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.
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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. 
Everything in life is in a state of transformation. Life constantly moves and flows. Our bodies, minds, and hearts are constantly receiving an influx of influence, conditions, and effects, which constantly push us to react or respond.
We find this within the macrocosmic universe and within the human being. Compounds, molecules, atoms, are constantly moving, exchanging and interacting with force, which influences the way we eat, the way we breathe, the way we move, how we think, feel, and act. Biochemistry and the transformation of foods s a compelling influence on our daily, and even spiritual life, because with health, with homeostasis, with balance in our bodies, in our hearts, in our minds, we can function in society, or not, depending upon our level of being, our quality of being. Our internal world is related to the external world. Everything is related to external phenomena and internal phenomena. We study the relationship between these two worlds, the inner and the outer. This is known as dependent origination: interdependence within the philosophy of Buddhism. Likewise, just as natural elements, energies, and matter relate, exchange, interact, and transform into different states or qualities, our mind is constantly changing. However, this begs the question: Is our mind changing for the better, or for the worse? Are we transforming our suffering? Are we developing deeper states of serenity, understanding, peace, virtue, compassion? Or are we giving in to gluttony, hatred, violence, lust, desire, the ego? If we are honest, we will confront the reality that we tend to be burdened by heavy, conditioned, egotistical states. The ego is mechanical. It makes us always reactive to the impressions of existence, the impressions of life. The ego as we have explained, makes us humanoid machines: transformers of energy, yet, with no spiritual consciousness. How do we know that we are not conscious of the spirit? Humanity and many movements like to believe they are spiritual, and yet, this is proven contrary by facts. When we are insulted, we insult. When we are in a desperate financial or ecological crisis, such as with COVID-19, we become weak, miserable, terrified before the uncertainties of existence. A real human being, a spiritual being, has no fear, because he or she is conscious of their human machine. They know how to manipulate the forces of the cosmos with harmony. Such beings live free from fear and uncertainty like Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Krishna: enlightened ones. We are the opposite. Humanoids, intellectual animals, souls with intellect, from the Latin anima, to animate. We have a humanoid body, a human body, and yet our psychology is mechanical, a machine, because we are processed in accordance with our own conditioning, which is the animal ego. And whenever we identify with an ego, we empower it with energy. We invest our force with life into that element, which could have been used otherwise. Energy that can be utilized to empower our spirit, our virtues. We have spoken previously about upright and ethical behavior. Learning to restrain and remove negative conditions of mind, egotistical states. When we use our mental or emotional, volitional energies relating to our will, in order to feed anger, we deepen our suffering. We empower those egos, those flaws, that conditioning, our faults. However, energy must be used by the consciousness, the essence, the Buddhata, our Buddha nature, the soul, so that it can develop and awaken. The consciousness must steal energy from the ego. This is well-known as a science in medieval Europe by the term alchemy, the transmutation, the mutation, or transference of base energy of desire, the lead of our personality, into the gold of the spirit: the perfected energy of the consciousness. The energy that is typically wasted through explosions of anger, envy, jealousy, lust, etc., can be harnessed. We can utilize the same energy that we waste through anger, through lust, through pride, in order to awaken the soul. We can transform the crude matter of our mind into an elegant flower, a perfected virtue, a gem within the Tree of Life, the Being. However, we have to learn how. We have to learn how to transform ourselves. How to transform energy with consciousness. So we spoke a lot, in the last two lectures or previous lectures, especially regarding the three brains, the human machine—how we are always channeling energy in the cosmos, but without any awareness. We are mechanical, because the forces of the stars, the planets, our environment, the galaxy, constantly circulate within our nervous systems, our body, our mind, our heart, and yet, we have no consciousness of this fact. The purpose of this lecture is to talk about how to use energy with will, so that we cease being machines, so that we develop our spiritual potential. We all wish to cease suffering, but we often do not know how, or simply we may know, but we don't employ the methods. So this course is about self-transformation. The best way to transform the psyche, our egotistical psychology, our life, is through learning about and harnessing different forms of energy. 
The Definition of Energy
What is the definition of energy?
It is:
So energy is essential for physical, but also spiritual life. Technology, travel, air, land, and naval transportation, businesses, homes, would not operate if we did not have various forms of energy to provide the modus operandi. The means of acting, of operating those vehicles, whether through fossil fuels, green energy, wind, solar power, electricity, or nuclear power, etc., just as material existence could not exist without power sources, likewise, the same with our consciousness. Our soul could never develop to its full potential if it lacks the necessary force to stimulate and to awaken. Every action in life in existence requires energy, whether positive or negative. But sadly, in many spiritual groups, people ignore the role of energy and its role. So, while energy is important in life, both physical and spiritual, it is not so much the energy itself that is essential, but how we use it. How do we direct energy? How do we control it? How do we use it? How do we save it? These are the essential points we will discuss. 
The Definition of Awakening
There are many forms of energy we have to understand, so that by consciously utilizing them, we awaken.
Let us talk about what awakening is. It is a popular term. Spiritual movements, esoteric schools, religions, everybody teaches that we must awaken. However, if we look at the facts, none of them accurately relate how to achieve that fact. Many groups, spiritual movements, schools, define awakening in very vague, incoherent, ambiguous, and even contradictory terms. Many group definitions of awakening contradict each other, even their own dogmas, ideologies, philosophies, beliefs. The literal definitions of awakening are:
People typically denominate a spiritual awakening as a realization: to comprehend or understand that one's previous psychological state, one's awareness or relationship with reality, was like that of a sleepwalker—a slumbering or ignorant person. So often people say they awaken, because they understand. They realize something for the first time. Before they had no knowledge. They were unaware. But awakening is not a direct reference to physical sleep, or the transition from physical sleep to the vigil state. Awakening has to do with our particular, esoteric work, with awakening the essence, our Buddha nature, the consciousness. Our essence must awaken. We have to see the internal dimensions we have been discussing, the great realities of existence. Some people refer to these as astral projections, out of body experiences, lucid dreaming, jinn states. Unfortunately for most people, they may experience awakening of this nature, but in a temporary and fleeting way. Many people who join a spiritual group, who are interested in spirituality, often have what they call an awakening. It can refer to a life-changing event. Something that has altered the course of their life and their spiritual trajectory. Such examples are attributed to Kundalini, to work with energy, with a sudden realization, such as after an accident, a trauma, a difficult situation. What people don't often realize is that those awakenings, those realizations, are only temporary. They are sparks. They are moments which appear and vanish even within the same moment. And oftentimes, these awakenings are gifts from divinity, the Being. They are given to us to inspire and to push us to actually meditate: to develop our practice, so that those awakenings are constant. Not ten years ago. Not in our childhood. But, every day, now. This is how we cease being machines. We have to be initiated into this work. This happens when we have experience, internally, within our consciousness. 
Matter, Energy, and Consciousness
And so nothing in nature develops without cause and effect. If we wish to enliven, fully awaken our conscious potential, to cease being puppets of life, we have to work with and awaken energy.
So to discuss the role of energy in spiritual life, we have to examine how everything in the universe is composed of matter, energy, and consciousness. Every atom according to Samael Aun Weor, is a trio of matter, energy, and consciousness. Atoms have a material, energetic, and conscious function. Quantum mechanics has clearly demonstrated that even light particles make conscious decisions. According to research by Dean Radin, in his book Supernormal, he shares some accounts of how scientists are baffled by the fact that light particles can switch into different forms whenever they are observed by people. So, if you are familiar with science, physics, light can travel in particles or waves. They change their forms in accordance with an observer. Consciousness is light in a basic level. It is the capacity to perceive, and we find intelligence and consciousness even in subatomic and atomic particles, and atoms. Light particles make decisions. This is well known in many studies such as referenced in the book by Dr. Dean Radin. Just as there are forces that animate the matter of our body, our body also has energy and spiritual intelligence. But we have to know how to access that through practice. The primary exercise in our tradition for harnessing energy is known as transmutation. We explain a little bit about this term. “Trans” as in transference, “to move over, to carry.” Mutation is to mutate, to transform, to change one substance into another, so, matter into energy. We know from the first law of thermodynamics that “energy can neither be created, nor destroyed. It can only change forms.” 
We have energy in our body that we can transform through exercise. The main one that we use is pranayama—pranayama or alchemy. With Pranayama and Sexual Transmutation, with interchangeable nostril breathing, we work with the creative sexual energy daily. This is so that this energy, which is normally expelled, when it is conserved, it empowers the soul, enlivens the mind and the heart.
Pranayama is a very profound form of devotion to divinity because when you work with pranayama, you work with your breath, the vital air, the wind, so that it circulates within your nervous systems, within your energetic nadis—those meridian channels relating to the subtle forces or vitality of your body. In that way, we circulate force. It is conserved and the energy that can give life to a child is the very energy that can give birth to the soul. We approached the Being, divinity, when we harness all the matter, the energies, and the conscious potential of our body, soul, and spirit. We work with prana, which is our vital energies, our sexual energy, the vital substance—which, that matter, the sperm or the ovum in woman, sperm in men—can be transformed and transmuted. That matter becomes energy when we work with the breath. Matter and energy, when it is controlled and directed with profound concentration, it expands our awareness. It deepens our mindfulness, strengthens our attention, illuminates the consciousness The 14th Dalai Lama stated: "In the view of Tantra (which is transmutation or alchemy, the vital flow or continuum of forces in ourselves), the body's vital energies are the vehicles of the mind. When the vital energies are pure and subtle one's state of mind will be accordingly affected. By transforming these bodily energies, we transform the state of consciousness." The visible breath and the vital current within the air helps to cleanse our inner energetic physiology known as the vital body. This vital body is the vehicle of the ether, the sexual energy. All living beings and organisms have a vital body. This is what animates and penetrates our body from the fourth dimension into the third, our physicality. 
This is well known in science by the Kirlian camera: a Russian photographic device which captures the vital depth or the vital body of living things. Even stones, plants, rocks, trees, insects, people, butterflies, etc., have a vital body.
In this camera, you can look up on google, it has many images of the aura of living beings. So the aura is from our vital body, the vital energies and without this vital body from the fourth dimension, penetrating to the third, we would die. When the vital body leaves the physical body, the physical body dies, ceases. So it is a very powerful vehicle and within Buddhism it is the means of establishing the highest forms of compassion, because virtue empowered by the creative energy creates, gives birth, empowers. Prana, vital energy, is creative and sexual. This is the most powerful force we carry, and if it is transformed, when it is conserved, it is a tremendous vehicle for awakening. It is the energy of awakening, the most important, because the sexual power permeates every aspect of our psychology, whether mind, heart, will, physicality, consciousness, and even the spirit. We learn to awaken the essence, the consciousness, by working with the sexual force, the erotic element. Even in Greek, Eros awakens Psyche. Eros is Cupid: the god of love, and many religions speak about love of God as a man's love for a woman, and vice versa. The erotic energy illuminates Psyche, our psychology, the word for soul in Greek. We learn to awaken the essence with many exercises: meditation, pranayama, sexual alchemy, tantra within a marriage, sacred rites of rejuvenation, the runes or runic yoga, mantras, etc. All these exercises work with specific energy, which are graded in different dimensions, which are essential to awakening our soul. 
Energies and the Tree of Life
This is the Tree of Life, the map of our Being. This illuminates our understanding of who and what we are in terms of our makeup, our constitution. So, this Tree of Life maps out everything that exists in the universe and within ourselves. These sephiroth, which are Hebrew terms for “emanations,” modalities of expression of divinity, modalities of being, levels of being, expressions of consciousness—these sephiroth, emanations, are inside.
They are graded into different levels of energy. They are matter, but they are also force. They are vehicles which exist within these different dimensions, that we can operate in when we learn to save our energy—because a car cannot drive without fuel. If we want to work with those superior forces, and if we wish to have experiences with the superior worlds, we have to know how to save energy and know how to use those internal bodies. For example, we are all familiar with our physical body, which is Malkuth, the first sphere, the very bottom of the Tree of Life. Above that we have the vital energies, the second sephirah, second emanation known as Yesod, which means “Foundation.” It is our vital body which operates from the fourth dimension into the third, Malkuth, the Hebrew term for “Kingdom.” This body is our kingdom. It is where we can rule with full cognizance if we learn to dominate these forces, because right now, we are slaves of Malkuth. We obey the body. We do what it wants: when it has an itch, when it wants to move, when wants to eat, and to sleep. The beginning of practice is to control the body. Work with the vital energy, the vital forces. Above that, we have our emotional body, Hod, which means “Glory.” It is the astral vehicle, the vehicle we operate in dreams when we physically rest at night. To the right we have Netzach, the mental body, the mental energy. Netzach means “Victory” in Hebrew, and if we conquer our thoughts and minds, we become a victorious one, a Buddha, an awakened one. Above that we have other refined forms of energy. Notice that from the bottom up we are moving into different grades of forces—from the most material to the most refined, the most subtle. Mechanical energy, physical energy, is very obvious. Likewise, vital energy. We may have more or less in the morning, certain periods of the day. We have more force. It animates us, gives us wakefulness. It gives us the ability to eat, to digest, to exist. Likewise, we have fluxes in our emotions. We may say that we are the body. We like to think that the body is our identity and yet we tend to ignore how we are more involved in our emotions than anything. The emotions are really a focus of who we feel and think we are in some people—not all. Some people have more predispositions to different forms of expression on this tree, but when somebody insults us, we feel hurt, self-esteem. We point towards our heart. This is an emotional energy, a force that is much more subtle and refined than the lower spheres. Likewise, with our thoughts—our mind, with its memories, preoccupations, worries, plans, theses and antitheses, projects. It is also more subtle. We know it is there because we are involved in our thoughts all day, usually without any control or awareness of where thoughts come from, how they sustain, and where they pass. Above this there is volition, our will. This is known as Tiphereth in Hebrew, which means “Beauty.” It can also mean “Splendor,” but it is the beauty of our will when it is perfected, because right now we have a lot of willpower, but for negative things—whether it be drinking or smoking, bad habits, negative behaviors. Our volition, our will, tends to be channeled through the mind, the heart, and our sexuality. 
Notice that the lower four sephiroth relate to our three brains. Mental energy is our intellectual fuel for the intellectual brain. Our emotional energy fuels the emotional brain. And our vital energy, our instincts, and our physicality, how we move, relates to our motor-instinctive-sexual brain. So these sephiroth relate to our body. This is part of our Tree of Life—our physiology, but also our psychology.
Our volition, our will, can act purely when it is developed, when it learns how to obey the consciousness: the sixth sephirah from the bottom up. This is Geburah in Kabbalah, which means “Justice, Severity.” Our consciousness is our conscience. It is that which perceives before will, before thought, before emotion, before vitality, and before the body. Another thing that Dean Radin points out from quantum mechanics in his book Supernormal is the fact that many quantum physicists are claiming that consciousness or perception emerges and comes before matter and energy. This is something that terrifies materialists, who think that they are the body and that their psychology is the result or epiphenomenon of the brain, that their thoughts and feelings and impulses to act are the result of the nervous systems and the physical brain. They believe they are the random expression or emergence of a physical machine and that they have no free will. This is a very sad perspective to take, and which is why many scientists now are approaching spirituality, especially Buddhism, because they realize that materialistic science cannot explain the full depth of our inner reality. The consciousness experiences life before thought and will. But how rarely do we listen to our conscience? Geburah means “Justice” in Hebrew. It is the law of balance within our inner self. It is the voice that says, “This is right and this is wrong.” It is intuition. It is a subtle nudge in our heart that pushes us to study this doctrine, to practice spirituality, and most importantly, to meditate. Consciousness is the capacity to perceive. It is the state of meditation. It is when we directly receive data from the unknown. That is the capacity of conscious expression and conscious energy. But of course, this is a very very subtle and difficult to pinpoint, because most of the time, we are very clouded by our thoughts, feelings, and impulses. Take an example of a meditation session. You sit to practice. You rest your body, and as we are instructed, we attempt to maintain a still posture without moving. Swami Sivananda, a great Yogi, a master of meditation, taught us that your asana, your posture should be a mountain like a rock. Meaning, don't move. Don't move your body. And yet if you're just beginning these practices, you find your back hurts. You have an itch. Your stomach is hungry. You want water. You need to go to the bathroom, to relieve yourself. You have a crook in your neck. Your posture hurts and your body screams in pain. And you want to move to adjust yourself. This means that our body is controlling us. That is not meditation. Likewise, working with vital energy, circulating the vital force through mantras or prayers, pranayama, alchemy. These forms of energy in themselves are important and good. They help to relax the physical body. But meditation is not simply directing energy. Pranayama, mantras, runes, sacred rites of rejuvenation, vocalizations, prayers: these help to circulate energy so that the body can relax; so that the heart can relax; so that the mind can be silent. These are all preliminary points in our practice. As you sit to practice, your asana should be firm, and if we are successful in working with pranayama, we find that our body naturally becomes still. It stops being agitated. This is known in Buddhism as pliancy, where the body becomes supple in command, in control, and at peace. It is under our service and not the other way around. Likewise, pranayama and mantras can still the heart. If we are churning with negative emotions. If we are identified with previous moments in our day in which we invest a lot of power into our anger, we find that we are not meditating. Our emotional energy is out of balance. But of course, this can be calm through prayer, pranayama, vital forces, because the second sephirah of the Tree of Life, our vital energy, is the foundation of everything else. It is what allows all other energies and forces to circulate throughout the Tree of Life. This is why it is the secret science. It is the secret to entering meditation. But it is not the limit. Vital forces must be stilled, contained, and circulated so that the heart can calm, such as through the mantra "O," a sacred sound we can vocalize to strengthen the heart and to overcome negative emotion. Likewise, the mind has to be still, and this is the biggest problem for most people. Most people in the West are very acculturated to a society that is supra-intellectual. The mind is always active and all over the place. We are sitting and we are practicing, and then we see that our mind is thinking of what to do later, where we are going to go after our meditation, what we did in the day. There is always a chain of associative thoughts, which are wandering. There is no cohesiveness or cohesion there. So we have to calm the mind. Relax the mind. Not to force it or to gag it, to make it stop talking, but simply with your will, which is Tiphereth, the beauty of your human soul, you learn to concentrate. Notice that this sephirah, Tiphereth, on Tree of Life is at the center of this map. It rests upon Yesod, the foundation, the vital energies. When you are working with pranayama, your will is learning to direct Yesod, the vital forces, up your spine to your mind, to your heart through the two channels known as Ida and Pingala in Sanskrit: the lunar and the solar energetic currents which rise from your sexual gonads, up to the brain, and then to the heart. This energy is what allows you to calm the heart and the mind, but we have to use our concentration, which is Tiphereth, our volition, our will. But sadly, for most of us we lack concentration. We find it very difficult to stay focused on the object of our practice, which is the reason why we have to keep trying, so that we have that consistency and stability and permanence, so that with practice, you don't forget what you're doing. So that when you are doing pranayama or mantras or practices in this tradition, you can get their full effect. This is really the important thing—not to forget what we are doing. We only reach that point when our will is obeying our consciousness. The consciousness is what guides our will. Our heart, our conscience, the law of balance, tells us through intuitions that certain practices are what we need. And so, we have to listen to our intuitions which are beyond thought and will. Lastly, we have the spirit, which is the seventh sephirah, which is our inner Being, our inner God, our inner Buddha. The spirit never mixes with impurity, likewise, our consciousness, the divine soul. But our will, obviously, being at the center of the tree, can either go up to the superior heavens, the superior sephiroth, which is the Being, or enter into conditioned states of suffering which are related to mind, emotions, vitality, and physicality: the lower bodies of sin mentioned in the Fourth Way schools, Theosophy, and many spiritual groups. 
Above in the top Trinity we have forces that are very difficult to comprehend, of which we are not going to discuss in detail today. But in Buddhism, we know them as Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya: Kether, Chokmah, Binah in Hebrew—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Christianity. These are the three primary forces that give rise and create any universe, and to work with those forces, we have to be very stable in our practice of meditation. We achieve those heights by working with the lower seven energies, especially.
I want to emphasize some points relating to this and relating to the Tree of Life because many people in Gnosis or even in many spiritual groups, believe that simply by saving energy we will awaken, but Samael Aun Weor pointed out that this is not the reality. He states in The Great Rebellion: “No matter how much we might increase our strictly mechanical energy (relating to Malkuth the physical body) we will never awaken consciousness. “No matter how much we might increase the vital forces within our own organism (the sexual energy of the Yesod the foundation) we will never awaken consciousness. “Many psychological processes take place within us without any intervention from the consciousness.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion So here, by psychological, he means emotion. There are many psychic, astral, emotional, processes that occur within us, within Hod, the world of Glory, without any intervention from our inner consciousness, Geburah. “However great the disciplines of the mind might be, mental energy can never achieve the awakening of the diverse functions of the consciousness (relating to Netzach, mental energy, the mind). “Even if our willpower is multiplied infinitely, it can never bring about the awakening of the consciousness.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion So even having a lot of will in Tiphereth, the ability to do something, cannot bring about the awakening of the consciousness by itself. “All these types of energy are graded into different levels and dimensions, which have nothing to do with the consciousness. “Consciousness can only be awakened through conscious work an upright efforts." —Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion It is not enough to save energy. You can fill up your car with a lot of fuel, but if you don't know how to drive your car, you won't get to your destination. You need the fuel in your vehicle so that you can act. The same thing with your internal bodies. The same thing with your soul. You as a consciousness are the driver and your car is your mind, your emotions, your vitality, your sexuality, your instincts, and your motor capacities. But most of the time we are not aware that we are even driving our car. Most of the time we identify ourselves with sensations or feelings, impulses, thoughts. This indicates to us that we are completely asleep. We are not aware that we, as a consciousness, are asleep at the wheel, and just as a person can get into accidents physically by falling asleep in their car, the same thing happens spiritually. We truly are in a lot of danger, spiritually speaking, because in a moment of a crisis, if we don't know how to act and be aware of how to use our mind, our emotions, our vitality, our volition, our body, we can get ourselves into great harm. So, we have to be aware of our intuition, of what the soul, the consciousness, is saying to us. Consciousness speaks to us in the heart through intuition about what behaviors to perform, whether they are physical, creative, vital, sexual, emotional, mental. Intuition is conscience. It is the knowledge and wisdom of ethical conduct, and that ethical conduct always produces liberation from suffering. Intuitive action is the consciousness guiding and working through our willpower to act. Samael Aun Weor often explains that intuitive action leads us to the awakening of the consciousness. Our intuition is the consciousness. It is conscience. Geburah, our judgment about what is right and what is wrong, but sadly because our will is very weak. We do not often listen to our heart, our conscience, our ethical intuitions. And so, we often act on our thoughts, feelings, and desires. This is why we suffer, and this is why we are asleep and why we practice meditation, so that we can know the difference between right and wrong. Conscience is judgment, inner wisdom, which must guide our actions, our willpower. It is interesting that Samael Aun Weor mentions how Geburah, the divine soul, our consciousness always enjoys bliss, cognizance, and happiness, while the human soul, the will, has to work, has to act. This last statement in this quote is very interesting, and very deep. "Consciousness can only be awakened through conscious work and upright efforts." —Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion This implies Geburah and Tiphereth working together, meaning our concentration and our perception united in harmony. The consciousness is imagination, the capacity to perceive as we discussed in the previous lecture. And the ability to work is the ability to concentrate, to focus, so that when we meditate, we are focused on a mantra, a pranayama, a prayer. As we learn to suspend our thoughts, feelings, and volitions, our desires, our impulses, our instincts, our body, we achieve stillness and the awakening of our inner imagination or perception. In that way, we begin to see things and to meditate, to receive information, because according to Samael Aun Weor, meditation is the state of perception, when we acquire data of the new, when something new emerges in our consciousness that we never saw before. That is when we really are entering superior states. So, concentration is will power, the ability to focus, and imagination is Geburah, the ability to perceive. One without the other is not effective. You need serenity and visualization in order to really experience the spirit, which is samadhi, ecstasy, experiences out of the body in which you are conversing with your inner Spirit, your Buddha, your God. Work with both to get results Conscious works and upright efforts means: Gerburah and Tiphereth together. Our Consciousness must guide our will, control our will, through hunches, to guide us, so that our concentration and will can manage our three brains with their respective energies:
Again, saving energy is not enough. You have to know how to use it. And that is the point. It is not to say that we do not need these energies. It means that we know how to use them. Many people exclusively believe that with Hatha Yoga or Fakirism, contorting the body and doing painful postures and poses, even for years in one form, produces awakening. Some fakirs can put their hands up in the air for ten years and never let them down. That's an extreme form of control of the body and the manipulation of mechanical energy—to dominate the instincts, but of course, this is very foolish. It doesn't awaken our real potential. It has nothing to do with the Being, our inner Spirit, the Innermost. Some believe that pranayama or celibacy alone, just collecting the sexual energy, is enough. But this is wrong. There are many people who save their sexual energy, whether they are priests or monks within certain religions, but they never know how to transform it, and therefore, they never awaken the consciousness. In fact, the energy that builds up there has to act and often does so in deviant ways, which is why you have a lot of cases of monks and priests, or imams or rabbis from many traditions, who basically degenerate. They form and perform sexual misconduct, because the energy is saved, but it has to act. Because they don't know how to control it, they become victims of it. Likewise prayer, to develop the heart, is not enough, because many people who pray exclusively often avoid study of the mind and development of the body. Therefore, emotional or psychic processes are not the full expression of consciousness. Mental energy can be utilized and developed through study, and we need to have some level of development in our intellect. We have to know the doctrine. We have to know the scriptures and the practices, how they work, how they are mapped out. And lectures help us with this, but simply studying with the intellect all this knowledge and not applying it or understanding it, creates a lot of imbalance—a lot of weakness. Some people develop their willpower through a lot of exercise or sports or yoga, even Fakirism, because that is developing will over mechanical energy. This teaches us how to dominate the body, but not how to control the mind, the heart, and especially the sexual energy, in a conscious way. So the consciousness must awaken through intuitive action. This encompasses all the energies and directs them all in balance. Save your energies, your mind, your heart, your sexuality, your will. Save your physical energy. Learn to use them in balance. Learn to direct them with your conscience, and that is how you know how to live with upright works. This is how you drive to your destination. It is not by ignoring the car and letting it get damaged and destroyed. There are many people in spiritual movements who say they are elevated and awakened, and yet their physical life is deteriorating. Their bodies are sick. They do not take care of themselves. They do not exercise. They do not study. They do not develop their heart. And this is sad because we have to take care of our car, our body, and our internal psychology. Take care of your vehicle, consume good energy, transform these energies, but with understanding of their place and their purpose—without deifying them or putting them in one category or another as more or less important. You have to learn how to use your machine with balance. This is how you awaken. This is why we meditate, because your car cannot drive without proper fuel. So, save your energies, conserve them, and learn how to direct them. That is the most important thing. 
