Anyone who approaches meditation or genuine religion feels deep unrest―inquietudes in the heart. This often emerges in the form of tremendous longings, even intense anxiety, profound remorse, dread, or a pervasive dissatisfaction with the daily state of life.
Many of us, when seeking Gnosis, have experienced incredible psychological suffering, moral pain, perhaps from a trauma, a grievous mistake, wrong behaviors from a wayward, earlier life. After we have suffered the maximum, we look for answers beyond the superficial conventionalities of modern science, politics, religion, education, etc., which, if we are honest, do absolutely nothing but offer blind panaceas to very specific psychological afflictions. To confront the source of our deepest sufferings―the conditioning of our minds that we have engendered through mistakes, through wrong action―usually this produces a cataclysm, a moral crisis. If we are honest, we realize that we are the progenitors of our own affliction. We are merely following the trajectory of our wrong behaviors. We ourselves, in our deepest root, have created the situations we are in now, without exception, even if we are not aware fully how. To recognize this fact, that our afflicted and conditioned mind, our states of suffering―whether it be through pride, anger, lust, greed, vengeance, vanity, arrogance, morbidity, pessimism, despair―these are self-created, and these are the source of profound spiritual pain, which is the remorse of our conscience, our consciousness in recognition of its own responsibility, its culpability. When we perceive that our hatred, our desires, the deceptions we weave for ourselves and for others, the way we manipulate situations, our defect, our vices, our ego, are completely antithetical to divine law, we suffer incredibly. When we see the path to heaven, we realize it is extremely difficult. It has nothing to do with what fanatic or dogmatic persons believe. Beliefs really have nothing to do with change. We can think and adhere to any theology, any scripture, any doctrine with our intellect, with our emotions, but if they are not fulfilled in action, if there is no practical basis by which to change, then really it is fruitless. In our studies, we have to renounce all types of superfluous activities, ideologies. Those who really perceive in themselves their own aggregates, their own nafs, their own defects, realize they have a tremendous work to do. We understand from experience how very few succeed in religion, in yoga, since it is “the straight and narrow gate that leads to life,” but which “few find” (Matthew 7:14). When the reality of our situation is examined carefully, when we really look, when we sincerely introspect into our own psyche and try not to blame our situation, our government, our teachers, our school systems, we witness a collapse in the foundations of a false identity within ourselves. Such an act is like a demolition. It is the destruction of a very much well-cherished building, one in which we spent our entire beloved childhood in existence. In this metaphor, we have worshiped our surroundings with fidelity, our beliefs about spirituality, about religion, about politics, about identity, about the world. When we see that our most venerated beliefs have nothing to do with reality, we naturally undergo a very necessary crisis. Samael Aun Weor stated that if the water does not boil at a hundred degrees celsius, then we cannot disintegrate what must be disintegrated. If we do not remove poor foundations, if we do not seek to comprehend ourselves through observable, repeatable, scientific facts, then in reality, we will live in a house of filth, a cage of perdition, smothered by a secret ugliness that we do not even want to recognize in ourselves, even when our exterior is ornamented with deceptive beauty. Our interior life is what matters, not our appearances. We can appear as gentlemen or ladies of distinction in society, yet if our mind is afflicted with wrath, with pessimism, filled with doubt, contorted with extortion, warped by lies, egotistical states, then we will be what we are. As Samael Aun Weor stated, so long as the ego exists in ourselves, we will be an abomination that should not exist, because in our depths, beneath the respectable persona, the flattering gestures, the words of light within our lumisials, our Gnostic schools, deep down we carry all the abominations of the wars, the tragedies of every conflict, in conflagration, every Holocaust. We have to remove false foundations, beliefs without evidence, and many of the self-deceptions that we teach and propagate amongst our families and amongst ourselves are within, in relation to who we are. This is a form of a cataclysm, a revelation. That book in the New Testament, Revelations, is about apocalyptic crises, which are not only external, but internal, as we work to really take responsibility for our own faults and not to run away. 
It is only through this type of internal work that we can really build a foundation that is true, our real spiritual identity, which is symbolized by the Phoenix being consumed within its own flame, so that it rises with glory from its ashes.
This is why, according to the Sufis, repentance is the first state and station of the path. The present moment, breathing exercises, sexual transmutation, mantras, sacred rites of rejuvenation, contraction and expansion, presence and continuity of attention, awareness―all of this lead us towards the actualization of repentance. People look at this term repentance with a lot of disdain, as if it is a moral code, a subjective, imposing law that has nothing to do with the cultivation of one's happiness, because in our society we like to gratify our desires, to get what we want, to glorify the ego, failing to realize that it is this desire that is the origin of all pain. Repentance is not a belief. It is a psychological attitude of the consciousness. When we really recognize that we are at fault, that we have committed a wrong, we feel the pangs of conscience and we deeply yearn to turn to the Being, to receive help, because really, we are helpless if we do not have that connection with our inner God. Repentance is something very profound and beautiful. It is the acknowledgement of one's own culpability and responsibility. It is not a means of punishment. It is the means by which we really enter the Mysteries. Can somebody who is arrogant, proud, boastful, manipulative, haughty, deceptive, enter heaven? For as Jesus taught in the Gospels that: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” ―Matthew 19:24 It is a symbol. Humility is a virtue, to not take a self-aggrandizing position at anything, always promoting our own self above others, even if it means humiliating others, shaming others, so that we can feel exalted. This type of mentality is wrong. It produces a lot of problems. We need to recognize when we are at fault, and this is the basis of, really, every meditative tradition: to be sincere, to look at the facts, to take responsibility and to change our situation, to not repeat our own ideas about what the situation is like and that “Everybody else is guilty and that I am a saint,” we say. People do not see us the way we see ourselves, and really we need to learn to see the viewpoints of others, because we are very subjective. If you have been studying the sequence of this course, the different dynamics of consciousness, you will realize through the practices, we have taught, that we are very asleep. We don't really see reality, and because we project our mind onto existence, we misinterpret situations and create problems. We live in lies. That identity we boast of as a kind, charitable, noble person, we really have to analyze this mental construct that we always present to others, even if secretly, and to be honest, to have truth in our interrelations in every aspect of life. What could be more horrible than to have cancer, and for the doctor to tell you that you are fine, to not tell you the truth? The reality is that we are afflicted with spiritual disease, and only divinity can heal us. This is reference in every single allegory or story within the Old Testament, the New Testament, and many of the Sufi stories, within the diverse religious traditions. The soul is sick with pain, with affliction, with conditions of mind. Divinity has always been terribly honest about the reality of our situation and humanity, but because people do not like to look at the truth of themselves, they adulterate their traditions. It is the invention of modern people to think that we will all go to heaven, so long as we attend a specific group and pay our fees. The reality is that people are not interested in real religion, only with wealth and power. If the teachings do not help the institution to get more followers, more money, more resources, then basically those teachings become inflated with theories: “the bread and leaven of the Pharisees” mentioned by Jesus (Matthew 16:6), who take the spiritual doctrine and change it because it is not palatable to the public. Real religion requires the renunciation and repentance of everything that is wrong. It means to recognize our own faults, to have the willingness to change them, and to enact the practical actions that remove those mistakes. If religion is missing any one of these dynamics, then it is incipient. It is not complete. Many religions dogmatically assert the need for repentance and the need for change, and this is very beautiful and necessary, but unfortunately many schools have lost the methods by which to do so. People don't know how to change. They are told you need to repent, be a good person, belong to this group, help humanity, perform services, and yet we continue to suffer. So we are going to explain some techniques in this lecture about how to really change, what repentance is, what does it practically look like, and how do we know that we are sincere. In reality, to learn this method, we have to be very willing to break, to shatter, to take all of those conceptions, those beloved cherished ideals about who we think we are, and put it aside. Anyone who enters the highest mysteries of religion, whether through meditative experiences, astral projections, jinn experiences, samadhis, ecstasies, entering the highest aspects of the Tree of Life, they do so because they have a radical honesty, and have really abandoned any belief about what they think they are, but simply to have the courage to look, to examine, to see what we have in abundance and to perceive what we lack. Rumi taught at best about what we need if we want to enter this meditative tradition: “My heart had been torn to pieces looking for help. When I understood that helplessness is the only help, I repented helplessly.” ―Rumi Only divinity can heal us. But this is not through belief, through adopting an external behavior, a code of thinking, and of behaving in a social circumstance or environment. It has to do instead with our own psychological relationship to ourselves, to others, and to divinity. 
The Door of Repentance
All traditions are unanimous on one point. To perfect the soul, to enter genuine experiences within all mystical traditions, we must have remorse for our errors.
Again, this is the term that people don't like. It is very difficult for the modern mind, our contemporary culture, to accept or understand, because we are a civilization that is based on the gratification of desires. We really live in an unprecedented time in which we have available to us the knowledge, the wisdom that can liberate consciousness. There are access to scriptures and teachings that have been closed for millennia. Humanity has a beautiful gift. We are in the age of information, but sadly we are also in an era of misinformation. Because people are so filled with desire, they merely want to get what they want because they want it and they will fight tooth and nail to gratify themselves, and this is why you have many teachings and books and lectures and scriptures or ideologies that interpret these scriptures in accordance with specific idiosyncrasies. But sadly the majority, the vast majority, is tainted with desire. People think that because we live only once, we should get as much of what we desire before we die, no matter if we walk upon and hurt, destroy others, because we think there is no point to existence. We live in an existential crisis, the absurdity of life, and because there is no moral compass, we think and feel and do what we want without caring for the harmony of our communities, of our relationships. We are in a world based on ignorance. Our governments, our laws, our entertainment industries, advertisements, education, and politics have absolutely no comprehension about how desire is the root of suffering. People simply want things, and because we want what we want, we fight, we lie, we cheat, we steal, and we kill. There is no integrity left. The fragrance or perfume of sincerity within modern man has been snuffed out. Simply look at humanity to verify what I am saying. We are not in a golden age. A golden age cannot emerge from people who do not have any humility or understanding, of our TV shows and our doctrines are based on violence, extortion, rape, murder, lies. This is all desire. This is ego, نَفْس nafs, nafas in Arabic. We have built entire societies on desire. Look at the Greeks, the Romans, many thriving empires which must eventually collapse because of the ego, because its people no longer enact or follow the laws of divinity, the laws of divine nature. If society is corrupt, it's because the individual is corrupt. The individual is an extension of society and vice versa. True change occurs when we confront, eliminate conditioning from our psyche. However, to do this the individual must want to change. If people don't feel desperate, remorseful, or long to really experience life in a new way, then they will never make the effort to look inside of themselves for the answers, to see themselves for who they truly are. So why explain repentance within this course? Meditation and transformation begin with sincerity. It is sustained by honesty and is perfected with integrity: how we relate to ourselves and to humanity, to honestly confront ourselves and to observe the causes of suffering from within. When we work with self-observation, we gather data. We observe the different selfs, the egos, the desires, the nafs within our interior. We perceive that our consciousness, the majority of it, is trapped within ego, within conditions of mind. We perceive from experience that we are a multiplicity. We lack integrity. We are not a unity. We have to understand that we are a multiplicity of selves, which in many different traditions have different names: aggregates, kleshas, veils, observations, egos, nafs, fragments of our psychology, our I's, our defects. If we long to achieve integrity, we need to free the consciousness from conditions. We need to integrate the soul that is split in so many different identities and conflicting and competing desires. This is the real work of religion. It has nothing to do with attending a mosque, a church, a synagogue. It is about freeing our soul from the psychological states of affliction. To reunite with the Being, the consciousness must be liberated. It has to be free, and this is what every scripture and religion and mystical tradition and story and allegory teach. Those scriptures don't teach about a literal history, such as with the Qur’an. There are historical facts that correlate to the events in the life of the Prophet Muhammad, but the battles that he underwent to defend his life from the black magicians of Arabia are a representation of the war we go inside of ourselves to wage for the redemption of psyche, for the liberation of Israel: those parts of our soul that belong to God that are trapped here in Egypt, in suffering, in מצרים Mitzraim. So how do we liberate consciousness? We have to see each ego in action. We have to comprehend them, and then we must annihilate them through prayer. But this is a long process, a very difficult one, a very painful one. When we perceive that we created our defects, the monsters of envy, bloodshed, murder, lust, sadomasochism, desire, we feel profound spiritual pain. This type of pain is not the pain of the ego, and we wish to make a very clear distinction about this. The ego suffers because it doesn't get what it wants. It is a type of suffering in desire, but there is a type of conscience and remorse, a different type of pain in the heart that is experienced by the soul. It is a superior sentiment. It is a conscious expression of superior emotion. It is the repentance of the soul when it acknowledges its errors for the mistake of having created egos, I's, selves. When we perceive that we are the origin of anger, that we created this defect that makes our spouse suffer, our family suffer, our co-workers suffer, we feel pain. We don't want to continue making others suffer, if we are really seeking to change and to help humanity. So that type of conflict is necessary. Even Nietzsche's said it in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “For truly, how can one create something from within themselves if there was no chaos? Only those who have chaos in themselves shall give birth to a dancing star”―the divine. That chaos is when we are really sifting for the mind to examine the root origin of every defect that creates problems for us, and practically, daily, working on them. Without this radical zero basis, without seeing the ego in action and feeling remorse for having created it, we cannot enter the mysteries. For as Samael Aun Weor states in Igneous Rose: “All the doors are closed to the unworthy, except the door of repentance.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Igneous Rose …which, is paralleled in Al-Baqarah Surah 2 verse 45: “Seek help in patience and prayer, and this is indeed difficult except for the humble.” ―Al-Baqarah 45 
Qur’anic Verses on Repentance
I especially love the Qur’an, because it is a profound teaching. It expresses principles of meditation, but it takes an educated and experiential eye to really interpret what this doctrine unveils.This book is misunderstood, because like any religious scripture, people read literally, without knowing esoteric symbolism such as alchemy, Kabbalah, and psychology.
Oftentimes the Qur’an is feared as a severe judgment of a tyrannical God, a foreign God that displeases people. Humanity does not want to recognize, however, that there exist immutable, divine laws. When we follow them, we experience joy, limitless happiness, contentment. When break them, when we break these laws, we transgress against the law of our own conscience, and therefore we suffer. This is the basis of the Qur’an. The beauty of Sufism and Islam is that no matter how degenerated we are and have become, divinity offers mercy and redemption: the transformation of our states and the elimination of the ego, when we have worked towards it and earned it. There really is no victory without divinity. Our spiritual work is achieved through the help of divinity inside, through experiences, through cognizance of His presence, through contraction and expansion, through continuity of attention, through awareness, through vigilance in daily life. Here are some verses that are related by a Sufi initiate, a female master by the name of Aishah al-Ba'uniyyah, from her book The Principles of Sufism, not to be confused with Al-Qushayri's text with the same title. “God the Exalted has said, ‘Turn to God, together, O believers, that you might be successful.’” ―Aishah al-Ba’uniyyah, The Principles of Sufism So when the Qur’an speaks of the believers, it is important to remember the term being used. A believer is المؤمن al-Mu’min. Believers (plural) is المؤمنين al-Mu'minun. Mu’min in Arabic reminds us of “water” or مائي mayiy, “aqueous.” ماء Ma’an or מים Mayim, even in Hebrew you find the same etymology and meaning. We know in our studies of Gnosis that we work with the sexual creative waters, the energies of our body, in order to create the Spirit inside, to create a dynamic, Genesiatic, encompassing and empowering force that gives strength to virtue. That energy, which can create a physical child, is the same energy that can create the soul. Therefore, a real believer knows how “to be” through the power and science of “love,” (be-lieve and this love is sexual, without exception, the sexual energy―to take these waters of life, to conserve, and to elevate them through spiritual discipline. This is how we turn to God. And if you have studied the Qur’an or many other scriptures, they always state that chastity is the foundation of real growth. We'll explain what chastity is for those who are not familiar. But here, I like to relate and continue with these verses. “The Exalted has said, ‘Seek forgiveness from your Lord, then turn to Him in repentance,’ and the Exalted has said, ‘O you who believe, turn to God with sincere repentance!’ The Exalted has said, ‘And those who do not turn in repentance, they are the transgressors!’ and the Exalted has said, ‘Truly God loves those who turn in repentance, and He loves those who purify themselves.’ There are similar sayings in the noble verses of the Qur’an.” ―Aishah al-Ba’uniyyah, The Principles of Sufism So repentance, توبة tawbah, has very profound meanings in Arabic. Al-Qushayri and Aishah al-Ba'uniyyah relate some very beautiful teachings about this, about what this term means, practically speaking. Aishah states the following, “According to the lexicons, tawbah means ‘to return.’ Taba, aba, and Annaba all have one meaning, which is ‘return.’ Thaba is similar: people say, ‘The milk has returned (thaba) to the udder.’” ―Aishah al-Ba’uniyyah, The Principles of Sufism In Gnosis, we teach that the foundation of real repentance is sexual. You'll find that if you have studied the writings of Samael Aun Weor extensively, he elaborates the teachings of alchemy: of transforming the sexual act into a sacrament; of elevating creative energy, whether we are single or married, single or in a relationship, so that that conserved and sublimated force, that transmuted energy, creates something inside. He teaches that chastity is the foundation of real development, and that without it, there is no change. The Qur’an, as you'll see and many other Sufis, elaborate the same points. So this is not just one teaching from one man. It is a universal doctrine expressed within the secret code and the languages of the different traditions of the world. Here, we are explaining it in accordance with Sufism and Islam. What does it mean that “the milk has returned to the udder?” If you look at the substance of milk, it is white and it is similar to semen. It is the sexual matter. Milk is from, obviously, a cow, and if you studied Islam, you find that they place special emphasis on the longest surah of the Qur’an known as البقرة al-Baqarah. It is “The Heifer,” “The Cow,” which is attributed to a specific verse in which the limb of a cow can be used to resurrect a person from the dead. Now, this is not a literal statement, which some people or actually many people believe, but instead refers to the power of the divine feminine. 
The sacred cow is known amongst many religions as a symbol of the divine eternal feminine power known as Devi Kundalini. The Sufis refer it as al-Baqarah, but also الْبُرَاق al-Buraq, a mystical creature that helped Muhammad ascend the seven heavens, who has the face of a woman, the body of a mule or horse, the wings of an eagle, the tail of a peacock. Buraq means “lightning.” It is the creative energetic potential of our sexuality that can rise within our spinal column and open many abilities inside of ourselves.
It is the light, the vajra of the great Buddhist initiates, the teachings of Vajrayana, Tantrayana in Tibetan Buddhism, or Alchemy in the West, or better said the Middle East, but also the Western Esoteric Traditions as well. There are many interrelations here that are very beautiful to study, but here I like to synthesize just in relation to some verses from the Sufis. Milk is a substance that nourishes children, and we are children of our divine feminine. Now, in Islam, they, in the public exoteric doctrine, reject any femininity within divinity and this is something incongruent with the interpretations of that tradition, which we abandon in Gnosis. Instead, we look at the symbols that the ascension of the Prophet teach. Muhammed returned to God on riding Al-Buraq, a symbol of the divine feminine power known as amongst the Kabbalists as Shekhinah. 
He was meditating at the stone of Mecca, meditating profoundly and falling asleep, and that stone is a symbol, of again, Yesod, the vital energies as you see in this glyph of the Tree of Life on the left. Yesod is known as the stone of the Masons. It is the foundation of our spiritual temple. יסוד Yesod in Hebrew literally means “foundation.” It is the sexual energy. It is the basis upon which we experience all the heavens of the Tree of Life, as Muhammad did in his famous al-Miraj, the Ascension, where he was able to experience many beautiful things and receive teachings from the great masters of divinity: the angels, the prophets, the buddhas, whatever names you wish to give to those intelligences that know the Being, Allah.
So, notice that this Tree of Life has ten spheres. If you count from the top to the bottom, Yesod is the ninth―the ninth sephirah or sphere or emanation, from that gradual descent of forces from heaven, down to materiality, from the more subtle levels of nature, to the most dense. We are in מלכות Malkuth, which is the physical body, which is the storehouse of all the vital forces and spiritual forces that emanate from above, from the heavens, الجنة al-janna. It is interesting that there is a surah in the Qur’an called al-Tawbah, “The Return” or “Repentance.” It is the ninth surah of the Qur’an. It is a direct reference to how we work with sexual energy. It is a very controversial surah because, primarily, it is a disassociation from the unbelievers. And who are those unbelievers? It does not refer to people who do not follow Islam exoterically, publicly. The word for disbeliever or unbeliever, infidel, the unfaithful ones, is الكافرون Al-Kafirun. It is interesting that there is a surah in the Qur’an known as الكهف Al-Kahf, which is “The Cave.” What is a كافر kafir, an unbeliever? It is an ego, a defect, a desire, because our egos and desires do not want to follow God, to not want to change. They want to continue behaving in the ways that we have always fulfilled, without any type of remorse or sincerity. That holy war mentioned in the Qur’an is about fighting the ego, and there are many Hadith and different references within the tradition that explain that. Butin synthesis, our defects relate, our egos relate to what are known as the inferior dimensions on this Tree of Life, which are beneath Malkuth. Notice that there is a shadow, again, nine spheres below beneath this physical world, Malkuth in Hebrew, the “Kingdom.” Those dimensions relate to the interior of the Earth and our egos belong there, to the hell realms, to the infra-consciousness of nature, to the inferior worlds. Now what are الكافرون Al-Kafirun? Literally, you have here كهف Kahf, cave―our egos and defects dwell on the caves of our mind, but also within those different dimensions that are not separate from us, but are here and now, because we have thoughts, we have feelings, and we have impulses. They are not physical. They are psychological, but they have a type of dimensionality and experience in reality that is not physical, but it is a form of matter and energy, nonetheless. We can experience those states more clearly through dream yoga, astral projection, awakening in dreams, which is very well documented within the Qur’an and many traditions. So it is interesting, even in myths like The Thousand and One Nights, the teachings of Aladdin, الله دين Allah-Din. دين Din in Arabic is “religion, judgement.” It has to do with our conscious discrimination and judgment of ourselves. It is the judgment of God, which is a psychological and spiritual state. It is repentance. And remember that in the myth of Ali Baba, we find that the great hero must stop the thieves from stealing the gold. Those are the parts of our soul that are trapped in suffering, in error, in conditions. We return to God by going against our ego, by turning away from our negative actions and mental states, and turning to God. This is tawbah. But also, we really return to divinity when we transmute our sexual energy, when we conserve the creative force and not waste it at all. “The milk never leaves the udder,” so to speak, because that energy is the source of real creative potential. It is Yesod. It is the foundation. It is the ninth sephirah and also the basis of the ninth surah of the Qur’an. So in the Qur’an is a great conflict that occurs between Muhammad and the unbelievers, a symbol of our psychological work: how we confront ourselves, how we repent. 
That surah does not begin with:
بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim “In the Name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful.” That opening begins with every surah of the Qur’an except the ninth, because it is not guaranteed that we will be successful relating to the ninth sephirah, the work with sexuality, because it is very difficult. Anyone who has worked in this science, has studied Gnosis for some time, understands that it is very difficult to change, especially sexual behavior. But that is the basis of repentance. It is the foundation of change. Our sexual actions determine everything, because our behaviors of a sexual type have the most lasting impact, and if you don't believe me, simply ask or talk to a person who suffered childhood trauma. Speak to a person who has been raped, abused, violated. Or, on the other side, talk with people who are happily married, meaning: in a cooperative, fulfilling, deep compassionate relationship, a conscious relationship. A wide spectrum―but we are being synthetic here just to reference how that energy is the source of repentance. It is the source of return. It is the first state and station of the path, and we have many teachings that explain how to work with creative energy. We will give you references if you ask. But in synthesis, according to Al-Qushayri, in his Principles of Sufism: “Tawbah, repentance, is the first station for spiritual travelers and the first stage of development in seekers. The root meaning of tawbah in the Arabic language is ‘return’―its associated verb, taba, is used to mean ‘to come back.’ So repentance is the return from what is blameworthy in the divine law to what is praiseworthy in it.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism The most blameworthy quality is lust, without exception. It is the origin of many problems, of divorce rates, of marital conflict, and we know from Freud that sexuality is the basis, the machinery by which society operates. It is the most powerful energy in existence. Even in the Qur’an, it gives two names to this force as representations of divinity, names of God: الخليق Al-Khaliq, “the Creator,” and الودود Al-Wadud, “the Loving.” Where else do we find the power to create through love than in sex? The Qur’an speaks many times about how “We created you from a sperm-drop.” Physically, yes, there is that relationship there, but psychologically and spiritually, the true human being is made from that very same force, but with different procedures. All traditions teach that desire is the origin of all pain, and that chastity, sexual purity, is the origin of all happiness. Chasity does not mean abstention from sex. It means purity in sex. The Qur’an always speaks about the need to be purified as an act of remembrance of God. That means that we learn to take that energy and redirect it from its casual, usual implementation, what people commonly believed in think sex is. As the Qur’an teaches in surah 4 verse 27, “Allah wants to accept your repentance, but those who follow [their] passions want you to digress [into] a great deviation.” ―Qur’an 4:27 So, many people approach religion and want to repent, to receive God, to know divinity. And yet, they follow their passions, their desires, and this is the opposite of religion. And what is the ultimate desire but sexuality, gratification of sexual sensations and pleasure? It is irrefutable. It is undeniable. We can say that lust is the greatest deviation. It is the culmination of the orgasm. All religions teach, the Qur’an teaches that, one must be chaste. And if you have studied Samael Aun Weor's writings, you know this is very obvious. Without chastity, there is no religion. This is how we return to divinity, and we are going to elaborate and explain how. Three Constituents of Repentance
Of course, when people hear of repentance, we have to understand that there are levels. As Aishah al-Ba'uniyyah states:
“Outward repentance is the return from blameworthy actions to praiseworthy ones and from foul words to righteous ones.” ―Aishah al-Ba'uniyyah: The Principles of Sufism At a basic level, some people really struggle with foul language―swearing, vulgarities, inappropriate behavior. Repentance in the beginning can relate to controlling our tongue from not saying those wrong things that create problems. Likewise, we perform outward repentance when we practice chastity. It means to not engage in lust or sexual misconduct. If you have read the writings of the Sufis, especially Al-Hujwiri's Revelation of the Mystery and Al-Qushayri's writings from The Principles of Sufism, they explain very clearly that lust is the opposite of the Sufis’ intentions to return to divinity. It is repeatedly stated. Desire comes from nafs, egos, שטן Shaitan in Hebrew, or which is where we get the word Satan, the devil, desire, egos. So our repentance in the beginning of Gnosis and entering the spiritual teachings is that we learn the value of sexual energy, and how sexual misconduct is the origin of many problems, such a sleeping around, committing adultery, and very commonly, watching pornography, ingesting intoxicants, engaging in masturbation, and other behaviors that are stipulated against in pretty much every meditative tradition, because these behaviors condition consciousness. If we feed desire, we make it stronger. Desire in strict language is ego, without exception, although the Sufis do have a bit of range and interpretation of desire for God, longing for God. It is better if we say that, because what people think of desire really is conditions of mind, aggregates, faults. This is the basis of Sufism and Islam, Gnosis, every tradition. It is ethics. We know from traditions that there are behaviors to avoid and behaviors to enact. This is the foundation for entering meditation. So in the beginning, we learn to curtail these faults. But why? We avoid intoxicants and drugs because we don't want to condition the consciousness. Feeding desire through those elements stimulates desire and strengthens it. The natural state of meditation is a quality of free, liberated consciousness, and therefore, we do not need to engage in substances to experience the natural state of awakening. They are completely contrary, which is why we are very strict purists in this tradition regarding that. Likewise, with any act of masturbation, or lust or desire. The more you feed lust, the more it grows. The stronger it becomes. And this is a primary fault that we work against, because expelling the creative energies depletes one of the capacity for awakening our spiritual potential, our divine intelligence. There are forces in that matter itself, as we said, that are very creative. It can empower our genius, and if it is wasted, it can deplete our psyche of vital forces that are very necessary. So this is the foundation. Outward repentance involves that: avoiding wrong behaviors, adopting praiseworthy behaviors, but more importantly, there is a deeper issue here, which Aishah al-Ba’uniyyah explains: "Inner repentance with which the Sufi folk are concerned, is to turn away from all things and towards God, mighty and glorious." ―Aishah al-Ba'uniyyah: The Principles of Sufism So there has been a lot of controversy regarding the Sufis, whether or not they obey the exoteric divine law within the Muslim tradition. The reality is that a sincere practitioner of any meditative tradition obeys both external codes and the inner reality, the inner work of those traditions. So physically, we can turn away from pornography and lust, from drugs, from alcohol, from mistaken behaviors, but now the real work begins: perceiving and removing the desires for those behaviors, for those actions. Many people struggle. They abandon lust and temptations externally, but in their dreams, in their mind, in their daily life, they can see how lust permeates everything. The “I” touches the senses, everything. So the internal work is a long process, but it begins by first renouncing external problems, external behaviors that condition us. This master also relates how: “Repentance is not valid without three things: remorse for sin, abstention from it, and the resolution not to return to it. When one of these conditions is not met, repentance is not valid. This is the rule for repentance for sin between the servant and his Lord.” ―Aishah al-Ba'uniyyah: The Principles of Sufism So reality we must feel remorse, but what is it? It is different from morbidity and shame, from feeling pessimistic and doubtful―flagellating ourselves that we are bad people. That is not remorse. Shame is an ego, a defect, that we have to comprehend and eliminate. Shame is inverted pride: a sense of self that feels that it is not worthy and that is a sense of identity that is inferior, that must be seen, comprehended in its nuances, and eliminated. Remorse is different. It is the power of the soul that really ennobles our deepest sentiment for change. It is comprehension. It is the longing for acquiring wisdom in life. So many people and humanity really don't have that. They have no remorse. Simply look at the news. People are rarely feeling sorry for wrong behaviors anymore. People who do not feel sorry for their mistakes are very far from the law. 
Therefore, they must work, according to Samael Aun Weor, with the Rune Rita. And if you study the Nordic yoga, the Nordic runes, the practices of energy and mantra from the book The Magic of the Runes, one can work with the Rune Rita to empower judgment, internal conscience, so that one has a deeper connection with divine law. One can work more effectively.
Abstention means to no longer enact those behaviors rooted in desire, and this is often where people get stuck. We feel remorse, but do not act ethically in situations and temptations when desires emerge. For example, many people we have spoken with suffer with masturbation. People are really inspired by these teachings, by the concept of chastity, by the beauty of how these ideas add up, how sexual purity is the origin of the greatest virtues in humanity, in the human being, how meditation unfolds the strength of the soul, how self-realization is mapped in its very intricate explanations and diagrams of Kabbalah. All this is very beautiful and inspiring. However, when it comes to the facts of daily life, many people go back and forth, vacillating between lust and spirituality, and this is because they cannot renounce their desires. 
Some of you may be familiar with the myth of Sisyphus, about a man who carries a stone up a hill, a difficult precipice, and when he reaches the top, lets the stone drop against the bottom, only to repeat the same struggle again with more difficulty. Some people have interpreted that as a metaphor for the modern man, such as with Albert Camus and his existentialist philosophy.
In a psychological and sexual sense, this has to do with working with the stone of sexual energy, caring Yesod up the mountain, the spinal column, but then when reaching the top after practicing chastity for a time, renouncing chastity and engaging in those sexual behaviors that result in the loss of that force. And so the stone drops in the mud again. There are many people who vacillate like that. They go back and forth. They practice sexual transmutation for a time. They renege. They go backwards, and then they try again and they fail. They try again and they fail. And of course, this type of behavior produces very sour people, a morbid atmosphere. 
This type of mentality is represented by Judas Iscariot. Judas is an apostle who betrays Christ, a spiritual fornicator. While loving Christ, he loves desire more, and this is the reality for many people. And we don't say this out of judgment for people who are struggling. In fact, we are relating these principles because we want to help. People who masturbate or engage in wrong behaviors, should really contemplate the beauty of the soul. Lustful people should contemplate the beauty of chastity.
Take a flower, a rose, an orchid, and examine its pedals. Meditate on that plant. Look at the beauty of its aura, its fragrance, its symmetry, its texture, its expansiveness, its purity. That is a representation of chastity―but at the level of a plant. It is very primordial, basic.
In a human being, chastity is much more. It is the virtues and qualities of beings like Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Moses, the prophets, Samael Aun Weor. Those are powerful virtues, powerful beautiful elements that we have inside, and if we struggle with lust and temptations and desires, reflect on that beautiful nature that is in you. Contemplate: What is the beauty of chastity? What is the strength of it? What are its qualities? What are its principles? Examine how purity, sexually speaking, is the origin of everything else: the empowerment of the soul, the sword and shield of righteous action. Meditate on those qualities. Examine them. Look at the reality of it in yourself, how better you feel when following this law. It is a law of nature. There is animal nature and there is human nature, as we have been explaining. Animals follow mechanical law, and if we follow mechanicity, we suffer. The divine law, شريعة Shariah, is precisely sexual purity. It is how worlds, how galaxies, how stars are organized. It is the force of love that originates gravity, chemistry, heat. Everything in the universe is the result of that creative potential at the level of divinity. We have that potential inside, but it is a spark that needs to be developed. And so, we have to realize that it is not necessary to suffer anymore. The reality is that if people engage in lustful behaviors, it is because they choose to do so. They don't really comprehend in the moment how it will bring them pain. Suffering is really a choice, in many cases. Liberation is a choice. So we have to really evaluate what it is that we want. If we really comprehend how lust is harmful, then we will develop the resolution not to go back to it. And this is not a matter of following other people's rules, that it is something that is stated in Gnosis or in Islam or Sufism, in Buddhism and Jainism, in Judaism. We don't do this because other people say it's good, but because it has a practical result upon our psyche. It is a lifestyle. It is a conscious way of living with more health or happiness, more integrity, more compassion. We do it because it makes us happy, not because it is repressive or stale or boring. We have to really evaluate what we want. There is a scientific basis to chastity, and really there have been some studies, scientifically speaking, that are just now promoting and explaining the power of this energy: of how purity is the origin of genius. But we have to really evaluate, again, what we want most of all for ourselves, because everything is a choice. Just as we examine the virtues of the soul in relation to chastity, in relation to lust, you follow the same procedure for every vice. If there is a problem with anger, we have to contemplate serenity. A problem with greed, visualize and imagine the power of altruism and philanthropy. If we suffer with laziness, examine what diligence is. Look at the opposite. Don't just contemplate the negative, because if you do so at the exclusion of anything positive or real in yourself, you will become very sour, as I said. Learn to contemplate virtues and their practical application to your life. That is how we really build confidence, and this is the essence of sincerity. 
Sincerity of the Heart
As we stated, there were laws of within meditation. To experience the state of meditation, it is necessary to have remorse for mistakes and to recognize our conditioned states.
Evaluation comes first. We have to see it in action and have the intention to want to change, to even want to look. The psychological work cannot begin if we don't learn to observe ourselves, if we don't recognize wrong psychological states, and if we don't work to eliminate them. Al-Qushayri states: “From an analytical perspective, repentance has causes, degrees, and parts. First comes the heart’s awakening from the sleep of heedlessness and the servant’s recognizing his negative condition. He will attain to this if he manages to pay attention to the reprimands of God, the Truth within him, by listening to his heart. This is found in the hadith, ‘God’s counselor is in the heart of every Muslim,’ and in the hadith, ‘There is a piece of flesh in the body: if it is sound, the whole body is sound, and if it is corrupt, the whole body is corrupt. It is the heart.’” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism People often complain that they don't know God, that they don't have experiences, that they don't know the Being, the will of divinity, and this is somewhat mistaken. The reality is: what does our heart tell us in relation to a problem, a relationship, a conflict? What does intuition say? That knowledge in the heart that does not have any intellectual basis, except knowing that one knows. And if we follow our heart, our inner judgment about a situation, the more we feed that discriminative analysis, our conscience, we deepen our connection. Divinity speaks through the heart, not the head. There are some powers and siddhis mentioned by the yogis that one can develop in the mind as a result of this science, but really, everything is gravitating around the heart. The heart is the solar system of one's very being. If we want to know the health of our heart, our level of being, we begin with sincerity―really examining a mathematical point in our interior. It is not found in the past, reminiscing, not found in day dreaming about the future, but being here and now. 
Self-reflection and Resolution
Recognition of our errors is the beginning of meditation, comprehending ourselves. Meditation has very distinct phases and there are three which we study in books like Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology by Samael Aun Weor:
Self-observation
Self-observation we have explained abundantly. We gather data by looking at ourselves, looking at the facts. What are the different thoughts, the different feelings, the different impulses in our daily states, moment by moment?
This is vigilance. This is awareness. This is mindfulness, presence. We learn not to be absent. We have to look at ourselves as if we have never seen ourselves before. We may know that we are angry, but the fact is: are we observing that anger? Where did it come from? What are its thoughts? How does it feed? What does it relate to? What are the different selves or egos that accompany it? Because no deep defect or ego emerges on its own. We can have a difficult situation at work: someone criticizes us, and then if we are observing ourselves, we can see distinct feelings of hurt self-esteem, followed by pride, and the anger of retaliation. In a moment, we can catch, through alert novelty, the different interchanges and exchanges of those defects, how they connect, the thread of comprehension that helps us understand the relationship between them. We have to learn and see this in ourselves. Analyze the three brains: the intellect, the emotions, and our actions―our movements, our instincts, our sexual drives. Self-observation in Sufism is muhasabah, inner accounting. Gather information. If you want to go to war against a spy or an enemy, you have to observe the spy in action. Look at it. See it. Get data, so that when you go home to meditate, you can judge it effectively. So, based on your data that you have received in your observation throughout the day, you learn to close your eyes. Withdraw the senses. Go within yourself. Ignore the body. You can work with breath or energy work, mantras, to help calm the mind and the heart, as well as your physicality. Concentrate and imagine the scenes of your day. Review them. Remember them. Pick an event in which you saw different egos emerge. Look at the facts. See it for what it is, and in the silence of your contemplation, study each ego. Study what you observed. Look at it clearly, and if you feel remorse and repentance while you are observing it, that is a good sign, because you are deepening your prayer and your supplication for help. Judgment
Judgment occurs once you have looked at the facts. Do not think about what you saw. Simply observe. Comprehension unfolds as you direct your concentration and your visualization upon the scene.
Look at it. Look at the data. This is not an intellectual process. It is a discrimination of the heart. This is something that you learn only through experience, through practice. When you have truly judged an ego, when you really understood how it emerged, what it fed upon, what it relates to, how it wasted your energy, how it creates problems, where it came from, etc., you can proceed to judge that ego. It is like judging a spy in court. You go to court. You present the facts, and the law or the judge sentences that spy to death for its crimes. This is execution, the final stage. Execution
Execution has to do with when you pray to your divinity, “Please remove this ego from me! Annihilate it, for I have understood it. I do not want to act upon it again!”
Comprehension unfolds in successive meditations. It is not like in one meditation, we are going to eliminate many egos. In fact, it takes time to process. It is gradual. Nature does not take leaps. The birth of the soul does not occur spontaneously. Repentance has to be deepened, and is successive and progressive. Some days you may go deeper into an ego. There are levels amongst defects, certain depths that are more profound and others more superficial. Work on what you see and what you can change. This is how we reflect upon ourselves. And this is how we are resolved not to go back to what we were. When you have really worked upon egos and have prayed for their elimination to the divine feminine, the Divine Mother, al-Baqarah, al-Buraq, the lightning―then, you develop the resolution not to return to mistakes, and you really are dedicated because you are seeing changes. You don't behave the same way you did in certain situations. The actors that perform those tragedies, dramas, and comedies are no longer there. We don't react at all. Only the Essence is pure, there, present. This is why Al-Qushayri states the following: “When the servant has reflected in his heart on the evil of what he is doing and has seen the ugliness of his actions, the wish for repentance and for leaving his negative behavior will form in his heart. God will help him by confirming his resolution, his starting to return to good deeds, and his readiness for the steps of repentance.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So, this is the meditation: retrospection meditation. We see how ugly the mind is. We are evaluating the data, and we wish to annihilate them [our egos], to repent. If we are really annihilating egos, we are developing more light, extracting the soul that is trapped in those nafs, those faults. This is how we gradually return to good deeds. The ego of hatred is replaced by serenity. The ego of lust is replaced by chastity. Selfishness, with altruism and faith. Doubt with knowledge. Our Being can even give us experiences internally about our work. This helps to deepen our resolve. They deepen our readiness for these steps of repentance. How to Strengthen Repentance
Oftentimes, our depth of repentance depends on our environment. It can be difficult to change certain behaviors when we choose to associate with people and environments that are contrary to our spirituality. Many friends or people can influence us towards certain actions. People are attracted to friendships, relationships, and environments based on their level of being.
Therefore, our level of being attracts our life, and many times when we want to raise our level of being, we face the difficulty of our relationships―loved ones or close associates who do not want us to change. Oftentimes, it can be good to disassociate from certain people when we know they will suffocate or snuff out the flame of our efforts for spiritual change. This is could be a good thing. There is some credence to this, so that we can develop an internal space, a psychological, spiritual atmosphere by which we can develop our deepest longings. If such people are really our friends, they will respect our choice not to go to the bar. They will affirm our free will. If they don't want to be friends with us because we don't party, smoke, drink, have sex, or do drugs anymore, then they probably weren't our friends in the first place. The reality is that our environment affects us a lot. If we invest our energy in relationships and behaviors that condition our consciousness, then it is going to be very difficult to transform that. You can spend one hour in meditation, but if for 12 to 23 hours, you are engaging in behaviors that are contrary to your spirituality, then your spirituality is probably not sincere. It's not going to have much depth or force. It's a law of nature. Is it easier for a rock to go up into the sky or down towards the Earth? Our level of being rises the more we change negative behaviors and adopt positive behaviors. Just as we follow the trajectory of negative actions, likewise, we follow the trajectory of superior actions. This is how naturally, in accordance with the law of affinities, we can learn to associate with more spiritual people, elevated people, more like-minded individuals. If we are really sincere in our efforts, we will awaken in the internal worlds, in the superior regions of the Tree of Life where we will meet beings who are superior to us, who vibrate at that level of nature. In synthesis, the reality of the ego is that it weakens the more we stop feeding it, but it's always going to fight us in our best intentions. So, repentance is valid when we not only feel remorse, but abstain from ego, abstain from desire, and we continually apply effort towards our endeavor. We have to do it 24 hours a day. There is no exception. It has to be a lifestyle. Meditation is a lifestyle. It is not a belief system. Of course, in the process of change, we make mistakes. We go back and forth. We are struggling. We are beginners. We extend beyond our own reach. We fall down. We fall off the bike, so to speak, but if we are continually and sincerely evaluating our work, investing more and more energy into virtue than into desire, then we will radically shift our direction. 
This is symbolized by the Qibla, which is a niche within a temple, a mosque towards the east, towards the stone of Mecca. It is a symbol of praying towards that sacred stone and, symbolically speaking, Qibla has to do with our intentionality.
Where do we pray? What do we direct our attention and energy into? The Qibla represents this. I like the saying from the Sufi Master Bayazid al-Bastami. He states the following: “When you are separate from the Kaaba [Yesod], it is all right to turn toward it, but those who are in it can turn toward any direction they wish.” ―Bayazid Bastami So, work with sexual energy. Wherever you direct your attention, you spend creative energy. If you directed it towards virtue, you empower your consciousness. If you direct it towards desire, you disempower your consciousness and suffer the consequences. Therefore, what is our direction? What is our Qibla? For that determines what we receive related to the Hebrew קבל kabbel, Kabbalah. It is the same etymology there, قِبْلَة Qibla. To receive, spiritually speaking, we have to direct our concentration towards our spiritual efforts. I will relate at length a quote from Al-Qushayri that explains all this: “These steps begin with his leaving bad company―that is, people who would entice him to turn back from his purpose and confuse him about the rightness of his decision. Perfection at this level only comes with the diligent practice of witnessing that increases the servant’s longing for repentance and with the dedication of his efforts to accomplish his resolve through the strengthening of his fear and hope of God.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So, witnessing has to do with perceiving directly the results of our work, practically, through facts. “Then the knot of his persistence in negative actions will be loosened from his heart. He will stop running after dangerous things. He will rein in his ego from pursuing passions or desires of the flesh. Then he will immediately abandon his sin and confirm his resolution never to return to the like of it in the future. If he proceeds according to his intention and acts in conformity with his will, he has been granted true sincerity in his repentance. But even if his repentance has weakened once or many times and only his force of will induces him to renew it―and the sort of thing occurs very frequently―he must not give up hope of repentance on account of such incidents because, ’Surely to each period is a decree established’ (13:38).” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism 
The Blessings of Repentance
So repentance is a profound state and station that initiates the path, as Abdullah Ansari of Herat states in his Stations of the Sufi Path:
“Repentance is turning to God. God Most High says, ‘Turn to God with sincere repentance’ (66:8). “Know that knowledge is life, wisdom is a mirror, contentment a protective wall, hope a mediator and intercessor, remembrance [of God] a remedy, and repentance a cure.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path When we have direct knowledge from experience, we have spiritual life, reality, happiness. Wisdom is from the word vis-dom: “the power to see” through vision. This is the Sufi witnessing of the divine, where we experience the states of our Being, which is happiness and altruism, compassion, sacrifice, inner strength. This happens in our interrelations. This is the power of perceiving our relationships to humanity and the wisdom of knowing how to relate effectively for the betterment of society. Wisdom, in synthesis, is knowing how to relate to the Being, to ourselves, and the world. It is self-reflection. Contentment protects us from many things like a wall. Contentment is a shield. It is comfort from poverty, from starvation, from affliction, from sickness, from wars. If we are really working effectively in this teaching, we are given protection. This is something I have validated many times. So despite facing certain hardships and struggles, divinity provides blessings for those who are really sincere in their work. People often suffer because they always desire more, even if they have more than enough. Meditation can unfold for us when we stop grasping or craving for different experiences or circumstances, but acknowledging that we have everything we need to change. If we have a mind and a heart, the consciousness, and a body, more or less healthy or fit, we can do this work. If we have the sexual energy, we can work. So, hope mediates many things for us. Hope is the joy we feel because we know divinity is helping us. This is real faith. We know from our life and our daily experiences and our meditations that we are getting insight and direction. This is gradual. It is built. If we suffer from a state of despair and hopelessness, obviously, that is a very deep depression to emerge from, but there are ways to escape it: to comprehend virtue, the happiness of the soul, hope in divine things. Remembrance helps us in times of danger, to remember right action in moments of crisis, and repentance cures us because we eliminate the causes of affliction and never go back, when we are sincere. Abudallah Ansari of Herat continues: “Repentance is the signpost on the path, the leader of the kingdom, the key to the treasure, the intermediary that assists you to become united with God, the condition for being accepted to the divine presence, and the secret of all happiness.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path This key is alchemy: the work with the creative energies. It is the secret knowledge that opens the door of the mysteries. “The pillars of repentance are threefold: remorse within the heart, apology upon the tongue, and severing one’s attachments with evil and wicked people.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So there are degrees of repentance and we will explain them. “There are three types of repentance: the repentance of the obedient devotee, the repentance of the sinner (‘asi), and the repentance of the gnostic (‘arif). The repentance of the obedient devotee comes from reliance in his own obedience and considering his acts of devotion to be of great import. The repentance of the sinner comes from seeing his sins and acts of transgression as insignificant. The repentance of the gnostic is from ingratitude vis-à-vis God’s conferral of favors upon him.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path There are levels of being and stages of the path. Sinners see that they have made mistakes, but don't comprehend the depth of their transgressions. We can know that we committed a wrong, but we don't really comprehend the depth of it. We don't feel sorry for it. We have knowledge, but we don't have understanding. We can know that we really hurt a person or a friend, but not feel or comprehend the remorse related to that, because we can justify ourselves etc. Obedient devotees who practice meditation can perform many practices but still feel mystical pride and vanity for their achievements, so to speak. And lastly, gnostics have deep ecstasies or samadhis, but don't appreciate the value of them because they continue to persist in very subtle conditions of mind that obscure our full embracement in relationship with the truth. Let's elaborate finally in this last slide about the signs of the devotee in the center and the Gnostic, the degrees of the initiates and practitioners in meditation. “Setting great stock and reliance in one’s own obedience has three signs. The first is seeing one’s own obedient devotion as constituting one’s savior and protector. The second is regarding with contempt those who neglect their devotions. The third is not investigating the defects in one’s own actions.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So many people, they may practice meditation and they apply too much worth to their own exercises. They feel very proud that they can meditate for certain hours in the day, that they do certain exercises. These are known as Pharisees within the Gnostic tradition, and then the Christian tradition as well―to feel proud and that we are better because of our spirituality. We have to be humble. We have to practice, but without attachment to the fruits of those exercises, because the reality is that only divinity can provide progress. We can feel mystical pride for people who don't practice Gnosis. This is very common, a very subtle ego that everybody develops in this teaching. And also, this type of pride is not recognizing how we are at fault when we are. So this is something that happens among the devotees, especially beginners, which is all of us. Now the signs of the sinner is different. Worse, we could say. These are the signs of what one must do to repent of those errors: “Beholding one’s own sins and acts of transgression as insignificant also has three signs. The first is considering oneself as deserving of forgiveness by God, the second in remaining at peace while still persisting [in sin], and the third is having intimate friendship with wicked people.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path In reality, this is most of us. We commit crimes against divinity and believe that we will be forgiven. This is a very common trope within Christianity that you can just go through life as the prodigal son, and then on your deathbed you can beg for forgiveness and God will absolve you. This is wrong. Real forgiveness occurs when we are no longer capable of committing those crimes, because the egos responsible for them are dead. Many people even feel satisfaction in their defects and don't even suspect that they are guilty of mistakes. This is your common lay people who may think that they are very ethical or upright, but still engage in behaviors that are problematic. Also, being friends with people who inspire us towards lust, towards alcohol, drugs, sex, addiction, can often be more harmful than helpful, regardless of how we feel about our attachments Lastly we have the following: “Likewise, there are three signs indicative of ingratitude for God’s conferral of favors upon one.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path This is the level of the Gnostic, how the Gnostic must repent. So again, if you are looking at these three degrees, we are looking at the levels of beginners, intermediaries, and advanced practitioners: شريعة Shariah, طريفة Tariqah, حقيقة Haqiqah / معرفة Marifah. “The first is ceasing to regard oneself as contemptible, the second is considering one’s spiritual condition as of great value, and the third is stepping back from the joy of intimacy with God.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So repentance has levels, degrees. The repentance of a sinner is different from that of a devotee, and especially distinct from that of a Gnostic, a master. Samael Aun Weor explained in many books that we are miserable slugs in the mud of the earth and that we must never forget that only the Being, Allah, is worthy of praise. Many so-called masters of this tradition place too much emphasis on their mastery. So, considering one's spiritual condition is of great value is something that is very applicable today in the Gnostic Movement. There are many people in Gnosis who go around proclaiming that they are initiates, saints, masters. Sufism teaches that a saint who proclaims their sainthood to the world is in danger of losing their sainthood. As stated by Al-Hujwiri in Revelation the Mystery: “My Shaykh used to say that if a saint reveals his saintship and claims to be a saint, the soundness of his spiritual state is not impaired thereby, but if he takes pains to obtain publicity he is led astray by self-conceit.” ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation the Mystery And Samael Aun Weor also said that one should not accept masters in the physical world, but learn to travel in the internal planes, specifically. “When the disciple is ready, the master appears. “‘Beware of false prophets.’ Do not accept external Masters in the physical plane. “Learn how to travel in the astral body, and when you are skillful in the astral, choose an authentic master of Major Mysteries of the White Brotherhood and consecrate unto him the most absolute devotion and the most profound respect. “You must walk with much care in the physical world, since there are many false prophets. Do not accept external orders from anyone; you must only obey the commands that “we” give you in the Astral Plane. “Within this physical plane there exist many good and sincere initiates of the Minor Mysteries, but since they have not yet fused themselves with their Inner Master they are also ‘living dead.’ Consequently, they have serious and very grievous errors, which can lead the student astray and even make him fall into the abyss. “When we want to make ourselves known to a student in the physical plane, we will give him ‘signs’ and proof in the Astral Plane. But ‘be careful,’ live alert and vigilant as a watchman in times of war, because in these times of the end, the Anti-Christ makes deceptive signs and wonders.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Practical Astrology: The Zodiacal Course Lastly, Gnostics who approach the joy of intimacy with divinity, yet identify with their mind again, they lose their ecstasy, the samadhi and then they sin against reality. So levels of repentance. This is just a little outline of where we might be and what we aspire to and what we seek to change. Obviously, the most profound act of repentance is to comprehend the ego daily, to self observe daily, and to eliminate our mistaken aggregates daily, with as much depth and frequency as we can. And I recommend that if you are meditating profoundly with retrospection, that you also reflect on the virtues of your Being, your soul, because that is your true nature. That is how you know what you are fighting for in yourself. I would like to open up the floor to questions. Questions and Answers
Question: How do you know when you are fully in touch with your soul?
Instructor: There are levels to this. One basic example is when you are in a difficult situation. This is something that I have reflected on in my own life. Sometimes internal experiences or astral projections don't come readily. We go through periods of absence, so to speak, rather than presence in our internal life, and in the physical world, we might have a difficult circumstance in which somebody confronts us, comes at us with a lot of anger, with a lot of resentment, a lot of hurt self-esteem, and is attacking us with their energy. Now, we know that we are more in touch with our soul, our conscience, when we act ethically to those problems. So instead of retaliating with hatred or self-justification, or pride, we learn to respond with humility and compassion. That is one level. I think that is the most concrete example I can think of, because I know sometimes we like to think that to really be in touch with your soul, you need to be out of your body in the astral plane, the higher dimensions. There is that reality to that, but more importantly for us, we know that we are really deepening our connection with our divinity and our Being, our soul, when we act uprightly: upright thought, upright feeling, upright action. Question: What do you mean by going deeper in an ego? Is that having a new point of view in on a situation? Instructor: Yes, that is one component. To really go deeper into an ego, we may have some understanding at our level about how anger works in a particular situation. We can understand its thoughts and feelings and impulses to act, but on a deeper level, we may not be seeing everything. We can have a different point of view in our meditation whereby we perceive directly how our perspective was originally skewed, such as, we have an argument with a friend. We feel justified. We feel vindicated and therefore we argue back and forth in a heated debate. Now if we are meditating and going deeper on a defect, we might have observed in that moment when we were angry, we can perceive through a vision or our imagination, a comprehension, how we perhaps were mistaken, and that the other person could have been seeing something differently from us. You can actually have that vision where you see from another person's point of view, because the consciousness is dynamic. It is expansive. It is multi-dimensional. It is not limited to one point of view, but is universal, and therefore you can have actual visions where you perceive states of consciousness, and from that point of view, you can see third person, or literally look at yourself in a new way. So yes, that is possible. Comprehension unfolds magically. It is always alert and new. There are distinct qualities and flavors to it that only you will apprehend through your own practice. So it's always good, as one of our students at mentioned in our private messaging, to have a set time in which to practice. Personally, I like to retrospect at night, review my day, and all the moments that led up to when I have gone to my meditation chair, when I am going to introspect and before I go to bed. Usually if we discover really strong egos, it's good to meditate there and then if you can. If you have the time and space and ability to do so, but it is always important to have a set discipline by which we are meditating and practically implementing these tools. Some people like to get up early in the morning, 4:00 or 5:00 a.m in order to retrospect and to meditate deeply at that hour. It is always very good to awaken at that hour to practice, but if you find that it is easier to stay awake in the night time before you go to sleep, before you dream, you can retrospect at that time too. Question: Can you explain which sephirah of the Tree of Life the Rune Rita involves to help us visualize them during the practice? Instructor: The Rune Rita relates to the sphere of גְּבוּרָה Geburah: Justice, or in Arabic, دين Din. Geburah is الله دين Allah-Din, الدين Aladdin, the judgment and justice of God, the discrimination, the intuition, the perception of divinity that knows how to discriminate with effectiveness and clarity. It is our consciousness, our ability to visualize and imagine, to perceive. So when you are doing the Rune Rita, you pray and you ask to work with that part of your Being known as the Kaom. So internally, in the astral plane, part of our Being related to the sephirah Geburah is known as the Kaom. They are the police of the law. And literally, in an astral experience, you can meet them. Your own divinity, your own conscience that appears in the form of police officers, either to hold you responsible to the law or to arrest you for a mistake, for a crime, is the voice of ethics in your heart. Personally, I have worked with my inner Kaom many times in the astral plane, where I have had negotiations with them in accordance to the law of karma. The voice of conscience speaks abundantly through the heart of the mysticism of Geburah, the judgment of divinity. It is how we judge ourselves. It is the strength of God, and it relates astrologically to Mars, to iron, such as with the Iron Surah as we mentioned previously. So when you work with the Rune Rita, imagine that sephirah, the strength of divinity in you, helping you to judge your faults or mistakes, and asking the inner Kaom to help you be more accountable to the law of divinity, to Shariah. Question: I struggle with remembering past sins before remorse sets in. There is a bit of satisfaction and I am horrified by this. I feel great remorse. How can both exist and how to combat this? Instructor: Both exist because we are not one way or the other, but we are mixed. We have a little bit of consciousness that is free, about 3 percent, statistically speaking, according to Samael Aun Weor. And we have 97 percent conditioned psyche or ego. So therefore, our center of gravity is going to be towards our faults. It is going to be very difficult to transform that, and of course there is a lot of suffering involved, because as much as we want to follow divine law, chastity, pure things, pure principles, we have a lot of perdition inside, and this is a source of great moral pain. The way that you combat it is not through repression, not by pushing it away, not hiding from it, not justifying or feeding it either, but comprehending it with serenity. I know some people like to think of this term Jihad in Islam as something as a holy war, in which we exert a lot of effort and fight against demonic creatures, with demonic beings who are oppressing us. The word جهاد Jihad comes from the Arabic mujahadah, which means “to strive,” to work against, to perform effort. But this effort has nothing to do with the mind. It has to do with comprehending the mind. Real effort of the consciousness, of the conscience, is a serene state. You cannot combat chaos with chaos, with repression or justification. You have to look at it serenely. Let the mind settle by not identifying with it. You can deepen your serenity through exercises in this tradition. We have many practices that can help you give strength and stability to your concentration as well as your serenity, such as the mantras of this tradition, Sacred Rites of Rejuvenation, the runes, especially, are important. The more energy you empower your consciousness with, the more stable, flexible, strong, and serene it will be. In reality, the best spiritual warriors are serene at all times. This is very well known amongst the samurai, before that tradition had degenerated, where these warriors would defend their homes and their families, their loved ones, their Lords, by meditating before battle. They knew that if they give into agitation, they would be lost. They would make mistakes. In the same sense spiritually, this doctrine of Bushido in Japanese, the way of the warrior, is found within the Muslim doctrine of Jihad: holy war or striving against the ego, internally. So don't beat yourself up on the fact that we have errors and egos and defects. You could spend a lot of time being pessimistic or morbid about it, or you can work effectively on your defects, what you can see, and develop serenity, because after repentance and really working not to feed those egos, we develop serenity of mind, calmness of thought, equanimity, and stabilization of the Essence. The best weapon is serenity, without exception. Question: Does shame come from identifying with one of the three parts of repentance? Instructor: Shame is an ego, is a result of not having resolution to change. It is also the result of not abstaining from desire. To feel shame as an ego, as a defect, is to feel bad about having committed an error, but is an egotistical quality. There is a very distinct difference between remorse and shame. Remorse is conscience. It is when the soul recognizes its faults, and this is something that only you can recognize through persistent efforts. Shame, if you observe yourself diligently and discriminate in your soul in your observations, is a defect. So learn to discriminate between the two, because shame is inverted pride: a sense of self that feels an identity in being morbid about oneself or self-denigrating. Instead, remorse is liberating. It is conscience. Question: When one feels remorse or and repents for a wrong action, what part of the Being feels that pain? Does one still have to pay karma if one repents genuinely? Instructor: This is an interesting question, because in the ultimate synthesis, the Being is happiness. There is no pain in divinity. In the absolute heights of our most profound synthesis, the Being is liberated joy, ecstasy, divine qualities of compassion and liberation and expansiveness. The one who feels that pain is the Essence. The Essence is the one that feels remorse, because there is a pressure from within, from the Being, that is exerting its influence in our heart, that is telling us that what we did was wrong or that we failed to enact a virtuous action. Now what is interesting is that we pay karma not only for the wrong that we commit, but for the good that we omit. But if we repent genuinely, meaning: the ego is dead, then there is no karma to pay. Real repentance is when that ego is fully dead. Nothing left. So if you had an ego of anger that was really karmic and repetitive and cyclical, that kept permeating certain aspects of your life that were problematic and then you removed it, then the karma that would have inflicted you regarding that aggregate, for having that ego, is annulled. It ceases. So karma is paid when the ego is dead completely. Question: With respect to retrospection, I struggle with continuity of thought. Do you have any recommendations on where to start? Instructor: Continuity of presence is best implemented when we have energy to do so. It takes a lot of energy to awaken consciousness. This is why we have so many practices of breath, pranayama, mantras, runes, sacred rites of rejuvenation, sexual alchemy, because the sexual energy that is manifested and directed to those exercises, helps to give strength to the Essence. If you want to have greater continuity of attention and awareness, to pay attention, spend some time, some significant amount of time working with your energy. With energy you have more light, more force by which to work. If the battery is not charged, the flashlight is not going to work. If the light keeps turning off here and there, it means that you need more force. So I remember one experience, to kind of help relating to this, where I was in the astral plane around 4 am in the morning, where my Being showed me an oil lamp and the light went off. It was Illuminating a very beautiful room, and then it ran out of oil and ceased. When I woke up, I realized my mind and intellect were tired. I was having difficulty with my practices of self-observation and remembrance. But fortunately, knowing the science and being married as well, I learned to work with the sexual energy, and therefore work with the oil to enlighten the lamp of consciousness. That oil is the semen. In Hebrew the word for oil is שֶׁמֶן shemen: the oil of anointment. The oil of purification is the sexual energy which we conserve and elevate to our mind, so that symbolically we anoint our heads. We illuminate the intellect. If you want more power to your retrospections, give yourself good energy. Transmute. Spend more time with that type of exercise. Question: Also, do we rewind playing events backwards from the current moment or press play from the first moment we can remember that day, or could both strategies be useful in different circumstances? Instructor: Yes, whatever is easiest for you. If you find it easier to review from the moment you sat down to back in the morning, if you are meditating at night. Or you can meditate from the morning up to the moment you entered your meditation space. Either way is effective. What is important is that you do what's easier for you, whatever is more natural. Question: Can you negotiate karma before facing the Guardian of the Threshold? Instructor: Yes, you can. Obviously there are degrees of work and development that you can do, but it is not necessary that you have had to face the guardian in order to be able to work out certain situations in your life. Question: Is it possible to eradicate an aggregate through relationships with family? I have seen an ego that is distasteful. I pray to the Divine Mother and felt that I'd overcome it, but I find that certain situations trigger the ego to come up again. How do I rid myself of it for good? Instructor: Keep meditating. Keep reflecting. Be patient. We need to be very strict with ourselves. But also, we have to be very understanding as well. Repentance does not mean we beat ourselves with a rod of iron, but instead we learn to be flexible, intuitive, enduring, diligent, patient. You'll understand that ego the more you observe it and the more you reflect on it. There are levels of understanding. There are depths that unfold as a result of our successive meditations and practices. We go deeper each time. So don't weary or cease to persist in your practice, because the more you comprehend, the more you remove until finally after comprehending deeper and deeper, you reach the roots. So there are levels of the consciousness and subconsciousness and infra-consciousness as well, the unconsciousness, etc., 49 levels. We can understand egos in certain degrees, but it gets deeper the more we work. So have faith in your comprehension and your Being, because it is a very long work and it's very difficult to eradicate certain egos that are very deep. The more repentance we show successively in our exercises, the greater freedom we will experience until, finally, one day, we realize we are liberated from that fault. Trust in your Being, your Divine Mother, because She knows exactly the process that you need to go through to be liberated. Question: When we recite the rune Rita: RA, RE, RI, RO, RU. Are the r's rolled? Do we open and close the feet and arms in between each mantra? Instructor: Yes, the letter R or the consonant R is rolled like this:
When you do the mantras, you don't have to open and close the feet and arms in between each mantra. You simply keep the position with your left hand over your left hip, left leg out, right hand at your right side.
Again, I thank you for attending and thank you for your questions. Remember that this is a process. Repentance occurs in degrees. As the first state and station of the path, it is also something that we perfect gradually in relation to the other stations and states of the spiritual path of initiation. So I thank you for coming.
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We spoke previously about contraction and expansion of consciousness. In simple terms, this refers to attention and awareness. We explained that if consciousness is light, that attention is focused like a flashlight. We use attention to concentrate upon different things, such as a progression of ideas in a lecture or in a conversation with a person.
