Blog Archives

Imagination and Fantasy

3/25/2020

The faculty of imagination is truly a compelling force within nature, within art, within humanity. Despite the grandeur and beauty of modern architecture, ancient sculptures, the greatest poetry in literature humanity has ever received, people tend to consider the faculty of imagination as something made up, superficial, vain.

We have examples like J.R.R. Tolkien, who is considered highly imaginative for creating an entire world in his books [The Lord of the Rings]. There are many examples of people with a tremendous imagination. We can think of business-people, poets, writers, artists; and while western society looks upon imagination as if it is a play thing for children, we tend to value, paradoxically, and worship people who have a tremendous capacity for imagination.

All the great works of humanity were developed by seers, visionaries, prophets. The geniuses of our modern society who have invented airplanes, the cell phone, iPhone, etc., possessed a small portion of the full potential of imagination.

So while these inventions and gifts to humanity have revolutionized everything, people don't like to look in themselves for the source of that very same potentiality.

Things exist first in the world of the mind. We imagine things first and then later, we create, we manifest, we embody, we perform, we do.

Imagination is the natural function of an awakened consciousness. In a superficial sense, we use imagination all the time. We forgot where we put our keys. We suddenly remember or recall with an image in the mind where in our home we left them. We forgot where we parked; we visualize the streets we were at, the places we visited. Or in travel, we imagine where we are headed, our destination, our goals.

So imagination is the capacity to see images in the mind. It is the ability to receive internal imagery, and while people like to think of imagination as the originator of fantasies, illusions, dreams, the truth is that imagination is a profound faculty of consciousness. It allows us to exist, to interact, to have life. If we could not imagine, we could not do, because it is the capacity to see imagery, which is more than just physical sensations, perceptions to the eyes, our vision.

There is an entire world open to the meditator if we learn to access through that same faculty called imagination, but in an intentional, controlled, intentional way.

Imagination and Serenity: The Keys to Meditation

Imagination along with concentration are the keys to meditation. Serenity must be combined with imagination to visualize, to see. This opens the doorway to wisdom, experience, self-knowledge. It is “clear seeing” [French: clairvoyance] within the mind, within the consciousness. This is how we access our inner God, which in our studies we did nominate “Being,” a quality of consciousness, a defined state, a presence embodying qualities like compassion, serenity, wisdom, understanding.

So in this course, we have been using an image of a man walking into a head filled with stars, with the heavens, with the divine, the cosmos, the universal soul, which the Gnostics denominate Christ, the Christic consciousness: a superlative awakened state of omniscience, of knowing the universe, and the divine—the gods, the angels, the buddhas, whatever name we like to give to those perfected human beings.

It is precisely through visualization within ourselves that we enter the mysteries, that we verify the truth contained within any religious, mystical, contemplative, or meditative tradition. But unfortunately, the faculty of imagination is atrophied, especially in the West.

We do not use our consciousness well—in fact, very little, or nothing at all. This is the result of ignorance of methods that can train and develop that perception with clarity, with depth. Modern science is only beginning to understand and explore the possibilities of imagination. For example, as recently as the past two decades, scientists believe, materialistic science believes that the highest capacity for retaining a mental image, a visualized image in the brain, in the minimum, is about 20 to 25 seconds. However, with studies of advanced Buddhism, meditation, visualization, and yoga, in the spiritual sense, are validating what the great masters of meditation have verified for millennia.

So to emphasize that we can develop our imagination, I like to relate to you an excerpt from a book called Supernormal by Dean Radin. He is a doctor of the Institute of Noetic Studies. He performs and relates research on the paranormal, on faculties like clairvoyance, clear vision, which is another term for imagination of which we will elaborate. The following is from Chapter Two, pages 30-31. This is in relation to the Buddhist teaching of deity yoga, of which he explains:

"Certain meditative practices of Buddhist monks involve creating and maintaining sequences of exceptionally detailed visual imagery. Advanced meditators report that these vivid images can be held from minutes to hours, and indeed the practice requires this because the images are so complex. Neuroscientist regarded such a claim to be absurd. Their understanding of the brain convinced them that it was virtually impossible to hold mental imagery from more than a few seconds.

“It took the Dalai Lama to go to the neuroscientists into conducting a test to see who was right—the meditators or the scientists. Maria Kozhevnikov of George Mason University and her colleagues took up the challenge by testing experienced monks at Sechen Monastery in Kathmandu. She used two standard tests of visual memory, one involving rotation of mental images and the other holding complex images in memory.

“The monks used two types of meditation. Deity yoga involves generating and holding a three-dimensional color image of a deity surrounded by his or her divine entourage. The other type of meditation is called Open Presence, in which attention is broadly distributed without focusing on any experiences, images, or thoughts that may arise. The claim tested about Deity Yoga was the assertion that highly complex images could be mentally maintained for minutes to hours. Kozhevnikov also tested non-meditators and meditators who did not engage in their practice prior to the test.

“The results showed that all the groups performed at the same level before meditation, but after meditation the Deity Yoga practitioners, according to Kozhevnikov, ‘demonstrated a dramatic increase in performance on imagery task compared with the other groups. Therefore, [Deity Yoga] specifically trains one's capacity to access heightened visuospatial memory resources via meditation, rather than generally improving long-lasting imagery abilities’ (pg. 645).

“That sounds like an unassuming success until we read the rest of the article in which Kozhevnikov reports that ‘we are not certain how long this state of access to heightened visual spatial resources might last... During the informal interviews, some of the practitioners reported that the powerful state of identification with the deity can be sustained for several hours or more. Whereas others reported that the effect lasted for only approximately 20 to 25 [minutes]’ (p. 645).

"To emphasize, she reported minutes to hours, as compared to seconds, which is what neuroscientists had previously believed was the limit. In addition, the description of a ‘dramatic increase’ in visual memory does not adequately highlight just how much the monks imagery ability shifted from before to after meditation. For the Open Presence and control participants, there is no statistical difference to the ability to hold imagery, but for the Deity Yoga participants, the difference was associated with odds against chance ranging from a million to a billion to one." —Dean Radin, Supernormal, Chapter Two, pgs. 30-31

So the odds are very rare that the results in this study would not be directly correlated, to not result from this type of Buddhist meditation. As the Dalai Lama taught, “Consciousness has the capacity to” expand to an infinite, “to increase to an infinite degree.” This is important to remember because we work in our studies of Gnosis with imagination, so that we can fully perfect the consciousness. So that what was found impossible by modern science, is a fact for the Gnostics. It is what we verify through our own experience.

Imagining is Seeing

As Samael Aun Weor wrote:

“For the wise, to imagine is to see." —Samael Aun Weor, Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology

Imagination is perception. It is witnessing. It is perceiving imagery of a material or energetic or even psychic type. It is important to reflect: How do we see? How do we perceive?

Our psychology tends to be very active, or better said, hyperactive. Our mind, as we study in meditation, must become passive, serene. Receptivity is the natural state of the mind. Our mind is usually overwhelmed, churning with activity. The mind is a lake. If it is disturbed with negative egotistical states, then the images of heaven cannot reflect on its surface. When the mind is serene, the stars of the night can shine with clarity, with translucence, and resplendence upon the surface of the waters.

Therefore, how do we see? Is the water of our mind disturbed? Is it a whirlpool of negative emotion, of anger, of fear, of pride, of lust? Because, if our mind is agitated, identified with affliction, then we cannot see anything inside. We become conditioned by the ego, by the self, by the “I.” But if the lake is calm, if our mind is still, if we have obtained serenity within our consciousness, within our mental states, as we sit to meditate, as we introspect, we can begin to perceive images of a superior type, of a very distinct and different quality than the mind's projections of fear, anger, resentment, pride, etc.

There is positive imagination and there is negative imagination. Positive imagination is clear. It is liberated perception. It is when the mind is perfectly still, so that the images of heaven, our own inner divinity, can reflect inside in our meditations and through our exercises of astral projection, dream yoga. Yet when it is agitated by negative states, our perception is negative.

Our imagination is conditioned. It is illusory. We don't see what is real. A person who is angry cannot reason, cannot see the truth. Whether he or she has suffered some type of setback in life: the desperate, the morbid, the pessimistic, the violent only see according to the logic of their ego. Therefore, their waters are churning with great tides, a tsunami in a storm.

Real imagination is when we have perfect stillness, silence, and purity, which is why Jesus of Nazareth stated in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 22 to 23.

"The eye is the illumination of the σῶμά soma." —Matthew 6:22

So we are going to relate some Greek terms regarding these verses. Soma means “body.” That is a traditional translation. But even deeper, Soma can mean soul, or self. “The eye is the illumination of the self, the soul.”

"If thine eye be singular thy whole self (σῶμά soma) will be full of light." —Matthew 6:22

This verse is often confusing for people who don't study the esoteric meaning of the language, the original languages of the Bible. In Greek, the word for single or singular is ἁπλοῦς aplous. It means “clear, simple, uncomplicated, pure.”

"If thine eye be singular (if it is clear, if your vision is simple, uncomplicated, pristine) thy whole self will be full of light." —Matthew 6:22

Your imagination, your perception, will reflect the Being, its perfection, His majesty.

"It if thine eye be impure (πονηρός ponerros), thy whole self shall be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” —Matthew 6:23

If our imagination is polluted with negative emotion, with ego, we are living in the dark. We see but we do not see. And this is the meaning of the Christian parable, "Seeing they shall not see and hearing they shall not hear," because they are blind by their own defects.

Also, relating to the last lecture—if that light in thee is darkness how great is that darkness?—this is εἰκασία eikasia. In relation to the four states of consciousness that we explained, eikasia means “imagination.” It is a type of perception that ignores itself—profound states of barbarism, ignorance, violence, animal behavior, degeneration.

Because in those states, people are active in their bodies, such as in crowds or a lynching, a riot. That mob mentality, that perverse energy, pushes unconscious people to commit crimes. Eikasia is a form of seeing, but in the dark, just like in the Allegory of the Cave of Plato. The people in the cave were in the darkness or seeing the shadows of the images behind them as we explained in the former lecture.

So in our studies we wish to go beyond that. To awaken to διάνοια dianoia, which also means “imagination,” but it is positive, conscious, objective, to see the reality of our inner and outer universe with clarity.

Delusional Perception

So eikasia and πίστης pistis, especially, relate to the illusions, fantasies, or dreams of the mind. Pistis means “belief,” but also refers to the dreams and projections of our own ego. These are conditioned states of being. These are illusions, fantasies, dreams.

Most of humanity is already aware and familiar with negative imagination, which is conditioned perception, fantasy, desire. “I desire something, I see the image in my mind, I want it, I crave it, and I do whatever I can to get it, even at the cost of another person's life.” This is the logic of the ego, of desire.

So the ego is the source of activity in the mind. It churns the waters of the mind and it is craving its desires for impressions, sensations, experiences. And a simple example, we are hungry. We crave a burger. We are under quarantine. We see the object of our desire in our mind. We fortify that craving with fantasy. We visualize how we are going to get that item, where we are going to buy it from, the phone call for takeout or delivery, the drive and the route we will take, if necessary.

Likewise, we fantasize and use imagination in the wrong way with anger. Somebody insults us and we stew in a swamp of resentment, negative emotion. We imagine how we will get our revenge.

All these fantasies and desires, their conditions, they trap consciousness. They filter our ability to perceive clearly. Desire wastes energy. It depletes us of vitality, of power. The mind projects its desires onto the physical world. This is a form of dreams. People think that dreams only exist when the physical body goes to sleep. We rest for eight hours and perhaps right before we wake, we have some quaint visions, dreams or remnants of memory, of some type of internal experience, and then we awake.

As we clarified in our last lecture, waking consciousness is a state of self-observation and self-remembrance in which we are active within the consciousness. We are perceiving our three brains, our five centers, with a sense of separation and investigation.

Dreams are the desires of the ego that are projected, even in the physical world. The only difference between sleeping life and waking life for most people, is the fact that when we are physically asleep, we can do whatever we want in our dreams. We fulfill our unconscious desires. Whereas in the physical world, there are greater consequences to one's projections, one's actions, which is why dreams are dangerous.

So, why do we talk about dreams in relation to imagination? It is because the faculty of seeing, whether condition or the liberated, is represented in the direct quality of our sleeping life. When the body is asleep, what do we perceive? Do eight hours go by and we see nothing? Or do we see some fragments of memories, of dreams? Or are we awake in the dream state? Are we conscious in that dimension? That is the question. That is a barometer of how awake we are and of the quality of our perceptions, even in daily life.

The Dreams and Illusions of the Ego

So while the examples I gave before might be a little silly, this principle explains the chronic condition of our daily life and how we see ourselves. If we wish to awaken in dreams, in the dream state, we first awaken in the physical plane, because we are not awake. We are asleep. And unfortunately, we also dream, even while physically active.