Sexual Power: The Determinative Energy of Nature
This is why we study many exercises for energy, as we have explained. Of course, the most important energy we have to discuss and conclude with is sexual. This is the foundation of everything.
As we see here the human body, the human machine, is the Tree of Life and that Yesod, the vital-sexual-creative energy, is over the sexual organs, because this is, in Genesis, the stone and foundation of our inner Being's temple. Nothing else could exist without the work of sexual energy, which is why if we do not save this very vital force, we cannot awaken at all, in a good way, because the creative energy empowers everything else. When you transform the sexual energy, you have a tool that is going to open doors that are inaccessible for people who don't conserve their energy—who are fornicating, in other words. And of course, fornication means to expel the semen, the raw matter, which could be conserved and transformed to elevate our spirituality. Master Morya in The Dayspring of Youth refers to the creative energy as determinative energy. It is what determines our existence for good or for ill. At the book Shiva Samhita states (and it's included in the end of Kundalini Yoga by Samael Aun Weor), it states that “conservation of semen gives life. Emission of semen brings death.” Because that energy can give life to our organs, our energetic centers, our mind, our heart, our will, but when it is expelled, we are incapacitated. The car can't move in the spiritual direction we seek. We have to conquer lower eroticism, animalistic behavior, lust, in order to experience divine Eros, creative sexual love, chastity. Chasity means purity in sex. It does not mean to avoid sex, to run away from it, to repress it, to demonize it. It means to understand it and to know how to use it in accordance with the Being. So, neither in justifying passion or running away from it is the solution. We have to understand the role of sexual energy in ourselves. And this is why we study many books. You can study The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor as well as The Mystery of the Golden Flower, Kundalini Yoga, and pretty much every book he teaches, he teaches how to work with energy. They are all useful resources. Master Morya states: “Many occultists are told to conserve their creative energy: to master their lower sex nature. Atoms always find their own level. It is the vapour that rises from the surface of our seminal fluid that gives us this determinative energy in Nature… …When we determine to do a thing it has already been accomplished within our secondary system…” —M., The Dayspring of Youth …which means the flow of sexual energy in us. So, when you conserve that energy, you can use that force with your will power to silence and calm the mind, the heart, and the body. “When we determine to do a thing it has already been accomplished within our secondary system, and this gives us a determination to work and accomplish this on the objective plane. But we generally fail if we do not consciously or unconsciously draw upon the determinative energy in Nature.” —M., The Dayspring of Youth If you don't have energy, you cannot work. You cannot act. Even in a basic level, if you had no vital energy, you would be dead, as we stated. “If we use this principle we shall complete our determined work in this life or in our next incarnation. For we all incarnate to gain certain experiences, and we cannot be happy if we fail in this.” —M., The Dayspring of Youth In conclusion, the purpose of our studies, especially is, to awaken—to have conscious experience of the realities of the Tree of Life, the tree of knowledge. But to do so, we have to learn to conserve our energy and know how to use it well, which is why we study in the principles and meditation. I invite you to ask questions. Questions and Answers
Question: I really appreciate you mentioning that remark about, once a person has made a decision, it goes to the secondary level. That's a really great principle that has a lot of strength in it.
Anyway, I would like to ask if you if you may. I have noticed in our experience in using the term concentration relating to the work, it is not the type of concentration that we have been conditioned to think about. That concentration really is in the life as a non-initiate. I have always thought concentration with something where you just crunch your mind to learn something, either an action or memorized, but that has always been under stress. In this work, concentration really has a different meaning. Is that correct? Could you give a little definition on that? Instructor: Certainly, excellent question. People know how to use conditioned will, egotistical will, and our society, our education system, our humanity only knows focus and concentration through desire. And often many spiritual movements reflect this tendency, where you are taught that if you just use your will to get what you want, if you desire for something—and this also plays into our imagination too—you can imagine what you want and desire and then you will get it. This is often recited in films and books like The Secret, which is a very popular type of novelty. It is true. People get obviously what they work for, and when we talk about willpower, in most cases, people think of concentration as something relating to our desires, our egotism. There is a very different type of concentration we need to explore when we meditate. For example, it is easy for us to sit in front of a television and to concentrate on a movie for two hours—to follow the movement of characters, their development, the plot—and yet, when we sit to meditate and concentrate on a mantra or pranayama, we find that our mind is wandering all over the place, and we realize that our genuine conscious will is very different from conditioned will. Conscious will is Tiphereth, human soul. It is the beauty of our essence, our consciousness in a human level. It is willpower in a genuine sense. It is the level of consciousness that can give us serenity, equanimity, and insight, but unfortunately in us, we have our egotistical thoughts, our feelings, and our desires. That is all conditioned. That is ego. Every ego has its own thoughts, feelings, and will. If you study Christianity, we know these figures as the three traitors: Judas, the demon of desire; Pilate, the demon of the mind; and Caiaphas, the demon of evil will. So this is a system we use to categorize different conditions of mind. Of course, there is a multiplicity of different factors. We call that legion, and so all of the defects and egos we have, each have their own ways of thinking and feeling and doing. Therefore, our mind is all over the place. We don't actually have one mind, but many minds. And no one can discover this unless they sit to introspect and examine themselves. So the concentration and the will, to sit in front of a television screen is very easy for us, because for most of our life, we have been conditioned by culture—even in the East now—North America is obviously influencing people with entertainment and television. It is very easy to sit in front of a movie because it requires no effort. It is an egotistical attention. Our desires can focus on something that they want, but of course, that is mechanical. It doesn't take any effort. But the kind of willpower we are trying to develop has nothing to do with desire, and therefore, because that part of us is very weak, we struggle. So sitting to concentrate on an image of a candle or a stone, to concentrate on the breath, counting the breath, doing mantras or pranayama, we find it is very difficult to do those exercises without thinking of other things, because our mind is fractured, in a multiplicity. Of course, this can be very discouraging because we find that our concentration is not developed in a genuine sense. If we really had true objective concentration and will, we would be able to focus on one thing at the exclusion of all else, and not be distracted. And of course, we have to train ourselves. We get there little by little. So the more we practice and work with energy, especially pranayama, we learn to fortify our willpower, our human soul, and therefore we experience the beauty of our inner Being, our inner consciousness, which is very different from states of desire. Of course, you have to learn to sift through the mud, you know: discriminate what you are seeing. That helps to clarify your imagination too, as we discussed in the previous lecture. Our clarity of perception is only as strong as the foundation, which is serenity. Your serenity is only established, your ability to focus without distraction, is only established, when you work with Yesod, the vital energy. That is how you work with awakening. So, one type of concentration is liberated. It is voluntary. The other type of concentration is involuntary. It is mechanical. So we can focus on certain things, egotistical things, but usually without any attention or real will. That is why we meditate. That is why we we practice, so that we can develop more consistency. Hope that answers your question. Audience: I think so, and in synthesis then, as we reach serenity, that concentration is a natural process that begins to work and then we learn to work with that and it is much different than the concentration that we have been conditioned to think as actually concentration. 
Instructor: Exactly. Because you know, if you have studied, as we talked previously, about the nine stages of concentration in Buddhism, the Tibetan Buddhist mural of a man or monk chasing an elephant, those nine stages described in that iconography show us how a lot of effort is needed in the soul in the beginning, in order to control the mind.
That is symbolized by the fire that blazes along the corners of the path as the monk ascends. The further that monk ascends, the fire begins to diminish because it takes less energy in order to reach stabilization. So that fire is your energy of awakening. It is important that in the beginning of our spiritual discipline, we work a lot with energy. That's why we have runes, sacred rites, pranayama, alchemy, because that energy is what is going to empower your spiritual practice. The further you go up the stages of concentration, the less effort it takes. That is kind of the paradoxical nature and beauty of our real will. You know, we like to think that willpower in meditation or concentration is to be very exertive, like you are lifting weights. Of course, it may feel like that in a conscious sense, in a psychic sense, because our mind is all over the place and it is very difficult to focus. But the more you reach those higher stages of concentration, as represented in the glyph, that elephant that was once leading the monk begins to slow down. It begins to whiten, to become pure. And that refers to how the dullness in the mind is vanishing and there is greater crispness, clarity, and perception of what we are seeing. We are not distracted by our thoughts, our emotions, or our body. The body and the mind and the heart become pliant. They start to obey the monk, obey our willpower. 
And of course, when you reach the heights of that glyph, the fire is gone, the monkey or the animals represented in that image, representing desire, craving, and laziness, but also the dullness of the mind, begin to obey the monk. Finally, the the elephant rests at the top. The monk sits in meditation and perfect equipoise, and then you find him flying out of his body in the astral plane, above a rainbow. And that refers to, when you have reached the true heights of concentration, you are in a perfect state of equanimity where you don't get distracted at all, and therefore, it takes no effort to be in that state. It only takes familiarity.
So, of course, we like to think, especially in our level, that we have to work with a lot of effort to reach this goal, but of course, paradoxically, real effort is no effort. Real concentration is effortless. It is a state of perception. But of course, to reach that we have to work with energy in the beginning. I invite you to study the lecture we gave at our course called Gnostic Meditation. There is a whole lecture called Calm Abiding: The Stages of Serenity. It explains this whole glyph in depth, but also you can study Meditation Essentials, which is a whole course based on that image and goes into much more detail in a very systematic and didactic way. Hope that clarifies things. Question: To to follow up on what you were just talking about on the elephant and relating to this lecture on awakening. So once you are able to control your mind all the way at the top of that picture, does it mean that you would be awakened at that point? Instructor: Yes, to a degree. You know, there are levels of awakening. We may have a very basic awakening, even in our body that we are controlling certain energies and sensations. Of course, that is a very minor gamut of what is possible. But the further up this meditative path you ascend through concentration, you eventually enter the state of meditation—which in the example of the monk, he is meditating next to this calm and placid elephant, and then finally see him flying over a rainbow. That could be an experience in meditation where physically, you leave your body. Your body goes to sleep and you are awake in the astral plane or the mental plane or the world of willpower, Nirvana, Tiphereth, even beyond. You can go to these dimensions and have that freedom of will and expression in which you are experiencing liberation. This is known as samadhi, and those samadhis are in different degrees, obviously. You can have a samadhi or ecstasy in the astral plane, in the mental plane, in the causal plane, and even beyond. Now, the important thing to remember is that a samadhi simply means to be outside of the ego, even if only temporarily. It does not mean that that is our permanent state, but it does show us the reality of our own Being. This type of experience is really important, because it helps us to have inspiration in our work, to continue practicing. But, the important thing too is not to get attached to experiences, because they are not going to be eternal unless we fully eliminate the ego. So eliminate the ego and then you are going to always live in a perfect state of samadhi, which means ecstasy. And the word ecstasy does not refer to drugs or to substances, but to the Latin term ex-statuo: which means “to stand outside of yourself.” You are no longer standing in your common everyday perspective of the ego. Instead you are in higher dimensions. You can even have a samadhi in the physical body too where you are very awake. You have lucidity in your perception, your spatial sense. You see the environment with greater clarity, with less thought—or no thought—with a state of concentration and inner peace, compassion, love, virtues. There are many qualities and levels of being, very dynamic, which is why we have to study meditation and practice it so that we know that what these different states and experiences are, if that makes sense. Question: Yes, and then in one of Master Samael's books, he talks about voluntary suffering to achieve the same state. So, for those people they have that experience, the voluntary suffering, and they don't actually have to go through this path? Maybe it is a separate path or am I mixing things up? Instructor: Voluntary suffering has to do with the suffering that we must inevitably face when we work on ourselves. Meaning: we are practicing meditation and suddenly the body hurts. Our posture is awkward. We feel our spine is agitated. Our muscles are tense. We have itches. We want to move. We want to scratch. Likewise, our heart, our emotions, are churning. Our mind may be distracted. We may feel a lot of pain mentally, with anguish, emotionally too, even physically. There are a lot of sufferings we have to face in this work and overcome. So to voluntarily suffer means to accept the sufferings of life without trying to run away. Most people go through life suffering at their job or their career or their marriage, or whatnot, in a very unconscious way. Meaning, we just go through life and we suffer bad situations or unpleasant things. But to voluntarily suffer means that we are using our voluntary will, our concentration, in order to work on ourselves, because inevitably we have to suffer the consequences of our karma. Everybody has to face their karma. But whether we do it voluntarily or involuntarily is up to us. We study meditation and suffer voluntarily the consequences of our former actions, which can arrive in situations or difficult ordeals, in relationships, in which we are tested, to see whether or not we are going to overcome the egos or defects that produce that situation which are creating conflict and suffering. Of course, when you are using your willpower, you are concentrating in yourself and withstanding the sufferings in the body, the heart, and the mind, so that you can comprehend their source. To give you an example of what voluntary suffering is, there is a very famous story of a Buddhist monk or master who would go to a cave in order to meditate. But the reality was that in order to enter the cave, there was a thorn bush, and every time he would have to get into the cave, he had to go through this thorn bush which would scratch them up terribly and make him bleed. But he was so dedicated to his meditation, his discipline, that he would always go in and suffer the consequences of that bush. And he did it for decades, and many years, until finally in his meditations, he overcame his pain, and he entered samadhi and achieved liberation. So this is an allegory, a Buddhist parable, of how we have to accept the sufferings of life. When we go into the cave of our mind to explore ourselves, we have to accept that, perhaps, our job, or our career, our family life, our marriage, can bring us pain. We have to accept that pain and not to run away from it or to reject it, or to justify it either, which are different extremes of how one focuses on unpleasant things—but look at them. Use our willpower to go through the bush. You know, we get scratched up by life. We feel pain, but we do it willingly because we know that by understanding these situations is how we are going to be liberated, if that makes sense. Question: Yes, but my question was whether or not they are able to go through the voluntary suffering in order to awaken without all this effort in meditation. Maybe just by having to go through that suffering, that was enough to awaken? Instructor: Of course, the thing to think about is that there are levels of awakening. Most people who come to a spiritual group is that they will have some situation in life that is really traumatic, or very intense, where they suffer a lot and then they are really inspired to understand their purpose in life. And then they study yoga or meditation, approach spiritual groups, because that pain of that experience pushed them to a point where they recognized that they had a do something different in their life to change. Now, that is a very temporary and limited example of awakening, but it does constitute an awakening, obviously, to a small degree. Now the type of awakening I am talking about is when in meditation, you are working with these exercises and you are voluntarily suffering, again, in your daily life, accepting things that you can't change, and working to change what you can, and in that way through your discipline, you awaken the full potential of your capacities. And that is awakening to a higher degree—you know, your full potential, your full being—you are raising your level of being. But of course, people who have a minor experience, and it could be a situation in their life where they really have to come to grips with their trajectory, they question everything that they have done and where they are going. And of course, that is a very noble and necessary thing, but it is only the beginning. There are degrees and degrees. Comment: Thank you very much for the lecture and that was a great explanation. Instructor: You're welcome. Question: In the lecture you talked a little bit as you are explaining concentration. You said there are three steps, but I didn't catch them all. Can you explain that again? Instructor: Three steps for concentration? Question: Yeah, you said there are three main points of concentration. I did not get them. Instructor: When we concentrate, it is important that we learned to focus on one thing at the exclusion of everything else. We do not let our mind wander. We do not think of other things. We try not to feel other things, but have a receptive mind and a focused will on whatever we are concentrating upon. We state that in Buddhism, there are nine stages. We have nine stages of meditative concentration. When you are concentrating, the most important thing is that you are controlling your energy, your sexual forces, or Prana. You are controlling your your emotions, and you are controlling your mind. So those three things are what we try to focus and control, but this kind of control or concentration does not mean that we are exerting ourselves or repressing the mind—repressing what we are feeling or seeing in our thoughts, or our inner instincts. By controlling mind, heart, and body with equanimity, with concentration, and focus, we enter deeper states of equanimity and relaxation. Concentration has to not be swayed by thoughts, not to be distracted by them, because usually when we are concentrating on an object, such as a stone or an image, our mind starts to think of something else, and if we identify with that thought, we get distracted and we lose 20 minutes in our meditation and then we realize we are distracted. We are not actually in the practice. We have to learn not to be identified with our thoughts and even our feelings, negative emotions—such as if you are concentrating and focusing on the events of your day through retrospection, you are visualizing a moment in the day in which certain egos emerged, in which you are concentrating on that moment and not letting your heart run away. Perhaps you had an argument at work, or someone criticized you, and the egos of anger, pride, and self-esteem emerged. Three different defects. So if you are visualizing that event and concentrating upon it, to extract information, to know the ego involved, you don't let your negative emotions ferment and brood, where we are just reliving the experience again through memory and feeling negative about the whole situation, instead of really comprehending it from a distance, with a sense of separation. Then likewise, we have to control our body, relax our body, relax our heart, relax our mind, relax the three brains. So these are the three things necessary: the three steps we need in order to really enter a state of equanimity to really ascend up that winding path of the Buddhist stages of concentration, so that we reach perfect equipoise and calm. Question: This is probably going to be a question of a new person. You talked about saving up the energy like doing a car and that not being good enough in itself because of the need for conscious work. So, what would be the examples of conscious work to actually create this growth in consciousness? Instructor: Wonderful question. We have a multitude of exercises. The most important one that we use is self-observation. Samael Aun Weor mentions in a book called Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology, the need for self-observation. In the fourth lecture of this course, we talked about that explicitly, where you as a soul, a consciousness, must be observing the mind, the emotions, and the body. These are the three brains. These are the three centers in which the ego manifests. So we have to separate from our thoughts, feeling, and will as a consciousness, as an essence, as a soul, in which we are seeing a separation between ourselves and the different negative thoughts that may emerge in a situation—whether from an ego of anger, of resentment, and pride, etc. Likewise, we observe the different emotions and impulses that act. We examine ourselves moment-by-moment, instant-by-instant. Self-observation is the means of gathering data about our faults, so that in situations that provoke our deepest subconscious elements, we begin to see the darkness in ourselves so that we can extract light. When you comprehend the source of each ego and defect, we extract the light or soul that is conditioned or trapped in those elements. We also have exercises to empower our self-observation because it is impossible to stay conscious in this sense without energy. We have mantras that we use, sacred sounds, exercise known as Sacred Rites of Rejuvenation. These are a form of Tibetan yoga, which we have books about. There are practices of pranayama, which are very important exercises, which you can read in books like Kundalini Yoga and The Yellow Book. Pretty much all the books that Samael Aun Weor wrote all have practices that we use, and the most important one is meditation. Meditation, as the state of awaken perception, cannot be realized if we are not gathering data in our daily life. So, the most important thing we do in our studies as the beginning is self-observe and the best way that you can learn that practice is if you study Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology. That book has a lot of depth. I mean, it is a simple concept, you know, observing yourself, but knowing what that means and how it works is a very delicate skill. It is something that we cultivate with a lot of work. This conscious work is learning to see ourselves as we are, and not as we presume ourselves to be. And again, self-observation is empowered with working with energy. Those are the two main things we work with and that is what serves as the foundation for meditation. So, I can reference for you those books, especially. We have them available on gnosticteachings.org in an online format, but also you can purchase books from the Gnostic Store. I hope that answers your question. Question: I have a quick question. You talk about energy in this lecture and I was wondering... you were giving an example of the car. It's got all the moving parts. It all functions and work together as a whole, but what if a person has a chronic illness? Will that energy short circuit or not flow as well? Is there something that a person with a chronic illness might have to do differently in order to, you know, do the same work? Instructor: Great question. I personally know a lot of people in our movement who have a lot of illnesses. You know, I have been in many Gnostic groups, in different parts of the country, and I have gotten to meet a lot of people who have suffered from illnesses, some relating to the mind, some relating to the heart, and some relating to the physical body. And of course, any illness is an imbalance. It is a form of congestion of forces. People who get sick in their mind or emotions, or physical body and vitality, have a kind of obstruction in their energies, which obviously create that imbalance, which manifests as a physical illness. So, all illnesses are the result of past actions, usually those without our awareness. We don't typically remember, our past existences, past lives in which we performed actions that were harmful, and so we suffer the consequences of our former behaviors. That type of energy or egotistical behavior creates an imbalance. It misuses energy in those inner bodies and creates a condition that makes it difficult to work. So yes, there are impediments that we face in our path when we suffer illness, but it does not mean that we are going to be limited by it or stop. Because personally I have worked with people in Gnosis who have suffered schizophrenia, depression, bipolar, clinical diseases, that you know are considered incurable—cancer, other diseases, and yet those practitioners have been able to raise their level of being tremendously. And in fact, the reality is that this type of impediment is not really an obstacle in the true sense. It becomes an opportunity. Samael Aun Weor mentions in his books that the most difficult circumstances of life are the greatest for spiritual and psychological growth, because they provide us a type of pressure that can give us a lot of willpower and impetus—a lot of longing and inspiration to change, to work—and so people who have had certain obstacles in their energies or difficulties, they might be, you know suffering an imbalance in one of the three brains. So that center is very sick, but still, those people progress tremendously because they learn to overcome their weaknesses or their illnesses. We have practices in our tradition that can heal us, and this is why we have books like Igneous Rose relating to plant magic or elemental magic. We have Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic, you know, many tools like Sacred Rites of Rejuvenation exercises that can give us energy and help us to heal. I know many people who have suffered terribly chronic conditions who were able to be healed, or to be able to prolong their life and to develop themselves tremendously, over people who never suffered such an illness or condition. Sometimes people with the greatest obstacles are the ones who develop the greatest will, development, and awakening. Like the example of the man meditating in the cave, where he has to go through a thorn bush every day. It is painful. It is a lot of suffering. It is a lot of pain to be in that type of condition, but if we have the willpower and the upright efforts to do so, we endure that pain and develop our practice with a lot of fidelity and consistency. And in that way, we grow in ways that are inaccessible for people who face no hardship.