We explained that awareness is different. It is expansive, like a diffused light, the amplification of cognizance. Awareness spreads out towards different phenomena outside. We spent a lot of time discussing these principles so as to aid our meditation practice, and building off that understanding from the previous lectures, we are going to talk about a very essential discipline that is practiced within every major world religion, every meditative science. This has to do with the continuity of consciousness. So while contraction and expansion, attention and awareness are important, it is now even more crucial if we wish to really understand this science of meditation, whether from Sufism or any faith, we have to study the continuum, the maintenance, the constant and consistent implementation of the consciousness in the present moment. We can be attentive in a given instant, in a specific moment. Perhaps at work, we have a challenging circumstance, a trying situation, a life-threatening ordeal. Some people in the midst of a crisis, such as with 9/11, in which the destruction of the Twin Towers shocked the consciousness of everyone present, not only in the United States, but even people viewing the news across the world. Sometimes those instances can produce a very quick awakening, a spontaneous, constant shock that awakens us for a moment, if but briefly. Many people approach religion, spirituality, meditation, because they want experience. They may have had a taste of that initial flavor of awakening of consciousness, of profound attention, of expansive awareness, but the problem becomes, can we sustain that state? Can we will it? Can we make it consistent in each moment of our life? Can we be cognizant like that, in a state of alert novelty, throughout an entire day? Continuity of consciousness, in esoteric Buddhism, is known by the term tantra. It is the continuum, the flow, the constant manifestation of the energy of the consciousness within the meditator. Continuity of attention, of awareness, all day, is known as mindfulness in Eastern traditions. It could be called remembrance, presence, vigilance. The Sufis have many beautiful terms that relate to this essential point. One of the many wonderful Arabic terms that explain the nature of this perception, this continuity, is known as مراقبة muraqaba, which translates as vigilance and also meditation. What is a vigil? People who commemorate the life of someone who is deceased often perform vigils outside their casket, with family and friends, many times enmeshed and concentrated within deep prayer. They don't sleep physically. Many other traditions, such as the Aztecs, the great warrior dancers, the Jaguar Knights of ancient Mexico, would perform beautiful vigils as a ceremony in remembrance of divinity. And likewise, the Sufis, many masters of that tradition would often fast, but also not sleep for prolonged periods of time. I believe Prophet Muhammad was well-known for this. He often stated and many times, referenced in the Qur’an, "It is best to lose sleep over prayer." More importantly for us, we have to learn to be awake all the time as a consciousness, as an Essence, as a soul. It means that we have to be attentive and aware at all times. But of course, in the beginning this is very difficult. For those of you who have perhaps practiced a physical vigil, it can be very difficult. Personally, I have done this in the past and often have spent nights deep in prayer, meditating, seeking illumination, especially in the morning hours. Waking up early, but also waking up throughout the night to perform vigil, introspecting, meditating, asking for guidance. Because if we are attentive in our consciousness, not only just one moment, but throughout our entire existence, we deepen our state. We deepen our connection. We augment our remembrance with the divine. It is even stated in one of the surahs of the Qur’an, "the recitation at dawn,” how great it is, for it “is ever witnessed” by the angels, by the divine. For how do you not know that “your Lord shall resurrect you in a praiseworthy station?" (Qur’an 17:78-79) This has to do with really deepening our practice, because it is not enough to be attentive just for one instant in our life. We have to learn to develop consciousness, its attention and its awareness, but all the time. Otherwise, we are not going to have much depth. People who learn to have insight for a moment, who state that they have a spiritual awakening, but who do not sustain those states, eventually become swallowed by life. They are not practical. There are many philosophies and groups that teach you that awakening is just momentary. But in reality, there are levels and levels upon awakening, of presence with the Being. Heights upon heights. So we have to be intentional. It is not enough just to have one moment of clarity. We need clarity in every instant of our existence. We have to sustain our attention and awareness with intention, with will. So people often talk about feeling a presence, an awakening, but they describe it as something fleeting. It means that they are not awakened, but they are asleep. They had a shock, perhaps a divine moment, but then the mind intervened, and now they are back again in a state of slumber, psychologically speaking. So while we can have a profound moment of wisdom, it does not mean that the entirety and totality of our life is that. Where is our center of gravity? Where does our attention, our awareness go? And more importantly: for how long? All religions teach the need to awaken, yet, they were never explicit in their methods. So they gave clues, but not all of the techniques that lead to that state and its diverse qualities. Every religion has a kindergarten, an exoteric doctrine, a public school, a beginning level. In Sufism, this is Shariah. It is ethics. We learn to be ethical when we are awake. If we are asleep at the wheel of our car, psychologically speaking, we cannot in any way protect our spirituality, because if we are unconscious, we make mistakes. We act upon nafs, egos, desires. We have to learn to observe ourselves, to do that all day, to be awake, to see what is new inside. But at the same time, we need to be aware of our surroundings. So one of the points we wished to have left you with in our former lecture is that external events and our understanding of their relationship to internal states is how we arrive at comprehension of ourselves, comprehension of the ego. So that we are no longer asleep. So that we are not dozing off, not paying attention to where we are at and what we are doing―thinking of other things, of our fiancé, our friend, our wife, our partner, our family, and not knowing where we are at or what we are doing. So this is vigilance―to not sleep. When we lose our attention, we don't really have consciousness of the causes of our own psychological states. We can be angry at a person and not know why. This is fundamentally wrong. We need to know everything: the reasons why we exist and why we act the way we do. This is why in the beginning levels of religion, of Sufism, we work with ethics. We learn to curtail negative thinking, negative feeling, and negative actions within ourselves and in our daily life, all the time. It is not enough to be chaste for a day and to be impure the rest of our existence. Meditation does not work that way. It requires a complete introversion of our consciousness―to not blame the external world, but the look inside, to have presence within the body, to know that we are here, to know what is happening, to know why we are irritated or upset, depressed, morbid, doubtful, lustful. We have to understand our relationship to the world and vice versa, and so we have to ask ourselves, are we really here, and how do we know? Here is a test for you. When you go to sleep at night, are you awake in your dreams, or do you see nothing? If eight hours pass and you don't know anything, it means that we are profoundly unconscious in our physical life, as we have explained in the lecture The Present Moment, because conscious awakening, if it is continuous, it manifests in our sleep, physically, so that the consciousness, which is trained, which is active, is aware and awake and intelligent and profoundly luminous in the dream world. We stop dreaming. We see those dimensions for what they are, and we can gain even more knowledge about how to change. And so there are very distinct levels of presence, that flavor of remembrance. I am sure all of us had had a moment in which we forgot something very important, perhaps related with work, and suddenly we have the insight. We remember. We have a shock in our attention. We see something new. We have a clarity and a crispness that is distinct. It is pristine. That is a simple allegory for presence of being, remembrance of our state. It is the absence of distraction. It is the absence of the ego, but a profound presence in our own awareness, which is maintained. 
These levels of presence and even absence are mapped in different ways by different traditions. In Buddhism, you have nine stages of meditative concentration or calm abiding. If you want to know more about that very famous glyph within every Tibetan Buddhist monastery, you can study Meditation Essentials on Glorian.org, or our lecture on Calm Abiding: The Stages of Serenity and our course on Gnostic Meditation.
In Judeo-Christianity, you have the Tree of Life, which documents different levels of presence, of understanding, of consciousness. Within Sufism, this marvelous tree of being correlates directly with the states and stations of the esoteric path. All of these are tools. They can help us understand where we are at in our development.
So, how present are we throughout the day, or even when we sit to practice meditation? On a simple level, we can be present for a few moments, remembering our objective during a certain session. We are concentrating on a stone, simply viewing it and not thinking of other things. We are observing the fact of that rock in front of us, and if our mind starts to think or get distracted, we don't repress. We don't justify. We don't get carried along with that associative chain of thought. We simply return to observation. But if we do forget, we get distracted, we start thinking and daydreaming of other things. It means that we are absent. We are physically in front of this rock, seated in an asana, a posture, but our mind is traveling very far away. This has to change. We forget ourselves more often than we remember ourselves in the beginning. This change is through discipline: remembering the Being, alert novelty, remembering the presence of the Self, the Innermost, observing our defects. So beginners struggle often to remember their Being, the focus of their practice. Their center of gravity is in the ego, not the consciousness. Masters of meditation are different. Their center of gravity is in the consciousness. It is in the Being even, but this is a gradual development. They have presence or continuity of attention and awareness at all times, even when the physical body is asleep. They are awakened citizens in the internal planes. We get to that point through consistency in our practices, which is why Abu-I Husayn al-Nuri stated: “For twenty years I have been finding and losing―when I have found my Lord, I have lost my heart, and when I have found my heart, I have lost my Lord.” ―Abu-l Husayn al-Nuri If we remember the Being, we forget that we are the ego. Our consciousness shifts. There is a division of attention there. We are the Essence that is free. But if we invest our energy into desire, info nafs, into ego, we forget our Being. We lose our Lord, because we are concentrated on our own egotistical heart. The Definition of Absence
"Each moment is a golden child of Gnosis" says Samael Aun Weor. "Nothing in life is ever static or dull." However, if we are not vigilant, continuously applying effort to be here and now, we do not recognize the novelty of each instant, each moment.
This is the qualifying characteristic of whether or not we are doing this right. We have to see life in a new way, all the time. If it is repetitive and dull, if we are lax in our attention, if we are ambiguous, vaporous in our awareness, misty, clouded, it means that we are asleep. We need clarity. We need crispness, but this is only refined through application. And when we forget to do the work, we have to remember, bring ourselves back. Part of that is because of our Being pushing us inside, but oftentimes we don't know what is going on around us or even within us. This is a profound absence of consciousness. Al-Qushayri, the writer of Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism, stated something very interesting: “Absence is the heart’s absence from knowledge of what is going on in ordinary human affairs, due to the absorption of the senses in something else that is influencing them. The heart may be made absent from its sense of itself and others by the influence of remembering eternal reward or of thinking about eternal punishment.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Too often people project their mind on to life. We don't really see the reality of things, if we are honest, if we are really analyzing ourselves and being critical, not from a sense of morbidity or doubt, but from seeking to know the truth of our life. So this is our psychological state. We often project our fears, our hatred, our preoccupations, our ideologies, our politics, upon the world, upon others. We often identify with externals, but really don't see any internal cause for anything that happens in the world. Many times people think that presence has to do with perceiving correspondences within our surroundings. Sometimes people look to find numbers that repeat, coincidences, things that seem rather supernormal, but I like to relate to you a statement by Samael Aun Weor in his Revolution of the Dialectic about the need to have a receptive mind, to not project our beliefs unto what we see, to be present. “If you are eating, eat; if you are getting dressed, get dressed, and if you are walking on the street, walk, walk, walk, but do not think about anything else. Do only what you are doing. Do not run away from the facts; do not fill them with so many meanings, symbols, sermons and warnings. Live them without allegories. Live them with a receptive mind from moment to moment.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic We have to be present. That continuity must be maintained always. So the term absence is very dynamic within Arabic and Sufi mysticism. For most people, absence is our daily state. We are inattentive or unaware of our psychological states and the external environment in which we are. However, there is a type of spiritual absence, but I invite you to reflect deeply on this and not get caught up in the terminology. It is something different than what we commonly associate with absence, as if no one is home. You know, we say that a person is not attentive or is kind of lost, that “There is no lights on at home.” There is no one there. There is no one conscious or present in front of us. There is a type of spiritual absence. It can refer to a type of profound absorption, internally concentrated and connected with divinity, so much that the initiate seems unaware of what is happening outside of oneself. This type of spiritual absence is an advanced state amongst masters like Samael Aun Weor. I'll give you an example. He knew how to leave his body at will. He could be talking to a person physically, and yet he could close his eyes and leave his physicality behind and enter the internal dimensions, intentionally, at any time. Other people could be talking to him, but he would be in samadhi. His consciousness was so focused on the internal worlds, his center of gravity was in the internal worlds, and that it was difficult for him to be present in the body. Now, most of us we struggle to be aware of our physical body in the first place and even our environment. Meanwhile, we lack cognizance of pretty much anything. Beginners also do not know. We do not know how to enter the astral world, the internal worlds, the heavens of the Tree of Life, at will. Meanwhile Samael Aun Weor and many prophets like Mohammed, Krishna, Moses, Buddha etc., are awakened internally. Samael Aun Weor had to exert effort to be in the physical body, because his intelligence was focused, his center of gravity was focused in the heights of the Tree of Life, so otherwise he was absent here, physically, due to his absorption. We can relate a few more excerpts about this from The Principles of Sufism. “For instance, it is said that Rabi bin Khaytham was going to visit Ibn Masud when he passed by the shop of a blacksmith and saw hot iron in the forge. He lost consciousness and did not come to himself until the next day. Having awakened, he was asked about what happened, and said, ‘Through that fire, the existence of the People of the Fire came to my mind.’ This is an absence that exceeded its bounds and became a faint.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So these are stories. These are principles the Sufis spoke in a very allegorical way, which people read literally. If they want to, that is fine, but more profoundly in relation to the states and stations of the esoteric path, this has to do with an absence of the body and presence in the internal planes. So this presence is when we have experiences about the realities of heaven and hell, the Tree of Life, and its shadow, the Tree of زقوم Zaqqum, the hell realms, the infra-dimensions. And when we learn to really walk this path, we have to face many entities that belong to what the Qur’an refers to as the left-hand, the path of demons, sorcerers, black magicians, unbelievers. The term unbeliever in Arabic is كافر Al-Kafir or the الكافرون Al-Kafirun, the unbelievers (plural). So what does this term mean? There is a surah in the Qur’an called الكهف Al-Kahf, which is the Cave, كهف Kahf, where the unbelievers, الكافرون al-Kafirun, dwell within the caves of the Earth, in the infra-conscious dimensions, which we access in dreams or in meditation―if we are pulled in that direction based on our level of being. Because some people have nightmares, very disturbing dreams, and that is a reality. That is hell. It is not a made-up illusion. It has a real existence, but of course, it is inferior in relation to the multi-dimensionality of existence. So the people of the fire are those كافرون kafirun, unbelievers, who are not only outside, but inside. Our own egos do not believe in divinity. They fight against us when we want to be chaste, when we want to meditate, to concentrate. So that war against the unbelievers is inside our own defects. So that is an example of a type of absorption in which something physical reminds one of a profound principle, internally. "Through that fire, the existence of the People of the Fire came to my mind." ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism For those of us who have had experiences of these infra-conscious realms, we can speak with clarity that these are really profound states of suffering, and that we seek to avoid in our work―to confront and to change, so that we don't go to those states permanently. But things can remind us, give us remembrance, give us a shock, so that we forget even what is around us― even introspect inside. In a sense, that is a type of absence, physically, but a presence within our consciousness, a remembrance. There is also a statement in this quote that is interesting to analyze: “It is also told that a fire broke out in the house of Ali ibn Husayn while he was in prostration, but he did not turn away from his prayer. When asked about what had happened, he said, “The remembrance of hellfire protected me from that fire.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So again, these are psychological truths. They are not necessarily literal stories where, because he was praying, his house didn't catch fire, because he was remembering hellfire. That metaphor, that symbol, that allegory, for our purposes, has to do with the fact that if we are remembering our Being, we will not get hurt physically. We will face dangers, but we will be protected.This is something we verify through presence, through awakening, through faith, through knowing. It is not a belief. We know the source of our protection from experience. Divinity is the Mighty, the Wise, says the Qur’an, but of course, we have to remember who He is, what the Innermost is. The Causes of Absence
Absence and presence have different causes that we have to become attuned to, to understand, and even to manipulate at will. Al-Qushayri states:
“Sometimes absence from one’s senses may be brought on by the Truth’s disclosure of an inner meaning. Those who experience this are differentiated according to their states.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So sometimes, we can receive profound insight into a problem, an experience of a dream we had in the morning, or a realization that emerges seemingly from nowhere, whereby we feel a shock of conscious understanding. We become internally absorbed, in that our external circumstances do not really influence our attention or awareness. We are present within, but absent from the cares of the world. While Sufism might seem to present these terms, absence and presence, as opposites, they in truth represent dynamic qualities, principles with multiple layers of meaning. So what are these degrees or differentiations of states according to Al-Qushayri? We have to remember that there are three levels of meditative science: introductory, intermediate, and advanced, or in Arabic: شريعة Shariah, طريفة Tariqah, حقيقة Haqiqah / معرفة Marifah. Or: ethics, the law, Shariah; the path of meditation daily, which is Tariqah; and the truth and knowledge we gain from experience of reality is Haqiqah (the truth) and Marifah (knowledge, or in Greek, γνῶσις Gnosis, or in Hebrew, דעת Da’ath). They all reference the same thing. So we have to learn where our center of gravity is in our states of presence. In the beginning levels, it is sporadic. We forget ourselves more than we remember ourselves. In the intermediate paths, we are learning to remember ourselves more. And in the highest stages of wisdom, one does not forget the Being at all. So we can fluctuate in our meditation practice in a given session through all of these states, from one moment to the next, but a master has their full development in the knowledge and truth of their Being. We have to begin where we are, and many people have experiences, even though they are temporary, are so profound, that they place them on a spiritual path. For example, you have many initiates of the White Lodge who were once very poor people, had negative character, and were suffering a lot. Because they had a transformative experience, they left behind a life of materialism and entered a life of spirituality. This is allegorized in every tradition, whether from Milarepa in Buddhism, St. Paul of Tarsus in Christianity, and in this example in Sufism, we have the Master Al-Haddad. Let us read an excerpt about him: “It is well known that the state of Abu Hafs al-Nishapuri al-Haddad (the Blacksmith) began with his leaving his trade. He was in his shop when a reciter of the Qur’an chanted a verse, and an influence came over his heart that made Abu Hafs lose awareness of his senses. He put his hand into the fire and drew out the hot iron. One of his students saw this and exclaimed, ‘Master, what is this?’ Abu Hafs looked at what had manifested through him, abandoned his trade, and left his shop.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This is allegorical wisdom. The Sufi language is Kabbalistic. Many people are like this blacksmith. Many of us identify with materialism. But it is a recitation of the Qur’an that opened Al-Haddad's eyes. It is interesting that even names in Arabic have a lot of meaning. Haddad resembles Al-Haddid, which is a surah in the Qur’an known as “The Iron.” Interesting that a blacksmith has the name iron, or a name resembling that word. Let us read a verse from the Qur’an that relates to this principle. It is from Surah Al-Hadid, The Iron, verse 25: “We have already sent Our messengers with clear evidences and sent down with them the Scripture and the balance that the people may maintain [their affairs] in justice. And We sent down iron, wherein is great military might and benefits for the people, and so that Allah may make evident those who support Him and His messengers unseen. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Exalted in Might.” ―Qur’an 57:25 The language of the Qur’an is Kabbalah and alchemy. It is symbolism. There are verses of literal meaning and there are verses of symbolic, allegorical, metaphorical, conscious, symbolic meaning. A balance represents equanimity, serenity, tranquility, the scales of inner peace. Iron is a symbol of willpower, spiritual force, concentration. Haddad, the blacksmith, was so absorbed by the mysticism of the Qur’an that he put his hand on a hot iron and didn't realize it. This is implying that, as with many of the Sufi stories, that he was in this case physically not hurt, but this is a symbol how the fire and heat of lust cannot harm us if we are present with the Being. Lust, ego, nafs, desires, cannot affect the person who is present with God. So in this example, Al-Haddad left his shop. He left behind a life of materialism and became an initiate of esoteric Islam. So with training we can learn to be absent from lust and present with chastity. These are psychological states, and in the beginning we are often filled and afflicted with desires, and many students write to us complaining and suffering a lot: how do I overcome my egos, my defects, my desires, because we have so much of it? We have to learn to be like Al-Haddad. Remember your Being. Remember the message of the divinities, such as through the Qur’an, the Bhagavad-Gita, the sutras, the tantras, the writings of Samael Aun Weor. Remember those teachings and practice them to the best of your ability, so that with presence of Being, you learn to even approach the sexual act, your marriage if you are married, the creative energy, and not to be burned by that force, to not be hurt by it. Instead, we transform it and we create the soul. The Definition of Presence
So let us talk about the definition of presence. This is awareness. The Arabic word for awareness is muhadarah, which is where you get words like presence, حضور hudur. When we say that someone is present, it implies that we are attentive, listening, apprehending the nature or meaning of phenomena.
So the mind needs to be in a state of receptivity, passivity, and the consciousness needs to be active, intentionally looking. If you are not intentionally perceiving your existence, if not providing effort in that regard, if we are not consistently manifesting our cognizance in accordance with the needs of each circumstance of life, it means that we are not awake. 
We are in the physical world―in Kabbalah, Malkuth, the physical body―and usually we are not even aware of our physical body itself. As we stated previously, we often forget our breathing. Sometimes we get into an argument or we are angry. We are panicking. We are breathing really fast. We are not even aware of this process. If you control your breath, you control your mind. You control your body. This is a basic fundamental practice within Sufism: to control the breath, to be grounded in where you are at. So if you forget what is happening to you, just breathe, relax, become concentrated in yourself. This is a kindergarten practice, but it is the foundation of everything else.
So let us remember ourselves and our body. Wherever we go and whatever we do, let us not be distracted to the reality of our daily life. As Al-Qushayri states: “As for presence, it means that one is present with the Real, because if one is absent from creation one is present with the Real. [The term] implies that [the state] resembles being [physically] present: the remembrance of the Real captures one’s heart, and one is present within one’s heart before the Lord Most High.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism What does it mean to be absent from creation but present with the real? Many students often ask what it means to have presence, to be in remembrance of the presence of divinity. Examine your conduct. Examine your behaviors. Examine your mental states. Do you act out of benefit for others, with compassion, with equanimity, even when you are being insulted? Do you respond with kindness to the person who has betrayed you? Do you have patience for those who afflict you and hurt your pride? Do you give to your neighbor even though it hurts? Do you forgive the person who betrays you? Who has walked away from your most generous actions? Who doesn't appreciate your best efforts? Our behavior shows us our level of being. Are we acting with divine principles, or are we reacting to life out of pain in order to produce more pain? We have to be in the world, but not of it. Be present. Respond to life, but don't react. What does this mean? In a moment, we are afflicted with rage. We are angry. Someone betrayed us, did something very hurtful. Our pride is seeking to express in our words: sarcasm, hatred, wrath. We have to learn how to respond to a situation, but not with desire. So while we previously stated it is important and even necessary to be patient in those circumstances, in challenging ordeals, we always have to respond in some way, with presence of some kind. Life always demands a response. We cannot live in a bubble and think that we can avoid the problems of existence. The reality is that we need to intelligently deal with everything, with cognizance. You have to do it by being present of your behavior. First, physically, and then internally. What does your mind want to do in this situation, even if you don't voice what you are really feeling? Our invisible behaviors show us our level of being. What do we secretly want to do? Do we want revenge? Do we want vindication? Do we want the world to embrace us as a hero, even when we are not? When we are wrong? We have to examine our internal qualities, and when you follow your conscience, knowing the right thing and actually doing it, we learn to end problems. They cease. They evaporate. The real problem is our attitude, our mind, our identification with life, that feeling of “This person really harmed me and I need to get revenge.” We are identifying in those instances. Our sense of self is invested in the problem and it is the problem. So, don't invest your energy in that, because that energy needs to be conserved and used for the Being. Without energy, we cannot be present. We cannot be awake, even physically. If you don't sleep enough, if you don't have enough vital energy, you can't pay attention. You will nod off. The same with our spirituality. Examine your behavior: how we behave, and think, and act, and feel, and how we exert energy. Where we direct our attention, we spend energy. So, don't invest it in external things. To know divine qualities, we have to really renounce egotistical qualities in ourselves. These profound states of being that everybody wants are found here and now. They are not in some far distant future. The presence of God is found by doing what is right in your heart―not out of vindication or shame or pride or malice, but for the benefit of the other person, even when they are wrong… especially so. This is Shariah, the basics, the foundation of religion. If we don't do this, we cannot meditate. In fact, we will be wasting our time. This is why Dhū’l-Nūn Miṣrī stated the following: "The key to success in worship lies in meditative reflection (fikrat)…whoever persists in such reflection in the heart will behold the invisible realm in the spirit. Whoever contemplates God through keeping watch over the thoughts which pass through his heart will be exalted by God in all of his outward deeds." ―Dhū’l-Nūn Miṣrī in ‘Aṭṭār: Tadhkirat, 154-155 Therefore contemplate yourself, for as the Sufis state, "He who knows himself knows his Lord." 
Presence with God
The presence of God, the Being, has degrees. This is why we study the Tree of Life. It is a map of levels of being. Let us read the wisdom of Al-Qushayri:
“Presence with God, is to the degree of absence from oneself and the world. When it is said that so- and-so is “present,” it means that he is present in his heart with his Lord, not unconscious of Him and not distracted, in continuous recollection of Him. In that state, and according to his degree, the Truth reveals to him the spiritual meanings and secrets for which he has been chosen.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Let's examine this glyph of the Tree of Life and this statement by Al-Qushayri by asking a few questions. How present are we in the body? Are we aware of energy circulating and flowing in us? Do we sense our emotions? Do we have control over what we feel, our mood, our sentiments? Is our mind calm, or is it racing with thoughts, associations, ideas, projects, plans, day dreams, fantasies, commentaries, internal chatter? This is mapped out on the Tree of Life, this dynamic. The lower four סְפִירוֹת sephiroth or spheres of this glyph on the right represent:
Most people who approach meditation don't even get past the body. We are usually so unaware of our body throughout the day that if one sits to practice, even if very sincere, to go inside, to introspect―the body is agitated. We have an itch. The arm wants to move. There is no control. It is impossible to relax. Ethics are so important because the physical body must be at peace, and if we are engaging in negative behaviors all day, we are agitating our body. It becomes tense. If we are angry, we clench our fists and our teeth (some people, perhaps). We all have our tendencies, and if we don't know how to relax the body, we cannot do anything. So this is the beginning. After adopting a posture, we relax. We let the body sit. We don't move. Let it be. Let it rest. In order to aid in this process, we work with energy: Yesod, the foundation of our spirituality. יְסוֹד Yesod in Hebrew means “foundation.” It is to work with the sexual creative energy, and within Sufism, when we work with breath, as in with any tradition, we are circulating that vital force throughout our body, our heart, and our mind. That energy helps us to relax. Deep breathing helps us to calm, helps to be still. So after adopting a posture, are we really present with the energies of the Being through our breath, through our work, through our pranayamas, our mantras, our transmutation exercises? As we are examining ourselves, is our mood calm? We have to suspend emotions and to enact superior emotions through prayer. We have to pray sincerely for divinity to help us. This is not found in some formula or memorizing a complicated prayer. You can do that, and it's very beautiful and wonderful if you can, but more importantly, prayer is sincere and effective when we are genuine―not by mechanically reciting 10,000 Hail Mary’s or reciting Al-Fatihah, the opening of the Qur’an, mechanically, repetitively, without knowing its meaning. We also have to suspend thought. Don't let the mind dictate to you your life. But this doesn't mean that we repress what we see. We have to comprehend our mind, so that it naturally, by looking at it and not investing our selves into it, it starts to settle on its own, like the waves of a lake that cease its turbulence when we no longer thrash against the waters, so to speak, with negative behavior. This is all preliminary. When the lower four sephiroth are calm, we can learn to concentrate with willpower, with concentration. This is תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth, which means “beauty,” or in Arabic, إحسان Ihsan, “beautiful action.” It is the source of all beauty and action within our very being. Without willpower, guided by Geburah, our consciousness, our conscience, we can't affect anything. גְּבוּרָה Geburah in Hebrew means “judgment.” It is our intuition. It is knowing what is right and wrong, even if the mind does not understand. The thread of that awareness is very subtle in us, very profound, and if we are all listening to this type of lecture or studies, it is because we're following our conscience, which is the voice of our inner Being, חֶסֶד Chesed: “mercy” in Hebrew. Or الرحيم Al-Rahim, as we state in the opening of every surah, except surah 9, in the Qur’an: 
بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim “In the name of Allah (the Being), the Compassionate, the Merciful.” Mercy is Chesed. It is the Spirit. It is رو Ruh in Arabic but רוּחַ Ruach in Hebrew―the same meaning. We have to follow our inner judgment, to know what is right and wrong from our heart. And as we learn to connect internally by suspending our body, relaxing our body, and calming our senses, the energies, suspending our emotions, withdrawing from thought and concentrating upon our inner intelligence, we learn to follow and understand the voice of judgment in ourselves, with clarity. This is why meditation is essential, to withdraw from the world internally and not to be caught up in the mind or negative emotions or lustful sensations, because they are all distractions. 
So judgment in Arabic is دين Din, relating to Geburah, the sign of Mars, astrologically when you related it to this tree [of life]. The metal is iron, so going back to the study of the Iron Surah, verse 25, we can unpack this even further:
“We have already sent Our messengers with clear evidences and sent down with them the Scripture and the balance that the people may maintain [their affairs] in justice.” ―Qur’an 57:25 So what is that clear evidence? It is internal experiences in your meditations, and when you are in the dream world, the astral plane, Hod. So the scriptures all emanated from the internal worlds, from the divine, from the higher sephiroth of this Tree, and it is the force of balance, because justice is the scale of balance―how you balance the deeds of your life with intelligence, which is above, בִּינָה Binah in Hebrew. It is “understanding.” It is a primordial root intelligence that is beyond matter and materiality and energy, but which is the cognizance of the most high aspects of divinity. We have to use our balance, our judgment in how to live our life with willpower, with iron. Willpower can relate to Tiphereth, the human soul, which is the source of the most beautiful actions, as we stated. Balance, justice, genuine religion, is a state of meditation, whereby we evaluate the contents of our mind with the scale of equanimity and the iron of concentration. If you think of iron, it is a metal that is very solid. Is our concentration like that, or do we forget what we are doing when we sit to practice? Let us develop ourselves. Let us get serious. Let us actually develop ourselves consistently. We learn to support this teaching, the scripture, and the unseen messengers when we awaken internally. At that time, no longer are those masters invisible to us, but visible within our experiences. The Dynamics of Absence and Presence
Absence and presence are also flexible terms amongst the Sufis. We are going to build off this explanation by reciting some quotes here. This is from Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery, the Persian manual of Sufism that is very well renown amongst Sufi circles. Samael Aun Weor, we have to remember, said that the best of Sufism comes from Persia. So this is a very valuable text to study.
“These terms, although apparently opposed to each other, express the same meaning from different points of view. “Presence” is “presence of the heart,” as proof of intuitive faith (yaqin), so that what is hidden from it has the same force as what is visible to it.” ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery (Khashf al-Mahjub) We talked previously about certainty, اليقين Al-Yaqin. We arrive at certainty when we have inner experiences in meditation, in visions, in astral projections. We have to become totally absent to the ego. We have to escape its conditions so that we can really see. The key is relaxation. Suspend your senses. Work with energy to empower your consciousness. Concentrate and visualize with your perception or imagination, otherwise known as insight, firasah in Sufism. Al-Hujwiri continues: “‘Absence’” is ‘absence of the heart from all things except God’ to such an extent that it becomes absent from itself and absent even from its absence, so that it no longer regards itself; and the sign of the state is withdrawal from all formal authority, as when a prophet is divinely preserved from what is unlawful. Accordingly, absence from one’s self is presence with God, and vice versa.” ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery (Khashf al-Mahjub) So on those highest samadhis, mapped by the Tree of Life, we have no longer any conception of self-hood. We are merely the pure, clear, expansive, profound, illuminated consciousness united with the Being. Whenever we identify with thought, we lose our experiences, but at that point we no longer regard ourselves as a terrestrial person. Our identity is no longer there. There is only the Being. And it is a “withdrawal from all formal authority” because, really, the authorities of this world do not know anything of internal states, the real experiences of the Being. This is very evident if you look at the politics of humanity and all the division amongst religious and social, spiritual groups. Withdraw from formal authority and gather your authority from your inner experiences. Rely on your own divinity to teach you what is presence and what is absence. 
Degrees of Presence and Absence
To be present in our body is different from being present with divinity in the higher dimensions. Each ספירה sephirah, we could say, is a veil for what is more subtle, that which obscures our understanding of the dimensions beyond it. Entering higher worlds is uncovering veils, obscurities―seeing reality in a more profound level of nature.
So the Qur’an allegorizes this very beautifully in many symbols relating to the horizon, the sky, how “Allah makes the heavens a sign for the believers,” whether the rising sun, the setting sun, the moon. These are not literal explanations. These are symbols of qualities of Being, because if you are in the internal planes and you see these astrological bodies, they are teaching you, divinity is teaching you something profound about yourself. If the sun sets, it means something needs to die. If the sun is rising, it means something is being born. If there are stars, it is a symbol of presence with the Being, unity with divinity at our level, deeper remembrance, clarity, perception. But if the sky is clouded, it means that we are asleep. We have a lot of ego. We are cloudy in temperament and mind. “‘Present,’ with the sense of being back from an absence, may also be used for the servant’s return to his perception of his own condition and human situations. This, however, refers to the presence with the creation, while the first use of the term refers to presence with the truth. States of absence vary―for some Sufis, absence is not prolonged, while for others it is continuous.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So our degree of development depends upon how consistent we are in entering silence of mind, serenity, insight, our internal worlds. We stay asleep and absent if we don't practice. This is a simple law of cause and effect. For some, absence is prolonged. For others it is short, depending on our level of being. Some of us may wake up more depending on our development, our work, our efforts. States of absence are replaced with states of presence when we are consistent at our exercises. The Subtleties of Absence and Presence
So in synthesis, the more we are absent to the ego, not identified with it, the greater our cognizance of divinity. The more attention and energy we invest in the ego, the greater our absence of and distance from the Being.
Once entering clearer states of remembrance and divine experiences, oftentimes the methods we use to reach those heights are no longer necessary. This is a very subtle thing that Al-Qushayri really explains. For example, to really be present on an object of concentration, such as a mantra, pranayama, a candle, a visualization, an image, requires that we become absent to distractions. And this is really the value of such exercises. We train ourselves to be here and now, to discover how our mind keeps us asleep, how we fantasize, how we are hypnotized. It takes tremendous effort and energy to be focused in the beginning. However, by deepening our tranquility, it takes less effort and more familiarization with that state. And when you have achieved perfect serenity, it takes no effort, which is why Al-Qushayri states in Principles of Sufism: “According to etymology, the disciple is ‘he who possesses will,’ just as the knower is ‘he who possesses knowledge,’ because the word belongs to the class of derived nouns. But in Sufi usage, the disciple is he who possesses no will at all!” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This is very subtle. It means not to have any egotistical will, no desires present, no distractions, no fantasies. After we obtain perfect concentration, we don't need any effort to maintain it. We only need to be familiar with it. This is very well known within Buddhism, especially. When obtaining serenity, we are absent from desire and present within our Essence, the human soul, Tiphereth in Hebrew, Ihsan in Arabic, the beauty of the consciousness within Kabbalah. Let us read some excerpts from this book, Revelation of the Mystery, (Khashf al-Mahjub): “...inasmuch as all excellencies are bound up with presence, and as absence from one’s self is a way leading to presence with God, the way becomes an imperfection after you have arrived at the goal.” ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery (Khashf al-Mahjub) So when you are fully concentrated in divinity, it does not take any exertion or effort. You simply have to be present. This is a qualitative state you have to become familiar with through a lot of practice and trial and error. “Presence (in God) is the fruit of absence (from desire), but what light is to be found in absence without presence? A man must needs renounce heedlessness (distractions, novelties, vain amusements, a distracted mind) in order that, by means of this absence, he may attain to presence (with the Being); and when he has attained to his object, the means by which he attained it has no longer any worth. “The ‘absent’ one is not he who is absent from his country, But he who is absent from all desire. The ‘present’ one is not he who hath no desire (longing for divinity), But he who hath no heart (no thought of worldly things), So that his desire is ever fixed on God.” ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery (Khashf al-Mahjub) So desire can be interpreted in different ways. Obviously in the Gnostic teachings, strictly, we use desire to refer to the ego, but some people refer, the Sufis refer poetically, semantically, to the desire for God, which is a longing―better said―for our uses, our language. Longing is different from desire, the Essence from the ego. But here, the Sufis often take the same word and give it multiple meanings in different contexts. This is the beauty of that system, the complexity of it, the subtlety. Absence of Personality and Presence with God
The qualities of initiates, their presence in divinity, is not understood by common people. Many Sufi stories are, as I said, parables of psychological truths, initiatic principles. Many of them demonstrate not the aloofness of Sufi Masters, but the reality of mystical states. One such master, Bayazid Bastami, illustrated how we have to become lost to ourselves. Samael Aun Weor even stated in a lecture called “The Knowledge of Oneself” the following:
“We must attain a change in order to eliminate all our weaknesses. We must even lose our own personal identity. This means that the change must be radical and complete. Our personal identity, for example, "I am so and so," must be eliminated from oneself; and then one day we will find that we have no personal identity. If we truly want to become different, then obviously personal identity has to be lost. We need to convert ourselves into entirely different creatures, happy creatures; and we have the right to happiness.” ―Samael Aun Weor I know a lot of people hear that and read that and get scandalized. This does not mean we become zombies. The Essence has a dynamic solar personality. The absence and annihilation of ego does not mean that we are soulless, without life. In fact, it means we are more creative, more brilliant, more intuitive. You possess ethical character that knows how to respond to life in its worst problems, with clarity, with equanimity, with intelligence. We must eliminate egos, nafs, so that we develop the soul that knows how to live life with efficacy and wisdom. However, people are really afraid of this term annihilation. They run away from this term even though it is essential to every religion. Annihilating the ego is painful for people because they have never experienced anything outside of it. People don't want to approach it because they are afraid. They mistake their personality, their hatred, their impatience, their lust, their vanity, their pride, their envy, etc., as if it is true. This is a mistaken sense of self, these selves, these egos which must be removed, these nafs, these lower animal qualities that the Sufis speak abundantly about eliminating in their doctrine. And in that process we gain understanding that we are not this terrestrial personality. We are not the ego. We are something more profound, and the Sufis have a beautiful story about this: “It is related that Dhu-l-Nun al-Misri sent one of his companions to Abu Yazid al Bistami so that the man could bring him word of Abu Yazid’s quality (meaning: his level of being). When he reached Bistam, the messenger inquired after the house of Abu Yazid and went in to see him. Abu Yazid asked, ‘What do you want?’ ‘I want Abu Yazid,’ he said. ‘Who is Abu Yazid?’ was the reply, ‘and where is Abu Yazid? I myself am in search of Abu Yazid!’ “The man went away, saying to himself, ‘This one is mad!’ He returned to Dhu-l-Nun and informed him of what he had seen. Dhu-l-Nun wept. ‘My brother Abu Yazid has left with those who go to God,’ said he.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Obviously, the Sufis play with the trope of the initiatic madman: that disciple of God who is never understood by the masses because they cannot comprehend the eccentricities and dynamic profundities of the Spirit, because they [the inituates] don't go along with conventionalisms, with vain religious beliefs and outward adherences. So this is a symbol of something very beautiful and profound. You know, this initiate was so advanced in his work that he was saying “Where is my personality? I am looking for a self here.” Meaning, he is really scrutinizing and looking for those final egos to eliminate. You know, this is very high work. Obviously, we have thousands upon thousands of egos in the beginning, but as we advance in this process, the ego is eliminated until there are none left. So Dhu-l-Nun recognized this and cried by how beautiful this allegory is, that this initiate is saying, “I am looking for a self here and I don't find one.” This refers to initiatic hierarchy. Presence Over Absence
However, to be truly present is a very difficult path, which is why the following teaching was given by Al-Hujwiri in Revelation of the Mystery:
“A certain man came to Junayd and said, ‘Be present with me for a moment that I may speak to thee.’ Junayd answered: ‘O young man, you demand of me something that I have long been seeking. For many years I have been wishing to become present with myself a moment, but I cannot; how, then, can I become present with you just now?’” ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery (Khashf al-Mahjub) You know many people have difficulty in the beginning of our studies knowing how to relate to people even, because they are so introspective and they are learning how to be present for the first time, and learning how to relate to the world in this new state is difficult, because this type of analysis and work requires a complete introversion and transformation of our attitude. But with time we learn. With practice, we learn to be present. “Therefore, absence involves the sorrow of being veiled, while “presence” involves the joy of revelation, and the former state can never be equal to the latter. Shaykh Abu Sa’id says on the subject― “The clouds of separation have been cleared away from the moon of love, And the light of morning has shone forth from the darkness of the Unseen.” ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery (Khashf al-Mahjub) So again, that is symbolism from the Qur’an. If you want to know your level of being, how present you are, ask internally and let them show you the sky in the astral horizon. Do you see clouds separating you from the galaxies, from the stars, from the heavens? Or do you see the light of morning shining out of the darkness, rising as a symbol of your birth? Levels upon levels of light, presence in deeper states. Conclusion
We will conclude with a statement by Samael Aun Weor which synthesizes everything we have said:
“Wherever we direct our attention, we spend creative energy.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education So, how are we spending our attention? What are we focused on? For how long, and why? Why do we invest our energy in certain behaviors, in certain qualities, in certain actions? What direction do we want to take our life? If we are really analyzing our behavior from day-to-day, we can sit in a quiet space after our mindfulness practice, our self-observation, and remembrance throughout the day. We close our eyes, we relax, we introspect. We calm the body, calm the senses. We can work with pranayama, breath work, transmutation, mantras, etc., energy work. You can even do runes before you sit to meditate, so that you have energy circulating in you that is going to be conducive for your relaxation. Your ethics combined with energy create a very powerful conduit by which to meditate. When you sit quietly, relax your heart through prayer. Pray to your Inner Being to show you what you need to work on and what you need to do, to help you understand your daily circumstances, your behaviors, so that you can change. Concentrate inwardly and do not let your thoughts distract you from your goal. When you are really profoundly concentrated, your mind will be serene, especially if you are working really well with energy. You know, for people who have a very disbalanced mind or imbalanced mind, a lot of suffering, a lot of affliction, it is good to work with sacred sounds, mantras, so that you gain clarity and calm. And when the mind is still, you can focus on whatever you want to understand. I recommend reviewing your day. Retrospect your day. How present were you in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening? Where did you forget yourself? What did you observe? What did you remember? How present were you in certain situations? Bring this to your attention in your imagination. See it. Visualize it. Look at it. And look for those gaps in which you were not awake. Try to remember where you were, what you did, what you said, who you were with, what happened, what you were thinking, what you were feeling. We have to learn to understand what happened to us and what led us to sleep. Try to remember everything that happened. Retrospect. There is a very powerful mantra that you can use in our tradition, in Gnosis, that can aid you in remembering your day and even your dreams, if you have just awakened from sleep and you want to remember what you just dreamed about, and by not moving your body, mentally pronounce the mantras RAOM GAOM.
Samael Aun Weor says this mantra is like dynamite. It will help you blow a pathway into the subconsciousness, the caves of the mind.
At this point in time, I invite you to ask questions. Questions and Answers
Question: Can you recommend a practice for trilling the R's in mantras?
Instructor: I believe you can even go on YouTube and look up Spanish pronunciations of the letter, because R is very common in Spanish. You know, there are a few videos you can probably look up and find that will teach you how to use the pronunciation of the letter R. Basically, it involves rolling your tongue at the roof of your mouth so that you can make the tongue to vibrate, but if you look online for some videos, you can definitely find some. Question: Don't you have to move in the morning to turn off your alarm? Instructor: So in reference to not moving your body when you physically wake up in the morning so that you can remember your dreams―this can be very difficult. I know I have had that problem where I had to get up early for work, especially before COVID-19, very early, in which my alarm would pull me out of my experiences and I had to return to my body, but sometimes, I find it difficult to remember what happened. It takes a lot of willpower. Even if your alarms going off, hopefully, it's not too much of an annoying one. Maybe pick something that is more relaxing. You know, some meditative bells or something that is quiet. That is what I like to use for an alarm. And, I don't move. Even if I have time constraints, I concentrate on myself and do the mantra mentally so that I could remember, especially if the experience is very profound and very intense. That's something that you don't want to forget, what happened internally. And if you move your physical body when you wake up from dreams, the connection between the astral body and the physical body gets shaken, or the astral body and its memories become diffused and don't really enter the physical brain if there is too much movement. When you wake up in the morning, obviously, there is a connection that is very vital and sensitive, which is why we shouldn't move the body, just in the same way that you can't reflect the images of a lake, of the heavens, if the water is rippling with movement. The same principle applies here. But, if you really want to remember your dreams, I just recommend don't move. If your alarm is really annoying, then as I said, maybe change it. Question: We have a question about awakening. Does it happen suddenly or is it more like a process happening gradually? Instructor: Samael Aun Weor mentions in The Perfect Matrimony that awakening is gradual. Now, there are moments in which we can gain greater clarity, such as through an ecstasy or samadhi, an experience that is very divine, mostly because we get help. The Sufis spend a lot of time talking about the blessings of the initiates called بركة barakah in Arabic or the Hebrew version of בָּרוּךְ Baruch, meaning “blessings.” So as the Jews say, ברוך אתה אדוני Baruch Attah Adonai, “Blessed be the name of the Lord,” and Barakah is the blessings of a master when they give light to us, so that we can have a temporary experience that gives us some kind of illumination. Now, as for developing that completely in us in its full totality, it happens naturally over a process, gradually. Because just as a tree doesn't grow into a profound oak, from a sapling in one day, it happens through a process, a temporality. It takes time, in conventional language. So the important thing is not to be impatient with wanting experiences or development, because you have to be really tenacious about our exercises and to work even if we feel like we are not getting results, because with time you will see the roots of your practice. So it happens gradually. Question: Does the degree of ego elimination one achieves in a single practice depend on the complexity of the ego? Instructor: I would say the degree of ego elimination occurs in accordance with the depth of our comprehension. If it's a really complex ego, obviously, it's going to take more comprehension, which means that if our understanding is more profound and deep, we are going to really eliminate the roots. But for that, we have to really be absent from the body physically and be present internally, to go inside and even in the higher dimensions to investigate the source of those egos that we have to really analyze. Comprehension is what grants us the degrees of elimination. How much do we understand? Because if you don't understand the depths of an ego, we can't really eliminate it in its roots. Obviously, there are egos that are very superficial, that exist within the higher levels of the mind, but in the depths we have to go very profoundly into ourselves, and that is a very long work, a very patient work. Question: My understanding of the Nous atom is that this is the Christic atom of our heart, or in our heart. (Instructor’s explanation: for those of you are not familiar, it is in the left ventricle of our heart itself). How do you reconcile this with your reference to the ego as nous or spelled n, o, u, s, e? Instructor: So, in Arabic the term for ego is نَفْس nafs: n-a-f-s. νοῦς Nous in Greek is different. That is the Christic atom as you mentioned, but ego is nafas or nafs in Arabic. So different, different terminology. Obviously, the ego has nothing to do with the Atom Nous because the Atom Nous is a very divine spiritual influence in us, which also relates to Geburah, to Din, to justice in Arabic. Allah-Din, the conscience and judgment of God. It relates to our Atom Nous, which is used to judge nafs, the lower soul, the animal egos we have to eliminate. Question: Explain the difference between general spaciness with absence, for I found it hard to relate with this world anyway. Too much introspection has left me a few friends. Instructor: So I like that you asked that question, because it relates to a very serious problem amongst many Gnostics. You know, some people can easily read the term absence within Sufi language and conflate it with being spacey or imbalanced, not knowing how to socially relate to others. And of course, the stories within Sufism seem to correlate or explain, or show that dynamic especially, that the Sufi masters are just out there. I think that is part of the appeal in Western societies, that these Sufi masters have a type of understanding that goes against conventionalities. Now, while there is a level of credence to that, at the same time, if we are learning to be absent from the ego and present with our consciousness, it doesn't mean that we are going to be spacey people, like zombies, not knowing how to relate to other people. In fact, these are states of consciousness in a more profound sense, levels of being. We have to learn how to be present in our daily life, that is the important thing, especially as beginners. We need to learn how to be absent to our ego but also present in our body, present in our consciousness, so that we know how to relate to the world. There is a very fatal polarity in this term of absence, in such that we can be so introspective that we don't know how to relate to other people, and this is mistaken. The important thing is that when we introspect, we also have to be aware of the world outside of us, to know how to relate our internal world with the external world. This is why we spent a lot of time in our last lecture talking about contraction and expansion. We have to be aware of our surroundings, expansive in our cognizance of the people we are surrounded with or surrounded by, and also contracted or attentive to our internal states. We have to analyze our personal states and our external events, and the relationship thereof. This is what Samael Aun Weor mentions as the requisites in his book Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology. We have to be present in the body, present of our internal states, introspective, but not being antisocial. That is very different. That is a personality problem, typically. You know, it is also egos of awkwardness that don't know how to relate to people in certain situations. If you eliminate egos of awkwardness and observe that in yourself and really destroy them with comprehension in your meditations, you are going to learn how to be more social and ethical, and even funny. I will relate to you an experience I had long time ago, because in the beginning of my studies I had this problem, where I was so introspective that I didn't know how to relate to people, and so I lost a number of friends and was becoming very sour at my practice, until finally my Being came to me in the astral plane and reprimanded me. He showed me some instructional videos teaching me what I needed to do. He said I needed to be, and this is the funny part, “like Bill Murray,” and I was kind of shocked by this answer. What I saw in his relationships, in the video with other people, that he was very social and funny. People liked him, but at the same time, I could see that this representation of this actor was being very serious in his work. Meaning, there was the thread of continuity of attention there, but meanwhile, knowing how to relate to other people in a very humorous way. I mean it's a funny experience, but a very objective one. You know, I have meditated on that for quite a while now, but it really helped me because I was being very negative in my practice, thinking that introspection has to do with not relating to people―and this is wrong. Being absent to the ego means to enact positive states or qualities of Essence, of Being, and in this way, you develop better friends, better friendships. You know how to relate to people more. You know how to support your community better, how to help others, how to be helped, how to receive help without that morbidity or shame that usually accompanies that type of introspection that is negative. Question: In comparison, the partial opening of the eyes of Buddha, does it symbolize the need to be aware of the outside world? Instructor: I am sure there is a lot of symbolism in that, or different representations of Buddha, but yes, that is part of it. We have to be aware of the outside world but also introspecting within. So again, contraction and expansion are represented by that common depiction of the Buddha. Buddha simply means “awakened one,” which is the purpose of our exercises in our studies in Gnosticism. Question: I am a medical provider amongst homeless communities in Los Angeles. It can be quite stressful during the day as we deal with life and death situations, or situations that deal with heavy drug use and sex work. How can I keep the consciousness awake in these scenarios? I tend to think about my patients in meditation, which I struggle with at times. Instructor: This is a very delicate thing. It's important that we feel safe, that we feel protected, that we feel awake, and also that we are really taking care of our own health, especially if we have a job that is very difficult. I never worked as a medical provider, but I have had other jobs that have been pretty taxing on my mental and emotional health, and in those situations―where it was not necessarily life and death, but very confrontational or difficult, and in your case, dealing with life and death situations or negative influences―it is important to really work with energy. You know, it could be very draining to be in those circumstances and you can often feel very disempowered, whether by the system one works in or one's own abilities, feeling insufficient or deficient or doubtful. Your profession is obviously a very noble one and it is very much needed, so if this is something that your Being is pushing you to do and if it's able to provide your necessities for your life, then obviously you have to follow your conscience. But again, if you find that there are difficulties that you can't handle, it's important to be safe, especially, to protect oneself and to create a space in oneself and even one's physical life in order to be able to handle those circumstances. I recommend, if you find that it's difficult to deal with the situations, it's hard to see it and understand it and to overcome the shock of it, to work with exercises like the runes. I remember at one of my jobs where I had to deal with, you know, pretty difficult clients, very difficult people that I had a hard time transforming the impressions of, I would do hours of runes. I would have breaks during my day, sometimes for an hour and a half or more, and I would just, instead of prepping for my day or doing other things, I would do the Rune Fah, the Rune Dorn, the seven vowels, for a long time. I would charge myself with enough energy so that I felt awake. I felt aware, and I felt concentrated in myself. You know, the Rune Dorn is very powerful for that. It develops Christ will, solar will, so that we can learn to handle really horrible situations with grace. But of course, you have to learn balance. You can work with those runes, really practice them deeply, for a long time if you can. Give yourself enough energy to empower your Essence so that you can transform the situation, and also meditate on your reactions too. But depending on your abilities and your health, emotionally, especially with this kind of work, you need to evaluate or really consider, you know, what is going to be best for you. We have to sacrifice for humanity, but at the same time, we have to take care of ourselves too, so that is something that you need to be the judge of. But runes are especially powerful for that. Study the Magic of the Runes. Those Gnostic exercises, those yogic postures are really powerful. They can really help you. Question: Are there times where the Being will place symbols within physical life, similar to dream symbols, that speak another language, of intuition? Often times, I feel that my Divine Mother is speaking to me in a circumstance in life where a particular event happens, which helped me to reflect, or even numbers appearing within the physical life or the physical world. Can these have meaning here within physical life, and how can you become a vigilant one without being overly tired the next day? Or perform a vigil without being overly tired the next day? Instructor: So let's break down this question step by step. “Are there times where the Being will place symbols within our physical life, similar to the dream symbols, that speak in the language of dreams, intuition?” There can be that relationship. You know, some people have reported having experiences internally, and then that same circumstance unfolds itself physically. I have had this happen to myself many times. Now, typically from my experience, I found that the symbols of dreams have an allegorical depth. They have a profound relationship to physical life. They explain physical circumstances, but not necessarily, you know, we wake up and then we see the same symbol from the dream. My experience has been that dreams show us something much more prophetic, and that the symbols represent qualities of being, but also how different relationships or circumstances can play out. For example, I remember one experience (I mentioned this in the Beginning Self-transformation course) that I had an astral experience where I was driving down Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, when at 4:00 am in the middle of the morning, when it was pitch-black, my mother in the dream, my physical mother, stopped me as I was driving my car. She asked me to get out, so I let her take the wheel and I got in the passenger seat, and then I woke up. Later that day, physically, I had an ordeal or circumstance in which I was at a drive-through in a Starbucks―going out of town from Chicago with my wife, to get away from COVID-19 and get into the woods, enjoy some recreation―when a person in the line had driven past me and rolled down his window. He didn't really say anything extremely offensive. But you know, I took it as an offense, and my ego was, my rage and anger was building up from that moment. And so my wife said, “I see you're getting upset here. Let me take the wheel.” So I got out of the car, she took the driver's seat, and I sat in the passenger seat and was reflecting on my own anger until I could comprehend four egos I need to work on and eliminate. Literally in the dream, my mother, my Divine Mother better said, took control of my car, which is symbolically representing my mind, but even in the physical ordeal, my wife took the car or took the wheel, and I got out into the passenger seat. So that literally did happen. So it’s possible―more importantly for me, this was a symbol of multiple layers of meaning. Physically is one component, but more importantly, my Divine Mother, my Being, was controlling my mind and helping me to work on my ego, because it was pitch black in the dream. My mind was dark. I wasn't seeing clearly, and that allowed a certain ego to manifest in me, or certain egos to manifest in me that could have created problems. So let's look at the rest of your question. “Often times, I feel that my Divine Mother is speaking to me in a circumstance in life or a particular event happens which helps me to reflect.” So yes, our dreams reflect the quality of our daily life. So this is direct correlation. “Even numbers appearing within physical existence or life, can these have meaning here within physical life itself?” I would say there could be a relationship, but as I related a quote earlier regarding Samael Aun Weor and the struggle of the opposites from The Revolution of the Dialectic, it’s important not to fill our life with too many sermons, symbols, meanings, allegories, warnings. Learn to live with a receptive mind, and in that way you can interpret how your dreams relate to your physical existence without imposing or projecting any beliefs onto what we see. So how do you perform a vigil without being over the tired the next day? Well, the purpose is to sacrifice one's energy and time to do these practices. They could be difficult. Hopefully if you have time to sleep in later that's good, but part of the constituency of this exercise is that you stay up and meditate and practice, so that you can really go deeper in your work, even though it's going to make you tired. But obviously, find balance in what you do. Question: I didn't really comprehend the parable of the blacksmith placing his hand in the fire. That his name represents a metal alchemically. Instructor: Yes, his name was Al-Haddad, which in Arabic relates to Al-Hadid, which is basically almost spelled the same. Al-Hadid means “The Iron,” and there is a surah in the Qur’an called “The Iron,” specifically, where we read a quote or excerpt in relation to that story. It is a symbol of how we use our willpower, represented by the metal iron within alchemy, to control our mind. It is willpower. We use our will power to work with the fire, the sexual energy, specifically. When he placed his hand into the fire, he didn't get burned. This is the literal meaning of the story, but symbolically it refers to how when we are alchemists, we learn to work with the sexual energy and not get burned by it, because we are in the remembrance of the divine. We are in the presence of divinity. Because in the story, he was listening to the Qur’an while he was working in his shop, and so the meaning thereof is that he was remembering the recitation, because Qur’an in Arabic is “recitation,” and it refers to his remembrance or continuity of remembering divinity. You know traditionally in Islam, they will recite the Qur’an musically, verbally, with a lot of beautiful intonations and expression. That is a practice that is very profound. I like to listen to those recitations quite a lot, because the melodies are very beautiful, but also the power in the verses is very profound if we know Kabbalah and Alchemy. They would recite, and they do recite the Qur’an as a form of remembrance. That is a text that is very beautiful, and like any scripture, we can remember divinity if we are really studying it astutely, very deeply. When the blacksmith in the story, Al-Haddad was listening to the Qur’an, it is a reference to how he is really seeing the teachings and understanding them and practicing them. In that way, we can overcome many ordeals, symbolically. It doesn't mean we are going to put our hand into a forge and pull out hot iron because we hear the Qur’an, literally. The language of the Sufis is symbolic, so we approach those stories with a lot of subtlety in relation to psychological work: Psychology, Kabbalah and Alchemy. 
Everything in nature is in movement, in flux. Every phenomenon in the entire universe possesses its own rhythm, temporality, and flow.
As we explained in the previous lecture, breath is in a state of transience. This parallels cosmic periods of manifestation, of activity, and of repose. Just as our breath constitutes the flux, the pervasiveness of life, the expression of the soul, so too does the consciousness manifest in different states, with different qualities of being, of expression. If you have studied Gnosticism for some time, we always remember that consciousness has infinite levels, from the most basic, the most primordial, that which is germinal―to the most refined, the most beautified, the most sacred, as demonstrated by the quality of life and mind of the greatest initiates, the greatest meditators: Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Krishna, Prophet Muhammad, Samael Aun Weor. Consciousness as we currently possess it is not developed, because our daily state is mostly constituted of negative qualities: distraction, affliction, suffering. All traditions teach that the human being is a germ for sacred individuality and consciousness. We possess the body of a human, a humanoid organism, but our mind, as has been demonstrated, is animal. Our mind always chases after cravings. We run away from unpleasant situations, aversive things. All the while we are ignorant of how our own internal psychology produces pain, produces suffering. This is why we study and practice meditation. We want to learn how to develop our complete potential, so that we cease suffering. We suffer because we don't readily perceive how our own nafs, nafas, animal defects, egos, keep us hypnotized and asleep. We go through life feeling that we are unitary, when in truth we are humanoids in a constant state of contradiction. We are a multiplicity, and this is something very important to remember, because in Sufism and Islam, those initiates speak abundantly about the unity of God. This is declared in the Shahadah, the Muslim declaration of faith, that “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is His Prophet.” To state this with conviction is something extremely sacred, very profound. It means to have a concentrated will without any defect whatsoever―no idol, no negative crystallization in the mind, no naf, no ego, no blemish, no fault. This is how we really obey divinity, to reach those heights, and that is the definition of a true Gnostic, a true Muslim, a true Sufi. We can only really say that divinity is one when we ourselves are singular. We have to unify the consciousness. We have to purify the consciousness. The Essence must not be conditioned anymore, because each ego, desire, vice, error, conditions and traps who we really are. And because of our different defects, which pull us in multiple directions, we are fractured. We are distracted, moving in many directions at once, and also spiritually going nowhere. This has to change. This is why we study concentration of mind, concentration of will, meditation. God wants to express His perfection in us, but for that, the soul, the consciousness, the Essence, must be pure. So meditation is the science that leads us to that unity, to the unification of the consciousness To develop consciousness, we study ethics. We practice purity. We work with energy. We work with our breath to empower our consciousness, so that it opens the inner doorway to understanding. As we are working with these preliminaries, we have to really study how the consciousness works, and for this the Sufis speak abundantly about two very important types of consciousness: contraction and expansion. For the sake of clarity, it will be good to define these terms within conventional english. “Contraction is the process of becoming smaller. Some synonyms include shrinking, reduction in size, shrinkage, decline, decrease, dwindling, down tick; it is the process in which a muscle becomes, or is made, shorter and tighter.” This is similar to “tightening, tensing, flexing, constricting.” ―Online Dictionary All of these definitions point towards a restriction or limiting, a heightened focus, a type of diminution, to really concentrate and restrict our vision to one thing. The opposite of contraction is expansion. This definition includes: “The action of becoming larger or more extensive. This is similar to growth, increase in size, and enlargement, extension, augmentation, development, evolution, build up, build-out, scaling up, spread, proliferation, multiplication, mushrooming, evolvement. It is the extension of a state’s territory by encroaching on that of other nations pursued as a political strategy,” (as an example of what expansion involves or as typically understood). ―Online Dictionary These definitions relate how something within a small space moves outward to fill something greater in volume, much like smoke rising and filling the sky during a campfire. 
We find contraction and expansion in our breathing process. When we inhale air, our lungs expand, and when we exhale, our lungs contract, so that we can expel toxins and waste from the body. Likewise, the heart, when it fills with blood, the heart expands, and when pumping blood through the body, it contracts. This flux or rhythm in our body is essential to daily life.
While this is very true, we also possess, in our consciousness, states of contraction and expansion. These are fundamental and necessary for our spirituality, for psychological balance, for our meditation. All this of course is guided by divinity, for as the great Sufi poet Rumi taught: “Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.” ―Rumi Let us explain what contraction and expansion mean in regards to states of consciousness. Definitions of Contraction and Expansion
So in meditation we study two very profound principles, which can aid us in awakening our consciousness. These are attention and awareness.
Attention is highly focused. It is directed. It is concentrated. If I were to tell you to direct your attention to your right thumb, you would experience a shift in your consciousness. You can try this at this moment. You may suddenly have awareness or cognizance of your right thumb because you have directed your attention to it. Yet, how many of us were actually aware of our thumb, our hand, our fingers, our body? Probably before I even mentioned it, you might not have been paying attention, because you were following the thread, the continuity of my voice, and the ideas we are expressing. Let's try another experiment. Become aware of your surroundings. What is your home like where you are at? Are you driving and listening to this lecture? Become aware of the street. Become aware of your surroundings. Become aware of your environment. No matter the time, the weather, the place, the people around you, or if there are no people, become aware of your external situation. Not only should we be aware of our environment, but we have to be aware of whatever task we are involved in. How attentive are we right now to my words? Are we maintaining a continuity of directed attention towards these ideas that I am presenting to you? Or are we thinking of other things? Are we making a mechanical associations in our mind, such as “I heard something similar to this before,” or “this reminds me of another lecture I heard.” It could be any type of commentary in the mind, in the intellect. Or as you have been listening to this conversation, this lecture, have you lost the thread of what was being said because you got distracted? Do you remember or did you forget what I said a minute ago? So this little experiment reveals something very interesting. If we are talking in our heads instead of being attentive to this lecture, it means we are not conscious. Likewise, if we are not aware of our environment, we are also asleep. The Essence is not awake. This is why we practice meditation, because the consciousness needs training. We typically get distracted very easily, and so in the beginning, we need more focus. We need will. We need concentration on whatever activity of life we engage in. However, many times we also tend to go through our home, the bedroom, our neighborhood, without any cognizance of our surroundings. We do so blindly, because we don't see what is new. We have a representation of our environment in our mind to which we relate, or we are so deep and lost in reverie and thought that we don't notice what is going around us. What is happening? We could be driving our car in an alley and suddenly come across a person, perhaps someone who was injured lying on the ground, something very unusual. And if I am relating this example, it is because this happened to me today. I was driving my car back to my home after being away from work, and I suddenly realized as I was driving that a group of people were standing near the side of the alley where I usually park. There was a person who was injured or not moving. I was shocked. Obviously, you know, I spoke with the people there, that they had called the police and they were going to get an ambulance. You know, this is such a shocking and alarming thing, disturbing. In that moment, I felt very alert, because I realized I wasn't paying attention. I was expecting that I was going to go home according to my routine, according to mechanicity, and it took awareness of my surroundings and a person driving the other direction to roll down their window and tell me that something was ahead. So we are very sleepy, and we have to train ourselves to be aware of what is happening at all times. We have to remember that the consciousness is like a light. It is perception itself. When we lack attention and awareness, it means that the light of our consciousness is diffused. It means that our light is obscured, because our mind, our egos, our defects, keep us preoccupied. We invest our energy, our light, into them. The ego, like a moon, has eclipsed our sun. 
So when we talk about these principles, we have to remember that attention is like a flashlight. When you use a flashlight, you direct it. You concentrate it. You focus it.
Now, awareness is a little different. It is expansive. It has volume. It is luminous. It is amplified. It spreads outward in its radiance and radius towards our surroundings, when we do so willingly.
Perhaps with these examples you can see where we are headed when talking about the Sufi teachings on contraction and expansion. So the Sufis explain that contraction and expansion, focus and broad spatiality, are attention and awareness. So contraction is when our attention is focused on one thing. So, as I was driving my car today and a person in the other lane pulled up and rolled down their window, I was contracted in my attention. I was directing my attention to that person, but I wasn't aware of what was ahead of me. I had a shift in my consciousness when I suddenly realized what was going on. So this is an example of how with contraction, we are focused on one thing, but with awareness, it is a broad spatial perception. We become aware of our surroundings. 
Contraction in Self-Observation
So contraction also happens in our work of self-observation. This is really important to understand. When we study our different defects, our egos, moment by moment, we are focused on our interior. So while it's true that we have to be aware of what is happening outside of us, we have to divide our attention inside. You know, often times when we make a mistake, we can also feel a contraction in our heart, a state of remorse, and we can feel and exclaim or feel that we have really done something stupid.
As I am explaining these concepts, there is a lot of dynamic range with these principles. Here I am introducing just a few, but basically contraction and expansion occurs in self-observation, especially―the work of the ego. We can experience a state of contraction, of heightened focus, when we catch a defect within our three brains, because we are observing, we are conscious and attentive of our thoughts, feelings, and impulses. Usually we can feel the pangs of conscience, the remorse of the soul whenever we come upon very disturbing egos, very big errors that we created, that we are responsible for. Self-observation amongst the Sufis is muhasabah, inner-accounting. In this work, we have to take an account of our psychological states, those defects we have in abundance and those virtues we must develop further. This principle is very important. This is the foundation of gathering data about ourselves, so that we can achieve annihilation of the ego, fana, in Arabic. There is only reunion with the Being when the ego is fully dead. So we have to study ourselves. We have to observe ourselves. 
Expansion in Awareness
So expansion is awareness, and through it we experience an amplified state, a magnification and a deepening of our perception of everything around us. Have you ever noticed on a rainy day, walking down the street of your home city or town or wherever you may be, and have really contemplated a sunset? The vibrancy and color, the depth, the beauty, the profundity of the moment? The way that leaves shift in the wind, or how puddles form upon the streets, the stones, the architecture around you, the buildings? With a state of awareness or expansion, we are deeply enmeshed, aware of everything surrounding ourselves in the moment. We have to learn to develop that clarity, because it helps us to go deep into our own consciousness. The consciousness is very dynamic, as we are saying.
It can expand outward, but also it can focus on a point inside, which in our works of self-observation, is the work of the ego―understanding the relationship between the ego, personal states, and external events. Both qualities: attention and awareness, contraction and expansion, are often depicted as two poles within Sufism, two opposites. However, they are both essential as Rumi was teaching us, because both principles or qualities of consciousness help us to be well-rounded. There is an exercise in our tradition, or in many schools of meditation. To learn to cease thinking so much, we can pay attention to our surroundings, whether it be a deep walk in the woods, a hike in nature, in which we focus on the external world and the beauty of our surroundings. But also we need to learn to develop internal insight, focus, attention upon our different egotistical states, and also how our ego relates to the external world. This provides a comprehensive basis by which to gather data for our meditations. Levels of Contraction and Expansion
So attention and awareness are developed in levels, in accordance with the level of being of the practical meditator. A true Gnostic, a true Sufi, a true Muslim, experiences these states with will, because they trained themselves for many years. Meditation masters also experience these states in an open, receptive way, because the Being determines for them through intuition, through influence, through inquietudes, a hunch, what to focus on and what to become aware of. Our Being can guide us in our daily life when we learn to connect with that inner conscience, the continuity of awareness and self-observation or remembrance of the divine. So bearing this in mind, we can begin to approach this very high level of understanding by examining what the Sufis taught. The following is from Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism:
“Contraction is to the gnostic what fear is to the beginner, and expansion is to the gnostic what hope is to the beginner.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Beginners fear many things, including the exploration of the ego. Many people are afraid to look inside of themselves because of the ugliness that they have, and this is a normal reaction, but we have to learn to overcome our own nausea and disgust, to quote Nietzsche from Thus Spoke Zarathustra. So contraction can be focused on very unpleasant things, egotistical, negative states, but we have to learn to look inside, to feel that constriction and contraction of our attention, especially in moments of pain. We have to look at ourselves without running away. We have to not repress what we see, and we have to not justify it either. This is essential to develop maturity in this work. Also, beginners hope to have awakened states, awareness of the superior worlds, through this discipline, and the Gnostics, those great masters of meditation, also enjoy an expansion of consciousness in the superior worlds through their meditation, their meditative practices. Al-Qushayri continues: "The distinction between contraction and fear and expansion and hope, is that fear only relates to something in the future, whether it be the loss of something dear or the onset of something dreaded. Hope likewise only relates to future events―the anticipation of something one likes or the awaited disappearance of something one dreads, the expected end of something one hates.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So beginners, we fear the uncertainties of the future, whether it be material or spiritual loss, difficult situations, challenges in life, ordeals. Likewise, we also hope for spiritual advancement and internal experiences in this path. Yet, while these are normal sentiments for beginning meditators, we must learn to focus entirely on the moment, to be aware of all of its rich, enlightened, golden mysteries―alert novelties, the truth, the unknown. Al-Qushayri continues: "Contraction, however, is a subtle impact produced in the moment itself and the same is the case with expansion. The heart of the one who experiences fear and hope is attached by its two states to the future, while the “now” of the one who experiences contraction and expansion is captured by a feeling that overpowers him in the present.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This is fundamental. We have to stop daydreaming. We have to stop thinking of some utopian future where experiences will come easily, by grace, that we must reach some plateau of wisdom and that the work is somehow magically done, easy, like blowing glass. Likewise, it's important to stop fearing the future and to mull over the past. It is important to have remorse and sincere work upon our errors, but not to be hypnotized by our histories, by our tragedies. We have to develop attention and awareness in the present. This occurs through self-observation. 