We believe we are such and such a person, with the qualities of kindness, compassion, intelligence, respect, serenity, diligence: whatever virtues we like to enthrone upon the altar of our self-worship. We like to think the best of ourselves. Yet when a crisis appears, like what is going on now, with the coronavirus, we are forced into unpleasant or difficult circumstances where our true character emerges.

So different egos appear in relation to the impressions of life. So perhaps during the lockdown, we go to the grocery store, we look for the last roll of toilet paper and a person is also reaching for the same item. This person, an aggressor, feels justified and even slanders us to our face, saying vulgar, hurtful words. If we are vigilant and awake, self-observing ourselves, we can see an entire series of reactions inside in relation to our three brains, and how the impressions of the insulter affect our mind.

We have to understand that relationship moment by moment. Because, our reactions show us the quality of our mind. That is really who we are. We like to think the best of ourselves, but the reality is that we have not perceived the entirety of what we are, because much of us is subconscious, unconscious, and even infra-conscious, belonging to very degenerated and low aspects of the psyche.

Different egos in that incident will emerge. They all have their own thoughts, feelings, and impulses. Perhaps when that person insults us at the grocery store, we see hurt self-esteem with its logic: “I am always getting picked on in every situation.” Or followed by pride: “I didn't do anything wrong. This person is crazy!” And lastly the anger: “I really don't deserve this treatment. Why are people obsessing over stupid things?”

So, if we are observing ourselves, we can see three egos in action. We have to observe the process. We have to see it. We have to be separate from the mind looking into the three brains.

As we see in this graphic, as we have on this slide, we have to perceive the delusions that our mind projects. So all those thoughts, desires, impulses, feelings, and that incident, are illusory. They are fantasies. They are dreams. Those projections tried to go out from us to interact to the aggressor: to respond, to retaliate.

But those types of seeing, thinking, feeling, and behaving are negative. They are conditions. They are based off the words of the insulter, which we take with such severity and magnitude. But really, where is that self? Where does it come from? What does it depend on? How does the mind feed on those impressions? How does that pride, that self-esteem, and that anger work?

This is not a hypothetical evaluation. It is what we perceive, because real seeing and imagination, is self-observation. We are looking into the mind: to not judge, to not run away, to not push a way, to not label, but simply to look. This is clear vision. This is what concerns us most when we study meditation, because we have to discover how these egos function, so that we can eliminate them and free the consciousness trapped in those desires so that we no longer dream.

When that light is free, we naturally have spontaneous, intuitive astral projections, jinn experiences, etc. But if we don't observe this reaction in ourselves, we are going to mistake each thought, feeling, and emotion, each action, each reaction, as being attributed to a single self. But as we have explained, we are not a single self. We are multiplicity. We have to see this. Not as in a theory, but in action.

Structural and Transactional Analysis

Samael Aun Weor mentions this process in The Revolution of the Dialectic, of seeing our inner contradictions and all the exchanges and transactions in the mind. He calls it transactional and structural analysis.

So, he talks about banking. Banks make transactions and exchanges, different types of businesses. And structures have to do with how businesses are formed or how the banking system works. He uses this analogy to talk about the ego.

There are many transactions that occur in a single moment. First, in that example, self-esteem, followed by pride, followed by anger—these egos are connected. They relate to each other. It is rare to find an ego that works “solo.” And structural analysis has to do with the structures of how those egos manifest, how they function. What are their thoughts, feelings, and impulses? And how do they relate to each other? How do they trans-act or react to each other, and to the moment?

So, we like to believe we are saints, but observe yourself. This is the most profound doorway and entrance to real perception in meditation. It is imagination. It is clear seeing. We observe ourselves. We look into our thoughts, feelings, and will with the consciousness. If we don't watch ourselves in those critical moments, to see those psychological interactions, we are identified. Our identity is in that self. We invest those egos with our energy and therefore we strengthen the cage that traps us, and so we suffer.

Fantasy and Self-Deception

We believe we are holy. The person who is demanding we hand over the last roll of toilet paper thinks they are very saintly, but of course from external views and eyes, it is stupid. This allegory applies not only to absurd people like that, but to ourselves. We live in a fantasy world. We live thinking we are a certain way, but we are not. So our desires project their ideas onto the external world. We interpret everything relating to the mind: “What I want, what I crave, what I desire.” We don't see reality. We live in absurdity. We project our fear onto the world.

Look at the global pandemic, the kind of things people do because they are afraid. People who are more rational obviously see the stupidity in those behaviors, but fear is a compelling force. It is an illusion. It manipulates humanity and keeps humanity asleep.

So, while people are living in a lot of suffering now, the reality is that we should not judge anyone. We project our ideas unto people but also on to ourselves. We have a self-image that we like to uphold of who we are, and when people contradict that, we get angry. But when we do that to other people, they become angry too.

Therefore, this is why Jesus said, "Judge not that you be not judged," because as a very illuminated clairvoyant, as a visionary, as a prophet, he understood this law very simply and profoundly. People who are very awake don't judge others. They see the causes of suffering in others and they respect their freedom.

But given our level of being, we tend to be very identified with pride, projecting our ideologies and beliefs about who we are unto others. We only see through the lens of our political party, our religion, our group. And this is the problem of humanity. This is why people suffer.

People follow the Illusions and fantasies of fear that “If I don't go to the store to get all these items from the cleaning aisle or whatever, I am going to be in a lot of suffering.” And fear is completely hypnotizing humanity in this instance, which is why Samael Aun Weor wrote in Treaties of Revolutionary Psychology:

“Fantasy, besides placing us in ridiculous situations, stops all possibility of internal development... Fantasy is a real force which acts universally upon mankind. It keeps the intellectual humanoid in a state of sleep (hypnotic state), causing him to believe that he is already a Human Being, that he possesses true individuality, a will, awakened consciousness and a mind of his own, etc.” —Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology

As we have mentioned many times, we are not human beings. Human beings have integration. They have a singularity of purpose and will. We on the other hand are fractured.

So imagine a mirror that is whole. It reflects images perfectly from floor to ceiling. When that mirror is shattered through violence, its fragments reflect millions of different images, which is a perfect allegory of our psychological state. A perfected mirror is a perfect human being. It sees and reflects imagery internally and externally, with perfection. But in us, because we are fragmented with different egos and selves, we have multiple images in the mind, because the ego takes on forms in the astral and mental planes.

This is why in the term εἰκασία eikasia, in Greek, meaning “imagination,” comes from εικόνων eikonon: “images,” which is where you get false images, idols—the origin of idolatry—not to worship statues and different religions, but to really worship our ego and its multiplicity. Therefore, we need to study deeply both positive and negative imagination.

Differences Between Liberated and Conditioned Imagination

So the main distinction is that positive imagination is received. It is imagery that we understand with wisdom. It arrives within the calm, serene consciousness, a mind that is in perfect equanimity.

Negative imagination is a projection of the ego, the mind.

Positive imagination is voluntary. We will it. We control it. But negative imagination is mechanical. It happens to us against our conscious will.

So we have already explained what insight is in other lectures: it means to understand what we see, to comprehend the truth. And in order to comprehend the truth, we have to see it first. This is the primary distinction of the Gnostic tradition against other religions and traditions. It is that we seek to know the truth through experience, through verifying, with facts.

Definitions of Positive and Negative Imagination

So fantasy we explained. it is a projected desire. We have a lot of different terms and definitions, or qualities associated with both positive and negative imagination, which we are going to relate.

Positive imagination in Buddhism is known as the Vipashyana, “special insight.” It means to visualize the object of meditation. So, we voluntarily concentrate on one object, we see it with clarity, with color, with depth.

The opposite of this can be spacing out, daydreaming. Daydreaming is when we have a multiplicity of projected desires or images, memories. We wander through these thoughts through mechanical associations in the mind.

So Vipashyana is also clairvoyance. Clairvoyance is a French term, created by a group of esotericists who wanted to protect their studies. Therefore, they created a technical term for a faculty that everybody already has, but in an undeveloped state. Clairvoyance, Vipashyana means to see clearly with the imagination. It is the opposite of spacing out, daydreaming.

When the consciousness and imagination is liberated, it is the same capacity to experience dreams, but in a conscious way—to see within the astral plane with depth, with penetration, with amplitude, with greater frequency, with greater focus and expansiveness. It means to see in that world, the people, the cities, the environment, oneself, but without subjectivity, without interacting with our own unconscious dreams, which, most of humanity is already aware of.

People know about dreams. They may have fragmentary remembrances of talking to a purple monkey on the side of the street, about whatever. This type of dreaming has nothing to do with awakened perception. It is the state of the ego, of absurdity, of delusion.

So even while we are physically awake, we continue to dream. We project our dreams onto the external world, but within the astral dimension, we no longer have the body to veil us. So therefore, we are more directly connected and related to our dreams. We can see them with greater clarity if we work on ourselves, so that we can transform them.

So visions: they are conscious experiences. These are the astral projections and awakened states that everybody longs for in our studies, to talk with divinity, the Being, with masters, to receive help.

The opposite is hallucinations, like those produced from drugs, which are conditions of mind. Marijuana, LSD, psychedelics, ayahuasca, mushrooms, and many other forms of substances condition the mind. They filter our perception so that we see, but this is not objective. This is within hell, the hell realms as we are going to explain.

Nightmares also fall into this category. So, these are psychic experiences within our own inner hell realms, which if we are chased by monsters, or are being chased by a murderer with an axe, those are usually projections of our own infra-conscious nature, our own egos, which have reality and existence within the most profound depths of our consciousness, within the ego.

Translucence is the clarity of seeing without conditions, to not be obscured, to not be obstructed. There is no “I,” ego, present if we are really developing our imagination. There is no ego or “I” to intervene, or interpret what we see.

So hypnosis is like the opposite of translucence. Hypnosis is a sleepy state. Hypnosis has become very popular today. Some people even use hypnosis as a type of therapy. But sadly, it is the sleep of the consciousness [from the Greek Ὕπνος Hypnos, the god of sleep]. Those methods put the patient or the practitioner under the control of the doctor, which is mind control. Controlling the minds of others is negative 100 percent. We don't advocate that in our teachings. Hypnosis is the opposite of gnosis, to experience, to awaken, because we don't want to sleep. We want to know and verify and investigate the source of our own egos, defects, traumas. Therefore, one does not need hypnosis to enter those states if one is a practical meditator.

The Basis of Insight: Kabbalah, Perception, and Ethics

So while we might experience internal imagery, inner perceptions, the danger becomes if we interpret through our ego, which is why we study the Tree of Life, the Kabbalah.

Meditation and intuition are necessary. When we want to interpret what we see, it is not enough to develop imagination. We have to become cultured, studious, ethical disciples. Samael Aun Weor mentions, we need ethical, intellectual, spiritual culture. But why is that?
He wrote a book about this principle in Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology.

He relates how the sources of crime are due to negative clairvoyance, negative imagination. All crimes are the result of infernal, unconscious, subconscious, infra-conscious perceptions. And the danger of the esoteric student, the meditator, is that when developing imagination, they don't question what they see.

They might see things that horrify their conscience. Perhaps they see an image of their wife or husband committing adultery, and therefore, that person goes out of their way to slander their spouse based off a vision that they misinterpreted. There are many cases like this in the Gnostic movement, in many spiritual groups, and it is very sad. This is why we emphasize the study of the Tree of Life, the study of Kabbalah, the study of ethical conduct, the scriptures, the lives of the prophets, because they knew that seeing is not enough. One has to be able to interpret what one perceives.

The Tree of Life is a map of our consciousness, from positive states to negative—from the heavens, to our body, to the hells. Heavens are liberated perception and hells are negative conditioned perceptions.

Every experience could be mapped by the Tree of Life. And so we have to investigate what we see. It is not enough to have a vision. We have to meditate on what we perceive and to really discriminate and question, “Where is it coming from?” Is it from heaven, or perhaps we are mistaken? Perhaps it is from our own hell realms?

And so people, and like in the case I mentioned, are seeing diabolic projections of their mind, or perhaps they are seeing the ego of their partner from a past life. But because they don't recognize that their partner is never capable of acting on that fault, because they are working on themselves, one can make a mistake, a judgment.

"Judge not that ye be not judged. For what measure ye meet, you shall be measured” [Matthew 7:1-2] by that same quality, that same measurement.

Ethical conduct teaches us how to behave in life, regardless of what negative perceptions we perceive in ourselves or others. The important thing is to know where our experiences come from, to discriminate with meditation. So, if you have an experience, I highly suggest that you take a lot of time to meditate on what you receive. Don't jump to conclusions that you are necessarily receiving a vision from God. It could be, but if those experiences are contrary to your own judgement, your own moral compass, your own ethics of doing compassionate deeds, then you have to consider or reconsider what you saw.

This is why Samael Aun Weor repeatedly stated, "That for every step you take in the acquisition of powers (of clairvoyance), you must take a thousand steps in sanctity."