The faculty of imagination is truly a compelling force within nature, within art, within humanity. Despite the grandeur and beauty of modern architecture, ancient sculptures, the greatest poetry in literature humanity has ever received, people tend to consider the faculty of imagination as something made up, superficial, vain.
We have examples like J.R.R. Tolkien, who is considered highly imaginative for creating an entire world in his books [The Lord of the Rings]. There are many examples of people with a tremendous imagination. We can think of business-people, poets, writers, artists; and while western society looks upon imagination as if it is a play thing for children, we tend to value, paradoxically, and worship people who have a tremendous capacity for imagination. All the great works of humanity were developed by seers, visionaries, prophets. The geniuses of our modern society who have invented airplanes, the cell phone, iPhone, etc., possessed a small portion of the full potential of imagination. So while these inventions and gifts to humanity have revolutionized everything, people don't like to look in themselves for the source of that very same potentiality. Things exist first in the world of the mind. We imagine things first and then later, we create, we manifest, we embody, we perform, we do. Imagination is the natural function of an awakened consciousness. In a superficial sense, we use imagination all the time. We forgot where we put our keys. We suddenly remember or recall with an image in the mind where in our home we left them. We forgot where we parked; we visualize the streets we were at, the places we visited. Or in travel, we imagine where we are headed, our destination, our goals. So imagination is the capacity to see images in the mind. It is the ability to receive internal imagery, and while people like to think of imagination as the originator of fantasies, illusions, dreams, the truth is that imagination is a profound faculty of consciousness. It allows us to exist, to interact, to have life. If we could not imagine, we could not do, because it is the capacity to see imagery, which is more than just physical sensations, perceptions to the eyes, our vision. There is an entire world open to the meditator if we learn to access through that same faculty called imagination, but in an intentional, controlled, intentional way. Imagination and Serenity: The Keys to Meditation
Imagination along with concentration are the keys to meditation. Serenity must be combined with imagination to visualize, to see. This opens the doorway to wisdom, experience, self-knowledge. It is “clear seeing” [French: clairvoyance] within the mind, within the consciousness. This is how we access our inner God, which in our studies we did nominate “Being,” a quality of consciousness, a defined state, a presence embodying qualities like compassion, serenity, wisdom, understanding.
So in this course, we have been using an image of a man walking into a head filled with stars, with the heavens, with the divine, the cosmos, the universal soul, which the Gnostics denominate Christ, the Christic consciousness: a superlative awakened state of omniscience, of knowing the universe, and the divine—the gods, the angels, the buddhas, whatever name we like to give to those perfected human beings.
It is precisely through visualization within ourselves that we enter the mysteries, that we verify the truth contained within any religious, mystical, contemplative, or meditative tradition. But unfortunately, the faculty of imagination is atrophied, especially in the West. We do not use our consciousness well—in fact, very little, or nothing at all. This is the result of ignorance of methods that can train and develop that perception with clarity, with depth. Modern science is only beginning to understand and explore the possibilities of imagination. For example, as recently as the past two decades, scientists believe, materialistic science believes that the highest capacity for retaining a mental image, a visualized image in the brain, in the minimum, is about 20 to 25 seconds. However, with studies of advanced Buddhism, meditation, visualization, and yoga, in the spiritual sense, are validating what the great masters of meditation have verified for millennia. So to emphasize that we can develop our imagination, I like to relate to you an excerpt from a book called Supernormal by Dean Radin. He is a doctor of the Institute of Noetic Studies. He performs and relates research on the paranormal, on faculties like clairvoyance, clear vision, which is another term for imagination of which we will elaborate. The following is from Chapter Two, pages 30-31. This is in relation to the Buddhist teaching of deity yoga, of which he explains: "Certain meditative practices of Buddhist monks involve creating and maintaining sequences of exceptionally detailed visual imagery. Advanced meditators report that these vivid images can be held from minutes to hours, and indeed the practice requires this because the images are so complex. Neuroscientist regarded such a claim to be absurd. Their understanding of the brain convinced them that it was virtually impossible to hold mental imagery from more than a few seconds. “It took the Dalai Lama to go to the neuroscientists into conducting a test to see who was right—the meditators or the scientists. Maria Kozhevnikov of George Mason University and her colleagues took up the challenge by testing experienced monks at Sechen Monastery in Kathmandu. She used two standard tests of visual memory, one involving rotation of mental images and the other holding complex images in memory. “The monks used two types of meditation. Deity yoga involves generating and holding a three-dimensional color image of a deity surrounded by his or her divine entourage. The other type of meditation is called Open Presence, in which attention is broadly distributed without focusing on any experiences, images, or thoughts that may arise. The claim tested about Deity Yoga was the assertion that highly complex images could be mentally maintained for minutes to hours. Kozhevnikov also tested non-meditators and meditators who did not engage in their practice prior to the test. “The results showed that all the groups performed at the same level before meditation, but after meditation the Deity Yoga practitioners, according to Kozhevnikov, ‘demonstrated a dramatic increase in performance on imagery task compared with the other groups. Therefore, [Deity Yoga] specifically trains one's capacity to access heightened visuospatial memory resources via meditation, rather than generally improving long-lasting imagery abilities’ (pg. 645). “That sounds like an unassuming success until we read the rest of the article in which Kozhevnikov reports that ‘we are not certain how long this state of access to heightened visual spatial resources might last... During the informal interviews, some of the practitioners reported that the powerful state of identification with the deity can be sustained for several hours or more. Whereas others reported that the effect lasted for only approximately 20 to 25 [minutes]’ (p. 645). "To emphasize, she reported minutes to hours, as compared to seconds, which is what neuroscientists had previously believed was the limit. In addition, the description of a ‘dramatic increase’ in visual memory does not adequately highlight just how much the monks imagery ability shifted from before to after meditation. For the Open Presence and control participants, there is no statistical difference to the ability to hold imagery, but for the Deity Yoga participants, the difference was associated with odds against chance ranging from a million to a billion to one." —Dean Radin, Supernormal, Chapter Two, pgs. 30-31 So the odds are very rare that the results in this study would not be directly correlated, to not result from this type of Buddhist meditation. As the Dalai Lama taught, “Consciousness has the capacity to” expand to an infinite, “to increase to an infinite degree.” This is important to remember because we work in our studies of Gnosis with imagination, so that we can fully perfect the consciousness. So that what was found impossible by modern science, is a fact for the Gnostics. It is what we verify through our own experience. 
Imagining is Seeing
As Samael Aun Weor wrote:
“For the wise, to imagine is to see." —Samael Aun Weor, Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology Imagination is perception. It is witnessing. It is perceiving imagery of a material or energetic or even psychic type. It is important to reflect: How do we see? How do we perceive? Our psychology tends to be very active, or better said, hyperactive. Our mind, as we study in meditation, must become passive, serene. Receptivity is the natural state of the mind. Our mind is usually overwhelmed, churning with activity. The mind is a lake. If it is disturbed with negative egotistical states, then the images of heaven cannot reflect on its surface. When the mind is serene, the stars of the night can shine with clarity, with translucence, and resplendence upon the surface of the waters. Therefore, how do we see? Is the water of our mind disturbed? Is it a whirlpool of negative emotion, of anger, of fear, of pride, of lust? Because, if our mind is agitated, identified with affliction, then we cannot see anything inside. We become conditioned by the ego, by the self, by the “I.” But if the lake is calm, if our mind is still, if we have obtained serenity within our consciousness, within our mental states, as we sit to meditate, as we introspect, we can begin to perceive images of a superior type, of a very distinct and different quality than the mind's projections of fear, anger, resentment, pride, etc. There is positive imagination and there is negative imagination. Positive imagination is clear. It is liberated perception. It is when the mind is perfectly still, so that the images of heaven, our own inner divinity, can reflect inside in our meditations and through our exercises of astral projection, dream yoga. Yet when it is agitated by negative states, our perception is negative. Our imagination is conditioned. It is illusory. We don't see what is real. A person who is angry cannot reason, cannot see the truth. Whether he or she has suffered some type of setback in life: the desperate, the morbid, the pessimistic, the violent only see according to the logic of their ego. Therefore, their waters are churning with great tides, a tsunami in a storm. Real imagination is when we have perfect stillness, silence, and purity, which is why Jesus of Nazareth stated in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 22 to 23. "The eye is the illumination of the σῶμά soma." —Matthew 6:22 So we are going to relate some Greek terms regarding these verses. Soma means “body.” That is a traditional translation. But even deeper, Soma can mean soul, or self. “The eye is the illumination of the self, the soul.” "If thine eye be singular thy whole self (σῶμά soma) will be full of light." —Matthew 6:22 This verse is often confusing for people who don't study the esoteric meaning of the language, the original languages of the Bible. In Greek, the word for single or singular is ἁπλοῦς aplous. It means “clear, simple, uncomplicated, pure.” "If thine eye be singular (if it is clear, if your vision is simple, uncomplicated, pristine) thy whole self will be full of light." —Matthew 6:22 Your imagination, your perception, will reflect the Being, its perfection, His majesty. "It if thine eye be impure (πονηρός ponerros), thy whole self shall be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” —Matthew 6:23 If our imagination is polluted with negative emotion, with ego, we are living in the dark. We see but we do not see. And this is the meaning of the Christian parable, "Seeing they shall not see and hearing they shall not hear," because they are blind by their own defects. Also, relating to the last lecture—if that light in thee is darkness how great is that darkness?—this is εἰκασία eikasia. In relation to the four states of consciousness that we explained, eikasia means “imagination.” It is a type of perception that ignores itself—profound states of barbarism, ignorance, violence, animal behavior, degeneration. Because in those states, people are active in their bodies, such as in crowds or a lynching, a riot. That mob mentality, that perverse energy, pushes unconscious people to commit crimes. Eikasia is a form of seeing, but in the dark, just like in the Allegory of the Cave of Plato. The people in the cave were in the darkness or seeing the shadows of the images behind them as we explained in the former lecture. So in our studies we wish to go beyond that. To awaken to διάνοια dianoia, which also means “imagination,” but it is positive, conscious, objective, to see the reality of our inner and outer universe with clarity. Delusional Perception
So eikasia and πίστης pistis, especially, relate to the illusions, fantasies, or dreams of the mind. Pistis means “belief,” but also refers to the dreams and projections of our own ego. These are conditioned states of being. These are illusions, fantasies, dreams.
Most of humanity is already aware and familiar with negative imagination, which is conditioned perception, fantasy, desire. “I desire something, I see the image in my mind, I want it, I crave it, and I do whatever I can to get it, even at the cost of another person's life.” This is the logic of the ego, of desire. So the ego is the source of activity in the mind. It churns the waters of the mind and it is craving its desires for impressions, sensations, experiences. And a simple example, we are hungry. We crave a burger. We are under quarantine. We see the object of our desire in our mind. We fortify that craving with fantasy. We visualize how we are going to get that item, where we are going to buy it from, the phone call for takeout or delivery, the drive and the route we will take, if necessary. Likewise, we fantasize and use imagination in the wrong way with anger. Somebody insults us and we stew in a swamp of resentment, negative emotion. We imagine how we will get our revenge. All these fantasies and desires, their conditions, they trap consciousness. They filter our ability to perceive clearly. Desire wastes energy. It depletes us of vitality, of power. The mind projects its desires onto the physical world. This is a form of dreams. People think that dreams only exist when the physical body goes to sleep. We rest for eight hours and perhaps right before we wake, we have some quaint visions, dreams or remnants of memory, of some type of internal experience, and then we awake. As we clarified in our last lecture, waking consciousness is a state of self-observation and self-remembrance in which we are active within the consciousness. We are perceiving our three brains, our five centers, with a sense of separation and investigation. Dreams are the desires of the ego that are projected, even in the physical world. The only difference between sleeping life and waking life for most people, is the fact that when we are physically asleep, we can do whatever we want in our dreams. We fulfill our unconscious desires. Whereas in the physical world, there are greater consequences to one's projections, one's actions, which is why dreams are dangerous. So, why do we talk about dreams in relation to imagination? It is because the faculty of seeing, whether condition or the liberated, is represented in the direct quality of our sleeping life. When the body is asleep, what do we perceive? Do eight hours go by and we see nothing? Or do we see some fragments of memories, of dreams? Or are we awake in the dream state? Are we conscious in that dimension? That is the question. That is a barometer of how awake we are and of the quality of our perceptions, even in daily life. The Dreams and Illusions of the Ego
So while the examples I gave before might be a little silly, this principle explains the chronic condition of our daily life and how we see ourselves. If we wish to awaken in dreams, in the dream state, we first awaken in the physical plane, because we are not awake. We are asleep. And unfortunately, we also dream, even while physically active.
We believe we are such and such a person, with the qualities of kindness, compassion, intelligence, respect, serenity, diligence: whatever virtues we like to enthrone upon the altar of our self-worship. We like to think the best of ourselves. Yet when a crisis appears, like what is going on now, with the coronavirus, we are forced into unpleasant or difficult circumstances where our true character emerges. So different egos appear in relation to the impressions of life. So perhaps during the lockdown, we go to the grocery store, we look for the last roll of toilet paper and a person is also reaching for the same item. This person, an aggressor, feels justified and even slanders us to our face, saying vulgar, hurtful words. If we are vigilant and awake, self-observing ourselves, we can see an entire series of reactions inside in relation to our three brains, and how the impressions of the insulter affect our mind. We have to understand that relationship moment by moment. Because, our reactions show us the quality of our mind. That is really who we are. We like to think the best of ourselves, but the reality is that we have not perceived the entirety of what we are, because much of us is subconscious, unconscious, and even infra-conscious, belonging to very degenerated and low aspects of the psyche. Different egos in that incident will emerge. They all have their own thoughts, feelings, and impulses. Perhaps when that person insults us at the grocery store, we see hurt self-esteem with its logic: “I am always getting picked on in every situation.” Or followed by pride: “I didn't do anything wrong. This person is crazy!” And lastly the anger: “I really don't deserve this treatment. Why are people obsessing over stupid things?” So, if we are observing ourselves, we can see three egos in action. We have to observe the process. We have to see it. We have to be separate from the mind looking into the three brains. 
As we see in this graphic, as we have on this slide, we have to perceive the delusions that our mind projects. So all those thoughts, desires, impulses, feelings, and that incident, are illusory. They are fantasies. They are dreams. Those projections tried to go out from us to interact to the aggressor: to respond, to retaliate.
But those types of seeing, thinking, feeling, and behaving are negative. They are conditions. They are based off the words of the insulter, which we take with such severity and magnitude. But really, where is that self? Where does it come from? What does it depend on? How does the mind feed on those impressions? How does that pride, that self-esteem, and that anger work? This is not a hypothetical evaluation. It is what we perceive, because real seeing and imagination, is self-observation. We are looking into the mind: to not judge, to not run away, to not push a way, to not label, but simply to look. This is clear vision. This is what concerns us most when we study meditation, because we have to discover how these egos function, so that we can eliminate them and free the consciousness trapped in those desires so that we no longer dream. When that light is free, we naturally have spontaneous, intuitive astral projections, jinn experiences, etc. But if we don't observe this reaction in ourselves, we are going to mistake each thought, feeling, and emotion, each action, each reaction, as being attributed to a single self. But as we have explained, we are not a single self. We are multiplicity. We have to see this. Not as in a theory, but in action. 
Structural and Transactional Analysis
Samael Aun Weor mentions this process in The Revolution of the Dialectic, of seeing our inner contradictions and all the exchanges and transactions in the mind. He calls it transactional and structural analysis.
So, he talks about banking. Banks make transactions and exchanges, different types of businesses. And structures have to do with how businesses are formed or how the banking system works. He uses this analogy to talk about the ego. There are many transactions that occur in a single moment. First, in that example, self-esteem, followed by pride, followed by anger—these egos are connected. They relate to each other. It is rare to find an ego that works “solo.” And structural analysis has to do with the structures of how those egos manifest, how they function. What are their thoughts, feelings, and impulses? And how do they relate to each other? How do they trans-act or react to each other, and to the moment? So, we like to believe we are saints, but observe yourself. This is the most profound doorway and entrance to real perception in meditation. It is imagination. It is clear seeing. We observe ourselves. We look into our thoughts, feelings, and will with the consciousness. If we don't watch ourselves in those critical moments, to see those psychological interactions, we are identified. Our identity is in that self. We invest those egos with our energy and therefore we strengthen the cage that traps us, and so we suffer. Fantasy and Self-Deception
We believe we are holy. The person who is demanding we hand over the last roll of toilet paper thinks they are very saintly, but of course from external views and eyes, it is stupid. This allegory applies not only to absurd people like that, but to ourselves. We live in a fantasy world. We live thinking we are a certain way, but we are not. So our desires project their ideas onto the external world. We interpret everything relating to the mind: “What I want, what I crave, what I desire.” We don't see reality. We live in absurdity. We project our fear onto the world.
Look at the global pandemic, the kind of things people do because they are afraid. People who are more rational obviously see the stupidity in those behaviors, but fear is a compelling force. It is an illusion. It manipulates humanity and keeps humanity asleep. So, while people are living in a lot of suffering now, the reality is that we should not judge anyone. We project our ideas unto people but also on to ourselves. We have a self-image that we like to uphold of who we are, and when people contradict that, we get angry. But when we do that to other people, they become angry too. Therefore, this is why Jesus said, "Judge not that you be not judged," because as a very illuminated clairvoyant, as a visionary, as a prophet, he understood this law very simply and profoundly. People who are very awake don't judge others. They see the causes of suffering in others and they respect their freedom. But given our level of being, we tend to be very identified with pride, projecting our ideologies and beliefs about who we are unto others. We only see through the lens of our political party, our religion, our group. And this is the problem of humanity. This is why people suffer. People follow the Illusions and fantasies of fear that “If I don't go to the store to get all these items from the cleaning aisle or whatever, I am going to be in a lot of suffering.” And fear is completely hypnotizing humanity in this instance, which is why Samael Aun Weor wrote in Treaties of Revolutionary Psychology: “Fantasy, besides placing us in ridiculous situations, stops all possibility of internal development... Fantasy is a real force which acts universally upon mankind. It keeps the intellectual humanoid in a state of sleep (hypnotic state), causing him to believe that he is already a Human Being, that he possesses true individuality, a will, awakened consciousness and a mind of his own, etc.” —Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology As we have mentioned many times, we are not human beings. Human beings have integration. They have a singularity of purpose and will. We on the other hand are fractured. 
So imagine a mirror that is whole. It reflects images perfectly from floor to ceiling. When that mirror is shattered through violence, its fragments reflect millions of different images, which is a perfect allegory of our psychological state. A perfected mirror is a perfect human being. It sees and reflects imagery internally and externally, with perfection. But in us, because we are fragmented with different egos and selves, we have multiple images in the mind, because the ego takes on forms in the astral and mental planes.
This is why in the term εἰκασία eikasia, in Greek, meaning “imagination,” comes from εικόνων eikonon: “images,” which is where you get false images, idols—the origin of idolatry—not to worship statues and different religions, but to really worship our ego and its multiplicity. Therefore, we need to study deeply both positive and negative imagination. Differences Between Liberated and Conditioned Imagination
So the main distinction is that positive imagination is received. It is imagery that we understand with wisdom. It arrives within the calm, serene consciousness, a mind that is in perfect equanimity.
Negative imagination is a projection of the ego, the mind. Positive imagination is voluntary. We will it. We control it. But negative imagination is mechanical. It happens to us against our conscious will. So we have already explained what insight is in other lectures: it means to understand what we see, to comprehend the truth. And in order to comprehend the truth, we have to see it first. This is the primary distinction of the Gnostic tradition against other religions and traditions. It is that we seek to know the truth through experience, through verifying, with facts. Definitions of Positive and Negative Imagination
So fantasy we explained. it is a projected desire. We have a lot of different terms and definitions, or qualities associated with both positive and negative imagination, which we are going to relate.
Positive imagination in Buddhism is known as the Vipashyana, “special insight.” It means to visualize the object of meditation. So, we voluntarily concentrate on one object, we see it with clarity, with color, with depth. The opposite of this can be spacing out, daydreaming. Daydreaming is when we have a multiplicity of projected desires or images, memories. We wander through these thoughts through mechanical associations in the mind. So Vipashyana is also clairvoyance. Clairvoyance is a French term, created by a group of esotericists who wanted to protect their studies. Therefore, they created a technical term for a faculty that everybody already has, but in an undeveloped state. Clairvoyance, Vipashyana means to see clearly with the imagination. It is the opposite of spacing out, daydreaming. When the consciousness and imagination is liberated, it is the same capacity to experience dreams, but in a conscious way—to see within the astral plane with depth, with penetration, with amplitude, with greater frequency, with greater focus and expansiveness. It means to see in that world, the people, the cities, the environment, oneself, but without subjectivity, without interacting with our own unconscious dreams, which, most of humanity is already aware of. People know about dreams. They may have fragmentary remembrances of talking to a purple monkey on the side of the street, about whatever. This type of dreaming has nothing to do with awakened perception. It is the state of the ego, of absurdity, of delusion. So even while we are physically awake, we continue to dream. We project our dreams onto the external world, but within the astral dimension, we no longer have the body to veil us. So therefore, we are more directly connected and related to our dreams. We can see them with greater clarity if we work on ourselves, so that we can transform them. So visions: they are conscious experiences. These are the astral projections and awakened states that everybody longs for in our studies, to talk with divinity, the Being, with masters, to receive help. The opposite is hallucinations, like those produced from drugs, which are conditions of mind. Marijuana, LSD, psychedelics, ayahuasca, mushrooms, and many other forms of substances condition the mind. They filter our perception so that we see, but this is not objective. This is within hell, the hell realms as we are going to explain. Nightmares also fall into this category. So, these are psychic experiences within our own inner hell realms, which if we are chased by monsters, or are being chased by a murderer with an axe, those are usually projections of our own infra-conscious nature, our own egos, which have reality and existence within the most profound depths of our consciousness, within the ego. Translucence is the clarity of seeing without conditions, to not be obscured, to not be obstructed. There is no “I,” ego, present if we are really developing our imagination. There is no ego or “I” to intervene, or interpret what we see. So hypnosis is like the opposite of translucence. Hypnosis is a sleepy state. Hypnosis has become very popular today. Some people even use hypnosis as a type of therapy. But sadly, it is the sleep of the consciousness [from the Greek Ὕπνος Hypnos, the god of sleep]. Those methods put the patient or the practitioner under the control of the doctor, which is mind control. Controlling the minds of others is negative 100 percent. We don't advocate that in our teachings. Hypnosis is the opposite of gnosis, to experience, to awaken, because we don't want to sleep. We want to know and verify and investigate the source of our own egos, defects, traumas. Therefore, one does not need hypnosis to enter those states if one is a practical meditator. The Basis of Insight: Kabbalah, Perception, and Ethics
So while we might experience internal imagery, inner perceptions, the danger becomes if we interpret through our ego, which is why we study the Tree of Life, the Kabbalah.
