in ourselves? We need to really identify our state. The term that Samael Aun Weor gives for this humanity is “intellectual animals.” The word anima means “soul.” We are intellectual souls, and as the Bible teaches us, we are that darkness that God needs to mold and shape into light. Our soul needs to cease being so dependent on intellect, thinking it is our genuine identity—our thoughts, our feelings—but we need to observe ourselves, to see from a higher perspective that we are not necessarily the mind. We are not necessarily the heart. We are not sensations. We are something more profound: a state and presence which can radically change our life. We have to really examine our own changes in our psychology on a moment-to-moment basis. As Samael Aun Weor states:

So again, we are changing constantly: different thought, different feelings, different preoccupation, memories, beliefs. In one moment, we may believe in a political party and in the next, we shift. We have many contradictions which occur moment by moment, day by day. The fact that we do have these contradictions emphasizes the multiplicity of factors inside of ourselves, defects.

​The Bible talks about the nature of the ego and its multiplicity. This is a very famous depiction of Jesus driving out demons. I mentioned to you the ego itself is demonic because it is a self-willed creation: anger, pride, vanity, the seven deadly sins that Christianity talks about. These are inside of us.
 
We see in this image Jesus driving out and exorcising two men and removing these demons that were possessing them. This is a very powerful symbol of how our Inner Christ, the light of our inner divinity inside, needs to expel the impurities that are inside of ourselves. As Samael Aun Weor stated, the different fluctuating states in our psyche constitute disorder. Whereas that divinity inside can give us genuine peace, where we are really in a state absent from fear, pain, and suffering. No matter what happens outside of ourselves, we are filled joy and acceptance and love for humanity.
 
Instead, we have the opposite, which are our defects, these demons inside. The word “Satan” come the Hebrew שטן Shaitan, meaning the “adversary." Who are these demons and adversaries fighting? Divinity in ourselves. God needs to create order inside, “Let there be light. And there was light (from the darkness).” In order to do that, we need to remove what is impure in us, which obstructs us from knowing God. Of course, this requires a very strong and terrible confrontation, which is emphasized by this image of Jesus expelling demons from the man.
 
People in Christianity think that this refers literally to the physical Jesus, and that there were two men who were possessed. He perhaps threw some holy water on them and made a blessing, and that these demons literally left and entered the bodies of pigs. These people do not understand this is a symbol of something psychological, that any aspirant of religion needs to experience and go through.
 
We find this quote from Matthew 8:28:

What are these tombs these men come out? This is a very dark symbol and something that we have to reflect on. While we have many blessings in our life, so long as we are without the real cognizance and communication with our divinity, we find that we in turn, are in a sense, living in a tomb, that death-like and asleep-like state—unconscious.
 
Usually, if we go through our day and try to remember certain moments, perhaps during lunch on in the morning, if we are honest, we have typically had many gaps in our memory. Not necessarily everything that we did in a certain day, but at the same time we were really not aware of what we were thinking in a given moment, or feeling, or what type of action we took. The fact that we cannot remember all these things emphasizes that we are not fully cognizant. We are not fully awakened, because a person who is spiritually awake is a genuine buddha, who has developed that light inside and is aware of everything, moment by moment, never forgets anything and is perfectly aware of his or her psychological state. This is what the tomb represents, a type of sleep, death. This is a form of spiritual death.
 
Religion and the Bible teaches us allegorically how we need to awaken from the tomb, just like how Jesus resurrects from the dead inside of the soul. That light needs to be developed inside. This precisely occurs after driving out the demons from these men, or egos, how the soul is purified by that divine light inside of us. 

​...because the ego, our anger, does not believe in divinity. In a moment we may feel that we want to act kindly toward another person, but meanwhile they provoke our wrath. That sense of wrath does not want to believe in that moment to listen, to be cooperative. Instead, it wants to present one’s point of view. The ego is like that.
 