So if you have inner experiences that are related to other people, but are negative, I recommend maintaining silence. Wait. Wait to see, and watch if what you experience really reflects the facts of daily life—if it's real—and be patient. Understanding unfolds through successive meditations.

Subconscious Imagination

So, in order to not be confused by our inner perceptions and to really have a sense of discrimination, we study the five types of clairvoyance.

First, we are going to examine the negative types. The subconsciousness is related with our memories, with our past experiences, with mental formations within the personality, which we have explained.

The subconsciousness is like a cave. It is beneath the surface of our perception and our understanding. Often in life, we behave mechanically without understanding the origin of our actions. Perhaps in the past we were bit by a dog. And therefore, any time we come across a dog, we become afraid. We have the memory, the past experience, the mental formation of fear in our personality. We see that dog and then we instantaneously react. We see through fear, the logic that claims, “This animal is going to hurt me. I am in danger!” This is all subconscious.

Subconsciousness is deeply related with racism. People's past experience or memories, not only from this life but from past lives, can relate to a lot of conflict on a social level—people’s assumed thoughts and projections of what people of different races or cultures are like. This is all very subconscious. People usually don't even question if that is an element that is truly ingrained in the personality.

These are not the only examples. There are many, but usually when it is subconscious, it is beneath the surface. We don't usually see unless we really introspect and question ourselves.

Unconscious Imagination

Unconsciousness is formed by unsatisfied frustrated desires. Unconscious perception, Samael Aun Weor states, is the origin of murder. It is the origin of crime. There are desires within our hidden depths that long for violence.

So, the anger we may feel at a boss for a particular action they took against us, or response to our own performance, can provoke deeper unconscious, frustrated desires. Perhaps we desired a promotion, but because it was not fulfilled, we are frustrated. We are angry. In a very deep unconscious layer of our psyche, that anger could be a form of murder. In the internal planes, that element can be committing violence against one's boss. So physically we may feel that anger. But then at night, when we physically go to sleep, we dream about killing that person.

This is unconscious imagination, unconscious clairvoyance. We don't even assume that it exists, but it does. It is totally beneath and even deeper than subconsciousness. So whenever our desires that are not fulfilled ferment and spillover, we can point towards the unconsciousness.

Deep desires are very difficult to see unless we meditate and go into the astral plane to investigate, because all of us, without exception, have these egos. We just haven't perceived them directly yet. It is rare to find a person without these types of desires for violence, for murder, for crime. This is why it is unconscious. We don't know it. We like to assume that we are holy. But any dream like the example I related to you is an example of that, proves that.

Infraconscious Imagination

Lastly, we have infraconsciousness. These are the most hidden animal desires, our most perverse identities ourselves, traumas: the negative qualities of the lowest psyche. So as I said, nightmares are a form of infraconsciousness. This is perception within the most dense regions of our own psyche—within the lowest spheres of the astral plane, the hell realms, where we see beasts and creatures, monsters, gigantic creatures, deformed beings, and demons, attack us.

In most cases, these are not actual sorcerers or black magicians, as we state in this tradition, beings outside of us. These tend to be more of our own inner qualities, of yet we are to discover until the moments we have nightmares. We are in the hell realms. We are being chased. We are being murdered. We are being torn apart, tortured, killed. All sorts of horrible experiences within dreams: these are infraconscious. They are nightmares. They are diabolic and they have existence.

When people wake up from sleep, they like to think that, “Oh, it was just a dream!” But the reality is that dreams have a type of reality. They are projections of ourselves. They are extensions of who we are, and therefore, they exist in other dimensions inside. In a sense, they are not real, but they have a type of existence in us.

What do we mean that the ego is not real? It is because that type of identification of self doesn't know or reflect the real potential of consciousness. It doesn't reflect the heavenly realms.

Conscious Imagination

We need to study consciousness. The positive form of consciousness or conscious imagination is precisely this. We learn to see things as they are in whatever dimension, not necessarily the heavenly realms, but even in hell. Consciousness or conscious imagination is the ability to perceive reality and whatever particular sphere of existence we are on the Tree of Life.

Conscious imagination means that even if we go into the hell realms, we are in a state of serenity, of watchfulness, of observation, of remembrance of the presence of our inner Being, so that we can investigate and gain knowledge. This is like the mirror that is first polished. So the broken mirror is a subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, and the infraconsciousness. But a conscious soul or perceptive being, is one who is polishing the mirror, who is bringing the pieces together, those fragments together, to reform that perfected image. So that it is singular [ἁπλοῦς aplous], so that [“If thine eye be singular, uncomplicated, pure”] it has greater depth, clarity, penetration, amplitude, perception.

Samael Aun Weor mentions:

"Only those who have achieved awakening in the superior worlds possess conscious clairvoyance." —Samael Aun Weor, Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology

So we have to awaken in the dream state, to see the reality of our emotions and our mind. This is when we know we are really developing our consciousness. In meditation, we reach the drowsy state, allow our body to rest, but consciously, we are very active. The mind becomes receptive. We calm the mind. We become active as a soul, as a consciousness—concentrating on an object of visualization or imagination, so that we can extract information from it, of which we are going to explain.

Supraconscious Imagination

This type of meditative practice is well known in Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, especially from Tibet, and within the Gnostic tradition. But conscious clairvoyance or imagination is not the end. There is supraconsciousness.

This is the perception of reality, its causes, and its relations within multiple dimensions. So the consciousness can awaken within the astral plane, the mental plane, or even in the hell realms, in order to investigate and gain knowledge of itself. But supraconsciousness is when we perceive multiple dimensions or the highest aspect of the Tree of Life related to Kether, Chokmah, and Binah: Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence—the three forces of Christianity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, which are intelligences, energies, principles—not people, but archetypes, qualities of Being, of divinity, which are very high.

This is supraconsciousness. Even entering the Absolute, which is above the Tree of Life, is a supraconscious state. Supraconsciousness sees from the eyes of God, from the Being, not from oneself, but from the universal consciousness of Christ.

We also experience supraconscious states within Chesed, the Spirit and Geburah, the divine soul. The top five spheres of the Tree of Life are supraconscious. They are divine. Below that, we have the possibility to see through the filters of our ego. We can say that Tiphereth, the human soul, the world of Nirvana, is an objective state, but the potential for mistakes originates from our will, which can follow Netzach (the mind), Hod (the emotions), Yesod (our energies), Malkuth (our physical body), and the inverted tree, the hell realms.

Our will must follow divinity. Our inner Tiphereth, the beauty of our soul, is a serene, concentrated state. In order to really reflect the higher five sephiroth, the spheres, the emanations of God, Tiphereth, the human soul must be serene.

Willpower, concentration, is a serene state. It is a calm state. We like to think of willpower in our modern society as if going to the gym to do a lot of exercise, to exert a lot of force and tension, but real serenity is true power. It is a state of perfect concentration, as mentioned within the nine stages of meditative concentration within Tibetan Buddhism, which you can explore on the course Meditation Essentials [from Glorian.org] but also the lecture Calm Abiding: The Stages of Serenity [within chicagognosis.org under the Gnostic Meditation Course].

We need a serene mind to reflect heaven within. To get there on the Tree of Life, to reach a supraconscious state, we first calm Malkuth, the body, our physicality.

We work with energy, Yesod, the vital forces. We circulate them throughout our body, throughout our internal vehicles, through pranayama, runes, meditation, mantras, alchemy, sacred rites of rejuvenation, many exercises for energy in our tradition.

We then calm the heart, our emotions, Hod, the astral body, the astral vehicle, which we operate within the dream state, but unconsciously.

We also calm the mind, the intellect, with its thoughts and surging concepts, memories, daydreams, etc.

When we really perfect that state, we reach Tiphereth in ourselves, in our meditation. It is serene concentration, because when you are really focused and attentive on the object of your meditation, if it is really perfected, we don't think of anything. We don't wander, but it also takes no effort.

In the beginning it takes a lot of will to control the body so that it stops moving in our meditation, to work to control energy consciously.

Likewise, to control our emotions and negative states are not easy, but necessary, if we wish to reach supraconsciousness.

And then silencing the mind, withdrawing the mind from the senses and introspecting within, it takes less effort the more you ascend within yourself.

When Tiphereth, the soul, our will, is fully balanced, it is a state of equanimity. Real will takes no effort, paradoxically speaking. It takes familiarity and experience, to use Zen language.

Intuition and Awakening

“When the door of fantasy are closed, the organ of intuition awakens.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic

So we must no longer project our dreams. We must awaken to receive internal imagery. And not must we perceive internal perceptions, but we must understand them. This is the faculty of intuition—to understand, to comprehend the significance of what perception enters us, whether physically or internally.

So, imagination practice is founded upon some degree of serenity, which we have explained. Without serenity, we cannot concentrate and focus on our particular imagination or visualization exercise. So we state that once you have developed a serene mind through your work of self-observation, it is good to work with imagination exercises.

And Jesus stated that our eye of imagination must be singular. Meaning concentrated. To focus on one thing so that it becomes pure. "If thine eye be singular (ἁπλοῦς aplous clear, simple, uncomplicated, pure) thy whole self will be full of light." —Matthew 6:22

Difficulties with Developing Imagination

So some people really struggle to imagine anything, whether it be a stone, a candle, a picture, a statue. This type of exercise is important, as we stated at the beginning, in order to expand our ability to perceive beyond to the unknown.

Many people lack clarity in their imagination, or the image keeps changing. We have to discriminate in our meditative practice to see whether it is the ego that interferes and warps our perception, or is that experience unfolding into something new.

So we can take an example of imagining a cross. It can change or become something deformed or different, etc., and that can be the result of our ego. We have to discriminate and test the quality and the taste of that experience.

Part of the work of imagination is knowing the difference between positive and negative, both polarities, both poles. We do that through experience, through following our heart, our intuition, our conscience. Our heart will tell us that there is something more here, or that what we have just experienced is something negative.

We can imagine as I said, like a cross. If it changes, becomes malformed, distorted, that could be our own ego trying to infect our practice. But there is also something we have to remember too: it is that real imagination is receptive. We receive the new. So suddenly if we are really in a drowsy state and concentrated in ourselves, the image of the cross can change. Maybe it starts spinning, showing a profound symbolism of energy, tantra, movement. It is a symbol. We see new states, visuals, sounds, scenarios, even smells. We become a witness and a participant in our internal worlds.

So we have to really evaluate through our practice, successively, daily: “Is the ego changing my visualization? Is it projecting on to what I want to see? Or am I receiving something new? Is this something novel, receptive, illuminated?”

Receptivity does not mean passivity. The consciousness becomes highly active when the mind becomes pacified, silent. To receive superior messages from our Being, we need serenity first, and then we allow the experiences to unfold when we are drowsy. Drowsiness opens the doorway to the dream world, the internal worlds. And as we have stated previously in other lectures and meetings, that it is important to meditate when we are drowsy, because otherwise we can damage our brain. Meditation really unfolds as we enter a relaxed state, not when we are in tension.

So we conclude with this image from Alice from Wonderland. Remember that she goes down the rabbit hole into the subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, the infraconsciousness. And later, she rises up the stairs of being, to awaken to the light of reality.

Well will now open up the floor to questions.

Questions and Answers

Question: Two things. One, can you just fill in the blanks for me? Malkuth, body, physical? Yesod, what was Yesod?

Instructor: It is our energy, our vital force.

Question: Then Hod, astral, emotional. And then what went with mental?

Instructor: Netzach, the mind. Malkuth means “kingdom.” It is our inner, but also physical kingdom, because our body is a great city in which many people live. It is a great land. It is material, earthly, but also contains within it all of the potentiality of our soul.

It has all of our energies, Yesod, which means “Foundation.” It is the foundation of our spiritual life, the secret of סודי Sodi in Hebrew, because סודי Sodi means “secret,” and יסוד Yesod is the sphere related to the secret signs of Da'ath, which is the work of alchemy, of a marriage.

Hod means “Glory.” It is the glory of the heart temple that is perfected with meditation, and by working with the vital forces Yesod, but also Christ above, Chokmah.

And lastly, we have Netzach, the mind which means “Victory,” and if we conquer our mind, our distracted mind, we become victorious ones: buddhas. This is how we work with our willpower, Tiphereth, the human soul.

Question: And these four are the four bodies of sin. Is that correct?

Instructor: Yes, within Kabbalah. These are the bodies, or the vehicles by which our ego manifests. It is how we sin, how we make mistakes, whether through our mind, our emotions, our sexual behavior, and our physical body. This is how our desires manifest or they express.

Above that, Tiphereth can either go up or down, depending. "Father if it be possible,” said Jesus, “Take this cup of bitterness from me, but not my will but Thine be done" (Luke 22:42). So our will can follow and empower our ego, because we have freedom to choose how we want to live, or, we can follow the inner inclinations and guidance of our Spirit (Chesed), and our divine soul (Geburah). Chesed means “Mercy,” the mercy of God, and Geburah means “Justice,” the balance of the law, the divine soul.