Meditation and intuition are necessary. When we want to interpret what we see, it is not enough to develop imagination. We have to become cultured, studious, ethical disciples. Samael Aun Weor mentions, we need ethical, intellectual, spiritual culture. But why is that? He wrote a book about this principle in Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology. He relates how the sources of crime are due to negative clairvoyance, negative imagination. All crimes are the result of infernal, unconscious, subconscious, infra-conscious perceptions. And the danger of the esoteric student, the meditator, is that when developing imagination, they don't question what they see. They might see things that horrify their conscience. Perhaps they see an image of their wife or husband committing adultery, and therefore, that person goes out of their way to slander their spouse based off a vision that they misinterpreted. There are many cases like this in the Gnostic movement, in many spiritual groups, and it is very sad. This is why we emphasize the study of the Tree of Life, the study of Kabbalah, the study of ethical conduct, the scriptures, the lives of the prophets, because they knew that seeing is not enough. One has to be able to interpret what one perceives. 
The Tree of Life is a map of our consciousness, from positive states to negative—from the heavens, to our body, to the hells. Heavens are liberated perception and hells are negative conditioned perceptions.
Every experience could be mapped by the Tree of Life. And so we have to investigate what we see. It is not enough to have a vision. We have to meditate on what we perceive and to really discriminate and question, “Where is it coming from?” Is it from heaven, or perhaps we are mistaken? Perhaps it is from our own hell realms? And so people, and like in the case I mentioned, are seeing diabolic projections of their mind, or perhaps they are seeing the ego of their partner from a past life. But because they don't recognize that their partner is never capable of acting on that fault, because they are working on themselves, one can make a mistake, a judgment. "Judge not that ye be not judged. For what measure ye meet, you shall be measured” [Matthew 7:1-2] by that same quality, that same measurement. Ethical conduct teaches us how to behave in life, regardless of what negative perceptions we perceive in ourselves or others. The important thing is to know where our experiences come from, to discriminate with meditation. So, if you have an experience, I highly suggest that you take a lot of time to meditate on what you receive. Don't jump to conclusions that you are necessarily receiving a vision from God. It could be, but if those experiences are contrary to your own judgement, your own moral compass, your own ethics of doing compassionate deeds, then you have to consider or reconsider what you saw. This is why Samael Aun Weor repeatedly stated, "That for every step you take in the acquisition of powers (of clairvoyance), you must take a thousand steps in sanctity." So if you have inner experiences that are related to other people, but are negative, I recommend maintaining silence. Wait. Wait to see, and watch if what you experience really reflects the facts of daily life—if it's real—and be patient. Understanding unfolds through successive meditations. 
Subconscious Imagination
So, in order to not be confused by our inner perceptions and to really have a sense of discrimination, we study the five types of clairvoyance.
First, we are going to examine the negative types. The subconsciousness is related with our memories, with our past experiences, with mental formations within the personality, which we have explained. The subconsciousness is like a cave. It is beneath the surface of our perception and our understanding. Often in life, we behave mechanically without understanding the origin of our actions. Perhaps in the past we were bit by a dog. And therefore, any time we come across a dog, we become afraid. We have the memory, the past experience, the mental formation of fear in our personality. We see that dog and then we instantaneously react. We see through fear, the logic that claims, “This animal is going to hurt me. I am in danger!” This is all subconscious. Subconsciousness is deeply related with racism. People's past experience or memories, not only from this life but from past lives, can relate to a lot of conflict on a social level—people’s assumed thoughts and projections of what people of different races or cultures are like. This is all very subconscious. People usually don't even question if that is an element that is truly ingrained in the personality. These are not the only examples. There are many, but usually when it is subconscious, it is beneath the surface. We don't usually see unless we really introspect and question ourselves. 
Unconscious Imagination
Unconsciousness is formed by unsatisfied frustrated desires. Unconscious perception, Samael Aun Weor states, is the origin of murder. It is the origin of crime. There are desires within our hidden depths that long for violence.
So, the anger we may feel at a boss for a particular action they took against us, or response to our own performance, can provoke deeper unconscious, frustrated desires. Perhaps we desired a promotion, but because it was not fulfilled, we are frustrated. We are angry. In a very deep unconscious layer of our psyche, that anger could be a form of murder. In the internal planes, that element can be committing violence against one's boss. So physically we may feel that anger. But then at night, when we physically go to sleep, we dream about killing that person. This is unconscious imagination, unconscious clairvoyance. We don't even assume that it exists, but it does. It is totally beneath and even deeper than subconsciousness. So whenever our desires that are not fulfilled ferment and spillover, we can point towards the unconsciousness. Deep desires are very difficult to see unless we meditate and go into the astral plane to investigate, because all of us, without exception, have these egos. We just haven't perceived them directly yet. It is rare to find a person without these types of desires for violence, for murder, for crime. This is why it is unconscious. We don't know it. We like to assume that we are holy. But any dream like the example I related to you is an example of that, proves that. 
Infraconscious Imagination
Lastly, we have infraconsciousness. These are the most hidden animal desires, our most perverse identities ourselves, traumas: the negative qualities of the lowest psyche. So as I said, nightmares are a form of infraconsciousness. This is perception within the most dense regions of our own psyche—within the lowest spheres of the astral plane, the hell realms, where we see beasts and creatures, monsters, gigantic creatures, deformed beings, and demons, attack us.
In most cases, these are not actual sorcerers or black magicians, as we state in this tradition, beings outside of us. These tend to be more of our own inner qualities, of yet we are to discover until the moments we have nightmares. We are in the hell realms. We are being chased. We are being murdered. We are being torn apart, tortured, killed. All sorts of horrible experiences within dreams: these are infraconscious. They are nightmares. They are diabolic and they have existence. When people wake up from sleep, they like to think that, “Oh, it was just a dream!” But the reality is that dreams have a type of reality. They are projections of ourselves. They are extensions of who we are, and therefore, they exist in other dimensions inside. In a sense, they are not real, but they have a type of existence in us. What do we mean that the ego is not real? It is because that type of identification of self doesn't know or reflect the real potential of consciousness. It doesn't reflect the heavenly realms. 
Conscious Imagination
We need to study consciousness. The positive form of consciousness or conscious imagination is precisely this. We learn to see things as they are in whatever dimension, not necessarily the heavenly realms, but even in hell. Consciousness or conscious imagination is the ability to perceive reality and whatever particular sphere of existence we are on the Tree of Life.
Conscious imagination means that even if we go into the hell realms, we are in a state of serenity, of watchfulness, of observation, of remembrance of the presence of our inner Being, so that we can investigate and gain knowledge. This is like the mirror that is first polished. So the broken mirror is a subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, and the infraconsciousness. But a conscious soul or perceptive being, is one who is polishing the mirror, who is bringing the pieces together, those fragments together, to reform that perfected image. So that it is singular [ἁπλοῦς aplous], so that [“If thine eye be singular, uncomplicated, pure”] it has greater depth, clarity, penetration, amplitude, perception. Samael Aun Weor mentions: "Only those who have achieved awakening in the superior worlds possess conscious clairvoyance." —Samael Aun Weor, Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology So we have to awaken in the dream state, to see the reality of our emotions and our mind. This is when we know we are really developing our consciousness. In meditation, we reach the drowsy state, allow our body to rest, but consciously, we are very active. The mind becomes receptive. We calm the mind. We become active as a soul, as a consciousness—concentrating on an object of visualization or imagination, so that we can extract information from it, of which we are going to explain. 
Supraconscious Imagination
This type of meditative practice is well known in Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, especially from Tibet, and within the Gnostic tradition. But conscious clairvoyance or imagination is not the end. There is supraconsciousness.
This is the perception of reality, its causes, and its relations within multiple dimensions. So the consciousness can awaken within the astral plane, the mental plane, or even in the hell realms, in order to investigate and gain knowledge of itself. But supraconsciousness is when we perceive multiple dimensions or the highest aspect of the Tree of Life related to Kether, Chokmah, and Binah: Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence—the three forces of Christianity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, which are intelligences, energies, principles—not people, but archetypes, qualities of Being, of divinity, which are very high. This is supraconsciousness. Even entering the Absolute, which is above the Tree of Life, is a supraconscious state. Supraconsciousness sees from the eyes of God, from the Being, not from oneself, but from the universal consciousness of Christ. We also experience supraconscious states within Chesed, the Spirit and Geburah, the divine soul. The top five spheres of the Tree of Life are supraconscious. They are divine. Below that, we have the possibility to see through the filters of our ego. We can say that Tiphereth, the human soul, the world of Nirvana, is an objective state, but the potential for mistakes originates from our will, which can follow Netzach (the mind), Hod (the emotions), Yesod (our energies), Malkuth (our physical body), and the inverted tree, the hell realms. Our will must follow divinity. Our inner Tiphereth, the beauty of our soul, is a serene, concentrated state. In order to really reflect the higher five sephiroth, the spheres, the emanations of God, Tiphereth, the human soul must be serene. Willpower, concentration, is a serene state. It is a calm state. We like to think of willpower in our modern society as if going to the gym to do a lot of exercise, to exert a lot of force and tension, but real serenity is true power. It is a state of perfect concentration, as mentioned within the nine stages of meditative concentration within Tibetan Buddhism, which you can explore on the course Meditation Essentials [from Glorian.org] but also the lecture Calm Abiding: The Stages of Serenity [within chicagognosis.org under the Gnostic Meditation Course]. We need a serene mind to reflect heaven within. To get there on the Tree of Life, to reach a supraconscious state, we first calm Malkuth, the body, our physicality. We work with energy, Yesod, the vital forces. We circulate them throughout our body, throughout our internal vehicles, through pranayama, runes, meditation, mantras, alchemy, sacred rites of rejuvenation, many exercises for energy in our tradition. We then calm the heart, our emotions, Hod, the astral body, the astral vehicle, which we operate within the dream state, but unconsciously. We also calm the mind, the intellect, with its thoughts and surging concepts, memories, daydreams, etc. When we really perfect that state, we reach Tiphereth in ourselves, in our meditation. It is serene concentration, because when you are really focused and attentive on the object of your meditation, if it is really perfected, we don't think of anything. We don't wander, but it also takes no effort. In the beginning it takes a lot of will to control the body so that it stops moving in our meditation, to work to control energy consciously. Likewise, to control our emotions and negative states are not easy, but necessary, if we wish to reach supraconsciousness. And then silencing the mind, withdrawing the mind from the senses and introspecting within, it takes less effort the more you ascend within yourself. When Tiphereth, the soul, our will, is fully balanced, it is a state of equanimity. Real will takes no effort, paradoxically speaking. It takes familiarity and experience, to use Zen language. Intuition and Awakening
“When the door of fantasy are closed, the organ of intuition awakens.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic
So we must no longer project our dreams. We must awaken to receive internal imagery. And not must we perceive internal perceptions, but we must understand them. This is the faculty of intuition—to understand, to comprehend the significance of what perception enters us, whether physically or internally. So, imagination practice is founded upon some degree of serenity, which we have explained. Without serenity, we cannot concentrate and focus on our particular imagination or visualization exercise. So we state that once you have developed a serene mind through your work of self-observation, it is good to work with imagination exercises. And Jesus stated that our eye of imagination must be singular. Meaning concentrated. To focus on one thing so that it becomes pure. "If thine eye be singular (ἁπλοῦς aplous clear, simple, uncomplicated, pure) thy whole self will be full of light." —Matthew 6:22 Difficulties with Developing Imagination
So some people really struggle to imagine anything, whether it be a stone, a candle, a picture, a statue. This type of exercise is important, as we stated at the beginning, in order to expand our ability to perceive beyond to the unknown.
Many people lack clarity in their imagination, or the image keeps changing. We have to discriminate in our meditative practice to see whether it is the ego that interferes and warps our perception, or is that experience unfolding into something new. So we can take an example of imagining a cross. It can change or become something deformed or different, etc., and that can be the result of our ego. We have to discriminate and test the quality and the taste of that experience. Part of the work of imagination is knowing the difference between positive and negative, both polarities, both poles. We do that through experience, through following our heart, our intuition, our conscience. Our heart will tell us that there is something more here, or that what we have just experienced is something negative. We can imagine as I said, like a cross. If it changes, becomes malformed, distorted, that could be our own ego trying to infect our practice. But there is also something we have to remember too: it is that real imagination is receptive. We receive the new. So suddenly if we are really in a drowsy state and concentrated in ourselves, the image of the cross can change. Maybe it starts spinning, showing a profound symbolism of energy, tantra, movement. It is a symbol. We see new states, visuals, sounds, scenarios, even smells. We become a witness and a participant in our internal worlds. So we have to really evaluate through our practice, successively, daily: “Is the ego changing my visualization? Is it projecting on to what I want to see? Or am I receiving something new? Is this something novel, receptive, illuminated?” Receptivity does not mean passivity. The consciousness becomes highly active when the mind becomes pacified, silent. To receive superior messages from our Being, we need serenity first, and then we allow the experiences to unfold when we are drowsy. Drowsiness opens the doorway to the dream world, the internal worlds. And as we have stated previously in other lectures and meetings, that it is important to meditate when we are drowsy, because otherwise we can damage our brain. Meditation really unfolds as we enter a relaxed state, not when we are in tension. 
So we conclude with this image from Alice from Wonderland. Remember that she goes down the rabbit hole into the subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, the infraconsciousness. And later, she rises up the stairs of being, to awaken to the light of reality.
Well will now open up the floor to questions. Questions and Answers
Question: Two things. One, can you just fill in the blanks for me? Malkuth, body, physical? Yesod, what was Yesod?
Instructor: It is our energy, our vital force. Question: Then Hod, astral, emotional. And then what went with mental? 
Instructor: Netzach, the mind. Malkuth means “kingdom.” It is our inner, but also physical kingdom, because our body is a great city in which many people live. It is a great land. It is material, earthly, but also contains within it all of the potentiality of our soul.
It has all of our energies, Yesod, which means “Foundation.” It is the foundation of our spiritual life, the secret of סודי Sodi in Hebrew, because סודי Sodi means “secret,” and יסוד Yesod is the sphere related to the secret signs of Da'ath, which is the work of alchemy, of a marriage. Hod means “Glory.” It is the glory of the heart temple that is perfected with meditation, and by working with the vital forces Yesod, but also Christ above, Chokmah. And lastly, we have Netzach, the mind which means “Victory,” and if we conquer our mind, our distracted mind, we become victorious ones: buddhas. This is how we work with our willpower, Tiphereth, the human soul. Question: And these four are the four bodies of sin. Is that correct? Instructor: Yes, within Kabbalah. These are the bodies, or the vehicles by which our ego manifests. It is how we sin, how we make mistakes, whether through our mind, our emotions, our sexual behavior, and our physical body. This is how our desires manifest or they express. Above that, Tiphereth can either go up or down, depending. "Father if it be possible,” said Jesus, “Take this cup of bitterness from me, but not my will but Thine be done" (Luke 22:42). So our will can follow and empower our ego, because we have freedom to choose how we want to live, or, we can follow the inner inclinations and guidance of our Spirit (Chesed), and our divine soul (Geburah). Chesed means “Mercy,” the mercy of God, and Geburah means “Justice,” the balance of the law, the divine soul. So our consciousness is the law. How we judge ourselves, our intuitions, come from the divine soul. What we know is right and what we know is wrong is deep in our heart—that is Geburah. So we have to follow those inclinations in our meditations if we want to be successful. Question: Then the other thing had to do with Tiphereth and will. And I am going to say just a couple things, but they are all one question really. Will you speak on willpower more and the relationship between imagination and willpower as with types of imagination? Are there more than one type of willpower? Is Thelema a specific type? I think you were just speaking on that a little bit. Instructor: Great question. There are primarily two types of will: conditioned or unconditioned; liberated or imprisoned; conscious or unconscious will, egotistical will. So there is free consciousness, which is the essence, which we explained in this course in relation to “Discover Your True Self”—the essence, the ego, and the personality. The essence is the essence of who we are. The consciousness that has the potential to become fully perfected. But in order to do that, we have to conquer the conditioned, egotistical wills, in our psyche. Each ego has its own will, but in synthesis we say there are really two forms of will. Free and liberated, or imprisoned and encaged. So we have to learn to distinguish the difference, which we do through self-observation, self-remembering, transformation of impressions—learning to transform what we perceive. The relationship between concentration and imagination is that it is impossible to imagine anything with objectivity if our mind is distracted by a multiplicity of wills. So the problem when a person begins meditation is that their mind is all over the place. We have a multitude of competing wills, desires that want to do this or that: to ride a bicycle, to scratch an itch, to eat something, to get some water—anything but the meditation. The beginning of meditation is first controlling the body with our will. Not to move, so that as we still our body, the waters of our mind can become calm too. We have to suspend our senses, calm our energies, relax through pranayama, mantras, circulate force with our concentration, our will, so that that energy helps our body to be still, helps our emotions to calm, helps our mind to be silent. 
When you have used your concentration well, with serenity, you start to clarify your perception with greater depth, because a mind that is agitated cannot reflect anything. The beginning of meditation within Buddhism, they teach you how to be serene of mind: nine stages of meditative concentration.
Learn to understand where you are on the path of concentration. Are you forgetting what you are doing in your practice? Or do you remember every moment? This is an important distinction to make. And as you are ascending that glyph, which is a man or monk chasing after an elephant, the elephant eventually becomes really calm and docile, where the monk is leading the elephant instead of the elephant leading the monk. That is a symbol of how the meditator controls the mind with the hook of vigilance and the rope of mindfulness, so that the mind is perfectly still. 
If you are familiar with Tibetan Buddhist murals, eventually the elephant falls asleep after following the monk, and therefore, the monk is flying above in the sky and even rides the elephant over a rainbow bridge. So in that map, which we have talked about in other courses, because he has a obtained serenity of will and concentration, the mind can now reflect with greater clarity and perfection the heavenly realms.
Remember that if your mind is fractured into multiple wills, is distracted like a shattered mirror with multiple fragments and pieces, it is impossible to reflect a single object with clarity. It becomes malformed. But when you unite all those fragments together through concentration exercises, and you fuse them with your work with energy, such as alchemy or pranayama, to a lesser degree, that energy heals the mind, regenerates it, empowers the consciousness to work. 
And again, if you look at that type of image, you notice that there is a fire blazing from the bottom of the path and extends upward in different segments of the glyph. It takes a lot of fire and energy and intensity in the beginning to control the mind. This is why pranayama is essential when we begin to meditate. And when that energy calms the mind, it takes less effort. But if you fuse the mirror back together by developing your concentration, you can reflect with greater precision, and that is the faculty of imagination.
Question: I was wondering, you were just talking about the map with the elephant and monkey, and I was wondering, I know it will be kind of hard to pinpoint it. It depends on the individual maybe, but where about do people in general start experiencing more of those, you know, conscious clairvoyance, and do you have to go all the way to the end there in that map before you can actually... It seems like a such a long road! Instructor: Great question. Now, in the middle stages of concentration, that is really where we can begin working effectively on our own ego. Where we develop enough clarity in our perception that we can start to see things with more objectivity. Obviously the higher you go, the more clear things will be. Your imagination will be much stronger, but it is not fundamental that you have to reach the top of this glyph in order to be able to experience states of imagination in an objective way. You can reach the fourth and fifth degrees of shamatha, which is meditative calm abiding, serenity, concentration, equanimity, in order to begin to develop your clairvoyance, especially. In the beginning it is very difficult because if you can't concentrate at all, then what you try to imagine will not be withheld within the memory or the consciousness very long. And this is the state of most people, which is why we quoted from the book Supernormal by Dean Radin who explained how scientists literally believe that the most length a person can hold an image in the mind is 25 seconds. You know, they don't understand that there is a greater capacity to create imagery in the mind than what is expected. So, if you are in the fourth or fifth degrees of shamatha in which you don't forget what you are doing in your meditative practice, you can begin to start working effectively with imagination. Because you have enough stability and your concentration that if a distraction does arise, you know to avoid it. Because most people get stuck in their concentration practice by forgetting what they are doing. You know, 20 minutes go by and they suddenly realize, “I am supposed to be meditating!” Or they are trying to visualize an object and then they forget what they are doing or the image morphs and changes, and then the person starts daydreaming, and then we think “Where was I?” It is because we didn't have enough serenity or concentration established. But if you are firm in your serenity and concentration, in the middle degrees, fourth or fifth, you don't forget what you are doing. That becomes a strong platform by which to start to clarify your imagination, especially, if that makes sense. Question: And where is the fourth, fifth degree? 
Instructor: It is in the middle parts of the glyph. If you go on to chicagognosis.org, we have a transcription for Calm Abiding: The Stages of Serenity: the fourth and fifth stages apply to when the monk is in front of the fire and a pair of cymbals I believe. There is a rabbit that appears on top of the elephant. That is the fourth degree. The fifth degree is just above that. So, if you look at the transcription in our gnostic meditation course, you can see how the fourth and fifth degrees are related to the left side of the curve of that path.
Question: So on your website, you have a description of what that means? The rabbit on top of the elephant? You have descriptions of what that means. Instructor: Yes, so for those of you who are looking online, you can see the image here of the monk who is controlling, with the rope of mindfulness, the elephant itself, and is starting to control the mind, where you see half of the elephant is starting to be illuminated by a white color. That refers to the clarity of perception. We are seeing the mind, the elephant, that powerful animal, with clarity. Half of it is white, half of it is gray, because our perception is becoming a little bit more clarified. And the further we take that elephant up the path, our perception and imagination is becoming perfected as well. We start to see with greater depth, as I said. So the third degree of calm abiding is patched placement. It refers to how the monk finally gets a hold of the elephant. It is starting to turn the head of the animal towards him and refers to how, in the same manner that you patch up a cloth to fix holes, you are starting to patch your awareness, your concentration. So we tend to forget the object of our concentration more than we remember it, but we are at least on the way to ascending further, so that we no longer forget what we are doing. In the fourth degree, close placement or good fixation, we don't forget what we are doing in our practice. However, at this stage we have the danger of becoming lazy, represented by the symbol of the rabbit, since while we have some success in concentration, we fail to refine it further. So it is important to reach the fourth and even fifth degrees of concentration so that we are able to see with greater depth, as represented by the mirror levitating above the path of the monk. This mirror reflects how our imagination becomes more sharp at this level. So I invite you to study that lecture. I will send a link out to people regarding that. We go into more depth about it in that lecture, but even better is the Meditation Essentials course, which has a whole series of lectures just on that diagram alone. So in total, to really comprehend that with practical depth, I invite you to study those resources. 