We try to not behave in harmful ways, such as speaking with anger or resentment. We need to listen to divinity inside. So this is what the ego says, “What have we to do with thee?” Our defects have nothing to do with God, who is purity, and the mind that we have is impure and dark.

​This is a symbol of how, in the process of purifying the mind, that light expels those defects. The fact that they go into the belly of pigs is because they have traditionally been considered in Judaism and Islam as unclean animals, which why Jews keep Kosher and Muslims keep Halal, referring to the fact that consuming those types of animals has a lot of destructive and devolving energies, forces that are very counterproductive to developing purity. We even know that swine carry a lot of larvae and other elements even on a physical level, let alone on a subtle energetic level. So we avoid pork. This is why the Jews avoided eating pork. The same with Muslims. The fact that these swine accepted these sick psychological elements of the ego and the fact that these swine entered over a cliff down into an abyss and perished in the waters is a symbol of what religions call “hell,” infernal dimensions, or ways of being.
 
Hell is a place, but not as people picture it, because on a psychological level, it refers to when the soul is being purified. Those defects are being rejected and destroyed, while the soul is being freed and liberated. So these men who are possessed are no longer compelled by those elements. This is something that occurs inside, not outside, that these egos literally go into the bodies of physical pigs and that then they went over a cliff. The Bible is a symbolic language, as we have been explaining.
 
The ego a type of demon, because really, when we feel negativity, it is demonic. It is not conducive for the well-being of others. Christ needs to expel and eliminate that, so that in place of anger there is love. The light and Essence that is liberated is purity and joy for the other person, even if they are mistaken or harmful. Instead, we just irradiate happiness toward that person.

​Lastly, we need to talk about another factor in our psychology that we call personality. So we have been talking a lot about the nature of the soul, the nature of the ego and egotistical elements and defects, but we also have what is called the personality.
 
As I mentioned to you, the child that is between the ages of 0 and 7 really is innocent until finally, through education, growth, experience with life, they develop what is called a personality.
 
A personality is particular to your culture. Specifically, you find that the personae mean “mask.” It is a way of relating to world. The personality is a necessary element we need to acquire in order to really subsist in this country and world. But the personality is an interface we could say. It is a form of energy and a way of relating to others, which is necessary. We need to have an education, to speak a language, to learn the ways of the world and subsist. As soon as the personality is developed within a child between the ages of 4 and 7, we could say, then that child begins to assimilate what we call the ego.
 
A child in its first years of life is innocent. It does not have ego: no anger, no violence, no hatred, no lust, no pride. It is a pure soul. But gradually as they build up this interface: language, customs, culture particular to a given time, then those psychological elements called “ego,” which are created in previous existences, begin to assimilate into the body and soul.
 
In this teaching we talk about the doctrine of reincarnation. We have lectures and materials about that, something that we can become personally cognizant of, to verify. But a child usually who is very young, typically, will cry at night, seemingly for no reason. The parents think, “Oh, the child is lacking food or wants to be with their parents.” Sometimes these children, when they are in their crib, will see clairvoyantly, being a very awake soul, all these shadows and shapes of their ego trying to enter that. Those elements belong to the child that that person created in another lifetime but cannot assimilate until having that personality. When the child starts to develop that mask around the age of 7, then the ego fully enters, and the child is no longer innocent but develops irritation and can sometimes become very difficult if one is a parent.
 
Personally, I remember being very young. I have the memory of being in a crib and seeing these shadows trying to enter around my crib, and I was terrified. So I cried to my mother. I remember this experience being very young. But then of course later, of course, developing a personality, those elements entered, and the individual becomes what one is. Children see this at very young age. Children are very perceptive. Usually, parents and adult think that they are ignorant. But really, children are more aware than their parents are. Many times, children can remember past lives. In some cases, this os documented in India, where that culture is more accepting of this type of teaching. Likewise, children who are very young do not exhibit problems or defects, but when they get older and develop a personality those defects enter. The child is no longer so innocent, but as parents may say “demonic” in some cases.