So our consciousness is the law. How we judge ourselves, our intuitions, come from the divine soul. What we know is right and what we know is wrong is deep in our heart—that is Geburah. So we have to follow those inclinations in our meditations if we want to be successful.

Question: Then the other thing had to do with Tiphereth and will. And I am going to say just a couple things, but they are all one question really. Will you speak on willpower more and the relationship between imagination and willpower as with types of imagination? Are there more than one type of willpower? Is Thelema a specific type? I think you were just speaking on that a little bit.

Instructor: Great question. There are primarily two types of will: conditioned or unconditioned; liberated or imprisoned; conscious or unconscious will, egotistical will. So there is free consciousness, which is the essence, which we explained in this course in relation to “Discover Your True Self”—the essence, the ego, and the personality.

The essence is the essence of who we are. The consciousness that has the potential to become fully perfected. But in order to do that, we have to conquer the conditioned, egotistical wills, in our psyche.

Each ego has its own will, but in synthesis we say there are really two forms of will. Free and liberated, or imprisoned and encaged. So we have to learn to distinguish the difference, which we do through self-observation, self-remembering, transformation of impressions—learning to transform what we perceive.

The relationship between concentration and imagination is that it is impossible to imagine anything with objectivity if our mind is distracted by a multiplicity of wills. So the problem when a person begins meditation is that their mind is all over the place. We have a multitude of competing wills, desires that want to do this or that: to ride a bicycle, to scratch an itch, to eat something, to get some water—anything but the meditation.

The beginning of meditation is first controlling the body with our will. Not to move, so that as we still our body, the waters of our mind can become calm too. We have to suspend our senses, calm our energies, relax through pranayama, mantras, circulate force with our concentration, our will, so that that energy helps our body to be still, helps our emotions to calm, helps our mind to be silent.

When you have used your concentration well, with serenity, you start to clarify your perception with greater depth, because a mind that is agitated cannot reflect anything. The beginning of meditation within Buddhism, they teach you how to be serene of mind: nine stages of meditative concentration.

Learn to understand where you are on the path of concentration. Are you forgetting what you are doing in your practice? Or do you remember every moment? This is an important distinction to make. And as you are ascending that glyph, which is a man or monk chasing after an elephant, the elephant eventually becomes really calm and docile, where the monk is leading the elephant instead of the elephant leading the monk. That is a symbol of how the meditator controls the mind with the hook of vigilance and the rope of mindfulness, so that the mind is perfectly still.

If you are familiar with Tibetan Buddhist murals, eventually the elephant falls asleep after following the monk, and therefore, the monk is flying above in the sky and even rides the elephant over a rainbow bridge. So in that map, which we have talked about in other courses, because he has a obtained serenity of will and concentration, the mind can now reflect with greater clarity and perfection the heavenly realms.

Remember that if your mind is fractured into multiple wills, is distracted like a shattered mirror with multiple fragments and pieces, it is impossible to reflect a single object with clarity. It becomes malformed. But when you unite all those fragments together through concentration exercises, and you fuse them with your work with energy, such as alchemy or pranayama, to a lesser degree, that energy heals the mind, regenerates it, empowers the consciousness to work.

And again, if you look at that type of image, you notice that there is a fire blazing from the bottom of the path and extends upward in different segments of the glyph. It takes a lot of fire and energy and intensity in the beginning to control the mind. This is why pranayama is essential when we begin to meditate. And when that energy calms the mind, it takes less effort. But if you fuse the mirror back together by developing your concentration, you can reflect with greater precision, and that is the faculty of imagination.

Question: I was wondering, you were just talking about the map with the elephant and monkey, and I was wondering, I know it will be kind of hard to pinpoint it. It depends on the individual maybe, but where about do people in general start experiencing more of those, you know, conscious clairvoyance, and do you have to go all the way to the end there in that map before you can actually... It seems like a such a long road!

Instructor: Great question. Now, in the middle stages of concentration, that is really where we can begin working effectively on our own ego. Where we develop enough clarity in our perception that we can start to see things with more objectivity. Obviously the higher you go, the more clear things will be. Your imagination will be much stronger, but it is not fundamental that you have to reach the top of this glyph in order to be able to experience states of imagination in an objective way.

You can reach the fourth and fifth degrees of shamatha, which is meditative calm abiding, serenity, concentration, equanimity, in order to begin to develop your clairvoyance, especially. In the beginning it is very difficult because if you can't concentrate at all, then what you try to imagine will not be withheld within the memory or the consciousness very long. And this is the state of most people, which is why we quoted from the book Supernormal by Dean Radin who explained how scientists literally believe that the most length a person can hold an image in the mind is 25 seconds. You know, they don't understand that there is a greater capacity to create imagery in the mind than what is expected.

So, if you are in the fourth or fifth degrees of shamatha in which you don't forget what you are doing in your meditative practice, you can begin to start working effectively with imagination. Because you have enough stability and your concentration that if a distraction does arise, you know to avoid it.

Because most people get stuck in their concentration practice by forgetting what they are doing. You know, 20 minutes go by and they suddenly realize, “I am supposed to be meditating!” Or they are trying to visualize an object and then they forget what they are doing or the image morphs and changes, and then the person starts daydreaming, and then we think “Where was I?” It is because we didn't have enough serenity or concentration established. But if you are firm in your serenity and concentration, in the middle degrees, fourth or fifth, you don't forget what you are doing. That becomes a strong platform by which to start to clarify your imagination, especially, if that makes sense.

Question: And where is the fourth, fifth degree?

Instructor: It is in the middle parts of the glyph. If you go on to chicagognosis.org, we have a transcription for Calm Abiding: The Stages of Serenity: the fourth and fifth stages apply to when the monk is in front of the fire and a pair of cymbals I believe. There is a rabbit that appears on top of the elephant. That is the fourth degree. The fifth degree is just above that. So, if you look at the transcription in our gnostic meditation course, you can see how the fourth and fifth degrees are related to the left side of the curve of that path.

Question: So on your website, you have a description of what that means? The rabbit on top of the elephant? You have descriptions of what that means.

Instructor: Yes, so for those of you who are looking online, you can see the image here of the monk who is controlling, with the rope of mindfulness, the elephant itself, and is starting to control the mind, where you see half of the elephant is starting to be illuminated by a white color. That refers to the clarity of perception. We are seeing the mind, the elephant, that powerful animal, with clarity. Half of it is white, half of it is gray, because our perception is becoming a little bit more clarified. And the further we take that elephant up the path, our perception and imagination is becoming perfected as well. We start to see with greater depth, as I said.

So the third degree of calm abiding is patched placement. It refers to how the monk finally gets a hold of the elephant. It is starting to turn the head of the animal towards him and refers to how, in the same manner that you patch up a cloth to fix holes, you are starting to patch your awareness, your concentration. So we tend to forget the object of our concentration more than we remember it, but we are at least on the way to ascending further, so that we no longer forget what we are doing. In the fourth degree, close placement or good fixation, we don't forget what we are doing in our practice. However, at this stage we have the danger of becoming lazy, represented by the symbol of the rabbit, since while we have some success in concentration, we fail to refine it further. So it is important to reach the fourth and even fifth degrees of concentration so that we are able to see with greater depth, as represented by the mirror levitating above the path of the monk. This mirror reflects how our imagination becomes more sharp at this level.

So I invite you to study that lecture. I will send a link out to people regarding that. We go into more depth about it in that lecture, but even better is the Meditation Essentials course, which has a whole series of lectures just on that diagram alone. So in total, to really comprehend that with practical depth, I invite you to study those resources.

0 Comments

States of Consciousness

3/14/2020

0 Comments

Download PDF

Transcription not yet available.

0 Comments

The Three Brains

3/8/2020

0 Comments

Download PDF

Humanity is unaware of the complete potential of the human being. This is evident when we study religion, mystical traditions, meditation, primarily because we have beings and figures who manifested the greatest ideals of humanity: compassion, selflessness, wisdom, inner strength, patience, and faith. This is a type of knowledge and experience grounded in reality, not merely in belief or a theory, but from actually knowing through experience. This is the essence of Gnosticism, the Greek word γνῶσις gnosis: knowledge from experience, from one's first-hand account and direct perception of the truth.

So there are beings who fully manifested that truth. We call them avatars, prophets, masters, enlightened ones, buddhas, angels, gods. These are all different names, different terms, that point towards one reality―that we have the potential to become like that: perfect, awake, aware of reality, and primarily, the origins of suffering, the origins of pain―why we go through life on repeat, mechanically, identified with all of “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” to quote Hamlet.

For this course, we have been explaining and discussing, precisely, the means and the methods to overcome suffering, which of course relates to what we call mechanicity, the mechanics of nature. We spoke previously about the human machine: how our body is a transformer of energy, a transformer of food, air, water, but also vitamins, chemistry, principles, forces. Our human machine, when it is well, when it is balanced, knows how to maintain a state of homeostasis, of equilibrium, of health. When we get sick, when there is a break in the mechanics of that machine, we get ill and we suffer.

While this is a very specific example of our human organism, we also state that our thoughts, our feelings, and our will to act, are also mechanical―in most people. It is a machine. We tend to go through our day, repeating the same thoughts, repeating the same emotions, repeating the same actions without really comprehending how our own mind, our own thinking, our own ways of behaving, produce conflict.

The origin of suffering is psychological. It is internal. But sadly, many people do not ever question what the origin of suffering is. In most cases, we like to externalize: that yes, perhaps a system, a type of politics or machinery is imposing on us, and that can be true to a degree. But the manner by which we respond to life has greater force, greater impact, than anything.

When our human machine, our body, is in balance, we have health. But likewise, the mind and the heart, when they are imbalanced, when they are afflicted with negative emotions, with anger, with resentment, with anxiety, pain, fear, pride, lust, hatred, we become imbalanced beings. We are afflicted, and we go through life indulging in these negative habits, these qualities of mind, these conditions, which make us repetitive, mechanical, machines.

But there is a way out of suffering. This is what every religion teaches: how to cease being a machine, a mechanical being, so that those energies which come to us from nature, from our food, from the water we drink, the air we breathe, the impressions we take into our mind, those become transformed with consciousness, with attention, with awareness.

In that transformation, we have understanding of life. We don't go through life suffering, repeating the same mistakes, and not knowing the origin of pain. For example, perhaps at work a person insults us. The impression of that comment enters our mind and then there is a transformation that occurs in the moment. Suddenly, we have a surge of emotion, a surge of thought, that “This person insulted me.” It could be pride, but it also can be anger.

This is an egotistical reaction. It is a condition of mind that we typically do not question. We do not look at the origin of that process, of that mechanicity, of that machinery, so that, to that person, we respond, or better said, we react unconsciously, with anger or resentment, or criticism. And then suffering continues. This is the concept of samsara in Buddhism: cyclical existence, cycling, repetition, being on repeat, like a broken record.

But there is a way out of those types of situations and sufferings, to cease being mechanical. In the moment that person says a negative word, insults us, says something painful, but if we were awake, aware as a soul, as a consciousness, we can see and understand that the person who insults us is in suffering. They are afflicted with the disease which is ego, egotism, and a sense of self that is the origin of pain. By learning to understand the other person and the source of their pain―perhaps they have a tragedy in their life, a suffering, a conflict in their home―much of our own personal investment in that comment ceases, dissipates, is calmed.

In that way, we have peace. We have understanding. We have serenity, because if we are not aware of how our own mind reacts, and if we don't question our own reaction, we give in to that element. We call that ego, egotism, desire, negativity, conditions of mind. But in order to achieve that type of transformation, it requires a lot of intelligence, a lot of effort, a lot of will.

Precisely, it requires methods of transformation. There are techniques by which we can achieve that state moment by moment, day by day. But if we are content with our state, obviously we don't question where does our pain come from. This is why many people never approach a type of spirituality, or meditation or studying. But people who do, feel an inquietude, a longing to change, and that quality originates from our divine nature, which is Being, divinity, presence, which is not outside, but in the heart.

So the purpose of this lecture is to examine how to connect with divinity with precise methods, with intelligence, with wisdom, so that when we face specific conflicts in life, we transform them. We do so with understanding, with intelligence. We reduce our own negative reactions and transform them into comprehension, into peace.

The Three Brains and Nervous Systems

The way that we examine this process is by examining what we call three brains.

As we began our meditation today, we talked about the human machine, the human body as a temple. Our body is a temple with three floors, and in some Buddhist artwork, you can see traditionally, especially in the map of the nine stages of meditative concentration, a Buddhist monk ascending up a winding path, leaving a pagoda with three floors. In those traditional paintings, this is a representation of the human machine. Three floors: thought, feeling, and action―thought relating with our head, emotions with our heart, and will with our spinal column. We call these three brains.