Humanity is unaware of the complete potential of the human being. This is evident when we study religion, mystical traditions, meditation, primarily because we have beings and figures who manifested the greatest ideals of humanity: compassion, selflessness, wisdom, inner strength, patience, and faith. This is a type of knowledge and experience grounded in reality, not merely in belief or a theory, but from actually knowing through experience. This is the essence of Gnosticism, the Greek word γνῶσις gnosis: knowledge from experience, from one's first-hand account and direct perception of the truth.
So there are beings who fully manifested that truth. We call them avatars, prophets, masters, enlightened ones, buddhas, angels, gods. These are all different names, different terms, that point towards one reality―that we have the potential to become like that: perfect, awake, aware of reality, and primarily, the origins of suffering, the origins of pain―why we go through life on repeat, mechanically, identified with all of “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” to quote Hamlet. For this course, we have been explaining and discussing, precisely, the means and the methods to overcome suffering, which of course relates to what we call mechanicity, the mechanics of nature. We spoke previously about the human machine: how our body is a transformer of energy, a transformer of food, air, water, but also vitamins, chemistry, principles, forces. Our human machine, when it is well, when it is balanced, knows how to maintain a state of homeostasis, of equilibrium, of health. When we get sick, when there is a break in the mechanics of that machine, we get ill and we suffer. While this is a very specific example of our human organism, we also state that our thoughts, our feelings, and our will to act, are also mechanical―in most people. It is a machine. We tend to go through our day, repeating the same thoughts, repeating the same emotions, repeating the same actions without really comprehending how our own mind, our own thinking, our own ways of behaving, produce conflict. The origin of suffering is psychological. It is internal. But sadly, many people do not ever question what the origin of suffering is. In most cases, we like to externalize: that yes, perhaps a system, a type of politics or machinery is imposing on us, and that can be true to a degree. But the manner by which we respond to life has greater force, greater impact, than anything. When our human machine, our body, is in balance, we have health. But likewise, the mind and the heart, when they are imbalanced, when they are afflicted with negative emotions, with anger, with resentment, with anxiety, pain, fear, pride, lust, hatred, we become imbalanced beings. We are afflicted, and we go through life indulging in these negative habits, these qualities of mind, these conditions, which make us repetitive, mechanical, machines. But there is a way out of suffering. This is what every religion teaches: how to cease being a machine, a mechanical being, so that those energies which come to us from nature, from our food, from the water we drink, the air we breathe, the impressions we take into our mind, those become transformed with consciousness, with attention, with awareness. In that transformation, we have understanding of life. We don't go through life suffering, repeating the same mistakes, and not knowing the origin of pain. For example, perhaps at work a person insults us. The impression of that comment enters our mind and then there is a transformation that occurs in the moment. Suddenly, we have a surge of emotion, a surge of thought, that “This person insulted me.” It could be pride, but it also can be anger. This is an egotistical reaction. It is a condition of mind that we typically do not question. We do not look at the origin of that process, of that mechanicity, of that machinery, so that, to that person, we respond, or better said, we react unconsciously, with anger or resentment, or criticism. And then suffering continues. This is the concept of samsara in Buddhism: cyclical existence, cycling, repetition, being on repeat, like a broken record. But there is a way out of those types of situations and sufferings, to cease being mechanical. In the moment that person says a negative word, insults us, says something painful, but if we were awake, aware as a soul, as a consciousness, we can see and understand that the person who insults us is in suffering. They are afflicted with the disease which is ego, egotism, and a sense of self that is the origin of pain. By learning to understand the other person and the source of their pain―perhaps they have a tragedy in their life, a suffering, a conflict in their home―much of our own personal investment in that comment ceases, dissipates, is calmed. In that way, we have peace. We have understanding. We have serenity, because if we are not aware of how our own mind reacts, and if we don't question our own reaction, we give in to that element. We call that ego, egotism, desire, negativity, conditions of mind. But in order to achieve that type of transformation, it requires a lot of intelligence, a lot of effort, a lot of will. Precisely, it requires methods of transformation. There are techniques by which we can achieve that state moment by moment, day by day. But if we are content with our state, obviously we don't question where does our pain come from. This is why many people never approach a type of spirituality, or meditation or studying. But people who do, feel an inquietude, a longing to change, and that quality originates from our divine nature, which is Being, divinity, presence, which is not outside, but in the heart. So the purpose of this lecture is to examine how to connect with divinity with precise methods, with intelligence, with wisdom, so that when we face specific conflicts in life, we transform them. We do so with understanding, with intelligence. We reduce our own negative reactions and transform them into comprehension, into peace. 
The Three Brains and Nervous Systems
The way that we examine this process is by examining what we call three brains.
As we began our meditation today, we talked about the human machine, the human body as a temple. Our body is a temple with three floors, and in some Buddhist artwork, you can see traditionally, especially in the map of the nine stages of meditative concentration, a Buddhist monk ascending up a winding path, leaving a pagoda with three floors. In those traditional paintings, this is a representation of the human machine. Three floors: thought, feeling, and action―thought relating with our head, emotions with our heart, and will with our spinal column. We call these three brains. A brain traditionally is associated only with the intellect, the cranial vault, the cerebral matter, but in profound esoteric studies, a brain is defined by a type of machine. It is a processor of force, of action, of intelligence, of will. A brain processes, physically, nutrients, chemicals, molecules, processes, vitamins, foods, etc. A brain has its material component within different aspects of our body, but on a deeper level, a brain in esotericism refers to how we process thought, emotions, and will. 
The first brain is enclosed within the cranial vault (our head, our spinal column. This is known as the cerebral spinal nervous system). The second brain concretely corresponds to the central medulla, the dorsal spine with all of its nervous branches (this relates with the grand sympathetic nervous system, the heart, our emotional qualities, the nerves). The third brain is not located at some specific place nor is it related to a specific organ; indeed, the third brain is constituted by the sympathetic nervous plexuses and, in general, by all the specific nervous centers of the physical organism (this is known as the parasympathetic nervous system). ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education
So the nervous systems in our body is a type of fluidic, material component that helps the body to transmit information. But in us, this tends to be very mechanical, unconscious. We are not aware of the process, usually of thought. This is evident in our daily life.
In most cases we tend to think mechanically. We are washing dishes and we are thinking of something else. We are on the “L,” we are riding the train, we are thinking of other things, and then if we were to snap to attention, in the moment, we forget what we were even thinking about. The mind was wandering. Our thoughts were elsewhere. Likewise, with emotion, the emotional brain, the heart. We are processing emotions and feelings, and sometimes we may not be even aware of why we are sad, or upset, or angry, or anxious, but that we are compelled by this mood in the emotional center without knowing why. That means that we are profoundly asleep. We don't know why we think what we do, why we feel what we do, and also in relation to the third brain: the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, which is the spine, the sexual organs and the base of our head, or base of our neck―we usually don't understand why we act in certain ways, and this could be evident by extreme cases such as in a crisis. In a moment, we have to act, respond to a very serious situation, but perhaps we mistakenly behave in the wrong way. We make an error and later we reflect, “Why did I do that? Why did I act mistakenly in that instant?” We may feel remorse, pain. So these three brains, these three machines: the intellectual brain, the emotional brain, the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, these are mechanical instruments that can process negative qualities of mind, or if these centers are pure, can reflect divinity. And this is the essence of why we study the three brains, why we study the nervous systems, because it tells us our level and quality of being. Equanimity within the Three Brains
I have been giving you examples of how our own egotism, our own negativities, our conditions of mind, misuse our thinking, our emotions and ways of acting. But we have to understand too that these three brains, these machines, are receptive when they are calm, through states and practices such as meditation.
In most people, our thoughts tend to be very chaotic, sometimes our life. Our emotions can be up and down depending on the situations of life, and our behaviors can be conditioned or negative depending on the degree of the person. If you examine yourself in meditation, you sit down and relax. You observe your mind. Observe your heart. Observe your body. What we usually find is a lot of chaos: thoughts all over the place, wandering. Emotions surging with pain. The body tense, sick, agitated, wanting to move. There is no stillness. This means that our three brains are imbalanced. They are not operating in an optimal way, and the way that you figure that out is by observing. In our meditation, we were relaxing, looking. That means that our consciousness, our soul, our Essence, our buddha-nature, is actively looking inside at the origin of thought, the origin of feeling, the origin of will or impulse―not trying to repress the mind, the heart, the body; not trying to justify what we see either: to defeat it, to strengthen it, but looking. This is the key of awareness, which many teachers like Eckhart Tolle, many Buddhist philosophers, many Muslim, Christian, Jewish mystics all point towards. They all teach that we need to observe our human machine. Observe the origin of our qualities of being, so that by looking at them, we can see. Is this thought correct? Is this emotion correct? Is this action correct? And so when you work to look inside, we start to awaken perception. This is the meaning of religion, to awaken consciousness, to awaken the soul, so that by first acquiring serenity of mind, heart, and body, we learn to access types of experiences, which are not normal, not accessible to the average lay person. These are mystical experiences. These are connections with the divine, because in the meditation, we are looking to calm the mind. The mind, when it is clear like a lake, when there is no rippling of thought or agitation, likewise with the heart and the body, and when you physically fall asleep, let your body rest, but your consciousness is awake, you can experience states of being in the dream state, but not dreaming, not unconscious, but to be awake in that world, so that you want to communicate with what religions called divinity, whatever the name. That way, we acquire knowledge and intelligence, understanding, experience. But to do that, we have to take care of our human machine, our nervous systems. Eat well. Drink good water. Take care of our body. Exercise. Meditate. Relax the body. Relax the mind. Relax the heart. Learn to observe and be aware throughout the day at what reactions emerge in us in a relation to certain situations. In that way, we transform our state. Also, learn to take in good impressions of life: exercise, sports, soothing music, activities that help to balance these centers so that they are calm; they are serene. 
Energy, Tantrism, and the Infinite
So this trinity is very important within many religions. We have an intellectual brain, we have an emotional brain, and we have a sexual brain, sometimes referred to as the brain of action, movement, instinct, which is synthesized in the base of our sexual organs, but also the spine.
In Buddhism they spend a lot of time talking about tantra, which simply means continuum, and as you see here in this image of a man and woman, you find the symbol of the holy eight, the infinite, in which all the forces of these centers or parts of our machine are circulating energy properly. The energies rise from the sexual glands, go to the heart, to the brain, likewise circulating back again to the heart, then the sexual glands. In Buddhism, there is a plethora of scriptures and teachings relating to how we use energy. It is one of the most important aspects of that tradition, especially, one of the highest levels of teaching, because how we use our energy determines our health mentally, emotionally, physically. How we take care of these three brains determines everything, determines a state of mind that is conducive for meditation, but also awakening within internal states, which we call the dream state, the dream world. The Dalai Lama spoke a lot about the importance of energy, how we use our energy, because if we invest our energy in negative thoughts, negative emotions, negative will, we deepen suffering. But likewise, if we learn to understand how these energies work through awakening, through meditation, we learn to process those forces in a conscious way. In the view of Tantra, the body's vital energies are the vehicles of the mind. When the vital energies are pure and subtle, one's state of mind will be accordingly affected. By transforming these bodily energies we transform the state of consciousness (we awaken. We attain states of experience which are very profound). It is vital to understand and develop the conviction that consciousness has the potential to increase to an infinite degree. ―The 14th Dalai Lama
This is paralleled in the teachings of the Christian Gospels, especially by a very famous verse in the Book of Mark, chapter 12 verses 28 to 34, in which a lawyer, I believe, asked Jesus of Nazareth, who is a great master of meditation, about what is the highest commandment. What is the highest teaching that one can follow to really obtain the meaning of religion? Which is from the Latin religare, “to reunite,” reunion with divinity.
Regarding the First Commandment, Jesus answered, "The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: Jehovah Elohim our God, Jehovah Elohim is one.” ―Mark 12:29
So that term Jehovah Elohim is Hebrew. It refers to the teachings of Jewish mysticism called Kabbalah, which we study in this school and also in our courses. You may be familiar with what is called the Tree of Life, which is a map of the soul from the lowest levels of materiality to the highest. So that map is a means of understanding experiences in meditation.
As I said, you can awaken and dreams and you enter those dimensions when the physical body is asleep, so that you can converse in those worlds with your own divinity, which the mystics of Kabbalah call Jehovah Elohim: a beautiful name. And you shall love Jehovah Elohim your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all your mind, and with all of your strength. ―Mark 12:30
So notice here, this excerpt is talking about the three brains. To love one's God with one's thoughts, one's emotions, ones will, one's energy. These are the three brains.
What does it mean to love God in that way? It means that when we are at work, and we are criticized and we feel anger boiling inside, wanting to react, to say something hurtful, negative, instead, we love divinity by being aware of that element and not acting on it, but having compassion, by acting ethically for the benefit of others. This is the sacrifice of one's negativity, and is the beginning of religion. We do not act on negative qualities because it harms others, but also in a basic way, it harms ourselves. We create problems. And by loving God―or loving, better said, our Being, our presence, that quality of mind that is compassion, selflessness, understanding―we deepen that and cultivate that quality. The second is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." There is no other commandment greater than these. ―Mark 12:31
So this is the essence of the Christian Gospel, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” If we feed anger, we don't love our neighbor, we instead love pain. And in that way we produce and contribute to all the sorrows of humanity.
The Path of Balance and Vital Currencies
So it's important that we understand that the three brains, in ancient cultures, were always cultivated, were always developed in a balanced way. For those of us here who have perhaps worked in education, might know that in the modern era there is a profound emphasis on the intellect at the exclusion of everything else. And this is a great problem with academic knowledge today. It does not take into consideration the need to balance everything: the emotions and our body in harmony. Usually there is too much emphasis placed on memorization, rote knowledge, intellect, but of course, the ancient societies and cultures knew that in order to really develop a balanced person, a happy person, all three brains must be cultivated, balanced, developed.
This is because each brain has its fuel, has its energy, and if you have studied teachings like that of Gurdjieff, the Fourth Way schools, they talk a lot about what is interestingly called Bobbin-Kandelnosts. This is a language from the internal worlds. It's a term that refers to vital currency, vital money―not material, but energy. The intellectual brain has its currency, its energy, its fuel. Likewise the heart, the emotional brain. Likewise the spine, the body, our movement, our sexuality has a type of energy and fuel that it needs to operate effectively. When those values are abused or spent, then the car doesn't drive, doesn't operate well. If the intellectual brain is abused, meaning, too much energy is being spent in the mind through too much intellectual activity, that produces mental imbalances, sicknesses, diseases such as schizophrenia, delusional disorders, qualities of mind that are very common in this humanity. Likewise with the heart. If the emotions are churning with negative qualities, with anger, with resentment, people develop emotional sicknesses: depression, anxiety, fear, of which the medical profession is very aware of. And likewise, the abuse of the motor brain, too much movement, too much exercise, that is out of balance―people become physically ill, paraplegic, incapacitated, in a wheelchair. The ancient societies, whether of Greece, Rome, Chaldea, Babylon, these cultures knew in their heart, in their origins, that the three brains must be balanced, must be harmonized. Because if we waste our money, esoterically speaking, we spend too much money or vital values from our intellect, we become sick in the mind. Likewise, the heart and the body. The great law has wisely deposited within each of the three brains of the intellectual animal a definite capital of vital values (Bobbin-Kandelnosts). ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education
So we explained previously in this course how we are intellectual animals. The word animal comes from anima, meaning “soul,” to “animate,” to have life. And we know from the animal kingdom that they have behaviors such as competition, pride, resentment, anger, etc. Those belong to the animal kingdom. Because we have an intellect, we rationalize, we think, we are intellectual animals with the potential becoming truly human, a perfected being like Jesus, like Buddha, Moses, Krishna.
Saving such capital prolongs life, whereas squandering such capital produces death.
So we explain this how abusing the mind relates to mental illness, emotional illness, physical illness.
The basis of a fundamental education lies in the intelligent cultivation of the three brains. In the ancient mysteries of Babylon, Greece, India, Persia, Egypt, etc., students received direct, integral information for their three brains by means of precepts, dances, music, etc., intelligently combined. ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education
So it's not enough just to have a hodgepodge of activities, but better said, to be used with balance and harmony. This is the origin of ancient theater, Greek theater, even British theater. Or exercise, sports, competition, music, art, painting, sculpture, etc.
The theaters of ancient times were part of education. Drama, comedy, and tragedy in combination with special mimicry, music, oral teaching, etc., served to place information within the three brains of each individual. ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education
This type of teaching used to be spiritual. The ancient schools of mysteries, of Gnosticism, from whatever continent, always taught a spiritual wisdom of how to awaken the soul from its state of slumber, from its ignorance. It did that in the form of art, music, sculpture, painting, poetry, etc.
Unfortunately in these times, much of our art, theater, dance, etc., has forgotten this, but the origins and reason why these media existed was to communicate something profound. And if you are interested in learning more of how these spiritual teachings were present in different traditions, you can look at chicagognosis.org. We have a whole course dedicated to Opera, called The Secret Teachings of Opera, in which we explain the symbolism of certain artwork to communicate these ideals, these principles. At that time, students did not abuse the thinking brain, since they knew how to intelligently use their three brains in a balanced way. ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education
So again, the human machine is made of thought, feeling, and will, impulse, instinct. We spoke previously about ego, egotism, desire, the mind. The word ego in Latin means “I.”
Of course in modern pop psychology, we like to think that someone who has a big ego is somebody who is very proud or likes to put themselves before others. But in esotericism, the word ego is more profound and in fact relates to everybody. The sense of self that says “me, myself, I: my feelings, my culture, my race, my identity, my sexuality, my beliefs, my theories, my politics―me, myself, I.” That is ego, the sense of self we have now―egotism, ego, the sense of identity we have―is conditioned, unfortunately, but there is a way to transform that mechanicity, those negative qualities into something creative, something intelligent, that is for the benefit of oneself and others. The “I” operates through our three brains. Sometimes we refer to this as five centers as we explained in the previous lecture: the intellectual center, the emotional center, and then through the spinal column: the motor-instinctive-sexual centers. Movement relates to our spine at the top, because if someone is injured at the top of the spine, they can't move. They can't act. They have no ability to operate well. You have instinct at the base of the spine, which is related to our animal inheritance, our animal past. Animal qualities like pride, resentment, etc., survival instinct. And then sexuality relating to our glands. 
The Ego and the Five Inferior Centers
So our ego:
Our "I" exercises control over the five inferior centers of the human machine. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
So as we stated, our own negativity, our conditions, our egotism, uses our thoughts, feelings, and will to operate. Of course, in those examples I provided you, when we react to life in a negative way, in a conditioned way, it is because of ego.
The ego is operating through our heart, through resentment, but also has thoughts. “This person wronged me,” and then the will to act, the will to behave, to respond with criticism. So notice that ego, each desire, each fault, has its own thinking, its own feeling, its own will, its own ways of behaving. We also explained that the ego is not one. It is not an individual self, but it is multiple. Every defect: pride, resentment, anger, fear, lust, desire, is a multiplicity. It is a fracturing. This is very easy to see in ourselves if we are honest. In one moment, we may love somebody, in the next moment, we hate them. We like to attribute that quality to an individual identity. This is the failure of Western philosophy: to think that the self is unitary. This is a big mistake, which the Eastern religions and traditions understand is at fault, because in Buddhism, they always talk about some samskaras, kleshas, veils, conditions of mind, aggregates, defects. Pride is a different ego. Fear is a different ego, hatred, etc. These are senses of self that don't have any order, and if you observe your mind, you pay attention, you can see that process in yourself. It is not pleasant to recognize that we are a multiplicity, but it explains many of our own contradictions. But of course, there is a way out, to acquire what we define as genuine individuality, which is sacred. Real individuality is like that of a prophet, a self, a being that has no errors, no faults, no anger, no anger, no pride. They disintegrated the ego. And this is the meaning of the great religious battles within Christianity, Judaism, Islam―between God above and the devil below. This is not just about something external, but something psychological, because anger is a demon. Pride is a demon. Fear, resentment, the seven capital sins, whatever we want to refer to that as, is demonic. Therefore, we have to learn to eliminate those faults, comprehend them, so that we no longer go along with the mechanicity of life, suffering in those states. Because when you eliminate egotism, you extract the soul. You free the genie from Aladdin's lamp, in order to perform miracles in your state of mind. Because when anger is eliminated, we develop sweetness and serenity. When lust is eliminated, we develop purity of body and mind. When pride is eliminated, we develop humility. When we annihilate anger too, we also develop compassion. So when the ego dies the soul is born. This is the Christian allegory of resurrection. When the impurities die, the soul is reborn. It is revitalized. It is new. So to get to that point, we study our three brains. We observe our thoughts, our feelings, and our will, to understand how they function. Whosoever wants to dissolve the "I" must study its functionalism within the five inferior centers. We must not condemn the defects; we must not justify them either. What is important is to comprehend them. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
So this is a type of spiritual work, or as different traditions state, a type of warfare, in which one confronts oneself. This is the meaning of jihad in Islam, the esoteric meaning. It does not mean to kill someone who is not of your faith, but psychologically, we confront the causes of our own suffering.
We must not repress what we see, neither justify them. One must comprehend these elements. It is not enough just to label something and push it away, to not look at that state. And of course, it is very difficult to do. It's very unpleasant, because the mind doesn't like to acknowledge its faults. This is well known within the counseling profession, psychology, in terms of repression, where clients do not like to look at the origin of their traumas, their pain, their suffering. This is the type of resistance in the mind not to see that. Neither must we justify our faults.To say, “Well that person deserved my comments, my resentment, because they wronged me.” This is also a wrong state of mind. We have to comprehend how those elements function in us. This is comprehension. This is understanding, because when you comprehend an error, you can work towards its elimination, and then we have peace, understanding. This is a the method for awakening, direct perception, awareness. It is urgent to comprehend the actions and reactions of the human machine. Each one of these five inferior centers has a whole set of extremely complicated actions and reactions. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
This is very easy to see if you observe. For example, if you put your hand on a hot stove, you feel pain. You react. You pull your hand away instinctively. You move. And then you feel the emotions and the pain of that experience, where you feel anger, perhaps, followed by the thoughts that hurt: “I shouldn't do that.”
There are all sorts of complicated processes in this one moment in which our body moves. We feel. We think, but typically we don't observe that process. So the work of transformation is precisely beginning with awareness, self-observation: observing one's mind, emotions, etc., from a state of equanimity, of dispassion. Neither looking to judge, nor to label, nor to repress what we see, but simply gather data about our states of mind. And in that way we comprehend the origins of suffering. The "I" works with each one of these five inferior centers. Therefore, by deeply comprehending the whole mechanism of each one of these centers, we are on our way to dissolving the "I.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
Or to use Christian terms, dissolving satan, the lower soul.
The Different Paths of the Three Brains
In the process of developing the three brains, we also talk a lot about different types of paths that existed. There have been paths in the world that had become firm traditions.
Fakirism: The Path of Physicality
There are people who simply want to develop their body, the ability to overcome pain, pleasure, sensations, impulse, instinct. We call that fakirism, and you find a lot of these cults exist today, where people are only dedicated to the body, overcoming pain, such as walking on hot coals, simply because they want to prove that they can dominate the physical body.