​What is the personality? Really, the personality is a mask and in relation with three things. We call them genotype, phenotype, and paratype.
 
Genotype relates to genes, one’s inheritance that we receive in our DNA. This is one factor that helps develop our personality. In genes is a vehicle of karma. People throw this term around, but it means “cause and effect” literally. Or if someone does a bad action, then one will receive bad karma, either in this life or in others, as taught in Buddhism or Hinduism. Really, our actions from our life go to shape our next life in the cycle of change and transience. We find that genes are really the physical manifestation of who we are on a biological level. Our biology shapes many aspects of our culture, such as the different psychologies between men and women, or certain diseases that people incur as a result of having caused harm in other lives. These things can shape one’s personality, how one relates to the world.
 
We also have paratype, which relates to circumstances. We know that certain circumstances in life can really change how one interacts with others, of a traumatic and psychological nature.
 
Likewise, we have phenotype, which is our education, where we go to school, certain language. We learn how to communicate, how to relate to others.
 
These things are all necessary. We need these things, but the soul needs to be the one that is working through the personality, not the ego, because as soon as our defects and egotistical elements manifest through the personality, it really causes problems. We look at our society today and can see that this is manifest. Our society is really bent on a type of media that is engrossed in sensuality and violence, of destruction. People value anger and resentment, and sarcasm over kindness. This is a result of people using their knowledge for egotistical means.

Instead, we need to use the soul as a solar mask of the personality. In the Greek theater you find that they would present many dramas as a spiritual type: many teachings through theater, of a spiritual nature, by wearing masks to emphasize the nature that we are teaching through our personality.
 
But here we have many masks, and it prevents us from knowing our divinity, because many people are indoctrinated by their religion, culture, even food type, pertaining to culture. Some people are very attached to their tongue and, instead, do not know how to appreciate others from different perspectives. So really this personality of ours can be an obstacle.
 
As we said, the personality is a form of energy. People who really develop strong personalities, when they die, their personality still hangs around. So, we emphasize in this teaching that when a person dies physically, there are three things that go to the grave: you have the physical body, the personality specifically, and people's vital forces and energies. These things deteriorate. The soul and ego leave, perhaps to enter a new body, life, existence, or not. It depends on the moral qualifications of the soul, or the qualifications of that person in a given light, which we discuss in other lectures.
 
People who are very perceptive and say that they have seen ghosts or spectral images over graveyards are seeing the personality of those people who are dead. The soul and Essence have left that body, and instead what they are seeing are those people who really developed very strong personality. They invested so much energy into the personality itself and have in turn left what are known as specters and ghosts. These personalities are so strong that in haunted houses or places cups and physical objects would move. This is documented. Many people have experienced this.
 
I particularly remember one story of an insane asylum that was shut down many years ago because it was haunted and those people who are mentally sick, their personality was so strong that they were moving things physically. People say, “Oh! This is the soul, the people who are moving these objects.” But we say that the soul is Essence, and the ego and these things leave. But the personality is so strong that sometimes it really lingers over objects, and it deteriorates like a form of psychic matter.
 
Samael Aun Weor state in The Perfect Matrimony:

​We say, “the personality.” Why? Because in a given time, we develop a certain personality to subsist in this society that we live in. Now, personalities are necessary. Medieval Europe perhaps, during the Dark Ages, or a Roman soldier in ancient Rome—would have a certain personality that would not fit our current personality. They make movies about this that are humorous. It shows that a personality is in its time—a time, language, way of being, of interacting with others or interactions with others. That is why we develop personalities with each life, in which we have existence. So it’s time. Therefore, it has its birth and its death.
The soul and the ego go elsewhere. 

​We were talking a lot about the Christian Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures, and we are going to emphasize some more teachings about the Essence, ego, and personality, in relation to the book of Genesis.
 