Dynamics of Contraction
Al-Qushayri relates a very beautiful teaching that I would like to share with you:
"As the Sufis’ states differ, the quality of their contraction and expansion also differs. Under one sort of influence, which is not total, contraction is produced but the possibility of outside concerns remains. Other people in a state of contraction may find that the influence affecting them permits no access to outside concerns. Thus one of these said, “I am a barrier”―that is, “There is no means of entry in me." ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This is very beautiful and profound. There is a lot of meaning here that I'd like to unpack for you. One of the defining characteristics of self-observation, that we are really focusing our attention well, is that we do not become identified with what we perceive. Samael Aun Weor explains that to gather data about our defects, we need a division of attention. We need to separate our Essence, our consciousness, from the ego. This is basic. Without this, we cannot meditate. Without this, we cannot perceive anything clearly. So the consciousness, the Essence is the one that observes. It is perception itself. It is alert, focused, clear attention. The Essence, the liberated consciousness must observe the ego, our defects, our vices, within our three brains. The ego is what is observed. We have to observe our internal reactions to external life, much in the same way that a director of a film, films an actor in a drama, a comedy, a tragedy. These dramas, comedies and tragedies of life are the external events, the situations, the circumstances of our existence. We must not invest our energy externally towards anything outside of us. But we must become hermetically sealed. This means that when we respond to situations, we do not waste energy. We don't give energy to negative thoughts. We don't empower negative emotions and we don't hurt ourselves through negative actions. This is an intuitive, qualitative state in which we have to make many mistakes, because we are learning. This is why we meditate. We clear our mind. We review the events of our day in which our ego acted, in which the self, the conditioned mind, emerged within the screen of our attention. So hermetical sealing, to be closed within, means to not waste our precious, conscious potential, because “Wherever we direct our attention, we expend creative energy,” says Samael Aun Weor. We have to be very clear, and to really be patient with ourselves, because it is not something we are going to master in one day. Instead, we learn to differentiate between egotistical states and conscious states. You will know it through experience. What states of being produce happiness, liberation, contentment? And what states produce our suffering? We have explained this in depth previously. So in relation to this quote, for some disciples: “Under one sort of influence, which is not total, contraction is produced but the possibility of outside concerns remains.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So we can be gathering data about the ego, such as a state of anger when we are criticized. We may still be a little bit identified with the event even though we are observing. We are consciously working not to invest ourselves into that element. So there are degrees of identification and degrees of remembrance, levels of being, “Light upon light,” says the Qur’an [24:35]. However, if we are really working seriously and very well, psychologically, if we are meditating on our mistakes and really working to retrospect at the end of our day, to catch those defects that emerged in certain events, we learn the distinct qualities of conditioning and we learn not to make those mistakes again, because we are comprehending more and more, how those errors manifest, how they feed, how they sustain, and how they pass. So if we are really working well, we do not lose any of our energy through the ego. As Al-Qushayri states: “Other people in a state of contraction may find that the influence affecting them permits no access to outside concerns. Thus one of these said, “I am a barrier”―that is, “There is no means of entry in me.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism We become a barrier. No matter how bad things are externally, we do not internalize negativity at all. Samael Aun Weor stated, “Shut your doors to negativity.” This doesn't mean that we abandon certain friends or family members who may be toxic. There is some credence to this. If we need some space, it could be good to associate or disassociate with certain crowds. This is basic. But in reality, this principle relates to how we shut our psychological doors, because we can't avoid negativity at all times. We have to face the reality of life and the social conflicts of our humanity. We have to learn not to identify with any problem, to shut out any possibility of investing ourselves in the world's problems. It doesn't mean we ignore those problems or don't do anything about them. It means that psychologically we have a space, a clarity, a serenity that is not shaken, so that we can learn to focus on those issues with greater understanding and comprehension. When we are serene and insightful, we can respond to life with efficacy, but this is learned through experience. Dynamics of Expansion
So these principles also relate to expansion, to awareness. Al-Qushayri states:
“This is also how it is for people in the state of expansion. There may be an expansion in someone that widens his nature but does not cut him off from the majority of ordinary things. And there may be someone in bast who will not be affected by anything at all.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So when you expand conscious awareness, a broad spatial perception, a vividness of your surroundings, you learn to stop thinking. This is not forced. It is not repression. It is the natural quietude and silence of the mind. Our problem is that we invest too much in our internal chatter. By taking in the data of our surroundings, when we learn to have a receptive mind. As I said, such as through walks or hikes in nature, we can enter a very deep state of consciousness in which we are cut off from mundane things. So the reality is that nothing around us is mundane, but it is rather our projection of our mind. We have to learn to see each moment as a golden child of Gnosis. You can study this in the “The Struggle of the Opposites,” a chapter in The Revolution of the Dialectic by Samael Aun Weor, in which he describes how we overcome the illusions of the mind. And of course, there are degrees. There are levels to this. Sometimes we enter deep states of expansion, of awareness, but part of our mind is still stuck, is identified. Yet, with the most lucid perception according to Al-Qushayri, “there may be someone in expansion (bast) who will not be affected by anything at all.” We can become so aware of the details of life with such awareness, such clarity, like in a lucid dream, an astral experience, a samadhi, an ecstasy of the soul, that nothing can break that continuity easily. Of course in the beginning, we struggle. We want to experience and maintain these lucid states at will. This is why we have different practices of concentration and awareness to help us focus our attention, but also develop more vividness, an amplification of our perception, our awareness. 
The Signs of Contraction and Expansion
So as I mentioned, contraction-expansion are very broad principles. They have multiple levels of application and meaning according to the three levels or degrees of Sufism: Shariah, Tariqah, Haqiqah / Ma’rifah, or the introductory, the intermediate, and the advanced teaching.
So contraction, as a heightened focus, can occur during an ordeal, especially. In the beginning of our ethical discipline, we have to learn to become aware of everything that is happening outside and inside. When we feel remorse for a defect that we have observed in the moment, which is causing us a lot of pain, we have to really see it for what it is. This is impossible if we don't divide attention inward, but also have awareness of our external events. We also experience expansions of a positive nature when we discover how to use our virtues, when we receive spiritual insight to a problem, that relieves us of a certain suffering and pain. So on one level, contraction feels like a restriction, and it can even sound painful when someone is restricted, is limited. But that inward contraction is necessary in this work, because if we don't confront our defects and feel that pain of remorse in our conscience, we will never change. It is through that introspective work, when we liberate consciousness and really pinpoint the defects we want to work on, that we can really work towards their elimination and expand our knowledge, our Being. Al-Qushayri states: “One of the lowest causes of contraction is the arrival in the heart of a feeling brought on by a sign of divine reproof or a hint that one deserves punishment. This inevitably produces a contraction in the heart. Other feelings may be prompted by an indication, through a sort of kindness and welcome, of approach to God or response from Him. This produces an expansion in the heart.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Degrees of Contraction
There are degrees of contraction and expansion, which again, as we stated, process in accordance with the level of being of the meditator. There are levels to our conscience, a restriction of the heart, whereby we feel a certain intuition, a sudden sentiment that a specific behavior is wrong. The more we listen to our conscience, the deeper we go in our understanding. It is a fundamental principle.
The intellect cannot resolve problems. The heart, our conscience, is what knows how to perceive reality and to understand. The less we follow our states of introspection of contraction, of inner focus, of remorse and analysis, the more we depart from religion, from the teaching, because we disconnect ourselves. We don't listen to what our heart is telling us, what is right and what is wrong. We feel that contraction in our heart, that pain, that deep suffering, perhaps about an action we took in the past that we want to rectify, or feel that we can't. That is contraction, a very deep and profound one. And so these two principles really complement each other. They are both essential, as stated in this scripture, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism: “In general, the degree of contraction of which someone is capable is the same as his potential expansion and his expansion is to the degree of his contraction.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So think of a heart that is perfectly balanced by its pumping of blood, its restrictive and expanding movements, just in the same way as Rumi said that the two wings of a bird extend and contract in order to create flight. “There may be a contraction whose cause is unclear to the one who experiences it. He finds in his heart a state of contraction for which he perceives no reason or motive.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So here we may feel remorse, but we don't understand why, and this is why we have to gain clarity. We have to review a particular moment in the day in which we were confused, or we are suffering with a problem, to visualize it and to see it in our imagination, our perception, and to look for the cause, to introspect, to look, and to wait. Therefore, the Sufis state: "The proper course of action for such a one is submission until that moment passes from him. If he were to try to refuse it by his efforts or to bring on the moment [of the conclusion of this state] before it comes upon him of itself, his contraction would increase, and [his efforts] might be counted against him as an infringement of the principles of spiritual conduct.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So this has to do with moments of observation. We must be mindful of the moment. We must be attentive, alert, aware. We have to be receptive to internal states of Being. This is a quality of the heart, the remembrance of the presence of God. We have to remember that distinct quality of communion with our own inner Spirit as we carefully scrutinize the ego. So again, it is a division of attention. We are observing our defects, where we are remembering that we are the Essence, which belongs to the Being. We have to learn to act appropriately towards each external event with the appropriate internal state. So sometimes in an ordeal, perhaps we are really criticized very hard and we feel a lot of resentment, pride, hatred, and a conglomeration of different egos and defects emerging in that scene. Sometimes the best thing is to wait. Be patient. Learn to see the impression of that person, the aggressor, with serenity, with compassion, with gladness. We have to really transform our perceptions of life, and this is not easy, because we want to retaliate, to react egotistically. If we react in the moment, we constrict ourselves even more, in a manner of speaking. We make our situation worse, because if we argue back, we create conflict. So it is better to comprehend the situation, to look at it, to not let the ego react, and let anger subside. As Prophet Muhammad taught, "The strongest among you is he who controls his anger." If we don't do this, we do not submit to God, to the rules of the moment. So Al-Qushayri continues: “If he were to try to refuse it by his efforts or to bring on the moment [of the conclusion of this state] before it comes upon him of itself, his contraction would increase…” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So as I said, we tend to react to life. Here we need to learn to wait, to be patient, and sometimes in a situation, we have to respond quickly, and this is the great temptation of the mind. The ego reacts and wants to intervene. It is a mechanical reaction to life, but with patience and observation, we can wait for the appropriate internal state to follow our heart, so that we know how to respond with consciousness. To not do so is to contract oneself, to be delimited, to be egotistical, to be vain. Remember that the mind makes a swing between the battle of the opposites, “Should I or should I not retaliate to this critic?” Our mind also goes between how to get revenge, or perhaps we want to run away. Neither are viable, depending on the situation―in most cases. If we are just having an argument or a conflict at work or with a family member, instead, intuitive action, beyond the duality of oppositional thinking, leads the awakening of the consciousness. Al-Qushayri continues: "But if he surrenders to the rule of the moment, before long the state of contraction will vanish. As by God, may He be exalted, said, “And God brings about contraction and expansion” (2:245). ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So I know a lot of us may think that divinity is far away, but the reality is that our Being is in our heart and is always telling us what we need to do. The problem is that we have too many veils, too many conditions of mind that obscure that thread that we have to hold on to. This is why in meditation we learn to introspect, to remove the veils of our perception. Degrees of Expansion
Like breath, states of awareness or expansion suddenly arrived in accordance with divine will in a properly cultivated psychology. So when we train our attention to focus on one thing, to not be distracted, whether it be a candle, observing the flame and not thinking of other things, or practicing awareness of the present moment, this serenity of mind allows for light to reflect within our consciousness, to augment and expand it.
Again, Al-Qushayri states: “And there may be an expansion that comes on suddenly―the one who experiences this encounters it unexpectedly, without knowing any reason for it. It shakes him and makes him giddy.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Sometimes in our practice, we can awaken in the astral plane. We suddenly have illumination and a vision which makes us very happy. The problem is that we tend to get overexcited, whereby we agitate the mind and lose the ecstasy, the experiences. “The proper course of action for someone in this circumstance is silence and the observance of correct behavior, for there is at that moment a great danger for him. Such a person must beware of a hidden scheme, a test in the form of a gift.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism How we handle visions is important, because even spiritual experiences can be a test to see whether or not we will act responsibly with light, or whether or not that light should be taken away because we abuse it―we indulge in negative states. It comes to my mind an experience I had in the astral plane, in which my awareness was expanded and I was flying over a beautiful landscape, enjoying the beauty of nature. I knew my God was with me, was guiding me. I landed in a forest upon a hill in the middle of the woods, and suddenly, I saw the numbers 600,000 on the ground, and certain women were approaching me―lustful women. 
I intuitively knew that this was related to Arcanum 6 of the sacred tarot [The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah] in which I had to fight against my own lust. So it was a test and a blessing at the same time. I was given a vision, but this was a hidden scheme, a test, an ordeal, because the masters of the White Lodge awaken us in the astral plane to give us experiences and to test us, to see whether or not we will act ethically, because in this vision that I had, this experience, these women were trying to make me fall sexually and I had to throw them off of me in a great battle. Very difficult. I was very exhausted by the end, but that experience relates how we can be given light, amplification, and experiences, and yet, we can make very grave mistakes if we are not careful.
“Thus one of the Sufis said, “A door of expansion was opened upon me. I slipped so I was veiled from my station.” And on account of this they say. “Stay on the prayer-rug (bisat), and beware of delight (inbisat)!” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Or as the Buddhist state, “Don't get drunk on Nirvana.” We can become very attached to internal experiences. We have to have that type of awareness but not be attached, to be unmoved, to be serene. This ties into the joy of awakened experiences and the discipline we need to contract or restrain our mind. All meditators must learn to experience the bliss of the consciousness by restricting and disciplining the animal ego. 
Fear and Hope in God
Al-Junayd said the following, as quoted by Al-Qushayri in the Principles of Sufism:
“Junayd said, “Fear of God contracts me while hope of Him expands me. The real nature of things (haqiqah) unifies me [in His Presence], while the Truth of His Being (haqq) separates me [from Him in essence]. When He contracts me through fear, He makes me pass away from myself, and when He expands me through hope, He returns me to myself.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This fear is not egotistical. It is the reverence of the consciousness towards the divine law, especially chastity. We fear to make mistakes and to deviate from the path when we really revere God. So mystical experiences return us to ourselves, to remembrance of our reality, and this is how we learn to have genuine hope in the Being. "When He unifies me through the real nature of things, He raises me to His Presence and when He separates me [from Him] through His Unique Truth, He makes me witness what is other than myself, and so veils me from Him." ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So notice how mystical experience, states and stations in the path are governed by divinity. The Being contracts and expands our perceptions of consciousness depending on the need and His decisions, because the Being always manages our experiences, our light. Al-Junayd continues: "He, may He be exalted, in all of that moves me [from state to state], not holding me back. He estranges me [from all else] but does not make me familiar with Him. It is in His Presence that I taste the food of my being. Would that He would annihilate me from myself and so gratify me, or take me away from myself and so revive me!” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This is very beautiful. God determines our path, if we learn to follow His will in our three brains, our human machine. He gives us experiences, but doesn't make us familiar with Him, because many times when we long for the Being, we work harder. There is a very famous saying in Islam how God often withholds divine blessings or experiences as he hears the prayers of the disciple, because the sound of it is sweet to Him. How do we taste the food of our Being? Meditation. Samael Aun Weor states that meditation is the daily bread of the wise, the bread of being. We gain insight when we are establishing ourselves in attention and awareness. Self-observation of our states and awareness of their relation to external events provide us with holistic data about our internal, humanoid machine, our ego. Through developing serenity of mind, calmness and equanimity of consciousness, we expand our awareness of the internal worlds. This comes about after we learn to concentrate on one thing. We could focus on a sacred sound, or as we stated in the previous lecture: Breath, Ham-Sah, mantras, etc. We constrict our attention to the object of concentration so that the mind stops chattering. In the silence of meditation, when we learn to focus internally without distraction, we can receive internal knowledge and awareness of the internal worlds. Three Types of Expansion
We spoke extensively about contraction. Abdullah Ansari of Herat speaks beautifully about expansion. His definition of expansion pertains also to enlightenment, spiritual insight, astral samadhis, conscious experiences within the internal worlds. As he states, citing the Qur’an:
“God, the Most High and Holy [speaks of one],’whose heart God has opened to Islam so that he has received enlightenment from God’ (39:22).” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path We receive enlightenment through submission. How do we submit to God? It is by achieving equanimity of mind. So serenity is developed in degrees. We have to learn to overcome distractions to the object of our concentration, whether we are focusing on the breath, with a mantra, with pranayama, or a statue, an object, a candle flame. Or if you are familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, a mandala. You can also concentrate upon the Arabic and Hebrew letters, especially, to focus on a principle represented in that calligraphy, so that the mind stops thinking of other things. In some of these practices, we imagine and concentrate upon that image. We can see it before our physical eyes, and then we visualize it in our imagination. But in order for imagination to be very crisp, to be stable, we have to not forget what we are doing. So equanimity comes first, when we no longer get distracted, when our attention is crisp and clear. When it no longer takes effort to focus on our object, when we are accustomed and familiar with the perfect state of equanimity, we can learn to submit to God. This is how we receive enlightenment. 
Notice how Muslims and Sufis, they bow their head towards the stone of Kaaba, as we see in this image―a symbol of working with the stone of Yesod. We have to bow our head by working with our energies, to calm the mind. We offer our calm, serene mind to the Being, but it is a process.
Of course, enlightenment occurs in levels. It begins with awakening physically, but also achieves or appears internally in our work. “Expansion is the opening that God bestows upon the heart, the spiritual time, and the aspiration of a servant. And that is of three kinds: the expansion of prayers and invocations, the expansion in service, and the expansion during seeking.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path Let us examine what these entail. 
Prayers, Service, and Seeking
“The expansion of prayers has three signs: invocations with reverence, awestruck humble supplications, and beseeching God through Qur’anic divination.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path
So invocations and conjurations, as we have stated previously, help us to protect our reverence. Humble supplications are our prayers. We concentrate and pray for the help we need, enter silence, and then when the mind is serene and receptive, we can receive the answers we need. Qur'anic divination, for the purposes of our studies, is to read and study the doctrine. We pray for help that God gives us understanding through whatever scripture we read, such as in the Qur’an or the writings of Samael Aun Weor. We can sit, close our eyes, and pray, asking divinity to lead us to a chapter, by flipping through the pages, to show us that which we must read and understand, what we must read about to help us in our particular situation. “And the expansion of service has three signs: lightly carrying the load of plentiful works, abundant prayers concealed from people, and a heart punctual in prayer.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So, sacrifice for humanity without seeking benefits in return. This means to be consistent in our meditations and prayer, that whatever our schedule is, we have a set time in which we enter meditation, silence of mind. People want experiences. They want expansion without recognizing that experiences are the payment the Logos grants us for good works, for sacrifices for humanity. Consistent discipline and meditations makes expansions more frequent, since meditation transforms the astral body, according to Samael Aun Weor. “And expansion during seeking as three signs: minimum audition yet great benefit, minimum service yet great joy, and minimum contemplative reflection yet great contemplative vision.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So we can listen to classical works of music, spiritual auditions, while being focused on the rhythm and the music as it enters our psyche, such as the works of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Liszt, and many others, which we have outlined in The Secret Teachings of Opera on our website. We can sit and concentrate upon the music, let our focus be entirely on our heart and the influence of those sounds upon our consciousness, which have the power to awaken our concentration and also our awareness, internally, of divine things. Classical compositions and music are Kabbalistic, and teaches many profound principles in nature. Even when we perform small works of selfless service, sacrifice, the quality that it grants us when it is sincere is tremendous. It gives us motivation and happiness. Lastly will conclude on one point: “An hour of meditation is better than a year of prayer” according to Prophet Muhammad. So minimum contemplative reflection, if it is very deep and profound, can really open a lot of doors for us. Quality, not quantity, is important. Although it is important that we build up our practices gradually, in accordance with our needs, so that we can train ourselves and deepen our discipline. At this point in time I invite you to ask questions. Questions and Answers
Question: How can you find your vocation or do good work, but not identify with your external situation?
Instructor: Obviously, every disciple of this teaching faces hardships, ordeals, and there is a saying within the Qur’an that "All good and bad comes from Allah," the Being. As for finding our vocation, that is something that we have to really meditate upon and reflect. We can basically sit in a quiet space, close our eyes, shut off our senses from the world, and visualize in our imagination, and reflect upon our positive qualities, our skills. Those skills and those virtues of the soul belong to the Being, and the Being can show you through visions in your meditations, through experiences, what you can do with your life. I think it's important to remember that when we do find our vocation, our genuine mission in life for the spiritual work, you will realize and will find from experience that it is never just something easy. If you look at Beethoven, his mission was to provide the doctrine of Gnosis in his symphonies, in his works, and yet he suffered tremendously. So, I know sometimes we may think that by finding our vocation, we are going to have everything easy, and that's something that obviously we hope for, but the reality is that there are always going to be difficulties. But the reason that we are able to overcome them, our external situations, to not identify with them, is because we love what we do. That is the key of finding your vocation. When you are providing some kind of service or work that you really love from your heart and soul, even when you are challenged, when you have doubt, when you are filled with fear, uncertainty and difficulties, you do what is best for others, because it is the right thing. It is an expression of our internal integrity. You find your vacation based off your psychological work. Change your behaviors that are harmful. Adopt virtuous behaviors. Expand your awareness outward. Expand your virtues outward to humanity. Let your consciousness be the one that dictates how you relate to others, because if we are just going along with the flow of life, if we are just reacting to our situation, blaming others for our problems and suffering, we are creating a lot of pain for ourselves and for our neighbor. But the beginning is, learn to constrict your attention inside. Learn to evaluate in yourself what egos are causing you trouble, because when you eliminate the ego, you develop virtue. You develop comprehension, and then you know as a soul, as an Essence, how to resolve problems. So, internal self-observation is the key. As you begin to learn about yourself and your abilities, your Being will naturally lead you to situations and environments in which you will expand your knowledge and your experience, so that you learn how to really fulfill your role in society and within the Gnostic teachings. Question: Why do discursive thoughts seem to always have some importance and relevance? Instructor: Samael Aun Weor states that the thoughts and the egos of our intellect, our internal psychology, bear resemblance of half-truths. The reason why they seem compelling and important is because the ego is a mis-transformation of impressions. So we have explained previously how the ego is created, the self is created, through a mis-transformation of consciousness. We use our consciousness in the wrong way, and so these defects always appear to be honest and truthful and sincere and important and relevant. But if you are observing yourself through self-observation, you begin to see the mistake of this, that the ego is a conglomeration of half-truths, mistakes, which take on the resemblance of truthful things. The intellect is really a machine which we have made into something demonic, something negative, because the ego with its intellect uses thought to convince us to do the wrong things. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated in Tarot and Kabbalah that the greatest weapon that the Black Lodge has to pull students from the path is the intellect. So you learn to see the truth of things by looking inside, so that we can distinguish truth from falsehood, not looking for any justifications or repressing anything we see, but simply observing them―letting our heart be the judge. Question: It's so easy to rush past sitting quietly with the painful expressions of our actions and go pass to the end, all fixed, and my mind shuts off to any work. So how to make the mind shut down and for me to work on myself? Instructor: Your comment seems to point towards a tendency in many students, which is to repress what we see. We want to shut down the mind because it is too painful. We see faults in ourselves and aggregates and nafs or defects that are so painful to look at, that we want to become numb. We want to repress what we see. But in truth, this work is a work of suffering. It is conscious works and voluntary suffering. We have to learn to be equanimitous even when looking at the worst defects, and facing the worst ordeals that really bring out our most hidden defects that we thought we never had. We have to learn to develop that equanimity in our daily life. It's not enough just to sit for fifteen minutes a day to clear the mind or to focus on an object of concentration. Those complement our daily work. We reach silence and serenity of mind by working all day―observing the mind, looking at it, and acting as a consciousness, following our conscience, our heart. If we feed our desires, we suffer. This is a basic law and every religion, especially Sufism and Gnosticism. If we do not create a space in our interior, moment by moment, instant by instant, we don't have the means by which we can really work effectively. And of course, there is a lot of components that can go into this process. Obviously, our home environment is important―having a clean, stable, perfumed home, such as one of our lecturers explained in a lecture called Basics of Spiritual Defense. It's important that we make our home a space for meditation, a place that we can really pray and contemplate and work and aspire to these principles, to fulfill them at whatever level we can, because the more we feed our heart through these disciplines and practices, such as in a lecture I referenced, we can protect our spirituality, but also give ourselves strength and motivation. Audience: Thank you. Instructor: You're welcome. Question: I had a couple of questions on my mind. I was kind of wondering about the sacrifice aspect as you were kind of discussing it, and I mean I have ideas about what that could be, but sometimes I feel like just like you were saying, it might be a while until you kind of even gain the clarity and openness of mind to receive information about your vocation. For instance, the way that you should be serving. So I was wondering if it kind of counts towards the sacrifice that we are doing, that we work on ourselves, that we are always observing ourselves and checking ourselves and foregoing our anger in favor of being attentive to our feelings and trying to examine them and understand them. Is that considered sacrifice or is there some other meaning? That is one question, and another question I have is a little bit unrelated. But I have been listening to a lot of the Rune Course and on one of them it was talking about the seals, kind of like the way people do the sign of the cross, and how it's not really correct. I was wondering if there's anywhere that it shows how you do that, like a video, because I found it hard to follow the movements that were described in words. Instructor: Thank you. So as to the first question, it is a tremendous sacrifice to learn to be a decent person when our mind is filled with rage, with anger, with negative qualities, with defects, and we are put in situations in which we feel that we are not benefiting, that we are suffering―and yet, we learn to transform our own pain, to be compassionate to our neighbor. This is a form of sacrifice, a very noble one. Now, obviously there are levels and degrees to sacrifice for humanity. But I think all that is predicated upon an understanding of how we live ethically in relation to humanity. I know a lot of us may feel confused or lost in relation to finding a vocation in life. Some of us may be more advanced in our years trying to find new careers, and we often think that sacrifice for humanity means to have some kind of job, and of course, this is important, but the reality is that our vocation is something within the Being. Really, we have many vocations that we can fulfill. I mean, for example, you look at Samael Aun Weor: he was a writer, he was a lecturer, and he was a healer. He did many things that his Being called him to do, and so while we like to look towards some kind of job or vocation to fulfill us, to give us not only income but some kind of psychological and economic meaning, the important thing to remember is that if we were working on our ego, we will be guided to what we must do in our life in our daily existence. As for the sign of the cross, we do not have a video that shows that, but perhaps that's something that we will develop, especially since we have had a video on the pentagram specifically. Audience: Thank you. Instructor: You're welcome. Question: I wanted to ask about some news I heard recently because of COVID-19, the stone of Mecca, that the visiting of that has been canceled. And in that it's an unprecedented event, and I was just wondering if the stone is related to contraction or expansion and if that is causing a lot of grief for people that want to see it. Is that a thing that can be done internally for people? Instructor: So with the terms contraction-expansion, these apply to our consciousness, and as I provided an overall reference, there are many levels to that. Contraction can mean focus on an object of concentration, a restriction. It also is self-observation, when we feel constricted or our focus is on our internal psychology and what is occurring there. Of course, awareness is the opposite, where it is an expansion of consciousness outward. Now the important thing to remember is that the stone of Mecca, physically, is a symbol, just in the same way that a cross on a church spire is a symbol. The stone of Mecca is a beautiful representation of the work with the sexual energy―the Kaaba, or the stone of La Vaca, the Cow, which is how you say it in Spanish. But you take the syllables and rearrange them, it is Kabbalah. So it's a very profound symbol that has a lot of beauty and meaning, but while many Muslims cannot go to perform Hajj or go to the stone of Mecca to perform their pilgrimage, obviously for them that is a cause of great suffering. But the initiates of the mystical Sufi tradition have always known that according to the words of one initiate: “When you are separate from the Kaaba, it is all right to turn toward it, but those who are in it can turn toward any direction they wish.” ―Bayazid Bastami Basically, it's a symbol of how there is a great difference between exoteric Islam and esoteric Islam, which is the Gnostic teachings within Sufism, especially. If you are working with your sexual creative energies, your stone, your Kaaba, you are purifying that black stone into a purified white cubic stone as the foundation of your temple―then it doesn't matter if you pray towards the East or the West. It doesn't matter if you travel physically to those places, because really, real pilgrimage for the initiates is in the internal planes. And personally I have been to the Middle East in the astral plane many times. Really our consciousness, when awakened internally, we can see things what the symbols of any tradition represent. You know, those journeys to the Middle East and all the symbols of that tradition are very beautiful, but they are not necessarily meant to be a literal dogma. You know, they are a great reminder of what we must do esoterically, but of course there are levels to religion. If that makes sense. Audience: Yes, it seems like there's a pointer in that being canceled that we should turn internally toward that stone and instead of relying on the external. Yeah, thank you. Instructor: You're welcome. Question: I have experienced my infra-conscious dimensions several times in my dreams, things I would never do or engage in physically. What message is my Being giving me and could this be a part of my past life? Instructor: Yes, it can. It could be your Being showing you your ego, the things that you need to work on. Remember that there are two moons in the esoteric doctrine. There is the white moon and the black moon, Nahemah and Lilith in Hebrew. These are our representations of the ego that is visible and the ego that is hidden. Now as we awaken more consciousness, as we expand more consciousness and learn to perceive our infra-conscious realms, we begin to understand and perceive things in us, that even if we would not act upon them physically in this life because of our ethics, we still have an element inside that we need to eliminate. So your Being can be definitely showing you your errors that you need to work out. So here is an example of where your consciousness is expanded. It is a profound awareness of what happened, but also you need to introspect or contract your attention inward in order to reflect on that remorse in your heart, as well as the source of this defect, so you can be free of it. Question: When we see ourselves psychologically, it's like holding in our breath and indulging in desires gives us air. How should we deal with ourselves and our remorse when we know what we could do or what could and should be done, but do not have the ability to do it? Does knowing what should be done mean we have the ability to do it? Instructor: This is an important thing to consider. Remorse is a quality of the heart. It is a conscious sentiment. It is very different from shame, from a sense of pessimism, of morbidity, and repression. The ego feels shame and says, “I am a bad person. I did this. I am so horrible! Look at what is in my mind,” and we can become very sour people if we invest our energy into that type of feeling. Remorse is very different. It is the expansion of the consciousness when we learn to constrict ourselves. We feel that constriction or contraction in our heart, that we have something negative inside, but this is not something that is egotistical. You know, this is not something that is of the mind, because if we just dwell on the mind and not on our heart, on the Essence, we could become very dark people. So this is something to consider. We have to remember the virtues of the Being. If you feel a lot of suffering for your faults, it is important to be realistic and to meditate on your virtues. So if you feel like you know what you should do and could do, but don't do it or don't have the ability, it's important to really meditate on our virtuous qualities, because oftentimes we adopt a negative skew of things, of reality, because we invest too much energy in our conditions. The reality is that we have a lot of hope, a lot of potential. Don't expect that you're going to be able to do everything all at once, but take the steps that you need, that you know you can do, and to do them. Fundamentally, the important thing is chastity: save your sexual energy, transmute it. And if you struggle with maintaining this energy, keep trying. As Rumi taught us, "Come, oh wanderers and leavers. Even if you have broken your vows a thousand times, come, join us, for ours is not a caravan of despair." We learn to change gradually, but the important thing is that we repent sincerely. That is going to be an entire lecture in this course that we will give in the future, of what repentance looks like, what renunciation looks like as well. Comment: We talked about being in the moment, but also we don't want to be lost in that moment through fantasy like watching TV. We are in the moment for hours, but at the same time, we are living someone else's dream, whether the writer, the producer, etc. So this is a form of attention, concentration, awareness, etc. But this is being lost in the moment for the consciousness, taking impressions that are stored in the memory. Instructor: This is a really good distinction to make. So while we are talking about states of awareness and attention in the moment, we have to be very specific about what is the quality of that awareness and attention. You know, we can sit in front of a television, as was stated, and be entirely focused on the theme of the story, the characters in the drama, and yet, it is entirely egotistical, because the ego knows how to direct attention, but it is through desire―the desire to watch and to receive the impressions and sensations of that moment, that perception from the television. So real awareness, real concentration, is when we concentrate with complete voluntary will. You know, obviously, sitting in front of a television is very passive. It doesn't take any effort. But when you concentrate on a candle or a mantra or really work to exercise the Essence in you, you will find that it is very difficult in the beginning. It is very challenging, because our free consciousness is very weak and needs to be trained. We find that it is very difficult to voluntarily focus our attention on one thing or to be aware of our surroundings in a clear sense. So we have to learn to take impressions of life, but not passively where our mind and personality and ego is active. We have to put those in a state of suspension, of calm, and equanimity, and instead learn to make the consciousness be the one that is active, that is working. Question: Do Gnostics have fun? Instructor: Yes, especially the ones that I know, associate and work with. Yes, while we talk about very serious topics, we do have quite a profound sense of humor. If you come to our retreats, you definitely will pick up on that. So hopefully you can and will be able to meet you in person. That would be nice. Question: Can you speak a little on the ego of self-love and self-compassion? Instructor: It's important that we have compassion towards ourselves, especially because we are very weak. We make mistakes and we suffer a lot. But it doesn't mean that we are filled with self-love. A lot of times, in current spiritual movements, people often say that you should love yourself, that you should find yourself beautiful. And really, what these philosophies and polemics often do is reinforce self-esteem, which is a defect, an ego. It is true that we need to be compassionate towards ourselves and to have a conscious love for our soul, but we have to be very merciless towards our ego. You know, the compassionate thing to do for ourselves is to have no mercy towards our defects. If we have a fit of anger, if we have a defect or a vice that emerges and we don't want to identify with it, we have to be very cruel to ourselves, in the sense that we don't identify or give it what it wants, because this is the compassionate thing, the loving thing. The soul knows how to give love towards others without expecting anything in return. Self-love says, “Other people should serve me because I deserve it.” So our focus in this teaching is to learn how to introspect and to identify those egos of self-esteem that are particularly problematic, which create a lot of drama in different circumstances of life. So remember, compassion is that we serve others out of love for humanity, conscious love, not egotistical love, not complacency with error. Because compassion can be very strong for some people. Sometimes the compassionate thing is to be very severe with a person, but it doesn't mean that we don't love them. It means that we are enacting divine justice if necessary. Or as Shakespeare taught us, "I must be cruel only to be kind. Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind” (Hamlet 3.4.181-182). 
The role of breath within every religion is profoundly significant. All traditions point towards the power of breathing, which is currently being studied, repackaged, and sold as novelties to new age consumers. The reality is that all meditative traditions from both East and West have emphasized the necessity of spiritual breathing, exercises for the awakening and development of the consciousness.
In many eastern philosophies and traditions, the yogis speak of pranayama: to yoke the life force, the vital winds within our lungs, within the air we breathe, with the specific and express purpose of developing concentration, willpower, and mystical states. The Sufis are no exception. They not only emphasize how breath is essential to life, moment by moment, they also explain in a very beautiful system how divine powers and union with God is achieved through it. The reality is that they knew how our behaviors, our mind-stream, our moment to moment decisions, affect our speech. Our level of being is expressed in the quality of our words, our breath, our expression. Speech is an expression. It is an amplification, a modification of energy. There are hurtful and infamous words, as well as words of comfort, reconciliation, motivational power. How we speak determines how we manifest our internal psychology. As the Buddha Shakyamuni taught, “Mind precedes phenomena. We become what we think.” But likewise, we become what we say. This is why within Sufism, these masters state how it is important to guard our breaths, our speech, through ethical conduct. We have explained previously that this is Shariah, the law, which has nothing to do with punitive laws in Muslim countries. Instead, it relates to conscious ethics within the schools of Sufism, within any religion. Without ethical speech, without using our verb for the benefit of humanity, without being conscious of what we say, it is impossible to enter any spiritual path, known in Sufism as Tariqah, the way to the truth. As James the Apostle stated, “The tongue is an unruly member,” which like the rudder of a ship, if it is not controlled, creates problems in humanity (James 3). And yet if we learn to guard our speech, our verb, our ways of speaking, we can uplift humanity. Our compassionate intention, magnified by our verb, harmonizes and reunites communities, produces happiness, produces contentment. This is a fundamental reality within every single meditative tradition, especially Sufism and especially Gnosis. Our breath is essential to spiritual life, and how we use our expression determines our trajectory―where we manifest, where we go within nature. This is why within Sufism, they place such emphasis upon music, upon song, spiritual concert, such as sama in Arabic, the whirling dervishes of the great Mevlevi Sufis. Vocal prayers―these are integral within that tradition―and they emphasize that our verb harmonizes every aspect of our psychology, if we use our speech for the benefit of others, if we use our breath with ethics, with concentration, with remembrance of the Being. 
This is how we submit to God. This is how we communicate with God, because we have to be watchful of our breaths, the inhalation, the exhalation, our communication. All of this adds up. All of this accumulates forces and powers that determine our movement upon the lines of life and being, the present moment.
Mantras and sacred sounds are essential in every mystical tradition, especially in Sufism and Gnosis. If you want to learn more about how mantra, sacred verb, sacred sounds are a crux within our practice, a foundation, you can study The Spiritual Power of Sound, which we have as a lecture on our website under the course, Beginning Self-Transformation. We can submit to divinity through our words when we recite prayers or mantras. Our speech can elevate our soul, and yet if we use it to curse, to speak vulgarities, to use degenerated language, we disconnect ourselves from the Being. We lose the thread, the continuity of remembrance in the present moment, and therefore we enter condemnation, suffering, and pain. However, by controlling our speech and using the breath for the Spirit, we learn to develop every aspect of our soul, the consciousness. But how do we know this? When we are born, we take in vital air and life. We cry. The breath is intimately related with our life. We could not exist if we could not breathe. And just as when we are born, how breath enters the lungs for the first time, we cry out in our new existence. This breath initiates both physical and spiritual life. Breath initiates life in every level. However, while all creatures within the lower elemental kingdoms―amongst animals and plants, utilize and process the breath at their level―there is a type of breath or substance within human and divine beings, within initiates: meditators who have refined themselves through spiritual breathing disciplines. The Sufis proclaim how the breath is the ultimate medium of divine expression, and when we command it with fidelity to the Being, to the presence of God, Hudur in Arabic, this becomes a perfected instrument through which we master the esoteric work. This is very well known within the alchemical traditions, how we use mantras and breath within alchemy, within a marriage, within tantra in Buddhism. Farid Ad-Din 'Attar stated, "Nothing is more difficult for the friends of God than guarding their breaths in moments of rapture." There exists divine states of rapture: joy, plenitude, and illumination, resulting from the conscious use of breath. While it might seem difficult for us as beginners to control our tongue and cease speaking vulgarities, among the friends of God, the saints or prophets, the initiates and masters of meditation, there is nothing more difficult for them than to control their speech when experiencing mystical union. But why is this? Speech is an act of creation. Our vocal cords and throat are a womb by which the sacred verb is gestated. The more refined our mystical states, the greater our responsibility and power. Vulgar words or incorrect speech, the expression of animal desire, during moments of remembrance and clarity in the heart, is dishonorable, disgraceful, because we are blaspheming in the presence of the Being. As the Quran teaches, truly, “We are closer to you than your jugular vein” (50:16). When we act inappropriately and speak negative words, we go against the will of the Being. This is a reality that is only comprehensible to meditators, because when the Being is present in us, we feel and perceive a pristine luminosity, superlative awakened consciousness. And it only takes one moment to speak absurdities, to manifest the ego, to lose the bliss of that moment. This is why the Sufis always teach, "You must guard your breaths against God Most High." We have to be careful with our words, since they carry power to transform or condition our states. 
The Definition of Breath
But what is the definition of breath according to the Arabic mystical tradition, the Sufis?
“Inspiration, nafas―literally “breath,” also “breathing space” or ample room―is the refreshment of hearts by subtleties from the Unseen.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Notice that we spend a lot of time talking about the ego, animal desire, which the Sufis call nafs, the lower soul. Each ego is a breath. It is a modification of the energy of the consciousness. Each ego, each defect, vice or error, traps the Essence, our true soul or the consciousness. Each ego traps part of, really, what we are: the Essence that must be liberated, which we seek to free through our meditation practices, retrospection meditation, especially. We do so through comprehending and eliminating each ego because the ego is a shell. In Hebrew קְלִפָּה klipah, or the plural קְלִיפּוֹת Klipoth, the world of “shells,” is precisely our inner hell. The ego is hell. It is suffering. It is attachment, craving, aversion, ignorance. So to free the soul, we have to achieve inspiration. We need to be inspired. This is the state of comprehension, of illumination. In our meditative discipline, we seek to self-observe ourselves from moment to moment, to see the ego in action within our three brains. We have to separate as the free liberated Essence, which is small and in a state of potentiality, in order to observe and activate it, to develop it. We do so by observing how the ego and our different egos, our nafs, manifest in our three brains. When we see the ego for what it is, within self-observation or inner accounting, muhasabah in Arabic, we gather data about ourselves. We begin to be inspired and understand that we are not anger. We are not pride. We are not lust, fear, vanity, gluttony, blasphemy. We are not these things, because we are freeing our Essence and we are perceiving and observing in ourselves that we are not these desires. We are not nafas, the lower soul, the ego. Samael Aun Weor mentioned that the greatest joy of the Gnostic is the discovery of one of his or her defects. This is inspiration. We are inspired and feel joy that we are not desire. We are not this condition of mind, and therefore, we feel a great change in our level of being. This is the fundamentals of meditation. We have to gather data about our animal mind so that we can work upon its elimination. But the beginning is, we have to take account of what we are, and for that, in order to give energy to the free consciousness, the Essence, we need energy. The soul or Essence is refreshed through working with the creative energy, the sexual energy. Our breathing is profoundly and intimately related with sexuality. Our breathing is altered and impassioned during arousal. This is well-known. Now, within people who are filled with lust, couples who join sexually, their breathing becomes inflamed, erratic, quick, impassioned, uncontrolled, and because of their breath, their impassioned breathing, their creative energies begin to flow out of the body. They begin to become inflamed or excited to the point in which that energy is lost, is expelled. In our studies of meditation and Gnosis, and within the most esoteric hearts of Sufism, they always teach that we have to conserve the sexual energy. You have to control the vital forces, because the semen is the matter that contains the fire and energy that is going to awaken you. Therefore, if your breathing is erratic, uncontrolled, the energies flow from inward to out. This is the opposite of our purposes in meditation. We have to learn to control our breath and the sexual energy, whether we are practicing as a single person or if we are married, especially if we are married, because there is more energy available to a couple, between husband and wife, man and woman. If you control your breath through profound spiritual aspiration, the creative energy is harnessed. It is redirected. We use our conscious will, our concentration, through our breathing to make the energy flow from out to in, and therefore, not a single drop of that energy or matter is lost. It is this energy, precisely through breath, and these exercises of pranayama or alchemy, that help us to experience the subtle perceptions from the unknown. It is the “refreshment of hearts.” What are these “subtleties of the unseen,” which Samael Aun Weor explains very beautifully throughout his works? These are visions and awakening from dreams, astral experiences, lucid cognizant experiences within the internal worlds, jinn science, samadhis, ecstasies, direct visions in which we speak to God. Sometimes these subtleties from the unseen are a form of lights, visions in meditation, the perception of energy flowing in us. Comprehension, inspiration, unfolds through working with will power, by using our will to control our breath, so that we redirect energy. We make it flow inwards so that vital force regenerates our mind. It gives us power in the consciousness. Our soul, the Essence, becomes inspired. What does it mean to inspire, literally? It means to breathe, to take in the air, the spiritual potencies and life and vitality of God into our lungs, and this assimilates through our breathing and lungs within our blood, within our sexual system. When we inhale vital air, the life force is divinity, and when we combine them with spiritual longing, with conscious love, we aspire towards the heights of realization. But there are levels of work with breath. “A person who receives inspirations is finer and clearer than a person who is open to mystical states. The person of the momentary inner experience is at the beginning, the inspired person is at the conclusion, and the person of states is between the two.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Beginning students often have internal experiences that can initiate or inspire them, to enter the path: Shariah, ethics. However, the reality is that such experiences are very fleeting. They are temporary. Through our meditative discipline, mystical states, conscious experiences, astral travels, become more developed, consistent, frequent and penetrative. This is Tariqah, the path, which sometimes can refer to a Sufi school, but also in general refers to the path that the master or the initiate travels within the desert, from oasis to oasis, from ordeal to ordeal within the wilderness of life, the hardships of existence. Inspired initiates are those who have constant remembrance of divine realities: telepathy, intuition, out-of-body experiences, jinn science, astral projections, polyvoyance, omniscience, abilities common in elevated masters like Padmasambhava, Tsong Khapa, Prophet Muhammad, Samael Aun Weor. These are the adepts of حقيقة Haqiqah, the truth of معرفة Ma’rifah, knowledge, Gnosis. 
The Highest Form of Worship
The Sufis emphasize how controlled breath is the ultimate form of worship. There are levels of practice within Sufism regarding breath work. So we mentioned a little bit about introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels of practice within any meditative tradition. In Sufism, this is Shariah, Tariqah, Haqiqah / Ma’rifah: truth and knowledge.
“The states are means and inspirations are the end of progressive development. Moments belong to those who have hearts, states belong to those who possess a spirit (ruh), and inspirations belong to the people of inner being (sirr). The Sufis have said, “The best act of worship is to count the breaths along with God Glorified and Exalted.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This quote explains how the three degrees of any meditative tradition relate to the breath, relate to breathing exercises. In the introductory levels, Shariah, we work with counting our breath. This is a very common exercise within Buddhism known as anapana, within Sufism and within yoga. Now we have to remember that each degree of spiritual discipline works with breath in different ways, with greater expediency and impact within the higher levels. But in the beginning we have to learn to use our breath, to start with the basics, and this often comes with exercises of counting your breath, developing concentration, focusing on the inhalation, the retention, and the exhalation of air, and not forgetting what we are doing. Because the problem is that in the beginning, we could be focusing on such an exercise, trying to count to a hundred without forgetting our work, and yet we do forget. It means that our concentration is weak. We don't have enough will established to be consistent. But with practice and consistency, with dedication, we develop stamina. Counting the breath, mental and verbal mantra recitation, pranayama, helps us to awaken here and now. Because if you are concentrated in the moment, focused on your breath and not forgetting what you are doing, that concentration and willpower will extend to your daily life in your interactions with humanity. This is what we want. We want to have firmness of will, to be able to direct our attention at one thing and not be distracted by anything, whether impressions from the external world or from our own mind―to not forget the Presence (Hudur) and our concentration upon God. Mystical states belong to intermediary practitioners when they are consistent, when those states are prolonged, deepened, amplified, penetrative, frequent, when there is a continuity there, because in the beginning of our studies, we forget where we are and what we are doing, especially in the physical world, but also in the internal worlds. We may wake up in the astral plane for a moment, with a vision, and then immediately lose consciousness. This has to change. We have to be present moment by moment wherever we are, whether physically or in the astral world. We do this by working with breath and sexual energy. People who have really established themselves are persistent in meditation and pranayama, yoking the breath. We get experiences and visions, but we have to be dedicated to chastity. We have to be dedicated to sexual purity, because this is the foundation: transforming the sexual energy. This is known as transmutation, to mutate or transform the brute matter of our semen through its conservation and sublimation into energy. This is the alchemical teachings of lead into gold. This is Allah-Khemia within the Middle East: to fuse and cast a metal, to purify the metals of the psyche and make it divine. We have to transmute the sexual force. This is the meaning of the quote “how people who possess a Spirit,” “states belong to those who possess a Spirit (روح ruh)” or the Hebrew רוּחַ Ruach. The Spirit is “Hu,” as in the Sufi mantras, الله هو Allah Hu, الله هو الله Allah Hu Allah, signifying, “God is,” or “God, Just He!” There are many mantras sung by the Sufi initiates, which you can access online on YouTube. Very beautiful. It is a form of remembrance of God. But what does it mean “to possess a Spirit?” We emphasize that the Spirit is not the soul, and this is where the study of Kabbalah becomes essential, whether in the Arabic traditions or in the Hebrew traditions, because Arabic and Hebrew shared the same roots. The Spirit is a form of breath, nafs, which is not tainted by ego. It is very pure, supra-divine, but also the Essence is a form of nafs. It is a soul. It is the Essence that is in potentiality that can learn to express the higher truths within. Then there is the egotistical nafs, the lower soul, because the ego is a form of breath. When we speak words of hatred, we feed that hatred, that lower animal egotistical defect, nafs. So there is a lot of diversity in these terms, a lot of dynamic range and we have to use our intuition and the study of Kabbalah, which we will emphasize towards the end, in order to reach clarification. The Spirit, the soul, and the ego are very distinct. You have to meditate to understand the difference. The Spirit, especially, is not the soul. The Spirit is God, the Innermost, חסד Chesed in Kabbalah. The Spirit is. The soul, the Essence, is developed. It is acquired. But what does it mean to possess a Spirit? Many people like to think they are spiritual, but they never had any astral experiences in which they actually spoke with their Spirit. We possess a Spirit when we have frequent contact with the Being through inner vision. Spirit is a type of breath. The Being, God, the Spirit, is a very refined, subtle, and spiritual breath, an energy, a force. I remember many years ago, I woke up in the astral plane. I was seeking to receive teachings from my inner Spirit. So I intuitively felt a call telepathically to descend into the Earth, and after entering a cave within those underground regions, I was in the dark, and I felt the presence of my Being. I felt that terror and that love and longing, which are all very profound and subtle. But I heard my Being breathing. I heard an inhalation and exhalation, very deep, and I felt that terror of love and law that Samael Aun Weor explains many times in his books. My Being was teaching me, “I am breath. I am the Presence (Hudur),” which is a form of vital force, which in Arabic is an ا Alif and in Hebrew is א Aleph, the vital winds, which we can access and experience when we control our own physical and vital breath. This is a form of inspiration, a divine ecstasy in which my ego was not there. These inspirations belong to the heights. The advanced practices of Haqiqah and Ma’rifah, truth or ecstasy, these are known amongst the alchemists through معرفة Ma’rifah, γνῶσις Gnosis, דַעַת Da’ath, alchemy. Breathing Space
The Sufis emphasize how we must enter our own internal worlds in order to extract wisdom and this is why we practice meditation.
“And they have said, “God created the hearts and made them mines of the understanding of Him. After that He created the secret inner awarenesses and made them a place for declaring the Unity.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism What is a mind filled with gold? It is the heart. It is within the heart that we can grasp and understand the nature of our spiritual reality, the Being. So I mentioned that example of an experience where I descended into the Earth and then, in that, metaphorical sense, I entered the mine where I received the teaching of gold from my Being. It is our heart that can understand the significance of divine things, not the intellect. The intellect is a wild animal, which we control with our breath, with concentration, with willpower. The doctrine of unity is essential to Sufism and Islam. Unity of divinity is experiential, and we can only declare this with conviction and knowledge through inner experiences. What is the place of secret inner awarenesses? Samael Aun Weor stated that "God searches them nothingness in order to fill it." This is from The Aquarian Message. So serenity of mind is the basis of illumination. The absence of the ego is the plenitude of the consciousness, the soul. To reach this state, we must remember our Being, here and now. This is the thread or secret continuity of conscious experience―the voice of conscience, the voice of ethics. If we don't follow our inner judgment, following our intuition about how we must behave in life, following our heart, if we don't follow our subtle voice in our conscience, we become lost. Our heart is the mine of gold. It is the thread that connects us with the Being, which is why the Sufis state: “Every breath that occurs without the guide of knowledge of God and the sign of Unity emerges from blind compulsion, and it is a dead thing. The one to whom it belongs is accountable for it.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Blind compulsion is of the ego. It is in our three brains. Without self-remembrance, without recalling the presence of our divinity, hudur, without being aware, muhadarah, here and now, without knowledge of that unitary state, that quality of our Being, our words become empty. They truly are vain. This is why in Ecclesiastes, you have the Hebrew term הֲבֵ֤ל הֲבָלִים֙ Habel Habelim: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” ―Ecclesiastes 1:2 הֲבֵ֤ל Habel means “breath.” It is the word for Abel. In the Bible, Abel is a symbol of the soul, the Essence, that is killed by the lower soul, קַיִן Cain, nafs, nafas. And since we kill our soul by acting wrongly moment by moment, we suffer. So these are symbols. These are not literal, historical stories to simply document the past. They are a moral compass for our current, present moment. We are killing our soul every instant when we speak gibberish, when we are filled with hate, when we lie. That is true vanity. We love ourselves too much at the cost of our soul. That is really the absurdity of the ego. We are always accountable to the law. Inner judgment, גבורה Geburah in Kabbalah or in Arabic, الْدِّين Al-Din. Din means “religion” or “judgment.” It is the teaching of the Qur’an, the Judgment, the evaluation of humanity. That inner judgment, that inner religion, is inside. It is our conscience. It is our remorse. If we have lost that thread, it means we are very far from initiation. If we don't feel sorry for making mistakes, this doesn't mean we would become morbid, pessimistic, degenerate―people who are basically addicted to suffering, sadistic. It means that we have conscious sorrow and the regret that we made errors, so that we want to change them, so that we make the effort to revise our understanding, whether we made someone else suffer or whether or not we are suffering ourselves. As beginners, we face this reality. We make a lot of mistakes. We say a lot of stupid things, perhaps in our daily life. We make errors. We struggle to remember God. But for Gnostics like Prophet Muhammad or Samael Aun Weor, they never forget the Being. Such masters have a profound intimacy with divinity, and the Being never leaves them, because they have perfected their work. It is a tremendous responsibility to have God within―to perfectly express and manifest the Innermost, which is why the Sufis state: “I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say, “No ‘breathing space’ is granted to the gnostic because no indulgence can take place with him. But the lover in the early stages (muhibb) must necessarily have some ‘breathing space,’” since were there not a breath for him he would be ruined, because of his lack of capacity.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Again, this is a very deep teaching. This is not something that we are going to reach easily. It is something to understand and know and to work towards. A breathing space simply means a state in which the Being is not completely there. There are degrees and levels upon light. As the Surah of the Light in the Qur’an teaches "Light upon light” (24:35), levels upon levels of being. The reality is that if God were to enter us without us being fully prepared, we would be annihilated, because that light is so profound. It is the power of a star, of a galaxy, of an infinite. The Being is a force that is tremendous, and therefore God enters and retracts when necessary. In the beginner, they need time to learn to annihilate the ego, to adapt, because the ego and the Being are incompatible. If they had no room for himself or herself, they would be ruined, because they couldn't handle that energy. They are not capable. But if the ego is fully dead in you, the breath of God is fully manifest and therefore one can speak the words of truth like Mansur Al-Hallaj, which stated "Ana al-Haqq,” (أنا الحَقيقة) which means “I am the Truth!” Really, there was no Mansur there, because the personality in him was dead. There was only the Being. You can read about that in the book called The Narrow Way. It is at the end of that book in a chapter dedicated to this Muslim master (The Passion of Al-Hallaj). God enters and retracts from the soul. There are states of presence and absence within the initiate. Much in the same way that when you inhale the air or when that air is present in you, it fills your lungs. But when you exhale, the breath is gone. The same with mystical states. This is why mystical states are so synonymous with breathing. They emerge and they pass. Only in those beings who are fully perfected in meditation, have that breath in them eternally. They are immortal. Chastity: The Basis of Spiritual Breathing
Sublimation of the sexual energy is essential when we work with breath, known as pranayama or transmutation. This conserved energy is the basis by which breathing exercises function and work with efficacy. Spiritual insight is born through chastity. There is simply no way to avoid sexual purity, whether in Sufism or Gnosticism. Without conserving creative energy, the sexual force, and intentionally directing it through breathing exercises, there is no foundation by which to awaken conscious perception, spiritual insight, inner vision.
There are many people and students of religion who practice breathing exercises, but without chastity: conservation and transformation of the sexual energy. But why is this? Why is this damaging to the mind, to be expelling the energies and working with breath? Because it's like trying to pump fuel within an engine when there is no fuel, or like a pump that cannot work because there is no water there. 
Your body and your psyche is a beautiful laboratory. It is a marvelous machine that has a specific function, purpose, and intention. It is a cosmos in itself. It is a miniature universe. It is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Our breath works much in the same way that the pistons of an engine function in a car. There is movement and there is direction. There is energy in ourselves when we work with breath. But our breath is only a medium in which we can direct energy, and without the storehouse of sexual creative power, we cannot draw upon anything to illuminate the psyche. Breathing exercises without sexual energy do not produce awakening. It is simple. Breath combined with creative energy is synonymous with light. It is the conduit, the means to energize the Essence. When the Essence has fuel, when that sexual energy is conserved, we can create something really divine. Our vision like in this image becomes cosmic. We perceive things. We develop insight, perceptions, because that energy has to create something. You can create a child physically with it, or you can use it for a very different purpose, a spiritual purpose. And this is what we teach in this tradition. When the Essence has fuel, when it is purified with clean energy, when the vital centers or channels of our internal physiology are flowing with sexual force, we have light.
The Spiritual Light of Breath
This is why the Sufis state very clearly:
“If someone’s share of this light is more perfect, his vision is wiser and his judgment based on his insight is more truer. Do you not see how the breathing of the Spirit into Adam made it necessary for the angels to prostrate before him? For the Most High said, ‘I formed him and I breathed into him of My Spirit, so fall down before him in prostration’ (15:29).” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This is how we create a true hum-man, spiritual human being. हुं Hum is Spirit in Sanskrit, or the Arabic هُوَ Hu. It even relates with the Chinese mantra Wu, which we use in our practices in Gnosticism in order to silence the mind. Let us examine the following quote: “Abu-l-Hasan al-Nuri was asked, “What is the origin of spiritual insight in the one who has it?” He answered, “It comes from the saying of the Most High, ‘And I breathed into him (Adam) of My Spirit’ (15:29).” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This image of the creation of Adam is central not only within Judeo-Christianity, but within Islam and Sufism. The Qur’an often emphasizes the following: “And certainly did We create man from an extract of clay. Then We placed him as a sperm-drop in a firm lodging. Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation. So blessed is Allah, the best of creators.” ― Al-Muminun, “The Believers,” Qur’an 23:12-14 A lot of people read that quote within the Muslim tradition and think it only has to do with physical creation, when in reality it is about the creation of the soul. الخليق Al-Khaliq: the Creator in Arabic, best manifests as الودود Al-Wadud: the Loving. Where else is the ability of God to create a true human being than through the sexual force, through sexual love? That energy can create spiritual realities in us. We call this solar bodies within esotericism. These are the wedding garments of the soul mentioned in the Bible (Matthew 22). This is libās al-taqwā in Arabic, “the garments of reverence” of the Qur’an: “O Children of Adam! We have indeed sent down upon you raiment to cover your nakedness, and rich adornment. But the raiment of reverence, that is better. This is among the signs of God, that haply they may remember.” ―Al-A’rāf 26 But the reality is that we like to think we are human beings, true masters of the world, and yet we are animal in reality. This is evidenced by our behaviors. We do not engage in the sexuality of humans, spiritual beings, because in animal behavior is involved anger, pride, lust: the expulsion of the sexual energy to procreate in an animal way, behaviors like vanity, selfishness, greed, etc. To become human, we must renounce animality, which is orgasm, desire. Chastity is the sexuality of angels. This does not mean abstention from sex. It means purity in sex, whether we are single or married. This is why when Adam was created, mentioned in the Qur’an, the angels prostrated. However, the reality is that nobody likes chastity, which is why also in the Qur’an, Iblis, the Devil, refuse to bow. So this is why religions and Sufism have degenerated, because people ignore the role of chastity. You cannot create life spiritually, you cannot reach inspiration without that force. It is simple. The creative energy has the potential to develop the Essence. When a married couple who practices meditation, male-female, man and woman, use their sexual polarity in combination with the opposite, they have the power to create as a god. So whether you are married or single, you can work with your breath. Obviously, alchemy is much more intensive and requires study and practice and a lot of wisdom, which is why you can read books like The Perfect Matrimony and The Mystery of the Golden Flower by Samael Aun Weor. But individual practitioners can learn to transform sexual energy through breathing. If you are trained in chastity, you become prepared for the perfect matrimony: to consciously utilize the breath during the sexual act so that the sexual act is transformed. It is sanctified. It is purified. Obviously, married couples have more energy to work with, but single people can make great progress through breathing exercises and chastity. This is how, as represented by the name Hasan Al-Nuri, we develop the beauty of the soul. We have to remember that names are kabbalistic in Arabic. حَسَن Hasan reminds of إحسان ʾiḥsān: beautiful action, תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth in Hebrew, the human Essence. نوري Nuri is the light, the Being. What is the most beautiful action to develop light? It is sexual purity. This is how light enters into us as the Being breathes the Spirit into us. Inner Vision and Knowledge of God
Let's examine a few more quotes:
“This statement by Abu-l-Hasan al-Nuri is somewhat difficult, so be careful with it. In this mention of the breathing of the Spirit he was aiming to correct those who say that souls are uncreated. The situation is not as it might occur to the hearts of the weak." ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This is also an essential point in Gnosis. The soul is created. It is not uncreated. The soul is created but the Spirit is. Visions develop as we learn to acquire Essence, or as Jesus taught "with patience possess ye your Souls” (Luke 21:19). Al-Qushayri continues: “That to which this breathing (and union and separation) are properly attributed is liable to influence and alteration, which are signs of the transitoriness of created things.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Breath is inhaled, is retained, and is exhaled. The soul can develop in us through that breath, and therefore it is transitory. It is transient. It is impermanent. Only through the complete work of initiation is the soul perfected, where the soul becomes a choir so that the Spirit reflects within it. "Yet God Glorious and Exalted has chosen the believers for perceptions and lights through which they come to possess insight. In essence, these are forms of the knowledge of God. This is the import of the Prophet’s saying, “The believer sees by the light of God”―that is, by a knowledge and inner vision for which God Most High has specially chosen him and by means of which He has distinguished him from others like him. To call these kinds of knowledge and perceptions “lights” is not an innovation, and to describe that process as “breathing” is not reaching far afield. What is intended is one’s created nature.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So as a result of pranayama, transmutation, we could perceive astral visions, experiences, samadhis, lights, sounds, etc. We produce the foundation, the matrix, the womb, the conduit for light to emerge. 
The Three Types of Breath
In Sufism, there are three types of breath as we have already mentioned, but we are going to elaborate on what each entails. There is a Sufi initiate by the name of Abdullah Ansari of Herat, who wrote a book called Stations of the Sufi Path, in which he explains some of these principles very beautifully. We previously mentioned the present moment or the metaphysical moment, and in this instant, we are working with breath or learning about breath.
When we study these three types of breath within Sufism, in the Qur’an, within Hebraic Kabbalah as well, we are examining three schools in meditation: introductory, intermediate, and advanced, that structure of Shariah, Tariqah, and Haqiqah and Ma’rifah relate to these principles very beautifully. There is a correlation there which we will touch upon. Abdullah Ansari of Herat states: “From the field of the Metaphysical Moment the field of Breath is born. God, the Most High, says, ‘When he recovered his senses he said: Glory be to You!’ (7:143). “The breath of the master of metaphysical time and moment is that which is untarnished by any matter pertaining to his self or ego. Adepts in spiritual reality have three different kinds of breath: a penitent plaint, an infatuated cry, and a shout of ecstasy.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So in this excerpt these three types of breath relate to adepts, not beginners. Although there is a correlation between the meditative schools of Shariah, Tariqah, and Haqiqah / Ma’rifah. In synthesis, this is ethics, meditation or ecstasy, and the highest, spiritual reality. The breath of a master of the present moment is not tarnished by ego. We have to aspire to this height. We do so by learning to understand the stages of this path and also the different qualities of the soul. 
The Three Souls in the Qur’an
There are three types of soul within the Qur’an. If you have studied Kabbalah in depth, you'll be familiar with Nephesh, Ruach, Neshamah.
So we have been talking a lot about the carnal soul, Nephesh, animality, the ego. Our egotistical breath or soul is passionate, filled with hate, with lust, with desire. We have to transform the lower soul by judging ourselves. We have to blame ourselves. We have to evaluate our psyche through the soul known as Ruach or Ruh in Arabic, Spirit. The blaming soul, the thinking-emotional soul is that part of our Essence, our consciousness, that evaluates the ego, which critiques, dissects, understands and takes into account the different aggregates of the mind, the different vices and errors of the pluralized "I." This type of blaming has nothing to do with becoming a morbid or pessimistic person. Instead, it has to do with how we judge our lower animal nature so that we could become like the soul at peace, the spiritual soul: a purified, perfected Essence united with Geburah, which is our inner judgment, our divine soul. The Qur’an speaks about these three souls in different verses: From Surah 12 verse 53, we learn about the carnal soul. "Yet I do not absolve my own carnal soul." In Arabic, nafs al-Ammara. "For the carnal soul, indeed, prompts men to evil except in as much as my Lord has mercy. Indeed, my Lord is All-Forgiving, All-Merciful." ―Qur’an 12:53 The blaming soul is known in Surah 75 verse 2: “And I swear by the self-blaming soul, the self-reproaching soul." ―Qur’an 75:2 And I believe this is in relation to the certainties of resurrection, the heights of the path. Lastly the Soul at peace piece from Surah 89 verses 27 to 28: "Oh, soul at peace, return to your Lord, content and contenting.” ―Qur’an 89:27-28 It's important to know these three souls especially as we practice meditation, because we are working to blame ourselves or blame the animal in us, so that we can reach peace. The Penitent Plaint, Infatuated Cry, and Shout of Ecstasy
So let us return to Abdullah Ansari of Herat's statement:
“The penitent plaint dispels demons, absolves sin and opens the heart.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path This relates to a meditators work against the carnal animal soul, our ego. Prayers in sincerity, mantras and invocations, sacred sounds and recitations, when they are performed consciously, purify the mind and reject tenebrous forces. This is why we do prayers like the Conjuration of the Four, the Conjuration of the Seven, and the Invocation of Solomon. These mantras are prayers which you can perform before you meditate, helping to dispel demons, helping us to absolve ourselves from sin. It means to reach a state of mind that is opened and prepared for meditation. We open the heart when we use our breath in this way. You can study a lecture given on our website called Basics of Spiritual Defense, in which these prayers are explained and referenced. So it is good to pray and conjure, to defend our home, to prepare environment for meditation, so that we can transmute, but also you can perform these prayers before we practice alchemy. This establishes a good energetic environment in which we can practice effectively, with safety. This master continues: “The infatuated cry of the attracted person purges the love for the world, sweeps material causality away, and causes one to become oblivious of creation.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path This relates to the work with the blaming soul, in which we are judging ourselves―Ruach, the thinking-emotional soul. This blaming soul teaches us to renounce worldliness, to renounce egotism, to renounce attachment to negative things. It sweeps away material causality in the sense that our negative behaviors, our egos, which perpetuate addiction, suffering, and confusion, are removed. We blame ourselves through inner accounting, retrospection, meditation, as we explained in our last lecture and our course on Gnostic Meditation. How do we become oblivious of creation? We sit on our home. We relax our body. We work with breathing exercises to transmute our sexual energy. We suspend our senses. We concentrate within. We go into our internal worlds to gather information. Without breath and transmutation, we cannot fully relax the body or achieve stillness and quietude of mind. So in this type of meditation, we abandon the world. We become oblivious to the world. We ignore material causality. We become attracted to spiritual things, attracted to the breath of God, so that we reach that luminosity and concentration, that joyfulness of Essence and Being that inspires us, so that we can go deep and begin to work on our mind. Lastly, this is very profound: “The shout of ecstasy of the raptured pierces the soul, sets the heart athirst and burns away the veils.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So the soul shouts with joy when experiencing states without ego. We feel that luminosity and amplification of the Essence. This occurs in the internal worlds, when we tear away the veils of the conditioned mind which prevent us from communicating with the Being. These are astral visions, astral samadhis, and even beyond. These experiences with God set us on fire, spiritually. Our longings are fulfilled and they are increased at the same time. We can aspire towards more light. Conclusion: Ham-Sah Transmutation
Lastly we will conclude with a statement by Samael Aun Weor and a practice you can use to help you experience these internal states, some of which we have mentioned. He states in a lecture called The Transmutation of Sexual Energy: Part IV:
“…there is a profound relation between one’s sexual forces and one’s breathing, so that when both are duly combined and harmonized, they bring about fundamental changes in one’s physical and psychological anatomy.” –Samael Aun Weor, “The Transmutation of Sexual Energy: Part IV” 
On the right we have the Caduceus of Mercury, a famous symbol within medicine. It is a structure in our back. The middle of this diagram is the spine, in which two energetic serpents or currents, vital energies, positive and negative, flow from the sexual organs up to the brain. These wings are the wings of our spirituality that blossom within our spinal column, and that allow us to have internal visions.