But of course, the problem with this path is that it is extreme. It is unnecessary. It develops will, but it does not develop understanding. The ability to overcome pain is not the not the primary focus of real spirituality. So in fakirism, people lie in a bed of nails. There are people who, literally fakirs raising their hand for 15 years until they lost all nerves and feeling in their arm, so that they couldn't move it. The point and the question is, why do that? What's the point? Because they felt that by controlling the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, the body, that somehow they were going to reach God, divinity. Of course, this is a mistake. Fakirism is very limited, unnecessary. Spirituality is not predicated on overcoming pain, physically. It is not the whole gamut of self-transformation. 
Monasticism: The Path of Emotionality
Likewise, there is the path of emotionality, of monks, monasticism, emotion. There are people who feel that religion is only about developing the heart: praying, going to church, performing rituals. They feel that this is the only way to God, divinity, but also this is mistaken, because the emotional brain by itself is not enough.
We have to cultivate the body. We have to cultivate the mind. And so, these traditions, which originally were very sacred and developed all three brains at once, were balanced, but unfortunately, with time and traditions, things become habitualized, mechanical. In most churches or synagogues or monasteries, they only develop the heart through prayer, which is good. It is beautiful to develop that and necessary, but to only do that one thing is not enough. 
Yoga: The Path of Intellectuality
And lastly we have the path of intellectuality, of yoga, when we talk about the three brains. This is the path of scriptural study, the intellect, because when you study meditation, you have to read about it. You have to learn from somebody what the steps are, what the principles are, what the path is. Many people feel that simply by reading books and studying with the intellect is enough. But unfortunately, this is also mistaken, because people who tend to read a lot at the exclusion of the heart and the body become imbalanced.
Becoming a giant library or walking library still can't resolve the problems of suffering, because having a lot of intellectual knowledge doesn't make one wise. Instead, knowledge that is applied to practice is wisdom, is essential. These three paths related to the three brains. These are the lower paths that relate to spiritual traditions. 
Energy and the Tree of Life
On the image here we have the Tree of Life, which is the Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah. This is a map of different levels and gradations of energy, of materiality, of perception, and we use this glyph in this course and in these studies because they teach us about ourselves. It is a map of the soul of where we are and what we wish to achieve.
This image can be used to interpret any tradition, any religious cosmogony. It is associated typically with the science of numbers. So you notice that there are ten spheres here: three trinities and one sphere below at the bottom. If you are familiar with Christianity, we know that they are very identified with the Trinity itself, which we call Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Or to use Egyptian terms: Osiris, Horus, Isis. Amongst the Nordics: Wotan, Baldur, Thor. These are principles, not people. These are forces. These are energies that exists inside of us, which we can learn to cultivate if we know how. Below that trinity we have seven spheres which are very important for our practical development. At the bottom, we have our physical body, physical energy. We also have vital energy, creative energy, sexual energy. We have emotional energy. We have mental energy. We have energy related to volition or will. Then we have energy relating to consciousness, conscious perception. And then we have the spirit, spiritual force. The term spirit in strict esoteric language is Being, is divinity. It is the divine in us, the highest, or one of the highest forms of force, which we seek to practice and develop through our exercises that we have in this tradition. It is important to remember that while we want to balance our three brains, while we want to use the energy as well, simply holding onto energy is not enough. Saving energy is not enough. We talked a lot about in alchemical traditions, European traditions, how one must become hermetically sealed, according to hermetic philosophy. It is a very old tradition, which is depicted through symbols. Hermeticism means to not let out any energy at all, neither to waste energies of the mind, the body, or the heart. What is important is that while we save energy, by not acting on ego, by performing spiritual action, compassionate action, we also learn to direct that energy with will, with perception, with understanding. That is the key. Comprehend how the energies of thought work. Comprehend how the energies of emotion work. Comprehend how the energies of instinct, movement, and sexuality work. That is how we become a Tree of Life, a Christmas tree that is illuminated with perfection, because without energy there is no light, no force. We can say that our intellectual brain relates to mental energy, the sphere below, the fourth of the bottom. And of course, in strict Hebrew terms, these are called sephiroth, which means emanations, spheres. Sephirah is singular. So this sephirah, relating with the mind, is the fourth in the bottom. It is our intellectual brain. We also have the emotional brain, relating to the left, the third sephirah from the bottom. And likewise, we have movement related to our physical body. We have instincts relating to our will, our impulses, our ability to act in life. And we also have creative-sexual-energy. These constitute the motor-instinctive-sexual brain. It is important to remember that yes, we must save energy, but we have to know how to use the three brains, which is why Samael Aun Weor, the founder of the modern Gnostic tradition states the following in The Great Rebellion: No matter how much we might increase our strictly mechanical energy, we will never awaken consciousness. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
So that means by controlling the body through fakirism, overcoming sensation, the body, movement, one does not awaken.
No matter how much we might increase the vital forces within our own organism, we will never awaken consciousness. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
That relates to vital breath and yoga. If you are familiar with yoga, they talk a lot about pranayama: interchangeable nostril breathing, in which you circulate vital force, prana, in Sanskrit meaning life: the life energy throughout your body, your mind, your heart. It is not enough just to work with that energy, to circulate it. It is important, but it is not the entirety of what one must do to obtain yoga.
Many psychological processes take place within us without any intervention from the consciousness. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
This relates to emotion, the heart. So notice that consciousness is not the body. It is not physicality. People like to think superficially, in American culture and also abroad, that we are the body, that our appearance determines who we are, and sadly this is what many people believe. But the reality is that we are not the body, because we operate in the body. People often look at others and say, “I wish I could look as beautiful as that person.” It means that we are not the body, because we're thinking outside of that.
Neither are we the vital energies that we have within in us. We need vital energy to operate, to be awake physically. Sometimes in the morning, we have more energy, or in the evening we feel tired. That relates to our vital forces. And likewise our emotions, our emotional energy. We tend to invest a lot of our identity into it. We tend to feel that we are really our emotions, whether it be anger, pride, resentment, etc. However, in strict spiritual terms, our emotions are not the consciousness, the soul. The soul is even deeper than those qualities. So “Many psychological processes take place within us without any intervention from the consciousness.” This is something we have to discover for ourselves by observing our mind, our heart. However great the disciplines of the mind might be, mental energy can never achieve the awakening of the diverse functions of the consciousness. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
Meaning: reading a lot, studying a lot―having a lot of theory and knowledge in the mind. It is good. It is important, but it is not the totality of what we need to awaken the soul.
Even if our willpower is multiplied infinitely, it can never bring about the awakening of the consciousness. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
So it is admirable that one has a lot of will in life, to survive and to thrive, but having will is not enough. Will has to be directed by our inner Spirit. As Jesus said, "Father if it is possible, take this cup of bitterness from me, but not my will, but Thine be done." So we have the will to go up towards higher states of being, or to go down. It depends on our actions. But even if we have a lot of willpower in life, it is not exclusive of the other spheres. Willpower is important, but even that must be directed and balanced, because notice that willpower, volitional energy, is at the very center.
It is very important, because if you take this image of the tree, you put it in a human being, you find that the top trinity relates with the head, the middle trinity relate to the heart, the lower trinity relates with our thighs and our sexual glands. The lower sphere (Malkuth) relates to our feet.
Our willpower can also relate to our heart, our emotions, especially in a higher sense. And so volition determines where we go. How we behave and how we act with will determines everything. That is why it is a much more subtle and refined element and very difficult to pinpoint, but something we can experience. Our will can either follow our divinity, or negativity and egotism. So willpower is not enough. It has to be directed. All these types of energy are graded into different levels and dimensions, which have nothing to do with the consciousness. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
Which is the sixth sphere from the bottom to the top in the left pillar.
Consciousness can only be awakened through conscious work and upright efforts. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
So in our tradition we have a lot of practices that we use to develop the intellect, the emotions, and our body. We have yoga practices. We have sacred sounds or prayers, mantras. We have yogic positions. We have teachings of tantra, sexuality, marriage, matrimony, working with creative force, pranayama. We have exercises called the runes, which relate to the Nordic alphabet, in which we put our body into certain positions in accordance with the letters of the runic letters, in order to assimilate energy and force, to awaken the soul. We have meditative practices too, many. We use all these exercises in balance because they all take these forces and cultivate them in a conscious way.
Having a lot of energy is not enough in life. We can have a lot of vitality, will to act, a lot of energy in the mind, the heart, but we have to learn how to use that potential in a very intelligent way, which is the meaning of this quote. It doesn't mean that we have to disregard these forces below the consciousness. It means that we know how to use them. Because remember the soul is like a person driving a car. These spheres, these energies relate to how our car operates, our body operates. A person can have a lot of fuel in their car, but they can be reckless with their attention and they can get into an accident. So if we know how to drive our car well, take care of the car, feed it good fuel, that is what we drive to our destination. 
The Three Factors
All this is synthesized in the Passion of Jesus who came to represent, with his physical life, these principles. So one thing is the man of Jesus of Nazareth who existed, who taught humanity a very vital teaching, and one thing is what he symbolized. He represents a type of willpower, of conscious work, that is: the ability to overcome all suffering, as we saw in the Passion, of his Crucifixion. He was ridiculed, spat upon, mocked, humiliated, beaten, tortured, killed. And yet throughout that entire time, he only said “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” So he was very conscious, had no pride, no anger. And he was showing a type of work that overcomes adversity.
Perhaps in life we have our own passion to go through, our own crucifixion, which is very painful, where we face ordeals and circumstances that are very difficult. But by learning to develop compassion, eliminate mistaken states of mind, we balance our three brains. In the Book of Matthew chapter 16 verse 24 you find the principles of the three brains represented. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” ―Matthew 16:24
We call these three factors of spiritual awakening.
Birth, which means give birth to the soul. Learn to conserve your energy, especially the creative sexual energy, and then learn to direct it with will. We do that through exercise of yoga, the perfect matrimony, pranayama, many exercises, to take that energy, and instead of expelling it, we learn to conserve it, transform it. It gives birth to the soul. It awakens the soul. But also one must deny oneself, meaning: negate all the impure qualities of the heart, as we have been explaining extensively. 
And also to follow him, or divinity. So it is important to remember that we are not predicating or pushing for the worship of the physical personality of Jesus. Instead, he represents what in Gnostic terms is called Christ, which is an energy. And if you look back at the Tree of Life, we refer to Christ as the top trinity, or more specifically the second sphere. Because above is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Jesus of Nazareth came to embody that force in his life to teach us something practical. So the top trinity can be called Christ, Krestos, which means “fire” in Greek. It is the fire of life in our body, in our three brains, that gives us life and spirituality. If we use it for divinity, it transforms us.
“Any man will come after me, he must deny himself,” negate his negative emotions or her negative emotions, “take up the cross and follow” him or divinity, our inner divinity, our inner Spirit. The cross is a very beautiful symbol, which of course is not understood at all today. While it is a symbol of sacrifice, it is also a symbol of sexual teachings, teachings of tantrism in Buddhism, teachings of genuine yoga, the highest spiritual teachings. Because the phallus is the vertical beam, the uterus is a horizontal beam. Together, when a husband and wife unite, or a couple unites, by training their mind, cultivating the energies of love, they awaken the full potential of the being. This is very well known within Buddhism, the highest teachings. Or amongst the Sufis in Islam, Marifah. Amongst the Gnostics, it is Gnosis. Or amongst the Jews, Daath, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil―symbols―that teach these truths. To follow divinity is to affirm God, affirm our Being, which means to work for the benefit of humanity, not for our own selfish desires, but for others, with compassion. These are important principles. We are going to talk about these three factors in more depth later in this course. 
And so the Gnostic path is the balance of those three, the three brains, the three paths: fakirism, monasticism, yoga. The Gnostic path is the union and balancing of all three. It is the harmony, the synthesis, which you find represented in this image of the Rosicrucian Cross. And the Rosicrucians were a very ancient Gnostic order that once had a lot of value in life and teaching, which we study.
Notice that in this image, you have a lot of symbols which are very abstract. You have astrology, relating to the planets. You have the Hebrew letters circulating around a rose of spirituality. You have pentagrams, and all these intricate symbols which simply point, in their synthesis, in their representation, towards forces in the heart and the mind and the body. A pentagram is really a human being standing upright―hands out, feet out, head towards the heavens. It is a symbol of the perfect human being. Meaning: the head is following divinity. It is positive, but some people have misappropriated that symbol by turning it upside down, which is an inverted image. It means that one's reason is going down into negative states called hell realms. This is the black pentagram or the pentagram of the black sabbath, which is a different path, a very negative one, in which one develops one’s conditions of mind intentionally. All the letters of Hebrew which are symbols of principles from Aleph, the first letter of Hebrew to Tav, the final letter. These are symbols. These are representations of forces, which we all find synthesized in the harmonization of what we call the cross, a symbol of a matrimony, because when husband and wife cross themselves physically, they awaken spiritual energy, especially. If they know how to cultivate that energy well, conserve it and keep it sacred, in truth, they become a perfect human being. This is the secret teachings of all ages, which is now being made public since the 1960's in the writings of Samael Aun Weor. This is the path of Taoism, balance, harmony. The Tao Path includes three paths, and Tao itself is the fourth. Much has been said about the four paths. We Gnostics travel along the fourth path in full consciousness. During the sexual act, we transmute the brutal instincts of our physical body into willpower… ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
So this is a term that is very interesting: transmutation, transformation. This is known as alchemy: taking the brute lead of our negativity and transforming it into the gold of the spirit. It is a symbol. It does not mean that people were actually in Europe trying to turn lead into gold. There were some people who did think it could happen, but it is a symbol. You transform your lust, your desires, into purity, perfection. And you can also transform the seminal matter, and by conserving it, we can transform it into spiritual force that gives birth to divinity in us. The brutal instincts or passions of the body become will, a strong will, a profound will. Also:
…the passionate emotions of the Astral Body into love… ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
And the astral body relates to the vehicle we operate with in dreams. So people often talk about lucid dreams, out-of-body experiences, awakening in dreams. That is a truth relating to, again, higher dimensions, which we access when we physically go to sleep. So the physical body rests and the soul travels mostly unconsciously in that realm, dreaming or projecting dreams, not being aware of what is around. So the emotions of this astral body become transformed into love:
…and the mental impulses into comprehension. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
So these are the three lower paths synthesized. We don't have to become fakirs, lying on a bed of nails, to develop will. Instead we have other practices which are much more expedient and useful.
As Spirit, we perform the Great Work (which is religion, religare, reunion). This is how we travel along the four paths in practice. We do not need to become fakirs for the first path, neither monks for the second, nor scholars for the third. The path of the Perfect Matrimony permits us to travel the four paths during the sexual act itself. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
Of course, this is a very high teaching, the highest ideals, because love is the greatest religion. A couple can learn to use all the energies they have, to “love thy God with all thy mind, all thy heart, all thy soul and all thy strength” (Matthew 22:37-39). Really, we get most of our strength from the sexual energy. It is what gives us life, and people who deplete their sexual energy excessively, they become weak.
The word virya in Sanskrit means “strength.” It is where where we get the word virility, virtue. The virtues of the soul blossom like a rose upon the cross of a marriage. So husband and wife can learn to use these forces to transform themselves and balance all three brains. But of course, we have many techniques and explanations about how to do that, which we will be talking about successively in our courses. But in synthesis, we want to state that by balancing our three brains and understanding the different traditions that have existed in the past in our humanity, we acquire understanding and harmony. Questions and Answers
Question: I do a lot of academic work and sometimes I do feel that kind of intellectual depletion, but then I am able to keep going through that. How does esotericism explain that second wind?
Instructor: Yes, so the second winds symptom relates to, basically, when you use too much energy in one brain, unfortunately that brain, because it is depleted, it has to get energy from somewhere. So what it does is that it steals energy from the other centers, and that gives one a second wind, which you feel revitalized, re-energized, you are able to get back into work to do whatever one is focused on. But that type of high is, in reality, negative, because we were tired an hour ago, but then suddenly we have more energy and we become hyper-manic sometimes, where you feel like you have more energy, you have to keep working. That is because the mind, the intellect, is depleted, and it starts stealing fuel from the sexual center. The sexual energy is the most powerful. Literally, it is the ability to create a human being, to create life, but it is like rocket fuel. It belongs in its center, in its form of modality and operation. If you put rocket fuel into a car, the car will be destroyed, and so gradually people who abuse the intellect keep losing their energy, they start stealing energy from the sexual center until it finally, over time and successfully throughout their life or even other lifetimes, destroys the mind. Question: Does that work in another direction like, you know, if I deplete my sexual energy and steal energy from other centers in that way. Is that harmful too? Instructor: Yes, that is the reality too. If we lose the sexual energy and don't conserve it, that throws everything out of balance. And of course, this is the original sin mentioned the Bible―eating from the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil―which has a lot of profound symbolism and hidden meanings, which we can explain. But in synthesis, if we deplete the energy that gives us life, it means that one is going to be weaker, spiritually speaking. And so that center will steal energy from the other centers. But you have to think of the sexual energy like the foundation of everything that we are, because we come into existence through the sexual act, that force. Now, you know the vital energy, we place a lot of emphasis on that part of in this teaching, because virya is the source of virility, virtue. That energy is literally the force that animates, and in this teaching, we talk a lot about how by conserving that energy, which can normally create a physical child. You take that same potential, and by circulating it through the vehicle of tantra―the continuum working throughout the different brains, like the image you saw with the man and woman with a symbol of the infinite―that revitalizes the mind, the heart, the body. There is a lot more science coming out now. People have been studying the role of continence or chastity, which doesn't necessarily mean abstention from sex. It simply means using the sexual act in a significant, meaningful, loving relationship, with purity. Immaculate conception, sometimes people refer to in terms of the birth of Jesus. Again, another symbol. While the birth of Jesus was something physical, he represented something profound for us. We can give birth to the golden child of Christ through that very same energy. But of course, in order to do that, Mother Mary must be virgin. But the reality is that to be virgin does not mean to not have sex. It means to be pure in sex. So there is a very profound distinction there. You know, Mother Mary is the matter, the mater, the matter of God, which is your body. Your body is a temple, which, when it is purified through practices, when it is made virgin and pure, it becomes holy, and then you can take that energy to create something else. That is what one wants by conserving it, transforming it. We have a lot of material relating to this topic, especially. It's not my intention to talk about all the profound symbols of that path, but that is the essence of Taoism, the Tao, the path of balance. By working with that energy that can create life, you balance all three brains. You perform a continuum of energy. Continuum is tantra, and if you study Buddhism, they talk a lot about tantric marriage, literally seeing deities in sexual union, but not with lust. With love. A very profound difference. Any other questions? Question: So it seems like, from what you’ve said, sexuality can be useful on the spiritual path rather than outright repression of it. That is what I get from many spiritual traditions, it seems. Instructor: They avoid the sexual aspect of religion and unfortunately, that was castrated from Christianity. But Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit” (John 3:6). You can create a child physically through the act that everybody knows, but through alchemy, to fuse oneself with God, one can in a marriage, cultivate that energy in a sacred way. It is sad people reject that part of their teaching, which is in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, every tradition. So I invite you, if you are interested in learning more about the symbolism of those traditions, we have different texts available. You can read them here or purchase them here, but also you can go on gnosticteachings.org, which has a lot. All the books we have here, especially The Perfect Matrimony, you can go online and read. It talks about all that. You know, we like to be very specific. That's the one part of religion that has been missing, is how to use that energy. It has never been taught publicly because it wasn't allowed. It's such a volatile and powerful thing to use that energy, that it has been kept secret for millennia. But now we live in a very different era, in which this information is allowed to be given openly in accordance with divinity since the 60s, especially. The sexual revolution, interestingly enough. So I invite you to study that if you are interested. Question: (paraphrasing) That seems like that went from, when you were talking about the sexual revolution, like we are free from the repression, and it seems like you burned yourself out. I noticed that in myself. I grew up in a very conservative, church type of family... But then I was in the military and I had more choice than at home, and I discovered that there is this other side to it… Burned myself out as well. Instructor: Exactly, and the thing is, that according to every tradition, sexuality is a door to liberation, but also the door to hell, because it is the most powerful element we carry. We can create life with it. It is the power of divinity to create, and so there are two ways to use that for us, which sadly, monasticism, it avoids. That tradition originally knew the sexual teachings and they practiced in secret with the nuns. A monk would train individually, doing energy exercises to learn to train themselves before they got married, and they were brought together with a nun. Monk and nun working together, but in secret, because it is such a scandalous thing for people to think about. It is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense according to Peter, the stone of the Gnostic Church; Patar in Latin. So that is the teaching that has been cut out, but now we teach openly because it is the essence of religion. Literally, man and woman uniting together is a form of union, religare. If they love each other and learn to conserve that power, they can turn water into wine, and that is the first miracle of Jesus at a wedding. Husband and wife, the waters of the creative energy, could become the wine of God in your spine, rising up. Some traditions call it Kundalini. Some people call it the fire of Pentecost. Beautiful symbols. Another Instructor: So when you said that there are three ways, one is to not have sex at all, to repress it, one is an overindulgence where it is abused or lustful way, and then this middle path. You know of the Tao, which you are talking about with sexual alchemy, where the sexual act is engaged in, but in a way working with that energy consciously and in purity, and transforming that energy. So there is not just two ways, but there is a middle path. Instructor: Yes. Thanks for correcting me, because in that image I had of Jesus with the “deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me” quote, relates to this teaching. There are people who like to justify all the types of animal behavior that exist in relation to sex through pornography, sadomasochism, behaviors that are really degenerate and causes a lot of suffering for humanity. But then there are people who like to repress sex saying, “Oh, that's filthy. It's all disgusting. I want nothing to do with it.” Two extremes. Neither are right. Neither of them are the path of balance. To balance the three brains, one has to know how to use that energy in a sacred way, neither by justifying lust or repressing lust, but looking at it directly. Audience: Transforming lust into love. Instructor: Transforming lust into chastity as well. Chasity mean purity. It doesn't mean abstention from sex. This is a confusion created by people who hate sexuality, because they, usually from lifetime to lifetime, they go to extremes: indulging in lust, repressing, indulging, repressing. This is the pendulum that keeps people hypnotized, but in reality, religion, the middle path, the path of genuine Tantric Buddhism, is by learning to take the sexual act and make it something sacred. It doesn't have to do with going to a church or synagogue or mosque, or believing in a tradition, or being repressive. It means enjoying the delights of love in a pure way. And that is something that is very difficult to do, but is gradually developed. In Buddhism, this is emphasized in his life story, the story of Buddha, how he became an ascetic. He used to be a prince in a palace with many women. He had everything provided for him. He was lustful, indulging in desire, but then he realized the reality of suffering, that he will die one day. People are afflicted by old age, sickness, and death. Therefore, he decided to embark on the spiritual path. He became an ascetic, a fakir, going to the wilderness, meditating all day, living off only off a grain of rice, until he became emaciated and nearly dying. And he was in a lot of suffering, because he thought that this would take him to divinity, to his inner Buddha nature. But then what happened was that he, I believe he was near a river, in which he heard someone playing a lyre, and then he realized: you can't make the strings too tight nor too loose in order to play music. You can't go to extremes: rejecting sex, indulging in sex. Instead, he realized that one has to use that sexual act in a different way, in a harmonious way. That is when a woman came up to him with a bowl of rice milk, and offered to rejuvenate him. When he drank that, he immediately became enlivened again. He no longer was emaciated. He became whole. That is a symbol of a marriage: a woman offering him a bowl of milk made of rice. That grain is the sexual seed. It is the energy that is transformed and enlivening the soul. So he knew at that point, symbolically, as a teaching, that you can't repress sex. You can't justify it. You have to look at it in a balanced way, in a spiritual way: the path of balancing the three brains, because the rice milk―milk is a symbol of semen, of energy, how you take that energy, transform it, raise it up your spine to your mind, to your heart. That is how you balance your three centers or three brains. So in Buddhism, there is that teaching. Very beautifully hidden. You find that in the life of Jesus, even Muhammad in Islam, many teachings relating to different prophets who represented this alchemical path. We like to be balanced. It's not healthy to indulge in desire. You can look at humanity today. Prostitution rings, all sorts of, you know, filthy practices, which are really harmful. But it's not enough just to run away from it, and it's what people do in religion. They think religion has nothing to do with sex, that they can go to church, pray in the form of the cross and then they go home to the bedroom and act like demons. That is not religion. Religion is all three brains, and the original form of the cross, one points toward the head, the heart and to the sexual organs, and then raising it up to your left arm, to your right. Most Catholics, they do the head, the heart, left shoulder, right shoulder. They ignore the sexual glands. Real religion is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Father, the energies of divinity, the Father in the head. The energies of the Christ, the Son are in the heart, the emotional brain. And the energies of the Holy Spirit is sex. So take the energy of sex, we do the head, the heart. When you gesticulate, then from sex you raise that energy up to your left shoulder over your heart and to your right shoulder. That is how the Gnostics perform the cross. This is what we do, because it symbolizes: take that energy, it descends from the Father, the Son, to the sexual glands, and then you consciously elevate it, bring it up for your will, relating to your left arm, in accordance with the Kabbalistic teachings, the lustful mind, bringing it to your heart and then your right arm which relates to your Spirit. So some symbology there that is very interesting. Religion, yoga, is purely sexual. But of course, this topic offends many people because they either look at it with lust or as something to be repressed. But really, a marriage is one of the Holy Sacraments of the Gnostic Church and the Catholic Church too, but obviously, we try to go in more depth. Question: It always seems like a contradiction how in one point like you said, the church has castrated the teachings of Jesus: teaching that he was not married when a lot of the texts reference his relationship with Mary Magdalene, and how marriage can be elevated into such as high sacrament when they are preaching celibacy and these types of repressive teachings, and what seemed more power exertion to control people rather than the actual teachings that were originally presented. Instructor: Yes, and you find that in the Catholic Church, because the priests that do not work with the energy, they conserve it but they don't circulate it, they become very imbalanced, which is why you find, in any tradition really, people who practice celibacy, there are a lot of cases of homosexuality and molestation of children in the Catholic Church. There are documentaries, even on Netflix I believe, there is a few going―one going around, where these priests, because they don't know how to work with that energy, to cultivate it in a conscious way, that fire needs to act, but if it is not being directed spiritually or used to awaken the soul, it feeds desire. Repressing doesn't resolve the problem. Pushing it away doesn't resolve the issues of lust or impurity. Instead, confronting it, take the energy, bear up the cross, deny yourself, deny your desires. That is the whole path. Monasticism only works with the heart, yoga with the intellect, and fakirism only with the physical body. But to be balanced, work with everything. Work with the creative energy. We have exercises to develop will and the heart through prayer. So balance is best, and unfortunately people don't know how to really approach sexuality in a balanced way. But obviously that is something that can be learned. Question: That’s interesting because I mean, I read lot of things and have investigated orthodoxy for a period of time as well because of the greater depth of spirituality in orthodoxy. You will get a lot where they talk about the monk, the highest order of being: this is the one closest to Christ. Instructor: Yeah, and it is in every tradition. Every tradition likes to say we have the knowledge and we have the way. We don't claim that we are special. We give teachings that are practical and are helpful, but people decide that on their own and can determine that on their own. Another Instructor: That is very Piscean. We talk in this tradition about the Aquarian Era, which began around the 60's and that now, teachings which used to be secret in the Piscean Age have become the era of open knowledge. The water of knowledge flowing. And so it used to be that people would go into these secret kind of schools, these mystery schools, and learn these types of teachings, as the instructor was pointing out here, about working individually as a monk or a nun, and then in secret, performing this sexual union. In ancient times that wasn't shown publicly, because it would have been scandalous, but in the Aquarian Era this knowledge became open, so no longer do we have to run off to the woods or the secret esoteric temple in the pyramids to learn this stuff. But you know many traditions cling to the way that it always used to be without the actual essence of that knowledge, the secret, the esoteric part of it still being alive in those traditions. Now, we have the shell and the forms and the empty kind of rituals, which seem beautiful and attractive to us, but always seem to be missing that fire which is, you know, Christ and the Holy Spirit―the living energy of religion which seems to have kind of disappeared from many traditions. Comment: I mean I can sense it in the Mass that there is something to it in an energetic level. But then it's what do you after you leave and stuff.... Instructor: Exactly. Dion Fortune, who wrote a lot of esoteric books, stated that the reason why the Catholic Church has existed for so long is because it performs Mass in Latin, and those prayers in that language are very powerful, because Oatin is a sacred mantric language, one of languages of God amongst the many: Hebrew, the Nordic Runes, Sanskrit, Arabic, Chinese. Many languages have a powerful element that can invoke energy. So that serves like a conduit for those masses and prayers, in which divinity comes down from the superior worlds and is present there. But the problem becomes what to do with that energy, as you said, because those priests can attract and invoke God, but because their three brains are not circulating energy well, God can't enter into them, because if they don't work with the creative energy, they can't awaken. If you remember that quote using the Tree of Life, “No matter how much we increase our strictly vital energy, it will never produce the awakening of the consciousness,” because saving energy and being celibate is not enough. You can save that energy, but if you don't direct it, it goes nowhere. And in fact that energy will be misused. It will be fortified or used to fortify desire. 