A brain traditionally is associated only with the intellect, the cranial vault, the cerebral matter, but in profound esoteric studies, a brain is defined by a type of machine. It is a processor of force, of action, of intelligence, of will. A brain processes, physically, nutrients, chemicals, molecules, processes, vitamins, foods, etc. A brain has its material component within different aspects of our body, but on a deeper level, a brain in esotericism refers to how we process thought, emotions, and will.

“The first brain is enclosed within the cranial vault (our head, our spinal column. (This is known as the cerebral spinal nervous system.). The second brain concretely corresponds to the central medulla, the dorsal spine with all of its nervous branches (This relates with the grand sympathetic nervous system, the heart, our emotional qualities, the nerves). The third brain is not located at some specific place nor is it related to a specific organ; indeed, the third brain is constituted by the sympathetic nervous plexuses and, in general, by all the specific nervous centers of the physical organism (This is known as the parasympathetic nervous system).” ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education

So the nervous systems in our body is a type of fluidic, material component that helps the body to transmit information. But in us, this tends to be very mechanical, unconscious. We are not aware of the process, usually of thought. This is evident in our daily life.

In most cases we tend to think mechanically. We are washing dishes and we are thinking of something else. We are on the “L,” we are riding the train, we are thinking of other things, and then if we were to snap to attention, in the moment, we forget what we were even thinking about. The mind was wandering. Our thoughts were elsewhere. Likewise, with emotion, the emotional brain, the heart. We are processing emotions and feelings, and sometimes we may not be even aware of why we are sad, or upset, or angry, or anxious, but that we are compelled by this mood in the emotional center without knowing why. That means that we are profoundly asleep.

We don't know why we think what we do, why we feel what we do, and also in relation to the third brain: the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, which is the spine, the sexual organs and the base of our head, or base of our neck―we usually don't understand why we act in certain ways, and this could be evident by extreme cases such as in a crisis.

In a moment, we have to act, respond to a very serious situation, but perhaps we mistakenly behave in the wrong way. We make an error and later we reflect, “Why did I do that? Why did I act mistakenly in that instant?” We may feel remorse, pain.

So these three brains, these three machines: the intellectual brain, the emotional brain, the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, these are mechanical instruments that can process negative qualities of mind, or if these centers are pure, can reflect divinity. And this is the essence of why we study the three brains, why we study the nervous systems, because it tells us our level and quality of being.

Equanimity within the Three Brains

I have been giving you examples of how our own egotism, our own negativities, our conditions of mind, misuse our thinking, our emotions and ways of acting. But we have to understand too that these three brains, these machines, are receptive when they are calm, through states and practices such as meditation.

In most people, our thoughts tend to be very chaotic, sometimes our life. Our emotions can be up and down depending on the situations of life, and our behaviors can be conditioned or negative depending on the degree of the person. If you examine yourself in meditation, you sit down and relax. You observe your mind. Observe your heart. Observe your body. What we usually find is a lot of chaos: thoughts all over the place, wandering. Emotions surging with pain. The body tense, sick, agitated, wanting to move. There is no stillness. This means that our three brains are imbalanced. They are not operating in an optimal way, and the way that you figure that out is by observing.

In our meditation, we were relaxing, looking. That means that our consciousness, our soul, our Essence, our buddha-nature, is actively looking inside at the origin of thought, the origin of feeling, the origin of will or impulse―not trying to repress the mind, the heart, the body; not trying to justify what we see either: to defeat it, to strengthen it, but looking. This is the key of awareness, which many teachers like Eckhart Tolle, many Buddhist philosophers, many Muslim, Christian, Jewish mystics all point towards. They all teach that we need to observe our human machine.

Observe the origin of our qualities of being, so that by looking at them, we can see. Is this thought correct? Is this emotion correct? Is this action correct? And so when you work to look inside, we start to awaken perception. This is the meaning of religion, to awaken consciousness, to awaken the soul, so that by first acquiring serenity of mind, heart, and body, we learn to access types of experiences, which are not normal, not accessible to the average lay person. These are mystical experiences. These are connections with the divine, because in the meditation, we are looking to calm the mind.

The mind, when it is clear like a lake, when there is no rippling of thought or agitation, likewise with the heart and the body, and when you physically fall asleep, let your body rest, but your consciousness is awake, you can experience states of being in the dream state, but not dreaming, not unconscious, but to be awake in that world, so that you want to communicate with what religions called divinity, whatever the name. That way, we acquire knowledge and intelligence, understanding, experience.

But to do that, we have to take care of our human machine, our nervous systems. Eat well. Drink good water. Take care of our body. Exercise. Meditate. Relax the body. Relax the mind. Relax the heart. Learn to observe and be aware throughout the day at what reactions emerge in us in a relation to certain situations. In that way, we transform our state. Also, learn to take in good impressions of life: exercise, sports, soothing music, activities that help to balance these centers so that they are calm; they are serene.

Energy, Tantrism, and the Infinite

So this trinity is very important within many religions. We have an intellectual brain, we have an emotional brain, and we have a sexual brain, sometimes referred to as the brain of action, movement, instinct, which is synthesized in the base of our sexual organs, but also the spine.

In Buddhism they spend a lot of time talking about tantra, which simply means continuum, and as you see here in this image of a man and woman, you find the symbol of the holy eight, the infinite, in which all the forces of these centers or parts of our machine are circulating energy properly. The energies rise from the sexual glands, go to the heart, to the brain, likewise circulating back again to the heart, then the sexual glands.

In Buddhism, there is a plethora of scriptures and teachings relating to how we use energy. It is one of the most important aspects of that tradition, especially, one of the highest levels of teaching, because how we use our energy determines our health mentally, emotionally, physically. How we take care of these three brains determines everything, determines a state of mind that is conducive for meditation, but also awakening within internal states, which we call the dream state, the dream world.

The Dalai Lama spoke a lot about the importance of energy, how we use our energy, because if we invest our energy in negative thoughts, negative emotions, negative will, we deepen suffering. But likewise, if we learn to understand how these energies work through awakening, through meditation, we learn to process those forces in a conscious way.

“In the view of Tantra, the body's vital energies are the vehicles of the mind. When the vital energies are pure and subtle, one's state of mind will be accordingly affected. By transforming these bodily energies we transform the state of consciousness. (We awaken. We attain states of experience which are very profound). It is vital to understand and develop the conviction that consciousness has the potential to increase to an infinite degree.” ―The 14th Dalai Lama

This is paralleled in the teachings of the Christian Gospels, especially by a very famous verse in the Book of Mark, chapter 12 verses 28 to 34, in which a lawyer, I believe, asked Jesus of Nazareth, who is a great master of meditation, about what is the highest commandment. What is the highest teaching that one can follow to really obtain the meaning of religion? Which is from the Latin religare, “to reunite,” reunion with divinity.

“Regarding the First Commandment, Jesus answered, ‘The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: Jehovah Elohim our God, Jehovah Elohim is one.’” ―Mark 12:29

So that term Jehovah Elohim is Hebrew. It refers to the teachings of Jewish mysticism called Kabbalah, which we study in this school and also in our courses. You may be familiar with what is called the Tree of Life, which is a map of the soul from the lowest levels of materiality to the highest. So that map is a means of understanding experiences in meditation.

As I said, you can awaken and dreams and you enter those dimensions when the physical body is asleep, so that you can converse in those worlds with your own divinity, which the mystics of Kabbalah call Jehovah Elohim: a beautiful name.

"And you shall love Jehovah Elohim your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all your mind, and with all of your strength." ―Mark 12:30

So notice here, this excerpt is talking about the three brains. To love one's God with one's thoughts, one's emotions, ones will, one's energy. These are the three brains.

What does it mean to love God in that way? It means that when we are at work, and we are criticized and we feel anger boiling inside, wanting to react, to say something hurtful, negative, instead, we love divinity by being aware of that element and not acting on it, but having compassion, by acting ethically for the benefit of others. This is the sacrifice of one's negativity, and is the beginning of religion. We do not act on negative qualities because it harms others, but also in a basic way, it harms ourselves. We create problems. And by loving God―or loving, better said, our Being, our presence, that quality of mind that is compassion, selflessness, understanding―we deepen that and cultivate that quality.

“The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.” ―Mark 12:31

So this is the essence of the Christian Gospel, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” If we feed anger, we don't love our neighbor, we instead love pain. And in that way we produce and contribute to all the sorrows of humanity.

The Path of Balance and Vital Currencies

So it's important that we understand that the three brains, in ancient cultures, were always cultivated, were always developed in a balanced way. For those of us here who have perhaps worked in education, might know that in the modern era there is a profound emphasis on the intellect at the exclusion of everything else. And this is a great problem with academic knowledge today. It does not take into consideration the need to balance everything: the emotions and our body in harmony. Usually there is too much emphasis placed on memorization, rote knowledge, intellect, but of course, the ancient societies and cultures knew that in order to really develop a balanced person, a happy person, all three brains must be cultivated, balanced, developed.

This is because each brain has its fuel, has its energy, and if you have studied teachings like that of Gurdjieff, the Fourth Way schools, they talk a lot about what is interestingly called Bobbin-Kandelnosts. This is a language from the internal worlds. It's a term that refers to vital currency, vital money―not material, but energy.

The intellectual brain has its currency, its energy, its fuel. Likewise the heart, the emotional brain. Likewise the spine, the body, our movement, our sexuality has a type of energy and fuel that it needs to operate effectively. When those values are abused or spent, then the car doesn't drive, doesn't operate well.

If the intellectual brain is abused, meaning, too much energy is being spent in the mind through too much intellectual activity, that produces mental imbalances, sicknesses, diseases such as schizophrenia, delusional disorders, qualities of mind that are very common in this humanity.

Likewise with the heart. If the emotions are churning with negative qualities, with anger, with resentment, people develop emotional sicknesses: depression, anxiety, fear, of which the medical profession is very aware of.

And likewise, the abuse of the motor brain, too much movement, too much exercise, that is out of balance―people become physically ill, paraplegic, incapacitated, in a wheelchair.

The ancient societies, whether of Greece, Rome, Chaldea, Babylon, these cultures knew in their heart, in their origins, that the three brains must be balanced, must be harmonized. Because if we waste our money, esoterically speaking, we spend too much money or vital values from our intellect, we become sick in the mind. Likewise, the heart and the body.

“The great law has wisely deposited within each of the three brains of the intellectual animal a definite capital of vital values (Bobbin-Kandelnosts).” ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education

So we explained previously in this course how we are intellectual animals. The word animal comes from anima, meaning “soul,” to “animate,” to have life. And we know from the animal kingdom that they have behaviors such as competition, pride, resentment, anger, etc. Those belong to the animal kingdom. Because we have an intellect, we rationalize, we think, we are intellectual animals with the potential becoming truly human, a perfected being like Jesus, like Buddha, Moses, Krishna.

“Saving such capital prolongs life, whereas squandering such capital produces death.

“Even if this seems incredible, the truth is that―within each person―death is processed in thirds. It has already been demonstrated completely that every illness has its basis in one of the three brains.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education

So we explain this how abusing the mind relates to mental illness, emotional illness, physical illness.

“The basis of a fundamental education lies in the intelligent cultivation of the three brains. In the ancient mysteries of Babylon, Greece, India, Persia, Egypt, etc., students received direct, integral information for their three brains by means of precepts, dances, music, etc., intelligently combined.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education

So it's not enough just to have a hodgepodge of activities, but better said, to be used with balance and harmony. This is the origin of ancient theater, Greek theater, even British theater. Or exercise, sports, competition, music, art, painting, sculpture, etc.

“The theaters of ancient times were part of education. Drama, comedy, and tragedy in combination with special mimicry, music, oral teaching, etc., served to place information within the three brains of each individual.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education

This type of teaching used to be spiritual. The ancient schools of mysteries, of Gnosticism, from whatever continent, always taught a spiritual wisdom of how to awaken the soul from its state of slumber, from its ignorance. It did that in the form of art, music, sculpture, painting, poetry, etc.

Unfortunately in these times, much of our art, theater, dance, etc., has forgotten this, but the origins and reason why these media existed was to communicate something profound. And if you are interested in learning more of how these spiritual teachings were present in different traditions, you can look at chicagognosis.org. We have a whole course dedicated to Opera, called The Secret Teachings of Opera, in which we explain the symbolism of certain artwork to communicate these ideals, these principles.

“At that time, students did not abuse the thinking brain, since they knew how to intelligently use their three brains in a balanced way.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education

So again, the human machine is made of thought, feeling, and will, impulse, instinct. We spoke previously about ego, egotism, desire, the mind. The word ego in Latin means “I.”

Of course in modern pop psychology, we like to think that someone who has a big ego is somebody who is very proud or likes to put themselves before others. But in esotericism, the word ego is more profound and in fact relates to everybody. The sense of self that says “me, myself, I: my feelings, my culture, my race, my identity, my sexuality, my beliefs, my theories, my politics―me, myself, I.” That is ego, the sense of self we have now―egotism, ego, the sense of identity we have―is conditioned, unfortunately, but there is a way to transform that mechanicity, those negative qualities into something creative, something intelligent, that is for the benefit of oneself and others.