We have to work with that energy of sex that rises from our left and right gonads, whether the testicles or the ovaries. Both masculine and feminine forces, positive and negative, solar and lunar energy, rise from the organs of sex up to our mind. And we even have currents that run from our brain to our heart. A very simple practice you can do is Ham-Sah, as explained in the lecture by Samael Aun Weor that we have referenced here. You sit in a quiet place. You relax. You let your body settle. You suspend your senses. As you are praying to your inner, divine Being, your Innermost, your Divine Mother, Al-Buraq within Islam and Sufism, you pray and ask that this energy can rise within you to illuminate your mind. When you inhale your breath to your nostrils, you imagine, in your mind's eye, the creative energies as light rising from your sexual organs, up the spine, in the form of this image of the caduceus. Imagine these energy circulating in the form of two entwined serpents like the holy eight within Kabbalah, and that this energy and light illuminates the mind. You want to mantralize internally, silently, HAM, prolonged like this:
You do this silently in your mind, when you are inhaling and bringing the energy to your intellect, your brain. And then, imagine that energy descending into your heart with the mantra: Sah!
This mantra Sah, you pronounce externally, vocally. Ham is internal and silent, prolonged. Sah is short, vocal, and exhaled. It is gentle. It is short. You want to pronounce Ham prolonged and internally, in relation to your inhalation, so that you bring the energy from sex to your brain and that you retain it, profoundly. Let that energy soak within your mind, illuminating you, giving you vitality and force. And then, exhale to the heart: SAH!
You do this because our energy is normally―because of our bad behaviors―flowing from inward to outward. You want to reverse this flow by making your emphasis on Ham, to bring the energies inward and up, but you also want to bring them to your heart through Sah. The mantra Ham is solar, is elevated. It is prolonged. But the mantra Sah is short, lunar, and directed to the heart. I have even seen YouTube videos of Sufis performing Ham-Sah when doing dances. So this practice is not only within the Gnostic tradition, but has been practiced by initiates for centuries, millennia. It is a very ancient work. 
Now there are some variations within the Sufi tradition where they pronounce mantras such as الله هو Allah Hu. The mantra ال Al is masculine, solar, relating to the serpent Pingala. Pingala is the solar positive serpent on this Caduceus of Mercury. لا La is feminine, the lunar energies of Ida, the left serpent on this diagram of the spine. Solar and lunar, positive and negative, form الله Allah: the God. And then هو Hu, the Spirit rises within our spinal column when we awaken sparks of the divine fire Kundalini.
As a single practitioner, you can perform this practice to wake sparks of Kundalini, the Spirit. This can grant you experiences and insights, but obviously married couples will have much more light when performing Ham-Sah if they are sexually connected. In the Sufi tradition also, they turn their head from right to left when they pronounce لا إله إلا الله La Ilaha ila Allah (“There is no god but God,” or الله هو Allah Hu, الله هو Allah Hu, because ال Al is masculine relating to the right, and then they turn their heads to the left relating to لا La. Together, this forms الله Allah. And to the breath, they are working with Spirit, هو Hu. So the Caduceus of Mercury is referenced in that practice, but also many initiates are practicing Ham-Sah. Very beautiful and profound. So at this point I invite you to ask questions. You are welcome to type them into the chat box and towards the end, we could even take some questions via unmuting people. Questions and Answers
Question: You mentioned there is a difference between the Spirit and the soul. How does the consciousness play into this? Can you elaborate?
Instructor: So the Spirit is the Innermost, the Being, our inner God, and the soul is our Essence, the consciousness. We have to learn to develop the consciousness and to create it. So that quote we mentioned from one of the Sufi masters explains how the soul is a created or a transitory thing. It has to be developed and perfected, initiated and expanded. The Spirit already exists. He is immutable and divine. And the reality is that in order to know the Spirit we have to first develop soul. The soul is like a mirror. When you polish the mirror through dhikr,remembrance of God, you can reflect the perfect image of the Spirit in you. So consciousness has to be developed and purified. I believe Rumi even said that we are like a mirror, and yet, how could we develop purity if we resist every rub? Because our mirror, our consciousness is egotistical, filled with impurities, with mud, with obscurations. Those rubs or polishings of the heart have to do with our practices, but also difficulties in life in which we are confronted with our own egos, that we must observe and comprehend and work upon. In this way, we begin to polish our heart so that we can reflect divinity more and more. Question: What would you recommend to improve consistency and daily practice against the ego? Instructor: Personally when I have struggled against my own mind, I take time to study scripture. I like to balance my meditations with study of the doctrine. We have to be inspired in our work, and sometimes we become clouded and even negligent. We don't do what we need to do. Sometimes we don't work effectively, daily, upon the ego, because we are too morbid or sad or negative. This is why Samael Aun Weor mentioned that “when you feel a lack of inspiration, when you suffer in your work, when you struggle against your mind, when you have doubt and confusion, study my books, study my writings.” I also like to read the Qur’an to be reminded of what I must do. You know, you can read any scripture, really, that inspires you and hits you within your Essence, because that is the language of God. Some people have a predisposition towards certain religions and traditions. Obviously, the best thing is to read writings from Samael Aun Weor, because he is the most clear. But you know, we have to really drink the wisdom of many traditions. For me, I like to read the Qur’an when I struggle or if I feel like I am vacillating or vegetating, becoming stagnant. It is a scripture that has a lot of power, speaks with a lot of force, to remind us of what we must do, what we must change. You can also listen to good music, especially music that really reflects divine principles, and you know, we have given a course on chicagognosis.org called The Secret Teachings of Opera. One of my favorite operas is Turandot, in which you see the whole drama of initiation portrayed with a lot of force and beauty. Watching those operas and listening to divine concert, say the Sufis, is essential to the life of any initiate. You know, that music can really inspire you when you understand the message. Question: Breathing seems to calm the mind, but when caught up in an argument, I forget to breathe. In the midst of an attack, what practices do you recommend? Instructor: It's an excellent question. Samael Aun Weor answered this question in one of his books, Introduction to Gnosis. In one of his chapters [see Lesson One] he explains how if you are overwhelmed in a fit of anger, if you are filled with rage, if you become tense, breathe. Inhale and relax. Inhale through your nostrils count to six. Hold your breath for six seconds, and then exhale for six seconds. Obviously, if you are in an argument, you can take a moment to say, “Look, I need to take a break for a little bit” and to be polite and say, “I need to step away for a few minutes. Please give me some time." So that we don't seem offensive to the person we are speaking to, because arguments and heated debates are the result of ego. Samael Aun Weor said that debates are satanic, because people are fortifying the carnal soul, Nephesh, the animal mind. Just take a minute to just breathe. You know, obviously that is the first step. If you forget to breathe, remember to breathe. That is the first half of the battle, remembering to do what you need to do, and inhale―count the six, hold for six seconds, exhale for six seconds. If you are breathing really profoundly and you are relaxing, closing your eyes if you can, sitting down is best, your anger will subside. I have used this many times. It's a very effective work. Then you can go back to your colleague or friend or family member who you are arguing with and you can approach that situation with clarity, not with rage. Question: Is it expected that students will ebb and flow continuously from experiences or cognizance of God? Instructor: Yes, this path is a process. We develop experiences gradually. Sometimes there are periods of light and there are periods of darkness. This is paralleled in Hindu cosmology and an even Gnostic cosmology when we talk about Mahamanvantaras and Mahapralayas, cosmic days or great cosmic days and great cosmic nights. Because the breath of creation flows, is always in fluctuation, is never static. The same way, our experiences come with greater lucidity and penetration, but also consistency during periods of activity. But sometimes we have to face what is known as the dark night of the soul in which we don't see anything.
This is a necessary test for the disciple, a very painful one, which Beethoven composed and reflected upon in his Moonlight Sonata―very beautiful piece of music that reflects the sorrow of the initiate when under the moonlight, the darkness of the night. But of course, the sun emerges victoriously if we conquer those dark periods. Light returns. So there is always a flow of forces in us. So the necessary thing is to be patient, to wait and to pray, to be consistent, to continue practicing.
Question: I have learned a breathing exercise where you breathe in with the nostrils, hold the breath, then exhale through the mouth. Is this a form of pranayama other than Ham-Sah? Instructor: Yes. Samael Aun Weor mentioned that practice in one of his books―a very simple exercise. You can imagine the energy is rising into your mind, and then when you exhale, sending it to your heart. But you want to breathe in through your nostrils. Hold the breath and retain the energy, and then exhale through your mouth. There are a lot of different forms of pranayama, and that is a very simple one. But I recommend that if you are practicing a particular form of pranayama that you do so with fidelity to the instructions. This is just a general guideline for anyone practicing these exercises, because I know sometimes practitioners will like to mix pranayamas―for example―the Egyptian Christic Pranayama in The Yellow Book with other exercises. The important thing to remember is that each pranayama has its function. So the one that you mentioned is very simple, it doesn't involve a lot, but it is very effective. The same with any pranayama exercise in the books of Samael Aun Weor. So be true to the instructions, and you'll get the results you want. Question: Is the blaming soul Sophia, trapped like Master Samael says in his book The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled? Instructor: There is a relationship there. Sophia means “wisdom.” Pistis Sophia is the power or wisdom power of the liberated soul. In this path in which Sophia rises to the Pleroma, to the heavenly states that she had lost, she has to repent. So remember in that scripture and even the commentary that Master Samael gives, it is explained how Sophia needs to repent, I believe thirteen times. This is the blaming soul in action, in which we have to confront ourselves and take responsibility for the carnal soul, for the animal, because once you have killed the animal in you, the ego or lion-faced powers that try to steal the light of Sophia, you can begin to extract light and to drive the forces of the left and the right, positive-negative, male-female, Adam-Eve, Pingala and Ida, solar and lunar. A lot of beautiful relationships there. Question: Where can we read about the dark night of the soul? Is that an entire lifetime? Instructor: In relation to the dark night of the soul, there are periods in which we have to face a lot of darkness, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of pain. For some beings it can be many years, others, months and sometimes even longer. You know, it comes to mind some particular people such as Tchaikovsky or Beethoven. These masters depicted in their music very profound states of suffering that they encountered because they were great initiates, especially in the past and that they had fallen. Sometimes these periods extend over many years, and the only way to emerge victoriously from them is with patience. It is with serenity. It comes to mind actually The Three Mountains by Samael Aun Weor where he talks about a few points in his own path and his experience in which he suffered a lot because he made mistakes, even times where he was cut off from astral experiences because he needed to pay karma. So that is one text that comes to mind that you can think about. You can also look at our glossary on Glorian.org regarding the spiritual night. Question: Have you any tips for overcoming an overactive mind? It seems when I am mindful in a day, I can almost guarantee that the next day some things may happen that would stimulate my mind and I would constantly be replaying things in my mind or just overthinking. Instructor: Overcoming an overactive mind requires not repressing it, neither feeding it. We have to learn the path of balance. Breathing exercises like pranayama are great for having energy to calm the mind. Runes are exceptional, deep prayer in which we concentrate fully on our inner God to ask for illumination. Personally, I like to do mantras if my mind becomes agitated. You can mentally pronounce those mantras or prayers many in our tradition are very beautiful such as O AO Kakof Na Khonsa:
This is an Egyptian mantra relating to the Divine Mother―the serpent Kundalini, Isis. Or Om Masi Padme Hum:
Or:
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Swaha, which you have to pronounce prolong, each syllable, very long such as this:
That mantra is exceptional for silencing the mind. Chant it mentally if you are active in the day, but if you are at home, you can pronounce it out loud. It is a very powerful mantra for silencing the mind in a genuine, conscious way.
Question: Is the Jesus prayer made use of in the Gnostic tradition? There seems to be some alignments between Eastern Orthodoxy, Sufism, and Gnosticism. It seems of all the mainstream Christian religions, that Eastern Orthodoxy would be the closest especially and their understandings of the Theosis and the Jesus prayer as the path towards that communion with God. Instructor: We have many prayers that we use, you know, the Jesus prayer and many other prayers from different traditions. They are all valid. We use a lot of prayers from many faiths in our own daily discipline in accordance with our needs and disposition. So if that's something that resonates with you, you can use it. Obviously we have certain prayers and mantras that we use more than others, such as the Conjurations of the Four, the Seven, the Invocation of Solomon, and many others that are really effective for specific purposes. But in terms of prayers, ways of communicating with God, those are as infinite as the different cultures that have existed in the world. They are as diverse as all the different religions our humanity has received. They are all very beautiful and necessary. Work with those prayers that resonate with you and that inspire your heart. You can also look at gnosticteachings.org as well as a book called A Gnostic Prayer Book, which we have available on gnosticteachings.org, the store, where you can access and see many prayers from different faiths, whether from Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sufism, etc. Question: When married, what is the best way to prepare to enter alchemy? Are there specific mantras or processes which must be or are preferred for the practice? Instructor: The best way to prepare for alchemy is to be chaste when you are single, to spend a lot of time practicing the three factors. If you are not trained in your own body to transmute, when you are married and without that training of knowing how to circulate those forces, it is going to be very difficult. It's difficult enough when you practice for many years as a single person and then you finally meet your spouse. Prepare your body, your mind, and your heart through pranayama, Ham-Sah, and transmutation, primarily because the body is acculturated to fornication. We have to retrain it to work properly, to transmute the energies and make them flow from outward to inward. You are best prepared for alchemy when you annihilate lust. Obviously, there is going to be degrees in this, and nobody is perfect in the beginning, especially when you are beginning with alchemy. However, the more chastity you have established in yourself through the death of desire, by learning to circulate energy in you, and learning to act compassionately for humanity, the better prepared you will be for the rites of marriage. If you really want to protect and defend your love for your spouse and to really make it strong and prepared for when you do meet your partner, develop conscious love here and now, altruism or Bodhichitta in Buddhism. You can use any mantras to help you with that process. We have many mantras for transmutation. I suggest you work with those that best help you and your needs, whether they are certain runes like Olin, the seven vowels, the mantra S, Ham-Sah, Egyptian Christic Pranayama, and retrospection meditation, especially. Meditate on the death of your ego. Annihilate your ego, because the more selfless you are and developed you are in your level of being, the more love that you can give to your partner when you do meet that person, the more you can receive. Question: Would you speak on the relationship between breath and mantra when the mantra is internal versus out loud? Instructor: Some initiates like Swami Sivananda explained that there is more power in silent mantras, primarily because when you are mantralizing internally, silently in your mind, you are making your mental body, your astral body, to vibrate. It's like working from the inside out. But there is also a necessity in our path and process to work from the outside in, and relating to our body and our internal physiology as well. When we work with pranayama and breath, we are training our physical body to obey, to obey our Being, to obey our Spirit. Because unfortunately most of us, really everybody, has a long history with fornication. That is the common trend, and we need to learn to train our body to transmute. The best way to do it is through pranayama. Now as you are working to circulate energies in your body, make them flow from outward to inward through your breath, you begin to establish a conduit that makes it easier to access deeper internal states. In this way, internal mantras become very effective. Now both are necessary. It's good to pronounce mantras out loud, to vocalize, to pray, to charge our physical body with energy such as with the runes. This is very essential. But also we have to learn to train our mind internally. So I suggest that you combine both internal and external breathwork, mantra recitation. Work from the inside out and the outside in, so to speak. This is a very comprehensive way to practice. Now, some instructors have mentioned that we have to be practicing mantras or pronouncing mantras moment by moment, each day. Now, obviously if you are in a crowded area or at work, you are not going to be able to pronounce mantras out loud without drawing attention to yourself. So you can just pronounce those prayers and mantras mentally, and they will have strong effect―if not even more than if you are vocalizing, because it requires a lot of concentration and willpower to be present in that state. Question: Does breathing just out of the left or right nostril symbolize lunar or solar breath? Instructor: That is a good question. Now in relation to breathing exercises, especially pranayama or interchangeable nostril breathing, the yogis of India have associated certain energetic currents relating to your left or right nostril. Now, for men and women this is reversed. 
The left side of the body is relating to the lunar energies and the right side to the solar energies in relation to men. But in women, this is reversed. And so breathing through your left or right nostrils activates those different gonads, whether male or female, testicle or ovary. You can read a little bit more about that breathing science, especially in the book Kundalini Yoga by Samael Aun Weor, where he explains a lot of these principles in a lot of detail.
Question: I saw a flaming three in my mind's eye once. What can that mean? Instructor: Numbers are kabbalistic. They are symbolic. They relate to principles and forces in nature. We gave a course called The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah, which explain the principles of the sacred tarot, and the number three relates with creation, spiritual and physical. And obviously fire can relate to illumination, the sexual energy that is inflaming the third eye and creating that force. I advise you to study that course if you really wish to understand the meaning of numbers, how they apply to our physical life. Question: Can you explain Al-Qushayri's quote: “A person who receives inspiration is finer and clearer than a person who is open to mystical states”? Are there dangers trying to interrupt inspiration? Instructor: So in relation to the three schools of meditation within Sufism, or three stages of meditation within esoteric Islam, you find that the intermediate path is relating to people with mystical states, who have experiences, and inspiration is finer and clearer because it is the culmination of the path. It is the highest stages: Ma’rifah / Haqiqah, knowledge and truth. Now, those inspired states and samadhis are very refined and clear, because there is no ego there, and therefore, we become deeply inspired by what we perceive. In that state there is more understanding, because you realize and comprehend the meaning of the messages you receive in the internal planes. Now, a person who is open to mystical states has some different meanings to that. Obviously, there could be positive and negative states, and oftentimes, what many people call mystical states in this day and age, oftentimes, is a result of degeneration. Some people like to mix meditation with drugs. Or people who are very imbalanced mentally may have experiences, but not from the consciousness, but rather in the hell realms. We can have mystical states as we are developing our meditative practices and working with the three factors of the revolution of the consciousness, with chastity and transmutation. Of course, those will be positive and gradual, because there are deeper insights that we receive more consistently and frequently the more we work with these practices, and don't mix these exercises with impure things such as drugs or alcohol or psychedelics, which we are strictly against. But obviously, a person who is developing more and more, is consistent with their practices, will fluctuate between objective and subjective states. This is primarily because awakening is gradual. Nothing in nature takes leaps. Our practices develop the soul much in the same way that a tree grows from a sprout. It doesn't occur overnight. It doesn't appear instantaneously. It happens gradually over time. But obviously towards the end, we have greater clarity because we have less ego. So there are degrees and degrees of light there, even mentioned the Qur’an: "Light upon light” (24:35). Question: I had a question on the Solfeggio frequency. So when we are doing, intoning mantras, and intonations, is there a linkage with the Solfeggio frequencies? I have been reading up on certain frequencies, that they have certain impacts on you know, the physical body and also spiritual bodies. And then the second part of that question is that there are several apps out there that actually, we can actually use those frequencies. Would you recommend using any of those things or is that or is that something that shouldn't be used? Instructor: There is also a lot of talk in spiritual movements about certain vibrations and sounds. Even Samael Aun Weor mentions in some of his books how certain mantras have to be performed at a certain tone. But whether or not they have the specificity of certain hertz or specific wavelengths of frequency or vibration, that might be a little bit too specific than what is necessary, because I think some people might try to go into too much depth with something that is actually very simple. Mantras can be intoned in certain ways, and the important thing is that you will learn those intonations and ways of expressing those mantras, such as from recordings from instructors or people who have experience with those practices themselves. You can learn more about that in the lecture called The Spiritual Power of Sound in our course called Beginning Self-Transformation. We talked about in detail what the six components of mantra recitations are. You know, we don't the time to explain all those in depth here, but part of it is intonation, which it's important, because some mantras have a certain song to them―ways that they were expressed by the guru who taught them. When you sing a note a certain way and intonation, you invoke energy. So, in that sense, it is important, but not necessary to get into hertz and specific mathematical frequencies. It is much simpler than that. Audience: Okay. Thank you. Instructor: You're welcome. Question: When fire burns or a plant grows, they interact with the air. Are they breathing on their level? One could say that the breath is in the skin in all organs. It seems like it would be good to both practice controlling that which is within us and breathing from the context that all things are breathing and we are merely a part of that. Instructor: Yes, and this gets into many of the metaphysical aspects of Hinduism and even Sufism, especially, how the breath of God creates all existence and creates all things. All creatures in nature within the different elemental Kingdoms breathe. Even minerals breathe and the earth itself breathes energy. Obviously with plants and animals and humanoids, this is much more complex, where we have lungs and organs and cells that allow us to take in oxygen. But with the minerals, they too are a form of breath. They circulate the electromagnetism of the earth, different parts of the globe. So all that is very important, especially. It is important that we learn to develop our breath, our practices with pranayama in a spiritual sense, because notice that in accordance with evolution of souls, transmigration of souls, we gain greater complexity and abilities to assimilate, transmit, and retain that force in different ways. So obviously a plant is more complex than a mineral. But animals also are more complex than plants, and humanoids are even more complex machines than animals. But we have to remember that through this evolution of breath, breathing and energy, that the humanoid is not the end. There instead is a spiritual illuminated way of being, and that the true human uses breath like a God. And this is where we digress from many movements in the world today, which basically deify animal desire. People are teaching that you can use your breath and your voice to communicate anger and hatred and violence. So instead, we learn to use the breath for spiritual purposes through prayer, through mantra. And yes, our skin does assimilate air and many organisms can assimilate energies through the skin. This is why alchemy is so interesting, because the sense of touch is the most sensitive organ or sensitive faculty of the human being. In alchemy, we have to learn to control our touch, our sight, our hearing, our smell, our taste. We have to be a master of our human machine. So yes, while all things are breathing life, they do so on their level, whether mineral, plant, animal, humanoid. But in accordance with the human kingdom of the masters, the angels, we have to learn to breathe as a God, to transmute the sexual energy as an Elohim. So there are degrees. There are levels. Question: Have you ever known anyone who is practicing chastity and meditation, etc., but seems to be degenerating rather than progressing? It seems I am getting less and less conscious as time goes on even though I am trying. There are external things interrupting me though. Instructor: Some people, really all people, struggle in their own way. We all try to apply the teachings at our degree, with chastity, especially in meditation, and if we feel that we are regressing and not progressing, we have to re-evaluate what we are doing. For some people, it can be as fundamental as not conserving the sexual energy, even if only in the mind. Because some people can be practicing sexual abstention, not letting out the sexual force at all, and yet can be experiencing lustful dreams or lustful states of mind in which that energy is being misdirected. So if we feel that we are not progressing, we have to be sincere―and everybody goes through this―where we feel that we are not really going forward. The solution is to take time to reflect on our practice, to evaluate what is it that we are doing well and what is it that we are weak in. Obviously, if there are external things that are interrupting your practice, that is something you need to take into consideration, because if you feel that there are certain influences in your life that are bringing you down, it is important to renounce them, to not give them space in your life, whether it be certain people that could be draining you, perhaps, bad environments, negative relationships, certain behaviors. Even if not just fornication, there are ways that we waste energy, and if you have no energy, it is impossible to change. So be sincere. We all have to be sincere in this path, to take the time to always reflect on what we are doing with efficacy and what we are failing in, so that we can, with a state of remorse and comprehension, change those things that we can and to celebrate those victories that we do have. It is unrealistic just to focus on the negative. I know a lot of people sometimes get very overwhelmed by the ego and like to concentrate on the negative at the exclusion of reality. So reflect on your virtues, but also take the time to figure out what things in your life must change. So I thank you all for coming. 
Today's lecture is about spiritual self-defense, and it is the first in a course that will be ongoing, about how do we defend ourselves from the various challenges, obstacles, and attacks that we might face as we engage more seriously in our spiritual work.
The most important question I want to begin with is, what is black magic? For many of us who are new to this path, we hear it mentioned, and it might evoke some fear or uncertainty. So I want to clarify upfront a simple basic understanding of what we mean when we talk about black magic. Yes, black magic does include demons and individuals who are in physical bodies out there, performing rituals and cultivating energy, whether through sexual practices or other rituals― that we don't teach in our school, specifically―in order to be able to gain more power over other people and in the internal worlds. However, to clarify, the power that those people are gaining is fortifying their ego, which means that they will have power in the internal dimensions of the inverted Tree of Life, what we call the hell realms, the infernal dimensions. Our goal on the white path of initiation is to enter into the higher levels of consciousness, to enter into the divine and heavenly realms, and it is important to know that black magicians, as much power as they may have in the lower realms, do not have power in the higher realms in which the divine law reigns. Some say that in the hell realms, whatever is the divine law is inverted, meaning that what is against the law in the divine realms becomes “the law,” the mandatory law in the hell realms. So if fornication and adultery is against divine law, in the hell realms, it is mandatory that everyone must fornicate. Everyone must commit adultery. This is a basic example to give us an understanding. Additionally, we have to realize that all of us on this path are trapped between the two realms. We have a bit of our consciousness which is free, which is longing for the divine, which is virtuous, with many beautiful spiritual qualities, and we also have a large percentage of our consciousness that is trapped in infernal psychological states. It is that part of our consciousness through which black magicians can manipulate and control us. And so, whenever someone is trying to control the will of others, to steal energy from them, by getting them to lust after them, to envy them, to worship them, whenever a person is trying to dominate others, confuse others, manipulate others, or hurt others, this is black magic. As you can tell with that general explanation, many of us in many points in our lives have used black magic. We have used our mind and our cleverness in order to try to manipulate or harm others, but at the same time we have also tried to get others to lust after us or to be envious of us, to make others feel that we are better than them. These are all forms of black magic. And so while yes, we are looking out for black initiates, individuals out there who have actually been initiated into black paths and are working with black tantra, magical forms of energy manipulation and control of the elements, in order to gain power and steal power from others, our biggest weakness, when it comes to self-defense, is that we ourselves are very egotistical and we are very easily controlled. The Buddha Gautama said that “It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him into evil ways.” About a year ago, I was watching the opera Parsifal, which many of us know from the books of Samael Aun Weor, specifically the book Parsifal Unveiled, and in the particular rendition that I was watching, there was a powerful scene when Parsifal, who represents the pure but foolish young initiate on a quest to save his Lord, has to enter into the kingdom of Klingsor, representing our egotistical foe. And Parsifal, once entering this kingdom, has to pass through a garden filled with beautiful and seductive women. Because of his purity of heart he is not seduced by these women and is able to enter into the chamber, in which he meets the temptress Kundry, and what happens from there, you'll have to watch the opera to learn the rest. But as I watched the scene, it struck me that Parsifal did not need any weapons to defend himself from these beautiful and seductive women, because he in his mind was strong. If we have a fantasy in our own mind of a attractive man or woman, and then that person comes into our physical life and begins to try to seduce us, manipulate us, get our energy, or get us to lust after them, make us fall off the path, so to speak, we are very easily manipulated and able to fall in that case. But if in our mind we have already seen the truth of this person, we have no temptation towards lust for them, and then they come and approach us with the same lustful behaviors in an attempt to seduce us, we have nothing to fear, because it will be much more difficult in that case for them to be able to control us. Our best self-defense is cultivating the purity of mind, heart, and body that makes it impossible for any black magician to be able to manipulate us. I think that this quote from Samael Aun Weor in his book Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology sums this example up perfectly. He wrote: "The best weapon that a human being can use in life is a correct psychological state. One can disarm beasts and unmask traitors by means of appropriate internal states. Wrong internal states convert us into defenseless victims of human perversity. You must learn to face the most unpleasant events of practical life with an appropriate internal uprightness. You must not become identified with any event. Remember that everything passes away. You must learn to look at life like a movie; thus, you shall receive the benefits. You must not forget that if you do not eliminate mistaken internal states from your psyche, then events of no value could bring you disgrace." ―Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology We need to know that in order to defend ourselves, our best weapon is to be conscious, to be awake in every moment, to be self-observing what is happening inside of us, and to be self-remembering our inner divinity, so that we behave with internal uprightness. We behave according to our own conscience. This is not worrying about morality or what others will think of us, but knowing in our own heart we are doing what is right in God's eyes. And this is based on our own inner relationship with our own inner divinity that we cultivate through daily meditation and prayer. If you are meditating, you will have a better sense of what is a correct psychological state, because in certain moments in one's meditation practice, one can access this. What is my psychological state when I am, for a few moments, free of ego? And then when I sink back into an egotistical state, when I become identified with some defect, like pride or anger lust or envy, what is the change that I witnessed there? Because if I am self-observing, then I know if my consciousness is truly free and being guided by divinity, or if my consciousness is conditioned by a certain egotistical element in myself that I still need to further comprehend and eliminate. If we break down this passage, which is filled with very deep wisdom, we see that it is possible for us to disarm beasts and unmask traitors by means of appropriate internal states. This means that if we are awakened, if we are self-observing, have our consciousness active and free of ego, we can see exactly how another person might be trying to manipulate or harm us. And rather than reacting with anger or with fear towards this person, we can become conscious internally of what is the correct response in order to protect ourselves, to guard ourselves in this situation. When we have wrong internal states, we become defenseless victims of human perversity. If we have truly meditated in this tradition for quite some time, we are aware of the depths of perversity within our own mind. How often we wish to harm or control or dominate other people? And so we must have compassion for the human perversity that exists in others and be aware of it. The best way to protect ourselves is not to let our own lust or anger or pride seduce us into wrong behaviors. As I mentioned in the example before, if we see an attractive man or woman and we are cultivating a fantasy, a lustful fantasy of the day that they will come and talk to us or ask us out and we are really putting a lot of energy, conscious energy into that fantasy, it is our own mind which has already set the trap for us. And when that person shows up in our physical life and begins to talk to us, it does not take much effort on their part in order to have a profound level of control over us. Many times in our lives, perhaps we have had our heart broken or we felt betrayed, and the other person may not even have willingly done so to us, but it was our own mental state which set us up for that scenario. We have to recognize that as a consequence of karma, we have many ties to other people and each of these will play themselves out, and we must accept that because we have done wrong in this lifetime and in previous lifetimes, we will suffer. But, if we suffer consciously, and if we take those situations of pain and we transform them into an opportunity to learn about our own inner defects, to cleanse ourselves internally, to respond with more love and strength of heart towards the difficulties of life and towards our problems with other people, we will truly become an initiate, a warrior on this path, which is what we need. It's a very difficult work. It's a work of a lifetime and not something easily achieved and not easy to follow through with. That is why these temptations come along in order for us to go to battle, to prove whether we are going to be defined for the will of God or whether we are going to fall fulminated at the feet of our own inner egos and defects. Temptations are a chance for us to purify ourselves. However, most of the time we become identified with an event. We look at other people at our life situation as very real and as something that demands for us to react to it with a lot of self-esteem. When other people come along and insult us, or when life is not going the way that we had desired, we get identified. We have a lot of pride that comes out and says, “I don't deserve this. These people shouldn't be talking about me like that. They are so much worse.” Or “this situation shouldn't be happening to me. I am great and I have done all this hard work,” etc., etc. This is becoming identified with an event, and we will suffer much more through that identification. It is much better to take a step back, to calm down, go for a walk or do something that calms us down, and then enter into meditation. Separate from our identification with the event and reflect on it serenely, allowing God to show us not what is wrong with the other person or what is wrong with the situation, or how can I change other people and situations to make them more the way that I want them to be, but rather, “what is it in me that is incorrectly responding to this circumstance?” By understanding ourselves, which is truly the only thing that we can change, we will be able to find more peace. We will be able to radically change inside, and as we change inside, we know that the outside world will begin to reflect more and more our inner level of being. This is a process of alchemy, of transmutation, radical transformation of oneself from darkness, unconsciousness, and egotism, into light, selflessness and consciousness, unity with divinity. That is what we are doing. We are taking a heavy base metal like lead and transforming it into the purified gold of the spirit. This is a long work. Events of no value, such as an argument with someone, which in the moment feels very serious and very real and causes a lot of anger in us, can bring us a lot of disgrace if we respond with that anger. However, if we transform that state, we feel peace with the situation. We accept it. We express kindness or compassion for the other person involved, then that event passes away. Everything passes away, is what Samael Aun Weor is writing here. If we keep that in mind, no matter how much we burn in the moment, we can find a rope to hold onto, a continuity of consciousness so that we do not lose our integrity over an event of no value. 
Chastity: God’s Covenant
Most importantly, in maintaining the purity of our state of mind and of our soul, is chastity. For anyone who has been in this doctrine for some time, you know that we speak repeatedly about chastity as the renunciation of orgasm and the practice of sexual magic with one spouse, or the practice of pranayama: to transmute one’s sexual energy in a pure way for single people.
Chastity is our covenant with God, and when we break that covenant, we lose the divine protection which that covenant grants us. It is a very serious covenant to make, and I recommend that when you make that choice to commit to chastity as part of your spiritual practice, as part of your life, that you don't go back on it―that you fight with all of your being to preserve that chastity, because when one falls, depending on the severity of the fall, the consequences are very severe. So we have to be very serious about chastity, when we take that step, because it offers us a lot of protection. What chastity does is it strengthens our inner connection with our inner Father, what we call the Innermost, related with Chesed on the Tree of Life, in Kabbalah, and with our Divine Mother, both of whom want us very much to succeed. This doesn't mean that difficulties will never happen to us because, of course, we have karma, and because we need to face our karma in order to develop our soul and to become strong souls to purify ourselves. But it does mean that we will have the comfort of the Holy Spirit with us in those moments, because our sexual energy is our direct connection with the Holy Spirit. And when we are transmuting and raising that energy up the spine, and conserving it in our body without ever letting that energy out, we are creating a hermetic seal in which our connection with God becomes stronger and stronger, and is never broken. Years ago when I first took this step, I was seeing in a vision, in meditation practice, God's covenant with Abraham, and I realized that this symbol is about our sexual chastity. If you are familiar with the story from the Bible, God makes a covenant with Abraham that his seed will be as numerous as the stars. And this covenant is made because Abraham, at the time named Abram, was lamenting that he was childless. This is our situation. We want to give birth to the soul. We do not want to be just an Essence, just the seed of a soul. We want to give birth to that child, that Christ child within our own soul. And so we go to God and we pray, “Give us a chance to achieve this work,” which is very sacred, and God says to Abraham that he must perform a sacrifice, an animal sacrifice. Abraham does so, cutting the animals in two. Sometimes this is known as the covenant of the pieces. For us, it is important to realize that the sacrifice of the animal is the sacrifice of our own ego, all of those drives that cause us to become identified with situations in life: lust, anger, hatred, pride, gluttony, greed―all of these animal defects in us which are constantly controlling us and causing us to perform wrong actions that create more and more problems for us and for others. This is what we must sever, and of course the greatest example of the animal instinct is lust. When we commit to chastity and we are renouncing orgasm, we are severing our ties with that animal. We are taking the animal instinct and we are taming it through sexual magic, or through pranayama if you are a single person. And we are transforming that animal into knowledge, into the power of God, the willpower of God. And this work takes time. Also, the covenant that God made with Abraham required that all of his children and Abraham himself becomes circumcised. Obviously, this is a symbol of chastity: the circumcision while, yes, it is performed literally and physically, is truly about circumcising our own mind, our own animal instinct, and becoming pure in the way that we approach sex and sexuality. This takes time, and I recognize that preserving chastity is a challenge for many people, but it is the most important front in which we begin to define ourselves. That is why I have listed here that we must master self-control. If you are tempted in a moment to look at pornography or to engage in some lustful fantasy of a person, to engage in behaviors that you know are directly counterproductive to your spiritual work that you are attempting here, you have to develop ways to control yourself, most importantly to control the mind. We often describe the mind as a donkey which must be whipped and controlled. This does not mean to repress and to beat oneself up, but merely in the beginning, find a way to redirect your mind. If you are at home and you have access to things that will feed your lust, get rid of them, or go for a walk or read a spiritual scripture. Find a way to control yourself, and later on when you have calmed down, enter into meditation, and without becoming identified with what you are meditating on, pray for your inner divinity to help you, to keep your covenant. If you cannot control your own mind, then of course you are at great risk for black magicians or demons to control you. When we engage in orgasm, we are opening up the doorway into the infernal worlds, and we are allowing lots of negative atoms into our inner bodies. So energetically, emotionally, mentally, we are filling ourselves with toxins and weakening our ability to be strong in our chastity. That is why we have to be very serious on this point, and why I put it so early on in this lecture. This is really the foundation of our work, and this is the way that people are so commonly swayed into the black path. In many of the schools of black magic, they preach virtue and godliness and purity, and many of the same things that we teach in this school, but the defining difference between a white path and a black path is the orgasm. Samael Aun Weor says that if you are ever awakened internally in the astral plane and you believe that the person, the master who is talking to you may be a black magician, to ask them what they think of chastity, what they think of renouncing the orgasm. And without fail, if the person says to you that orgasm is good or orgasm is okay, then you know that this is someone of the black path and you need to protect yourself. We will get into ways of how you can protect yourself in an encounter like that in a few moments. But the seriousness of preserving chastity just cannot be overlooked. Temptations come along to force us to define ourselves. If you fail when you are facing a temptation, learn from it. All of us fail when facing temptations, but this is not an excuse to give up or to just continue in bad behaviors. If we fail, we should feel genuine remorse, and we should meditate seriously on that circumstance or that failure, praying to God with our whole heart, day after day, for comprehension, and really creating the circumstances in which that comprehension can come to us, by meditating and separating ourselves from bad influences. Additionally, even when we can physically preserve our chastity and maintain that in our physical lives, sometimes we are attacked internally and we may be seduced, whether by men or women, in the internal planes. And this can cause us to lose our energy, what we refer to as wet dreams or nocturnal pollutions. This can happen for both men or women.
So if you wake up and you know that you have experienced an orgasm or a wet dream, there is a remedy that you can make, the melon drink remedy. And I have a link to it in the resources that I mentioned earlier, also at the end of this presentation. So that link has a beautiful video which illustrates exactly how to make that melon drink, and to continue to make it until you are able to recover from that.
So if this happens and you lose your energy, continue to transmute, continue to practice pranayama everyday. Do runes every day if you feel that you have a very fiery sexual temperament. You may need to perform runes in addition to pranayama. There is no limit on how much pranayama you can do. You can perform as much of it in a day as you need to. So if you are feeling particularly tempted, go outside. Go for a walk. Take a break. Come back and perform pranayama for as long as you need until you have calmed down. Conjurations
Okay, so this bit about knowing the conjurations is really your homework. If I were to give you an assignment on how to protect yourself, it would be to begin today memorizing these conjurations.
Choose one. Pray it every night before you go to sleep, and whether you have written it down or you are reading it, the more that you pray it, the more familiar you will become with it. And just as you had to memorize things in school, some of these conjurations will be a little bit difficult to memorize at first, but it is possible. And truly, of all the ways to defend yourself, memorizing these conjurations is one of the easiest and most valuable to do. Now the first one that I have listed here is not exactly a conjuration, but more a mantra for protection. Klim Krishnaya Govindaya Gopijana Vallabhaya Swaha. There are videos related to all of these mantras and conjurations at the end in the resources section. So as I mentioned before, I am not going to go in depth into every resource, but give you an overview of where you should be looking, and then you will be able to refer to the videos and the articles on these very powerful prayers, in order to understand the true depth and meaning of each one of them. 
Mantras of the Flaming Star
Now, Klim Krishnaya Govindaya Gopijana Vallabhaya Swaha will project a pentagram, a flaming star, in the astral plane.
This is also a mantra that you can repeat in your head internally, mentally, whenever you are feeling threatened in the physical world. Sometimes during the day, I do not feel threatened by other individuals, but I feel that my own mind is becoming sleepy or perhaps angered by a situation, and so in order to conjure my own mind, I will use this mantra mentally. No one else knows that I am doing it, but it truly helps me to focus. I notice more brightness of consciousness coming in as I use this mantra. It is very helpful.
So while it may sound a little complicated to memorize at first, it's one of the easier mantras that can really be helpful in many, many moments.
About Pronunciations
Additionally, with all of these mantras, which are often in other languages such as Hebrew or Latin, it is okay if you are mispronouncing them. Yes, the videos give us an opportunity to know how they should be pronounced, and there are some audio clips as well of one of the other instructors pronouncing them, but what is most important is the sincerity of your heart and prayer, your inner connection with divinity, your purity. So do not get caught up over whether or not you are mispronouncing it. There are some conjurations, which I realized I was slightly mispronouncing a word for some time and then I corrected it, but even before correcting that mispronunciation, they still brought a lot of force and power. So do not let the mispronunciation piece become a barrier for you.
The Conjuration of the Four
Next is the Conjugation of the Four. This refers to the four elements, and this conjuration is used to reject all of the legions of demons, which can manipulate the elementals in order to attack us. And so this is usually the first conjuration that one would say before going to sleep at night.
The Conjuration of the Seven
Additionally after completing the Conjuration of the Four, one would then say the Conjuration of the Seven. This conjuration invokes the seven archangels in order to reject the seven archdemons. And so, for demons which are more powerful and not able to be rejected with Conjuration of the Four, we can use the Conjugation of the Seven.
The Invocation of Solomon
And finally, the third prayer that one would use before going to sleep would be the Invocation of Solomon. So with these three, we can protect ourselves before we go to sleep and enter the astral plane. The Invocation of Solomon actually works with the entire Tree of Life to be able to draw the forces of God to protect us.
Fons Alpha et Omega
In addition to these, one of my favorites is the Fons Alpha et Omega. This is actually a variety of mantras combined into one conjuration, and it is very powerful for rejecting negative forces. It also can help us to penetrate the meaning of a dream or a vision, so you can say it when you are sitting to meditate and asking for greater clarity on an experience that you have had. This conjuration can be used to mirror back the attack that someone has directed at you.
So we have heard it said that one who lives by the sword falls and dies by the sword. If an individual is directing harm towards you and you use the Fons Alpha et Omega, this actually will redirect that energy back at the creator of that conjuration.
So in that sense, we must be very careful that we are not trying to use these prayers to harm anyone, but are keeping compassion for the ones who might be attacking us in our hearts whenever we are using them.
Belilin
Finally there is a song that we can use before bed, which many like, which can invoke the Angel Aroch. So Belilin is a song which we must sing as we are falling asleep, and the Angel Aroch will come to protect us and be with us.
All of these prayers that I mentioned in the slide are in A Gnostic Prayer Book, which is sold in the Gnostic Store on Glorian.org. As well, I have linked the Gnostic Store and the Gnostic Prayer Book in the resources section of this lecture, so that if you want to find copies of these prayers and have them all in one place to be able to memorize them, you can do so through that book.
So we will use these conjurations a lot in protecting our home and our body, and that is why I felt it was important to assign it to all of you as homework, that you really need to be memorizing them one at a time. And if you only have one memorized, go ahead and start using it all the time when you are praying. If you are walking around through the day and you are trying to strengthen your self-awareness, you can repeat that conjuration in your own head to give you strength of consciousness and to reject your own ego, your own defects within. 
Gnostic Pentagrams
Additionally, in our home we want to include pentagrams. So a pentagram can be drawn with a charcoal pencil, which is something that does not leave a permanent, lasting mark on the floor, if you are worried about that. We also have some wonderful pentagrams which are very affordably priced on the Gnostic Store as well. So I have linked the Gnostic Store in the resources section for those who would like to buy them.
A pentagram should be placed on one's altar, and I will talk a little bit more about the altar. In addition to the altar, we should have a pentagram above our bed where we sleep at night and we should also have a pentagram at the doorway of our bedroom. When you place a pentagram in a doorway, you want to put the two feet facing out of the door so that if you were to stand that pentagram up on its two feet, it would be standing in the doorway. If we mistakenly reverse that, then we would be summoning negative forces into the bedroom. So it's very important that when you place it on the floor, you have the two feet facing out of the bedroom and the top point facing into the bedroom to reject the negative forces. 
In addition to this, we have clear pentagrams, which you can place in windows. Some people as well like to place a pentagram in front of the doorway to their home. So again, with the two feet facing out of the doorway and the top point facing into the home. You can cover it with a rug if you are not wanting any visitors to see it. Clearer pentagram stickers can also be great for your car if you want a little bit of extra protection there.
A lot of those are optional, but the three main ones that we stress that Samael Aun Weor indicated are to have a pentagram on your altar, in the doorway of your bedroom, and above your bed. Personal Space and Altar
Now I recognize that not everyone has their own personal space in which they can be displaying pentagrams. In which case I advise you to do what you can with all of the practices and techniques and strategies that I am giving in this lecture, and if it is something that is not possible for you because of your relationship with your roommates or significant other, then choose other ways to protect yourself. You don't need to do all of these. I advise all of them as best practice for those who are able, but of course, I recognize that not everyone will have the opportunity to do so, and that's okay.
If you do choose to draw the pentagram with charcoal, again, it's important that in the doorway, you have the two feet facing out of the door. In addition to the pentagram we would like to create an altar. An altar is a space where we can pray and meditate, do our conjurations at night and this is where we can cultivate a lot of spiritual force. We can do runes there and practices, whatever we feel is our sacred practice in order to strengthen our connection with divinity. It is great to have an altar. This can be a plain table. It doesn't have to be something elaborate, but it is a wonderful thing to do if you have the opportunity. So to give you a little more context on this altar, we are going to read directly from one of the resources that I linked. Here are the Basic Elements for a Gnostic Altar: “A Gnostic altar should be a table or stand of some kind covered with a fine cloth, usually white. Some even cover this with glass. While you can make the altar from anything humble and inexpensive, the best altar will be made from scented would such as cyprus, cedar, sandal, etc.” On the altar you should also include “a copy of the Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled” by Samael Aun Weor, and “representations of the four elements.” So this could be “a continual light to represent the fire that always illuminates. Traditionally, this would be a candle or oil lamp, but in modern times (due to safety) you can use a small lamp or night light. However, during prayers, rituals, or meditations, candles can be safely and effectively used.” So this represents the element of fire. For the element of water you can have “a bowl or a glass of water.” Keep this water clean. So you may need to refresh it over time. To represent the air you can have “a feather,” and to represent the Earth, you can have flowers, a stone or something else of significance for you. Some people like to have a dish of soil. In addition, on one's altar, we would include “a pentagram” as was already mentioned, and we would use “perfumes, incenses, or scented oils.” I highly recommend that you use incense regularly. This draws a lot of positive forces into your home and it rejects negative forces. 
Essential Oils
So while we can of course use incense, if you are worried about the scent or you have a partner who does not enjoy the smell of incense, you can use essential oils. You can find a diffuser in which you can mix a few drops of essential oil with water and diffuse that scent through the home. Or you can of course put the essential oil directly on your skin in a small amount.
With essential oils, we recommend therapeutic grade. A lot of essential oils that are cheaper on the market have been diluted and are not pure qualities. So therapeutic grade is really the best that you can get when it comes to essential oils. 
Beautiful Images and Sacred Environments
In addition, when we are trying to cultivate a spiritual atmosphere in our home, we want to have images, sacred images, like images of the Buddha, Christ, or any type of religious or spiritual master that really inspires you. This can be really powerful, and these of course can go on one's altar. You can put other sacred scriptures like the Qur’an, the Bible, the Sutras.
You can put sacred symbols like the cross or the menorah, and sometimes people like to include a symbolic blade, sword, or knife to represent the psychological work: to cut through the illusions of our own ego. 
In addition, Samael Aun Weor wrote this about the home of Gnostic initiates:
“The home of Gnostic initiates must be full of beauty. The flowers that perfume the air with their aroma, beautiful sculptures, perfect order and cleanliness, make of each home a true Gnostic sanctuary.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony This is from the Perfect Matrimony and in The Yellow Book, he again emphasized that: “Flowers, perfumes, symbolic pictures, and beautiful music contribute to creating an environment filled with wisdom and love.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Yellow Book When we talk about beautiful music, we are talking primarily about classical music that elevates the soul, not popular music of nowadays. 
Prayer to the Aloe
In addition to be able to protect one's home, there is a prayer that one can do with the aloe plant. Again, this prayer is written down in the Gnostic Prayer Book. I believe it is also in Igneous Rose.
So the prayer to the elemental fairy of the aloe vera plant is beneficial in order to protect against negative forces. Every Gnostic home should have an aloe plant. Use this prayer to invoke its assistance. “Cross, thou art holy and divine. Sorcerers and witches withdraw from this home. Such persons who intend to arrive here, let it be known that I am with God. Sovereign God, set me free from treason and from ruination. Blessed be the most Holy Mary and the consecrated host.” After you say the prayer, bless the aloe plant with the sign of the cross. 
Elemental Magic of the Maguey
Similarly, there is a ritual for a maguey plant (Agave Americana) that is very powerful to cut one's ties with the Black Lodge and to be able to conjure or reject any forces from a direct attack, if you suspect that a person is attacking you internally, and that prayer can be found in the book The Divine Science: “White Magic and Black Magic” if you are interested in learning about that.
Black Mustard Seeds
Mustard seeds can be used to protect us from psychic attacks. So you can purchase online small tiny jars with a cork to put in the top, and then mustard seeds are available again from the Gnostic Store. You fill four little jars with mustard seeds and you place them in the four corners of your home where they will be able to create a sort of force field in order to protect you from psychic attacks. This can be helpful if you feel that when you are sitting down to practice or as you are falling asleep, you are being attacked psychically.
The Circle of Protection
And finally, the circle of protection is very powerful for protecting one's home and can be done every night before going to bed. If you are living in a home with other people, you can also perform the circle of protection directly around the room in which you sleep. If you get up in the middle of the night and you leave the circle for example to use the restroom, then come back in and draw the circle again before you go back to sleep.
So the circle of protection can be drawn by circling the room three times with a sword, which again is an item that some keep on their altar, a sword or a blade or with the sword of one's own imagination. So when I do this mantra, I will chant the mantra “Helion Melion Tetragrammaton” three times as I am imagining the fiery light circling around my room.
This mantra along with that entire practice can also be found in the Gnostic Prayer Book which is linked at the end.
Pentagram Medallions
Now to protect one's body, you can wear a pentagram. Pentagrams I have seen available in ring form and also in a form of a pendant, which you can wear around your neck. Those pentagrams have to be consecrated through a ritual that have linked again at the end in the resources, so you can find more information about that.
If you are interested in buying one of these metal pentagrams, we have some contact info for someone who makes them in seals of metals in the back of a gold pentagram, and you can contact us at help@chicagognosis.org if you are interested in that. However, if you are not able to buy one of these nicer pentagrams, then you can go and buy a simple silver or gold pentagram, and that should be helpful as well. 
Sulfur Powder
In addition to wearing a pentagram, you can put sulfur in your shoes. If you are going to a place, for example a bar or restaurant for a work event or a family event that you feel you need to be present, then you can put sulfur in your shoes, and this will help to keep astral larvae off of you and negative influences so that you will be able to stay cleaner, psychically-speaking, throughout that day. And of course each day, you might want to put sulfur in your shoes, especially if you live in a big city.
Spiritual Strength through Blessed Food and Drink
The Eucharist is a very powerful ritual which can be performed using bread and grape juice, as symbolic wine, every day after you finish transmuting your energy. So if you are a couple, you can perform this ritual after sexual magic, and if you are a single person, you can also perform this ritual after you are transmuting with pranayama. This is extremely powerful in awakening your consciousness. This ritual is actually invoking atoms of Christ to come into your system and to protect you not only from forces outside of you, but also within you. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and so that as well as linked in the resources section of this.
The Microcosmic Star
We have an excellent video which demonstrates how you can form the pentagram, also known as the microcosmic star, with your body to invoke the Holy Spirit, to reject negative forces. And this can help you to protect your physical body.
Juniper Berries
And finally, juniper berries are a way that we can protect ourselves from contagion. I think that in a time like this, this is particularly relevant. So one can chew on juniper berries after blessing the berries and praying that that they will protect one from any contagion. And so if you bless the berries each day, that's sufficient.
Sage
Another great way to purify your home and your body is with a spiritual cleanse. The most common is a sage smudge. You can see it pictured here on the background of the slide. The sage smudge can be bought on the Gnostic Store, in any metaphysical book shop, and even Whole Foods sells sage. So it is pretty common and it's a good way to come home at the end of the night, after being out and about in the city or at work, and to be able to pray the Conjuration of the Four and the Conjuration of the Seven while you bathe yourself in the smoke of the sage. So you can light it, begin to pray and bathe yourself in that smoke by moving the sage smudge around your body. You can put out the sage smudge in a small bowl of sand and then you can use it again the next day.
Camphor
Camphor is also an easy way to purify your environment. You can buy camphor incense sticks and you can burn them. This is a great purifying incense if you burn them around your home, whenever you feel that the energy is becoming a little bit too dense.
Rue, Sage, and Mugwort
A more powerful cleanse can be done with rue, sage, and mugwort. So these three herbs you can buy online or in a metaphysical bookshop. You would probably need to use a mortar and pestle to be able to grind them up into a powder. And from that point, you would use a charcoal censer, which is, usually in most cases, a small iron pot into which you can place a small hot burning charcoal. After a few minutes when the charcoal is heated up, you can place a little bit of the powder of the rue, sage, and mugwort mixture onto the charcoal. You can go around your home using the Conjugation of the Four and the Conjuration of the Seven, trying to move the smoke into the shape of a cross, in order to purify and bless your home.
I have heard it recommended that when you move into a new home, you can perform this cleanse for 14 days after moving in and then again every 14 days or every month, in order to keep the impurities out of your new home. Burning Sulfur
You can also burn sulfur if you are leaving for a few days. This is one of the most powerful cleanses. However, it is very dangerous to breathe sulfur in. So if you do burn sulfur in your home, make sure that you are going to be away for at least the rest of the day, if not for a weekend, and to keep a window open so that some of that smoke can get out of the home. If you breathe sulfur in directly, it is toxic and can harm your lungs. So be very careful with that.
If you would like to use sulfur in another way, you can take a little bit of sulfur powder, mix it into your warm bath, and bathe your body into that sulfur bath and be able to purify your body in that way. 
The Egg Cleanse
Additionally, there is an egg cleanse. What you can do is you can begin with one egg and you can use two or three if you feel that you have a lot of impurities to remove. You want to rub the egg around your body in circular motion. All the parts of your body: your head, your arms, or legs, etc. And as you are using this egg, you are praying to your elemental advocate to work with the element of the egg in order to suck all of the toxins and impurities out of your internal body, your astral body, your mental body, your vital body. And then that egg, which is very gelatinous, will actually suck up the toxins from those inner bodies, and you should throw the egg onto a fire to destroy those toxins and expel them.
Some Gnostics like to say that the louder that your egg explodes, the more toxins that you had within you, so that can be an interesting twist on that cleanse as well. So as you might have noticed with many of these cleanses, you are going to be using the Conjuration of the Four and the Conjuration of the Seven. If you don't have those memorized you can try to use another conjuration as well. 
Relationships and Environments
In addition to all of these practical steps that we can take to protect ourselves, we should also be very aware of our relationships and our environments, and what types of elements we are inviting into our environments and into our relationships.
So, natural and religious sites can have a pure psychic atmosphere. This is what I find when I visit very old churches or temples. For those who were at the retreat in the Buddhist temple, I am sure you're aware of the very elevated conscious atmosphere of that place. Nature as well. Some say that God's temple is nature, so that can be a way to purify your mind, to purify your heart, to get away from the city for a little bit if you live in a crowded place, and to be able to invite some of those higher vibrations into your life. Being aware that those environments are positive and healing and can be good places to visit on a regular basis. 
Conversely, places like bars, clubs, cinemas, cemeteries, etc., attract astral larvae. So astral larvae, we say, are like little bugs that will latch onto you and suck away your energy. They are attracted to a lot of Gnostic students because we are conserving so much energy through our transmutation practice. You can say that on the astral plane, we are glowing like candles with the amount of energy that we are conserving, and that is why the more serious you are in your chastity and in your practice, you may attract certain attacks. If you go to places like this because you are unable to avoid them for some reason or other, put sulfur in your shoes and cleanse yourself with sage or another form of a cleanse soon as you get home, if possible. This is the best way to try to keep your inner bodies clean if you are exposed to those types of places. But if possible, just try to avoid them altogether.
Additionally, we do not recommend seeing spiritualists, such as mediums, people who communicate with the dead, hypnotists, fortune-tellers, and people of that ilk. These types of people, even if they have good intentions, are many times letting in negative forces. Channelers as well come to mind. So while these people may think that they are communicating with positive entities and beings, talking a lot about Jesus or positive energies and things like that, much of the time, they unfortunately are being manipulated by other entities that are not so kind―entities that actually want us to fortify our desire rather than to become free from desire and to guide ourselves internally with the guidance of our own inner divinity. You don't want to put your own mind and consciousness under the influence of another person. So if you go to a hypnotist, that is exactly what you are doing. Hypnosis means sleep. So we don't want to go and give someone else control over our mind. We want to develop the strength of our own soul and consciousness so that we can go and investigate any questions that we have internally. With the help of our inner divinity, we can pray and beg to our Being to take us to find the answers that we need. I do not recommend going to places like that because interacting with individuals like this may expose you to negative entities, which can come internally and attack you. More commonly, you should use conjurations mentally if you feel attacked. So I mentioned before using the mantra Klim Krishnaya Govindaya Gopijana Vallabhaya Swaha, whenever I feel a little bit uneasy with my own ego manipulating me. But also, if you feel that someone else is trying to manipulate you, or confuse you, or dominate you, you can try to center yourself in your Being, and you can be able to use that conjuration to protect yourself. It is really, really important that you are not using conjurations out of fear or anger. We should be trying to use these conjurations out of compassion for the ones who are attacking us. People who are trying to control others many times think that they are doing what is right, that they are benefiting other people, and so we have to have compassion for their level of being and for the harm that they are causing. This individual who is attacking someone is cultivating a lot of bad karmic consequences, things that will come back to hurt them in the future. And so we have to really have compassion for them, and by protecting ourselves, we are actually preventing them from cultivating more negative consequences for themselves. In addition, we should try to develop relationships with morally sound people. So these don't have to be necessarily spiritual people. I know many people often complain that they don't have enough spiritual friends who are into this. What is really important is that you have people in your life who are living with integrity, who are honest, hard-working, exemplifying virtues that you can learn from. This is excellent. Sometimes people involved in spiritual movements can be some of the least virtuous people, so do not depend strictly on someone's point of view on spirituality to determine whether or not they are going to be a good influence on you. The best way to find out if someone is a good influence in your life is to meditate on the experiences that you have with them, and to see if they are someone who is really helping you to cultivate your own character and your own integrity, or if they are someone that is constantly dragging you into problems and negative states of being. There is a careful distinction there. If somebody makes you angry, that does not necessarily mean they are a bad person. It could mean that you just need to see your anger and that person is really helping you to see your anger, which could be a good thing. So meditation will reveal the truth. But especially, I cannot stress enough, that your intimate relationships with people, your romantic relationships, should be with people that you consider morally sound, ethical people, people who are living an ethical life style. The choice to have a sexual relationship with someone, which is considered by the law and by nature as a marriage, whether or not we call it a marriage, is a powerful connection to that person, which will have ramifications for future lifetimes. So the quality of the person that you have a relationship with is really essential to determining the future lifetimes that you will have. So if you are serious about overcoming suffering and elevating your level of being and your consciousness, you may have to make some hard choices about who you choose not to have in your life. Sometimes this means that you have to love people from a distance. We may have friends whom we care for but whom we know are not particularly good influences on us. So if we have friends who are, perhaps, always inviting us to bars and clubs, we could invite them to do something like go for a hike in nature or do something that is less negative. Or we may just have to distance ourselves from them. This doesn't mean to lose compassion towards them, but rather just to create an environment that is more conducive for our spiritual work. Obviously, this is a very personal decision and none of us can tell you how to cultivate your own relationships. This should be something that you are continually reflecting upon, meditating on, and asking for guidance from your inner divinity. Because it can be very difficult to lose relationships, but in the long run, if we have relationships that are really draining us energetically and bringing us into bad behaviors and we really don't want to live that way anymore, by changing our own level of being, by changing our behaviors, we can attract relationships that will guide us into the direction that we have consciously chosen to go. So just be conscious of your environments that you are traveling into and be conscious of your relationships that you have with other people. It's important when you are thinking about protecting yourself. Our Greatest Enemy
Finally circling back to that original quote, our greatest enemy, our greatest danger to ourselves, is our own mind, is our own ego.
We need to create a lifestyle of spiritual protection. The conjurations, the incenses, and the mantras: these are great tools for us to use, but what is most important in determining the circumstances of our lives is our karma. Karma is cause and effect. Whatever we do today, we will reap tomorrow. If you are practicing black magic, if you are going around trying to manipulate and confuse other people, trying to exert your own will on other people to get them to behave how you want them to, trying to dominate others to gain their respect, or force others to think the way that you think, even if it is about Gnosis or about spiritual topics, and you think that you are benefiting the other person, this is harmful. This is black magic. We must respect the free will of all people. If we are abusing others, this is the number one sign that we ourselves will attract that type of manipulation from other nefarious entities. So be careful about the way that you are living your life. Are you living ethically with remembrance of divinity? At the end of your day, ask yourself that question. “How did I live today? Did I remember my Divine Mother? Did I remember my Being? Did I live in a way with consciousness of what I was doing? Am I learning from my mistakes? Am I truly seeking to be virtuous and to sacrifice for others?” This is the best protection we can ever have. When someone is angry at you, when they are insulting you, and when you take in those impressions and you transform those impressions into understanding of the pain and suffering of the other person, and you respond with sweetness, with kindness, and with love, you have protected yourself from that anger. And who knows, you may have radically transformed that situation into a very positive relationship with the other person. So the best tool that we have is to be conscious, to be aware, to transform our situations. How do you respond to life's events? If life's events come at you and you have a lot of negativity about them, you have a lot of negativity about other people, then meditate on that. Of course, we all need to start where we are at, and it is not good to just repress your negativity and pretend to be kind to everyone. You should act kindly to everyone, and then if you are feeling like being unkind, meditate on what is causing that. Is it anger? Is it jealousy? Is it lust? What is driving your response to life's events? We should be less concerned and identified with what is going on outside of us and more concerned with what is happening inside of our psychological world. How are you feeling, thinking, and behaving towards other people? Conclusion
To conclude, I will say that we have a duty to protect ourselves. If we are really working on this path, it is because we believe that there is a way to really serve God and help humanity in the process. And so when other entities try to seduce us, to manipulate us, to attack us, we have a right to protect ourselves and we have a duty to protect ourselves, because the work that we are doing at this time is very important.
Many many people are suffering and the work that we are doing to become better human beings, to connect with divinity, to follow the will of God, the guidance that we are receiving internally, is very important, because as we see every day on the news, this planet is going through an intensifying period of suffering. So the more that we are doing to preserve our covenant with God and to work with the three factors to strengthen our consciousness, to live ethically, to follow the guidance of our own inner divinity, the better it will be for us, for everyone around us, and for humanity as a whole. So take spiritual protection seriously, and do what you can, but most importantly, know that by purifying your own mind through daily meditation and following God's guidance and comprehension, that is the best protection that you can have. At this point I will open it up for questions. Questions and Answers
Question: Thank you for the lesson. My question is with the sulfur. When you take a bath and or when you put it in your shoes, can you use it in your shoes every day?
Instructor: Yes. So what I what I usually do is, I put the sulfur directly in my shoe, and then I put a sock on. However, my husband puts it directly into the sock. I will say, though, if you wash your laundry, try to wash the sulfuric socks separate so that all your clothes don't end up smelling like sulfur. Question: Then, how much? Instructor: I just use a pinch in my socks. When you take a sulfur bath, again, you can use again just a pinch. If you feel like you are quite dirty, then you might want to add a little bit more, but it doesn't take a lot. Question: Can you do that with your hands? You can just pinch it with your hands? Instructor: Yes. To touch it with your skin is fine. You just don't want to burn it and breathe the smoke. That is when it's toxic. That's a great question. Question: So the first question is what is your advice or experience with salons, such as massages or waxing salons? Instructor: Personally, I do find that it's challenging to find a place where you feel that it's a good person cutting your hair or touching your body, especially with massage. People can definitely steal energy through massage, through touching you. In general, if you feel that someone around you may be trying to steal energy from you, don't let them touch you. Especially don't let them touch your back, your spine. That can be a way that people, black magicians, can steal energy. So yes, you have to be cautious with this. I have been able to kind of feel out different places and find places where I think the individual is, you know, at least a decent person, but if you go to a place and you feel very uncomfortable, then yes, you should probably not go back. I know my husband in particular doesn't advise massages. But let's say that you have an injury and massage therapy is going to be helpful for you, just look around to find someone that you don't get a bad feel from, is my advice. I know that's still a little vague, but really, the longer you have been practicing, you might have a better sense of people's energy. Question: Would having a pentagram at my door prevent demonic or possessed persons from gaining entrance? There's an unusual smell that comes about once or twice a week now for a month. It comes with headaches and pain elsewhere, but it goes away when I do the conjurations. Could this be a spiritual attack? Instructor: Yes, it could be a spiritual attack, especially if it's going away when you're doing conjurations. That can be a sign that there's some kind of entity or attack going on there. So, again, protecting your home in the ways that we talked about can be really important if this smell, this entity is coming into your home. Physically, a person may still be able to come into your home if they are a possessed person and you have a pentagram at the door. But energetically, it's going to prevent those demonic and possessed people from gaining entrance. Question: The sword. When you said to go in a circle. Does it matter the direction of the circle, you know in your room? Instructor: Yes, I would visualize the circle around the floor. You would want to go clockwise. So if you are visualizing that circle being drawn around the floor of your room, then you would mentally visualize that circle being drawn clockwise, or you would spin clockwise around the room. So turning towards your right around the room in that way. Question: If you are using our imagination, do you point if you don't have a sword, or just your imagination is fine? Just envisioning a circle, is that what you do? 
Instructor: You can point. In fact, if you'd like to use the pentagram with your hand, what you can do is you raise your hand, you raise your thumb, index, and middle finger up, representing the three upward points of the star, and you would put your ring finger and your pinky finger facing downwards.