I do not know how familiar some of you are with the Old Testament, but we find the famous story of Cain and Abel. In the Bible, Cain and Abel were two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain was jealous of Abel, and Cain slew Abel. Cain represents the ego, in gnostic terms. Abel is the soul, the Essence. So we find in the Old Testament, after the expulsion from Eden, the symbolic human being has lost his or her innocence, has lost connection with divinity. Instead, we are cast out of Paradise for disobeying the divine law. 

​What does this mean that God favors Abel’s offerings? Cain is a tiller of the ground, and what else is a tiller of the ground except the ego? The egotistical mind is governed by materialism, obsession with physical things. It is a type of pre-occupation with material life devoid of spirituality. Constantly in life, we are tilling the ground, sinking—through economics means, subsisting, working, living in life, perhaps indulging in television or other activities that are related to this world. On the other hand, we have Abel, הֶבֶל Habel, who is the soul that makes offerings to God. The symbol is that he offers sheep unto the Divine.
 
The symbol of sheep in the Bible is very pertinent throughout the Old and New Testaments. Jesus is the Good Shepherd: we could say a symbol of a person who is becoming moral, pure, is developing the soul inside. The word in Hebrew for lamb צֹאן Tson: צ Tzadi, א Aleph, נ Nun. Or you could say צדי Tzaddi, and that letter also relates to צִיוֹן Zion, the Holy City of the Prophets, which is a kingdom. In the Bible it represents the kingdom of heaven, which is governed by those that are fully purified. So a צֹאן Tson (sheep), one that follows the path of צִיוֹן Zion, is someone that is becoming righteous, צַדִיק Tzaddik in Hebrew. So the Being, our divinity, Christ inside, favors the offerings of the soul, never the mind, never the ego.
 
We find in this story that Cain kills Abel. This is the state of humanity. Anytime that we are identified with negative elements, negative emotional states—fear, worry, pre-occupation, discouragement, despair—these in themselves are killing our soul. The Bible is not some history of the past. It is written and referring to something now.
 
Cain takes a club and kills his brother because he is jealous. His countenance fell because he did not receive favor from divinity. This is the mind, the ego, that does its own will and does his own work, not the work of the soul.
 
We included a very famous quote from Ecclesiastes, the very second verse, where it says, literally:

​What is interesting is that in Hebrew it repeats:
 
הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים Habel Habelim… הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים Habel Habelim.
 
The word הֲבֵל Habel means vanity. So vanity of vanities, all is vanity. This is a very enigmatic teaching. Why is the soul called vanity? Because people look at spirituality in these times and think that it is something vain or superficial. They mock the study of the soul. People are very materialistic, like Cain, who tilled the ground and only thought of money. They in turn look at those who seek spirituality with disdain. “This is vanity. This is pointless. This is vain. There is no such thing.” Those that practice seek to know divinity directly. So this is why the soul is named הֲבֵל Habel. It says, הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים Habel Habelim: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
 
Also because, within us, our soul is dead. It needs to be resuscitated. It is in darkness and needs to be awakened through spiritual work, through the light. 

​This is the Divinity speaking to the mind. If you do well, you will receive good things, if you do good things for humanity, not being pre-occupied with self-will, which is ego, defects, subjective senses of self.

​This is everyone today with their egotistical sense of mentality, where the genuine sense of camaraderie and communion, a basis of humanity and just one culture, is really absent.
 
We find that people do not really support their brother. Instead, we wage war against others. So that is the mind of Cain of many politicians. They say, “Am I my brother's keeper? Do I need to help others in this way?” That is one interpretation that we could take. 

The Hebrew word for blood is דם Dam, ד Daleth-ם Mem, which hides many meanings and symbols, which are interesting for us to examine. For the word for ground is אֲדָמָֽה Adamah, א Aleph-ד Daleth-מ Mem-ה Hei. It is the same word that you see as אדם Adam, as in Adam and Eve. So why is that? So the word אֲדָמָֽה Adamah, the ground, is a symbol of the mind—a type of hardened, concrete mind that has taken the principles of divinity, the blood of Abel, and absorbed them. Similar to the image we provided of the Genie of Aladdin’s Lamp, we find that the lamp is the ego that traps the soul. So whenever someone identifies with the soul, they kill the soul, and the blood of the soul. Then, really, the soul is absorbed further, is trapped further within the ego itself. This is a Biblical teaching of ego, Essence, and personality.