The “I” operates through our three brains. Sometimes we refer to this as five centers as we explained in the previous lecture: the intellectual center, the emotional center, and then through the spinal column: the motor-instinctive-sexual centers.

Movement relates to our spine at the top, because if someone is injured at the top of the spine, they can't move. They can't act. They have no ability to operate well.

You have instinct at the base of the spine, which is related to our animal inheritance, our animal past. Animal qualities like pride, resentment, etc., survival instinct.

And then sexuality relating to our glands.

The Ego and the Five Inferior Centers

So our ego, our “‘I’ exercises control over the five inferior centers of the human machine.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

So as we stated, our own negativity, our conditions, our egotism, uses our thoughts, feelings, and will to operate. Of course, in those examples I provided you, when we react to life in a negative way, in a conditioned way, it is because of ego.

The ego is operating through our heart, through resentment, but also has thoughts. “This person wronged me,” and then the will to act, the will to behave, to respond with criticism. So notice that ego, each desire, each fault, has its own thinking, its own feeling, its own will, its own ways of behaving.

We also explained that the ego is not one. It is not an individual self, but it is multiple. Every defect: pride, resentment, anger, fear, lust, desire, is a multiplicity. It is a fracturing. This is very easy to see in ourselves if we are honest. In one moment, we may love somebody, in the next moment, we hate them. We like to attribute that quality to an individual identity. This is the failure of Western philosophy: to think that the self is unitary. This is a big mistake, which the Eastern religions and traditions understand is at fault, because in Buddhism, they always talk about some samskaras, kleshas, veils, conditions of mind, aggregates, defects.

Pride is a different ego. Fear is a different ego, hatred, etc. These are senses of self that don't have any order, and if you observe your mind, you pay attention, you can see that process in yourself. It is not pleasant to recognize that we are a multiplicity, but it explains many of our own contradictions. But of course, there is a way out, to acquire what we define as genuine individuality, which is sacred.

Real individuality is like that of a prophet, a self, a being that has no errors, no faults, no anger, no anger, no pride. They disintegrated the ego. And this is the meaning of the great religious battles within Christianity, Judaism, Islam―between God above and the devil below. This is not just about something external, but something psychological, because anger is a demon. Pride is a demon. Fear, resentment, the seven capital sins, whatever we want to refer to that as, is demonic. Therefore, we have to learn to eliminate those faults, comprehend them, so that we no longer go along with the mechanicity of life, suffering in those states. Because when you eliminate egotism, you extract the soul. You free the genie from Aladdin's lamp, in order to perform miracles in your state of mind.

Because when anger is eliminated, we develop sweetness and serenity. When lust is eliminated, we develop purity of body and mind. When pride is eliminated, we develop humility. When we annihilate anger too, we also develop compassion. So when the ego dies the soul is born.

This is the Christian allegory of resurrection. When the impurities die, the soul is reborn. It is revitalized. It is new. So to get to that point, we study our three brains. We observe our thoughts, our feelings, and our will, to understand how they function.

“Whosoever wants to dissolve the ‘I’ must study its functionalism within the five inferior centers. We must not condemn the defects; we must not justify them either. What is important is to comprehend them.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

So this is a type of spiritual work, or as different traditions state, a type of warfare, in which one confronts oneself. This is the meaning of jihad in Islam, the esoteric meaning. It does not mean to kill someone who is not of your faith, but psychologically, we confront the causes of our own suffering.

We must not repress what we see, neither justify them. One must comprehend these elements. It is not enough just to label something and push it away, to not look at that state. And of course, it is very difficult to do. It's very unpleasant, because the mind doesn't like to acknowledge its faults. This is well known within the counseling profession, psychology, in terms of repression, where clients do not like to look at the origin of their traumas, their pain, their suffering. This is the type of resistance in the mind not to see that.

Neither must we justify our faults.To say, “Well that person deserved my comments, my resentment, because they wronged me.” This is also a wrong state of mind. We have to comprehend how those elements function in us. This is comprehension. This is understanding, because when you comprehend an error, you can work towards its elimination, and then we have peace, understanding. This is a the method for awakening, direct perception, awareness.

“It is urgent to comprehend the actions and reactions of the human machine. Each one of these five inferior centers has a whole set of extremely complicated actions and reactions.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

This is very easy to see if you observe. For example, if you put your hand on a hot stove, you feel pain. You react. You pull your hand away instinctively. You move. And then you feel the emotions and the pain of that experience, where you feel anger, perhaps, followed by the thoughts that hurt: “I shouldn't do that.”

There are all sorts of complicated processes in this one moment in which our body moves. We feel. We think, but typically we don't observe that process. So the work of transformation is precisely beginning with awareness, self-observation: observing one's mind, emotions, etc., from a state of equanimity, of dispassion. Neither looking to judge, nor to label, nor to repress what we see, but simply gather data about our states of mind. And in that way we comprehend the origins of suffering.

“The ‘I’ works with each one of these five inferior centers. Therefore, by deeply comprehending the whole mechanism of each one of these centers, we are on our way to dissolving the ‘I.’” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

Or to use Christian terms, dissolving satan, the lower soul.

The Different Paths of the Three Brains

In the process of developing the three brains, we also talk a lot about different types of paths that existed. There have been paths in the world that had become firm traditions.

Fakirism: The Path of Physicality

There are people who simply want to develop their body, the ability to overcome pain, pleasure, sensations, impulse, instinct. We call that fakirism, and you find a lot of these cults exist today, where people are only dedicated to the body, overcoming pain, such as walking on hot coals, simply because they want to prove that they can dominate the physical body.

But of course, the problem with this path is that it is extreme. It is unnecessary. It develops will, but it does not develop understanding. The ability to overcome pain is not the not the primary focus of real spirituality. So in fakirism, people lie in a bed of nails. There are people who, literally fakirs raising their hand for 15 years until they lost all nerves and feeling in their arm, so that they couldn't move it.

The point and the question is, why do that? What's the point? Because they felt that by controlling the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, the body, that somehow they were going to reach God, divinity. Of course, this is a mistake.

Fakirism is very limited, unnecessary. Spirituality is not predicated on overcoming pain, physically. It is not the whole gamut of self-transformation.

Monasticism: The Path of Emotionality

Likewise, there is the path of emotionality, of monks, monasticism, emotion. There are people who feel that religion is only about developing the heart: praying, going to church, performing rituals. They feel that this is the only way to God, divinity, but also this is mistaken, because the emotional brain by itself is not enough.

We have to cultivate the body. We have to cultivate the mind. And so, these traditions, which originally were very sacred and developed all three brains at once, were balanced, but unfortunately, with time and traditions, things become habitualized, mechanical.

In most churches or synagogues or monasteries, they only develop the heart through prayer, which is good. It is beautiful to develop that and necessary, but to only do that one thing is not enough.

Yoga: The Path of Intellectuality

And lastly we have the path of intellectuality, of yoga, when we talk about the three brains. This is the path of scriptural study, the intellect, because when you study meditation, you have to read about it. You have to learn from somebody what the steps are, what the principles are, what the path is. Many people feel that simply by reading books and studying with the intellect is enough. But unfortunately, this is also mistaken, because people who tend to read a lot at the exclusion of the heart and the body become imbalanced.

Becoming a giant library or walking library still can't resolve the problems of suffering, because having a lot of intellectual knowledge doesn't make one wise. Instead, knowledge that is applied to practice is wisdom, is essential.

These three paths related to the three brains. These are the lower paths that relate to spiritual traditions.

Energy and the Tree of Life

On the image here we have the Tree of Life, which is the Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah. This is a map of different levels and gradations of energy, of materiality, of perception, and we use this glyph in this course and in these studies because they teach us about ourselves. It is a map of the soul of where we are and what we wish to achieve.

This image can be used to interpret any tradition, any religious cosmogony. It is associated typically with the science of numbers. So you notice that there are ten spheres here: three trinities and one sphere below at the bottom. If you are familiar with Christianity, we know that they are very identified with the Trinity itself, which we call Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Or to use Egyptian terms: Osiris, Horus, Isis. Amongst the Nordics: Wotan, Baldur, Thor.These are principles, not people. These are forces. These are energies that exists inside of us, which we can learn to cultivate if we know how.

Below that trinity we have seven spheres which are very important for our practical development. At the bottom, we have our physical body, physical energy.

We also have vital energy, creative energy, sexual energy.

We have emotional energy.

We have mental energy.

We have energy related to volition or will.

Then we have energy relating to consciousness, conscious perception.

And then we have the spirit, spiritual force.

The term spirit in strict esoteric language is Being, is divinity. It is the divine in us, the highest, or one of the highest forms of force, which we seek to practice and develop through our exercises that we have in this tradition.

It is important to remember that while we want to balance our three brains, while we want to use the energy as well, simply holding onto energy is not enough. Saving energy is not enough.

We talked a lot about in alchemical traditions, European traditions, how one must become hermetically sealed, according to hermetic philosophy. It is a very old tradition, which is depicted through symbols. Hermeticism means to not let out any energy at all, neither to waste energies of the mind, the body, or the heart.

What is important is that while we save energy, by not acting on ego, by performing spiritual action, compassionate action, we also learn to direct that energy with will, with perception, with understanding. That is the key.

Comprehend how the energies of thought work. Comprehend how the energies of emotion work. Comprehend how the energies of instinct, movement, and sexuality work. That is how we become a Tree of Life, a Christmas tree that is illuminated with perfection, because without energy there is no light, no force.

We can say that our intellectual brain relates to mental energy, the sphere below, the fourth of the bottom. And of course, in strict Hebrew terms, these are called sephiroth, which means emanations, spheres. Sephirah is singular. So this sephirah, relating with the mind, is the fourth in the bottom. It is our intellectual brain.

We also have the emotional brain, relating to the left, the third sephirah from the bottom.

And likewise, we have movement related to our physical body.

We have instincts relating to our will, our impulses, our ability to act in life.

And we also have creative-sexual-energy. These constitute the motor-instinctive-sexual brain.

It is important to remember that yes, we must save energy, but we have to know how to use the three brains, which is why Samael Aun Weor, the founder of the modern Gnostic tradition states the following in The Great Rebellion:

“No matter how much we might increase our strictly mechanical energy, we will never awaken consciousness." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

So that means by controlling the body through fakirism, overcoming sensation, the body, movement, one does not awaken.

“No matter how much we might increase the vital forces within our own organism, we will never awaken consciousness." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

That relates to vital breath and yoga. If you are familiar with yoga, they talk a lot about pranayama: interchangeable nostril breathing, in which you circulate vital force, prana, in Sanskrit meaning life: the life energy throughout your body, your mind, your heart. It is not enough just to work with that energy, to circulate it. It is important, but it is not the entirety of what one must do to obtain yoga.

“Many psychological processes take place within us without any intervention from the consciousness." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

This relates to emotion, the heart. So notice that consciousness is not the body. It is not physicality. People like to think superficially, in American culture and also abroad, that we are the body, that our appearance determines who we are, and sadly this is what many people believe. But the reality is that we are not the body, because we operate in the body. People often look at others and say, “I wish I could look as beautiful as that person.” It means that we are not the body, because we're thinking outside of that.

Neither are we the vital energies that we have within in us. We need vital energy to operate, to be awake physically. Sometimes in the morning, we have more energy, or in the evening we feel tired. That relates to our vital forces.

And likewise our emotions, our emotional energy. We tend to invest a lot of our identity into it. We tend to feel that we are really our emotions, whether it be anger, pride, resentment, etc. However, in strict spiritual terms, our emotions are not the consciousness, the soul. The soul is even deeper than those qualities.

So “Many psychological processes take place within us without any intervention from the consciousness.” This is something we have to discover for ourselves by observing our mind, our heart.

“However great the disciplines of the mind might be, mental energy can never achieve the awakening of the diverse functions of the consciousness.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

Meaning: reading a lot, studying a lot―having a lot of theory and knowledge in the mind. It is good. It is important, but it is not the totality of what we need to awaken the soul.

“Even if our willpower is multiplied infinitely, it can never bring about the awakening of the consciousness.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

So it is admirable that one has a lot of will in life, to survive and to thrive, but having will is not enough. Will has to be directed by our inner Spirit. As Jesus said, "Father if it is possible, take this cup of bitterness from me, but not my will, but Thine be done." So we have the will to go up towards higher states of being, or to go down. It depends on our actions. But even if we have a lot of willpower in life, it is not exclusive of the other spheres. Willpower is important, but even that must be directed and balanced, because notice that willpower, volitional energy, is at the very center.