Using this pentagram, you can reach out and draw the circle as you would with a sword or a blade. However, if you are in a position where you can't physically draw that because maybe other people are in the room, then absolutely, you can imagine a point of light with your imagination, moving around the room and creating a flaming circle or a circle of light, circle of protection around the room. You don't need to physically point in that case. Question: For egg cleanses, does it matter the source of the egg, for example a natural egg or a GMO egg? Instructor: I would say with most things, we try to go with a more natural, organic egg. But in this case, whatever egg you are able to get a hold of should be okay. Question: Is there a video on how to properly consecrate a pentagram? Instructor: No, there is not. So you simply have to read the article. The article here in Daily Life on the Path, that is going to list I think five or six different articles. For example, one about the Eucharist, one of them will be about pentagrams and how to consecrate a pentagram (See Chapter One of The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled). We have also had that question on the forum, and so you can log into the forum and read about that question as well. And you know if there is a certain point about that that you are not sure, then you can also log on to the forum and check. Question: If I am being attacked and I asked an elemental if it is an alignment with divine will to heal the attacker, is that considered black magic? Instructor: No. We can do healing rituals. As long as we have a center of compassion, then any conjuration in a sense is a healing ritual. If we are considering someone who is attacking us and we are really trying to reject the negative forces in them, we are really conjuring their ego, not their soul, so to speak. So we are really trying to help them, but this again shouldn't be done in a way that has a lot of hate. Question: I do not feel I have any enemies or anyone out to harm me that I am aware of. Should I still take all of these precautions? Also related, are there groups of black magicians who are attacking the general populace? If so, how common are these groups? Instructor: Okay, with the first question, I would say yes, and be conscious of if you notice a difference. If you take these precautions and you do notice that you feel a little bit more energized or more conscious of yourself, less susceptible to your own vices, then that could be a sign that there might have been some energy being drained away from you that you just weren't aware of. In addition, the cleanses are good for everyone. I would say, try doing a sage cleanse at least, once a week, or some form of cleanse once a week if you can, because in our world, anywhere we go, we are probably picking up astral larvae. So it's good to do that to protect ourselves. Are the groups of black magicians who are attacking the general populace? Yes. In fact, you know a common example of black magic is advertising, right? We are trying to get others to agree with our will. We want someone to buy our product, not because it will help them, but because we want their money. We see black magic all the time in cinema and on television and many places, when we see sexual degeneration or pornography, things like that. That is all tapping into the entire population's energy. And so I think we can see that it's pretty abundant in our society. Right now the Black Lodge has a lot of power in the physical world. This isn't a need for us to suddenly be afraid and paranoid all the time, but to just be aware that the work that we do to keep ourselves pure―and to not try to manipulate and control others, and also to think for ourselves, to follow our own inner conscience, our own connection to divinity―is very important, because there are not many people in the world you can trust. Even Samael Aun Weor said, “Do not follow me. I am just a signpost.” What we are trying to teach in this tradition is really to be reliant on our own inner divinity. But in order to connect with one's inner divinity, we have to strengthen that connection through the practices and the steps that we have outlined in many courses. Question: So are we not our own best pentagram? Instructor: So yes, the human body is the shape of the pentagram, and when we do the microcosmic star, which is linked spiritual protection with the microcosmic star right there, that video, you can see exactly how to make a pentagram with your own body. Question: So now mentioning cemeteries?… Instructor: This is an interesting question. So, sometimes cemeteries, because of the corpses and the decaying bodies, can attract a lot of astral larvae and negative influences. Certain groups do practices of black magic in cemeteries. They can just be not good places to hang out. However, of course, if we have a loved one in a cemetery and we would like to go see them and leave some flowers, you know, that is a very personal decision. I just mean maybe not hanging around in them, and using the sulfur in your shoes and purifying yourself afterwards, that can be a good practice. Comment: I have had my job and been at work like usual, and things were changing, and I know people are suffering, and things kept escalating, and I kind of had this little emotional meltdown at work, because I started feeling like they are going to come and get me and try to force me to take a vaccine, you know, like I started really freaking out about it, and my sister's really into all the conspiracy theories. It is not that I don't believe it, but I generally don't let it get to me. But some people were laid off and then I was thinking, “Oh my God, this is really going!” I mean, this is really serious, you know. Not that I didn't think it was serious, but... Instructor: It's hitting close to home now. Question: It's hitting close to home. Yes, that's true. And that's the one thing that sends me over the edge. I am just wondering, out of all the things that you mentioned, when you start spiraling out of control, like nothing does it for me better than the thought of like... can you imagine having a world where your vehicle or body to go back to divinity is, you know, ruined, because they are forcing you to take things that are toxic, that have mercury or aluminum, that can ruin your neurological functions? You know? Instructor: Samael Aun Weor said certain vaccines destroy the internal bodies. So this is a popular question. We have been getting this on the forum lately. Our best advice on the vaccines question is, sometimes you have to accept a lesser evil over a greater evil. Ideally, none of us would want to take the vaccines that have been contaminated, but in many cases, it would be impossible for you to get a job, or you know, if there is a public health requirement for us to protect the community, we have to accept vaccines. Regardless of our personal beliefs, we have to make a difficult choice there. Are we going to be able to support our livelihood depending on our profession? Are you able to avoid vaccines because your profession allows that or not? Because sometimes through our job, we do a lot of good for humanity, and it would be worse for us to kind of selfishly avoid the vaccine and then lose our opportunity to serve. But that doesn't mean that if we do choose to avoid vaccines that there aren't other ways that we can serve. It is a very personal choice, but that's our best advice we have given so far. Comment: To me, this is like a frontal black magic attack if I have ever seen one. Instructor: It is a good point that you are bringing up here, because I think as as we see more and more of this, we see that sentiment going around in society. Many people are confused. “What am I supposed to believe, and especially with politics and things like that?” This goes back to the earlier question about, are there groups of black magicians really out there trying to attack the populace? We can see that many of the structures in our society are centered around money, power, sex―all of these ways that people are continually manipulated, and in response to your question, I do not think that any situation or any crisis on this planet is unaffected by ego. The egos of people in power, the egos of people oppressed, the egos of everyone caught in the middle. So we have to be really conscious of ourselves, because while we go out there and we try to do the right thing, if we become consumed with negativity about what the people in power are doing, or all of these other horrible things that are going on, we become unable to help anyone. I, myself, am a pretty sensitive person, and there are many times when I weep at the state of humanity and how much pain and suffering is going on. And all of that we know has its root in ego. Until we can address the root of ego within ourselves, we will not be able to overcome ego as it manifests in our societies and in our civilization. First we have to conquer ourselves, and that can be very difficult. Sometimes it's easier to point the finger and to get upset with the way that others are behaving, but it's most important and most useful to start changing ourselves. And then we will cultivate more power and more consciousness to be able to make a change in society. I am by no means trying to blame anyone for getting upset with the way that things are in this planet. It is the worst on this planet that it has ever been, even in past root races like in Atlantis and Lemuria. It was never as bad as it is now. We have become extremely materialistic, turned against the true divinity so that even many religious institutions merely use divinity as a pawn for power, and they will be able to really take Christ and betray Christ in that way. More than ever, it is important that we find a way to protect ourselves from our own negativity, from the negativity of the world, and each day be conscious of what good we can do, in what good we can bring to others. With any type of controversy where we feel divided, who draws the line and who is right? God is right and God draws the line, and many times nature draws the line. For us, like I said, it is most important that we focus on understanding in us what is causing our reaction to those situations, but it is best not to seek a physical person to tell you what is wrong and what is right. When it comes to making your everyday decisions, yes, we try to make our best educated guess, but in terms of misleading information in the world, no matter which side of that debate that you fall on, there is a lot of misinformation. Even with the best intentions and the greatest intellectual knowledge, many people can really do a lot of harm, because they are rooted in a very materialistic view of the world and the way that things work. Science unfortunately has become dogmatic and quite separated from the spiritual aspect. And when we look just at the materialistic effects, the physical effects of certain things, we sometimes do not become aware of the internal, energetic, emotional, mental, and spiritual effects of those processes. So I advise you whenever you have to make a personal decision based on a controversy, rather than watching hours of YouTube videos or reading lots of news pages, or checking what your friends are writing on social media, the best thing to do is to meditate and ask your inner divinity to send you a dream or to send you a vision in meditation over the next few days to guide you on that. Question: You answered my question a bit earlier, but you do have all this information going on like a circus, and all those things, but when you say you should go meditate on it and go to your inner divinity, then that is extremely difficult though, because you have like all these aggregates. You know, you are trying to kill that part of yourself. I find it is easier to write first and then go into meditation and try to make it a bit easier for myself, because when you do meditation, you are kind of just jumping right off a cliff. My issue right now would be like the mask issue. I believe my side of the view is right. So is it better like to sacrifice your point and just go with other people on it? Or how would you differentiate that? Instructor: That's a great question. I am so glad that you asked, and of course, it is very difficult in the beginning. So you are talking about being able to write out your ideas, and I often do that. I have a spiritual journal where I write down what I am struggling with, and it helps me to kind of clear my mind and calm myself down, and see on paper the different elements in me that are getting frustrated or upset, and then entering meditation and reflecting on that. So that is a great idea. Sometimes the noble thing to do is to sacrifice one's pride and to do what everyone else is doing. And sometimes the noble thing to do is to do what you know to be right in your heart and not go with the crowd. So, of course, my advice to you is that only you can know what to do, and none of us can give you advice whether about wearing a mask or any other issue. I feel that it is most important for us, the ethical integrity of our action, regardless of what we do. What is most important is the quality of our heart. If we are doing something out of fear or out of pride, thinking we are smarter than others on either side, because everybody on one side says, “We are smarter than the people not wearing masks,” and then the people who are not wearing masks say, “We are smarter than the people who are wearing masks.” Regardless of which side we fall on, we have to recognize what is driving us. And that is something that we really only can find in meditation. So again, neither me nor any other physical person, whether in the news or YouTube or anywhere can tell you what is the right action for you. But I will say that sacrifice, when we talk about sacrifice in this tradition, sacrificing of one's own ego, is often painful. When Abraham went to the altar to sacrifice his son Isaac: can you imagine the tremendous psychological and emotional struggle that he was going through to do that? But he knew that that was what his inner God had commanded to him and he knew it to be right. Now, of course at the last moment, he was spared from making that sacrifice. When we sacrifice our own ego, in my experience, many times leading up to that action can be very stressful and painful and hard, but after the ego has been sacrificed, feeling joy and relief, and not understanding why that was so difficult. To give a basic example, let's say you are really mad at someone, and you know from your meditation and in your heart that the right thing to do is to go and apologize to them for how you acted. But you are mad. And it would mean: sacrifice your anger and your pride and what you think the other person should do for you. If you went and apologized, all the way leading up to that apology, you might really be struggling with pushing yourself. That self-control that I mentioned early on in the lecture is to do what is right, to overcome the temptation to be angry and to be cruel to this other person, and to do what is right, to humble yourself and apologize. But after you have apologized and your friend smiles and hugs you and is happy, you see how that situation was really of no value, as Samael Aun Weor says in his quote, and that overcoming your anger is such a greater gift than any action could ever be. Regardless of what physical actions we are taking, we need to be concerned with psychological integrity. For what motive are you doing that action? I am less concerned with what you do versus why you do it. If you are being driven by an ego, by a sense of self, which is a delusion and which is false, then that is probably a harmful action. But if you are being driven by your conscience, by your inner divinity, by doing what you know is right and beneficial for you and for others, then that is a positive action. Question: What is astral larvae? Instructor: Astral larvae, I kind of described it as a little energetic bug. And in fact, you can see them in the astral plane. They look like grubs and bugs, and they can basically attach to you, your astral body and suck energy out of you to feed themselves. So if you are in places that are filled with a lot of negativity, a lot of lust, a lot of greed, a lot of violence, these places would have a lot of these bugs sucking up the energy, because that is what they get drawn to. And in places like that, which we call filthy, energetically-filthy places, it is just a breeding ground for astral larvae. Question: Since Gnostics strive to see objectively, can Gnostics be on different sides of an issue, like needing a vaccine, but also may be needing a vaccine for our livelihood? Who draws that line and who's right? Instructor: Of course we can be on different sides of an issue, because as we are, we are striving to see objectively, but at this point we are caught between our own ego and our own confusion. It is said that when the gods want to punish humanity, they confuse them, and that is exactly what we see. We ourselves feel very confused. Our entire humanity is confused and arguing and fighting over many things, some things which don't really matter, some things which seem much more consequential. But again, I want to refer back to this quote towards the beginning of the lecture. Remember that everything passes away. That's the heart of it, even as painful as the suffering and the level of suffering on this planet right now, it will pass away. What we want to do is make sure that as we are living our lives and moving through it, we are taking this opportunity to take what's beneficial from a human existence, and that, we can obtain by comprehending ourselves first. As we come to know ourselves, we will be able to then see more and more objectively the outside world. But as long as we are not aware of our own internal states, which can confuse and manipulate us―the illusions of our ego―then how can we cut through the illusions of the external world? On any issue that you feel divided on, you can meditate. See what in you is trying to control you. Are you being controlled by fear that does not want the vaccine? By pride that says, “I am smarter and I am not going to fall for this trap”? Or conversely, are you being manipulated by fear that says, “I have to take this vaccine for my livelihood to be able to keep my job.” Much of the time it is fear. And so at the end of the day, what is going to be more important than whether we receive a vaccine or whether we don't receive a vaccine is going to be what have we done with the reaction that was created in us in response to that stimulus. So if the case is a vaccine or a certain take on what is going on with the coronavirus in our world right now, use that circumstance not to try to make judgments about what is the truth in the outside world, but use it as a circumstance to see “What is the truth of myself?” and “Can I use this as fuel for my own transmutation?”―to become a wiser and better individual. As II mentioned before, as horrible things as the Black Lodge can do and is doing in our society and to us as individuals, what is much worse is our own state of slumber and delusion. And if we don't clean up our own mind, wake ourselves up, and get rid of the illusions that are keeping us hypnotized and asleep, then we are sheep on the way to the slaughter, so to speak, in terms of any attacks from the Black Lodge. Question: I have two quick questions. The first is while you were talking, I felt inspired and I drew two pentagrams for myself for the bedroom and altar, and I was just wondering, because you specified how to have the pentagram at the at the bedroom door, is there a certain way to use it on the altar? How it should be positioned or to use it? Instructor: Yeah, that's a great question. I can't believe I missed that. Thank you so much. Of course, when we position the pentagram above our bed or on the altar, we might pin it to the wall against or upright above the altar for example, or prop it up on the altar. You want to make sure, again, that those two feet are facing down to the floor and that the top point is facing up to the ceiling. Okay? Question: Okay. The other question was in the Gnostic Prayer Book, I sometimes look at the healing prayers and there is the exorcism of salt that is performed. Two things on that one, because you mentioned how with the sword you use your imagination and use the fiery sword in your room. I often use my imagination for the exorcism of salt and seems like that's okay. Do I need to go put salt in a tray and get the alcohol and do it physically? Instructor: It's best if you can do it physically. Of course, you know fire indoors can be challenging for some people. I myself bought a small bronze pan that was relatively inexpensive, where I can put a little bit of alcohol so that when I light the salt on fire that it doesn't get out of control. But of course, as I mentioned before, I recognize that not all of these things are possible for everyone, and when we do it with sincerity in our heart and our imagination, that's better than not doing the ritual at all, if you understand what I mean. Question: Is there a certain type of alcohol? Instructor: I use rubbing alcohol. Audience: Okay, cool. Thank you. Instructor: Actually, this reminded me of another point. You know, with my first altar, I wanted to put up some pictures of sacred images, sacred masters that inspired me, and at the time being a very poor student, I actually went to the school library where I was able to print and print off those images and just tape them up to the wall. So if there are ways like that, that you can find a way to make your home personalized and inspiring for you, and really bringing divinity's presence into your home, that can be great. It doesn't have to be going all out and spending hundreds of dollars on these different steps that are mentioned. Just do what you can and bring your own soul into it, because the soul has a beauty and an art to it that the mind could never have. Question: Is there a link to nicer pentagram necklaces? Instructor: No, unfortunately, but I will send you the email here: help@chicagognosis.org. Just email us and we will get that information to you if you are interested in the pentagram. Resources and References
This is the final lecture of our course on Beginning Self-Transformation. Here we will synthesize everything that we have learned through expedient and effective practices, and methods for lasting change, including a meditation and an exercise known in the Gnostic tradition as the transformation of impressions or retrospection meditation.
We have been discussing the importance and the principles for deep change, internal change. As you can see from this course, inner change is the direct result of comprehending how and why we perceive life, as well as intuitive, conscious action. This provides clarity, spiritual insight, profound wisdom. By understanding our psychology, we have a greater flexibility by which to work against limitations, conditions, personal obstacles. But we will be clear, genuine psychology is not the study of the mind, the intellect, but is the relationship between psyche, the soul, the consciousness, with the Logos, divinity, the Being. We learn to relate to our Being through self-observation, self-remembrance, insight into karma, fulfilling superior action, enacting ethics, harnessing energy, mantra, imagination, intuition, etc. The reality is that all of our exercises help us to transform the manner by which we perceive ourselves, how we perceive existence, how we relate to humanity and the Being. In Buddhism, it is stated that mistaken views are the most subtle psychological cause of suffering. It is the origin of a lot of pain: this egotistical sense of me, myself, “I.” Mistaken views do not refer to religion, with conflicting ideologies or political beliefs: being Catholic versus Protestant, Republican versus Democratic. Mistaken views, profound ignorance, is the lack of comprehension, cognizance of the fundamental nature of reality. In the West, we typically like to think that ignorance means lacking education. However, the reality is even educated people are profoundly ignorant. This means to lack Gnosis. The prefix “I” signifies “without,” to have “no knowledge” of divinity, of conscious wisdom. It means to lack insight into our mind stream, how we are conditioned, how our psychological elements produce suffering. But how is this the case? Despite our education, our erudition, our knowledge, our most venerated traditions, our experiences, we continue to suffer so much, whether from anger, pride, self-esteem, fear: which is the machinery of society, the gears by which every culture operates, grinding humanity with its tremendous pressure, its exertion, its slavery. All of our defects have their own logic that we project onto life and the world. These are all the different political, religious, theoretical, scholarly ideologies, perceptions of life, which really do not have any practical basis of changing why and how we suffer. This is evident by examining humanity today, the state of the world. If people knew right view, awakened perception, supra-conscious imagination, people would be in happiness. We would not be in pain. Right view, awakened consciousness, originates and is the cause for overcoming all condition. It is the enlightened perception of wisdom, which grants the practical meditator the means by which to tear the veil of the mysteries, to eliminate conditions, the defects of a mind, the animal ego. By refining and purifying our perception, we learn how to act with consciousness, with serenity, with love, which amplifies our happiness and the happiness of others. However, most people ignore that we really possess a psychology that is feasible to modify, to change. The Definition of Transformation
But when people talk about self-transformation, what does this really mean? What does this practically look like in action, in daily life? Let us examine the definition of transformation.
"Transformation: it means that one thing changes into another, different one. It is logical that all things are susceptible to change.” ―Samael Aun Weor, "The Transformation of Impressions” External changes are easily perceptible, but few people in practice actually strive towards and achieve psychological transformations. Many spiritual movements, belief systems, self-help, and self-transformation, self-improvement philosophies teach that changes are possible. Many such ideologies and practices have a very beneficial focus, paradigms, outlooks, such as quitting smoking, losing weight, overcoming alcoholism or addiction. These schools have noble intentions, however, in reality, they tend to focus on altering the personality, not the Essence. In most cases, many people replace old habits with new habits, which can be just as conditioning, hypnotizing, superficial. 
We explained previously how our personality is developed in the first seven years of life, during childhood, and is modified throughout life experiences. It is the energetic interface of our language, our customs, eating habits, tastes: the way we interact with the exterior world. The personality, from the word persona, means “mask.” We cannot exist in this world without a personality. The problem is that we think the personality is our true identity, when in truth it is merely a mask. It is an interface we wear with each separate lifetime. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated, "The personality belongs to time and dies in time. It has no lasting reality."
The ego, the self, desire, this is precisely another major focus of many self-help, esoteric, spiritual schools. It is now a common belief and accepted practice in pretty much every spiritual movement to deify the ego, to fulfill desire, the “I,” to “get what you want,” worship the “I am” at all costs, even at the cost of your neighbor. Yet as we have emphasized throughout this course, it is the ego that is the source of suffering. This is evident through self-examination, self-observation: looking at the facts. Yet when people really talk about change, no matter how noble their longings, their objectives, their efforts, in most cases they don't alter anything. They change their personality, their habits, but never the deep underlying psychological causes of suffering: the conditions of perception. How do we know this? An alcoholic can make tremendous changes in his or her lifestyle: to no longer drink, to not indulge in intoxicants, yet the egos, the “I’s” of drunken revelry, of partying, of disease, of stupor, will continue to exist in the subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, and the infraconsciousness, without any serious internal introspection, examination, comprehension. This is the only way that leads to annihilation of those faults. Because while a person may overcome those addictions in this life, if they die and are given another opportunity, they will return to repeat their existence, the same dramas, tragedies, comedies, failures. The ego repeats. This is known within the transmigration of souls, the doctrine sometimes denominated “reincarnation.” We call it return, because we don't choose to be here. We come here mechanically, unwillingly. And so those egos will continue to exist. The person may have stifled the beast to a degree, but so long as those aggregates, those defects of alcoholism, of addiction, have not been eliminated in meditation, it means that those egos still have the power to tempt. Real lasting change, profound self-transformation occurs when we perform a true alchemy. We transform our egotistical states, the lead of the personality, into the gold of the Spirit, the awakened Essence. 
The Path of Meditation
This is why meditation is the basis of self-transformation.
Samael Aun Weor wrote in The Great Rebellion: "In life, the only thing of importance is a radical total and definitive change. The rest frankly is of no importance at all. Meditation is fundamental when we sincerely yearn for such a change." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion But why is meditation essential for real transformation? Why is it that people who don't meditate don't get anywhere, despite their convictions and their sincerity? Because it is impossible to explore our subconscious, unconscious, and infra-conscious tendencies while we are identified or interacting with the world. Self-observation is the beginning, perceiving our defects throughout our multiple interactions in life. However, self-observation is not enough. It is necessary to abandon the physical body to introspect, to withdraw, and suspend the senses, to concentrate internally upon our divine conscious nature, to focus exclusively on comprehending our errors. The senses provide too much data. The senses provide too many distractions. If you think of it, if you are in a battle and you are surrounded by enemies, you can't really defend yourself effectively, if you are distracted by too many things, by too many people. You have to be very focused, but also aware: to be vigilant and perceptive, but also having the ethic and the concentration to focus on one enemy at a time as they come at you. Obviously in this example, we can be overwhelmed, and this is exactly what the work of the ego is like for people who are really meditating on their faults. It is impossible to annihilate all of our egos at once. We have to concentrate one upon one upon one. Trying to catch ten hares at one time will result in catching none. We have to be methodical, introspective, very precise, logical, profound. We lack depth when we are distracted. It is better to go an inch wide and a mile deep, and not be scattered among so many different agendas. So our senses have too much information. We have to block them out, focus entirely on what is inside. We need to go into the subterranean caverns of our Earth, the profundities of the ocean. These are symbols in the internal planes of the mind and our creative, energetic sexual waters. So just as a scuba diver needs equipment―oxygen to explore the bottom of the ocean―so too do we need energy, the breath, prana, pranayama, creative energy, mantra, to empower our perception and keep us spiritually alive, which is why we spent so much time in this course talking about mantras and energy, so that we can empower our work, so that we are focused, so that we are strong. 
Three Types of Fuel
This is why in meditation we work with energy, pranayama, breathing exercises, so that we have strength and depth to our work. This is because we are a human machine.
We need fuel of different types. The intellectual humanoid is a factory with three floors. Each possesses unique nourishment and functions for the maintenance and the stability of our existence. If we want depth and understanding in our meditative discipline, we have to comprehend that there are three foods for a human machine.
It is easy to see how food and air give us life. We can live a few days, perhaps almost a month without eating. Without air, most would die after a few minutes. However, there is a type of nourishment that we need each instant of our lives, without which we could not have being: that is impressions. Our brain is a marvelous machine, a transmitter of biochemistry, energy, spiritual force, information. While our digestion and lungs can rest temporarily without food or air, our brain would cease to function, to maintain our entire being, our organism, our psychology, if it were not for impressions. 
Impressions
But what are impressions?
From the Latin “impressio, impress, pressed in; from the verb imprimere, to imprint. It is an effect produced upon someone; a mark impressed on a surface by something.” In conventional language, when we say that someone impressed us, we mean that our experience, our interrelations, our perception of that person, produced a pleasant response within us, made us feel good, comfortable, admiring, etc. As we know from life, not all experiences or our impressions of others are pleasant, but unpleasant, negative, disturbing, averse. Experiences, perceptions, impressions constantly enter into us as information, giving us the capacity to interact with the world. Just as the term impression relates to effects produced upon us, it also refers to how existence imprints or presses upon our psyche in order for us to experience, to react, to respond. The consciousness, when it is serene, stable, is like a lake, which is constantly reflecting images upon its surface. It is always mirroring, showing, reflecting reality: the outside conditions or elements of the world, such as the trees, the sky, the mountains, etc. We can say that the images, the impressions, enter our mind in the form of data, not the actual trees, mountains, sounds, etc. This is sensory data, that like a printing press, inscribes upon the pages of our awareness. Perceptions of our surroundings enter us through us through sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touch. These are external impressions. However, we also have internal impressions that emerge spontaneously in response or reaction to external stimuli. 
Reactions of the Human Machine
This occurs in the form of our three brains, the five centers we have discussed at length. The reality is that even without external sensory perceptions, such as laying in an isolation tank, one is left with internal impressions, which is our thoughts, our feelings, and impulses. So if you are not familiar, an isolation tank is when you are in a chamber. People pay to go into a isolated area where they float above saltwater in the dark. They lay still, they relax, so that all sensory perceptions cease. One is left only with the mind, and the mind is a tremendous form or reality that has more grounding and more effect than any external experience.
We like to think that the world is outside, but really our mind is an entire world in itself, and we have to understand how the mind relates to impressions. So the ego is precisely a reaction. It is a response within our three brains to the impressions of life. Some impressions in life, perhaps when we have a dialogue with a friend or at a cafe or coffee shop having a discussion, we are producing intellectual reactions. We are having discussions and are stimulated in our intellect within our human machine, but sometimes dialogue can turn into an argument, and this becomes a dysfunction or reaction of the emotional center or brain. Other impressions, such as being attacked or burning your hand on a hot stove, produce a very quick reaction through instinct and movement. This is the reaction of the motor brain to this experience, whether it is frightening or painful. So why explain all this? Why talk about the human machine again and again? The synthesis of self-transformation is our direct cognizance, our transformation of our reactions to life towards the impressions that enter us all the time. Samael Aun Weor stated in his lecture “The Transformation of Impressions”: "Life enters us, in our organism, in the form of mere impressions. One cannot really transform one's own life if one does not transform the impressions that reach one's mind." ―Samael Aun Weor, “The Transformation of Impressions” The mind, the ego, always reacts, never stops talking, never ceases its commentary. It always chatters within the three brains, especially the intellectual center, but also manifests in our emotions and our impulses. The ego is always reacting to life. It is a mechanical response in relation to external and even internal stimuli. So spiritual transformation is about learning to transform our perception of life. We cease acting mechanically, egotistically. Such as, if somebody insults us, we do not react with anger, with self-esteem, with pride. We have to comprehend why we feel so invested in those insults. It is changing our perceptions of life that is the basis of this work. It is the foundation. 
Personality: The Bad Secretary
However, as we are practicing seriously in Gnosis, we face a very difficult problem in relation to this work of transforming our perceptions, our impressions of life. It is precisely found in the personality.
While we need the personality to survive in this world, to know how to communicate, to work, to survive, by itself it causes many problems when it is not controlled by the Essence. So, language is not a bad thing. Whether you speak English, French, German, Swahili, whatever it is―the language is not so important as the psychological impetus behind the mask. The mask is not to blame for problems in society amongst different cultures, amongst different groups. It is because the ego, the monster, demon “I” acts through the personality, and because the personality does not know how to understand life at all. We like to think that the personality is what created great civilizations: the cities of Chicago and New York. We like to think of how great personalities dominate the media, the news, comedy, sitcoms, and yet, the personality, while it can be very strong and it helps us to navigate the world to a degree, it is not the totality of what we are and what we need to focus on. In fact, it is the personality divorced of any conscious knowledge that is the origin of a lot of conflict, because the ego is the one that usually acts through the interface or mask of our personality. Desire: anger, pride, fear, laziness, etc., these manifest through our language, our customs, our habits, our behaviors, which produce results. The personality, according to Samael Aun Weor, is like a very bad secretary who is really disorganized. Somebody like in this image who mismanages files, valuable information, is in a cluttered office, and this is exactly a representation of our senses and our three brains. The impressions of life usually enter us very spontaneously, without effort. Yet if we are not in self-observation, if we're not remembering ourselves, remembering the presence of your Being, the information of the senses are taken by the personality and they are mistranslated. How are the impressions of life, the data of our experience, mistranslated? The personality takes those impressions and, instead of sending them to the proper centers, sends them to different centers in a malfunctioning way. A clear awakened consciousness perceives the impressions of life and knows how to discriminate what is perceived: to understand the reality and importance of any phenomenon. But the personality, when it is hyperactive, when it is in control, it takes Impressions and confuses them. It muddles them. Here is an example. A man is at his job working with a beautiful woman, whose friendliness and professionalism become misconstrued as some type of amorous advance. The man thinks the woman loves him. He misinterprets the impressions of the woman and therefore he makes a confession of love to her in interest. And this woman can be totally surprised, completely shocked, alarmed because she had no intention of approaching this man in that way, had no thought whatsoever. The man's personality took the impression of his coworker, that emotional sentiment that she exuded, the cordiality and friendship she showed, and sent it to the sexual center. So the man's personality took that information and sent it to the wrong place, and therefore he became stimulated in his desires. It provoked his lust with its too familiar romantic tinge. Such confusion and the mistranslation of the facts is not the fault of the colleague, the woman in this case, but the man's personality, his subjective desires, the ego. And if we are asleep, the personality constantly takes information and sends it all over the place. This is why people are so confused. They don't read people well. There are misunderstandings amongst co-workers, in politics, and religion, everywhere. It is because the personality is dominating the situation. People are disorganized as a psyche, and this has to change. Intellectual humanoids do not transform impressions. They send data to the wrong centers of the human machine. That which would go to the emotional goes to the intellect. For example, perhaps two colleagues are speaking about an issue: a problem at their job. One approaches with emotions, which could be the right response, and yet the intellectual takes that information and butchers it. He does not understand his colleague. He cannot resonate at a level that is conducive for the benefit of the company. People don't relate because they don't understand each other. This is the tower of Babel in the Bible, and the personality is greatly at fault because it is not controlled. The personality in reality must rest. It has to become passive. We have to calm the personality so that the Essence is activated through self-observation and self-remembrance. This method helps us to transform the impressions of life with wisdom, so that we don't perceive life in the wrong way. So that we don't realize later that we were mistaken. This is because information gets filtered to the personality, which is strengthened by the ego, the “I,” desire. 
Transforming Impressions
This is how the Gnostic disciple transforms impressions.
"To transform the impressions of life is to transform oneself." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic So what does that look like? Comprehension of impressions leaves no wake in the lake of the mind. It is like a stone enters the water but leaves no splash, no ripple, no disturbance. Each ego is a ripple, a disturbance, an anomaly, a reaction towards impressions that strike the mind like a stone in a lake. The ego, the self, emerges as a result of impressions. It depends on those impressions to exist, to emerge, to appear. Impressions are its food. The food of vanity is praise. The food of lust is sexual desire, sexual impressions. This ego does not have intrinsic existence. It does not exist eternally in and of itself. It depends upon impressions in order to emerge, to sustain and feed, and then to vanish from our awareness. Pride cannot exist without the circumstances of humiliation or applause. Guttony would have no foundation without the impressions and sensation of eating. The same as with all egos. Each ego is sustained, each self or “I” has its conditioning, its desires, its identity in the moment, in relation to something, through the specific impressions that enter our senses which strike the mind. So what is the transformation of impressions? This work is about understanding how external impressions arrived from the periphery of our senses to the center of our psychology. We have to learn to understand this dynamic very well: how the ego reacts from the center to the periphery, how it relates to the impressions of life. It is in this manner that we really develop a thorough, complete analysis of the ego. When we comprehend the limitations, the conditioning of our reactions, when we really understand how anger is foolish, how we should not respond with hatred to our loved ones because they hurt our pride, we no longer let our defects dominate. We do not follow the path of pain, repetition, cycling. We do not react to any circumstance. It does not mean that we do not respond, and this is very different. A response, in strict language, is when the consciousness is in action, when the personality is passive, when the ego is in control by the Essence. Reaction is egotistical. It is mechanical. We go to a family gathering, they push our buttons, we push theirs, back and forth. Repeat. That is desire. And so we achieve a transformation of impressions when we no longer react to life in the same way, when we train ourselves to change the perceptions of the moment and to understand them. This is really difficult, obviously, for those of us who have been studying for a long time, but it is learned through repeated practice. It is something we can learn and achieve if we practice each day, each moment, adapting to life through our understanding of our experience, understanding our internal impressions and how they react to the external impressions of life. It is obvious that if somebody insults us, we usually react with anger, self-esteem, pride. There is a whole conglomeration of defects, a chain of associative reactions involved, which are very intricate and complex and interrelated. We have to study all of that: how that experience unfolds in our awareness, our attention. Yet if we are being insulted, when we comprehend that insults only have bearing in relation to our own psychological investment in those words, we can transform the impression, the situation. Somebody says something hurtful and if we really comprehend the meaninglessness of that insult, whether it is true or not, it does not matter. But that it is empty, that we have a Being inside that is supra-divine, beyond our personality, our sentiments, our thoughts, our will, that is our true identity. So why be insulted if somebody criticizes us? If we invest ourselves in those comments, then obviously we feel wounded, but if we do not, such a transaction becomes canceled. There is no effect. It leaves no ripple in the mind, no disturbance. There is only serenity and even love for the aggressor. This type of response is selfless love. It is conscious understanding. It is wisdom. It is profound spiritual intelligence. So what is another example of transforming impressions? A big one is lust. This is the big problem for everybody, without exception, in Gnosis. When a man sees a beautiful young woman, he typically identifies and lusts after her, even if only in the mind. However, to transform lust, the man needs to comprehend how this beautiful feminine form will eventually age and decay. This woman will become decrepit, old, unattractive. Comprehending this goes a very long way, because it weakens the hold of lust on the mind, the desire that is attached to a sensation, to an idea, to an impression. We weaken the ego when we comprehend the impermanence of nature. We reduce the power that lust has on the mind when we really comprehend how desire is really stupid. It goes after things which are empty of real existence. We have to first weaken the ego, reduce it slowly, and then annihilate it. This only occurs through very successive comprehensions. So both men and women need to comprehend lust: how desire seeks to satiate itself on illusions. By recognizing in this example, how that woman will one day become old, perhaps ugly, according to the man, and if the man really understands that this woman will no longer be young, why be attached? This lust is fleeting. It is an illusion and it is profoundly degenerated. Comprehension breaks the power of the ego. It allows us to see the enemy as it is. So likewise, women need to train their eyes, and men too, to transform our impressions of the opposite sex of lustful images in the same way. We can visualize that one day this person will get old. Therefore, upon what grounds does lust stand? What does this lust want? When we really understand that this image of this person is not objective and real, that it is not eternal, then the sense of self that grasps at this impression becomes weakened. So why lust after that which is ephemeral? Which is fleeting? Which is impermanent? This is how we judge ourselves. It is how we follow upright conduct. This produces a very high level of being, as well as helping us to raise the level being of others. Interdependence, Selflessness, and Impermanence
So when we comprehend selfless, intuitive action in response to the different circumstances of life, it means we are following our inner judgment, our conscience: the sense of right and wrong. We develop serenity, stability, insight, wisdom, compassion. This is pure Mahayana: pure Tibetan, esoteric Buddhism. This is the law of interdependence: how our consciousness has no self, no ego, no “I.”
Interdependence teaches that no phenomena or internal and external impressions are separate. Nothing exists independently, intrinsically in, of, and for itself. Our mind and impressions coexist and affect each other in a very dynamic way. So, because all impressions fluctuate, our mental states lack eternal existence. They depend upon different, transient, changing impressions in order to be realized, to emerge, to come into being and to fade from our attention when we change our mind. Or better said: when our mind changes us. Therefore, the self we grasp onto is empty. It lacks a foundation. This is not to say that our experience of life does not have some validity. What happens is that we perceive life through a prism. It is a lens that distorts the reality of what we see. Each ego is a filter. It is a prism. It is a cage. It traps light. It is seeing of some degree, but of what quality is it? That is the question we have to ask. Each defect filters and traps the pure light of consciousness, the Essence. So therefore, this illusion of the self is very hypnotic. Hypnosis is the sleep of the soul. From the god Hypnos: sleep, unconsciousness, unawareness. Each ego takes control of the human machine in order to assert its will, but it is only to be replaced by other egos: boisterous, quarrelsome, degenerated. Just because the intellect is in activity does not mean that the consciousness is, and so this is something we have talked about a lot, what awareness is, what cognizance is. But let us be clear, emptiness of self within Buddhist and Gnostic doctrine has nothing to do with nihilism: the belief that nothing matters and that nothing is real. This is a very mistaken view that ignores karma, that there is cause and effect, that there are causes for superior ways of being and causes for negative ways of being. So what interdependence teaches is how the illusion of a permanent self is sustained by impressions, which are transformed and perceive in their transient nature when we learn to observe our states, moment by moment. Only through observation do we realize that each psychological state is subjective. It is one of many thousands of egos that we have, that we need to eliminate. Such a reality of the doctrine of a pluralized self is only verified through self-observation, yet, it demonstrates that the self, the ego, lacks eternal existence. It is a conglomeration of factors. They lack stability and permanence. The egos are always fluctuating and changing according to the situation. Therefore, in Buddhist terms, this self is empty because it depends upon impressions for their reality, their existence. 
Emptiness: Christ Consciousness and Compassion
But in reality, the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness is interdependence. It is the same doctrine of compassion through Christ.
Christ is not a person, but an energy. It is the universal wisdom of enlightened cognizance, the light of liberated, joyful emptiness, luminous and clear. In esoteric Buddhism, Christ is Avalokiteshvara, is Chenrezig, is Kuan Kin, is Amitabha, is Adi-Buddha: the pristine light of clarity, cognizant love, conscious wisdom, awakening. This light is known in Kabbalah as the אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur, the Limitless Light in Hebrew. Christ is the light of conscious perception devoid of self, of me, of “I,” which when entering into the universe, manifests as three in order to create. So we are going to look at these three forces in depth, how they create life within us, just as the three factors create life spiritually and bring death to desire, so that we can serve humanity. This light is known as כֶּתֶר Kether, חָכְמָה Chokmah, and בִּינָה Binah in Kabbalah: the Crown, Wisdom, and Intelligence of divinity. The Christians call these three forces Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but again, these are not persons, but aspects of one intelligence. Buddhism refers to these as a trikaya or bodies of the Buddha: Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya. I will relate to you an excerpt from The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Padmasambava that explains this very beautifully. “…in this intrinsic awareness, the three buddha-bodies are inseparable, and fully present as one: “Its emptiness and utter lack of inherent existence is the Buddha- body of Reality (Kether); “The natural resonance and radiance of this emptiness is the Buddha- body of Perfect Resource (Chokmah); “And its unimpeded arising in any form whatsoever is the Buddha- body of Emanation (Binah). “These three, fully present as one, are the very essence of awareness itself.” ―Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Introduction to Awareness So a body of the Buddha is an expression or vehicle of those principles, which are very elevated, but we can begin to experience these qualities in ourselves if we are really transforming impressions. The purpose of Gnosis is to incarnate, develop this light, Christ within, but to do that the ego must be dead. The ego always demands pleasant impressions and reacts towards negative impressions. However, Christ, the Christic consciousness, is perfectly serene before slander, before persecution, before blame. Are we like that? Are we serene before the insulter? Before the executioner who beats us with their whip? Are we willing to kiss the whip of our executioner? The people in our life that give us problems, that make us suffer, that bring out the most contradictory, condemnatory elements in our psyche? Really to develop Christ within, we have to be willing to transform the most unpleasant situations with ethical uprightness, spiritual conduct, the right thing: ethics. “We have to learn to receive with gladness the unpleasant manifestations of our fellow man." ― Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic This state is known as Christ-centrism. In Kabbalistic language, Christ’s center is everywhere and periphery is nowhere. Christ is everywhere, is absolute. There is no self or individual there. It is universal supra-individuality. It is a type of self or awareness that is devoid of “I,” of subjectivity. It is omniscient, omnipresent, conscious, everywhere. This is pure selflessness, awakened cognizance, Christ wisdom. That sense of being that is within all creatures and therefore does not discriminate against anyone. Does not judge anyone. Christ is the divine absolute abstraction of cosmic space―the compassionate exchange of self with other. Through Christ-centrism, by comprehending how praise is fleeting, is illusory, is ephemeral, we understand the reactions of vanity in our own mind, our three brains. We recognize that vanity, that sense of self-importance, which we defend to the death, is empty. It does not have real existence, has no substance, has no stability. When we realize how insignificant we really are in this universe, we really cancel this sense of self-importance, this vanity that says “I am. I am important. This is who I am. Therefore, everybody should love me.” Unfortunately, this is how everybody thinks. They have to comprehend that this sense of self is illusory. And when you really understand through a great crisis, by transforming difficult impressions when people really persecute you, will you respond with love? When you comprehend that they too are suffering and they don't know why, we understand that our sense of self is not important. It lacks substance. It lacks cohesion. And it is that recognition of such emptiness, which is the pure, pristine light of consciousness. It does not identify with oneself, but feels love for all beings, because they are also trapped in pain. This is insight. This is clarity. This perception naturally awakens the consciousness. It naturally awakens our compassion, which is spacious. It is a liberated. It is a spontaneously joyful moment, a recognition of emptiness. This is known as prajna in Buddhism, wisdom, or Christ. The Three Forces of Transformation
So three forces come into play when we transform impressions in the moment and in meditation. It relates to the top trinity of the Tree of Life. We have affirmation, negation, reconciliation.
Impressions always emerge, they sustain, and they pass within our experience in an unbroken chain. We are always experiencing impressions and their data moment-by-moment. Impressions always affirm themselves upon our attention, our awareness. They impress or imprint their data upon our psyche much in the same way that a film captures scenes and imagery and sounds. That film is our own consciousness, our own mind stream, and we have to study this film. Samael Aun Weor mentions repeatedly how we have to study the film of our life, the dramas, comedies, and tragedies, to watch it like a movie, to not be identified with all the scenes of that experience. Impressions are always affirming themselves within us. When a person insults us, speaks vulgarities or criticism, we usually react with anger, with hurt self-esteem, with pride. This is the second principle: negation. It is the response, the reaction of the ego against impressions. Unfortunately, most people in life go between these two extremes: affirming / denying, good / bad, yes / no. We find these binaries in social conflicts, in religious debates, in politics, in racism. This is the duality, the dualism of hypnosis. It is the swinging pendulum of good and bad that keeps us very unconscious, which makes us very uncritical of ourselves. Someone praises us, we are gratified and we are vain. When we are insulted, we feel hatred. We are mechanical. We are predictable. We are machines. If we wish to develop Christ within, to cease being a machine, we have to negate the ego. We have to observe the mind in relation to the impressions of life that arrive within our perception. We have to comprehend the words of the insulter and our relationship to it, our connection, and question, really, sincerely: “Why do I believe these words? What value do they have? Are these criticisms perhaps objective and right? If they are, I have nothing by which to be offended, since I can learn and grow as a person. Yet if it is wrong, why should I feel hurt and slandered if I am not guilty?” Such an analysis is not intellectual, but comprehensive, cognizant, conscious. This is how we reconcile ourselves before the world when we work with the third force: reconciliation, synthesis, understanding. True intelligence is knowing how to transform impressions and to respond with intelligence, with consciousness. This is Binah in Kabbalah, the Holy Spirit: the manifestation of comprehension in time and space, Nirmanakaya. 
Reconciliation is knowing how to respond to a situation with intelligence: to not react to whatever diverse, unpleasant manifestations our fellow men are giving us, even when we feel that we are being crucified. And really, this is the path that Jesus taught with his flesh and bones. As you see in this image, he is receiving the whips and scorns of his fellow man, but instead of responding with resentment, with hatred, with despair, he said, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." This state of serenity is profound. It is revolutionary.
This type of consciousness scares demons, terrifies them because they can't affect him, Christ. Denying ourselves is affirming Christ. But feeding our desires is negating Christ. People who feed their anger in moments of crisis do not reconcile anything. Instead, they live within the law of retaliation, with the law of retribution: the dualism of aggressor and victim, which perpetuates violence, pain. Denying ourselves is affirming Christ, reconciling us before the law of karma, because a superior action always washes away an inferior one. This is Christ-centrism. But the ego is self-centrism. It is the opposite of the Christ principle. Whenever we identify with the ego, in our confusion, its periphery is everywhere in the senses and its center is nowhere. The feeling of identification, after we have been working in self-observation, is like being lost, losing energy. We become disoriented. We don't see the center of the ego, where it came from, how it fed, how it sustained and how it stole our vital forces. We get lost. This is like muddying the waters of our mind. When we feed anger, those limpid waters of our psyche become agitated. They become chaotic like a hurricane, a tsunami, a storm. With comprehension, images reflect on the surface with clarity, with a type of crispness and vitality that is only distinguishable to the one who meditates. It is impossible to gain enough stability in life, in our ordeals, if we are not meditating, because there is just too much chaos. We need a third force, the synthesis, spiritual intelligence, understanding, to have a foundation under which we can stand and have ground, so that we have real understanding or better said, serenity, insight―a real foundation that is not shaken easily by crises. So while the lake of the mind is serene within those who transform impressions, the ego on the other hand thrashes like a wild animal in the lake of the mind. The ego is disturbance. This is very evident if we are blinded by anger. Samael Aun Weor mentioned in Igneous Rose that the greatest obstacle to developing clairvoyance, clear seeing, imagination, self-observation, is anger. And this is why Prophet Muhammad taught “The strongest among you is he who controls his anger.” Serenity and sweetness is the key to unlocking the mysteries. When observing and comprehending the ego, we find that its center is in the three brains, because we do not let it project outwards into our senses and onto our experience. Through identification, we become blinded and we do not see the origin or how that defect took over. But when we are working with the transformation of impressions, as the Essence, we are learning to comprehend the insults or the ordeals of the moment and not allowing the ego to express outwardly. This does not mean repression. It means comprehension. Comprehension is very different. We do not let the mind react, but not because we subject it and stifle it and gag it and shout to it to be silent, but because we look at it serenely and do not feed it our energy. This is the basis by which we can really go deep, to have a stability and foundation in ourselves where we don't go along with the flow. When we eliminate self esteem, pride, selfishness, anger, we naturally irradiate serenity, compassion towards others. We no longer judge others. We learn to see the soul within humanity. We see the good in others, and this is a very profound sign that we are really changing. As Samael Aun Weor states in The Revolution of the Dialectic: “When one things differently and positively about people, it is a sign that one is changing. We need to cease being what we are in order to become what we are not. One has to become missing to oneself. The outcome of all this is the advent of someone who is not oneself." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic There is a Sufi by the name of Mansur Al-Hallaj who is very famous for saying "I am the Truth,” (Ana 'l-Ḥaqq in Arabic), which means, basically, that he was God, because Al-Haqq is one of the sacred names of God in Islam, and that statement got him executed by the orthodoxy. Now what is interesting about this great master was that he had no ego in him, but only the Being was present who spoke through his lips. In his poetry, he states "I have become lost to myself. I do not know who I am!” And this is a type of feeling which the consciousness can experience, which is very different from the ego, when the consciousness really begins to understand that real identity is in selflessness. But this is a very subtle point to understand and comprehend, because the ego, in its disconnection from the Being, can create a type of ephemerality, of vagueness, of fogginess, which is not what we are talking about. States of the Being a very clear and crisp and based on facts. So this advent of someone who is not us means that we have to transcend, little by little, transform little by little. This is how we clarify our imagination and remove fantasies. We develop it through clarity, through crispness of mind, tranquility, conscious love, especially for our worst enemies, which is why Samael Aun Weor also stated, "We violate the law of the tranquil heart when we criticize others." 
The Mental Stomach
In the process of transforming Impressions and awakening consciousness, we begin to form what Samael Aun Weor calls a mental stomach.
Right now we are humanoid machines. We mechanically take in impressions, but do not transform them with consciousness, with understanding, which is why Samael Aun Weor, in The Revolution of the Dialectic stated: “In the same manner that the digestive apparatus has a stomach in order to assimilate food, in the same manner that the respiratory system has lungs to assimilate oxygen, so too must a mental stomach be created by the mechanical human being." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic The mental stomach must be created through meditation and alchemy. When we become skilled meditators, when we are transforming impressions daily, we digest nourishment from the diverse experiences and ordeals of life. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated that meditation is the daily bread of the Gnostics. It is the daily bread of the wise. We have to learn to meditate on our different egos, to understand how they emerged, what fed them, what provoked them, what impressions they were after, why they have strength in our psyche, where they came from, what associates they have, what egos they tagged along with, how they function, why hey function. By extracting this type of knowledge, we sustain our spirituality. Just as we need to chew on food, to break it down so that our stomach can assimilate vital nutrients, digest principles, so too do we need to contemplate the impressions of life, to create a mental stomach, meaning: we are creating a center of gravity in ourselves that is being more effective and developed and profound. We need these nutrients in order to grow spiritually, because the mental stomach does not exist in humanoids, which is all of us. So what happens to a person if they don't have a stomach? A person who cannot break down foods? What happens is that the person becomes constipated. In a psychological sense, intellectual humanoids who do not digest impressions become psychologically constipated. They are filled with refuse and trauma. So traumas and conflicts can be resolved if we learn to go inside and create this apparatus, which is psychological. It is not an actual stomach, but it is based upon the question of “Who am I? Where do I come from? What are my psychological states? Who is this sense of self in a particular moment or in different moments? How do these identities and selves relate? How do they feed? What are their impressions? What is their nourishment? How can I transform these situations so that I no longer suffer in them?” It is in this way that we develop this type of inner digestion. 
Retrospection Meditation
The best method for that is retrospection meditation. We gave a practice on chicagognosis.org in our Gnostic Meditation course that explains in detail how to practice this exercise.
In synthesis, what it involves is that we enter a state of serenity. We withdraw our senses. We relax. We close our eyes to the external world. We work with pranayama or energy so that we have vital force by which to stabilize our concentration. After we have transmuted our sexual creative energy, created a flow of forces that produce stability, serenity, we then concentrate upon our day. We also visualize a particular event in our day that we want to understand, because in our self-observation, we, perhaps, have seen four or five egos in relation to an event. It is good to remember all the events of our day, but with the retrospection meditation, we should focus on those events or one event, especially, in which we had certainly seen egos emerge that really need to be eliminated. We have to concentrate upon those scenes. Imagine them with clarity. Do not add to or detract from what was seen, what was heard, what was thought, what was felt, but simply look at the facts. We review and pray to our Divine Mother Kundalini to help us have understanding, because She is intelligence in Kabbalah. She is Binah, understanding. We beg Her to help us understand the egos that act in a certain situation, because we want to eliminate them. But first we have to see them. That is the first step. We have to transform the impressions in the moment, so that we understand and see those egos in action and do not act upon them. But the next step, which is much more profound, is to go home at the end of our day: we sit down. We pray. We relax. We introspect. We visualize. We relax. We look at those egos and ask for comprehension for each one. We can spend 10-15 minutes or however long we can or need to on each ego. And once we have arrived at comprehension, we eliminate. We pray toward our Divine Mother to eradicate these faults. I invite you to explore this lecture. It explains the system in great detail. This method is very transformative. And so this lecture on the transformation of Impressions is a beginning step for really practicing retrospection meditation. So that by understanding the principles, we can really go deep and start to make radical changes in ourselves. I invite you to ask questions. Questions and Answers
Question: What is the difference between the subconsciousness and the infraconsciousness?
Instructor: It is a good question. We explain the significance of the two in a lecture called “Imagination and Fantasy” in this course. Basically the subconsciousness is that which is beneath our awareness. It is just under the surface, and most of the time the egos we perceive in our work, in the physical world, are subconscious, because they are just beneath the radar of our awareness, typically. They are inferior or beneath our regular perceptions, unless we are looking. Our subconscious has a lot to do with our memories, our habits, things that we grew up with, early life experiences, which become deepened with repeated experiences. The subconsciousness is like a cave. It is the darkness just beneath the light of attention, and often times that type of element in our psyche can be very deep, but obviously there are deeper forms of egos that we have to work on. The deepest is the infraconsciousness. That is the lowest hell realms of the psyche, where we have the most diabolic qualities of mind that we cannot even accept that we have, because they are so degenerated, and yet everybody has it. We experience those infraconscious states in nightmares, in hallucinations, drug-induced experiences, traumas, forms of violence that are very horrible. The infraconsciousness is so deep down in the psyche that we do not recognize or want to acknowledge that we have that. However, it influences everything. There is also another type of psychological state, the unconsciousness, which is frustrated desire, which is even further down beneath the subconsciousness, but in terms of degrees, the subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, and the infraconsciousness are merely different stratifications of the ego. Some egos are very deep, some are in the surface, and obviously we work upon what we can see in our daily life. Comment: Even though I concur with the meditation process for greater insight beyond our ego and learning not to respond and overreact during adversity and impulsivity, but to reflect and release for resolve, at the same token as I have learned over the course of several years, we coexist among narcissist and sociopaths. Although these encounters are yet moments of personal evolution, yet still, we need our ego not just to thrive but to survive certain encounters that are most detrimental. Instructor: So I am not sure if that is phrased in terms of a question, but the reality is that we do not need the ego to live. In this society, which is based upon ego, obviously, if we are learning to vibrate at a different level of being, it becomes difficult for us, because we no longer resonate with all the interests or qualities of being of our neighbors. This can become a tremendous source of conflict for the student, especially in the beginning, where we are trying to raise our level of being and no longer vibrate with the culture around us, which is degenerated and degenerating. But in reality, if we are working effectively with these methods, as we are raising our level of being, we can learn how to navigate the world with consciousness, with wisdom, because divinity knows how to relate to all beings regardless of distinction, regardless of their level of being. Of course this is a learned skill. Obviously, we do not learn how to relate to the world easily unless we are meditating and changing internally, but it is possible. The ego does not need to exist in order to really make changes or to thrive or to survive. There was a comment made by a student to Samael Aun Weor who said, “I have a factory where I create pants, and if I eliminate the ego that creates pants and runs this factory, how will I survive?” And Samael Aun Weor stated that the wisdom enclosed within the consciousness that is trapped in those egos, “know how to make better pants than your ego ever will.” So there is wisdom in the consciousness. The ego can only produce pain. This is the fundamental stipulation of every spiritual tradition, every meditative path. Question: I still really struggle a lot with understanding or, what we use the term to say, comprehending some of my reactions and behaviors, and I'll just take for instance anger. I feel like there are like many levels and I think that's why it seems to always elude me. I know I have read some things where it says like if you pray to eliminate things before understanding them, that it can be detrimental too, because you haven't really taken it out by the root so speak. But should one, should I, should any one of us take whatever situation and pray to eliminate it? Or first pray to understand it, and couldn't that possibly take years? Because if you keep having an experience where it comes up, doesn't it mean like you haven't really quite understood it yet if it comes up and again and again? I think that's the question. Instructor: Great question. There are levels of upon levels of understanding. The beauty of comprehension is that it is dynamic. It is organic and fluid. It is not a static thing, like one day you are going to understand this, and then, therefore, we are done. Comprehension unfolds in a very magical way when we are really practicing meditation each day, because we can understand a defect in a very superficial level, but as we are eliminating those faults to a degree, we are beginning to perceive more and more light, because we are extracting consciousness daily. In that way, we strengthen our perception so that we can go deeper. And obviously, the deeper you go, the more results you get, but of course, we have to work with where we are at. You know, usually we start with the subconscious elements that we can perceive in this daily life as we are learning to awaken ourselves. And I would say that the fundamental quality of that perception is always something very new. So the way that you know that you are doing it is if every time you sit to meditate and observe yourself, you are seeing new qualities. There is a type of sharpness there and a type of nourishment to the soul when it understands that we are beginning to reflect more and more understanding of the daily reality of our subconsciousness in our experience. Now another point that you had brought up about asking for annihilation of an ego that you have not fully comprehended. It is not bad to ask for annihilation, you know. We have to work with where we are at. If we see a defect in action and we want to eliminate, but based on what we have seen, we can pray for more understanding and we can also pray for elimination. Now the Divine Mother won't fully eliminate that ego unless the comprehension is total, because She knows that she cannot eliminate that aggregate without our help. We have to rely on Her to help us go deeper. But also there is no risk or harm involved by asking Her, because you have to remember that She is the divine force of intelligence. She is Binah. She is the understanding of God, so She knows how to work with us very well. You know, it is up to us to really develop the training, to really sincerely go deeper and to eliminate. But of course, do not feel like you cannot ask for annihilation, because you feel like you do not know enough. Obviously, if there is something more there that you sense, obviously, go deeper. But based off what we perceive, we can ask for elimination at our level, because you have to think of the ego like an iceberg, and this is a common trope within psychology too, about the subconscious nature of the mind, because that which is beneath the surface is obviously a huge structure that's very complex and intricate. And we of course have to go underwater in order to really understand the depths. But of course, the more depth you understand, the more you can work upon. The thing to remember is that we have to develop clarity in our perception, meaning: we are seeing the new always in our daily work. That is how we know that we're really marching in the right direction, if that makes sense. Audience: Yeah. I am going to put it into practice and and understand it better. Thank you very much. Instructor: You are welcome. Question: Can this practice have an impact on our dreams or is it common to receive comprehension in dreams after retrospection? Instructor: They go hand-in-hand. Samael Aun Weor mentions that meditation unfolds the chakras of the astral body. So they can have a very profound effect, not only in our waking states, but also our internal states. So the more you awaken in dreams, the more understanding you have. And the more you meditate in retrospection, the more you begin to understand your dreams. They are really two sides of the same coin, two aspects of the same thing. I found that over the years, my understanding of my internal experiences has become much richer as a result of meditating, and that my meditations and recognizing comprehension is much more robust as a result of recognizing those same states within the astral plane. So they really go hand-in-hand. Question: Why does meditation feel like hard work at times? Can you please expand on the annihilation of the ego of lust? Instructor: Meditation is hard or feels hard because we have a lot of resistance in the mind. There is a force that the ego exerts upon our psyche as we are trying to introspect. So going back to the three forces: affirmation, negation, and reconciliation. We find these three principles related to that struggle. We affirm the work, we want to meditate, to initiate this path, and are working with the first principle. However, the ego tries to deflect any type of introspection. It is very well known within psychology and counseling when a patient tries to ignore or to externalize blame for situations. Perhaps a person suffered a great trauma and committed the wrong action and is traumatized by it. And therefore the mind is so defensive that it has these barriers up and resists analysis, because the pain of confronting that is too great. And so the ego is like that. The ego knows that we are going to annihilate it in this work, and therefore our own defects do not ignore the reality of the Gnostic path, that it will result in the death of the ego, and so it fights. The ego resists analysis. It pushes against our understanding. This is known as counter-transference within Gnostic psychology, Gnostic psychoanalysis. Because when we are analyzing our mind in meditation, the ego resists. It doesn't want to be seen, because it knows that if it is caught, it will be dead. Lust is especially the worst, or one of the worst egos, really. It is the origin of all the other defects: the misuse of sexual energy. And therefore, lust tries to disguise itself in many ways, whether as romance, as love… very sentimental ways. But we have to be very serious and understand how lust produces a lot of suffering, and has many subtleties, because lust will often even take on the robe of mysticism. This is why you find in certain religious groups, why gurus and teachers sleep with their students, and commit all sorts of degeneration and adultery. It is very sad, because lust has confused people. So our lust is like that. It likes to love God, even believe in Christ, but it is Judas. Judas is an ego that loves divinity, loves religion, loves spirituality, but loves fornication more. And so we have to recognize the subtleties of desire in ourselves. But of course, lust really presents an obstacle because it projects, basically, its desires upon our life. So the way to understand and overcome that counter-transference, that resistance of the ego of lust of the mind, is the third force, reconciliation. We do that when we comprehend and really look at the different structures the mind presents in its defense. The way that you overcome the resistance of the mind is through a superior energy, which is why we have to work with transmutation, with chastity, because without chastity, we cannot have power to work on lust. It is impossible. I have spoken with a lot of different peoples or students in different groups, and many people who struggle with lust, who can't get over the physical foundation of chastity. It is difficult. But the reality is if you want comprehension, if we want understanding, we have to really master the science of energy. So learn to transmute the energy, work with runes, sacred rites of rejuvenation, pranayama, alchemy, so that that third force, the Holy Spirit, reconciliation, can give us the power to penetrate the mind. And that way, by simply looking at desires, or what structures they present in our psyche, we could begin to understand the how and why of the mind. We no longer become hypnotized by it. It is difficult, but work with energy, and work with psychoanalysis in yourself. Really practice some of the principles from the lecture we recommended, where you look at the mind and do not judge. Do not label. Do not evaluate. Just look at it. Introspect. See it for what it is, and suddenly understanding will emerge, as you are not identifying with those desires, with the resistance, in struggles of the intellect. Question: I am unable to successfully transform impressions. Our attempts to respond with sweetness sometimes seems disingenuous to other people and ourselves. What is most necessary to remember in our actions with other people? Because it is tough to remember our divinity, have awareness of ourselves and other people at all the same time. Instructor: The important thing to remember is that if we have remorse in our heart, if we are patient, if we are really determined to be successful in this path, we will be successful. What it takes is a type of super-effort. The thing to remember is that in those moments in which we are perhaps failing in transforming impressions, is to remember God, to pray. This prayer does not have to be any type of formula, but it is simply the connection of our sincerity, and simply admitting to out Being, “My God, help me! I cannot transform this situation. It is killing me!” And personally, if I am teaching you this is because this is a reality for me. There were certain situations in my life that really, and even physically, could have killed me, and I prayed to my Being, “Help me to overcome this, to transform these impressions, this situation, to remember You!” Because I was facing ordeals at certain moments in my life where really, I could have been killed. I faced some pretty extreme karma, so to speak, but in those moments, I relied only on my Being and prayed, “Help me to have the humility to face myself.” Humility and sincerity are the key to repentance. We have to remember, in most interactions with other people, that we have to be humble. Most of the time we like to assert ourselves upon others, to be proud. Now, we have to learn to receive the unpleasant situations of humanity, but to remember to be sincere―to really reflect, “What am I doing in myself that needs to change?” and to really have the humility to receive that wisdom and insight from our Being, and even from other people who can tell us exactly what the situation is. But we may not be looking at it because we are stubborn or proud. Yes, it is very difficult to remember divinity, but divinity is always with us. We learn to recognize that state more and more if we are persistent. There is a reason why in the Sufi tradition they refer to this path as a holy war: to strive against the ego. It is not easy. It is a battle. But we have to remember what it is we want most. Do we want to be happy people because we are no longer afflicted with desire? Because we recognize how conscious states are superior? Or do we wish to cave in? So, the choice is ours. Question: How not to be overwhelmed with the amount of work it takes to eliminate our egos? Instructor: Personally, when I look at my own mind and I see how much I have to work on, I reflect on my Being. I pray to my God to help me remember His blessings and Her blessings in my life. Because the reality is that we cannot be one-sided. Yes, we have ego. We have defects. We have faults. But that does not mean that this is all to us. We have to remember that yes, while we have faults, we also have virtues. We have to meditate on virtue, and this is something that many people ignore. A lot of people approach the transformation of impressions, thinking that we have to just focus on the ego. Obviously, that is an important step, but we also have to remember to meditate on our Being, the qualities of God, the mercy of God―to reflect on those qualities in our life and how we have really manifested, or seen or expressed, and tasted that state of compassion and selflessness and real conscious love. When you really recognize how beautiful that psychological state is, you will fight to the death for it. You will not go down easily. You will not give up, because really the virtues of your Being are so vast and so worth the effort that it does not matter how painful it is, how difficult the cross is, but you carry it because you love humanity and you love your Being more than all things. So remember your Being. Now if you have had experiences, in the astral plane, of your Being, that is even better, because you can meditate on those qualities in yourself and remember that positive strength and charge, that quality that you felt when you were before God. Of course, there is levels and degrees of this, but it is going to be personal for each one of us. Question: You mentioned political involvement in the beginning of your lecture, which would encompass the ego. Are you suggesting that we refrain from involvement in politics? Instructor: I would say not necessarily. There is one great master of Buddhism in the Gnostic tradition who is in politics, and it is the Dalai Lama. He is working with the ray of politics to help humanity. And obviously he is performing a great mission. So while I am saying to avoid egotistical, political, petty debates, it doesn't mean that we can't help in politics. Obviously, if that is something in our vocation and within our spiritual ray, our particular qualities of Being, that is something we need to pursue. We have to follow God above all things. Question: Does having a bad secretary mean I cannot trust myself, thoughts, feelings, or instincts? Instructor: We need a type of self-criticism, which is very deep, but also we need to have trust in positive states. We have to learn not to approach this type of self-criticism, or scalpel of putting our ego on the dissection table, with a type of one-sided morbidity, like we are working in a morgue. We are dealing with a lot of dead things, filled with refuse, and being very poisoned by the environment. This is how many people end up leaving Gnosis, because they do not meditate on the virtues of God. So yes, you have to not trust your thoughts, your feelings, your instincts, the ego, but there are superior thoughts and superior emotions, which we can experience through the superior intellectual and superior emotional centers. We learn to develop more trust and confidence in our states when we follow inner judgment. We follow our conscience, and that is something that only you can learn in yourself. Nobody else can teach you how to do that. But when you learn that quality in yourself and you develop it more and more, it becomes the ark upon which you sail, no matter how stormy the ocean, your daily life. And that is a state that you have to recognize. Now it comes to my memory the story of Doubting Thomas in the Bible, how, when everyone was ranting about how Jesus was risen from the dead, Thomas said, “I will not believe it unless I see him for myself.” And so a lot of people like to accuse this apostle with a type of skepticism, but the reality is that he is a type of conscious discrimination: how the Essence knows how to analyze and to test things without doubt, without skepticism, without pessimism. It is a type of analysis that only accepts what is verified through experience and is a type of confidence. It is stability of concentration and will that is very deep. So learn to develop that by meditating on positive states. The thing to remember when you are transforming impressions and meditating on the transformation of impressions, we also have to remember what virtuous qualities we have enacted in the day as well, in our retrospections, because, yes, while the secretary of the personality is terrible, makes mistakes, it does not mean that we are making mistakes all day. We have to look at the positive actions we have enacted and to be honest and sincere, not trying to go one way or the other. So we thank you for attending this course, and I look forward to providing and sharing with you more of this knowledge, which has helped myself in many ways and which I am greatly indebted to our teacher, Samael Aun Weor. I thank you all for coming. 
Everything we have explained in this course of Beginning Self-Transformation is preliminary. The most essential principle for transforming and elevating our psyche is the divine feminine.
All religions bear a profound respect and veneration of the divine feminine, the Divine Mother. It is really the Abrahamic traditions that have lost sight of this and have adulterated the significance of Her presence in the spiritual work. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam reject any femininity in divinity as an effort to distance themselves, to define themselves against the so-called “pagan” religions. The reality is that God, the Being, is not entirely masculine, but feminine as well. This is a profound fact, which confounds and scandalizes religious fanatics, people who are accustomed to a patriarchal anthropomorphism, who fail to recognize that God, the Being, is not a person, but a force, an energy. Divinity is an intelligence. Divinity is within nature, and more importantly within our consciousness, with distinct qualities, principles, characteristics that can really be qualified, classified, and defined as masculine and feminine, yet, not in accordance with modern societal mores, beliefs, ideologies. The reality is that divinity has masculine and feminine polarities of expression. Yet these principles are not merely limited to just physical gender. They constitute archetypes, forces, blueprints for creation, the expression of the Spirit. We can say that the divine masculine is projectivity. It is symbolized by the positive polarity of electric charge. It is force, magnetism, assertion, willpower. It is the energy that initiates, which commands, that organizes and even impregnates, engenders, disciplines, and forces. On the other hand, the divine feminine is receptivity. It is the negative polarity of electric charge. It is the force of conception, gestation, of nurturing, the sustenance that develops a child, the development of youth under the auspices of maternity. All religions, every ancient tradition teaches, that the world's animals, human beings, and the Gods are the consequence of sexual union: the harmonization of masculine and feminine. Every single cosmogony teaches this: how masculine divinity cannot create, cannot develop, cannot manifest without the help of the feminine divine. Therefore, it is really ignorant to reject the divine feminine because of theological, theosophical, or vain beliefs. The divine feminine is a cosmological reality, which we the Gnostics experience, which we develop through our meditations. A masculine God cannot create anything without the feminine goddess, just as a man cannot have a child without a woman. As above, so below. The Father, our innermost God, unfolds Himself into the Divine Mother. She is the derivative expression of our innermost Being. Through Her, He is able to create life and create it in abundance. Through Her, divinity is able to sustain worlds, awaken the soul. As Gnostics, we never forget the worship and respect, the veneration of the Divine Mother, the divine feminine. Because just as we have a physical mother to whom we owe life, likewise, we must show respect and profound adoration for our Divine Mother Kundalini if we wish to change, because She is the force that awakens us. She is the one who elevates the soul, who brings us to spirituality, who provides us with astral experiences, profound samadhis, conscious experiences in the Tree of Life, the superior worlds of the Kabbalah. She is the one responsible for us because She is the one who raises us from suffering. Without Her, we would be lost in this work. She is the one who initiates, who develops, and who completes this work, especially in relation to the disintegration of the ego. So, today we are going to elaborate on who She is and Her unique role in the work, in this Gnostic path of self-transformation. Sacred Sexology
Yet, to do that, we need to comprehend and understand the principles of sacred sexology.