​We are also going to talk about what the personality is. In the Bible, we have the famous story of the Tower of Babel. This is a very famous tower that was supposedly built by King Nimrod to heaven that was so tall that it offended divinity, Jehovah. Thereafter, supposedlydivinity destroyed that tower and dispersed the people of the tower into different languages and cultures, so that they were totally separated, and they could not understand each other. They could not understand each other and spoke different languages. This is a type of historical significance that is superficial, but here we are talking about the psychological aspect.
 
That tower is really the symbol of the personality. People in these times are building a giant personality, a giant tower, worshipping celebrities or personalities, a type of behavior contingent upon the culture or the time, particularly freed countries. Everyone is building this giant tower, you could say. It is a monument to selfishness of a psychological type. People in these times really worship the personality because we find American Idol, people worshiping the personality of individuals. Everyone wants to become famous, idolized, worshipped. That is a type of personality worship. People develop that part of themselves because they invest so much energy and personality into that. So that is the Tower of Babel.
 
We find here in the book of Genesis:

​So what does it mean to be a mighty hunter? People with a very strong personality are always hunting for more, for that next experience, to acquire more fame, more knowledge, more experience. Therefore they are developing this tower that is offensive to heaven, we could say, because that personality as a mask is preventing us from accessing our deeper spiritual states.

​The last image we have here is of David killing Goliath, a very famous story of how a young boy killed a giant warrior. This is a symbol of how the soul needs to kill the ego, how the soul, the Essence, the 3% of consciousness represented by the child, the young boy, must face the 97% of our consciousness that is trapped. It is a very beautiful symbol of how a boy confronts a giant warrior, and simply with a slingshot, a stone, and faith in God, kills this giant.
 
In this image, we have David conquering Goliath, meaning that this is a master who has conquered all of his defects and is purified. We have to destroy the defect in order to liberate the soul. As represented in the word דוד David, we have three Hebrew letters: ד Daleth, ו Vav, ד Daleth. You read Hebrew from right to left. This is an acrostic. It is a symbol. Acrostics are basically a series of Hebrew letters in a word that represent something else. We can look at the three letters.
 
The first represents דעת Daath, which is another word for Gnosis, spiritual knowledge. דעת Daath in Hebrew is γνῶσις Gnosis in Greek. Tiphereth relates to the sixth letter ו Vav in Kabbalah. It is the letter V. It looks like a sword, literally. The warrior needs to conquer what is impure inside.
 
ו Vav refers to תפארת Tiphereth, and if you add that letter ו Vav in the middle of תפארת Tiphereth, you spell אֹור Aur, תפארת Tiphereth, and ו Vav between A and R in the middle. You have ת Tav, פ Pei, א Aleph, and then add ו Vav with ר Reish, and ת Tav, you have the word אֹור Aur, in the middle. So that light is born in us when we conquer the ego, conquer our own imperfections.
 
The last ד D relates to the last letter יסוד Yesod, which means “Foundation.” We have many books that explain the nature of יסוד Yesod, the work with spiritual energy so as to develop our soul. These are just some Biblical stories that relate and explain this division of our psychology, particularly in relation to that which is pure in us and that which is impure.

​Question: I am not clear between personality and ego. Ego are the seven sins that you have already mentioned, but personality that they develop in life, and some of them, karma. Is that not karma too?
 
Instructor: The personality is shaped by our deeper limits in our psyche, egotistical. It is a good question because the way to understand is to observe signs, habits, of oneself. Personality pertains to an interface that shapes our personalities, culture, the habits that we have, the foods that we eat. These things shape interacting with the world.
 