It is very important, because if you take this image of the tree, you put it in a human being, you find that the top trinity relates with the head, the middle trinity relate to the heart, the lower trinity relates with our thighs and our sexual glands. The lower sphere (Malkuth) relates to our feet.

Our willpower can also relate to our heart, our emotions, especially in a higher sense. And so volition determines where we go. How we behave and how we act with will determines everything. That is why it is a much more subtle and refined element and very difficult to pinpoint, but something we can experience. Our will can either follow our divinity, or negativity and egotism. So willpower is not enough. It has to be directed.

“All these types of energy are graded into different levels and dimensions, which have nothing to do with the consciousness.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

Which is the sixth sphere from the bottom to the top in the left pillar.

“Consciousness can only be awakened through conscious work and upright efforts.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

So in our tradition we have a lot of practices that we use to develop the intellect, the emotions, and our body. We have yoga practices. We have sacred sounds or prayers, mantras. We have yogic positions. We have teachings of tantra, sexuality, marriage, matrimony, working with creative force, pranayama. We have exercises called the runes, which relate to the Nordic alphabet, in which we put our body into certain positions in accordance with the letters of the runic letters, in order to assimilate energy and force, to awaken the soul. We have meditative practices too, many. We use all these exercises in balance because they all take these forces and cultivate them in a conscious way.

Having a lot of energy is not enough in life. We can have a lot of vitality, will to act, a lot of energy in the mind, the heart, but we have to learn how to use that potential in a very intelligent way, which is the meaning of this quote. It doesn't mean that we have to disregard these forces below the consciousness. It means that we know how to use them. Because remember the soul is like a person driving a car. These spheres, these energies relate to how our car operates, our body operates. A person can have a lot of fuel in their car, but they can be reckless with their attention and they can get into an accident. So if we know how to drive our car well, take care of the car, feed it good fuel, that is what we drive to our destination.

The Three Factors

All this is synthesized in the Passion of Jesus who came to represent, with his physical life, these principles. So one thing is the man of Jesus of Nazareth who existed, who taught humanity a very vital teaching, and one thing is what he symbolized. He represents a type of willpower, of conscious work, that is: the ability to overcome all suffering, as we saw in the Passion, of his Crucifixion. He was ridiculed, spat upon, mocked, humiliated, beaten, tortured, killed. And yet throughout that entire time, he only said “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” So he was very conscious, had no pride, no anger. And he was showing a type of work that overcomes adversity.

Perhaps in life we have our own passion to go through, our own crucifixion, which is very painful, where we face ordeals and circumstances that are very difficult. But by learning to develop compassion, eliminate mistaken states of mind, we balance our three brains.

In the Book of Matthew chapter 16 verse 24 you find the principles of the three brains represented.

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.’” ―Matthew 16:24

We call these three factors of spiritual awakening.

Birth, which means give birth to the soul. Learn to conserve your energy, especially the creative sexual energy, and then learn to direct it with will. We do that through exercise of yoga, the perfect matrimony, pranayama, many exercises, to take that energy, and instead of expelling it, we learn to conserve it, transform it. It gives birth to the soul. It awakens the soul.

But also one must deny oneself, meaning: negate all the impure qualities of the heart, as we have been explaining extensively.

And also to follow him, or divinity. So it is important to remember that we are not predicating or pushing for the worship of the physical personality of Jesus. Instead, he represents what in Gnostic terms is called Christ, which is an energy. And if you look back at the Tree of Life, we refer to Christ as the top trinity, or more specifically the second sphere. Because above is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Jesus of Nazareth came to embody that force in his life to teach us something practical. So the top trinity can be called Christ, Krestos, which means “fire” in Greek. It is the fire of life in our body, in our three brains, that gives us life and spirituality. If we use it for divinity, it transforms us.

“Any man will come after me, he must deny himself,” negate his negative emotions or her negative emotions, “take up the cross and follow” him or divinity, our inner divinity, our inner Spirit.

The cross is a very beautiful symbol, which of course is not understood at all today. While it is a symbol of sacrifice, it is also a symbol of sexual teachings, teachings of tantrism in Buddhism, teachings of genuine yoga, the highest spiritual teachings. Because the phallus is the vertical beam, the uterus is a horizontal beam. Together, when a husband and wife unite, or a couple unites, by training their mind, cultivating the energies of love, they awaken the full potential of the being.

This is very well known within Buddhism, the highest teachings. Or amongst the Sufis in Islam, Marifah. Amongst the Gnostics, it is Gnosis. Or amongst the Jews, Daath, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil―symbols―that teach these truths.

To follow divinity is to affirm God, affirm our Being, which means to work for the benefit of humanity, not for our own selfish desires, but for others, with compassion.

These are important principles. We are going to talk about these three factors in more depth later in this course.

And so the Gnostic path is the balance of those three, the three brains, the three paths: fakirism, monasticism, yoga. The Gnostic path is the union and balancing of all three. It is the harmony, the synthesis, which you find represented in this image of the Rosicrucian Cross. And the Rosicrucians were a very ancient Gnostic order that once had a lot of value in life and teaching, which we study.

Notice that in this image, you have a lot of symbols which are very abstract. You have astrology, relating to the planets. You have the Hebrew letters circulating around a rose of spirituality. You have pentagrams, and all these intricate symbols which simply point, in their synthesis, in their representation, towards forces in the heart and the mind and the body.

A pentagram is really a human being standing upright―hands out, feet out, head towards the heavens. It is a symbol of the perfect human being. Meaning: the head is following divinity. It is positive, but some people have misappropriated that symbol by turning it upside down, which is an inverted image. It means that one's reason is going down into negative states called hell realms. This is the black pentagram or the pentagram of the black sabbath, which is a different path, a very negative one, in which one develops one’s conditions of mind intentionally.

All the letters of Hebrew which are symbols of principles from Aleph, the first letter of Hebrew to Tav, the final letter. These are symbols. These are representations of forces, which we all find synthesized in the harmonization of what we call the cross, a symbol of a matrimony, because when husband and wife cross themselves physically, they awaken spiritual energy, especially. If they know how to cultivate that energy well, conserve it and keep it sacred, in truth, they become a perfect human being. This is the secret teachings of all ages, which is now being made public since the 1960's in the writings of Samael Aun Weor.

This is the path of Taoism, balance, harmony.

“The Tao Path includes three paths, and Tao itself is the fourth. Much has been said about the four paths. We Gnostics travel along the fourth path in full consciousness. During the sexual act, we transmute the brutal instincts of our physical body into willpower…” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

So this is a term that is very interesting: transmutation, transformation. This is known as alchemy: taking the brute lead of our negativity and transforming it into the gold of the spirit. It is a symbol. It does not mean that people were actually in Europe trying to turn lead into gold. There were some people who did think it could happen, but it is a symbol. You transform your lust, your desires, into purity, perfection. And you can also transform the seminal matter, and by conserving it, we can transform it into spiritual force that gives birth to divinity in us. The brutal instincts or passions of the body become will, a strong will, a profound will. Also:

“…the passionate emotions of the Astral Body into love…” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

And the astral body relates to the vehicle we operate with in dreams. So people often talk about lucid dreams, out-of-body experiences, awakening in dreams. That is a truth relating to, again, higher dimensions, which we access when we physically go to sleep. So the physical body rests and the soul travels mostly unconsciously in that realm, dreaming or projecting dreams, not being aware of what is around. So the emotions of this astral body become transformed into love:

“…and the mental impulses into comprehension.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

So these are the three lower paths synthesized. We don't have to become fakirs, lying on a bed of nails, to develop will. Instead we have other practices which are much more expedient and useful.

“As Spirit, we perform the Great Work (which is religion, religare, reunion). This is how we travel along the four paths in practice. We do not need to become fakirs for the first path, neither monks for the second, nor scholars for the third. The path of the Perfect Matrimony permits us to travel the four paths during the sexual act itself.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

Of course, this is a very high teaching, the highest ideals, because love is the greatest religion. A couple can learn to use all the energies they have, to “love thy God with all thy mind, all thy heart, all thy soul and all thy strength” (Matthew 22:37-39). Really, we get most of our strength from the sexual energy. It is what gives us life, and people who deplete their sexual energy excessively, they become weak.

The word virya in Sanskrit means “strength.” It is where where we get the word virility, virtue. The virtues of the soul blossom like a rose upon the cross of a marriage. So husband and wife can learn to use these forces to transform themselves and balance all three brains. But of course, we have many techniques and explanations about how to do that, which we will be talking about successively in our courses. But in synthesis, we want to state that by balancing our three brains and understanding the different traditions that have existed in the past in our humanity, we acquire understanding and harmony.

Questions and Answers

Question: I do a lot of academic work and sometimes I do feel that kind of intellectual depletion, but then I am able to keep going through that. How does esotericism explain that second wind?

Instructor: Yes, so the second winds symptom relates to, basically, when you use too much energy in one brain, unfortunately that brain, because it is depleted, it has to get energy from somewhere. So what it does is that it steals energy from the other centers, and that gives one a second wind, which you feel revitalized, re-energized, you are able to get back into work to do whatever one is focused on.

But that type of high is, in reality, negative, because we were tired an hour ago, but then suddenly we have more energy and we become hyper-manic sometimes, where you feel like you have more energy, you have to keep working. That is because the mind, the intellect, is depleted, and it starts stealing fuel from the sexual center. The sexual energy is the most powerful. Literally, it is the ability to create a human being, to create life, but it is like rocket fuel. It belongs in its center, in its form of modality and operation. If you put rocket fuel into a car, the car will be destroyed, and so gradually people who abuse the intellect keep losing their energy, they start stealing energy from the sexual center until it finally, over time and successfully throughout their life or even other lifetimes, destroys the mind.

Question: Does that work in another direction like, you know, if I deplete my sexual energy and steal energy from other centers in that way. Is that harmful too?

Instructor: Yes, that is the reality too. If we lose the sexual energy and don't conserve it, that throws everything out of balance. And of course, this is the original sin mentioned the Bible―eating from the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil―which has a lot of profound symbolism and hidden meanings, which we can explain. But in synthesis, if we deplete the energy that gives us life, it means that one is going to be weaker, spiritually speaking. And so that center will steal energy from the other centers.

But you have to think of the sexual energy like the foundation of everything that we are, because we come into existence through the sexual act, that force.

Now, you know the vital energy, we place a lot of emphasis on that part of in this teaching, because virya is the source of virility, virtue. That energy is literally the force that animates, and in this teaching, we talk a lot about how by conserving that energy, which can normally create a physical child. You take that same potential, and by circulating it through the vehicle of tantra―the continuum working throughout the different brains, like the image you saw with the man and woman with a symbol of the infinite―that revitalizes the mind, the heart, the body.

There is a lot more science coming out now. People have been studying the role of continence or chastity, which doesn't necessarily mean abstention from sex. It simply means using the sexual act in a significant, meaningful, loving relationship, with purity. Immaculate conception, sometimes people refer to in terms of the birth of Jesus. Again, another symbol. While the birth of Jesus was something physical, he represented something profound for us. We can give birth to the golden child of Christ through that very same energy. But of course, in order to do that, Mother Mary must be virgin. But the reality is that to be virgin does not mean to not have sex. It means to be pure in sex. So there is a very profound distinction there.

You know, Mother Mary is the matter, the mater, the matter of God, which is your body. Your body is a temple, which, when it is purified through practices, when it is made virgin and pure, it becomes holy, and then you can take that energy to create something else. That is what one wants by conserving it, transforming it.

We have a lot of material relating to this topic, especially. It's not my intention to talk about all the profound symbols of that path, but that is the essence of Taoism, the Tao, the path of balance. By working with that energy that can create life, you balance all three brains. You perform a continuum of energy. Continuum is tantra, and if you study Buddhism, they talk a lot about tantric marriage, literally seeing deities in sexual union, but not with lust. With love. A very profound difference.

Any other questions?

Question: So it seems like, from what you’ve said, sexuality can be useful on the spiritual path rather than outright repression of it. That is what I get from many spiritual traditions, it seems.

Instructor: They avoid the sexual aspect of religion and unfortunately, that was castrated from Christianity. But Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit” (John 3:6). You can create a child physically through the act that everybody knows, but through alchemy, to fuse oneself with God, one can in a marriage, cultivate that energy in a sacred way.

It is sad people reject that part of their teaching, which is in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, every tradition. So I invite you, if you are interested in learning more about the symbolism of those traditions, we have different texts available. You can read them here or purchase them here, but also you can go on gnosticteachings.org, which has a lot. All the books we have here, especially The Perfect Matrimony, you can go online and read. It talks about all that. You know, we like to be very specific. That's the one part of religion that has been missing, is how to use that energy.

It has never been taught publicly because it wasn't allowed. It's such a volatile and powerful thing to use that energy, that it has been kept secret for millennia. But now we live in a very different era, in which this information is allowed to be given openly in accordance with divinity since the 60s, especially. The sexual revolution, interestingly enough. So I invite you to study that if you are interested.