The reality is that just as a man and a woman are needed to create a physical child, both sexual polarities, material and energetic, are needed to create the soul. This is stipulated throughout the Gnostic writings of Samael Aun Weor. It is simple. It is not elaborate. God creates both physical and spiritual life through sex, but that depends upon our intention, our mental state, our behavior—whether it is pure or degenerate, conscious or egotistical. Sex creates. It engenders. It develops. These principles are within every religion: how man and woman, husband and wife, can use the creative sexual energy in order to give birth to their spirituality. That creative energy is the Divine Mother, and therefore, She creates in us when we know how to use the polarities of sex, male-female. As above, so below. It is a law. It is the Dharma, the sacred knowledge of alchemy. We can believe whatever we want. But if we wish to create a child, a man needs a woman and a woman needs a man. To create a solar awakened consciousness in its full capacity, to realize our full potential as a perfected divine being, an angel, a man needs a woman and a woman needs a man, through conscious love and sexual cooperation. This is because birth is a sexual problem. It is not a belief. And therefore, the birth of the angel, the inner human being, the second birth cited by Jesus, is no exception. Through what is known as tantra, alchemical union, the harmony of masculine and feminine sexes, that energy, which is usually expelled through desire, for procreation, can be converted, can be conserved, sublimated, transmuted, transformed, so that the charged sexual forces of man and woman create a synthesis. This is the child of God, the Son of Man in Christianity, the Christ child or Egyptian Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, the golden child of medieval alchemists, the Platonic Logos, the Kundalini Shakti power of the great yogis of Sahaja Maithuna, the Shekinah of the Kabbalists, the Brazen Serpent of Moses, which is a metallurgic amalgamation of copper—a symbol of Venus, the woman—and the metal tin, the planet Jupiter, or the man. Both polarities, physical genders, are needed to create physical and spiritual life. However, we need to clarify. Gender is not a construct. It is not a concept, a morality, and accepted code of expectations in society imposed by patriarchy, by institutions—something to be rejected or deconstructed by subversive logic. Gender is a material reality. It is based upon our generative organs and the secondary sexual characteristics they attribute to our personality and expression. While our physical sex bears specific characteristics to our terrestrial personality, the divine principles of the Father and Mother are archetypical. They are abstract. They are profound states of being. There are correlations between both sexes, but they are not rigid. We can say that the Divine Father is wisdom, instruction, paternity. The Divine Mother is love, elevation, subsistence. In a perfect matrimony, the man embodies the principles of the Divine Father and the woman embodies the principles of the Divine Mother in body, speech, and mind. So what is the purpose of transformation as we have been explaining throughout this course? We seek to realize the true self. Who is the Divine Father and the Divine Mother? They are within us. They are our true identity, our Being. But we can only reach them through the three factors we explained in the previous lecture on the revolution of the consciousness. While the Divine Father and Divine Mother are distinct in us, this is not to say that they don't share or embody the same principles, that there are rigid correlations here or correspondences. It is not the say that the Father does not characterize love, or the Divine Mother, wisdom. Knowing the nature of divine masculine and divine feminine is a profound matter of experience in the consciousness—to go beyond our culture's conceptions of sex, humanity’s subjective perceptions about gender, about gender roles in society.
What matters in these studies is that we appreciate and work with our sexual energy, whether it is masculine or it is feminine. We do so through complementarity, to complement ourselves: a man for a woman and a woman for a man. But why?
If you look in this graphic, you see husband and wife holding hands and their sexual organs symbolized by two triangles. There are the ovaries of the woman and the testicles of the man, as well as the vagina of the woman and the phallus of the man. The sexual organs are a battery. It is the most profound form of energy we carry within. One gonad has a positive electric spiritual charge and another gonad has a negative receptive feminine charge. In order for electricity to flow, you need both a positive and a negative. This is the essence of tantra. For these energies to flow perfectly, masculine and feminine must reconcile. Notice that when you join these two triangles together, when the sexual organs of male-female join, you create the Star of David: the Seal of Solomon, the seal, the perfection of the solar man, a true master who has conquered the creative energies and has perfected him or herself. The masculine and the feminine compliment. They help each other to arrive at a synthesis, to generate light of a spiritual conscious nature. So these principles are extremely beautiful. Ancient mythologies teach us very profound and beautiful truths, and to frame our discussion, we can find the principles and qualities of the Divine Father and the Divine Mother reflected in a beautiful poem by Victor Hugo. He is the author of Les Miserables, a very famous text, a humanist novel, relating to the French Revolution, and Samael Aun Weor quotes a poem of his in The Perfect Matrimony called “Man and Woman.” I will read it at length. Man is the most elevated of creatures, Woman the most sublime of ideals. God made for man a throne; for woman an altar. The throne exalts, the altar sanctifies. Man is the brain, Woman, the heart. The brain creates light, the heart, love. Light engenders, love resurrects. Because of reason, Man is strong, Because of tears, Woman is invincible. Reason is convincing, tears, moving. Man is capable of all heroism, Woman of all martyrdom. Heroism ennobles, martyrdom sublimates. Man has supremacy, Woman, preference. Supremacy is strength, preference is the right. Man is a genius, Woman, an angel. Genius is immeasurable, the angel indefinable. The aspiration of man is supreme glory. The aspiration of woman is extreme virtue. Glory creates all that is great; virtue, all that is divine. Man is a code, Woman a gospel. A code corrects; the gospel perfects. Man thinks, Woman dreams. To think is to have a worm in the brain, to dream is to have a halo on the brow. Man is an ocean, Woman a lake. The ocean has the adorning pearl, the lake, dazzling poetry. Man is the flying eagle, Woman, the singing nightingale. To fly is to conquer space. To sing is to conquer the soul. Man is a temple, Woman a shrine. Before the temple we discover ourselves, before the shrine we kneel. In short, man is found where earth finishes, Woman where heaven begins. —Victor Hugo, “Man and Woman” We speak about both Divine father and Divine Mother together to preface our focus on the role of the divine feminine. She is essential to the birth of our soul, and that we would not have existence without our mother. The same goes for our spirituality. 
The Divine Mother in Different Myths
The eternal feminine exists in every religion. Both aspects of our Being have been represented throughout every religious tradition, without exception.
The Divine Mother is represented by a sacred cow. But why? We nourish our body with the milk of a female cow. In the same manner, we nourish our consciousness with the milk of wisdom, virtue, creative energy, transmutation, and the remembrance of our Divine Mother's presence. Even milk as a substance resembles semen. It is the seminal energy, which nourishes our infancy and helps us to become a spiritual man or woman. The Divine Mother's love is so pervasive and so vast, that she has been represented by the sacred cow of Hinduism, within the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian Taurine mysteries, and the life of Gautama Buddha Shakyamuni and Krishna, both cowherds. In Islam, the longest surah of the Quran is Al-Baqarah, “the Cow,” a symbol of divinity's power to resurrect the soul, because in that scripture Prophet Muhammad relates the magical and power, the influence of a cow whose leg can resurrect the dead. That is a symbol of the power of the divine feminine who raises us from the death of our spirit to the heights of realization. In Islam, the Qur’an is sung. The power of the Divine Mother Cow is in the verb and in sex: the stone or Kaaba of the Muslims. How we speak, as we stated in the lecture “The Spiritual Power of Sound,” determines how we spend energy, either for liberating the soul or enslaving it—whether we produce beneficial action or bring about our own damnation, our own suffering. To spell “the cow” in Spanish is La Baca. Baca backwards is Kaba. All of this synthesizes through the Kabbalah, the mysticism of Judaism, which we have been exploring: the Tree of Life. We worship our divinity, the sacred cow, through working with our creative energy, which is represented by the blackened stone of the Kaaba. We need to purify this stone to make it whitened, pure. We do this through eliminating the ego. So even in Islam, which in its exoteric form strictly denies any femininity in divinity, teaches an esoteric doctrine which is known and practiced secretly by the Sufis. Therefore, people who say that God is only masculine are really half atheist, because they reject the creative maternal feminine principle of divinity in themselves. We have Isis above. We have Miriam, Mary, holding the Christ child. We have Athena, great matron and defender of the solar Greek heroes. And we have Durga, slayer of demons within Hinduism. These images represent a few of the infinite forms of our Divine Mother Kundalini, because She takes on any form to teach us something practical in ourselves. Every religion and culture has expressed that principle in different artwork, paintings, statues, architecture, and forms. But why make these points? Why do we draw upon so many correlations in religion? We study all the mythologies and religions of the world out of love for Divine Mother. She is our own Being. She is the root of our most divine expression. She is the mediator for us between hell and heaven, the inferior worlds and the superior states of consciousness. She is the one responsible for elevating us out of suffering. Athena rescued Odysseus in the great poem of Homer. The Virgin Mary raised the Christ child so that he could perform his mission. And Durga brought balance to humanity, restored the kingdoms of the Gods when slaying the buffalo demon within the Hindu mythologies. And Isis restores the dead Osiris, the divine principle the Father in us, to bring back together his parts, which were quartered and drawn by the demons Seth. These are beautiful symbols about how the Divine Mother integrates the psyche, how she liberates us and performs religion, reunion. We have to learn to work with our Divine Mother, instant by instant, moment by moment. There is no progress without love for our Divine Mother, because She is the one who gives us strength, who gives us courage to face ourselves, to self-observe, and to not run away from what we see. She is compassion for all beings, even demons or people we do not like. She is virtue and all the most elevated qualities of the Soul and our Being. She is the superior aspect of us, and sadly, despite this fact, many of us do not know Her or recognize Her presence. The reality is that we forget who She is whenever we identify with anger, with pride, with lust, gluttony, laziness, greed, envy, the ego. We have to learn to restrain the mind, as we are emphasizing again and again, because when we restrain our mind with intelligence, with remorse, with comprehension, our Divine Mother is present with us. We are remembering Her because She is perfection. She is profound equanimity—deepens serenity—the resilience of virtue. She is virtuous action. She can only work through us when we establish an altar for Her in our heart. So examine your heart. What do you find inside there? Observe it. Look at yourself. Not with physical eyes, but with the sense of imagination, of perception. What do you see? Do you see love of humanity there? Do you see selflessness? Do you see conscious love for one's spouse, for one's family, for one's enemies? Or are we filled with hatred, with wrath, with violence, with despair? Many Gnostics write to us asking, “How do I experience my Divine Mother?” as if she is far away. The reality is that She is, to quote the Qur’an, “closer to you than your jugular vein” (50:16). She is within our psyche, but we do not recognize Her presence if we are not looking, if we are not awake, if we are not perceptive about what is going on externally and internally. Some people think that to experience the Divine Mother is only through an astral experience, in some tremendous samadhi in the clouds. There is a reality to this. But more importantly, the Divine Mother appears to us in dreams, in different forms, to teach us something about our life, about our physical behavior. For an example of this, I will relate my own experience. Very recently my wife and I went traveling out of the city of Chicago to go hiking. We wanted to get away from people and this situation with COVID-19. And we realized that we would have less exposure going out into nature than being in the city, so we arranged to travel a couple hours outside of Chicago, and in our trip we were driving to a Starbucks. There was a huge line of cars waiting to go to the drive-through, and I was driving and at that moment I had cut off a person who was in line, who was angry at me. And he said some things which were not pleasant. That morning before we left our home, I had an astral experience in which I was driving my car in the dark. It was 4 a.m. in the astral plane and I was driving along a major road in the city of Chicago. Suddenly I stopped, intuitively, in the middle of the street, because there were no cars present, and I saw my physical mother in the dream approach the driver's side window and with a lot of love, she gestured for me to step out of the car and to let her take the wheel. I did. I went into the passenger seat, and then she drove the car and that was the end of the dream. I knew when I woke up physically that this was something prophetic. Something would happen in relation with my Divine Mother. So physically, when we are in the Starbucks line and the person I cut off was angry and spoke negatively towards me, I suddenly felt egos of anger, self-esteem, pride and anger and violence emerge from my psyche. And I was really surprised, because I have been observing myself and I never knew that I had these defects in this situation. So my wife who was in the passenger side of the car said, “Let me take the wheel because I can see that this is getting dangerous for you.” So I got out of the car physically. She took the wheel and I sat in the passenger seat and started to breathe deeply, and pray to my Divine Mother. I was begging Her, “Please help me to comprehend this rage that is emerging in my psyche and is threatening to take over!” I breathed very profoundly, inhaling, with all my capacity in my lungs, holding the breath for 10 seconds and exhaling for 10 seconds, and just introspecting in me, asking my Divine Mother “Help me to have serenity, to understand the culprits in my mind!” And suddenly, I gained comprehension, and I realized and remembered the dream I had that morning. My Divine Mother figuratively was driving my car, which is my three brains. By relaxing and praying, going into my mind, going into my heart, I was able to relax and let my Divine Mother take control of my psychological car. After my meditation, I comprehended a lot. I understood those defects that emerged, which I later prayed for annihilation. This is a very beautiful teaching, very simple. I know we like to think of having experiences with our Divine Mother in the highest degrees of initiation, the highest sephiroth or spheres of the Tree of Life, but in reality, she comes down to us. She teaches us how to live so that we do not commit insanities, because I was really angry. I was really surprised by how angry I was and so I was begging my Being to help me control this animal and she gave me strength. But of course, remembrance of our Divine Mother is a learned skill. We have to work very hard. We have to recite mantras. We have to breathe deeply. We have to do pranayamas, transmutation, energy exercises, whether in our mind or out loud, so we can feel Her presence; so we can recognize Her. We do so by observing from our pineal gland and our heart. The pineal gland is the seat of perception within our brain. It is where our Essence sees from its energetic and conscious seat. It is the focal point of perception. We have to self-observe our three brains, looking into our intellect, our emotions, and our motor brain through this perspective, in a spiritual conscious way. But we must not only observe to see and gather data about the ego in the three brains, but we have to remember the presence of our Divine Mother within our pineal gland, within our heart: the seat of our soul. We also experience intuition, prescience, presentiment, premonitions in the heart: the altar and temple of the inner goddess Kundalini. In the example I provided, I was observing from my pineal gland into my three brains to understand the thoughts, the feelings, and the will of anger, of self-esteem, of pride, of wrath. Because each ego has three brains. It has its own ways of thinking, feeling, and doing. I was looking at that in myself and praying, “Help me to separate from this Divine Mother! Help me to comprehend so You can eliminate!” And I immediately, intuitively felt Her presence: a beautiful quality of serenity, of strength. 
She is a tremendous force. She does not use exertion of any kind. Instead, She opens the jaws of the beast with perfect equanimity, and equanimity is the most profound strength. So we have to feel Her in our mind and our heart. How can a child forget its mother? In the same way, we have to recognize Her presence, Her identity in us again and again. She is the voice of conscience. She is the voice of right action, such as in the experience I provided. I knew the right thing to do, but my mind was really trying to destroy my life, and I fought with my mind, and I would not have been able to relax if I did not have Her, my Divine Mother—and also, the Divine Mother of my wife, who expressed in that moment and saved me, helped me to rectify the situation.
So let your Divine Mother drive your car. Let her drive your soul, your Being—even if it means that you need to recollect yourself—whether you need to breathe deeply, do mantras, do prayer, walk out in nature. Take time to develop that stability of mind, to deepen your serenity. Because that is how you connect with Her, not through agitation, not through exertion, but through comprehension. 
The Divine Mother and the Tree of Life
As we explained, the Tree of Life is a map of the consciousness. It is a map of the Being. From the most elevated spheres or סְפִירוֹת sephiroth, the plural Hebrew term for “emanations,” to the most dense and material at the bottom.
This is a distinct and clear map for meditation and our internal experiences, which can clarify our understanding of where we are at in our work and where we must go. The sephiroth also reflect different expressions of the Divine Mother. So as I stated, the Divine Mother is universal. She is formless. She is an energy, and yet She can manifest within the different spheres or sephiroth in order to help us. And Samael Aun Weor, the founder of the modern Gnostic tradition, provided five distinct unfoldments or expressions of Devi Kundalini that we need to understand and which we can relate to the Tree of Life. At the top of the tree, above Kether, the Father, the Crown, you have the Absolute, which in Hebrew is אין Ain, אין סוף Ain Soph, אין סוף אוֹר Ain Soph Aur: the Nothing, the Limitless, and the Limitless Light. In the Absolute, in Ain Soph, the Divine Mother is the Unmanifested Prakriti. When the Divine Mother unfolds and expresses within the universe, within creation, we find that she manifests as Binah, intelligence, the Holy Spirit. She is the chaste Diana, Isis in Egypt, Tonantzin amongst the Aztecs, Maria, Miriam, Mary in Christianity, or better said, the mantra RAM-IO, a profound Mantra to invoke our Divine Mother Binah, intelligence. So these sephiroth are different qualities of consciousness. They are different modalities and expression of the divine. We also have something very important in relation to the death of the ego, which can relate to the sphere of Geburah, Justice, the severity of God. This is the Divine Mother Death. The Divine Mother Death relates to the justice of the Being, who punishes the ego and annihilates it. She is represented as the terrible Hecate amongst the Greeks, Persephone, Coatlicue, Queen of the infernos and death, the terror of love and law. She is the terror of the ego and the love of divine law, of order, of equilibrium, of karma. So in our former lectures on Karma, we explained how the divine hierarchies are managed by divine beings, with intelligence, with love. Knowing that law and loving that law is how we gain balance, and the Divine Mother Death removes the impurities so that we can be balanced, harmonious beings, integrated beings. We also have the special individual Mother Nature relating to Malkuth, the physical body, who is the originator and architect, the creator of our physical organism. Our body is an amalgamation of many elements. Mother Nature relates to our body as well as our environment and our body is dependent upon Mother Nature outside, but our internal Divine Mother Nature relates to our physicality, our body, which we need to sanctify. And lastly, the Elemental Enchantress to whom we owe every vital impulse, every instinct, relating to Yesod, the sexual creative energy, the foundation of our spirituality Let us explain each aspect of the Divine Mother in more depth. 
The Unmanifested Prakriti (Ain Soph)
The Unmanifested Prakriti, the Ain Soph, is the nothing, the limitless. Prakriti signifies nature. Mula in Sanskrit indicates “root,” as in the “root of something,” such as phenomena, consciousness, experiences.
We find mula in our root chakra, Muladhara, which signifies the “root place,” the root chakra. We use the term Mulaprakriti to refer to the Ain Soph, the abstract absolute space, the root nature of our consciousness, which is cosmic and eternal, a profound form of space. The Divine Mother has no form, but that energy takes on form within the astral plane in order to teach us, the Essence, important things. Samael Aun Weor also refers to the Divine Mother Prakriti as the Unmanifested Kundalini. This is understandable when we comprehend how the Divine Mother above and the heavenly cosmic space, the Mulaprakriti, is reflected in our Muladhara Chakra. So that cosmic space, that force, that energy, when it manifests into the universe, it becomes the Tree of Life, the different sephiroth, becoming more dense and material as it descends into different unfoldments or dimensions. The Ain Soph is beyond any universe. It is within the abstract space, the cosmic consciousness, the selflessness of perfect Seity. The Divine Mother above, Mulaprakriti, is the same energy that descends and becomes the serpent in our Muladhara Chakra. Even Ricard Wagner in his Ring Cycle [The Ring of the Nibelungen] which is an Opera tetralogy, depicts the Goddess Urda, the mysterious Ain Soph, or Devi Kundalini, with the same musical motif, the theme song, as the sword Nothung: the weapon of the great solar hero Sigmund, which is the Essence, the soul, who wields the Kundalini, the sword Nothung, in order to battle his enemy, Hunding, a symbol of the ego. Nothung, no-tung, reminds us of “nothing,” the Nothing, the space, the Abstract Absolute Space: Ain Soph. And we have explained in other lectures and courses that the Ain Soph is a star, a supra atomic point, the synthesis of our real Being. It is a light that shines within that space with perfection. It is known as the Glorian, the origin of universes. So this Mulaprakriti, is the womb of the Nothing, which is not understandable to the intellect, but is comprehended through experience. It is the origin of worlds, suns, galaxies, the infinites. All cosmic units are sustained, are born, are gestated, and they are destroyed and absorbed again throughout the great cosmic rhythms of activity and repose, known in Hinduism as Mahamanvantaras and Mahapralayas. These are “great” cosmic days and nights, respectively (for Maha signifies “great”): periods when universes emerged from the Ain Soph, and when it is time, those universes return back to the Nothing, to enter a period of absorption and repose. This is the significance of many Qur’anic verses. "You came from Him and unto Him you shall return." Even the Arabic name Allah hides many mysteries. The syllable “Al” means “the,” the indefinite article. And “La” can mean “No,” negation. Allah traditionally represents or translates as “The God,” but literally is “The No,” the Nothing—that which is not related to anything in existence, because it is unmanifested. This is why in Islam there are no statues or figures representing Allah, because you cannot anthropomorphize space. You cannot characterize the divine feminine in Her most abstract reality. The Unmanifested Divine Mother never enters the universe without taking form, so that we can comprehend and receive insight in our work. The universe emerges from her universality. She is absolute, cosmic, perfect. Her center is everywhere and Her periphery, Her circumference, is nowhere. She is the source that we aspire to. She is perfect liberty, a state of being that is so vast and expansive that it terrifies the ego. 
And so “the Nothing,” “the No,” the Unmanifested Divine Mother is the complete negation of our self, because in that selflessness, one becomes the universe, the stars, the planets, the gods. It is cosmic, absolute, eternal. She is the starry heavens or Egyptian Nut in that respective mythology, who shelters the heroes and the gods, those masters of meditation who have perfected themselves.
Involution: The Descent of Divine Force
In the universe, when the light of divinity manifests and expresses, that unitary light of the Ain Soph, descends and particularizes, individualizes. The top trinity of the Tree of Life relates to the trinitarian unfoldment: an expression of the Being in the most rarefied and subtle levels. Our unique consciousness, our divine Being, is a perfect unity. Yet to create life, She expresses, or that light expresses as three principles, since the law of three is how everything is created.
These are forces, qualities, principles, archetypes. They are blueprints of any universe. They are not three people that constitute one anthropomorphic God. These three creative forces are known as Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Christianity. Every religion reflects these principles but in different ways. It is one light that can express as three, so as to gestate worlds and human beings. So going back to that description of the principles of sex, man is the affirming, positive force; woman is negating, receptive force. And together they provoke and promote the synthesis, reconciliation, which is the birth of the solar Christic consciousness. That synthesis is בִּינָה Binah, the intelligence of God in Hebrew. So our particular, individual Divine Mother is the intelligence of divinity, because She is the synthesis of all universal wisdom, which governs creation in every level. She is the spouse of Shiva in Hinduism, known as Shakti. Or, Brahma and Sarasvati in Hinduism—or to define its equivalent in the Bible, you have Abraham and Sarah. Brahma-Abraham and Sarasvati-Sarah in the Bible. These are all symbols that reflect truths that we need to experience. The reality is that in accordance with Gnostic Kabbalah, Binah is dual, because Binah is reflective of masculine and feminine principles. Because remember that when you have affirmation and negation, masculine-feminine, positive-negative, you produce the synthesis. And in the terms of having a child, the synthesis of a husband and wife, the child reflects the qualities and characteristics of its parents. So you find both principles there, but of course, manifested as a boy or a girl. But it takes the qualities of both male-female, father-mother, in order to create something beyond itself. Binah, the synthesis is dual. It is masculine-feminine, Father-Mother. In Hebrew, it is known as אב Abba and אם אלהים Aima Elohim in Hebrew. The sacred name of God, of Binah, is יהוה אלהים Jehovah Elohim. אלהים Elohim is a synthetic word. אל El in Hebrew is God. אלה Eloah in Hebrew is Goddess. ים Iod-Mem or the letters “-im” is a masculine plural ending. אלהים Elohim truly signifies “Gods and Goddesses.” 
Our particular, individual Divine Mother is Diana, the huntress, as we see in this image.
She is the Virgin Mary, Miriam or Mar-IO or Ram-IO, which is a powerful mantra, as I stated, of working with the divine feminine. מרים Miriam in Hebrew means to raise. She is the wife of the masculine aspect of the Holy Spirit, because the trinity is Father, Son, Holy Spirit—three forces as one light. We can receive profound instruction from our own intelligence, the Divine Mother in Binah. She takes on forms within the astral plane to teach us like in the example I provided. 
The Divine Mother Death (Geburah)
But let us also talk about the Divine Mother Death relating to Geburah, the justice and severity of God.
This aspect of the Divine Mother is perhaps the most important. It is referenced constantly throughout the writings of Samael Aun Weor. Divine Mother Death is responsible for annihilating the ego. She is Kali, as we see here. She dances upon those couples who know how to harness the sexual fire of alchemy. Meaning: man and wife use their sexual energy, conserve it, and direct it towards the death of desire to liberate the soul. So of course, this image is terrifying. She has a necklace of many heads, representative of all the egos she has slain in the initiate whom she stands upon. She is the power of the serpent Kundalini, which you find coiled around the left arm of the man whom she has conquered. Of course, that symbol relates to the left pillar of the Tree of Life or the serpent Ida, the energetic feminine current that rises from our sexual gonad up to our head, which is the contrast of pingala, the solar electric sexual serpent that rises from the other gonad to the brain within the vital body. The Divine Mother Death, despite her fearsome appearance, should not be feared. She is the liberator of our soul. She pulverizes the ego. She extracts the Essence through successive profound comprehensions. So She only decapitates those ego we have fully comprehended in our meditations. If we are single, we can pray to her using the mantra KRIM, prolonged such as this:
We imagine those defects we have comprehended and that She decapitates them, impales them, disintegrates the egos we wish to remove. If we are married, we can have more force by which to annihilate those egos. But if we are single, we can still work with the Divine Mother Death.
So this is very beautiful topic because Kali, the Divine Mother Death, is the power of sex, that which creates the soul and destroys the ego. She is the slayer of demons. She is Athena, who in the Greek myth of The Odyssey helps Odysseus return home in order to battle the many suitors who have tried to take his wife Penelope. In the Greek myth, Odysseus invented the Trojan horse during the Trojan War, conquered the city, and when trying to return home, he was lost for 20 years. And so, many men thought he was dead and tried to marry his wife, who remained faithful to him: a symbol of the soul waiting for the reunion of Odysseus, the solar man, the initiate. When he returns home finally, he finds that his whole island has been ransacked by suitors—all these figures and people trying to marry his wife and eat off his land. But Athena warns him saying, “You must disguise yourself and discover your enemies. You must find out who is your friend and who is your foe.” And so she disguised him with magic as a beggar that he, in this form, went around trying to investigate these people. Finally, in a great battle scene at the end, he reveals himself and with the help of Athena, with the help of Kali, kills all of those infidels. This is not a literal history. It is a symbol of working against the ego. And so Odysseus conquered and returned to his home, but only with the help of the Divine Mother Death. So She is very important in the work and we could talk about more of the practices involved in working with this force, this liberatory energy. 
Divine Mother Nature (Malkuth)
We have the Divine Mother Nature who is the creator, sustainer, and maintainer of our physicality. Divine Mother Nature helps us in jinn science, in magic, in theurgy, in the act of placing our physical body into the fourth dimension. This is jinn science.
She is the lever, Divine Mother Nature, or fulcrum of Archimedes who said, "Give me a lever of support and I will move the universe." So, jinn science, unlike astral projection, is when you, in a sleepy state, meditate upon your Divine Mother Nature, the originator of your physical body, so that she can take you in your physical body into the internal planes. So rather than leaving your body behind, you enter the fourth dimension, traveling in hyperspace. This is the significance of many myths in different world traditions where monks, priests, prophets, masters, were seen flying, traveling through the air, passing through walls, appearing and disappearing, levitating. Every world tradition and religion teaches these symbols or these truths, which are not in fact a symbol, but how through tremendous discipline and work with the Divine Mother Nature, one could conquer the fourth dimension, enter those states. 
The most memorable of them all that comes to mind, to my memory is the Prophet Muhammad, who was meditating at the stone of Kaaba, Mecca, in which he fell asleep and was taken with his physical body upon a mystical creature called Al-Buraq, which had the form or body of a donkey, the wings of a great bird, the tail of a peacock, and the face of a woman.
If you are familiar with the Egyptian sphinx, with the paws of a lion, the hooves of a bull, the wings of an eagle, and the face of a man, or a woman better said, you find that the Egyptian sphinx is paralleled in the ascension of Prophet Muhammad. And that is a symbol of Divine Mother Nature. She is the one who organizes the elements in our psyche and in our body. The fire of our heart, our emotions; the air of our thoughts; the waters of our sexuality; and the earth of our body. This is a feat that we can accomplish in ourselves if we work with jinn science. And we have practices that we are going to relate in some resources we have available online. 
Elemental Enchantress (Yesod)
We have the Elemental Enchantress relating to Yesod, our vital energies. She is known as the Eemental Instinctual Female Magi. She is our Divine Mother that works with Yesod. We can invoke Her and work with Her to perform sexual magic, which is alchemy, which is tantra, transmutation.
Samael Aun Weor mentioned in The Three Mountains how he saw his Elemental Enchantress in the form of a pygmy, the form of a fairy: a beautiful elemental soul. So all the elements have soul, including minerals, plants, animals, and the Divine Elemental Enchantress, our Divine Mother. This aspect of our Divine Mother works with the creatures of nature and She is the sexual force. She aids us in becoming elemental in nature: purified, simple. She also helps us to enter back into Eden. עֵדֶן Eden is a Hebrew word that means “bliss.” It is the state of the soul that we lost when we created desire, by disobeying the commandments of our Being. This female magi helps us return to Eden, which we do so through alchemy, sexual knowledge, transmutation. She helps us with different forms of magic such as ceremonial magic, relating to the astral body, Hod on the Tree of Life, the emotions. She also helps us with elemental magic relating to Netzach, the mind, the souls of plants. And She helps us with sexual magic, Yesod. Magic is the ability of the consciousness to exert will upon nature, to influence it. It doesn't mean that we pull rabbits out of hats. It means that we control all of the components of our psyche. The elementals of nature, in relating to the plant kingdom, never left Eden. Those souls that enter the animal kingdom eventually lose Eden in themselves because of desire, the animal method of procreation. This is why in Gnosis we work with plants. We work with plant magic. We command the souls of plants to vibrate with our level of being and to elevate ourselves, but also to help humanity, because every plant in nature is a mechanism that can reflect divine force. All plants have their purposes. This is very well known in different forms of medicine: Ayurveda, holistic forms of treatments. But in Gnosis, we study plant magic, because it is extremely effective for influencing humanity in a conscious and beneficial way. I invite you to reflect upon some of the resources we have available in order to learn to work with our Divine Mother. Pretty much all the books of Samael Aun Weor teach us how to work with Devi Kundalini. You can learn about jinn science, especially in The Yellow Book. But alchemy is covered extensively in The Perfect Matrimony, The Mystery of the Golden Flower. At this point in time, I would like to invite you to ask questions. Questions and Answers
Question: If we have had experiences when our Divine Mother will not see us in the astral plane, does that mean that we have too much lust?
Instructor: I think that might depend on the person, but in my experience when my Divine Mother has not been able to find me it is because I am too asleep. I had an experience, also a long time ago, in which my Divine Mother approached me with a radar in her hand, and She said with a lot of concern, pointing towards the screen, “I can't find you!” So usually in radar, you see a green line that goes around the circumference, the radius spins like a wheel, and there is a little blip that will appear when you find some kind of naval ship or aircraft or whatever. So my Divine Mother was showing me this symbol and saying, “I can't find you” because I wasn't being awake enough. So obviously it could be in relation to lust, because obviously any ego puts us to sleep. But most especially if we give in to lust, desire, fornication. It could mean that we are very asleep, because we waste the energies that are going to awaken us. Question: Is the word Devi relating to the word divine? Instructor: Yes, there is that their connotation. Devi also relates to deva, goddess, such as the devas of nature, the great elemental queens who govern the plant kingdoms, all those divine intelligences of the physical and internal worlds. Question: Is the Innermost, inner Being, both the Divine Mother and the Divine Father? Instructor: In Kabbalah, strictly speaking, the Innermost, our Being, is the Divine Father, known as חֶסֶד Chesed in Hebrew. Chesed is the seventh sephirah from the bottom to the middle of the diagram. Chesed means “Mercy” and he is the spirit, the immortal spark of divinity in us. The Innermost is a child of the Divine Mother, Binah, the Holy Spirit. So in very intuitive logic, we can say that Osiris and Isis in Egyptian mythology represent Father-Mother within Binah, masculine-feminine, and their synthesis or child is Horus—Horus, the light, because in Hebrew אוֺר Aur means “light.” Horus is the gold of the spirit, because even in spanish, oros means “gold.” So the Spirit, Chesed, emerges from Binah, the Holy Spirit. Question: Is it possible that our Divine Mother is guiding us, but we are unaware of it? Instructor: Absolutely! I would say in reality that, in our work, She is with us all the time, but we just don't see Her. We are not aware of Her because we are not paying attention. The way that you figure that out is by awakening in meditation and also learning to remember that presence in yourself, moment by moment. Obviously astral experiences can help us to have more clarity, because then we recognize the same intuitive principle or feeling. That premonition we have in dreams is the exact reflection of our daily life. That is something that gives us faith. We start to see more and more that our Divine Mother is really with us all the time, but we are just stubborn. We don't recognize Her presence because we don't pay attention. In the example I provided of my Divine Mother getting in my car, you know, I didn't even realize what was happening, even when physically I got out of my car and got into the passenger seat. And hen immediately afterward, I understood the symbolism of that experience, and the same quality that I had in the dream related to what I was going through in that ordeal physically. That gave me a lot of inspiration, a lot of joy, even when my mind was terrible. So She is with us all the time, but we have to learn to recognize Her. Question: Can you please elaborate on this prayer? “Be thou O Hadit, my secret, the Gnostic mystery of my Being, the central point of my connection, my heart itself, and bloom on my fertile lips made Verb!” Also, what is the significance and the best time to use this prayer? Instructor: So who is Hadit? Hadit in Egyptian mythology can relate to the Holy Spirit, who is our “secret,” the thread, the intelligent intuitive guidance of our conscience, “the Gnostic mystery of our Being,” who is infinitely profound and “the central point of our connection.” So remember that when you are self-remembering and self-observing, you have to remember the connection of your spirit within your pineal gland and your heart. Self-remembrance is a thread that you have to hold on to. It is the thread of Ariadne in the Greek mysteries, when I believe Theseus went into the labyrinth to fight the Minotaur, and it was a vast labyrinth in the caves of that underground kingdom, so that he could find his way back because the thread would point to him where he came from. That central thread or point is our Divine Mother, because we have to remember the thread of our experiences: the continuity of our self-remembrance, our mindfulness, the state of self-remembrance and being moment by moment. That is our heart. It is what gives us life, following our intuition, not our intellect, but our heart. In that way She can bloom our lips made fertile, made verb. To be fertile in lips is to be transmuting your sexual energy. Our speech is empowered by the sexual creative force, and She manifests in our words when we are intuitive, when we reflect on Her qualities in our daily life moment by moment. We can use this prayer anytime we meditate. It is especially wonderful in sexual alchemy when you remember the presence of your Divine Mother, when you approach the forge in which the Kundalini is tempered and awakened. Question: When we take a spouse, are we unifying the divine and masculine energies in a way that affects or breaks the heart of the Divine Mother, when we realize that we are not in the right marriage? Are we affecting these divine forces? Instructor: Obviously, adultery is a very painful thing, but also, being that we are asleep, we do make mistakes. Anytime we mix sexual energy with people of the opposite sex, we adulterate our consciousness and we weaken our conscience. So knowing who your partner should be or whom you should be with, the thing to remember is that we have to make good choices, to not get in those situations, to not jump into relationships without prudence, without testing our grounds. But also, the thing to remember is that if one is in a committed relationship and one feels that doubt, that pain, or that sentiment or feeling that one is in a wrong relationship, one should really meditate profoundly, because any type of sexual connection is very serious, is very profound. It creates a type of signature in the astral plane, a type of marriage of forces which we can't ignore, which is eternal. I would say, anytime we disobey our Divine Mother, especially in sex, yes, we make Her suffer a lot. We have made our Divine Mother suffer tremendously by having so many partners and not waiting for the one person to work with in accordance with our karma or with the law. So that is a very delicate thing to discriminate and understand and it is always going to be very personal. While I can't give you a thorough answer in terms of who is the right partner for you, obviously, that is something you have to spend a lot of time reflecting on. So yes, we do affect our divine forces when we enter a sexual relationship without love, because love is what regenerates the soul, not lust. Question: Why is Ram-IO such an important mantra? Especially in relation with masculine and feminine energies? Instructor: Mary in Hebrew is Miriam. You spell Mary backwards, you have RAM-IO. RAM or the RAM, is a symbol of Christ: the sexual creative fire that anoints the initiates, which particularizes and develops the pure unity of the soul. Mar or mer in French means “sea,” the sea of IO, or the ram of IO, the child of the Divine Mother. RAM-IO is an important Mantra because it works with Christ, the solar energies, and with our waters. It transmutes, we could say, or invokes very high forces in us, because mar or mer is the sea from which the solar gods emerge. And IO, if you studied Greek mythology, has many representations as a beautiful feminine figure, whom I believe Zeus pursued out of desire and love. Many kabbalistic symbols there, which you can study on our websites, but in synthesis RAM-IO is important because it is a seed mantra: IO, that works with the Divine Mother. Question: You said that our Divine Mother can manifest in other ways besides in our dreams. Does this mean that she can take form in other people from time to time when facing ordeals? Can you elaborate on that? Instructor: The answer is yes. Samael Aun Weor mentioned many times and asks this question: How many times has your Divine Mother appeared unto you, O disciple, without you even knowing it, even physically? In the example I provided where I was in the car at Starbucks, my wife was expressing her Divine Mother and even my Divine Mother too, because She is universal, in order to guide me and say, “Let me take the wheel.” My Divine Mother and the Divine Mother of my wife was acting physically, so she became the vehicle of expression of that, so that I could face the ordeal and pass it, to comprehend it. She can take form in other people and manifests anywhere, everywhere, at any time, because she is universal. She is space, but she can appear and manifest in any human being that is either prepared or has enough space to reflect that principle. Question: Is there any prayer to the Divine Mother that you prefer during sexual magic? Instructor: Well, that is obviously going to be personal to each one of us. Obviously if you are practicing in alchemy, you and your partner—or if your spouse is not into Gnosis—that is something that you will have to gauge in yourself; but obviously, if both partners are practicing in alchemy, they should work and could work with other mantras that help with different functions, such as Kandil Bandil Rrrrr: the mantra to awaken the Kundalini. Or, IAO to transmute the sexual energy.
Or to annihilate the ego, Krim, to invoke the Divine Mother Death. So I invite you to experiment if you are married. Try the different mantras to see what helps you most at a given time, because different mantras have different purposes.
Question: Please discuss the origin of the reference to Mother Nature. And what is your perspective on why certain religions dismiss the significance of the Divine Mother and or cast blame like the Adam and Eve story? Instructor: So, Mother Nature is the originator of our body. Even the word in Latin, mater, meaning mother, is the matter of our body. So the spirit, the divine masculine, impregnates matter in order to give birth to Christ; the pure virgin matter or mother who represents the body that is purified through transmutation, so as to give birth to a perfect soul, the Christ, the Son of Man. So these are symbols that represent different degrees and steps in the path of initiation, which you can read about in the course The Path of Initiation on Glorian.org, but also what you can study in our course on Chicago Gnosis called The Secret Path of Initiation. As for why religions dismiss the significance of the Divine Mother, it is because religions degenerate with time. And those who are in power were men. Therefore, those men decided to make religion reflect their tastes. So that is why many beautiful traditions, which are very rich and profound and even feminist, in a sense that the divine feminine is respected, those aspects of those traditions were gutted out, because it did not, or better said, it was a basis of interpretation for persecuting and discriminating against women, which is sad. But when you know Kabbalah, you don't get confused, and do not let any type of patriarchal narrative or dogmatic patriarchy influence our readings. Question: Could you elaborate on the Kali Ma? Is this an aspect of Kali? Instructor: Kali Ma, or better said Kali, is the goddess of death. And Kali is dual. In heaven above She is the Divine Mother Death who eliminates desire, the ego. But if we fornicate, if we adulterate, if we expel the creative energies, then that force of Kali produces the death the soul through Kali Ma, the queen of the infernos. She becomes the tail of the demons, the inverted serpent Kundabuffer. So there are two ways to die: through initiation or through the second death. The ego must be eliminated either way. But if you wish to acquire development in our spirit, we work with the Divine Mother Death in the positive sense, removing the ego here and now in meditation, through alchemy, so that we can ascend the Tree of Life. But those people who don't want to eliminate the ego on their own, let themselves be swallowed by nature, meaning by hell, so that they are recycled and disintegrated by the devolving serpent Kali Ma, the inverted aspect of the Divine Mother Death in hell. Question: What can we do to be good children to our Divine Mother? How do we take care of Her? Instructor: We are a good child when we perform the three factors with fidelity. Comprehend the ego, eliminate it, act virtuously, and serve humanity. That is how we earn graces from our Divine Mother Kundalini, and we take care of Her when we are chaste. If we are not saving our sexual energy, we are abusing the Divine Mother, committing a crime. So take care of Her by conserving your sexual energy, transmuting it through many beautiful exercises such as pranayama, runes, sacred rites of rejuvenation, meditation. Take care of Her by working on your mind, eliminating desire. Question: Is our personal Divine Mother or Father working in collaboration with other people's Divine Mothers and Fathers in order to put us in the situations we need for a development? Instructor: The answer is yes. Obviously divinity is at a level that is omniscient. All of the divine beings of the Absolute in the Tree of Life, those who have already done the work in past lives, obviously those monads are developed and know how to work in an intelligent manner. But our Divine Father and Divine Mother, even at a level of a beginner, works with the law, works with karma, negotiates karma for us and works with other solar divinities in order to help us. So all of that is determined with intelligence, because Binah is the intelligence of all the divinities in the universe. So that universal intelligence is pervasive, is cosmic. So, that wisdom is universal, not particular, within in one person only, but is manifested in many masters. Question: I have had experiences with my Divine Mother in lucid dreams. I have also had experiences in this three-dimensional world that reminded me of my Divine Mother. Can our personal Divine Mother work through others or precipitate in the three-dimensional world, or is this a different aspect of the Divine Mother? Instructor: So yes, the Divine Mother, our individual Being, Binah, can work through other people. Like in that example of being in the car at Starbucks, my wife, like in the dream I had that morning, said “Let me take the wheel.” So my Divine Mother and her Divine Mother were working together to help me get out of a mess, to help me not make a mistake. So I am deeply indebted to my Being. And the Divine Mother can manifest physically in a material form. But that is usually performed through certain exercises of invocation and high magic which you can read about in Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic. Question: Do these personal Divine Parents have their Divine Mother and Father? Instructor: We can say that the Tree of Life describes the different hierarchies of being. Our inner Father is Chesed, the spirit, the Innermost In Kabbalah. His Divine Father and Mother is Binah, the Holy Spirit. And so, whether or not Binah has a father and mother, we could say in a very profound sense, yes, because the trinity of the top of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life emanates from the Ain Soph. Samael Aun Weor even mentions that the Ain Soph is Father and Mother, in profound synthesis. So there are levels of hierarchy of light, which is why the Qur’an states in Surah Al-Nur, "Light upon light!” Levels of Being—different unfoldments of one perfection. Question: Can you speak about the secret path of the heart? How can someone who is highly intellectual begin to open their heart? Is it essential to return to childhood trauma? As a man, I find it difficult to cry sometimes and show emotion. What can I do to heal? Is crying necessary? I am often encouraged to by my loved ones. What are your thoughts? Instructor: The secret path of the heart unfolds through sincerity. Usually with our intellect, we like to justify or repress our psychological state, to not look at the reality and the facts even if it is very traumatic. We know from counseling and trauma that early childhood trauma has an energetic impact, conditions the psyche. And because it is so painful to look at that event, the mind defends itself and represses or hides that experience within the subconsciousness. And I would say yes, in reality, to understand trauma and overcome it, one has to cry, because there is a tension in the psyche that is so painful and so enmeshed that it manipulates all of our actions in our conscious mind, usually without our awareness. But in order to really confront our defects and those traumas, we have to really be willing to break apart, whether it is from remorse, or whether from comprehension, because Samael Aun Weor mentions that in the work of the death of the ego and the work upon trauma, if we really understand our defects in depth, we will cry, because it is painful. So it's necessary. We have a course on Chicago Gnosis that is going to elaborate more and more upon how to work practically with trauma. It is called Spiritual and Mental Health. We have one lecture up there already where you can learn from some professional as well as spiritual advice, about how to work practically with facing these types of conditions and the ways to heal. So there are many practices that explain how to do that. Question: If we have an experience in nature particularly with animals, which aspect of the Divine Mother is that? Nature or Enchantress, or both? Instructor: I would say both, because animals belong to nature, but really, animal nature is defined by instinct: the Elemental Enchantress. So it is important not to think of the Divine Mother as separate from these different aspects. They are really expressions and unfoldments of one light, our divine feminine nature. So there are different principles that manifest in different ways in accordance with the sephiroth and the internal bodies, but all of it interrelates and connects with each other. Question: Are there specific practices or mantras that coincide with each vice? If so, can you list one routine for each one? Instructor: I wouldn't say that we have separate mantras or practices necessarily for different defects. Really the best practice to comprehend and eliminate our vices is retrospection meditation. But there are exercises that help to gain enough stability and concentration and serenity by which to work effectively in retrospection. For example, if your heart is afflicted with anger, it is good to work with the mantra O, to saturate the heart with positive force. Or if we are afflicted with lust, we can transmit our sexual energy so that we have enough control and stability by which to approach lust in our mind. So I wouldn't say there's a practice for each of the seven vices, we could say, but you do find throughout the literature of Samael Aun Weor different practices to help treat anger. For example, like I related about the Starbucks experience: I was doing deep breathing to control my anger. That is something that the master gives in the book Introduction to Gnosis: the lessons he provides there, so that you can let anger subside so that you can work on the mind, which is what I was doing in that experience. Question: If we experience the ordeal of Direne and failed, will this mistake cause our Divine Mother and Father to renounce us for the rest of this lifetime? Instructor: That really depends. That depends upon the magnitude of the fault. How much energy is invested in lust. Obviously, if one fails the ordeal of Direne and commits adultery, obviously, there is going to be a lot to repair, if that can be repaired at all, in terms of a relational standpoint with one's spouse. Because if divinity asks you to work with one partner and we betray our spouse, obviously, there is going to be a lot of karma involved that it is going to be more difficult to unfold. Whether or not that will be forgiven is something particular to each case, because karma is very intricate and particular to each person. That is something that only your Divine Mother and Divine Father could show you from experience. Question: I have had many experiences in my time on this path, often times when the experiences begin, my mind truly struggles to understand, how it is possible, or whether I am worthy to experience these things? What could be done to help this? Instructor: Well, the solution is: reflect on your heart and your sincerity. Sincerity is the virtue that opens the door to experience. When we truly repent of our errors, not because we want to have samadhis or experiences out of craving and desire, but because we want to change our behavior, when we change our ethical behavior and conduct, we start to see results in our daily life. That is when we become worthy to receive very high initiations or experiences. It is something that has to be earned. Now all of us without exception feel despair at times, where we feel the pain and realization that we are so afflicted with ego that we don't know what to do. And this is a trial and trauma of the soul, a great drama or path of difficulty every one of us has to face. All of us have our own cross to bear, but the reality is that there is forgiveness in the law and it is possible. But we have to really earn it, and that means suffering a lot to the extreme, if necessary. Because when we go through pain and hardship, and feel that this work may be beyond our reach, and we realize that if we don't change, that we are going to suffer more, then we work regardless of the result. We do it because of love, without attachment to the fruit of our deeds. It is when you act in this way, without expectation, and practice in this way without expectation, that is when we really start to receive help internally. We gain experiences. So it is possible. Personally, from my past lives, I do not deserve to be helped. I have committed terrible crimes, and I remember them with lucidity. So it is painful, and I have had to really weep a lot and pray for my Divine Mother to help, because without Her we are lost. But it is precisely at that breaking point in which she enters as light, and we have to be willing to receive that intelligence, primarily by facing extreme hardship. We face and overcome defeatism by meditating on those egos that complain that say, “I can't do this work. I am not good enough. I'm not worthy.” Your Divine Mother knows best, so rely on Her judgment, not on doubt. Doubt is one thing. Despair and morbidity is one thing, but remorse is something else. So all doors are closed to the unworthy except the door of repentance, and we show repentance by our deeds, our actions. Question: Can you speak about how to use the rune Yr and how that works with our Divine Mother when working in sexual alchemy? 
Instructor: So the rune Yr is the opposite of the rune Man, and if you are familiar with the hippie symbol of peace, it is the rune Yr. The rune Man is upright and Man is a representation of the masculine sexual force. So when you join those two runes together, Yr and Man, you form the rune Hagal, and Hagal is a swastika, the cross in motion. And that cross in motion works profoundly when we are married, working in alchemy.
So, about different prayers you can do, mantras associated with the rune Yr. I believe you mentioned some of them: "Terrifying king of the sea, thou who has the keys of the floodgates of heaven and who does, can find the subterranean waters within the cavern of the earth. " There are some beautiful prayers that relate to different teachings, but in simple forms, you work with the rune Yr and Man together when you are working in alchemy, because man and woman together form the six pointed star, the cross in motion. We do it by considering the sexual force and circulating it through mantra. Question: How is the mantra KRIM used for help with breaking down food? Does this transmute the sexual energy from the food? Instructor: The mantra KRIM is the force of destruction. It breaks down elements to extract the synthesis. So in the same way that you break down food when you masticate, eat the food and break down the material so that you can extract its nutrients, the mantra KRIM also helps us to annihilate the ego. So it takes the sexual power and directs it towards the annihilation of the self. Question: Hey, good evening. I wanted to ask you about that experience that you told us about at the Starbucks. And I understand like how you said, that you became aware of your anger, but I was kind of wondering, if you could or would share how or explain a little bit about how for you specifically, you had some comprehension? Because, a lot of times I am aware of a lot of things in myself, but I don't comprehend them and I don't understand, kind of, what it is to comprehend them. But I wish I could give you an example right now of what I mean, but I just was wondering if you could explain a little bit about how that felt to you, like to comprehend that moment? Instructor: Great question. Comprehension is a spark. It is really a profound state of being in which we say, “Aha!” in the sense, like, “I finally see something I never saw before!” It is alert novelty. Comprehension is a type of energy that is like a lightning bolt. It shocks the consciousness, not in a detrimental way, but in an elevating way. When we comprehend an ego, we are liberated in the moment, because we see how that fault operates and conditions us. When you comprehend an ego, you are extracting the essence trapped in it, and then through prayer, the Divine Mother can eliminate it. So in the example I gave you about being at Starbucks, what happened was that when my wife took the car, the wheel, when I got in the passenger seat, I suddenly understood in an instant, with a great shock, that I am going through exactly what I dreamed about this morning. And it was a really brilliant moment of lucidity, of clarity, and inspiration, because when we comprehend our dreams and how they relate to physical life, you feel inspired. So while I was struggling against my own mind to control it, I realized that I was being helped in this ordeal. And in that way, I felt enough peace and serenity to continue working on my mind in that instant because, you know, I knew that my Divine Mother was with me. That is an understanding and a confidence you develop through alert novelty: being aware of the instant, but also paying attention to your dreams and reflecting on their meaning. And sometimes, the comprehension emerges without thinking about it. You do not plan it or expect it. It just suddenly comes to you when your mind is clear, when you are observing. When your imaginative screen of awareness, your intellect is at peace, you can reflect the insight in your superior intellectual center. It just comes to you. But we have to be receptive as an intellect and active as a consciousness as we explained in our former lecture, if that makes sense. Question: Yeah, so comprehension doesn't necessarily mean that you understand why you are doing what you are doing. It's just more that you kind of are just very conscious of the moment and the choices and the ability to take control again or something like that? Or to make different choices? You know what I mean? Instructor: Yes, there are levels of comprehension. So in that moment, I understood that I needed to get into the passenger seat and to meditate right there, so that I can go deeper and understand those egos that acted. So I knew in the moment that I had to continue being serene and then, when I was really concentrated, I understood four egos that I needed to eliminate. So, light upon light, level upon level, if that answers your question. Audience: Yes. Thank you. Instructor: You're welcome. Question: Thank you for the lecture. I was wondering about... So I am looking at Deuteronomy 11. This is the part where Moses is recalling, asking the Israelites to recall everything that has happened as they go into the land of Canaan or into the new lands, and this happens many times. I am just going to use one verse. This happens many times throughout this whole section. “You must love the Lord your God and always obey his Commandments, decrees, regulations, and requirements to create regulations and commands.” When “you mentioned his requirements,” is this an interpretation of the Bible where “his” has been... that's not what the Hebrew meant, or is this referring to Chesed, which is a masculine aspect? Because of many “He” and “His” in this section. Instructor: Yeah. I am not entirely familiar about the Hebrew in that passage, but if you go into the actual Hebrew transliteration, you will find more answers. You know, this is the value of knowing Kabbalah, so that when you look at the original Hebrew script, you can interpret what names of God are being used. So obviously, אל El in Hebrew is Chesed, the spirit, and there are degrees of expression of divinity, which are mapped out by the different Hebrew sacred names of God, which we study in our courses of Kabbalah. So if you are familiar with that you can go through those verses and see what name of God is being used. So every time you see God mentioned in English, you should look towards the original language to see what sacred name of divinity is really being referenced here, to get more clarity. If that make sense. Audience: Here in a paragraph it's like "He" is mentioned like five, six times. In actuality this could be five different references that go beyond just the word "He." Instructor: Yeah, that is why we have to know what the Hebrew is telling us, because that original script is going to give us the most depth of understanding. So you have to really meditate and judge what you are reading from the original. Audience: Okay. Thank you. Instructor: You're welcome. 
The path of Gnosis is a path of revolution. This revolution has nothing to do with physical war, argumentation, debates, or overthrowing the government. The type of revolution we seek to fulfill is not against any external system: no political party, no religion, no particular philosophy. This is a profound, intimate matter of how we transform ourselves: the internal psychological causes of suffering.
As we are now, we are afflicted beings filled with tremendous suffering. We are very complicated, filled with confusion, despair. The status quo, the accepted beliefs of numerous religions, institutions, dogmas, do not produce radical change. What matters is a transformation of our psychological states. This is the result of the practice of meditation. The me, myself, the “I,” is the origin of suffering. This is the fundamental basis of every religion. If we wish to reach heaven, to rise to a superior level of being, it is essential to renounce and eliminate the ego. No matter how noble our aspirations, our intentions, our beliefs, our accepted codes of morality, conduct, beliefs, theories―none of these matter if we continue to indulge in thoughts and feelings of hatred, resentment, pride, morbidity, negativity, that multiplicity of selves, defects, egos that we have discussed in this course. In truth, the Essence, the soul, must wage a holy war. This is the spiritual significance, the esoteric meaning of a very misunderstood doctrine known as jihad, from the Arabic Mujahidah. It means to strive. It is the striving against our defects, not against people of different faiths. We strive against our ego when we self-observe. When we contemplate each defect’s thoughts, feelings, impulses, when we restrain and transform negative ways of being through serenity and comprehension, when we face terrible ordeals, circumstances, obstacles, crises, sufferings, we must transform all of it with equanimity. This is how we balance the scales of the law, as we explained previously in the lecture on Karma. No prophet ever taught that the path to divinity is a matter of accepting a doctrine with the mind or sentiments. That is a novelty invented by people who seek evasions, those who do not want to annihilate the ego, desire. In truth, redemption is a matter of revolution, going against the psychological current of desire in the mind, in ourselves. Look at humanity! The incredible suffering, the affliction, the misery. If people knew the path out of suffering, there would be no addiction, chaos, confusion. Despite the fact that people's minds and hearts are sick, diseased, deteriorating, filled with ego, with conditions, we all like to believe that we walk upon the path of salvation and success. The time has arrived to analyze the facts, to examine the reality of this crisis, this global dilemma, which is the result of the degeneration of values, the loss of the spirit, the complete moral bankruptcy of both East and West. We have to examine our minds. Remember that Immanuel Kant stated, "The interior is the reflection of the exterior," and vice versa. So, let us look at ourselves and be honest, to see whether we do not have within that which we blame in others. Are we free of anger? Are we free of lust? Are we free of pride, selfishness, greed, vanity, laziness, pessimism? If we are not, then we are afflicted with ego. And here is the reality that no one likes to accept: the ego cannot enter heaven. People think they can worship and believe in a religion, and yet they continue to lie, to fornicate, to adulterate, steal, and even kill―even if only in the mind. That is the ironic part. We think we can do whatever we want in the mind and that there are no consequences. Yet Jesus stated in the Book of Matthew: "You have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." ―Matthew 5:27-28 This is because such desires thrive within the subconsciousness. They are not visible on the surface. But regardless of this fact, we have to go into the mind to eliminate, because as stated in 1 Corinthians: "Be not deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." ―1 Corinthians 6:9-10 No one can enter the superior world with desire. If we wish to enter the great mysteries of our inner Being, we must no longer vibrate with degeneration: to not generate, to not create the spirit inside. We must eliminate the ego. As Jesus stated in the Book of Matthew: "Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction; and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." ―Matthew 7:13-14 As Samael Aun Weor states, "The opium of theories is worse than death." Because with physical death we have the opportunity, possibly, to acquire a new vessel according with the law of transmigration of souls. And yet, to be diluted by theories, to waste our time, is to not develop anything, so that we lose this precious opportunity, this body that we have. And so humanity believes in divinity, yet it does not know the truth, the Being, from experience, from having personal Gnosis. 
Revolution, Salvation, and Conscious Faith
It is the weakness of the modern religious and spiritual mindset to conflate belief with action. The Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, pay special attention to the role of belief in religious matters, that through adherence to a moral code, a belief system, that one is saved.
Salvation is not a matter of belief, of thinking or feeling a particular tradition is true. Salvation is the result of conscious works and voluntary sufferings. The consciousness must be activated, not the mind. The mind, intellectualism, theories, do not originate lasting psychological change. Believing in one religion one day and rejecting it the next does not transform our situation. It does not change our level of being, how we relate to the world. It does not change the problem of suffering, of having desire, affliction. Only activating the consciousness provides real change. As stated by James in the Bible: "Faith without works is dead." We can believe what we want. We can accept any religious philosophical doctrine with our intellect. We can belong to a particular group, a religious organization, an institution, yet that does not guarantee anything. It does not redeem the problem of suffering. It does not guarantee reunion, religion, religare (in Latin) with the Being. Examine the reality. People have believed in God for thousands of years, and yet such beliefs in ideas, dogmas, codes, do not transform the daily problem of the ego. The ego, the “me,” “myself,” the “I,” is the originator of pain. And it is the ego that creates beliefs, ideologies, concepts, arguments, theses, antitheses, metaphysical speculations, etc. It is the mind that speculates about what it does not know. It deals with abstractions and divine principles in the memory. It does not know anything about the data stored in the mind. The intellect simply is a receptacle of information, whether from the senses or from rationality. The intellect cannot know the Being. It is the awakened Essence, the Inner Mind, that knows through Gnosis, direct experience. So, we can believe in God, but it does not mean we know the divine. The mind can never know anything about reality, the Being, the divine, because the ego is subjective. Even in this definition of “me,” “myself,” “I,” it does not know the universality of Being: the ontological nature of our true identity, which is universal, cosmic. God, as an anthropomorphic representation of man's concepts, its projections, does not exist. This is why Friedrich Nietzsche, the author of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, very wisely stated, “God is dead.” That God does not have any objective reality. It is a construct, and instead of knowing the truth, humanity warships concepts, intellectualism, debates. We do not like to use the term God so much in these studies, because there is too much baggage associated with this term. Instead, we always refer to divinity as the Being, to consciousness, to divine experience. Divinity as we have stated, is the Being, the presence, a form of consciousness, which goes very far beyond our concepts of good and evil―beyond the body, sentiments and mind. The Being constitutes states of internal reality, the plenitude, the supreme joyfulness of Being: the liberated. Liberation is a state of mind. It is not a concept, but it has to be developed. These states of consciousness, these supra-conscious states, these levels of being, can only be developed through work―not through ideas, not through concepts, not through beliefs―no matter how reverent, how ancient, how profound the tradition. Because belief in divinity is passive. It does not require any effort on our part to believe in a religion or to accept a doctrine with a mind. However, faith, conscious faith is profoundly different. It necessitates a tremendous conscious activity. It requires incredible intentionality. It is founded upon great ethical disciplines and psychological work upon our most intimate defects, errors. In Gnostic terms, faith is the direct conscious apprehension of mystical truths through the awakened experiences of the soul. We call these astral travels, out of body journeys, jinn states, profound meditations. Gnosis, as the conscious mystical experience of the truth, is synonymous with real faith. Faith is what we perceive from experience, not what we think. But to have that faith, that conscious knowledge, that Gnosis, we have to work, to strive, to fight incredible, heroic battles against the ego. Gnostic soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, is very distinct from the beliefs and interpretations of scholars: the intellectuals who read, but do not know, whom Samael Aun Weor calls “learned ignoramuses”―people who are very intelligent with the intellect, but who have no conscious wisdom because they are asleep. We can study Gnosticism as a purely scholastic endeavor without a profound practical basis: the actual effort to meditate. We achieve salvation, entrance to the heavenly worlds, the Tree of Life, through the death of desire, which is synonymous with ego―not by satisfying our pride, our vanity, by memorizing scriptures or religious texts. To annihilate the ego requires tremendous sacrifice, profound ethics, incredible purity. In truth, it is a psychological revolution. 
Myth, Idolatry, and Modern Culture
The difficulties of reaching heaven, the Being, have been symbolized by all of the great wars in every single mythology and religion―the conflict between gods and demons, which is not exclusively external, but internal.
Ancient mythologies are not superstition. They are symbols. They are practical teachings of psychology. Each myth, each sculpture, statue, artwork, embodies spiritual and psychological principles, truths, archetypes, about the spiritual path, the psychological rebellion of the Gnostics. Truly, it is the disgrace of modern archaeology and scholarship to assume that the ancient civilizations were stupid―worshipping literal statues, idols. Such assumptions demonstrate a profound ignorance of the path, and it reveals the arrogance of modern science, which is the new priesthood. They assume that they are wiser than the previous civilizations. The reality is that our modern society is idolatrous. People in America and the East, everywhere, worship idols, false gods, which are, in truth, concepts, beliefs, negative psychological states, animal desire. Idolatry is present through our modern fascination with extortion, manipulation, and violence against others. We gorge on television shows based on sarcasm, based on rape, based on lust, deception, blood and crime. We venerate criminals as heroes. We respect anger. We defend intolerance. We follow religions that teach us to like some people and hate others, to kill in the name of God, to tolerate and applaud behaviors that go against conscience. We deify the ego and have the audacity to blame God for the state of humanity in the world. Regardless of anyone's beliefs, their religion, humanity worships degeneration. The evidence is everywhere: violence, prostitution, slavery. Our culture, from the Latin “cultare,” cultivation, is pure idolatry. It truly is a satanic cult. It does not refer to venerating statues of false gods from so-called “Pagan” religions. It is to worship the petrified crystallizations of the ego, because remember, the ego is a shell. It traps the consciousness. And we need to liberate the consciousness by removing the shells, which in Hebrew is Klipoth, hell. The ego is hell: anger, pride, self-esteem, vanity, lust, sexual gratification, these are states of suffering. These are all the things that modern culture tells us to worship, but in reality, this is completely negative. In relation to the symbolism of religious mythology, Satan is a name or term that scandalizes, amuses, terrifies many people. This term is actually Hebrew. שטן Shaitan means adversary. The adversary of the Being is not anyone external. It is our own ego, our desires that we have to fight against. Sadly, despite the beliefs of very devout Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc., people never question how their own internal states produce conflict, suffering for themselves and for others. People fear the myth of Satan but not the reality of their own Satan, the mind. Instead of worrying about entering the afterlife, we should be more concerned with making a paradise on Earth, not a hell. We do so through our deeds. "For by their fruits, you will know them." ―Matthew 7:20 In truth, we all like to think we are advanced, that we are holy people. We may love spirituality, religion, esotericism, mysticism, divine philosophy, yet the fact is, for most people, they love fornication and adultery more. The fundamental requisite of religion is chastity, but because people love lust, they love the orgasm, they discard this aspect of their tradition, which is symbolized in every faith. And because of this, they think they can enter heaven, but they cannot. Neither fornicators, nor adulterers shall enter. Desire, the ego, can never enter heaven. And so, this type of mentality is symbolized by Judas, who betrayed Christ. He represents for us an ego that loves scripture, loves divinity, loves Gnosis, loves spirituality, loves Christ, but betrays the Being to fulfill desire. This is why every single religion has degenerated from the original teaching, the Gnosis of the prophets. Time and again, great luminaries or divine messengers come to humanity so as to provide the doctrine of how to conquer heaven, how to earn the right to be redeemed. This is the path of revolution. However, rather than revolting against their own ego, humanity fights to defend the ego to the death. People have rebelled against divinity and over time, because of this, the original teachings become distorted so that it can satisfy desire. The Gnostic teachings, when given by the Prophets, resembles nothing today because people, rather than working on themselves, attempt to make religions palatable to the ego. This is why Jesus warned of the leaven of the Pharisees who take the Christic teaching and adulterate it. They fill it with yeast, so that the original bread of wisdom, that could feed the soul, inflates. It is symbol of trying to make the teachings different, acceptable to the masses to satisfy spiritual gluttony. It is really strange: humanity both idolizes and persecutes the masters. People follow religions and yet they crucify, kill, torture, and poison the initiates. Isn't this absurd? This paradox. It is because people love desire and they hate purity. All genuine spiritual teachings are hated by humanity because it is a revolution against every person's cherished beliefs and corrupted sense of self. People hate the Gnostic doctrine because it is a war against idolatry. 
We have to break the idols of the mind, those statues, those petrified conditions of egotism―that which keeps us in pain. But of course, with this, it is a lot of sacrifice. It takes tremendous self-reflection, sincerity, to not justify, to not evade the facts, to not repress what we see, but have the courage of Perseus to face the Medusa, to go to war against the Gorgon, the beast in our mind that we have created.
And remember, we have to not identify with the animal, because in the myth, those heroes who looked into the eyes of Medusa, became stone. They became trapped. By feeding desire, we become conditioned further. The way to escape or to conquer that beast is with the shield and looking at the reflection within, so that by seeing the image of the Medusa, one can confront it. This is self-reflection. This is imagination. This is the awakened insight of the consciousness, and with the sword of comprehension, we decapitate the beast. This is how we overcome idols, the monster we have fed and nourished for many years. By eliminating the ego, we vibrate in harmony with the superior levels of being. Yet, how many people are willing to do this? “To grab the bull by the horns,” says Samael Aun Weor. Instead, as you see in the Gospels and in the Book of Revelations, people worship the beast: the Antichrist, which is not a person. It is the ego, and the Antichrist is everywhere. This is why John Milton, the great Gnostic poet, wrote in Paradise Lost: “The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.” ―John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, ll. 254-255 The facts of our situation present themselves, yet we ignore them because the magnitude of suffering on this planet is staggering. No one likes the means to acquire heaven. We like the concept, but we do not like the work. This is the reality for most people. But if we are sincere about change, we will do so, not only for our own benefit, but for others. 