Your three brains are a conduit. That is how you form tantra, the holy eight ∞ in your spine. And we talked a lot about the Caduceus of Mercury in medicine, but also a symbol of how from the sexual glands, there are energetic channels that rise up from the base of our spine and our sexual glands and crisscross up to the head in order to form the wings of the spirit.
So if you are familiar with, amongst veterinarians or doctors, they have that symbol as a symbol of medicine of healing, usually with the symbol of the Rune Hagal amongst the Nordics, a vertical beam with a cross like a six pointed star. It is a symbol of the cross, how the energies of sexuality circulate in the true master. And then, the spine with the wings of the spirit, the wings of the angels open. So when your three brains are fully harmonized and the energy of the Holy Spirit or the Kundalini rises up in a marriage, it awakens our spiritual faculties. That becomes the wings of the angel. And that also balances the three brains.
You have to be balanced in order to work with that energy. But when the priests are praying, they are saying, “God come into us.” Divinity is present. People, even who have a very asleep consciousness can feel that, which is why people flock to religion. They feel God there. But then the question is, “Well, what next?” The question is, you can approach the temple but your body must become a temple. Your mind, your heart, your sexuality, must become pure, so that God can enter into you, and in that way, the inner priest, the inner magician, the inner God, officiates inside of you. It gives you happiness. It is a gradual process though. 
The most important principle of meditation, of genuine religion, is precisely the present moment. Studying Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, astrology, Kundalini, tantra, alchemy, the eternal tarot, the scriptures, all this will amount to nothing if we do not comprehend the moment we are in.
The teachings are vastly complex. The terms we use, the knowledge we reference, is highly technical, sophisticated, profound. Yet, despite this complexity, this vastness, all this knowledge can be synthesized into a very simple point, which is awareness of the present. True knowledge is experienced. It is experiential. It is found here and now, not in some distant future or by reflecting only upon the past. It is found in the moment. All traditions, all meditative disciplines teach the doctrine of the moment, since this is the key for realization, knowledge of divinity, experience of the truth. Samael Aun Weor, in The Elimination of Satan's Tail wrote the following: “To achieve the stillness and silence of the mind, it is necessary to know how to live from instant to instant, to know how to take advantage of each moment, to not live the moment in doses.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Elimination of Satan’s Tail All traditions of meditation teach that the origin of suffering is a lack of awareness of who we are, how we behave, what we are doing now. We have to be reflective. In Gnosticism, in the writings of Samael Aun Weor, we learn that we must know who we are, where we come from, where we are at. Let us examine ourselves. How conscious are we throughout the day? This is not a matter of possessing vitality in the morning when we wake up, in order to be physically active. Wakefulness, vigilance, attention, awakening, is a direct state of perception of this instant, the moment we find ourselves in. So, how aware are we throughout the day? Are we awake from moment to moment? Are we attentive to what we are doing here and now? Are we examining ourselves in whatever stage or action we are involved in? Or do we think of other things? Do we daydream? Do we fantasize? Do we worry? Whenever we think of other things: planning, expecting, day dreaming, remembering, instead of focusing our attention on where we are at, what we are doing, it means our consciousness is asleep. We are not awake. We are dreaming. Imagine that you are washing dishes. If we are cleaning dishes in our kitchen, but thinking of our loved ones, our friends, our family, we ignore what we are doing. We forget what we are doing. And in this way, we cut ourselves. Perhaps with a knife because we are not attentive to what we are doing in the kitchen. This is a very simple example of a profound truth: that when we lack attention in moments of critical engagement with life, we hurt ourselves. What happens with people when they drive their car and they don't pay attention to the road? People have ended up in accidents or have killed themselves, injured others, because they are not awake. They were on their cell phone, daydreaming, thinking of other things, not focused on what they were doing. So, there are serious consequences when we don't pay attention, and this is our chronic state. We have no cognizance of where we are or what we do, and because we act unconsciously upon negative thoughts, negative feelings, negative impulses, we produce suffering. We harm ourselves and others spiritually. It is this lack of comprehension of our internal states that produces all the sorrow of humanity. The origin of pain is the "I." It is our sense of self that acts mechanically, that always thinks and behaves in accordance to hypotheses, theories, opinions, beliefs. The mind does not know the truth, because it is the past. This sense of self, the ego, the "I," is memory, according to Samael Aun Weor. The Sufis refer to the self, the ego, as nafs, nafas, which can mean “breath,” a type of energy which works upon the mind. It is the expression of our words when they are filled with hatred, with envy, with pride. Someone who is awake and aware does not rely on the ego, does not speak the utterances of desire. In that way we avoid pain. This is the beginning and the end of religion. It is found in this moment. Because when we pay attention to the present, when we observe our thoughts, our feelings, our impulses, we can access states of being that truly are inaccessible or comprehensible for people who know nothing of the soul, who are identified with pride, with lust, with hatred, with vanity, etc. We speak in these studies of self-observation and self-remembering. The Sufis referred to self-observation as inner accounting, muhasabah: to make an account of our defects so that by discovering our defects, they may become dead defects. We have to learn to see ourselves in the moment, not to think we are a certain way or to assume, but to perceive. This is how we study the book of our life. We look, we introspect the examined. We observe our mind, our heart, and our impulses, our behaviors. This is the beginning of religion, and you can only find it here in this instant. But self-observation is not enough. This must be combined with presence of God, remembrance of divinity. This is a profound state of awareness known as hudur in Arabic: the presence of God, the presence of divinity. This is accessed through muhadarah, awareness of the present. Many Gnostic students write to us and ask us, how do I remember my divinity? How do I know that I am observing myself correctly? The question unveils the answer. Self-observation and remembrance are not intellectual exercises. They are found when we stop thinking, when we learn to look―to look from a space between thought, when we were not identified with an idea, with a concept. Remembrance of God is a quality, a crystal, pristine fountain of divine states. We know this state and we experience it, especially in a moment when we are in a crisis, when all the elements of the psyche are mixed, churning; when we are boiling with ordeals, because anyone on this path must face crises so that the ego comes to the surface. This is why the Quran states: “And We shall test you until We know those among you who strive and those who are patient, and We shall test your proclamations.” ―Muhammad (47:31) “And We will surely test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient…” ―Al-Baqarah, “The Cow” (2:155). “Every soul will taste death. And We test you with evil and with good as trial; and to Us you will be returned.” ―Al-Anbiya “The Prophets” (21:35) We face hardships so that the ego emerges, but the question remains, what desire or what will do we act upon? In a moment when we are criticized, lied to, spat upon, hated. What behavior do we enact? This is not an intellectual exercise. It is a quality of mind. It is a decision we make in the moment. Do we respond with anger, with self-esteem, with resentment, with pride? Or do we choose a better way of behaving? Conscious love, compassion, forgiveness, serenity and wisdom is the way. We achieve serenity and wisdom when we don't act on the mind. When in that crisis of being criticized or insulted, we remain calm. We don't allow our external behavior to manifest with anger, but on a deeper level, we learn to introspect and not act upon anger in the mind. This is why meditation is essential. This is why the present moment is fundamental. We have to be aware of where we are at; who we are; what we are doing. Because, the gospel of the moment, the doctrine of the moment, is precisely defined and written in the book of our deeds. When we choose virtuous action, especially in those moments when, really, our desires and our ego want to retaliate, we gain wisdom when we act ethically―when we comprehend that our pride, that our hatred, is wrong. And in that way, we remember God. We contemplate God. We realize that to act with anger is to be unethical. Is to be a demon; to be a failure. But to allow virtue to spontaneously flourish, to let intuitive action emerge from the presence of our heart, we find happiness and we avoid problems. This is why Samael Aun Weor in The Elimination of Satan's Tail: “Take everything from each moment, because each moment is a child of Gnosis, each moment is absolute, alive and significant. Momentariness is a special characteristic of the Gnostics. We love the philosophy of momentariness.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Elimination of Satan’s Tail So when people ask this question: how do I self-observe? How do I self-remember? It shows that we are not being spontaneous. These principles are understood by looking in ourselves here and now. It is spontaneity. It is alive: the doctrine of Gnosis, knowledge. You only gain understanding by looking at yourself. When we look to the intellect for answers, we vacillate, we hesitate, we make mistakes. In a moment, we may think in a crisis that a certain action will be best, and yet our heart tells us otherwise. And because we don't act upon the intuitions of our heart, we go along with the intellect and justify ourselves. Meanwhile, we feel remorse and realize later that we acted wrongly. So instead of hesitating about what to do in those moments, we have to learn to follow our heart. It is a quality of the heart. Remembrance of God is in the heart, within the soul. This is what it means to live intuitively, to live with intelligence, because the intellect cannot solve problems. It can store information. It can theorize. It can conceptualize, but it cannot know an answer. So we have to remember this presence, to learn what this presence is. It is the wisdom of our own conscience: our heart that tells us this is right, and this is wrong. The more we feed that conscience, the stronger it gets. The more we deny that conscience in the moment, the more we suffer. This is why the Sufis taught, especially through the writings of Rumi, "My friend, the Sufi is the son of the present moment. To say ‘tomorrow’ is not our way." 
Defining the Moment
Let us define what the present moment is.
In our tradition, we spend a lot of time talking about self-observation and self-remembering. We do so through analyzing the lines of life and being. The line of life is time. It is birth, life, and death. It is mechanical. It is the events of our existence that repeat mechanically through recurrence. It is our daily experience from morning to evening. It is a repetition. It is a cycle which the Buddhists call samsara: cycling. And in this way, we travel through life from our birth to our death, but usually without any understanding. The line of being is very different. These are the qualities of the soul, the qualities of consciousness. These are the superior states of being, which are elevated and known by the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah. This is a map of our soul, of our Being, of our identity. These are the superior qualities that the Sufis state in their doctrine, in manuals such as Kashf al-Mahjub, Revelation of the Mystery by Al-Hujwiri and also the states and stations the path mentioned by many masters such as Al-Qushayri and Abdullah Ansari of Herat, of whom I will be quoting today. These are the states and stations in the path. Each sphere or sephiroth is a quality of being, which is many elements, many principles. And so, the states and stations of the path are mapped by the Hebraic Kabbalah in a very intuitive way. Now, we will be exploring how those principles relate to this diagram extensively, but in synthesis we state, the superior states of being are the sephiroth, the Tree of Life, and the inferior states of being are the Tree of Zaqqum mentioned in the Qur’an. This is the tree of death: the inverted spheres, the Klipoth, the hell realms. Heaven and hell are states of being, and yet there are also places in nature that we access when we are sleeping in the dreaming state. The law of attraction determines our life. What we are psychologically attracts where we go in nature. We always follow the trajectory of our mental stream, our mind, our behaviors. Virtuous people associate with virtuous people. Demonic people with demonic people. Everybody likes to talk about in these times of the law of attraction, about getting what you want, fulfilling desire. And yet people fail to realize that while this is true―we associate with people at our level of being―it doesn't mean that we should follow just desire, egotism. Instead in our studies, we seek to change our level of being, our psychology in this instant, of where we are at. If we wish to access the Tree of Life, the heavenly dimensions, we do so by being in the moment―being present―which is why Al-Qushayri states the following in his book Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism: “I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say that the “now”―waqt―is that in which you are. If you are in the world, your “now” is this world. If you are in the next world (the higher dimensions of the Tree of Life), your “now” is the next world. If you are in joy, your “now” is joy. If you are in sorrow, your “now” is sorrow. He means by this that the present moment is that which has dominance over a person.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Many people wanted to experience the higher dimensions, the Tree of Life, astral projections, jinn experiences, awakened knowledge, but often what they fail to do is practice in their daily life: vigilance, to be aware of the present, because one who is awakening physically in their daily state―that is no longer acting mechanically―that introspection and vigilance occurs within the internal planes until the present moment dominates. Usually the moment defines us, and not the other way around. We suffer mechanically through circumstances, never knowing how to change our reactions to life. It is only when we learn to be aware of this instant that we can transform our state and ascend to higher levels of being. Samael Aun Weor mentions that the ability to originate new circumstances, to no longer be a slave to the line of life, following, repeatedly, mechanically, the process of birth, life, and death, and then on repeat, to return―the law of return, transmigration―we can escape the mechanism of life by following epigenesis, which is “the ability to originate new circumstances." Because we usually repeat things moment-by-moment, primarily because we are not aware of the “now.” Situations, events, people, dramas, tragedies, comedies: these incessantly repeat. If we want to transform the situation, we have to be aware of this instant, our internal states. We have to be aware of the instant, our states in relation to external events, because this is the requirement for the moment. Requirements for the Moment
The Sufis use the technical term 'waqt' to define the present. They explain that superior or inferior action always depends upon the present. Our state of mind and what we decide in the moment determines our trajectory. We have to be aware of the impressions of life and what we experience, but also our internal state.
Al-Qushayri states in his Principles of Sufism the following, “Waqt (the present moment) may refer specifically to the time in which one is. Some people say that the present moment is between the two times, that is, the past and the future.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So these constitute the line of life. We must decide to enact the qualities of the being or animal desires. “And they say that the Sufi is the “son of his moment.” This means that he occupies himself immediately with whatever sort of devotion should come first in a given moment. He bases himself upon what is required of him at the time. It is said, “The dervish cares for neither the past nor the future of his moment: he cares for the moment in which he is.” And regarding this, “To be preoccupied with what escaped you in a moment that has passed is to waste a second moment.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Real devotion is remembrance of divinity in the present instant. It is only here and now. Now we can fulfill divine action, but if we are distracted, asleep, unconscious, we cannot respond ethically to the moment. So this is what Shari’ah is, the law, the instruction. The code of ethical conduct. We have to learn to be in the instant, to respond with ethics, with compassion, with wisdom. If we feel shame for having acted unethically, even if only in our mind, then we are distracted with the past. We must be present with our being and not be preoccupied with the past, to be conscious here and now. This is the essence of worship. So people think that worship is something external. We always do so according to many mainstream religions, by attending a mosque, a church, synagogue, a temple. In reality, we have to learn to worship divinity in our actions. We do so by becoming aware of God. 
The Governance of the Present
“The best act of worship is watchfulness of the moments. That is, that the servant not look beyond his limit, not contemplate anything other than his Lord, and not associate with anything other than his present moment.” ―Al-Wasiti, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
To not look beyond our limit means to follow our intuition: to not speculate “how I must act,” but know it in our heart. Everybody struggles with the mind. The mind says one thing, the heart another. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated, "We must learn to think with the heart and feel with the head.” Intuition is an act of consciousness and plenitude, where the ego is not present. Contemplation of God exists as we observe ourselves and no longer act upon the ego. We learn to speak and behave ethically, from a state of serenity, altruism, compassion, generosity. When we associate with anything other than the present, it means that we are unconscious. We are dreaming. We are thinking. We are associating other things with the present, meaning: we are driving our car, but we are associating in our mind with our job, thinking of our previous work day, or anticipating the future, or thinking of what a solution could be for a problem. These are beliefs, ideas, concepts, justifications. These elements cloud our perception of what we are doing in the moment. The Muslims speak abundantly of not associating with anything other than God. The Qur’an speaks, many times, of “Far be He from that which they associate with Him!" Or: “Glory to Allah! He is free from the things they ascribe to Him!” (37:159). So we included the calligraphy of Allah in Arabic in this slide to talk about the governance of the present, primarily because we have to learn to allow the Being to act through us. Of course, for some people this may seem like a very difficult endeavor, or better said, an impossible one. Many students ask us, how do I remember God? And we always answer very simply: Did your behavior produce suffering or happiness? What are the results in our midstream? The qualities of our mind? Self-observation, inner-accounting, muhasabah, is when we take account of our defects, but remembrance of the presence of God, Hudur, is something qualitative; something psychological, spiritual. You learn to taste it by striving towards it again and again, by learning to overcome and not act upon the ego, as was mentioned by that quote from Al-Wasati. “The best act of worship is watchfulness of the moment.” Don't look beyond your limit. Don't try to contemplate anything else than the present. If you are in this instant, don't think about some miraculous samadhi in the clouds when we can't even pay attention to tying our shoes. You learn to access those higher states by being aware of the most mundane things, which is not really so mundane if we are attentive. It is a quality of the new, alert novelty: when we see life in a new way. The reality is that no one can teach you how to remember God. You do so through deep reflection on your internal states―by discriminating and analyzing in meditation the suffering of wrong action and the happiness of liberated action. When we learn to act without egotism, we are following our intuition, the voice of conscience, the heart doctrine. This is when we follow al-Haqq, the Truth, the Being. The following quote is from the Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri. “The Sufis also may use waqt to mean the power and direction of the Truth when it comes over them regardless of their own will. They say, “So-and-so is under the rule of the now,” (bi hukm il-waqt)―that is, he has surrendered himself without preference to whatever appears to him from the unknown.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism What is the unknown? The Being, the Truth. As Samael Aun Weor mentions, it is the unknowable from moment to moment. God is infinite and his states are a perfect multiple unity. Divinity as a unity is perfect, is integral, but the qualities of divinity are infinite―described by qualities such as altruism, patience, diligence, compassion, love. Real Islam is when we submit to the qualities of God in the moment, and knowing how to act rightly in a crisis, in the instant, which is intuitive action. It doesn't mean that we follow a reason in the intellect, necessarily, but following an ethical conduct: the voice of our conscience in our heart. 
When Muslims pray to the East towards Mecca, towards the stone, the Kaaba of the alchemists―the stone of la baca: the sacred cow, or the stone of the masons, Yesod―they do so by bowing their head to the earth. This is a beautiful symbol of allowing the Being to control the mind.