Question: (paraphrasing) That seems like that went from, when you were talking about the sexual revolution, like we are free from the repression, and it seems like you burned yourself out. I noticed that in myself. I grew up in a very conservative, church type of family... But then I was in the military and I had more choice than at home, and I discovered that there is this other side to it… Burned myself out as well.

Instructor: Exactly, and the thing is, that according to every tradition, sexuality is a door to liberation, but also the door to hell, because it is the most powerful element we carry. We can create life with it. It is the power of divinity to create, and so there are two ways to use that for us, which sadly, monasticism, it avoids. That tradition originally knew the sexual teachings and they practiced in secret with the nuns. A monk would train individually, doing energy exercises to learn to train themselves before they got married, and they were brought together with a nun. Monk and nun working together, but in secret, because it is such a scandalous thing for people to think about.

It is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense according to Peter, the stone of the Gnostic Church; Patar in Latin. So that is the teaching that has been cut out, but now we teach openly because it is the essence of religion. Literally, man and woman uniting together is a form of union, religare. If they love each other and learn to conserve that power, they can turn water into wine, and that is the first miracle of Jesus at a wedding. Husband and wife, the waters of the creative energy, could become the wine of God in your spine, rising up. Some traditions call it Kundalini. Some people call it the fire of Pentecost. Beautiful symbols.

Another Instructor: So when you said that there are three ways, one is to not have sex at all, to repress it, one is an overindulgence where it is abused or lustful way, and then this middle path. You know of the Tao, which you are talking about with sexual alchemy, where the sexual act is engaged in, but in a way working with that energy consciously and in purity, and transforming that energy. So there is not just two ways, but there is a middle path.

Instructor: Yes. Thanks for correcting me, because in that image I had of Jesus with the “deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me” quote, relates to this teaching. There are people who like to justify all the types of animal behavior that exist in relation to sex through pornography, sadomasochism, behaviors that are really degenerate and causes a lot of suffering for humanity. But then there are people who like to repress sex saying, “Oh, that's filthy. It's all disgusting. I want nothing to do with it.” Two extremes. Neither are right. Neither of them are the path of balance. To balance the three brains, one has to know how to use that energy in a sacred way, neither by justifying lust or repressing lust, but looking at it directly.

Audience: Transforming lust into love.

Instructor: Transforming lust into chastity as well. Chasity mean purity. It doesn't mean abstention from sex. This is a confusion created by people who hate sexuality, because they, usually from lifetime to lifetime, they go to extremes: indulging in lust, repressing, indulging, repressing. This is the pendulum that keeps people hypnotized, but in reality, religion, the middle path, the path of genuine Tantric Buddhism, is by learning to take the sexual act and make it something sacred. It doesn't have to do with going to a church or synagogue or mosque, or believing in a tradition, or being repressive. It means enjoying the delights of love in a pure way. And that is something that is very difficult to do, but is gradually developed.

In Buddhism, this is emphasized in his life story, the story of Buddha, how he became an ascetic. He used to be a prince in a palace with many women. He had everything provided for him. He was lustful, indulging in desire, but then he realized the reality of suffering, that he will die one day. People are afflicted by old age, sickness, and death. Therefore, he decided to embark on the spiritual path. He became an ascetic, a fakir, going to the wilderness, meditating all day, living off only off a grain of rice, until he became emaciated and nearly dying. And he was in a lot of suffering, because he thought that this would take him to divinity, to his inner Buddha nature.

But then what happened was that he, I believe he was near a river, in which he heard someone playing a lyre, and then he realized: you can't make the strings too tight nor too loose in order to play music. You can't go to extremes: rejecting sex, indulging in sex. Instead, he realized that one has to use that sexual act in a different way, in a harmonious way. That is when a woman came up to him with a bowl of rice milk, and offered to rejuvenate him. When he drank that, he immediately became enlivened again. He no longer was emaciated. He became whole.

That is a symbol of a marriage: a woman offering him a bowl of milk made of rice. That grain is the sexual seed. It is the energy that is transformed and enlivening the soul. So he knew at that point, symbolically, as a teaching, that you can't repress sex. You can't justify it. You have to look at it in a balanced way, in a spiritual way: the path of balancing the three brains, because the rice milk―milk is a symbol of semen, of energy, how you take that energy, transform it, raise it up your spine to your mind, to your heart. That is how you balance your three centers or three brains.

So in Buddhism, there is that teaching. Very beautifully hidden. You find that in the life of Jesus, even Muhammad in Islam, many teachings relating to different prophets who represented this alchemical path.

We like to be balanced. It's not healthy to indulge in desire. You can look at humanity today. Prostitution rings, all sorts of, you know, filthy practices, which are really harmful. But it's not enough just to run away from it, and it's what people do in religion. They think religion has nothing to do with sex, that they can go to church, pray in the form of the cross and then they go home to the bedroom and act like demons. That is not religion. Religion is all three brains, and the original form of the cross, one points toward the head, the heart and to the sexual organs, and then raising it up to your left arm, to your right. Most Catholics, they do the head, the heart, left shoulder, right shoulder. They ignore the sexual glands.

Real religion is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Father, the energies of divinity, the Father in the head. The energies of the Christ, the Son are in the heart, the emotional brain. And the energies of the Holy Spirit is sex. So take the energy of sex, we do the head, the heart. When you gesticulate, then from sex you raise that energy up to your left shoulder over your heart and to your right shoulder. That is how the Gnostics perform the cross. This is what we do, because it symbolizes: take that energy, it descends from the Father, the Son, to the sexual glands, and then you consciously elevate it, bring it up for your will, relating to your left arm, in accordance with the Kabbalistic teachings, the lustful mind, bringing it to your heart and then your right arm which relates to your Spirit. So some symbology there that is very interesting.

Religion, yoga, is purely sexual. But of course, this topic offends many people because they either look at it with lust or as something to be repressed. But really, a marriage is one of the Holy Sacraments of the Gnostic Church and the Catholic Church too, but obviously, we try to go in more depth.

Question: It always seems like a contradiction how in one point like you said, the church has castrated the teachings of Jesus: teaching that he was not married when a lot of the texts reference his relationship with Mary Magdalene, and how marriage can be elevated into such as high sacrament when they are preaching celibacy and these types of repressive teachings, and what seemed more power exertion to control people rather than the actual teachings that were originally presented.

Instructor: Yes, and you find that in the Catholic Church, because the priests that do not work with the energy, they conserve it but they don't circulate it, they become very imbalanced, which is why you find, in any tradition really, people who practice celibacy, there are a lot of cases of homosexuality and molestation of children in the Catholic Church. There are documentaries, even on Netflix I believe, there is a few going―one going around, where these priests, because they don't know how to work with that energy, to cultivate it in a conscious way, that fire needs to act, but if it is not being directed spiritually or used to awaken the soul, it feeds desire.

Repressing doesn't resolve the problem. Pushing it away doesn't resolve the issues of lust or impurity. Instead, confronting it, take the energy, bear up the cross, deny yourself, deny your desires. That is the whole path. Monasticism only works with the heart, yoga with the intellect, and fakirism only with the physical body. But to be balanced, work with everything. Work with the creative energy. We have exercises to develop will and the heart through prayer. So balance is best, and unfortunately people don't know how to really approach sexuality in a balanced way. But obviously that is something that can be learned.

Question: That’s interesting because I mean, I read lot of things and have investigated orthodoxy for a period of time as well because of the greater depth of spirituality in orthodoxy. You will get a lot where they talk about the monk, the highest order of being: this is the one closest to Christ.

Instructor: Yeah, and it is in every tradition. Every tradition likes to say we have the knowledge and we have the way. We don't claim that we are special. We give teachings that are practical and are helpful, but people decide that on their own and can determine that on their own.

Another Instructor: That is very Piscean. We talk in this tradition about the Aquarian Era, which began around the 60's and that now, teachings which used to be secret in the Piscean Age have become the era of open knowledge. The water of knowledge flowing. And so it used to be that people would go into these secret kind of schools, these mystery schools, and learn these types of teachings, as the instructor was pointing out here, about working individually as a monk or a nun, and then in secret, performing this sexual union. In ancient times that wasn't shown publicly, because it would have been scandalous, but in the Aquarian Era this knowledge became open, so no longer do we have to run off to the woods or the secret esoteric temple in the pyramids to learn this stuff. But you know many traditions cling to the way that it always used to be without the actual essence of that knowledge, the secret, the esoteric part of it still being alive in those traditions. Now, we have the shell and the forms and the empty kind of rituals, which seem beautiful and attractive to us, but always seem to be missing that fire which is, you know, Christ and the Holy Spirit―the living energy of religion which seems to have kind of disappeared from many traditions.

Comment: I mean I can sense it in the Mass that there is something to it in an energetic level. But then it's what do you after you leave and stuff....

Instructor: Exactly. Dion Fortune, who wrote a lot of esoteric books, stated that the reason why the Catholic Church has existed for so long is because it performs Mass in Latin, and those prayers in that language are very powerful, because Oatin is a sacred mantric language, one of languages of God amongst the many: Hebrew, the Nordic Runes, Sanskrit, Arabic, Chinese. Many languages have a powerful element that can invoke energy. So that serves like a conduit for those masses and prayers, in which divinity comes down from the superior worlds and is present there. But the problem becomes what to do with that energy, as you said, because those priests can attract and invoke God, but because their three brains are not circulating energy well, God can't enter into them, because if they don't work with the creative energy, they can't awaken.

If you remember that quote using the Tree of Life, “No matter how much we increase our strictly vital energy, it will never produce the awakening of the consciousness,” because saving energy and being celibate is not enough. You can save that energy, but if you don't direct it, it goes nowhere. And in fact that energy will be misused. It will be fortified or used to fortify desire.

Your three brains are a conduit. That is how you form tantra, the holy eight ∞ in your spine. And we talked a lot about the Caduceus of Mercury in medicine, but also a symbol of how from the sexual glands, there are energetic channels that rise up from the base of our spine and our sexual glands and crisscross up to the head in order to form the wings of the spirit.

So if you are familiar with, amongst veterinarians or doctors, they have that symbol as a symbol of medicine of healing, usually with the symbol of the Rune Hagal amongst the Nordics, a vertical beam with a cross like a six pointed star. It is a symbol of the cross, how the energies of sexuality circulate in the true master. And then, the spine with the wings of the spirit, the wings of the angels open. So when your three brains are fully harmonized and the energy of the Holy Spirit or the Kundalini rises up in a marriage, it awakens our spiritual faculties. That becomes the wings of the angel. And that also balances the three brains.

You have to be balanced in order to work with that energy. But when the priests are praying, they are saying, “God come into us.” Divinity is present. People, even who have a very asleep consciousness can feel that, which is why people flock to religion. They feel God there. But then the question is, “Well, what next?” The question is, you can approach the temple but your body must become a temple. Your mind, your heart, your sexuality, must become pure, so that God can enter into you, and in that way, the inner priest, the inner magician, the inner God, officiates inside of you. It gives you happiness. It is a gradual process though.

0 Comments

Imagination and Fantasy

​Imagination and Serenity: The Keys to Meditation

Imagining is Seeing

​Delusional Perception

​The Dreams and Illusions of the Ego

​Structural and Transactional Analysis

​Fantasy and Self-Deception

​Differences Between Liberated and Conditioned Imagination

​Definitions of Positive and Negative Imagination

​The Basis of Insight: Kabbalah, Perception, and Ethics

​Subconscious Imagination

​Unconscious Imagination

​Infraconscious Imagination

​Conscious Imagination

​Supraconscious Imagination

​Intuition and Awakening

Difficulties with Developing Imagination

​Questions and Answers

States of Consciousness

The Three Brains

The Three Brains and Nervous Systems

​Equanimity within the Three Brains

​Energy, Tantrism, and the Infinite

​The Path of Balance and Vital Currencies

The Ego and the Five Inferior Centers

​The Different Paths of the Three Brains

Fakirism: The Path of Physicality

​Monasticism: The Path of Emotionality

​Yoga: The Path of Intellectuality

Energy and the Tree of Life

The Three Factors

​Questions and Answers

Categories

Imagination and Serenity: The Keys to Meditation

Delusional Perception

The Dreams and Illusions of the Ego

Structural and Transactional Analysis

Fantasy and Self-Deception

Differences Between Liberated and Conditioned Imagination

Definitions of Positive and Negative Imagination

The Basis of Insight: Kabbalah, Perception, and Ethics

Subconscious Imagination

Unconscious Imagination

Infraconscious Imagination

Conscious Imagination

Supraconscious Imagination

Intuition and Awakening

Questions and Answers

Equanimity within the Three Brains

Energy, Tantrism, and the Infinite

The Path of Balance and Vital Currencies

The Different Paths of the Three Brains

Monasticism: The Path of Emotionality

Yoga: The Path of Intellectuality

Questions and Answers