The Heavens of the Tree of Life
And so modern society has divorced itself from the divine, the superior laws, the Tree of Life.
This is a map of superior states of being. We have been discussing Klipoth, the hell realms, the inverted tree: the shadow of the Tree of Life, the world of the ego beneath this main diagram in blue. The goal of our Gnostic studies is to free the Essence, which is trapped in ego, the lower states of consciousness through tremendous inner revolution. 
As a result of involution, which is the complication, the unfoldment of spirit within matter, we descended from the unknowable divine, the Absolute―which in Hebrew is אין Ain, אין סוף Ain Soph, אין סוף אוֹר Ain Soph Aur―down these different modalities of being. This was with the expressed purpose of gaining wisdom and experience.
The Essence or the soul, the Buddhata, the seed of our Buddha nature, must self-realize, develop these 10 spheres and ascend up, back from the world of matter, to the spirit. We do this by working with these סְפִירוֹת sephiroth, which in Hebrew means “emanations, unfoldments.” Why is this called the Tree of Life? Because it is how we have genuine reality, spiritual life. These spheres represent qualities of being, states of consciousness, as well as different levels of matter, energy, and perception―from the most rarefied at the top, to the most dense and crude below. We are in Malkuth, the Kingdom, the physical body, the physical world. Descent into matter was a mechanical process. It did not take any effort on our part. But now we have a very serious choice to make. Do we ascend this diagram through successive works of meditation, eliminating defects, developing divine knowledge? Or do we descend into greater states of conditioning, egotism, suffering? 
The forces of mechanical nature want to swallow us. Nature gives us life and takes it away. It is a machine, a mechanism. Through evolving processes, we have our conception, our gestation, our birth, life and development. But through devolution, we get old, we get sick, we decay, and we finally die―perhaps to repeat the process again, but without any cognizance.
This is known, as I had mentioned, as The Transmigration of Souls, which is a lecture you can study in our course on Anthropology and Cosmology. This dynamic is very easy to grasp in our concepts, but from experience, people fail to understand what heaven and hell is. When we feel happiness, altruism, compassion, conscious love―do we not feel lighter? More free? More spacious? Expansive? When we feel wrath, hatred, fear, distrust, agony, envy, lust―do we not feel heavy and burdened? Weighed down in terrible pain? The Tree of Life is the heavens, elevated qualities of being, like conscious love, like empathy, intelligence, wisdom, mercy. These are very high levels of being, which the soul can reach only when it learns to tune in at that vibration. But for that, we have to overcome the density of the mind. It is a habit to feed anger, pride, resentment, gluttony. We have to go against this. To go against the mechanical. To confront mechanicity. To cease being a machine that constantly reacts to life, but without any intelligent effort. We escape these cycles of existence with profound intentionality and intelligent action. So, all meditative traditions teach us that freedom is experienced when the ego is gone. And so, the annihilation of the ego is the origin of happiness. It is known as Nirvana, cessation of suffering. It is liberation. It is Moksha, self-realization, salvation, whatever name we want to give to that union with the Being. As stated by a Sufi Master, Abu Sai’d, “Wherever the delusion of your selfhood appears―there’s hell. Wherever “you” aren’t―that’s heaven.” –Abū Sa’īd in Ibn Munawwar The Essence, the soul, belongs to the Being. You want to experience heaven, those blissful states, remove the ego, because the ego is the obstacle. The Essence, the soul, does not belong in hell. However, the reality is that we are there, not because of God, not because of religion, but because of us. Our will. What we chose. In Paradise Lost, the greatest epic poem in English, Milton depicted the fall from heaven, how we fell, how we were expelled from paradise, a state of mind―not because of the Being, but because we chose to. We went against the laws of nature. And the law is the law, according to Karma. And because we broke the law, the divine levels of being, we brought ourselves into pain. We suffer all the time because we rebelled against the Being. We do it all the time. We enjoy it. And our modern culture will teach us how to worship and feed that mentality. But, you can look at the results. Look at the society we are in. This is the facts. What we need now is a revolution in our psyche. We have a lot of energy directed in wrong behavior. It pushes us along a trajectory that is truly terrifying. If you awaken in the astral plane, and personally I have had the experience of asking my divinity to show me where I am going, especially since discovering the techniques in this tradition, I have been able to see what my fate will be if I do not eliminate anger, pride, etc. It is very disastrous. There are consequences to our actions. So, if you think about it, if we spent most of our life feeding desire, it is going to take a lot more effort to counteract that, to go against the flow, so that we can change our trajectory, in the same manner that we are driving towards the edge of a cliff very fast. You need to hit the brakes hard so that you stop. You might skid for a little while, but depending on how well your brakes are operating, the situation could be tragic. 
And so, we need effort to change. We want to do this because we wish to ascend back to Pleroma, the heavens of the Gnostics, to redeem Sophia before the Archons, the hierarchies of the divine law, to balance our karma. But of course, every revolution is dangerous. It is terrifying. It is tremendous. We have to remember that, revolution of this type has tremendous consequences, because the physical body will go to the grave, but the soul, where it will go in nature depends on our cultivation of mind.
And so if we wish to return to our divine origins, to our source of happiness, our own consciousness, we have to examine ourselves, to confront ourselves. This is why the Bible also explains: “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” ―Matthew 11:12 This does not mean to approach the heavenly beings, the superior states of consciousness with agitation, with exertion. This type of super effort that we perform in ourselves is a work of equanimity, of serenity of mind, of concentration, of clarified imagination, self-observation, self-remembrance. Obviously, murderers do not go to Heaven. But the warrior who renounces his or her defects and who conquers him or herself and eliminates anger, obviously radiates with peace, with sweetness. Only the humble can enter those regions. So in your work of self-observation, how difficult is it to see and not act on anger, resentment, pride, fear, and most especially lust? How many of us in our studies have been successful in comprehending and eliminating self-esteem? Eliminating laziness? Gluttony? The truth is that this work is very difficult. It is not easy to want to see contradiction in ourselves, to remove impurities through meditation. And it takes a lot of effort and a lot of suffering, voluntary suffering, to take responsibility for our mistakes. But people never like to question their “I.” They like to identify, to fortify, to feed the ego. It is easy. And because people like this, they want to be comforted by spirituality. They want to be told that if you simply believe in Jesus you are going to go to heaven. And yet the reality is that this is a war against ourselves. But this does not mean we are morbid, pessimistic, self-flagellating people, that we harm ourselves, that we become depressed, angry, with ourselves. The reality is that we work on those defects with the purity of the consciousness, with the serenity and insight of a stable, serene Essence. 
They say in martial arts, such as an Aikido, that if you want to subdue an enemy who comes at you aggressively, you have to be very serene. And the beauty of that art, philosophically speaking, comes from Zen Buddhism, and it relates to how if someone attacks you with a lot of aggression, you don't return it with violence, but you learn to redirect that energy back at them. And so, the only person that is hurting themselves is the aggressor. It is often considered a self-defensive art.
And so, the same philosophy applies to this principle. Perfect Zen, dhyana, meditative states, is a state of peace. You cannot conquer the mind if you are identified and filled with fear. Instead we have to be very diligent in being awake, remembering our Being. It is a state of peace. So that when those egos of fear, and violence, and hatred, and anger emerge, you can control it. But it takes effort. It takes tremendous calm: non-identification. But because this is very difficult, people don't like these studies. Genuine spirituality is not comfortable. It is very frightening. It is not accepted by the multitudes because it is challenging. It means we have to renounce our beliefs, our identity, our religion, our mystical speculations. It is a result of great tribulation and sacrifice, the death of the ego and the painful labors and birth pangs of genuine virtue. Christ, the cosmic intelligence speaking through Jesus of Nazareth stated: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” ―Matthew 10:34 
The Three Factors for Spiritual Revolution
All religions teach three factors for spiritual evolution, the awakening of the consciousness.
This is synthesized by a statement of the Buddha: “Commit not a single unwholesome action, cultivate a wealth of virtue, tame this mind of ours; this is the teaching of all the buddhas.” ―Buddha So these three factors are within every religion in different forms. In the Gnostic teachings, we elaborate on these methods for acquiring birth, death, and sacrifice. For those who have been reading the writings of Samael Aun Weor, we see that they are vast. They always encompass these three factors in a variety of ways. Many mantras such as O, OM awaken consciousness. You can read the many books provided on gnosticteachings.org, which have hundreds of mantras, sacred sounds [Such as The Divine Science]. We have works of pranayama [Kundalini Yoga and The Yellow Book], Sacred Rites of Rejuvenation, The Magic of the Runes, alchemy [The Perfect Matrimony and The Mystery of the Golden Flower], transmutation: all of these work with energy. Birth is about harnessing energy with purity, with a liberated free will, so that it gives birth and empowers the consciousness, the soul. We also learn to direct energy towards the disintegration of the animal ego. We do so especially through Retrospection Meditation. We prepare for this type of meditation by developing serenity and insight. Or, concentration, imagination, which we have been explaining in this course. And then we sacrifice for humanity, in accordance with our skills, our character, our dispositions, our abilities. And also, more importantly our level of being. This requires that we take all that energy we accumulate through birth, through chastity: virtues, purity of mind, and from the death of desire, and we direct that energy of compassion to others. We seek to elevate the level of being of others. Each factor cannot be separated. They complement the others. You cannot have birth without death. Neither death without sacrifice. When virtue is born such as chastity, it is because lust is dead. And we can only achieve the death of lust if we sacrifice our habits, our mental states. We will talk about these three factors in synthesis. 
Baptism: The Birth of the Soul
The birth of the soul is symbolized by the Baptism of Christ, especially in the River Jordan. ירדן Jordan in the Hebrew means “descender.” It is literally the descent of spiritual energy from the top of the Tree of Life down into our body. Our body is a Tree of Life, or better said, our spinal medulla is the Tree of Life. It allows us to have existence. So this force of divinity, the pure waters of life, descend from the top of the Tree of Life, from our brain, down into our sexual organs. The energy and spiritual force of creation is condensed and materialized in our semen, whether we are male or female.
We have either sperm or ovum. This is the matter that contains the creative Genesis of every planet, of every divine being, of every cosmos. So, that River Jordan, that pure waters of life, descends from the heavenly realms and becomes our seminal matter. And because that force is now materialized, the Gnostic learns to conserve those waters and transform them. This is known as the power of sublimation. We call that transmutation, to mutate, to change the form of the sexual matter into energy. Sublimation is the act of changing semen into subtle energy. We make it sublime, heavenly, divine. We accomplish this through many exercises in our tradition: mantras, pranayama, and especially alchemy. Alchemy is the medieval science of metals, metallurgy. It means “to fuse oneself with God,” the Being. In synthesis, we transform the base metal or lead of the ego, the conditions of mind, into the gold of genuine spirituality, the awakened consciousness, the virtues of the soul. So to work with the sexual waters is symbolized by baptism. We save and conserve and direct that energy from sex to the brain. This gives birth to the soul. So, Christ was baptized in the River Jordan, the Hebrew term for “descender.” So now that these forces have descended into us in the form of creative potential, we now have to raise it up within us. These waters must flow inward and upward, so that we are baptized by the sexual energy. We fill the mind with light, with power, with creative genius, spiritual force. Remember that Joshua in the Bible, the Hebrew יהשוה Yeshua, is the same name as Jesus, made the waters of the Jordan to change course. He caused it to flow in the opposite direction with the help of God, the Being. Yet, the tendency in most people is to expel the sexual energy, to give birth to a child. But through this spiritual path, we conserve the sexual energy and make it change its regular course, so that it flows within us as a regenerative fountain of eternal youth. This is how Jesus received the Word, the Christ principle, the Cosmic Being, through baptism. It is a profound symbol of birth, mystical birth, mystical consciousness. So, the creative energy purifies the psyche in the same way that you take a shower to be cleansed. We use the creative sexual energy by transmuting it. We purify the mind, the consciousness. It gives birth to virtues. No flower could blossom without the waters of life. The same thing with chakras, the virtues of the soul, which are represented in the internal planes by beautiful flowers, immaculate roses. So, we have to learn to take this energy to empower our spirituality so that we can work on the ego. This is why chastity is the ultimate revolution. Without this foundation, we have no power. We cannot work. We become stagnant. And once we are saving sexual energy, strengthening our essence, we have to direct ourselves towards purification, which is symbolized by the crucifixion of Christ. 
The Passion and Crucifixion: Death of the Ego
Christ lived. He is a historical person, but more importantly for us, he lived his life according to principles. He represented an archetype known as Christ, so as to provide a very beautiful teaching for us. While his Baptism represents the factor of birth, his Passion and Crucifixion represents the death of the ego.
He demonstrated with his life and his Passion, the principal, the ultimate paradigm for eliminating the ego. It is very simple, but it is the most difficult thing to do. When he was persecuted, tortured, mocked, spat upon, betrayed, assassinated, he only showed compassion for his enemies. He said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). No anger. No frustration that he did not get his morning tea or whatever silly things we fight about in our small existence. We cannot even handle a sly comment, a sarcastic joke, yet, Christ was murdered, and in that process, he demonstrated only the most profound love, the most profound respect for his enemies. It is this selflessness that is fundamental. Without it, we cannot eliminate the ego. The ego always wants to preserve itself. The mind always protests, cannot handle anything. But the ego can be controlled, can be eliminated, if the Essence works, through the help of the Being by submitting to superior laws. So, Christ the Being, is serene before insult. Are we able to do this? Someone criticizes you? Are you able to respect that person even in your mind? The reality is that the ego always retaliates, whether with words or in chatter, in the mind. Therefore, if we wish to eliminate the ego, we have to deny our desires. 
Sacrifice: Christ’s Ministry and Selfless Service
This is a profound form of sacrifice. This is the final factor which signifies fulfillment of our duties when we benefit humanity, when we serve humanity.
This term, sacrifice, relates to “sacred office,” our divine obligations. People think that sacrifice has something to do with slaughtering animals or people. In different religious cults, sacrifice of animals was symbolic: the act of removing the animal nature from ourselves. But this teaching degenerated when it became literal. Real sacrifice signifies that, in accordance with the qualities of our Being, our character, our skills, we fulfill our duties to humanity and genuinely help others. We work to elevate the level of being of humanity. This can come in the form of teaching Gnosis. This is what many Gnostics assume: that to really sacrifice for humanity, you need to teach, but that is not the case. All of us have skills that no one else has, that nobody can imitate. And we have to discover what that vocation is. It is a very secret thing, which you have to explore in a meditation, and to receive insight from astral experiences. We have to learn what type of work we are good at and what genuinely helps other people. It could be providing, working, earning money for a spiritual school. Tithes and donations are very common, very basic structure and dynamic at every religious institution, but it is not the only way to sacrifice. Perhaps our sacrifice is to provide some type of service: a job, a marriage, cleaning a temple, providing books. Only we could determine that role from our Being, from our particular situation. Real sacrifice, generosity, represented by the ministry of Christ, is the light that provides life and meaning. It gives us purpose. When you find your vocation, the way that you can sacrifice for humanity, it is the life and blood of your Being. Without it, you cannot exist. For example, Beethoven. He loved his mission so much, being a master of Major Mysteries, a master musician, that even when he became deaf, he still composed. He received experiences and ecstasies in the astral plane and fought to compose and articulate that knowledge for humanity. He composed the Ninth Symphony when he was completely deaf. He could not hear his music, at least physically. Internally, he could hear his music. But obviously, he suffered a lot. That is profound form of love and sacrifice where he gave up his pain and his self-pity to give humanity a gift that is truly incomprehensible. If you want to know more about the symbolism of such art, you can study our tarot course on chicagognosis.org: The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah, especially Arcanum 9, relating to the Ninth Symphony, but also The Secret Teachings of Opera. So whatever vocation we find, that we experience, that we practice, we do it with selflessness, with love, with humility, with tolerance of others. And of course, it always involves some type of pain, suffering. This is voluntary suffering. This is part of the conscious work we need to fulfill. So often times, we might fear to help other people. We may be selfish. We may want to sustain ourselves to protect ourselves, protect our pride. But the law of Christ is reciprocity. It is giving. By giving we receive. By helping we are helped. That is the law. Oftentimes, the best gifts come when we really do not want to do them. We feel tremendous resistance in the mind: pride, the humiliation that we do not want to lower ourselves to another person, to serve them, and yet by doing so we become the most honored. Humility is the gateway to heaven, not pride. Pride led to the fall for many of those angels like in Paradise Lost, but humility is the door, the gateway. I would like to read you some verses from Kahlil Gibran's poem The Prophet, which illustrate these points: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow? And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city? And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable? There are those who give little of the much which they have―and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome. And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty. There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism. And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space. Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth. ―Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Giving” So the last example, learning to give without attachment, without expectation of reward, out of the fountain of generosity, that is the law of Christ, superior action, superior Being. This opens the door to redemption. Therefore, to receive inner experiences, to be compensated for our work, we have to sacrifice, but with selflessness. Not with expectation. Not with, “What am I going to get in return?” but because we wish to genuinely help others. This is the path of wisdom. This is comprehension of the divine law. Conclusion
We will conclude with a verse from the Book of Matthew, which synthesizes these principles.
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” ―Matthew 16:24 These are the three factors in synthesis. We have to deny ourselves: Holy negation, renounce the ego. We must also take up the cross of reconciliation. This is the path of alchemy, which we explained in books like The Perfect Matrimony, The Mystery of the Golden Flower, and many books of tantric Buddhism, esoteric Christianity. The cross is a sexual symbol: the vertical phallus and the horizontal uterus. When those energies are harnessed in a matrimony, we conquer heaven. We redeem ourselves. We crucify our ego, and we explained in many lectures and courses how we can work upon the ego with the sexual energy in the act itself, performed with purity and love. Lastly, we have to follow Christ. It is to affirm the law. It is sacrifice for others. In that way, we radically transform our situation. I invite you to reflect on these principles and to practice them, because it is only through experience, through exercising our Essence, by working with the Gnostic discipline, that we can experience these things for ourselves. At this point we're going to open up the floor to questions. Questions and Answers
Question: What is the difference between desire and the ego? Is there a difference?
Instructor: In strict esoteric language, there is no difference. This sense of self that wants, that craves, that fights for its desires, is ego. It is the ego which says, “I want, I crave, I need.” “I want this, I want that,” is desire. Now, there are many poets within the Sufi tradition, especially, even Christian mysticism, that speak of desire for God, desire for the truth. And that is a little different. Semantically speaking, one thing is longing for divinity, and desire, to be very specific, is the ego, because 97 percent of our consciousness is trapped in the mind, in the ego. But to desire God, obviously in a poetic sense, we can say it is a longing for the truth. And that is a characteristic and quality of the Essence, of the consciousness, which is very different. Question: Thank you for the lecture first. So three things: First was I was wondering if you could speak on... I have a little confusion with... you are mentioning how mechanical nature who wants to swallow us. And I have also heard in another lecture that nature does not care about our spirituality. Then there is this Divine Mother Nature and an aspect, as I understand, an aspect of God. So, I wrote things like, does this have to do with reaping what you sow? Or nature will allow us to use her according to... it is like the freedom of choice. I have some confusion over like Divine Mother Nature who loves us and then there is this mechanical nature that does not care. I get confused about that. I wonder if you could speak on that. Instructor: Great question. There are two forms of nature. We have mechanical nature, which is the governance of all of the evolving and devolving processes in Malkuth, the physical world, the kingdom. All of the forces of mechanical nature operate in accordance with compensation: kill or be killed; eat or be eaten. This is very obvious within the animal kingdom, where you find that type of behavior, but also you find it in the humanoid kingdom, the intellectual animal, mistakenly called human being. Our society and culture is based on animal desire. While we have the intellect, the reality is that human beings, or better said humanoids, continue to behave as animals, with the exception that we rationalize. We justify what we do, you know. We have the logic of hatred, of racism, of violence, and many excuses we tell ourselves as a country or society that condone certain behaviors, which belong to generation, animality. Our ego belongs to mechanical nature. We received those instinctual elements when we enter the animal kingdom, through the process of transmigration. And for those of you who are not familiar with this concept, you can study in more depth the lecture called Transmigration of Souls on chigagognosis.org, in the Anthropology and Cosmology course. But in synthesis, mechanical nature governs society. It governs evolution and devolution, birth and death, life and corruption, etc. But there is a different type of nature which is divine, which belongs to divinity. We call that Divine Mother Nature. That is the natural qualities, the expressions of the Being, relating to the Divine Mother, which will be the topic of our next lecture. Divine Mother Nature belongs to the Essence, the soul, the consciousness, which operates with very different laws beyond the concepts of good and bad, evolution, devolution. The struggle that we face in this path is precisely in the work of the Essence going against mechanicity. We have two conflicting natures in ourselves, and I believe Paul of Tarsus explained that conflict very beautifully in his doctrine, in the New Testament, where he says, "that which I would not do, I do. And that which I do and what I would not want to do, I do anyways." “There is a constant war in my members,” he says, a battle between the ego and what it considers natural, and then the Essence, which tries to follow a superior law. And this is precisely the war mentioned in all the mythologies and cosmogonies of every religion. So these two natures are distinct, and to know the difference we have to be meditating, if that touches upon your question. Question: Yes, so then the second question I have… thank you. The second question I have is when you were saying Christ went with his cross in serenity, like was able to forgive as he was being tortured and I was just wondering: does that have to do with his experience in the Garden and sweating blood, like preparing for that which was to come? Was there a science to... he saw it, went through it in a way in advance so, therefore, was able to have that serenity, because the two seem very linked? Instructor: Yes, a master at that level is very elevated. He had foreknowledge of what would happen to him. And in fact, he organized the drama so that he would be captured. It's a very subtle teaching in which he knew that he would be assassinated, but out of sacrifice for humanity, and by the commands of his Being, he knew that he had a live that drama physically to represent a cosmic, spiritual, psychological drama, something that every initiate must enter through on their own in their different ways. It does not mean that when we enter Gnosis that we are going to be crucified like Jesus. We all face our own difficulties and struggles in life, which are particular to each one of us. This is discussed in our courses on initiation. But Jesus was very awakened, even at the time before his Passion, he had no ego. He was already dead. So, he was preparing for the culmination of the spiritual work, which is resurrection. So, he knew exactly what he needed to do. And of course, even at that level, he suffered a lot, because as he said in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Abba, Father, if it be possible, take this cup of bitterness from me, but not my will, but Thine be done" (Luke 22:42). That is a form of sacrifice. And of course, the greatest sacrifices always involve a lot of struggle. But we can see the result of Christ's teaching, especially in its original form. I am not necessarily promoting the beliefs of standard Christianity that is accepted today, because those teachings have been lost, have been diluted or sterilized, but in the esoteric heart of his life, he performed a drama that is incredible―really, is amazing. But, he knew what he had to do. He was very aware of what his path was and we can gain insights like that at our level if we are really meditating deeply and having those experiences, where we know exactly what will happen to us in the path, so that we are prepared. And of course, Jesus was prepared, otherwise, he could not have handled the ordeal. Audience: Yeah, as you were saying, he was going beyond good and evil, yet it does not mean that suffering is all over, that the sacrifice is done, because, as you were saying, he was already dead to egos He was already there in a way but he still had to suffer and sacrifice. Instructor: Yes, and many masters who achieve the path, who finished and resurrect, even they must perform sacrifices: continue working with the three factors as they are entering very high stages of development in the Absolute. I hope that answers your question. Question: Yeah. I was wondering if you had a suggestion because over the last few days. I have been experiencing a form of noticing identity in senses, especially like sight and what this sometimes results in is an experience of feeling as I sit. As if I am like falling, like kind of falling, like things are falling away, like there is a sense of like non-identity. I guess you could call it profound, but it's rather terrifying, as if things are everything I sense. It's just like an illusion and I have noticed that first there is kind of a terror that comes like, “Nope, don't want to go there,” and then there is also another thing that comes up like, “No, I want to go there,” but it is like a desire and so I have been trying to find a way where I am not going to get away from it, but I don't want to like indulge into either. I have been thinking about Klim Krishnaya Govindaya Gopijana Vallabhaya Swaha: the aspect of five [the Gnostic Pentagram] because it is five senses. I was wondering if you had a suggestion or a certain mantra or something that may encourage to not indulge in it, but not to deny it and to allow it, as it seems to be something that has been popping up. Instructor: Good question. That type of psychological state is conflicted. There is the sense of self that says, “I want to experience this,” and then there is the ego that says, “I don't.” Having a dichotomy in the mind is precisely the battle of the antitheses, the struggle of the intellect. My suggestion is that when you experience inner conflict, breathe deeply, inhale through your nostrils, profoundly hold your breath naturaly, in a relaxed way, and exhale, focus on your breath, and also examine the mind. Do not try to judge it. Do not try to label it, but look at it. See it for what it is. You know, there are all these thoughts and conflicted wills and memories and states of agitation, which you have to separate from. You have to look at it like you are a director in a film observing an actor. When we identify with either states, we become the state: we become obscured. And therefore, we are thinking that we are thinking and feeling that we are feeling, but in the subjectivity of the ego. I recommend, especially when you are practicing meditation or preparing for it, take a lot of time to relax, and especially work with energy, as we explained in the former lectures. Take time to work with pranayama, mantra, sexual transmutation, because that energy is going to empower your perception, so that you have the strength necessary to look at what is going on. And rather than try to expect what you are going to see, just keep an open attitude. The way that we do so is when we are relaxed. We are not expecting anything, looking forward to anything, or trying necessarily to analyze what we are seeing, the conflict in ourselves. When you simply look, the answers will start to unfold themselves and lead you to new understandings. This is a faculty of intuition: to comprehend without having to think, and that skill only develops more and more when you are consistent. So, I recommend try some mantras, try some transmutation, circulate energy in yourself so that you can relax and so that you have the serenity and stability to really discriminate what you see. I hope that answers your question. Audience: Yeah. What you are saying is that if even if there is a dissolution of the senses, even if you are moving away, there is a sensation that comes with that can be identified with. That there is a sensation in letting go of senses that that is a further need to be not identified with, so thank you. That is very helpful, the director of the film idea. Thank you. Question: It seems like I have enough impediments and vices and afflictions and desires even with no distraction that, you know, just deciding, “Okay, I don't want to be gluttonous about watching TV this weekend or that kind of stuff.” That is going to take a long time, all the various ways that I overindulged my senses, maybe not to some people's standard, but really I see it in myself. So, I would say that it is there, prevalent, a basic thing that needs to be worked on, and you know struggle with, and it is not easy. Because I can say the same thing every day, “I am going to do this” and then inevitably I fail at something that I am trying to not do, let us say even having the desire to think something negative. I am so slow now that I can see everything pretty well, like I can watch myself a lot, but the changing of myself is the part that is hard. I guess I am just wondering, does that fall under the of a form of sacrifice when one is able to really conquer those things, moment by moment, all the time, even though the easiest thing is to just think that negative thing or to watch those five shows in a row, or whatever it is, you know? There are so many different things that we do to be asleep. Instructor: Absolutely. There are levels of sacrifice. Sometimes sacrifice can involve changing our habits and our behaviors when relating to people, primarily because it is a sacrifice and a compassionate act to be a good person, to not give our mind or self-esteem what it wants. For example, if we are in a conflict at work, it is a sacrifice to the other people in our community to act with serenity and compassion. It is a matter of sacrificing our own will so that we can benefit others. But of course, there are degrees to this, levels to this, primarily because to have the greatest effect, we need to be generating the most energy and eliminating the most impurity as we can, so that we become a conduit, a vessel that can express divinity with greater perfection. All three factors go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the others. So, in order for our sacrifices to be really beneficial, we have to die to something. Something has to die in us. But also, we have to give birth to virtue. Something has to be created from that action. But something has to be put away. And understanding this dynamic is very subtle and very intricate, very beautiful and profound. You learn it by performing it, especially through moment to moment self-observation, self-remembrance, work upon yourself. You know, we learn how to sacrifice ourselves when we are in remembrance of the presence of God, but also, we are restraining our negative habits, our negative qualities of being. So, even in terms of sacrificing other habits, you know, it is always good to dedicate more time to meditation. That can be a type of sacrifice for ourselves and eventually becomes a sacrifice for others if we are really developing our understanding. If that makes sense. Question: Yeah, it makes sense. It does make sense. I have one other little thing and that is, I am really enjoying this cup of tea. It is almost like, should I be enjoying it? It is this weird thing like we are looking forward to it. Is that where I am not having equanimity? Maybe it is just the same. It is really just desire, you know? Instructor: Certainly. Now, as students of this tradition, when we say that we must eliminate desire, the ego, it does not mean that we do not enjoy life. It does not mean that we do not enjoy a cup of tea or appreciate a sunrise. In fact, it means that we are more vigilant and awake, more sensitive, more in tune with reality, Therefore we enjoy life with a greater equanimity, understanding, and appreciation. The ego is attached to the object of its desires, whereas with the consciousness, we can enjoy things, but it doesn't mean that we are attached. It is a very subtle difference. Question: When we are transmuting as a couple, should we be moving our energy up our spine or does it do it automatically? Instructor: When practicing alchemy, everything is intentional. We must be intentional with everything. So when we are sexually connected, we have the energy present, the vital forces of Yesod in hyperactivity, and if we wish to redirect those energies, we have to use your willpower. So, there is a type of will involved, consciously speaking, in which we have to first conserve the energy. Do not release it, and learn to redirect it up the spine with concentration, with imagination, with love. That is the most important thing, is that we show love for our partner and respect for that force, respect for the divine in our spouse. We cannot unintentionally transmute, mechanically. The energies want to go out according to animal, mechanical nature, but the type of Divine Mother Nature that we are developing is in relation to redirecting that force with willpower. So, we have to develop Christ's will in ourselves and to intentionally bring that energy upward, inward. It does not happen automatically. If it did happen automatically, then you would have in this humanity a self-realized race, but the truth is that transmutation is an intentional revolution. It requires specific conscious efforts. Question: What if external circumstances are affecting my meditation practices? In the lecture you say change within, but it is difficult without good meditation. Instructor: It is a good point to make that we may not be having a conducive environment in which to meditate. One of the stipulations and basis for meditation, according to Tsong Khapa, the author of the Lam Rim, or The Great Treatise on the Stages to the Path of Enlightenment, is that we have a good home. It does not mean that it has to be perfect. It only means that we have enough stability in our home life that we have a space by which we can practice. Obviously, people who are in a war zone have a very difficult time meditating, but speaking from general experience, working with North American students and living in North America, we tend to have a lot of luxuries that we take for granted. This is just a common experience. Now, a lot of times, the obstacles that people face in their beginning stages of meditation have to do with a lack of concentration and relaxation. So, obviously if our home life is a disaster, meaning we have a very difficult home environment: perhaps living with other people who are shouting or fighting all the time, maybe in a bad neighborhood, there is violence occurring on the street, whatever it may be, we have to work with where we are at. They say that the greatest meditators know how to transform adversity, difficult situations, no matter what. So regardless of whether there is noise across the street or there are gunshots sounding throughout the neighborhood, we can learn to take those distractions, to ignore them, and to develop our concentration. So, meditation becomes profound if we exert a lot of discipline in ourselves. And if we learn to take advantage of adversities and learn to develop our meditative practice, despite our environment, our concentration will be much stronger than those who never have that type of obstacle to face. I believe even Dion Fortune wrote that one is not really an initiate if they cannot meditate on a train, in a public place, with perfect equipoise. Primarily because even when there are a lot of noises, people sitting around and talking, if one can maintain one's vigilance and inner introspection, one is going to have a very profound will, and will be able to obtain results consistently. Question: During the transmigration of the soul, does the Essence always return to the humanoid kingdom once it has been obtained, or does the Essence return to the lower animal kingdom or the lower animals in the animal kingdom to suffer before the next rebirth? Instructor: Devolution within animal bodies occurs when the humanoid, the intellectual soul, has lost all opportunities. That person who has utilized their 108 existences but has not desired or worked towards the self-realization of the Being, must descend into animal bodies. They will not be able to go back up, at least at that type of condition, because when someone is devolving, they no longer have control. They are being redirected and pulled by the forces of the Earth down towards the interior in accordance with the processes of devolution. So, in short, such a person who is entering animal bodies is not going to be given a humanoid body again, because they already lost their chance and their opportunity. If you would like to learn more, again, I recommend those lectures we referenced. Question: How do we accept when a family member is doing something wrong, such as following a bad habit? I had an astral event where I said angry words and disappointment to her; is that my desire for them to be different? It is painful to see that. Can I take this pain as a sacrifice and accept it? Instructor: This is a very good question. It raises a very deep concern for us, primarily because the virtue of the Gnostic Church is tolerance. We have to have compassion and acceptance of others, their free will. It does not mean that we keep silent and it does not mean that we do not communicate our concerns. But whether we do it with resentment, with anger, or with generosity, is different. So it's good to communicate our feelings to others, especially when we really love our family members and we see themselves harming themselves. You know, obviously, if there are physical violence involved, it is important to get the professionals involved. But one thing is being zealous and angry at that person, preaching hellfire, damnation, and not really communicating to them a sense of love―that is different. So in one sense, it could be a desire for the other person to be different, where we want them to be a certain way. And obviously that is an egotistical sentiment. It is coercion. Compassion and conscious love respects others, regardless, and accepts them for who they are. But, it does not mean we do not say anything, that we do not communicate our genuine concerns. So it obviously can be a sacrifice to endure that pain and to show them love as a result, and not resentment. Or, it can also be a sacrifice to teach them how to change and have the patience to do so. That could be a sacrifice as well. Question: Just to confirm, the three factors happen independently or simultaneously, and is it a continuous process throughout life? Instructor: The three factors happen together. They are a synthesis. They complement and contribute to each other. So, when we act virtuously, we are restraining the ego. We are sacrificing our ego to show compassion to our neighbor, or a person perhaps who insulted us. In that example, someone could be criticizing us, and we feel resentment and pain, but instead of retaliating with hatred, we sacrifice our feeling and act virtuously towards that person. And therefore, we give birth or creation of new circumstances. In that way, we can transform an enemy into a friend. We sacrifice our pride, humble ourselves, and in turn, create a new situation. And in that way, we also die to the old, in order to give birth to the new. So, in that principle, all three factors have to work together. You cannot have one without the other. This is why in certain groups within the Gnostic tradition, there are people who focus sometimes exclusively on death, or serving others and sacrifice, and maybe people forget to work with birth. In most cases, a lot of people tend to forget death: how to die to the ego. Death of desire is really important, but the other factors are essential too. We need all three to work together. Thank you all for coming. 
All people on this planet, without exception, live in a profound state of suffering. While our politics, religions, spiritual movements, schools, employers, and institutions, all attempt to resolve this universal problem, none are successful, so long as our approach, our methodology, our psychology is flawed.
The tendency is to look towards external phenomena. We look for the causes of suffering outside. And yet despite our best efforts, our noblest intentions, we continue in pain. We suffer in life because we do not get what we want. The world is a certain way and because our views conflict with reality, we suffer. Or we do get what we want, and then we suffer even more because we do not want to lose what we have earned, what we have received, what we have won, sometimes through great strife, hardship, struggle. Change is a profound cause of suffering. Stuck in our old ways, our mind, our emotions, our behaviors, they conflict with reality with the changing state of daily affairs. We demand stability from life, and yet the social and the economic world is collapsing. The reality is that nothing is permanent, and why do we expect the world to have stability when we ourselves are filled with chaos? We have the illusion that life should always be what it should because we want it to be that way. Remember that we mentioned previously, life is in a continual flux of change, of transformation, yet the majority of people, the majority of souls do not want to change, do not want to adapt. We want life to be as it always was, such as before this pandemic, and yet if we wish to conquer suffering, we must embrace transformation, with all the sacrifices, the challenges, the pain it involves. We demand stability from the world, yet we ignore how we ourselves are an extension of society. The society is the individual and the individual is society. If we want stability in our life, we need stability inside. We always demand other people to change, and yet we tend to make no effort to work upon ourselves. We ignore typically that if we want changes in this society we live in, we have to cease ignoring how we contribute to the problem: how we compound the suffering of humanity and ourselves. This ignorance is a fundamental basis or axis upon which cyclical, mechanical existence operates. In Buddhism this is known as Samsara: cycling, repeating again and again the same problems, the same dramas, the same tendencies and mistakes. However, throughout this tragedy, we do not tend to question our own mind, to see if our psychological states are flawed, incorrect, insipient. And sadly, we do not really perceive how our own internal states affect people. We like to think we live in a bubble. We can think what we want, feel what we want, do what we want in the mind. And yet the mind is an energy. It is a form of matter, in different dimensions or gradations of existence, which we have explored in the Tree of Life. So, our mind has reality. If we are killing someone in our mind, that energy affects the person we are thinking about, and yet our society teaches us not to accept this principle, that we become what we think, and therefore our means are superficial. We look to the externals. We do not look to the psychological causes of pain. We want to examine the world through imperfect means, through the lens of our theories, and we do not realize or recognize or want to see that our beliefs about the world have nothing to do with reality. This ignorance of cause and effect illustrates that we are asleep. We are unconscious beings. We are machines. Robots. We do not realize how our mechanical repetitive behaviors create consequences, even if only in the mind. And even when the whole world tells us we are wrong, that we have a problem, we continue to persist in it. We stubbornly may reject it. We continue with our attachments because we are so hypnotized by a sense of self that is not real. Therefore, there is no need to believe in causality. It is a given. We know this from studies of science, physics, etc. Causality is a truth. There is nothing in the universe that is not caused, neither is there a cause in the universe that does not have an effect. This is a fundamental axiom of science. And yet when we approach the principles of causality to our life, to the psychological realm of our thoughts, of our feelings, our will, we ignore, we choose to not see how our internal states produce effects, produce conflict. The Definition and Reality of Karma
While this law of causality is known as karma in the East, within Buddhism and Hinduism, such a principle is also known very well in the West as the divine law of judgment.
However, like many adaptations in the West of Eastern doctrine, we have greatly misunderstood this truth. We conflate the law of karma as a law of vengeance, divine retribution, which is not true. People misconstrue the law of causality as some force that vindictively ensures that “you get what you deserve.” The universe, according to this view, punishes bad people and guarantees that no bad deed goes unpunished, when in reality karma, from Sanskrit कर्म karman, literally means “deed,” derived from कृ kri: “to do, make, cause, effect.” This is the law of causality. Everything in the universe exists because of cause and effect. This, as I said, is a fundamental axiom of modern science, is governed by mathematics, laws, principles. Our psychology is governed by laws, spiritual laws. Although we in our modern culture like to think that we are spiritual, the facts of our behavior demonstrate otherwise, because our deeds reflect the quality of our being. As Jesus said in the Gospels, “By their fruits you will know them.” By their actions, by their behavior. Our actions produce the facts of our life. How we choose to behave determines where we go. In the first two lectures of this course we talked about the level of being and psychological rebellion. How we behave, even if only in the mind and the heart, produces consequences. If we are at a meeting, perhaps before this pandemic, speaking to a coworker or a group of friends, it is easy to see and sense when someone is angry, even though there are no physical outward expressions of that sentiment. We can feel it. We can see it in a person. This sense has nothing to do with physical sight, with the senses. It is a psychological sense, which, through the medium of our physical body, we can feel the energy of a person even if those actions, that person’s thoughts, are completely unexpressed, externally. This is why the Buddha taught “Mind precedes phenomena. We become what we think.” And therefore, we have to renounce this illusion that we can live inside of ourselves and think and do whatever we want, as if there was no law, there were no repercussions, because in the example that I provided, the friends and coworkers can become anxious and filled with dis-ease, discomfort, by this one person who has made such a profound, negative effect on the group. Therefore, let us examine our mind. What is our level of being? What actions has led us to this present instant? What actions did we commit in the past that we reflected upon? What mistakes have we understood? The reality is that we are trapped. We are in a cage. We are in profound hell, which, as we have related, is not necessarily a place externally. It is a psychological state of being, and yet we are not in hell because of some God, an anthropomorphic tyrant in the clouds who dispenses lightening to this poor ant hill of a humanity. That God, according to Nietzsche, does not exist, because it is true. That is an illusion that people have created to ignore their culpability, their mistakes. God does not throw humanity into the mud to suffer because we do not worship him. We are in the mud because we put ourselves there. And divinity is the one who opens the door for those who sincerely wish to change, to escape, to leave the pit. These are people who feel remorse for their past actions. Again, this is not morbidity, pessimism, self-flagellation, self-deprecation, egos of depression, self-hatred, etc. Remorse is a quality of the soul that recognizes it is wrong and has committed wrong, has produced suffering for others. That is the voice of conscience. And remember the Tree of Life, the sphere of judgement, inner divine judgement of our soul, is Geburah, the consciousness of the law. We have to orient the ship of our life in accordance with this star, this guidance, which is inside. When we need divine help, aid, we receive experiences, inspirations, comprehensions. And this is what helps us to purify ourselves, to qualify our actions. This law of karma is essential for transformation, because nothing emerges from belief, thinking something is true, accepting a moral code, a dogma, a theory. The beauty of the soul, divine conscience, the sense of right and wrong, is born through conscious work, Tiphereth, the human soul, and voluntary suffering, in which we explained has to do with accepting “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” to quote Hamlet. Really, that outrageous fortune, the most difficult situations of life, are produced by ourselves―without exception―even if we do not remember how we produced that state. This is why it is important in our Gnostic studies to remember our past lives, to remember what we did and why we are in the situation that we are in. I remember many years ago, I was having a lot of issues in my work, physically, with my relationships to my family. And I was praying and suffering a lot and asking for help. I remember invoking in the astral plane the venerable Master Samael Aun Weor. And I spoke with him as he was showing me symbolic things, which are not relevant to this lecture. But he told me very clearly, “You need to remember your past lives!” And I was complaining, “But I do not remember.” And very severely, and with a lot of love, “It does not matter!” because the law is the law. Our ignorance of the law does not absolve us from the effects of our wrong actions. We have to become conscious of this law in ourselves if we want liberation. It is not a theory. Many people believe in karma. They believe in past lives, but they do not have any knowledge of it from experience. And this is the demarcation between the Gnostics and the theorists. We have to work. We have to practice. We have to enact superior causes in our life of an ethical, spiritual manner. This is the code of conduct mentioned in any tradition, which means to embrace and embody the influences of the Being. We have to confront our former actions, our mind stream, which is why Hamlet said, “to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.” This is from Hamlet’s soliloquy in the play of Shakespeare, bearing his name. This is a symbolic text that teaches us “to be or not to be. That is the question.” Do we return to God or do we complain about our situation and waste energy and not comprehend the value of hardships, learning experiences? 
Divine Justice is Conscious and Compassionate
Karma is not a blind law. it is not mechanical, like you do something wrong and then the universe punishes you out of a sense of resentment or pride. The symbol of justice with a blindfold and scales, a sword of justice in her right hand, reflects sacred law, arcana, principles in nature and the divine. Justice is impartial, not blind. Divinity wears a cloth around her eyes to show that justice does not look to your appearances, how you look to others, but evaluates your conscience, your soul, based on the measurement of good and bad, our actions, the scale of our heart and the mind.
This image finds its parallel within Egyptian mysticism with the lord Anubis, the hierarch of karma, the great reagent of the law in the tribunals of divine justice in the astral plane, in the mental plane, in the causal plane. He weighs the heart of the neophytes on a scale, and one side is the feather and one side is the heart. This means that the feather of the mind, the aerial nature of the mind, and the fires of the heart, the cardiac center, must be in equilibrium. This is how we enter the hierarchies of the divine beings. It is done through conscious, deliberate, intuitive work.
So again, justice is not blind. We are. This symbol shows us that divinity does not look towards superficialities, what we intended, what we think was righ,t how noble our aspirations were, and yet if the consequences were disastrous, if we killed somebody, if we made a mistake, if we failed in an ordeal, the law does not reward us based on intentionality. It is based on consequences, because the divine law is beyond intention. It is omniscience, and this is why justice wields a sword, because the divine hierarchies can admit us into the garden of Eden. The cherubim with the flaming sword can allow us to enter and climb the Tree of Life. Or that sword can be turned upon us. Every temple in the astral plane is guarded by great beings who wield a sword, the Kundalini, the sacred fire. And they judge us and base their decisions of how they relate to us upon our own actions. I remember many times trying to enter certain temples and I was stopped by a guardian with a sword. They only admit those who have earned the right to receive that help. Likewise, Anubis in the internal planes, when he officiates in his tribunals of karma, wears a jackal’s mask, a symbol of impartiality, showing us that divinity does not look or favor one person over another. Divinity treats all beings with equity, with dispassion, with clarity and judgment. There is no bias in that intelligence. Karma is not mechanical. There are incredible intelligences that govern this law. Personally, I met Anubis many times. He is not a theory for me. I have invoked him and spoken with him. And he has taught me things about how to negotiate my path with wisdom. And honestly, when I have been before Anubis, I have been terrified, because he is truly a profound light. He is beyond good and evil. He is beyond our concepts of good and bad. And therefore, holds the scales of this world in his hands. He is the terror of love and law, because divinity is so terrifying in his presence. But also, the force of love, because it is so profound. It is ecstasy to be before these initiates because of how tremendous their development. So, when I have had experiences with Anubis, I know that there is nothing I could hide, which is why in Galatians 6:7: “Be not deceived God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” ―Galatians 6:7 It is sad that in our modern mentality, we think we can do whatever we want, and that there is no law. We think we can commit crimes even in the mind, but as I said, there are repercussions. So, you might think you can hide from the physical law. You possibly can, but from divinity you cannot. I will relate a brief experience that makes me reflect a lot. Outside my apartment today, somebody was shot five or six times. There were two people. They fled into a car and my wife and I were calling the police, reporting what happened, that we saw a person was wounded on the street, shot randomly. And we could see the blood from this person as he laid there, and other people came to help with the ambulance and the police. And I was reflecting before this lecture how these two criminals, who shot the person and drove away, think they can escape the law. And I do not necessarily mean physical law. I mean divine law. It is sad that people think that they can murder, steal, rape, commit crime, and think that there is no consequence, because they only believe in the physical world. If they knew the terrible reality of Anubis, I think that they might have a different course of life or action. So, we have to really reflect on these things. Eventually those two people who I saw outside our home will have to be brought before the law internally. And the reason why people commit crimes like this is that they are so disassociated from their own conscience. The voice of judgement, the inner law, is dead in them. The ego, the moon has eclipsed the sun. Astrologically speaking, Geburah can relate with Mars and the Sun in astrological Kabbalah. Therefore, that intelligence is dead in people like that, but regardless of whether we think we are not being judged or not being perceived, there is a law that extends beyond this world. 
The Three Eternals
Which is why the Buddha taught that there are three eternal things in life: the law of karma, Nirvana, and space.
Causality is certain, and so is the cessation of karmic suffering, known as Nirvana. The Buddha taught us Four Noble Truths. (1) In life there is suffering, (2) suffering has causes; (3) there exists the cessation of the causes of suffering, and lastly (4) a path of cessation, which is meditation. Cessation, Nirvana, in Sanskrit means, “to end” or “cease” with pain, illusion, mistaken views―to experience the stillness and serenity when the ego is dead, when there is no “I.” Lastly, we have the Divine Mother space, which has always existed, does exist, and is the matrix by which we obtain realization. Nirvana is not only a dimension or a place in nature. It is a reflection of our own consciousness. When we obey superior, compassionate law, enacting positive deeds for humanity, benefiting others, then it is a natural consequence. The law of divinity owes you and not the other way around. Divinity pays us with experiences. They give us ecstasies, samadhis, satoris, conscious awakened experiences in the Tree of Life, which we realize through dream yoga. When we cease the causes of suffering as in ego, we awaken to our true Buddha nature: the consciousness, the eternal spaciousness of divinity, the apprehension of emptiness of self and other. The cosmic Divine Mother has no form. The Divine Mother is a principle we work with every day, and we will explain how to work with her in the forthcoming lectures. But she is our divine derivative of God, the feminine aspect of our Being. She is the mother of our soul, represented by innumerable female goddesses, female figures, in mythology. She takes form to guide us, to instruct us, to teach us in dreams, so as to live with rectitude and love. Karma, Nirvana, and space interrelate. They constitute a fundamental reality for those who cease feeding the ego. It is important to understand karma, but we have to understand what Nirvana is, what liberation is, because to recognize the root of illusion, we have to see from the heights. This might seem a little difficult at our level, but Nirvana does not mean necessarily a heavenly place that we go on a vacation to. That is a reality, but Nirvana means “cessation,” to end the ego and to apprehend the real nature of our consciousness, which is spaciousness, mindfulness, awareness. 
The Four Principles of Karma
Cessation of suffering is only achievable when we comprehend the four principles of karma. This is extensively discussed in Tsong Khapa’s Lam Rim Chen Mo: The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. He elaborated four principles that we will discuss.
The four fundamentals, the four dynamics of the reality of karma: (1) actions produce related consequences, (2) the consequences are greater than the actions, (3) you cannot receive the consequence without committing its corresponding action, (4) once an action is performed a consequence cannot be erased. We will discuss all four in detail. 1. Actions produce related consequences
Karma is certain. It is infallible. The law of gravity is recognizable and always applies within earth’s atmosphere. If you go off into space, gravity no longer has effect. These are certain laws. These are truths that are irrefutable.
This is a reflection of a greater law causality. While gravity pertains to planets, causality applies everywhere. All phenomena are interrelated. Nothing exists independently, intrinsically in and of itself. This is the essence of Buddhist doctrine: interdependence, dependent origination. All phenomena have causes and effects. This is also understood in science, as we have explained. Spiritual sciences digress a little bit when they speak about the creation and destruction of worlds, planets, suns, universes. Hinduism and Buddhism especially articulate in their doctrine, their philosophy, their scriptures, how every cosmos has a birth life and regression and death. This is because causality balances the evolution and devolution of worlds with the purpose of maintaining harmony within all existing things. While these philosophical principles are very profound, they remain a conjecture, an abstraction, an idea without any practical reality or purpose if we do not awaken and experience these things. These concepts alone do not resolve the everyday problem of our life, which is suffering. And this is the problem with many groups, many movements, is that people are too fascinated with the philosophies, and while it is beautiful to know these profound truths, the best thing is to experience it. So, it is important to balance our study with our practice, in harmony. And causality, while it does apply to these very elevated spiritual realities, we only gain access to that knowledge by enacting the proper causes and conditions that lead to that awakening. Causality is certain. Certain causes produce suffering and other causes develop realization, liberation, experience. Liberation, as I said, is a state of Being, but it requires that we fulfill specific behaviors, the actions for their fruition. This why every religion teaches ethics, not a belief system, a moral code to follow mechanically, to repeat a hundred Hail Marys and a hundred Pater Nosters, and then we are saved. We have to comprehend the truth through action, not blind mechanical recitation. It is performed through conscious work. When we put our hand on a hot stove or on a fire, we feel pain, and then we learned through hard experience the consequences of heat and fire. While we may believe whatever we want about fire, it is difficult to deny the reality of this experience. So, while we have beliefs about life, it is our actions that really define us, that determine and show us what we believe, in truth, what we follow, what we aspire to. But sadly, most people are very ignorant about how our actions produce suffering. An alcoholic knows that alcohol is destructive, and yet continues to drink, even when they lose their family, their job, their life. They do it because their desire, their ego, is so strong, that they destroy themselves, even when the facts are tumbling down and collapsing before their eyes. The same with negative emotions. We give into our desires, our negativities without realizing how anger, how ego, produces such suffering. Humanity, however, worships anger, deifies it, puts it on a throne. 
Anger is a profound state of pain, yet people worship this feeling, and they ignore the consequences, like punching a window. I know the movies like to glorify anger, where the hero beats up the villain and punches through a glass window and has no effect. This is a type of mythology that is very prominent in humanity and keeps people deluded and thinking that anger has no consequences for the hero. And of course, all of us are the hero. We are the masters of the day. This is how the ego thinks.
We feel that we are the most important being in the universe. This is the nature of pride, which goes hand in hand with anger. We believe many things, but we ignore the reality of anger. It is a profound misapprehension or understanding of karma. Anger is frustrated desire. It is a form of violence, even if not physical. We can perform acts of violence in our mind, even if we do not externalize anything. Just imagine a time perhaps in which maybe a person was criticized by their boss at work. They do not say anything externally. They say “Yes, thank you,” take feedback, but then in their dreams, they are murdering that person. Our internal reality has more precedence than our external existence. How we think is what we become. So, on a basic level, if we are angry, we will always be victims of violence, of angry situations. And it is easy to act with negative emotion. If someone approaches us with hatred, how do, we react? Usually it is with the mind, with anger, which is why Jesus said in the Book of Matthew: “Whosoever lives by the sword dies by the sword.” ―Matthew 26:52 So, everybody suffers from violence, both the victim and the villain. This is why Samael Aun Weor states that negative emotions are more infectious than any virus or bacteria. All religions teach us how anger must be restrained. We have to comprehend it. We have to annihilate it. And this is why Prophet Muhammad stated, “The strongest among you is he who controls his anger.” When we comprehend a defect, we will never act on it. In fact, we will work on its elimination, because to continue with that psychological element is to live a flawed life, with the possibilities of that fault taking control when the conditions and the external circumstances are ripe. When the causes and conditions are ripe, when they are right, the ego manifests, yet when the ego is dead, even when the external situations arise, they do not provoke in us the same response. A lot of people ask us: how do we know if we are dying to the ego? The reality is and the question is: do we react to the same situation in the same way? Or is all anger dead? Do we feel no retaliation? Do we feel compassion for our aggressor? Do we transform the situation? That is how we know. We respond to life with intelligence, with understanding. 2. The consequences are greater than the action.
The consequences are greater than the actions. This principle supersedes Newton’s third law of physics, which states every action has an equal and opposite reaction. But in reality, the reaction, the consequence, is greater than the cause.
A seed of a plant can become a tree, something beautiful and great. Likewise, our esoteric discipline can produce a buddha, an angel, a god. The effects are greater than the cause. When you throw a stone into a pond, the water ripples within and throughout the lake, extends out from the center to the periphery. We only look at the initial appearance of things. We do not really contemplate how our actions have real, profound, penetrating effect. Our actions permeate everything. And this is being studied in quantum mechanics: how even our attention or observation of a study can make light particles change form into waves and vice versa. Likewise, our observation of light particles can influence them at a very subatomic level. So, imagine with our actual deeds: we see the splash that we see in the water after throwing the stone. We look at the appearances of things, but we do not really contemplate how that sound might expand out into the surroundings, how our actions have real profound effect. 
This analogy pertains to our spiritual life. Like the lake that is rippling, our actions can ripple through existence, extending beyond other parts of the world. The stone, when it enters the water, displaces and can alarm the creatures that live there, things that we do not see and yet the effect is there. The same thing with our internal life. This is only verifiable through observation, self-remembrance, mindfulness. So, this lake metaphor represents our internal and external life.
And while this principle is easy to see externally, we tend to remain very asleep to how this principle acts moment by moment, inside, internally. Our internal states produce reactions in the physical world. External events and internal states relate profoundly through interdependence. Our psychological states, according to Samael Aun Weor, when they are inappropriate in relation to the external event, can produce disgrace, no matter how small that action might be. And yet our psychological states when they are appropriately matched, we follow the voice of intuition and conscience. This is the voice of inner judgement. This is how we march upon the path of success, he says in The Revolution of the Dialectic, to paraphrase. Actions become amplified. Certain situations, when their conditions are just right, our behaviors become magnified, larger. They reach more people. They influence more people. For example, you have a pedagogue or a public speaker, they may have a very powerful speech, and yet this would have no effect unless they were before an audience where the effects of those words would come to fruition. Likewise, certain actions cannot have any benefit if the surrounding conditions are not conducive or right. People often complain that they do not see how they could make a difference in the world. This is an ignorance of the second principle of karma. I like a statement by the Dali Lama who said, “If you think you cannot make a difference, just imagine a mosquito in your bedroom when you are trying to sleep.” A little action can have a great effect, can motivate, can make others respond, such as in the non-violent political movement of the Dali Lama, through his spiritual teachings. Therefore, the seed can become a mighty tree to feed multiple generations. The seed of compassion produces happiness in this life and in other lives, to the point that we could scarcely imagine. However, the seed of a hateful action can produce unimaginable suffering. So, the second principle of karma can work in our favor. When we understand that good deeds can be amplified for the benefit of self and other, when we intuitively learn to engage each moment, each situation, to know the right action, this is something that is very subtle and profound. That is the voice of conscience, which we can only develop more and more as we strengthen that connection through meditation, through work, with mantras, with energy, as we explained previously. 3. You cannot receive the consequence without committing its corresponding action.
When we understand that the seeds of egotism produce the tree of death, to use the Kabbalistic language, we avoid acting upon desire―at all costs.
You cannot receive the consequence without committing its corresponding action. If you wish to overcome hunger, you must eat. If you wish to be clean, you must bathe. If you wish to lose weight, you need to exercise, eat better. Every action has its corresponding consequences. The same is with spiritual insight. You must put into motion the causes for its fruition. If we want to experience wisdom, astral experiences, jinn states, we have to work with these laws to practice the dharma, the teaching, through our exercises that we have so abundantly in our tradition. Unfortunately, in our humanity, there is a tendency to want everything for free, to have without earning it. And this is a very serious obstacle for people in spiritual groups, because many people think that they can take a short cut to God. “We reap what we sow,” says Galatians. Our current existence is the result of our previous ones, even the actions before our birth, when we were incarnated in other bodies. So, as I said reincarnation, return, is not a theory for those who have awakened internally. And as a belief system it does not really do much. People might be inspired to be, in a conventional sense, a good person in a Buddhist or Hindu school, and this is noble. But when you really comprehend, beyond just a belief, how your current actions produce suffering, for good or for ill, and that this magnifies our trajectory, the energy of our spiritual movement, our projection into space, through all of our activities in mind, heart, and body, we begin to really take ethical action seriously. So, people who enter states of suffering are merely living the consequences of their former actions, even when they are asleep and blind to the causes they initiated. And sadly, people complain. We complain against karma, against justice. We think that in an egotistical sense, that this law is not fair, it is blind―but the reality is that we are blind, because we do not comprehend how even in the greatest crisis that we are responsible for our fate. We are asleep. And in relation to that experience I related about Samael Aun Weor, when he appeared to me, it was very interesting. He was dressed in a giant suit of armor. He appeared as a warrior towering over me. When he came down from the sky when I invoked him in the astral plane, he was in a full suit of armor, with no helmet and he had a shield that went from the bottom of his feet towards his head. It was a tower shield, and he dropped it, and the earth shook with tremendous force. I remember feeling that awe and reverence before the majesty of God through the Martian influence. And I was so terrified I did not know what to say. He looked down at me and smiled and said, “Hi!” in English. I stood there trembling because, here is the God of War, the leader of our movement. And he was showing me things, how even his eyes changed, as I was asking him questions that were not relevant to what he was teaching me. My mind was being deceptive. He could see everything inside of me. And therefore, his physical appearance was shifting, changing to reflect what he saw in me. He had a mask appear on his head where I could not see his eyes. I remember meditating on the experience later and realizing that he was showing me that I am being blinded by my ego. I was interpreting things according to my mind. But of course, that symbol of him being in armor represented what I needed to do at that time, to really fulfill divine justice, to have the resilience and the patience and the forbearance to withstand the pain of the ordeals I was experiencing. But Samael Aun Weor was showing me that “You are blind. I am not the blind one.” And it’s really humbling because justice and karma is divine. The law of balance is governed by intelligence, but we are the ones who are asleep. We live feeding our ego, our pride, lust, anger, fear, vanity, greed, envy. We do not comprehend that these egos create all of the pain of our life. We blame the external world. We do not really have any depth, if we are honest. And so, in relation to this law, Samael Aun Weor was teaching me that “You have to remember your past lives,” but you cannot see that in yourself if you do not work. And he was showing me in that experience too that I was being very lazy, and he pointed that out to me. And I feel very inspired by that experience, very humbled. We cannot receive the consequences without committing its corresponding action. If you want to experience the heavens, you have to earn it. We have to work. In a simpler level, when angry people make other people angry, this habit and cycle repeats. It becomes a mechanical, petrified, stony thing. It is a concrete reality in a recurrence, a situation that brings people suffering. However, if we, in that situation, we choose to respond with compassion, we do not feed into that negative current; we smile in a genuine way, with love, conscious love, comprehension, we demonstrate compassion and we can transform the situation. Someone smiles at you in a genuine, kind, compassionate way, we are likely to smile back. It is a basic law of behavior. Therefore, if we wish to change our circumstances, we must conquer suffering with upright action, with ethics, to be a warrior in battle against ourselves, to conquer ourselves with serenity and insight. In relation to this law, there is some confusion amongst Gnostic groups, where they believe that couples who unite sexually, who mix their creative energies, who work in alchemy or who unite sexually with their partner, that they share or receive each other’s karma. This is a confusion of a verse from The Perfect Matrimony, in a section called adultery, where he explains how a woman, being the receptive force, when she sexually connects with different men, she accumulates the energies of that person. So, these multiple influences impregnate the woman, the energies of the female body, but also the internal bodies. And therefore, when a man connects sexually with her, he absorbs the atomic essences of those men, which creates problems. But of course, this is an inevitable thing that people have to face today. Nobody is a saint, especially men. Both men and women have their faults. Nobody is innocent. Nobody is pure, so therefore we cannot judge anybody. But Samael mentions how when a couple unites sexually, they exchange force. And therefore, all the accumulated essences of the other men are shared, but Samael did not say that people share karma. And here is the reason why. 
If a man commits murder, does the wife go to jail?
If a woman steals from a grocery store, is the husband charged for theft? What happens is that the couple magnetizes each other based on their connection and therefore these atomic essences of other men produces shared tendencies, egotistical qualities. The couple begins to share egos with each other, but also from their former sexual connections, which is why sexual union is very sacred. It is powerful. Therefore, we should not take it lightly. But of course, all of us have betrayed the sexual mysteries. We have to work with where we are at, our level, with humility and love for divinity and these mysteries, so that we can transform ourselves. 4. Once an action is performed, the consequence cannot be erased.
Lastly, once an action is performed, the consequence cannot be erased. Many people like to believe that we can take back an action and be forgiven, that everything will be the same as before. But deep down, we understand that actions cannot be erased.
If a man murders someone with a gun, he cannot take back the bullet. If we spoke a word of hate, we cannot undo the words we uttered, but likewise when we enact genuine, compassionate, virtuous deeds, people do not forget our kindnesses, the sacrifices we make, the humility we show. Consequences last. They are permanent. They never cease to exist. You cannot deny it. A child who suffered abuse and trauma is forever influenced and shaped by that event. While such people can heal with therapy and very deep works of meditation upon themselves, the effects of such a violent, disturbing, or traumatic energy in childhood cannot be erased. In reality, people do not like to look at themselves, because in some moments in life, some very traumatic experiences are too painful. We have memories that become suppressed. We may like to go on about our day. We ignore that fight we had when we were younger, the violence or suffering of a breakup, an emotional trauma, and yet suppression of the memory continues to exist no matter how much we like to ignore it. This produces all sorts of conflict within relationships, just as terrible events cannot be erased or forgotten. Likewise, conscious works and voluntary deeds of compassion can never be erased. This is incredible inspiration to change, to behave ethically. If we comprehend this principle in action, we have inspiration and empowerment of right action. When we understand that nothing we do can be taken back, we learn to fulfill upright thought, upright feeling, and upright action in our moment to moment being. 5. A superior law transcends an inferior law.
However, only the Being is perfect. Even the gods, the masters, the prophets, the Elohim, make mistakes. This is why, while consequences cannot be erased, that a superior law is necessary. That superior law is mercy.
This is well known within a Gnostic hermetic axiom. When an inferior law is transcended by a superior law, then the superior law washes away the inferior law. Divinity is above the law and is forgiveness. Merciful, divine action can supersede any wrong, to pay, to cancel our debts. Superior action is the basis of religion. When we examine the lives of the great masters of meditation, the prophets, the initiates, they were able to overcome terrible adversities through their forbearance, by following superior laws. While our actions cannot be erased, we can be redeemed. Comes in my mind a story of Mahatma Gandhi. He performed a hunger strike because of violence and civil war in Pakistan, where Muslims and Hindus were killing each other. As a result, the fighting stopped, whereby people from both contending parties approached Gandhi and dropped their weapons. This is so vividly portrayed in the 1982 biographical film of his name―I highly recommend it.
A Hindu man approached, distraught, anguished, despairing, “I am going to hell for having killed a Muslim boy! The Muslims killed my son!” And this man was in such pain before Mahatma Gandhi, feeling his worthlessness and his terrible crime, but yet he had the inspiration and the conscience to repent. Gandhi told him very serenely, “I know a way out of hell. Find a boy whose parents had been killed. Raise him as your own, but be sure that he is Muslim, and that you raise him as one.” This cancels the debt, especially when we do the thing we feel we cannot do, out of sacrifice of our own pride, in humility, for the benefit of others.
Forgiveness of wrong actions exist. Redemption is a reality for those who work with the law of mercy, the law of Christ, the Christic energy, the Being. If you study the sacred arcana of The Eternal Tarot, this is Arcanum 11: Persuasion. We have a statement in Gnosis, “The lion of the law is fought with the scale.” And that image of the sacred tarot, Arcanum 11, which we have explained in our course the Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah, the Divine Mother opens the jaws of a lion with gentleness, serenity, equanimity, insight―not violence, but the serenity of God, the calmness of God, the intuition of God.
The opposite is coercion. It is egotistical. We try to force another person to think, to feel, to do as we want. And as you look at history, we realize that coercion is the cause of violence: thinking that we can exert our will upon another. And this is what that man did in the example of Mahatma Gandhi. He thought he could redeem himself from the death of his son by killing other Muslims, coercing them, killing them. So, coercion is violence. It is revenge. It is retribution, but grace and mercy is of persuasion, a persuasive force. Conclusion
Kindness is a much more crushing force than any anger. But we have to learn to experience that state, to cultivate it. The only way you are going to cultivate those types of experiences is by facing the worst, because no one can face the lion of the law and think they can conquer without hardship. We conquer through serenity, through dispassion, through equanimity. This grace and mercy is how we negotiate with divinity, so that we do not have to repeat suffering.
So, the man who asked Gandhi, “What do I do?” He realized that in order to negotiate his karma, he had to perform superior deeds, go the extra mile. And this is how we cancel our debts. We escape hell. This is how we understand Saint Paul’s explanation of the absolution, the abrogation of the law, to cancel the law, how we pay what we owe by receiving the grace of divinity, which comes in the form of intuitions in the moment, and through our meditations. We will conclude with a statement from Prophet Muhammad in the oral tradition of Islam, the Hadith, which is quoted extensively in Al-Qushayri’s Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism. He stated, “One who repents from sin is like one who has never sinned at all.” Questions and Answers
Audience: Thanks for such a great lecture. It was very deep. I really appreciate it.