We have to submit our head to the East, towards the divine, a symbol of learning to be present in the moment. So in terms of salat, ritual prayer, Muslims bow their head to the East. It signifies how we have to obey the commands of our intuition, even when it is painful for our ego. This is Islam [submission], and this is what leads to salam, peace. When we act upon our conscience and our heart, we find true peace and serenity. We resolve problems. We find solutions, but knowing how to find that answer is very difficult, especially in the moment, which is why we have to meditate. We have to reflect upon our day and to understand how we behaved internally, externally. This is how we learn to govern the present moment more effectively, when those situations and events repeat, so that we can comprehend more. We have to learn to submit to the inner voice of our divine Being, whom only we can recognize. We have to follow our intuition, even if it makes our mind scream with pain. This is the path of crucifixion mentioned by Jesus. We have to accept our internal states and also question what we see so that we can act rightly. “So-and-so is under the rule of the now,” (bi hukm il-waqt)―that is, he has surrendered himself without preference to whatever appears to him from the unknown.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This means that the mind is receptive. The heart is receptive. We are awake. We are vigilant. The mind is serene, so that in the waters of our psyche, the pure images of heaven can reflect. Therefore, we have no preference to what God gives us. We obey God. We become a vehicle of the divine. That is what it means to be governed in the present, by a profound state of samadhi, ecstasy, wujud, here and now. To reach these states, we have to be practical meditators. We have to really sift through the mud of the mind, so that we gain more clarity day by day, year by year. This is a very important aspect of Sufism and meditation. To access intuitive states in the daily moment of our life, but also in our meditations, especially. You cannot have one without the other. Al-Qushayri continues: “This can apply only to circumstances where God Most High has given no order, and where there is no model in the Divine Ordinance that one is obliged to follow.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism What this quote references is that some situations in life are more mundane. There is no crisis there. We are dealing with our daily obligations, our chores. It is not necessary that we receive a divine ordinance or command that we must follow in a particular ordeal. Sometimes the Being, as we are in the process of self-realization, enters into us, but also retracts. It comes into my mind a story of the Master Samael Aun Weor, who even towards the end of his life, his last incarnation, before the advent of resurrection, he had no ego, but he went to go give a lecture in a large auditorium in South America where his Being entered him, according to one missionary. He was speaking with a lot of force, commanding and speaking to the audience and providing his teaching from the Logos Samael, the Martian Christ. And yet later, this missionary who told me the story went up to the Master Samael after the lecture, and saw that Samael Aun Weor was very calm and even childlike. He didn't have that Martian, powerful, commanding force that he exemplified in the lecture. And this missionary explained, it is because during the lecture, the Being had to give a teaching, entering into him in the present moment and provided the knowledge that was so necessary for us. Then the Being retracts. This is known as absence and presence in Sufism, Ghaybah and Hudur, respectively. Sometimes even at the very heights, the Being enters through us, but also retracts. But if we are serious about the work, eventually the Being will be fully present, always. That is achieved at the end of the Second Mountain as taught within our courses of initiation. So we have to learn to follow the commands of God when it is given to us through our heart through our emotional center, especially―our superior emotions, our intuition. “For to neglect that to which you have been ordered, to make an order an object of surmise, and to be indifferent to your falling short of your duty, is to depart from the religion.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So how often in our experience have we received an intuition that we speculated about? We knew the right thing, but we didn't do it, and only realized later with remorse that we failed do the do the right thing. This is what it means to speculate: to make an order from God a surmise―to let the intellect think and rationalize―every excuse to not do that thing, to not act intuitively, to not follow our heart. This is how we betray God. This is emphasized in the story of Pilate who justified the execution of Jesus. He washed his hands clean. That is our intellect, a symbol of our mind. We speculate about an intuition we receive, and we don't do the right thing. And also “to be indifferent to falling short in our duty,” to not feel remorse, is to depart from religion. So this is the path of demons. People who feel no remorse in this instant are disconnected. They are al-kafirin, “the unbelievers” mentioned in the Qur’an. 
The Moment is a Sword
The moment is a sword. It depends upon our behaviors how we use that weapon. It defends the righteous and harms the wicked.
As I have been saying, our actions determine our life. In a moment, we could defend our virtue, our soul, our life, with a virtuous action, even in the worst circumstances―or we suffer spiritual death. We fall upon our own sword by acting with anger, perversity, wrath. “One of the sayings of the Sufis is, “The moment is a sword.” That is, in just the way that a sword severs, the present moment shows forth the influence of God’s action, ending things and bringing them to be.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism As we explained previously, states emerge, they sustain, they pass. Events also emerge, they sustain, and pass. Our divinity is the one who arranges, for the initiates, the path of the moment: the beginning and the end. Our decisions are either to follow God or our desires. They determine where we go. What happens to us. “It is said, ‘The touch of the flat of a sword is temperate, but its blade cuts’―the one who treats it gently is safe and the one who treats it rudely is destroyed. Thus with the “now”: Whoever submits himself to its authority is saved and whoever resists it deteriorates and declines. They have recited about this: “Like a sword, if you polish it, its touch is soothing But its edge, if you are harsh to it, is harsh.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This is a beautiful teaching. If you polish your consciousness, with dhikr, remembrance of God, with meditation, with comprehension of the ego, the moment is soothing like a sword. It's touch is temperate, cool, but it's edge, if we are harsh in the moment by acting upon the moment, it is harsh. We cut ourselves. We feel pain. “If the moment makes someone happy, it is just a moment to him. If it makes him miserable, it becomes something hateful.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism So this is very beautiful. Very simple. The one who treats it gently is safe and the one who treats it really is destroyed. “Thus with the now, whoever submits himself to its authority is saved and whoever resists it deteriorates and declines.” Self-remembrance is not complicated. If it sounds complicated or we think it is difficult, it is because we are approaching it with our intellect. Happiness is a state of the soul. It is not an intellectual concept, although we have many terms and stories and anecdotes to relate these principles. A moment that makes us happy is one, really, in which we stop thinking, stop daydreaming, stop reminiscing about the past or thinking of the future, but learning to act here and now. 
The Sword of the Seekers
"Remembering God with the heart is called the sword of the seekers. With it the seeker slays his enemies [egos, defects, nafs] and drives off [karmic] troubles that are headed for him." ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
It is by remembering God here and now, that we slay our enemies, which are the egos, the defects, or the nafs in Arabic―and, “drive off karmic troubles that are headed for us.” Meditation, astral projection, sacred rites of rejuvenation, runes, pranayama, alchemy: all these exercises are predicated on what we are doing here and now―how present we are when we practice. Remembrance of God is a sword. Our states determine our life, and if we do not remember God, we act upon states of egotism. Again, God is not outside, but is inside. As the Quran teaches, "Truly We are closer to you than your jugular vein” (50:16). By remembering that presence in us, we learn through practical life how to slay our enemies, our negative states, our defects as we are meditating, and drive off troubles that are headed for us, because if circumstances repeat, as karma and troubles emerge in our life that we have to resolve, if we respond or react with negativity, we exacerbate our pain. We complicate our issues. But if we act from serenity, we defend ourselves. “Even if difficulty should overshadow the servant, his fleeing to God Most High in his heart immediately turns away from him the thing he hates.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Here we have an image of Saint Michael conquering the dragon, a symbol of how our soul can conquer our lower self. And notice that as he is wielding of this sword of justice, he is in a perfect state of equanimity. Remembrance of God is calm, is serene, is balanced. It is only through clear perception and serenity, awareness in the present, that we know how to act in the spontaneity of the moment. Psychological States and External Events
Samael Aun Weor mentions in Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology, how the best method for overcoming suffering is an appropriate psychological state:
“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.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology So perhaps at our job, with our friends, with our family, with our spouse, somebody approaches us with hatred, with anger, with violence. If we learn to act with an appropriate psychological state, we can disarm the situation, dismantle aggression, because serenity is a much more crushing force than anger. We can unveil the truth by acting with states of sincerity, with altruism, with integrity "Wrong internal states convert us into defenseless victims of human perversity." ―Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology So if we face a crisis and yet we act with ego, at our job, in our career, we become defenseless. We become weak. People and their ego overwhelm us. We become victims of life, unable to act and orient the ship of our existence. We become slaves of suffering. "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 This means we are practicing retrospection meditation. We have to learn to comprehend the ego in the moment, observe ourselves instant by instant, moment by moment, acting upon Shari’ah, ethics. We must not identify with any event, because that wastes energy. We must not identify with external circumstances or our egotistical reactions, but to observe it like a movie so that we acquire data, information. And then later in the evening, or later in our day, we meditate upon what we saw and ask for comprehension and elimination of mistaken states from divinity. "Unquestionably, each external event needs its appropriate fare, that is, its precise psychological state." ―Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology Internal states must match external events. This is a very difficult concept to understand with the intellect, but it is something where we access and gain confidence in through meditation, reflection. Every event needs its appropriate response. Impressions of life always enter us and we are always obligated to respond. We have to examine what states in us produce conflict, which are wrong, which are negative, but also to reflect on the virtues of the soul, to understand that which benefits oneself and others in a conscious way―in a spiritual way. 
The Metaphysical Moment
This is the definition of the metaphysical moment as taught by Abdullah Ansari of Herat, who was a master from the Persian tradition of Sufism. He wrote in his Stations of the Sufi Path, a beautiful teaching about different levels of the moment as understood by levels of meditators, initiates.
God, the Most High, says, “Then did you come hither as ordained, O Moses!” (20:40). ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path 
Moses was a prophet, but he also symbolizes the principle of liberated will: a consciousness that knows how to act here and now. And in the path of initiation, Moses is associated with the causal body: the body of will power within the sixth dimension, nirvana, the sphere of Tiphereth on the Tree of Life.
It is that type of will which is liberated that knows how to perform miracles, feats of magic, which is in the positive sense, the control of elements of nature, in accordance with the will of God. So while Muslims reject anything resembling magic or magical ceremony, the truth is that the prophets were all magicians. They represented for us the magic of the Being, the magic of a purified will. So "Then did you come hither as ordained, O Moses!" (20:40). Meaning, “You obeyed My command,” said the Being, because at that level of a master, one can receive direct knowledge and know what to do. In our level we tend to be very confused. We have an intuition in our heart, but because we don't listen to it. We tend to commit many errors and suffer the consequences. Let us examine the different levels of the metaphysical moment, waqt: “The metaphysical moment or time constitutes an instant in which nothing but God can be contained.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path This has to do with being absorbed in divine states, in which we don't identify with anything but that state of bliss of divinity, whether in meditation or even in daily life, which we cultivate little by little. “The people of the metaphysical moment are three groups. For one, the metaphysical moment is like a flash of lightning, for another, it is lasting, while for another, it is overwhelming.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path These are degrees as indicated by the levels of Sufism, of instruction, of understanding. There are introductory levels known as Shari’ah, the exoteric, the law of ethics, discipline, restraint of mind. There is an intermediate path known as Tariqa, the mesoteric level. Tariqa can also refer to a Sufi school, and there are different Tariqas that provide the knowledge of Sufism. Then there is an advanced knowledge or wisdom, Haqiqah / Marifah. So for one, the metaphysical moment is like a flash of lightning for those in the introductory level. In the beginning of our path, we get insight, little by little, like a flash of lightning. We have moments of intuition and understanding, which are spontaneous. They emerge and they vanish quickly. However, we become inspired because we realize that we are perceiving God at our level, in a very basic way. This is the very beginnings of practice, which we cultivate through ethics, Shari'ah and meditation. For the middle group, it is lasting, because for those who are really working seriously in Tariqa, a path or discipline, the mesoteric level, are making their intuitions and experiences much more consistent. Therefore the light lasts longer for them, because they are generating more light. But for the advanced initiates, the Prophets, the Gods, the metaphysical moment is overwhelming, because that state is constant for them. This is the level of Beings like Prophet Muhammad, Moses, Jesus, Samael Aun Weor. So obviously most of us will be in the introductory level. We gain insights here and there. We do so by learning to follow our intuition and our ethics as best we can, so that we can get more wisdom and light. But the intermediate levels and the advanced levels are for those who are really practicing daily, seriously, for an extensive period of time. The Three Degrees of the Moment
Abdullah Ansari of Herat also elaborates on these three stages and what they entail―from the introductory, the intermediate, and advanced levels.
For the introductory level, practitioners, “The moment that is like a flash of lightning is purifying, washing away defects.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path In the beginning, we have to learn to wash away defects. We have to observe ourselves in the day and at night, or when we practice retrospection meditation: getting comprehension like a flash of lightning and purifying our psyche. For after comprehension comes annihilation, when working with the Divine Mother, Al-Baqarah, the sacred cow mentioned in the second surah of the Qur’an. “The moment that is lasting is awe-inspiring and keeps one occupied.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So as we are working with the death of the ego, with Tariqa, our metaphysical moments are ecstasies. They become lasting, awe inspiring and keep us occupied. What does it mean to be occupied? It means that, whether physically or the internal planes, we are awake. We are busy. I have known missionaries in Gnosis, in our tradition, who have had many beautiful samadhis, many experiences, and personally when I have been in such states, I have been very occupied in what I have been experiencing in the astral plane, the mental plane, etc. This fills us with awe. People who are unconscious and asleep are lazy. They are not occupied. They are unconscious. They go to bed for eight hours and wake up in the morning without awareness of what happened. This is the level of profound sleep, the path of ignorance. When we have those experiences we become filled with awe, but that light only emerges and sustains based on purification, Shari'ah, ethics. "The moment that is overwhelming destroys and annihilates." ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So the moment of annihilation and destruction is of the self. This is the path of Haqiqah / Marifah, in which all sense of self is lost in the Being. This is the experience of the Truth in the highest degrees of the Tree of Life, the highest sephiroth of that diagram. Let us examine the other requisites and degrees in the moment. "The moment like a flash of lightning arises from contemplative reflection (fikrat)." ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path For the beginner level, that flash of intuition and lightning comes about through self-observation in meditation, contemplative reflection, or serene reflection mentioned in the writings of Samael Aun Weor. We have to contemplate ourselves and reflect daily. "The moment that is lasting arises from delight in divine remembrance and invocation." ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So what does it mean to feel delight in divine remembrance and invocation? It means that we have our true joy through the work, when we are consistent, when we are defined. That wisdom lasts in us as we take delight in the Gnostic work, when we love the Gnostic esoteric work above all things, when we invoke God every instant of our life, asking for understanding―praying for wisdom, moment-by-moment, instant-by-instant. "The moment that is overwhelming arises from the audition of spiritual vision." ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path This is the level of Marifah / Haqiqah: Knowledge and Truth. 
The moment that is overwhelming emerges from the audition of spiritual vision, from hearing and seeing the superior worlds, not only just from the lower sephiroth of the Tree of Life, but the top trinity and beyond. If you look at the Kabbalah, you remember that we have ten spheres―three trinities and then the lower sphere Malkuth, which is the physical body.
The levels of Sufism relate to the Tree of Life in these trinities. The lower triangle, Yesod, Hod, and Netzach relate to our ethics (Shari’ah) because it is in those spheres where the ego manifests. They learn to control Netzach, our mind; Hod, our emotions; Yesod, our sexual energy. That is working with Shari'ah, the law, when we work with those elements consciously. Tariqa, “the wisdom that lasts,” relates to the middle trinity: Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth. Chesed, the Being, the Spirit, the Innermost, Mercy; Geburah, divine consciousness; and Tiphereth, the human soul. This is the path of Tariqa, the heart, when we really remember God at that level. And lastly, spiritual vision, which is the height: Haqiqah, the Truth and Marifah, Knowledge, relates to the top trinity of the Tree of Life. Al-Haqq can relate to Kether, Chokmah, Binah: supreme wisdom, intelligence, and the glory of divinity. But also Marifah, which is knowledge, relates with the sphere of Da’ath, alchemy, Allah-Khemia: to fuse with Allah. If you are interested in learning more about how Sufism speaks about alchemy, you could study our lecture, Divine Love on chicagognosis.org, especially the course: The Sufi Path of Self Knowledge, from which is listed. "The moment that is overwhelming arises from the audition of spiritual vision." ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path Audition refers to hearing, and usually the Sufis speak about spiritual dance and listening to beautiful music with recitations of the Qur’an and other Sufi poetry.
This verse also has something much more profound related to it. What is spiritual audition? It has to do with, again recitation, the verb, with music: all that relates to the sphere of Da’ath on the Tree of Life, the hidden sephirah, which is the origin of spiritual vision: the science and mysteries of the perfect matrimony.
To reach those supreme heights of the spiritual moment, to know how to work with the highest degrees in the moment, obviously one has to be married. So that one becomes annihilated by the presence of God through alchemy, which we will explain progressively in this course, but also we have explained in other courses too on chicagognosis.org. "That which is like a flash of lightning makes one oblivious to the world and illuminates one's recollection of the hereafter." ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path So when we have intuitions and understandings, here and now, we reflect more on the course of our life. It illuminates our hopes and our understandings of where we would like to be―where we aspire to on the Tree of Life, which is the hereafter, the superior worlds. We become oblivious to the negativities and the ignorance of the world, and therefore, contemplate a higher truth: a higher reality from experience. That is the, again, Shari'ah, the path of the beginner, which leads us through the secret path, Tariqa, towards the heights, Haqiqah. "The moment that is lasting will keep one engaged in itself rather than preoccupied with the hereafter, until the Truth becomes evident." ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path What is interesting is for the beginners, we all want to go to heaven. We all want to go to the top of the Tree of Life, and we don't want to be down here. We don't want to be in the hell realms, so to speak. However, those who are really working with meditation, Tariqa, who are in “the moment that lasts,” when they are really awakening consciousness here and now, they'd rather be engaged in their work than preoccupied with the hereafter, because they understand from experience that to get to that point, they have to really work seriously―to be concerned with our daily life. For as Samael Aun Weor mentioned, "Initiation is our own life, lived intensely, with rectitude and with love." These initiates who are really serious would rather be preoccupied with the death of the ego, engaged in the work itself, and not be preoccupied with salvation in some other world. They know that they have to get there by work, “until the Truth becomes evident.” Lastly: "The moment that is overwhelming eliminates the conditioned habits of the human state, so that the transcendent Truth alone abides." ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path This is the path of Haqiqah / Marifah: those moments in which all the self is lost, annihilated, and only the Being is present in the soul. These are the states of Prophets, the moments of our Prophet, which are very elevated. Of course, we can taste those levels if we are meditating, if we learn, first of all, to contemplate ourselves, here and now. Of course, the moment is always divided in different ways, according to the path of initiation, and according to a level of being. In order to explore this topic further, I invite you to ask questions. Questions and Answers
Question: My question is, I would like to know what will be the best attitude for someone who is trying to stay alert. But, you know, its is going back and forth, back and forth, you know, so sometimes you know the feeling of discouragement wants to take it away. So what will be the best attitude for someone who is in that situation and would like to keep on going?
Instructor: That is a good question. Prayer is fundamental. Prayer is essential. When we feel weak and discouraged, we have to remember our experiences, when we acted virtuously, when we acted consciously for the benefit of others. We have to really reflect on our victories, things we have done well with, our virtues. It is not enough just to meditate on the death of the ego, but the contemplate right action. Because the more we see that we are capable of acting uprightly, the more we realize that we are capable of doing this work, that it can be done. It is very easy in this knowledge to become pessimistic. Many people see the ego and become terrified at how vast and big it is―and get discouraged. But that is not an accurate depiction of our capacities for change. To really see how much work we have to do, it is important that we recognize that we do need a lot of work, but at the same time that shouldn't mean we become morbid, pessimistic, doubtful of our abilities. The reality is, as we are having experiences internally, we gain flashes of lightning, inspirations, understandings, which keep pushing us to change. Of course, in the beginning those moments are like flashes of inspiration. They are not lasting yet. But in order to progress from the stage of Shari'ah to Tariqa, instead of going back and forth in our practice, we have to develop consistency, to really work regardless of whether or not we think we see results. Because the results will emerge spontaneously in our day to day, instant by instant life. Moment by moment. Little by little. And not to get discouraged, because of course, it is not easy to change, given the magnitude of our faults. But we also should not be one-sided and think with shame, "Oh I am such a negative bad person." But to realize we have the virtues of God inside. As small as that may be, remember that even David killed Goliath. The Essence, the soul, killed the giant. I recommend meditating and praying and reflecting upon the virtues of your soul―taking the time to imagine and reflect on those moments in your life in which you acted virtuously, even when it was difficult to do so, because that gives us hope. Hope is important, to have hope in ourselves and divinity, in our abilities. So it's necessary to be balanced in meditations, but also pray a lot for that help, because you gain help in the moment, when we pray, in those moments in which we are tested. When I have been in my current job, receiving a lot of difficulties, and I can feel my ego wanting to surge and act and affect the people I work with, I pray for a lot of help, for serenity. And I have been able to find through my meditations and my self-observations, not only the ego that I must work on, but also the virtuous qualities that I need to enact in those moments. Meditation and self-observation, in the moment, go hand-in-hand. We deepen our understanding through prayer. To pray sincerely. Ask for your Divinity to help you. You don't need a formula in order to receive help or to ask for it, but simply with whatever longings you feel. You can ask, and I recommend take your question and your prayers to meditation, and then in that way, fall asleep, and examine your dreams for the answers. In that way, we gain experiences, more of those lightning flashes, so to speak, so that we continue to develop light. It is not enough just to reflect on the bad. We have to reflect on the good in ourselves too, because that wouldn't be realistic. Question: I was wondering if you would say more on what you were saying about. If you are enjoying a moment, then you are enjoying. If you're sorrowful then you are in sorrow. Can you speak about the difference between questioning where you are in and examining where you are? Sometimes I feel like in examining where I am, I am sort of questioning it. But it masks as examination, but sometimes there's almost a doubt within, that examination. Instructor: It is stated by the Sufis how the “now” is the instant. We can be occupied with states of happiness or sorrow, because even the soul, can also experience states of remorse, of regrets for wrong action, which is the different kind of pain than just the ego not being satisfied. So examination in the strict sense has to do with looking with the consciousness here and now. One thing is the intellect labeling and doubting what we see. But unfortunately, because our intellect tends to be much more developed in us than our conscience, we have that center of gravity in the mind. Examination is nothing to do with the intellect. As Samael Aun Weor mentions, the intellect can give itself the luxury of labeling a defect and passing it to other levels of the subconsciousness, or the unconsciousness, or infraconsciousness. Real examination has to do with seeing the mind for what it is through conscious perception [muhasabah: inner accounting]. But we can only do that by being alert to what is going on―really examining and seeing without judgment, without labeling, without repressing what the contents of our psychology are. Examination has nothing to do with saying “This is an ego, pride,” or “This is an ego, vanity,” etc., but really seeing its qualities. Judgment―we have to reserve for later in meditation and judgment can only occur once we have fully seen an ego in action and have comprehended it in meditation, because in the moment we can see egos in our daily state, defects. However, meditation is needed to go deeper. So, examination is twofold. Self-observation, first, is what gives us the food and the fuel for meditation. And then judgment is the comprehension we get as we are meditating―when we really understand why a certain defect behaves or acts a certain way. Where did it come from? What is its conditioning? This is the knowing “the how and the why of the mind” according to Samael Aun Weor. This is examination. comprehension, understanding. But of course, in the beginning, it is difficult because self-observation is a faculty in us that is atrophied. We gain strength with it more and more as we discipline ourselves to pay attention, instant by instant, moment by moment. |
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