But the actual desire to act in certain ways, in accordance with the culture or time, is ego. The way to know the difference is to practice self-observation, and to really observe these elements inside. But on a literal level, our culture and education, and our experiences in life, such as the way were raised, or certain traditions we keep, relate to personality.
 
The other distinction and way of observing is by interacting with one culture and pertaining to another. You see very different ways of interacting. For instance, I have had many Latin American friends who I have simply gotten to know and immersed myself in that culture, and completely in their ways of thinking. It is very easy to see, in that circumstance, developments in their personality that they have that are particular to their culture, as opposed to American, or North American specifically. So we do not really know the difference.
 
You could immerse yourself in other cultures and see. Really, there are stark differences in people and ways that people interact with each other. But knowing the desires and how I want to act through that mask, and the way to act, is to observe, as we teach in Revolutionary Psychology specifically.
 
Question: When you “observe,” you mean observe outwardly, right, not the inside self- observation, right?
 
Instructor: We want to do both, because when you observe your internal states, and the external, it has to be simultaneous. That is going to talked about in our next lecture, how when you to be aware spiritually, you begin to see what is in the external world but also what is inside, and to know simultaneously the relationships between them.
 
It is well documented in a good books called The Great Rebellion or Revolutionary Psychology. To be aware is to be aware of everything, and not to have filters in one’s perception, specifically because it also not so much about being outside as it is inside. Of course, in the beginning this is challenging because usually we see that our intention throughout the day is dispersed. We could be driving, talking on the phone, while listening to music, and our attention is many places. If it is in many places, it means that we are not fully focused on what we are doing. That is a skill that we develop through practice. I would suggest when you are practicing mindfulness, simply do what you are doing and do not do other things. That will give you more practice to do what you are doing in a given moment in relation to being observant.
 
Question: So sometimes the personality is so strong that sometime it stays behind after the life?
 
Instructor: Right.
 
Question: But we need the personality to survive here in the material world, right?
 
Instructor: Right.
 
Question: It is just the ego part that we do not want?
 
Instructor: Right. So we do not want to eliminate the personality yet. But also on a very high level of personality, when the ego is fully destroyed, and that is the only that soul is becoming fully purified, even personality needs to be destroyed. That is really in terms of one’s work, in terms of the path of spiritual realization.
 
Question: I have just been (beginning to be) back as everyone studies. It kind of takes care of its self, the ego. It sort of disappears. It is of no interest.
 
Instructor: We teach that the observation of a defect does not eliminate the defect. Instead, we practice meditation to observe in a day and comprehend more profoundly. Really, in our future classes we will discuss that, but we talk about that in The Revolution of the Dialectic, the practice of sitting down to meditate. After having observed egos in action, we sit down and reflect on what caused certain problems in our day or situation, and we reflect on each defect that we saw in a progressive matter. We work on it to comprehend it, deeply. That relates to the science of meditation: really comprehending ourselves. We say that it is our fundamental practice in this tradition. We have many practices, one of them is called meditation, learning to go deeper into ourselves, observing what conflicts, or certain problems in an event or in our lifetime, so they can be changed.
 
Observation is not enough. We need to become more profound and to work with divinity, as St. Anthony was in that image, specifically. Observation will not eliminate. Instead, we have to learn how to comprehend ourselves first, so that divinity can remove those impurities when we are observing them and working on them. So, observation is the first step, judgment in meditation is next, and then execution as we teach.
 
First observe, then really reflect on and try to comprehend a given element that you saw in action, and then afterward, we pray to divinity to remove that defect. Then we find that if a given circumstance occurs in our life and we do not react with anger or a certain sense of pride, or egotistical behavior, we find that really that defect has been eliminated. We do not repeat mistakes. Instead, if we continue to act the same way, react the same way, it means that we have more work to do.
 
Question: Is it possible that while on that, you are being tested in that process? It is not easy to get over that hump.
 
Instructor: This is the reality that many of the prophets experience in their lifetimes. We likewise have to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. I will just conclude that we have to follow their examples, in which we have to face hardship. So I thank you for coming!