Instructor: You are welcome. Question: I heard you say in a couple, the partners do not share karma. However, my question is, I know especially when doing the sexual act, partners, they be into each other’s energy. So I would like to know, if one of them is working hard spiritually to transform themselves, to transform him or herself, but the other one is, I mean, does not care, so in this case the one who is making effort to change his life or her life. Is the other one getting effected by the other one’s life anyway, because since time by time they are bathing in each other’s energy? Do not you think one will weigh somehow in the other one’s life? Instructor: Great question. That is a concern that a lot of people raise. The reality is that while the couples magnetize and charge each other based upon their level of being, the important thing is that if we are working seriously in ourselves, we can work despite the fact if our partner does not practice Gnosis. It is good if they can. Obviously, there is a lot of energy involved in development, that is produced. But I remember a story especially, your question raises for me an experience I learned about regarding a disciple of Samael Aun Weor. His inner name was Gargha Kuichines, or his earthly name Julio Medina. He was a disciple of Samael Aun Weor and very dedicated to the doctrine. He was married and his wife was totally against Gnosis. She was against him practicing. She did not like the teachings. She criticized her husband and all the while Julio Medina, at the time only said, “I love my wife. She is my queen and I am her slave. Therefore I will bear all things for her.” The important thing is that we love our partner. That is the atmosphere and the matrix, the conduit by which we develop the soul. So Gargha Kuichines practiced for many years with his wife even when she did not. They connected and obviously there was a level of cooperation there and love. He eventually reached mastery. He reached the sphere of Tiphereth in Kabbalah, the Fifth Initiation of Major Mysteries. Eventually he took the spiral path, but his wife saw how much he had changed, so profoundly, that she realized the effects of this work and then she entered Gnosis. This is why Paul of Tarsus states in the New Testament, “How do you not know, believing husband, whether you shall save your unbelieving wife? Or how do you not know, believing wife, that you shall not save your unbelieving husband?” What matters is that there is love, you know. That is the important thing. It does not have to be that one partner is Gnostic or not, or both are Gnostic. If you are really serious about your work―and I speak this in general to people, even if your partner does not practice Gnosis―what matters is your concentration and your energy your work. Obviously when a couple unites sexually, they are sharing a lot of force and there is an exchange there. And if one’s partner is committing acts which are negative, which would be contrary to the teaching, obviously one has to transform it. Not easy. Very difficult. But the knowledge you can gain, a person can gain from that type of experience is invaluable. What matters is not whether one is Gnostic, but that there is love. That is the key. Love and desire are totally incompatible. The desire for a Gnostic partner is an obstacle. What matters is that there is real understanding: affinity in thought, feeling, and will. Hope that answers your question. Audience: Yes, it does, thank you. Instructor: You are welcome. Question: Yes, thank you for answering my question. If you are working on an ego such as envy, for instance, and you see it rise in you as you are self-observing, what can you do in that moment in order to not create a karma, in just feeling that ego in the heart or in the mind? Instructor: Good question. When that happens to me, I pray. I pray for help. You know any ego is like that. If you are really being attacked by an ego―it could be anger, envy, pride―you have to breathe deeply and really reflect. Ask your Divine Mother, “Help me to understand what this is.” It is funny. Recently I was traveling with my wife out of town, trying to get away from the city. We went to go hiking away from people, so not exposed so much to what is going on [COVID-19]. And I remember the morning of that day, I had an astral experience where I was driving down a major street in Chicago. It was 4 am, in the dark. And I remember stopping in the middle of the street where there were no people. And my mother, my physical mother in the dream, stopped me and asked me to open up the car. She was outside. I pulled up to her and she knocked on my door. And I got out of the vehicle and she got into the driver’s seat, and I went into the passenger side. And I was really reflecting, “What does this mean?” when I woke up. This was before I went traveling out of town. Later that day, we had a funny experience where there was a lot of traffic at a drive thru at a Starbucks. And I, you know, had cut off some guy who wanted to get his drink. The man got really angry, rolled down his window and was really unpleasant to me. And I was seeing so many egos of anger and rage, real disturbing things, that I did not like what I was seeing. And my partner, she said to me, “This is getting dangerous. Let me switch sides with you.” So, I got out of the car. She got into the driver’s seat, and then I sat down into the passenger’s seat, like the dream. And I was begging my Divine Mother, “Help me to understand my anger in this moment!” because it was very strong. It wanted to retaliate and speak negatively to this guy. And I just breathed for ten seconds, inhaling, holding the breath for ten seconds, exhaling. And I was praying, “My Mother, help me to understand!” and just relaxing. And in that way, I started to see the egos that were provoked in that ordeal. So, my Divine Mother figuratively speaking got into the car, my mind, and was driving my car, was calming me. And in a state of equanimity, I was able to work later on in eliminating this. Praying for help is the key. So, if you find yourself attacked by any ego, whether envy or anger, breath deep, relax, observe your three brains, and pray with your heart, “My God, help me to understand and to separate from this!” You know, in that example I was really begging and then after maybe ten, fifteen minutes of introspecting, I was calm again, you know. So a simple experience, and we like to think of astral experiences as being some kind of ecstatic thing, where we are flying in the clouds, but my Divine Mother and your Divine Mother comes to you to show you how to live your life daily. So that is a simple way. You know, breath, relax, introspect. Do not act. Do not externalize anything. Just reflect and pray in your heart and whatever words are natural to you. Hope that answers your question. Audience: Thank you. Instructor: You are welcome. Question: The example you shared with us from the movie Gandhi represented a physical restitution. How does one make restitution for thoughts and words that you know cannot be brought back? Instructor: Sure. There is a saying from Prophet Muhammad. He said in the Hadith, “I pray seventy times a day for my faults, for seventy faults that emerge.” You know, if you find that you are seeing all sorts of egos in yourself, the only real way to be free of those defects, that karma that is crystallized in those aggregates, is to comprehend them and to eliminate. So, we have to really strive for a long time to be completely rid of negative thinking, negative feeling, negative impulses. But again, if you find yourself in the moment where you are seeing these thoughts are negative, the important thing is not to repress them or to be afraid that somehow “I am committing a sin,” because this could be a mechanical ego that thinks it is observing the three brains and doing the work. And we all develop this type of Gnostic aggregate, these faults, so to avoid punishment, so to speak. Suffering the consequences of our former actions in a very severe way, to be free of those negative impulses, is a long work. And in the process of working on death of the ego, it is important that we learn to negotiate the law, learn to negotiate with the tribunals of justice. I would not say necessarily over small things like that, you know. But you know we face situations where big egos emerge that are very difficult. I know in the beginning we struggle with these churning of thoughts and negative sentiments. To be free of them, we have to comprehend their source and eliminate them in meditation. That is how we are forgiven before the law. To reach forgiveness, we have to annihilate the ego related to those faults. So, if we committed murder in the past and we have that ego of violence in ourselves, to be free of that karma, to be punished, we have to eliminate that aggregate. And in that way when you eliminate the ego, no punishment is necessary. But of course, this brings up an interesting point, because some egos cannot be eliminated unless the karma is paid first. This relates to very ancient debts that we have to pay with a lot of patience. I hope that answers your question. Audience: Thank you very much. Instructor: You are welcome. Any other questions? Yes. Question: Thanks for a good class. I have a short question right. So, in the Bible in several chapters and verses it states how the sins of the father can be met on the son. And after that times, you say God is a merciful God, and he would not transfer these transgressions from the father to the son. So, in terms of karma, which ones of these is true? Can the sins of the father be met on the son or not? Instructor: That is in relation to a type of symbolism that is very profound. We know from the writings of Samael Aun Weor that there are forms of karma that are intergenerational. Some people have commonly called these family curses where some kind of bad luck seems to repeat for a certain family. This is very deep, because some people are born into the same families again and again, because of their actions, their karma. So, I remember asking and speaking with Samael Aun Weor in the astral plane about my past lives. And he was telling me in that one experience, “You need to remember your past lives, so that you can understand your present life!” …with my family, because the ordeals that I was struggling with were related to my parents. So, this principle relates to your question, because a lot of times we live on we return into the same families that we have always lived in in past lives. So often times those people in our families who are our children perhaps were our fathers or our mothers, etc. and vice versa. So, the sins of the father live on in the son, and the sins of the son live on in the father, so to speak, because of recurrence. We tend to gravitate back to the same families we lived with for centuries. This is why people in families can push our buttons, so to speak. They know our weaknesses. It is very ingrained. It is very mechanical. And so, karma lives on and repeats. Samael Aun Weor mentions that we live on and continue through our descendants. We reincorporate into the bodies of our family members of further generations, so to speak. So, there is a lot of subtleties to that point. The sins of the father live on in the son, because of this dynamic. I am sure there are other meanings and representations and interpretations of this principle, but that is a basic one that I can offer. Question: Quick question. If you are doing good deeds as part of your vocation, because you are in a helping field, can you gain karma through that, like good dharma through that, even though you are being paid a salary? Instructor: Absolutely. Many jobs, things we do, are paid for not only physically, but also internally. So in a profession where you are helping people or serving the community, providing for a very special need, we get paid internally too. That is a form of sacrifice for humanity, especially when we work jobs that are very difficult. Jobs that not a lot of people would not take on. Those kinds of occupations are very noble. We also get paid not only through a paycheck, which is part of it. We get paid physically, so that we can take care of our needs, but also to help humanity if we can, in whatever way. So yes, a lot of people in movements in humanity have served a greater purpose. For example, Mahatma Gandhi in his movement. Even Martin Luther King. Dr. King in the Civil Rights Movement performed a very necessary function. A lot of dharma for that, but of course, doing that occupation was very painful, challenging, as you can see from the examples of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King being assassinated. Not saying that one has to go out on a job and risk their life, you know. It could involve that. But the important thing is that whatever job we have, we perform with ethics, with compassion, but of course, establishing healthy boundaries: knowing what to do, where to go, how to act, what to expect, and how to respond, and know how to set limits if it is too difficult. All those principles come into play. Hope that answers your question. Audience: Yes, thank you so much. Instructor: You are welcome. Any final questions? So, I invite you to study some of the practices that we have available in relation to karma. I know a lot of you are familiar with the runes. The thing to remember is that if you are working with a particularly difficult situation in your life you can work with the Rune Not, which is a practice, we use to work with Anubis the hierarch of the law. And in that way whatever difficulties we have we can ask for credit from the law. You can be suffering through a difficult circumstance, a challenge, an ordeal, and we do not know how to resolve it. We can ask for credit, because the law of karma, just as like a bank can offer credits, which of course, we have to pay back with good deeds. And the important thing is that we always pay back what we owe. So, if we ask for credit, for help, we can receive that assistance through the Rune Not, which we have available on Glorian.org, but also in the book The Magic of the Runes. It is a way to negotiate with our particular circumstances. We do not have to suffer mechanically through our life. 
The power of the word is the power of creation and destruction. We know from experience that kind and benevolent words can have a restorative, healing effect. We can inspire others with our language. But words of sarcasm, morbidity, violence, and hatred can bring up the worst qualities within a person: the unconsciousness and the infraconsciousness of the human being. Vulgar words, swearing, cursing, foul language―these always convey the degenerated influence of the ego. And of course, these always have palpable effects on our environment.
It has been well documented by Dr. Masaru Emoto, how the vibration of speech and sound, they affect the formation of crystals in water. They also proved in this study how negative words produce chaos, disorganized, cluttered formations in the crystals―whereas loving words, classical music, positive vibrations―these engender very complex and harmonious geometric structures, crystallizations. This proves to us that language affects matter. It is a vibration of energy. A vibration of force, which can be used by the consciousness or the ego. The consciousness knows how to use language, the power of the verb to promote awakening, to elevate our level of being and the level of being of others. But why is this? Why is speech, sound, vibration, energy, essential to Gnosis? It is because language, like the Being, is an expression of energy, of force, of Being. The Being is a vibration, an energy or force, that is very elevated, extremely refined and eternal. It is a spiritual force that can reflect within us if we know how to use our speech, the verb, with precision. If our level of being is low, our words will reflect that, because words are the expression of thought. As the Buddha Shakyamuni taught us in his Dhammapada, "Mind precedes phenomena. We become what we think.” And also, we become what we say. We cannot take back a word of criticism, of sarcasm, of malevolence, because there is a particular magnification of force when we speak from the ego or from the soul, because that is how we direct energy. As Samael Aun Weor spoke and explained, "Wherever we direct attention, we expend creative energy." So building off our former lecture on the energy of awakening, we are exploring the spiritual power of sound: how we utilize all those energies we are conserving as we mapped out on the Tree of Life in order to work with particular practices in our tradition, especially mantra―because mantra works with vibration, with energy, as we'll explain. These exercises help to raise our level of being, the vibration of our psyche, because when we speak harmful words, we feed desire. We empower it. We condition ourselves. And therefore, our words will reflect our level of being with their energetic qualities: the states and qualities of desire, conditioning, mind, ego, which always produce pain. This is very evident when we reflect on our life: how we argued when we should have been silent. But also, when we were silent and refused to speak―to act virtuously―because when you save power, creative energy, you have a reservoir by which to act. So the next step is to know how to use that energy in a spiritual way, in a conscious way. If our level of being is high, if we use our energies to speak words of compassion, integrity, in all relationships, then we will originate new situations, beneficial circumstances, novel opportunities. When we show compassion and speak words of cognizance to others, we mend, we heal, we strengthen our connection to God, the Being. But of course, we have to be careful with our speech, how we use the verb, because speech creates. It can originate heavenly circumstances, or it can originate diabolic situations in which we incriminate ourselves before the divine law, the laws of the Being. This is why in every religion, the power of sound, of language, of recitation, is essential, without exception. The power of sound is spiritual, but if we take that energy with hatred and channel it through our wrath, we produce tremendous pain, which is why every tradition has its ethical conduct. They teach how to use that energy through practices so as to benefit the essence. Hinduism has Japa yoga, which is mantra recitation: repeating sacred sounds through prayer. Many Buddhists meditations, sacred sounds or mantras are used. And the Jewish synagogues―the rabbi's read from the Torah, the great scriptures of Moses. The early Christians of the Gnostics have always had, secretively, many exercises of contemplation that utilize the verb. And then Islam, they recite the Qur’an with melody, with beauty, with strength. Sound is a powerful medium by which we can invoke the Being, the presence of the divine. The Christians always referred to this as Christ, the Word, the Verb, which we can harmonize in ourselves if we live ethically, if we pray, if we visualize, if we imagine. So if you are familiar with the former lectures in this course, we spoke a lot about imagination. We talked a lot about energy and how all of these integrate, because our ethics, our codes of conduct, our ways of being, are empowered with the sexual force. Our visualization is strengthened through the power of energy, and it is through sound by which we amplify, we magnify our work. Therefore, if our foundation is very secure, if our ethics are strong, if we are working on our mind, then mantras will fuel our practice tremendously. But if we don't act ethically, if we don't know how to behave, how to speak with others in a proper way, to not act with desire, we can really create a lot of problems―because now we have more energy saved by which to act, and if the ego takes that energy, we fortify ourselves as a demon. Our kind words, however, can transform an aggressor into a companion. But evil words can transform a friend into a fiend, an enemy. This is why Christ said: “Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.” ―Matthew 15:17-20 So it doesn't matter how clean and upright we seem on the outside, but if our inner sepulcher is filled with dead bones, we will speak with rottenness in every state of our life―unless we change. So upright speech is a foundation of Buddhism, especially, but every tradition as well, every religion. Even the word religion, from Latin religare, means to reunite. We do not reunite people when we speak with the intention to harm, or if we gossip, or lie, or manipulate. Sadly, in spiritual movements, this is very common. It is because people forget ethics. This is why this Sufis taught, “We must always guard ourselves, our breaths, against God Most High,” because that breath is powerful. That vibration is powerful, especially if we are working with the sexual force. So, by protecting our speech, we protect our quality of mind. The Definition of Mantra
Every meditative tradition offers mantras to help protect our mind. From the Sanskrit man, “to think.” Or the word manas, meaning “mind.” And trai, try, “to protect, to free.” Mantra literally means “mind protection―to free the mind through sacred sounds.”
Speech, logos, the word, originates from our psychological state, our intention. And we know in many religions they teach mantras to train the mind―to reach equilibrium, stability. Sound and vibration can harmonize our level of being and it can help calm the mind, control negative thoughts and restrain the ego. Vibration and sound is a means of strengthening our concentration, our essence, so that it can be focused on one thing, without being distracted. Any time we identify with an ego, with anger, with pride, with resentment, with fear, and we speak from that state in a crisis, in an ordeal, we create a lot of disharmony in our psyche. So going back to the study by Dr. Emoto. Literally water crystals form based off of positive words or negative words. And we know that in science, the human body is at least 80 percent water. So, if we are speaking harmful things or gibberish, disharmonious language, sarcastic expressions, or manipulative dialogue, we are literally charging our body with that force and therefore, even in our biology, we become very chaotic. People who identify with anger and resentment, with pride, with hatred, exhaust themselves. They find that they cannot sleep well. They do not rest well. They cannot pay attention because they have wasted all their energy. They have crystallized and channeled their energy that they have been saving―whether from sleeping eight hours and waking up with fresh vitality―through desire. 
This is why to “curb our tongue” is the beginning. We learn to control our speech, but also, we work with mantras. We need to empower our consciousness, our essence, especially to control the ego when we are tempted. And these mantras help us to vibrate with divinity as we can see hinted at in this image, of a person sitting in a yogic posture, surrounded by a lotus and the seven lights of the chakras: the energetic wheels of the spinal medulla, within the energetic body, are illuminated.
The primary benefit of mantra is that it curtails the ego so that we don't act with negativity, because everything begins inside, psychologically. And if we are not paying attention throughout our day, we simply react to life. We do not perceive the causes of suffering and how they manifest in this present moment. As we explained in “The Energy of Awakening,” we need fuel to drive our car, and likewise, the internal bodies need energy in order to operate effectively. The engine of the internal bodies, that which circulates the force of divinity, is the chakras, as we are going to talk about. These energetic wheels or centers, vortices of power, can channel all our psychic, biological, energetic, and spiritual force with balance. This is so we acquire equanimity of mind. We stabilize the mind when the waters are calm and when the energies are flowing peacefully. So, the mind is serene when the ego is absent, so that awakening can occur, and we can experience the Being. We have to remember that to work effectively with mantra, we have to be calm. 
So we spoke about nine stages of meditative concentration and how on the path, on Buddhist murals, leading up this winding path of a monk chasing an elephant, it takes less and less effort once we reach the higher stages of concentration, because real concentration is effortless in the highest degrees. But of course, in the beginning we struggle. Our mind, the elephant is out of control, and therefore, with the hook of vigilance and the rope of mindfulness, we chase after that elephant.
If you look and are familiar with Tibetan Buddhist image, there is a blazing fire around the curves of the path, which refers to the energy we need―the effort we need in the beginning to stabilize ourselves, to concentrate. Therefore, mantras especially, are effective for that, whether vocal or in silence. 
The Universal Language and Divine Principles
We have innumerable mantras in our tradition. Every religion has its sacred sounds, its words, its mantras, its prayers. Each mantra or syllable represents a force in nature, principles of divinity which we seek to embody, to express.
So first, the Word originated all. First comes sound, and then the calligraphy, the geometry, the scripted patterns of language, which we find in every religion. Just as every religion has its Bible, these bibles are written in different languages, which all carry and embody profound principles. While an infinite of different mantras exist, within the languages across the globe, they all originated from the Being. The Being, God, is a multiple perfect unity. Divinity is one perfect light expressed through millions of masters. So, we have to remember that each master is an angel, a buddha, a god, a prophet, a luminary: one who embodies the Verb, the Word.
This principle is beautifully expressed in the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, in his fourth movement of that symphony, the choral movement―in which you hear many voices, many masters, but one harmony and one melody, which is Christ.
This sound is the perfect joy of Being, the happiness of liberation from the mind. It is the fire of creativity, the fire of genius that inspires all the great musicians and classical composers, the great artists of humanity. And if you are interested in learning more about how this is the case, you can study our lectures on ChicagoGnosis.org, the course called The Secret Teachings of Opera. Samael Aun Weor, in The Spiritual Power of Sound states: “There is a universal language of life spoken only by Angels, Archangels, Seraphim, etc. When the sacred fire blooms in our fertile lips made verb, the word becomes flesh in us. All the mantras known among the occultists are just syllables, letters, and isolated words of the language of the Light.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Spiritual Power of Sound What does it mean that the sacred fire blooms on our fertile lips made verb? Fertility has to do with sexuality, creativity, when we are taking that energy and raising it up our spine through exercises of transmutation, so that that fire manifests in our words, in our speech. And all the mantras of the world of the Gnostic tradition help us to articulate that light, because mantras are very specific. They operate based on laws in the cosmos, of which the angels are manifest, of which they know and express with perfection. Ancient languages carry tremendous power, especially because they are more accurate expressions and depictions, articulations of divine principles. So we study and apply different mantras from all faiths, because these mantras represent distinct qualities, forces we need to incarnate, to embody, which is why Samael Aun Weor stated in The Spiritual Power of Sound when he quotes the Book of John: “The Gods create with the power of the word, because, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (John 1:1).” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Spiritual Power of Sound 
Different languages contain and retain spiritual power. This is why the great religions of the world have lasted for so long. I believe even Dion Fortune wrote in one of her books how the Catholic Church has subsisted through millennia because of the Latin Mass. Latin is a mantric language like Hebrew, Chinese, Tibetan, Arabic, Sanskrit. These languages, in their Genesis, in their provision to humanity, carry tremendous force. Each letter of the Hebrew or Sanskrit, Tibetan, Latin, Arabic alphabets represent principles and forces, which we can self-realize in ourselves. They represent laws of nature, and that is why these languages channel energy, because they operate as a conduit of receiving divine aid.
So the Latin Mass as the center of the Catholic Church, helps to invoke divine force. The problem becomes that many of the people who attend Mass, they feel the power and the beauty of that tradition, but because they do not circulate the energies in themselves. They do not awaken. They may feel inquietudes in the heart and appreciation for the symbolism of the Mass and they feel the power of the Latin, yet they cannot circulate and incarnate that force because they are not working with their own energies. They are not awakening. This is why Dion Fortune and even Samael Aun Weor wrote that, "Ritual is like dynamite." Ritual and mantra, as symbolic expressions and prayers using the mantric languages of the world, are a means of invoking divinity. And so the word is very powerful. These sacred evocations were always utilized with respect because with the word comes great consequences. How we speak to others, but also how we speak to God, and how we manifest the Being in ourselves, is critical. But that depends on profound purity of speech: profound respect of the verb, because as I said, our language and our energies empower either the soul or the devil―the consciousness or the mind. It depends. When we work with certain practices, like rituals or prayers, mantras, we have to be very cautious, always returning to our ethics, because with evocation, invocation, prayer, expressing sacred sounds, we are working with a very powerful force. And if we act unethically, instead of using the dynamite to break through the caverns of our own habits, we instead self-detonate. We commit spiritual suicide. This is why ethics is critical. Symbolic Notation of the Sacred Verb
So numerous spiritual schools always have their focus in different languages in the written word. Each character within these different sacred alphabets, again represent energy, which we seek to mathematically use with precision, with scientific results, with verification.
And when you understand the universal Christic principle: how that Christic divine energy, which is not a person, is in every religion, you understand how each religion depicts the divine, the principles of God, and how they relate to other religions. This is why Dion Fortune wrote in The Training and Work of an Initiate: “All esoteric systems use a symbolic method of notation in their teachings. Each of the symbols employed indicates a spiritual potency, and the ideas associated with them indicate its method of function; their interrelation represents the interaction of these forces. If we have the key to one symbol-system we can readily equate it with all the others, for fundamentally they are the same.” ―Dion Fortune, The Training and Work of an Initiate So the principles are universal, but they are particularized through each language of this cosmic alphabet. So many correlations exist between the Nordic languages, the runes, and their derivatives: Hebrew, Aramaic, Sanskrit, Chinese, Arabic, etc. They share their roots in the divine language, which was a language of light that Samael Aun Weor mentions many times in his books, which was spoken by an ancient humanity on our planet, which is long forgotten, ignored. 
Each letter in these alphabets represent force, potencies in nature, which we seek to access through mantra, through prayer. And in this graphic, we find the zodiac on the left with its constellatory and stellar script, its glyphs map in the stars, the laws of the universe. We have in the middle the Sanskrit Aum with its eternal script circulating outward towards creation, because the mantra Aum, the perfection and creation of divinity, represents how all the universes emerge from that source. And each letter of Sanskrit here circling out can represent the cosmos, the universe, in all of its multifarious and intricate laws, its balance, its harmony. And then we have some magic sigils on the right which relate to the runes, the Nordic yoga as we will explain.
So mantras have different purposes. The Sanskrit Om works with the heart, our innermost Buddha, the Spirit, the Being. The Arabic Hu, can relate with the breath and the Spirit as well. And the Sufis chant “Allah Hu Allah,” and many times they pronounce the Shahadah―the declaration of faith in Islam: لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله Lā ʾIlāha ʾIllā Allah, Muḥammadun Rasūl Allah “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is His Prophet. That declaration of faith is also used as a mantra amongst the Sufis, to experience the height of the Tree of Life as we have explained previously. 
We have INRI, a Christian mantra [written on the cross of the martyr of Calvary], in Latin signifying Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum: Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews, which is a fire that particularized itself within Jesus. Because Christ, Khrestos in in Greek, means “anointed one” or fire, from Khrestos in Greek and in Latin INRI. It stands for Ignus Natura Renovatur Integra: “Fire renews nature incessantly,” because the Verb, speech, or creation, is the Christ, is an energy.
Cosmic Symbols as Sacred Mathematics
So a competent esotericist knows the mantras and symbology of their tradition and their practices in relationship to others, such as the Tarot and astrology, which basically encompass many sciences in their depth. We study them with patience so that we can experience their profound symbolism through practice.
In the Gnostic tradition, we always examine the original languages of the scriptures so that we can comprehend our practice. We are spending a lot of time talking about these languages because the written word is the expression of the hidden word, the Being, whom we can access when we learn the science. And while the sacred languages of the East are very profound, in the western esoteric tradition, we emphasize Hebrew, which is the esoteric language of the west, the mystical Kabbalah. As Dion Fortune writes in The Training and Work of an Initiate: “These cosmic symbols are further represented by the letters of a sacred language, which, in the Western Tradition, is Hebrew. Out of these letters are formed the Sacred Names and Words of Power, which are simply algebraical formulas resuming potencies. Thus is the universe represented to the initiate, and he is able to trace the correlation between its parts and see what invisible realities are throwing their shadows upon the world of Maya, illusion.” ―Dion Fortune, The Training and Work of an Initiate So she is explaining that mantras grant us the power and energy to penetrate nature: to see it, to understand it. So, in our former lecture on imagination and fantasy, we spoke a lot about imagination and supraconscious imagination. These abilities allow us to perceive the reality behind phenomena. Likewise, mantra is the fuel. It is the engine. It is the mechanism by which we catalyze and accelerate our development, we empower our meditative discipline. These algebraic formulas are very exact. This is an exact science. Prayers and mantras are perfect mathematics. And we know this because Hebrew, the letters and the words, have numerical value. Each character represents not only a number, but a principle. And just as a key unlocks a certain door, likewise, certain mantras give us access to different regions of consciousness, which is mapped by the Kabbalah. For example the Mantra Pander can help us remain awake within the Being in Kether. Many mantras exist for astral projection such as Fa Ra On, which we have to intentionally imagine and visualize Egypt, the pyramids of Giza. Om Tat Sat invokes the Ain Soph Aur, the limitless light to descend into our minds and hearts, to awaken us. It is well understood that music is mathematics. It is a science as well as an art, primarily because musical notations are mathematical; they are precise. And it is also artistic because it expresses the artist ‘s level of consciousness. So music and sound and art reflect the level of being of the composer, which is why we always look to the great classical initiates, especially the great masters, because they learned how to use sound in a powerful way, in a conscious way, and even supraconscious way; like Beethoven, especially, Wagner, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and many, many others. Likewise with numerology, the science of Kabbalah. The numerical values of Hebrew, those characters, always arrive at a synthesis, a primal understanding of their meaning. This is in relation to the sacred arcana, which we talked about in a course called “The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah.” We also have mantric prayers for defense, internally. These are known as conjurations. Conjuration comes from conjurare, which means “to swear an oath together; to invoke or summon.” So when you conjure in the astral plane, an entity that you think is negative, you are asking it to swear upon divinity "In the name of Christ, by the power of Christ , for the glory of Christ, show me your allegiance!"―because you are invoking divinity to come down and to show you the reality of this dream experience, to see what is objective and what isn't. We use the Conjuration of the Four and the Conjuration of the Seven especially, in order to reject negative forces. And we always utilize the Hebrew names because these help us to manifest those divine potencies, so we can receive their aid. 
We also open the door to the internal worlds through mantra so that we can witness and experience the causes of phenomena, because everything originates internally first, and then the external world. To reiterate from Samael Aun Weor's book Tarot and Kabbalah:
“In Kabbalah, everything is numbers and mathematics. The number is holy and infinite. In the universe everything is measurement and weight. For the Gnostics, God is a geometrist. Mathematics are sacred. No one was admitted into the school of Pythagoras if they were not knowledgeable about mathematics, music, etc. Numbers are sacred.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah So the language of mathematics is Hebrew. Divinity creates through the power of the word, through mantric language, through sound, in order to give mathematical form to our consciousness. Even the Hebrew calligraphy represents geometric vibrations, forms, which are pronounced or produced by sound. This is very well documented in studies of Cymatics, which is the science of how sound waves, cyma, influence and create visual geometric patterns. Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Guggenheim, an electric optics engineer at aircraft industries of Israel, performed a study of sand formation through the influence of sound. After pronouncing Hebrew letters, those characters formed within the sand. This proves that language creates patterns, geometric forms. And the ancient languages such as Hebrew, represent the geometric and geo-spiritual manifestation of the divine. Therefore, it is important to use mantras from our tradition and not to create our own, because mantras work with laws, universal laws, cosmic laws. Creating our own mantras or sacred sounds is a new age novelty, an invention. It has no basis in spirituality. If we wish to create a space in our interior for divinity to manifest, we must work with the universal laws which are mathematics. Just like your key to your car will not open other cars, so too will the supreme vehicle of Mantrayana, the vehicle of sound, will not open to you unless you work with proven methods. 
The Laconic Action of the Being
As we explained earlier in this course, the laconic action of the Being is the perfect mathematical expression of the divine. The Being requires no effort to express his perfection within nature and within the consciousness that is awakening.
Mathematics and sound are principles of divinity, the Being, and we can invoke and manifest that perfection through sound, which is why Samael Aun Weor mentions in The Revolution of the Dialectic: “The laconic action of the Being is the concise manifestation, the brief action, which in synthesis the real Being of each one of us executes. This action is mathematical and exact, like a Pythagorean table. “I want you to reflect very well upon the laconic action of the Being. Remember that above, within the infinite starry space, every action is the result of an equation and of an exact formula. Likewise, as a logical deduction, we must emphatically affirm that our true image, the inner Kosmic Human, is beyond false values. He is perfect.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic So every action of the Being is like math. It is universal. It is perfect. It is always eternal. And to work with that mathematics of God, we work with Hebrew, especially, which is why we always place special emphasis on the prayers of our tradition, because they have tremendous effect to develop serenity, insight, clarity, and especially inner-strength. 
Consciousness and the Musical Scale
The universe is governed by these laws, especially the law of seven, the law the musical scale. This law is known by Gurdjieff as the Heptaparaparshinokh. It is the law of organization. It is the law of the musical scale: DO RE MI FA SOL LA SI.
This musical scale, this law of seven, permeates nature. All of the universe, in astrology, especially, many ancient cosmogonies, many ancient histories of humanity, always speak about the law of seven: seven races upon the Earth or seven root races in Theosophy, seven planets in alchemy, seven virtues, seven vices, seven musical notes. We use the musical scale to refer to a type of psychological and spiritual development. And we also related to mantra. Notice that the lower three notes DO RE MI are mapped out and related to different types of people. We are more or less predisposed to use the intellect, the emotions, or instincts with greater intensity, one more than the others. We have a psychological limp, so to speak. Some of us are more intellectual, some are more emotional, and some were very instinctual. Regardless of our disposition, we want to become balanced, and if you remember the prior lectures, we talked about balancing the three brains. We have to balance our mind, our heart, and our body so that they are calm, serene, in a state of dispassion and equanimity, with clarity. We do that by producing a conscious shock, by working with mantra. The musical note FA relates to a fourth type of person who is balanced: somebody who is not overly intellectual or overly emotional, or always acting in life without thinking or feeling about what they do. A balanced human being understands the three brains and is driving the car well. But to get to that point, to know how to work spiritually with these three brains with balance, we have to work with the musical note FA. 
To reach that point, from intellectual to the fourth type, we have mantras. We have to enter a shock in the consciousness. The note FA relates to an exercise in our tradition known as the Rune Fah, the Nordic yoga. One of the first practices we do when we get up in the morning is we face towards the sun in the East that is rising. We have our left hand and our right hand out, our left hand above our right. Palms outward facing the sun to receive the solar effluvia and energy of Christ, the Solar Logos, the energies of God, which are manifested in the sun, so that we can take that spiritual force and awaken our consciousness―which is why we pray:
“Marvelous forces of love! Revive my sacred fires, so that my consciousness will awaken!" So we pronounce and prolong the mantras: “Fa, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fu.”
This mantra work and this runic yoga awakens the consciousness. These energies circulate our fires from sexuality to the brain. We also receive the energies of the prana in the atmosphere so as to charge our temple, our body.
So this diagram of the musical scale, traditionally, in the Fourth Way school also refers to the work of alchemy: how we conserve and raise creative energy in different bodies, which in a marriage we create through a surplus of conserved sexual energy, the creative force. The note Sol, relating to the sun, refers to the creation of a solar astral body. These bodies are internal vehicles that can circulate Christ. We need these bodies if we want to become an angel, to be perfect, because divinity cannot mix with the ego. First, we create these bodies, like a lightbulb, so that we can channel these energies clearly, and then by removing all the impurities, we reach perfection. The solar astral body is a great luxury that we need to create through alchemy. It is a solar emotional body: a miniature Logos, which can channel the forces of the sun, the spiritual sun [the note Sol]. Likewise, with a surplus of conserved and raised and elevated sexual energy, we create the solar mental body, a solar mind, which is like a beautiful chalice that contains the blood of redemption. The profound energies of sacrifice of Christ, our inner Christ, are the Intimate Christ, which is not a person, but an intelligence inside, whom Christ, Jesus, manifested. And likewise, with another surplus of sexual conserved energy, we create a solar causal body, the Christ Will―a will that only obeys the Being. Now the important thing to remember is that we can only create these vehicles through the power of sound, through mantra within the sexual act, when these notes do not deviate. It means that we have to apply constant effort and diligence so that we maintain our practice and that we never cease to work in ourselves. So, this means if we want to awaken, first that constant shock below, the transition from MI to FA, we have to begin working with mantra―to maintain that balance in ourselves at all times, not identifying as an intellectual, emotional, or instinctive person, but harmonizing ourselves daily. If you work more diligently in yourself and raise those energies and conserve them, establishing your foundation in the fourth type of human being, we can begin to work at higher degrees, which is known as initiation: the creation of the solar bodies. But this scale also applies to our work each day, our moment-to-moment work. When you balance yourself in your three brains, we have to learn how to work with the superior emotional and superior intellectual centers. These are perfected with the creation of the solar bodies and their development. But superior emotions have to do with the sentiment of the Being, which has nothing to do with sentimentalism or the emotionality of afflicted persons. Likewise, a superior mind knows how to receive intuitive understandings and messages from the superior worlds. We have to learn how to become acquainted with these centers and to create them, to develop them. So, this scale also pertains to any action in life, not only to alchemy. We might fluctuate between notes. We have to initiate and sustain our work, such as through silent or vocal japa: mantra recitation, so that we can initiate that effort to maintain the note Fa, which is awakened consciousness, vigilance, mindfulness, and never forget that we are doing it. When we fall asleep, we are either identified with the intellect, with the heart, or the body, the lower three types of people, which constitutes in the Bible the Tower of Babel, gibberish. Gurdjieff and Ouspensky also mentioned in their Fourth Way school that there is a tendency in students to begin an activity and then end it, starting something else under the illusion that they are doing the same thing. But the reality is that we have deviated. We are not maintaining the same note. We are not raising the octave of our energies so that through their acceleration and elevation, we are awakening higher states of consciousness. So literally, this vertical diagram can show us qualities of being and if we wish to reach the goal, which is the fulfillment of our Christic Will, we can't forget what we are doing at all times. The solar causal note, related to SI, which is the height of this septenary diagram, relates to the fulfillment of our divine Being's will. This is the type of effort from the soul that follows exactly the commandments of the Being. This is the degree like a figure like Moses, like Jesus, like Buddha, many prophets. So we have to learn that when we focus on one thing in life, we fulfill it with completeness. We don't necessarily forget what we are doing. We are attentive at all times. So this has to do with how attentive we are when we perform our daily life. But also can refer to alchemy. 
The Chakras
So we also study the chakras. Chakra means “wheel” in Sanskrit. We have to learn to awaken these vortices of energy in ourselves, which the Taoists call Chi. It is the power of awakening.
Different mantras activate different chakras. Seven vowels exist in nature in order to awaken the energies of the spine. So these wheels or flowers of the soul, of the vital and astral body, of the internal bodies, are centers by which certain energies circulate. So in our energetic body, we have meridians, nadis, which are channels that circulate the energies of our physicality, our vitality, our emotionality, etc. And when nadis overlap in one area, they form a chakra. So there are not only just seven chakras in our inner being, but there are literally thousands, because the nadis or meridians overlap in many places of our organism. The vital body penetrates the physical body to give it life. So the seven chakras are precisely the main chakras we work with, because they contain the most power and the law of seven applies here. Seven chakras, seven churches of the Book of Revelation. The vowel “I” (pronounced “ee”) vibrates in the crown Chakra Sahasrara and the third eye, Ajna―awakening polyvoyance or omniscience as well as clairvoyance in the third eye, the faculty of imagination as we explained. The vowel “E” as in “eh,” awakens the chakra of the throat, Vishudda, the faculty of clairaudience: the ability to hear mystical sounds in meditation and in the astral plane. This chakra also grants us the capacity to understand the Verb. So, when we study a scripture, we work with Vishudda and this mantra “E” in order to awaken that capacity to interpret what the different Bibles and religions teach. Anahata, the vowel “O,” in the heart relates with intuition: the capacity to know without having to think. It also grants us the ability to astral project, because many times when the physical body goes to sleep, if we are attentive, we can project ourselves in the astral plane as a soul through the Chakra Anahata, in order to have a superior projection into higher states. Manipura, the abdominal chakra, the vowel “U,” works with telepathy: the ability to receive psychic messages from other people, from other beings, and to interpret them, to understand them immediately. Svadhisthana, the letter “M.” I know in English, we do not like to think of the letter M as a vowel, but it is not a consonant according to the teachings of gnosticism. We prolong the vowel “M” by closing our lips so that it vibrates at the center of the prostate or the uterus. The vowel 'M' is prolonged like the moaning of a bull―“Mmmmmmmmm…” This prostatic or uterine chakra also has capacities to awaken us in astral projection. And lastly, the Chakra Muladhara, the sacral chakra at the base of the spine, the vowel “S.” “Sssssssss…” which is a fire of the serpent in which Kundalini is enclosed coiled three-and-a-half times, awaiting its awakening in the perfect matrimony. 
By awakening these chakras through mantra, we raise the serpentine fires of our sexual energies up through two circuits of the spine known as Ida and Pingala, or Adam-Eve in the Bible, Od and Obd in Hebrew and Kabbalah―Pingala, the solar masculine energy and Ida, the feminine lunar energies. So, we will give some practices we can use to awaken these forces in a harmonious way, in a balanced way.
The Six Parts to Every Mantra
It is also important to remember that there are six parts to every mantra when we work with sound.
Rishi
Rishi which means “sage, saint,” or “master.” In synthesis, every mantra is given by a master who received that mantra from a deity, a buddha, a god.
Meter
There is meter: this has to do with the rhythm, the cadence, the melody, the pronunciation of sacred sounds. Mantras can be sung, and they have many variations, even across and within the same traditions. While these are effective, the true meter of a mantra exists in the internal planes.
Samael Aun Weor would often correct student's pronunciation of mantras because they communicate great power whether they are sung or intoned in a certain way. Even the intonation or the meter has precise principles at play that are mathematically precise. So just like we perform a classical composition using many instruments, according to the intention of the composer, it is important that if we want to get the same result, we work with the same method according to the divinity that originated those mantras. Devata
Devata, divinity, God or deity: this signifies how each mantra originates from a Being, from a God, from a deity, an angel, a buddha, a deva.
Each angel is invoked in relation to sacred names, sounds, terms that are utilized within the mantras they gave to the Rishis, the masters. Therefore, we cannot create our own mantras, because mantras invoke specific divinities with mathematical precision. These are laws of nature. We do not make up our own laws. We can believe we are separate from other people in that we can do whatever we want, and yet, there is the law of interdependence. Nothing is separate. Everything depends on other phenomena, whether internal or external for their existence. All of us are submitted to the law of gravity. You can believe that you will fly when you jump off a cliff, but the law is the law. Unless you are an exceptional jinn master, I think that might be a problem. So people can make up mantras and they call upon energies that they don't comprehend. They harm themselves. So, creating our own mantras is something like speaking gibberish, which literally could be perceived as some act of insanity. So likewise, among the angels, the devas, the gods. To speak gibberish is to live within the Tower of Babel, the lower three types of people on the musical scale. Bija
We have Bija: the seeds of a mantra. These are the letters that constitute the life or Genesis of mantric words. Just as the seed becomes a flower, Bija, the seed mantra, the letters of a mantra, gives flowering to words, to phrases, to sentences, to prayers. Bija mantras like Om form many other mantras and are the seed of those verses, those prayers, etc.
So, from Bija emerged the life of a mantra. It empowers. It gives life to the soul. So these seed mantras are not just physical, but they constitute vibrations. They provoke ecstasies. They help us vibrate at realities outside the body in the superior regions of the Tree of Life. From Bija emerges trees of wisdom, in Being, which are perfected meditators, because these sounds create entire dimensions and realities. For example, Aum or Om is very memorable. It is the root of many mantras. It is therefore a Bija, or a seed mantra, because this sound correlates and articulates many derivations and elaborations. It also relates with our innermost Being, and the same vibrations of this mantra relate to Chesed, the Spirit. Shakti
We also have Shakti. This is energy associated with power and vibration of mantra. Mantras carry power, as we have been explaining, and any spiritual activity relates with the type of vibration, such as the runes. Different runes, different yogic postures with mantra, work for different purposes. Like the Rune Rita for judgment, the Rune Fah for solar force and transmutation, the Rune Dorn for willpower, the Rune Olin for transmutation as well. The vowels awaken different faculties, etc. Each energy has its specific flavor and subtlety we must explore through experimentation.
Kilaka
And lastly Kilaka. It is the ultimate meaning or the secret significance, the key to the lock: ki-laka. We even find that etymology hidden there. It is like opening a door to a great mystery. It is the meaning of a mantra that you can only learn from the internal planes. For example, we have the mantra Om Masi Padme Hum. In traditional Tibetan Buddhism, they say Om Mani Padme Hum. But in the internal planes, this is how the mantra is pronounced.
I remember speaking with certain initiates in the Gnostic movement in the astral plane. They came to my home and we were performing the mantra Om Masi Padme Hum, because in Mani, we find the letter N becomes an “Sssssssss.” It has profound symbolism, which we don't have the time to explain in detail here, but basically we are to working with our vital waters, represented by the letter N or the Hebrew נ Nun. We awaken the fire of the divine. The vowel “S,” the serpentine fire of the serpent, so that we can become a perfect padme, a Lotus of God.
We pronounce this mantra in the astral plane. I was with a group of Gnostics internally and this is how they perform it. This is how we perform it too in our physical schools. And you can learn the hidden meanings of these mantras only through meditation, through profound reflection.
Conclusion: Instructional Videos on Mantras and Runes
Our last two slides are videos which you can access on the pdf for examples of how to perform mantra. We have the famous mantra: Klim Krishnaya Govindaya Gopijana Vallabhaya Swaha, which has the power of protecting ourselves from negativity and the explanations for that mantra can be studied online with great depth, especially in a lecture called Christ, Mantra, Mind Protection, which we find on Glorian.org.
Likewise, we have the runic exercises, the seven vowels, the seven runes, by which we charge our body and work with energy in nature, in order to fully awaken our potential.
So I invite you to ask questions. Questions and Answers
Question: Thanks for that for this wonderful lecture, which I really appreciate. Yeah, I have three questions. So I am going to ask you those questions one by one. Are you okay with that?
Alright, so the first one is regarding mantra. Does it matter the way you say that mantra? Let us say in the Gnostic teachings, we have learned we have to pay attention to every syllable of a mantra. However, if we are listening to Buddhist people, the way they do mantra, some of the words, you do not even hear them because they go so fast. I remember the other day in a Buddhist temple, the Padmasambhava monastery, they have an online website and broadcast with them during the day. The way that Master Rinpoche was saying the mantra, he started it slow and then went very, very fast and then slowed down and went very fast. I am asking you: does the way we say mantra, does it matter? And which way is the best? The slow, paying attention to every syllable, or going fast? Instructor: Excellent question. The thing to remember is that when we perform a mantra, we pronounce the syllables correctly, and in the beginning of this is difficult because some mantras are very elaborate. As we know from Tibetan Buddhism, especially at the Padmasambhava Buddhist center / monastery, those monks have been practicing for many years, decades [for] a lot of them. And so when they are performing these Tibetan mantras, they do it with a type of ease that is very familiar and easy, where they can be performing and pronouncing the syllables, even very quickly, which can be difficult for non-native speaker of Tibetan or practitioners or a student of that tradition―very difficult to follow along. So that is one level to that. Now certain mantras according to meter have different pacing and different speed. Some prayers can be performed quickly, some very short or better said, very prolonged. And the only real sure way to learn that and to know with certainty today is by going into meditation and internally investigating. Or being fortunate enough to study under the auspices of an authentic teacher who really knows the tradition well, whether Buddhism or even Gnosis. Because I remember even Samael Aun Weor would spend time correcting students, as I said, who were pronouncing mantras either too fast or too slow, and he knew the inner secret off those mantras―even the meter how they should be sung or pronounced. And fortunately, we do have some audio clips on Glorian.org, which give us a basis for approaching certain prayers. But my answer to the first question is that my assumption is that these monks who are practicing for so long, can perform certain mantras very quickly, that are very elaborate, because that is part of their training, and that is something that has been passed down to them through the transmission of their teaching, their initiation. So there is some validity to that, but if you really want to know the real depth of a mantra, whether you sing it or you prolong it or you say it quickly, that is something that you can only really gather with absolute certainty when you are working with a mantra effectively from an authentic tradition like Tibetan Buddhism, especially. You know, it may depend on the schools, but also your internal experience, if that makes sense. Question: Yes, it does. Thank you. Yes, I am going for the second one. Is a ritual required before wearing a talisman or pentacle, because can anybody just pick up or a talisman and then wear it and then it works? Instructor: Good question. Now certain prayers in our tradition are effective for charging talismans, and I would say the more intentional you are about working to charge, like a pentagram or certain object in your home like an altar, that the more intentional you are and prolonged with your efforts, the better, because the more you work with certain prayers in our tradition, like Conjuration of the Four, Conjuration of the Seven, and especially the Invocation of Solomon. These help to accumulate energy at a very high degree. These are prayers which are very exceptional. They were written down by Eliphas Levi, originally, and have been used in the Gnostic tradition by many initiates. So you don't necessarily need to have a talisman or some objects. It is actually beneficial if you do, especially if you are learning to channel energy and you want to get additional help, like a Gnostic pentagram with the seven metals that, personally, we know some people who do sell them. I personally own one myself and I found that in order for that talisman to really have effect, it is all dependent on many things: first off, my meditations, my quality of work upon my mind. That is really the foundation, because you can wear the cross or the pentagram or the star of David, and you know many people in society wear these trinkets, but because they are unethical people, they don't have any effect. And those talismans are only effective if we are working in ourselves to elevate our vibration. The best way that you do that is by being consistent, especially with your prayers and practices. I like to perform, before I go to sleep, the Conjuration of the Four, the Conjuration of the Seven, and the Invocation of Solomon. And in our home here, we have a lot of pentagrams. We keep them up in our bedroom, especially, and I have noticed, internally, that when I have done these prayers for a prolonged period of time, in the astral plane, I have seen my pentagrams light with fire, Christic energy. And so those talismans only have power if you are working with them for a prolonged period of time. It is not enough just consecrate it, like you can read in the opening of The Gnostic Bible: The Pista Sophia Unveiled, [see Chapter 1 for how to consecrate pentagrams] but really work with these exercises daily, because then that energy like a snowball accumulates. It gets more magnified, as I said. Question: Okay, thank you. And the third and the last one: for a prayer to work like you just mentioned, does that require some level of faith or ability of concentration and of projection? Because there are many prayers, like you said the conjuration and other kind of prayer. Even though they were written by some very elevated people, however, I noticed that some people might use them―it works, but some other people use them and it doesn't work. So my question is, does that depend of your ability to concentrate, to focus, or what makes a prayer really effective? Instructor: Great question. I will answer that by quoting Hamlet. When King Claudius, who killed his brother, is praying over the murder he committed, he says "My words fly up to heaven, my thoughts remain below, / words without thoughts never to heaven go.” If we lack concentration, then we lack the ability to penetrate the internal planes. The reason why mantra is so valuable is because as an energy exercise, it concentrates our will, helps us to develop focus, so that we can deepen our prayer. Now we can pray at whatever level we are at, and it is necessary. We are at our level of being and we need to pray and to ask for help. It does not mean that we have to be perfectly concentrated to pray and to ask for assistance, but obviously if you want to get an answer, it requires concentration. Because you have to be able to focus on that one question or mantra at the exclusion of everything else. And when you are accumulating energy, you are acquiring more force to penetrate the subconsciousness and in the internal planes. When you work with those mantras and are focused, you gradually, little by little, gain more concentration and clarity. So they go hand-in-hand. Question: I have a question. There is a few different mantras that Samael mentions and he says this will do, you know, work all of the chakras, and when you look at the vowels for each of the chakras, they have of course their own vowels, but when you look at the different mantra combinations he is giving that says, they work all the chakras, they don't always contain all of the vowels. So how does that work? Instructor: That's a good question now. Now, I know certain mantras are kind of like a panacea, so to speak―kind of a catch-all phrase. Some mantras, even though they may not contain all the vowels, because of their vibration and their concentration, they do work with every chakra, because you have to remember that not a single chakra of the body is isolated. If we are really working with a certain mantra or chakra specifically, you are learning how to develop that muscle with particular attention. So if you consider it like an allegory of going to the gym, where you work out certain muscles in the day, you might spend a lot more time on your arms, or your back, depending on what your schedule is, or what your needs are. The same thing with mantras, but that doesn't say that because you are working on your biceps, that there aren't other muscles involved there, if you know what I mean, because usually that type of exercise in a spiritual sense, as well as physical, you are involving all the other chakras to a degree. Now, for example, certain mantras like Om, we know is related to the heart, because the vowel O relates that center, the cardiac chakra, but Samael Aun Weor also mentions that the mantra Om awakens the third eye as well. So this mantra actually works not only with the heart but with the third eye, and that is really interesting, because a lot of times we like to box in and compartmentalize things or practices: this is for this, this is for that, but really all of these exercises are very fluidic. They are dynamic and they all relate. So mantras like Fe Uin Dagj is a mantra that I know works with, as a guttural mantra, can relate to the liver or the spleen as well, the hepatic chakras, but he states that mantras like that work upon the whole system. So there is a relationship there, if that makes sense. Question: Yeah, and I also noticed that there are certain mantras that he says you can use, not only for sexual magic, but just in general as well, and then there are other ones, but he doesn't mention that you can use outside of it. Instructor: Yeah, and the thing is, I would rely on his instructions, because he gives certain mantras that can be used individually, and obviously with sexual magic, and there is a lot of subtleties and application to those exercises. And being that he is a Rishi, a master, who received those exercises internally from different Devas, that he is very articulate and pretty clear about what those exercises are for. So it is always best to follow the specific context of that mantra. Question: One of the other things too, you know how you are supposed to kind of be visualizing the energy and focusing on the mantra, and when he talks about, you know, doing the different mantras in sexual magic, he doesn't really say what you should be, you know, focusing on or you know, really doing outside of mantra itself. And then it kind of becomes the “Okay, where is my imagination supposed to be in there or what am I supposed to be focused on while doing that mantra?” Instructor: Great question, and a lot of students ask about that because it would seem that the instructions might be vague. You know, we get this a lot where people say, you know, “How do I mantralize when I am connected with my partner and what should I focus on as you said? What should I concentrate upon?” And it is a dynamic thing. If you are practicing alchemy, usually the requisite is that we are already stable within our own transmutation practice: meaning we have already been working to circulate the sexual energy as a bachelor. You know, that is the ideal situation. Not always the case for everybody, but you know, people have their own particular situation. But traditionally in monasteries before they degenerated, they would have the monks and the nuns separate and training for years, learning to concentrate their energies individually so that they learn how to circulate that power with mantra on their own, and to do it with efficacy. And once they learned how to transmute the sexual energy as an individual, then they were given the opportunity, when they deserved it, to get married. Now with alchemy, bearing in mind our ethical conduct and our ability to restrain the sexual energy, there are many things that we can focus on, especially when you are connecting with your partner, if you are married. You want to be able to stimulate that fire that energy through the connection, but not to be so focused on the physical sensations, because it is pleasurable. It is blissful, the expression of love. And in Hebrew the term they use is Eden, which means “bliss,” but not only is it a physical bliss of being united sexually with one's partner, but it is an act of love, and also it is an act of creation. Because those energies become much more magnified in the couple. So the question becomes, what do you do? Well, the same procedure as you did when you are single: circulate the energy, but now it's more challenging, because you have more force and we have to learn to circulate it without lust. You know, and that is the primary factor that we have to concentrate upon: is our lust acting in that in the moment, or we working from a state of meditation, of real love? Question: Like when you are doing Ham-Sah, you've got a specific visualization to be working there with the energy and same with the Egyptian pranayama. But then when you get into with your partner, you are kind of like, “Okay, well, what am I doing with the energy while I am doing the mantra this time?” Instructor: In schools of Tibetan Buddhism, they can get very specific too in their teachings of tantra. When you are practicing alchemy, you can also visualize the energy circulating up the spine, you can imagine those forces, but also you focus on the mantras and the vibration they are invoking. But also, more importantly, is the remembrance of God in the act. That is the most important thing, because if we connect sexually out of ego, we are not going to get the results we want. But if we are acting from a state of equanimity and conscious love for our partner, but also for divinity, then we find that the energy circulates with a greater efficacy, with greater force. You can imagine the chakras when you are connected. You can also feel the power of the sexual energy circulating, and the main thing is, the most important thing is, do not get identified with sensations―you know, with too much movement or too much fire―because that can lead to expulsion from Eden, as we know. But more specifically, my recommendation is concentration on your Being: what is the quality of God in that act? That is the main thread we have to hold onto, because as soon as we forget God, we have lost our presence and therefore there is no creation there. Remember that in the Bible, the Ruach Elohim floats above the face of the waters in the bottomless deep. He says, “Let there be light, and there was light.” Divinity is the one who has to perform that act and we have to be His instrument, and learning that is not easy, which is why we meditate and we learn to separate from the ego. That is the most important thing. And then you can do other visualizations when you are connected, like the chakras or seeing the light of the energies there, and circulating them with will―inward, upward―and with a lot of humility and prayer. That is the most important thing. Question: I have been working on the... there was a suggested meditation through Glorian and with Aries this month and it's just repeating you know, [the mantra] “I” for an hour, and I was wondering, it says to do that while we are in the sign, but what about after that? Is it how long, do you know? I mean will that be effective after work… I am just trying to figure out how long to do it for and when it is most effective, because it suggested to do it for an hour and that's what I've been doing every night. Instructor: Yeah, those practices of the zodiac, for those who are not familiar, we have exercises in a book called Practical Astrology in which we perform certain mantras and prayers during certain zodiacal periods. So right now, we are under the constellation of Aries. The exercise is to sit in a chair and for the first 30 minutes: you can empty your mind of all thought. Relax. Reach a state of equanimity. You also have other instructions relating to the mantras you perform, but the important thing to remember is that under certain signs of the zodiac, we receive particular help. Now the mantra “I” for an hour is always effective. I mean, really mantralizing an hour each day is ideal, but especially when you do the mantra “I” under the influence of Aries, we have a type of magnification there that is very high. So, there is extra help. It does not mean that those mantras will not be effective any other time. It just means that if you wish to receive even an additional amplifying effect of stellar zodiacal forces, you can work with that mantra during that period. But all the exercises are really powerful. I mean even for Scorpio, the exercise is to practice alchemy, and of course, not everyone that is married can practice that during the sign of Scorpio, but sexual alchemy is very powerful under that zodiacal influence. So, we should take advantage as much as we can with our schedules and our time to work with the zodiac, especially. But it does not mean that these exercises are useless out of their context. They may not have as much force compared to that zodiacal period, but you still can benefit a lot either way. Question: So next month or when it changes, I guess in the middle of this month and it goes to into Taurus, would you say that it would be good to switch them, the vowel “A”? Instructor: You can switch practices if you want. Yeah, so the purpose of that series of exercises is precisely to round off the soul, you know. You can begin with Aries and continue with the rest of the zodiac throughout the year, and that is a very powerful way to charge yourself. But depending on your needs, you may need to work with certain mantras more than others. So, there is an option where you can work with the zodiacal practices according to what your needs are. And the thing to remember is that we practice in accordance with our needs, our disposition so to speak. Question: So to practice a mantra like the runes. I have been doing a bunch of different runes that I have learned, and I just combine them all and I do the runes three times and then I pray. Then I do the runes three more times and then I pray and I go through a series of them. Is there some kind of a sequence that I should actually be following? Am I supposed to be doing that seven times or is three times through enough for it to be effective? Instructor: Gauge your mind. Evaluate your body. Evaluate your energy. Some people need to practice seven rotations, three rotations. You know, when I would do runes, I would do for an hour or even to three hours a day, because there were times in my life where I needed that. And that may fluctuate for certain people, you know. We all have different needs, and I would not argue that there is one set way to do everything, because you know, even with the writings of Samael Aun Weor, there are so many exercises to do. You know, obviously we need to meditate each day, that is the important thing: work on our ego. But how we approach meditation, how much mantra work we do, runes sacred rights, etc., depends on our own needs. You have to learn to listen to your heart, because your intuition is going to tell you, “You need to do this more times or less.” It depends. It is up to your Being. Question: I wanted to ask about the different chakras. You have the picture of that, and so if we are physically ill with a chronic disease, does it mean that some of our chakras or a particular one that is closest to that body part that we have a condition of, does that mean that particular chakra or more is also sick? Instructor: Yes, it can be, more specifically. Now, if we have certain physical conditions, maybe we have a lung problem or a mental problem, an emotional problem, a throat problem, those sicknesses originated from the internal vehicles. So, if you wish to heal those areas in your body, you can work with mantras that vibrate at that level, and that is a very great way to heal, especially. But the important thing is if you are sick and you are struggling, not to force the body so much with vocalization, because I know a lot of people can struggle with vocalizing for an hour. Some people may need to do 15 minutes or even 5 minutes a day, whatever their abilities are. But little by little we gain stamina and greater will. But mantras relating to the organs can be good, especially, because those sicknesses do not just come out of the physical body, but they originated from the vital body, the astral body, the mental body, etc. Question: So working with the [mantras] I E O U A would be the best way to activate or to circulate, or to heal the chakras then? Instructor: It can be. If you want to have a more balanced approach, if you feel like all your chakras need to be worked upon. The seven runes or the seven vowels are really great for that. But some people may feel like, “I feel like my heart” for example, they could say, “or my mind or my spine is having difficulty. Therefore, let me work on that particular point that we can identify.” But if you want to work overall through the different centers, you can work with the seven runes, especially. Those are exceptional. Question: Okay, and someone mentioned about a mantra that will make all the chakras vibrate. Is that the one that is from the Kundalini Yoga book and I don't really know how to pronounce it. Is that the one that comes to your mind? Instructor: I think there's one called Fe Uin Dagj. There are others like Om Masi Padme Hum is one. If you pronounce it a certain way, you can encompass all seven vowels too, but even just doing I E O U A M S is powerful. Seven vowels: I E O U A M S [See Mantras and Pronunciations]. Question: Okay. Or the Om Masi Padme Hum that you were talking about? Instructor: Yes. Question: On the point of the lady who just spoke as well. I am wondering if there would be a mantra to help with this. You know, how we can get virus and bacterial...There are so many different kinds of bacterial infections in the body. Now, if we have done everything we can in the physical world to deal with that and it is still, you know, not working, then of course there would be something else that is causing that and from what I recall reading Samael, he mentioned some things about, you know, those not necessarily being, you know, just bacteria having, you know, a life of their own. So, I am not really sure what would be going on with my aspect in that, but is there mantras for that kind of thing that you would recommend? Instructor: I would recommend going in the astral plane to talk to the judge of the law, Anubis, because we can do our best to heal ourselves, doing certain mantras, whether whatever condition we might have, but if we are not getting the results we want, the reality is that we might have a karma that needs to be paid. And so that is something we would have to go in meditation to ask internally. The best way to you know, to reach that state, is to negotiate with the law, which you know, we have exercises that help us to speak directly to Anubis, who is the judge of karma within the laws or tribunals of divinity in the astral plane. So, if we learned to project in the astral plane, we can speak to him directly and ask, “What can I do to overcome this illness, this sickness, this karma?” 
There is the rune Not, which I recommend if it is a great crisis for you, to work with that rune. And the way that you do it is that you have a certain postures you perform with mantras, and you pray to Anubis and you state, “In order to receive this healing that I am asking for, I will do this, this, and this,” or whatever promise you make that you are going to fulfill: a certain deed as payment for your requested aid.
We have to remember that the law of karma is compensation. We never receive something without having earned it, but also the law is not a blind law. It is a law managed by divinity, so we can ask for credit. Like you go to the credit card company, you file for a new credit card, you are allowed to get new access to things and opportunities. But so long as you pay what you owe, you are fine, and you can balance things and learn to live more intelligently. The same thing with divinity and the same thing with karma. Now, the Rune Not in The Magic of the Runes, especially, by Samael Aun Weor, has a practice by which you can negotiate your sicknesses. Personally, many years ago when I was very sick, I had a condition, or I suffered through a condition where I was suffering tremendously. And so, I was praying to Anubis, “Please help me to be healed of this, and in exchange for this work that I am doing, I pray that you heal me.” And after doing that rune for many months, practicing very diligently, I got the results I asked for. But only because I did what I said I would do. If I did not do as I promised I would have, I would have died. They would have taken my life, because nobody can mock the law. If we owe something, we have to pay it. But it does not mean that we pay mechanically through pain. We pay it with intelligent and charitable deeds, if that makes sense. Question: I have a question regarding mantras and in reference to chakras. Sometimes when I am doing a mantra like for example Ham-Sah, sometimes I know the center, where it is or what is supposed to be happening action-wise. Sometimes I find that if I concentrate too hard on that particular action, that the connectivity to God is lost and it is more about my driving for something. For example, like Ham-Sah. I learned it from the standpoint of bringing the energy up with Ham and then out the heart with Sah. Sometimes if I just wish to engage with God in it, my intention is to do that. That is the intention, but I find sometimes I'll have Ham and it echoes in my feet. I feel vibrations elsewhere. I feel a different action inside occurring, but it will lead to, sometimes that will then lead to what was originally intended to go there. It is just a different form of the same thing. Like one is about more concentrating on what you want to do while the other is more exploring to get to destination? Or do you have any thoughts? Instructor: My suggestion―and we get this question quite a bit―my suggestion is that whatever the exercise is telling you to focus on, make that your focus, because part of the value of these mantras or pranayamas like Ham-Sah is that you are not only learning to circulate energy, but you are developing your concentration simultaneously. And we cannot do that if we are distracted. So, if you are sensing things in your feet and you let that become your focus, that tends to be a distraction more than anything. I recommend with Ham-Sah, focus on the inhalation, especially and the mantralization of Ham, because you have to prolong that mentally as you bring the creative energies up your spine to your head. And then let it sit there for a moment. Feel the retained breath and the serenity of the retention of that energy in your mind. And then gently exhale. Bring it to your heart. So, if you are sensing other things and it happens, you start to sense energy in your body, but the problem becomes in our mind. You know, we can be sensing all these psychic phenomena and they could be fascinating and interesting, but if we let that be our focus of our concentration, we lose the practice as you were implying. Question: I think where I get confused is: if I find that if I focus on Ham-Sah in particular, because it was one of the first ones I ever learned. What I run into and this is something to work on is the troubles in the mind regarding that and the process of Gnosis up to this point. In a way it is like, is it possible to have these other sensations, but to still have the intention and focus and to lead to that? It is almost like it bypasses a problem in order to arrive to the point, but that doesn't mean the problem has been dealt with. Because it is almost like focusing on like.... like originally that was easy to do. Just focus on the breath, but now sometimes it is almost like the focus is too hard. I don't mean hard, like difficult, I mean like there's too much focus. Does concentration ever have… it is an ego obviously that something is wanting. Is it better then to stop the mantra and address that “want” in meditation? Or because what I am doing seems to be arriving to a point, but bypassing a problem, trying to bypass a block of some kind. Instructor: When you are practicing transmutation, we start to sense energy. We sense a lot of things. We see a lot of things, but there comes a point in our preliminary exercises where once the energy is circulated and we feel enough focus in ourselves to really begin meditating, that you can leave the pranayama alone. So, if you found that you have enough energy to begin concentrating yourself to work on your mind, then you can stop the transmutation and focus on your concentration. Real concentration is relaxed. It does not take exertion, and we talked many times about how, when you are working effectively with pranayama, you are going to get sleepy, get relaxed. You know, you might be breathing more deeply, you might be yawning or inhaling more air so that your body mind and heart calm. And that is the place, if you really are concentrated and relaxed enough, but focused, that you can begin meditating: concentrating and reviewing your day, doing retrospection meditation. But the first step is do not get identified with the body. Do not move around. Do not necessarily get identified with energy―and letting that become a dichotomy of “should I pay attention to this? Should I ignore it?” That becomes a conflict. If we are really working effectively with pranayama, you will find that all of that will dissipate. So, pranayama leads into pratyahara and pratyahara means suspension [withdrawal] of the senses. If we are really affected with our pranayama practice, really circulating the energy well, the mind is going to stop chattering. It is going to stop thinking so much, and then the imagery of the internal worlds will start to open. So, my suggestion is relax, and do not overthink it so much. Do not identify with sensations because they are not reliable. Comment: I get that could even apply to identifying with when one is doing the intent. Like one is doing what they intended, the correct, so to speak, that can be identified with it as well. Instructor: Yeah, and that is a problem in Gnosis that we develop a gnostic ego that thinks “I am doing the practice: I am checking off my asana. I got my incense. I got this and that.” And we are making a big list of “this is what I am doing right,” and meanwhile, we are ignoring that we have made it mechanical. Meditation is not mechanical at all. It is very fluidic, dynamic, profound. It is always new every time, and the way that we know that we are meditating well, is that we are seeing the practice in a new way each time we sit. It is not repeated. It is always something new. Because the truth is the unknowable from moment to moment. Question: Yes, one last question. I know right now for Aries there is an exercise on that book of Samael when he says for this time, for this on zodiac time, we can… there is an exercise that said use your hands, get your thumb to seal the ears and the index finger to seal the eyes and the ring finger and the middle finger to seal the nose, and the last one on the mouth. But when I am doing it, I am trying to figure out how long can you hold that? Because if we feel the nose, you know, we cannot really breathe? I would like to know if you are familiar with this exercise. How do you do it? Do you like seal the nose and hold the breath and then get it out and then start again? So, I would like to know if you used to do it, how you do it? Instructor: Exactly as you said exactly is how you do it. You might hold your breath for a little while, but do not force yourself so that you become blue in the face. But you know, you want to be able to, you know, close the nostrils and the mouth and all the parts of your body so that you become, like in a metaphorical way of saying it, like in an isolation tank. You think of an isolation tank as you lie in a pool of salt water in the dark and you hear no sounds, no movement. All you are doing is floating like in space, and you are left with your mind. You are left with your consciousness. So, then you have to learn to work with imagery. The same thing with this practice. You do close off your mouth and your lips and your nose and your ears and your eyes and just concentrate on visualization. But you know, you do have to take a few moments to breathe. But do not necessarily force it so much, because you don't want to be holding your breath for so long or breathing too rapidly where the focus of the practice is now just on breathing, rather than the concentration and imagination. |
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